On the Aesthetics of "Beowulf" and Other Old English Poems

312 Pages·2010·1.34 MB·English

by  John M. Hill (ed.)

ON THE AESTHETICS OF BEOWULF
AND OTHER OLD ENGLISH POEMS
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EDITED BY JOHN M. HILL
On the Aesthetics of Beowulf
and Other Old English Poems
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
© University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2010
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
Printed in Canada
ISBN 978-0-8020-9944-0
Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper with vegetable-based
inks.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
On the aesthetics of Beowulf and other Old English poems / edited by
John M. Hill.
(Toronto Anglo-Saxon series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8020-9944-0
1. English poetry – Old English, ca. 450–1100 – History and criticism.
2. Beowulf. 3. Art and literature – England – History – To 1500. 4. Literature
– Aesthetics. I. Hill, John M. II. Series: Toronto Anglo-Saxon series
PR203.05 2010 829'.1009 C2009-907359-5
University of Toronto Press gratefully acknowledges the financial assistance of
the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, in the publication of this
book.
Publication of this book has been aided by a grant from the U.S. Naval Academy.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing
program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its publishing
activities of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry
Development Program (BPIDP).
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
On Aesthetics and Quality: An Introduction 3
john m. hill
1 Poetic Exuberance in the Old English Judith 24
howell d. chickering
2 Bind and Loose: Aesthetics and the Word in Old English Law,
Charm, and Riddle 43
tiffany beechy
3 Aesthetic Criteria in Old English Heroic Style 64
geoffrey russom
4 Beowulf and the Strange Necessity of Beauty 81
peggy a. knapp
5 ‘Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness’: Latin Prayer and Old
English Liturgical Poetry 101
sarah larratt keefer
6 Survival of the Most Pleasing: A Meme-Based Approach
to Aesthetic Selection 114
michael d.c. drout
vi Contents
7 Hunting the Anglo-Saxon Aesthetic in Large Forms:
A Möbian Quest 135
robert d. stevick
8 Structural and Affective Relations in The Dream of the Rood:
Harmonic Proportion and a Fibonacci-Type Commodulation 161
john m. hill
9 Beowulf and Boethius on Beauty and Truth 176
thomas e. hart
10 The Subject of Language: A Psychoanalytic Approach
to the Aesthetics of Old English Poetry 209
janet thormann
11 The Aesthetics of Beowulf: Structure, Perception, and Desire 227
yvette kisor
12 ‘The Fall of King Hæðcyn’: Or, Mimesis 4a, the Chapter Auerbach
Never Wrote 247
tom shippey
Contributors 267
Works Cited 269
Index 291
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the organizers of the Medieval Association of the Pacific
and the International Congress on Medieval Studies for opportunities to
organize sessions on aesthetics and Old English literature. In small ways
they were the forerunners of what has become this volume’s gathering of
provocative essays. I am grateful for the participation in those sessions of
Robert D. Stevick and Janet Thormann, as well as for the spirited audi-
ences who joined with us in lively discussion. The anonymous readers for
University of Toronto Press were comprehensive and quite helpful in their
review of each essay and of the overall edition. Much credit goes also to
the editors at University of Toronto Press, especially Suzanne Rancourt,
who early on saw merit in this project, and to Barb Porter for her always
timely managing skills. Charles Stuart deserves a fine facsimile of his fa-
vourite Gospels carpet page for excellent copy editing. Finally, On the
Aesthetics of Beowulf and Other Old English Poems would not have been
as strong a volume without Howell D. Chickering’s ‘Poetic Exuberance in
the Old English Judith,’ with permission to republish from Studies in
Philology 106 (2009): 119-36.
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