Professor Simon Horobin: List of publications

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Translations from Beowulf by C.S. Lewis

October 2024
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Journal article
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Journal of Inklings Studies
This article prints for the first time translations of three extracts from the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf produced by C.S. Lewis. It situates these translations within Lewis’s academic study of the Old English epic poem, first as an Oxford undergraduate and later as a tutor of English at Magdalen College. As well as investigating the linguistic choices apparent in his translations, the article compares these with another contemporary translation, that by Lewis’s friend and colleague in the Oxford English Faculty, J.R.R. Tolkien. The remainder of the essay considers the significance of these translations for our understanding of Lewis’s knowledge of, and attitude towards, the poem, and a reconsideration of the importance of Beowulf for Lewis the scholar, teacher and writer.

Identifying scribal hands: principles and problems

July 2024
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Journal article
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Speculum
The aim of this paper is to review and reconsider the methodology adopted for identifying scribal hands and to make some suggestions for future research. It will begin by responding in detail to the most recent and far-reaching attacks on Linne Mooney’s identification of Chaucer’s scribe, those by Lawrence Warner in his book Chaucer’s Scribes and Jane Roberts in an article in Medium Ævum. It then proceeds to consider other approaches and attitudes to the process of scribal identification and the nature of the paleographical method, tackling such challenges as a scribe’s use of different scripts, the way scribal hands change over time, and the lack of an agreed taxonomy of graphetic variation. The final section of the paper will explore the methodological insights that can be drawn from these different approaches and suggest how recent developments and new digital tools can help formulate a method that will build greater consensus.

C. S. Lewis's Oxford

May 2024
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Book
This book examines the role Oxford--its colleges, libraries, chapels, clubs, common rooms and pubs--played in fostering the work of one of the twentieth century's most influential writers and thinkers.
Biography & Autobiography

‘Never trust a philologist’: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the place of philology in English Studies

March 2024
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Journal article
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Review of English Studies
This article brings to light seven poems by C.S. Lewis that have never been published before. These poems, composed during the 1920s, form part of a lengthy campaign against the study of philology at Oxford, and specifically against its most eminent exponent, H.C. Wyld. Drawing on entries in his diary and personal correspondence, the article shows how Lewis’s antipathy for the subject grew out of his undergraduate studies, his frustration with Wyld’s published scholarship and prescriptive attitude towards language study, as well as a dislike of the man and his lecturing style. It was the appointment of J.R.R. Tolkien to the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon in 1925, and their subsequent friendship, that was to convert Lewis to the study of philology and convince him of its centrality to the discipline of English Studies. The remainder of the article describes how the two men engineered revisions to the Oxford English syllabus, which resulted in a much more prominent role for philology, at the expense of nineteenth-century literature.

Osbern Bokenham’s Lives of the Saints, Volume II

January 2022
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Scholarly edition

Osbern Bokenham’s Lives of the Saints

August 2020
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Scholarly edition

John But and the ending of the a version of Piers Plowman

March 2020
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Journal article
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Yearbook of Langland Studies
This article reconsiders the conclusion to the A version of Piers Plowman attributed to John But. Where previous critics have sought to identify the historical John But on the assumption that this will shed light on the biography of William Langland, the article adopts a more sceptical stance. Instead of viewing John But as a member of Langland’s coterie, the article suggests that John But’s knowledge of the author may have been entirely derived from reading, and perhaps copying, his work.
scribes, William Langland, John But, manuscripts, A Text, Piers Plowman, authorship

Middle English scribes and Guildhall clerks: a reassessment

February 2020
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Journal article
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Poetica

Bagels, Bumf, and Buses A Day in the Life of the English Language

November 2019
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Book
Simon Horobin takes the reader on a journey through a typical day, showing how the words we use to describe routine activities - getting up, going to work, eating meals - have surprisingly fascinating histories.
Language Arts & Disciplines

On Editing

July 2019
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Chapter
Covering the changes in Shakespeare editorial theory and practice over the decades between the publication of the Oxford Shakespeare (1986) and the New Oxford Shakespeare (2016), this article surveys a range of modern texts with different rationales and aimed at different readerships. The article has three sections: the imagery associated with editorial activity, issues of authorship and collaboration, and the place of performance in editions. We trace the conceptual changes between the Textual Companion that accompanied the 1986 edition, and the Authorship Companion that is the equivalent for the 2016 edition, discussing the role of quantitative and qualitative approaches to questions of authorship and collaboration. We pay particular attention to the metaphors and tropes that shape editorial discourse, finding their echoes in early modern paratextual material. Pervasive anthropomorphic textual imagery tends implicitly to feminize texts (and masculinize editors), and we discuss the changing demands on editors and the continued dominance of male editors, particularly for Shakespeare’s tragedies and histories. A final section discusses Arden editorial generations of Hamlet alongside the play’s own telos of interrupted succession and its preoccupation with ghosts and the past.

The English Language

January 2018
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Book
"[This boo] : provides a concise and accessible history of English; engages with key debates concerning issues of correctness, standards, and dialects; investigates the uses of English worldwide; reflects on the future of the English ...
Language Arts & Disciplines

Langland’s Dialect Reconsidered

November 2017
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Chapter
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Pursuing Middle English Manuscripts and Their Texts: Essays in Honour of Ralph Hanna
History

Pursuing Middle English Manuscripts and their Texts: Essays in Honour of Ralph Hanna

November 2017
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Book
This volume brings together essays by leading authorities on the production, reception, and editing of medieval English manuscripts in honour of Ralph Hanna, on the occasion of his retirement as Professor of Palaeography at the University of Oxford. Ralph Hanna has made an enormous contribution to the study of Middle English manuscripts; his numerous essays and books have discussed the development of London literature, alliterative poetry (especially Piers Plowman), regionalism, and the production and circulation of manuscripts. The essays included in this volume are arranged into four major sections corresponding to Ralph Hanna's core areas of interest: Manuscript production; Dialect; Regionalism; Reading and Editing manuscripts. These essays, written by leading scholars in their fields, offer new insights into the manuscripts of major Middle English writers and on scribal practice, as well as studies of individual codices. Essays cover a wide regional and chronological range, stretching from the beginnings of London literature traced in the works of Peter of Cornwall to the circulation of John Lydgate's Troy Book, and encompassing manuscripts and texts composed and circulated outside the capital. Dialectal studies offer reconsiderations of the evidence for a Wycliffite orthography, the dialect of William Langland, and the vocabulary of the alliterative Morte Arthure. A final section on reading and editing investigates the structure and divisions in the manuscripts of the A Version of Piers Plowman, and examines specific readings in the Prick of Conscience and the Canterbury Tales. The volume also includes a tribute to Ralph Hanna and a list of his extensive publications.
History

Chaucer’s Middle English

September 2017
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Internet publication

Osbern Bokenham's Book of 'Legenda Aurea and of oþer famous legendes'

July 2017
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Chapter
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Saints and Cults in Medieval England: Proceedings of the 2015 Harlaxton Symposium

Pursuing Middle English Manuscripts and their Texts

January 2017
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Book

The Etymological Inputs into English spelling

July 2016
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Chapter
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The Routledge Handbook of the English Writing System

Manuscripts and Printed Books

May 2016
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Chapter
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The Cambridge Handbook of English Historical Linguistics

How English Became English: A Short History of a Global Language

May 2016
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Book
The English Language is spoken by more than a billion people throughout the world. But where did English come from? And how has it evolved into the language used today? In How English Became English Simon Horobin investigates the evolution of the English language, examining how the language continues to adapt even today, as English continues to find new speakers and new uses. Engaging with contemporary concerns about correctness, Horobin considers whether such changes are improvements, or evidence of slipping standards. What is the future for the English Language? Will Standard English continue to hold sway, or are we witnessing its replacement by newly emerging Englishes?
English language

The Future of English

May 2016
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Journal article
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Babel Magazine

The nature of material evidence

January 2016
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Chapter
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Imagining Medieval English: Language Structures and Theories, 500-1500

Thomas Hoccleve: Chaucer’s first editor?

October 2015
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Journal article
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Chaucer Review
Building upon recent findings regarding the copying of early manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales and the identity of their scribes, this article revisits the question of who was responsible for commissioning and overseeing the production of the Hengwrt and Ellesmere manuscripts. Detailed analysis of the additions and corrections made to the Hengwrt manuscript, as well as the editorial interventions that lie behind the copy of the Canterbury Tales found in Ellesmere, leads to the suggestion that the supervisor responsible for the production of both manuscripts was Thomas Hoccleve.

Stephan Batman and the Making of the Parker Library

January 2015
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Journal article
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Transaction of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society

The scribe of Corpus College Oxford MS 201 of Piers Plowman

July 2014
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Chapter
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Middle English Texts in Transition: A Festschrift dedicated to Toshiyuki Takamiya on his 70th birthday
Literary Criticism

Manuscripts and Readers of Piers Plowman

February 2014
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Chapter
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The Cambridge Companion to Piers Plowman
A comprehensive study of the fascinating medieval poem Piers Plowman, consolidating the most enduring work with groundbreaking new research.
Literary Criticism

Beaupré Bell and the Editing of Chaucer in the Eighteenth Century

January 2014
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Chapter
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Makers and Users of Medieval Books Essays in Honour of A. S. G. Edwards
Literary Criticism

Middle English Texts in Transition A Festschrift Dedicated to Toshiyuki Takamiya on His 70th Birthday

January 2014
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Book
and Blancheflour in English, but neither of the other two texts in that manuscript is in French.19 The surviving evidence for mixed French and English romance miscellanies is thus very slim.20 In one instance in our corpus, there is an extremely ...
Literary Criticism

Does Spelling Matter?

March 2013
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Book
trivial matters of spelling and punctuation. Should such details matter? After all, these were unpublished manuscripts, not intended for publication. While we have an obsession with the idea of correct spelling, and judge it an important index of ...
Language Arts & Disciplines

Compiling the Canterbury Tales in Fifteenth-Century Manuscripts

January 2013
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Journal article
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The Chaucer Review

Forms of Circulation

January 2013
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Chapter
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A Companion to Fifteenth-century English Poetry
This collection of seventeen original essays by leading authorities offers, for the first time, a comprehensive overview of the significant authors and important aspects of fifteenth-century English poetry.
Literary Collections

John Cok and his Copy of Piers Plowman

January 2013
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Journal article
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The Yearbook of Langland Studies
47 Language, Communication and Culture, 4703 Language Studies

What's wrong with English Spelling?

January 2013
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Journal article
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Babel: The Language Magazine

Chaucer's Language

October 2012
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Book
Chaucer might also have chosen to write in Latin, an authoritative language used not only by the great classical writers, but the primary language of the universities and the Church throughout the Middle Ages as well. Classical Latin texts, such ...
Language Arts & Disciplines

The Scribes of the Vernon Manuscript

January 2012
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Chapter
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The Making of the Vernon Manuscripts

Stephan Batman and his Manuscripts of Piers Plowman

June 2011
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Journal article
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The Review of English Studies
47 Language, Communication and Culture, 4705 Literary Studies

Chaucer and Late Medieval Language

May 2011
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Journal article
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Literature Compass
47 Language, Communication and Culture, 4704 Linguistics, 4705 Literary Studies

Chaucer Manuscripts and the Middle English Dictionary

January 2011
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Chapter
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Focus on Old and Middle English Studies

Mapping Text and Word

January 2011
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Chapter
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The Production of Books in England, 1350-1530

Guest lecturer

October 2010
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Conference paper

Adam Pinkhurst, Geoffrey Chaucer and the Hengwrt manuscript of the Canterbury Tales

January 2010
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Journal article
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Chaucer Review

Further Books annotated by Stephan Batman (with A.S.G. Edwards)

January 2010
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Chapter
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The Library 7th series, vol. 11

Manuscripts and Scribes

January 2010
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Chapter
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Chaucer: Contemporary Approaches

Middle English Language and Poetry

January 2010
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Chapter
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A Companion to Medieval Poetry

Richard James and the seventeenth-century provenance of British Library MS Cotton Caligula A.XI

January 2010
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Journal article
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Journal of the Early Book Society

The Professionalisation of Writing

January 2010
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Chapter
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The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Literature in English

The Scribe of Bodleian Library MS Digby 102 and the Circulation of the C Text of Piers Plowman

January 2010
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Journal article
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The Yearbook of Langland Studies

Studying the History of Early English

December 2009
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Book

Adam Pinkhurst and the copying of British Library MS Additional 35287 of the B Version of Piers Plowman

January 2009
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Journal article
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Yearbook of Langland Studies

The Chaucerian Word Formation

January 2009
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Journal article
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Neuphilogische Mitteilungen

The Criteria for Scribal Attribution: Dublin, Trinity College MS 244 Reconsidered

January 2009
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Journal article
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Review of English Studies

The Edmund-Fremund Scribe Copying Chaucer

January 2009
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Journal article
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Journal of the Early Book Society

The Scribe of the Bodleian Library MS Bodley 619 and the circulation of Chaucer’s Treatise on Astrolabe

January 2009
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Journal article
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Studies in the Age of Chaucer

What C.S. Lewis readlly did to Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde

January 2009
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Journal article
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C.S. Lewis Society Chronicle

’Speaking and Writing in Suffolk Speech’: the language and dialect of Oxbern Bokenham

January 2009
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Chapter
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The Laurer of oure Englische Tonge

Harley 3954 and the Audience of Piers Plowman

April 2008
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Chapter
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Medieval Texts in Context
Literary Criticism

Politics, Patronage, and Piety in the Work of Osbern Bokenham

October 2007
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Journal article
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Speculum

Teaching the language of Chaucer Manuscripts

February 2007
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Chapter
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Teaching Chaucer
This volume of essays offers innovations in teaching Chaucer in higher education. The projects explored in this study focus on a student-centred, active learning designed to enhance independent research skills and critical thinking.
Literary Criticism

Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve’s Tale

January 2007
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Chapter
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J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia Scholarship and Critical Assessment
A detailed work of reference and scholarship, this one volume Encyclopedia includes discussions of all the fundamental issues in Tolkien scholarship written by the leading scholars in the field.
History

A New Fragment of the Romaunt of the Rose

January 2006
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Journal article
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Studies in the Age of Chaucer
47 Language, Communication and Culture, 4705 Literary Studies

Scribe D’s SW Midlands Roots: A Reconsideration

January 2005
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Journal article
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Neuphilologische Mitteilungen

Southern copies of the Prick of Conscience and the study of Middle English Word Geography

January 2005
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Journal article
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Poetica (Paderborn): Zeitschrift fuer Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft

The angle of oblivioun: A lost medieval manuscript discovered in Walter Scott’s collection

January 2005
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Journal article
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TLS - The Times Literary Supplement

The Scribe of Rawlinson Poetry 137 and the Copying and Circulation of Piers Plowman

January 2005
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Journal article
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The Yearbook of Langland Studies
47 Language, Communication and Culture, 4703 Language Studies

"In London and opelond": The Dialect and Circulation of the C Version of Piers Plowman

January 2005
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Journal article
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Medium Aevum

A Piers Plowman Manuscript by the Hengwrt/Ellesmere Scribe and Its Implications for London Standard English

January 2004
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Journal article
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Studies in the Age of Chaucer
47 Language, Communication and Culture, 4704 Linguistics

New Perspectives on English Historical Linguistics: Lexis and transmission

January 2004
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Book
Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics. Papers from the Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics. Volume XIII-XIV: Stanford, 1999 and Berkeley, California 2000 . 2002. xiv, 250 pp. 231 CRAVENS, Thomas D.: Comparative Historical Dialectology.
Language Arts & Disciplines

New Perspectives on English Historical Linguistics: Syntax and morphology

January 2004
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Book
Together the volumes provide an overview of many of the issues that are currently engaging practitioners in the field. In this volume, the primary concern is with the historical grammar of English.
Language Arts & Disciplines

The Dialect and Authorship of Richard the Redeless and Mum and the Sothsegger

January 2004
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Journal article
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The Yearbook of Langland Studies
47 Language, Communication and Culture, 4703 Language Studies

Pennies, Pence and Pans: Some Chaucerian Misreadings

October 2003
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Journal article
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English Studies
47 Language, Communication and Culture, 4703 Language Studies, 4705 Literary Studies

The English Ordinance and Custom in the Cartulary of the Hospital of St. Laurence, Canterbury

June 2003
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Journal article
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Anglia - Zeitschrift für englische Philologie
47 Language, Communication and Culture, 4703 Language Studies, 4704 Linguistics

The Language of the Chaucer Tradition

January 2003
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Book
A study of the language of Chaucerian manuscripts, printed editions and Chaucer's 15th century followers. Winner of the 2005 Beatrice White Prize for outstanding scholarly work in the field of English literature before 1590
Literary Criticism

An Introduction to Middle English

January 2002
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Book
The book covers the principal features of Middle English spelling, pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary and also introduces Middle English textual studies.
Language Arts & Disciplines

Chaucer’s Norfolk Reeve

January 2002
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Journal article
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Neophilologus: an international journal of modern and mediaeval language and literature

Towards a new history of Middle English Spelling

January 2002
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Chapter
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Middle English from Tongue to Text Selected Papers from the Third International Conference on Middle English : Language and Text, Held at Dublin, Ireland, 1-4 July 1999
Selected Papers from the Third International Conference on Middle English : Language and Text, Held at Dublin, Ireland, 1-4 July 1999 Peter ... Carole Hough is a Lecturer in the Department of English Language at the University of Glasgow.
Language Arts & Disciplines

J.R.R. Tolkien as a Philologist: A Reconsideration of the Northernisms in Chaucer’s Reeve’s Tale

April 2001
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Journal article
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English Studies
47 Language, Communication and Culture, 4703 Language Studies, 4705 Literary Studies

Chaucer’s Spelling and the Manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales

January 2001
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Chapter
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Placing Middle English in Context
The TiEL series features volumes that present interesting new data and analyses, and above all fresh approaches that contribute to the overall aim of the series, which is to further outstanding research in English linguistics.
Language Arts & Disciplines

PHISLOPHYE IN THE REEVE‘S TALE (Hg 4050) IN ANSWER TO ASTROMYE IN THE MILLER’S TALE (3451)

January 2001
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Journal article
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Notes and Queries
47 Language, Communication and Culture, 4705 Literary Studies

The Language of the Fifteenth-Century Printed editions of the Canterbury Tales

January 2001
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Journal article
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Anglia: Zeitschrift fuer Englische Philologie

Some Spellings in Chaucer’s Reeve's Tale

January 2000
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Journal article
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Notes and Queries: for readers and writers, collectors and librarians

The Language of the Hengwrt Chaucer

January 2000
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Other

The Middle English Grammar Project

January 2000
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Journal article
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ICAME Journel

The Scribe of the Helmingham and Northumberland manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales

January 2000
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Journal article
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Neophilologus: an international journal of modern and mediaeval language and literature

A database of Middle English spelling

September 1999
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Journal article
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Literary and Linguistic Computing
4703 Language Studies, 4704 Linguistics, 46 Information and Computing Sciences, 47 Language, Communication and Culture, 4610 Library and Information Studies

Linguistic Features of the Hammond Scribe

January 1999
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Journal article
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Poetica (Paderborn): Zeitschrift fuer Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft

The Hooked g Scribe and his Work on Three Manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales

January 1998
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Journal article
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Neuphilologische Mitteilungen

Additional 35286 and the Order of the Canterbury Tales

January 1997
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Journal article
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Chaucer Review: a journal of medieval studies and literary criticism

Editorial Assumptions and the Manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales

January 1997
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Chapter
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The Canterbury Tales Project Occasional papers
Humanities

A Manuscript Found in the Library of Abbotsford House and the Lost Legendary of Osbern Bokenham

Chapter
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English Manuscript Studies

A New Approach to Chaucer’s Spelling

Journal article
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English Studies: a journal of English language and literature

Invited Speaker

Conference paper

John But and the ending of the A Version of Piers Plowman

Journal article
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The Yearbook of Langland Studies

Plenary Speaker

Conference paper

Plenary Speaker

Conference paper

Presented a paper

Conference paper

Presented a paper

Conference paper

Presented a paper

Conference paper

Research questions and opportunity costs: the Digitisation of Middle English manuscripts and the Middle English Grammar Project

Journal article
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DRH 99 Selected papers from Digital Resources for the Humanities

Scribes and Scripts

Conference paper

The Language of Chaucer

Chapter
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Historical Linguistics of English: An International Handbook