Readings Due: Riddles 45 and 24 (Reader).

1. As you read each of the Riddles assigned below, try to identify which aspects of the culture and society the riddle makes us think about through its metaphorical language and the puzzle it sets up. Consider the attitudes expressed toward these aspects (often they will be conflicted attitudes).
2. Does it make any difference whether a particular riddle is read in a manuscript or performed aloud before an audience?
3. Consider what aspects of our current society or culture you think would be suitable material for such riddles. If you feel creative, you might try writing one and bring it to class.

Readings Due: Riddles, "Introduction" excerpt, and riddles 3, 23, 25, 26, 89 (Reader); Cædmon story (read the translation of the Latin version); De Hamel, Scribes and Illuminators, through p. 44.

Readings Due: Beowulf, lines 1 to 319, pp. 245-68 in Chickering's “Backgrounds,” and at least a cursory reading of the “Commentary” on the assigned lines as you find it interesting and helpful.

Readings Due: Beowulf lines 319-990 and “Commentary” as before; Creed, “The Making of an Anglo-Saxon Poem” (Reader).

Readings Due: Beowulf 991-2199 and “Commentary” as before; Niles, “Ring Composition and the Structure of Beowulf” (Reader).

Readings Due: Beowulf 2200-end and “Commentary” as above; Niles, “Reconceiving Beowulf: Poetry as Social Praxis” (Reader).

Readings Due:

• Excerpts from Leclercq, The Love of Learning and the Desire for God (Reader).
• The Book of Psalms (note that after Psalm 9, the numbering of the psalms may differ by 1 from the King James Version, which is the basis for the Dover edition of the psalms). especially psalms
  • 1 (Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly),
  • 5 (Give ear to my words, O Lord ),
  • 68 (Let God arise; let his enemies be scattered),
  • 81 (Sing aloud unto God our strength),
  • 92 (It is a good thing to give thanks under the Lord ),
  • 95 (O come, let us sing unto the Lord),
  • 96 (O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord all the earth),
  • 98 (O sing unto the Lord a new song; for he hath done marvelous things),
  • 100 (Make a joyful noise unto the Lord),
  • 137 (By the Rivers of Babylon),
  • 147 (Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praises unto our God),
  • 148 (Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens),
  • 149 (Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song),
  • 150 (Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary).
• The St. Albans Psalter : read the "Introduction" and look at assigned psalms, reading about their initials.
• Paris Psalter, on Reserve in Special Collections, Davidson Library.

Guest lecture by Alejandro Planchart.

Little web project due.

Readings Due:

• White, “Books of Hours and the Bridwell Hours” , through “bridwel4.html” (watch the “address” line).
• Book of Hours.
• Book of Psalms
  • 6, Domine ne in furore… ("Lord, rebuke me not in thy fury");
  • 31, Beati quorum… ("Blessed are they, whose iniquities are forgiven");
  • 37, Domine ne in furore… ("Lord, rebuke me not in thy fury");
  • 50 Miserere mei Deus… ("Have mercy on me, O God");
  • 101, Domine exaudi… ("Lord hear my prayer");
  • 129, De profundis… ("From the depths I have cried to thee O Lord");
  • 142, Domine exaudi…("Lord hear my prayer").

Readings Due: Dagenais, “Decolonizing the Medieval Page” (Reader)

Readings Due: Work for today is on the WPWT (Wessex Parallel Web Texts) site. Find the essay, “What is mouvance?” on the “Contents” page (the link to “Contents” is in the upper right corner). Read the essay, skipping for now the parts on Sir Orfeo and the Auchinleck ms. Also go to “Case Study” (the link is in the mouvance essay) and read the poems, especially the first 3.

Readings Due: On WPWT read “What is a contrafactum?” “Sumer is icumen in,” and the two “Lytel wot hit any mon” lyrics. Also “Stond wel, Moder, under rode,” § 33 at the TEAMS site (be sure to read the note linked to the right of the section number), and Corrie, “Harley 2253, Digby 86, and the Circulation of Literature” (Reader).

Readings Due: Taylor, “Medieval Materials,” and “British Library MS Harley 978” (excerpts in Reader). Marie de France, “Le Fresne” (translation of Old French) and the Middle English, “Lay le Freine” (in optional Middle English Breton Lays or on the TEAMS site (“Introduction” here, with link to text).

Readings Due: Remainder of mouvance essay (see Nov. 7), Sir Orfeo (in Middle English, in optional Middle English Breton Lays or on TEAMS site, “Introduction” here with link to text; translation in Reader); Evans, “Sir Orfeo in Manuscript Context” (Reader).

Readings Due: Chaucer’s “General Prologue” to The Canterbury Tales, esp. lines 1-50, 394-412, 447-78, 717-860;. Hilmo, “Framing the Canterbury Pilgrims for the Aristocratic Readers of the Ellesmere Manuscript” and Parks, “Oral Tradition and the Canterbury Tales,” except for Part III (both in Reader).

Readings Due: Chaucer, The Shipman’s Tale; Blake, "Editing the Canterbury Tales” and Machan, “Editing, History, Discourse” (excerpt) (both in Reader).

Readings Due: Chaucer, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue; Hanna, “Compilatio and the Wife of Bath: Latin Backgrounds, Ricardian Texts” (Reader).

Readings Due: Chaucer, The Wife of Bath’s Tale; Schibanoff, “The New Reader and Female Textuality in Two Early Commentaries on Chaucer” (Reader).