Metrics, Scribes, and Beowulf: A Response to Neidorf (2017), The Transmission of Beowulf

Abstract

Neidorf ( 2017 ), The Transmission of Beowulf , synthesizes a variety of philological approaches to propose a new ‘lexemic theory’ of Anglo-Saxon scribal behaviour. In this response article, I build on Neidorf’s arguments, suggesting ways that his theory may be adapted to account for differences between the two scribes of the Beowulf manuscript, and addressing some of the ways that metrical evidence only more weakly supports, or sometimes directly contradicts, some of Neidorf’s specific claims.

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