Interesting new book

From the ISAS organization:

Beowulf & Other Stories: A New Introduction to Old English, Old Icelandic & Anglo-Norman Literatures
Edited by Richard North (University College London) and Joe Allard (University of Essex)
ISBN: 1-4058-3572-9
Price £16.99
For more information, please go to:
http://www.pearsoned.co.uk/Bookshop/detail.asptem=100000000132914

Until now, Old English has been a phrase to strike fear into the hearts of students of English. A combination of remoteness, both of time and language, and a general sense of disconnectedness has meant that Old English has sometimes been remembered as a chore, a slog through the foothills of literature. Beowulf & Other Stories has been conceived in the firm belief that Old English - and its close cousins, Old Icelandic and Anglo-Norman - should be seen as a genuine delight, a period as replete with wonder and creativity and magic as any other in literature.

The book forages with abandon through the literature of the period, turning up en route the fire and bloodlust of the great epic, Beowulf, and the sophistication and eroticism of the Exeter Riddles. Fresh interpretations give new life to the spiritual ecstasy of The Seafarer and to the imaginative dexterity of The Dream of the Rood. Beowulf & Other Stories provides the student and general reader with all they might need to explore and enjoy this complex but rewarding field.

The book sheds light, too, on the shadowy contexts of the period, with suggestive and highly readable essays on matters ranging from the dynamism of the Viking Age to Anglo-Saxon input into Lord of the Rings, from the great religious prose works to the transition from Old to Middle English. Beowulf & Other Stories also branches out into related traditions, with expert introductions to the Icelandic Sagas, Viking Religion and Norse Mythology. Peter S. Baker provides an outstanding guide to taking your first steps in the Old English language, while David Crystal provides a crisp linguistic overview of the entire period. Written throughout with verve, panache and a deep understanding of its subject, Beowulf & Other Stories is set to be the standard introduction to the field for many years to come.
1. Introduction
Richard North, David Crystal and Joe Allard
2. Old English Influence on The Lord of the Rings
Clive Tolley
3. Beowulf and Other Battlers: an Introduction to Beowulf
Andy Orchard
4. Old English Minor Heroic Poems
Richard North
5. Joyous Play and Bitter Tears: the Riddles and the Elegies
Jennifer Neville
6. The Dream of the Rood and Anglo-Saxon Northumbria
Éamonn Ó Carragáin and Richard North
7. Cædmon the Cowherd and Old English Biblical Verse
Bryan W. Wyly
8. Monasteries and Courts: Alcuin and Offa
Andy Orchard
9. Old English Prose: King Alfred and his books
Susan Irvine
10. The Old English Language
Peter S. Baker
11. Viking Wars and The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Jayne Carroll
Including Notes on the Old Norse Language by Richard North
12. Viking Religion: Old Norse Mythology
Terry Gunnell
13. Sagas of the Icelanders
Joe Allard
14. Prose Writers of the English Benedictine Reform
Stewart Brookes
15. Anglo-Norman Literature: the Road to Middle English
Patricia Gillies
Epilogue: The End of Old English? David Crystal