The representation of the mind as an enclosure in Old English poetry

Anglo-Saxon England

Volumn 35, Issue , 2006, Pages 57-90

  Mize, Britt ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 60949899265     PISSN: 14740532     EISSN: 14740532     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0263675106000044     Document Type: Review

References (45)

1. J. Roberts, C. Kay and L. Grundy, A Thesaurus of Old English, 2nd corr. impression, 2 vols. (Amsterdam, 2000), in items 08.01 and 06.01, distinguish the seat of emotions from the seat of thought, but this division does not represent direct study of the question: the compilers of the Thesaurus had to draw their data uncritically, for the most part, from the standard lexicons of Old English (see its introduction, esp. pp. xvi-xviii and xxviii). The re-examinations of the primary literature by Godden ('Anglo-Saxons on the Mind', esp. pp. 285-91), Low ('Approaches') and Harbus (Life of the Mind) suggest no such clear distinction as that implied by the Thesaurus between intellectual processes and emotional ones
2. R Clemoes, Interactions of Thought and Language in Old English Poetry, CSASE 12 (Cambridge, 1995), identifies the following as a principle of Old English poetic signification: 'Under normal conditions implicit affinity between actors was free to trigger the substitution which we call metaphor: one doer could replace another if it was common knowledge that the action concerned sprang from an inherent capability which both shared' (p. 96)
3. Latin quoted from Anicii Manlii Severini Boethii philosophiae consolatio, ed. L. Bieler, CCSL 94 (Turnhout, 1957), III, met. xi, 16 (p. 60)
4. See D. Kastovsky, 'Semantics and Vocabulary', The Cambridge History of the English Language, gen. ed. R. M. Hogg, 6 vols. (Cambridge, 1992) I, 355-408, at p. 356
5. Cf. T. J. Gardner, Semantic Patterns in Old English Substantival Compounds (Hamburg, 1968), pp. 90-2
6. and Kastovsky, 'Semantics and Vocabulary', pp. 365-6. The coordinate type must not be confused with the much more frequent appositive (karmadhāraya) type, in which a formation x-y denotes 'a (single) thing that is both x and y', exemplified in words like OE winedryhten 'friend-and-lord' and werwulf 'man-and-wolf'
7. See Carr, Nominal Compounds, pp. xxvi and 328-9
8. and Gardner, Semantic Patterns, pp. 92-5
9. See Clemoes, Interactions, pp. 96-100 and 138
10. On compounds with the same elements but different contextual meanings, see F. C. Robinson, 'Beowulf' and the Appositive Style (Knoxville, TN, 1985), pp. 15-18
11. Cf. E. Jager, 'Speech and the Chest in Old English Poetry: Orality or Pectorality?' Speculum 65 (1990), 845-59
12. Cf. Stanley, 'Old English Poetic Diction', pp. 428-9
13. entries unmodified by T. N. Toller, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Based on the Manuscript Collections of the Late Joseph Bosworth: Supplement (Oxford, 1921)
14. or A. Campbell, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Based on the Collections of Joseph Bosworth: Enlarged Addenda and Corrigenda to the Supplement by T. Norlhcote Toller (Oxford, 1972)
15. 'Secure with thought-fetters in his heart, a hidden longing for the dear man burned in his blood.'
16. The Lord's Prayer III 3-5
17. The Metrical Preface to the Pastoral Care 5b-7
18. Homiletic Fragment II 1-11a
19. H. Magennis, Images of Community in Old English Poetry, CSASE 18 (Cambridge, 1996), p. 2
20. P. Cavill, Maxims in Old English Poetry (Cambridge, 1999), p. 178
21. and Harbus, Life of the Mind, pp. 79-80
22. M. Stevens, 'The Structure of Beowulf: from Gold-Hoard to Word-Hoard', Mod. Lang. Quarterly 39 (1978), 219-38, precedes me in recognizing the parallel that is drawn between the treasure of wisdom that should be exchanged and the material treasure that likewise should be shared out. The complexes of meaning surrounding the lord/retainer relationship and the institution of gift-giving and exchange in Old English poetry have attracted renewed interest in recent years
23. J. M. Hill, The Cultural World in 'Beowulf', Anthropological Horizons 6 (Toronto, 1995)
24. and J. Bazelmans, By Weapons Made Worthy: Lords, Retainers and their Relationship in 'Beowulf', trans. D. Johnson (Amsterdam, 1999)
25. 'Another gets it, one who will unmournfully distribute treasures, the nobleman's ancient wealth.'
26. Maxims I 154b-155a: 'mappum opres weoro, / gold mon sceal gifan' ('treasure will become another's; one must give gold')
27. For discussion of Alfred's and especially Ælfric's attitudes toward wealth, see M. R. Godden, 'Money, Power and Morality in Late Anglo-Saxon England', ASE 19 (1990), 41-65, esp. 55-65
28. 'With it most often the poor are helped, and the sick healed many times, and the naked newly clothed, too; by means of it many people come to heaven.'
29. 'That is not the hand of a poor man as it seems to you here; rather, it is the treasure-chest of God almighty.'
30. 'That is an offence entirely accomplished with the devil's flying darts, deceitful tricks.'
31. J. F. Doubleday, 'The Allegory of the Soul as Fortress in Old English Poetry', Anglia 88 (1970), 503-8
32. and J. P. Hermann, Allegories of War: Language and Violence in Old English Poetry (Ann Arbor, MI, 1989), pp. 41-5
33. Godden, 'Anglo-Saxons on the Mind', esp. pp. 271-85 and 289-90. Godden associates Alcuin, Alfred and Ælfric with the classical model and differentiates it from that which appears dominant in the vernacular poetic tradition
34. Noticed also by T. A. Shippey, Poems of Wisdom and Learning in Old English (Cambridge, 1976), pp. 8-9
35. 'Sits, proud with feasting; misled by wine, craftily causes words to go out, to press forward belligerently.'
36. 'As many as are men throughout the earth, so are thoughts; each one has his own separate mind.'
37. 'There will be another end of that, when he perceives the outcome of that sin.'
38. E.g., Beowulf 499-501a and 1718b-1719a
39. Andreas 669b-674a and 767b-772
40. J. E. Cross, 'Aspects of Microcosm and Macrocosm in Old English Literature', Studies in Old English Literature in honor of Arthur G. Brodeur, ed. S. B. Greenfield (Eugene, OR, 1963), pp. 1-22, at 11
41. N. D. Isaacs, Structural Principles in Old English Poetry (Knoxville, TN, 1968), p. 65
42. The Old English 'Riming Poem', ed. O. D. Macrae-Gibson (Cambridge, 1983), pp. 48-50
43. C. Schaar, '"Brondhord" in the Old English Rhyming Poem', ES 43 (1962), 490-1
44. 'He was immediately ready through the command of the holy one, unfastened his mind-chamber, looked up, as the messenger bade him, the good peaceweaver.'
45. 'He saw, spanning the roof of the skies, the radiant tree of glory, bright with treasures, adorned with gold; saw gems glitter.'