Old English literature

Part of a series on
Old English
Dialects Kentish Mercian Northumbrian West Saxon
Use Orthography (Runic alphabet, Latin alphabet) Grammar Phonology Phonological history
Literature Beowulf Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Cædmon's Hymn
History Development of Old English Influences Proto-Germanic Latin Norse Brittonic
Legacy Middle English Early Modern English Modern English Scots
v t e

History of literature by era
Ancient (corpora)
Bronze Age Ancient Egyptian Akkadian Elamite Hattic Hittite Hurro-Urartian Luwian Lydian Sumerian Ugarit Classical Ancient Greek Ancient Hebrew Ancient Prakrit Aramaic Classical Chinese Classical Latin Parthian Phrygian Old Persian Old Tamil Sanskrit Syriac
Early medieval
Arabic Armenian Bactrian Byzantine Greek Coptic Gandhari Prakrit Geʽez Georgian Japanese Kannada Maharashtri Prakrit Pre-Proto-Mongolic Old Church Slavonic Old English Old German Old Khmer Old Malay Old Turkic Norse Pali Sabaic Saka Sogdian Tibetan Tocharian Welsh
Medieval by century
10th 11th 12th 13th 14th
Early modern by century
15th 16th 17th
Modern by century
18th 19th
Contemporary by century
20th 21st
Literature portal
v t e

Old English literature refers to poetry (

In descending order of quantity, Old English literature consists of: sermons and saints' lives; biblical translations; translated Latin works of the early Church Fathers; chronicles and narrative history works; laws, wills and other legal works; practical works on grammar, medicine, and geography; and poetry.^[6] In all, there are over 400 surviving manuscripts from the period, of which about 189 are considered major.^[7] In addition, some Old English text survives on stone structures and ornate objects.^[6]

The poem Beowulf, which often begins the traditional canon of English literature, is the most famous work of Old English literature. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has also proven significant for historical study, preserving a chronology of early English history.

In addition to Old English literature, Anglo-Latin works comprise the largest volume of literature from the Early Middle Ages in England.

Over 400 manuscripts remain from the Anglo-Saxon period, with most written during the 9th to 11th centuries.

Old English manuscripts have been highly prized by collectors since the 16th century, both for their historic value and for their aesthetic beauty with their uniformly spaced letters and decorative elements.[6]

Manuscripts written in both

Early English manuscripts often contain later annotations in the margins of the texts; it is a rarity to find a completely unannotated manuscript.[9] These include corrections, alterations and expansions of the main text, as well as commentary upon it, and even unrelated texts.^[10][11] The majority of these annotations appear to date to the 13th century and later.^[12]

Seven major

• The Junius manuscript, also known as the Cædmon manuscript, is an illustrated collection of poems on biblical narratives. It is held at the Bodleian Library, with the shelfmark MS. Junius 11.^[16]
• The
  riddles and longer texts. It has been held at the Exeter Cathedral library since it was donated there in the 11th century by Bishop Leofric, and has the shelfmark Exeter Dean and Chapter Manuscript 3501.^[17]
• The Vercelli Book contains both poetry and prose; it is not known how it came to be in Vercelli.
• The Beowulf Manuscript (British Library Cotton Vitellius A. xv), sometimes called the Nowell Codex, contains prose and poetry, typically dealing with monstrous themes, including Beowulf.^[18]

The most distinguishing feature of Old English poetry is its alliterative verse style.

The Anglo-Latin verse tradition in early medieval England was accompanied by discourses on Latin prosody, which were 'rules' or guidance for writers. The rules of Old English verse are understood only through modern analysis of the extant texts.

The first widely accepted theory was constructed by

Alternative theories have been proposed, such as the theory of John C. Pope (1942), which uses musical notation to track the verse patterns.^[20] J. R. R. Tolkien describes and illustrates many of the features of Old English poetry in his 1940 essay "On Translating Beowulf".^[21]

Old English poetry alliterates, meaning that a sound is repeated throughout a line, generally taken from the first syllable of the first stressed word in a line. Alliteration is based on sound rather than letter. For instance, in the first line of The Wanderer, "Oft him anhaga are gebideð", "Often the loner finds grace for himself", the 'o' of 'oft', and 'a' in 'anhaga' and 'are' all alliterate. Prefixes, such as 'ge-' are always unstressed and therefore are not part of alliterative patterns, while consonant clusters, for example 'st' or 'sp' may only alliterate with themselves, not any word beginning with 's'.^[22]

Old English poetry, like other Old Germanic alliterative verse, is also commonly marked by the caesura or pause. In addition to setting pace for the line, the caesura also grouped each line into two hemistichs.

Kennings are a key feature of Old English poetry. A kenning is an often formulaic metaphorical phrase that describes one thing in terms of another: for instance, in Beowulf, the sea is called the whale road. Another example of a kenning in The Wanderer is a reference to battle as a "storm of spears".^[23]

Old English poetry is marked by the comparative rarity of similes.^[24] Beowulf contains at best five similes, and these are of the short variety.^[24]

The Old English poet was particularly fond of describing the same person or object with varied phrases (often appositives) that indicated different qualities of that person or object. For instance, the Beowulf poet refers in three and a half lines to a Danish king as "lord of the Danes" (referring to the people in general), "king of the Scyldings" (the name of the specific Danish tribe), "giver of rings" (one of the king's functions is to distribute treasure), and "famous chief". Such variation, which the modern reader (who likes verbal precision) is not used to, is frequently a difficulty in producing a readable translation.^[25]

Litotes is a form of dramatic understatement employed by the author for ironic effect.^[19]

Even though all extant Old English poetry is written and literate, many scholars propose that Old English poetry was an oral craft that was performed by a scop and accompanied by a harp.^{[citation needed]}

The hypotheses of

Parry and Lord had already demonstrated the density of metrical formulas in Ancient Greek, and observed the same feature in the Old English alliterative line:

Hroþgar maþelode helm Scildinga ("Hrothgar spoke, protector of the Scildings")
Beoƿulf maþelode bearn Ecgþeoƿes ("Beowulf spoke, son of Ecgtheow")

In addition to verbal formulas, many themes have been shown to appear among the various works of Anglo-Saxon literature. The theory suggests a reason for this: the poetry was composed of formulae and themes from a stock common to the poetic profession, as well as literary passages composed by individual artists in a more modern sense. Larry Benson introduced the concept of "written-formulaic" to describe the status of some Anglo-Saxon poetry which, while demonstrably written, contains evidence of oral influences, including heavy reliance on formulas and themes.^[26] Frequent oral-formulaic themes in Old English poetry include "Beasts of Battle"^[27] and the "Cliff of Death".^[28] The former, for example, is characterised by the mention of ravens, eagles, and wolves preceding particularly violent depictions of battle. Among the most thoroughly documented themes is "The Hero on the Beach". D. K. Crowne first proposed this theme, defined by four characteristics:

• A Hero on the Beach.
• Accompanying "Retainers".
• A Flashing Light.
• The Completion or Initiation of a Journey.

One example Crowne cites in his article is that which concludes Beowulf's fight with the monsters during his swimming match with Breca:

Crowne drew on examples of the theme's appearance in twelve Old English texts, including one occurrence in

Most Old English poems are recorded without authors, and very few names are known with any certainty; the primary three are Cædmon, Aldhelm, and Cynewulf.^[33]

Bede is often thought to be the poet of a five-line poem entitled Bede's Death Song, on account of its appearance in a letter on his death by Cuthbert. This poem exists in a Northumbrian and later version.^[34]

Cædmon is considered the first Old English poet whose work still survives. He is a legendary figure, as described in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to Bede, Cædmon was first an illiterate herdsman. Following a vision of a messenger from God, Cædmon received the gift of poetry, and then lived as a monk under Abbess Hild at the abbey of Whitby in Northumbria in the 7th century.^[33][35] Bede's History claims to reproduce Cædmon's first poem, comprising nine lines. Referred to as Cædmon's Hymn, the poem is extant in Northumbrian, West-Saxon and Latin versions that appear in 19 surviving manuscripts:^[36]

Cynewulf has proven to be a difficult figure to identify, but recent research suggests he was an Anglian poet from the early part of the 9th century. Four poems are attributed to him, signed with a runic acrostic at the end of each poem; these are The Fates of the Apostles and Elene (both found in the Vercelli Book), and Christ II and Juliana (both found in the Exeter Book).^[40]

Although

Alfred is said to be the author of some of the metrical prefaces to the Old English translations of Gregory's Pastoral Care and Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy. Alfred is also thought to be the author of 50 metrical psalms, but whether the poems were written by him, under his direction or patronage, or as a general part in his reform efforts is unknown.^[42]

The Old English poetry which has received the most attention deals with what has been termed the Germanic heroic past. Scholars suggest that Old English heroic poetry was handed down orally from generation to generation.^[43] As Christianity began to appear, re-tellers often recast the tales of Christianity into the older heroic stories.^{[citation needed]}

The longest at 3,182 lines, and the most important, is Beowulf, which appears in the damaged Nowell Codex. Beowulf relates the exploits of the hero Beowulf, King of the Weder-Geats or Angles, around the middle of the 5th century. The author is unknown, and no mention of Britain occurs. Scholars are divided over the date of the present text, with hypotheses ranging from the 8th to the 11th centuries.^[44][45] It has achieved much acclaim as well as sustained academic and artistic interest.^[46]

Other heroic poems besides Beowulf exist. Two have survived in fragments:

The most famous Old English

The riddles of the Exeter Book are unnumbered and without titles in the manuscript. For this reason, scholars propose different interpretations of how many riddles there are, with some agreeing 94 riddles, and others proposing closer to 100 riddles in the book.[56] Most scholars believe that the Exeter Book was compiled by a single scribe;^[57] however, the works were almost certainly originally composed by poets.^[55]

A riddle in Old English, written using runic script, features on the Franks Casket. One possible solution for the riddle is 'whale', evoking the whale-bone from which the casket made.^[58]

The Vercelli Book and Exeter Book contain four long narrative poems of saints' lives, or

There are a number of partial Old English Bible translations and paraphrases surviving. The Junius manuscript contains three paraphrases of Old Testament texts. These were re-wordings of Biblical passages in Old English, not exact translations, but paraphrasing, sometimes into beautiful poetry in its own right. The first and longest is of Genesis (originally presented as one work in the Junius manuscript but now thought to consist of two separate poems, A and B), the second is of Exodus and the third is Daniel. Contained in Daniel are two lyrics, Song of the Three Children and Song of Azarias, the latter also appearing in the Exeter Book after Guthlac.^[60] The fourth and last poem, Christ and Satan, which is contained in the second part of the Junius manuscript, does not paraphrase any particular biblical book, but retells a number of episodes from both the Old and New Testament.^[61]

The Nowell Codex contains a Biblical poetic paraphrase, which appears right after Beowulf, called

Ælfric of Eynsham, who wrote in the late 10th and early 11th centuries, is believed to have been a pupil of Æthelwold.^[52] He was the greatest and most prolific writer of sermons,^[69] which were copied and adapted for use well into the 13th century.^[72] In the translation of the first six books of the Bible (Old English Hexateuch), portions have been assigned to Ælfric on stylistic grounds. He included some lives of the saints in the Catholic Homilies, as well as a cycle of saints' lives to be used in sermons. Ælfric also wrote an Old English work on time-reckoning, and pastoral letters.^[72]

In the same category as Ælfric, and a contemporary, was

One of the earliest Old English texts in prose is the Martyrology, information about saints and martyrs according to their anniversaries and feasts in the church calendar. It has survived in six fragments. It is believed to have been written in the 9th century by an anonymous Mercian author.^[69]

The oldest collections of church sermons is the Blickling homilies, found in a 10th-century manuscript.^[69]

There are a number of saint's lives prose works: beyond those written by Ælfric are the prose life of Saint Guthlac (Vercelli Book), the life of

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was probably started in the time of King Alfred the Great and continued for over 300 years as a historical record of Anglo-Saxon history.^[69]

A single example of a Classical

In the Nowell Codex is the text of The Wonders of the East which includes a remarkable map of the world, and other illustrations. Also contained in Nowell is Alexander's Letter to Aristotle. Because this is the same manuscript that contains Beowulf, some scholars speculate it may have been a collection of materials on exotic places and creatures.^[75]

There are a number of interesting medical works. There is a translation of

Legal texts are a large and important part of the overall Old English corpus. The Laws of

Cnut, and texts dealing with specific cases and places in the country. An interesting example is Gerefa, which outlines the duties of a reeve on a large manor estate. There is also a large volume of legal documents related to religious houses. These include many kinds of texts: records of donations by nobles; wills; documents of emancipation; lists of books and relics; court cases; guild rules. All of these texts provide valuable insights into the social history of Anglo-Saxon times, but are also of literary value. For example, some of the court case narratives are interesting for their use of rhetoric.^[76]

Writing on objects

James Paz proposes reading objects which feature Old English poems or phrases as part of the literary output of the time, and as "speaking objects".

Dream of the Rood preserved in the Vercelli Book), the Frank's Casket, the Alfred Jewel.^[78]

Semi-Saxon and post-conquest Old English

The Soul's Address to the Body (c. 1150–1175) found in Worcester Cathedral Library MS F. 174 contains only one word of possible Latinate origin, while also maintaining a corrupt alliterative meter and Old English grammar and syntax, albeit in a degenerative state (hence, early scholars of Old English termed this late form as "Semi-Saxon").[79]^[80]

'The Grave' is a poem preserved in a 12th century manuscript, MS Bodleian 343, at fol. 170r: over time, scholars have called it "Anglo-Saxon", "Norman-Saxon", late Old English, and Middle English.^[81][82]

The Peterborough Chronicle can also be considered a late-period text, continuing into the 12th century.^[83]

Reception and scholarship

Later medieval glossing and translation

Old English literature did not disappear in 1066 with the Norman Conquest. Many sermons and works continued to be read and used in part or whole up through the 14th century, and were further catalogued and organised. What might be termed the earliest scholarship on Old English literature was done by a 12th or early 13th-century scribe from Worcester known only as The Tremulous Hand – a sobriquet earned for a hand tremor causing characteristically messy handwriting.^[84] The Tremulous Hand is known for many Latin glosses of Old English texts, which represent the earliest attempt to translate the language in the post-Norman period. Perhaps his most well known scribal work is that of the Worcester Cathedral Library MS F. 174, which contains part of Ælfric's Grammar and Glossary and a short fragmentary poem often called "Bede's Death Song" in addition to the Body and Soul poem.^[85]

Antiquarianism and early scholarship

During the

Robert Bruce Cotton and Humfrey Wanley.^[76]

Old English dictionaries and references were created from the 17th century. The first was

Alistair Campbell in 1972.^[86]

19th, 20th, and 21st century scholarship

In the 19th and early 20th centuries the focus was on the Germanic and pagan roots that scholars thought they could detect in Old English literature.

Romantic Nationalism) took special interest in studying what was then commonly referred to as 'Anglo-Saxon literature',^[88] and Old English became a regular part of university curriculum.^[89]

After World War II there was increasing interest in the manuscripts themselves, developing new palaeographic approaches from antiquarian approaches.

paleographer, published the groundbreaking Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon in 1957, and by 1980 nearly all Anglo-Saxon manuscript texts were available as facsimiles or editions.^{[citation needed}

]

On account of the work of Bernard F. Huppé,

Augustinian^{[clarification needed]} exegesis increased in scholarship.^[91]

J.R.R. Tolkien is often credited with creating a movement to look at Old English as a subject of literary theory in his seminal lecture "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" (1936).^[92]

Since the 1970s, along with a focus upon

paleography and the physical manuscripts themselves more generally, scholars continue to debate such issues as dating, place of origin, authorship, connections between Old English literary culture and global medieval literatures, and the valences^{[clarification needed]} of Old English poetry that may be revealed by contemporary theory: for instance, feminist, queer, critical race, and eco-critical theories.^{[citation needed}

]

Influence on modern English literature

Prose

Tolkien adapted the subject matter and terminology of heroic poetry for works like The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and John Gardner wrote Grendel, which tells the story of Beowulf's opponent from his own perspective.^[92]

Poetry

Old English literature has had some influence on modern literature, and notable poets have translated and incorporated Old English poetry.^[93] Well-known early translations include Alfred, Lord Tennyson's translation of The Battle of Brunanburh, William Morris's translation of Beowulf, and Ezra Pound's translation of The Seafarer. The influence of the poetry can be seen in modern poets Ezra Pound and W. H. Auden.^[94]

More recently other notable poets such as Paul Muldoon, Edwin Morgan, Seamus Heaney, Denise Levertov and U. A. Fanthorpe have all shown an interest in Old English poetry. In 1987 Denise Levertov published "Cædmon", an original composition based on Bede's account for the poet Cædmon of Cædmon's Hymn in the collection Breathing the Water. This was followed by Seamus Heaney's version of the poem "Whitby-sur-Moyola" in his The Spirit Level (1996), Paul Muldoon's "Caedmona's Hymn" in his Moy Sand and Gravel (2002) and U. A. Fanthorpe's "Caedmon's Song" in her Queuing for the Sun (2003).

In 2000, Seamus Heaney published his translation of Beowulf. Heaney uses Irish diction across Beowulf to bring what he calls a "special body and force" to the poem, putting forward his own Ulster heritage, "in order to render [the poem] ever more 'willable forward/again and again and again.'"^[95]

Editions

The entire corpus of Old English poetry is being edited and annotated to available digital images of manuscript pages and objects, with Modern English translations, in the Old English Poetry in Facsimile Project.

See also

• Anglo-Saxon architecture
• Anglo-Saxon art
• Hebban olla vogala
• History of the Anglo-Saxons
• List of illuminated Anglo-Saxon manuscripts
• List of national poetries
• List of poems

Citations

1. ^ Henry Bradley, John Manly, Oliver Elton and Thomas Seccombe (1911). "English Literature". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 9. (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 607-645.
2. ^ Lerer 1997.
3. ^ Ker 1990.
4. ^ Mitchell 1985.
5. ^ Moessner 1989.
6. ^ ^{a b c d e} Cameron 1982, p. 275.
7. ^ ^{a b} Ker 1990, p. xv.
8. ^ Baker 2003, p. 153.
9. ^ Renswoude, Irene van; Teeuwen, Mariken. The Annotated Book in the Early Middle Ages Practices of Reading and Writing.
10. ^ Teeuwen 2016, p. 221.
11. ^ Powell 2009, p. 151.
12. ^ Parkes 2007, p. 19.
13. ^ Cameron 1982, p. 276.
14. ^ Baker 2003, p. 10.
15. ^ Sweet 1908, p. 54.
16. ^ "MS. Junius 11 – Medieval Manuscripts". medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2022-01-26. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
17. ^ "The Exeter Book – Exeter Cathedral Library and Archives & University of Exeter Digital Humanities Lab". The Exeter Book. Archived from the original on 2021-12-02. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
18. ^ Sisam 1962, p. 96.
19. ^ ^{a b} Sievers 1893.
20. ^ Pope 1942.
21. ^ Tolkien 1983.
22. ^ "Old English Online - Syntax". oldenglish.info. Retrieved 2024-10-14.
23. ^ The Wanderer line 99
24. ^ ^{a b} Kathryn Hume (January 1975). "The Theme and Structure of Beowulf". Studies in Philology. 72 (1): 1–27.
25. ^ Howe 2012.
26. ^ Foley 1985, p. 42; Foley cites Benson (1966).
27. ^ Magoun 1953.
28. ^ Fry 1987.
29. ^ Crowne 1960.
30. ^ Dane 1982.
31. ^ Foley 1985, p. 200.
32. ^ Foley 1985.
33. ^ ^{a b} Cameron 1982, p. 277.
34. ^ Smith 1978.
35. ^ Vernon 1861, p. 145.
36. ^ O'Donnell 2005, p. 78.
37. ^ Hamer 2015, p. 126.
38. ^ Sweet, Henry (1943), An Anglo-Saxon Reader (13th ed.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 43 Taken from the Corpus MS. at Oxford (279), commonly referred to as the "O" manuscript of Bede's Ecclesiastical History.
39. ^ Hamer 2015, p. 125, taken from Smith (1978), in turn taken from the manuscript known as the Moore Bede (Cambridge Library MS. kk.5.16)
40. ^ ^{a b c d} Cameron 1982, p. 278.
41. ^ Remley 2005.
42. ^ Treschow, Gill & Swartz 2009.
43. ^ "British Library". www.bl.uk. Archived from the original on 2022-10-13. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
44. ^ Downey 2015.
45. ^ Neidorf 2014.
46. ^ Bjork & Niles 1998, p. ix.
47. ^ Cameron 1982, p. 278-279.
48. J.R.R. Tolkien (1953), N.F. Blake
    (1965), O.D. Macrae-Gibson (1970), Donald Scragg (1991), Jane Cooper (1993).
49. ^ Drabble 1985.
50. ^ Cameron 1982, p. 280-281.
51. ^ Woodring 1995, p. 1.
52. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Cameron 1982, p. 281.
53. ^ Sedgefield 1899.
54. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Cameron 1982, p. 280.
55. ^ ^{a b} Black 2009.
56. ^ "British Library". www.bl.uk. Archived from the original on 2022-10-13. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
57. S2CID 162976021. Archived
    from the original on January 29, 2022. Retrieved January 29, 2022 – via ProQuest.
58. ^ Osborn, Marijane (2019). "Flodu in the Franks Casket's Whale Poem: A Fluvial Meaning with Regional Implications". Philological Quarterly. 98 (4): 329–341.
59. ^ ^{a b} Cameron 1982, p. 279.
60. ^ Cameron 1982, p. 279-280.
61. ^ Wrenn 1967, p. 97, 101.
62. ^ Sweet 1908, p. 154.
63. ^ Baker 2003, p. 201.
64. ^ Hamer 2015, p. 166-169.
65. ^ Hamer 2015, p. 166–169, lists a number of sources: B. Dickins & A.S.C. Ross (1934), M. Swanton (1970), J.C. Pope & R.D. Fulk (2001), R. Woolf (1958), J.A. Burrow (1959)
66. ^ Crossley-Holland 1999, p. 218.
67. ^ "King Alfred's Translation of the Pastoral Care". The British Library. Archived from the original on 2020-08-03. Retrieved 2021-05-15.
68. ^ "Alfred the Great's Burnt Boethius". ebeowulf.uky.edu. Archived from the original on 2021-10-12. Retrieved 2021-05-15.
69. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Cameron 1982, p. 284.
70. ^ Vernon 1861, p. 129.
71. ^ On the Old English translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History, see Rowley (2011a) and Rowley (2011b)
72. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Cameron 1982, p. 285.
73. ^ Cameron 1982, p. 284-285.
74. ^ Vernon 1861, p. 121.
75. ^ Cameron 1982, p. 285-286.
76. ^ ^{a b c} Cameron 1982, p. 286.
77. ^ ^{a b} "English literature – Prose". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2015-07-01. Retrieved 2021-05-15.
78. ^
    OCLC 1256594076.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
79. ^ Moffat 1987.
80. ^ Singer 1845.
81. S2CID 224833681
    .
82. S2CID 162346662. Archived
    from the original on 2023-05-06. Retrieved 2023-05-02.
83. ^ Mustanoja 2016.
84. ^ Schipper 1997, p. 184.
85. ^ Franzen 1991.
86. ^ Cameron 1982, p. 286-287.
87. ^ Stanley 1975.
88. ISBN 978-0-521-19058-9
    , retrieved 2022-01-29
89. ISBN 978-1-107-10246-0
    , retrieved 2022-10-13
90. ^ Huppé 1959.
91. ^ Hill 2002.
92. ^ ^{a b} Cameron 1982, p. 287.
93. ISBN 978-0-19-882452-7
    .
94. ISBN 978-0-19-170788-9
    .
95. ^ Heaney, Seamus (2002). Donohughe, Daniel (ed.). Beowulf: a Verse Translation. New York: W.W. Norton. p. xxxviii.

General and cited references

• Alexander, Michael, ed. (1995), Beowulf: A Glossed Text, Penguin.
• Baker, Peter S. (2003), Introduction to Old English, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing,
  OCLC 315514208
• Benson, Larry D. (1966), "The Literary Character of Anglo-Saxon Formulaic Poetry", Publications of the Modern Language Association, 81 (5): 334–41,
  S2CID 163959399
  .
• Bjork, Robert; Niles, John (1998), A Beowulf Handbook, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska,
  ISBN 978-0-8032-6150-1
• Black, Joseph, ed. (2009), The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, vol. 1: The Medieval Period (2nd ed.), Broadview Press.
• Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, Thomas Northcote (1889), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, archived from the original on 2019-07-17, retrieved 2016-09-12.
• Campbell, Alistair (1972), Enlarged Addenda and Corrigenda to the Supplement of An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Based on the Manuscript Collections of Joseph Bosworth, Clarendon Press,
  ISBN 978-0-19-863110-1
  .
• Cameron, Angus (1982), "Anglo-Saxon Literature",
  ISBN 978-0-684-16760-2
  .
• Crossley-Holland, Kevin, trans. (1999), The Anglo-Saxon World: An Anthology, Oxford University Press,
  ISBN 978-0-19-283547-5{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
  ).
• Crowne, D.K. (1960), "The Hero on the Beach: An Example of Composition by Theme in Anglo-Saxon Poetry", Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 61 (4): 362–372,
  JSTOR 43342043
• Dane, Joseph A. (1982), "Finnsburh and Iliad IX: A Greek Survival of the Medieval Germanic Oral-Formulaic Theme The Hero on the Beach", Neophilologus, 66 (3): 443–449,
  S2CID 161365659
  .
• Downey, S. (February 2015), "Review of The Dating of Beowulf: A Reassessment, ed. by
  doi:10.5860/CHOICE.187152 (inactive 1 February 2025){{citation}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of February 2025 (link
  ).
• ISBN 978-0-19-866130-6
  .
• Foley, John M. (1985), Oral-Formulaic Theory and Research: An Introduction and Annotated Bibliography, Garland.
• Franzen, Christine (1991), The Tremulous Hand of Worcester: a Study of Old English in the Thirteenth Century, Oxford: Clarendon Press,
  ISBN 0-19-811742-6
  .
• Fry, Donald K. (1987), "The Cliff of Death in Old English Poetry", in Foley, John Miles (ed.), Comparative Research in Oral Traditions: A Memorial for Milman Parry, Slavica, pp. 213–34.
• Hamer, Richard Frederick Sanger (2015), A choice of Anglo-Saxon verse, London: Faber & Faber Ltd.,
  OCLC 979493193
  .
• Hill, Joyce (2002), "Confronting 'Germania Latina': changing responses to Old English biblical verse", in Liuzza, R.M. (ed.), The poems of MS Junius 11: basic readings, pp. 1–19.
• ISBN 978-1-58044-152-0
  .
• Huppé, Bernard F. (1959), Doctrine and Poetry: Augustine's Influence on Old English Poetry, SUNY Press.
• Ker, Neil R. (1990) [1st ed. 1957], Catalogue of Manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon (2nd ed.), Oxford University Press.
• Lind, Carol (2007), Riddling the voices of others: The Old English Exeter Book riddles and a pedagogy of the anonymous (Ph.D.), Illinois State University.
• Magoun, Francis P. (1953), "The Oral-Formulaic Character of Anglo-Saxon Narrative Poetry", Speculum, 28 (3): 446–67,
  S2CID 162903356
  .
• Mitchell, Bruce (1985), Old English Syntax, New York: Clarendon Press,
  ISBN 0-19-811944-5
  .
• Moessner, Lilo (1989), Early Middle English Syntax, Tübingen: M. Niemeyer,
  ISBN 3-484-30207-0
  .
• Moffat, Douglas (1987), The Soul's Address to the Body: the Worcester Fragments, East Lansing: Colleagues Press,
  ISBN 0-937191-01-9
  .
• Mustanoja, Tauno F. (2016), A Middle English Syntax: Parts of Speech, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company,
  ISBN 9789027212405
  .
• Neidorf, Leonard, ed. (2014), The Dating of Beowulf: A Reassessment, Cambridge: D.S. Brewer,
  ISBN 978-1-84384-387-0
  .
• O'Donnell, Daniel Paul (2005), Cædmon's Hymn: A Multi-Media Study, Edition and Archive, D.S. Brewer.
• doi:10.1215/00267929-58-2-127
  .
• Parkes, M.B. (2007), "Raedan, areccan, smeagan: How the Anglo-Saxons read", Anglo-Saxon England / 26, Cambridge Univ. Press,
  OCLC 263427328
  .
• Pope, John C. (1942), The Rhythm of Beowulf: an interpretation of the normal and hypermetric verse-forms in Old English poetry, Yale University Press.
• Powell, K. (2009), "Viking invasions and marginal annotations in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 162", Anglo-Saxon England / 37, Cambridge University Press,
  OCLC 444440054
  .
• Remley, Paul G. (2005), "Aldhelm as Old English Poet: Exodus, Asser, and the Dicta Ælfredi", in Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe; Andy Orchard (eds.), Latin Learning and English Lore: Studies in Anglo-Saxon Literature for Michael Lapidge, University of Toronto Press, pp. 90–108.
• Rowley, Sharon M. (2011a), The Old English version of Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica, Boydell & Brewer, archived from the original on 2016-05-05, retrieved 2011-05-09.
• Rowley, Sharon (2011b), "'Ic Beda'...'Cwæð Beda': Reinscribing Bede in the Old English Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum", in Carruthers, Leo; Chai-Elsholz, Raeleen; Silec, Tatjana (eds.), Palimpsests and the Literary Imagination of Medieval England, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 95–113.
• Schipper, William (September 1997), "The Worcester Tremulous Scribe and the Ælfric Manuscripts", Journal of English Linguistics, 25 (3): 183–201,
  S2CID 145068947
• Sedgefield, Walter John, ed. (1899), King Alfred's Old English Version of Boethius: De consolatione philosophiae (published 1968).
• Sievers, Eduard (1893), Altgermanische Metrik, Halle{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link).
• Singer, Samuel Weller (1845), The Departing Soul's Address to the Body: A Fragment of a Semi-Saxon Poem, Discovered Among the Archives of Worcester Cathedral By Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart. with an English Translation, London: Luke James Hansard & Co..
• Smith, A.H., ed. (1978) [1933], Three Northumbrian Poems, University of Exeter Press
• Sisam, Kenneth (1962). Studies in the history of Old English literature. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Stanley, E.G. (1975), Imagining the Anglo-Saxon Past: The Search for Anglo-Saxon Paganism and Anglo-Saxon Trial by Jury, Boydell & Brewer (published 2000).
• Sweet, Henry (1908), An Anglo-Saxon Reader (8th ed.), Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Teeuwen, M. (2016-01-01), "Three annotated letter manuscripts: scholarly practices of religious Franks in the margin unveiled", Religious Franks. Religion and power in the Frankish Kingdoms. Studies in honour of
  OCLC 961212148
  .
• ISBN 978-0-04-809019-5
  .
• Treschow, Michael; Gill, Paramjit; Swartz, Tim B. (2009), "King Alfred's Scholarly Writings and the Authorship of the First Fifty Prose Psalms",
  Heroic Age
  , 12.
• Vernon, Edward Johnston (1861), A Guide to the Anglo-Saxon Tongue: A Grammar (2nd ed.), London: John Russell Smith.
• Woodring, Carl (1995), The Columbia Anthology of British Poetry, Columbia University Press, p. 1,
  ISBN 978-0-231-51581-8
  .
• ISBN 978-0-393-09768-9
  .

Further reading

• Anderson, George K. (1966), The literature of the Anglo-Saxons, Princeton: Princeton University Press{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link).
• Crépin, André (2005), Old English Poetics: A Technical Handbook, hors série, vol. 12, Paris: AMAES.
• Fulk, R. D.; Cain, Christopher M. (2003), A History of Old English Literature, Malden: Blackwell.
• Godden, Malcolm; Lapidge, Michael, eds. (1986), The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature, Cambridge.
• Greenfield, Stanley B.; Calder, Daniel G. (1986), A New Critical History of Old English Literature, New York: NYU Press.
• Jacobs, Nicolas (Winter 1981), "The Old English heroic tradition in the light of Welsh evidence", Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies (2): 9–20.
• Pulsiano, Phillip; Treharne, Elaine, eds. (2001), A Companion to Anglo-Saxon Literature, Oxford et al..
• Sims-Williams, Patrick (Winter 1983), Gildas and the Anglo-Saxons", Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies, no. 6, pp. 1–30.
• Wright, Charles D. (Winter 1989), "The Irish 'Enumerative Style' in Old English homiletic literature, especially Vercelli Homily IX", Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies (18): 27–74.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Old English.

• An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary
• Dictionary of Old English: A-I
• Contemporary Poets read new translations of Anglo-Saxon poems
• The Anglo-Saxon Bible Files in HTML and PDF of translations of the Bible (Old and New Testaments) into Anglo-Saxon
• Norton Topics Online An online supplement to the Norton Anthology of English Literature with recordings of Old English Poetry
• Old English Poetry in Facsimile Project The entire corpus of Old English poetry is being edited and annotated to available digital images of manuscript pages and objects, with Modern English translations