Lexical Evidence for the Relative Chronology of Old English Poetry

Abstract

Abstract: This article explores the dating implications of rare vocabulary attested in Beowulf, Genesis A, Daniel, Exodus, Maxims I, and Widsið. It argues that these poems preserve an archaic lexical stratum, which consists of words that became obsolete before the composition of ninth-century poetry and prose.

Keywords: Beowulf, Anglo-Saxon Literature, History of the English Language, Germanic Philology, Lexicology.