OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE II Course Convenor: Professor Susan Irvine Syllabus 2007-8
Teaching will consist of twice-weekly one-hour seminars throughout Autumn and Spring Terms. Textbooks are A Guide to Old English, ed. Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson (7th ed., Blackwell, 2007), and Introduction to Old English, ed. Peter S. Baker (2nd ed., Blackwell, 2007). Please translate as much in advance as possible.
Autumn Term Introduction Week 1a 1b The Old English period and its literature Language refresher (The Dream of the Rood / The Wife’s Lament) SI RN
Author and Authority: the Preface 2a What is a Preface? SI SI
2b-3a Alfred’s Preface to Gregory’s Cura Pastoralis (Mitchell V) 3b
The prose and verse prefaces to the Old English Boethius (xeroxes provided) SI Ælfric’s Preface to Genesis (Mitchell IV) SI
4a/b
Poems on Biblical Themes 5a/b Genesis B: ‘The Fall of the Angels’ (xerox provided) [READING WEEK] 6a/b Genesis B: ‘The Fall of the Angels’ RN RN RN
7a-8b Judith (Mitchell XX / Baker XIV) Saintly Men and Women 9a Introducing Ælfric’s Saints’ Lives: Sources and Traditions
SI SI
9b-10b The Life of St Edmund (Mitchell IV)
Spring Term Saintly Men and Women (cont.) 1a/b 2a/b The Life of St Æthelthryth (Baker II) SI RN
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: ‘The Martyrdom of Ælfheah’ (Baker IV)
Perspectives on Wisdom and Fame 3a Introduction to the Old English Boethius SI SI SI
3b-5a Old English Boethius: ‘Boethius on Fame’ (Baker VII) 5b Classical history and mythology in Alfredian literature
[READING WEEK] Responses to Invasion 6a 6b The Battle of Brunanburh (xerox provided) Other Chronicle poems (xeroxes provided) RN RN RN RN
7a-8b The Battle of Maldon (Mitchell XII) 9a-10a Wulfstan’s Sermo Lupi ad Anglos (Mitchell XXII) Preparing for the Exam 10b Revision and commentary practice
SI
Old English Literature II 2007-8 Course Convenor: Prof Susan Irvine GENERAL READING LIST This list comprises general reading which will be invaluable throughout the course. You should try to obtain and read as much as possible from the list over the summer vacation. Specific reading lists for individual works will be made available in the appropriate seminars. Abels, Richard, Alfred the Great: War, Kingship and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England (London and New York, 1998) Campbell, J., E. John, and P. Wormald, The Anglo-Saxons (Oxford, 1982; repr. 1991) Fell, Christine, Women in Anglo-Saxon England (London, 1984) Frantzen, Allan J., Desire for Origins (New Brunswick, NJ, 1990) Godden, Malcolm, and Michael Lapidge, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature (Cambridge, 1991) Greenfield, Stanley B., and Daniel G. Calder, A New Critical History of Old English Literature, with a survey of the Anglo-Latin Background by Michael Lapidge (New York and London, 1986) Hunter Blair, P., An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England (3rd ed., Cambridge, 2003) Keynes, Simon, and Michael Lapidge, trans., Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and other contemporary sources (Penguin, 1983) Lapidge, Michael, John Blair, and Simon Keynes, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England (Blackwell, 1999) North, R., and J. Allard, ed., Beowulf and Other Stories: A New Introduction to Old English, Old Icelandic and Anglo-Norman Literatures (Pearson Longman, 2007) Pulsiano, P., and Treharne, E.M., ed., A Companion to Anglo-Saxon Literature (Blackwell, 2001) Stanley, Eric G., ed., Continuations and Beginnings: Studies in Old English Literature (London, 1966) Swanton, M.J., trans. and ed., The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (London, 1996) Szarmach, Paul E., ed., Holy Men and Holy Women: Old English Prose Saints' Lives and their Contexts (State University of New York Press, 1996) Szarmach, P.E., ed., Old English Prose: Basic Readings (New York & London, 2000) Szarmach, Paul E., ed., Studies in Earlier Old English Prose (Albany, NY, 1986)