This is a truly paradigm-shifting book. Leonard Neidorf swims against the tide of much recent Beowulf scholarship, but his case is supported by such a compelling weight of evidence that it is difficult to see how it could be seriously challenged.
Carole Hough, University of Glasgow Leonard Neidorf systematically and lucidly analyzes a whole range of textual ... Read moreerrors that came about in the history of Beowulf's transmission from one scribe to another.
Rolf Bremmer, Leiden University Leonard Neidorf has become an important figure in Old English studies as the leader of a movement to reestablish philology within the field. The Transmission of Beowulf is a major advance in the study of poems that survive in unique manuscripts and should be required reading in all Beowulf courses. A new generation of scholars who have learned from it will have much valuable and interesting work to do.
Geoffrey R. Russom, Brown University, author of Beowulf and Old Germanic Metre Leonard Neidorf's monograph is a thorough, detailed analysis of scribal error in the Beowulf text, an argument for the early date and Mercian origin of the poem, and a passionate defense of traditional philological research and textual emendation.
TOEBI
Neidorf....obviously understands that inhibitions of this kind are profoundly unhealthy. His study is essential reading for all future editors of Old English poems and, of course, for everyone interested in Beowulf and its place in literary history.
Saga-Book
Written in a clear, assertive style.... this book will reorient Beowulf studies. It mounts a coherent argument for the unity and antiquity of Beowulf.... It absolves the scribes of carelessness and recovers the poem from their excessive carefulness. It illuminates the transmission of Beowulf powerfully and cogently.
Paul Cavill, University of Nottingham For close engagement with the linguistic idiosyncrasies of Beowulf, one may turn to Leonard Neidorf's recent study The Transmission of `Beowulf': Language, culture, and scribal behavior. Here formidable scholarship provides rich insights into the attitudes and methods of the scribes who made the only surviving copy of Beowulf... [t]he evidence that he puts forward in this book, based on rigorous scrutiny of several hundred errors in Beowulf, is both fascinating and highly persuasive, and the book is indispensable reading for anyone interested in the manuscript context of Beowulf, scribal culture in Anglo-Saxon England more generally, or the early history of the English language.
Times Literary Supplement
A short review like this hardly does justice to the genius of this astonishing book. The Transmission of Beowulf is a coup de theatre, a scholarly manifesto of the utmost importance in its evidentiary rigor, theoretical utility, and vigorous prose. By any measure, it ranks as one of the most pivotal books ever written on Old English literature and will be recognized as a historic achievement.
Anglia
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