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Anglo-Saxon Verse Charms, Maxims & Heroic Legends * Louis Jerome Rodrigues (1993)

I stumbled upon this nice little book by Rodrigues which opens with an introduction into Anglo-Saxon literature and then information about the texts featured. The texts themselves are printed in the original language on the left pages and translated on the right. As the title suggests the book contains heroic legends, such as of course Beowulf, but also the Finnesburg fragment, Wolf And Eadwacer, Widsith, Waldere and Deor, complete or a fragment. Some of the “maxims” or “gnomic verses” are printed (from the collections “Maxims I” and “Maxims II”) and a all twelve “metrical charms” (think about “The Nine Herbs Charm”, “Against A Dwarf” or “Against A Wen”). Personally I find the maxims and charms a lot more interesting than the heroic legends, but in both cases it is nice to be able to see the original texts next to a translation. It seems that Rodrigues published more of these little books, as there is a a lot more Anglo-Saxon material available, so I might go and look for these other booklets too. A tip for when you are interested in this one: look around a bit before ordering it. I am sure I did not pay the $ 45,- that Amazon.com has this book listed for. Amazon UK has it for £ 8,-, that is more like it. Other antiquarian websites have it for about € 12,-.
1993 Llanerch, isbn 1861430876

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