[Rose Kelleher]

Stumbled on this: http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/109.html

and have been haunted for days with a growing sense that everything I've ever written is worthless fluff.

Other than Beowulf, which I hated in high school but loved at age mumble-mumble, I've read next to no Norse, Old English, etc. poetry and want to educate myself. I also want to read for pleasure. Where do you recommend I start? Keep in mind my book budget is extremely tight and my To Read list extremely long.

[Maryann Corbett]

Burton Raffel's translations of Old English poetry were part of my basic education. There are newer ones, sure, but you might find those old ones available cheaply in used bookstores.

What kinds of libraries do you have access to? One of the best medicines for the broke-but-literature-hungry is a public library, a talk with a reference librarian, and liberal use of interlibrary loan.

Go for it!

Maryann

[Rose Kelleher]

Thanks, Maryann. Yes, there's a public library near me, but when I ask the busy librarian for help and she asks me what I'm looking for I'd like to have something more specific to say than, "Duh, like, rilly rilly old poems?" I'm looking for a good starting point. From there, I'll figure it out on my own.

BTW, my local library has no literary/poetry magazines in its periodicals section. When I asked about this, the librarian told me that kind of thing didn't circulate enough to justify the cost of a subscription. I very much doubt they have a bunch of Old English poetry books just lying around that I can browse through.


[This message has been edited by Rose Kelleher (edited December 10, 2006).]

[Julie Kane]

Burton Raffel's Poems from the Old English was first published around 1960, and there are various later editions of it available used on amazon.com in "good" condition for as low as one cent (!), plus shipping. There is also a relatively new, expanded edition of the same book, retitled Poems and Prose from the Old English, which contains translations by Alexandra Olsen in addition to those of Raffel. Amazon has a used copy of that for $2.75 today. I agree with Maryann that Raffel is a wonderful entry point. "The Wanderer," in particular (from the Exeter Book), is astonishing. TextText

[Maryann Corbett]

Rose, when I'm looking for things my public library is sure not to have, I look in the online library catalogues of nearby universities.

You might want to start with Edith Hamilton's Mythology--a really old, really good, really basic old-lit background. You probably know the myths already, but Hamilton will give you the names of the original pieces of literature. Then you can hit the online university catalogs.

You're looking for translations of Old English, Old Norse, Old Icelandic (look for the Elder Edda and the Younger Edda, and the sagas), Old Irish, and Old High German.

(editing back in with a step I forgot: then when you know the names and bib information of specific books, you go to your local public library and ask them to do an interlibrary loan. There's probably a limit on how much you can request at any one time, and it takes a few days, but it's better than having no access.)

Pardon me if this is stuff you already know; it's kinda hard to tell.

One good book that collects an enormous lot of stuff is The Literature of Medieval England, ed. D. W. Robertson.

Others out there who are teaching this stuff will probably show up soon to add books.

Maryann

[Quincy Lehr]

Auden's translation of the Elder Edda is pretty much a must-read, I think.

Quincy

[David Anthony]

"It's an especial
characteristic of heroic verse that the words used be simple and common,
the better to express strong emotions clearly and without unnecessary
adornment."

Rose, I think that's just a description of good poetry. You don't need to study Norse verse to know it.

Best,
David

[Mark R]

Something that's fun, has some really impressive alliteration, and doesn't need to be translated if you push yourself a bit, is William Langland's Piers Plowman. It's in four-beat accentual meter, and it's a century older and significantly bawdier than The Canterbury Tales. This one should be at any big library or book store.

Mark

[Quincy Lehr]

Piers is a favorite of mine, too, but honesty demands that the Medieval Christian allegory alert be raised. I'm fine with Medieval Christian allegory, but not everyone is.

Rose, C.W. Wrenn's A Study of Old English Literature was a text book when I took EEL&L at Sydney University in the klate 60s early 70s. I still consult it frequently, and find it very useful.

Contents:

PART I. GENERAL FEATURES

1. Anglo-Saxon Culture
2. On the continuity of English Poetry
3. Form and Style in Anglo-Saxon Poetry
4. Latin Writing in Britain

PART II. POETRY

5. Germanic Heroic Tradition
6. Cædmon and the Christian Revolution in Poetry
7. Beowulf
8. Cynewulf and the Christian Establishment
9. Lyric, Elegy, and Miscellaneous Minor Poems
10. Learning and Folk Poetry
11. Later Heroic Poetry and Occasional Verse

PART III. PROSE

12. The Beginnings
13. King Alfred and Educative Prose
14. The Benedictine Renaissance and Sermon Literature
15. Later Didactice Prose and the Beginnings of Romance

It's about AS Lit, not an anthology, but it's scholarly and critical and quotes in detail from the texts.

I see they have copies at Abebooks for as little as $3.35 with $3.49 shipping:
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&an=wrenn&y=0&tn=old+english&x= 0

or go to
http://www.abebooks.com/ and search