The evidence in this edition supports Haywood's earlier arguments, and advances the view that Viking ships and sea borne activities were not as revolutionary as is commonly believed.

    Illustrating a variety of interpretative schools, the essays not onlydeal with most of the major issues of Beowulf criticism, including structure, style, genre, and theme, but also offer the sort of explanations of particular passagesthat are invaluable to a careful reading of a poem. This up-to-date collection ofsignificant critical approaches fills a long-standing need for a companion volumefor the study of the poem. Larger patterns in the history of Beowulf criticism arealso traceable in the chronological order of the collection. Thecontributors are Theodore M. Andersson, Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur, Jane Chance, Laurence N. de Looze, Margaret E. Goldsmith, Stanley B. Greenfield, Joseph Harris, Edward B. Irving, Jr., John Leyerle, Francis P. Magoun, Jr., M. B. McNamee, S. J., Bertha S. Phillpotts, John C. Pope, Richard N. Ringler, Geoffrey R. Russom, T. A.Shippey, and J. R. R. Tolkien.

    The work includes all manuscripts written in the vernacular earlier than approximately 1200 A.D., andexamines the two hundred principal manuscripts in which Anglo-Saxon occurs in the form of short notes, glosses, and scribbles. In addition, the volume provides a valuable appendix that includes manuscripts written in Anglo-Saxon by continental scribes.