Vivien Anne Law, 1954–2002

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lapidge ◽  
Peter Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Medieval Latin ◽  
Medieval Manuscripts ◽  
The Relationship

Vivienne Law acquired a mastery of the field of late antique and early Medieval Latin grammar, her first task was to familiarise herself with the early medieval manuscripts in which grammatical texts were transmitted. This task necessitated constant travel to British and continental libraries in order to provide herself with transcriptions of grammatical texts; it also necessitated the acquisition of a huge collection of microfilms of grammatical manuscripts. Her work on these manuscripts soon revealed a vast and uncharted sea of unedited and unstudied grammatical texts, for the most part anonymous. A major component of her life's work was the attempt to chart this sea. Her earliest publications reveal a profound experience of grammatical manuscripts and a refusal simply to reiterate the opinions of earlier scholars. All these publications report new discoveries, such as previously unknown Old English glosses to the Ars grammatica of Tatwine, an early 8th-century Anglo-Saxon grammarian; or unsuspected aspects of the relationship between Anglo-Saxon and continental learning as revealed in the transmission of the grammars of Boniface and Tatwine; or the true nature of the jumbled and misunderstood grammar attributed to the early Irish grammarian Malsachanus.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Jones
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Old English ◽  
English Studies ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Two Phases ◽  
Scholarly Contribution ◽  
Anglophone World ◽  
The Relationship

This introductory chapter contextualizes the philological study of language during the nineteenth century as a branch of the evolutionary sciences. It sketches in outline the two phases of poetic Anglo-Saxonism for which the rest of the book will subsequently argue in more detail. Moreover, the relationship between Anglo-Saxonism and nineteenth-century medievalism more generally is articulated, and historical analogies are drawn between nineteenth-century Anglo-Saxonism and more recent political events in the Anglophone world. Finally, the scholarly contribution of Fossil Poetry itself is contextualized within English Studies; it is argued that ‘reception’ is one of the primary objects of Anglo-Saxon or Old English studies, and not merely a secondary object of that field’s study.

The Old English Name of the S-Rune and “Sun” in Germanic

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas P. A. Simms
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Old High German ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Medieval Manuscripts ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Loan Word

The name of the Old Englishs-rune,sigil, as found in various medieval manuscripts, is puzzling, as it is the only Anglo-Saxon rune name that is etymologically a loan word. This article examines the variant spelling <sygil> found only in MSCodex Vindobonensis795, arguing that the spelling with <y> is a scribal interpolation. In addressing how an Old High German-speaking scribe might have come to make such an interpolation it is argued that the wordsugilfound in Continentalrunica abecedariaought to be considered an Old High German lexeme relevant to this discussion. A novel etymology for words for ‘sun’ in Germanic is presented, particularly for forms derived from thel-stem variants of the Proto-Indo-European heteroclite.

St Aldhelm's bees (De uirginitate prosa cc. IV-VI): some observations on a literary tradition

2004 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Augustine Casiday
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Broad View ◽  
Literary Heritage ◽  
The Relationship

Although the classic comparison of monks to bees owes its enduring success chiefly to the Vita S. Antonii, one of the most interesting developments of that simile is found in the prose treatise De uirginitate by Aldhelm of Malmesbury. In his writings, Aldhelm demonstrates familiarity with most of the conventional similes – monks are like bees in their industry, their intelligence, their chastity, and so on – but he also insists that monks are like bees in their ‘voluntary solidarity’ and obedience to leadership. This is a novel claim, one that I will argue Aldhelm makes by introducing a theme known from other Christian (and pagan) literature into his advice to nuns. The present article will describe the traditions incorporated by Aldhelm into his claim that monks, like bees, are obedient to a fault. In this way, this article will offer a broad view of the literary heritage to which Aldhelm's treatise belongs and in which it should be interpreted. This will entail an assessment of which sources Aldhelm likely knew. While this assessment is indebted to the excellent notes by Rudolf Ehwald (as indeed all scholarship subsequent to Ehwald must be),it will not be bound by Ehwald's conclusions. In some instances, I will posit sources not mentioned by, and perhaps not detected by, Ehwald; in others, I will with trepidation suggest refinements to Ehwald's work. It is hoped that on these grounds the article will be useful to students both of late antique monasticism and of Anglo-Saxon England. Since this is the goal of the article, it will be convenient to begin each section with an excerpt from Aldhelm and follow it with the relevant antecedents; each section will then be concluded with a return to Aldhelm; this will allow us to appreciate the distinctiveness of Aldhelm's contribution. The article itself will be concluded with an overview of the comparisons and of the relationship between the earlier writings and Aldhelm's.

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.

scholarly journals TO THE QUESTION OF SPACE ORGANIZATION OF BOOK ILLUMINATION OF LATE ANTIQUITY AND EARLY MIDDLE AGES (IV – VII CENTURY)

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 29-48
Author(s):  
Mikhail S. Bankov
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Continuous Process ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Medieval Manuscripts ◽  
Space Organization ◽  
Miniature Painting

The article focuses on peculiarities of spatial organization of book miniature paintings of late antique and early medieval manuscripts (IV – VII centuries). The author analyses the problem of conveying illusion of depth in illustration in context of gradual transmission from roll to codex, which took place in antique book culture between the II and the V centuries. By analyzing survived fragments of illuminated rolls author displays characteristic features of their spatial organization and observes influence which had tradition of roll illustration on the development of codex. Nevertheless, precisely the miniatures of the codices that have come down to our time are in focus of the author’s attention. The stages of development of the text page, the peculiarities of interaction of text and images in codices are compared with the principles of space organization in miniatures. The article makes an attempt, relying on the monuments that have survived to our time, to consider the development of spatial constructions in the period of late Antiquity and early Middle Ages as a continuous process of evolution of the language of book painting. The author assumes that the development of spatial constructions in miniature painting does not imply sharp breaks or regression. Each new stage of the evolution arises from the previous one and makes it possible to expand the arsenal of artistic means which are necessary for solving artistic problems of the time. In accordance with this approach, the article concentrates not only on compositions in which a spatial illusion is created, but also miniatures that are in character more plane. As a result, the author reveals the main types of spatial constructions, considering all surviving monuments of miniature painting of that time. For each type of space organization, the author identifies the basic principles and artistic techniques that allow the artist to convey a sense of depth on the plane of page. The author pays special attention to the comparison of illusionistic tendencies in the late antique book miniature and “reverse perspective”, features of which are present in the monuments of the era. The author casts doubt on the need for a sharp contrast between these two approaches to space organization in the monuments of book miniatures of the era. He analyzes the reasons for the appearance of such features of space organization in miniature paintings of late antique and early medieval manuscripts, which are so important for the formation of artistic language of medieval book illumination.

The Life of Penance

2020 ◽  
pp. 1049-1070
Author(s):  
Kevin Uhalde
Keyword(s):  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Medieval Christianity ◽  
Philosophical Understanding

This chapter explores the relationship between memory, narrative, and penance in Merovingian literature. Penitential memory was a key component of the philosophical understanding of repentance that persisted throughout late-antique and early medieval Christianity. Remembering the emotions associated with past errors was critically important to the penitential process, as a brief survey of the literature from the second through the sixth centuries demonstrates. This tradition provides a context for identifying and understanding the function of penitential memory in Merovingian texts. By way of example, this chapter interprets particular moments from Gregory of Tours’s Histories, Passion of Praeiectus, Life of Columbanus, and Life of Eligius. At the same time, there were social, ecclesiastical, and even political consequences to memorializing repentance and the failures that made repenting necessary. While attention to the philosophical understanding of penance enriches our understanding of saints’ lives and other sources, therefore, the literary act of commemoration also affected the representation of penance.

THE MAKING OF CHRONICLES AND THE MAKING OF ENGLAND: THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLES AFTER ALFRED Prothero Lecture

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 65-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline Stafford
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Old English ◽  
Critical Period ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Continuous Narrative ◽  
King Alfred ◽  
Made In

ABSTRACTBetween c. 900 and the mid-twelfth century, a series of Old English vernacular chronicles were produced, growing out of the text produced at the court of King Alfred. These chronicles are collectively known as ‘the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’. They have long been accorded fundamental status in the English national story. No others have shaped our view of the origins of England between the fifth and eleventh centuries to the same extent. They provide between them the only continuous narrative of this period. They are the story that has made England. This paper deals with the relationship between that story, these texts and England: how they have been read and edited – made – in the context of the English national story since the sixteenth century; but also their relationship to, the part they may have played in, the original making of the English kingdom. The focus is on developments during the tenth and eleventh centuries, when a political unit more or less equivalent to the England we now know emerged. It is argued that these texts were the ideological possession and expression of the southern English elite, especially of bishops and archbishops, at this critical period of kingdom-making. Special attention is given to their possible role in the incorporation of Northumbria into that kingdom. These chronicles were made by scribes a millennium ago, and to some extent have been reworked by modern editors from the sixteenth century on. They are daunting in their complexity. The differences between them are as important as the common ground they share. Understanding the making of these foundational texts has its own light to shed on the making of England.

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