The Chronology And Canon Of Aelfric Of Eynsham

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The Chronology and Canon of Ælfric of Eynsham

Author : Aaron J. Kleist
Publisher : D. S. Brewer
ISBN 13 : 9781843845331
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (453 download)

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Book Synopsis The Chronology and Canon of Ælfric of Eynsham by : Aaron J. Kleist

Download or read book The Chronology and Canon of Ælfric of Eynsham written by Aaron J. Kleist and published by D. S. Brewer. This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fresh approach to the works and manuscripts of this influential monk, whose writings synthesised some of the finest minds of the period. A thousand years and more ago, with Vikings ravaging the coastlines and the millennium drawing nigh, a monk named Ælfric embarked on studies that would make him the most erudite, prolific, and influential author writing in English before Chaucer. What drove Ælfric was no desire to leave his mark on history, however, but the belief that he held a treasure on which the temporal and eternal welfare of his contemporaries depended: knowledge of the rich moral teachings of the early Christian church. What he produced was an astonishing synthesis of some of the finest minds in history, conveyed with remarkable authorial transparency and an elegantly simple style. While there is much we know about Ælfric, both from his own self-disclosure and the wealth of surviving manuscripts containing work by him, there is also much that muddies the waters: his feverish pace of simultaneous composition, his habit of reshaping and repurposing his writings, the staggering complexities of textual transmission, and competing scholarly interpretive voices. This volume seeks to take it all into account, setting forth a comprehensive picture of work and the manuscripts in which it may be found. Integrating scholars' best understanding to date and framing new avenues for inquiry, it offers a launching point for new research into this pivotal figure of early England. AARON J KLEIST is Professor of English at Biola University.

Translating Europe in ?lfric's Lives of Saints

Author : Luisa Ostacchini
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198913753
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (989 download)

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Book Synopsis Translating Europe in ?lfric's Lives of Saints by : Luisa Ostacchini

Download or read book Translating Europe in ?lfric's Lives of Saints written by Luisa Ostacchini and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-07-23 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Translating Europe in ?lfric's 'Lives of Saints' is the first study of the representation of European peoples, places, and geographies in the Lives of Saints, one of early medieval England's most famed works. It examines the Lives of Saints as a unified collection whose various items work cumulatively and concurrently to provide audiences with teachings far beyond the scope of an individual homily or saints' life. In doing so, it demonstrates that ?lfric's European characters and settings served not merely as a convenient skeleton on which to frame his hagiographical narratives, but rather lay at the heart of his didactic praxis and pedagogic aims. Luisa Ostacchini systematically compares each of the 30 plus items that comprise ?lfric's Lives of Saints to their Latin sources and to one another to highlight previously unnoticed patterns and formulae within collection. In so doing, she demonstrates that ?lfric's interest in community was both inward and outward looking: he sought on the one hand to situate England within the wider Christian world, and on the other hand to promote the internal unity of the English kingdom and the reformed monastic establishment. This book sheds new light on the ways that ?lfric wrote about the Christian world and England's place within it, and further illuminates of the didactic praxis and ideology of one of the most influential and significant authors of the early medieval period. Luisa Ostacchini is a college lecturer at St John's College, Oxford, where she teaches Old and Middle English literature.

A New Literary History of the Long Twelfth Century

Author : Mark Faulkner
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1009033093
Total Pages : 315 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (9 download)

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Book Synopsis A New Literary History of the Long Twelfth Century by : Mark Faulkner

Download or read book A New Literary History of the Long Twelfth Century written by Mark Faulkner and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-07-28 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New Literary History of the Long Twelfth Century offers a new narrative of what happened to English language writing in the long twelfth century, the period that saw the end of the Old English tradition and the beginning of Middle English writing. It discusses numerous neglected or unknown texts, focusing particularly on documents, chronicles and sermons. To tell the story of this pivotal period, it adopts approaches from both literary criticism and historical linguistics, finding a synthesis for them in a twenty-first century philology. It develops new methodologies for addressing major questions about twelfth-century texts, including when they were written, how they were read and their relationship to earlier works. Essential reading for anyone interested in what happened to English after the Norman Conquest, this study lays the groundwork for the coming decade's work on transitional English.

Delphi Collected Works of Ælfric of Eynsham (Illustrated)

Author : Ælfric of Eynsham
Publisher : Delphi Classics
ISBN 13 : 1801702047
Total Pages : 3007 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis Delphi Collected Works of Ælfric of Eynsham (Illustrated) by : Ælfric of Eynsham

Download or read book Delphi Collected Works of Ælfric of Eynsham (Illustrated) written by Ælfric of Eynsham and published by Delphi Classics. This book was released on 2024-08-21 with total page 3007 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The tenth century abbot Aelfric of Eynsham is considered the greatest Anglo-Saxon author of his time. He wrote both to instruct the monks and to spread the learning of the monastic revival. His ‘Homilies’ provided orthodox sermons, based on the Church Fathers. He also composed a celebrated ‘Lives of the Saints’, the ‘Hexateuch’ (a vernacular language version of the first seven books of the Bible), as well as important treatises on religious theory. Delphi’s Medieval Library provides eReaders with rare and precious works of the Middle Ages, with noted English translations and the original texts. This eBook presents Ælfric’s collected works, with illustrations, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Ælfric's life and works * Features the collected works of Ælfric, in both English translation and the original Old English * Concise introductions to the major works * Excellent formatting of the texts * Easily locate the sections you want to read with individual contents tables * Includes Ælfric’s rare treatises, recently translated by Brandon W. Hawk * Provides a special dual English and Old English text of ‘Homilies’, allowing readers to compare the sections paragraph by paragraph — ideal for students * Features a bonus biography — discover Ælfric’s medieval world CONTENTS: The Translations The Homilies (tr. Benjamin Thorpe) Lives of Saints (tr. Walter W. Skeat) On False Gods (Anonymous tr.) Life of Saint Edmund, King and Martyr (Anonymous tr.) Sermon on Judith (tr. Brandon W. Hawk) Preface to the ‘Hexateuch’ (tr. Brandon W. Hawk) The Hexateuch (tr. Richard Challoner,) A Treatise on the Old and New Testaments (tr. Brandon W. Hawk) The Original Text The Homilies (Old English Text) The Dual Text The Homilies (Old English and Modern English Text) The Biography Ælfric (1900) by William Hunt

The Anonymous Old English Homily: Sources, Composition, and Variation

Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004439285
Total Pages : 420 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (44 download)

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Book Synopsis The Anonymous Old English Homily: Sources, Composition, and Variation by :

Download or read book The Anonymous Old English Homily: Sources, Composition, and Variation written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-11-23 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Anonymous Old English Homily: Sources, Composition, and Variation offers important essays on the origins, textual transmission, and (re)use of early English preaching texts between the ninth and the late twelfth centuries. Associated with the Electronic Corpus of Anonymous Homilies in Old English project, these studies provide fresh insights into one of the most complex textual genres of early medieval literature. Contributions deal with the definition of the anonymous homiletic corpus in Old English, the history of scholarship on its Latin sources, and the important unedited Pembroke and Angers Latin homiliaries. They also include new source and manuscript identifications, and in-depth studies of a number of popular Old English homilies, their themes, revisions, and textual relations. Contributors are: Aidan Conti, Robert Getz, Thomas N. Hall, Susan Irvine, Esther Lemmerz, Stephen Pelle, Thijs Porck, Winfried Rudolf, Donald G. Scragg, Robert K. Upchurch, Jonathan Wilcox, Charles D. Wright, Samantha Zacher. See inside the book.

The Reigns of Edmund, Eadred and Eadwig, 939-959

Author : Mary Elizabeth Blanchard
Publisher : Boydell & Brewer
ISBN 13 : 1783277645
Total Pages : 237 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (832 download)

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Book Synopsis The Reigns of Edmund, Eadred and Eadwig, 939-959 by : Mary Elizabeth Blanchard

Download or read book The Reigns of Edmund, Eadred and Eadwig, 939-959 written by Mary Elizabeth Blanchard and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2024-02-06 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essays highlighting the importance of three kings - Edmund, Eadred and Eadwig - in understanding England in the tenth century. Much scholarly attention has been devoted to both the expanding kingdom of Alfred the Great, Edward the Elder, and Æthelstan, and to the larger and integrated realm of their more distant successors, Edgar and Æthelred II. However, the English kingdom in the 940s and 950s, and its three kings, Edmund (939-946), Eadred (946-955), and Eadwig (955-959), the men who inherited and held together the kingdom created by their immediate predecessors, have been somewhat neglected, with little research being dedicated to these men as kings, or the era in which they ruled. This volume offers a variety of approaches to the period. Its contributors bring to light royal legal innovations to ecclesiastical law, oaths, heriot, complex factional politics, including the crucial role of queens, differing perspectives on the final era of an independent northern kingdom of York, and developments in literary culture outside the domineering trend of the later monastic reformers.

Aelfric's Lives of saints

Author : Aelfric (Abbot of Eynsham.)
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 572 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (121 download)

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Book Synopsis Aelfric's Lives of saints by : Aelfric (Abbot of Eynsham.)

Download or read book Aelfric's Lives of saints written by Aelfric (Abbot of Eynsham.) and published by . This book was released on 1881 with total page 572 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Latin Literatures of Medieval and Early Modern Times in Europe and Beyond

Author : Francesco Stella
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN 13 : 9027247293
Total Pages : 726 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (272 download)

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Book Synopsis Latin Literatures of Medieval and Early Modern Times in Europe and Beyond by : Francesco Stella

Download or read book Latin Literatures of Medieval and Early Modern Times in Europe and Beyond written by Francesco Stella and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2024-07-15 with total page 726 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The textual heritage of Medieval Latin is one of the greatest reservoirs of human culture. Repertories list more than 16,000 authors from about 20 modern countries. Until now, there has been no introduction to this world in its full geographical extension. Forty contributors fill this gap by adopting a new perspective, making available to specialists (but also to the interested public) new materials and insights. The project presents an overview of Medieval (and post-medieval) Latin Literatures as a global phenomenon including both Europe and extra-European regions. It serves as an introduction to medieval Latin's complex and multi-layered culture, whose attraction has been underestimated until now. Traditional overviews mostly flatten specificities, yet in many countries medieval Latin literature is still studied with reference to the local history. Thus the first section presents 20 regional surveys, including chapters on authors and works of Latin Literature in Eastern, Central and Northern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the Americas. Subsequent chapters highlight shared patterns of circulation, adaptation, and exchange, and underline the appeal of medieval intermediality, as evidenced in manuscripts, maps, scientific treatises and iconotexts, and its performativity in narrations, theatre, sermons and music. The last section deals with literary “interfaces,” that is motifs or characters that exemplify the double-sided or the long-term transformations of medieval Latin mythologemes in vernacular culture, both early modern and modern, such as the legends about King Arthur, Faust, and Hamlet.

Ælfric's Letter to the Monks of Eynsham

Author : Christopher A. Jones
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1139425781
Total Pages : 269 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (394 download)

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Book Synopsis Ælfric's Letter to the Monks of Eynsham by : Christopher A. Jones

Download or read book Ælfric's Letter to the Monks of Eynsham written by Christopher A. Jones and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1999-03-25 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though best known today for his Old English homilies, the Anglo-Saxon scholar Ælfric also composed a Latin 'letter' to his fellow monks at Eynsham (Oxfordshire) containing a detailed outline of their daily and seasonal round of prayer and other duties. The document offers a rare glimpse of what ordinary monks in Anglo-Saxon England were expected to know and do. This 1999 book contains an edition of the Latin letters a textual commentary, and a complete English translation of the work. Dr Jones also provides substantial introductory chapters which establish the exceptional importance of the Eynsham letter for our understanding of late Anglo-Saxon monasticism and liturgy. The book will interest students of early medieval culture, monasticism and Church history.

Aelfrician Homilies and Varia

Author : Aaron J. Kleist
Publisher : Boydell & Brewer
ISBN 13 : 184384544X
Total Pages : 1065 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (438 download)

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Book Synopsis Aelfrician Homilies and Varia by : Aaron J. Kleist

Download or read book Aelfrician Homilies and Varia written by Aaron J. Kleist and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2022 with total page 1065 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First modern edition and translation of the homilies of one of the most important religious figures of his time. Ælfric of Eynsham stands supreme as a distinguished homilist, translator, and moralist - one whose writings were sought by the most powerful churchmen and landed warlords of his day. In his sermons, the dead are raised to life, innocents are betrayed, civilizations come to ruin, prophecies are finally fulfilled, and sorrow is swallowed up in salvation. He offers guidance regarding sex, financial counsel, botanical excursuses, etymological asides, lions cowed by roosters, arch-heretics disemboweled, and seemingly inconsequential figures receiving everlasting crowns. He also considers the origin of Antichrist, recounts supernatural visions of damnation and deliverance, teases out the tension between predestination and free will, explores the multifarious nature of the soul, seeks to categorize creation, and presses the boundaries of conceptual capacity in describing the divine nature. Treatises take up such subjects as the Holy Spirit, cognition, penitence, and proper comportment. Private prayers appear alongside public declarations of the Christian faith found in the Paternoster and the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds. The thirty-one texts presented here, with facing translations, span the course of his career: Old English and Latin, ordinary and alliterative prose, pithy prayers and exhaustive exegesis. Nine appear in print for the first time; others for the first time in well over 100 years. Introductions to the texts offer overviews of the content, composition, and circulation of each work, using the fruits of the latest research to envision real-world contexts for their use in specific places, among particular groups, and by certain individuals. Meanwhile, the commentary traces Ælfric's role in the history of ideas, examining his relationship to over 100 sources, 200 other Ælfrician works, and over 1,000 biblical passages; it seeks to clarify Ælfric's compositional aims and further to establish the authorship and date of these remarkable writings from early England.

Global Perspectives on Early Medieval England

Author : Debby Banham
Publisher : Boydell & Brewer
ISBN 13 : 178327686X
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (832 download)

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Book Synopsis Global Perspectives on Early Medieval England by : Debby Banham

Download or read book Global Perspectives on Early Medieval England written by Debby Banham and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2022 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interrogations of materiality and geography, narrative framework and boundaries, and the ways these scholarly pursuits ripple out into the wider cultural sphere. Early medieval England as seen through the lens of comparative and interconnected histories is the subject of this volume. Drawn from a range of disciplines, its chapters examine artistic, archaeological, literary, and historical artifacts, converging around the idea that the period may not only define itself, but is often defined from other perspectives, specifically here by modern scholarship. The first part considers the transmission of material culture across borders, while querying the possibilities and limits of comparative and transnational approaches, taking in the spread of bread wheat, the collapse of the art-historical "decorative" and "functional", and the unknowns about daily life in an early medieval English hall. The volume then moves on to reimagine the permeable boundaries of early medieval England, with perspectives from the Baltic, Byzantium, and the Islamic world, including an examination of Vercelli Homily VII (from John Chrysostom's Greek Homily XXIX), Hārūn ibn Yaḥyā's Arabic descriptions of Barṭīniyah ("Britain"), and an consideration of the Old English Orosius. The final chapters address the construction of and responses to "Anglo-Saxon" narratives, past and present: they look at early medieval England within a Eurasian perspective, the historical origins of racialized Anglo-Saxonism(s), and views from Oceania, comparing Hiberno-Saxon and Anglican Melanesian missions, as well as contemporary reactions to exhibitions of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and Pacific Island cultures. Contributors: Debby Banham, Britton Elliott Brooks, Caitlin Green, Jane Hawkes, John Hines, Karen Louise Jolly, Kazutomo Karasawa, Carol Neuman de Vegvar, John D. Niles, Michael W. Scott, Jonathan Wilcox

Nothing Pure

Author : Mo Pareles
Publisher : University of Toronto Press
ISBN 13 : 1487550693
Total Pages : 200 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (875 download)

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Book Synopsis Nothing Pure by : Mo Pareles

Download or read book Nothing Pure written by Mo Pareles and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2023-12-18 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Early English culture depended on a Judaism translated away from Jews. Revealing the importance of Jewish law to the workings of early Christian England, Nothing Pure presents a Jewish revision of the history of English Bible translation. The book illuminates the paradoxical process by which the abjection and dehumanization of Jews, a bitter milestone in the history of European racism, was first articulated in the cultural translation of Jewish literature. It locates Old English Bible translation within the history of cultural translation, so that instead of appearing as the romantically liberated fragments of a suppressed mode of literacy, these authorized and semi-authorized vernacular works can be seen as privileged texts appropriating a Jewish source culture into an English Christian host culture. Mo Pareles proposes a theory of translation called supersessionary translation to explain the aesthetics of these texts: while at first glance they appear to dismiss irrelevant Jewish laws according to an arbitrary pattern, closer analysis reveals that they are masterful attempts to subject the legacy of Judaism, through translation, to the control of a system that has purportedly superseded and replaced it. Ultimately, Nothing Pure demonstrates the surprisingly central role of Jewish law in translation to Christian identity in late Old English ecclesiastical and monastic writings.

Debating with Demons

Author : Christina M. Heckman
Publisher : Boydell & Brewer
ISBN 13 : 1843845652
Total Pages : 261 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (438 download)

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Book Synopsis Debating with Demons by : Christina M. Heckman

Download or read book Debating with Demons written by Christina M. Heckman and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2020 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A consideration of the theme of demons as teachers in early English literature.

Emotional Practice in Old English Literature

Author : Alice Jorgensen
Publisher : Boydell & Brewer
ISBN 13 : 1843847051
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (438 download)

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Book Synopsis Emotional Practice in Old English Literature by : Alice Jorgensen

Download or read book Emotional Practice in Old English Literature written by Alice Jorgensen and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2024-05-07 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of how emotions were practised and performed through Old English texts.Scholarship is increasingly interested in investigating concepts of emotion found in Old English literature. This study takes the next step, arguing that both heroic and religious texts were vehicles for emotional practice - that is, for doing things with emotion. Using case studies from heroic poetry (Beowulf, The Battle of Brunanburh and The Battle of Maldon), religious poetry (Christ I and Christ III) and homilies (selections from the Vercelli Book, Blickling Homilies and the works of Wulfstan), it shows via detailed close readings that texts could be used to act out emotional styles, manage the emotions arising from specific events, and negotiate relationships both within social groups and with God. Meanwhile, a chapter on the Old English Boethius explores how the control of unruly emotions is theorized as the transfer of attachment from the things of this world to the things of the divine. Overall, the volume offers new angles on the social functions of genres and questions of reception and performance; and it gives insight into how early medieval people used emotions to relate to their world, temporal and eternal. angles on the social functions of genres and questions of reception and performance; and it gives insight into how early medieval people used emotions to relate to their world, temporal and eternal. angles on the social functions of genres and questions of reception and performance; and it gives insight into how early medieval people used emotions to relate to their world, temporal and eternal. angles on the social functions of genres and questions of reception and performance; and it gives insight into how early medieval people used emotions to relate to their world, temporal and eternal.

Law, Literature, and Social Regulation in Early Medieval England

Author : Andrew Rabin
Publisher : Boydell & Brewer
ISBN 13 : 1783277602
Total Pages : 311 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (832 download)

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Book Synopsis Law, Literature, and Social Regulation in Early Medieval England by : Andrew Rabin

Download or read book Law, Literature, and Social Regulation in Early Medieval England written by Andrew Rabin and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2023-02-21 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Valuable new insights into the multi-layered and multi-directional relationship of law, literature, and social regulation in pre-Conquest English society. Pre-Conquest English law was among the most sophisticated in early medieval Europe. Composed largely in the vernacular, it played a crucial role in the evolution of early English identity and exercised a formative influence on the development of the Common Law. However, recent scholarship has also revealed the significant influence of these legal documents and ideas on other cultural domains, both modern and pre-modern. This collection explores the richness of pre-Conquest legal writing by looking beyond its traditional codified form. Drawing on methodologies ranging from traditional philology to legal and literary theory, and from a diverse selection of contributors offering a broad spectrum of disciplines, specialities and perspectives, the essays examine the intersection between traditional juridical texts - from law codes and charters to treatises and religious regulation - and a wide range of literary genres, including hagiography and heroic poetry. In doing so, they demonstrate that the boundary that has traditionally separated "law" from other modes of thought and writing is far more porous than hitherto realized. Overall, the volume yields valuable new insights into the multi-layered and multi-directional relationship of law, literature, and social regulation in pre-Conquest English society.

Bishop Æthelwold, His Followers, and Saints' Cults in Early Medieval England

Author : Alison Hudson
Publisher : Boydell & Brewer
ISBN 13 : 1783276851
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (832 download)

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Book Synopsis Bishop Æthelwold, His Followers, and Saints' Cults in Early Medieval England by : Alison Hudson

Download or read book Bishop Æthelwold, His Followers, and Saints' Cults in Early Medieval England written by Alison Hudson and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2022 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of how Æthelwold and those he influenced deployed the promotion of saints to implement religious reform.

Wealth and the Material World in the Old English Alfredian Corpus

Author : Amy Faulkner
Publisher : Boydell & Brewer
ISBN 13 : 1783277599
Total Pages : 223 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (832 download)

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Book Synopsis Wealth and the Material World in the Old English Alfredian Corpus by : Amy Faulkner

Download or read book Wealth and the Material World in the Old English Alfredian Corpus written by Amy Faulkner and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2023-01-24 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new, materialistic reading of the Alfredian corpus, drawing on diverse approaches from thing theory to Augustinian principles of use and enjoyment to uncover how these works explore the material world. The Old English prose translations traditionally attributed to Alfred the Great (versions of Gregory's Regula pastoralis, Boethius' De consolatione philosophiae, Augustine's Soliloquia and the first fifty Psalms) urge detachment from the material world; but despite this, its flotsam and jetsam, from costly treasures to everyday objects, abound within them. This book reads these original and inventive translations from a materialist perspective, drawing on approaches as diverse as thing theory and Augustine's principles of use and enjoyment. By focussing on the material, it offers a fresh interpretation of this group of translations, bringing out their complex, often contradictory, relationship with the material world. It demonstrates that, as in the poetic tradition, wealth in Alfredian literature is not simply a tool to be used, or something to be enjoyed in excess; rather, in moving away from these two static binaries, it shows that wealth is a current, flowing both horizontally, as an exchange of gifts between humans, and vertically, as a salvific current between earth and heaven. The prose translations are situated in the context of Old English poetry, including Beowulf, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, the Exeter Book Riddles and The Dream of the Rood.