3 Review(s)

Material evidence brought to light in this book includes a niello disc from Limpsfield Grange (Surrey) and two fragments of a composite Old English homily discovered in Westminster Abbey. Many previously accepted scholarly positions are reassessed and challenged. A comprehensive assessment of the palaeography of the Exeter Book situates it in the context of late tenth-century book production, and shows that there are no grounds for thinking that the manuscript originated in Exeter itself and that its origin must as yet remain unknown. As always, the interpretation of Old English poetry figures largely in this book. One of the most intriguing of the Old English riddles is explained convincingly. The influence of Aldhelm's Latin poetry on Old English verse is also convincingly demonstrated. The usual comprehensive bibliography of the previous year's publications rounds off the book; and a full index of the contents of volumes 1-25 is provided, with a separate index to volumes 21-25. (Previous indexes have appeared in volumes 5, 10, 15 and 20.)