A Collection Of Papers With Emphasis On Old English Literature (publications Of The Dictionary Of Old English)

My thanks are due to Peter Godman, my colleague at Pembroke College, Oxford, for suggesting to me that I should bring out in a volume my published papers on Old English literature not all of which are in readily accessible journals and symposia, and to Roberta Frank, of the University of Toronto, for her active part in arranging the publication of the volume, and for accepting into it some unpublished papers. It is a vanity to hope to be read, and an even greater vanity for a writer to reread his own writings, some of them in my case now more than thirty years old: alas, it is not wholly a pleasure. Misprints leap out from too many pages; inconsistencies are found to be common; there are errors of fact, not all of them revealed only by subsequent work in the subject. I have corrected in this reprinting all the original misprints I have noticed; and I have corrected inaccurate references. Minor stylistic improvements have been made, especially where the original seemed unclear. No uniformity has, however, been imposed on these papers which made their first appearance in a wide range of publications in several countries. A few cross-references have been introduced; and where new scholarship has had the result of making unacceptable some statements of mine I have drawn attention to the new work in a way which will, I hope, be clearly seen as additions of 1985. Preface xi Abbreviations xv I. SURVEYS OF OLD ENGLISH STUDIES, THEIR HISTORY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. The Scholarly Recovery of the Significance of Anglo-Saxon Records in Prose and Verse: A New Bibliography 3 2. The Continental Contribution to the Study of Anglo-Saxon Writings up to and Including that of the Grimms 49 3. Sharon Turner’s First Published Reference to 'Beowulf' 75 4. The Bibliography of Old English: The Past 76 5. Translation from Old English: 'The Garbaging War-Hawk', or, The Literal Materials from Which the Reader Can Re-create the Poem 83 II. OLD ENGLISH TEXTS IN VERSE AND PROSE 6. The Oldest English Poetry Now Extant 115 7. 'Beowulf' 139 8. The Narrative Art of 'Beowulf' 170 9. Hæþenra Hyht in 'Beowulf' 192 10. The Date of 'Beowulf': Some Doubts and No Conclusions 209 11. Did Beowulf Commit 'Feaxfeng' Against Grendel's Mother? 232 12. Old English Poetic Diction and the Interpretation of 'The Wanderer', 'The Seafarer', and 'The Penitent's Prayer' 234 13. The Germanic 'Heroic Lay' of Finnesburg 281 14. Two Old English Poetic Phrases Insufficiently Understood for Literary Criticism: 'þing gehegan' and 'seonoþ gehegan' 298 15. 'Geoweorþa': 'Once Held in High Esteem' 318 16. How the Elbing Deprives the Vistula of Its Name and Converts It to the Elbing's Own Use in 'Vistula-Mouth' 336 17. 'The Judgement of the Damned', from Corpus Christi College Cambridge 201 and Other Manuscripts, and the Definition of Old English Verse 352 III. INSCRIPTIONS 18. The Ruthwell Cross Inscription: Some Linguistic and Literary Implications of Paul Meyvaert's Paper 'An Apocalypse Panel on the Ruthwell Cross' 384 19. The Late Saxon Disc-Brooch from Sutton (Isle of Ely): Its Verse Inscription 400 IV. KING ALFRED 20. The Word 'Alfredian' 409 21. The Glorification of Alfred King of Wessex (from the publication of Sir John Spelman's 'Life', 1678 and 1709, to the publication of Reinhold Pauli's, 1851) 410 Index 442