Michael Alexander is Berry Professor of English Literature, University of St. Andrew

Old English literary history is sketchy, even more so with poetry where there is little internal evidence of place, date, occasion, or author. And there is a paucity of surviving verse<-->about 31,000 extant lines mostly written near the year 1000 in the late West-Saxon dialect, works such as , the Exeter Book, the Vercelli Book and the Junius Book. Alexander (English, U. of St. Andrews) begins with an historical overview of England, 449-1066 and then devotes the greater part of the book to OE works in several traditions: heroic poetry, riddles, Bede's and Caedmon's (or those works thought to be Caedmon's), poetic elegies ( and ), Alfred and OE prose, Christian establishment verse, the Benedictine revival, and late prose and verse. The book is scholarly but does not assume prior knowledge of Old English. Originally published in 1984 and revised in 2000; this is a paper reprint of the 2000 edition. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)