£44.99

The Syntax of Beowulf: Word Order, Poetic Meter, and Formulaic Technique in the Old English Verse Clause

English as a Foreign Language

Price data last checked 61 day(s) ago - refreshing...

View at Amazon

Price History & Forecast

Last 30 days • 30 data points (No recent data available)

Historical

Generating forecast...

Price Distribution

Price distribution over 30 days • 1 price levels

Days at Price

Price Analysis

Most common price: £45 (30 days, 100.0%)

Price range: £45 - £45

Price levels: 1 different prices over 30 days

Description

“The Syntax of Beowulf is a pioneering work that profoundly improves our understanding of the language and meter of Beowulf. The strong statistical evidence offered for metrical constraints on syntax, morphology, and phonology can leave no doubt that Russom’s approach is visionary.” – R. D. Fulk, Indiana University “Geoffrey Russom's magisterial study will be indispensable reading for anyone working on Beowulf, the history of the English language, or Old English poetic tradition.” – Rafael J. Pascual, University of Oxford In this monumental contribution to Old English philology, Geoffrey Russom integrates important discoveries about syntax, meter, and oral-formulaic composition to interpret striking differences between Old English poetry and prose, including many differences that have previously evaded detection. The prehistory of English word order is traced from about 300 BCE, when alliterative meter was born, to the era of Beowulf (about 700 CE). Evolution of poetic word order is then explained as a response to syntactic evolution –– a response significantly delayed by formulaic poets who valued their ancient technique. An analysis is provided for every clause in Beowulf, with each concrete example accompanied by verse numbers for all similar examples. Russom’s integrated approach brings to light general principles of verse structure and formulaic composition that apply in other languages and other poetic traditions as well. GEOFFREY RUSSOM is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Brown University, where he had been the Nicholas Brown Professor of Oratory and Belles Lettres. His previous works include Old English Meter and Linguistic Theory (1987) and Beowulf and Old Germanic Metre (1998).

Product Specifications

Format: hardcover
ASIN: 1961361221
Category: Books > Subjects > Language Study & Reference > English as a Foreign Language
Domain: Amazon UK
Release Date: 12 August 2025
Listed Since: 12 August 2025

Barcode

No barcode data available

The Syntax of Beowulf: Word Order, Poetic Meter, and Formulaic Technique in the Old English Verse Clause

Price History & Forecast

Price Distribution

Price Analysis

Description

Product Specifications

Barcode

Similar Products You Might Like

Beowulf and Old Germanic Metre: 23 (Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England, Series Number 23)

The Dating of Beowulf: A Reassessment

Boydell Press Old English Philology - Studies in Honour of R.D. Fulk

Old English Poetic Metre

The Transmission of "Beowulf": Language, Culture, and Scribal Behavior (Myth and Poetics II)

Beowulf' and the Germanic World: Studies in Heroic Narrative Tradition

Beowulf: The Critical Heritage

Direct Speech in Beowulf and Other Old English Narrative Poems (30) (Anglo-Saxon Studies)

Beowulf: An Introduction to the Study of the Poem with a Discussion of the Stories of Offa and Finn

How the Anglo-Saxons Read Their Poems (The Middle Ages Series)

Genesis Myth in Beowulf and Old English Biblical Poetry (Routledge Studies in Medieval Literature and Culture)

Old English Prose and Verse: An Annotated Selection with Introductions and Notes by (Routledge Revivals)

Beowulf: The Critical Heritage

The Nordic Beowulf (Medieval Media and Culture - ARC)

Alliteration in Culture

Poetic Rhythm: Structure and Performance -- An Empirical Study in Cognitive Poetics

A Case for Irony in Beowulf: With Particular Reference to Its Epithets: 402 (Europaische Hochschulschriften Reihe 14: Angelsachsische Sprache und Literatur)

Syntactic Features and the Limits of Syntactic Change: 43 (Oxford Studies in Diachronic and Historical Linguistics)

The Ultimate Beowulf

Formal Approaches to Poetry: Recent Developments in Metrics (Phonology & Phonetics): 11 (Phonology and Phonetics [PP], 11)

Vernacular Verse Histories in Early Medieval England and Francia: The Bard and the Rag-picker (Routledge Studies in Medieval Literature and Culture)

Reading the Runes in Old English and Old Norse Poetry

Prosody in Medieval English and Norse (British Academy Monographs)

Performance in Beowulf and other Old English Poems: 45 (Anglo-Saxon Studies)