A New Critical History of Old English Literature

About the Author Stanley B. Greenfield is Professor of English at the University of Oregon.Daniel G. Calder is Professor of English and Chairman of the department at the University of California at Los Angeles.Michael Lapidge is a member of the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celti Product Description Anglo-Saxon prose and poetry is, without question, the major literary achievement of the early Middle Ages (c. 700-1100). In no other vernacular language does such a vast store of verbal treasures exist for so extended a period of time. For twenty years the definitive guide to that literature has been Stanley B. Greenfield's 1965 Critical History of Old English Literature. Now this classic has been extensively revised and updated to make it more valuable than ever to both the student and scholar. From Library Journal "What has Ingeld to do with Christ?" Using Alcuin's remonstrance as both theme and context for their detailed examination of a remarkable literary corpus, the authors provide a critical reading of Old English texts and a survey of the scholarly literature about them. This "drastic revision" of Greenfield's 1965 work includes a new survey of Anglo-Latin prose by Michael Lapidge and a consideration of works previously omitted. In his newly extended survey of the prose, Calder takes account of the growing scholarship on prose texts and also demonstrates that Old English prose is as considerable an achievement as the poetry. The bibliography is a welcome new feature and the style remains unpretentious but scholarly. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries. Barbara J. Dunlap, City Coll. Lib., CUNYCopyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.