Apophasis, Contemplation, and the Kenotic Moment in Anglo-Saxon Literature

353 Pages·2016·8.57 MB·English

Apophasis, Contemplation, and the
Kenotic Moment in Anglo-Saxon
Literature

Tim Flight
Magdalen College
Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Hilary 2016
Tim Flight
Magdalen College
Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Hilary 2016

Abstract: Apophasis, Contemplation, and the Kenotic Moment in
Anglo-Saxon Literature
This thesis reveals the considerable influence of contemplation (sometimes referred to as
mysticism) on Anglo-Saxon literature, manifested through the arrangement of narratives
according to the theological concepts of apophasis and kenosis. This is demonstrated
through a lengthy contextual discussion of the place of contemplation in Anglo-Saxon
spirituality, and close analysis of four poems and a prose text.
Although English mysticism is commonly thought to start in the High Middle Ages, this
thesis will suggest that this terminus post quem should instead be resituated to the Anglo-
Saxon period. The first chapter seeks to reveal the centrality of contemplation to Anglo-
Saxon spirituality through analysing a range of diverse material, to evidence the monastic
reader borne from this culture capable of reading and composing the texts that make up the
rest of the thesis in the manner suggested.
The thesis places chronologically diverse Anglo-Saxon texts in a contemplative context, with
close reference to theology, phenomenology, and narrative structure, to suggest that our
interpretation of them should be revised to apprehend the contemplative scheme that they
advocate: to cleanse the reader of sin through inspiring penitence and kenosis (humility and
emptying of one’s will) and direct the mind intellectually beyond the words, images and
knowledge of the terrestrial sphere (apophasis), so as to prepare them for the potential
coming of God’s grace in the form of a vision. This reading is supported by the close
taxonomical resemblance of each text’s narrative structure. The thesis thus suggests that
contemplation was central to Anglo-Saxon spirituality, producing an elite contemplative
audience for whom certain texts were designed as preparative apparatus.
Table of Contents

Acknowledgements i
Abbreviations ii
Note on Key Terms vi
1 The Contemplative Audience of Anglo-Saxon England 1
2 Where Language Goes to Die: De die iudicii, Judgement Day II, and 76
the Apophatic Construction of Heaven
3 Sailing the Ship of the Mind: The Seafarer and Contemplative Ascent 135
4 The Dream of the Rood, a Neglected Contemplative Text 185
5 A Contemplative Reading of Vercelli Homily IX, ‘The Devil’s 247
Account of the Next World’
6 Conclusion 294
7 Bibliography 299
8 Appendix 333
Acknowledgements

This thesis was generously funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council
Studentship, for which I am very grateful. I have been very fortunate to have received
outstanding supervision from Vincent Gillespie and Andy Orchard, who have been
inspirational and encouraging throughout. Whilst the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of
Anglo-Saxon chair was vacant for my first year, I was supervised by Vincent alone, and I am
very grateful for his extensive feedback and support during this crucial early stage of my
DPhil.

I am very fortunate to have always had excellent English teachers and lecturers
throughout my education. I must mention Jon Wallis at Lanesborough School, and Gordon
Neill at Cranleigh School, who encouraged my enthusiasm for literature and pushed me to
improve. As an undergraduate and Master’s student at Royal Holloway, I was extremely
fortunate to have been taught by Ruth Kennedy and Jennifer Neville. I am especially
grateful to Jennifer for running the Old English course on my Master’s programme, despite
my being the only student, and for allowing me to write an early version of this thesis as my
Master’s dissertation, which she also supervised. I am indebted to both for the support,
encouragement and helpful feedback which inspired me to go on to doctoral study at
Oxford.

Doctoral study is utterly absorbing, in both the positive and negative senses. I am
therefore very grateful for the good humour and tolerance of my brothers, Phil and Robbie,
and my stepfather Mick, through the last six years of study. My girlfriend, Martina Wise,
has probably borne the brunt of doctoral study more than anyone, especially over the last
few months of editing. It is to her credit that she has remained understanding and
supportive throughout. I am also grateful to Humphrey Hogarth Hitchcock for advice and
support over this period.

This thesis is dedicated to my grandfather, Michael Lowe, and mother, Mary Flight. I
can never repay them for the constant support, love, and inspiration over the last twenty-
eight years. I would not be undertaking doctoral study without their Herculean support and
indulgence.
Oxford, December 2015
i
Abbreviations
All references to Old English poetry are to G.P. Krapp and E.V. Dobbie, eds., The Anglo-
Saxon Poetic Records: A Collective Edition, 6 vols (New York: Columbia University Press, 1931-
53). All translations of Old English texts are my own; due to spatial limitations, I have used
translations of Latin texts where available. All scriptural references in Latin and Modern
English are to Swift Edgar, ed., The Vulgate Bible: Douay-Rheims Translation, 6 vols,
Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, 1, 4-5, 8, 13, 17, 21 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 2010-13).
ABR The American Benedictine Review
ASE Anglo-Saxon England
Bosworth-Toller Thomas Northcote Toller, ed., An Anglo-
Saxon Dictionary: Based on the Manuscript
Collections of the Late Joseph Bosworth (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1898), with Toller,
Supplement (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921),
and Alistair Campbell, Revised and Enlarged
Addenda (Oxford: OUP, 1973).
CL Comparative Literature
CSASE Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England
CUP Cambridge University Press
DMLBS R.E. Latham, ed., Dictionary Of Medieval
Latin From British Sources, 17 vols. (London:

OUP for the British Academy, 1975-2013)

ii
DOE Dictionary of Old English: A-G, ed.
Angus Cameron, Ashley Crandell Amos and
Antonette diPaolo Healey (CD ROM:
University of Toronto Centre for Medieval
Studies Dictionary of Old English Project,
2008)
EETS The Early English Text Society
ELN English Language Notes
ES English Studies
Fontes Fontes Anglo-Saxonici:
A Register of Written Sources Used by Anglo-
Saxon Authors
<http://fontes.english.ox.ac.uk/>
G&L Helmut Gneuss and Michael Lapidge, Anglo-
Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist
of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments
Written or Owned in England up to 1100,
Toronto Anglo-Saxon Series, 15 (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 2014)
HE Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
HA Bede, Historia abbatum
JEGP The Journal of English and Germanic Philology
Ker N.R. Ker, A Catalogue of Manuscripts
iii
Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon,
1957; repr. 1990)
MÆ Medium Ævum
MLN Modern Language Notes
MP Modern Philology
MS Mediaeval Studies
NM Neuphilologische Mitteilungen
NQ Notes & Queries
OUP Oxford University Press
PMLA Proceedings of the Modern Language Association
of America
PQ Philological Quarterly
RB Benedict of Nursia, Regula sancti Benedicti
RES Review of English Studies
Versus de patribus Alcuin, Versus de patribus, regibus et sanctis
Eboracensis ecclesiae
VSA Athanasius, Vita Sancti Antoni, Latin trans.
Evagarius
VSC Bede, Vita Sancti Cuthberti (Prose)
VSG Felix, Vita Sancti Guthlaci
VSH Jerome, Vita Sancti Hilarionis
VSM Sulpicius Severus, Vita Sancti Martini
VSO Byrhtferth, Vita Sancti Oswaldi
iv
VSW Stephen of Ripon, Vita Sancti Wilfrithi
VSWl Goscelin of St. Bertin, Vita Sancti Wlsini

v
Note on Key Terms

For ease of reference, I have defined and discussed below three key terms used regularly in
the thesis.

Apophasis1
Apophasis, sometimes referred to as negative theology or via negativa, comes from the
Ancient Greek ἀπόφασις, via ἀπόφημι (apophēmi, ‘to deny’).2 In the Christian tradition,
apophasis is a theological concept based on God’s ineffability (John 1:18, ‘deum nemo vidit
umquam’, ‘no man hath seen God at any time’).3 Christian apophasis embraces the
impossibility of knowing God or describing Him with terrestrial discourse, and so works to
guide the mind beyond the words, concepts and logic with which man customarily attempts
to understand things, but which in the case of God define Him less accurately than silence.
In apophatic theology, language is seen to inhibit the proper understanding of God, and so
apophatic texts apply consciously inappropriate terms to God, before negating them, to
bring the mind closer to Him. The principle behind this denial is that the more concepts

1 On apophasis generally, see D. Carabine, ‘Apophasis East and West’, Recherches de Théologie Ancienne et
Médiévale, 55 (1988), 5-29; O. Davies and D. Turner, eds., Silence and the Word: Negative Theology and Incarnation
(Cambridge, 2002); C. Journet, The Dark Knowledge of God, trans. J.F. Anderson (London, 1948).
2 J.P. Williams, Denying Divinity: Apophasis in the Patristic Christian and Soto Zen Buddhist Traditions (Oxford, 2000),
p. 3. For the beginnings of apophasis in Classical thought, see D.J. Gendle, ‘The Apophatic Approach to God in
the Early Greek Fathers: With Special Reference to the Alexandrian Tradition’ (University of Oxford, 1975);
Carabine, The Unknown God: Negative Theology in the Platonic Tradition: Plato to Eriugena, Louvain Theological &
Pastoral Monographs, 19 (Louvain, 1995); A. Louth, ‘Apophatic and Cataphatic Theology’, in The Cambridge
Companion to Christian Mysticism, ed. A. Hollywood and P.Z. Beckman (Cambridge, 2012), pp. 137-46.
3 A. Solignac, ‘Théologie Négative’, in Dictionnaire de Spiritualité: Ascétique et Mystique: Doctrine et Histoire, ed. M.
Viller, 17 vols (Paris, 1937-1995), XV (1994), column 15.
vi