Images of Faith in English Literature 700-1500: An Introduction (review)

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204 Reviews Before your renown and honour fail'. The authors, however, end on a realistic note; for all his skill and ambition, Audradus and his fellows were disappointed by the king, w h o ignored their claims for an elected abbot and ultimately gave away their valuable gift. Andrew Gillett School ofHistory, Philosophy and Polit Macquarie University Dyas, Dee, Images of Faith in English Literature 700-1500: An Introduction (Longman Medieval and Renaissance Library), London and N e w York, London, 1997; paper; pp. x, 332; R.R.P.£15.99. From early in this century the older New Zealand universities h offered a consistently popular year-long second or third year course entitled 'Greek History, Art and Literature'. Later a comparable course was attempted by some of them, this time on the AngloSaxon world. In these instances all the prescribed texts of the specified culture were studied in translation and there was a judicious mix of archaeological, historical, topographic and other material thus made available to persons lacking facility in reading the relevant languages, for w h o m these fields of instruction had hitherto been closed books. In England a serious and scholarly yet user-friendly volume, The Beginnings of English Literature to Skel 1509, was prepared for the Cresset Press London by W . L. Renwick and Harold Orton in 1939 with subsequent updates. It has helped many beginners in Old and Middle English Studies. Quite certainly Dee Dyas has n o w identified a more basic and n o w long time need andfilledit with an informed, readable and engaging resource book, which can well be read with profit also by those some way along Reviews 205 the Dark Age or medieval paths. Her contribution to the Longman Mediaeval and Renaissance Library, is well designed to take its place in a major new series of critical introductions to what m a y n o w be seen as the more relevant and meaningful 'classics' of the Englishspeaking races. The publishers call the book 'an invaluable resource for all students of medieval literature and history', and one concerned with 'key literary and cultural topics'. Dee Dyas's study is focussed squarely on the title-specific period's Christian beliefs, its distortions and persisting superstitions, in the context of the genres, texts and cultural history of what is best described as 'Old and Middle English'. Perhaps even more appropriately than most, the writer —herself a practising Christian—has chosen to interpret reflectively to her readers of today the religious lifestyle peeping from the thought behind her select texts, and the n o w necessary 'mental attitudes to read them fruitfully as an intriguing but curiously alien world' (p.viii), one which 'once understood will enormously enhance our appreciation of all that w e read and see'. With these guidelines, w e m a y follow with real zest this crisply written handbook with its pointers, case studies and emphasis on frequently-read texts which require a Christian framing and adequate recognition of the religious teaching commonly held to influence them, and n o w expounded in a manner that m a y be read and savoured even by those w h o have long taught these same texts. For the purpose is very m u c h akin to the background lectures offered by D. Whitelock, B. Sitwell or C. S. Lewis in the pre-1960 Oxford Course II of the English School there. Dyas' book must also stand alongside Bruce Mitchell's more linguistically slewed An Invitation to Old English and Anglo-Saxon England (1995), especially the last's long section on 'Life in the Heroic Society and the Impact of Christianity' (op.cit., pp.193-244). 206 Reviews Because of this exegetical shaping purpose the present printed text uses various techniques of highlighting, such as bold typeface for religious names, notions and vocabulary items such as m a y occur in the main text. A n d there is provided a remarkably relevant and generous reference section which defines salient aspects of the Church's early practices, its key figures and its faith, worship, and organisation. This last section (pp. 265-92) is complemented by a lucid...