In Memorium: Stephen O. Glosecki (1950-2007)

Steve's interest in the ecstatic world of the shaman is reflected most obviously in his first book, Shamanism and Old English Poetry (1989). At the conference of the Teachers of Old English in Britain and Ireland, he very memorably read parts of his own alliterative translation of Beowulf to a hugely appreciative authence; he read at the International Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo, which he always enjoyed, and at the 2002 Southeastern Medieval Association meeting, where he chanted the Grendel episode from Beowulf during an opening ceremony entitled "Voices of the Past." In this work, completed last autumn but not yet published, Steve's professional attention to the language of Anglo-Saxon England merged brilliantly with his own considerable abilities as a poet.