The following publication prizes were announced at ISSEME’s 22nd biennial conference, held in Düsseldorf in July 2025. The chair of the prize committee, Judith Kaup, noted that the overall standard of all nominated publications this year was very high.
Award for Best Research Aid
Medieval Glossaries from Northwestern Europe: Tradition and Innovation, edited by Anina Seiler, Chiara Benati, and Sara Pons-Sanz. The Medieval Translator/Traduire au Moyen Âge 19. Turnhout: Brepols, 2023.
This expansive edited collection offers a comprehensive introduction to the study of medieval glossaries, an increasingly productive and significant area of study for our field. With over 50 detailed yet approachable chapters providing overviews of the major glossarial traditions and individual glossaries in Old English, Middle English, Anglo-Norman, Celtic languages, and various dialects of medieval German, as well as Dutch and Scandinavian glossaries, this volume delivers on its promises to highlight the interconnectedness of glossarial traditions and serve as a vademecum for researchers seeking specific information and modern approaches to medieval glossography, lexicology, and lexicography.
Award for Best Translation or Edition
Medical Writings from Early Medieval England, Volume I: The Old English Herbal, Lacnunga, and Other Texts. Edited by John D. Niles and Maria A. D’Aronco. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 81. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2023.
Niles and D’Aronco’s work is the first comprehensive edition and translation of Old English medical texts to be published since Cockayne’s Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England in 1864-1866, and offers a new and welcome presentation of these fascinating and important texts informed by the most recent scholarship on early medieval medicine, social history, popular religion, and literary and manuscript studies. The first of two planned volumes, this book includes The Old English Herbal, The Old English Remedies from Animals, Lacnunga (which includes the Metrical Charms), the Peri Didaxeon, and 101 miscellaneous medical remedies found in various manuscripts, each of which is carefully edited and clearly translated. Like all Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library editions, Medical Writings from Early Medieval England is affordable and accessible for students, but this volume departs from the norms of the series by providing copious and detailed notes on the texts and translations in the backmatter, and indices of Modern, Old English, and Latin plant names, making it a helpful addition to scholarly libraries as well.
Award for Best Article
Jill Fitzgerald, ‘Terror and History on the Lid of the Franks Casket‘, The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 123 (2024), 360–390.
This is a highly skilled close reading of a physical artifact and its milieu, offering a new and persuasive reading of the Franks Casket and its contemporary cultural significance. The article is beautifully written, methodical, and well-paced, addressing counterarguments and exhibiting a deep knowledge of previous scholarship. It constitutes a major intervention not only in critical work on the Franks Casket, but in the history of Northumbria more broadly, pointing us to connections with the wider world (and specifically Francia) which have long been overlooked.
Award for Best ECR article
Michael Lysander Angerer, ‘Hebban olla vogala: An Eleventh-Century Link Between Dutch and English Literary History’, Neophilologus 108 (2024), 467–484.
This article is a wonderful example of how advancing technology can be used to assist our understanding of early medieval texts. It offers a well-organized reading of the earliest literary text in Dutch and an interpretive linguistic argument, providing an important new avenue of exploration for influences on Middle English verse and the relationship between Old English and Old Dutch. The execution is deeply scholarly, but always attentive to the big picture in a way that makes for a genuinely exciting reader experience.
Award for Best Book
Jennifer Neville, Truth is Trickiest: The Case for Ambiguity in the Exeter Book Riddles (University of Toronto Press, 2024).
This is a learned and rich contribution to the field. The book zooms in on the Exeter Book Riddles, but demonstrates that a focus on a single subject does not need to be limiting. It engages with various theoretical strands and offers insights beyond the world of riddles. It is an example of widely read and open minded scholarship that effortlessly draws on a broad range of sources. It is very well-structured; complex yet delightful to read; and it comes with many useful resources, including an appendix with riddle solutions. As such, it offers a wealth of incentives for research and the classroom. While it is true, that, as one of our readers put it, “riddles are currently having a heyday”, this book has every chance to outlive it.
Award for Best First Monograph
Rachel A. Burns, A History of Old English Verse Layout: Poetics on the Page, Book Cultures (Arc Humanities Press, 2024).
The sober title of this excellent first monograph somewhat disguises the innovative research it presents. The book stands out for its novel take on what for some is a given in the discussion of Old English verse: the idea that it was written as if it were prose. Instead, Burns is convinced that “[…] the format in which Old English verse survives is that to which scribes felt the poetry was best suited.” She proves her point in a clearly-structured study which uses a wealth of useful details and examples, making this accessible to scholars at all stages. Most importantly, this monograph highlights how the manuscript evidence has been neglected in favour of a narrative that justified presenting Old English poetry in the way a modern reader expects poetry to be presented. Generations of first year students have been told that Old English poetry is written as prose and perpetuated this flawed perception. Burns’ important study has the potential to fundamentally change how we think about Old English verse layout.