The prefix un- and the metrical grammar of Beowulf

1981 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 39-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Calvin B. Kendall
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Old English ◽  
The Other ◽  
Wide Area ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Poetic Tradition ◽  
English Poem ◽  
The Battle Of Maldon ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Considerable Period

Two rules of the metrical grammar of the Beowulf poet are the subject of this paper. One concerns the variation of stress on the prefix un-; the other pertains to the alliteration of compounds. The two are correlated. The paper rests on the premise that the ‘metre’ of an Old English poem is only one function of a set of regularities that make it something we call verse rather than prose. Separately these regularities may be described as ‘rules’; taken as a group, the rules comprise a metrical grammar. Each Anglo-Saxon scop absorbed such a grammar during the course of long immersion in the poetic tradition of his culture. No two scops' metrical grammars could have been exactly alike; in addition to individual differences, there must have been regional and dialectal variations, although the poetic tradition ensured remarkable uniformity over a wide area and a considerable period of time, and only at the end of the Old English period, with let us say The Battle of Maldon, are significant changes manifest. Further investigation would therefore be needed to determine to what extent the rules here described apply to other grammars.

The Anglian collection of royal genealogies and regnal lists

1976 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 23-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
David N. Dumville
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
British Library ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Corpus Christi ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

This collection of Old English royal records is found in four manuscripts: London, British Library, Cotton Vespasian B. vi; London, British Library, Cotton Tiberius B. v, vol. 1; Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 183; and Rochester, Cathedral Library, A. 3. 5. The present paper aims both to provide an accurate, accessible edition of the texts in the first three of these manuscripts and to discuss the development of the collection from its origin to the stages represented by the extant versions. We owe to Kenneth Sisam most of our knowledge of the history of the Anglo-Saxon genealogies. Although his closely argued discussion remains the basis for any approach to these sources, it lacks the essential aid to comprehension, the texts themselves. It is perhaps this omission, as much as the difficulty of the subject and the undoubted accuracy of many of his conclusions, that has occasioned the neglect from which the texts have suffered in recent years.

XVII.—Recent Translations of Old English Poetry.

PMLA ◽  
1903 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-458
Author(s):  
James M. Garnett
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
The Other ◽  
English Poetry ◽  
William Morris ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Old English Poetry ◽  
The Past

The desire was expressed some years ago that we might soon have in English a collection of translations of Old English poetry that might fill the place so well filled in German by Grein's Dichtungen der Angelsachsen. This desire is now in a fair way of accomplishment, and much has been done during the past ten years, the period embraced in this paper. As was naturally to be expected from the work previously done in criticism of both text and subject-matter, Beowulf has attracted more than ever the thoughts and efforts of translators, for we had in 1892 the rhythmical translation of Professor J. Lesslie Hall and the prose version of Professor Earle; in 1895 (reprinted in cheaper form in 1898) the poetical translation of William Morris and A. J. Wyatt, the editor of Beowulf; in 1901 the prose version of Dr. J. R. Clark Hall, author of A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary; and only the other day, in 1902, the handy prose version of Professor C. B. Tinker.

Sepulchral Jews and Stony Christians

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy Lavezzo
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Old English ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
English Poem ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Temple

This chapter examines the unstable geography of Christian and Jew during the Anglo-Saxon period through an analysis of Bede's Latin exegetical work On the Temple (ca. 729–731) and in Cynewulf's Old English poem Elene. It takes as its starting point how Bede and Cynewulf tackle a material long associated with Jewish materialism, stone, in comparison with Christian materialism and descibes their accounts of the sepulchral Jew as well as the stony nature of Jews. It also considers how Bede and Cynewulf construct Christianity by asserting its alterity and opposition to an idea of Jewish carnality that draws on and modifies Pauline supersession. The chapter concludes with an assessment of how Bede's and Cynewulf's charged engagements with supersession and “Jewish” places contribute both to our understanding of Anglo-Saxon material culture and to the important role that ideas of the Jew played in such materialisms.

Linguistic politeness in Anglo-Saxon England? A study of Old English address terms

2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 140-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Kohnen
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
The Other ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Linguistic Politeness ◽  
Mutual Obligation ◽  
The One ◽  
Address Terms

This paper investigates Anglo-Saxon address terms against the background of politeness and face work. Using the Dictionary of Old English Corpus, it examines the most prominent Old English terms of nominal address associated with polite or courteous behaviour, their distribution, the typical communicative settings in which they are used and their basic pragmatic meaning. The results suggest that, at least in this field, politeness as face work may not have played a major role in Anglo-Saxon England. Rather, the use of the address terms may reflect accommodation to the overriding importance of mutual obligation and kin loyalty on the one hand, and obedience to the basic Christian ideals of humilitas and caritas on the other.

scholarly journals Ofermod y heroísmo humilde: sobre la interpretación de Tolkien

2021 ◽  
pp. 171-190
Author(s):  
Jon Mentxakatorre Odriozola ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Inflection Point ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Old English Literature ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Research Perspectives ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Battle Of Maldon ◽  
New Research

This paper studies Tolkien’s interpretation of German heroism, taking as a starting point his essay-poem «The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son» on The Battle of Maldon. Through academic texts on Beowulf and Sigurd, as well as his own legendarium, his reading and contribution are explored, placing the latter in dialogue with the latest research, and detailing the lines and scope of his ideas. After locating the inflection point that Tolkien marked around the word ofermod(e), the historical, literary and religious components that base Tolkien’s interpretation will be explained, in line with the Anglo-Saxon poetic and heroic tradition. Through this, it will become clear that the humble heroism of the subordinate who faces the fatal fate to which his master has led him is rooted in clear examples of Old English literature, and that the darkness brought by the terrible enemy has a mythical dimension, which refers to the shadow and to hell. Finally, in light of the latest contributions, Tolkien’s interpretation will be reaffirmed and enriched, opening new research perspectives on his work

Marking Boundaries in Beowulf: Æschere’s Head, Grendel’s Arm and the Dragon’s Corpse

2017 ◽  
Vol 77 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 521-540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thijs Porck ◽  
Sander Stolk
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
English Poem

Abstract In the Old English poem Beowulf, several body parts are put on display, including Grendel’s arm at Heorot and Æschere’s head on top of a cliff. The first instance has been widely discussed by various scholars, who have tried to find out why and where the arm was hung. By contrast, scholarly treatments of the second instance are relatively scarce. This article places the exhibition of Æschere’s head by Grendel’s mother in the context of similar practices of decapitation and display in Anglo-Saxon England. It will be argued that the placement of the head of Æschere on top of the cliff towering over Grendel’s mere resembles the Anglo-Saxon heafod stoccan, ‘head stakes’, which acted as boundary markers. The monster’s act, therefore, would not strike as foreign to the Anglo-Saxon audience, but would be familiar. As we will show, the identification of Æschere’s head as a boundary marker, placed at the edge of the monsters’ domain, also has some bearing on the interpretation of other potential boundary markers in the poem, including Grendel’s arm and the dragon’s corpse. Lastly, we will argue for a new reading of two textual cruces in Beowulf’s speech prior to his fight with Grendel.

The scholarly recovery of the significance of Anglo-Saxon records in prose and verse: a new bibliography

1980 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 223-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. G. Stanley
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Entire Body ◽  
Old English Literature ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

The new bibliography by Stanley B. Greenfield and Fred C. Robinson of the entire body of publications on Old English literature provides the occasion for reviewing not so much the bibliography itself as the subject it covers. This article is, of course, not a brief history of Anglo-Saxon studies from the dissolution of the monasteries in Henry VIII's reign to the 1970s. It is a highly selective exemplification of some of the changing aims and achievements of scholars when they went to the vernacular records in prose and verse that survive from Anglo-Saxon times.

Development of the Progressiv form in Germanic

PMLA ◽  
1913 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-187
Author(s):  
George O. Curme
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Brief Treatment ◽  
History Of ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Germanic Languages ◽  
English Verb

The expressivness of the progressiv form of the English verb has attracted the attention of many foren grammarians, who briefly but with painstaking care hav endevord to analyze its force. Also more ambitious attempts hav been made to penetrate into its history and meaning. Pessels in his doctor's dissertation The Present and Past Perifrastic Tenses in Anglo-Saxon (1896) has patiently recorded the exampls of the construction in a large number of Old English works. Alfred Åkerlund in his On the History of the Definit Tenses in English (1911) has treated both the older and the modern fases of the development with considerabl penetration. Also a number of other scholars hav delt with different fases of the study or hav investigated the development in particular periods or particular sections of the English speaking territory. Several foren scholars hav studied the progressiv form in other Germanic languages and dialects. A brief treatment of the Gothic progressiv in Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, vol. v, pp. 421-6, by Professor H. Gering is refreshingly suggestiv. In spite of this extensiv literature there remains much to be said, and this paper is offerd as a further contribution to the subject.

Introduction

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Gannon
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
British Museum ◽  
The Other ◽  
Innovative Approach ◽  
Stylistic Analysis ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Third Way ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Ornamental Traits ◽  
History Books

In his introduction to Thrymsas and Sceattas, Michael Metcalf stated: ‘There are two kinds of book to be written about Anglo-Saxon coins of the seventh and eighth centuries, namely one to set out the arguments which establish where and when the coins were struck, and in what percentage, and another to describe how they circulated and to discuss the purpose for which they were used: one kind of book on numismatics, the other on monetary history.’ This work however will attempt a third way: it will be an art-historical appraisal of Anglo-Saxon coinage, from its inception in the late sixth century to Offa’s second reform of the penny c.792. Artistically, this is the most exciting period of English coinage, with die-cutters showing flair and innovation and employing hundreds of different designs in their work, yet coins, with the exception of the pioneering work of Baldwin Brown, are rarely included in surveys of Anglo-Saxon art. Coins have often provided illustrations to history books. However, in contrast to Metcalf’s contribution in the book edited by Campbell in 1982, where, albeit from a numismatic perspective, the charm and variety of the types were stressed, and several specimens illustrated, no coin made it onto the pages of Wilson’s Anglo-Saxon Art of 1984, but only the statement: ‘coins provide a fruitful area of stylistic analysis, but, with rare exceptions, show few distinctive or important ornamental traits’. That coins are mentioned, and three specimens illustrated in Laing and Laing 1996, is probably due to the 1991 British Museum exhibition, ‘The Making of England’, and the catalogue that accompanied it, which stressed the importance of the coinage as a historical document, but more fundamentally presented it as an integral part of the visual culture of the time. The same innovative approach was apparent in the 1997 ‘Heirs of Rome’ exhibition, where emphasis was placed on the iconography of the coinage as a bearer of meaning. These efforts have certainly contributed to a new awareness of the richness of the material. Although in recent years this early phase of Anglo-Saxon coinage has been the subject of extensive numismatic research, that much can be gained from comparing and contrasting coin iconography from an art-historical stance was demonstrated by Mary Morehart’s contributions to the numismatic debate.

World history in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: its sources and its separateness from the Old English Orosius

1979 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 177-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet M. Bately
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
World History ◽  
The Other ◽  
Julius Caesar ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Universal History ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
History Of

Although a great deal has been written about the sources and manner of compilation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in its various versions, very little attention has been paid to its earliest section – the annals covering the period from the landing of Julius Caesar, s.a. 60 BC, to the coming of Hengest and Horsa, s.a. 449. Eight of these annals deal with the history of Britain and derive their material from the chronological summary at the end of Bede's Historia Ecclesiastical. The remaining twenty-four (1–45 and 62–155) deal with world history, and the origin of their information is a matter of dispute. Plummer claimed that they are derived from ‘some epitome of universal history, the source of which I have not yet been able to trace’. Hodgkin, on the other hand, considered that the composition of the Chronicle was intimately connected with that of the Old English Orosius and took Orosius to be a major source for the annals in question:

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document