Signy's Lament

PMLA ◽  
1902 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 262-295
Author(s):  
William Henry Schofield
Keyword(s):  
Old Norse ◽  
Correct Identification ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Preceding Article

In the preceding article my friend Mr. Lawrence has shown clearly that all indications point to an Old Norse source for the Anglo-Saxon poem usually termed The First Riddle of Cynewulf. After he had come to a conviction on this point, he communicated his theory to me in private conference, in the hope that I might perhaps be able to supply confirmatory evidence by showing what that source was. It was my fortune to make what I believe scholars will agree to be the correct identification of the material, and, with the new light thus thrown on its meaning, to interpret the poem more satisfactorily, I think, than has hitherto been done.

The Kenning in Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse Poetry

1930 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 196
Author(s):  
H. A. C. Green ◽  
H. Van der Merwe Scholtz
Keyword(s):  
Old Norse ◽  
Anglo Saxon

Karin E. Olsen, Conceptualizing the Enemy in Early Northwest Europe: Metaphors of Conflict and Alterity in Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse, and Early Irish Poetry. Medieval Identities: Socio-Cultural Spaces, 6. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2016, 260 pp.

Mediaevistik ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 380-381
Author(s):  
William Sayers
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Old Norse ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Irish Poetry ◽  
Northwest Europe ◽  
Cultural Spaces ◽  
The Common ◽  
Conflictual Situation

In this ambitious study Karin E. Olsen ranges far and wide in the early poetry of medieval Northwest Europe, far in the sense of incorporating the literary evidence from three adjacent but distinct cultures, wide in the sense of greatly expanding on the common notions of the enemy and conflict, often by making alterity one side of a conflictual situation. A uniform methodology seeks to encompass this sprawling investigative field, where ‘conceptual metaphor’ is a key heuristic term.

Homeric Flyting and How to Read It: Performance and Intratext in Iliad 20.83-109 and 20.178-258

Ramus ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-28
Author(s):  
Jon Hesk
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Old Norse ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Epic Tradition ◽  
Heroic Poetry ◽  
It Performance ◽  
Verbal Exchanges ◽  
Better Than

TheIliadandOdysseyare replete with single speeches or exchanges of speech which are described by the noun νεῖκος (‘quarrel’, ‘strife’) or its derived verb νεικέω. Some time ago, A.W.H. Adkins showed that νεῖκος and νεικείω are used in Homer to designate various kinds of agonistic discourse: threats, rebukes, insults, quarrels and judicial disputes. Critics often now describe νεῖκος-speeches and νεῖκος-exchanges in theIliadas examples of ‘flyting’. This term, shared by the languages of Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse and the dialect of Old Scots, is transferred to the combination of boasting, invective and threats which Homeric heroes hurl at each other. This is because Iliadic νεῖκος has affinities with the traditional and highly stylised verbal exchanges which take place in the feasting halls and battles depicted in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Germanic heroic poetry.In his bookThe Language of HeroesRichard Martin has argued persuasively that the flyting νεῖκος is a significant speech-act genre performed by Homeric characters and that its competitive mode is analogous to the Homeric poet's poetic projecttout court. Just as Homer produces a monumental epic whose focus on Achilles may well be competitive with other renderings of epic tradition and is certainly derived through the manipulation of memory, Homeric heroes and gods flyte by manipulating and contesting the resources of memory. The best Homeric flyting is creatively poetic within existing conventions or strategies and is thereby rhetorically devastating. And Martin sees Achilles as the best flyter because he rhetorically manipulates memory better than any other hero. Thus, the hero is like his poet and the poet is like his hero. Achilles' competitive way with words is unique in (and to) theIliadand is emblematic of Homer's overpowering competitive poetic achievement.

The æecerbot charm and its Christian user

1977 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 213-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas D. Hill
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Old Norse ◽  
British Library ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Close Attention ◽  
The Rich

The Old English æcerbot charm, whichs is preserved in London, British Library, Cotton Caligula A. vii, in a hand of the first half of the eleventh century, has always attracted a good deal of attention, since it is one of the few surviving texts which unquestionably reflect the influence of Anglo-Saxon paganism – pagan religion, not merely pagan magic, if one can make the distinction. Our knowledge of Anglo-Saxon paganism is so limited, particularly in comparison with the rich corpus of myth and heroic legend preserved in Old Norse-Icelandic, that inevitably scholars give close attention to any text which reveals something of it. So far as the æcerbot charm is concerned, this has meant a preoccupation with distinguishing between pagan elements and Christian accretions. For instance, in Stopford Brooke's translation of lines 30–42 quoted by Storms in his edition, ‘old’ pagan parts of the prayer are printed in italics and ‘new’ Christian ones in roman print. Storms doubts the possibility of drawing a hard and fast line in all cases, but his quite lengthy commentary on the charm as a whole shares the same fundamental concern.

Why English is not dead: A rejoinder to Emonds and Faarlund

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 239-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gjertrud Flermoen Stenbrenden
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Old English ◽  
Old Norse ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Concerted Effort ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Norman Conquest ◽  
West Germanic ◽  
Germanic Languages ◽  
Counter Argument

AbstractThis article argues against the claim by Emonds and Faarlund (2014,English: The language of the vikings. Palacký University: Olomouc) that English died out after the Norman Conquest, and was replaced by a North Germanic variety referred to as “Anglicised Norse”, which had been formed in the Danelaw area in a concerted effort by the Norse and Anglo-Saxon populations, presumably to overthrow the ruling French elite. Emonds and Faarlund base their claim on the existence of some 20–25 linguistic features which are said to have been absent from Old English, but which are present in Present-Day English and in Scandinavian languages. This article argues that genetic affiliation cannot be inferred from shared syntactic, morphological or lexical features, which may easily result from independent convergence in historically related languages. The main counter-argument, however, is chronological: the majority of the features adduced are indeed attested in Old English and often in other West Germanic languages also, and hence may not be attributed to Old Norse; nor can features which are not attested in English until late Middle English or early Modern English come from Old Norse. The continuity of English in the written record likewise renders the suggested scenario highly unlikely.

scholarly journals Old Norse and Old English Language Contact: Scandinavian Legal Terminology in Anglo-Saxon Laws

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Viola Miglio
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
English Language ◽  
Old Norse ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Place Names ◽  
Anglo Saxon

The Scandinavian occupation of wide territories in the British Islands from about 900 CE onwards has left a number of vestiges both in place-names, in the pronunciation and lexicon of northern dialects, especially Scottish, as well as loanwords in standard English, some of which are remarkably common, ugly, to take and window to name but three.

The Anglo-Saxon and NorseRune Poems: a comparative study

1990 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 23-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Clunies Ross
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Old English ◽  
Old Norse ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Figures Of Speech ◽  
Cultural Roots ◽  
Way Of Thinking ◽  
Modes Of Thought ◽  
Considerable Period

It has been customary, since comparative scholarship in the field of Germanic literatures began, to explain perceived similarities between Old English and Old Norse poetry in terms of their derivation from common cultural roots and closely cognate languages. Similarities in the two poetic systems have been regarded as evidence of the conservation of ideas, figures of speech and poetic forms. Such similarities have then been used to reveal what the ‘original’ Germanic customs, ideas and literary expressions might have been before the various tribal groups dispersed to their historical medieval locations. This way of thinking assumes the persistence into early medieval times of archaic modes of thought and expression wherever cultural similarities are perceived. The Old English, Old Norwegian and IcelandicRune Poemshave usually been considered in this light. It is widely accepted that they reflect a shared cultural prototype. Moreover, their texts span a considerable period of time and yet show significant similarities. The Old EnglishRune Poemhas often been compared with its Scandinavian counterparts to reveal older forms of thought. Andreas Heusler offered a fairly typical assessment: ‘Die wenigen Anklänge an die nordischen Reihen … erklären sich unbedenklich aus einer alten Grundform der Wanderungszeit, als Angeln und Nordleute Nachbarn waren.’

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