The Beowulf Manuscript

“Understandably, interest in the manuscript has centered on Beowulf, and it is still called the Beowulf manuscript here, though—unprecedentedly—this new book contains both text and translations of all the Nowell manuscript’s items: the three prose works that precede Beowulf—The Passion of St. Christopher, The Wonders of the East, and The Letters of Alexander the Great to Aristotle—as well as Judith. It is an inspired project. R. D. Fulk is one of the world’s leading Beowulfians… Fulk has produced an elegant, slightly archaized prose version of the poem (‘He lived to see remedy for that’) that keeps to the same register for all the items in the manuscript. His textual notes are predictably authoritative, and he conveys a remarkable amount of information within a small compass in his notes to the translations. …This delightful book is a particularly graceful member of the beautifully produced Dumbarton Oaks series.”—Bernard O’Donoghue, The Times Literary Supplement