This reader remains the only major new reader of Old English prose & verse in the past forty years The second edition is extensively revised throughout with the addition of a new ' Beginning Old English' section for newcomers to the Old English language along with a new extract from Beowulf The fifty-seven individual texts include established favourites such as The Battle of Maldon & Wulfstan's Sermon of the Wolf as well as others not otherwise readily available such as an extract from Apollonius of Tyre Modern English glosses for every prose-passage & poem are provided on the same page as the text along with extensive notes A succinct reference grammar is appended along with guides to pronunciation & to grammatical terminology A comprehensive glossary lists & analyses all the Old English words that occur in the book Headnotes to each of the six text sections & to every individual text establish their literary & historical contexts & illustrate the rich cultural variety of Anglo-Saxon England This second edition is an accessible & scholarly introduction to Old English