Search results for ""Author Michael Swanton""

The most important written work in English before the Norman Conquest, newly translated.Made up of annals written in the monasteries of Winchester, Canterbury, Peterborough, Abingdon, and Worcester, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle marks the beginning of the unmannered simplicity of English prose. Immediately striking are the accounts of the Danish invasions and the unhappiness of Stephen's reign, together with the lyrical poem on the Battle of Brunanburh. Ranging from the start of the Christian era to 1154, the uniqueness of the chronicle as an historical and literary document makes it of compelling interest throughout. The historical, linguistic and literary importance of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is without parallel.

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The Dream of the Rood is a poem that has entranced generations of scholars. It is one of the greatest religious poems in English literature, the work of a nameless poet of superb genius. This edition presents a conservative text with variant reading described in the notes. In his introduction Professor Swanton describes the Vercelli Book, in which the full text of The Dream of the Rood is found, and gives an account of the Ruthwell Cross, the sources for which are scattered and not normally familiar to students of Old English. The relationship between the two texts, the doctrine behind the poem and its style and structure are also discussed. The edition includes extensive notes and glossary.

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