An examination of how The Book of Psalms shaped medieval thought and helped develop the medieval English literary canon.

An examination of how The Book of Psalms shaped medieval thought and helped develop the medieval English literary canon.

The Book of Psalms had a profound impact on English literature from the Anglo-Saxon to the late medieval period. This collection examines the various ways in which they shaped medieval English thought and contributed to the emergence of an English literary canon. It brings into dialogue experts on both Old and Middle English literature, thus breaking down the traditional disciplinary binaries of both pre- and post-Conquest English and late medieval and Early Modern, as well as emphasizing the complex and fascinating relationship between Latin and the vernacular languages of England. Its three main themes, translation, adaptation and voice, enable a rich variety of perspectives on the Psalms and medieval English literature to emerge.

TAMARA ATKIN is Senior Lecturer in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Literature at Queen Mary University of London; FRANCIS LENEGHAN is Associate Professor of OldEnglish at The University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford

Contributors: Daniel Anlezark, Mark Faulkner, Vincent Gillespie, Michael P. Kuczynski, David Lawton, Francis Leneghan, Jane Roberts, Mike Rodman Jones, Elizabeth Solopova, Lynn Staley, Annie Sutherland, Jane Toswell, Katherine Zieman.

Introduction: a Case Study of Psalm 50.1-3 in Old and Middle English - Francis Leneghan
Some Anglo-Saxon Psalters and their Glosses - Jane Roberts
The Eadwine Psalter and Twelfth-Century English Vernacular Literary Culture - Mark Faulkner
'In eching for the beste': the Fourteenth-Century English Prose Psalter and the Art of Psalm Translation - Annie Sutherland
The Wycliffite Psalms - Elizabeth Solopova
Rolle'sEnglish Psalter and the Possibilities of Vernacular Scriptural Commentary - Katherine Zieman
Making the Psalter Sing: the Old EnglishMetrical Psalms, Rhythm andRuminatio - Francis Leneghan
The Psalms in theOld English Office of Prime - Daniel Anlezark
Psalm Genres in Old English Poetry - M J Toswell
Articulating the Psalms in Middle English Alliterative Poetry:Some Passages ofPiers Plowman, St Erkenwald andPearl - Mike Rodman Jones
Maidstone's Psalms and the King's Speech - Lynn Staley
The Songs of the Threshold:Enargeia and the Psalter - Vincent Gillespie
Psalms as Public Interiorities: Eleanor Hull's Voices - David Lawton
Vox ecclesiae, vox Christi: the Psalms and Medieval English Ecclesiology - Michael Kuczynski