Bruce Mitchell

Fred C. Robinson

A comprehensive introduction to Old English, combining simple, clear philology with the best literary works to provide a compelling and accessible beginners’ guide. Provides a comprehensive introduction to Old English Uses a practical approach suited to the needs of the beginning student Features selections from the greatest works of Old English literature, organized from simple to more challenging texts to keep pace with the reader Includes a discussion of Anglo-Saxon literature, history, and culture, and a bibliography directing readers to useful publications on the subject Updated throughout with new material including the first 25 lines from Beowulf with detailed annotation and an explanation of Grimm’s and Verner’s laws

A Guide to Old English

Originally published in 1985, Fred T. Robinson's classic study asserts that the appositive style of Beowulf helps the poet communicate his Christian vision of pagan life. By alerting the audience to both the older and the newer meanings of words, the poet was able to resolve the fundamental tension which pervades his narration of ancient heroic deeds. Robinson describes Beowulf 's major themes and the grammatical and stylistic aspects of its appositive strategies. He then considers the poet's use of the semantically stratified vocabulary of Old English poetry to accommodate a party Christian and partly pre-Christian perspective on the events being narrated. The analysis draws attention to the ways in which modern editors and lexicographers have obscured stylistic aspects of the poem by imposing upon it various modern conventions. Appositional techniques, Robinson shows, serve not only the poet's major themes but also his narrative purposes. A grasp of the fundamental role played by the appositive style in Beowulf gives the reader new ways of understanding some of the epic's familiar passages. The new foreword addresses the reception this book has had and examines recent scholarship in the ongoing interest in this amazing poem.

Beowulf and the Appositive Style

Stanley B. Greenfield

Eston Everett Ericson

Using the Collections of E.E. Ericson

A Bibliography of Publications on Old English Literature to the End of 1972

Valerie Hotchkiss

English in Print from Caxton to Shakespeare to Milton examines the history of early English books, exploring the concept of putting the English language into print with close study of the texts, the formats, the audiences, and the functions of English books. Lavishly illustrated with more than 130 full-color images of stunning rare books, this volume investigates a full range of issues regarding the dissemination of English language and culture through printed works, including the standardization of typography, grammar, and spelling; the appearance of popular literature; and the development of school grammars and dictionaries. Valerie Hotchkiss and Fred C. Robinson provide engaging descriptions of more than a hundred early English books drawn from the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and the Elizabethan Club of Yale University. The study nearly mirrors the chronological coverage of Pollard and Redgrave's famous Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640), beginning with William Caxton, England's first printer, and ending with John Milton, the English language's most eloquent defender of the freedom of the press in his Areopagitica of 1644. William Shakespeare, neither a printer nor a writer much concerned with publishing his own plays, nonetheless deserves his central place in this study because Shakespeare imprints, and Renaissance drama in general, provide a fascinating window on the world of English printing in the period between Caxton and Milton.

English in Print from Caxton to Shakespeare to Milton

Fred C. Robinson is known throughout the world for some of the most original and stimulating work on Old English literature and language published in recent times. The Tomb of Beowulf collects thirty seven of his essays and three substantial new articles. The book is informed by the author's preoccupation with meaning, context and language and their subtle interactions. Its contents are equally characterized by readability and scholarship, and by learning and wit.

And Other Essays on Old English

The Tomb of Beowulf

The sixth edition of this popular introduction to Old English language and literature retains the general structure and style of previous editions, but has been updated and includes two new texts: Wulf and Eadwacer and Judith. A new edition of the most widely used introduction to Old English language and literature. Includes two new texts, widely requested by teachers and students: Wulf and Eadwacer and Judith. Includes a range of helpful pedagogical tools - a map of Anglo-Saxon England, notes, a glossary, indexes to Part I, and a general introduction to Anglo-Saxon studies. Can be used in the classroom or for self-study; there is a special section "How to Use this Guide".

A Guide to Old English, Sixth Edition

This magnificent new edition, which includes relevant shorter texts and key illustrations, is designed specifically to help those who, while already enjoying some acquaintance with Old English, come to Beowulf for the first time.

Fred C. Robinson

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