Academic literature on the topic 'Old English'

In the opening Chapter of the thesis, various possible approaches to the reconstruction of Old English phonology are considered. Of the five types of approach normally employed, it is concluded that the limitations and drawbacks involved in using orthoepic, metrical, contact and comparative evidence, mean that only the fifth approach, that which makes use of the evidence of Old English spelling itself is direct and reliable enough to be used in the reconstruction of Old English phonology. An examination and critique of traditional approaches to the interpretation of Old English spelling data, as well as traditional means of presenting findings are then offered. The notion of a 'standard' Old English is questioned, in the context both of Old English spelling and of Old English dialects. In the light of the findings of these Chapters, a new approach to the interpretation of Old English spelling is offered. This is based on (1) a taxonomy which establishes, by examining spelling usage, the principles and procedures of the spelling system and (2) the external and linguistic circumstances surrounding the origins of Anglo-Saxon literacy and the Old English spelling system. For (2), details and results of direct and indirect language contact between Pre Old English, early Old Irish and Late Latin/Early Romance are given and discussed. The influences of the latter two languages on the spelling-sound correspondences chosen and established for the eventual writing-down of Old English is then investigated by means of the reconstruction of 7th century sound and spelling systems for both. After an examination of the methodology pertaining to the genesis of a spelling system, this Latin and Old Irish 'supply' is then compared with the 'demand' of the reconstructed Pre Old English sound system. Preliminary findings are presented, followed by a corpus of the earliest Old English spelling data, together with a detailed proposal on how these might best be analysed to gain information on the relative degrees of adoption and adaptation of the Roman-letter alphabet necessary for the writing-down of Old English, the relative degrees of influence exercised by Latin and Old Irish spelling traditions on Anglo-Saxon approaches to spelling, the Old English spelling system itself and Early Old English phonology.

Thesis Abstract. The purpose of this thesis is to examine Old English and Old Icelandic literary examples of monstrosity from a modern theoretical perspective. I examine the processes of monstrous change by which humans can become identified as monsters, focusing on the role played by social and religious pressures. In the first chapter, I outline the aspects of monster theory and medieval thought relevant to the role of society in shaping identity, and the ways in which anti-societal behaviour is identified with monsters and with monstrous change. Chapter two deals more specifically with Old English and Old Icelandic social and religious beliefs as they relate to human and monstrous identity. I also consider the application of generic monster terms in Old English and Old Icelandic. Chapters three to six offer readings of humans and monsters in Old English and Old Icelandic literary texts in cases where a transformation from human to monster occurs or is blocked. Chapter three focuses on Grendel and Heremod in Beowulf and the ways in which extreme forms of anti-societal behaviour are associated with monsters. In chapter four I discuss the influence of religious beliefs and secular behaviour in the context of the transformation of humans into the undead in the Íslendingasögur. In chapter five I consider outlaws and the extent to which criminality can result in monstrous change. I demonstrate that only in the most extreme instances is any question of an outlaw’s humanity raised. Even then, the degree of sympathy or admiration evoked by such legendary outlaws as Grettir, Gísli and Hörðr means that though they are ambiguous in life, they may be redeemed in death. The final chapter explores the threats to human identity represented by the wilderness, with specific references to Guthlac A, Andreas and Bárðar saga and the impact of Christianity on the identity of humans and monsters. I demonstrate that analysis of the social and religious issues in Old English and Old Icelandic literary sources permits nuanced readings of monsters and monstrosity which in turn enriches understanding of the texts in their entirety.

This thesis examines the vernacular psychology presented in Old Norse-Icelandic texts. It focuses on the concept 'hugr', generally rendered in English as ‘mind, soul, spirit’, and explores the conceptual relationships between emotion, cognition and the body. It argues that despite broad similarities, Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English vernacular psychology differ more than has previously been acknowledged. Furthermore, it shows that the psychology of Old Norse-Icelandic has less in common with its circumpolar neighbours than proposed by advocates of Old Norse-Icelandic shamanism. The thesis offers a fresh interpretation of Old Norse-Icelandic psychology which does not rely on cross-cultural evidence from other Germanic or circumpolar traditions. In particular, I demonstrate that emotion and cognition were not conceived of ‘hydraulically’ as was the case in Old English, and that 'hugr' was not thought to leave the body either in animal form or as a person’s breath. I show that Old Norse-Icelandic psychology differs from the Old English tradition, and argue that the Old English psychological model is a specific elaboration of the shared psychological inheritance of Germanic whose origins require further study. These differences between the two languages have implications for the study of psychological concepts in Proto-Germanic, as I argue that there are fewer semantic components which can be reliably reconstructed for the common ancestor of the North and West Germanic languages. As a whole, the thesis applies insights from cross-cultural linguistics and psychology in order to show how Old Norse-Icelandic psychological concepts differ not only from contemporary Germanic and circumpolar traditions but also from the Present Day English concepts used to describe them. The thesis comprises four chapters and conclusion. Chapter 1 introduces the field of study and presents the methodologies and sources used. It introduces the range of cross-cultural variety in psychological concepts, and places Old Norse-Icelandic 'hugr' and its Old English analogue 'mōd' in a typological perspective. Chapter 2 reviews previous approaches to early Germanic psychology and introduces the major strand of research that forms the background to this study: Lockett’s (2011) proposal that Old English vernacular psychology operated in terms of a ‘hydraulic model’, where the 'mōd' would literally boil and seethe within a person’s chest in response to strong emotions. Chapter 3 outlines the native Old Norse-Icelandic psychological model by examining indigenously produced vernacular texts. It looks first at the claims that 'hugr' could leave the body in animal form or as a person’s breath. It then describes the relationship between emotion, cognition and the body in Old Norse-Icelandic texts and contrasts this with the Old English system. Chapter 4 examines the foreign influences which could potentially account for the differences between the Old English and Old Norse-Icelandic systems. It looks first at the imported medical traditions which were known in medieval Scandinavia at the time Old Norse-Icelandic texts were being committed to writing. Next it considers the psychology of Christian tradition from the early Old Icelandic Homily Book to late-fourteenth-century devotional poetry. Finally, it examines the representation of emotion and the body in the translated Anglo-Norman and Old French texts produced at the court of Hákon Hákonarson and explores how this was transposed to native romances composed in Old Norse-Icelandic. The conclusion summarises the findings of the thesis and presents a proposal for the methodology of studying medieval psychological concepts with directions for further research.

The focus of the thesis is on maxims and gnomes in Old English poetry, but the occasional occurrence of these forms of expression in Old English prose and in other Old Germanic literature is also given attention, particularly in the earlier chapters. Chapters 1 to 3 are general, investigating a wide range of material to see how and why maxims were used, then to define the forms, and distinguish them from proverbs. The conclusions of these chapters are that maxims are ‘nomic’, they organise experience in a conventional, authoritative fashion. They are also ‘proverbial’ in the sense of being recognisable and repeatable, but they do not have the fixed form of proverbs. Chapters 4 to 7 are more specific in their focus, applying techniques from formulaic theory, paroemiology and the sociology of knowledge to the material so as to better understand how maxims are used in their contexts in the poems, and to appreciate the nature and function of the Maxims collections. The conclusions reached here are that the maxims in Beowulf 183b-88 are integral to the poem, that maxims in The Battle of Maldon show how the poet manipulated the social functions of the form for his own purposes, that there is virtually no paganism in Old English maxims, and that the Maxims poems outline and illustrate an Anglo-Saxon world view. The main contribution of the thesis is that it goes beyond traditional commentary in analysing the purpose and function of maxims. It does not merely focus on individual poems, but attempts to deal with a limited aspect of the Old English oral and literary tradition. The primary aim is to understand the general procedures of the poets in using maxims and compiling compendia of them, and then to apply insights gained from theoretical approaches to the specifics of poems.

Celem niniejszej monografii jest charakterystyka przymusu wyrażanego przy pomocy czasowników dostępnych w tekstach staroangielskich. Zagadnienie to naturalnie wpisuje się w rozważania na temat modalności, jej semantycznej natury i urzeczywistnienia w języku. Punktem wyjścia jest lokalizacja przymusu w teoriach modalności, wyodrębnienie czasowników będących przedmiotem badań oraz sprecyzowanie miarodajnej metody pozwalającej na porównanie przymusu charakterystycznego dla każdego z czasowników. Pojęcie PRZYMUSU, a raczej szersze pojęcie KONIECZNOŚCI, którego PRZYMUS jest integralną częścią, staje się obok MOŻLIWOŚCI, fundamentem koncepcji modalności Lyons’a (1977). Wyodrębnienie PRZYMUSU w tym i innych ujęciach modalności sprowadza się do przyjrzenia się KONIECZNOŚCI NIEEPISTEMICZNEJ, która obejmuje KONIECZNOŚĆ ZEWNĘTRZNĄ, KONIECZNOŚĆ WEWNĘTRZNĄ a także POZWOLENIE/ZAKAZ. POZWOLENIE/ZAKAZ, choć formalnie przynależą do MOŻLIWOŚCI NIEEPISTEMICZNEJ, są także w centrum mojego zainteresowania dzięki pozostaniu w logicznej zależności z KONIECZNOŚCIĄ. Stojąc na stanowisku, iż KONIECZNOŚĆ, podobnie jak inne znaczenia modalne, realizują się przede wszystkim w znaczeniu czasowników, w dalszej części pracy koncentruję się na dwóch grupach czasowników staroangielskich: pięciu czasownikach pre-modalnych i jedenastu czasownikach leksykalnych. Znacznie większy nacisk położony jest na analizę znaczeń czasowników premodalnych, które, morfologicznie zaklasyfikowane jako czasowniki przeszło-teraźniejsze, są zalążkiem systemu modalnego w późniejszym angielskim w rozumieniu Palmera (2003). Przystępując do badań znaczeń wyodrębnionych czasowników, przyjmuję następujące założenie: znaczenia modalne tworzą zbiory nieostre (zob. Coates 1983), co oznacza, iż w danym przypadku znaczenie czasownika może mieć cechy desygnujące go bliżej centrum zbioru bądź bliżej peryferii zbioru. Centrum znaczenia KONIECZNOŚCI daje się określić poprzez zbiór cech, m in. siłę nacisku wywieranego przez antagonistę (źródło nacisku) na agonistę (osobę poddaną naciskowi) (zob. Taimy 2000), stopień subiektywności znaczenia, określenie czy w danym przypadku mamy do czynienia z kontekstem performatywnym czy też nie. Stosując powyższe parametry w części badawczej, dochodzę do wniosku, że system wyrażania przymusu przy pomocy czasowników pre-modalnych dopiero się wykształca. Spośród pięciu czasowników pre-modalnych, jedynie sceal ze względna konsekwencją używany jest performatywnie, subiektywnie, wyrażając znaczną siłę nacisku wygenerowaną przez antagonistę. Podobnie jak w przypadku pozostałych czasowników pre-modalnych, przykłady użycia sceal ze znaczeniem KONIECZNOŚCI ZEWNĘTRZENEJ tworzą kontinuum rozciągające się od centrum do peryferii. Dwa czasowniki, agan i mat wykazują cechy świadczące o początkowym etapie funkcjonowania ze znaczeniem KONIECZNOŚCI ZEWNĘTRZENEJ. sporadycznie pojawiają się w kontekstach performatywnych i w zależności od konkretnego przypadku, wykazują znaczne wahania pomiędzy słabszą a mocniejszą siłą nacisku. Podstawową różnicą w użyciu czasowników pre-modalnych i leksykalnych jest większa precyzja KONIECZNOŚCI czasowników leksykalnych, które również częściej wyrażają KONIECZNOŚĆ narzuconą przez zindywidualizowanego raczej niż zinstytucjonalizowanego antagonistę. Część badawcza niniejszej pracy opiera się na badaniu tekstów staroangielskich zebranych w korpusach elektronicznych. Wykorzystane zostały dwa różne korpusy tekstów: The Old English Part of the Helsinki Corpus i The Dictionary of Old English Corpus.

Responding to the common plea in medieval inscriptions to ráð rétt rúnar, to ‘interpret the runes correctly’, this thesis provides a series of contextual readings of the runic topos in Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse poetry. The first chapter looks at the use of runes in the Old English riddles, examining the connections between material riddles and certain strategies used in the Exeter Book, and suggesting that runes were associated with a self-referential and engaged form of reading. Chapter 2 seeks a rationale for the use of runic abbreviations in Old English manuscripts, and proposes a poetic association with unlocking and revealing, as represented in Bede’s story of Imma. Chapter 3 considers the use of runes for their ornamental value, using 'Solomon and Saturn I' and the rune poems as examples of texts which foreground the visual and material dimension of writing, whilst Chapter 4 compares the depiction of runes in the heroic poems of the Poetic Edda with epigraphical evidence from the Migration Age, seeking to dispel the idea that they reflect historical practice. The final chapter looks at the construction of a mythology of writing in the Edda, exploring the ways in which myth reflects the social impacts of literacy. Taken together these approaches highlight the importance of reading the runes in poetry as literary constructs, the script often functioning as a form of metawriting, used to explore the parameters of literacy, and to draw attention to the process of writing itself.