Rachel Burns

University of Oxford | OX · Faculty of English Language and Literature

This chapter has ten sections: 1. Manuscript Studies; 2. Prose; 3. Beowulf; 4. Other Secular Heroic Poems; 5. Biblical Poetry; 6. Riddles, Wisdom Poetry, and Other Shorter Poetry; 7. Lyric Poetry; 8. Verse Hagiography; 9. Reception. Sections 1 and 6 are by Rachel A. Burns; section 2 is by Niamh Kehoe; sections 3 and 4 are by Rafael J. Pascual; sect...

The ruined-city motif in the Old English poem The Wanderer (lines 73–87) has long been read as a reflex of traditional Germanic diction, and as a symbol of material transience. In line with more recent biblical readings of the poem, this paper identifies a number of analogues and possible sources for both the excidio urbis image and other images of...

This chapter has ten sections: 1. Manuscript Studies; 2. Prose; 3. Beowulf; 4. Other Secular Heroic Poems; 5. Biblical Poetry; 6. Riddles; 7 Wisdom Poetry; 8. Lyric Poetry; 9. Hagiographical Poetry; 10. Reception. Sections 1, 6, and 7 are by Rachel A. Burns; sections 2 and 8 are by Niamh Kehoe; Section 3 is by Rafael J. Pascual; section 4 is by Raf...

This chapter has ten sections: 1. Manuscript Studies; 2. Cultural and Intellectual Contexts; 3. Literature: General; 4. The Poems of the Exeter Book; 5. The Poems of the Vercelli Book; 6. The Poems of the Junius Manuscript; 7. Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript; 8. Other Poems; 9. Prose; 10. Reception. Section 1 is by Rachel A. Burns; sections 2 an...

While the unnamed creatures of Exeter Book Riddle 13 have been read as ‘chickens’ since the early twentieth century, this solution has never fully satisfied either the narrative description or the cryptic puzzles of this short verse text. In this article, I propose a new solution, the Old English word SCEAPHEORD (‘flock of sheep’), which fulfils th...

In the Old English verse text Solomon and Saturn I, the character of King Solomon describes a fictional battle in which the letters of the Pater Noster prayer are anthropomorphized as warriors and attack the devil.¹ Many of the letters wield specific weapons: ‘R’ carries a flint, ‘flint’ rock (l. 100); Q and U carry leoht speru, lange sceaftas, ‘li...

This chapter has eleven sections: 1. Bibliography; 2. Manuscript Studies, Palaeography, and Facsimiles; 3. Cultural and Intellectual Contexts; 4. Literature: General; 5. The Poems of the Exeter Book; 6. The Poems of the Vercelli Book; 7. The Poems of the Junius Manuscript; 8. Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript; 9. Other Poems; 10. Prose; 11. Recept...

This article reassesses the grammatically problematic half-line prologa prima (l. 89a) in the Old English wisdom poem Solomon and Saturn I , and suggests that it ought to be emended to the grammatically viable reading of “prologa prim”. Line 89 a introduces a passage in which the words of the Pater Noster become anthropomorphised as warriors and at...

This chapter has eleven sections: 1. Bibliography; 2. Manuscript Studies, Palaeography, and Facsimiles; 3. Cultural and Intellectual Contexts; 4. Literature: General; 5. The Poems of the Exeter Book; 6. The Poems of the Vercelli Book; 7. The Poems of the Junius Manuscript; 8. Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript; 9. Other Poems; 10. Prose; 11. Recept...