# data[].attributes.body
Hi, my name is Sierra and I'm a Secondary English Education major. I took this course because I felt like learning the history of the English Language will not only help my understanding and strengthen my capibilities but it will help me teach better in the future as well. I felt like learning the history of the english language seemed really important to know for somebody like mysef who was trying to teach english.

# data[].attributes.body
Hi, everyone.  My name is Mark and I am a history major.  I took this course because I was looking for electives that relate to history and this one seemed very interesting.  I am excited to take this different approach to learning about history.

# data[].attributes.body
Yeo, my name is Marcos and I'm a professional writing major. To be 100% honest with all of you, I'm sure the reason I chose this class was clear to me when I chose it and it'll come back to be once we've get back into the swing of things but as of this moment, it eludes me. If all else fails, I hope to learn anything and everything that I can and use it to evolve as a writer in ways I would have never expected.

# data[].attributes.body
My name's Sarah and I'm a sophomore English major! I am particularly excited for this class because it is definitely interesting to see the development of English language and how we progressed to where we are now. I think I'm going to learn a lot of interesting material that I'll be able to utilize in years to come!

# data[].attributes.body
My name is Kori, I was intrigued by this course from my derived love of english, and background of the performing arts and studying theatre. Everything that is once said or written can have an underlying meaning and I believe that it can be powerful beyond belief. To know how it all started would be fascinating and I cant wait to learn all about it!

# data[].attributes.body
Hi my name is Natalie Becker and I am a junior with a major in Elementary Education and a minor in History. I wanted to double minor in English but found out it was too late in my college path to do so, so I am taking this class just for the fun of it. I really like to read and I would like to be able to understand older text (specifically Shakespeare) so I am hoping I will be able to do so through this class. Also, I had Professor Leonard for Compostion I and II and she is a great professor!

# data[].attributes.body
My name is Makenzie Foulke! I go by Kenzie and I am a sophomore majoring in English. I have always had a love for writing. I have always wanted to gain a deeper understanding of English history.
~ Kenzie

# data[].attributes.body
Hi, Marissa here. I'm an Art History Major with Professional Writing and Sculpture minors, which are my 3 passions. I was excited by this class because I'm constantly looking up word usage or etymology, and because of my art history background this feel just like a history course for another art form - written language. Overall, I just really like everything to do with written communication, and truly believe in the power of words.
-Marissa :)

# data[].attributes.body
The way that languages develop has always fascinated me and taking this course seemed like a great opportunity to satisfy my curiosity in that. I've worked in libraries for nearly four years now, so I'm overdue for an education in historic literature!
- Emma

# data[].attributes.body
I'm really excited for this course. I am in my last year at Kutztown and I'm really looking forward to getting back into things as I love learning. I enrolled in this course after taking a linguistics course with Professor Leonard and loving it. (I have also taken a ghost-y class, which I can't remember the name of, with Professor Leonard. It was awesome).  I am very excited for Beowulf too. After a long summer I am really excited to get back to work and actually have something to do!
- Delphi

# data[].attributes.body
I'm a junior English Major with a paralegal studies concentration. I am looking forward to reading these historical texts and learning how they changed history.
Catherine

# data[].attributes.body
I'm excited to get back to college after a long summer/quarantine riddled spring. This class interested me as part of my minor in literature because of the focus on the history of the English language and how it has developed over time. Other classes have been compelling, delving into particular genres or authors, but this class provides a change of pace, focusing  on the words themselves.
Rebecca

I searched for memes for the class. Hopefully the one below will make more sense later on.

# data[].attributes.body
Hello everyone, nice to meet all of you. I am excited to have the chance to engage in the History of English Language this semester. I am a junior in Professional Writing with a minor in Literature. I am the youngest of three siblings and I love Marvel (especially Captain America). I got the idea to take this course because I always loved the idea of how English advanced over the years and kept some of the old patterns that we do not even realize came from these older writers. I want to learn more of these stories and a bit more about the authors behind them. I think this class will teach myself ways of writing and expand my own eyes to see writing through a different set of eyes of talented writers. I hope to try and attend every class in person. Let us all stay safe during these hard times, however look at the positive as we dive into reading.

# data[].attributes.body
Language is an art form to me, in the same way that lyrics, and paintings are art. You can never fully appreciate something until you see it from every angle. Know its past, present, and future. only then will I have my perspective on the english language, change and deepen my interest in the truest form of expression. Zachary Mason

# data[].attributes.body
The manuscript in the background is the first page of Beowulf, written in Old English. Can you make out any words on it?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
View images from this item (16)
is the longest epic poem in Old English, the language spoken in Anglo-Saxon England before the Norman Conquest. More than 3,000 lines long, Beowulf relates the exploits of its eponymous hero, and his successive battles with a monster named Grendel, with Grendel's revengeful mother, and with a dragon which was guarding a hoard of treasure.

Listen to an audio description of Beowulf on the VocalEyes website.

How old is the manuscript?

Beowulf survives in a single medieval manuscript. The manuscript bears no date, and so its age has to be calculated by analysing the scribes' handwriting. Some scholars have suggested that the manuscript was made at the end of the 10th century, others in the early decades of the 11th, perhaps as late as the reign of King Cnut, who ruled England from 1016 until 1035.

The most likely time for Beowulf to have been copied is the early 11th century, which makes the manuscript approximately 1,000 years old.

Nobody knows for certain when the poem was first composed.

The contents of the manuscript

Apart from Beowulf, the manuscript contains several other medieval texts. These comprise a homily on St Christopher; The Marvels of the East (also known as The Wonders of the East), illustrated with wondrous beasts and deformed monsters; the Letter of Alexander to Aristotle; and an imperfect copy of another Old English poem, Judith.

Beowulf is the penultimate item in this collection, the whole of which was copied by two Anglo-Saxon scribes, working in collaboration.

Who owned the Beowulf manuscript?

The first-recorded owner of Beowulf is Laurence Nowell (died c. 1570), a pioneer of the study of Old English, who inscribed his name (dated 1563) at the top of the manuscript's first page. Beowulf then entered the famous collection of Sir Robert Cotton (died 1631) - who also owned the Lindisfarne Gospels and the British Library's two copies of Magna Carta - before passing into the hands of his son Sir Thomas Cotton (died 1662), and grandson Sir John Cotton (died 1702), who bequeathed the manuscript to the nation. The Cotton library formed one of the foundation collections of the British Museum in 1753, before being incorporated as part of the British Library in 1973.

Why is the manuscript damaged?

During the 18th century, the Cotton manuscripts were moved for safekeeping to Ashburnham House at Westminster. On the night of 23 October 1731 a fire broke out and many manuscripts were damaged, and a few completely destroyed.

Beowulf escaped the fire relatively intact but it suffered greater loss by handling in the following years, with letters crumbling away from the outer portions of its pages. Placed in paper frames in 1845, the manuscript remains incredibly fragile, and can be handled only with the utmost care.

See a full set of images of the Beowulf Digitised Manuscript or view the Electronic Beowulf, a collaboration between British Library and the University of Kentucky.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Discover 'Beowulf' on the British Library website

# data[].attributes.headline
It's important to think positive thoughts.

# data[].attributes.subject
It's important to think positive thoughts.

# data[].attributes.body
I suppose I should introduce what got me interested in the history of the English Language.

Well, ever since I had unicorn posters on my bedroom walls and read Tolkien, I've always had an interest in high fantasy, so, naturally, I chose a good number of courses in college and graduate school on Old English and the Middle Ages.  Though I focus more on linguistics and Victorian lit now, I often find connections between Victorians and literature/language from the Middle Ages.  Recently, I've been researching Thomas Chatterton, a Romantic poet who FAKED Middle English manuscripts!

Btw, this is me (Professor Leonard/Dr. Leonard, she/her):