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[last updated April 2010]
Select Bibliography: Anglo-Saxon Studies
The following bibliography is meant to serve the needs of persons currently undertaking
research, particularly at the beginning or intermediate level, in any subfield of Anglo-Saxon
studies, with an emphasis on literary studies. No attempt is made to offer comprehensive
coverage. Older publications as well as specialized titles are left unlisted here, for the most past,
although notice may be taken of such works in the bibliographies that are appended to previous
chapters.
Items thought to be of particular importance or usefulness are marked with an asterisk (*).
The bibliography is organized into eight main parts, as follows. The closing emphasis on
Beowulf reflects the large place occupied by that poem in the modern reception of Old English
literature, as well as the place that poem occupies in the curriculum.
SUMMARY OF CONTENTS
I. Encyclopedias
II. Specialized Journals
III. Bibliographies
IV. Anglo-Saxon History
V. Manuscripts, Facsimiles, Script
VI. Electronic Resources
VII. The Old English Language
A. Dictionaries, Concordances, Thesauri, Lexical Studies
B. The History of English
C. Old English Grammar
D. Verse Form and Metre
E. Introductory Grammars and/or Readers
VIII. Literature
A. General
B. Collective Editions
D. Anthologies of Critical Essays
D. Old English Literature in Translation
F. Individual Works (other than Beowulf)
G. Beowulf
a. Current Editions
b. Bibliographies
c. Anthologies of Critical Essays
d. Book-Length Studies
e. Translations
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I. Encyclopedias
The two items listed here should be used in conjunction with standard encyclopedias and
dictionaries of the Middle Ages.
* Lapidge, Michael, gen. ed. The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford:
Blackwell, 1999.
Szarmach, Paul E., gen. ed. Medieval England: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 1998.
While spanning the whole medieval period, the book devotes close attention to AngloSaxon topics.
II. Specialized Journals
Anglo-Saxon England. Published annually since 1972 by Cambridge University Press.
Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History. Published annually since 1979 by Oxford
University School of Archaeology.
Old English Newsletter. Published since 1967 through several different academic sponsors;
presently edited by R.M. Liuzza at the University of Tennessee. Includes news,
conference reports, abstracts of papers, short articles, etc. Also see under Electronic
Resources below.
III. Bibliographies
Bowden, Betsy. Listeners' Guide to Medieval English: A Discography. Garland Reference
Library of the Humanities, 912. New York: Garland, 1990. Lists audio recordings of
modern scholars reading Old English texts. In need of updating.
Deshman, Robert. Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian Art: An Annotated Bibliography.
Boston: G.K. Hall, 1984.
* Greenfield, Stanley B., and Fred C. Robinson. A Bibliography of Publications on Old
English Literature to the End of 1972. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1980.
Comprehensive listings up to 1972; encompasses far more than literary studies.
Hollis, Stephanie. Old English Prose of Secular Learning. Woodbridge: D.S. Brewer, 1992.
An annotated bibliography.
Keynes, Simon. Anglo-Saxon History: A Select Bibliography. Old English Newsletter
Subsidia, 13. Third revised edition, 1998. A current edition is available on-line; see
Electronic Resources below.
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Pulsiano, Phillip. An Annotated Bibliography of North American Doctoral Dissertations on
Old English Language and Literature. Cambridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1988.
* Annual bibliographies published in Anglo-Saxon England and the Old English Newsletter.
These journals supplement the Greenfield/Robinson bibliography by listing books and
articles published since 1972. The OEN also publishes an invaluable annual annotated
bibliography. It maintains an on-line searchable bibliography of works of which it has
taken notice since the start of its publication history; see under Electronic Resources
below.
IV. Anglo-Saxon History
Blair, John. The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2005.
Campbell, James, ed. The Anglo-Saxons. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, l982. With copious
illustrations. Chapters contributed by specialists offer a thoughtful review of the history
of different periods.
* Douglas, David C., gen. ed. English Historical Documents, I: c. 500-1042, 2nd ed., ed. by
Dorothy Whitelock, and II: 1042-1189, ed. by David C. Douglas. New York: Oxford
Univ. Press. All documents are provided in modern English translation.
Gransden, Antonia. Historical Writing in England, I: c. 550 to c. 1307. London: Routledge,
1974. An expert review of the primary historical works dating from the earlier Middle
Ages in England.
Hill, David. An Atlas of Anglo-Saxon England. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1981. Each
map or chart encapsulates historical or economic information.
Hodgkin, R.H. A History of the Anglo-Saxons, 3rd ed. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press,
1952.
Hunter Blair, Peter. An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England. 1956, rpt. Cambridge:
Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003 with a new preface by Simon Keynes. An expert historical
overview of the period and one that remains useful, although outdated in some respects.
Keynes, Simon, and Michael Lapidge, trans. and ed. Alfred the Great. Harmondsworth:
Penguin, 1983. A useful compendium of sources relating to King Alfred and his
influence, with all items presented in translation.
Loyn, H.L. Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest, 2nd ed. London: Longman,
1981. Emphasis on social and economic history.
——. The Governance of Anglo-Saxon England 500-1087. London: Arnold, 1984. Treats
government in the localities as well as the institutions of kingship, with special attention
to King Alfred as a pivotal figure in the development of centralized kingship.
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——. The Vikings in Britain. London: Batsford, 1977. A rewritten and compressed version
was published by Oxford Univ. Press in 1994. Treats centrally a subject that had tended
to remain peripheral in the earlier historiography of this period.
Page, R.I. Life in Anglo-Saxon England. London, Batsford, 1970. A personal favourite of the
present author, well researched and stylishly written.
Sawyer, P.H. Anglo-Saxon Charters: An Annotated List and Bibliography. London: Royal
Historical Society, 1968. See the related entry (‘Kemble,’ with a reference to ‘The
Electronic Sawyer’) under Electronic Resources, below.
* Stenton, Frank M. Anglo-Saxon England. 3rd ed. Oxford: Clarendon, 1971. The standard
history of the period. Although admirable in scope and detail, it does not necessarily
reflect recent advances in Anglo-Saxon historiography.
Whitelock, Dorothy. The Beginnings of English Society. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1952. A
succinct, well-written social history of the Anglo-Saxons.
V. Manuscripts, Facsimiles, Script
Brown, Michelle P. 1991. Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts. London: British Library. Brief but well
illustrated, in colour and black and white, with short chapters on book production,
materials and techniques, script, and illustration and ornament.
——. Manuscripts from the Anglo-Saxon Age. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 2007. With
numerous colour plates drawn from a variety of illuminated manuscripts.
Clemens, Raymond, and Timothy Graham. Introduction to Manuscript Studies. Ithaca:
Cornell Univ. Press, 2007. Covers the whole field of medieval manuscript studies, with
examples drawn from the Anglo-Saxon period, among others.
Clemoes, Peter, gen. ed. Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile. Copenhagen, 1951--.
Twenty-nine volumes published through 2001. A superb set of facsimiles of manuscripts
deemed essential for Old English studies. A list of individual volumes published in this
series is given in the Appendix to the present bibliography.
Doane, A.N., gen. ed. Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile. Binghamton: State
University of New York Press. Seventeen volumes published through 2010. The series is
intended to include facsimiles of all manuscripts containing Old English, with an expert
description of each manuscript offered by a specialist. A list of individual volumes is
given in the Appendix to the present bibliography.
Gneuss, Helmut. Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A List of Manuscripts and
Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100. Tempe: Arizona Center
for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2001.
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* Ker, Neil R. Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon. 2nd ed. with a supplement.
Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, DATE. A long-standing ‘bible’ for all scholars engaged in
research into the manuscript records of Old English. Ker's introduction (pp. 000–00)
includes a capsule account of Old English paleography.
Roberts, Jane. Guide to Scripts Used in English Writings up to 1500. London: British
Library, 2005. Includes reproductions and transcriptions of manuscripts written in both
Latin and Old English.
VI. Electronic Resources
These are subject to change. The Old English Newsletter (on-line edition) provides details about
electronic resources currently available on the web.
Old English Corpus. The whole corpus of texts containing Old English, produced in machinereadable form for use in the preparation of the Dictionary of Old English. Available for on-line
searching at licensed sites.
http://www.hti.umich.edu/english/oec
The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies, Georgetown University. A gateway providing
links to vast resources for Medieval Studies in general and for Old English/Anglo-Saxon studies
in particular. These include a subject guide to Anglo-Saxon culture, as well as a text archive that
includes all the texts in the collective edition The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, in addition to
selected prose texts.
http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth
The Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University: gives access to the Old English Newsletter
homepage, the Rawlinson Center homepage, several on-line bibliographies, and other useful
resources.
http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/
Simon Keynes's Anglo-Saxon History: A Select Bibliography: this useful bibliography is made
available through the Medieval Institute homepage but is worth citing separately.
http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/research/rawl/keynesbib/index.html
Modern English to OE Vocabulary: a website maintained by William Schipper; a tool for
translating into OE and building up one's vocabulary.
http://www.mun.ca/Ansaxdat/vocmlab/ wordlist.html
Individual web sites maintained by individual Anglo-Saxonists such as Simon Keynes
(Cambridge), Carl Berkhout (University of Arizona), and Peter S. Baker (University of Virginia).
These serve as gateways to various resources, including (a) British projects such as Fontes
Anglo-Saxonici (Keynes), (b) publicly available manuscript facsimiles and a bibliography
charting the history of Anglo-Saxon scholarship (Berkhout), and (c) on-line instructional
exercises for learning the Old English language (Baker):
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http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/sdk13/sdk13home.html (Keynes)
http://www.u.arizona.edu/~ctb (Berkhout)
http//:www.engl.virginia.edu/OE/OEA (Baker)
Oxford Text Archive: includes texts recorded in Old English as part of a vast electronic library.
http://ota.ahds.ac.uk
Iter: an on-line bibliography for Medieval and Renaissance studies, updated frequently. In two
parts: (1) journals and (2) monographs.
Kemble. Home page of the British Academy / Royal Historical Society Joint Committee on
Anglo-Saxon Charters. With a link to The Electronic Sawyer: an online (revised, augmented,
and updated) version of P. H. Sawyer's Anglo-Saxon Charters: an Annotated List and
Bibliography.
http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/chartwww/
VII. The Old English Language
A. Dictionaries, Concordances, Thesauri, Word Studies
Barney, Stephen A. Word-Hoard: An Introduction to Old English Vocabulary. 2nd ed. New
Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1985. A grouped frequency word-list; includes a brief
etymological essay on each lexical cluster.
Bessinger, Jess, ed. A Concordance to the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records. Programmed by
Philip H. Smith Jr. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1978. Includes an index of poetic
compounds.
Bessinger, Jess B., ed. A Concordance to Beowulf, programmed by Philip H. Smith, Jr. Ithaca:
Cornell Univ. Press, 1969. More complete than the preceding item for this one poem,
since it cites each simplex of compound words.
* Bosworth, Joseph, and T. Northcote Toller. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Oxford. In three
parts: main volume 1898; supplement by Toller, 1921; enlarged addenda and corrigenda
by A. Campbell, 1972. Although obsolete in many respects, this remains a great
achievement that is the standard guide to that part of the OE lexicon not yet published by
the DOE. An electronic copy is available free on line.
Cameron, Angus. Old English Word Studies: A Preliminary Author and Word Index. Toronto:
Univ. of Toronto Press, 1983. Includes, on microfiche, a bibliography of particular
lexical studies published up to the early 1980s.
* Cameron, Angus, et al. Dictionary of Old English. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of
Mediaeval Studies, 1986– . Entries for the letters A, Æ, B, C, D, E, F, and G are currently
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available by on-line subscription, as well as on microfiche and on CD-ROM. See also the
associated Dictionary of Old English Corpus, listed above under Electronic Resources.
Holthausen, Ferdinand. Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd ed. with additions by
H.C. Matthes. Heidelberg: Winter, 1934. For tracing the Indo-European and Germanic
roots of Old English words.
Roberts, Jane, and Christian Kay. A Thesaurus of Old English. 2 vols. London: King's
College, 1995. Groups the vocabulary of OE topically, e.g. under "outlawry," "sensual
pleasure," and so on through all areas of experience. An invaluable resource for studies
linking language and thought.
B. The History of English
Hogg, Richard M., ed. The Cambridge History of the English Language, I: Beginnings to
1066. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2008.
Hogg, Richard, and David Dennison. A History of the English Language. Cambridge Univ.
Press, 2006.
Robinson, Orrin W. Old English and Its Closest Relatives: A Survey of the Earliest Germanic
Languages. Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1992. Aimed at students just setting out to
study comparative Germanic philology, or wanting a succinct overview of that field.
With chapters on Old Saxon, Old High German, Gothic, and other dialects.
C. Old English Grammar
Brunner, Karl. Altenglische Grammatik. Tubingen: Niemeyer, 1965. Based on Eduard
Sievers’s Angelsächsische grammatik (1898).
Campbell, A. Old English Grammar. Oxford: Clarendon, 1959. A standard reference volume
in English-speaking lands.
Mitchell, Bruce. Old English Syntax, 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1985. The definitive study of
syntax.
Sievers, Eduard. An Old English Grammar, ed. and trans. by Albert S. Cook. 3rd ed. Boston:
Ginn, 1903. Based on Sievers’s Angelsächsische grammatik (1898).
D. Verse Form and Metre
Fulk, R.D. A History of Old English Meter. Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.
More than a metrical history, the book represents an attempt to develop a system of
dating OE poetry on metrical grounds.
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Lehmann, Winfred P. The Development of Germanic Verse Form. Austin: Univ. of Texas
Press, 1956. Sets the study of OE meter into a wider Germanic context.
Pope, John Collins. The Rhythm of Beowulf, 2nd ed. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1966.
Develops a theory of metre based on the use of the lyre to mark time; the results are
meant to apply to OE poetry across the board.
Russom, Geoffrey. Old English Meter and Linguistic Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ.
Press, 1987. Seeks to ground a theory of metre on the general linguistic features of the
OE language.
——. Beowulf and Old Germanic Metre. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1998. Carries
Russom’s metrical investigations into the ground of comparative Germanic philology.
E. Introductory Grammars and/or Readers
Baker, Peter S. Introduction to Old English. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000. An introductory
grammar and reader accommodating the needs of students with little training in language
studies. Also available via the internet.
Cassidy, Frederic G., and Richard N. Ringler. Bright's Old English Grammar and Reader, 3rd
ed. New York: Holt, 1971. Step-by-step lessons in the grammar, with easy readings, are
followed by an ample selection of expertly annotated readings in both prose and poetry.
Texts are not normalized, and some are meant to be challenging. Be sure to consult the
second corrected printing.
Marsden, Richard. The Cambridge Old English Reader. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press,
2004. Includes fifty-six individual texts, glossed on the page and presented together with
a reference grammar of OE.
Mitchell, Bruce, and Fred C. Robinson. A Guide to Old English, 7th ed. Oxford: Blackwell,
2007. A step-by-step guide offering both grammatical lessons and a wide variety of
readings in verse and prose.
Pope, John C. Eight Old English Poems, 3rd edition, rev. by R.D. Fulk. New York: W.W.
Norton, 2001. An exemplary edition of some of the leading poems in the Old English
literary canon.
Whitelock, Dorothy, ed. Sweet's Anglo-Saxon Reader in Prose and Verse, 15th ed. Oxford,
1967. For many years a standard teaching text in Great Britain, and still useful.
VIII. Old English Literature
A. General
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Donoghue, Daniel. Old English Literature: A Short Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004.
Organized around five themes: the vow, the hall, the miracle, the pulpit, and the scholar.
Fulk, R.D., and Christopher Cain. A History of Old English Literature. Oxford: Blackwell,
2003. An authoritative survey of OE literature approached for the most part topically,
with an initial chapter on ‘The Chronology and Varieties of Old English Literature’.
Gatch, Milton McC. Loyalties and Traditions: Man and His World in Old English Literature.
New York: Pegasus, 1971. An urbane analysis of OE literature and the Anglo-Saxon
worldview.
Godden, Malcolm, and Michael Lapidge, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Old English
Studies. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1991. With fifteen chapters, written by specialists,
covering most topics of interest relating to the literature.
Greenfield, Stanley B. The Interpretation of Old English Poems. London, Routledge, 1972.
Practical essays in criticism by a master of that art.
Greenfield, Stanley G., and Daniel G. Calder. A New Critical History of Old English
Literature. New York: NYU Press, 1986. A judicious review of OE literature as it has
been received by modern scholars, with a chapter by Michael Lapidge on Anglo-Latin
literature.
O’Brien O’Keeffe, Katherine, ed. Reading Old English Texts. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ.
Press, 1997. Includes nine chapters, written by individual specialists, on such topics as
source study, historicist approaches, oral tradition, and feminist criticism.
Pulsiano, Phillip, and Elaine Treharne, eds. A Companion to Anglo-Saxon Literature.
Oxford: Blackwell, 2001. Includes entries by specialists on numerous topics of interest,
including authorship, audience, genres, sources, debates, and the history of the field.
Quinn, Karen J. and Kenneth P. A Manual of Old English Prose. New York: Garland, 1990. A
finder’s guide (now in need of updating) to manuscripts, editions, and critical studies of
OE prose.
Shippey, Thomas A. Old English Verse. London: Hutchinson, 1972. An excellent survey, full
of sharp insights.
Stanley, Eric Gerald, ed. Continuations and Beginnings: Studies in Old English Literature.
London: Thomas Nelson, 1966. Includes analyses of the prose of Alfred's reign, the
works of Ælfric and Wulfstan, and other topics.
Wrenn, Charles L. A Study of Old English Literature. New York: Norton, 1967.
B. Collective Editions
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‘Anglo-Saxon Charters.’ A continuing series of editions published for the British Academy by
Oxford University Press. Nine volumes have appeared in print as of 2001.
Dumville, David and Simon Keynes, gen. eds. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative
Edition. Cambridge: Boydell and Brewer. Ten volumes currently in print:
vol. 1. Facsimile of MS F, the Domitian Bilingual
vol. 3. MS A, ed. by Janet M. Bately
vol. 4. MS B, ed. by Simon Taylor
vol. 5. MS C,ed. by Katherine O’BrienO’Keeffe
vol. 6. MS D, ed. by G.P. Cubbin
vol. 7. MS E, ed. by Susan Irvine
vol. 8. MS F, ed. by Peter S. Baker
vol. 10. The Abingdon Chronicle, AD 956-1066, ed. by Patrick W. Conner
vol. 11: The Northern Recension, ed. by David Dumville
vol. 17. The Annals of St. Neots, with Vita Prima Sancti Neoti, ed. by David
Dumville and Michael Lapidge
Grein, Christian W. M. and Richard P. Wulker, gen. eds. Bibliothek der angelsachischen
Prosa. 13 vols. Kassel and Hamburg, 1872-1933. Most of these volumes were reprinted,
some with new matter, by Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1964–74.
More recent editions are available for many of the items included in this series.
* Krapp, George P., and Elliott V. K. Dobbie, eds. The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records. 6 vols.
New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1931-53. The standard scholarly edition of OE verse. The
volumes are as follows:
I. The Junius MS
II. The Vercelli Book
III. The Exeter Book
IV. Beowulf and Judith
V. Paris Psalter and Meters of Boethius
VI. The Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems
C. Anthologies of Critical Essays
Bessinger, Jess B., and Stanley J. Kahrl, eds. Essential Articles for the Study of Old English
Poetry. Hamden (Conn.): Archon, 1968. Twenty-six previously published essays.
Bjork, Robert E., ed. Cynewulf: Basic Readings. New York: Garland, 1996. Sixteen
previously published essays and two new ones.
Calder, Daniel G, ed. Old English Poetry: Essays on Style. Berkeley: Univ. of California
Press, 1979. Six contributions based on lectures presented at a conference at UCLA.
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Creed, Robert P., ed. Old English Poetry: Fifteen Essays. Providence: Brown Univ. Press,
1967. The essays are new to this volume.
Karkov, Catherine E., ed. The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England: Basic Readings. New
York: Garland, 1999.
Karkov, Katherine E., and George Hardin Brown, eds. Anglo-Saxon Styles. Albany: State
University of New York Press, 2003. Fourteen essays, new to this volume, on topics in
literature and art history.
Kleist, Aaron J., ed. The Old English Homily: Precedent, Practice, Appropriation. Turnhout:
Brepols, 2007. Sixteen new essays.
Liuzza, R.M. Old English Literature: Critical Essays. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2002.
Twenty-one previously published essays, chosen out for their seminal character.
Niles, John D., ed. Old English Literature in Context: Ten Essays. Ipswich: D.S. Brewer,
1980. The essays, new to this volume, explore various contexts within which works of
OE literature can be understood.
O’Brien O’Keeffe, Katherine, ed. Old English Shorter Poems: Basic Readings. New York:
Garland, 1994. Nineteen representative essays, including one valuable survey new to this
volume, Roy M. Liuzza’s ‘The Return of the Repressed: Old and New Theories in Old
English Literary Criticism’.
Pelteret, David A.E., ed. Anglo-Saxon History: Basic Readings. New York: Garland, 2000.
Sixteen previously published essays relating to political and social history and related
fields.
Pulsiano, Phillip, and Elaine M. Treharne, eds. Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts and Their
Heritage. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998. Eleven essays new to this volume.
Richards, Mary P. Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: Basic Readings. New York: Garland, 1994.
Fifteen contributions, twelve of which are reprinted, sometimes with revisions, while
three are new to this volume.
Scragg, Donald, ed. Textual and Material Culture in Anglo-Saxon England: Thomas
Northcote Toller and the Toller Memorial Lectures. Woodbridge, Suffolk: D.S. Brewer,
2003. Fourteen contributions, ten of which are based on lectures presented at the
Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies.
Stanley, E.G., ed. British Academy Papers on Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford: Oxford Univ.
Press, 1990. Ten substantial essays are included, each of which was first published in
Proceedings of the British Academy.
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Stevens, Martin, and Jerome Mandel, eds. Old English Literature: Twenty-Two Analytical
Essays, rev. ed. Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1976. Key reprinted essays.
Szarmach, Paul E., ed. The Old English Homily and Its Background. Albany: State University
of New York Press, 1978.
Szarmach, Paul E., ed. Studies in Earlier Old English Prose. Albany: State University of New
York Press, 1986. Sixteen essays.
Szarmach, Paul E., ed. Holy Men and Holy Women: Old English Prose Saints’ Lives and
Their Contexts. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996. Sixteen essays, new
to this volume, on various aspects of OE hagiography.
Szarmach, Paul E., ed. Basic Readings in Old English Prose. New York: Garland, 1999.
Fourteen reprinted contributions are supplemented by new bibliographies of scholarship
on Alfred the Great, by Nicole Guenther Discenza, and on Ælfric, by Aaron J. Kleist.
Wilcox, Jonathan, ed. Humour in Anglo-Saxon Literature. Woodbridge, Suffolk: D.S. Brewer,
2000. Eight essays, new to this volume.
D. Old English Literature in Translation
* Bradley, S.A.J. Anglo-Saxon Poetry. London: Dent, 1982. Includes reliable prose
translations of almost all the extant OE verse, together a with brief informed
introduction to each work.
Crossley-Holland, Kevin. The Anglo-Saxon World: An Anthology. Oxford: Oxford Univ.
Press, 1984. A lively set of renditions of both prose and poetry, including Beowulf, but
not reliable in regard to all details of translation.
Raffel, Burton. Poems and Prose from the Old English. With introductions by Alexandra H.
Olsen. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1998. The translations are done with style,
rather than striving to be literal.
Swanton, Michael. Anglo-Saxon Prose. London: Dent, 1975. Straightforward translations of
miscellaneous prose texts.
E. Individual Works (excluding Beowulf)
Editions of individual works of Old English literature are cited here only very selectively.
Researchers can readily find their way to the relevant scholarly editions and critical studies by
making use of items cited in the Bibliographies section, above, or through normal library
searches.
Bethurum, Dorothy, ed. The Homilies of Wulfstan. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1957.
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Clemoes, Peter, ed. Ælfric's Catholic Homilies, the First Series: Text. Oxford: Oxford Univ.
Press, 1997.
Godden, Malcolm, ed. Ælfric's Catholic Homilies, the Second Series: Text. London: Oxford
Univ. Press, 1979.
Godden, Malcolm. Ælfric’s Catholic Homilies: Introduction, Commentary, and Glossary.
Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2000. The long-awaited capstone of Clemoes’ and
Godden’s edition of the major works of the major writer of Old English prose.
Klinck, Anne L. The Old English Elegies: A Critical Edition and Genre Study. Montreal:
McGill-Queen's Univ. Press, 1992.
Muir, Bernard J., ed. The Exeter Anthology of Old English Poetry: An Edition of Exeter Dean
and Chapter MS 3501. Exeter: Univ. of Exeter Press, 1994. 2nd edition, 2000. (A
CD-Rom version of this edition is in preparation; it will include a facsimile of the
MS.)
Plummer, Charles, ed. Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford Univ.
Press, 1892-99. A still-valuable edition that includes all of the A text (the Parker MS)
and all of the E text (the Laud MS), plus substantial extracts from other versions of the
Chronicle.
Pope, John Collins, ed. Homilies of Ælfric: A Supplementary Collection. 2 vols. London:
Oxford Univ. Press, 1967- .
Scragg, Donald, ed. The Battle of Maldon A.D. 991. Oxford: Blackwell, 1991. A volume
produced to coincide with the millennium of the battle, with numerous contributions
by historians, literary scholars, and others.
5. Beowulf
a. Current Editions
Chickering, Howell D., Jr., ed. Beowulf: A Dual-Language Edition, 3nd ed. New York:
Random House, 2006. Includes the OE text and Chickering's translation on facing
pages, with an introduction, commentary, and other study aids. First published in
1977.
* Fulk, R.D., Robert E. Bjork, and John D. Niles, eds. Klaeber’s Beowulf, 4th ed. Toronto:
Univ. of Toronto Press, 2008. A revision and updating of Frederick Klaeber’s highly
regarded scholarly edition of the poem, first published in 1928. Of particular value for
its glossary.
Jack, George, ed. Beowulf: A Student Edition. Oxford: Clarendon, 1994. With copious glosses
on each page.
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Mitchell, Bruce, and Fred C. Robinson, eds. Beowulf: An Edition. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998. A
classroom edition, with introduction, glossary, and notes.
b. Bibliographies
Fry, Donald, K. Beowulf and the Fight and Finnsburh: A Bibliography. Charlottesville: Univ.
of Virginia, 1969. Exhaustive up to its date of its publication.
Hasenfratz, Robert J. Beowulf Scholarship: An Annotated Bibliography, 1979-1990. New
York: Garland, 1993. Supplements the following entry. Excellent annotations.
Short, Douglas D. Beowulf Scholarship: An Annotated Bibliography. New York: Garland,
1980. Selective; concentrates on the more recent criticism through the year 1978, with
brief annotations.)
c. Anthologies of Critical Essays
Baker, Peter S., ed. Beowulf: Basic Readings. New York: Garland, 1995. Ten reprinted essays
and three new ones. Reissued in 2000 with the title The Beowulf Reader.
Chase, Colin, ed. The Dating of Beowulf. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1981; rpt. in 1997
with a new afterword by Nicholas Howe. Presents a controversy of conflicting
theories, some of them challenging an earlier consensus dating the poem to the
seventh or eighth century.
Donoghue, Daniel, ed. Beowulf: A Verse Translation: Authoritative Text, Contexts,
Criticism. New York: Norton, 2002. A Norton Critical Edition. Includes a translation
of the poem (by Seamus Heaney) plus a number of ancillary items, including eight
reprinted critical essays.
Fry, Donald K. ed. The Beowulf Poet: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs:
Prentice-Hall, 1968. Nine reprinted studies.
Fulk, R.D., ed. Interpretations of Beowulf: A Critical Anthology. Bloomington: Indiana Univ.
Press, 1991. Seventeen reprinted studies.
Howe, Nicholas, ed. Beowulf: A Prose Translation. New York: Norton, 2002. A Norton
Critical Editions (cf. the edition by Donoghue cited above). Includes a literal prose
translation (by E. Talbot Donaldson) plus a number of ancillary items, including seven
reprinted critical essays.
Joy, Eileen A., and Mary K.Ramsay, eds. The Postmodern Beowulf: A Critical Casebook.
Morgantown: West Virginia Univ. Press, 2006. Reprints of twenty studies, including
works by such critics as Michel Foucault and Edward Said as well as leading AngloSaxonists, with additional materials.
15
Nicholson, Lewis E., ed. An Anthology of Beowulf Criticism. Notre Dame: Univ. of Notre
Dame Press, 1963. Eighteen reprinted selections, with an emphasis on the poem’s
religious dimension.
d. Book-Length Critical Studies
Bjork, Robert E., and John D. Niles, eds. A Beowulf Handbook. Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska
Press, 1997. With eighteen chapters written by specialists, each chapter including a
chronology of work related to that topic. A comprehensive guide to the state of
scholarship on the poem.
Brodeur, Arthur G. The Art of Beowulf. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1959. Particularly
good on poetic diction.
* Chambers, Raymond W. Beowulf: An Introduction to the Study of the Poem, 3rd ed. with a
supplement by C.L. Wrenn. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1959. Very useful for
the study of analogues; some of the commentary is outdated.
Clark, George. Beowulf. Boston: Twayne, 1990. A brief and pointed review of leading aspects
of the poem; chapter 1 covers its critical reception.
Earl, James W. Thinking about Beowulf. Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1994. Thoughtprovoking, psychoanalytically-oriented chapters.
Goldsmith, Margaret E. The Mode and Meaning of Beowulf. London:Athlone, 1970. A
valuable study of medieval modes of exegesis, with particular (though perhaps
somewhat problematic) application to the understanding of Beowulf.
Haarder, Andreas. Beowulf: The Appeal of a Poem. Viborg: Akademisk Forlag, 1975. On the
poem's critical reception since the early nineteenth century. The contributions of the
Danish scholar Svend Grundtvig are featured.
Hill, John M. The Cultural World in Beowulf. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1995.
Includes anthropologically-oriented studies of the feud, gift-giving, and other themes.
Huppé, Bernard F. The Hero in the Earthly City: A Reading of Beowulf. Binghamton: Center
for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1984. A reading of the poem in
consistently Augustinian terms. Includes a translation.
Irving, Edward B., Jr. A Reading of Beowulf. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1968. A nuanced
‘New Critical’ reading.
Irving, Edward B., Jr. Rereading Beowulf. Philadephia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, l989.
New thoughts and second thoughts on the poem, based in part on the author’s
acceptance of the poem's oral-traditional character.
16
Kiernan, Kevin S. Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers Univ.
Press, 1981. A reexamination of the physical manuscript in conjunction with a theory
of the poem's eleventh-century date of composition. Of independent usefulness is
Kiernan's Electronic Beowulf, available on CD-ROM through the Univ. of Michigan
Press; this includes a digitized facisimile of the manuscript and of its eighteenthcentury transcriptions.
Niles, John D. Beowulf: The Poem and Its Tradition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press,
1983. In three sections: (1) context, (2) style and structure, and (3) interpretation.
Reads the poem as an expression of a native, secular tradition — one that was,
however, transformed through its contacts with Christianity.
Orchard, Andy. A Critical Companion to Beowulf. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2003. Treats
virtually all aspects of the poem, including its formulaic language and its Latinate
affinities.
Overing, Gillian R. Language, Sign, and Gender in Beowulf. Carbondale: Southern Illinois
Univ. Press, 1990. Through semiotics and feminist criticism, approaches the poem as a
text that evades interpretation.
Robinson, Fred C. Beowulf and the Appositive Style. Knoxville: Univ. of Tennessee Press,
1985. A deft study of the poem’s theme approached via a key aspect of its style, the
device of grammatical apposition.
Shippey, T.A. Beowulf. London: Arnold, 1978. Short and incisive.
Shippey, T.A., and Andreas Haarder, eds. Beowulf: The Critical Heritage. London:
Routledge, 1998. Includes extensive quotations, expertly translated, drawn from early
writings on Beowulf by scholars of different European nationalities.
Sisam, Kenneth. The Structure of Beowulf. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1965. A short
rejoinder to favoured modes of aesthetic and exegetical criticism. Sisam prefers to
read the poem in terms of the conditions of storytelling before a secular, aristocratic
audience.
Whitelock, Dorothy. The Audience of Beowulf. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1951. An
eminent historian's view of the poem's possible date and audience. Whitelock
emphasizes its role in a Christian society, where it probably pertained to a monastic
milieu.
e. Current Translations
Alexander, Michael. Beowulf: A Verse Translation, rev. ed. London: Penguin, 2003. A freely
poetic rendering into alliterative verse. First published in 1973.
17
Crossley-Holland, Kevin. Beowulf. London: Macmillan, 1968. A readable version in loosely
alliterative four-stress lines. Reprinted in his The Anglo-Saxon World. Reissued by
Oxford University Press in 1999, with an introduction and notes by Heather
O’Donoghue.
Donaldson, E. Talbot. Beowulf: A New Prose Translation. New York: Norton, 1966.
Previously reprinted in Beowulf: The Donaldson translation, backgrounds and
sources, criticism, ed. by Joseph F. Tuso (New York: Norton, 1975). More recently
reprinted in Beowulf: A Prose Translation, a new Norton Critical Edition ed. by
Nicholas Howe (2002). See section (c) above.
Greenfield. Stanley B., trans. A Readable Beowulf. Carbondale: Southern Illinois Univ. Press,
1982. A rendering into nine-syllable syllabic meter; an often successful merging of
scholarly exactitude and poetic freedom. With a lively introduction by Alain Renoir.
* Heaney, Seamus. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. London: Faber, 1999. Also New
York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000 (in a handsome dual-language edition). Widely
regarded as the most accomplished modern translation of the poem; though
controversial in some regards, it has strong poetic authority. An audio version is
available on cassette and CD-ROM. Reprinted in Beowulf: A Verse Translation:
Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism, ed. by Daniel Donoghue (cited above), as well
as in Beowulf: An Illustrated Edition, ed. by John D. Niles (New York: Norton, 2008),
featuring facing-page colour photos of material artefacts and other related materials.
* Liuzza, R.M. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. Toronto: Broadview, 2000. A faithful
semi-poetic version of the poem in a form loosely reminiscent of the original. Includes
a useful introduction and appendices.
Ringler, Dick. Beowulf: A New Translation for Oral Delivery. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2007.
A translation into verse that — like Ringler’s prior translations from Icelandic — is
meticulously crafted so as to be metrically equivalent to that of the original poem.
Unlike other such experiments, it is also eminently readable. An audio version is
available at http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/Literature.RinglBeowulf
18
Appendix
Facsimiles of Early English Manuscripts
I. Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger. Twenty-eight
volumes published to date.
1. The Thorkelin Transcripts of Beowulf. Ed. by Kemp Malone. 1951.
2. The Leningrad Bede. Ed. by O. Arngart. 1952.
3. The Tollemache Orosius. Ed. by Alistair Campbell. 1953.
4. The Peterborough Chronicle. Ed. by D. Whitelock. 1954.
5. Bald's Leechbook. Ed. C.E. Wright. 1955.
6. The Pastoral Care (3 MSS). Ed. by N.R. Ker. 1956.
7. Textus Roffensis, part 1 (Rochester Cathedral Library MS A.3.5). Ed. C.E. Wright. 1955.
8. The Paris Psalter. Ed. B. Colgrave. 1958.
9. The Moore Bede. Ed. Peter Hunter Blair. 1962.
10. Blickling Homilies. Ed. R. Willard. 1960.
11. Textus Roffensis, Part 2. Ed. Peter Sawyer. 1962.
12. The Nowell Codex. Ed. Kemp Malone. 1963.
13. Ælfric's First Series of Catholic Homilies. Ed. Norman Eliason and Peter Clemoes. 1966.
14. The Vespasian Psalter. Ed. David H. Wright. 1967.
15. The Rule of St. Benedict. Ed. D.H. Farmer.
16. The Durham Ritual. Ed. T.J. Brown. 1969.
17. A Wulfstan Manuscript Containing Institutes, Laws, and Homilies. Ed. H.R. Loyn. 1971.
18. The Old English Illustrated Hexateuch. Ed. C.R. Dodwell. 1974.
19. The Vercelli Book. Ed. Celia Sisam. 1976.
20. The Durham Gospels. Ed. Christopher D. Verey et al.
21. An Eleventh-Century Anglo-Saxon Illustrated Miscellany. Ed. P. McGurk. 1983.
22. The Epinal, Erfurt, Werden, and Corpus Glossaries. Ed. Geoffrey Harlow. 1988.
23. Old English Verse Texts from Many Sources. ED. BY WHO? 1991.
24. The Tanner Bede. Ed. D.H. Farmer. 1992.
25. The Copenhagen Wulfstan Collection. Ed. James E. Cross and Jennifer Morrish Turberg.
1993.
26. The Liber vitae of the New Minster and Hyde Abbey, Winchester. Ed. Simon Keynes.
1996.
27. The Old English Illustrated Pharmacopoeia. Ed. M. A. D'Aronco and M. L. Cameron.
1998.
28. The Codex Aureus: An Eighth-Century Gospel Book. Part 1. Ed. Richard Gameson.
2001.
II. Additional Published Facsimiles
The Benedictional of St. Æthelwold. London: Faber & Faber, 1959.
The Book of Durrow (Trinity College, Dublin). New York, 1960.
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The Book of Kells (MS 58,Trinity College Library, Dublin).
The Cædmon MS of Anglo-Saxon Biblical Poetry (Bodleian MS Junius XI). 1974.
Lindisfarne Gospels (British Library Cotton Nero D.iv). Ed. T. D. Kendrick et al. 2 vols.
Lausanne, 1956-60.
The Exeter Book of Old English Poetry. Ed. R.W. Chambers. Bradford, 1933.
Facsimiles of Anglo-Saxon Charters. Ed. Simon Keynes. Oxford, 1991.
The Parker Chronicle and Laws (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 173). Ed. Robin
Flower. EETS no. 208. Oxford, 1941.
Beowulf, ed. Julius Zupitza. 2nd ed., with an introductory note by Norman Davis and new
photographs. Early English Text Society series no. 245. London, 1958. (With a facingpage diplomatic transcription of the MS.)
III. Facsimile Editions Currently Available on CD-ROM
The Exeter Book on CD-ROM. Ed. Bernard J. Muir. Exeter: Exeter Univ. Press, 2002.
A digital facsimile of Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Junius 11. Ed. Bernard J. Muir. 1 CDROM. Oxford : Bodleian Library, c2004.
The Electronic Beowulf. Ed. Kevin Kiernan with Andrew Prescott. A 2 CD-ROM set.
London and Ann Arbor, MI, 1999.
IV. Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile series. Gen. ed. A.N. Doane. Tempe, AZ:
Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Seventeen volumes are currently
in print out of a projected set of forty.
1. Books of Prayers and Healing, descriptions by A.N. Doane, 1994
2. Psalters I, descriptions by Phillip Pulsiano, 1994
3. Anglo-Saxon Gospels, descriptions by R.M. Liuzza and A.N. Doane, 1995
4. Glossed Texts, Aldhelmiana, Psalms, descriptions by Phillip Pulsiano, 1996
5. Latin Manuscripts with Anglo-Saxon Glosses, descriptions by Peter J. Lucas, A.N. Doane,
and I. Cunningham, 1997
6. Worcester Manuscripts, descriptions by Christine Franzen, 1997
7. Anglo-Saxon Bibles and ‘The Book of Cerne’, descriptions by A.N. Doane, 2002
8. Wulfstan Texts and Other Homiletic Materials, descriptions by Jonathan Wilcox, 2000
9. Deluxe and Illuminated Manuscripts Containing Technical and Literary Texts, descriptions
by A.N. Doane and Tiffany J. Grade, 2001
10. Manuscripts Containing Works by Bede, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and Other Texts,
descriptions by Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe, 2003
11. Corpus Christi College, Cambridge I: MSS 41, 57, 191, 302, 303, 367, 383, 422,
descriptions by Timothy Graham, Raymond J.S. Grant, Peter J. Lucas, and Elaine M.
Treharne, 2003
12. Manuscripts of Trinity College, Cambridge, descriptions by Michael Wright and
Stephanie Hollis, 2004
20
13. Manuscripts in the Low Countries, descriptions by Rolf H. Bremmer, Jr., and Kees
Dekker, 2006
14. Manuscripts of Durham, Ripon, and York, descriptions by A.N. Doane, Sarah Larrett
Keefer, and David Rollason, 2007
15. Grammars and Handlist of Manuscripts, descriptions by A.N. Doane, 2007
16. Manuscripts Relating to Dunstan, Ælfric, and Wulfstan; the ‘Eadwine Psalter’ Group,
descriptions by Peter J. Lucas and Jonathan Wilcox, with A.N. Doane, Matthew T.
Hussey, and Phillip Pulsiano, 2008
17. Homilies by Ælfric and other Homilies, descriptions by Jonathan Wilcox, 2008
Interim Index (Volumes 1–10), ed. by A.N. Doane and Matthew T. Hussey, 2005.