The Dream of the Rood

Texts:

• original
• listen to the original (you'll need RealPlayer)
• a modern translation by Jonathan A. Glenn
  
• a prose translation by Charles W. Kennedy (.pdf)
• side-by-side versions (original + translation) by Mark Leech and Carmen A. Butcher
  

Contexts:

• Jonathan A. Glenn's outline of the poem
• the historical context of the poem by Karl Young
  
• Anglo-Saxon literature
• A glossary of literary terms and definitions

Terms:
Cynewulf, the Ruthwell Cross, passion poetry, dream vision allegory, framework narrative, prosopopoeia, hwaet!, Celtic Christianity, Wyrd, elegiac tone, Ecce Homo.

Old English context

A series of Wikipedia articles concerning the context of the beginnings of English literature:

Ancient Britain
Roman Britain
History of Anglo-Saxon England


Old and Middle English places of interest and importance for literature.
source: Pat Rogers (ed.) The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature.

Caedmon's Hymn and Riddles

Texts:

• Caedmon's Hymn
• listen to a West Saxon version of Caedmon's Hymn (.mp3)
• Riddles

Contexts:

• About Caedmon
• The Cambridge History of English and American Literature
• BBC Anglo-Saxons feature

Terms:
oral tradition, Celts, druid, bard, fili (pl. filid), ollamh, Iona, Lindisfarne, Kells, Bangor, Celtic Christianity, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, runes, runic alphabet, Futhorc, charms, riddles, St. Augustine of Canterbury, Whitby, gleeman, scop [pron. shope], Deor, Widsith, elegiac, epic, kenning, caesura, alliteration, the Venerable Bede, Wyrd, Drihten