The Metrical Grammar of Beowulf (Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England, Series Number 5)

This book argues that the formal art of the Old English epic Beowulf is shaped and determined by the poetic language that the poet inherited from the traditional, oral culture of Anglo-Saxon England. The patterns of meter and alliteration exhibited in the poem were not imposed by the poet on his language, but were part of the language that he spoke, the rules of which constituted his metrical grammar. Professor Kendall investigates the constraints of syntax, meter and alliteration that govern the formal art of Beowulf. He shows how the half-lines of the poem, which are the basic units of composition, are marked by the metrical grammar for placement in the verse clause; he also establishes conditions for the presence or absence of alliteration, which enable him to say whether in any given instance the alliterative device is a mandatory function of the rules of the metrical grammar or an option exercised by the poet.

Literature & Fiction

Kendall, Calvin B.

British & Irish

Cambridge University Press

Voyage to the Other World: The Legacy of Sutton Hoo (MEDIEVAL STUDIES AT MINNESOTA)

History

Americas

Univ of Minnesota Pr

Isidore of Seville, On the Nature of Things (Translated Texts for Historians, 66)

For scholars in the European Middle Ages, Isidore, bishop of Seville (560-636) was one of the most influential authorities for understanding he natural world. Isidore's On the Nature of Things is the first work on natural science by a Christian author that is not a commentary on the creation story in Genesis. Instead, Isidore adopted a classical model to describe the structure of the physical cosmos, and discuss the principles of astronomy, physics, geography, meteorology and time-reckoning. Into this framework he incorporated an eclectic array of ancient and patristic erudition. The fact that On the Nature of Things presents an essentially Greco-Roman picture of the universe, but amplified with Christian reflections and allegories, played a crucial role in the assimilation of ancient science into the emerging culture of the Middle Ages. It exerted a deep and long-lasting influence on scholars like Bede, one of whose earliest works was an adaptation of On the Nature of Things. On the Nature of Things provides a new window into vital intellectual currents, as yet largely unexplored, flowing from Visigothic Spain into Celtic Ireland, Anglo-Saxon England, and Merovingian France. This is the first translation of this work into English. The introduction places the work in the context of Isidore's milieu and concerns, and traces the remarkable diffusion of his book. A chapter-by-chapter commentary explains how Isidore selected and transformed his source material, and added his own distinctive features, notably the diagrams that gave this work its medieval name The Book of Wheels (Liber rotarum).

Religion & Spirituality

Liverpool University Press

Bede: Commentary on the Gospel of Luke (Translated Texts for Historians, 85)

Wallis, Faith

History & Criticism

Commenting on the Bible was the principal way in which early medieval Christians conducted the work of theology; commentaries also open a window for modern readers onto the way in which these people strove to understand humanity, the world and history through complex acts of layered winterpretation and cross-referencing within the sacred text. Bede's commentary on Luke, composed in the first half of the 710s, is a turning point in his career as an exegete. It is ambitious in its length, but also in its subject-matter, because the life of Christ is the key to the meaning of the entire Bible. To expound a Gospel also entails engaging with a formidable body of commentary by the Church Fathers. In Bede's case, the Luke commentary marks as well the moment when he publically asserts his own intellectual authority by displaying his mastery of the Patristic tradition, and by deftly confronting criticisms of his earlier works. Finally, Bede's treatment of Luke was highly influential in the Carolingian Renaissance, and in the compilation of the Glossa Ordinaria in the twelfth century. This translation is thus an important resource for historians, as well as scholars interested in the role of the Bible in medieval culture.

Europe

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Books by Kendall, Calvin B.