Anglo-Saxon England (No. 6)

Work in this volume offers insights into the Anglo-Saxons’ literature, both Latin and vernacular, their study of Latin, their documents, art and artefacts, agricultural practices, their cognizance of Roman predecessors, and later Icelandic knowledge of them. The literary contributions include a major study of Aldhelm’s Latin prose style, arguing against its supposed ‘Irishness’ and placing it firmly in the main tradition of rhetorical amplification coming through from ancient times. In the field of vernacular poetry a prevalent, but illogical, interpretation of a thematically significant obscurity in Beowulf is challenged, and Cynewulf’s penitential concern is emphasized. The physical remains of the eighth-century watermill at Tamworth and a compiled survey of early medieval mill terminology are correlated. Old English place-names containing Latin loan words are reconsidered. The sources of a fourteenth-century Icelander’s knowledge of late Anglo-Saxon history are further delineated in a third, concluding article on the Játvarthar saga. There is the usual bibliography of the previous year’s studies in all branches of Anglo-Saxon.

List of illustrations; 1. Latin loan-words in Old English place-names Margaret Gelling; 2. The parts of an Anglo-Saxon mill Philip Rahtz and Donald Bullough; 3. Aldhelm\'s prose style and its origins Michael Winterbottom; 4. The Latin and Old English glosses in the ars Tatuini Vivien Law; 5. The narrative structure of Hengest\'s revenge in Beowulf John F. Vickrey; 6. The penitential motif in Cynewulf\'s Fates of the Apostles and in his epilogues Robert C. Rice; 7. The text of the Canterbury fragment of Werferth\'s translation of Gregory\'s Dialogues and its relation to the other manuscripts David Yerkes; 8. Two lost documents of King Athelstan Eric E. Barker; 9. The Leofric Missal and tenth-century English art Robert Deshman; 10. The thematic structure of the Sermo Lupi Stephanie Hollis; 11. Napier\'s \'Wulfstan\' homily xxx: its sources, its relationship to the Vercelli Book and its style D. G. Scragg; 12. The æcerbot charm and its Christian user Thomas D. Hill; 13. English history and Norman legend in the Icelandic saga of Edward the Confessor Christine Fell; 14. Old English literature and the liturgy: problems and potential Milton McC. Gatch; 15. Sutton Hoo published: a review Martin Biddle, Alan Binns, J. M. Cameron, D. M. Metcalf, R. I. Page, Charles Sparrow and F. L. Warren; 16. Bibliography for 1976 Carl T. Berkhout, Martin Biddle, T. J. Brown, Peter A. Clayton and Simon Keynes.