Fontes Anglo-Saxonici

Transmission:: The Old English Whale is largely an adaptation of the corresponding passage in the Latin Physiologus. The precise version (or versions) of the Latin text used by the Anglo-Saxon author remains unidentified and may not have survived. The two versions cited here, B and Y, can, however, be seen as close approximations. (The classification of the Latin versions and the sigla referring to them are themselves a matter of dispute; see, for instance, Wirtjes 1990). Homiletic models and biblical material may furthermore have influenced the structure and thematic unity of the Old English text; and parallels with the anonymous Nauigatio S. Brendani have also been discussed. For extensive phraseological echoes and formulaic analogues in other Old English poems, see Squires 1988, who also reprints all Latin source passages.
Bibliography:: Squires 1988, 14-22, 26, 69-96; Ebert 1883; Perry 1941, 1119-23; Cordasco 1949; Frank 1971, 35-47, 190-202; Campbell 1978; Letson 1979; d'Aronco 1984; Orlandi 1985; Biggs 1989; Wirtjes 1990; Faraci 1991

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