The Editing of Old English

1. Auflage 1994
ISBN: 978-1-55786-438-3
Verlag: Wiley-Blackwell

Buch, Englisch, 228 Seiten, Format (B × H): 167 mm x 242 mm, Gewicht: 522 g

There has in recent years been a lively debate among ANglo-Saxonists about the principles on which Old English verse should be edited. The present collection of essays, by the foremost living critic of Old English poetry, will move this debate on to a new plane. Robinson approaches editorial problems from a variety of perspectives: several essays show how insufficient attention to the manuscript context of a poem has led earlier scholars into error; on other occasions, scholars are shown to have resorted too quickly to emendation when a fresh combination of philological skill and intelligence can make a transmitted reading yield good sense; on yet other occasions, Robinson solves intractable textual problems by clean and elegant emendation. THe message of the book is one which no student of Old English literature can ignore: namely that the interpretation of Old English poems requires thorough familiarity with the manuscript context in which the poem is preserved, together with deep philological learning and penetrating common sense. No student of Old English poetry has these qualities in greater abundance than Fred C Robinson.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Robinson, Fred C.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword vii

Acknowledgments ix

Abbreviations x

Part I Text and Manuscript 1

I Old English Literature in Its Most Immediate Context 3

2 Consider the Source: Medieval Texts and Medieval Manuscripts 25

3 Print Culture and the Birth of the Text: A Review Essay 36

Part II Textual Criticism 45

4 Beomulf 47

a Two Non-Cruces in Beowulf 47

b Beowulf's Retreat from Frisia: Some Textual Problems in Lines 2361-2362 56

c Beowulf, Lines 1917-1919 69

d Is Wealhdeow a Prince's Daughter? 71

e The American Element in Beowulf 74

f Why is Grendel's Not Greeting the Gifstol a Wræc Micel? 83

g Textual Notes on Beowulf 89

5 On Several Poems 96

a Notes on the Old English Exodus 06

b The Royal Epithet Engle Leo in the Old English Durham Poem 111

c Notes and Emendations to Old English Poetic Texts 116

d The Old English Genesis, Lines 1136-1137 122

e Eve's "Weaker" Mind in Genesis B, Line 590 124

Part III Linguistic Studies of Old English 129

6 Metathesis in the Dictionaries: A Problem for Lexicographers 131

7 Old English Lexicographical Notes 149

8 Old English Awindan. Of. and Sinhere 155

9 Latin for Old English in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts 160

Part IV Three Editions of Old English Texts 165

10 "Bede's" Envoi to the Old English History: An Experiment in Editing 167

II "The Rewards of Piety": "Two" Old English Poems in Their Manuscript Context 180

12 The Devil's Account of the Next World: An Anecdote from Old English Homiletic Literature 196

Index 207