Crossley-Holland--the widely acclaimed translator of Old English texts--introduces the Anglo-Saxons through their chronicles, laws, letters, charters, and poetry, with many of the greatest surviving poems printed in their entirety.

For more than thirty years, A Guide to Old English has been the standard introduction to Old English language and literature. This updated sixth edition retains the structure and style of the popular previous editions, and includes two new, much-requested texts: Wulf and Eadwacer and Judith. The book consists of two parts. Part One comprises an introduction to the Old English language, including orthography and pronunciation, inflexions, word formation, an authoritative section on syntax. This is followed by an introduction to Anglo-Saxon studies, which discusses language, literature, history, archaeology, and ways of life. Sound changes are treated as they become relevant in understanding apparent irregularities in inflexion. Part Two contains verse texts, most of them complete, which fully reveal the range that Old English poetry offers in mood, intensity, humour, and natural observation. Full explanatory notes accompany all the texts, and a detailed glossary is provided. The new edition of this highly-acclaimed Guide will be welcomed by teachers and by anyone wanting to gain a greater understanding and enjoyment of the language and literature of the Anglo-Saxons.

Recognizing the dramatic changes in Old English studies over the past generation, this up-to-date anthology gathers twenty-one outstanding contemporary critical writings on the prose and poetry of Anglo-Saxon England, from approximately the seventh through eleventh centuries. The contributors focus on texts most commonly read in introductory Old English courses while also engaging with larger issues of Anglo-Saxon history, culture, and scholarship. Their approaches vary widely, encompassing disciplines from linguistics to psychoanalysis. In an appealing introduction to the book, R. M. Liuzza presents an overview of Old English studies, the history of the scholarship, and major critical themes in the field. For both newcomers and more advanced scholars of Old English, these essays will provoke discussion, answer questions, provide background, and inspire an appreciation for the complexity and energy of Anglo-Saxon studies.

Devout, virtuous and independent, the heroines of Old English saints' lives (one of the most popular literary genres of the middle ages) provided exemplars of personal and public inspiration for medieval Christians. The eight lives translated here are the earliest known vernacular accounts of the biographies of Æthelthryth, Agatha, Agnes, Cecilia, Eugenia, Euphrosyne, Lucy, and Mary of Egypt. They depict women escaping unwanted marriages, communicating with male relatives, acquiring an education, living autonomously as hermits, and achieving positions of leadership; such lives document not only the importance of spiritual faith to early Christian women, but also testify to how these women (and their audience) employed faith as a tool for empowerment. Each life is preceded by a brief description of the saint's cult from its early Christian origins to its presence in Anglo-Saxon culture. The translation is accompanied by an introduction establishing the general background for the genre, the conventions of women saints' lives, and women's religious culture in Anglo-Saxon England; and an interpretive essay exploring the relationships between explicit presentations of the female body and the strength of spiritual authority as exhibited in these texts completes the volume.LESLIE A. DONOVANis Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico.

Handed down through generations of storytellers, these popular tales herald the birth of a national literature in the vernacular. From stories of saints to land grants and wills, these texts authored by kings, scribes and saints illuminate Anglo-Saxon Britain. Included in this collection are King Alfred's translation of seafarers' adventures in the Arctic, herbal remedies prescribed by Bald's Leechbook, advice to estate managers, and the love story Apollonius of Tyre, as well the famous Life of Saint Guthlac.

Contributors to this volume explore Anglo-Saxonism as a set of beliefs and cultural practices that posits a unity among English-speakers based on their common racial, linguistic, and institutional descent from the people of Anglo-Saxon England. Value has often been set on such heritage, for Anglo-Saxonism asserts the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon people and sees their institutions as models of good government, commercial prosperity and piety. In an examination of Anglo-Saxonism in a variety of forms and in several different periods of English and American literary history, the authors investigate how the Anglo-Saxons themselves thought about the origins of national and racial identity. By linking current theoretical studies to the early manifestations of Anglo-Saxonism, they seek to contribute to the "new mediaevalisms" - theoretically aware, institutionally focussed, and interdisciplinary mediaeval studies - that are transforming the academy.

The first collected edition of the nine elegies in English and the first critical edition to include complete facsimiles of the manuscript originals in the Exeter Book.

<DIV><DIV>This is a simple introduction to Old English for students with little or no linguistic knowledge. Unlike other textbooks on the subject, Beginning Old English focuses on the explanation and illustration of how the language works, using accessible illustrations from simplified Old English texts and demonstrating how many feature of present-day English have their roots in this stage of the language. It also includes long extracts from popular Old English works for use in the classroom.

This volume is an examination of the nature analogy in medieval poems of the British Isles. Taking an inclusive approach that extends from phonology to imagery, this book examines poems from both Welsh and Old English traditions.