Dr. Isaac Schendel

These selections will help introduce students to the breadth and depth of Old English texts available for advanced study. Each month, Dr. Larry Swain and/or Dr. Isaac Schendel surveys the group to see which text students are most interested in exploring next.

Some of the texts we could explore in a given month include:
• Advanced Old English Readings: Beowulf I
• Advanced Old English Readings: Beowulf II
• Advanced Old English Readings: Riddles
• Advanced Old English Readings in Prose: The Old English Boethius
• Advanced Old English Readings: Genesis A 1
• Advanced Old English Readings: Genesis A 2
• Advanced Old English Readings in Poetry: Judith and Exodus
• Advanced Old English Readings: Heroic Elegies
• Advanced Old English Readings: Cynewulf's Juliana
• Advanced Old English Readings: Cynewulf's Christ II
• Advanced Old English Readings: Apollonius of Tyre
• Advanced Old English Readings: Ælfric's Lives of the Saints
• Advanced Old English Readings: Ælfric's Letter to Sigeweard
• Advanced Old English Readings: The Blickling Homilies
• Advanced Old English Readings: Selections in Prose
• Advanced Old English: Alice in Wonderland
• Advanced Old English: Tolkien's Old English Poetry

Including these texts taught by Dr. Isaac Schendel:
• Readings in Old English: The Battle of Maldon & Group Reading
• Intermediate Old English: The Homilies of Wulfstan
• The Old Saxon for Old English Readers (The Old Saxon Hêliand I)

Note: Please refer to the Required Texts section on a month's iteration page to see which texts the group has decided upon for a given month.

This is the landing page for Dr. Isaac Schendel's Conversational German Series. For more information check out the module links below.

Also: Please wishlist this page if you are interested in taking Dr. Schendel's Conversation German Series when we offer it next.

The Anglo-Saxon monk, priest and bishop Wulfstan (†1023) is, after Ælfric of Eynsham, the most famous author of Old English homilies. His alliterative prose, inventive vocabulary, and – most importantly – his fire-and-brimstone preaching style make him a joy to read. The scenes he invokes are both terrifying and captivating, and his descriptions of the invading Vikings as God’s punishment offer a unique glimpse into the mentality of a terrified English people in the 10th and 11th centuries. Come join us for a month of Anglo-Saxon “Old Time Religion” and see if you can master reciting the Old English phrase “Leofan men” with a Johnny Cash accent (suede tunic optional).

This unit is open to anyone who has a basic familiarity with the Old English language. We will begin by reading Wulfstan’s most famous sermon, the “Sermon of the Wolf” (Sermo Lupi ad Anglos), to gain familiarity with his style and to see some Viking action. After that, we will continue on to “On False Gods” for a bit more Christian vs. Pagan Linguistic Bloodsports before moving on to his more pious eschatological work. Wulfstan’s oeuvre is large, so each iteration of this module can focus on a different facet of his work.

The Old English poem The Phoenix, a 677-line alliterative reworking of the Latin De Ave Phoenice, combines striking similes and intricate (if somewhat overworked) allegories with a simple, formulaic style that renders the poem a classic example of Anglo-Saxon wrestling with Classical ideas. The result is an intermediate-level work which offers Old English students a chance to move beyond coursebook Old English and into reading scholarly textual editions. Join Dr. Isaac for a relaxed reading group experience as we work through the text and engage with it on every level: reading closely, interpreting on a literary level, and (time permitting) comparing it with other texts in Old and Middle English, Old Norse, and Latin.

There are currently two good editions of The Phoenix, one from the Exeter Series of Medieval texts (978-0859893428; originally published in 1964 but republished in 1990) and a dual-language (Old English/Modern English) one with Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library series in the volume Old English Shorter Poems, Volume I: Religious and Didactic (ISBN: 978-0674057890). Either edition is fine.

During the 12th and 13th centuries, the Provençal tradition of courtly love poetry spread to Germany, where it became the lyrical genre known as Minnesang. It quickly took on a life of its own and developed into a medieval literary scene of the best type—complete with rivalries, drama, and satire! Come join us for a month of reading a selection of poems from this almost inexhaustible literary field.

This class is simultaneously meant as a literary survey and as language practice for Signum’s growing cohort of Middle High German enthusiasts. For every iteration, Dr. Schendel chooses a selection of poetry from the Early, Classical, and Late periods based on student interest. The shorter length of these poems makes them perfect reading material for beginning-, intermediate-, and even advanced-level MHG readers and will allow for an in-depth discussion of the poems.

The reading texts (which vary by iteration) will be supplied from a number of anthologies and editions according to the Fair Use doctrine, but Dr. Schendel will also provide ISBN numbers so students can buy their own copies. After all, who wouldn’t like to impress their houseguests with a hardcover copy of Des Minnesangs Frühling on the coffee table?

This is the landing page for Dr. Isaac Schendel's Middle High German Series which consists of two modules: Middle High German 1: An Epic Introduction and Middle High German 2: An Epic Continuation. For more information check out the module links below.

Also: Please wishlist this page if you are interested in taking Dr. Schendel's Middle High German series when we offer it next.

Ready to begin learning Old English? This series of modules introduces students to the vocabulary and structure of the earliest recorded form of the English language. One year of modules prepares the student to read texts from over a thousand years ago! Each one-month module builds on the previous one, so students ready to learn Old English will communicate with our Director and Professor Swain to make the right placement for everyone.

This series will help introduce students to the breadth and depth of texts available for study in Middle High German. Each month, Dr. Isaac Schendel surveys the group to see which text students are most interested in exploring next.

This module, which builds on the skills taught in the previous Middle High German Modules, looks at another representative of the Medieval German so-called Spielmannsdichtung (pseudo-minstrel tales). It tells the story of the Duke Ernest, who after unsuccessfully waging an assassination attempt and civil war against his misled step-father (and Holy Roman Emperor) flees to the Far East as a crusader, encountering mythical creatures and far-off places reminiscent to anyone who has read the Old English Wonders of the East.

We will follow the methods used in other Middle High German modules and look at the Herzog Ernst poem both as literature and as a chance for interested students to continue perfecting their Middle High German reading skills. We will read selections of the text in the original language and translate them into English. Since it’s not entirely feasible to assume that everyone has access to a modern English translation, we will primarily discuss the translated sections, although a summary of the poem in general will be given.

Questions discussed in the module will include questions of genre (as always) and the connection between the frame story and the second narrative, monsters and the bridal-quest, the medieval political philosophy and the HRE (Holy Roman Empire), crusade poetry, and more.

The language of Herzog Ernst is roughly equivalent to the language of the Nibelungenlied, so completion of the Middle High German 1 and 2 modules are strongly encouraged. If you have any questions or need help, please feel free to contact Dr. Schendel.

In 2024, Oxford University Press published An Introduction to Middle High German, which promises to become the new standard textbook for learning Middle High German. It has a selection of readings, both prose and poetry, all of which are edited for readability and annotated for instruction.

Due to popular demand, we at Signum University’s SPACE program are offering a month of just perusing the Introduction textbook and reading the prose as a group. We will begin with the introductory text “Von den siben planêten” by Berthold von Regensburg before moving on to the religious literature at the end of the book. Time permitting, we will also look at legal texts in the larger Oxford Guide to Middle High German, which will be supplied as scans according to the Fair Use doctrine. These readings will offer a chance to focus on the language’s syntax when it is not as heavily constrained by the demands of meter and rhyme.

This course is open to both veterans and newcomers to SPACE’s small, but growing Middle High German program.

Old Saxon, the continental cousin to Old English, was the language spoken in Northern Germany from the ninth to the twelfth century. It is closely related to and mutually intelligible with Anglo-Saxon, so Old English students will easily be able to read and understand it. The language boasts a number of smaller texts, but the Hêliand, an epic poem of nearly 6,000 lines, remains its most prestigious literary monument. It tells the story of Jesus Christ (the “Hêliand,” meaning “Savior”) reimagined as a Saxon lord with a retinue of twelve thanes, and it is comparable to the Old English Beowulf. In this module, we will read and discuss selections of this poem. Some familiarity with Old English is required.