Elaine Treharne is Professor of Early English at Florida State University. She has published extensively on Old and Middle English literature, and focuses particularly on medieval manuscripts and their contexts of production. She is a General Editor of the Oxford Textual Perspectives Series, Editor of Essays and Studies, Medieval Editor for Review of English Studies, and a former Chair and President of the English Association. She is the founding convenor of the English Association Special Interest Group in the History of Books and Texts.

Alphabetical List of Authors and Works x List of Illustrations xii Preface and Acknowledgements to the First Edition xii Preface and Acknowledgements to the Second Edition xiv Preface and Acknowledgements to the Third Edition xv Chronology of Events and Literary Landmarks xvi Introduction xix Bede's Ecclesiastical History 1 Cædmon's Hymn 1 The Settlement of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes; The Life of Cædmon 2 Alfred 13 Preface to the Translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care 13 Translation of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy 16 The Accounts of the Journeys of Ohthere and Wulfstan 24 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 33 Annal 755: Cynewulf and Cynheard; Annal 855-78: The Death of Edmund; Alfred's Battles with the Vikings 33 The Reign of Æbelstan and The Battle of Brunanburh 42 The Exeter Book 48 Advent Lyrics vii and viii 49 The Wanderer 54 The Seafarer 60 The Whale 66 Deor 70 Wulf and Eadwacer 74 Exeter Book Riddles 5, 7, 12, 26, 29, 30, 43-6, 55 76 The Wife's Lament 86 The Husband's Message 90 The Ruin 94 The Vercelli Book 100 The Fates of the Apostles 101 Vercelli Homily x 108 The Dream of the Rood 118 Ælfric 129 Old English Preface to his First Series of Catholic Homilies 129 Homily on the Nativity of the Innocents 134 Old English Preface to his Lives of Saints 142 Passion of Saint Edmund 144 The Battle of Maldon 155 The Beowulf-Manuscript 171 The Wonders of the East 173 Beowulf 182 Judith 224 The Junius Manuscript 243 Exodus 243 Wulfstan's Sermo Lupi ad Anglos 259 King Cnut's Letter to the English of 1020 269 Apollonius of Tyre 275 The Peterborough Chronicle 301 The Life of Saint Margaret 308 The Hymns of Saint Godric 324 The Orrmulum 326 Cambridge, Trinity College B. 14. 52 335 Poema Morale, edited by Carla M. Thomas 336 Trinity Homily 33 354 Worcester Cathedral Library, F. 174 363 The First Worcester Fragment 363 Hali MeiKhad 366 Ancrene Wisse 382 Sumer is Icumen In 409 Oxford, Bodleian Library, Digby 86 412 Ubi Sount Qui Ante Nos Fuerount? 413 Stond Wel, Moder, Ounder Rode 415 The Fox and the Wolf 417 Dame SiriF 423 Love is Sofft 434 Arundel 292: The Bestiary 435 Oxford, Jesus College 29 437 The Love-Ron of Friar Thomas Hales 437 The Proverbs of Alfred 443 London, British Library, Cotton Caligula A. ix 456 La3amon's Brut 456 The Owl and the Nightingale 468 Lyrics from Cambridge, Trinity College B. 14. 39 506 Of One That Is So Fair and Bright 507 When I Think on Domesday 508 When the Turf is Thy Tower 509 A Saying of Saint Bernard 509 I Sing of One That Is Matchless 509 An Orison to Our Lady 510 The South English Legendary 512 The Life of Saint Wulfstan 513 Cursor Mundi 519 Robert Mannyng of Brunne 525 The Chronicle 525 Handlyng Synne 534 The Land of Cockayne 545 The Auchinleck Manuscript 550 Sir Orfeo 550 The Four Foes of Mankind 563 London, British Library, Harley 2253 567 Earth upon Earth 567 Alysoun 568 Spring 569 Advice to Women 570 An Old Man's Prayer 571 Blow, Northerne Wynd 574 The Death of King Edward I 576 I Syke when Y Singe 578 An Autumn Song 580 King Horn 582 The Ayenbite of Inwit 615 Richard Rolle 619 Ego Dormio 620 Ghostly Gladness 626 Kyng Alisaunder 627 Ywain and Gawain 642 Athelston 656 Wynnere and Wastoure 675 William Langland 688 Piers Plowman 688 Geoffrey Chaucer 728 The Canterbury Tales 728 The General Prologue 729 The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale 748 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 776 Julian of Norwich 801 A Vision 801 The Book of Margery Kempe 809 Select Bibliography 826 Glossary of Common Hard Words 845 Index of Manuscripts 848 General Index 850