Old and Middle English c.890-c.1450

Elaine Treharne is Professor of Early English at Florida State University. She has published extensively on Old and Middle English literature, and focuses particularly on medieval manuscripts and their contexts of production. She is a General Editor of the Oxford Textual Perspectives Series, Editor of Essays and Studies, Medieval Editor for Review of English Studies, and a former Chair and President of the English Association. She is the founding convenor of the English Association Special Interest Group in the History of Books and Texts.

• Alphabetical List of Authors and Works xList of Illustrations xiiPreface and Acknowledgements to the First Edition xiiPreface and Acknowledgements to the Second Edition xivPreface and Acknowledgements to the Third Edition xvChronology of Events and Literary Landmarks xviIntroduction xixBede’s Ecclesiastical History 1Cædmon’s Hymn 1The Settlement of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes; The Life of Cædmon 2Alfred 13Preface to the Translation of Gregory’s Pastoral Care 13Translation of Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy 16The Accounts of the Journeys of Ohthere and Wulfstan 24The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 33Annal 755: Cynewulf and Cynheard; Annal 855–78: The Death of Edmund; Alfred’s Battles with the Vikings 33The Reign of Æbelstan and The Battle of Brunanburh 42The Exeter Book 48Advent Lyrics vii and viii 49The Wanderer 54The Seafarer 60The Whale 66Deor 70Wulf and Eadwacer 74Exeter Book Riddles 5, 7, 12, 26, 29, 30, 43–6, 55 76The Wife’s Lament 86The Husband’s Message 90The Ruin 94The Vercelli Book 100The Fates of the Apostles 101Vercelli Homily x 108The Dream of the Rood 118Ælfric 129Old English Preface to his First Series of Catholic Homilies 129Homily on the Nativity of the Innocents 134Old English Preface to his Lives of Saints 142Passion of Saint Edmund 144The Battle of Maldon 155The Beowulf-Manuscript 171The Wonders of the East 173Beowulf 182Judith 224The Junius Manuscript 243Exodus 243Wulfstan’s Sermo Lupi ad Anglos 259King Cnut’s Letter to the English of 1020 269Apollonius of Tyre 275The Peterborough Chronicle 301The Life of Saint Margaret 308The Hymns of Saint Godric 324The Orrmulum 326Cambridge, Trinity College B. 14. 52 335 Poema Morale, edited by Carla M. Thomas 336Trinity Homily 33 354Worcester Cathedral Library, F. 174 363The First Worcester Fragment 363Hali MeiKhad 366Ancrene Wisse 382Sumer is Icumen In 409Oxford, Bodleian Library, Digby 86 412Ubi Sount Qui Ante Nos Fuerount? 413Stond Wel, Moder, Ounder Rode 415The Fox and the Wolf 417Dame SiriF 423Love is Sofft 434Arundel 292: The Bestiary 435Oxford, Jesus College 29 437The Love-Ron of Friar Thomas Hales 437The Proverbs of Alfred 443London, British Library, Cotton Caligula A. ix 456La3amon’s Brut 456The Owl and the Nightingale 468Lyrics from Cambridge, Trinity College B. 14. 39 506Of One That Is So Fair and Bright 507When I Think on Domesday 508When the Turf is Thy Tower 509A Saying of Saint Bernard 509I Sing of One That Is Matchless 509An Orison to Our Lady 510The South English Legendary 512The Life of Saint Wulfstan 513Cursor Mundi 519Robert Mannyng of Brunne 525The Chronicle 525Handlyng Synne 534The Land of Cockayne 545The Auchinleck Manuscript 550Sir Orfeo 550The Four Foes of Mankind 563London, British Library, Harley 2253 567Earth upon Earth 567Alysoun 568Spring 569Advice to Women 570An Old Man’s Prayer 571Blow, Northerne Wynd 574The Death of King Edward I 576I Syke when Y Singe 578An Autumn Song 580King Horn 582The Ayenbite of Inwit 615Richard Rolle 619Ego Dormio 620Ghostly Gladness 626Kyng Alisaunder 627Ywain and Gawain 642Athelston 656Wynnere and Wastoure 675William Langland 688Piers Plowman 688Geoffrey Chaucer 728The Canterbury Tales 728The General Prologue 729The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale 748Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 776Julian of Norwich 801A Vision 801The Book of Margery Kempe 809Select Bibliography 826Glossary of Common Hard Words 845Index of Manuscripts 848General Index 850