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- Old English Pages at www.georgetown.edu/cball/oe/old_english.html. This is the best place to start. No doubt the best OE web site available. They have it all: corpus of original texts, manuscript images, journals.
- &Thorn;a Engliscan Gesiþas (The English Companions) at www.gmtnet.co.uk/imdigo/engle/. The page covers different aspects of life in the Anglo-Saxon world, including ornithology, Anglo-Saxon runelore and calendar. Readings of Old English poetry and Bibliography of Anglo-Saxon studies can also be found here.
- Angelcynn at www.hrofi.demon.co.uk/angelcyn. Website of the historical socety focused on the Anglo-Saxon history in 400-900 AD. Highly recommended for essays, e.g. on Anglo-Saxon clothing, warfare, religion, latest archaelogical discoveries, but also historical background of Beowulf.
- Matheliende The newsletter of Anglo-Saxon studies at the University of Georgia. Located at parallel.park.uga.edu/~abruce/home.html
- ANSAX-L Mailing list for discussions about Anglo-Saxon world. To subscribe send mail containing message SUBSCRIBE ANSAX-L firstname lastname to listserv@wvnvm.wvnet.edu. Searchable archive of messages is available at www.mun.ca/Ansaxdat/
For my study and interpretation of the texts I relied heavily upon the academic work of late Professor Tolkien. He was a distinguished scholar in the field of Mediaeval English language and literature. His scholarly studies are a unique blend of philological erudition and poetic imagination. Especially his lecture Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics is widely recognized as a turning point in the criticism of the poem.
- The Old English Exodus. Text, translation, and commentary by J.R.R. Tolkien; edited by Joan Turville-Petre. Oxford University Press, 1981 (ISBN 0-19-811177-0).
- Finn and Hengest: the Fragment and the Episode. Edited by Alan Bliss. HM, 1983 (ISBN 0-395-33193-5).
- The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. HM, 1984 (ISBN 0-395-35635-0).
- A Middle English Vocabulary. Clarendon Press, 1922. (Designed for use with Kenneth Sisam's _Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose_, Clarendon Press, 1921; subsequently published as a glossary to Sisam.)
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Edited by J.R.R. Tolkien and E.V. Gordon. Clarendon Press, 1925. (2nd edition revised by Norman Davis, 1967).
- Ancrene Wisse: The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle. Edited by J.R.R. Tolkien. Oxford University Press, 1962. Early English Text Society, Original Series No. 249.
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo. Translated by J.R.R. Tolkien; edited by Christopher Tolkien. HM, 1975 (ISBN 0-395-21970-1) [op]; Ballantine, 1980 (ISBN 0-345-27760-0) (paper). Allen & Unwin, 1975 (ISBN 0-04-821035-8).
- J.R.R. Tolkien, Scholar and Storyteller: Essays in Memoriam. Edited by Mary Salu and Robert T. Farrell. Cornell University Press, 1979 (ISBN 0-8014-1038-X). [op]
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A note to readers in Slovakia:
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Old English literature is considered an obscure subject of study in Slovakia, so it takes a bit of searching in libraries and bookshops. Here's what I have found out :
- The University Library in Bratislava has an impressive number of books published by the Early English Text Society. They are publishing manuscript facsimile, transcriptions and translations with commentaries of Old English, and especially Middle English texts. One of my favourites is the volume containing the facsimile and transcription of the Beowulf manuscript.
- The Oxford Anthology of English Literature I (the white one) contains the complete Beowulf, Wanderer and a few other short poems. Worth reading because of (IMHO) excellent introduction and commentaries.
- In the Big Ben bookshop in Bratislava, once in a while you can come across such titles as:
- Beowulf and Grendel, a Penguin 60s Classics edition of Michael Alexander's translation of the first part of Beowulf
- Beowulf and Other Old English Poems, prose translations by Constance B. Hieatt of Beowulf, Deor, Caedmon's Hymn, Dream of the Rood, Battle of Brunanburh, Battle of Maldon, Fight at Finnsburh. Of texts which are not available on this site, it includes also The Wanderer, The Seafarer and Judith.