Latin Learning and English Lore: Studies in Anglo-Saxon Literature for Michael Lapidge, Volumes I and 2

Laila Abdalla is an associate professor of English at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington, and former professor at McGill University.

Michael Lapidge is one of the foremost medievalists/Anglo-Saxonists
produced by Canada. On his retirement from the University of Notre Dame,
several of his former students, collaborators, colleagues, and admirers
honoured him with essays based on his periods of study. The two volumes
contain 40 articles written by a variety of international experts,
ranging from well-established academics to emerging scholars. The papers
in the Volume 1 centre on the period from the late 600s to the late
800s, while those in Volume 2 centre on 900 to the end of the 1000s. The
essays cover topics in literature, theology, culture, history, and
language, among others. The extensive nature of the collection allows
for some concentration; for example, there are five articles on
“Beowulf,” the greatest of Old English poems, and three on the
Anglo-Latin poet, prose writer, and theologian Aldhelm.

The ostensible focus of the collection is the moments of intersection
between Old English and Latin, both of the literature being produced and
the cultures producing it. The period’s literature and culture emerge
from the coinciding of the vernacular and native traditions of the
British Isles with the imported Latinate scholarship of the missionaries
and colonizers. Some of the articles attempt to explore this
interaction, but most converge on one or the other. In “The Role of
Grendel’s Arm in Feud, Law, and the Narrative Strategy of Beowulf,”
for example, Leslie Lockett applies Germanic culture, laws, and literary
understandings to the monster’s severed limb to argue that to the
Anglo-Saxon audience it would not be so much a sign of victory as a
signal to trigger anxieties. The native audience would understand the
arm as part of the exchanges that sustain feuds; the Anglo-Saxon context
informs the literary symbol.

These volumes are impressive: the essays are wide ranging and expert.
While some are densely written, most are accessible, and all will be
interesting to students and scholars in the field.