The “Exeter Book” (Exeter, Cathedral Library, 3501) is the name conventionally given to one of the major collections of Old English poetry, containing about one-sixth of the surviving corpus. The contents, which are both secular and religious, provide a remarkable conspectus of later Anglo-Saxon poetic culture, and include several of the best-known anthology pieces (The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Wife’s Lament), as well as other texts (such as the so-called “wisdom poems”) which are attracting renewed attention after a long period of comparative neglect. The present article discusses the origin and physical construction of the manuscript and gives an overview of its contents; many of the poems are the subject of separate articles elsewhere.
In all likelihood the Exeter Book has been at Exeter since at least 1072, for it can probably be identified...
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Citation: Jackson, Peter. "Exeter Book". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 June 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5241, accessed 05 December 2025.]
