Old English Medievalism
Reception and Recreation in the 20th and 21st Centuries
Contributions by Dr Rachel A. Fletcher, Professor Oliver M. Traxel, Thijs Porck, Professor M J Toswell, Dr Victoria Condie, Ms Martina Marzullo, Dr Francesca Allfrey, Dr Judy Kendall, Professor Karen Louise Jolly, Dr James Aitcheson, Dr Fritz Kemmler, Dr Denis Ferhatovi, Dr Rafael J. Pascual, Dr Joana Marie Eileen Blanquer, Dr Donna Beth Ellard, Ms Emma Hitchcock, Dr Erin E. Sweany, Prof Dr Gabrielle Knappe Edited by Dr Rachel A. Fletcher, Thijs Porck, Professor Oliver M. Traxel
Publication date:
22 November 2022Length of book:
312 pagesPublisher
D.S.BrewerDimensions:
234x156mmISBN-13: 9781800108073
Old English language and literary style have long been a source of artistic inspiration and fascination, providing modern writers and scholars with the opportunity not only to explore the past but, in doing so, to find new perspectives on the present. This volume brings together thirteen essays on the modern-day afterlives of Old English, exploring how it has been transplanted and recreated in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries by translators, novelists, poets and teachers. These afterlives include the composition of neo-Old English, the evocation in a modern literary context of elements of early medieval English language and style, the fictional depiction of Old English-speaking worlds and world views, and the adaptation and recontextualisation of works of early medieval English literature. The sources covered include W. H. Auden, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Seamus Heaney, alongside more recent writers such as Christopher Patton, Hamish Clayton and Paul Kingsnorth, as well as other media, from museum displays to television. The volume also features the first-hand perspectives of those who are authors and translators themselves in the field of Old English medievalism.
This book offers a series of diverse essays in clear dialogue with each other. They reflect on Old English study in its
recent cultural contexts, making an articulate case for more critical assessment of the ideological legacies entangled with the field. They also offer practical, pedagogical guidance. This book could readily and usefully be integrated with a course on Old English-either as contextual reading for advanced students or as the basis of whole lessons that teach Old English through lenses more familiar to modern students.
recent cultural contexts, making an articulate case for more critical assessment of the ideological legacies entangled with the field. They also offer practical, pedagogical guidance. This book could readily and usefully be integrated with a course on Old English-either as contextual reading for advanced students or as the basis of whole lessons that teach Old English through lenses more familiar to modern students.