The Ormulum

The Ormulum was written by 12th century monk Orm. The work consists of homilies about the Gospel and is considered to be a wonderful example of a Middle English orthography. The purpose of this text was to aid others with word pronunciation.

Video of the Ormulum being read aloud.

This text is interesting because not only does it give scholars an opportunity to see the differences between Middle English and other eras of the English language, but it also serves as one of the first examples of an English text that attempts to standardize some aspect of language.