The Metre of Beowulf: A Constraint-Based Approach. By Michael Getty. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2002. Pp. x + 368. $48.25.

It is axiomatic that before a theory can achieve theoretical adequacy, it must achieve explanatory adequacy, and before it can achieve explanatory adequacy, it must achieve descriptive adequacy. Michael Getty's constraint-based approach to Old English (OE) meter appears to be targeted directly at theoretical adequacy under the rubric of optimality theory, and the results are intriguing. Ultimately, however, interesting though the application of optimality theory to OE meter is, Getty's book does not add significantly to our knowledge of how Anglo-Saxon poets composed their verse.

B. R. Hutcheson
Leverett, Mass.