Professor Brian Murdoch

Emeritus Professor

Literature and Languages - Division University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA

Professor Brian Murdoch

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About me

I retired from teaching in 2007 (having been appointed in 1972), but am still involved with the School and with research as Emeritus Professor. My major interests are in the fields of medieval German, Celtic and other literatures, especially medieval apocrypha, and also literature of the two world wars. After retiring I published a book on the apocryphal Adambooks (OUP), and edited with an introduction a collections of essays on Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front" for the Salem Press Critical Insights series (2010). I published a chapter for a handbook on Medieval Latin (OUP) on the relationship with vernacular languages, and several articles or translations for Festschriften and for encylopaedic works . A book on a medieval saint's legend -- that of the incestuous saint Gregorius -- appeared in 2012 (also for OUP). I have also completed an online bibliographical study of biblical apocrypha for OUP, updated in 2019, and various articles for essay collections, mainly on the First World War. A collection of my papers on War literature appeared in 2015. I continue to work as a literary translator (of Remarque and others), a recent publication being that of Walter Flex's war novel, The Wanderer Between the Two Worlds. A new translation of the sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front, The Way Back, appeared in 2019. A study of The Reception of the Legend of Hero and Leander appeared in Brill's Companions to Classical Reception series also in 2019. A new book, The Fortunes of Everyman in Twentieth-Century German Drama. War, Death. Morality appeared in 2022 (Camden House, USA). A translation of the poems of Catullus appeared in 2023 (Choir Press) and a volume of translations, Three Political Tales from Medieval Germany in 2024 (Camden House). Articles on Scott, war poetry, and the myth of Orpheus have appeared recently. I am currently translating a German novel of the First World War, and a collaborative volume on the legend of Walther of Aquitaine (Waltharius - a text and translation) appeared with Uppsala Books in 2024. A further volume of material on the medieval Latin Walther-poem will appear in 2025. I am a member of the editorial board of the series Medieval and Renaissance Authors and Texts (Brill, Leiden). BA (Exeter) PhD, LittD (Cambridge), FRHistS, AMusTCL

Medieval apocryphal literature Literature of the World Wars Comparative literature Literary translation