Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript

359 Pages·1996·14.34 MB·English

by  Kevin S. 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
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