Selections from Early Middle English, 1130-1250. Part 1: Texts

These are the earliest surviving voices in Middle English, and they speak to us from nearly a millennium ago. The period from 1130 to 1250 marks the turbulent transition when English, shattered by the Norman Conquest, began to reformulate itself from the wreckage of Old English into something new. This scholarly collection presents the raw primary sources: the Worcester Fragments, early hymns, poems, and chronicles copied by anonymous scribes who preserved what they deemed worthy of survival. Here you will find the rough, immediate texture of medieval English before Chaucer, before the language was polished by centuries of literary tradition. Joseph Hall's meticulous edition restores these fragmentary texts with scholarly precision, providing the foundation upon which all later study of early Middle English must build. For linguists, medievalists, and anyone curious about the origins of English literature, these are the original documents, not interpretations of them. They are imperfect, damaged, sometimes barely legible and absolutely invaluable.