Editing Old English literature (section)

== Reception and scholarship ==

=== Later medieval glossing and translation ===
Old English literature did not disappear in 1066 with the Norman Conquest. Many sermons and works continued to be read and used in part or whole up through the 14th century, and were further catalogued and organised. What might be termed the earliest scholarship on Old English literature was done by a 12th or early 13th-century scribe from Worcester known only as [[The Tremulous Hand of Worcester|The Tremulous Hand]] – a [[sobriquet]] earned for a hand tremor causing characteristically messy handwriting.{{sfn|Schipper|1997|p=184}} The Tremulous Hand is known for many Latin glosses of Old English texts, which represent the earliest attempt to translate the language in the post-Norman period. Perhaps his most well known scribal work is that of the Worcester Cathedral Library MS F. 174, which contains part of [[Ælfric of Eynsham|Ælfric]]'s ''Grammar'' and ''Glossary'' and a short fragmentary poem often called "Bede's Death Song" in addition to the Body and Soul poem.{{sfn|Franzen|1991}}

=== Antiquarianism and early scholarship ===
During the [[English Reformation|Reformation]], when [[Dissolution of the Monasteries|monastic libraries were dispersed]], the manuscripts began to be collected by [[antiquarian]]s and scholars. Some of the earliest collectors and scholars included [[Laurence Nowell]], [[Matthew Parker]], [[Robert Bruce Cotton]] and [[Humfrey Wanley]].{{sfn|Cameron|1982|p=286}}

Old English dictionaries and references were created from the 17th century. The first was [[William Somner]]'s ''Dictionarium Saxonico-Latino-Anglicum'' (1659). [[Lexicographer]] [[Joseph Bosworth]] began a dictionary in the 19th century called ''[[Joseph Bosworth|An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary]]'', which was completed by [[Thomas Northcote Toller]] in 1898 and updated by [[Alistair Campbell (poet)|Alistair Campbell]] in 1972.{{sfn|Cameron|1982|p=286-287}}

=== 19th, 20th, and 21st century scholarship ===
In the 19th and early 20th centuries the focus was on the Germanic and pagan roots that scholars thought they could detect in Old English literature.{{sfn|Stanley|1975}} Because Old English was one of the first vernacular languages to be written down, 19th-century scholars searching for the roots of European "national culture" (see [[Romantic Nationalism]]) took special interest in studying what was then commonly referred to as 'Anglo-Saxon literature',<ref>{{Citation|last=Davis|first=Kathleen|title=Old English lyrics: a poetics of experience|date=2012|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-early-medieval-english-literature/old-english-lyrics-a-poetics-of-experience/00629EE84B57C85E31E2DAB56B335043|work=The Cambridge History of Early Medieval English Literature|pages=332–356|editor-last=Lees|editor-first=Clare A.|series=The New Cambridge History of English Literature|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-19058-9|access-date=2022-01-29}}</ref> and Old English became a regular part of university curriculum.<ref>{{Citation |title=Why Do We Study the Manuscript? |date=2020 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-medieval-british-manuscripts/why-do-we-study-the-manuscript/B2CF8CBAEF453FA9937B77179882D861 |work=The Cambridge Companion to Medieval British Manuscripts |pages=127–234 |editor-last=Treharne |editor-first=Elaine |series=Cambridge Companions to Literature |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-10246-0 |access-date=2022-10-13 |editor2-last=Da Rold |editor2-first=Orietta}}</ref>

After World War II there was increasing interest in the manuscripts themselves, developing new palaeographic approaches from antiquarian approaches. [[Neil Ker]], a [[paleographer]], published the groundbreaking ''Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon'' in 1957, and by 1980 nearly all Anglo-Saxon manuscript texts were available as facsimiles or editions.{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}}

On account of the work of Bernard F. Huppé,{{sfn|Huppé|1959}} attention to the influence of [[Augustine|Augustinian]]{{clarify|date=January 2022}} [[exegesis]] increased in scholarship.{{sfn|Hill|2002}}

[[J.R.R. Tolkien]] is often credited with creating a movement to look at Old English as a subject of [[literary theory]] in his seminal lecture "[[Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics]]" (1936).{{sfn|Cameron|1982|p=287}}

Since the 1970s, along with a focus upon [[paleography]] and the physical manuscripts themselves more generally, scholars continue to debate such issues as dating, place of origin, authorship, connections between Old English literary culture and global medieval literatures, and the valences{{clarify|date=January 2022}} of Old English poetry that may be revealed by contemporary theory: for instance, feminist, queer, critical race, and eco-critical theories.{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}}

=== Influence on modern English literature ===

==== Prose ====
Tolkien adapted the subject matter and terminology of heroic poetry for works like ''[[The Hobbit]]'' and ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', and [[John Gardner (American writer)|John Gardner]] wrote ''[[Grendel (novel)|Grendel]]'', which tells the story of Beowulf's opponent from his own perspective.{{sfn|Cameron|1982|p=287}}

==== Poetry ====
Old English literature has had some influence on modern literature, and notable poets have translated and incorporated Old English poetry.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Chris |title=Fossil poetry: Anglo-Saxon and linguistic nativism in nineteenth-century poetry |date=2018 |publisher=Oxford university press |isbn=978-0-19-882452-7 |location=Oxford (GB)}}</ref> Well-known early translations include [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson]]'s translation of ''The Battle of Brunanburh'', [[William Morris]]'s translation of ''Beowulf'', and [[Ezra Pound]]'s translation of ''The Seafarer''. The influence of the poetry can be seen in modern poets Ezra Pound and [[W. H. Auden]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Chris |title=Strange likeness: the use of Old English in twentieth-century poetry |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-170788-9 |location=Oxford}}</ref>

More recently other notable poets such as [[Paul Muldoon]], [[Edwin Morgan (poet)|Edwin Morgan]], [[Seamus Heaney]], [[Denise Levertov]] and [[U. A. Fanthorpe]] have all shown an interest in Old English poetry. In 1987 Denise Levertov published "Cædmon", an original composition based on Bede's account for the poet [[Cædmon]] of [[Cædmon's Hymn]] in the collection ''Breathing the Water''. This was followed by Seamus Heaney's version of the poem "Whitby-sur-Moyola" in his ''The Spirit Level'' (1996), Paul Muldoon's "Caedmona's Hymn" in his ''Moy Sand and Gravel'' (2002) and U. A. Fanthorpe's "Caedmon's Song" in her ''Queuing for the Sun'' (2003).

In 2000, Seamus Heaney published his translation of ''Beowulf''. Heaney uses Irish diction across ''Beowulf'' to bring what he calls a "special body and force" to the poem, putting forward his own Ulster heritage, "in order to render [the poem] ever more 'willable forward/again and again and again.'"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Heaney |first1=Seamus |editor1-last=Donohughe |editor1-first=Daniel |title=Beowulf: a Verse Translation |date=2002 |publisher=W.W. Norton |location=New York |page=xxxviii}}</ref>