Introduction

The surviving remains of Old English literature are the flotsam and jetsam of a vanished world, manuscripts and fragments of texts divorced from their original context, most of them second- or thirdhand copies of unknown originals, many of them saved from oblivion only by chance or neglect. From the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inOld English Literature p. xi
Format Book Chapter
LanguageEnglish
Published Yale University Press 08.02.2002
Subjects
Arts
Behavioral sciences
Communication skills
Communications
Heroism
Human behavior
Language skills
Literacy
Literary criticism
Literary devices
Literary genres
Literary history
Literary studies
Literary style
Literature
Narrative poetry
Oral poetry
Poetic themes
Poetry
Reading
Religious poetry
Social sciences
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Summary:The surviving remains of Old English literature are the flotsam and jetsam of a vanished world, manuscripts and fragments of texts divorced from their original context, most of them second- or thirdhand copies of unknown originals, many of them saved from oblivion only by chance or neglect. From these randomly preserved parts of a whole we are supposed to extrapolate a fluid and living system—a spoken dialect, a literary tradition, a moment in history—but it is sometimes difficult to imagine how to move from these discontinuous scraps to a reconstructed reality. The textual product reveals only traces of
ISBN:0300091397
9780300091397