This brief essay approaches two of the “Homily on Doomsday” and “Solomon and Saturn,” in relation... more This brief essay approaches two of the “Homily on Doomsday” and “Solomon and Saturn,” in relation to the almost overwhelming aurality of this bilingual collection. While the oral performativity of the charms in CCCC 41 has been explored extensively, the extent to which a substantial majority of the marginal texts are recordings of words meant to be spoken and heard in eleventh-century England has not been as thoroughly examined.
This "Key Thinkers" essay on Bede ("the Venerable Bede") presents a brief biography of Bede, then... more This "Key Thinkers" essay on Bede ("the Venerable Bede") presents a brief biography of Bede, then discusses influences on him, his impact on historical thinking, interpretations of his works, and his legacy.
This essay explores the role of intertextuality in the commemoration of Patrick, Cuthbert and Acg... more This essay explores the role of intertextuality in the commemoration of Patrick, Cuthbert and Acgilbert in three texts that share an identical phrase. These texts are: Muirchú’s Vita sancti Patricii, and Bede’s Vita sancti Cuthberti and Historia ecclesiastica. The rhythmic phrase relates to themes of mission, grace, and conversion across the three texts.
This essay examines patterns involving challenge, single combat, substitutions, paternity, sovere... more This essay examines patterns involving challenge, single combat, substitutions, paternity, sovereignty, tree symbolism and raptus in the Middle English Breton lays Sir Orfeo and Sir Degare through the lens of Frazer’s The Golden Bough, and specifically his account of the cult of Diana Nemorensis. Re-examining these much-studied motifs in the context of the ‘rite of Nemi’, this paper sheds new light on some lingering puzzles such as the ympe-tre, Heurodis’ name and abduction, along with the king’s exile and restoration in Sir Orfeo, and the forest grove(s), challenges, violence and substitutions in Sir Degare. In these poems, elements of the paradigm repeat and vary in compelling ways, suggesting that this symbolic web of literary and narrative elements was symbolically meaningful and structurally effective for Middle English poets exploring themes of identity, sovereignty, sexuality, and death.
This essay explores the role of intertextuality in the commemoration of Patrick, Cuthbert and Acg... more This essay explores the role of intertextuality in the commemoration of Patrick, Cuthbert and Acgilbert in three texts that share an identical phrase. These texts are: Muirchú’s Vita sancti Patricii, and Bede’s Vita sancti Cuthberti and Historia ecclesiastica. The rhythmic phrase relates to themes of mission, grace, and conversion across the three texts.
Early Medieval Winchester: Communities, Authority and Power in an Urban Space, c.800-c.1200, 2021
This chapter reconsiders the compilation of British Library MS Cotton Otho B.XI (hereafter, Otho)... more This chapter reconsiders the compilation of British Library MS Cotton Otho B.XI (hereafter, Otho) in light of recent developments in codicological theory and from the perspective of Winchester as a place where the manuscript was being copied, added to or otherwise altered. The first phase of copying took place in the middle of the tenth century, when the Otho copy of the Old English version of Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica was made; the second phase took place at the beginning of the eleventh century, between 1001-12, when additional materials were added to Otho from and Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 173. These stages correspond to the reigns of Edmund I (939-46), Eadred (946-55), Eadwig (955-9) and Æthelred (978-1016). By looking closely at the contents and differences between the two manuscripts as they changed over time, I argue that the scribes who expanded Otho did not, as Patrick Wormald suggested, ‘wide[n] the scope of the Corpus 173 argument’; rather, the scribes of Otho created an entirely new composite book that provides both a record of and a resource for Christian kingship. In it, the compilers brought together a range of texts that explore the relationship between the king, his bishops and his people; the nation and its boroughs; the part and the whole.
Digitization, like translation, has been treated as secondary and inauthentic, as threatening to ... more Digitization, like translation, has been treated as secondary and inauthentic, as threatening to the truth and, potentially, reality. From François Jullien’s perspective, however, the future belongs to translation: ‘Le monde à venir doit être celui de l’entre-langues: non pas d’une langue dominante, quelle qu’elle soie, mais de la traduction activant les ressources des langues les unes par rapport aux autres’ (‘The world of the
future will have to be a world of in-between-lingualism: not of one dominant language, whichever it might be, but of translation that activates the resources of languages with respect to each other’).* If we read digitization as a form of translation, then digitization can also be read as ‘activating the resources’, not just of languages but of vision, screenic sensoria, and knowledge. Using these tropes to deepen our understanding of MSS CCCC 41 and 286 as powerfully transformative and performative texts, we can see how digitization activates new forms of presence, visibility, and meaning that echo and extend the ways in which these books were received, transmitted, and appropriated as manuscripts in medieval Britain.
*François Jullien, Il n’y a pas d’identité culturelle (Paris: L’Herne, 2016), pp. 88–9.
The Long Ninth Century and the Prose of King Alfred's Reign, 2015
This article examines the history of the scholarship of the Old English prose of the ninth centur... more This article examines the history of the scholarship of the Old English prose of the ninth century and the reign of King Alfred the Great. Looking at the manuscripts, language, Latin sources, and the transmission of the texts, it argues that Old English prose existed before Alfred, then changed and developed during Alfred’s reign. Analyzing passages from key Old English prose texts, including the Old English version of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, Wærferth’s translation of Gregory the Great’s Dialogues, and Alfred’s translations of Gregory’s Pastoral Care and the first fifty Psalms, this essay argues that early Old English prose was highly learned and in dialogue with many of the primary texts of the medieval Western world. Keywords: King Alfred, Old English prose, Gregory the Great, Mercian, West Saxon, Anglo-Saxon, the OE Bede, The Pastoral Care, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, CCCC 173 Published in Oxford Handbooks Online Subject: Literature, Literary Studies - Early and Medieval Online Publication Date: Nov 2015 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935338.013.53
Published in Oxford Handbooks Online
Subject: Literature, Literary Studies - Early and Medieval
Online Publication Date: Nov 2015
DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935338.013.53
This essay explores the role of miracles in Bede's construction of history to argue that, while r... more This essay explores the role of miracles in Bede's construction of history to argue that, while reading miracles according to Bede's sense of exegetical history begins analysis, modern scholars should also look beyond the exegetical paradigm to better understand how Bede uses miracles to engage and understand the world. After a brief discussion of Caedmon's miracle as an example of how miracles ought to work, this essay contrasts Bede's account of Edwin with his account of Oswald to question Bede's presentation of Edwin as a saint-king, and to discuss the ways in which these episodes allow us to see Bede, as an historian, at work.
This brief essay approaches two of the “Homily on Doomsday” and “Solomon and Saturn,” in relation... more This brief essay approaches two of the “Homily on Doomsday” and “Solomon and Saturn,” in relation to the almost overwhelming aurality of this bilingual collection. While the oral performativity of the charms in CCCC 41 has been explored extensively, the extent to which a substantial majority of the marginal texts are recordings of words meant to be spoken and heard in eleventh-century England has not been as thoroughly examined.
This "Key Thinkers" essay on Bede ("the Venerable Bede") presents a brief biography of Bede, then... more This "Key Thinkers" essay on Bede ("the Venerable Bede") presents a brief biography of Bede, then discusses influences on him, his impact on historical thinking, interpretations of his works, and his legacy.
This essay explores the role of intertextuality in the commemoration of Patrick, Cuthbert and Acg... more This essay explores the role of intertextuality in the commemoration of Patrick, Cuthbert and Acgilbert in three texts that share an identical phrase. These texts are: Muirchú’s Vita sancti Patricii, and Bede’s Vita sancti Cuthberti and Historia ecclesiastica. The rhythmic phrase relates to themes of mission, grace, and conversion across the three texts.
This essay examines patterns involving challenge, single combat, substitutions, paternity, sovere... more This essay examines patterns involving challenge, single combat, substitutions, paternity, sovereignty, tree symbolism and raptus in the Middle English Breton lays Sir Orfeo and Sir Degare through the lens of Frazer’s The Golden Bough, and specifically his account of the cult of Diana Nemorensis. Re-examining these much-studied motifs in the context of the ‘rite of Nemi’, this paper sheds new light on some lingering puzzles such as the ympe-tre, Heurodis’ name and abduction, along with the king’s exile and restoration in Sir Orfeo, and the forest grove(s), challenges, violence and substitutions in Sir Degare. In these poems, elements of the paradigm repeat and vary in compelling ways, suggesting that this symbolic web of literary and narrative elements was symbolically meaningful and structurally effective for Middle English poets exploring themes of identity, sovereignty, sexuality, and death.
This essay explores the role of intertextuality in the commemoration of Patrick, Cuthbert and Acg... more This essay explores the role of intertextuality in the commemoration of Patrick, Cuthbert and Acgilbert in three texts that share an identical phrase. These texts are: Muirchú’s Vita sancti Patricii, and Bede’s Vita sancti Cuthberti and Historia ecclesiastica. The rhythmic phrase relates to themes of mission, grace, and conversion across the three texts.
Early Medieval Winchester: Communities, Authority and Power in an Urban Space, c.800-c.1200, 2021
This chapter reconsiders the compilation of British Library MS Cotton Otho B.XI (hereafter, Otho)... more This chapter reconsiders the compilation of British Library MS Cotton Otho B.XI (hereafter, Otho) in light of recent developments in codicological theory and from the perspective of Winchester as a place where the manuscript was being copied, added to or otherwise altered. The first phase of copying took place in the middle of the tenth century, when the Otho copy of the Old English version of Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica was made; the second phase took place at the beginning of the eleventh century, between 1001-12, when additional materials were added to Otho from and Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 173. These stages correspond to the reigns of Edmund I (939-46), Eadred (946-55), Eadwig (955-9) and Æthelred (978-1016). By looking closely at the contents and differences between the two manuscripts as they changed over time, I argue that the scribes who expanded Otho did not, as Patrick Wormald suggested, ‘wide[n] the scope of the Corpus 173 argument’; rather, the scribes of Otho created an entirely new composite book that provides both a record of and a resource for Christian kingship. In it, the compilers brought together a range of texts that explore the relationship between the king, his bishops and his people; the nation and its boroughs; the part and the whole.
Digitization, like translation, has been treated as secondary and inauthentic, as threatening to ... more Digitization, like translation, has been treated as secondary and inauthentic, as threatening to the truth and, potentially, reality. From François Jullien’s perspective, however, the future belongs to translation: ‘Le monde à venir doit être celui de l’entre-langues: non pas d’une langue dominante, quelle qu’elle soie, mais de la traduction activant les ressources des langues les unes par rapport aux autres’ (‘The world of the
future will have to be a world of in-between-lingualism: not of one dominant language, whichever it might be, but of translation that activates the resources of languages with respect to each other’).* If we read digitization as a form of translation, then digitization can also be read as ‘activating the resources’, not just of languages but of vision, screenic sensoria, and knowledge. Using these tropes to deepen our understanding of MSS CCCC 41 and 286 as powerfully transformative and performative texts, we can see how digitization activates new forms of presence, visibility, and meaning that echo and extend the ways in which these books were received, transmitted, and appropriated as manuscripts in medieval Britain.
*François Jullien, Il n’y a pas d’identité culturelle (Paris: L’Herne, 2016), pp. 88–9.
The Long Ninth Century and the Prose of King Alfred's Reign, 2015
This article examines the history of the scholarship of the Old English prose of the ninth centur... more This article examines the history of the scholarship of the Old English prose of the ninth century and the reign of King Alfred the Great. Looking at the manuscripts, language, Latin sources, and the transmission of the texts, it argues that Old English prose existed before Alfred, then changed and developed during Alfred’s reign. Analyzing passages from key Old English prose texts, including the Old English version of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, Wærferth’s translation of Gregory the Great’s Dialogues, and Alfred’s translations of Gregory’s Pastoral Care and the first fifty Psalms, this essay argues that early Old English prose was highly learned and in dialogue with many of the primary texts of the medieval Western world. Keywords: King Alfred, Old English prose, Gregory the Great, Mercian, West Saxon, Anglo-Saxon, the OE Bede, The Pastoral Care, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, CCCC 173 Published in Oxford Handbooks Online Subject: Literature, Literary Studies - Early and Medieval Online Publication Date: Nov 2015 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935338.013.53
Published in Oxford Handbooks Online
Subject: Literature, Literary Studies - Early and Medieval
Online Publication Date: Nov 2015
DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935338.013.53
This essay explores the role of miracles in Bede's construction of history to argue that, while r... more This essay explores the role of miracles in Bede's construction of history to argue that, while reading miracles according to Bede's sense of exegetical history begins analysis, modern scholars should also look beyond the exegetical paradigm to better understand how Bede uses miracles to engage and understand the world. After a brief discussion of Caedmon's miracle as an example of how miracles ought to work, this essay contrasts Bede's account of Edwin with his account of Oswald to question Bede's presentation of Edwin as a saint-king, and to discuss the ways in which these episodes allow us to see Bede, as an historian, at work.
Writers, Editors and Exemplars in Medieval English Texts, 2020
This collection of essays in honor of Christina von Nolcken explores the literary legacy of the M... more This collection of essays in honor of Christina von Nolcken explores the literary legacy of the Middle Ages by exploring the complex networks of individuals, groups and institutions that contribute to the production and meaning of medieval English texts. While models of sanctity, gender roles, and textual cultures change over time, the study of the scribes, compilers and editors who produced and disseminated the texts and books that reflect and refract such models tends to be separated from the interpretation of the literary and cultural effects of those texts. Rather than treating the production of Old and Middle English devotional and non-devotional texts — such as the Wycliffite Bible and the Canterbury Tales — separately from their reception and interpretation, the essays in this collection recover and explore the activities and lives of writers and editors, combined with discussions of the social, theological, and cultural shifts and tensions that fostered literary and textual re-production, mediation, and editorial re-presentation.
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Papers by Sharon Rowley
future will have to be a world of in-between-lingualism: not of one dominant language, whichever it might be, but of translation that activates the resources of languages with respect to each other’).* If we read digitization as a form of translation, then digitization can also be read as ‘activating the resources’, not just of languages but of vision, screenic sensoria, and knowledge. Using these tropes to deepen our understanding of MSS CCCC 41 and 286 as powerfully transformative and performative texts, we can see how digitization activates new forms of presence, visibility, and meaning that echo and extend the ways in which these books were received, transmitted, and appropriated as manuscripts in medieval Britain.
*François Jullien, Il n’y a pas d’identité culturelle (Paris: L’Herne, 2016), pp. 88–9.
Published in Oxford Handbooks Online
Subject: Literature, Literary Studies - Early and Medieval
Online Publication Date: Nov 2015
DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935338.013.53
future will have to be a world of in-between-lingualism: not of one dominant language, whichever it might be, but of translation that activates the resources of languages with respect to each other’).* If we read digitization as a form of translation, then digitization can also be read as ‘activating the resources’, not just of languages but of vision, screenic sensoria, and knowledge. Using these tropes to deepen our understanding of MSS CCCC 41 and 286 as powerfully transformative and performative texts, we can see how digitization activates new forms of presence, visibility, and meaning that echo and extend the ways in which these books were received, transmitted, and appropriated as manuscripts in medieval Britain.
*François Jullien, Il n’y a pas d’identité culturelle (Paris: L’Herne, 2016), pp. 88–9.
Published in Oxford Handbooks Online
Subject: Literature, Literary Studies - Early and Medieval
Online Publication Date: Nov 2015
DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935338.013.53