Book reviews, Selim 26

No Abstract

‘The wickede secte of Saracenys’ – Lexico-semantic means of strengthening the English Christian Self in texts from the Middle English period

This paper focuses on the conceptual category of the Saracen as portrayed in medieval English texts, and the semantic potentials of lexical units used to refer to this ethnic and religious out-group. On the basis of references gathered from broader contexts provided by the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse, both the frequency of usage of relevant referring expressions will be looked into. From a historio-pragmatic perspective, it shall be shown that the selected samples present one of many strategies used to strengthen the image of the Christian self by systematically decomposing the image of the ‘misbelieving’ other by means of lexical choice.

Beowulf (2013 [2020]) as a graphic novel: An interview with Santiago García and David Rubín

Visualizing Beowulf has always been problematic, which is a paradox in itself taking into account the highly visual power the Old English epic poem holds. As far as films are concerned, we are still waiting for “a full-length Beowulf film that actually sticks pretty closely to the poem” (Haydock & Risden 2013: 186).

Verbal magic and healing charms in Glasgow University Library Ferguson MS 147

Manuscript Ferguson MS 147, a fifteenth-century volume written in Middle English and housed in Glasgow University Library, contains a copy of the Antidotarium Nicholai, a sarum calendar and a medical compilation which includes medical recipes, prognostic texts, and healing charms. Our interest is placed on the charms in the medical recipe collection found in folios 63r–159v. Following earlier studies on the charm genre, we will characterise the medical charms found in Ferguson MS 147 from a linguistic standpoint. This touches upon the use of language and other technical features, such as the presence of code-switching, the use of specialised symbols and characters, and the terminology used by the scribe to refer to the genre, among others. Concerning textual tradition, we also aim to examine whether the healing charms present variation, even if small, with earlier described charms. From a methodological point of view, the comparison includes contrasting our material with other edited compilations of charms.

Exeter Book Riddles 48 and 59 and the Malmesbury Ciborium

Most commentators on Riddles 48 and 59 in the tenth-century Exeter Book relate them to church plate, the solution supposedly being a gold paten or chalice or pyx. Yet these answers are not compelling. Problems remain. Recent discussion of the Malmesbury Ciborium and other twelfth-century ciboria in London or New York now permits a fresh approach. The solution to both Old English riddles will be ciborium, a vessel of precious metal used to contain consecrated wafers or hosts at the eucharist. The Malmesbury Ciborium and similar pieces make this clear. Round and made of gold, they had a shorter and squatter outline than a chalice; they possessed lids, inscriptions, and representations of Bible scenes (the Crucifixion amongst them); they were yet larger than a pyx (used not in services but to carry a few wafers only, as on visits to the sick). These aspects parallel those of the object in the two riddles: a ring-like item of gold which is gazed upon and revered by people in a hall, which makes no noise and yet conveys a message of salvation, and which (in the second riddle) displays Christ’s wounds. If this analysis is sound, it deepens understanding of early English poetry. It also informs us on Anglo-Saxon goldsmiths, who produced magnificent works of art (as the literary sources prove) now lost, the gold having long been melted down for the purpose of exchange or as loot. Study of the two poems indicates as well how philologists and experts on material culture can work together, especially for the Exeter Book’s other riddles.

Identifying the Old English exponent for the semantic prime LIVE

The aim of this article is to identify the Old English exponent for the semantic prime LIVE following the principles of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage theory (Wierzbicka 1996, Goddard & Wierzbicka 2002, Goddard 2011). The methodology applied in the study is based on previous research in Old English semantic primes. In these terms, a search for those Old English words conveying the meaning of the semantic prime LIVE is made. This search selects the verbs (ge)buan, drohtian, (ge)eardian, (ge)libban, and wunian as candidate words for prime exponent. Then, these verbs are analysed in terms of morphological, textual, semantic, and syntactic criteria. With this purpose, relevant information on these words has been gathered from different lexicographical and textual sources in Old English, such as the Dictionary of Old English, the Dictionary of Old English Corpus, and the lexical database of Old English Nerthus. After the analysis of these verbs, the conclusion is drawn that the Old English verb (ge)libban is selected as prime exponent, as it satisfies the requirements proposed by each criterion.

Old English verbs of learning: Information and knowledge acquisition

The aim of this article is to provide an inventory of Old English verbs belonging to the class of learning on the grounds of their common semantic components and shared grammatical behavior. The framework of verb classes and alternations and Role and Reference Grammar provide the theoretical basis for this study. Both textual and lexicographical sources have been used to select the data for the analysis of the linking between semantics and syntax with these verbs. The main conclusion of the article is that, considering the constructions and alternations in which they are found in Old English, the verbs (ge)frignan, (ge)leornian, ofācsian, and onfindan are the best candidates for membership of the class of verbs of learning.

The lady and the letter: Two ecclesiastical analogies in the Old English Soliloquies

This article analyses two ecclesiastical analogies in the Old English Soliloquies: the analogy of the lady and the analogy of the letter. It argues for a more nuanced and practical interpretation of Alfred’s analogies in the Old English Soliloquies than has previously been put forward. The analogies original to Alfred as well as those derived from Augustine’s Soliloquia, which he manipulates and omits, are designed to be useful, with practical implications for Anglo-Saxon society. Since his prose preface to Pastoral Care suggests that the demise of the Angelcynn is contingent on the demise of the English Church, Alfred’s analogies in Soliloquies prompt the reintegration of these two infrastructures, Church and state, to reconsolidate the Angelcynn and recover its sacred and secular ar (‘favour with God’ and ‘cultural capital’). By encouraging responses in the individual reader —recourse to the sacramental Church and renewed commitment to reading and prayer— Alfred’s analogies, particularly of the lady and the letter, seek to cultivate the Gregorian “mixed life”. Alfred thus aims to revive the terrestrial and celestial favour of the Angelcynn by fusing the concerns of Ecclesia and state, heaven and earth, contemplative, and active.

The pig’s doom: Animal butchery, gender relations, and a new solution for Durham Proverb 10

The Old English and Latin Durham Proverbs are famously obscure. Durham Proverb 10 describes a man sitting on a pig; the man jokes that what happens next is up to the pig. Scholars have read this as a possible marital joke, since the man is called a ceorl or maritus ‘husband’, yet this article suggests that the context is that of pig butchery. Medieval art frequently shows pigs being butchered by a man sitting on top of them to hold them down. Moreover, they often show the butchery performed by a man and a woman, suggesting that this proverb was a reference to an activity that a couple performed together, rather than a sexist commentary on marriage.

He forbead þæt hi ne weopon: A negative element in the þæt-clause introduced by a verb of prohibition

In ICEHL 20 at the University of Edinburgh, I made a report of my research on this theme. The present paper gives additional facts on the construction of a verb of negation followed by a þæt-clause with a negative element. What I try to exemplify is not a historical change from expletive negative to affirmative clause, but the facts that (i) the expletive negative was one of the correlative constructions based on Old English syntax and (ii) the affirmative clause was already found in early Old English together with the negative clause, even though the negative clause was frequent in late Old English to early Middle English and then decreased after late Middle English. The verb with negative import with a negated þæt-clause is, therefore, not an illogical expression but a stylistic device of combining the negation of the governing verb with the content of the governed, negated þæt-clause.