Versions of the Walther Saga

PMLA ◽  
1892 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion Dexter Learned
Keyword(s):  
Present Form ◽  
Old Norse ◽  
Middle High German ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Chronological Order ◽  
Historical Treatment

The Saga of Walther of Aquitaine, or of Walther and Hildegunde, is preserved in a variety of versions: Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Middle High German, Old Norse, Polish, all but one of which (Waltharius) are brief or fragmentary in their present form. The original texts of these various versons are reproduced in the following pages in chronological order, so as to present the Saga in its transmitted form which may serve as a basis for historical treatment.

Dekoracje irlandzkich psałterzy

Vox Patrum ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. 93-109
Author(s):  
Ryszarda Maria Bulas
Keyword(s):  
Irish Literature ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Chronological Order ◽  
Irish Art

A particularly interesting question in medieval Irish literature, is decorating Psalters. Since the Biblical psalms were very popular among the Anglo-Saxons, they were often copied and decorated also in Ireland. Initially, the decoration was limited to ornamentation letters. Later there were elements depicting scenes from the life of David, which had its origins, according to F. Henry, in the Carolingian art. In this article, the author presents in chronological order all decorated Irish and Anglo-Saxon Psalters, which show visible influence of the Irish art (Cathach, Durham Cassiodorus, Psalter of Cantorbury, Cotton Psalter, Southampton Psalter, Ricemarcus’ Psalter, Liber hymnorum, Psalter of the St. Caimin).

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.

Old Norse Mythology as Sacred Narrative

2021 ◽  
pp. 65-102
Author(s):  
John Lindow
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Old Norse ◽  
Viking Age ◽  
Chronological Order ◽  
Simple Fact ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
Norse Mythology

This chapter presents a case study of one myth that we have from pictorial sources in the Viking Age, from poems almost certainly composed in the Viking Age, and from thirteenth-century sources, namely the encounter between the god Þórr (Thor) and his cosmic enemy, the World serpent, a beast that encircles the earth, in the deep sea. In this myth, Þórr fishes up the serpent, and depending on the variant, Þórr may or may not kill the serpent. I present and analyze the texts in more or less chronological order, from the older skalds through the Eddic poem Hymiskviða, through Snorri Sturluson in Edda, and compare the texts to the rock carvings that portray the myth. I argue that the issue of the death or survival of the serpent is less important than the simple fact that Þórr had the serpent on his hook.

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.

The Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries

2019 ◽  
pp. 177-205
Author(s):  
Derek Attridge
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Lyric Poetry ◽  
Old Norse ◽  
Middle High German ◽  
Chanson De Geste ◽  
English Verse ◽  
Skaldic Poetry ◽  
Vita Nuova ◽  
Vernacular Poetry ◽  
Germanic Languages

This chapter is concerned with the vernacular poetry of Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Side-by-side with the monastic production and preservation of poetry, the castles and courts of the nobility became centres of culture. France, in particular, saw extensive poetic activity, notably in the genres of the chanson de geste and the troubadour lyric. Other French genres of the time include saints’ lives, romances, lais, and fabliaux; the use of the octosyllabic line for these poems is examined. Poetry in the Germanic languages, notably the Middle High German courtly epics and Minnesänger lyrics and the Old Norse eddic and skaldic poetry of Iceland, is discussed, as is the lyric poetry of Italy. The evidence for the experience of poetry in Dante’s Vita nuova is considered. The rhythmic variety of Middle English verse, it is argued, suggests some uncertainty in the adoption of French metres.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document