Bosworth Toller's

Anglo-Saxon

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E

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Grammar
E, Anglo-Saxon words, containing the short or unaccented vowel e, are often represented by modern English words of the same meaning, having the sound of e in
net, met, ; as,
    Nett, bedd, weddian, hell, well, denn, fenn, webb, ende.
the short
e in Anglo-Saxon generally comes
before a double consonant; as, Nebb, weccan, tellan, weddian:
before any two consonants; as, Twentig, sendan, bernan:
before one or two consonants, when followed by a long or by a final vowel;
as,
    Sele, henne.
e is often contracted from ea; as, Ceaster and cester a burgh, fortified town; eahta and ehta eight. B. Words containing the long or accented Anglo-Saxon é are very frequently represented by English terms of the same signification, with the sound of e in heel; as, Réc, méd, hél, cwén, gés, fét, téþ, hédan, fédan, métan
to meet. Some remarks on the accented é in Grimm's Deutsche Grammatik, 2nd Edit. Göttingen, small 8vo. 1822, vol. i. pp. 229, 230: 3rd Edit. small 8vo. 1840, vol. i. pp. 361, 362, may be found useful, and are especially recommended to the student of Anglo-Saxon.
it is, however, difficult to say when the e is long in Anglo-Saxon, but it may be useful to remember, the e is often long before the single consonants l, m, n, r, c, d, f, g, s, t, and þ; as, in hél a heel, félan to feel, déman to deem, think, fénix a phænix, hér here, gés geese, fét feet, fédan to feed, téþ teeth, béc books, blégen a Wain, dréfan to trouble. C. The Runic
RUNE not only stands for the vowel e, but also for the name of the letter in Anglo-Saxon, eh a war-horse, v. eh a war-horse, and RÚN.
Entry information
Citation

Bosworth, Joseph. “E.” In An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Online, edited by Thomas Northcote Toller, Christ Sean, and Ondřej Tichy. Prague: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, 2014. https://bosworthtoller.com/8262.

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