Norse-Derived Vocabulary in Late Old English Texts: Wulfstan's Works, A Case Study. By Sara M. Pons-Sanz. North-Western European Language Evolution Supplement, 22. Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark. 2007. Pp. xviii + 318. $49.50.

In Norse-Derived Vocabulary in Late Old English Texts: Wulfstan's Works, A Case Study, Sara Pons-Sanz offers readers a clearly organized and thorough examination of the Anglo-Saxon archbishop's use of Norse terms throughout his works. This timely book responds to a widely expressed need for Old English vocabulary studies that simultaneously address aspects of social and stylistic stratification, word-formation, and semantics. In addition, Pons-Sanz's work complements a number of recent studies such as Matthew Townend's Language and History in Viking Age England: Linguistic Relations between Speakers of Old Norse and Old English and Richard Dance's Words Derived from Old Norse in Early Middle English: Studies in the Vocabulary of the South-West Midland Texts. As such, the book is a welcome contribution to our evolving understanding of linguistic contact between English and Norse speakers during this period.