Pride and Prodigies : Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf Manuscript

Orchard, Andy (author., Author, Author).

Summary: Monsters and the monstrous, whether from the remote pagan past or the new world of Christian Latin learning, haunted the Anglo-Saxon imagination in a variety of ways. In this series of detailed studies, Andy Orchard demonstrates the changing range of Anglo-Saxon attitudes towards the monstrous by reconsidering the monsters of Beowulf against the background of early medieval and patristic teratology and with reference to specific Anglo-Saxon texts.The immediate manuscript context of the monsters in Beowulf is analysed, shedding light on the poet's treatment of the theme of the monstrous and its integration into his work, and a series of parallel discussions consider a range of medieval treatments of the same theme in a variety of analogous texts (all provided with translation), in Latin, Old English, Middle Irish, and Old Icelandic.The twin themes of pride and prodigies are suggested by tracing changing attitudes towards the concept of pride and establishing a close link between the proud pagan warriors depicted in Christian tradition and the monsters they fight, and with whom they become increasingly identified.An appendix contains new editions and translations (some for the first time in English) of the Liber Monstrorum, The Letter of Alexander to Aristotle, and The Wonders of the East.Originally published in 1995 by Boydell & Brewer.

Record details

ISBN: 9781442657090
Physical Description: 1 online resource (360 p.)
remote
Computer data.
Publisher: Toronto : University of Toronto Press, [2022]
Copyright: ©2003

Content descriptions

General Note:	CatMonthString:january.23 Multi-User.
Formatted Contents Note:	Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Preface to the Revised Edition -- Preface -- Abbreviations -- I The Beowulf-Manuscript -- II Psychology and Physicality: the Monsters of Beowulf -- III The Kin of Cain -- IV The Liber monstrorum -- V The Alexander-Legend in Anglo-Saxon England -- VI Grettir and Grendel Again -- Postscript -- Appendices: Texts, Translations, and Sources -- Introduction -- I.a The Wonders of the East: Latin Text -- I.b The Wonders of the East: Old English Text -- I.c The Wonders of the East: Translation -- II.a The Letter of Alexander to Aristotle: Latin Text -- II.b The Letter of Alexander to Aristotle: Old English Text -- II.e The Letter of Alexander to Aristotle: Translation -- III.a Liber monstrorum: Latin Text -- III.b Liber monstrorum: Translation -- III.c Liber monstrorum: Sources and Analogues -- Bibliography -- General Index
Restrictions on Access Note:	restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec online access with authorization
Type of Computer File or Data Note:	Text (HTML), electronic book.
System Details Note:	Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web. Mode of access: Internet.
Terms Governing Use and Reproduction Note:	Access requires VIU IP addresses and is restricted to VIU students, faculty and staff. Access restricted through purchase.
Language Note:	In English.
Issuing Body Note:	Made available online by publisher.
Source of Description Note:	Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 29. Jul 2022)