The Unpublished ‘Mód Þrýþe Ne Wæg’ by C.S. Lewis: A Critical Edition

Abstract

As the title of this edition indicates, it provides a critical apparatus for a holistic understanding of this alliterative epistolary poem by C.S. Lewis, which has never appeared in print before. With this in mind, all points requiring clarification are addressed: a description and history of the manuscript, Lewis's relationship with the addressee, the dating of the work, the Old English phrases and connection to Beowulf, and the poem's alliterative nature. It is the editor's hope that the edition provides a solid foundation for all further work on ‘Mód Þrýþe Ne Wæg', a poem which highlights once more that Lewis the scholar and Lewis the author often operated under the same guise.