Beowulf: Translation and Commentary (Expanded Edition)

By Tom Shippey & Leonard Neidorf

• Beowulf, composed around 700 A.D., is the first great epic poem in the English language. It tells the timeless story of a hero’s fight against monsters and sets it against a complex background of political intrigue and tribal warfare. Situated in sixth-century Scandinavia, the poem brings to life a magnificent world that fuses history with fantasy. Tom Shippey’s new translation of Beowulf, reflecting a lifetime of engagement with the poem, makes its story clearer and more compelling than it has ever been. The original Old English text of Beowulf is included along with an extensive and innovative commentary, which guides the reader passage-by-passage through the poem and its criticism. 

Waltharius: The Latin Epic of Walther of Aquitaine

By Brian Murdoch & Leonard Neidorf

• Waltharius, the Latin epic of Walther of Aquitaine, is one of the great monuments of medieval European literature. Set in a fifth-century world of Goths, Huns, Franks, and Burgundians, this poem from the ninth or tenth century tells a lively tale of escape, treachery, and pitched battle. It recounts the daring escape of Walther and his betrothed, Hildegund, from the court of Attila the Hun, the pursuit of the lovers by Gunther and the Franks, and the moral dilemma of Hagen, who is Gunther’s vassal and Walther’s sworn friend. In their new edition and translation, professors Brian Murdoch and Leonard Neidorf endeavour to make Waltharius more accessible, available, and engaging than it has ever been before. 
• In addition to a facing-page presentation of the Latin text with modern English verse translation, the book contains an extensive introduction, copious notes, and up-to-date bibliography, equipping readers with all that they need to understand and appreciate this masterpiece of early medieval literature. 

The Bhagavad Gita: Lord Krishna’s Sacred Teachings on the Battlefield-of-Life

By Tassanee Sinsakul & William S. Whorton

• The Bhagavad Gita, a philosophical dialogue between Lord Krishna and Prince Arjuna, is one of the world’s most translated sacred texts. Devotees of the Gita number in the hundreds of millions. Why? The essence of its teaching is that for humans, we, each of us, at every moment, live (physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually) in combat on a battlefield (our physical body). “Desire” is our mortal and immortal enemy. In the realm of spiritual thinking, at the first moment after birth “lack” is born. At the second moment after birth “desire” is born. Our lives are a perpetual pursuit of desire striving to fill lack. Our karmic attachments are the fruits of our desires. These karmic attachments form the “prison” in which we (usually unconsciously) abide. Delusion and suffering are our human condition. Liberation realized through meditation, devotion, knowledge, and action is our only path out of “prison”; this is our purpose and battle.

Eric Brighteyes 

By H. Rider Haggard (Author) & Tom Shippey (Editor)

• Eric Brighteyes, published in 1891, represented a new departure for Rider Haggard, best-known at the time for his novels set in nineteenth-century Africa, such as King Solomon’s Mines (1885) and She (1887). Set for the most part in tenth-century Iceland, it was praised by Tolkien for its heroic quality, and remains the best example of what was once a large and popular genre, the Victorian Viking novel. Unlike other works of this kind, however, though not unusually for Haggard, it is driven by female characters, and combines scholarly authenticity with Haggard’s own unique flair for the strange and supernatural. In this new edition, Tom Shippey supplies Eric Brighteyes with extensive explanatory notes and an introduction discussing Tolkien’s admiration for Haggard and the Victorian fascination with Vikings. 

Woden: A Historical Companion

By Stephen Pollington

• All-father, warlord, runemaster, kingmaker, healer—manifold aspects, numerous stories. This book brings together the written and physical evidence for the god called Woden or Óðinn (Odin) in his many guises spanning more than a thousand years. Drawing on the latest interpretations of literary evidence and recent archaeological discoveries, Pollington assembles an impressive array of data to cast a fresh light on the origins and later history of the enigmatic god of war, magic, death, and secret wisdom. 
• Sources discussed range from Greco-Roman works to early runic inscriptions, Lombard origin tales to conversion narratives, genealogies to charms to Eddic poems, runestones and picture stones to armor and funerary furniture. With source texts provided in their original languages and in English translations, this book serves as an invaluable guide to a dynamic religious tradition practiced across large parts of northern Europe in the Iron Age and for centuries after.

Easter: A Pagan Goddess, A Christian Holiday, and their Contested History

By Richard Sermon

• As the Easter season approaches each year, commonly heard questions ask: why does the festival not fall on the same date each year, and how do its name and symbols (notably eggs and bunnies) relate to the Christian story of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection? A simple search of the internet will provide a bewildering volume of information and misinformation that claims to answer these questions. The issue has become something of culture war between traditional Christian interpretations and the views of people following alternative forms of spirituality and neopaganism. An often heard argument is that Easter was originally named after a spring or dawn goddess, who was symbolised by the hare and the egg, and whose name, festival and symbols were later appropriated by the Christians. The purpose of this book is to explore the principal claims and counter-claims that now surround the goddess Eostre (recorded once by the Venerable Bede in 725 AD) and the origins of the Christian paschal festival. It critically examines the substance and history of these ideas from their earliest sources to the present day. 

The Art of Mercy in Middle-earth: Paintings Inspired by Tolkien’s Legendarium

By Miriam Ellis

• J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendarium provides twenty-first century readers with a much-needed haven from the busy world around them. In his mercy, Tolkien generously balances scenes of high drama with unforgettable pauses for the refreshment of both characters and readers. His work remains true to the themes of “recovery, escape, and consolation” described in his seminal lecture and essay, “On Fairy-Stories.”
• This book offers a visual portal to these three merciful themes, which form the central subject of Miriam Ellis’s body of Tolkien paintings. Ellis’s artwork strives for faithful accuracy to the texts which she has been reading since childhood. The quieter moments in Tolkien are sometimes neglected in portrayals, but in them resides the beauty of Middle-earth. Focusing on those moments, this book is a treasury with which readers can relax and enjoying both the paintings and the brief but evocative essays drawn from the artist’s contemplation of memorable scenes in the legendarium and the many details of the paintings. Like The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, this book should be a source of recovery, escape, and consolation for the reader.

The Syntax of Beowulf: Word Order, Poetic Meter, and Formulaic Technique in the Old English Verse Clause 

By Geoffrey Russom

• This study integrates important discoveries about syntax, meter, and oral-formulaic composition to interpret striking differences between Old English poetry and prose, including many differences that have previously evaded detection. The prehistory of English word order is traced from about 300 BCE, when alliterative meter was born, to the era of Beowulf (about 700 CE). Evolution of poetic word order is then explained as a response to syntactic evolution –– a response significantly delayed by formulaic poets who valued their ancient technique. An analysis is provided for every clause in Beowulf, with each concrete example accompanied by verse numbers for all similar examples. Russom’s integrated approach brings to light general principles of verse structure and formulaic composition that apply in other languages and other poetic traditions. An important feature of the work is its abandonment of Hans Kuhn’s controversial definition of the verse clause in favor of a straightforward linguistic definition. A simplified approach to punctuation provides more accurate representations of poetic syntax that turn out to be more readable as well.  

By Brian Murdoch (Editor & Translator)

• This anthology offers parallel texts and translations of the poetic material that survives in Old High German, the earliest stage of the German language, from roughly 800 to about 1050. The translations keep as close to the originals as possible, while giving at the same time some indication of the poetic form. The works included are rich and varied, ranging from heroic lays to charms and blessings to historical poetry and hagiography. There is the heroic song of the battle between Hildebrand and his son, a charm featuring major pagan deities (Wodan, Balder, Frigg), poetic presentations of the creation and judgement day, a poem about a victory over the Vikings, and much more. Selections from the massive Gospel-poem by Otfried, the first named German poet, are offered. An appendix featuring Old Saxon analogues is also included. 

King Arthur: Medieval British Literature and Modern Critical Tradition

By Andrew Breeze

• King Arthur: Medieval British Literature and Modern Critical Tradition is a book that revolutionizes our understanding of Britain’s history and early literature. It begins with a compelling demonstration of ‘King’ Arthur as no figure of legend, but a flesh-and-blood warrior of the sixth century. He was not a ruler, but a North British champion fighting other North Britons during the terrible ‘volcanic winter’ of 536-7, and dying a soldier’s death in the latter year at Camlan or Castlesteads on Hadrian’s Wall. Arguments for this are followed by chapters on Arthur in the literatures of medieval Britain as perceived by scholars of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. They include chapters on modern understanding of the Welsh Mabinogion, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, Layamon’s Brut, the alliterative Morte Arthure, and Sir Thomas Malory’s prose Morte Darthure, the last printed in 1485 by William Caxton. Besides these is dramatic proof on the Arthurian romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, using evidence set out by Ann Astell to identify its author as the Cheshire magnate Sir John Stanley (d. 1414), who will have written it in late 1387 for Christmas revels that year at Chester Castle. Solving problems which have baffled scholars for centuries, King Arthur: Medieval British Literature and Modern Critical Tradition is a volume that will fundamentally alter our view of Britain’s past.

The Legend of Walther of Aquitaine: Medieval German Texts and Translations

By Brian Murdoch & Leonard Neidorf

• The legend of Walther of Aquitaine and his bride, Hildegund, survives best in the medieval Latin poem Waltharius, yet there is also a sizable collection of texts in Middle High German that deal with the Walther legend. Walther appears as a character in epic poems such as Biterolf und Dietleib, Dietrichs Flucht, Alpharts Tod, the Rosengarten, and theRabenschlacht. Significant allusions to his legend appear in the Nibelungenlied. There are, moreover, two tantalizing fragments (from Graz and Vienna) of a medieval German epic of Walther and Hildegund, which depicts the lovers’ escape from the court of Attila the Hun and their felicitous homecoming.
• This book is the first and only book of its kind, as it offers facing-page texts and translations of every medieval German reference to the Walther legend. Many of the passages contained in this book have never previously been translated into English. 

The Castle of  Love (Die Minneburg): A Medieval German Allegorical Poem

By Winder McConnell (Translator) 

• This annotated translation of the Minneburg is the first to appear of the complete work in English, or, for that matter, in any language. The Minneburg, composed in the middle of the fourteenth century in the vicinity of Würzburg, is one of the most extensive and fascinating allegories of Love from the German Middle Ages. The reader encounters here a unique depiction of the intimate connection between love and God, set against a backdrop of otherworldly castles and allegorical figures. The Minneburg is not simply a fascinating commentary on how the love of a noble woman should be procured, but rather a didactic treatise on the acquisition of love as a triumph of virtue over vice, albeit love that, while instigated by a male suitor, requires reciprocity as an integral component if it is to be sanctioned by God.

The Little Garden of Walahfrid Strabo: A Carolingian Poem in Verse Translation

By Jeff Sypeck 

• Composed in the tumultuous decades following the reign of Charlemagne, the garden poem of Carolingian monk Walahfrid Strabo (c.809–849) has long charmed readers with its timeless descriptions of late-winter labors and its suggestions for the medicinal uses of various plants. This new translation, rendered in engaging metrical verse printed alongside the original Latin text, makes Walahfrid’s best known work fully accessible in English for scholars and casual readers alike. A concise introduction provides background and context, while extensive notes offer interpretation and commentary for those who wish to explore the poem further. A glimpse into the mind of a monk who was deeply entangled in the politics of his day, Walahfrid’s “Little Garden” may be tantalizingly brief, but as a trove of classical learning, Christian allegory, ninth-century plant lore, and charming personal observations, it overflows with the great human complexity of its era.