1. Referencing and bibliographical issues

• References to editions (e.g. NK, Beowulf 2008) need only be given if text is cited from the edition, or if the stanza/line numbers are unstable in the case of poetry, chapter numbers in the case of prose texts. A word under discussion in a general sense and given in the nominative form does not count as text cited from the edition.
• Authors with the same last name with publications in the same year should be distinguished in in-text references by the use of their first initial, e.g. A. Noreen 1921, E. Noreen 1921. If publications are from different years, there is no need to use the first initial. Where authors have the same first and last name, and no known middle name, they should be distinguished in the bibliography by their year of birth. There is no need to give the birth-year in the in-text reference unless they both have publications in the same year.
• The use of idem, eadem etc. should be avoided; the author’s name should be repeated instead, including instances of Icelandic names and multiple authors. However, the situation should be avoided where possible via our policy to cite necessary references only: if a scholar has said the same thing more than once, one reference is sufficient.
• Discursive references to bibliographical material should place round brackets around the year and page references, or year if only that is given, e.g. ‘On textual evidence for gold decoration on Viking Age ships see Foote (1978, 64)’; ‘for discussion see Jesch (2004)’. Further brackets should not be used for already bracketed material, e.g. ‘(though Fischer 1909, 79 suggests French)’.
• On the positioning of in-text references, the MHRA style guide states: ‘When the author’s name is given in the text, it should not be repeated in the reference. In such cases, the reference either follows the name or, if this seems stylistically preferable, may come at some other point in the same sentence: [...] “Smith regards this interpretaion as ‘wholly unacceptable’” (1977: 66)’. ‘Stylistic preference’ may therefore be left to the discretion of the editor.
• Where more than one reference is given, a semi-colon should separate them: ‘(Magerøy 1948, 38-9; Rainford 1995, 84-5)’.
• The headwords for LP, AEW and other such reference works should routinely be given, even where the lemma under discussion is identical to the headword. All such reference works should be referenced by headword rather than by page number. Reference works used too infrequently to merit their own abbreviations should take the form author, date: headword, e.g. ‘Ross 1985: kleim’.
• A volume number should always be provided for multi-volume works to aid the reader, even where pages are numbered consecutively across volumes.
• For a series of editions of different texts, e.g. ÍF, Fms, vol. numbers should be given in arabic. For a single (but multi-volume) edition or anthology, e.g. SnE, CPB and SkP, vol. numbers should be given in roman.
• Where notes in an edition or secondary work span more than one page, the format is 332-3n.
• For reference to Old English words, Bosworth-Toller is being superseded by the Dictionary of Old English (to be abbreviated DOE) based at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, http://www.doe.utoronto.ca/. Currently words beginning A-G are available.
• Where items from the editions line are also referenced in the Notes etc., volume numbers/dates etc. should be repeated there, e.g. ÍF 27, Jón Skaptason 1983 NOT ÍF, Jón Skaptason. Page numbers need not be given again if they are the same as in the Editions line (i.e. same practice as used for Skj and Skald).
• Edd. Min. should be placed at the end of the Editions line, when used.

References