The most rigorous description ever undertaken of the Scandinavian
influence on the vocabulary of a major Middle English text, and a new
model for the collection and analysis of Norse loans in any English
source.
- A new survey of the etymological evidence for nearly 500 words in one
of the most famous and important Middle English poems
- Conducted in accordance with a groundbreaking new system of
etymological classification, and with references to all relevant
previous scholarship going back to the nineteenth century
- Contains new insights into the etymologies, forms, meanings and
textual interpretation of hundreds of Middle English words
- Includes a new introduction to the scholarly study of the Old Norse
influence on English vocabulary, including a detailed discussion of
methodologies