A groundbreaking study of pre-Conquest English poets that rethinks the social role of Anglo-Saxon verse.
Emily V. Thornbury is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of California, Berkeley.
Introduction: how can we know about Anglo-Saxon poets?; 1. What was a poet?; 2. Who became poets?; 3. The poet in the community; 4. The poet alone; 5. Spectral communities; Afterword: a way of happening; Appendix I. A handlist of named authors of Old English or Latin verse in Anglo-Saxon England; Appendix II. Skalds working in Anglo-Saxon England; Bibliography.