scholarly journals Peter Orton, Writing in a Speaking World: The Pragmatics of Literacy in Anglo-Saxon Inscriptions and Old English Poetry. (Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 445.) Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2014. Pp. xiv, 266. $68. ISBN: 978-0-86698-493-5.

Speculum ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 92 (3) ◽  
pp. 877-879
Author(s):  
Annina Seiler
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
English Poetry ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Old English Poetry ◽  
Renaissance Studies

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.

scholarly journals The departure of the hero in a ship: The intertextuality of Beowulf, Cynewulf and Andreas

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 105
Author(s):  
Francis Leneghan
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
English Poetry ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Old English Poetry ◽  
The Church

This article identifies a new Old English poetic motif, ‘The Departure of the Hero in a Ship’, and discusses the implications of its presence in Beowulf, the signed poems of Cynewulf and Andreas, a group of texts already linked by shared lexis, imagery and themes. It argues that the Beowulf-poet used this motif to frame his work, foregrounding the question of royal succession. Cynewulf and the Andreas-poet then adapted this Beowulfian motif in a knowing and allusive manner for a new purpose: to glorify the church and to condemn its enemies. Investigation of this motif provides further evidence for the intertextuality of these works.Keywords: Old English poetry; Beowulf, Cynewulf; Andreas; Anglo-Saxon literature

Poisoned places: the Avernian tradition in Old English poetry

2007 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 103-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Anlezark
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
English Poetry ◽  
Latin Literature ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Old English Poetry ◽  
Latin Epic ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Solomon And Saturn Ii

AbstractScholars have long disputed whether or not Beowulf reflects the influence of Classical Latin literature. This essay examines the motif of the ‘poisoned place’ present in a range of texts known to the Anglo-Saxons, most famously represented by Avernus in the Aeneid. While Grendel's mere presents the best-known poisonous locale in Old English poetry, another is found in the dense and enigmatic poem Solomon and Saturn II. The relationship between these poems is discussed beside a consideration of the possibility that their use of the ‘Avernian tradition’ points to the influence of Latin epic on their Anglo-Saxon authors.

The thematic significance of enta geweorc and related imagery in The Wanderer

1973 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 253-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Frankis
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Final Section ◽  
English Poetry ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Old English Poetry ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Wanderer

Our uncertainty about the full implications for poet and audience of particular words and phrases is a serious obstacle to our understanding of Old English poetry. With regard to the final section of The Wanderer (73–115) some advances in our knowledge and understanding have already been made, notably by Professor J. E. Cross in his studies of the Latin antecedents of two passages: he shows that lines 80–4 use the motif of the Fates of Men, with the Old English sum … sum … structure translating the Latin alius … alius …, and that lines 92–6 are based on the ubi sunt topos of the transience of life. This information gives us a better grasp of the impact these lines may have had on an informed Anglo-Saxon audience and helps us to evaluate the poem; but many details still remain unclear. The present study is concerned with the context of these two passages (73–105), and in particular with the puzzling image of ‘the work of giants’ that has been destroyed by God (85–7).

Procopius’s Old English

2017 ◽  
Vol 110 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Carlson
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
English Poetry ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Old English Poetry ◽  
Heroic Poetry ◽  
Historical Basis

AbstractBy the middle of the sixth century, in Byzantine perspective, Britain had so long since ceased to be part of the empire of the Romans as to have become a kind of never-land, some part of the known world, but also the sort of place of which it was possible to credit the fabulous. Information was scarce. Nevertheless, the chief source for the sixth-century east-Roman regime in Constantinople, Procopius (c. 500 -565 CE), met a group of Anglo-Saxons c. 540, who were contemporaries of Beowulf’s king Hygelac; and Procopius may have learned from hoi Angiloi something about the Old English poetry, at a particularly important point in its formation, before the beginning of the conversion of the English to Christianity in 597 CE. Procopius’s English informants told him a tale (of the vengeful Anglo-Saxon bride of a Frisian basileos named Radigis) of a type consonant with later examples of Old English poetry; also, with an historical basis that coincides with the historical milieu to which the earliest Old English heroic poetry also refers, including Beowulf.

scholarly journals Old English Power Structure in the Warlike Nature in Riddles no. 3, no, 29, no. 50 from the Exeter Book

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-436
Author(s):  
Herditya Wahyu Widodo
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Power Structure ◽  
Exeter Book ◽  
English Poetry ◽  
Natural Phenomena ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Cultural Interpretation ◽  
Old English Poetry ◽  
Power Hierarchy

Abstract: This study focuses on Old English nature-themed riddle texts from the Exeter Book, analyzing the natural imageries that are significant in investigating how the literary content of Old English riddles, as accepted forms of poetry, reveals the Anglo-Saxon culture of their original authors. I focus on the power structure in Anglo-Saxon society revealed in the riddles, by analyzing the topic of warlike nature in them, focusing on the riddles no. 3, “Storm”, no. 29 “Sun and Moon,” and no. 50, “Fire.” Natural experience described in these riddles is rendered by the Anglo-Saxons to reflect power hierarchy between male and female, servant and master, and human with God.  The Anglo-Saxon riddles identify and assign the potent warlike attributes and actions of nature, and assign them to the more powerful factions (God, Master, Male) over the weaker factions (Humans, Servants, Female). This is done by the authors as an acceptable cultural interpretation of these natural phenomena, put in the riddles to make it possible for the riddles’ intended Anglo-Saxon audience as clues to arrive at a culturally agreeable answer. Keywords: old English, old English riddles, natural imagery, old English poetry, war imagery Abstrak: Studi ini berfokus pada teks teka-teki (Riddles) Inggris Kuno (Old English) bertema alam dari the Exeter Book, dengan menganalisa imaji alam yang signifikan, untuk mengetahui bagaimana teka-teki Inggris Kuno, sebagai salah satu karya sastra berbentuk puisi, mengungkapkan budaya Anglo-Saxon dari penulis aslinya. Saya berfokus pada struktur kekuasaan (power structure) dalam masyarakat Anglo-Saxon yang terungkap dalam teks teka-teki, dengan menganalisis topik sifat suka perang di pada teka-teki no. 3, "Badai", no. 29 “Matahari dan Bulan,” dan no. 50, "Api." Pengalaman hidup mengenai alam digambarkan dalam teka-teki ini oleh para penulis Anglo-Saxon dengan mencerminkan hierarki kekuasaan antara laki-laki dan perempuan, hamba dan tuan, dan manusia dengan Tuhan. Teka-teki Anglo-Saxon mengidentifikasi dan menetapkan atribut dan tindakan alam yang suka berperang (warlike) kepada faksi yang lebih kuat (Dewa, Tuan, Laki-Laki) di atas faksi yang lebih lemah (Manusia, Pelayan, Wanita). Hal ini dilakukan oleh para penulis sebagai interpretasi budaya atas fenomena alam yang mereka lihat, dan dimasukkan ke dalam teka-teki untuk memungkinkan pembaca Anglo-Saxon sebagai petunjuk untuk sampai pada jawaban yang dapat diterima secara budaya. Kata kunci: old English, Inggris kuno, teka-teki Inggris kuno, imaji alam, puisi Inggris kuno, imaji perang

scholarly journals Orality, Germanic Literacy and Runic Inscriptions in Anglo-Saxon England

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-52
Author(s):  
James Daly
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
English Language ◽  
Transitional Period ◽  
English Poetry ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Old English Poetry ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Secondary Orality ◽  
Primary Orality ◽  
Runic Inscriptions

The presence of runic writing before the influx of Latinate literacy in Anglo-Saxon England is often neglected when investigating the transitional nature of orality and literacy in vernacular Anglo-Saxon writing. The presence of runes in Anglo-Saxon society and Old English manuscripts supports the theory that Old English poetry operated within a transitional period between orality and literacy (as argued by O'Keeffe (1990), Pasternack (1995), Amodio (2005)). However runic symbols problematize the definition of orality within Old English oral-formulaic studies because runic writing practices predate Latinate literacy in England. This article explores the possibility that the orality contained within Old English poetry is a form of secondary orality due to the pre-existence of runic writing in Anglo-Saxon England. This form of secondary orality occurs within the wider social cultural shift between primary orality and modern hyper-literate states as runes act as a literary representation of change within the construction of thought and literature in the English language. This article suggests that runes can be understood as a type of ‘transitional literacy’ between primary orality and Latinate derived literary practices. They act as a way of composing and recording thought as text while still maintaining elements strongly associated with the construction of a primary oral culture in how the texts are interpreted by a culture familiar with writing. Therefore clarification must be made when understanding Old English as a transitional poetic form, namely that the nature and degree of transition contained within Old English poetry builds upon runic inscriptions as it represents a transition between  a Germanic and Latinate forms of textuality and literacy.

scholarly journals Mixing Pleasure and Beauty: Positive Aesthetic Experience in Old English Poetry

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Javier Minaya Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Statistical Treatment ◽  
English Poetry ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Old English Poetry ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Moral Qualities ◽  
Religious Nature ◽  
Two Alternatives

This article analyses 23 different lexical items in Old English denoting positive aesthetic emotion, more specifically, related to the expression of appearance, moral qualities, and personal pleasant experience with the aim of gaining a better understanding of aesthetic standards in Anglo-Saxon England. Using different lexical tools, corpora and software, I have built a database where I have annotated the attestations from the corpus taking into account different sociolinguistic criteria. An in-depth analysis of these fragments and their statistical treatment has shown that descriptions of beauty in Old English poetry have two main routes: a) one that addresses the object’s aesthetic qualities objectively and b) another that focuses on the subject’s response to it. Furthermore, these two alternatives were often complementary in texts of a religious nature.

The Baptismal Flood in the Old English ‘Andreas’: Liturgical and Typological Depths

Traditio ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 137-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Michelle Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Old English ◽  
Medieval Literature ◽  
English Poetry ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Old English Poetry ◽  
Extensive Field

Studies of medieval literature have evinced a growing concern with the effect of an exegetical milieu on imaginative writing. Although the Middle English period provides an extensive field for allegorical and typological excursions, Old English poetry forms a smaller corpus and makes less conspicuous use of scriptural and patristic allusions. Readers are, therefore, not always alert to the deftness with which an Anglo-Saxon poet has utilized typology. Poems likeAndreas, however, are as deeply rooted in typological traditions as in the more obvious traditions of the Germanic epic and can be fully appreciated only if their typological echoes are heard.

Old English poetry, verse by verse

2015 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 95-130
Author(s):  
Eric Weiskott
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Half Line ◽  
English Poetry ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Old English Poetry ◽  
Critical Editions ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Poetic Texts ◽  
State Of Affairs

AbstractCertain syntactical ambiguities in Old English poetry have been the focus of debate among students of metre and syntax. Proponents of intentional ambiguity must demonstrate that the passages in question exhibit, not an absence of syntactical clarity, but a presence of syntactical ambiguity. This article attempts such a demonstration. It does so by shifting the terms of the debate, from clauses to verses and from a spatial to a temporal understanding of syntax. The article proposes a new interpretation of many problematic passages that opens onto a new way of parsing and punctuating Old English poetry.In this essay in the history of poetic style, I demonstrate that the sequence in time of Old English half-lines sometimes necessitates retrospective syntactical reanalysis, a state of affairs which modern punctuation is ill-equipped to capture, but in which Anglo-Saxon readers and listeners would have recognized specific literary effects. In the second section, I extrapolate two larger syntactical units, the half-line sequence and the verse paragraph, which differ in important ways from the clauses and sentences that modern editors impose on Old English poetic texts. Along the way, I improve the descriptive accuracy of Kuhn's Laws by reinterpreting them as governing half-line sequences rather than clauses. I conclude with a call for unpunctuated or minimally punctuated critical editions of Old English verse texts.

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