This book celebrates two institutions: Brown University on the occasion of its two hundredth birthday and Old English poetry.
By a happy coincidence, as Brown University approached its two hundredth anniversary, it was able to assemble half a dozen Old English scholars who were working or had recently worked within its walls. A number of other scholars agreed, on somewhat short notice, to join this nucleus in making this birthday gift.
The gift is composed of fifteen essays that tend to group themselves into three divisions. In one respect — the most important of all — there is a deep-lying unity in this volume. Adrien Bonjour speaks for every contributor when he says, "it is the poetry that counts." Every contributor, no matter the approach he takes, assumes that the poem or poems he writes about are worthy of loving and even lavish study.
Author(s): Robert P. Creed (ed.)
Series: Brown University Bicentennial Publications
Publisher: Brown University Press
Year: 1967
Language: English
Pages: XII+332
City: Providence, Rhode Island
PART ONE: THE HARP AND OLD ENGLISH POETRY
Jess B. Bessinger, Jr. / The Sutton Hoo Harp Replica and Old English Musical Verse 3
John Nist / Metrical Uses of the Harp in 'Beowulf' 27
PART TWO: 'GENESIS' AND SHORTER OLD ENGLISH POETRY
Alain Renoir / The Self-Deception of Temptation: Boethian Psychology in 'Genesis B' 47
Robert P. Creed / The Art of the Singer: Three Old English Tellings of the Offering of Isaac 69
Louis H. Leiter / 'The Dream of the Rood': Patterns of Transformation 93
J. E. Cross / The Conception of the Old English 'Phoenix' 129
Edward B. Irving, Jr. / Image and Meaning in the Elegies 153
George K. Anderson / Aldhelm and the 'Leiden Riddle' 167
PART THREE: 'BEOWULF'
Adrien Bonjour / Jottings on 'Beowulf' and the Aesthetic Approach 179
Larry D. Benson / The Pagan Coloring of 'Beowulf' 193
Neil D. Isaacs / The Convention of Personification in 'Beowulf' 215
Paul Beekman Taylor / Themes of Death in 'Beowulf' 249
Stanley B. Greenfield / Grendel’s Approach to Heorot: Syntax and Poetry 275
R. E. Kaske / The 'Eotenas' in 'Beowulf' 285
Burton Raffel / On Translating 'Beowulf' 311
Notes on the Contributors 329
