|
Showing 1 - 4 of
4 matches in All Departments
A strikingly original approach to Beowulf, linking its structure to
the dynastic life-cycle. The original audience of Beowulf was
steeped in ancient Scandinavian royal legend. But for modern
readers of the poem, these traditions are frustratingly obscure and
confusing. This book argues that Beowulf is a dynastic drama
centred on the fortunes of three great royal houses, the Scyldings,
Scylfings and Hrethlings. At the centre of the poem is the Geatish
hero, whose adventures provide the link between these three
dynasties. By unravelling the web of Scandinavian royal legends
known to the work's original audience, the volume allows the modern
reader to appreciate better the role of the monsters as portents of
dynastic and national crises. It begins by offering a new
interpretation of the work's structure based on the principle of
the dynastic life-cycle, providing explanations for features of the
poem that have never been satisfactorily explained, most famously
its many digressions and episodes. Highlighting the work's
often-overlooked originality, it then proposes that the poet
created a fictionalized monster-slaying hero and inserted him into
royal legend in order to dramatize specific moments of dynastic
crisis. Finally, it brings into focus the poet's debt to biblical
paradigms of kingship and considers how the Anglo-Saxons came to
read Beowulf as their own Book of Kings.
A strikingly original approach to Beowulf, linking its structure to
the dynastic life-cycle. The original audience of Beowulf was
steeped in ancient Scandinavian royal legend. But for modern
readers of the poem, these traditions are frustratingly obscure and
confusing. This book argues that Beowulf is a dynastic drama
centred on the fortunes of three great royal houses, the Scyldings,
Scylfings and Hrethlings. At the centre of the poem is the Geatish
hero, whose adventures provide the link between these three
dynasties. By unravelling the web of Scandinavian royal legends
known to the work's original audience, the volume allows the modern
reader to appreciate better the role of the monsters as portents of
dynastic and national crises. It begins by offering a new
interpretation of the work's structure based on the principle of
the dynastic life-cycle, providing explanations for features of the
poem that have never been satisfactorily explained, most famously
its many digressions and episodes. Highlighting the work's
often-overlooked originality, it then proposes that the poet
created a fictionalized monster-slaying hero and inserted him into
royal legend in order to dramatize specific moments of dynastic
crisis. Finally, it brings into focus the poet's debt to biblical
paradigms of kingship and considers how the Anglo-Saxons came to
read Beowulf as their own Book of Kings.
An examination of how The Book of Psalms shaped medieval thought
and helped develop the medieval English literary canon. The Book of
Psalms had a profound impact on English literature from the
Anglo-Saxon to the late medieval period. This collection examines
the various ways in which they shaped medieval English thought and
contributed to the emergence of an English literary canon. It
brings into dialogue experts on both Old and Middle English
literature, thus breaking down the traditional disciplinary
binaries of both pre- and post-Conquest English and late medieval
and Early Modern, as well as emphasizing the complex and
fascinating relationship between Latin and the vernacular languages
of England. Its three main themes, translation, adaptation and
voice, enable a rich variety of perspectives on the Psalms and
medieval English literature to emerge. TAMARA ATKIN is Senior
Lecturer in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Literature at Queen
Mary University of London; FRANCIS LENEGHAN is Associate Professor
of OldEnglish at The University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Cross
College, Oxford Contributors: Daniel Anlezark, Mark Faulkner,
Vincent Gillespie, Michael P. Kuczynski, David Lawton, Francis
Leneghan, Jane Roberts, Mike Rodman Jones, Elizabeth Solopova, Lynn
Staley, Annie Sutherland, Jane Toswell, Katherine Zieman.
|
You may like...
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
Poor Things
Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, …
DVD
R449
R329
Discovery Miles 3 290
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
|