The Anglo Saxon Literature Handbook

Anglo-Saxon Literature: An Introduction makes the literature of the Anglo-Saxon period (AD410 - 1066) accessible to today's readers. Author Mark Amodio, who is an authority on oral theory, helps readers to overcome the linguistic, aesthetic and cultural barriers to understanding Anglo-Saxon literature, and to appreciate just how vital and dynamic the surviving works of verse and prose from this period are. Amodio starts by familiarizing readers with the world in which Anglo-Saxon texts were produced, particularly its language, politics, religion, and by introducing the key literary figures of whom we know. He goes on to offer original readings of particular works, including Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon, The Wanderer, The Seafarer and The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and to situate them within current critical debates about the role of women, notions of authorship and textual integrity, the role of scribes, and more.

Mark C. Amodio is Professor in the English Department at Vassar College, where he teaches courses in Old and Middle English language and literature.  His publications inlcude Writing the Oral Tradition: Oral Poetics and Literate Culture in Medieval England (2004)