The importance of metrical analysis to the broad work of textual
criticism and literary analysis cannot be overstated. In the thirty
years since the publication of R. D. Fulk's A History of Old English
Meter, metrical theory has been brought to bear on questions of poetic
style, dating and literary history, linguistics and language history,
editing practice, manuscript analysis and scribal practice. The essays
in this collection include contributions from both new scholars and
established metrists. They focus on the application of metrical study to
literary criticism and manuscript studies, engaging with current debate
and offering new perspectives on the crucial role of metre to Old
English scholarship.