"In this wide-ranging and lavishly-illustrated study, Lori Garner effectively aligns the established approach of oral poetics with insights from the emerging field of vernacular architecture. From Heorot to Grendel's mere, from the Mermedonian prison of Andreas to the nest of The Phoenix, from the Wife's earth-hall to Holofernes' tent, Garner's sensitive readings of the poetics of built spaces in Old English poetry open up new perspectives on 'conventional' imagery that we only thought we knew how to read." —Charles D. Wright, University of Illinois
"In this interdisciplinary study, complete with 32 illustrations, Garner explores how poetic and architectural traditions of early medieval England draw on traditional encoded motifs and images relating to spaces. . . . The eloquent afterword reframes the argument in terms of modern interactions with medieval architecture and calls for increased awareness of medieval spaces and the poetry they embody." —Choice
“Garner’s Structuring Spaces is a very well-researched monograph, nicely structured, filled with nuanced, considered analysis and fine writing. The strength of the book is in the way it illuminates words and phrases (and through words and phrases, images) across the poetic corpus. The book is well-worth consulting for its illuminating explication of words, phrases, formulas, and images related to building and architecture; for its overall argument about the importance of space in an understanding of Anglo-Saxon culture; and as a fine example of interdisciplinary scholarship.” —Review of English Studies
“Lori Garner comprehensively demonstrates that the architecture and the poetry of the Anglo-Saxons drew from a single body of traditional encoded symbols and images. Furthermore, the architectural poetics developed in early medieval England endured under Norman rule.” —Parergon
“Lori Ann Garner’s engaging monograph focuses on the architectural phraseology and imagery found in early medieval poetry and its reception by medieval and modern audiences and readers. Harnessing John Miles Foley’s established theory of ‘traditional referentiality,’ she effectively redesigns the way we think, read, and appreciate architectural imagery in Anglo-Saxon and early Middle English poetry.” —Modern Language Review
“Expanding our window into the past, Lori Garner reads meaning embedded in larger contexts, marking for attention parallels between Anglo-Saxon architecture and poetics. . . . She unites Carel Bertram’s constructed architecture as shared memory with poetics as ‘carrier of the memory of a once-intact world of spiritual values.’” —Journal of Folklore Research
“Garner’s study is an excellent example of interdisciplinary work: rather than simply gesturing towards an integration of disciplines, Garner’s study of Old English oral poetics and Anglo-Saxon architecture is one of the best, most thorough integrations of Anglo-Saxon literary study and material culture I have read.” —Review of English Studies
“A detailed pursuit of a highly charged theme, Structuring Spaces centers around the reception and perceptions of the Anglo-Saxon audience toward the architectural phraseology and imagery imbued within oral poetics through a network of signification (phrases, scenes, and poetic patterns) informed by traditional context. Garner challenges readers to explore how the dynamic nature of Anglo-Saxon cultural identity was informed by a synthesis of social, political, and cultural factors inherent within both built and imaginary spaces to conclude that poets, scribes, artists, and buildings all shared a common culturally specific architectural language used to transmit similar meanings.” —Sixteenth Century Journal
“This is an attractive book, articulate, jargon-free, well researched, argued with generous cross-references among medieval texts, and well edited.” —Journal of English and Germanic Philology
“The strength of Garner’s study is the way in which she draws together material from across the corpus of Old English verse and brings it into dialogue with material culture. . . . Garner’s ideas will undoubtedly serve as a stimulus to further work.” —Medium Ævum
