This dissertation developed in the main as a result of three educational experiences: an independent study in Old English with Geoffrey Russom, a Fulbright year in Iceland, and a year teaching Old Icelandic at Brown. For the first of these, I would like to thank Professor Russcm, who not only first introduced me to Old English, directed my dissertation, and generously responded to my many interim projects, but who also in his own work has provided a model of judicious and sensitive analysis. My debt to him, which in my recent years of secluded study may have gone too often unexpressed, has been profound and his influence incalculable.