The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature

by Edited by Malcolm Godden , Michael Lapidge

• ISBN13: 9780521377942
• ISBN10: 0521377943
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1991-05-31
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book introduces students to the literature of Anglo-Saxon England, the period from 600-1066, in a collection of fifteen specially commissioned essays. The Companion is aimed at students encountering Old English literature for the first time, who require clear guidance and orientation in an unfamiliar field. The first chapters describe briefly the political, social and ecclesiastical history of the period and how poetry and prose developed and flourished. A succinct account of Old English language provides beginners with a guide to grammar, syntax and vocabulary. Subsequent chapters explore such topics as Germanic legend and heroic ideals, paganism and fatalism, the cult of saints and responses to the Bible. Important prose texts, such as those by Bede, Alfred, Aelfric and Wulfstan, are covered under these thematic headings. Poems such as The Battle of Maldon, The Wanderer, The Seafarer and The Dream of the Rood, are discussed in detail, but in association with related texts, in prose as well as poetry. A separate chapter is devoted to Beowulf, but aspects of the poem are also discussed in other chapters. Finally a bibliography lists essential editions, reference works and critical studies.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	vii
Preface	ix
Note on the text	xi
Abbreviations	xi
Chronological table of the Anglo-Saxon period	xii
Fig. 1 Map of the Germanic peoples of the Migration Age (c. 400-c. 600 AD)	xiv
Fig. 2 Map of Anglo-Saxon England	xv
Anglo-Saxon society and its literature	1	(22)
Patrick Wormald
The Old English language	23	(32)
Helmut Gneuss
The nature of Old English verse	55	(16)
Donald G. Scragg
The nature of Old English prose	71	(17)
Janet Bately
Germanic legend in Old English literature	88	(19)
Roberta Frank
Heroic values and Christian ethics	107	(19)
Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe
Pagan survivals and popular belief	126	(16)
John D. Niles
Beowulf	142	(18)
Fred C. Robinson
Fatalism and the millennium	160	(12)
Joseph B. Trahern, Jr
Perceptions of transience	172	(18)
Christine Fell
Perceptions of eternity	190	(16)
Milton McC. Gatch
Biblical literature: the Old Testament	206	(21)
Malcolm Godden
Biblical literature: the New Testament	227	(16)
Barbara C. Raw
The saintly life in Anglo-Saxon England	243	(21)
Michael Lapidge
The world of Anglo-Saxon learning	264	(18)
Patrizia Lendinara
Further reading	282	(10)
Index	292