The Transmission of Old English Poetry
" No detailed study of Old English poems surviving in multiple (two or more) contemporary manuscripts has yet been published, in spite of a recognition as early as 1946 (by Kenneth Sisam) of the potential value of a monograph comparing the various versions of these poems. This book fills that gap. Of some 185 extant Old English poems or fragments, twenty are preserved, either wholly or in part, in multiple manuscript versions, involving a total overlap of about 679 verse-lines (2.2% of the...
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Most of the 185 surviving complete or fragmentary Old English poems can be found in at least two manuscripts, with a large number of overlapping lines. This detailed study examines the relationship between the manuscript texts and assesses the problems facing editors of Old English verse. Orton also identifies poems transcribed by the same hand in order to examine the influence of scribes on the transmission of texts.
