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The
Old English Texts (1) - (6) have been normalised into Early West Saxon.
The punctuation of all texts in this section is editorial, since the
originals were only irregularly punctuated; the punctuation is designed
to help the modern reader. Texts (1), (2) and (4), taken from
the OE translation of the Bible, and Text (3), from the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, have been rewritten to remove obscurities or irregularities
which may confuse beginners, in the same way that texts designed for
foreign learners of PDE are frequently rewritten; they have also been
accompanied by very literal translations. For normalised but otherwise
unmodified versions of these texts, see Sweet 1953. Texts (5)
and (6), Cædmon’s Hymn, and a selection of two passages
from The Dream of the Rood, however, have not been rewritten,
although they have been normalised; for easily-accessible, non-normalised
versions of these texts, see H.Sweet (rev. D. Whitelock), Sweet’s
Anglo-Saxon Reader (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967). Texts
(7) and (8), a portion of a homily by Ælfric and a passage from
the great OE epic poem Beowulf, have neither been rewritten nor
normalised, and may act as “bridge” texts to more advanced work.
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