Nonhuman voices in Anglo-​Saxon literature and material culture

250 Pages·2017·18.7 MB·English

by  James Paz

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NONHUMAN VOICES IN ANGLO- SAXON

LITERATURE AND MATERIAL CULTURE
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Series editors: Anke Bernau and David Matthews
Series founded by: J. J. Anderson and Gail Ashton
Advisory board: Ruth Evans, Nicola McDonald,
Andrew James Johnston, Sarah Salih, Larry Scanlon
and Stephanie Trigg
The Manchester Medieval Literature and Culture series publishes new research,
informed by current critical methodologies, on the literary cultures of medieval Britain
(including Anglo- Norman, Anglo- Latin and Celtic writings), including post- medieval
engagements with and representations of the Middle Ages (medievalism). ‘Literature’
is viewed in a broad and inclusive sense, embracing imaginative, historical, political,
scientific, dramatic and religious writings. The series offers monographs and essay
collections, as well as editions and translations of texts.
Titles Available in the Series
The Parlement of Foulys (by Geoffrey Chaucer)
D. S. Brewer (ed.)
Language and imagination in the Gawain- poems
J. J. Anderson
Water and fire:The myth of the Flood in Anglo- Saxon England
Daniel Anlezark
Greenery: Ecocritical readings of late medieval English literature
Gillian Rudd
Sanctity and pornography in medieval culture:On the verge
Bill Burgwinkle and Cary Howie
In strange countries: Middle English literature and its afterlife: Essays in Memory of
J. J. Anderson
David Matthews (ed.)
A knight’s legacy: Mandeville and Mandevillian lore in early modern England
Ladan Niayesh (ed.)
Rethinking the South English legendaries
Heather Blurton and Jocelyn Wogan- Browne (eds)
Between earth and heaven: Liminality and the Ascension of Christ in Anglo-S axon
literature
Johanna Kramer
Transporting Chaucer
Helen Barr
Sanctity as literature in late medieval Britain
Eva von Contzen and Anke Bernau (eds)
Reading Robin Hood: Content, form and reception in the outlaw myth
Stephen Knight
Annotated Chaucer bibliography: 1997– 2010
Mark Allen and Stephanie Amsel
Roadworks: Medieval Britain, medieval roads
Valerie Allen and Ruth Evans (eds)
Love, history and emotion in Chaucer and Shakespeare: Troilus and Criseyde and
Troilus and Cressida
Andrew James Johnston, Russell West- Pavlov and Elisabeth Kempf (eds)
Gesta Romanorum: A new translation
Christopher Stace
The Scottish Legendary: Towards a poetics of hagiographic narration
Eva von Contzen
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Nonhuman voices in Anglo- Saxon

literature and material culture
JAMES PAZ
Manchester University Press
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Copyright © James Paz 2017
The right of James Paz to be identifi ed as the author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by Manchester University Press
Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 5261 0110 5 hardback
ISBN 978 1 5261 1599 7 Open Access
First published 2017

This electronic version has been made freely available under a Creative Commons
(CC-BY- NC-ND) licence, thanks to Open Access funding from The University
of Manchester. A copy of the licence can be viewed at https://creativecommons.
org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs
for any external or third- party internet websites referred to in this book,
and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
Typeset by Out of House Publishing
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For my parents
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Contents

List of figures viii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: On Anglo- Saxon things 1
1 Æschere’s head, Grendel’s mother and the sword
that isn’t a sword: Unreadable things in Beowulf 34
2 The ‘thingness’ of time in the Old English riddles of
the Exeter Book and Aldhelm’s Latin enigmata 59
3 The riddles of the Franks Casket: Enigmas, agency
and assemblage 98
4 Assembling and reshaping Christianity in the Lives
of St Cuthbert and Lindisfarne Gospels 139
5 The Dream of the Rood and the Ruthwell
monument: Fragility, brokenness and failure 175
Afterword: Old things with new things to say 216
Bibliography 221
Index 233
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Figures

1 Gold hilt plate from the Staffordshire Hoard
(© Birmingham Museums Trust) 51
2 Franks Casket, front panel (© The Trustees of the
British Museum) 99
3 Franks Casket, right panel (© The Trustees of the
British Museum) 111
4 Franks Casket, left panel (© The Trustees of the
British Museum) 115
5 The Ruthwell monument, north (now east) side, upper
and lower stones: vine scroll and runic inscription
(© Corpus of Anglo- Saxon Stone Sculpture,
photographer T. Middlemass) 199
6 The Ruthwell monument, north (now east) side, lower
stone: vine scroll and runic inscription (© Corpus
of Anglo- Saxon Stone Sculpture, photographer
T. Middlemass) 200
The author and publishers are grateful to all of the institutions and
individuals listed above for permission to reproduce the images for
which they hold the copyright.