Becoming a Poet in Anglo-Saxon England

338 Pages·2014·2.11 MB·English

by  Emily V. Thornbury

BECOMING A POET IN ANGLO-SAXON
ENGLAND
Combininghistorical,literaryandlinguisticevidencefromOldEnglish
andLatin,BecomingaPoetinAnglo-SaxonEnglandcreatesanew,more
complete picture of who and what pre-Conquest English poets really
were.ItincludesastudyofAnglo-Saxonwordsfor‘poet’andthefirstlist
of named poets in Anglo-Saxon England. Its survey of known poets
identifies four social roles that poets often held – teachers, scribes,
musiciansandcourtiers–and exploresthekindsofpoetrycreatedby
theseindividuals.Thebookalsooffersanewmodelforunderstanding
theroleofsocialgroupsinpoets’experience:itarguesthatthepresence
or absence of a poetic community affected the work of Anglo-Saxon
poets at all levels, from minute technical detail to the portrayal of
character. This focus on poetic communities provides a new way to
understandtheintersectionofhistoryandliteratureintheMiddleAges.
emilyv.thornburyisanAssistantProfessorintheDepartmentof
EnglishattheUniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley.
CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE
GeneralEditor
AlastairMinnis,YaleUniversity
EditorialBoard
ZygmuntG.Barański,UniversityofCambridge
ChristopherC.Baswell,BarnardCollegeandColumbiaUniversity
JohnBurrow,UniversityofBristol
MaryCarruthers,NewYorkUniversity
RitaCopeland,UniversityofPennsylvania
RobertaFrank,YaleUniversity
SimonGaunt,King’sCollege,London
StevenKruger,CityUniversityofNewYork
NigelPalmer,UniversityofOxford
WinthropWetherbee,CornellUniversity
JocelynWogan-Browne,FordhamUniversity
Thisseriesofcriticalbooksseekstocoverthewholeareaofliteraturewritteninthe
major medieval languages – the main European vernaculars, and medieval Latin
and Greek – during the period c. 1100–1500. Its chief aim is to publish and
stimulate fresh scholarship and criticism on medieval literature, special emphasis
beingplacedonunderstandingmajorworksofpoetry,prose,anddramainrelation
tothecontemporarycultureandlearningwhichfosteredthem.
Recenttitlesintheseries
KatharineBreenImagininganEnglishReadingPublic,1150–1400
AntonyJ.HaslerCourtPoetryinLateMedievalEnglandandScotland:
AllegoriesofAuthority
ShannonGaykImage,Text,andReligiousReforminFifteenth-CenturyEngland
LisaH.CooperArtisansandNarrativeCraftinLate-MedievalEngland
AlisonCornishVernacularTranslationinDante’sItaly:IlliterateLiterature
JaneGilbertLivingDeathinMedievalFrenchandEnglishLiterature
JessicaRosenfeldEthicsandEnjoymentinLateMedievalPoetry:LoveAfterAristotle
MichaelVanDussenFromEnglandtoBohemia:Heresy
andCommunicationintheLaterMiddleAges
MartinEisnerBoccaccioandtheInventionofItalianLiteraryCulture:Dante,
Petrarch,Cavalcanti,andtheAuthorityoftheVernacular
EmilyV.ThornburyBecomingaPoetinAnglo-SaxonEngland
Acompletelistoftitlesintheseriescanbefoundattheendofthevolume.
BECOMING A POET IN
ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND
EMILY V. THORNBURY
UniversityPrintingHouse,Cambridgecb28bs,UnitedKingdom
PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyCambridgeUniversityPress,NewYork
CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof
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www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107051980
©EmilyV.Thornbury2014
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2014
PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyClays,StIvesplc
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata
Thornbury,EmilyVictoria,1977–
BecomingapoetinAnglo-SaxonEngland/EmilyVictoriaThornbury.
pages cm.–(Cambridgestudiesinmedievalliterature)
isbn978-1-107-05198-0(hardback)
1. Englishpoetry–OldEnglish,ca.450–1100–Historyandcriticism.
2. Literatureandsociety–England–History–To1500. I. Title.
pr203.t46 2013
8290.1009–dc23
2013026730
isbn978-1-107-05198-0Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof
URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication,
anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain,
accurateorappropriate.
Contents
Listoffiguresandtables pagevi
Acknowledgements viii
Abbreviations x
Introduction:HowcanweknowaboutAnglo-Saxonpoets? 1
1 Whatwasapoet? 11
2 Whobecamepoets? 37
3 Thepoetinthecommunity 95
4 Thepoetalone 161
5 Spectralcommunities 199
Afterword:Awayofhappening 239
AppendixI AhandlistofnamedauthorsofOldEnglish
orLatinverseinAnglo-SaxonEngland 243
AppendixII SkaldsworkinginAnglo-SaxonEngland 248
Notes 250
Bibliography 290
Index 316
v
Figures and tables
Figures
3.1 MapofCanterburyalumni page 140
3.2 Ecclesiasticalconnectionsinseventh-centuryEngland:
theCanterburyschool 141
3.3 Schoolnetworks(Malmesbury,Wearmouth-Jarrow) 144
3.4 Aldhelm’sIrishconnections 150
3.5 Aldhelm’sroyalconnections 151
3.6 Octosyllabicexchangesinseventh-centuryEngland 155
4.1 AlliterativepreferencesinJuliana 166
4.2 AlliterativepreferencesinGuthlacA 166
4.3 AlliterativepreferencesinChristIII 167
4.4 AlliterativepreferencesinChristandSatan 169
4.5 AlliterativepreferencesinChristandSatan,includingaverage 170
Tables
1.1 Anglo-Saxonwordsfor‘poet’ 21
1.2 OldEnglishwordsfor‘poet’ 21
1.3 Referentsofscopanditscompounds 23
1.4 Referentsofwordsfor‘poet’inAnglo-Latin 27
2.1 TheAnglo-Saxon‘corecurriculum’:versetexts 47
2.2 Twoeleventh-centurycollectionsofAnglo-Latinriddles 53
4.1 AlliterativepreferencesaspercentagesinJuliana 165
4.2 AlliterativepreferencesaspercentagesinGuthlacA 165
4.3 AlliterativepreferencesaspercentagesinChristIII 165
vi
Listoffiguresandtables vii
4.4 Expectedchancepercentagesofstressedinitialletters 168
4.5 AlliterativepreferencesaspercentagesinChristandSatan 168
4.6 Versesinham 175
4.7 Typesofhamformulas 176
4.8 Poeticpassiveinfinitivesin–ierinAldhelmandBede 194
5.1 ManuscriptscontaininglateSouthernverse 226
Acknowledgements
Without the support (and judgment) of a number of communities, this
would have been an infinitely poorer book. The idea and research for
Becoming a Poet began at the University of Cambridge, and I would like
firsttothankRosalindLove,whosupervisedmydoctoralwork,andAndy
Orchard, under whose auspices I was admitted as a postgraduate student.
Given that I turned up knowing nothing whatever about Anglo-Latin,
I have continual reason to be grateful to their generosity and insight.
I would also like to thank the other members of the Department of
Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic – especially Richard Dance – for their
support during my time at Cambridge. Much of the primary research for
Chapters2and4ofthisbookwasundertakenwhileIwasaJuniorResearch
Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge: my thanks to the Master and
Fellows of the College for the opportunity to pursue my work in such a
vibrantsetting.Andwhilethelitanyoffriends,colleagues,co-conspirators,
etc.thatshaped mytime inCambridgeistoolongforafulltranscription,
I’d particularly like to acknowledge two sets. First, my fellow ASNCs:
especially including Aaron Kleist, Chris Abram, Claudia Di Sciacca, Flora
Spiegel, Leslie Lockett (ASNC honoris causa), Manish Sharma, Rebecca
Rushforth, and the many undergraduates who survived my tutelage (and
wentontogreatthingsdespiteit),especiallyErikNibleus.Likewise,I’dlike
to thank Paul Szarmach for the opportunity to work at successive NEH
SummerSeminars:itwasawonderful(ifoccasionallyperilous)experience,
and gave me the chance to get to know many great colleagues, including
Jacqueline Stodnick, Martin Foys, Rebecca Stephenson, Renée Trilling,
Robin Norris, and Samantha Zacher. The Kalamazoo/Notre Dame nexus
also put me in touch with Miranda Wilcox, who has been exceptionally
generousinsharingherunpublishedwork.
Berkeley’s English Department is a truly extraordinary place to pursue
anykindofintellectualproject–butespeciallyafirstbook.Ishouldliketo
thanktheuniversityforitsgeneroussupportofmyresearchviaaFellowship
viii