Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript
The story of Beowulf and his hard-fought victory over the monster Grendel has captured the imagination of readers and listeners for a millennium. The heroic Anglo-Saxon story survives to the world in one eleventh-century manuscript that was badly burned in 1731, and in two eighteenth-century transcriptions of the manuscripts.
Kevin S. Kiernan, one of the world's foremost Beowulf scholars, has studied the manuscript extensively with the most up-to-date methods, including fiber-optic backlighting and computer digitization. This volume reprints Kiernan's earlier study of the manuscript, in which he presented his novel conclusions about the date of Beowulf. It also offers a new Introduction in which the author describes the value of electronic study of Beowulf, and a new Appendix that lists all the letters and parts of letters revealed by backlighting. This important volume will be a must-read not only for the scholar of early English history and literature, but for all those who are interested in practical applications of the new technologies. |
Contents
THE POEMS ELEVENTHCENTURY PROVENANCE
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13 |
The Historical Context of the Extant Manuscript
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15 |
The Linguistic Tests for an Early Date
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23 |
The Late Literary and the Early Poetic Dialects
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37 |
The Mixture of Forms in Beowulf
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50 |
Conclusion
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61 |
THE HISTORY AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE COMPOSITE CODEX
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65 |
Cotton Vitellius A xv
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66 |
The Judith Fragment
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150 |
Conclusion
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168 |
THE BEOWULF CODEX AND THE MAKING OF THE POEM
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171 |
The Authority of the Beowulf Manuscript
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172 |
The Proofreading of the Scribes
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191 |
The Palimpsest and the New Text of Folio 179
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219 |
Beowulf in the Making
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243 |
Conclusion
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270 |
The Prefixed Leaves
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71 |
History of the Multiple Foliations
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85 |
The Southwick Code
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110 |
The Nowell Codex
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120 |
The Beowulf Codex
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133 |
279 | |
291 | |
The State of the Beowulf Manuscript 18821983
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305 |
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Common terms and phrases
11th-century Alexander's Letter alliteration Anglian Anglo-Saxon beginning Beowulf Beowulf manuscript Blickling Homilies bottom Catalogue Cnut codices codicological composite codex copied corrections Cotton Vitellius damaged dating dittograph Dobbie early 11th century edition editors eleventh gathering emendation erased erasure error evidence example exemplar extant fitt numbers flesh sides foliation folio Förster freshened h gone hair and flesh Hroðgar Hygelac insular script intact Judith fragment Klaeber Late Old English Late West Saxon later hand leaf linguistic literary dialect Malone Mercian minim misplaced mixture of forms non-West Saxon Northumbrian Nowell Codex ofermod paleographical paleographical and codicological palimpsest paper frames poem poet poetic dialect proofreading prose codex prose texts quire reading recto restoration rulings says scholars scribal script Scylding second scribe shows Sisam Soliloquia Solomon and Saturn Southwick Codex spelling stroke survives textual Thorkelin transmission variation vellum vellum leaves verso Wanley Wanley's Westphalen word written wundini Zupitza