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Author: Stephen Stewart Evans Publisher: ISBN: Category : History Languages : en Pages : 184
Book Description
Heroic Poetry provides a wide-ranging introduction to selected aspects of Britain's principal works of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry regarding their dating, method of composition, and use as historical sources. The historical and cultural context in which these poems were composed is recounted by examining court poets and their poetry, and the importance that they were accorded by the warrior-elite for whom they sang. The author also gives a brief review of oral theory and examines the applicability of oral theory to the examples of dark-age poetry. Under consideration is the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf and the Old Welsh poems The Gododdin and the poetry of Taliesin. The dating and transmission of these poems are discussed, plus a wide range of arguments to assign dates for composition. Beowulf's oral genesis is placed in the sixth century and a written version in the early seventh century. The author assigns Gododdin's composition to the mid-sixth century, while Taliesin's poetry is viewed to have been composed ca. 560-80. This book is unique in providing a clear and concise introduction for the heroic poetry of both the Britons and Anglo-Saxons.
Author: Stephen Stewart Evans Publisher: ISBN: Category : History Languages : en Pages : 184
Book Description
Heroic Poetry provides a wide-ranging introduction to selected aspects of Britain's principal works of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry regarding their dating, method of composition, and use as historical sources. The historical and cultural context in which these poems were composed is recounted by examining court poets and their poetry, and the importance that they were accorded by the warrior-elite for whom they sang. The author also gives a brief review of oral theory and examines the applicability of oral theory to the examples of dark-age poetry. Under consideration is the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf and the Old Welsh poems The Gododdin and the poetry of Taliesin. The dating and transmission of these poems are discussed, plus a wide range of arguments to assign dates for composition. Beowulf's oral genesis is placed in the sixth century and a written version in the early seventh century. The author assigns Gododdin's composition to the mid-sixth century, while Taliesin's poetry is viewed to have been composed ca. 560-80. This book is unique in providing a clear and concise introduction for the heroic poetry of both the Britons and Anglo-Saxons.
Author: John D. Niles Publisher: Brepols Publishers ISBN: Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 396
Book Description
Old English Heroic Poems and the Social Life of Texts develops the theme that all stories- all 'beautiful lies', if one considers them as such- have a potentially myth-like function as they enter and re-enter the stream of human consciousness. In particular, the volume assesses the place of heroic poetry (including Beowulf, Widsith, and The Battle of Maldon) in the evolving society of Anglo-Saxon England during the tenth-century period of nation-building. Poetry, Niles argues, was a great collective medium through which the Anglo-Saxons conceived of their changing social world and made mental adjustments to it. Old English 'heroic geography' is examined as an aspect of the mentality of that era. So too is the idea of the oral poet (or bard) as a means by which the people of this time continued to conceive of themselves, in defiance of reality, as members of a tribe-like community knit by close personal bonds. The volume is rounded off by the identification of Bede's story of the poet CAedmon as the earliest known example of a modern folktale type, and by a spirited defense of Seamus Heaney's recent verse translation of Beowulf.
Author: John D. Niles Publisher: ISBN: 9782503558974 Category : England Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Old English Heroic Poems and the Social Life of Texts develops the theme that all stories- all 'beautiful lies', if one considers them as such- have a potentially myth-like function as they enter and re-enter the stream of human consciousness. In particular, the volume assesses the place of heroic poetry (including Beowulf, Widsith, and The Battle of Maldon) in the evolving society of Anglo-Saxon England during the tenth-century period of nation-building. Poetry, Niles argues, was a great collective medium through which the Anglo-Saxons conceived of their changing social world and made mental adjustments to it. Old English 'heroic geography' is examined as an aspect of the mentality of that era. So too is the idea of the oral poet (or bard) as a means by which the people of this time continued to conceive of themselves, in defiance of reality, as members of a tribe-like community knit by close personal bonds. The volume is rounded off by the identification of Bede's story of the poet Cædmon as the earliest known example of a modern folktale type, and by a spirited defense of Seamus Heaney's recent verse translation of Beowulf.
Author: Jess B. Bessinger Publisher: ISBN: Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 480
Book Description
Eighteen essays by some of the most prominent British and North American students of heroic poetry, plus two poems and a bibliography, are gathered here to honor Jess B. Bessinger Jr., whose innovative studies of heroic poetry have instructed a generation of scholars and whose performances of Anglo-Saxon poems are legendary.
Author: Gilbert Keith Chesterton Publisher: Good Press ISBN: Category : Poetry Languages : en Pages : 90
Book Description
"The Ballad of the White Horse" is a traditional epic poem by G. K. Chesterton concerning the idealized exploits of the Saxon King, Alfred the Great. This ballad tells how Alfred defeated the invading Danes at the Battle of Ethandun with the help of the Virgin Mary.
Author: Stephen S. Evans Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd ISBN: 9780851156620 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 184
Book Description
In examining the image of the "comitatus", or war-band, as it is portrayed in literary and historical sources from Britain's early-medieval period, this work attempts to determine the extent to which this image reflects an historical reality.
Author: Michelle M. Sauer Publisher: Infobase Publishing ISBN: 1438108346 Category : Electronic books Languages : en Pages : 529
Book Description
Some of the most important authors in British poetry left their mark onliterature before 1600, including Geoffrey Chaucer, Edmund Spenser, and, of course, William Shakespeare. "The Facts On File Companion to British Poetry before 1600"is an encyclopedic guide to British poetry from the beginnings to theyear 1600, featuring approximately 600 entries ranging in length from300 to 2,500 words.
Author: Adam Haviaras Publisher: Adam Alexander Haviaras ISBN: 1988309166 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 34
Book Description
HISTORIA: A Gateway to Ancient and Medieval History and Archaeology! This book introduces the reader to one of the most important and moving literary works to come out of Dark Age Britain: TheGododdin of Aneirin. The Gododdin is not only a praise poem and elegy for three hundred British warriors who made a heroic last stand against the invaders of their island, it is also an important source for understanding the culture, people, and events of the seventh century. In this book, the reader will learn about the poem itself, the historical background, as well as the archaeological evidence that has come to light. The Gododdin is an inspiring, tragic tribute to ‘three hundred gold-torqued warriors’, composed by a man who was their contemporary and friend who sought to ensure their sacrifice would never be forgotten. If you are studying The Gododdin itself, or have an interest in Celtic, Arthurian, or Dark Age studies, then you will enjoy this short study of the heroic last stand of three hundred men against thousands, an act of historical bravery worthy of the successors of Arthur himself.
Author: Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press ISBN: 0812293215 Category : Literary Collections Languages : en Pages : 1248
Book Description
From the riddling song of a bawdy onion that moves between kitchen and bedroom to the thrilling account of Beowulf's battle with a treasure-hoarding dragon, from the heart-rending lament of a lone castaway to the embodied speech of the cross upon which Christ was crucified, from the anxiety of Eve, who carries "a sumptuous secret in her hands / And a tempting truth hidden in her heart," to the trust of Noah who builds "a sea-floater, a wave-walking / Ocean-home with rooms for all creatures," the world of the Anglo-Saxon poets is a place of harshness, beauty, and wonder. Now for the first time, the entire Old English poetic corpus—including poems and fragments discovered only within the past fifty years—is rendered into modern strong-stress, alliterative verse in a masterful translation by Craig Williamson. Accompanied by an introduction by noted medievalist Tom Shippey on the literary scope and vision of these timeless poems and Williamson's own introductions to the individual works and his essay on translating Old English poetry, the texts transport us back to the medieval scriptorium or ancient mead-hall, to share a herdsman's recounting of the story of the world's creation or a people's sorrow at the death of a beloved king, to be present at the clash of battle or to puzzle over the sacred and profane answers to riddles posed over a thousand years ago. This is poetry as stunning in its vitality as it is true to its sources. Were Williamson's idiom not so modern, we might think that the Anglo-Saxon poets had taken up the lyre again and begun to sing once more.
Author: Stephen Stewart Evans
Author: Stephen Stewart Evans
Author: John D. Niles
Author: John D. Niles
Author: Jess B. Bessinger
Author: Gilbert Keith Chesterton
Author: Stephen S. Evans
Author: Michelle M. Sauer
Author: Adam Haviaras
Author: 
Author: Joyce Hill