In the Foreground

Professor E.G. Stanley is internationally famous amongst scholars of Old and Middle English for his formidable learning, incisive style and often sceptical views. In the Foreground: Beowulfis an unusual, controversial and learned attack on many past and present opinions held by scholars and critics about Old English poetry, written without jargon and with a crisp wit. Its contents include a concise and illuminating survey of Beowulfscholarship and criticism; detailed technical comments on metres and poetic diction providing valuable new insights; and a section on the centrality of Christian prayer, praise and thanksgiving in Old English poetry, especially Beowulf, which will bring about a significant shift in the general understanding of the poem. Throughout, Professor Stanley characteristically emphasises the importance of accuracy and doubt to scholarship and criticism, virtues exemplified in this volume. In the Foreground: Beowulfis a book that no scholar or critic of Old English poetry will be able to ignore.E.G. STANLEY is Emeritus Bosworth and Toller Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford.