Helmut Gneuss

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Helmut Gneuss (29 October 1927 – 26 February 2023) was a German scholar of Anglo-Saxon and Latin manuscripts and literature.[1]

Academic career[edit]

Gneuss was emeritus professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich,[2] where he occupied the chair for English language from 1965 to 1997. He served as Visiting Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1974-75. He lived in Eichenau. He was a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Academia Europaea, the British Academy, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and the Medieval Academy of America.

Publications[edit]

Gneuss's 1976 article on the Anglo-Saxon poem The Battle of Maldon[3] is regarded as "a turning point"[4] in the history of Maldon scholarship. Specifically, his extensive lexicographical study of the important word ofermod "proved beyond doubt" that it means "pride",[5] settling an important question in the interpretation of the poem; in the words of Fred C. Robinson, "the poet's use of ofermod signals a criticism of Byrhtnoth's generalship."[4]

His 1981 publication A preliminary list of manuscripts written or owned in England up to 1100 was described as the next milestone in Anglo-Saxon manuscript studies after Neil Ripley Ker's 1957 book Catalogue of manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon.[6] The "preliminary" list ("an indispensable tool and essential starting point for anyone interested in Anglo-Saxon literary culture") was followed in 2001 by an expanded and redefined book, Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A List of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100.[7] The "impact and significance" of his Handlist was the subject of a 2008 Festschrift edited by Thomas N. Hall and Donald Scragg.[8]

Bibliography[edit]

  • A preliminary list of manuscripts written or owned in England up to 1100. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. 1981.
  • Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A List of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies. Vol. 241. Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 2001. ISBN 978-0-86698-283-2.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Obituary Helmut Gneuss" (PDF). ni-muenchen.de (in German). Retrieved 19 April 2023.
  2. ^ "Portrait: Zur Geschichte des Lehrstuhls". Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Retrieved 15 July 2011.
  3. ^ Gneuss, Helmut (1976). "'The Battle of Maldon' 89: Byrhtnoð's 'Ofermod' Once Again". Studies in Philology. 73 (2): 117–37. JSTOR 4173900.
  4. ^ a b Hallbrooks, H. (2004). "Byrhtnoth's great-hearted mirth, or praise and blame in The Battle of Maldon". Philological Quarterly. 82 (3): 235–55.
  5. ^ Janet Cooper, ed. (1993). "The Battle of Maldon: Fact or Fiction?". The Battle of Maldon: fiction and fact. Continuum. pp. 19–32. ISBN 978-1-85285-065-4.
  6. ^ Lapidge, Michael (1993). "Abbot Germanus, Winchcombe, Ramsey and the Cambridge Psalter". Anglo-Latin Literature 900-1066. Continuum. p. 387. ISBN 978-1-85285-012-8.
  7. ^ "Rev. of Helmut Gneuss, Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts". Medium Aevum. September 2002.
  8. ^ Webber, Teresa (2011). "Rev. of Hall and Scragg, Anglo-Saxon books and their readers : essays in celebration of Helmut Gneuss's Handlist of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts". Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 110 (2): 235–37. doi:10.5406/jenglgermphil.110.2.0235. JSTOR 10.5406/jenglgermphil.110.2.0235.

External links[edit]


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