Old English Literature and the Old Testament

✍ Scribed by Michael Fox, Manish Sharma (eds.)

• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 408
• Series: Toronto Anglo-Saxon Series, 10
• 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

Abbreviations
Introduction / Michael Fox, University of Alberta, and Manish Sharma, Concordia University
The Old Testament and Old English Prose
Ælfric’s 'Interrogationes Sigewulfi' / Michael Fox, University of Alberta
Ælfric’s 'Judith' / Paul Szarmach, The Medieval Academy of America
Circumscribing the Text: Views on Circumcision in Old English Literature / Samantha Zacher, Cornell University
The Old Testament and the Poems of the Junius Manuscript
'Genesis A' ad litteram / Charles D. Wright, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Economy of the Word in the Old English 'Exodus' / Manish Sharma, Concordia University
'Daniel' and the Dew-Laden Wind: Sources and Structures / Phyllis Portnoy, University of Manitoba
The Old Testament and Other Old English Poems
'Rex regum et cyninga cyning': 'Speaking Hebrew' in Cynewulf’s 'Elene' / Damian Fleming, Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne
The City as Speaker of the Old Testament in 'Andreas' / Robin Waugh, Wilfrid Laurier University
'Cyningas sigefæste þurh God': Contributions from Anglo-Saxon England to Early Advocacy for Óláfr Haraldsson / Russell Poole, University of Western Ontario
Happiness and the Psalms / Stephen J. Harris, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
The Old English 'Kentish Psalm' and Polysystems Theory / M. J. Toswell, University of Western Ontario
Bibliography 339
Index 381