Helmut Gneuss (born 29 October 1927) is a German scholar of Anglo-Saxon and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

manuscripts and literature.

Academic career

Gneuss is emeritus professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where he occupied the chair for English language from 1965 to 1997. He served as Visiting Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1974-75. He lives in

Eichenau Eichenau is a municipality in the district of Fürstenfeldbruck, in Bavaria, Germany. It is 20 km west of Munich (centre). Eichenau was officially named in 1907 as a separate settlement to the community of Alling. Its location is due to ...

. He is a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

, the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars spa ...

, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and the

Medieval Academy of America The Medieval Academy of America (MAA; spelled Mediaeval until c. 1980) is the largest organization in the United States promoting the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes ...

Publications

Gneuss's 1976 article on the Anglo-Saxon poem ''

The Battle of Maldon "The Battle of Maldon" is the name given to an Old English poem of uncertain date celebrating the real Battle of Maldon of 991, at which an Anglo-Saxon army failed to repulse a Viking raid. Only 325 lines of the poem are extant; both the beginni ...

'' is regarded as "a turning point" in the history of Maldon scholarship. Specifically, his extensive lexicographical study of the important word ''ofermod'' "proved beyond doubt" that it means "pride", settling an important question in the interpretation of the poem; in the words of Fred C. Robinson, "the poet's use of ''ofermod'' signals a criticism of Byrhtnoth's generalship." His 1981 publication ''A preliminary list of manuscripts written or owned in England up to 1100'' was described as the next milestone in Anglo-Saxon manuscript studies after Neil Ripley Ker's 1957 book ''Catalogue of manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon''. The "preliminary" list ("an indispensable tool and essential starting point for anyone interested in Anglo-Saxon literary culture") was followed in 2001 by an expanded and redefined book, ''Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A List of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100''. The "impact and significance" of his Handlist was the subject of a 2008 ''Festschrift'' edited by Thomas N. Hall and Donald Scragg.

Bibliography

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References

External links

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Helmut Gneuss
page at LMU Munich Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Members of Academia Europaea Fellows of the British Academy Members of the Austrian Academy of Sciences 1927 births Living people German palaeographers Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America {{nonfiction-writer-stub