Ōsweald Bera is available now!

[@TheZetaKai]

An epic over a thousand years in the making. I can't wait to read it.

[@GloriaJesu]

I was literally looking around (today!) for an OE textbook like LLPSI, and I come across this. Sweet. Can't wait.

[@telephonebear21]

My bera-boc arrived today 🇬🇧. It looks great!

[@danielpanizza]

I've preordered mine a few days ago. I can't wait to read about all these ursine adventures in old England.

[@MiScusi69]

Woah, I had never considered learning Old English, but it's kinda cool, I guess!

[@the_tax_consultant]

Just got my copy yesterday! Just started chapter 3!

[@TitoHabif]

Iċ þancie þē, cniht Colin!

[@MenelmacarLG]

Εῦγ‘ εῦγε!

[@Mac_an_Mheiriceanaigh]

I love the comments on the back cover. What a selection of people!

[@marymactavish]

Putting this on my wishlist

[@135Ronin]

Very cool. I’m glad to hear there will be an audiobook coming out.

[@danielmcelhatton1724]

Really looking forward to getting a copy.

[@Mac_an_Mheiriceanaigh]

Congratulations!!!!

[@ryankaufman3590]

Very exciting!! Congratulations, Colin. Ordering my copy now!

[@ColinGorrie]

Thank you!

[@majahadra7905]

Can't wait to have a look!

[@majahadra7905]

It came yesterday! I have to wait til my birthday to see it :D

[@KatharsisderWelt]

I am excited to read it!

[@deanregister9666]

Happy!! I'm so excited I temporarily lost the ability to articulate emotions

[@dono42]

I ordered it on November 2nd. I'm looking forward to reading it. I'd like to hear more about the planned grammar companion.

[@cito2820]

Mine is on the way! I can’t wait!!

[@cito2820]

I also want to say we’re so proud of you Colin! This will really change old English Pedagogy and greatly facilitate the learning of it. Less time in paradigms and more time reading is so exciting!

[@ColinGorrie]

Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy it!

[@Mac_an_Mheiriceanaigh]

Papae! Quam pulcherrimus tē ostendis, Nicolāe! Tē annī haud gravant!

[@philipberry4715]

My copy arrived to the UK today. It was definitely worth the wait. Any idea when the audio book will come out?

[@Moreh17]

So excited! I preordered this a while back. Can’t wait to get my hands on it.

[@shanedemeulenaere5792]

Yay! Awaiting my copy now. 😊

[@mikepetrieuk]

Osweald has arrived in Sussex

[@RobertKaucher]

Ordered!

[@nathanpiazza9644]

🤩 Bear Book 🐻📗

[@hrafnagu9243]

Welp, looks like I'm breaking the ol' wallet out

[@labanlagreca]

I’ve already ordered it and I’m really excited to dive in! I was wondering how accessible Middle English will be after reading it? Are there any resources or materials you recommend for bridging that gap. Or can one jumper straight into Chaucer?

[@ColinGorrie]

It should help with Chaucer, since at least some of what is hard about Middle English are things from Old English that have not survived into Modern English - so, if you have Old English and Modern English, you should be able to tackle Middle English from both sides, so to speak.

[@GloriaJesu]

I'm curious how far your book gets into OE. Is it fairly complete in its coverage of the language, like Familia Romana, covering all the main grammar and vocab? Could I start to read some Beowulf after going through it (I'm an autodidact teen who likes learning dead languages lol)?

[@ColinGorrie]

It gets you exposure to all of the main grammatical points of Old English, and about 1300 words, which is a good basic vocabulary for reading prose. The trick with Old English is that the poetic vocabulary is relatively distinct from the prose vocabulary, so I find with my students that Beowulf needs a bit of extra study. But you can certainly go to most prose authors with relative ease, and that can help build up your reading fluency for tackling poetry when the time comes. You'll just have to learn 10 different words for sword...

[@GloriaJesu]

Ok awesome! 1300 is a great vocab count. I'm planning to take myself through the Cambridge OE reader and when the time comes tackle Beowulf with a dictionary!

[@bendthebow]

🐾

[@NathanGull]

Anyway to get this in NZ? An ebook perhaps? Shipping to NZ is so expensive.

[@ColinGorrie]

Try going on the site and seeing what the shipping comes to for your address - the fulfilment company has lots of locations worldwide. It's likely shipping to NZ from somewhere much closer.

[@NathanGull]

​@@ColinGorrieThanks for your reply! I'll take a look :)

[@Cjco102]

Is there international shipping? I want this the second I get my next Paycheck

[@ColinGorrie]

It should be able to go to every country Fedex ships to (which is almost all of them)!

[@dono42]

I ordered mine from Japan without any problems.

[@sterlingdafydd5834]

I preordered when should I expect to receive my copy…????

[@ColinGorrie]

The orders got processed yesterday, so it's now down to how fast Fedex gets from the warehouse to your location. Shouldn't be too long though

[@bendthebow]

@@ColinGorrie I'm way out of the way. I appreciated the flat shipping cost

[@sterlingdafydd5834]

@ thank you for responding

[@alirubaii4839]

How do you determine a “standard” Old English to teach? Bc, as I understand it, the corpus is full of crazy variations (across space and time)

[@ColinGorrie]

I stayed relatively close to what most textbooks teach, which is an idealized form of West Saxon with normalized spellings. This way, the book is interoperable with most grammar textbooks and dictionaries - for example, you can look up a word in, say, Wiktionary (an excellent resource for OE), and it will be spelled the same way in Ōsweald. Then, once you've become comfortable with this normalized version, you can progress relatively easily to the variations you find in actual texts.

[@Mac_an_Mheiriceanaigh]

@@ColinGorrie optimē fēcistī

[@preussischblau]

Will there be an ebook version?

[@ColinGorrie]

The publisher isn't currently planning one but if it's something you're interested in, it might help to let them know!

[@johnquant9924]

Waiting for my copy to come... should be shipping soon. Then now long do I have to wait for the audio book to come out?

[@ColinGorrie]

No firm date on the audiobook yet (lots of actors' schedules to work around) but it'll be next year sometime!

[@huskee7684]

i'd get the book but where i'm from it will be as expensive as a human kidney

[@cartweel]

this one's for the algo

[@donnie1725]

FuuuuUuUk yeahhhhh

[@collindalton111]

Wundorlīće. Ić eom swīðe glæd.

[@ColinGorrie]

Iċ þanciġe þē!

[@atticusakelly]

UGH i'm not even studying old english yet and i NEEEEED it

[@kahwigulum]

$35 is rather expensive for a book of this type. I was shocked to see the pre-orders were that much. Many old language books that I've purchased over the years are in the 20-25 range. I suspect the higher price is due to the publisher you used. I'm just used to self-publishing prices, I guess. Also, the site doesn't specify which currency, it just says 35. I'm in Canada, so if it's in USD, the price is closer to 50, which is just too high. I know the fanboys will pay 35, and good for them (and you), but I don't know how sustainable such a price is if your intention is to sell as many copies as possible and spread the knowledge contained to as many people as you wish. I'll look for a copy of this on the shelves of my local used bookstore in a few years.

[@Philoglossos]

What other book of this type costs significantly less? For instance Familia Romana costs the same.

[@militaryman111]

It’s very well priced. Let the guy make some money for his excellent work. As the comment above says, it’s benchmarked to LLPSI and he’ll have no other competition

[@danielpanizza]

@@Philoglossos In Italy we can get Familia Romana for 20 euros (21 US dollars), so considering the shipping cost I ended up paying almost twice as much to get my copy of Osweald Bera. Having said that, I'm not sure how much market there would be for a book like this in my country anyway.

[@GloriaJesu]

It's a good price. Don't know what you are talking about!

[@alirubaii4839]

If everybody in the world wanted to learn Old English, then maybe he could lower the price, but it’s a niche market and takes a TON of his labor, so $35 is a steal. You could pay a Uni tuition or buy hundreds of dollars on old grammars or find old scans online for free, but have to read from a computer the whole time… Not a good take