How to pronounce Jesus

Old English is a "dead" language. No one, not even the children of the most fanatical Anglo-Saxonists (although some of us are working on it) grows up speaking Anglo-Saxon as a cradle tongue. But it is nevertheless worth learning to pronounce the language, and not only so you can impress people at cocktail parties. Reading Old English words and paradigms aloud can help many students to memorize important information more easily. Also, Old English poetry evolved as an oral medium: although the only poems we still know ae those that happen to have been written down, scholars have deduced that the Anglo-Saxons preferred to have their poetry presented orally. Finally, Old English poetry is particularly beautiful when read aloud, as this passage from the beginning of Beowulf perhaps demonstrates.