The Life Course in Old English Poetry

In the first book-length study of the whole lifespan in Old English verse, Harriet Soper reveals how poets depicted varied paths through life, including their staging of entanglements between human life courses and those of the nonhuman or more-than-human. While Old English poetry sometimes suggests that uniform patterns shape each life, paralleling patristic traditions of the ages of man, it also frequently disrupts a sense of steady linearity through the life course in striking ways, foregrounding moments of sudden upheaval over smooth continuity, contingency over predictability, and idiosyncrasy over regularity. Advancing new readings of a diverse range of Old English poems, Soper draws on an array of supporting contexts and theories to illuminate these texts, unearthing their complex and fascinating depictions of ageing through life. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

• Considers the whole lifespan as depicted in Old English verse rather than focusing on just one phase of life or else the 'ages of man' tradition, as has been the norm for scholarship until now
• Equips the reader with a new perspective on issues of ageing in literature, one which takes the nonhuman into account (including as represented in the Exeter Book Riddles)
• Offers new readings of a diverse range of Old English poems, including familiar texts such as Beowulf and the poetry of Cynewulf alongside lesser-known works