Leonard Neidorf facts for kids

Leonard Neidorf is an American expert in philology. This is the study of language in historical sources. He is a special professor of English at Shenzhen University.

Professor Neidorf focuses on Old English and Middle English literature. He is especially known for his work on Beowulf. This is a very famous and old English poem.

About Leonard Neidorf

Leonard Neidorf grew up in Voorhees Township, New Jersey. He finished Eastern Regional High School in 2006. He then earned a bachelor's degree in English from New York University in 2010. He graduated with summa cum laude, which means "with highest honor."

He later earned a PhD in English from Harvard University in 2014. A PhD is the highest university degree. After his PhD, he became a member of the Harvard Society of Fellows. This is a very big honor for scholars in the United States.

From 2016 to 2024, Professor Neidorf was an English Professor at Nanjing University. Now, he is a Distinguished Professor of English at Shenzhen University. He also helps edit two important academic journals: English Studies and The Explicator.

Professor Neidorf's Research

Leonard Neidorf's main research areas are Old English and Middle English literature. He is a leading expert on the ancient poem Beowulf.

He has written several books about Beowulf. These include The Art and Thought of the 'Beowulf'-Poet (2022) and The Transmission of 'Beowulf': Language, Culture, and Scribal Behavior (2017). He also edited The Dating of 'Beowulf': A Reassessment (2014). This book won an award in 2015 for being an "Outstanding Academic Title."

Professor Neidorf believes that Beowulf was likely written by one person. He thinks it was composed in the late 600s or early 700s AD. For his work on Beowulf, he received the Beatrice White Prize in 2020.

Besides Beowulf, he has studied other important Old English poems. These include Widsith, Maxims, the Finnesburg Fragment, and The Dream of the Rood. His research looks at who wrote these poems and what they mean. He also studies their history and how their texts have changed over time.

Understanding Beowulf

Professor Neidorf's studies help us understand Beowulf in many ways. He compares the poem to stories from Old Norse and Middle High German cultures. He also connects it to old beliefs about the monstrous children of Cain. His work also links the poem to early English history and culture.

When studying the Beowulf manuscript, he looks at mistakes made when the text was copied. These errors can tell us about the poem's history. He suggests that these error patterns show the poem was written down before the mid-700s.

In the study of names, called onomastics, Professor Neidorf argues that names in Beowulf came from old spoken traditions. He believes the poet did not invent them to give special meaning to the characters.

He also studies the rhythm of Old English poetry, known as Old English meter. He supports the ideas of earlier scholars like Eduard Sievers and Robert D. Fulk. He thinks that understanding meter is helpful for editing and dating Old English poems.

Working with Tom Shippey

Professor Neidorf worked with a famous medieval scholar named Tom Shippey. Together, they created 'Beowulf': Translation and Commentary (2023). This book includes the original Beowulf text. It also has a translation on the opposite page, detailed notes, extra essays, and a list of related readings.

A reviewer from the University of Oxford said this book is "the perfect book for the first-time reader of Beowulf." They also called it "essential reading for all scholars."

Selected Works

• The Dating of Beowulf: A Reassessment, 2014
• Old English Philology: Studies in Honour of R.D. Fulk (with Rafael J. Pascual and Tom Shippey), 2016
• The Transmission of Beowulf: Language, Culture, and Scribal Behavior, 2017
• The Art and Thought of the Beowulf Poet, 2022
• Beowulf: Translation and Commentary (with Tom Shippey), 2023

See also

• Robert D. Fulk
• J. R. R. Tolkien
• Tom Shippey
• Andrew Breeze
• Geoffrey Russom