On bilingualism in the Danelaw
Little can be known about those bilingual speakers of the language varieties related to Old English and Old Norse, who wandered in the Danelaw during the Viking Age, as no direct evidence has come down to us to support this argumentation.
Preservation and Immortatlity: The Transition From Oral to Written Culture in Iceland
The Scandinavian peoples had survived for hundreds of years without the advent of the written word, so what made them change? In a word, Christianity.
The Runic System as a Reinterpretation of Classical Influences and as an Expression of Scandinavian Cultural Affiliation
Accompanying discussions of the runic system’s graphical origins are arguments concerning its geographical origins. Von Friesen’s theory that runes derived from Greek characters looked east to the Gothic territories, while scholars arguing for North Italic origins have pointed towards the Alps. Moltke, who looked to a largely Latin source for the runic characters, suggested a runic origin in Denmark.
A survey of the scholarship of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
A survey of the major themes of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (SGGK) reveals both the poem’s complexity and the poet’s artistry. A general examination of the poem permits commentary upon the work’s historical background, thematic unity, and narrative structure.
The mandrake plant and its legend: a new perspective
As a specialist in German mediaeval studies, until the time Peter Bierbaumer introduced me to Old English plant names and approached me with the idea of republishing and updating his Der botanische Wortschatz des AltenglischenI had no idea how fascinating Old English could be.
VAGANTES: “What has Beowulf to do with a Christian King?” Heroic Legend as Poetic Speculum Principis
Through a rhetorical analysis based in grounded theory that analyzes fifteen speeches and their contexts made by Hroðgar, Beowulf, and Wiglaf, I will show how the poet appropriated the Beowulf legend to present a dramatized speculum principis using the rhetorical devices common to oral-traditional narratives to articulate the three traits of kingship most highly valued by both secular and sacred authorities: generosity, faith, and protectiveness.
Writing Land in Anglo-Saxon England
In using writing as a means to contain dispute over time, the Anglo-Saxons repeatedly inscribed the troubling evidence of past dispute and anticipated loss into their thinking about land.
Writing a Catastrophe. Describing and Constructing Disaster Perception in Narrative Sources from the Late Middle Ages
In the following, three forms of linguistic constructions of catastrophes will be presented and analyzed: firstly, the close imitation of biblical motifs wherein the event is stylized as apocalyptic or as a plague visited upon mankind by God, regardless of how severe the damage actually was; secondly, the establishment of a “canon” of motifs that late medieval chroniclers use when describing severe floods; and thirdly, the educated and literary exaggeration of relatively ordinary natural events as catastrophic.
Folk narratives and legends as sources of widespread idioms: Toward a Lexicon of Common Figurative Units
On the one hand, stories (particularly fables) have been de- rived from already existing proverbs, from antiquity up to early modern times. On the other hand, a story in its summarised form can live on in a proverb or an idiom, even if the knowledge of this story has been forgotten for a long time.
Old MacDonald had a Fyrm, eo, eo, y: two marginal developments of < eo > in Old and Middle English
It is widely accepted that the Old English diphthong /e(:)o/ generally monophthongized, around the eleventh century, to the central rounded /ø(:)/.
Manuscript Variation in Multiple-Recension Old English Poetic Texts: The Technical Problem and Poetical Art
Twenty-six poems and fragments of poems are known to have survived the Anglo-Saxon period in more than one witness. These include poems from a variety of genres and material contexts: biblical narrative, religious poetry, riddles, charms, liturgical translations, proverbs, a preface and an epilogue, occasional pieces like ‘Durham,’ and historical poems like the Battle of Brunanburh.
Where and how was Gaelic written in late medieval and early modern Scotland? Orthographic practices and cultural identities
Classical ‘Common’ Gaelic, also known as Early Modern Irish or Classical Irish (the names favoured in Ireland), are the terms used to describe written Gaelic between c.1200 and c.1650 in Ireland, and also in Scotland.
The German and Non-German in Yiddish
Today, scholars of various backgrounds dispute the amount of influence German has had on the development of the Yiddish language. While some scholars claim that German has had minimal influence on Yiddish, others say it is the core resource of the language.
The Rebirth of a Communications Network: Europe at the Time of the Carolingians
This paper attempts to explain the accelerated economic growth of medieval Europe by incorporating communications technologies in the analysis. During the reign of Charlemagne, written and spoken Latin was effectively standardized which reduced the cost of information storage relative to transmission.
Rune Stones Create a Political Landscape – Towards a Methodology for the Application of Runology to Scandinavian Political History in the Late Viking Age
The chapters are as follows. 1. Rune stones as historical sources 2. General information about Danish rune stones 3. The process of making a rune stone.
Troubadours and their heritage in the edges of Europe – Singing and rapping experiences of being in a minority in Southern France and in Sámiland
What is common to these artists is the way how they define and express their belonging to their own ethnic group. The characteristics of their ethnic identity 2 are above all else language, home territory, and history.
Old Irish words deciphered from Stowe Missal
Research into the Stowe Missal, an Irish manuscript written around 800 A.D., has led to the exciting discoveries of two new Old Irish verbs and several nouns from the text, which will help unlock mysteries in other Old Irish scripts.
Scandinavian Influences on the English Language
The Viking Age lasted roughly from the eighth century to the eleventh, with the Viking attacks on Europe beginning around 750 AD. The Scandinavians were excellent sailors, and they had impressive ships and navigational skills that carried them as far as North America (‘Vinland’) long before the arrival of Columbus in 1492.
Medieval heteronomy, modern nationalism: Language assertion between Liège and Maastricht, 14th-20th century
The result has been a protracted debate on the existence and nature of pre-modern nationalism or national sentiment.1 That debate has by now ground into an entrenched stalemate. I think we can rescue the underlying historical issue from this stagnation, and the present article is intended to give a little shove to that effect.
The Cipherment of the Franks Casket
The content carved on the Franks Casket has remained as obscure as its origin. No-one has managed to properly interpret the artwork and the runic inscriptions, though the piece has often passed under the scope over the 150 years since its discovery; with a range of lenses, which at times have passed the flaw to the thing seen.
The elements of abbreviation in medieval Latin paleography
Take a foreign language, write it in an unfamiliar script, abbreviating every third word, and you have the compound puzzle that is the medieval Latin manuscript.
Female Discourses: Powerful and Powerless Speech in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur
Verbal interactions of female characters of Le Morte Darthur are analyzed in various instances of speech behavior, such as advice, apology, conflict managing, complaining, nagging and teasing.
The emergence of the English language as an educational medium in Medieval England
To better understand the relationship between linguistics, literature and education in Medieval England, some general background information is necessary to understand how these subjects intertwine…
Producing the Middle English Corpus: Confession and Medieval Bodies
In Producing the Middle English Corpus: Confession and Medieval Bodies, I argue that confessional discourse played an important role in the creation of the Middle English canon.