E-Book Overview
"Seasons for Fasting", a late Old English poem probably composed in the early eleventh century, focuses on proper fasting observances in England. This poem, composed in eight-line stanzas, survives only in a sixteenth-century transcript made by the antiquary Laurence Nowell. With its topics, vocabulary, sources, and style derived from those of contemporary ecclesiastical prose, it belongs to a school of late tenth/early eleventh century poetry that only now is coming to be recognized and defined. "The Old English Poem 'Seasons for Fasting': A Critical Edition" provides a new text and translation of the poem, accompanied by an extensive introduction, commentary, and glossary. The introduction includes analyses of the poem's manuscript origins, sources, language, meter, style, and structure. The text is collated with all previous editions. The commentary elucidates points of grammar and style, and justifies all editorial decisions. The glossary covers every instance of each word in the poem. Since its discovery among the papers of Laurence Nowell in 1934, the poem has had only four editions, two of the text with basic notes, and two in doctoral theses with more commentary and analysis. This new edition brings the latest resources on manuscript study, lexicon (through the "Concordance and Dictionary of Old English A-G"), poetics, and cultural milieu to bear on this fascinating poem. The apparatus, including the glossary, will allow fellow scholars to extend these findings through links to their own work.
E-Book Content
The Old English Poem Seasons for Fasting A Critical Edition MEDIEVAL EUROPEAN STUDIES XV Patrick W. Conner, Series Editor OTHER TITLES IN THE SERIES: The Book of Emperors: A Translation of the Middle High German Kaiserchronik Translated and edited by Henry A. Myers Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Translated by Larry Benson with a foreword and Middle English text edited by Daniel Donoghue Perspectives on the Old Saxon Hêliand: Introductory and Critical Essays, with an Edition of the Leipzig Fragment Edited by Valentine A. Pakis Cross and Cruciform in the Anglo-Saxon World: Studies to Honor the Memory of Timothy Reuter Edited by Sarah Larratt Keefer, Karen Louise Jolly, and Catherine E. Karkov The Cross and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England Edited by Karen Louise Jolly, Catherine E. Karkov, and Sarah Larratt Keefer Cædmon’s Hymn and Material Culture in the World of Bede Edited by Allen J. Frantzen and John Hines The Power of Words: Anglo-Saxon Studies Presented to Donald G. Scragg on his Seventieth Birthday Edited by Jonathan Wilcox and Hugh Magennis Innovation and Tradition in the Writings of the Venerable Bede Edited by Scott DeGregorio Ancient Privileges: Beowulf, Law, and the Making of Germanic Antiquity Stefan Jurasinski Old English Literature in its Manuscript Context Edited by Joyce Tally Lionarons Theorizing Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture Edited by Catherine E. Karkov and Fred Orton Naked Before God: Uncovering the Body in Anglo-Saxon England Edited by Benjamin C. Withers and Jonathan Wilcox Hêliand: Text and Commentary Edited by James E. Cathey Via Crucis: Essays on Early Medieval Sources and Ideas Thomas N. Hall, Editor, with assistance from Thomas D. Hill and Charles D. Wright The Old English Poem Seasons for Fasting A Critical Edition Edited by Mary P. Richards with the assistance of Chadwick B. Hilton, Jr. west virginia university press morgantown 2014 Copyright 2014 West Virginia University Press All rights reserved First edition published 2014 by West Virginia University Press 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 123456789 PB: 978-1-938228-43-8 PDF: 978-1-938228-44-5 EPUB: 978-1-938228-45-2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Richards, Mary P. The Old English poem Seasons for fasting : a critic