The Manuscripts of Cædmon's Hymn and Bede's Death Song: With a Critical Text of the Epistola Cuthberti de obitu Bedæ

Description

The plan of this monograph had its origin in the necessity of re-examining the manuscripts of Cædmon's Hymn and Bede's Death Song for the forthcoming sixth volume of the 'Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records', which will contain the minor and scattered Anglo-Saxon poems. It soon became apparent, as the materials at hand grew in bulk and complexity, that an adequate study of the seventeen known copies of the Hymn and the twenty-seven copies of the Death Song would require a disproportionate amount of space as compared with the other minor poems to be treated in the same volume. It seemed therefore advisable to issue this material as a separate book, the substance of which might later be reduced to a form and length more suitable to the collective edition. PREFACE vii LIST OF TITLES COMMONLY ABBREVIATED xi I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. THE MANUSCRIPTS AND TEXT OF CÆDMON'S HYMN 10 Manuscripts of the Northumbrian Version 11 Manuscripts of the West Saxon Version 22 1. In the Alfredian Version of the Historia Ecclesiastica 22 2. In Latin Manuscripts of the Historia Ecclesiastica 34 The Early History of Cædmon's Hymn 43 III. THE EPISTOLA CUTHBERTI: THE CONTINENTAL VERSION 49 The Manuscripts of the Continental Version 51 The Textual History of the Continental Version 61 IV. THE EPISTOLA CUTHBERTI: THE INSULAR VERSION 75 The Manuscripts of the Insular Version 75 1. The "Digby Group" 76 2. The "Symeon Group" 83 3. The "Bumey Group" 87 4. Miscellaneous Texts 90 The Textual History of the Insular Version 92 V. THE TEXT OF BEDE'S DEATH SONG 106 APPENDIX I 117 APPENDIX II 128