The Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library sets out to do for medieval literature what Loeb did for the classics: to put affordable, reliable editions and translations of key medieval texts into the hands of a wide variety of English-speaking readers. Robert Bjork’s edition and translation of The Poems of Cynewulf is a welcome addition to this effort. The volume gathers together five texts that are scattered across the Exeter Book and the Vercelli Book and that have previously been treated mostly in standalone editions, giving readers the rare opportunity to appreciate them side-by-side. Its affordability alone makes it a valuable teaching text, especially for those of us whose choices for a medieval literature syllabus are frequently dictated not by what we would like to teach, but rather by what we can reasonably ask our students to pay for their books.
Renée R. Trilling
The Medieval Review
