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The Vercelli Book: IntroductionTo jump to the Bibliography, click here: Bibliography. The Vercelli Book contains twenty-three homiletic or hagiographic texts in prose. Among these are interspersed six poems, the most well known of which is "The Dream of the Rood." Two of the other poems are signed by Cynewulf, a noted eighth- or ninth-century poet from northern Britain, either Mercia or Northumberland. [1] The book was written all by one hand and seems to be organized around themes instead of according to the Church's liturgical calendar, as most homiliaries were. [2] The scribe copied dialectical and punctuational differences into this collection, making no attempt to edit for consistency with these matters. [3] The scribe's organizational consistency, however, provides coherence to the book, which is concerned with non-canonical religious history and using it to teach the illiterate and preliterate Christian ideals. [4]
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Encyclopedia | Library | Reference | Teaching | General | Links | About ORB | HOME The contents of ORB are copyright 1995-1999 Laura V. Blanchard and Carolyn Schriber except as otherwise indicated herein. |