Black Classics – Old English, Old Norse and Mediaeval Literature

When I attended the University of Melbourne in the 1960s I enrolled in a course of Middle English. The lecturer for this course was a delightful old scholar called Professor Ian Maxwell who also ran a course in Old Icelandic and hosted a discussion group for enthusiasts of Old Norse. In the Middle English course we had to read books like The Canterbury Tales and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in the original. Although I only studied Middle English for one year, I did develop an interest in early English literature, hence these books in my Black Classics collection. Needless to say, they have been gathering dust for many years.

1964 Edition Detail from Medieval Illuminated Manuscript	1966 Edition Detail of the Franks Casket
1969 Edition Detail from L’Apparition du St Graal in a 15thC manuscript	1973 Edition King Arthur – a detail from a French manuscript

Two editions of Beowulf…

1963 Edition A prose translation by David Wright Cover – a helmet from Sutton Hoo treasure	1973 Edition A verse translation by Michael Alexander Cover – detail of enlarged escutcheon on the rim of the large hanging bowl from Sutton Hoo

1963 Edition
Detail from a 14thC manuscript of the Conquest of Constantinople

1981 Edition The Voyage of St Brendan, Bede’s Life of St Cuthbert & Eddius’s Life of Wilfrid Cover – Athelstan presenting the Book to St Cuthbert from Bede	1971 Edition Detail of an illumination from the Book of Durrow

Norse Sagas

1966 Edition Detail from Baldishot Tapestry	1965 Edition Axehead from the grave of a Viking chief

Medieval German Literature

1965 Edition Detail from the Hundeshagen Codex, the only surviving Nibelung manuscript with illustrations	1965 Edition Also contains The Tristan of Thomas Detail of a woodcut in an early edition of Tristan

Next – the last of the Black Classics – a miscellany