Stephen O. Glosecki (1950 – 4 April 2007) was a scholar of

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

language and literature. Glosecki was raised in

Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh most-populous city, the second largest o ...

, and educated at

Sacred Heart-Griffin High School Sacred Heart-Griffin High School, often abbreviated SHG, is a Catholic high school located in Springfield, Illinois, United States. It is the city's largest private school and is located in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois. The school ope ...

. He received his undergraduate degree from

Beloit College Beloit College is a private liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin. Founded in 1846, when Wisconsin was still a territory, it is the state's oldest continuously operated college. It is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and has ...

, and his Master's and Ph.D. degrees from

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

. A professor of Old English at University of Alabama at Birmingham, he was the author of books and articles on Old English literature, particularly on

shamanism Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a Spirit world (Spiritualism), spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as tranc ...

and

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

, and was notable for his contributions to the anthropological study of early Germanic literature. He died of cancer in 2007, aged 55. A collection he edited, ''Myth in Early Northwest Europe'', was published posthumously; his introduction was called "lively and, in places, poetic", and his translations of some of the

Anglo-Saxon metrical charms Anglo-Saxon metrical charms were sets of instructions generally written to magically resolve a situation or disease. Usually, these charms involve some sort of physical action, including making a medical potion, repeating a certain set of words, or ...

were praised as "fluent, vigorous".

Selected publications

*"Beowulf and the wills: Traces of totemism?" ''Philological Quarterly'' Vol. 78, Iss. 1/2, (Winter 1999): 14–47. *''Shamanism and Old English Poetry''. New York: Garland, 1989. *''Myth in Early Northwest Europe'' (editor). Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, in association with Brepols, 2007. *"Judith" (trans.). ''Old English Poetry: An Anthology.'' Ed. Roy Liuzza. Peterborough: Broadview, 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Glosecki, Stephen 1950 births 2007 deaths Anglo-Saxon studies scholars Beloit College alumni Germanic studies scholars University of Alabama at Birmingham faculty University of California, Davis alumni