Evolution of the alliterative b-verse, 650-1550
Introduction: the durable alliterative tradition
Beowulf and verse history
The evolution of alliterative meter, 950-1100
Verse history and language history
Beowulf and the unknown shape of Old English literary history
Prologues to Old English poetry
Old English prologues and Old English poetic styles
The Beowulf prologue and the history of style
Lawman, the last Old English poet and the first Middle English poet
Lawman and the evolution of alliterative meter
Lawman at a crossroads in literary history
Prologues to Middle English alliterative poetry
The continuity of the alliterative tradition, 1250-1340
Excursus: Middle English alliterating stanzaic poetry
Middle English prologues, romaunce, and Middle English poetic styles
The Erkenwald poet's sense of history
A meditation on histories
St. Erkenwald and the idea of alliterative verse in late medieval England
Authors, styles, and the search for a Middle English canon
The alliterative tradition in the sixteenth century
The alliterative tradition in its tenth century
Unmodernity: the idea of alliterative verse in the sixteenth century
Conclusion: whose tradition?
Note to the appendices
Appendix A. Fifteen late Old English poems omitted from ASPR
Appendix B. Six early Middle English alliterative poems
Appendix C. An early Middle English alliterative poem in Latin
Glossary of technical terms.