Old English Language and Literature Series: Emily Thornbury

Emily Thornbury has worked extensively on the role of poets and poetry in Anglo-Saxon England; her monograph on the topic, Becoming a Poet in Anglo-Saxon England, was published by Cambridge University Press in early 2014. New projects include work on ornament and aesthetics in early medieval England.

Becoming a Poet in Anglo-Saxon England offers a new model for understanding the role of social groups in poets’ experience: it argues that the presence or absence of a poetic community affected the work of Anglo-Saxon poets at all levels, from minute technical detail to the portrayal of character. This focus on poetic communities provides a new way to understand the intersection of history and literature in the Middle Ages.