Andrea Nagy

Women's Voice in Old English Poetry: a Reading of Wulf and Eadwacer and the Wife's Lament Andrea Nagy

Wulf and Eadwacer and The Wife's Lament occupy a unique position in the Old English poetic corpus, as the only poems which have women as speakers. Short, but difficult and often enigmatic, these poems never ceased to intrigue scholars. Numerous readings of the texts have been proposed, resulting in widely differing and sometimes contrasting interpretations. The present book summarizes and discusses these interpretations, and also presents a close textual analysis of the texts. The book can serve as an introduction or companion to the study of these poems, and should prove useful primarily to students of Old English literature, but it can also be of interest to anyone who would like to know more about these controversial, yet hauntingly beautiful gems of Old English elegiac poetry.