Modes of Interpretation in Old English Literature: Essays in Honour of Stanley B. Greenfield ed. by Phyllis Rugg Brown, Georgia Ronan Crampton, Fred C. Robinson (review)

100 LETTERS IN CANADA 1986 selected texts from the Greek Anthology or even the Greek Fathers. (JOHN M. RIST) Phyllis Rugg Brown, Georgia Ronan Crampton, and Fred C. Robinson, editors. Modes ofInterpretation in Old English Literature: Essays in Honour of Stanley B. Greenfield University ofToronto Press. xxi, 2g8. $35.00 Sumum wordlape wise sendeo on his modes gemynd purh his mupes g",st, ",oele ondgieL (Christ II, 664- 666a) (To one He sends wise eloquence through the breath of his mouth into his mind's consciousness, and excellent understanding.) These words appear under the frontispiece photograph of Stanley B. Greenfield, the scholar whom this Festschrift honours; the contents of the volume are a fitting tribute to the man these verses so aptly describe, who spent his life helping others to appreciate the ongiet and wordlape of a bygone age. The book is divided into four parts. In the first part, 'Words and Culture: five scholars explore aspects of Old English literature in relation to Anglo-Saxon culture. Gneuss's carefully argued defence of Alfred's Preface to the Pastoral Care in the light of recent attacks on its credibility is the most historically oriented essay of the collection. Renoir theorizes that the formulae of ora! rhetoric provide echoes of otherwise inaccessible historical and literary contexts; and Brown remarks on the extraordinary aptness of Old English poetic lines for expressing difficult and paradoxica ! religiOUS tenets. Clemoes's essay ranges widely over Old English poetry, exploring various types of symbolic language; and Mellinkoff contributes the only piece on the relationship of manuscript illustration to text. Part II, 'Words and Their Work: illustrates some of the modem literary-critical approaches to Old English literature. Nelson applies 'speech-act' theory to Maldon and Juliana, and Irving analyses the dramatic interaction between the 'characters' of the Dream of the Rood. 'A Study in Medieval Expressionism' is the subtitle of Calder's fine examination of figurative language in Andreas, and the deconstructionist reading of Maldon demonstrated by Frese suggests that the poem is a 'deeply incanted experience of the purification of enmity' rather than exultation over a conquered foe. In part III the focus of the book narrows still further to studies concerned with specific words: mere and sund in Beowulf (Frank); gehedde in Beowulf 505 (Pope); sum in Old English poetry in genera! (Rissanen); and various cruxes in Genesis (Stanley). This part is entitled The Words: Philological Studies.' The final three papers in part IV, HUMANITIES 101 'Sources and Words: investigate the possible Latin backgrounds of three works: Cross deals with six notices in the Old English Martyrology; Anderson surveys previous identifications of sources for Maldon, noting in particular the importance of the Encomium Emmae Reginae; and Bloomfield revisits his own earlier analysis of Deor, confirming it as preferable to Markland's, which theorizes that Deor exhibits the influence of the 'AJfredian ' Boethius. The reasons for the arrangement of these sixteen essays into the divisions just noted are clear enough, although there are many possible cross-connections: for example, Anderson, Frese, and Nelson all discuss Maldon; both Calder and Renoir mention the Andreas-Beowulfconnection; and Bloomfield's structuralist reading adds to the range of critical approaches exemplified in part II. Other connections between essays can be pursued through the index. The aim of this volume is to honour a scholar whose approach to Old English literature was both varied and thoroughly learned. In this it succeeds admirably. One is tempted to complain that the book is heavily weighted in favour of poetry: only Gneuss, Mellinkoff, and Cross deal with prose, and in none of their essays is it in primary focus. Nonetheless, this emphasis on poetry reflects Greenfield's own interests (see his list of publications, awards and honours on pp 283-7), and the papers here collected certainly demonstrate variety and learning in other respects: from the 'notes' of Stanley, through the detailed subdivided analyses of Rissanen and Cross, to the polished pieces, of which those by Gneuss, Frese, Calder, Frank, and Pope are particularly fine examples. Not only does the book honour its dedicatee; it provides both inspiration and exempla for others who aspire to follow in his steps. (PAULINE A. THOMPSON) John...