Class Readings and Resources
Augustine, Confessions
Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People
- A translation of Bede’s text online: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/bede-book1.html
- Study questions for Bede’s story of Cædmon: http://cla.calpoly.edu/%7Edschwart/engl512/bede.html
- Learn more about Bede and his world http://www.geocities.com/%7Ejarrow/
- Substantial bibliography on Bede: http://www.geocities.com/%7Ejarrow/bibliography.html
- Simon Keynes’ Bibliography of Anglo-Saxon History: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/research/rawl/keynesbib/index.html
- General resources for Anglo-Saxon England: http://www.the-orb.net/encyclop/early/pre1000/asindex.html
- James Campbell, Eric John, Patrick Wormald, eds. The Anglo-Saxons (Penguin, 1991). LC call no. DA152 .C28 1982
- Malcolm Godden and Michael Lapidge, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature (Cambridge, 1991). LC call no. PR173 .C36 1991
- Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe, ed., Reading Old English Texts (Cambridge, 1997). LC call no. PR173 .O38 1997
Cædmon’s Hymn, selected elegies from the Exeter Book (The Wanderer, The Wife’s Lament, The Ruin), The Dream of the Rood, and The Battle of Maldon
- Download the texts in .pdf format here: Cædmon’s
Hymn, The Wanderer, The
Wife’s Lament, The Ruin, The
Dream of the Rood, The Battle of Maldon
- Prepare a critical bibliography on one of these texts: your bibliography should include at least five entries; in it you should summarize each authors’ arguments and try to place their work in both a historical and a theoretical framework. Begin with the cumulative bibliography of work on these poems over the past thirty years found in the Old English Newsletter Bibliography Database, online at http://www.oenewsletter.org/OENDB/index.php (the site is free, but registration is required for access). The following sites will help you write your critical bibliography:
Beowulf, ed. R. M. Liuzza (Broadview Press, 2000)
- My own Beowulf Study Guide: http://web.utk.edu/%7Erliuzza/Beowulf/index.htm
- Useful information for new readers of the poem: http://www.heorot.dk/
- A more challenging approach to the poem: http://www.siue.edu/%7Eejoy/eng505syllabusSP04.htm
- Contexts for Beowulf (Norton): http://www.wwnorton.com/nael/middleages/topic_4/welcome.htm
- Carole Biggam’s online bibliography of Anglo-Saxon studies: http://bubl.ac.uk/docs/bibliog/biggam/
- Ælfric’s Passion of St Edmund and Wulfstan’s Sermo Lupi ad Anglos (in Liuzza, ed., Beowulf)
- Fred C. Robinson, ‘Beowulf’ and the Appositive Style (Knoxville, TN, 1985). LC no. PR1588 .R6 1985
- John Hill, The Cultural World in Beowulf (Toronto, 1995). LC no. PR1585 .H55 1995
- James W. Earl, Thinking about Beowulf (Stanford, 1994). LC no. PR1585 .E37 1994
- R. D. Fulk, ed. Interpretations of Beowulf: A Critical Anthology (Bloomington, IN, 1991). LC no. PR1585 .I58 1991
- Peter S. Baker, ed., Beowulf: Basic Readings (New York, 1995). LC no. PR1585 .B27 1995
- Robert Bjork and John D. Niles, eds., A Beowulf Handbook (Lincoln, NE, 1997). LC no. PR1585 .B384 1997
Guillaume de Lorris, The Romance of the Rose (tr. Dahlberg)
Middle English Lyrics
- Download the list of selected lyrics for class, along with some manuscript transcriptions, in .pdf format
- Middle English lyrics edited and annotated by TEAMS: http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/tmsmenu.htm
- Online edition of the Harley Lyrics: http://www.soton.ac.uk/~wpwt/harl2253/harley.htm
- Plain-text edition of the Harley lyrics online: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgibin/browse-mixed?id=AnoHarl&tag=public&images=images/mideng&data=/lv1/Archive/mideng-parsed
- Links on medieval lyrics: http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/lyrics.htm
- Selected lyrics with images: http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/medlyric.htm
- Resources for understanding Middle English language: http://mendota.english.wisc.edu/%7Eagbenton/MERP/lang.html
- Peter Dronke, The Medieval Lyric (Brewer, 1996). LC no. PN691 .D7 1996
- Eric Jager, The Book of the Heart (Chicago, 2000). LC no. PN56.H374 J34 2000
- Douglas Gray, Themes and Images in the Medieval English Religious Lyric (London, 1972). LC no. PR365 .G7
- W. H. T. Jackson, ed., The Interpretation of Medieval Lyric Poetry (New York, 1980). LC no. PN691 .I5 1980
Sir Orfeo and Sir Launfal
- Download a copy of Sir Orfeo here
- Download a copy of Sir Launfal here (warning: this is a large file)
- Download a copy of Marie de France’s Lanval here (tr. Judith Shoaf)
- Online edition of Sir Orfeo by TEAMS: http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/orfint.htm
- Online edition of Sir Launfal: http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/TEAMS/launint.htm
- Translation of Marie de France, Lanval: http://web.english.ufl.edu/exemplaria/intro.html
- General information on Marie de France: http://fajardo-acosta.com/worldlit/marie/lais.htm
- Notes on Middle English Romance: http://faculty.uca.edu/~jona/second/romannot.htm
- Stephen Shepherd’s Companion to Middle English Romance: http://faculty.smu.edu/sshepher/index.htm
- Essays by Erich Auerbach, “The Knight Sets Forth,” John Finlayson, “Definitions of Middle English Romance,” Albert C. Baugh, “Improvisation in the Middle English Romance,” Gisela Guddat-Figge, “The Audience of the Romances," in Shepherd’s Middle English Romances (New York, 1995). LC no. PR321 .M45 1995
- Rosalind Field, “Romance in England, 1066-1400” in David Wallace, ed., The Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature (Cambridge, 1999), 152-176. LC no. PR255 .C35 1999
- Susan Crane, Insular Romance (Berkeley, 1986). LC no. PC2948 .C73 1986
- David Aers and Lynne Staley, The Powers of the Holy: religion, politics, and gender in late medieval English culture (University Park, PA, 1996). LC no. BR750 .A35 1996
- Carol Fewster, Traditionality and Genre in Middle English Romance (Cambridge, 1987). LC no. PR321 .F49 1987
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (tr. Borroff)
The Travels of Sir John Mandeville
- English translation of the work: http://www.romanization.com/books/mandeville/
- A collection of early medieval maps: http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/EMwebpages/EML.html
- An essay on early travel writing and exploration: http://www.hku.hk/english/courses2000/2045/week3.htm
- Iain Higgins, Writing East: the “Travels” of Sir John Mandeville (Philadelphia, 1997). LC no. G370.M2 M3634 1997
- Stephen Greenblatt, Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World (Chicago, 1991), ch. 1. LC no. E121 .G74 1991
- Mary Campbell, The Witness and the Other World: exotic European travel writing, 400-1600 (Ithaca, 1988). LC no. G89 .C3 1988
- Jefrey Jerome Cohen, ed., The Postcolonial Middle Ages (New York, 2000). LC no. D113.5 .P65 2000
Thomas Malory, Morte Darthur (Brewer edition)
- A complete text of Malory’s work: http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/c/cme/cme-idx?type=header&idno=MaloryWks2
- Information on Malory: http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/malory.htm
- Crib notes on the text: http://www.enotes.com/le-morte/
- One of the best guides to Arthurian resources: http://smu.edu/arthuriana/
- Another good collection of links for Arthurian studies: http://academics.vmi.edu/english/arthur.html
- Yet another good source: http://www.arthuriana.co.uk/
- Information on William Caxton, the first printer in England: http://home.vicnet.net.au/%7Eneils/renaissance/caxton.htm
- Felicity Riddy, Sir Thomas Malory (Leiden, 1987). LC no. PR2045 .R53 1987
- Lee Patterson, Negotiating the Past: The Historical Understanding of Medieval Literature (Madison, WI, 1987). LC no. PR255 .P34 1987
- Michelle R. Warren, History on the Edge: Excalibur and the borders of Britain, 1100-1300 (Minneapolis, MN, 2000). LC no. DA175 .W35 2000
Pearl (tr. Borroff)
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