King Alfred's Old English Prose Translation of the First Fifty Psalms. Edited by Patrick P. O'Neill. Cambridge, MA: Medieval Academy of America, 2001. Pp. viii + 362. $50 (cloth).

O'Neill's long-awaited edition of the Old English prose psalms often—and now firmly—attributed to King Alfred is superb. It is lucid, comprehensive, sensible, and intelligent. The introduction in 96 pages considers the text under the following headings: manuscript, the OE introductions, the sources, the method of translation and style, language, and authorship. The psalms themselves appear on pp. 97–163, preceded by their introductions but shorn of the manuscript rubrics and the facing Latin text and followed by brief but relevant textual notes. The editorial practice is very conservative, with emendation only where sense and grammar are violated and supporting evidence exists; modern punctuation appears. The commentary (pp. 165–272), by far the most interesting section of the book, since many hints from the introduction have previously been published by O'Neill, divides itself into three sections for each psalm. The first discusses the interpretation used in the translation under general terms such as "historical " or "moral " or "Davidic " and notes the linkages between the psalm translation and the introduction. The second and third sections provide detailed annotations for the introductions and the translation itself, which O'Neill interestingly terms "paraphrase " throughout. The glossary (pp. 275–347), less impressively, is practical and workmanlike, providing one or perhaps two synonyms for the OE lexeme, and giving full analysis for verbs, with the other parts of speech receiving more cursory treatment. The volume closes with a select bibliography and two sets of abbreviations. Work for this edition began as a dissertation in the 1970s, and the Medieval Academy is to be congratulated for expediting its publishing schedule so that this volume emerged in 2001.

M. J. Toswell
University of Western Ontario