Beowulf and Other Stories: A New Introduction to Old English, Old Icelandic and Anglo-Norman Literatures

591 Pages·2011·7.03 MB·English

by  Joe Allard

Beowulf & Other Stories
To whom it may concern
Beowulf &
Other Stories
A New Introduction to
Old English, Old Icelandic
and Anglo-Norman Literatures
Second edition
Edited by Richard North and Joe Allard
First published 2007 by Pearson Education Limited
Second edition 2012
Published 2014 by Routledge
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ISBN 13: 978-1-4082-8603-6 (pbk)
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Beowulf and other stories : a new introduction to old English, old Icelandic
and Anglo-Norman literatures / edited by Richard North and Joe Allard. – 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4082-8603-6 (pbk.)
1. Literature, Medieval – History and criticism. 2. English literature – Old English,
ca. 450-1100 – History and criticism. 3. Old Norse literature – History and criticism.
4. Anglo-Norman literature – History and criticism. I. North, Richard, 1961– II. Allard,
Joe, 1948–
PN681.B38 2011
809’.02 – dc22
2011016877
Set by 35 in 9/13.5pt Stone Serif
Contents
List of plates and maps vii
Preface to the second edition ix
Acknowledgements x
Publisher’s acknowledgements xiii
1 Why read Old English literature? 1
An introduction to this book
Richard North, David Crystal and Joe Allard
Names to look out for 26
Richard North and Joe Allard
2 Is it relevant? 38
Old English influence on The Lord of the Rings
Clive Tolley
3 Is violence what Old English literature is about? 63
Beowulf and other battlers: an introduction to Beowulf
Andy Orchard
4 Is there more like Beowulf? 95
Old English minor heroic poems
Richard North
5 What else is there? 130
Joyous play and bitter tears: the Riddles and the Elegies
Jennifer Neville
6 How Christian is OE literature? 160
The Dream of the Rood and Anglo-Saxon Northumbria
Éamonn Ó Carragáin and Richard North
7 How did OE literature start? 189
Cædmon the cowherd and Old English biblical verse
Bryan Weston Wyly
vi CONTENTS
8 Were all the poets monks? 219
Monasteries and courts: Alcuin and Offa
Andy Orchard
9 What was it like to be in the Anglo-Saxon or Viking world? 246
Material culture: archaeology and text
Michael Bintley
10 Did the Anglo-Saxons write fiction? 274
Old English prose: King Alfred and his books
Susan Irvine
11 How difficult is the Old English language? 300
The Old English language
Peter S. Baker
12 When were the Vikings in England? 329
Viking wars and The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Jayne Carroll
Notes on the Old Norse language 351
Richard North
13 What gods did the Vikings worship? 379
Viking religion: Old Norse mythology
Terry Gunnell
14 Just who were the Vikings anyway? 404
Sagas of Icelanders
Joe Allard
15 Were there stories in late OE literature? 445
Prose writers of the English Benedictine Reform
Stewart Brookes
16 What happened when the Normans arrived? 485
Anglo-Norman literature: the road to Middle English
Patricia Gillies
Epilogue 520
The end of Old English?
David Crystal
The editors and the contributors 530
Index 534
List of plates and maps
Plates
1 The pagan protective boar figure on the Benty Grange helmet
2 An Anglo-Saxon manuscript of Prudentius’ Psychomachia
3 The York helmet, with a Christian inscription cross-wise over the
top
4 The Franks Casket
5 The Exeter Book of Anglo-Saxon poetry: first page of The Wanderer
6 The Vercelli Book, opening of The Dream of the Rood
7 Twelfth-century mosaic in San Clemente Church, Rome
8 The five gems of the Ahenny Stone High Cross
9 The Ruthwell High Cross
10 Gabriel with Mary: Annunciation panel on the Ruthwell Cross
11 A symbol for the Gospel of St John in the Book of Durrow
12 King Alfred’s Preface to his translation of Gregory’s Pastoral Care
13 King Alfred’s Jewel
14 jórr rising with the giant Hymir to catch the World Serpent. From
Melsted’s Edda
15 Óginn steals the mead of poetry in bird shape, from Melsted’s Edda
16 Arthur Rackham’s illustration of Freyja from 1911 to Wagner’s Das
Rheingold
17 Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda
18 An lcelandic sitting-room at the beginning of the nineteenth century
by Auguste Meyer
19 The entry into Jerusalem from the Benedictional of Æthelwold
viii LIST OF PLATES AND MAPS
20 A lord with his comitatus: Éomer and the Riders of Rohan from
The Return of The King
21 An elephant and a two-headed man in the Marvels of the East
22 Reconstructed tenth–eleventh century Viking longhouse at Trelleborg,
Denmark
23 A reconstructed Grubenhaus, at West Stow, Suffolk
24 One of a pair of drinking horns: Anglo-Saxon, late sixth century, from
the burial at Taplow, Buckinghamshire
25 A small sample of gold objects from the Staffordshire Hoard
26 The ‘Beagnoth’ Seax: Anglo-Saxon, ninth–tenth century, from the River
Thames at Battersea, London
27 The Gokstad Viking ship, ninth century
28 The princely burial ground at Sutton Hoo. The Mound 2 ship burial
stands in the right foreground, lower mounds can be seen in the middle
and far distance
29 The Bewcastle Cross, Cumbria
Maps
1 Barbarians in the late Roman Empire 7
2 Scandinavia in the time of Beowulf 97
3 Northumbria in the seventh century 98
4 The Mercian supremacy 225
5 Carolingian France 228
6 England in the tenth century 275
7 Viking expansion 338
8 Iceland in the settlement years 406
Preface to the second edition
A
lthough it is not really acceptable to quote one’s reviews,
we thought we should post some comments about the first
edition of Beowulf & Other Stories to express our gratitude for the genuinely
enthusiastic response our book has had:
I have to say that I was very disappointed with this book.
The writers – editors sorry (. . .) write like adolescents.
Such things should only be done by drunk historians and never put to paper.
For some reason the editors seem to think ‘Oxfordian’ is the correct adjective for
Oxford graduates. It is of course Oxonian.
The warmth of this reaction has since inspired us to make a revised edition of
Beowulf & Other Stories, complete with changes here and there (Benedictines
are up, ‘Oxonian’ is now in) and with an entirely new chapter by Mike
Bintley on Anglo-Saxon material culture including the drink!
Thanks are due also to Philip Langeskov, who asked us, not long after the first
edition hit the bookshops, if we would like to write a new Anthology, to be a
companion volume to Beowulf & Other Stories. To his surprise, we said yes. After
three years’ hard labour, during which Phil moved into a beach-hut in East
Anglia, we can at last present you with The Longman Anthology of Old English, Old
Icelandic and Anglo-Norman Literatures (Harlow, 2011). This magnificent new book
has not only lots of Beowulf in it and the other works in Old English, Old
Icelandic, a few in Anglo-Norman and Occitan (that’s Provençal to you, edited
by P. H. Gillies), but runes too, and also poems in Welsh, Irish, Old High German,
even Castilian. We have added translations and notes, with even more texts
online which can be ordered for a Custom Version. This Anthology will comple-
ment our second edition of Beowulf & Other Stories, which has a new extended
chapter on ‘Prose Writers of the English Benedictine Reform’ by Stewart Brookes,
as well as Mike Bintley’s on ‘Material Culture: Archaeology and Text’, complete
with eight new colour plates and a discussion of the Anglo-Saxons and
Vikings through their archaeology. So why not buy both books now . . .
Richard North and Joe Allard