Brandon W. Hawk - Preaching Apocrypha in Anglo-Saxon England

While I have amassed much debt to many who have supported me over the years, offering my thanks is not a burden but a pleasure. The core of this book began at the University of Connecticut, and my thanks, first and foremost, go to Fred Biggs and Clare Costley Kingoo. Freds influence may be seen throughout this book in many ways likely even more than I can consciously acknowledge and he has continually, generously read and discussed the project over the years; I hope that I have honoured his foundational work by extending it in fresh ways. Clare has consistently been a critical reader, often prompting me to clarify my readings, methodologies, and arguments in ways that have certainly strengthened my work in this book and beyond. I also thank my other mentors at UConn: Bob Hasenfratz, who encouraged me to sow the first seeds of my interest in this project in his Vercelli Book course; Sara Johnson, who helped me to situate my work in connection with late antiquity; Sherri Olson, who spurred me toward serious historiographic study (and frequently reminded me to keep peasants in view); and Fiona Somerset, who asked to read my work-in-progress only weeks after she arrived at UConn, and has continued to do so.

I owe more than I can express to the greater academic community for support of this project. In particular, I am deeply grateful to Mark LaCelle-Peterson for opening up the rich world of Anglo-Saxon England to me when I was an undergraduate, and for continuing our conversations since. I want to thank a number of colleagues who have shared their own work as well as discussed, read, and commented on various parts of this project, especially Lindy Brady, Tony Burke, Aidan Conti, Lorenzo DiTommaso, Mary Dzon, Helen Foxhall Forbes, Martin Foys, Micah Goodrich, Stephen Harris, Laura Howes, Brendan Kane, Kathleen Kennedy, Bre Leake, Roy Liuzza, Kathryn Lowe, Nicola McDonald, Britt Mize, Els Rose, Winfried Rudolf, Don Scragg, Alison Shonkwiler, Elaine Treharne, Nicholas Watson, Lauren Whitnah, Christina Wilson, Charlie Wright, Stephen Yeager, Samantha Zacher, and the anonymous reviewers for the University of Toronto Press. I also owe many thanks to Suzanne Rancourt for seeing this book through to print. Any remaining mistakes are my own.

My fellowship at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute in 201314 was instrumental to my project: I spent the year discussing my work with a wonderful community who helped me to rethink my project, reframe key issues, and begin reimagining the whole as a book. The critical and probing questions that I received stretched my thinking, and the discussions that arose from my presentations were vital for shaping the finished project into what it is now. This book is all the better for every conversation with the other fellows.

I am also appreciative for the financial and institutional support that I have received over the years. I have benefited from the generosity of the Medieval Studies Program at UConn, which awarded me a number of fellowships for research and travel to present parts of this project. I am grateful to the Medieval Academy of America for a Graduate Student Travel Bursary that allowed me to attend the 2013 Annual Meeting and present an early version of . I am also indebted for the support of my colleagues at Rhode Island College, where I revised much of this book into its present form. I am especially appreciative of financial and research support from Daniel Scott, Chair of the English Department; Earl Simson, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences; and Ron Pitt, former Vice President for Academic Affairs.

A version of part of appears in Fakes, Forgeries, and Fictions: Writing Ancient and Modern Christian Apocrypha, Proceedings from the 2015 York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium, edited by Tony Burke (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2017); I thank Cascade for permission to incorporate that material into this book. For images and permissions to print them, I would like to thank the Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and the Institut de recherche et dhistoire des textes.

I would be remiss not to mention my family members. It is difficult to put my gratitude into words for Judy, my wife, since she has supported me in myriad ways. I owe her thanks for first entertaining many of my ideas (even in half-baked form), accompanying me from blank pages to finished chapters, and for her constant encouragement. I wrote several parts of this book, and revised much of it, while holding my daughter Catie asleep in one arm, or while she played nearby. I am happy for her companionship over the first year of her life as this book took its final shape, and I look forward to both of us sharing much together in years to come. Finally, my longest-standing debt is to my parents, Timothy and Susan Hawk, who first fostered my love of learning and imagination especially in their stalwart defence of my creative choice to colour elephants purple as a child. I dedicate this book to them for their many years of support and encouragement.

Brandon W. Hawk

Feast of Corpus Christi, 2017