Studies in the History of Old English Literature

First published 1953. Reprinted litographically in Great Britain at the University Press, Oxford from corrected sheets of the first edition 1962.
Apart from their general subject, these papers have a certain unity in that most of them are concerned with problems of textual transmission. In the Anglo-Saxon period this field has not had much attention. It does not promise quick, regular, or wholly satisfactory results. Yet, until it is better explored, writers on Old English literary history or textual criticism or language must often do without significant facts that are discoverable.
I foresee two just criticisms. One is that insufficient account has been taken of recent work on Old English. In a technical subject which has been intensively studied in many countries, the knowledge of what has been done is an essential part of the equipment of a professional scholar. But for more than thirty unquiet years of administrative work, I have not been able to watch the flow of articles and monographs, or to keep in touch with specialists at home and abroad. So I have not attempted to revise the pieces that have been published already, beyond correcting a slip here and there and adding in brackets an occasional reference or clarification. The other fault — the rambling nature of many of these studies and their notes — is partly due to the same cause. They are not systematic studies, but the result of following some idea or observation wherever it might lead, with the books and materials that were at hand. For such weaknesses I hope to have the grace that is allowed to amateurs. I would even claim that the amateur, working outside the main trend, has still a certain usefulness. He is less likely to be over-influenced by current fashions, especially those simplifying assumptions and generalizations which, in an historical subject, are convenient for teaching but unfavourable to research.