Longman Anthology of Old English, Old Icelandic, and Anglo-Norman Literatures

Abstract

Richard north, joe allard, and patricia gillies, eds., The Longman Anthology of Old English, Old Icelandic, and Anglo-Norman Literatures. Harlow, England: Longman, 2011. Pp. xvi, 869. isbn: 9781408247709. $58.99.North and company have provided a real service to medievalists. This anthology is a companion to their earlier Beowulf and Other Stories: A New Introduction to Old English, Old Icelandic, and Anglo-Norman Literatures. While the typical anthologies focus on English literature with minimal examples from other literatures-if any literature from Celtic, Anglo-Norman, or Old Norse at all-this volume then, fills a void in the field.Selections are organized according to headings such as 'Heroic Poetry,' 'Poems on the Meaning of Life,' 'Early Chivalry,' and so on. Under each heading is a selection of texts, some familiar to most readers, others less so. Each selection is preceded by a brief, succinct, and informative introduction. Many of these are followed by a brief and very useful bibliography. Many, and I believe if not quite all, at least the vast majority, of the selections are examined in the companion volume Beowulf and Other Stories. What also makes this unusual as an anthology is that it includes original language texts as well as modern translations. The page is split horizontally so that the original text is on the top and the translation below it. The translations favor literal representation over elegance; when possible the editors have attempted to replicate the feel of the original, including word order. All in all, this is an unusual and much needed anthology.That said, there are some oddities. First, the title is something of a misnomer. In addition to the three languages mentioned, there are texts from Welsh, Irish, Castilian, Old Saxon, and Occitan. These are welcome texts in such a volume, since as the preface points out, the cultures are all cognate with one another. Yet, there are some odd choices of inclusion and exclusion. In the inclusion category is the Letter to Aristotle under the heading of 'Writers of the Benedictine Reform,' for example. This work was preserved in Cotton Vitellius A.xv, the Beowulf manuscript, and was translated anytime between the late ninth and late tenth centuries from Latin. The provenance of the texts in this manuscript are unknown. There is, in fact, no reason to assume that they are Benedictine texts or produced at a Benedictine monastery when the texts in this manuscript were copied. There are many other texts that would reflect the Benedictine Reform, some of which are included here, but many that are not. Some of the organization is also questionable. …