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Today’s Terms

Today’s Terms. Manuscript culture Christian or Pagan Heroic poetry Elegy (elegiac) Quantitative vs Qualitative verse Alliteration Scōps and scribes Ubi sunt. Critical reading Text Subtext Theme Moral or meaning Authorial Intention. Anglo-Saxon and Old English.

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Today’s Terms

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  1. Today’s Terms • Manuscript culture • Christian or Pagan • Heroic poetry • Elegy (elegiac) • Quantitative vs Qualitative verse • Alliteration • Scōps and scribes • Ubi sunt • Critical reading • Text • Subtext • Theme • Moral or meaning • Authorial Intention

  2. Anglo-Saxon and Old English Culture & Literature,680 C.E.-1154 C.E.

  3. Four Themes to Follow This Semester • Individual and faith • Individual and society • Power, Government, Authority • Men and Women

  4. The Anglo-Saxon World

  5. Major surviving manuscriptsof Old English literature Poetry: • The Exeter Book • The Vercelli Book • The Junius (or Cædmon) Manuscript • The Nowell Codex (Beowulf Manuscript) Prose: • Anglo-Saxon chronicles • King Alfred’s translations • Various sermons and religious works • Works of Bede

  6. Histories kept as chronicles by scribes

  7. The Lord’s Prayer Fæder ure, þu þe eart on heofonum, si þi nama gehalgod. Tobecume þin rice. Gewurþe ðin willa on eorðan swa swa on heofonum. Urne edæhwamlican hlaf syle us to dæ. And foryf us ure gyltas, swa swa we foryfað urum gyltendum. And ne elæd þu us on costnunge, ac alys us of yfele. Soþlice.

  8. Oldest manuscript of Cædmon’s Hymn

  9. Caedmon’s Hymn

  10. Oxf. Bodl. Tanner 10, fol. 100r (1st quarter 10th c.)

  11. Now we must praise the Guardian (Warden) of the Heaven-kingdom,The might of the Measurer, and his way of thinking,the work of the Glory Father, as he for each of the wonders, Eternal Lord, established an onset.He first shaped for the sons (bairns) of earthHeaven as a roof, that Holy Maker. Then Middle Earth Mankind’s Guardian, Eternal Lord, afterwards established, Firm land for men, the Almighty Ruler.

  12. The Vercelli Book text of The Dream of the Rood

  13. The Ruthwell Crossc. 7th century C.E.

  14. What is typical of D of R? • Christ as heroic leader who eagerly sacrifices himself for his followers (contradicts A/S values so must be “sold” to an audience that still embraces pagan values) • Generically a riddle: “Who/What am I?” that shows artistic cleverness • Valuing of gold, treasure, lord/retainer bond • Heroic funeral with warriors chanting elegies • Retainer (cross) ashamed that it cannot avenge its lord • Incredible cultural fusion

  15. The Wanderer:ExeterBook fol. 76v

  16. What’s typical aboutThe Wanderer? • Relation of individual to his lord and his tribe; relation of individual and faith • Genre: elegy • Poetic devices: alliteration, understatement and irony, kennings, ubi sunt • Confusing nature of who speaks what • Relation of pre-Christian and Christian attitudes

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