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

Research

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

Outputs (17)

Outputs

Book Review

Jakob Ruf. life, work and studies

Murdoch B (2009) Jakob Ruf. life, work and studies [JakobRuf.Leben,WerkundStudien]. Review of:
Keller, Hildegard Elisabeth,ed. Zurich:Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2008. 5 vols.(319+774+707+1019+723pp.), plus audioCD and multimedia CD.. German Quarterly, 82 (1), pp. 112-114.

Book Review

Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture: The Apocrypha

Murdoch B (2009) Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture: The Apocrypha. Review of: Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture: The Apocrypha. Edited by Frederick M. Biggs. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, xx + 117pp, 2007. ISBN 978 1 58044 119 3. Journal of Theological Studies, 60 (1), pp. 311-312.

Book Review

Adomnan and the Holy Places. The Perceptions of an Insular Monk on the Locations of the Biblical Drama

Murdoch B (2008) Adomnan and the Holy Places. The Perceptions of an Insular Monk on the Locations of the Biblical Drama. Review of: Adomnán and the Holy Places. The Perceptions of an Insular Monk on the Locations of the Biblical Drama. By Thomas O’Loughlin. . London and New York: T. & T. Clark, 2007. xx + 348pp.. Literature and Theology, 22 (4), pp. 491-493. https://doi.org/10.1093/litthe/frn043

Book Review

Ancrene Wisse. A Corrected Edition of the Text in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 402, with Variants front Other Manuscripts

Murdoch B (2008) Ancrene Wisse. A Corrected Edition of the Text in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 402, with Variants front Other Manuscripts. Review of: Ancrene Wisse. A Corrected Edition of the Text in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 402, with Variants from Other Manuscripts. Edited by Bella Millett, , drawing on the uncompleted edition by E. J. Dobson, , with a glossary and additional notes by Richard Dance. . Oxford: Oxford University Press for the Early English Text Society, 2005–6. 2 vols. lxxiv + 254 and lvii + 477 pp.. Literature and Theology, 22 (4), pp. 493-494. https://doi.org/10.1093/litthe/frn044

Book Review

Adamgirk': The Adam book of Arak'el of Siwnik'

Murdoch B (2008) Adamgirk': The Adam book of Arak'el of Siwnik'. Review of: Adamgirk': The Adam Book of Arak'el of Siwnik', Michael E. Stone, OUP Oxford, 2007, 348pp. 0199204772. Journal of Jewish Studies, 59 (1), pp. 144-146.

Book Review

Murder, Manners, Mystery. Reflections on Faith in Contemporary Detective Fiction

Murdoch B (2008) Murder, Manners, Mystery. Reflections on Faith in Contemporary Detective Fiction. Review of: Murder, Manners, Mystery. Reflections on Faith in Contemporary Detective Fiction. By Peter C. Erb. . London: SCM Press, 2007. 150 pp. 978-0334041078. Literature and Theology, 22 (2), pp. 246-248.

Book Review

Transforming Talk. The Problem with Gossip in Late Medieval England

Murdoch B (2008) Transforming Talk. The Problem with Gossip in Late Medieval England. Review of: Transforming Talk. The Problem with Gossip in Late Medieval England. By Susan E. Phillips. . University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007. x+238 pp. 978-0271029948. Literature and Theology, 22 (1), pp. 122-124. https://doi.org/10.1093/litthe/frn003

Book Review

The Golden Legend 2

Murdoch B (2008) The Golden Legend 2. Review of: Gilte Legende II. Edited by Richard Hamer, with the assistance of Vida Russell. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the Early English Text Society, 2007. x + 537 pp.. Literature and Theology, 22 (1), pp. 124-125. https://doi.org/10.1093/litthe/frn004

Book Review

Satan. A biography

Murdoch B (2007) Satan. A biography. Review of: Satan. A Biography. By Henry Ansgar Kelly.Satan. A Biography. By Henry Ansgar Kelly, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Pp. xiv + 360. isbn 0 521 84339 1.. Journal of Theological Studies, 58 (2), pp. 681-686. https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/fll138

Book Review

Gemstone of paradise: The Holy Grail in Wolfram's Parzival

Murdoch B (2007) Gemstone of paradise: The Holy Grail in Wolfram's Parzival. Review of: Gemstone of Paradise: The Holy Grail in Wolfram’s Parzival. Murphy, G. Ronald, S.J. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006. 241 pp. ISBN: 9780195306392. German Quarterly, 80 (3), pp. 392-393. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-1183.2007.tb00081.x

Book Review

The life of Adam and Eve in Greek: A critical edition

Murdoch B (2007) The life of Adam and Eve in Greek: A critical edition. Review of: The Life of Adam and Eve in Greek: A Critical Edition. By Johannes Tromp. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2005. Pp. viii + 206. isbn 9 0041 4317 3.. Journal of Theological Studies, 58 (1), pp. 173-176.