The publication of this volume of essays is a milestone in Old English studies. It is the first collection to examine this literature from a feminist perspective. Although the contributors represent a plurality of approaches and positions, they share a common objective: to reassess women as women, as they actually appear in the laws, in works written by women, and in canonical literature. The essays address, correct, and round out the nineteenth-century Anglo-Saxon critical tradition and begin fresh exploration of the women in Old English literature.The subjects discussed fall into the following broad categories: the historical record; sexuality and folklore; language and difference in characterization and the 'deconstructed' stereotype. Contributors include Marijane Osborn; Christine E. Fell; F.T. Wainwright; Pauline Stafford; Frank M. Stenton; Mary P. Richard s and B. Jane Stanfield; Carol J. Clover; Edith Whitehurst Williams; Paul E. Szarmach; Audrey L. Meaney; Helen Damico; Patricia A. Belanoff; L. John Sklute; Paul Beekman Taylor; Alexandra Hennessey Olsen; Joyce Hill; Jane Chance; Alain Renoir; Dolores Warwick Frese; and Anita R. Riedinger.Helen Damico, Associate Professor of Old and Middle English at the University of New Mexico, is author of "Beowulf's Wealhtheow" and the "Valkyrie Tradition". Alexandra Hennessey Olsen, Associate Professor of Old and Middle English at the University of Denver, is author of "Guthlac of Croyland: A Study of Heroic Hagiography and Speech, Song, and Poetic Craft"; "The Artistry of the Cynewulf Canon".