A complete guide to the text and context of the most famous Old English poem. "A generous, energetic, engaging work". JOSEPHINE BLOOMFIELD, OHIO UNIVERSITY. Beowulf is the best known and most closely studied literary work surviving from Anglo-Saxon England, and the modern reader is faced with a bewildering number and variety of interpretations about such basic matters as the date, provenance, and significance of the poem. A Critical Companion to Beowulf addresses these and other issues, reviewing and synthesising previous scholarship, as well as offering fresh perspectives. After an initial introduction to the poem, attention is focused on such matters as the manuscript context and approaches to dating the poem, before a lengthy discussion of the particular style, diction, and structure of this most idiosyncratic of Old English texts. The background to the poem is considered not simply with respect to historical and legendary material, but also in the context of myth and fable. The specific roles of selected individual characters, both major and minor, are assessed, and in a chapter on the degree of piety and Latin-derived erudition implied by the text consideration is given to the original intended audience and perceived purpose of the poem. A final chapter describes therange of critical approaches which have been applied to the poem in the past, and points towards directions for future study. ANDY ORCHARD is Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, University of Oxford.

Essays demonstrating how the careful study of individual words can shed immense light on texts more broadly. Dedicated to honoring the remarkable achievements of Dr Antonette di Paolo Healey, the architect and lexicographer of the Old English Concordance, the Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, and the Dictionary of Old English, the essays in this volume reflect firsthand the research made possible by Dr. Healey's landmark contributions to her field. Each chapter highlights how the careful consideration and study of words can lead to greater insights, from an understanding of early medieval English concepts of time and identity, to reconceptualizations of canonical Old English poems, reappraisals of early medieval English authors and their works, greater understanding of the semantic fields of Old English words and manuscript traditions, and the solving of lexical puzzles. MAREN CLEGG HYER is Professor of English at Valdosta State University; HARUKO MOMMA is Professor of English at NewYork University; SAMANTHA ZACHER is Professor of English and Medieval Studies at Cornell University. Contributors: Brianna Daigneault, Damian Fleming, Roberta Frank, Robert Getz, Joyce Hill, Joan Holland, Maren Clegg Hyer, Christopher A. Jones, R.M. Liuzza, Haruko Momma, Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe, Andy Orchard, Stephen Pelle, Christine Rauer, Terri Sanderson, Donald Scragg, Paul Szarmach, M. J. Toswell, Audrey Walton, Samantha Zacher.

Essays bringing out the crucial importance of philology for understanding Old English texts. Robert D. Fulk is arguably the greatest Old English philologist to emerge during the twentieth century; his corpus of scholarship has fundamentally shaped contemporary understanding of many aspects of Anglo-Saxon literary historyand English historical linguistics. This volume, in his honour, brings together essays which engage with his work and advance his research interests. Scholarship on historical metrics and the dating, editing, and interpretation of Old English poetry thus forms the core of this book; other topics addressed include syntax, phonology, etymology, lexicology, and paleography. An introductory overview of Professor Fulk's achievements puts these studies in context, alongside essays which assess his contributions to metrical theory and his profound impact on the study of Beowulf. By consolidating and augmenting Fulk's research, this collection takes readers to the cutting edgeof Old English philology. LEONARD NEIDORF is Professor of English at Nanjing University; RAFAEL J. PASCUAL is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard University; TOM SHIPPEY is Professor Emeritus at St Louis University. Contributors: Thomas Cable, Christopher M. Cain, George Clark, Dennis Cronan, Daniel Donoghue, Aaron Ecay, Mark Griffith, Megan E. Hartman, Stefan Jurasinski, Anatoly Liberman, Donka Minkova, Haruko Momma, Rory Naismith, Leonard Neidorf, Andy Orchard, Rafael J. Pascual, Susan Pintzuk, Geoffrey Russom, Tom Shippey, Jun Terasawa, Charles D. Wright.

Aldhelm of Malmesbury has been described as 'the first English man of letters'. He was the first Germanic author to compose extensively in Latin metrical verse, and his Latin works were amongst the most influential in Anglo-Saxon England. Aldhelm can also be considered the best-read of Anglo-Saxon poets, in both senses of the phrase: he read most and was most read. In this first book-length study of Aldhelm's poetic art Andy Orchard traces the sources and models for Aldhelm's idiosyncratic style, as well as the nature and extent of his influence on later Anglo-Latin verse. Aldhelm's innovations in Latin verse technique are emphasized, in particular his special debt to the specific techniques of Old English vernacular verse.

What offers over seven hundred witty enigmas in several languages? Answer: The Old English and Anglo-Latin Riddle Tradition. Riddles, wordplay, and inscrutable utterances have been at the heart of Western literature for many centuries. Often brief and always delightful, medieval riddles provide insights into the extraordinary and the everyday, connecting the learned and the ribald, the lay and the devout, and the familiar and the imported. Many solutions involve domestic life, including “butter churn” and “chickens.” Others like “the harrowing of hell” or “the Pleiades” appeal to an educated elite. Still others, like “the one-eyed seller of garlic,” are too absurd to solve: that is part of the game. Riddles are not simply lighthearted amusement. They invite philosophical questions about language and knowledge. Most riddles in this volume are translated from Old English and Latin, but it also includes some from Old Norse–Icelandic. The Old English and Anglo-Latin Riddle Tradition assembles, for the first time ever, an astonishing array of riddles composed before 1200 CE that continue to entertain and puzzle.

The breadth of learning and insight he brings to bear on the poem, and his balanced approach to numerous points of controversy, will make this book an indispensable tool for beginner and advanced scholar alike. MEDIUM AEVUM Beowulf is the best known and most closely studied literary work surviving from Anglo-Saxon England, and the modern reader is faced with a bewildering number and variety of interpretations about such basic matters as the date, provenance, and significance of the poem. A Critical Companion to Beowulf addresses these and other issues, reviewing and synthesising previous scholarship, as well as offering fresh perspectives. After an initial introduction to the poem, attention is focused on such matters as the manuscript context and approaches to dating the poem; the particular style, diction, and structure of this most idiosyncratic of Old English texts; the background to the poem (considered not simply with respect to historical and legendary material, but also in the context of myth and fable); the specific roles of selected individual characters, both major and minor; and the original intended audience and perceived purpose of the poem. A final chapter describes the range of critical approaches which have been applied to the poem in the past, and points towards directions for future study. Professor ANDY ORCHARD is Provost of Trinity College, University of Toronto.

Part of a new series Legends from the Ancient North, The Elder Edda is one of the classic books that influenced JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings 'I was in the East, battling giants, wicked-hearted women, who wandered the fells; great would be the giant-race, if they all lived: mankind would be nothing under, middle-earth. What did you do meantime, Grey-beard?' J.R.R. Tolkien spent much of his life studying, translating and teaching the great epic stories of northern Europe, filled with heroes, dragons, trolls, dwarves and magic. He was hugely influential for his advocacy of Beowulf as a great work of literature and, even if he had never written The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, would be recognised today as a significant figure in the rediscovery of these extraordinary tales. Legends from the Ancient North brings together from Penguin Classics five of the key works behind Tolkien's fiction.They are startling, brutal, strange pieces of writing, with an elemental power brilliantly preserved in these translations.They plunge the reader into a world of treachery, quests, chivalry, trials of strength.They are the most ancient narratives that exist from northern Europe and bring us as near as we will ever get to the origins of the magical landscape of Middle-earth (Midgard) which Tolkien remade in the 20th century.

In the course of this book Professor Cross presents the discovery of the actual manuscript source for the Old English versions of two biblical apocrypha, The Gospel of Nichodemus and The Avenging of the Saviour. In collaboration with four other scholars, Professor Cross explores the implications of this discovery. Here, parallel editions of the relevant Latin and Old English texts are given, together with modern English translations, and detailed discussion outlines the background to the Latin texts, and to the manuscript which contains them. The assembled material provides an insight not simply into the transmission of two apocryphal texts, but also into the mind of the single Anglo-Saxon translator who, it is argued, struggled in his own idiosyncratic fashion to make two badly spelt and incomplete Latin originals his own.

In the course of this work Professor Cross presents the discovery of the actual manuscript source for the Old English versions of two biblical apocrypha, The Gospel of Nichodemus and The Avenging of the Saviour. Together with four other scholars, Professor Cross explores the implications of this discovery, in the field of Anglo-Saxon studies. Here, parallel editions of the relevant Latin and Old English texts are given, together with modern English translations, and detailed discussion outlines the background to the Latin texts, and to the manuscript which contains them. The assembled material provides an insight not only into the transmission of two apocryphal texts, but also into the mind of the single Anglo-Saxon translator who, it is argued, struggled in his own idiosyncratic fashion to make two badly spelt and incomplete Latin originals his own.

Aldhelm of Malmesbury has been described as 'the first English man of letters'. He was the first Germanic author to compose extensively in Latin metrical verse, and his Latin works were amongst the most influential in Anglo-Saxon England. Aldhelm can also be considered the best-read of Anglo-Saxon poets, in both senses of the phrase: he read most and was most read. In this first book-length study of Aldhelm's poetic art Andy Orchard traces the sources and models for Aldhelm's idiosyncratic style, as well as the nature and extent of his influence on later Anglo-Latin verse. Aldhelm's innovations in Latin verse technique are emphasized, in particular his special debt to the specific techniques of Old English vernacular verse.

The greatest source of knowledge of Viking lore.
The mythology surrounding ancient Norse gods and heroes has inspired countless writers and artists, including Tennyson, Wagner, William Morris, Tolkien, Borges, and Auden. Compiled by an unknown scribe in Iceland around 1270 and based on sources dating back centuries earlier, these poems tell of the heroic deeds of gods and mortals: the giant- slaying Thor, the doomed Volsung family, the Hell-ride of Brynhild, and the cruelty of Atli (Attila the Hun). Eclectic, incomplete, and fragmented, the verses nevertheless retain a stark beauty and enthralling power, opening a window onto the thoughts, beliefs, and hopes of the Vikings and their world.

The forty-seventh volume of Anglo-Saxon England begins with a record of the eighteenth conference of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, and ends with a fourth supplement to the Hand-list of Anglo-Saxon Non-Runic Inscriptions. Other articles in this volume cover a diverse range of subjects, including Skaldic art in Cnut's court, alliteration in Old English poetry, the northern world of an Anglo-Saxon mappa mundi and the Germanic context of Beowulf. Religious matters are given particular consideration in this volume: new light is shed on the lost St Margaret's crux nigra, and on Anglo-Breton contact between the tenth and twelfth centuries through an examination of St Kenelm and St Melor. Also included are an account of Archbishop Wulfstan's forgery of the 'laws of Edward and Guthrum', and an edition of the four sermons attributed to Candidus Witto. Each article is preceded by a short abstract.

The late tenth-century Vercelli Book (Vercelli, Biblioteca Capitolare CXVII) contains one of the earliest surviving collections of homilies and poetry in the English language. The manuscript's combination of poetry and homiletic prose has generated intense scholarly debate, and there is no consensus concerning the original purpose of the compiler.

New Readings in the Vercelli Book addresses central questions concerning the manuscript's intended use, mode of compilation, and purpose, and offers a variety of approaches on such topics as orthography, style, genre, theme, and source-study. The contributors include some of the foremost Vercelli experts, as well as the two most recent editors of the homilies. The remarkable essays in this volume offer the first sustained literary analysis of both the poetry and prose texts of the Vercelli Book, providing important new perspectives on a dynamic and valuable historical document.

Published for the first time in paperback, Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England is a set of scholarly texts and monographs intended to advance our knowledge of all aspects of the field of Anglo-Saxon studies. The scope of the series, like that of Anglo-Saxon England, its periodical counterpart, embraces original scholarship in various disciplines: literary, historical, archaeological, philological, art-historical, palaeographical, architectural, liturgical and numismatic.