Table of contents : Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction: The Form of History 1. Art and History in Old English Heroic Poetry 2. In Principio: Origins of the Present in Anglo-Saxon Biblical Verse 3. Verse Memorials and the Viking Conflict 4. Poetic Memory: The Canonical Verse of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 5. Transitional Verse in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: Changing the Shape of History Conclusion: The Past in the Present Bibliography Index