Old English Literature and the Old Testament

✍ Scribed by Michael Fox (editor), Manish Sharma (editor)

• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 408
• Series: Toronto Anglo-Saxon Series
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of the Bible in the medieval world. For the Anglo-Saxons, literary culture emerged from sustained and intensive biblical study. Further, at least to judge from the Old English texts which survive, the Old Testament was the primary influence, both in terms of content and modes of interpretation. Though the Old Testament was only partially translated into Old English, recent studies have shown how completely interconnected Anglo-Latin and Old English literary traditions are. Old English Literature and the Old Testament considers the importance of the Old Testament from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, from comparative to intertextual and historical. Though the essays focus on individual works, authors, or trends, including the Interrogationes Sigewulfi, Genesis A, and Daniel, each ultimately speaks to the vernacular corpus as a whole, suggesting approaches and methodologies for further study.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
Introduction • Michael Fox and Manish Sharma
The Old Testament and Old English Prose
Ælfric’s Interrogationes Sigewulfi • Michael Fox
Ælfric’s Judith • Paul Szarmach
Circumscribing the Text: Views on Circumcision in Old English Literature • Samantha Zacher
The Old Testament and the Poems of the Junius Manuscript
Genesis A ad litteram • Charles D. Wright
The Economy of the Word in the Old English Exodus • Manish Sharma
Daniel and the Dew-Laden Wind: Sources and Structures • Phyllis Portnoy
The Old Testament and Other Old English Poems
Rex regum et cyninga cyning: ‘Speaking Hebrew’ in Cynewulf’s Elene • Damian Fleming
The City as Speaker of the Old Testament in Andreas • Robin Waugh
Cyningas sigefæste þurh God: Contributions from Anglo-Saxon England to Early Advocacy for Óláfr Haraldsson • Russell Poole
Happiness and the Psalms • Stephen J. Harris
The Old English Kentish Psalm and Polysystems Theory • M.J. Toswell
Bibliography
Index