On Beowulf

    Editions of the OE Text of Beowulf
    NOTE that besides text and glossary, these often contain introductions, notes, and bibliographies.
  • Beowulf. Ed. Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998. [A new students' edition of the poem, likely to become a standard. Excellent introduction, background, bibliography, illustrations, bibliography.]
  • Beowulf: A Dual-Language Edition: Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Howell D. Chickering, Jr. Garden City, New York: Anchor, 1977.
  • Beowulf: A student Edition. Ed. George Jack. Oxford: Clarendon, 1994.
  • Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg. Ed. Fr. Klaeber. 3rd ed. Boston: Heath, 1950. [For years, the standard "student" edition.]
  • Finnsburh Fragment and Episode. Ed. D.K. Fry. London: Methuen, 1974.
    Facsimiles of the Manuscript
  • The Nowell Codex. Ed. Kemp Malone. Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile 12. Copenhagen: 1963.
  • Beowulf. With Notes by Julius Zupitza and Introductory Note by Norman Davis. 2nd ed. Early English Text Society, O.S. 245. London: Oxford UP, 1959.
    Concordances
  • Besides Klaeber's glossary, note
    Bessinger and Smith, A Concordance to the ASPR, and A Concordance to Beowulf. Ed. J.B. Bessinger. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1969.
    Bibliography
  • Fry, D.K. Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburh: A Bibliography. Charlottesville, Va.: U of Virginia P, 1969.
  • Short, Douglas. Beowulf Scholarship: An AnnotatedBibliography. New York: Garland, 1980.
  • Hasenfratz, Robert J. Beowulf scholarship: an annotated bibliography, 1979-1990. New York: Garland, 1993. Z2012 .H23 1993
    Translations
  • Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburh Fragment Trans. J. Clark Hall and C.L. Wrenn. 3rd ed. London: Allen, 1950. I recommend this one especially: very close to the original, and quite eloquent.
  • Beowulf. Trans. E.T. Donaldson. New York: Norton, 1966. Also an excellent translation.
    Background
  • Chambers, R.W. Beowulf: An Introduction. 3rd ed. with supplement by C.L. Wrenn. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1959.
  • Garmonsway, G.N., J. Simpson and H.E. Davidson. Beowulf and Its Analogues. New York: Dutton, 1971. (Translations of poem and analogues.)
  • Whitelock, Dorothy. The Audience of Beowulf. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1951.
  • See also the page on the Scandinavian scene.
    Some General Criticism
  • Benson, L. D. "The Pagan Coloring of Beowulf." Studies in Old English Poetry. Ed. Robert P. Creed. Providence: Brown UP, 1966. 193-213.
  • Bonjour, Adrien. The Digressions in Beowulf. Oxford: Blackwell, 1970.
  • Brodeur, Aurthur .G. The Art of Beowulf. Berkeley: U of California P, 1959.
  • Donahue, Charles. "Beowulf and Christian Tradition: A Reconsideration from a Celtic Stance." Traditio 21 (1965): 55-116.
  • Goldsmith, Margaret E. The Mode and Meaning of Beowulf. London: Athlone, 1970.
  • Kaske, R.E. "Sapientia et Fortitudo as the Controlling Theme of Beowulf." SP 55 (1958): 423-57.
  • ___________, "Beowulf." Critical Approaches to Six Major English Works. Ed. R.M. Lumiansky and Herschel Baker. Philadelphia: , 1971. 3-40. (A cursory review of scholarship followed by an elaboration of the thesis set forth in the preceding article.)
  • Robinson, Fred C. "Two Non-Cruces in Beowulf." TSL 11 (1966): 151-60.
  • ____________. Beowulf and the Appositive Style. Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 1985.
  • Sisam, Kenneth. The Structure of Beowulf. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1965.
  • ___________. "The Beowulf Manuscript" and "The Compilation of the Beowulf Manuscript." Studies in the History of Old English Literature. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1953. 61-64, 65-96.
  • Stanley, E.G. "Beowulf." Continuations and Beginnings, 104-41.
  • Tolkien, J.R.R. "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics." PBA 22 (1936): 245-95. (Despite its inaccuracies, still one of the most influential and most ofter cited treatments of the poem; reprinted in both the anthologies mentioned below.)
    Collections of Articles
  • Nicholson, L.E., ed. An Anthology of Beowulf Criticism. South Bend: Notre Dame UP, 1963.
  • Fry, D.K., ed. The Beowulf Poet. New York: Prentice, 1968.
    A Few Special Topics

      "The Kin of Cain"
    • See Klaeber's note on lines 106 ff.
    • Emerson, O.F. "Legends of Cain," PMLA, 14 (1906), 831-929.
    • Kaske, R.E. "Sapientia et Fortitudo," p. 438.
    • __________, "The Eotenas in Beowulf," in Old English Poetry, ed. Creed, esp. page 304 and note 10.
    • __________, "Beowulf and the Book of Enoch," Speculum, 46 (1971), 421-31.
    • Mellinkoff, Ruth. "Cain's monstrous progeny in Beowulf: Part I, Noahic tradition," Anglo-Saxon England, 8 (1979), 143-62.
    • __________. " ... Part II, post-diluvian survival," ibid., 9 (1981), 183-97.

      "Unferth" and the "Flyting"
    • Bloomfield, Morton W. "Beowulf and Christian Allegory: An Interpretation of Unferth," Traditio, 7 (1949-51), 410-15.
    • Rosier, James L. "Design for Treachery: the Unfer` Intrigue," PMLA, 77 (1962), 1-7.
    • Eliason, Norman E. "The qyle and scop in Beowulf," Speculum, 38 (1963), 267-84.
    • Hallowell, Ida Masters. "Unferth the thyle in Beowulf," SP, 73 (1976), 239-65.
    • Robinson, Fred C. "Beowulf's Retreat from Frisia: Somne Textual Problems in lines 2361-2," SP, 62 (1965), 1-16.
    • ___________. "Elements of the Marvelous in the Characterization of Beowulf: A Reconsideration of the Textual Evidence," in Studies in Honor of John C. Pope, ed. Robert Burlin and Edward Irving (Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1974), 119-37.
    • Wentersdorf, Karl P. "Beowulf's Withdrawal from Frisia: a Reconsideration," SP, 50 (1971), 395-415.
    • ___________. "Beowulf's Adventure with Breca," SP, 72 (1975), 140-66.
    The Meter of Beowulf
  • Lewis, C.S. "The Alliterative Meter." Jess B. Bessinger, ed. Essential Articles for the study of Old English poetry. Hamden: Archon, 1968. 305-18.
  • Bliss, A.J. The Meter of Beowulf. Oxford:, 1958.
  • Pope, J.C. The Rhythm of Beowulf. 2nd ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1966.
  • Cable, Thomas. The Meter and Melody of Beowulf. Champagne-Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1974.

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