Companion to Anglo-Saxon Literature

Phillip Pulsiano is late Professor of English at Villanova University. He authored numerous articles on Old and Middle English poetry and prose, and co-edited the Garland Encyclopaedia of Medieval Scandinavia (with Paul Acker and Kirsten Wolf). He had completed the first volume of The Old English Psalters (for Toronto University Press), and had undertaken significant research on Latin female saints' lives from the medieval period, and (with Joseph P. McGowan) the prose texts in the Beowulf-manuscript: work that will be published posthumously.Elaine M. Treharne is Professor of Early English at Florida State University. She is author of The Old English Life of St Nicholas with the Old English Life of St Giles (1997), co-editor of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts and their Heritage (with Philip Pulsiano), Rewriting Old English in the Twelfth Century (with Mary Swan), and Readings in Medieval Texts (with David Johnson). She is the author of Old and Middle English: An Anthology (Blackwell, 2003) and an editor for Review of English Studies and Literature Compass. She currently works on the ideology of early English texts and their physical contexts.

"The latest addition to Blackwell's comprehensive surveys of literature and culture, this volume offers an impressive array of essays by reputable scholars ... This Companion will be a valuable introduction for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students and useful resource for faculty."Choice"A Companion to Anglo-Saxon Literature is an impressive anthology of erudite essays written by scholars around the world on the topic of Anglo-Saxon literature, particularly that of the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries. Prose, poetry, religious, and secular literature are all discussed at length in this college-level analysis and presentation, which is very highly recommended for academic literary studies in general, and medieval studies in reference collections in particular."The Midwest Book Review "Many of the world's leading Anglo-Saxonists have contributed to this volume which provides a very useful overview of current preoccupations of those who study and teach Old English literature." Literature and History "Stimulating introductions that bring out the wider potential of their topics for understanding the Anglo-Saxon past ... much to offer the more experienced reader as well as the novice."Literature and History

• Contributors xPreface xvAcknowledgements xviAbbreviations xviiMap 1 Late Anglo-Saxon England xviiiPart I Contexts and Perspectives 11 An Introduction to the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Vernacular Literature 3Elaine Treharne and Phillip Pulsiano2 An Introduction to the Corpus of Anglo-Latin Literature 11Joseph P. McGowan3 Transmission of Literature and Learning: Anglo-Saxon Scribal Culture 50Jonathan Wilcox4 Authorship and Anonymity 71Mary Swan5 Audience(s), Reception, Literacy 84Hugh Magennis6 Anglo-Saxon Manuscript Production: Issues of Making and Using 102Michelle P. BrownPart II Readings: Cultural Framework and Heritage 1197 The Germanic Background 121Patrizia Lendinara8 Religious Context: Pre-Benedictine Reform Period 135Susan Irvine9 The Benedictine Reform and Beyond 151Joyce Hill10 Legal and Documentary Writings 170Carole Hough11 Scientific and Medical Writings 188Stephanie Hollis12 Prayers, Glosses and Glossaries 209Phillip PulsianoPart III Genres and Modes 23113 Religious Prose 233Roy M. Liuzza14 Religious Poetry 251Patrick W. Conner15 Secular Prose 268Donald G. Scragg16 Secular Poetry 281Fred C. Robinson17 Anglo-Latin Prose 296Joseph P. McGowanPart IV Intertextualities: Sources and Influences 32518 Biblical and Patristic Learning 327Thomas Hall19 The Irish Tradition 345Charles D. Wright20 Continental Germanic Influences 375Rolf Bremmer21 Scandinavian Relations 388Robert E. BjorkPart V Debates and Issues 40122 English in the Post-Conquest Period 403Elaine Treharne23 Anglo-Saxon Studies: Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries 415Timothy Graham24 Anglo-Saxon Studies in the Nineteenth Century: England, Denmark, America 434J. R. Hall25 Anglo-Saxon Studies in the Nineteenth Century: Germany, Austria, Switzerland 455Hans Sauer26 By the Numbers: Anglo-Saxon Scholarship at the Century’s End 472Allen Frantzen27 The New Millennium 496Nicholas HoweSelected Further Reading 506Index 511