The Lord’s Prayer in Old English – Anglo Saxon

The Lords Prayer in Old EnglishToday we would like to share a version of the Lord’s Prayer in Old English (Anglo Saxon). For many of us, our only experience with Old English is reading the classic Old English book Beowulf. However, we also have a version of the Lord’s Prayer in the West Saxon literary dialect.

Old English itself is the earliest historical form of the English language, having been brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th century (around 7000 years after the building on Stonehenge). By the mid-late 11th century, Old English developed into Middle English, the language of Geoffrey Chaucer and his famous work Canterbury Tales.

 

The Our Father Prayer in Anglo Saxon

Fæder ūre þū þe eart on heofonum
Father of ours, thou who art in heavens,
Sī þīn nama ġehālgod.
Be thy name hallowed.
Tōbecume þīn rīċe,
Come thy kingdom,
ġewurþe þīn willa, on eorðan swā swā on heofonum.
manifest thy will, on earth as also in heaven.
Ūre ġedæġhwāmlīcan hlāf syle ūs tō dæġ,
Our daily loaf do sell (give) to us today,
and forġyf ūs ūre gyltas, swā swā wē forġyfað ūrum gyltendum.
And forgive us our guilts as also we forgive our guilters
And ne ġelǣd þū ūs on costnunge, ac ālȳs ūs of yfele.
And do not lead thou us into temptation, but alese release us of evil.
Sōþlīċe.
Soothly.

You can compare this historical version of the Lord’s Prayer in Old English (Anglo Saxon) with the King James version by going to: The Lord’s Prayer KJV.

To read Living Hour’s contemporary interpretation of the Our Father Prayer, please go to: The Lord’s Prayer Explained. Our verse by verse commentary is supported by over 200 gospel citations, and is a great resource for spiritual progressives of all faiths.



The Living Hour