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A History of Old English Literature

“Revised to incorporate the latest developments, A History of Old English Literature remains as indispensable as ever. Its scholarship is up to date, its range comprehensive, its writing animated by a critical intelligence throughout. A new chapter on manuscripts, for example, responds to the field's recent turn to material contexts, and that attention begets a second new chapter on marginal texts like charms and cryptograms. An expanded discussion of legal texts, an updated bibliography, and many localized revisions will benefit everyone from beginning students to seasoned scholars.”—Daniel Donoghue, Harvard University 

Robert D. Fulk (Edited by), RD Fulk (Author), Christopher M. Cain (Edited by)

9781118453230, Wiley

Hardback, published 26 April 2013

504 pages
23.9 x 16 x 2.9 cm, 0.78 kg

"A new generation of students and their professors will undoubtedly apprecite the currency of what has proven to be a widely respected, comprehensive historical treatment of Old English literature." (Choice, 1 December 2013)

A HISTORY OF OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE

A History of Old English Literature has been significantly revised to provide an unequivocal response to the renewed historicism in medieval studies. Focusing on the production and reception of Old English texts and on their relation to Anglo-Saxon history and culture, this new edition covers an exceptionally broad array of genres. These range from riddles and cryptograms to allegory, liturgical texts, and romance, as well as lyric poetry and heroic legend. The authors also integrate discussions of Anglo-Latin texts, crucial to understanding the development of Old English literature.

This second edition incorporates extensive reference to scholarship that has evolved over the past decade, with new chapters on both Anglo-Saxon manuscripts and on incidental and marginal texts. There is expanded treatment throughout, including increased coverage of legal texts and scientific and scholastic texts. The book concludes with a retrospective outline of the reception of Anglo-Saxon literature and culture in subsequent periods.

List of IIIustrations vi

Preface to the First Edition (2003) vii

Preface to the Second Edition ix

Abbreviations x

Introduction

Anglo-Saxon England and Its Literature: A Social History 1

1 The Chronology and Varieties of Old English Literature 42

2 Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts 58

3 Literature of the Alfredian Period 83

4 Homilies 112

5 Saints’ Legends (Rachel S. Anderson) 133

6 Biblical Literature 157

7 Liturgical and Devotional Texts 177

8 Legal Texts 211

9 Scientific and Scholastic Texts 227

10 Wisdom Literature and Lyric Poetry 241

11 Germanic Legend and Heroic Lay 278

12 Additions, Annotations, and Marginalia 329

Conclusion Making Old English New: Anglo-Saxonism and the Cultural Work of Old English Literature 354

Works Cited 367

Index 481

Subject Areas: Literature: history & criticism [DS]

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