Toronto Old English Colloquium 2025

The Toronto Old English Colloquium welcomes Janet Ericksen, Chancellor and Professor of English at the University of Minnesota Morris for a lecture entitled Reading the Gaps in MS Junius 11, preceded by a symposium on the poems of the Junius Manuscript.   

RSVP REQUIRED

11 am-1 pm (light breakfast 10:30 am)
Room 310
Symposium: Poems of the Junius Manuscript
presented by Students from MST 1388 The Junius Manuscript: Old Testament Narratives

• Christopher Chang Know Way Out: Epistemological Uncertainty in Junius 11 and the Benedictine Reform
• Ruoji Guo Greener on the Other Side: Representations of Greenness in the Junius Manuscript
• Thomas Kalil Halls and Hosts: Heroic Bodies of Water in the Junius Manuscript

1 pm
Great Hall
Lunch

2:30-4:30 pm
Great Hall
Lecture: Janet Ericksen, Reading the Gaps in MS Junius 11
Abstract: The pages of the book now catalogued as Oxford, Bodleian Library manuscript Junius 11 present multiple formats to readers, including completed illustrations integrated with text in the Genesis section, abundant unfinished spaces in its middle portions, and predominantly text-only pages in Christ and Satan. The completed illustrations create a complex interweaving of visual and textual narratives that asks for careful navigation, while the unfinished spaces, rather than representing mere deficits, may have enhanced meditative reading of the sort encouraged by monastic training. The manuscript’s combination of illustration, blank space, and text distinguishes it from other surviving Old English manuscripts, and the varying page layouts would have facilitated different types of reading engagement. The gaps—the unillustrated, unwritten spaces—reveal more than they leave out. 
followed by Q & A / discussion

Reception to follow