In accordance with the plan of this collective edition of Anglo-Saxon poetry, as announced in the Preface to the first volume, containing the texts of the Junius Manuscript, the poetical parts of the Vercelli Book are here groped together in a second volume.

In accordance with the plan of this collective edition of Anglo-Saxon poetry, as announced in the Preface to the first volume, containing the texts of the Junius Manuscript, the poetical parts of the Vercelli Book are here groped together in a second volume.

These chapters on Old English Literature are intended to fill the gap between Professor Thomas’s valuable, but all too brief account in his English Literature before Chaucer, and longer works, such as those of Stopford Brooke and the Chapters in the first volume of the Cambridge History of English Literature. My primary object has, of course, been to make the works themselves known to my readers, but I have also tried to trace the development of prose and poetry during the period, showing in the poetry the modifications of the original Germanic character brought about by later influences of all kinds, and noting those forms or features which lead on to Middle English. In dealing with the many unsettled questions, I have given only the views which seem to me most important. Had I wished to do more, it would obviously have been impossible in the space which I have allowed myself; but references to other works are added for a student who may wish to make a more thorough investigation of such points for himself.

The late tenth-century Vercelli Book (Vercelli, Biblioteca Capitolare CXVII) contains one of the earliest surviving collections of homilies and poetry in the English language. The manuscript's combination of poetry and homiletic prose has generated intense scholarly debate, and there is no consensus concerning the original purpose of the compiler. New Readings in the Vercelli Book addresses central questions concerning the manuscript's intended use, mode of compilation, and purpose, and offers a variety of approaches on such topics as orthography, style, genre, theme, and source-study. The contributors include some of the foremost Vercelli experts, as well as the two most recent editors of the homilies. The remarkable essays in this volume offer the first sustained literary analysis of both the poetry and prose texts of the Vercelli Book, providing important new perspectives on a dynamic and valuable historical document.

Includes section "Reviews."

Drawing on sources from archaeology and written texts, the author brings out the full significance of trees in both pagan and Christian Anglo-Saxon religion.

The Arma Christi, the cluster of objects associated with Christ’s Passion, was one of the most familiar iconographic devices of European medieval and early modern culture. From the weapons used to torment and sacrifice the body of Christ sprang a reliquary tradition that produced active and contemplative devotional practices, complex literary narratives, intense lyric poems, striking visual images, and innovative architectural ornament. This collection displays the fascinating range of intellectual possibilities generated by representations of these medieval ’objects,’ and through the interdisciplinary collaboration of its contributors produces a fresh view of the multiple intersections of the spiritual and the material in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. It also includes a new and authoritative critical edition of the Middle English Arma Christi poem known as ’O Vernicle’ that takes account of all twenty surviving manuscripts. The book opens with a substantial introduction that surveys previous scholarship and situates the Arma in their historical and aesthetic contexts. The ten essays that follow explore representative examples of the instruments of the Passion across a broad swath of history, from some of their earliest formulations in late antiquity to their reformulations in early modern Europe. Together, they offer the first large-scale attempt to understand the arma Christi as a unique cultural phenomenon of its own, one that resonated across centuries in multiple languages, genres, and media. The collection directs particular attention to this array of implements as an example of the potency afforded material objects in medieval and early modern culture, from the glittering nails of the Old English poem Elene to the coins of the Middle English poem ’Sir Penny,’ from garments and dice on Irish tomb sculptures to lanterns and ladders in Hieronymus Bosch’s panel painting of St. Christopher, and from the altar of the Sistine Chapel to the printed prayer books of the Reformation.