The Old English Homily: Precedent, Practice and Appropriation (review)

Abstract

to that of the liturgy on the construction of the later medieval Corpus Christi Cycles or on medieval iconography. In the short conclusion following this essay (pp. 219–22) the importance of the ‘remnant’ motif in both heroic and Biblical poetry and their respective historic frameworks is once again underlined. Notwithstanding the fact that The Remnant would have benefited greatly from another round of proofreading, the book offers a great deal of relevant information about the development of the “remnant motif” in Old English poetry and its potential inspiration from Biblical and patristic writings. It makes a particularly interesting contribution to the scholarship on Genesis A, Exodus, and Daniel and on the compilation of MS Junius 11. It is all the more regrettable, therefore, that the linguistic argumentation and documentation in the book does not even meet basic standards. Linguistic archaeology without the proper tools means digging in the dark. Kees Dekker University of Groningen