This stimulating Companion brings together leading scholars from America, the Antipodes, and Europe to point the way ahead for Anglo-Saxon studies. The scope of the volume is unparalleled, embracing not only the literature of the period, but also the cultural background and the discipline of Anglo-Saxon studies, past, present and future.

The chapters are linked into five sections covering contexts, readings, genres, intertextualities and debates. The combination of the discussion of primary material and manuscript sources with critical analysis and readings breaks new ground: fresh approaches are offered, genres of writing not normally studied are opened up, and readers are shown how texts can be read in their particular cultural milieu. The complete volume is essential reading for upper-level students or faculty who want a current and challenging overview of the field.

Phillip Pulsiano is late Professor of English at Villanova University. He authored numerous articles on Old and Middle English poetry and prose, and co-edited the Garland Encyclopaedia of Medieval Scandinavia (with Paul Acker and Kirsten Wolf). He had completed the first volume of The Old English Psalters (for Toronto University Press), and had undertaken significant research on Latin female saints' lives from the medieval period, and (with Joseph P. McGowan) the prose texts in the Beowulf-manuscript: work that will be published posthumously.

Elaine M. Treharne is Professor of Early English at Florida State University. She is author of The Old English Life of St Nicholas with the Old English Life of St Giles (1997), co-editor of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts and their Heritage (with Philip Pulsiano), Rewriting Old English in the Twelfth Century (with Mary Swan), and Readings in Medieval Texts (with David Johnson). She is the author of Old and Middle English: An Anthology (Blackwell, 2003) and an editor for Review of English Studies and Literature Compass. She currently works on the ideology of early English texts and their physical contexts.

Preface.

Acknowledgements.

Abbreviations.

Part I. Contexts and Perspectives:.

1. An Introduction to the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Vernacular English: Elaine Treharne (Florida State University) and Phillip Pulsiano (Villanova University).

2. An Introduction to the Corpus of Anglo-Latin Literature: Joseph P. McGowan (University of San Diego).

3. Transmission of Literature and Learning: Anglo Saxon Scribal Culture: Jonathan Wilcox (University of Iowa).

4. Authorship and Anonymity: Mary Swan (University of Leeds).

5. Audience(s), Reception, Literacy: Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast).

6. Anglo-Saxon Manuscript Production: Issues of Making and Using: Michelle P. Brown (British Library).

Part II. Readings: Cultural Framework and Heritage:.

7. The Germanic Background: Patrizia Lendinara (University of Palermo).

8. Religious Context: Pre-Benedictine Reform Period: Susan Irvine (University College London).

9. The Benedictine Reform and Beyond: Joyce Hill (University of Leeds).

10. Legal and Documentary Writings: Carole Hough (University of Glasgow).

11. Scientific and Medical Writings: Stephanie Hollis (University of Auckland).

12. Prayers, Glosses and Glossaries: Phillip Pulsiano (Villanova University).

Part III.Genre and Modes:.

13. Religious Prose: Roy M. Liuzza (University of Tennessee at Knoxville).

14. Religious Poetry: Patrick W. Conner (West Virginia University).

15. Secular Prose: Donald G. Scragg (University of Manchester).

16. Secular Poetry: Fred C. Robinson (Yale University).

17. Anglo-Latin Prose: Joseph P. McGowan (University of San Diego).

Part IV. Intertextualities: Sources and Influences:.

18. Biblical and Patristic Learning: Tom Hall (University of Illinois at Chicago).

19. The Irish Tradition: Charles D. Wright (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).

20. Germanic Influences: Rolf Bremmer (University of Leiden).

21. Scandinavian Relations: Robert E. Bjork (Arizona State University).

Part V. Debates and Issues:.

22. English in the Post-Conquest Period: Elaine Treharne (Florida State University).

23. Anglo-Saxon Studies: Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries: Timothy Graham (University of New Mexico).

24. Anglo-Saxon Studies in the Nineteenth Century: England, Denmark, America: J. R. Hall (Notre Dame University in Indiana).

25. Anglo-Saxon Studies in the Nineteenth Century: Germany, Austria, Switzerland: Hans Sauer (LM University, Munich).

26. By the Numbers: Anglo-Saxon Scholarship at the Century's End: Allen Frantzen (Loyola University Chicago).

27. The New Millennium: Nicholas Howe (Ohio State University).

Selected Further Reading.

Index