Metonymy, Gifre, Grædig, and a Devouring-the-Dead Theme

Chapter 2 describes how Anglo-Saxon poets made use of the metonymy of traditional phraseology and oral-connected themes (multiforms) by exploring the “devouring-the-dead” theme in Beowulf, Soul and Body I, and Soul and Body II. The “devouring-the-dead” theme, first proposed here, depicts a ravenous agent destroying a dead body. Due to its subject matter, the theme commonly draws on the half-line collocation grædig ond gifre (“greedy and devouring”), which also arises independently of the theme. The collocation and the “devouring-the-dead” theme are written oral idioms that make use of the metonymic referentiality of oral-traditional signs for both utilitarian and aesthetic purposes.

Introduction

mongum reordum, wrencum singe (with many voices, with stratagems, I sing) In an allegory, J.R.R. Tolkien describes a tower’s beauty and integrity, overlooked by critics who lift away its every stone, searching for origins and what they expect (Monsters 7–8). Their methodology leads them to miss that the man who built the tower “had been able to look out upon the sea” (7). ...

Signifying the Coming of Christ in The Advent Lyrics

Old English verse uses “ritual signs” as an expressive component that complements the hybridity of written oral-connected idioms and of the oral-literate versions of these idioms that benefit from metaphorical analysis. By expanding the theory of Immanent Art to the arena of ritual, it is possible to create a methodology for tracing ritual signification in works that have strong ties to oral traditions. This chapter suggests that just as hybrid, oral-related texts may resound for their audiences with the extra-textual associations created by oral metonyms, likewise such texts may resound with liturgical associations triggered by ritual metonyms. An aesthetic complexity that is not apparent when solely using traditional modes of literary analysis becomes apparent when applying the lenses of oral and ritual theory. Chapter 7 explores the aesthetic and expressive significance of ritual signs in the Advent Lyrics (Christ I) by comparing and contrasting the Latin antiphons for Advent with their Old English translations, a process that exposes the productive interplay of literate, oral, and ritual modes of signification in the Advent Lyrics.

A Lord-Retainer Theme

Chapter 3 discusses an oral-connected idiom whose constitutive motifs employ clusters of concepts rather than specific morphemes or phraseological patterns. By calling the lord-retainer convention a “theme” in the oral-traditional sense, this chapter highlights meaningful features of the theme and the expressive role of metonymic referentiality. The poems discussed use the motifs of the lord-retainer theme to frame the relationship between lords and retainers in different ways. In Battle of Maldon and Beowulf the lord-retainer theme represents the social contract between mortal lords and their retainers, while in Andreas and Genesis A it describes a spiritual contract between Christ and his followers.

Afterword

In addition to summarizing briefly the book’s findings, the Afterword explains how the decorated initial “R” (pictured on the cover of Signs That Sing) in Arundel MS 16 represents hybrid poetics at work. The “R,” which begins the Vita et miracula Sancti Dunstani, is an author portrait of Osbern, an eleventh-century monk and precentor of Christ Church Cathedral Priory at Canterbury. The portrait of Osbern—as an author using hybrid signs—intersects with Exeter Riddle 26 (“Bible” or “Gospel”). These two examples span poetry and prose, the vernacular and Latin, and Anglo-Saxon and the early Anglo-Norman periods, suggesting future directions for research on hybrid poetics.

A Sea Voyage in The Dream of the Rood

This is the third of three chapters describing oral-connected idioms transformed by Christian hermeneutics. The sixth chapter focuses on a typescene rather than a theme. The sea voyage typescene arises in purely metaphoric capacity in The Dream of the Rood, where the typescene’s motifs overlap with descriptions of Christ’s crucifixion. The embedded sea-voyage typescene supports and elaborates upon the patristic navis crucis concept (Cross as ship). The poem fuses the metonymic implications of the sea-voyage typescene with the navis crucis metaphor, making the oral-connected typescene a hybrid figure. By understanding how hybrid poetics can embed typescenes and themes in “unusual” scenarios, we can perceive strains of signification that would otherwise remain silent.

Bright Voice of Praise

Chapter 5 is the second of three chapters focused on oral-literate idioms, this time introducing a new theme—called “poet-patron”—and charting its written oral-connected versions and oral-literate (metaphorical) versions. In Widsith and Deor the theme, as an oral-traditional idiom, portrays poets and patrons as characters who exemplify the symbiosis of appropriate socio-political deeds and words of praise. In Advent Lyrics, The Gifts of Men, “Alms-Giving,” and Thureth the theme metaphorically represents the interrelationship between God’s generosity and human praise.

Hybrid Poetics in Old English Verse

Chapter 1 proposes that oral-traditional and literate features of a text do not correlate with a Germanic past and a Christian present. Instead, poets treat these modes of communication, simultaneously, as part of their poetic inheritance. In order to better describe how hybrid signs communicate, this chapter surveys defining characteristics of oral traditions (i.e., metonymy as described in the theory of Immanent Art), rituals (i.e., ritual signification), and literate traditions (i.e., medieval hermeneutics). The chapter explores oral-connected, oral-literate, and ritual signs in Exeter Riddle 30a/b to demonstrate how hybrid poetics can further our understanding of an Old English poem.

Refiguring Hybrid Oral-Literate Signs

This is the first of three chapters that examines poems in which oral-traditional themes play a distinctly metaphorical role. Old English oral-connected themes are a rich resource for creating and framing narrative subjects. When poets make such themes metaphorical, they are using a strategy consonant with the reading practices of medieval Christian textual communities. Chapter 4 describes how the two themes explored in previous chapters bear metaphorical meaning in The Phoenix, Exeter Riddle 47 (“Book Moth”), and the Advent Lyrics (Christ I). Being transplanted to unusual narrative contexts, they profit from literate modes of interpretation. Used allegorically and metaphorically, the devouring-the-dead theme describes the fate of the soul during the Apocalypse, in hell, and in heaven. The lord-retainer theme in the Advent Lyrics serves as a metaphor for humanity’s renewed covenant with God. These metaphorical uses of oral-connected themes constitute a rhetorical category made possible by hybrid poetics. They exemplify how Anglo-Saxon poets fused oral-traditional and literate modes of signification.