In this short passage, many of the words are now obsolete:  for example, mathelian, to address an assembly (concionari); lac, a gift; wig, war; guth, battle; and leod, a prince. Ge-digde, ge-nethde, and ge-twaefed have the now obsolete particle ge-, which bears much the same sense as in High German.  On the other hand, bearn, a bairn; sunu, a son; sae, sea; tacen, a token; waeter, water; and weorc, work, still survive:  as do the verbs to bring, to look, and to shield. Lust, pleasure, whence lustum, joyfully, has now restricted its meaning in modern English, but retains its original sense in High German.

A few lines from the “Chronicle” under the year 1137, during the reign of Stephen, will give an example of Anglo-Saxon in its later and corrupt form, caught in the act of passing into Chaucerian English:—­

This gaere for the King | This year fared the King Stephan ofer sae to Normandi; | Stephen over sea to Normandy; and ther wes under | and there he was fangen, forthi thaet hi wenden | accepted [received as duke] thaet he sculde ben alsuic alse | because that they weened the eom waes, and for he | that he should be just as his hadde get his tresor; ac he | uncle was, and because he todeld it and scatered sotlice. | had got his treasure:  but he Micel hadde Henri king | to-dealt [distributed] and gadered gold and sylver, and | scattered it sot-like [foolishly]. na god ne dide men for his | Muckle had King saule tharof.  Tha the King | Henry gathered of gold and Stephan to Englaland com, | silver; and man did no good tha macod he his gadering | for his soul thereof.  When aet Oxeneford, and thar he | that King Stephan was come nam the biscop Roger of | to England, then maked he Sereberi, and Alexander | his gathering at Oxford, and biscop of Lincoln, and the | there he took the bishop Canceler Roger, hise neves, | Roger of Salisbury, and Alexander, and dide aelle in prisun, til | bishop of Lincoln, and hi iafen up hire castles. | the Chancellor Roger, his
                                | nephew, and did them all in
                                | prison [put them in prison]
                                | till they gave up their castles.

The following passage from AElfric’s Life of King Oswold, in the best period of early English prose, may perhaps be intelligible to modern readers by the aid of a few explanatory notes only. Mid means with; while with itself still bears only the meaning of against:—­