A History of Old English Literature

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