Fred Colson Robinson (23 September 1930,

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...

– 5 May 2016,

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) was an American historian at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. 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 Birmingham–Southern College (BSC) was a private liberal arts college in Birmingham, Alabama. Founded in 1856, the college was affiliated with the United Methodist Church and was accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SA ...

and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English and comparative linguistics from the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

. 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 Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated d ...

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 The Medieval Academy of America (MAA; spelled Mediaeval until ) is the largest organization in the United States promoting the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes the q ...

in 1984. In 1996 he delivered the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

's Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture. Upon his death Robinson was survived by his widow, two children, and four grandchildren.

Bibliography

Works

* with Bruce Mitchell: (1982
''A Guide to Old English'', 3rd edition
University of Toronto Press; *
8th edition, 2012
Wiley-Blackwell. (The 1st (1964) and 2nd (1968) editions were written by Bruce Mitchell alone — later editions, from 1982 onward, were co-authored by Mitchell and Robinson. Mitchell contributed to the 7th edition but the 8th edition was done after his death.) * (1970) ''Old English Literature: A Select Bibliography''. * (1980) ''A Bibliography of Publications on Old English Literature to the End of 1972'' (with Stanley B. Greenfield) * (1985)''‘Beowulf’ and the Appositive Style'' * (1991) ''Old English Verse Texts from Many Sources'' (editor, with E.G. Stanley) * (1993) ''The Tomb of Beowulf'' * (1994) ''The Editing of Old English'' * (1998) ''Beowulf: An Edition with Relevant Shorter Texts'', Blackwell (editor, with Bruce Mitchell, Fred C. Robinson, Leslie Webster)

Selected articles

* ‘The American Element in "Beowulf,"” in ''English studies'' vol. 49 (1968) p. 508-516. * The Aesthetics of “ Cædmon's Hymn," in ''Essays on Aesthetics and Medieval Literature in Honor of Howell Chickering,'' 2014.

''Festschrift''

* Baker, Peter and

Nicholas Howe Nicholas Howe (February 17, 1953 – September 27, 2006) was an American scholar of Old English literature and culture, whose ''Migration and Mythmaking in Anglo-Saxon England'' (1989) was an important contribution to the study of Old English l ...

. ''Words and Works: Studies in Medieval English Language and Literature in Honor of Fred C. Robinson.'' Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998

References

1930 births 2016 deaths Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America Old English Birmingham–Southern College alumni University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Yale University faculty Anglo-Saxon studies scholars Stanford University faculty Cornell University faculty {{US-academic-bio-stub