Beschreibung:
A revisionary account of the 900-year-long history of a major poetic tradition, explored through metrics and literary history.
1. Beowulf and verse history; 2. Prologues to Old English poetry; 3. Lawman, the last Old English poet and the first Middle English poet; 4. Prologues to Middle English alliterative poetry; 5. The Erkenwald poet's sense of history; 6. The alliterative tradition in the sixteenth century.