THE OLD ENGLISH RUNE POEM: A Critical Edition - Maureen Halsall (Hardback, University of Toronto Press, 1981)

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THE OLD ENGLISH RUNE POEM: A Critical Edition - Maureen Halsall (University of Toronto Press, 1981)

Extremely scarce 1st edition academic hardback from 1981. 198 pages, red cloth boards.

This critical edition provides unique access to a work which has challenged scholars and students alike. The book is the first to deal fully with the poem as literature and to supply the runic background necessary for an understanding of the raw materials with which the poet was working.

The introduction offers a thorough discussion of the origin, development, and uses of runes before proceeding to the close examination of text, language, literary sources, style, and themes of the poem. Following the text and translation of the poem proper, detailed explanatory notes pay particular attention to the background of each individual rune and rune name, and the appendixes provide analogous material to assist in setting the poet's achievement into the runic context.

Since many of the sources necessary for an accurate assessement of the Old English Rune Poem are written in foreign or dead languages, modern English translations have been provided throughout to ensure that the poem will be accessible to students as well as to professional medievalists. (McMaster Old English Studies and Texts 2)

Condition: Very Good. Internally clean, tight and unmarked. Some fading on red boards around spine. Light shelf wear. Overall a very nice copy of this scarce, important rune text.