Heathen Gods In Old English Literature
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Heathen Gods in Old English Literature
Author: Richard North
language: en
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Release Date: 1997-12-11
Heathen gods are hard to find in Old English literature. Most Anglo-Saxon writers had no interest in them, and scholars today prefer to concentrate on the Christian civilization for which the Anglo-Saxons were so famous. Richard North offers an interesting view of Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian paganism and mythology in the pre-Viking and Viking age. He discusses the pre-Christian gods of Bede's history of the Anglo-Saxon conversion with reference to an orgiastic figure known as Ingui, whom Bede called 'god of this age'. Using expert knowledge of comparative literary material from Old Norse-Icelandic and other Old Germanic languages, North reconstructs the slender Old English evidence in a highly imaginative treatment of poems such as Deor and The Dream of the Rood. Other gods such as Woden are considered with reference to Odin and his family in Old Norse-Icelandic mythology. In conclusion, it is argued that the cult of Ingui was defeated only when the ideology of the god Woden was sponsored by the Anglo-Saxon church. The book will interest students interested in Old English, Old Norse-Icelandic and Germanic literatures, Anglo-Saxon history and archaeology.
The Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons c.597-c.700
Author: Marilyn Dunn
language: en
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Release Date: 2010-07-26
This groundbreaking work treats the Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons as a process of religious change and is the first to establish the importance of Christian doctrines and popular intuitions about death and the dead in the transition, focusing on the outbreak of epidemic disease between 664 and 687 as a crucial period for the survival of Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England. It analyzes Anglo-Saxon conceptions of the soul and afterlife as well as traditional mortuary rituals, re-interpreting archaeological evidence to argue that the change from furnished to unfurnished burial in the late seventh and early eighth century demonstrates the success of the church's attempts to counter popular fears that the plague was caused by the return of the dead to carry off the living. The study employs ethnographic comparisons and anthropological theory to further our understanding of pagan Anglo-Saxon deities, ritual and ritual practitioners, and also considers the challenges confronting the Anglo-Saxon church, as it faced not only popular attachment to traditional values and beliefs, but also gendered responses to, or syncretistic constructions of, Christianity.
Longman Anthology of Old English, Old Icelandic, and Anglo-Norman Literatures
The Longman Anthology of Old English, Old Icelandic and Anglo-Norman Literatures provides a scholarly and accessible introduction to the literature which was the inspiration for many of the heroes of modern popular culture, from The Lord of the Rings to The Chronicles of Narnia, and which set the foundations of the English language and its literature as we know it today. Edited, translated and annotated by the editors of Beowulf and Other Stories, the anthology introduces readers to the rich and varied literature of Britain, Scandinavia and France of the period in and around the Viking Age. Ranging from the Old English epic Beowulf through to the Anglo-Norman texts which heralded the transition Middle English, thematically organised chapters present elegies, eulogies, laments and followed by material on the Viking Wars in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Vikings gods and Icelandic sagas, and a final chapter on early chivalry introduces the new themes and forms which led to Middle English literature, including Arthurian Romances and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Laying out in parallel text format selections from the most important Old English, Old Icelandic and Anglo-Norman works, this anthology presents translated and annotated texts with useful bibliographic references, prefaced by a headnote providing useful background and explanation.