Articles by Hana Videen
TOEBI Newsletter, 2018
The art and literature of the Middle Ages and modern comics may seem worlds apart, but what happe... more The art and literature of the Middle Ages and modern comics may seem worlds apart, but what happens if they are brought into contact? For 'Medieval Comics', a project funded by the Cultural Institute at King's in collaboration with the Department of English at King's College London, I asked comic creator Karrie Fransman to interpret and respond to manuscripts, images, and literature of the medieval period, recreating the wonderful creatures of those stories in new and informative ways.
TOEBI Newsletter, 2017
Dēor-hord aims to teach people about early English language and medieval animals, but it also enc... more Dēor-hord aims to teach people about early English language and medieval animals, but it also encourages people to consider how humans - in the past and present - depict the unknown.
Visit medievalandmodernbestiary.com.
At King's, part of our interest in the "creative medieval" is of course driven by a desire to inc... more At King's, part of our interest in the "creative medieval" is of course driven by a desire to increase the appeal of medieval studies among students, but we are also interested in the history of creativity in medieval studies, which we feel has often been overlooked. Translation and performance are at the heart of Anglo-Saxon Studies. A teacher of Old English needs to develop pedagogic skills to ensure that students feel comfortable taking creative risks—whether that is venturing a new translation, or simply voicing an unfamiliar word. So one of the aims of the projects described in this essay was to encourage early career researchers and teachers to think about how creativity is threaded through their academic practice. Another, broader, aim of the Spiral, was to invite the public at large to consider how the early medieval is threaded through the contemporary.
Miracles: An Encyclopedia of People, Places, and Supernatural Events from Antiquity to the Presen... more Miracles: An Encyclopedia of People, Places, and Supernatural Events from Antiquity to the Present, ed. by Patrick J. Hayes (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2016), pp. 40-41
Higher Education Research Network Journal, 2015
I have taught seminars for the Medieval Literary Culture module at King’s College London for two ... more I have taught seminars for the Medieval Literary Culture module at King’s College London for two years. The first year I taught the module, a requirement for first-year undergraduates majoring in English, I was surprised when it was time to mark the students’ written assessments; despite the fact that these students were majoring in English, a writing intensive discipline, a majority of the essays I read demonstrated a lack of understanding of basic essay-writing skills. For this reason, the second year I taught the module I decided to make essay-writing skills a priority in my teaching. This case study analyses the reasons for the students’ poor writing skills, explores different ways I attempted to improve these skills, and uses anonymous student surveys and feedback as well as teaching observations to examine the effectiveness of my teaching practice. I will be teaching this module again next year (for the third time), and so this essay ends with ideas on how to further improve my students’ writing skills within this particular module.
Doctoral Thesis by Hana Videen
Unpublished PhD dissertation, 2016
The topic of blood in the later Middle Ages has acquired considerable critical attention over the... more The topic of blood in the later Middle Ages has acquired considerable critical attention over the last twenty years, but this literature consistently glosses over or completely ignores the Anglo-Saxon period. Much has been written on the feast of Corpus Christi and the worship of the Holy Blood in the later Middle Ages (c. 1200-1500), and the mass is argued to be the most important cultural function of blood in medieval times. The Anglo-Saxon period (c. 550-1150), if considered at all in these studies, is thought of as a precursor to the more developed and significant symbolism of blood in the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, to which it contributes nothing but the underdeveloped seeds of the ideas of later times.
This thesis explores two critical issues: first, it redresses the lack of research into discourses of blood in Old English literature, and second, it explores whether or not this discourse has the same cultural meanings and symbolization as that of later periods of the Middle Ages. As the first detailed analysis of the meaning of blood in Anglo-Saxon literature, this thesis fills a critical gap in our knowledge of the early Middle Ages, contributing to the study of the historical semantics of the word ‘blood’ as well as the study of its meanings in religious, medical, and poetic discourses. Through close critical reading of Old English and Latin texts and analysis of the semantic fields of key words, this thesis explores the symbolism of blood from an Anglo-Saxon perspective and discusses where in Anglo-Saxon literature blood is actually described or articulated rather than where it is assumed or is implied to be. To understand blood’s significance in Anglo-Saxon culture, this thesis uses case studies from a range of genres, including poetry, homilies, hagiography, and leechbooks or medicinal texts.
Projects by Hana Videen
The art and literature of the Middle Ages and modern comics may seem worlds apart, but what happe... more The art and literature of the Middle Ages and modern comics may seem worlds apart, but what happens if they are brought into contact? This project asked comic creator Karrie Fransman to interpret and respond to manuscripts, images, and literature of the medieval period, recreating the wonderful creatures of these stories in new and informative ways. Both medieval literature/art and modern comic books question what it means to be human, sharing a fascination with superheroes (the super-human), robotics and artificial intelligence (the non-human), and fantasy (human-like creatures that are familiar and yet uncomfortably Other).
Medievalists composed literary prompts to inspire Karrie’s exploration of what it means to be human in the Middle Ages and today. These prompts, or "snapshots", included stories and imagery from medieval manuscripts, and from these Karrie created a series of comics. Karrie and I facilitated two workshops for KS3 students (thirteen-year-olds), funded by the Cultural Institute at King’s and hosted by the British Library. Karrie's and the workshop participants' works were displayed at the British Library at an event for parents, teachers, medievalists, and comic artists. Orbital Comics, a comic store in Soho, then hosted an exhibition of Karrie's comics alongside images and text from medieval manuscripts.
The project is now centred around a blog that explores what medieval comics can tell us about comics, the Middle Ages, and human nature.
Visit the blog at http://medievalandmodernbestiary.com/
Visit blog at https://beoshewulf.wordpress.com/
Blog post at https://beoshewulf.wordpress.com/2014/03/30/oewordhord-origin-story/
Book Reviews by Hana Videen
Times Literary Supplement, 2019
Originally published in Times Literary Supplement, 22 February 2019, p. 35
Times Literary Supplement, May 25, 2018
A review of two books, originally published in the Times Literary Supplement on 25 May 2018:
- "... more A review of two books, originally published in the Times Literary Supplement on 25 May 2018:
- "The Evolution of Verse Structure in Old and Middle English Poetry", by Geoffrey Russom (Cambridge University Press, 2017)
- "Signs that Sing: Hybrid Poetics in Old English Verse", by Heather Maring (University Press of Florida, 2017)
Times Literary Supplement, Jan 8, 2016
In A Choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse: Revised and Expanded Edition Richard Hamer tweaks and polishes ... more In A Choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse: Revised and Expanded Edition Richard Hamer tweaks and polishes his translations from forty-five years ago. There are no drastic revisions-mostly minor changes to word choice, punctuation, and syntax-but the changes do make for slightly smoother, more elegant poetry. (This is particularly true for The Ruin, which Hamer has described as one of his favourites.) Instead of imitating Anglo-Saxon poetics as some have done, Hamer writes in straightforward and unpretentious blank verse. Never straying far from the original meaning, Hamer imitates the alliteration of Old English poetry only when it does not detract from a translation's accuracy and clarity. It would have been nice if Hamer had expanded the introductions to each poem, particularly in light of new scholarship. The introductions to Judith and The Wife's Lament, for instance, could have reflected upon the feminist scholarship that has grown extensively since the 1970s. As Shippey says in his review of the 1970 edition, Hamer chooses to include more poems 'at the expense of the usual critical apparatus', and his bibliographies for each poem are very brief. This is still the case in the 2015 edition. Hamer has updated his bibliographies to include more recent editions and criticism, but this has not affected the content of his introductions substantially. Another feature that might have benefited the new edition is a guide to Old English pronunciation. In the Old English Hamer marks long vowels, as he says, 'to help the reader who wishes to try the poems aloud'. A pronunciation guide would be even more useful than diacritics for readers who want to experience the poetry orally and aurally. The most notable change is the addition of several poems: the Finnsburh episode from Beowulf (to supplement The Fight at Finnsburh); the two fragments of Waldere; five more riddles (8, 25, 44, 54, 62), bringing the total number to sixteen; The Fates of the Apostles; and Precepts. Hamer's new edition gives greater insight into the humour of the Anglo-Saxons, with four of the new riddles consisting of 'suggestive double entendres' (onion, key, butter churn, and awl).
Talks by Hana Videen
Dēor-hord is a blog that reimagines medieval animals. It’s the collaborative endeavour of a medie... more Dēor-hord is a blog that reimagines medieval animals. It’s the collaborative endeavour of a medievalist (me) and an artist (James Merry). I translate descriptions of animals from medieval poems and bestiaries, written in Old and Middle English. These translations are meant for everyone – no prior knowledge of medieval literature or language is necessary – and although they include words in the original languages, these are glossed with definitions and pronunciation. The glosses are interlinear to imitate actual medieval glosses. James imaginatively interprets the translations with his illustrations. Although the blog features animal images from medieval manuscripts, he doesn’t use these images as reference when drawing his versions of the animals. Medieval illuminators didn’t always have the opportunity to see the animals they had to draw. Like a medieval illuminator, James has to use his imagination to illustrate someone else’s animal descriptions. The translation of medieval bestiaries into books and websites that are more accessible to non-medievalists is not new. However, Dēor-hord is unique in that it imitates the medieval bestiary-making process, the artist relying upon strange descriptions of animals he has never seen and the scribe using interlinear glosses to translate an unfamiliar language into the vernacular. Thus, the project explores new approaches to the translation as well as teaching of Old and Middle English texts.
(Attachment is handout from the talk.)
When I began researching blood in Anglo-Saxon hagiography,... more (Attachment is handout from the talk.)
When I began researching blood in Anglo-Saxon hagiography, I expected blood to appear mainly in graphic descriptions of saints’ martyrdoms. I was surprised to discover that this was not the case. Blood is not necessarily graphic in Anglo-Saxon hagiography. Graphic violence is not always accompanied by blood, and sometimes blood appears in scenarios completely unrelated to acts of violence. Today I will discuss various uses of blood imagery in two important collections of Anglo-Saxon prose hagiography: Aldhelm’s Latin prose De uirginitate (c. 675) and Ælfric’s Old English Lives of Saints (c. 998). This paper has two main goals: first, to demonstrate how blood in Anglo-Saxon saints’ lives does not always appear in the violent contexts one might expect; second, to examine other contexts for blood in hagiography, connecting these to blood’s power of transference.
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Articles by Hana Videen
Visit medievalandmodernbestiary.com.
Doctoral Thesis by Hana Videen
This thesis explores two critical issues: first, it redresses the lack of research into discourses of blood in Old English literature, and second, it explores whether or not this discourse has the same cultural meanings and symbolization as that of later periods of the Middle Ages. As the first detailed analysis of the meaning of blood in Anglo-Saxon literature, this thesis fills a critical gap in our knowledge of the early Middle Ages, contributing to the study of the historical semantics of the word ‘blood’ as well as the study of its meanings in religious, medical, and poetic discourses. Through close critical reading of Old English and Latin texts and analysis of the semantic fields of key words, this thesis explores the symbolism of blood from an Anglo-Saxon perspective and discusses where in Anglo-Saxon literature blood is actually described or articulated rather than where it is assumed or is implied to be. To understand blood’s significance in Anglo-Saxon culture, this thesis uses case studies from a range of genres, including poetry, homilies, hagiography, and leechbooks or medicinal texts.
Projects by Hana Videen
Medievalists composed literary prompts to inspire Karrie’s exploration of what it means to be human in the Middle Ages and today. These prompts, or "snapshots", included stories and imagery from medieval manuscripts, and from these Karrie created a series of comics. Karrie and I facilitated two workshops for KS3 students (thirteen-year-olds), funded by the Cultural Institute at King’s and hosted by the British Library. Karrie's and the workshop participants' works were displayed at the British Library at an event for parents, teachers, medievalists, and comic artists. Orbital Comics, a comic store in Soho, then hosted an exhibition of Karrie's comics alongside images and text from medieval manuscripts.
The project is now centred around a blog that explores what medieval comics can tell us about comics, the Middle Ages, and human nature.
Blog at https://oldenglishwordhord.com/
Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/oewordhord/
Book Reviews by Hana Videen
- "The Evolution of Verse Structure in Old and Middle English Poetry", by Geoffrey Russom (Cambridge University Press, 2017)
- "Signs that Sing: Hybrid Poetics in Old English Verse", by Heather Maring (University Press of Florida, 2017)
Talks by Hana Videen
When I began researching blood in Anglo-Saxon hagiography, I expected blood to appear mainly in graphic descriptions of saints’ martyrdoms. I was surprised to discover that this was not the case. Blood is not necessarily graphic in Anglo-Saxon hagiography. Graphic violence is not always accompanied by blood, and sometimes blood appears in scenarios completely unrelated to acts of violence. Today I will discuss various uses of blood imagery in two important collections of Anglo-Saxon prose hagiography: Aldhelm’s Latin prose De uirginitate (c. 675) and Ælfric’s Old English Lives of Saints (c. 998). This paper has two main goals: first, to demonstrate how blood in Anglo-Saxon saints’ lives does not always appear in the violent contexts one might expect; second, to examine other contexts for blood in hagiography, connecting these to blood’s power of transference.
Visit medievalandmodernbestiary.com.
This thesis explores two critical issues: first, it redresses the lack of research into discourses of blood in Old English literature, and second, it explores whether or not this discourse has the same cultural meanings and symbolization as that of later periods of the Middle Ages. As the first detailed analysis of the meaning of blood in Anglo-Saxon literature, this thesis fills a critical gap in our knowledge of the early Middle Ages, contributing to the study of the historical semantics of the word ‘blood’ as well as the study of its meanings in religious, medical, and poetic discourses. Through close critical reading of Old English and Latin texts and analysis of the semantic fields of key words, this thesis explores the symbolism of blood from an Anglo-Saxon perspective and discusses where in Anglo-Saxon literature blood is actually described or articulated rather than where it is assumed or is implied to be. To understand blood’s significance in Anglo-Saxon culture, this thesis uses case studies from a range of genres, including poetry, homilies, hagiography, and leechbooks or medicinal texts.
Medievalists composed literary prompts to inspire Karrie’s exploration of what it means to be human in the Middle Ages and today. These prompts, or "snapshots", included stories and imagery from medieval manuscripts, and from these Karrie created a series of comics. Karrie and I facilitated two workshops for KS3 students (thirteen-year-olds), funded by the Cultural Institute at King’s and hosted by the British Library. Karrie's and the workshop participants' works were displayed at the British Library at an event for parents, teachers, medievalists, and comic artists. Orbital Comics, a comic store in Soho, then hosted an exhibition of Karrie's comics alongside images and text from medieval manuscripts.
The project is now centred around a blog that explores what medieval comics can tell us about comics, the Middle Ages, and human nature.
Blog at https://oldenglishwordhord.com/
Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/oewordhord/
- "The Evolution of Verse Structure in Old and Middle English Poetry", by Geoffrey Russom (Cambridge University Press, 2017)
- "Signs that Sing: Hybrid Poetics in Old English Verse", by Heather Maring (University Press of Florida, 2017)
When I began researching blood in Anglo-Saxon hagiography, I expected blood to appear mainly in graphic descriptions of saints’ martyrdoms. I was surprised to discover that this was not the case. Blood is not necessarily graphic in Anglo-Saxon hagiography. Graphic violence is not always accompanied by blood, and sometimes blood appears in scenarios completely unrelated to acts of violence. Today I will discuss various uses of blood imagery in two important collections of Anglo-Saxon prose hagiography: Aldhelm’s Latin prose De uirginitate (c. 675) and Ælfric’s Old English Lives of Saints (c. 998). This paper has two main goals: first, to demonstrate how blood in Anglo-Saxon saints’ lives does not always appear in the violent contexts one might expect; second, to examine other contexts for blood in hagiography, connecting these to blood’s power of transference.
This paper was part of a session called 'Distance and Proximity—Anglo-Saxon Translations'.
A translator must negotiate the borders between languages, endeavouring to use language that does not construct still greater boundaries between the medieval and the modern. Walter Benjamin, literary critic and translator, writes, ‘It is the task of the translator to release in his own language that pure language which is under the spell of another, to liberate the language imprisoned in a work in his re-creation of that work.’ This paper will consider different modern translations of 'Beowulf' and their contrasting approaches to translating 'fah' in order to capture its multiple layers of meaning. Each of the twelve translators in this study has his or her own way of ‘liberating’ the word 'fah', of breaking through the boundaries of modern English that cannot contain all possible definitions in one single word of Old English. Finally, this paper will consider how the act of translating 'fah' reveals the foreignness of the Anglo-Saxon (lack of) division between material and immaterial.
This paper was part of a panel called 'Hostility and Hospitality in the Anglo-Saxon World'.
In the Anglo-Saxon poem 'The Dream of the Rood', the cross begins to speak when the 'reordberend', the speech-bearer, is at rest. The cross itself becomes a ‘speech-bearer’, its poetic voice allowing it to express itself verbally, filling the silence left by sleeping humans. It tells the story of its life as just another tree in the forest, and how it was made to suffer great agony by humans who wanted to make it an instrument of death. The cross changes perspective throughout its narration, sometimes using the first-person ‘I’ and other times referring to itself as ‘the cross’. Why does it use varying perspectives, and why tell the story of Christ’s crucifixion in the voice of the rood? What is the significance of this narration occurring in a dream or vision, a time when most humans are asleep or at a different level of consciousness?
Blood provides a graphic image of death in Anglo-Saxon battle poetry, but more importantly it symbolises the inner spirit, the soul that governs a human being and which has a profound effect on all around it. Streaming and gushing, staining and boiling, marking people and things for good or ill, blood provides a visual icon for one of the most abstract yet important concepts in Old English poetry.