The Anglo-Saxon poem called Wulf and Eadwacer, a text so deeply embedded in ambiguity as to have achieved canonic status on that account alone, is the subject of this exercise, which reviews briefly the progress of interpretation from the late 19th century to the present time. It then considers methods of study, as orientated from the source-text, which begets translations, or, conversely from various translations leading back to the source. The pedagogic implications of ‘teaching a poem’ arise out of this discussion, which consequently questions the purpose and value of translation as an instructional and imaginative exercise.
Aden, J.M. ( 1963) Critical Opinions of John Dryden: A Dictionary. Nashville TN: Vanderbilt University Press.
2.
Åström, B. ( 2002) ‘The Politics of Tradition: Examining the History of Old English Poems: "The Wife’s Lament" and "Wulf and Eadwacer"’ . Doctoral dissertation, University of Umeå.
3.
Baugh, A.C. (ed.) (1950[1948]) A Literary History of England. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
4.
Beatrice (2008) blog. URL (accessed 3 December 2009): http://beatrice.com/wordpress/2008/11/17/burton-raffel-in-translation/
5.
Bosworth, J. and Toller, T.N. ( 1898/1921) An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, based on the manuscript collections of the late Joseph Bosworth with a supplement (1921) by T. Northcote Toller. There is an electronic version of this text, sponsored by Sean Crist of the University of Pennsylvania, in his Germanic Lexicon Project . URL (accessed 25 November 2009): http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/germanic/oe_bosworthtoller_about.html
6.
Bradley, H. ( 1888) ‘A Review of Morley’s English Writers, 2’ , Academy33: 107.
7.
Clark Hall, J.R. and Merrit, H. ( 1960) A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. (4th edn) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
8.
Dronke, P. ( 1978) The Medieval Lyric (2nd edn) London: Hutchinson.
9.
Everything2 (2009) URL (accessed 3 December 2009): http://everything2.com/
10.
Fry, D.K. ( 1970) ‘Wulf and Eadwacer: A Wen Charm’, Chaucer Review5, 247-63.
11.
Glenn, Jonathan A. ( 2006) Wulf and Eadwacer. URL (accessed 25 November 2009): http://www.lightspill.com/poetry/oe/wulf_eadwacer.html
Hamer, R. ( 1970) A Choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse. London : Faber & Faber.
14.
Klinck, A. ( 1987) ‘Animal Imagery in Wulf and Eadwacer, and the Possibilities of Interpretation’, Papers on Language and Literature24: 3-13
15.
Krapp, G.P. and Dobbie, E.V.K. ( 1931-53) The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records (6 volumes). New York: Columbia University Press.
16.
Malone, K. ( 1950) ‘Secular Poetry’, in A.C. Baugh (ed.) A Literary History of England, BookI, pp. 88-96. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
17.
Malone, K. ( 1962) ‘Two Old English Frauenlieder’, Comparative Literature14: 106-17.
18.
MacLeish, Archibald ( 1926) Ars Poetica, See URL (accessed 2 December 2009): http://transcriptions.english.ucsb.edu/archive/courses/liu/english25/materials/macleish.html
19.
Melannen (2002) Wulf and Eadwacer , URL (accessed 25 November 2009): http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=wulf+and+eadwacer&lastnode_id=124&searchy=search
20.
Raffel, B. ( 1960) Poems from the Old English. Lafayette : University of Louisiana Press.
21.
Sedgefield, W.J. ( 1931) ‘Old English Notes: Wulf and Eadwacer’, Modern Language Review36: 74-6.
22.
Stān Cynedōm (2007) Translation of Wulf and Eadwacer by ‘Estonia’ (blog). URL (accessed 3 December 2009): http://candleboy.com/idunno/?p=113
23.
Sweet, H. ( 1894) An Anglo-Saxon Reader (7th edn). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
24.
Thorpe, B. ( 1842) Codex Exoniensis: A Collection of Anglo-Saxon Poetry. London: Published for the Society of Antiquaries of London, by William Pickering.
25.
Tolkien, J.R.R. ( 1950) ‘On Translation and Words’, in J.R. Clark Hall and C.L. Wrenn (eds) Beowulf and the Finnsburg Fragment: A Translation into Modern English Prose, pp. ix and xxvii. London: Allen and Unwin.
26.
Trautmann, M. ( 1883) ‘Cynewulf und die Rätseln’, Anglia6.
27.
Trautmann. M. (1912) ‘Das sogennante erste Rätsel’, Anglia36.
28.
Yeats, W.B. ( 1919) ‘Tom O’ Roughley’ from The Wild Swans at Coole. See URL (accessed 2 December 2009): http://www.bartleby.com/148/13.html
