This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
-I must point out that Old English is not COMPLETELY incomprehensible to Modern English speakers. Comparing poetry such as Cædmon's Hymn or Beowulf to Modern English prose is not a good comparison, since Anglo-Saxon poetry uses highly irregular word order as well as a specialized vocabulary and poetic formulas found only in poetry. Simple phrases in Old English prose may be partially or even fully comprehensible to Modern English speakers, such as:
Her com æðelwald hider ofer sæ mid þæm flotan þe he mid wæs on East Sexe. (Here came Athelwald hither over sea with the seamen (lit. "floaters") that he was with in Essex)
Clarste: Hearing it aloud helps a lot. While reading, we're normally too used to standardized spelling and whatnot. It doesn't help much that most people can't even parse the letters.
