‘This book offers new ways of thinking about how compounds are used and it will inform future study. It is a welcome addition to the field.’
Paul Cavill, The Review of English Studies October 2016
‘Jonathan Davis-Secord has woven a rich tapestry from such seemingly uninspiring threads as compounds, and his richly textured book is sure to please a range of scholars from a variety of perspectives.’
Don Chapman, Anglia vol 135:2017
‘An original, stimulating, and impressively erudite exploration of the role of compounds in Old English literary culture… This learned and engaging book opens up several new approaches to the study of a key feature of Old English verbal art and deserves to find a wide readership.’
Richard Dance, Speculum, vol 92:04:2017
‘In this book Davis-Secord brings to bear new and promising modes of analysis in a wide-ranging and provocative discussion.’
Greg Waite, Parergon vol 34:02:2017
"This thoroughly researched book opens up a wide variety of new approaches to familiar texts and will likely prove an essential resource for scholars of Old English literature, rhetoric, and culture."
Courtney Catherine Barajas, The University of Texax at Austin, University of Toronto Quarterly, vol 87 3, Summer 2018
"Delving masterfully into a central feature of Anglo-Saxon aesthetics–simple juxtaposition–this book elucidates how compounding in Old English at the lexical level enriches the literary products of that language. Latin and Old Norse theories of linguistic art give the discussion a broad, early-medieval context, and modern linguistic and neuropsychological theories of compounding across a range of languages root it in the present day. The result is a significant and captivating contribution both to linguistic theory and to cultural studies."
Robert E. Bjork, Foundation Professor of English and Director of ACMRS (the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies), Arizona State University. Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America.
"Joinings is a great piece of scholarship. While there are other works dealing with compounds in Old English texts, none is as comprehensive as the present study. This engaging and well written book makes a very significant contribution to the field."
Philip A. Shaw, School of English, University of Leicester