MLR, 99.3, 2004 733 Germanic legend and Christian teaching. Both have played a part in the creation of the poem, he argues; he is as willing to see analogues to Beowulf in the Icelandic sagas as in the biblical story of David and Goliath (and as ready to admit that such analogues are often imprecise at best). His discussion of the poem's spiritual atmosphere is well served by close attention to repetitionsof phrase and image, both within the poem and in other Old English texts like Andreas and the anonymous homilies; his refusal to re? gard verbal parallels between poems as mere 'formulaic repetition' leads him to argue for the influence of Beowulf not only on Andreas (a possibility long recognized) but on the works of Cynewulf as well. Not all the parallels he offerswill be equally com? pelling, and the direction ofinfluence is not always unequivocally established, but such corpus-wide concording of poetic language leads us closer to a sense of the network of intertextual influences that furnished the literary imagination of Anglo-Saxon poets. Further chapters discussing the presentation of character (pp. 169-202) and speech (pp. 203-37) are more conventional, but even relatively familiar observations are distilled into well-craftedaphorisms (e.g. 'insomerespects[...] Beowulf's own approach to Heorot is every bit as stylized as that of Grendel', (p. 208)). His final descrip? tion of the poem as the meditation of a historically minded Christian poet on the pre-Christian past 'all too aware of human limitations, [who] judiciously suspends judgment' (p. 263) is not daring or novel, but Orchard presents it lucidly, fluently,and strongly. The book concludes with a generous abundance of back matter: a collation of conflicting manuscript foliations, fiftypages of 'Repeated Formulas' in the poem, the massive bibliography, a most necessary 'Index of Lines and Passages Cited and Discussed', an index of scholars cited, and a general index. As a 'Critical Companion' to the poem, Orchard's book offers more than it pro? mises; it is certainly a reliable guide through the major areas of critical concern in the understanding of Beowulf (the damaged manuscript, the difficultlanguage, the unknown context and obscure meaning) and any student of the poem will be grateful forits clarity and thoroughness, but it is also a full-scale application of the most recent tools of rhetorical and stylistic criticism, surveying the entire corpus of Old English to place the art of Beowulf in the context of the literature of its age. Orchard proceeds confidently and meticulously; his work will inspire and encourage new approaches to the poem. Any reader of Beowulf will find much pleasure in this book, and it is a worthy companion indeed to a poem that still, thankfully,always remains just beyond our grasp. University of Tennessee at Knoxville R. M. Liuzza The Matter ofIdentity inMedieval Romance. Ed. by Phillipa Hardman. Cambridge: Brewer. 2002. xi+165 pp. ?4?; $75- ISBN 0-85991-761-4. These essays were originally presented as papers at the seventh conference on Ro? mance in Medieval England, held at Reading in 2000. There was no set theme, but a recurrent concern was the idea of identity. The resultant book argues, says Phillipa Hardman's introduction, that at a profound level the subject of identity is the matter of all romance. The collection, nevertheless, contains some important contributions where this is not the major topic. Attainment of personal identity is central to the firsttexts considered. Tony Davenport 's discussion of the abbreviated version of the swan-knight material in the Chevalere Assigne emphasizes its increased focus on the educative process by which the hero reaches adulthood, an achievement poignantly contrasted with the position of the doomed swan sibling forwhom there is no such possibility. Sir Gowther, too, is a romance about process, as Joanne A. Charbonneau says, 'of possibility, of becoming'. She finds, however, that factors such as the uneasy 734 Reviews movement between genres and the muddled inclusion of pointless detail result in an incoherent text whose very nature is problematic. Disturbing questions about human nature are raised but the text offersno satisfactory answers. Attainment of identity is less important in Sir Beves of Hamtoun, and Corinne...