‘Beowulf’ and the Celtic World: The Uses of Evidence
Sporadic attempts have been made in the past to demonstrate direct connexions between the various Celtic literatures and Beowulf; I think it fair to say that the proposed links have always seemed tenuous or imaginary and have not been taken seriously by most students of the Old English poem. A centu...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Cambridge University Press
1981
|
In: |
Traditio
Year: 1981, Volume: 37, Pages: 109-160 |
Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
Summary: | Sporadic attempts have been made in the past to demonstrate direct connexions between the various Celtic literatures and Beowulf; I think it fair to say that the proposed links have always seemed tenuous or imaginary and have not been taken seriously by most students of the Old English poem. A century of desultory comparisons, leading to a negative result, by persons qualified in either Old English or Celtic or neither, does not, however, exhaust the subject or indicate its irrelevance. It seems to me that a determined attack on the subject may indicate desirable approaches and cautions which students of Beowulf could consider as they contemplate further work on the poem. I shall organise my remarks under five headings: the possibility of Irish (or other Celtic) influence on Beowulf in particular and on Old English literature in general; archaism in the language and metrics of ‘traditional’ verse; problems of archaism and anachronism in ‘traditional’ literature; the search for a text-history of Beowulf with its consequent issues of transmission and problems of dating; and general historical questions. |
---|---|
ISSN: | 2166-5508 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Traditio
|
Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S036215290000667X |