Ancient Privileges: Beowulf, law, and the Making of Germanic Antiquity. By Stefan Jurasinski. Medieval European Studies VI. Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University Press, 2006. Pp. x + 183. $45 (paper).

In this thought-provoking study, a revision of his 2003 doctoral dissertation from Indiana University, Stefan Jurasinski examines a series of assumptions about Germanic legal traditions preserved in Beowulf and finds those to be the specious legacy of nineteenth-century German scholarship. Although scholars who work on the Old English laws now understand most of the principles demonstrated by Jurasinski, such as the paucity of connections among the early Germanic codes and the bias against feuding inherent in their earliest features, including the injury tariffs, there has been less clarity concerning the evidence that Beowulf may offer for pre-Christian legal traditions.

Mary P. Richards
University of Delaware