The ‘Ventriloquism’ of Logoi in the Old English Prose Psalms and ‘Boethius’

Abstract

ABSTRACT In Old English literature, the actual presence of classical lore is relatively limited. The major conduit of Greek and Roman thought was transmitted to Anglo-Saxon England via Boethius' De Consolatione philosophiae. I will read the Old English Boethius (an Old English translation/adaptation of the sixth-century Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius) as a piece of early English theology and address the polyphony of the divine voice in the light of patristic ideas about theosis. The presence of integumentum is enveloping the text in mystery and providing a clue to the interpretation. It is Heavenly Wisdom that teaches her best pupil Boethius dispassion towards both worldly sorrows and worldly felicities. In the allegorical dialogue between Wisdom and Boethius/Mod, the background ‘chorus of voices' suggests the possibility of a ‘demonstrably Alfredian' heteroglossia, whilst the Alfred-persona himself becomes the vehicle of the Logos, inviting the reader to mediate ‘the drops of the night’.