Old English Poetics: The Aesthetics of the Familiar in Anglo-Saxon England

214 Pages·2006·1.7 MB·English

by  Elizabeth M. Tyler

Old English Poetics
THE AESTHETICS OF THE FAMILIAR
IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND
TheformandstyleofOldEnglishpoetry,whichremainedhighlystable
fromthefifthtotheeleventhcenturies,confrontthemodernreaderwith
severalverybasiccriticalchallenges.Itsdeepconventionalityisatodds
withmodernaestheticvaluesandnotionsofauthorship.Moreover,the
styleofOldEnglishpoetryresistshistoricization–aparticularproblem
in a critical environment increasingly engaged with the ideological
significance of texts situated in specific historical contexts. This study
addressesthesechallengesinordertoofferanhistoricizedapproachto
Old English poetics, paying particular attention to its use of formulas
andverbalrepetitionviaacloseanalysisoftherichlanguageoftreasure
to be found in Old English verse. Rather than representing poets as
conduits of tradition, Old English Poetics innovatively conceptualizes
poets as actively controlling and maintaining poetic convention.
Dr ELIZABETHM. TYLER teaches in the Department of English and the
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York.
YORK MEDIEVAL PRESS
YorkMedievalPressispublishedbytheUniversityofYork’sCentreforMedieval
StudiesinassociationwithBoydell&BrewerLimited.Ourobjectiveisthepromo-
tionofinnovativescholarshipandfreshcriticismonmedievalculture.Wehavea
specialcommitmenttointerdisciplinarystudy,inlinewiththeCentre’sbeliefthat
the future of Medieval Studies lies in those areas in which its major constituent
disciplines at once inform and challenge each other.
Editorial Board (2005–2008):
Professor J. G. Wogan-Browne (Dept of English and Related Literature)
Dr T. Ayers (Dept of History of Art)
Professor P. P. A. Biller (Dept of History)
Dr J. W. Binns (Emeritus, Dept of English and Related Literature)
Dr Gabriella Corona (Dept of English and Related Literature)
Professor W. M. Ormrod (Chair, Dept of History)
Professor J. D. Richards (Dept of Archaeology).
All enquiries of an editorial kind, including suggestions for monographs and
essay collections, should be addressed to: The Director, Centre for Medieval
Studies, University of York, The King’s Manor, York, YO1 7EP (E-mail:
[email protected]).
Publications of York Medieval Press are listed at the back of this volume.
Old English Poetics
THE AESTHETICS OF THE FAMILIAR
IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND
Elizabeth M. Tyler
YORK MEDIEVAL PRESS
© Elizabeth M. Tyler 2006
The right of Elizabeth M. Tyler to be identified as the author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation
no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast,
transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission of the copyright owner
First published 2006
A York Medieval Press publication
in association with The Boydell Press
an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9 Woodbridge Suffolk IP12 3DF UK
and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.
668 Mt Hope Avenue Rochester NY 14620 USA
website: www.boydellandbrewer.com
and with the
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York
ISBN 1 903153 20 4
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Typeset by Pru Harrison, Hacheston, Suffolk
Printed in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xi
A Note on Translation xv
List of Collocations xvi
Introduction 1
1 Treasure and Old English Verse 9
2 The Collocation of Words for Treasure in Old English Verse 38
Maðm 40;Hord 52;Gestreon 73;Sinc 77;Frætwe 89
3 Formulas and the Aesthetics of the Familiar 101
4 Verbal Repetition and the Aesthetics of the Familiar 123
5 Poetics and the Past: Traditional Style at the Turn of the Millennium 157
Bibliography 173
Indexes
Index of Words 185
Index of Poems 187
Index of Modern Scholars 188
General Index 190

The Truisms
His father gave him a box of truisms
Shaped like a coffin, then his father died;
The truisms remained on the mantelpiece
As wooden as the playbox they had been packed in
Or that other his father skulked inside.
Then he left home, left the truisms behind him
Still on the mantelpiece, met love, met war,
Sordor, disappointment, defeat, betrayal,
Till through disbeliefs he arrived at a house
He could not remember seeing before,
And he walked straight in; it was where he had come from
And something told him the way to behave.
He raised his hand and blessed his home;
The truisms flew and perched on his shoulders
And a tall tree sprouted from his father’s grave.
Louis MacNeice
vii
For my mother and my father,
Kathleen Reed and Richard Tyler
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ThisbookbeganasanOxfordUniversitydoctoralthesis,andIamgratefulto
my supervisors Eric Stanley and Malcolm Godden for their guidance,
thoughtfulcriticismandintellectualgenerosity.Ihavebeenfortunatetowrite
this book in the stimulating and supportive environment of the Centre for
Medieval Studies at the University of York, and many colleagues (past and
present) deserve my warm thanks, especially Katy Cubitt, Louise Harrison,
Mark Ormrod, Alastair Minnis, Felicity Riddy and most recently Jocelyn
Wogan-Browne. Joanna Huntington provided invaluable editorial help. I
owe a particular debt to my colleagues and friends, Nicola McDonald and
Matthew Townend, who have generously read and discussed this work at
differentstagesandwho,overtheyears,havetaughtmemuchaboutmedi-
eval literature.
Colleagues in the Department of English have also provided support,
especiallyDerekAttridge,whokindlyallowedmeanextratermofresearch
leavetocompletethisbook,andHughHaughton,withwhomIhaveenjoyed
talking about, and lecturing on, Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf and who, in the
finalstagesofpreparingthisbook,helpfullyprovidedmewithbibliography.
I am also grateful to Hugh for pointing me in the direction of Louis
MacNeice’s ‘The Truisims’. (Faber and Faber kindly granted permission for
the inclusion of MacNeice’s poem at the beginning of this book.) I have
learned much about Old English poetry too from talking with my post-
colonialcolleagueandfriendLauraChrisman,towhomIamalsogratefulfor
insistingthatweplayBachsonatas(whenIthoughtIdidn’thavetime)and
for help with the final draft.
Amongst the wider community of Anglo-Saxonists, I owe warm thanks,
for various kinds of help, offered at various stages of this project, to Toni
Healey, Joyce Hill, Roy Liuzza, Hal Momma, Christine Rauer, Jane Roberts,
JaneToswellandElaineTreharne.Thethesis,onwhichthefirsttwochapters
draw, was completed before the Fontes Anglo-Saxonici project, and I have
reliedonmuchofmyownearlierwork,usingeditionsandotherscholarship,
toidentifyrelevantsources,butIhavealsodrawnonthisexcellentresource
in completing my work.
The completion of this project owes much to the patience of Caroline
Palmer at Boydell & Brewer.
Good friends and family have provided sustenance of many kinds and I
am happy to thank Pippa Ensor, Elizabeth Gatland, Ellen Joyce, Amanda
Lillie, Nicola McDonald (again!), Poppy Nash, Celia Quartermain, Andrew
WrayandespeciallymybrotherSamuelTyler.Mysons,BenandHugh,have
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