The original Frenglish
When France was speaking English without the prompting of a war or was it England who was speaking French….
Old Norse Influence in Modern English: The Effect of the Viking Invasion
It is estimated that there are around 400 Old Norse borrowings in Standard English. These borrowings are amongst the most frequently used terms in English and denote objects and actions of the most everyday description.
Writing conquest: traditions of Anglo-Saxon invasion and resistance in the twelfth century
Writing Conquest examines the ways in which Latin, Old English, and Middle English twelfth-century historical and pseudo-historical texts remembered and reconstructed three formative moments of Anglo-Saxon invasion and resistance…
The Anglo-Saxon Name for the s-Rune: Sigel, a Precious Jewel
The Anglo-Saxon rune-name sigel has been interpreted as meaning ‘sun’. In some contexts Old English sigel does refer to the sun, in others it means ‘clasp’, ‘brooch’, or ‘jewel’. All these meanings, however, are difficult to reconcile with the maritime imagery of the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem’s sigel stanza.
Judith’s Necessary Androgyny: Representations of Gender in the Old English Judith
The Old English poem Judith explores Anglo-Saxon representations of femininity and masculinity by constructing a double-gendered hero who differs from the biblical version of the same woman.
Medieval English for Dummies
A quick-and-dirty guide for would-be Time-travellers
The Anonymous Old English Legend of the Seven Sleepers and its Latin Source
The earliest extended treatment of the legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus in a
western vernacular language is the anonymous Old English prose version preserved
in British Library MS Cotton Julius E vii…
An Ideal Marriage: Abraham and Sarah in Old English Literature
Offers a look at how Bible characters Abraham and Sarah are treated in the old English literature. How their marital relationship is portrayed; Neglect in the character of Sarah; Development in the character of Abraham; How the old English literary writers treated Abraham.
Old English ‘wundenlocc’ hair in context
Immediately she feels my might, she who confines me, the wundenlocc woman.
All Things to All Men: Representations of the Apostle Paul in Anglo-Saxon Literature
All Things to All Men: Representations of the Apostle Paul in Anglo-Saxon Literature Valerie Susan Heuchan University of Toronto: Doctor of Philosophy Centre…
Towards A Poetics of Marvellous Spaces in Old and Middle English Narrative
I argue that the heart of this poetics of marvellous spaces is displacement. Their wonder and dread comes from boundaries that these places blur and cross, from the resistance of these places to being known or mapped, and from the deliberate distancing between these places and the home of their texts.
On Omissions and Substitutions in the Medieval English Translations of the Gospel
In view of this we carried out research on two English medieval translations of John’s Gospel, believing that their comparison would not only reveal differences in the perception and experience of biblical concepts (expressed through language), but also those in culture, society and cognition that occurred in the period between their occurrence.
The Bones in the Soup: The Anglo-Saxon Flavour of Tolkien’s The Hobbit
By reading The Hobbit from an Anglo-Saxonist point of view, we not only learn more about what inspired Tolkien to compose his narrative, we can also highlight the enduring value of studying his original sources.
A Word About Our Words
This may be a little hard to believe, considering the conspicuous lack of “thee” and “thou” in modern writing, but the forms of English that came before are even more foreign.
Seasonal Setting and the Human Domain in Early English and Early Scandinavian Literature
Seasonal Setting and the Human Domain in Early English and Early Scandinavian Literature Paul Sander Langeslag University of Toronto: Doctor of Philosophy, Centre for…
The status of hwæt in Old English
What does hwæt actually mean?
Looming Danger and Dangerous Looms: Violence and Weaving in Exeter Book Riddle 56
I was inside there where I saw a wooden object wounding a certain struggling creature, the wood turning; it received battle-wounds, deep gashes.
The role of the devil in Old English narrative literature
It is a commonplace of Old English criticism that the devil instigates sin. It is curious, therefore, that no one has asked in any systematic or comprehensive manner exactly how the devil does this.
Happiness and the Psalms
Throughout Anglo-Saxon England, on each day of the year, at all hours of the day, thousands of men and women sang the psalms.
‘None Shall Pass’: Mental Barriers to Travel in Old English Poetry
I shall be exploring a xenophobia so extreme that it is a wonder that anyone went anywhere.
Creating the Christian Anglo-Saxon and the Other in the Old English Judith and Beowulf
This thesis explores the thematic relationship between the Old English poem Judith and the Old English epic Beowulf. I focus on seven narrative similarities between the two texts that are used to distinguish between the heroes, Judith and Beowulf, and their enemies, Holofernes, Grendel, and Grendel’s mother.
Shadow and Paradoxes of Darkness in Old English and Old Norse Poetic Language
This thesis confronts, explores, and attempts to meaningfully interpret a surprising nexus of stimulating cruces and paradoxes in Old English poetry and prose and Old Norse skaldic and Eddic poetry.
Wild woman and her sisters in medieval English literature
The subject of this work is the concept and figure of the Wild Woman. The primary focus will be on various forms this figure assumes in medieval English literature: Grendel’s mother—the second monster Beowulf faces—and Chaucer’s Wife of Bath, along with other figures.