Anglo-Saxon England (No. 14)

Was Old English metre really based on stress and rhythm? Do we really know that a particular glossed manuscript of a Latin curriculum author was used in an Anglo-Saxon classroom and, if so, how? How were disputes about bookland dealt with? What happened to the last male representative of the West Saxon royal line after the Norman Conquest? And what are the implications of the Taylors’ great work on Anglo-Saxon architecture for related studies? These are among the challenging questions taken up in this book. The publication of findings concerning a striking sculptured stone unearthed at Repton and an interpretation of a panel on the Ruthwell Cross bring us close to some distinctive Anglo-Saxon ways of thinking. So do two source studies of vernacular prose, a demonstration of Aldhelm’s interest in how a name is related to its referent, and a searching enquiry into early Anglo-Saxon kingship. Textual criticism and phonology are put to good use too. The usual comprehensive bibliography of the previous year’s publications in all branches of Anglo-Saxon studies rounds off the book.

List of illustrations; 1. The kingdom of the East Saxons Barbara Yorke; 2. Aldhelm\'s Enigmata and Isidorian etymology Nicholas Howe; 3. The text of Aldhelm\'s Fnigma no. c in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson C. 697, and Exeter Riddle 40 Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe; 4. Evidence for primacy of alliteration in Old English metre David L. Hoover; 5. The Aviones and Widsith 26a Alan Bliss; 6. The use of patristic homilies in the Old English Martyrology J. E. Cross; 7. The ‘Sunday Letter’ and the ‘Sunday Lists’ Clare A. Lees; 8. The glossed manuscript: classbook or library book? Gernot R. Wieland; 9. Disputes about bocland: the forum for their adjudication A. G. Kennedy; 10. Edgar the Ætheling: Anglo-Saxon prince, rebel and crusader Nicholas Hooper; 11. The Christ and the beasts panel on the Ruthwell Cross Kristine Edmondson Haney; 12. The Repton Stone Martin Biddle and Birthe Kjølbye-Biddle; 13. Anglo-Saxon Architecture and Anglo-Saxon studies: a review Martin Biddle, Rosemary Cramp, Milton McC. Gatch, Simon Keynes and Birthe Kjølbye-Biddle; 14. Bibliography for 1984 Carl T. Berkhout, Martin Biddle, Mark Blackburn, C. R. E. Coutts, David N. Dumville, Sarah Foot and Simon Keynes.