Old Frisian has traditionally proven to be the least accessible and most understudied of the older Germanic dialects. The obscurity of Old Frisian is no doubt partly to be blamed on the lack of any modern introductory textbook, and the few materials available are in German and increasingly difficult to obtain (for example, Van Helten 1890, reprinted 1970; Heuser 1903, reprinted 1972; Sjölin 1969). Of these only Heuser provides the requisite grammar, reader, and glossary appropriate for an introductory course or for self-study. The Anglophone world can gain some access to Old Frisian through Thomas Markey’s Frisian (1981)—though this work provides neither texts nor glossary—or through Orrin Robinson’s (1992:176–198) excellent chapter on Old Frisian, though this is not meant as a comprehensive introduction. All of this points to the major gap in the available literature filled by Rolf H. Bremmer, Jr.’s lively and engaging An Introduction to Old Frisian. It is no small thing that a distinguished scholar in Old Frisian studies with decades of experience as a teacher has written this long-needed textbook.

The challenges posed in creating a lucid introduction to Old Frisian are considerable given that our extant Old Frisian texts represent a broad dialect continuum and originate over a period of several centuries. It is immediately evident that Bremmer has considerable experience presenting this complicated scenario in the most lucid possible manner. In his first chapter, Bremmer provides a detailed and meticulous overview of the history of Frisia and of the main extant texts and their manuscript variants. The complex story is rendered transparent by the judicious use of charts and a map, all of which combine to provide an outstanding synopsis of the Old Frisian corpus. In subsequent chapters, Bremmer provides appropriately detailed introductions to Old Frisian phonology (chapter 2) and morphology (chapter 3). Both chapters are of appropriate length and provide enough detail without becoming ponderous to use. These traditional components of an introductory grammar are enriched by very useful chapters on lexicology (word formation and loan words, chapter 4) and syntax (chapter 5). Bremmer rounds out his grammatical section with an important chapter on Old Frisian dialectology (chapter 6) and a chapter dealing with two “long-standing problems,” the period-ization of Old Frisian and the question of the nature of the Anglo-Frisian complex (chapter 7).

The second section of the book is devoted to a reader and glossary. The reader provides twenty texts representing the full range of Old Frisian text types. Though the corpus is heavy on legal texts, Bremmer has extracted texts of less legal nature interspersed among the laws as well. Each of the 20 reading sections could easily be covered in one, or at most two instructional periods, so there is adequate material in the reader for a full semester of study. Bremmer provides a short introduction to each text contextualizing its content and providing information not de-rivable from the text proper. The colorful chapter headings and the delightful details provided in each introductory section draw the student into the translation process. Who could not get enthused about a reading selection entitled “Hideous Crimes, Cruel Measures” which promises the reader that “the last measure, E, shows there was no mercy for stray geese?” Each reading selection is followed by extensive and detailed “Explanatory notes” that help the reader to untangle thorny grammatical issues. These notes also frequently provide additional paleographical or cultural information, as well as references to relevant paragraphs in the grammar. In addition to the texts in the reader, the section is sprinkled with relevant cultural material with provocative headings such as “dehydrated corpses as legal evidence” (p. 147) and “get the plague!” (p. 163). These short texts help to breathe life into the already engaging readings.

The glossary is very clear and well conceived. Grammatical forms that deviate significantly from their citation forms are conveniently cross-referenced, then each form is listed under the appropriate lemma in the glossary. The past participle betein, for example, is listed in the glos-sary as follows: betein → betiā. The student then finds that betiā is a class II strong verb meaning ‘to cover’ with betein as its past participle. As a result, the student will always be sure when a given form has been properly identified, and hours of frustrating searching through the glos-sary are avoided. A single-page glossary of proper names occurring in the reading selections rounds out the reader. The volume ends with an extensive bibliography and an index of Old Frisian words mentioned in the grammar chapters or in the explanatory notes in the reader.

Although there is very much to like in this Introduction to Old Frisian, there are a few slight infelicities that might be changed in subsequent editions. The first issue arises in the presentation of early Germanic phonology in chapter 2. For whatever reason, Bremmer has chosen West Germanic as his point of departure for a chronological presentation of sound changes affecting Old Frisian. As a result, the presentation begins with West Germanic consonant gemination, which for some reason is presented as occurring only before WGmc ⁺j, not before WGmc ⁺r and ⁺l (PGmc ⁺akraz ‘field’ > WGmc ⁺akkra; OFr ekker; PGmc ⁺aplaz ‘apple’ > WGmc ⁺appla; OFr appel; see Van Helten 1890:119). Bremmer gets through West Germanic, Ingvaeonic/North Sea Germanic, and into Proto-Frisian sound changes but then feels the lack of any discussion of Grimm’s Law, Verner’s Law, or Northwest Germanic rhotacism and adds these (much) earlier developments as rules 12 and 13. Given that a segment of the readership for this introduction will be interested in Old Frisian for the purposes of comparing it to other early Germanic languages, it would probably make the most sense to begin the phonology chapter with changes that affect all dialects of early Germanic (such as Grimm’s Law, Verner’s Law, raising of PGmc ⁺e to PGmc ⁺i before NC, nasal loss with compensatory lengthening /__⁺x), then proceed to changes affecting Northwest Germanic (rhotacism, vowel harmony, PGmc ⁺ē¹ > NWGmc ⁺ā, etc.), then finally to West Germanic, where it would make sense to provide a complete treatment of gemin-ation and to include the account of high vowel deletion in the phonology section rather than bringing it up in the morphology chapter in the neuter a-stem noun plurals.

The general omission of the Northwest Germanic vowel harmony rule (that is, PGmc ⁺e > NWGmc ⁺i/_ ⁺i, ⁺ī, ⁺j, ( ⁺u); PGmc ⁺u > NWG ⁺o/ __ non-high vowels) leads to an idiosyncratic treatment of PGmc ⁺eu, which Bremmer lists as part of the West Germanic vowel inventory on page 23 (diphthongs: eu, ai, au). Yet, on page 29 he provides the following account of the development of PGmc ⁺eu:

1. (1)

All of this is very confusing given that on page 23 there is no ⁺eo included in the WGmc inventory of diphthongs. A more conventional representation of the development of PGmc ⁺eu would be the one in 2:

1. (2)

As it is, for the development PGmc ⁺eu, Bremmer assigns the develop-ment of the OF diphthong iª to the Proto-Frisian process of i-mutation (pp. 29, 33) even though this development belongs to the earlier process of NWGmc vowel harmony. The discussion is in any event muddled and inconsistent. The lack of any mention of, for example, the development of PGmc ⁺e > NWGmc ⁺i /__ ⁺i, ⁺ī, ⁺j, ( ⁺u) also leaves the student with no clue as to why class V strong verbs such as OF lidza ‘to lie’, bidda ‘to ask’, sitta ‘to sit’ have a different root vowel from other verbs in the class, lesa ‘to read’, quetha ‘to say’, ieva ‘to give’, and no explanation is offered (p. 75).

Throughout it would be wise, from a pedagogical perspective, to label all reconstructed forms by period for the sake of clarity. A sequence such as ⁺saljan > ⁺salljan (gemination, −27) > ⁺sælljan (fronting, −39) > sella ‘to sell’ (p. 32) would be much more accessible to novices if the forms were identified by period: PGmc ⁺saljan > WGmc ⁺salljan (gemin-ation, −27) > Pre-OF ⁺sælljan (fronting, −39) > OF sella ‘to sell’. This practice might help to explain apparently anomalous forms such as ⁺sehan ‘to see’ (p. 37) that must be reconstructed as PGmc ⁺seh^wan.

Despite these minor criticisms, An Introduction to Old Frisian pro-vides an outstanding, comprehensive introduction to a language that has remained inaccessible to broad audience of scholars. The book is equally suitable as a course textbook or as a text for self-study. Bremmer’s engaging style as well as the wealth of linguistic, cultural, and historical information make for enjoyable reading and provide us with a modern, accessible, and affordable introduction to a fascinating corpus. As one reads the well-conceived chapters it becomes clear that the author is one of the only scholars in the world with the depth and breadth of expertise and with the extensive experience teaching Old Frisian who could write such a book. It is a major contribution to our field.