Fred C. Robinson


Fred Colson Robinson was an American historian at Yale University. He was widely considered one of the world's foremost authorities on Old English.

Biography

Robinson received in 1953 his bachelor's degree in English and fine arts from Birmingham–Southern College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English and comparative linguistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His 1961 doctoral dissertation was titled "Variation: A Study in the Diction of 'Beowulf'". After teaching at Stanford University and at Cornell University, he joined the Yale faculty in 1972 and eventually retired there as professor emeritus.
He was a Guggenheim Fellow for the academic year 1974–1975. In 1984 he shared the Haskins Medal with Stanley B. Greenfield for their 1980 book A Bibliography of Publications on Old English Literature to the End of 1972. Robinson was the president of the Medieval Academy of America in 1984. In 1996 he delivered the British Academy's Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture.
Upon his death Robinson was survived by his widow, two children, and four grandchildren.

Works

  • with Bruce Mitchell:, University of Toronto Press;
  • *, Wiley-Blackwell. and 2nd Old English Literature: A Select Bibliography.A Bibliography of Publications on Old English Literature to the End of 1972 ‘Beowulf’ and the Appositive Style Old English Verse Texts from Many Sources The Tomb of BeowulfThe Editing of Old EnglishBeowulf: An Edition with Relevant Shorter Texts, Blackwell

Selected articles

  • ‘The American Element in "Beowulf,"” in English studies vol. 49 p. 508-516.
  • The Aesthetics of “Cædmon's Hymn," in Essays on Aesthetics and Medieval Literature in Honor of Howell Chickering, 2014.

''Festschrift''