Richard Rawlinson Center Series for Anglo-Saxon Studies | Medieval Institute Publications

Series introduction

The publication series of the Richard Rawlinson Center reinforces the Center's mission to foster teaching and research in the history and culture of Anglo-Saxon England and in the broader field of manuscript studies.

submissions

Proposals or completed manuscripts to be considered for publication by Medieval Institute Publications should be sent to Ilse Schweitzer VanDonkelaar, acquisitions editor for the series, or the series editor, Catherine E. Karkov, University of Leeds. All proposals and submissions are evaluated by members of the International Advisory Board of the Center, with independent peer-reviews commissioned by Medieval Institute Publications.

See forthcoming titles in this series.

Editorial board and special advisors

The series' Editorial Board and Special Advisors comprises:

Lindy Brady, University of Mississippi, USA
Kees Dekker, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Netherlands
Timothy Graham, University of New Mexico, USA
Catherine Karkov, University of Leeds, England, Series Editor
Rosalind Love, Robinson College, Cambridge University, England
Donald Scragg, University of Manchester (emeritus), England
Paul Szarmach, Western Michigan University (emeritus), USA

Publications

Cover image of Darkness, Depression, and Descent in Anglo-Saxon England: the title in goldenrod on a black background, with a roundel from the Life of St. Guthlac, Harley Roll Y 6

Darkness, Depression, and Descent in Anglo-Saxon England

By Ruth Wehlau

This collection of essays examines the motifs of darkness, depression, and descent in both literal and figurative manifestations within a variety of Anglo-Saxon texts, including the Old English Consolation of Philosophy, Beowulf, Guthlac, The Junius Manuscript, The Wonders of the East, and The Battle of Maldon. It investigates the connection between the burgeoning interest in trauma studies and darkness and the representation of the mind or of emotional experience in Anglo-Saxon literature.

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Cover image of The Third Gender and Ælfric's Lives of Saints: on a black background, the title in goldenrod text with an image from a medieval manuscript of God creating Eve from Adam's rib

The Third Gender and Ælfric's Lives of Saints

By Rhonda L. McDaniel

"The Third Gender" considers Ælfric of Eynsham's treatment of gender as he translates Latin monastic saints' Lives for his Anglo-Saxon lay audience.

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Eye and Mind: Collected Essays in Anglo-Saxon and Early Medieval Art by Robert Deshman

Edited by Adam Cohen

Deshman wove together a dense and tightly structured nexus of Early Christian, Carolingian, Anglo-Saxon and Ottonian manuscript illuminations, ivories, textiles, mosaics and wall paintings on the one hand, and contemporary exegetical, liturgical and political writings on the other.

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Anglo-Saxon Books and Their Readers: Essays in Celebration of Helmut Gneuss's "Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts"

Edited by Thomas N. Hall and Donald Scragg

The collection opens with Gneuss's Rawlinson Center lecture, delivered just a few months prior to the publication of the "Handlist." The lecture is followed by six essays that examine the scribes, contents, circumstances of production and intended uses of selected manuscripts from the late Anglo-Saxon period and investigate the fates of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts at the hands of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century antiquaries.

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Aedificia Nova: Studies in Honor of Rosemary Cramp

Edited by Catherine E. Karkov and Helen Damico

The essays offered to Professor Cramp in this volume, while varied in subject, discipline and methodological approach, center on interpretations of the material world, whether that materiality appears in literature, in stone or in the artifacts removed from an archaeological dig.

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The Old English Hexateuch: Aspects and Approaches

Edited by Rebecca Barnhouse and Benjamin C. Withers

Its over four hundred images make this manuscript (Cotton Claudius B. iv) one of the most extensively illustrated books to survive from the early Middle Ages and preserve evidence of the creativity of the Anglo-Saxon artist and his knowledge of other important early medieval picture cycles.

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The Recovery of Old English: Anglo-Saxon Studies in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Edited by Timothy Graham

The eight essays in this collection consider major aspects of the progress of Anglo-Saxon studies from their Tudor beginnings until their coming of age in the second half of the seventeenth century.

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related, non-series publications

Medieval Institute Publications has also published volumes 34 to 36 of the Old English Newsletter Subsidia.

Old English Newsletter Subsidia

forthcoming in this series

Late Anglo-Saxon Prayer in Practice: Before the Books of Hours

By Kate Thomas

An examination of the creation of complex devotional programs in late Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, which were the forerunners of the Special Offices. This is demonstrated through close readings of prayer collections for liturgical feasts, the canonical Hours, prayer before the Cross, private confession, and prayers for protection and healing.

The Wisdom of Exeter: Anglo-Saxon Studies in Honor of Patrick W. Conner

Edited by E. J. Christie

This interdisciplinary volume collects original essays in literary criticism and literary theory, philology, codicology, metrics, and art history. Composed by prominent scholars in Anglo-Saxon studies, these essays honor the depth and breadth of Patrick W. Conner’s influence in our discipline. As a scholar, teacher, editor, administrator and innovator, Pat has contributed to Anglo-Saxon studies for four decades. It is hard to say which of his legacies is most profound.

Poetic Style and Innovation in Old English, Old Norse, and Old Saxon

By Megan Elizabeth Hartman

This book traces the development of hypermetric verse in Old English and compares it to the cognate traditions of Old Norse and Old Saxon. The study illustrates the inherent flexibility of the hypermetric line and shows how poets were able to manipulate this flexibility in different contexts for different practical and rhetorical purposes. This analysis shows what degree of control the poets had over the traditional alliterative line, what effects they were able to produce with various stylistic choices, and how attention to poetic style aids literary analysis.

Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, and Women in Tenth-Century England

Edited by Rebecca Hardie

Æthelflæd (d.918), Queen, administrator of law, military and political leader, is one of the most significant women in English history. Despite her multifaceted roles and family legacy, however, she has never been the subject of a book-length study. This interdisciplinary collection of essays redresses a notable hiatus in scholarship of early medieval England. It also examines Æthelflæd’s reign and legacy in the context of women’s roles during this period and so challenges a prevailing misconception that the tenth century represents a decline in female agency and power. Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, and Women in Tenth-Century England argues for a reassessment of women’s political, military, literary and domestic agency.

Thought and Action in Old English Poetry and Prose

By Eleni Ponirakis

In the burgeoning field of cognitive studies in Anglo-Saxon literature, criticism has tended to focus on the mind in isolation. This book offers a new look at the way authors of Old English poetry and prose explore an intimate relationship between mental and physical acts. In these texts, right or wrong action is not linked to nature, but is the fruit of right or wrong thinking, reflecting an emerging democratization of heroism that crosses societal and gender boundaries and in the case of The Battle of Maldon becomes intertwined with socio-political and cultural meaning. Movement, both physical and mental, is opposed to stasis and can be influenced by external -- human and diabolical -- forces. Through close reading and cross-genre comparisons, Ponirakis demonstrates how Anglo-Saxon poets manipulate this interaction to provide a key to interpretation. Comparison across the most influential prose texts reveals a startling similarity of approach which takes the discussion of the Anglo-Saxon conception of the mind and soul, not to mention conventional generic divisions, onto new ground.