R E V I E W S Angus Cameron, Allison Kingsmill, and Ashley Crandall Amos, Old English Word Studies: A Preliminary Author and Word Index, Toronto Old Eng lish Series 8 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1983). xvi, 192 + 5 microfiche sheets. $60.20 This volume, the latest and presumably the last of the initial by-products of the Dictionary of Old English project to be released before the Dictionary itself is completed, is the only one to appear under the name of the late Editor, Angus Cameron; it is nice to have this reminder of how much we owe to Cameron, along with a preview of how much more we can expect from the final results of his labours, and those of the dedicated staff which now is pressing towards completion of the project — including, of course, Allison Kingsmill and Ashley Crandell Amos. The nature, scope, and limita tions of the present volume are explained with admirable, and disarming, clarity by the editors in their introduction; they hold out the hope that a revised second edition may be made available after the Dictionary itself has reached its final form. Along with the Microfiche Concordance to Old English published by Antonette diPaolo Healey and Richard L. Venezky in 1980, the Preliminary Author and Word Index is a contribution to Old English studies which will be of permanent value to just about every student in the field. The author index, the part of the work which has been published in conventional book form — and very well printed and bound indeed — comprises a list of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century glossaries and dictionaries of Old Eng lish; a “naturally” much more extensive one of more recent dictionaries, concordances, and glossaries; and a list of vocabulary studies (liberally defined), arranged alphabetically by author(s). The five-sheet microfiche section, placed in an envelope inside the back cover, is the alphabetized word list, keyed, of course, to the author index. Since the glossaries, articles, and other works here indexed number in the thousands, the word index is a very large one indeed — and no doubt one that could not possibly have E n g l ish Stu d ies in C anada, xi, 2, June 1985 been published in these depressed days in any form other than microfiche. The primary significance of the Index will be its usefulness to those striv ing for a more sophisticated knowledge of the possible meanings and implications of an Old English word in a particular context. This group should mean all students of the subject, since only the hopelessly naive could possibly assume that any dictionary or glossary — even the forthcom ing Dictionary of Old English, which will have definitions we can assume to be in large part based on the information here gathered — can be relied upon to answer all possible queries about particular words in various con texts. With the Microfiche Concordance to guide us to various contexts and the Index to lead us to an astoundingly wide variety of word studies, we are all in a better position than ever before to reach an informed understanding of the nuances of any given Old English text. As a record of past and present disagreements and inspirations, the Index will also be valuable for those whose interests are of a more historical nature: as well as, as the editors suggest, a possible source of a certain amount of amusement. No doubt some users of the Index will discover omissions in the key, and all-important author list; such users are urged by the editors to let the Dictionary staff know about these errors or omissions at once, and it is to be hoped — for everyone’s sake — that the eagle-eyed will do just that. I have not myself found any notable omissions as yet, though it just might be worth mentioning T. A. Shippey’s Beowulf (1978), which contains some interesting discussions of certain implications of vocabulary such as the statement that the coastguard was “py weorpra” because of Beowulf’s gifts. I do not find a similar discussion of weorpian or gewurpod in the recorded forms of this/those word(s) in the Index; but then...