Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript PDF
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Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript Kevin S. Kiernan With a new foreword by Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=8599 The University of Michigan Press, 1997 BEOWULF AND THE BEOWULF MANUSCRIPT Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript Kevin S. Kiernan With a new foreword by Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=8599 The University of Michigan Press, 1997 Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript Kevin S. Kiernan With a new foreword by Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=8599 The University of Michigan Press, 1997 Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript Kevin S. Kiernan With a new foreword by Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=8599 The University of Michigan Press, 1997 Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript Kevin S. Kiernan With a new foreword by Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=8599 The University of Michigan Press, 1997 KEVIN S. KIERNAN BeOlA:)a4= and the Beowulf Manuscript Ann Arbor THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript Kevin S. Kiernan With a new foreword by Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=8599 The University of Michigan Press, 1997 Revised edition copyright © by the University of Michigan 1996 Copyright © Kevin S. Kiernan First published 1981 by Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey All rights reserved Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America @ Printed on acid-free paper 1999 1998 1997 1996 4 3 2 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otheIWise without the written permission of the publisher. A ClP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kiernan, Kevin S., 1945- Beowulf and the Beowulf manuscript / Kevin S. Kiernan. - Rev. ed. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 0-472-08412-7 (paper) I. Beowulf. 2. British Museum. Mss. (Cottonian Vitellius A. XV) 3. Epic poetry, English (Old)-Criticism, Textual. 4. Manuscripts, Medieval-England-Editing. 5. Manuscripts, English (Old)-Editing. 6. Paleography, English. 7. Beowulf-Manuscripts. 8. Manuscript dating. 1. Title PR1585.K5 1996 829' .3-dc20 96-31025 CIP Frontispiece. Fol. 179, recto and verso, of the BeowuifMs is a palimpsest. The recto is here reproduced in color to highlight those features of the MS that are obscured in black and white facsimiles (see Plate 14a). Cover. Fol. 179 verso, detail. Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript Kevin S. Kiernan With a new foreword by Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=8599 The University of Michigan Press, 1997 For Aidine and in memory of my father Terence Michael Kiernan Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript Kevin S. Kiernan With a new foreword by Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=8599 The University of Michigan Press, 1997 Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript Kevin S. Kiernan With a new foreword by Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=8599 The University of Michigan Press, 1997 • Contents Foreword, by Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe IX Re-Visions xv Acknowledgments XXIX INTRODUCTION 3 1 THE POEM'S ELEVENTH-CENTURY PROVENANCE 13 The Historical Context of the Extant Manuscript 15 The Linguistic Tests for an Early Date 23 The Late Literary and the Early Poetic Dialects 37 The Mixture of Forms in Beowulf 50 Conclusion 61 2 THE HISTORY AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE COMPOSITE CODEX 65 Cotton Vitellius A. xv. 66 The Prefixed Leaves 71 History of the Multiple Foliations 85 The Southwick Codex 110 The Nowell Codex 120 The Beowulf Codex 133 The Judith Fragment 150 Conclusion 168 3 THE BEOWULF CODEX AND THE MAKING OF THE POEM 171 The Authority of the Beowulf Manuscript 172 The Proofreading of the Scribes 191 The First Scribe 196 The Second Scribe 205 The Palimpsest and the New Text of Folio 179 219 Beowulf in the Making 243 Conclusion 270 Works Cited 279 Index 291 Appendix: The State of the Beowulf Manuscript, 1882-1983 305
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