The idea of this book is to teach some Old English (OE) with the help of a selection of sentences taken from Ælfric's Grammar. These sentences are his own translations of Latin example sentences he uses to explain Latin grammar. So all example sentences in my book are not made-up OE sentences, they all are original OE sentences used by the best known and most prolific prose writer of the Old English period. They contain fundamental characteristics of Old English grammar and basic OE words. Each sentence is combined with a photograph.

And these sentences can be embedded even today in the same everyday speech situations. Sentences from different parts in his book that refer to the same subject matter have been taken out of their original place in the book and have been grouped together.

Besides sentences that refer to teaching and learning, we also have sentences that refer to love and tenderness, drinking and eating, praise and criticism, searching and finding a book, identifiying a person, outer appearance and localization in space. By grouping the sentences together in this way and combining them with photographs, it was possible to describe everyday situations or even to tell a little story.

This method of combining text and image wants to make these sentences more memorable and OE grammar also a little more entertaining. This book does not want to be a complete and comprehensive introduction to Old English. For beginners it might be an exercise book giving some important insights into the grammar of Old English and teaching some basic words. For persons with a deeper knowledge of the language it might be an enjoyable way of looking on well known features of OE in a new and unfamiliar context.

Hwider … ðū? is an exercise book working exclusively with gap-fills. This type of exercise is a well established tool also in the field of teaching Old English. All sentences are taken from Old English texts and illustrated with a photograph. The majority of photos show present-day people and present-day surroundings. By combining these photos with sentences that are a thousand years old, I do not only want to make the exercices more entertaining, but I also want to create the illusion of Old English being a present-day language. Moreover, by choosing pictures showing funny, surprising and moving situations, I want to create a warm atmosphere of familiarity and intimacy between the language and its learners. The selected sentences do not cover all aspects of Old English grammar. The focus lies on elementary Old English morphology, that is on the inflectional endings of Old English words. As there is a great richness of inflectional endings and grammatical forms in Old English, I had to make a selection of them. The chapters of this book correspond to learning contents taught in grammars and textbooks. First come exercises on nouns and articles, then follow exercices on pronouns, adjectives and verbs. The gap-fills want to help you to practice things that you have learned in an Old English class or on your own. The solutions are given in the key section. Characteristic features and peculiarities of the OE example sentences in this book are explained in the commentary. All OE words that appear in our text are listed in the glossary at the end of the book.