My Old English Exam List

The first of my reading lists is focused on Old English literature: works written in Anglo-Saxon England from the time of Cædmon (late 600s) till a bit after the Norman Conquest (1066). I assembled this list with the direction and approval of my major professor, Dr. Jonathan Evans. It's heavily weighted towards primary texts, but includes a smattering of secondary texts.

I. PRIMARY WORKS

Poetry:

Junius II
* Genesis A & B
* Exodus
* Daniel
* Christ and Satan

* Vercelli Book
* Andreas
* “The Fates of the Apostles”
* “The Dream of the Rood”
* Elene

The Exeter Book
* “Christ I”
* “Christ II”
* “Christ III”
* Guthlac A & B
* “The Phoenix”
* Juliana
* “The Wanderer”
* “The Gifts of Men”
* “The Seafarer”
* “Widsith”
* “The Fortunes of Men”
* “Maxims I”
* “The Order of the World”
* “The Rhyming Poem”
* “The Panther”
* “The Whale”
* “Soul and Body II”
* “Deor”
* “Wulf and Eadwacer”
* Riddles [selections]
* “The Wife's Lament”
* “The Husband's Message”
* “Resignation”
* “The Descent into Hell”
* “The Ruin”

Cotton Vitelius A XV
* Beowulf
* Judith

Other Ms.
* “Cædmon's Hymn”
* “Bede's Death Song”
* “The Battle of Finnsburh”
* “Waldere”
* “Maxims II”
* “The Battle of Brunanburh”
* “The Battle of Maldon”
* Metrical Charms [selections]

PROSE:

The Venerable Bede
* Ecclesiastical History of England
* Life of Cuthbert
* Lives of the Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow
* Other prose selections

King Alfred the Great
* translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History
* translation of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy
* translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care
* translation of Orosius's history
* Other prose selections

Ælfric, Abbot of Eynsham
* “De Falsis Diis”
* Heptateuch (introduction)
* Sermones Catholici (selected)
* Other prose selections

Wulstan
* “On the False Gods”
* “Sermo Lupi ad Anglos”
* Other prose selections

Other prose works
* Alcuin's Bishops, Kings, and Saints of York
* Eddius Stephanus's Life of Wilfred
* Life of St. Giles
* Life of St. Nicholas
* The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
* The Blickling Homilies (selected)
* The Vercelli Book Homilies (selected)
* The Voyage of St. Brendan

II. SECONDARY WORKS

* Bjork, Robert E. and John D. Niles, Beowulf Handbook (Lincoln, 1997)
* Dumézil, Georges, Gods of the Ancient Northmen (Berkeley, 1973)
* Frantzen, Allen J., Desire for Origins (New Brunswick, 1990)
* Glosecki, Stephen O., Shamanism and Old English Poetry (New York, 1989)
* Nicholson, Lewis, ed., An Anthology of Beowulf Criticism (Notre Dame, 1963)
* Orchard, Andy, Pride and Prodigies (Cambridge, 1995)
* Rauer, Christine, Beowulf and the Dragon (Cambridge, 2000)
* Robinson, Fred C., Beowulf and the Appositive Style (Knoxville, 1985)
* Tolkien, J. R. R., Beowulf and the Critics (Tempe, 2002)