Bruce Mitchell (scholar)

Mitchell was born in Lismore, New South Wales. He won a free place at the University of Melbourne but was unable to take it up and instead after leaving school at 15, worked as a student teacher while studying part-time. He earned a general Arts degree.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/7198822/Bruce-Mitchell.html|title=Bruce Mitchell|date=9 February 2010|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|access-date=25 February 2011 | location=London}}

He was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1940 and served as an intelligence officer in the Australian Imperial Force from 1941 to 1946. He then ran a printing company before returning to the university, again part-time while working as a gardener, builders' labourer and railway porter, and tutoring English at the university. He took Firsts in English Language and Literature in 1948 and in Comparative Philology in 1952.

He entered Merton College, Oxford, on a scholarship in 1952, the same year he married Mollie Miller,{{cite book|editor1-last=Levens|editor1-first=R.G.C.|title=Merton College Register 1900-1964|date=1964|publisher=Basil Blackwell|location=Oxford|page=437}} who had accompanied him from Australia. They received permission to be married from Mitchell's supervisor, J. R. R. Tolkien.{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/bruce-mitchell-anglosaxon-scholar-who-wrote-the-definitive-work-on-old-english-syntax-1931428.html |title=Bruce Mitchell: Anglo-Saxon scholar who wrote the definitive work on Old English syntax|last=Godden |first=Malcolm |date=31 March 2010 |work=The Independent |access-date=31 March 2010 | location=London}} He received a doctorate in 1959 with a thesis entitled Subordinate Clauses in Old English Poetry.{{cite book |last=Walmsley| first=John |title=Inside Old English: Essays in Honour of Bruce Mitchell |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |location=Oxford, Malden |year=2006 |pages=19 |isbn=978-1-4051-1483-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8TLOkLec9dsC&pg=PT19}} In 1986 he gained the degree of D.Litt. (Oxon) for his contribution to Old English studies.

Mitchell was a Fellow and a Tutor at St Edmund Hall, Oxford from 1954 to 1987, and after retirement was elected an emeritus fellow.{{cite web |url=http://www.seh.ox.ac.uk/index.php?action=view&id=153&module=newsmodule&src=%40random41940a897e943 |title=News: Dr Bruce Mitchell, Emeritus Fellow, St Edmund Hall |date=1 February 2010 |publisher=St Edmund Hall, Oxford |access-date=2 February 2010}}

Though he spent his entire life in Oxford since age 32, he never lost his Australian accent, and displayed his heritage by having an Australian flag and a eucalyptus tree in his garden.

His specialty was Old English language and literature and particularly Beowulf; his textbooks on Old English language are considered classics in the field, as is his edition of Beowulf, which he published with Fred C. Robinson.{{cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB915761062528139500?mod=googlewsj |title=The Anglo-Saxon Who Took Hollywood |last=Bukowski |first=Elizabeth |date=11 January 1999 |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |access-date=2 February 2010}} His "magisterial" and "phenomenal" book on Old English syntax is still the standard reference work in the field.

Mitchell was Terry Jones's tutor and believed he was the inspiration for Monty Python's "Bruces" sketch; he was disappointed to find out Eric Idle had written it and it was not based on him.

• {{cite book|last=Mitchell|first=Bruce|author2=Fred C. Robinson|author2-link=Fred C. Robinson|title=A Guide to Old English|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|location=Oxford, Malden|year=2007|edition=7|isbn=978-1-4051-4690-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h0RSfnHNdKUC}}
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=hwzlYFlKlOoC 8th edition, 2012], Wiley-Blackwell. (The 1st (1964) and 2nd (1968) editions were written by Mitchell alone — later editions, from 1982 onward, were co-authored by Mitchell and Robinson. Mitchell contributed to the 7th edition but the 8th edition was done after his death.)
• {{cite book|last=Mitchell|first=Bruce|title=Old English Syntax, Vol. 1: Concord, the parts of speech, and the sentence|publisher=Clarendon|location=Oxford|year=1985|isbn=978-0-19-811935-7}}
• {{cite book|last=Mitchell|first=Bruce|title=Old English Syntax Vol. 2: Subordination, independent elements, and element order|publisher=Clarendon|location=Oxford|year=1985|isbn=978-0-19-811944-9}}
• {{cite book|last=Mitchell|first=Bruce|title=On Old English: Selected Papers|publisher=Basil Blackwell|location=Oxford|year=1988|isbn= 0-631-15872-3}}
• {{cite book|last=Mitchell|first=Bruce|title=An Invitation to Old English and Anglo-Saxon England|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|location=Oxford, Malden|year=1995|isbn=978-0-631-17436-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ljV5N2JDcdkC}}
• {{cite book|last=Mitchell|first=Bruce|author2=Fred C. Robinsion |author2-link=Fred C. Robinson |author3=Leslie Webster |author3-link=Leslie E. Webster |title=Beowulf: An Edition with Relevant Shorter Texts|publisher=Blackwell|location=Oxford, Malden|year=1998|isbn=978-0-631-17226-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uujn741w2Y4C}} (first published 1998){{cite journal|title=Reviewed Work: "Beowulf": An Edition by Bruce Mitchell, Fred C. Robinson|author=Hill, Thomas D.|journal=The Journal of English and Germanic Philology|volume=101|issue=3|date=July 2002|pages=437–439|jstor=27712258}}

{{cite book|last=Walmsley|first=John|title=Inside Old English: Essays in Honour of Bruce Mitchell|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|location=Oxford, Malden|year=2006|pages=19|isbn=978-1-4051-1483-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8TLOkLec9dsC}}

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Category:1920 births

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