The Cambridge History of Early Medieval English Literature
The New Cambridge History of English Literature Series

Informed by multicultural, multidisciplinary perspectives, The Cambridge History of Early Medieval English Literature offers a new exploration of the earliest writing in Britain and Ireland, from the end of the Roman Empire to the mid-twelfth century. Beginning with an account of writing itself, as well as of scripts and manuscript art, subsequent chapters examine the earliest texts from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and the tremendous breadth of Anglo-Latin literature. Chapters on English learning and literature in the ninth century and the later formation of English poetry and prose also convey the profound cultural confidence of the period. Providing a discussion of essential texts, including Beowulf and the writings of Bede, this History captures the sheer inventiveness and vitality of early medieval literary culture through topics as diverse as the literature of English law, liturgical and devotional writing, the workings of science and the history of women's writing.

Introduction: literature in Britain and Ireland, 500–1150 Clare A. Lees; Part I. Word, Script and Image: 1. Writing in Britain and Ireland, 400–800 Julia M. H. Smith; 2. The art of writing: scripts and scribal production Julia Crick; 3. Art and writing: voice, image, object Catherine E. Karkov; 4. Of Bede's 'Five Languages and Four Nations': the earliest writing from Ireland, Scotland and Wales Máire Ní Mhaonaigh; 5. Insular Latin literature to 900 Rosalind Love; 6. Bede and the northern kingdoms S. M. Rowley; Part II. Early English Literature: 7. Across borders: Anglo-Saxon England and the Germanic world Rolf H. Bremmer, Jr; 8. English literature in the ninth century Susan Irvine; 9. The writing of history in the early Middle Ages: the Anglo-Saxon chronicle in context Renée R. Trilling; 10. The literary languages of Old English: words, styles, voices Joshua Davies; 11. Old English poetic form: genre, style, prosody Haruko Momma; 12. Beowulf: a poem in our time Gillian R. Overing; 13. Old English lyrics: a poetics of experience Kathleen Davis; 14. Literature in pieces: female sanctity and the relics of early women's writing Diane Watt; 15. Saintly lives: friendship, kinship, gender and sexuality L. M. C. Weston; 16. Sacred history and Old English religious poetry Andrew Scheil; 17. Performing Christianity: liturgical and devotional writing Christopher A. Jones; 18. Riddles, wonder and responsiveness in Anglo-Saxon literature Patricia Dailey; Part III. Latin Learning and the Literary Vernaculars: 19. In measure, and number, and weight: writing science R. M. Liuzza; 20. Legal documentation and the practice of English law Lisi Oliver; 21. Latinities, 893–1143 David Townsend; 22. The authority of English, 900–1150 Elaine Treharne; 23. Crossing the language divide: Anglo-Scandinavian language and literature Russell Poole; 24. European literature and eleventh-century England Thomas O' Donnell, Matthew Townend and Elizabeth M. Tyler; 25. Gaelic literature in Ireland and Scotland, 900–1150 Thomas Clancy; 26. Writing in Welsh to 1150: re-creating the past, shaping the future Sioned Davies.

Clare A. Lees is Professor of Medieval Literature and History of the Language at King's College London, where she currently directs the Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies. She is known for her work on the earliest English literature, gender and the history of women's writing, religious writing and cultural studies, including issues of place and landscape, relations between textual and material culture, and re-workings of Anglo-Saxon literature by writers of modern, contemporary literature. She is the editor of Medieval Masculinities: Regarding Men in the Middle Ages (1994) and co-editor of Gender in Debate from the Early Middle Ages to the Renaissance (with Thelma Fenster, 2002) and A Place to Believe in: Locating Medieval Landscapes (with Gillian R. Overing, 2006). She is the author of Tradition and Belief: Religious Writing in Late Anglo-Saxon England (1999) and co-author of Double Agents: Women and Clerical Culture in Anglo-Saxon England (with Gillian R. Overing, 2001, 2009).