Wide-ranging survey of current research in Anglo-Saxon studies - from literature and material culture to religion and politics.Anglo-Saxon literature and culture, and their subsequent appropriations, unite the essays collected here. They offer fresh and exciting perspectives on a variety of issues, from gender to religion and the afterlives of Old Englishtexts, from reconsiderations of neglected works to reflections on the place of Anglo-Saxon in the classroom. As is appropriate, they draw especially on Hugh Magennis' own interests in hagiography and issues of community and reception. Taken together, they provide a "state of the discipline" account of the present, and future, of Anglo-Saxon studies. The volume also includes contributions from the leading Irish poets Ciaran Carson and Medbh McGuckian. Dr Stuart McWilliams is a Newby Trust Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh. Contributors: Ciaran Carson, Marilina Cesario, Mary Clayton, Ivan Herbison, Joyce Hill, Malcolm Godden, Chris Jones, Christina Lee, Medbh McGuckian, Stuart McWilliams, Juliet Mullins, Elisabeth Okasha, Jane Roberts, Donald Scragg, Mary Swan, John Thompson, Elaine Treharne, Robert Upchurch, Gordon Whatley, Jonathan Wilcox

Introduction - Stuart McWilliamsA Note on the Sensational Old English Life of St Margaret - Elaine TreharneA Place to Weep: Joseph in the Beer-Room and Anglo-Saxon Gestures of Emotion - Jonathan WilcoxAldhelm's Choice of Saints for His Prose De Virginitate - Juliet MullinsShepherding the Shepherds in the Ways of Pastoral Care: Ælfric and Cambridge University Library MS Gg.3.28 - 'Consider Lazarus': A Context for Vercelli Homily VII - Jane RobertsMore than a Female Joseph: The Sources of the Late 5th Century Passio Sanctae Eugeniae - E. Gordon WhatleyÆlfric, Leofric and In Natale Plurimorum Apostolorum - Joyce HillStories from the Court of King Alfred - Malcolm GoddenDe Duodecim Abusiuis, Lordship and Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England - Mary ClaytonReluctant Appetites: Anglo-Saxon Attitudes towards Fasting - Christina LeeA Note on the Function of the Inscribed Strip from the Staffordshire Hoard - Elisabeth OkashaThe Shining of the Sun in the Twelve Nights of Christmas - Marilina CesarioSin and Laughter in Late Anglo-Saxon England: The Case of OE (H)leahtor - Donald ScraggMarginal Activity? Post-Conquest Old English Readers and Their Notes - Mary SwanOld English for Non-Specialists in the Nineteenth Century: A Road Not Taken - Chris JonesThe Beginnings of English Poetry: Philological and Textual Challenges for the Creative Imagination - John J. ThompsonThe Beginnings of English Poetry: Philological and Textual Challenges for the Creative Imagination - Ivan HerbisonThe Honey Vision - Medbh McGuckianThe Scholar - Ciaran CarsonHugh Magennis: A Bibliography, 1981-2011 - Ivan Herbison