Germanic Elements in the Story of King Horn

PMLA ◽  
1900 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-232
Author(s):  
George H. McKnight
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
King Horn ◽  
Diverse Origin ◽  
Original Story ◽  
Bevis Of Hampton

To the mass of romances current during the Middle English period of our literature, the contribution of purely Germanic tradition was a relatively meagre one. The spirit which had produced the earlier epic was at this time extinct. A solitary offshoot of the earlier epic seems to have survived in the story of the dragon-killing Wade with his famous boat, Guingelot. But even this story is lost to us save in occasional references, and from these we must infer that all definite idea of its origin was lost, since it is associated, now with Weyland, now with Horn and Havelok, now with Launcelot. To these earlier tales, such as those of Beowulf and possibly of Wade, having a popular, epic origin, succeeded in the Middle English period a mass of tales and romances of the most diverse origin imaginable. Even in the popular romances of Guy of Warwick and Bevis of Hampton, which are supposed to contain a kernel of genuine English tradition, the original story is almost lost amid the mass of mythical, imaginary, or purely conventional matter later added. The historical events in the lives of Waldef and Hereward are embellished with much of the conventional romantic matter, and the late romance of Richard Coeur de Lion consists very largely of the purely conventional.

Consorting with Stone

2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-120
Author(s):  
Sarah-Nelle Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Indigenous Studies ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Middle English Romance ◽  
Alternative Models ◽  
King Horn ◽  
Legal Studies ◽  
Territorial Control ◽  
Indigenous Theories

Abstract This essay places Marie de France’s lai “Yonec” (ca. 1150–1200) and the anonymous Middle English romance King Horn (ca. 1250–1300) in conversation with critical Indigenous theories of relational, land-based sovereignty and resurgence. At first, “Yonec” and King Horn appear to reinscribe a Western form of sovereignty based on exclusive territorial control. Both works offer alternative models of sovereignty and self-determination, however, in their depictions of cooperative, lithic alliance between stone and female consorts. Adopting the term lithic sovereignty to describe the works’ relation-based sovereign imaginaries, this essay first follows the King Horn narrator’s depiction of Godhild’s hermetic retreat into stone when Saracens conquer her husband’s realm. Then it turns to the nameless lady of “Yonec” and her implausible escape from her jealous husband’s tower, facilitated by the very stone that had seemed to entrap her. Drawing on critical Indigenous studies, legal studies, and ecomaterialism, this essay concludes that both King Horn and “Yonec” offer a medieval British imaginary of lithic relational sovereignty that runs counter to teleological, naturalizing narratives of Euro-Western origins.

Self-sacrifice for in-group's history: A diachronic perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Babińska ◽  
Michal Bilewicz
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Psychology ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Emotional Events ◽  
Reciprocal Process ◽  
The Way

AbstractThe problem of extended fusion and identification can be approached from a diachronic perspective. Based on our own research, as well as findings from the fields of social, political, and clinical psychology, we argue that the way contemporary emotional events shape local fusion is similar to the way in which historical experiences shape extended fusion. We propose a reciprocal process in which historical events shape contemporary identities, whereas contemporary identities shape interpretations of past traumas.

Appropriation des Savoirs et Mémoire Collective

2013 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-78
Author(s):  
Sophie Richardot
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Factorial Analysis ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Ancient History ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Memoire Collective ◽  
Obedience To Authority

The aim of this study is to understand to what extent soliciting collective memory facilitates the appropriation of knowledge. After being informed about Milgram’s experiment on obedience to authority, students were asked to mention historical or contemporary events that came to mind while thinking about submission to authority. Main results of the factorial analysis show that the students who do not believe in the reproducibility of the experimental results oppose dramatic past events to a peaceful present, whereas those who do believe in the reproducibility of the results also mention dramatic contemporary events, thus linking past and present. Moreover, the students who do not accept the results for today personify historical events, whereas those who fully accept them generalize their impact. Therefore, according to their attitude toward this objet of knowledge, the students refer to two kinds of memory: a “closed memory,” which tends to relegate Milgram’s results to ancient history; and an “open memory,” which, on the contrary, transforms past events into a concept that helps them understand the present. Soliciting collective memory may contribute to the appropriation of knowledge provided the memory activated is an “open” one, linking past to present and going beyond the singularity of the event.

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