Early Medieval Texts and Interpretations: Studies Presented to Donald G. Scragg by Elaine Treharne , Susan Rosser (review)

Abstract

762 Reviews to correct 'Lounpe' (p. 205) in the bibliography to 'Lampe', the name of Geoffrey Lampe, sometime professor of divinity at Cambridge University. University of Navarre, Pamplona Andrew Breeze Early Medieval Texts and Interpretations: Studies Presented to Donald G. Scragg. Ed. by Elaine Treharne and Susan Rosser. (Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 252) Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 2003. xx + 39ipp. $40; ?36. ISBN 0-86698-295-7. In the firstsection of this Festschrift, 'Influences and Interpretations', Roberta Frank notes the apparent influence of ON poetic techniques on Andreas; Malcolm Godden meticulously examines ^lfric's grammatical revisions to the Catholic Homilies; Mechtild Gretsch suggests influence fromthe Benedictional ofi^Ethelwold on ^Elfric's Sanctorale; Joyce Hill incisively investigates i^lfric's use of Latin homiliaries as intermediate sources of patristic material; Patrizia Lendinari traces the origins of the OE homiletic topos 'no aid from kin' (at the Last Judgement) and its links with the ubi sunt motif; Gale Owen-Crocker links the elements of horror in Beowulf to its broader literary and social context; Alexander Rumble examines twelfth-century attempts to maintain the accessibilityof OE charters by translation into Latin, linguistic moderni? zation, and transliteration; and Carole Weinberg explores the semantic range oihende in La3amon's Brut. In the second, 'The Editing and Transmission of Texts', Paul Szarmach complains of the current shortage of 'benchmark or full-service' (p. 136) editions of Alfredian works, and the continuing reluctance of Anglo-Saxonists to ad? dress the implications of modern critical theory fortheir editing practice; Janet Bately demonstrates that book-divisions and chapter-headings in Alfredian translations are not necessarily a guide to their original structure but are 'of varying quality and au? thority' (p. 166); Phillip Pulsiano edits the Passion of St Christopher in the Beowulf manuscript; Jane Roberts reconsiders two of Scragg's emendations to Vercelli Homily XXIII; Loredana Teresi edits the anonymous homily Be heofonwarum7 be helwarum; Charles Wright explores the intermediate territorybetween poetry and prose in OE homiletic writing, with particular reference to the 'verse-like outcroppings' (p. 250) in Vercelli Homily XXI; Mary Clayton edits and translates i^lfric's Letter to Brother Edward', Jonathan Wilcox investigates the textual history of ^Elfric's Letter to Sigefyrth ,a polemic against clerical marriage; Michael Lapidge suggests that iElfric may have been taught by the Welshman Iorwerth at Winchester; Andy Orchard discusses the problems of editing Wulfstan, with a sample re-edition of Bethurum XXI; Joana Proud gives an account of the late eleventh-century copy of the Cotton-Corpus le? gendary in Salisbury Cathedral Library MSS 211 and 212; and Timothy Graham edits seven letters from William L'Isle to Sir Robert Cotton. Although most of the contributions are quite narrowly focused, between them they offer an interesting overview of the current state of Anglo-Saxon studies. On the one hand, they reflect (and sometimes explicitly comment on) recent shifts of academic fashion: the dynamic growth of i^lfric studies, the passing of the Formalist emphasis on shorter lyrics, the marginalization of Alfredian works. On the other hand, they give the impression of a continuing reluctance to engage with recent developments in the broader academic community, in particular continental critical theory and what D. C. Greetham has called 'theories of the text' (Theories of the Text (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999)). This is perhaps unexpected, given the relatively radical approaches included in the excellent Scragg-Szarmach anthology, The Editing of Old English: Papers from the1990 Manchester Conference (Cambridge: Brewer, 1994). The only contribution to follow through on Szarmach's points is MLR, 100.3, 2005 763 Andy Orchard's sample edition of Wulfstan, which combines user-friendliness (in itself a radical departure from the practice of many editors of Old English) with a recognition of the 'practical and theoretical difficulty' (p. 314) of editing Wulfstan's work, accepting its characteristic variance and offeringa workable editorial solution to the problems raised by ongoing textual modification. The more traditional virtues of Anglo-Saxon scholarship, however, are well re? presented in this Festschrift: first-hand research, well-informed close argument, and meticulous editorial technique. It is thematically unified (unlike many Festschriften), the editing is scrupulous throughout, and an...