Description: A fresh close reading of the texts of one of the four surviving major manuscripts of Old English poetry, reappraising Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Junius 11 to discover some of the preoccupations of its compliers.
Brief description: Carl Kears is Lecturer in Medieval Literature at King's College London.
Review Quotes: This excellent interdisciplinary book is a study of one of the few extant medieval manuscripts comprised entirely of Old English poetry. This monograph deploys historical context in a deft and winning fashion; it provides a model for similar studies of other manuscripts: i.e., how to read disparate poems and their interactions in a codex; it advances our understand of Junius 11, both as a whole and in terms of its individual poems; it is well-researched; and the writing is graceful and accessible.-- "JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND GERMAN PHILOLOGY"