Wisdom literature played a crucial role in the evolution of traditional societies, contributing to the structure of society and to the acceptance of new ideas within a culture, a function that has become increasingly understood. Old English wisdom literature is the focus of this volume, which offers an bibliography of the scholarly criticism between 1800 and 1990 of a group of largely secular poems comprising the metrical "Charms", "The Fortunes of Men", "The Gifts of Men", "Homiletic Fragments I and II", "Maxims I and II", "The Order of the World", "Precepts", "the metrical "Proverbs", the "Riddles of the Exeter Book", the "Rune Poem", "Solomon and Saturn", and "Vainglory".A General Introduction investigates debates between scholars and establishes overall trends; it is followed by the bibliography proper, divided into chapters, each with its own introduction, focusing on a major text or collection of texts, with entries arranged chronologically. Dr Russell Poole teaches in the School of English and Media Studies at Massey University, New Zealand.