The Old English Elegies

The first collected edition of the nine elegies in English and the first critical edition to include complete facsimiles of the manuscript originals in the Exeter Book.

Featuring an edition of the nine elegies in English, this edition incudes complete facsimiles of the manuscript originals in "The Exeter Book". Going beyond an exploration of the literary potential of individual poems, the author examines them as separate manifestations of a common generic impulse.The nine elegies have all been edited separately between 1933 and 1983. Klinck builds on the extensive previous scholarship in the field and also draws on recently available materials - notably the microfiche Concordances, the first letters of the new Old English Dictionary, and Bruce Mitchell's Old English Syntax - to make new suggestions about problematic words and passages. Going beyond an exploration of the literary potential of individual poems, Klinck examines them as separate manifestations of a common generic impulse: she moves from palaeographical and philological detail to broader literary and cultural considerations and, finally, to a definition of Old English elegy.