Bevers saga. Edited by Christopher Sanders. With the Text of the Anglo-Norman Boeve de Haumtone. Reykjav’k: Stofnun çrna Magnœssonar ‡ Islandi, 2001. Pp. clxxiv +399 + 6 facs. êkr. 4,800.

For no other medieval texts does the link between literary criticism and editing seem as crucial as for Old Norse-Icelandic literature. Despite the yeomanly efforts of nineteenth-century scholars, for example, Eugen Kšlbing, many Old Norse- Icelandic texts have not attracted the scholarly attention they deserve for lack of critical editions. This has been especially the case for many Old Norse-Icelandic translations of medieval European fiction. Christopher Sanders's long-awaited edition of Bevers saga has now been published, albeit with an apology on the very first page that the edition is not accompanied by a "full study of the translation from Anglo-Norman and its background." The reader is referred instead to a couple of earlier articles by Sanders and to the Icelandic summary on pp. clii-clvi, which contains important information not found elsewhere in the volume. One can hardly expect to have a full-fledged study added to a volume that numbers nearly 600 pages as is. Nonetheless, a paragraph or two contextualizing Bevers sagain medieval Icelandic literature would have been welcome.

Marianne E. Kalinke
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign