Old English Biblical Verse: Studies in Genesis, Exodus and Daniel

This is the first extended study of the Old Testament poems of the Junius collection as a group. The circumstances surrounding their composition and transmission are mysterious: none is ascribed to a named author and none situated even relatively within the development of Anglo-Saxon Christian poetry. This book seeks to breach this critical impasse by allowing the Biblical content of the Junius poems to tell its own story. Paul G. Remley compares them with genuine early medieval texts that are most likely to have circulated in Anglo-Saxon centers and offers engaging exercises in hermeneutic and reader-response criticism. All citations of Old English, Latin and Greek texts are accompanied by modern English translations.