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The transmission of Old English poetry / by Peter Orton.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Orton, Peter (Peter R.)
- Series:
- Westfield publications in medieval studies 0269-9699 ; v. 12.
- Westfield publications in medieval studies, 0269-9699 ; v. 12
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- English poetry--Old English, ca. 450-1100--History and criticism.
- English poetry.
- Transmission of texts--History.
- Transmission of texts.
- History.
- Physical Description:
- xvii, 223 pages ; 24 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- Turnout, Belgium : Brepols, [2000]
- Summary:
- No detailed study of Old English poems surviving in multiple (two or more) contemporary manuscripts has yet been published, in spite of a recognition as early as 1946 of the potential value of a monograph comparing the various versions of these poems. One-ninth of the OE poetic corpus exists in multiple versions, involving a total overlap of about 679 verse-lines. These are here compared in close detail, with a view to discovering as much as possible about the influences to which OE poetry was exposed in the course of its transmission. This raises questions on the authority of late texts of OE poems; the accuracy of copyists and the extent of their understanding of the texts they reproduced; the degree of freedom with which they treated their exemplar texts; the significance of the deliberate modifications that they imposed; and the question of oral versus literary transmission.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages [209]-213) and index.
- Local Notes:
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Constance L. Rosenthal Book Fund.
- ISBN:
- 2503510728
- OCLC:
- 45797922
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