Interpretations of Beowulf: A Critical Anthology

Interpretations of Beowulf brings together over six decades of literaryscholarship. Illustrating a variety of interpretative schools, the essays not onlydeal with most of the major issues of Beowulf criticism, including structure, style, genre, and theme, but also offer the sort of explanations of particular passagesthat are invaluable to a careful reading of a poem. This up-to-date collection ofsignificant critical approaches fills a long-standing need for a companion volumefor the study of the poem. Larger patterns in the history of Beowulf criticism arealso traceable in the chronological order of the collection. Thecontributors are Theodore M. Andersson, Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur, Jane Chance, Laurence N. de Looze, Margaret E. Goldsmith, Stanley B. Greenfield, Joseph Harris, Edward B. Irving, Jr., John Leyerle, Francis P. Magoun, Jr., M. B. McNamee, S. J., Bertha S. Phillpotts, John C. Pope, Richard N. Ringler, Geoffrey R. Russom, T. A.Shippey, and J. R. R. Tolkien.