Crossley-Holland--the widely acclaimed translator of Old English texts--introduces the Anglo-Saxons through their chronicles, laws, letters, charters, and poetry, with many of the greatest surviving poems printed in their entirety.

The Anglo-Saxon World introduces the Anglo-Saxons in their own words - their chronicles, laws and letters, charters and charms, and above all their magnificent poems. Most of the greatest surviving poems are printed here in their entirety: the reader will find the whole of Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon, and the haunting elegiac poems. Here is a word picture of a people who came to these islands as pagans, subscribing to the Germanic heroic code, and yet within 200 years had become Christian to such effect that England was the centre of missionary endeavour and, for a time, the heart of European civilisation.Kevin Crossley-Holland places the poems and prose in context with his skilful interpretation of the Anglo-Saxon world; his translations have been widely acclaimed, and of BeowulfCharles Causley has written `the poem has at last found its translator'. The many illustrations draw on the splendours of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts and jewellery and a wealth of archaeological finds.KEVIN CROSSLEY-HOLLAND is a poet and writer who takes a particular interest in the middle ages and in traditional tale: in addition to his translations from the Anglo-Saxon, he is also the author of versions of the Norse myths.

Beowulf is the longest and finest literary work to have come down to us from Anglo-Saxon times, and one of the world's greatest epic poems. This acclaimed translation is complemented by a critical introduction and substantial editorial apparatus.

R.M. Liuzza’s Broadview edition of Beowulf was published at almost exactly the same time as Seamus Heaney’s; in reviewing the two together in July 2000 for The New York Review of Books, Frank Kermode concluded that both translations were superior to their predecessors, and that it was impossible to choose between the two: “the less celebrated translator can be matched with the famous one,” he wrote, and “Liuzza’s book is in some respects more useful than Heaney’s.” Ever since, the Liuzza Beowulf has remained among the top sellers on the Broadview list. With this volume readers will now be able to enjoy a much broader selection of Old English poetry in translations by Liuzza. As the collection demonstrates, the range and diversity of the works that have survived is extraordinary—from heartbreaking sorrow to wide-eyed wonder, from the wisdom of old age to the hot blood of battle, and to the deepest and most poignant loneliness. There is breathless storytelling and ponderous cataloguing; there is fervent religious devotion and playful teasing. The poems translated here are meant to provide a sense of some of this range and diversity; in doing so they also offer significant portions of three of the important manuscripts of Old English poetry—the Vercelli Book, the Junius Manuscript, and the Exeter Book.

The dazzling variety of Anglo-Saxon poetry brought to life by an all-star cast of contemporary poets in an authoritative bilingual edition. Encompassing a wide range of voices-from weary sailors to forlorn wives, from heroic saints to drunken louts, from farmers hoping to improve their fields to sermonizers looking to save your soul—the 123 poems collected in The Word Exchange complement the portrait of medieval England that emerges from Beowulf, the most famous Anglo-Saxon poem of all. Offered here are tales of battle, travel, and adventure, but also songs of heartache and longing, pearls of lusty innuendo and clear-eyed stoicism, charms and spells for everyday use, and seven "hoards" of delightfully puzzling riddles. Featuring all-new translations by seventy-four of our most celebrated poets—including Seamus Heaney, Robert Pinsky, Billy Collins, Eavan Boland, Paul Muldoon, Robert Hass, Gary Soto, Jane Hirshfield, David Ferry, Molly Peacock, Yusef Komunyakaa, Richard Wilbur, and many others—The Word Exchange is a landmark work of translation, as fascinating and multivocal as the original literature it translates.