Vernacular Cosmologies: Models of the Universe in Old English Literature

Abstract

Abstract This article describes a tradition of early medieval cosmological thought in the prose and poetry of the Old English corpus. This Old English cosmology uses a small set of cosmological building blocks and a relatively limited vocabulary to describe and explore a variety of structural models of the Universe. In these texts – which include but are not limited to the Old English Prose Boethius, Ælfric’s De temporibus Anni, the Old English Phoenix, and The Order of the World – each structural model relies on a combination of terms for heaven, the firmament, and a cosmic-scale ocean and seafloor. These models, each distinct, appear to fall into two loose categories which may represent two schools of thought in vernacular cosmology.