Arthuriana

Telling Tales and Crafting Books celebrates the works and interests of Purdue University’s eminent medievalist Thomas Ohlgren. Like the scholar himself, the volume is remarkably coherent, embracing collaboration and exploring topics deeply, while also providing insightful introductory surveys for new audiences. Kaufman, Hughes, and Armstrong have mirrored Ohlgren’s interests, teaching, and deep learning in the volume quite remarkably. The book is divided into three parts, representative of Ohlgren’s major research interests: ‘Old English and the North’; ‘Robin Hood’; and ‘Books and Literature.’ Each section contains at least one essay suitable for use in undergraduate classrooms, and several would be excellent for graduate courses. The research and learning on display in each piece is impressive, providing readers with extensive annotations and discussion, alongside deep bibliographies. [End Page 139]

Kaufman’s ‘Introduction’ (1–19) reveals many of these connections, and provides an excellent overview of Ohlgren’s fascination with story and narrative: the value and potency of the tale in ‘its ability to create a lasting impression on readers, both medieval and modern’ (1). For readers whose exposure to Ohlgren’s work has been within a particular period, author, or area of study, this is helpful context for understanding the scholar and, of course, the range of essays in the volume. Moreover, Ohlgren’s exploration of the tale’s potential to engage and delight allows Kaufman et al. to present the volume as continuing the work of both scholar and tale: the essays can be read as individual pieces, of course, but taken together they become a conversation. The volume encourages readers to become medieval: an active audience that recognizes that ‘the more one invested oneself in the tale, the more “mirth”—entertainment, education, consolation, inspiration—one could possibly have as a result’ (3).

Part I of Telling Tales and Crafting Books focuses upon Anglo-Saxon (and Old Norse) tales and art. The five essays in ‘Old English and the North’ are all fascinating, but Eric R. Carlson’s ‘Grendel as Novelistic Outlaw-Hero: A Girardian Reading’ (23–47) is a standout for its accessibility. The essay not only addresses a common classroom dilemma—student dislike for the hero Beowulf and contra-narrative sympathy, even admiration, for the villain Grendel—but also provides an explanation that will challenge but ultimately reward undergraduates. The next essay is better suited for graduate study or engagement by specialist scholars: Shaun F.D. Hughes’ ‘The Evolution of Monster Fights: From Beowulf versus Grendel to Jón Guðmundssson lærði versus Snæfjalladraugur and Beyond’ (49–91) connects the motif of wrestling an undead creature—the draugur, a ghost inhabiting a material form—to the Beowulf story by highlighting the uncivilized wilderness spaces in which these combats occur. Thomas Ohlgren’s fascination with the North has not been limited to the literary: as Kaufman reminds us throughout the ‘Introduction,’ one of Ohlgren’s great contributions has been insistence on context, and his Bodleian Slide Collection provided many students and colleagues with visual reminders that medieval literature used art as well as words to tell tales (3–4). Thus, the next two essays in this section, J.A. Jackson’s ‘Salvation Twice Told: Idolatry, Typology, and Repentance in Genesis B’ (93–117) and Molly A. Martin’s ‘Vision and Sex in the Iconography of the Old English Genesis Manuscript’ (119–38) focus on the confluence of word and image. Martin’s ‘Vision and Sex’ follows Jackson’s piece, a slightly problematic organizational choice since Jackson’s essay references photographs of the Genesis manuscript printed several pages later in Martin. Jackson shifts the conversation regarding the work performed by the narrative of Genesis B toward a reading of the poem as a penitential narrative...