Blickling Homilies Research Articles

Pietro e Simon Mago sul confine tra miracolo e magia nelle omelie in inglese antico

In the Old English homiletic tradition, the apocryphal material relating to the struggle between Peter and Simon Magus offers a useful paradigm for representing the boundary between miracle and magic. Drawing mainly from the codification proposed in the Passio sanctorum apostolorum Petri et Pauli, the anonymous author of the Blickling Homily XV, Ælfric and Wulfstan exploit the unstable fluidity of a narrative that can be expanded or narrowed infinitely through additions and subtractions of episodes and dialogues, in rewriting their homilies. The article aims to identify the significant elements useful to highlight the different attitudes assumed by the three homileticians with respect to the subject matter, from the “simple” translation of the Blickling Homily to Ælfric’s reworking to Wulfstan’s exemplum.

КОРЕЛЯЦІЯ МІЖ АНГЛОСАКСОНСЬКИМ ГОМІЛЕТИЧНИМ ДИСКУРСОМ І ГРАМАТИКОЮ

The article is devoted to the interplay of discourse and grammar in the formation of sentential units in the Anglo-Saxon homilies of the 9th-11th centuries, created by notable homilists, namely, Ælfric (955-1020 сa.), Wulfstan (death date 1023 ca.), as well as anonymous authors in the miscellany “The Blickling Homilies”. The material under consideration helped us offer two prior assumptions. Firstly, the body of homilies in the specified historical period (total number – 28 units) constitutes a distinct variety of performative texts, which share a set of specific features, and which, in aggregate, make up a homiletic type of discourse. Secondly, foregrounding of finite verb in Old English sentence is a genre-dependent phenomenon that has been attested in the preaching texts and the epic poetry. In this article, the term homily (sermon) is unfolded as a discursive phenomenon that establishes a close link between preacher and congregation, and, as such, serves as a medium of communication. This type of communication involves the dynamic interdependence of participants, the constant tension and continuity of the process, which results in the consolidation of spiritual and didactic principles of believers. Linguistically, it is represented by a number of grammatical phenomena shared by the homilies in question, which include formulaic initial addresses of the preacher to the audience, numerical tautological or parallel phrases, alliterative constructions, deictic elements, etc. Anglo-Saxon priest’s “fatherly conversation” can be described in didactic and Christian dogmatic terms, the spirit and letter of which were especially relevant in the context of the old Germanic ethnic groups’ existentia at the beginning of the second millennium.

Ancient Sea Monsters and a Medieval Hero: The Nicoras of Beowulf

This article examines the nicor (pl. nicoras) of Beowulf, a type of aquatic monster that appears elsewhere in Old English literature only in the Letter of Alexander to Aristotle and the Blickling Homily XVI. These beasts that attack Beowulf during his swimming contest with Breca and that surround the mere of Grendel and his mother are unfamiliar to modern scholars in terms of their precise nature, being assumed in previous scholarship to be generic water monsters, or hippopotamus-like beasts. Other scholarly suggestions for their underlying influence have been crocodiles and whales. I argue, however, that the nicoras can better be understood as having been influenced by the ancient traditions of the kētos (pl. kētē), the sea monster par excellence of Greco-Roman mythology, which also occupied a prominent place in the Christian imagination. The nicoras in these three Old English texts can be understood, like the dragon of Beowulf, as fantastical creatures that were primarily the product of discernible ancient traditions, rather than generic beasts or purely monstrous versions of real-world animals.

APOCALYPTIC AND ESCHATOLOGICAL THOUGHT IN ENGLAND AROUND THE YEAR 1000

ABSTRACTThis article explores the ideas circulating in Englandc. 1000 about the fate of the soul after death, the afterlife and the Last Judgement. It looks at the discourse concerning these topics in the sermons of the Blickling Homilies, Vercelli Book and in sermons by Wulfstan and Ælfric, and argues for lively debatec. 1000 concerning the imminence of the End. It suggests that these texts, especially those by Wulfstan and Ælfric, should be seen in dialogue with one another, and argues that the recent revised dating of Wulfstan's apocalyptic sermons places them in relation to political and legal developments. It argues for a political dimension to this debate and highlights the responses of the king, Æthelred the Unready – demonstrated in diplomatic evidence – which suggests a heightened concern for his own salvation and for that of his family at this date. It places this royal anxiety not only in relation to ideas about the year 1000 and the End of the World but also in relation to the preaching in the homilies of Vercelli Book and of the Blickling collection concerning the fate of the soul and the higher standard of Christian conduct born by the wealthy and by those in responsibility. It concludes by emphasising the multiple and varied thinking about the Last Judgement in Englandc. 1000.

Acute accents as graphic markers of vowel quantity in two Late Old English manuscripts

The available standard accounts of Old and Middle English usually assert that scribes paid very little or no attention to vowel quantity. However, a great deal of what has been said so far about quantitative changes in Late Old and Early Middle English is based either on purely theoretical models, or on extremely questionable Modern English data. Surprisingly, except for a few more detailed studies on the peculiar orthography ofThe Ormulum, little has been done so far to analyse other orthographic systems from this perspective. Furthermore, as has already been shown in earlier studies, vowel quantity of Old and Middle English can be reconstructed to some extent on the basis of orthographic evidence from some manuscripts. Since use of the accent mark by some scribes is often associated with vowel length, the primary aim of the present study is to assess the reliability of the accent marks used in MSS Gg. 3.28 (Homilies of Ælfric) and William H. Scheide (The Blickling Homilies) as potential orthographic indicators of vowel quantity. The results of the analysis clearly show that the accent mark is one of those orthographic notations that can be extremely helpful in establishing vowel quantity in a Late Old English manuscript.

Two New Approaches to Exploring Monstrous Landscapes in Beowulf and Blickling Homily XVII

Two New Approaches to Exploring Monstrous Landscapes in Beowulf and Blickling Homily XVII

The “Palmtwigede” Pater Noster Revisited: An Associative Network in Old English

Extending a line of inquiry begun by Thomas Hill in 2005, this article uses attestations of palmtwig (“palm twig” or “branch”) and palmtreow (“palm tree”) across the Old English corpus to understand three strange uses of those terms in the enigmatic poem “Solomon and Saturn I”. Specifically, the vernacular collection known as the Blickling Homilies provides a semiotic narrative for the term palmtwig, which originates in a literal account of the palms used to honor Christ’s victory over death and culminates in a palmtwig that is given to Mary by an angel before her ascension, an object which takes on the illuminating and healing powers of Christ himself. The Blickling evidence suggests that in “Solomon and Saturn I”, the Pater Noster prayer is called “palmtwigged” because it is the same kind of charged, resonant object as the palmtwig of the Blickling Homilies. Both are metonyms for Christ. This work relates to recent work on medieval materiality and vernacular Incarnational poetics, as it explores the ambiguity and interpermeability among objects, words, and symbols as signs, specifically as they relate to the ultimate word of Christianity.

The Genesis of Books: Studies in the Scribal Culture of Medieval England in Honour of A. N. Doane by Matthew T. Hussey and John D. Niles, eds (review)

Reviewed by: The Genesis of Books: Studies in the Scribal Culture of Medieval England in Honour of A. N. Doane by Matthew T. Hussey and John D. Niles, eds Helen Appleton Hussey, Matthew T. and John D. Niles, eds, The Genesis of Books: Studies in the Scribal Culture of Medieval England in Honour of A. N. Doane (Studies in the Early Middle Ages, 9), Turnhout, Brepols, 2012; hardback; pp. 359; 23 b/w, 17 colour illustrations, 2 b/w tables; R.R.P. €115.00; ISBN 9782503534732. Scholars of Anglo-Saxon literature are indebted to A. N. ‘Nick’ Doane, who retired from the English department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2006, for his editions of the poems Genesis A, Genesis B, and the Old Saxon Genesis, and for instituting (with the late Phillip Pulsiano) the Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile project. This international collaborative endeavour aims to generate descriptions and facsimiles of every manuscript containing Old English. Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile has proved to be an invaluable resource, particularly for scholars based some considerable geographic remove from the original manuscripts. It is fitting that this volume should focus on scribal culture as it not only reflects Nick Doane’s own research interests, but also presents work facilitated by the project he shepherds. [End Page 246] Although the title of this collection suggests a focus on the scribal culture of medieval England more widely, it is substantially devoted to the Anglo-Saxon era and to vernacular texts, reflecting the principal research interests of its dedicatee. The editors, Matthew Hussey and John Niles, provide a well-structured introduction which addresses influential theoretical approaches to scribal culture in relation to Doane’s own work, before outlining the focus of each contributor’s chapter and its potential to stimulate new research. The arrangement of the book is very broadly chronological. The twelve chapters, some of which originate from a 2007 event held in Doane’s honour at the University of Wisconsin, range widely within the area of focus. Some essays present fresh perspectives on the best-known Anglo-Saxon vernacular manuscripts, while others explore more neglected texts or consider the consequences of editorial practice for our appreciation of scribal culture. The aptness of the collection’s title is apparent from the recurrent emphasis in all the essays on the potential of careful manuscript analysis to offer new understandings of the origins of texts and traditions. Michelle Brown opens the collection with a richly illustrated examination of relations between the Christian Middle East and the Insular world. Kathryn Lynch focuses on three charms for the mysterious ailment dweorh in MS Harley 585 as related performances, while Niles offers an elegant and persuasive solution to the principal interpretative cruxes of the Fonthill Letter and uses the problem posed by spor wreclas to illuminate the circumstances of the letter’s composition. In his chapter on the Blickling Homilies, Jonathan Wilcox considers the implied audience for the homilies as performances and posits Lincoln as a possible place of origin. Continuing the theme of manuscript and performance, Patrick Connor conjectures a relationship between the Exeter Book and guild feasts. The Exeter Book remains the focus in Brian O’Camb’s essay, which marks a shift in the focus of the collection from performance to textual relationships and manuscript stemmata. Studying the Exeter Book’s layout enables O’Camb to postulate the appearance of the exemplar used for certain sections, and to argue for scribal practice as the source of the echoing statements usually regarded as evidence of a gnomic wisdom tradition. The structure and arrangement of the Vercelli Book is subjected to a detailed analysis in Peter Lucas’s essay, contributing to the ongoing discussion of its origins. Hussey’s scrutiny of the Canterbury Psalter’s Old English glosses allows him to suggest the circumstances which led to their vestigial nature, offering insights into the scribal culture of twelfth-century Christ Church, Canterbury. Karl Reichl’s extensive chapter on the Middle English secular lyric, a revised version of scholarship previously only available in German, [End Page 247] gathers together the fragmentary evidence to chart the beginnings of the form and expose the milieu in...

Idle Lustas

The Exeter Book poem, “The Wonder of Creation”, named in the standard edition “The Order of the World”, is at the centre of the paper. It is a much-neglected Old English poem, yet interesting intellectually, and often difficult. Vanity is important in it, idle lustas “vain desires”, are central to it. There is more in it than the negative teaching that all life is vanity, for there is hope of a better realm. The temptation of Vainglory, the seventh Capital Sin, worthless glory, is a theme in Old English homiletic literature: the wish for false joys is a vanity. That is a theme in Cynewulf's poetry and in the prose of the Blickling Homilies. That a life of prayer and fasting enables man to fight the devil is a serious homiletic message. Our First Parents experienced unprofitable desires. Original Sin is mentioned in this paper, but not every healthy, hearty meal shares in that fundamental theological concept.

More on the Sources of Blickling Homily III

More on the Sources of Blickling Homily III

The Possible Relationship of the Beowulf and the Blickling Homilies Manuscripts

WHILE the specific literary connection between Blickling Homily XVII and Beowulf is often noted and well discussed, there has been some recent debate regarding the possibility of a codicological relationship between the two manuscripts.1 There are general paleographical similarities, namely a broad resemblance of a hand in each manuscript (as noted by Max Förster2) and the two manuscripts’ peculiar paleographical situation of having what appears to be a late tenth-century hand working contemporarily with an early eleventh-century hand,3 but the evidence of scripts alone does not make the case, and Kevin Kiernan's argument for the possibility of a link between the two manuscripts has been queried accordingly.4 However, an examination of codicological details—gatherings, arrangement, ruling, etc.—of a wider range of books suggests that the question of a shared origin for the Beowulf and Blickling manuscripts ought to remain open. Kiernan calls attention to physical similarities in the construction of the two manuscripts. As N. R. Ker describes, the fire-damaged Beowulf has leaves of c. 195 × 115–30 mm, with a written space, or grid, of c. 175 × 105 mm, ruled for 20 long lines in most quires, 21 lines in three quires, and 22 lines in one, with single bounding lines.5 Similarly, Blickling has leaves of c. 200 × 145 mm and a written space of 180 × 108 mm, and is ruled for 21 lines of text, with some sides bearing an extra unruled twenty-second line of text, with double bounding lines.6Beowulf is constructed mainly in quires of eight with two quires of ten (possibly with some other irregular quires),7 and while most of the quires in the manuscript are regularly arranged hair facing hair and flesh facing flesh, in the first quire and in all of scribe B's quires, all leaves are arranged hair-side out, while some others are irregular. In Blickling, the quires are of two, four, six, eight, and ten, usually with hair-side out, and yet there are several that vary from this practice, including one with all flesh-sides out, and other irregularities.8 However, Blickling seems to have been constructed using quire signatures, which remain extant or in traces at the bottom centre of the last verso in many quires. The Beowulf manuscript does not bear quire signatures. Thus, both manuscripts are similarly unconventional and inconsistent in physical structure, even as they both present very similar page sizes, writing grids, and ruling patterns, though differing in bounding lines and quire signatures.

RICHARD J. KELLY (ed.), The Blickling Homilies: Edition and Translation. Pp. lx+232. London, New York: Continuum, 2003. Hardbound 31.50 (ISBN 0 8264 6785 7).

RICHARD MORRIS's still standard 1874 edition of the Blickling Homilies (The Blickling Homilies of the Tenth Century (London: EETS o.s. 58, 63, 73, 1874–80; repr. London: Oxford University Press, 1967)) has for a long time needed updating. One of the most pressing reasons for a new edition is a technical one: in his 1960 facsimile of the Blickling manuscript (Princeton, Princeton University Library, W. H. Scheide Collection, MS 71), Rudolph Willard pointed out errors in Morris's collation of the homilies in the manuscript, since the order of the texts was corrupted when placed in their nineteenth-century binding. At a minimum, a new edition reflecting Willard's rearrangement is in demand, and one might reasonably expect a great deal more, given the great advances in the field, especially in the area of source-study and analysis: the edition of the Vercelli Book by Donald G. Scragg, Susan Irvine's edition of the homilies of Oxford, Bodleian Library 343, and Malcolm Godden's completed edition of Ælfric's Catholic Homilies all raise expectations of what may be offered in a new edition of the comparatively under-studied Blickling Homilies.

The Blickling Homilies. Edited and translated by Richard J. Kelly. London: Continuum, 2003. lx + 233 pp. $85.00 cloth.

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Eve in Anglo-Saxon Retellings of the Harrowing of Hell

A spate of recent articles attests to a growing interest in Eve in criticism of Old English literature. However, these same articles demonstrate the narrowness of this interest, as they all focus on Eve in one poem — Genesis B — which is not even an entire poem, but rather a small (albeit significant) interpolation into another poem. Other Old English writings have been little studied: in particular, several prominent occurrences of Eve during the Harrowing of Hell survive in the Old English Martyrology; Blickling Homily 7; a homily De descensu Christi ad inferos in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Junius 121; and the poem Christ and Satan, but have received little comment. In each of these texts Eve supplicates Christ when he descends into hell to free the souls of the biblical patriarchs and prophets after his crucifixion; furthermore, six Old English homilies record Eve's appearance during the Harrowing, although not her active involvement. The Evangelium Nicodemi most fully describes the Harrowing of Hell; Eve's appearance within these texts, however, does not derive from this apocryphon. Moreover, while these episodes incorporate ideas drawn from patristic exegesis, they do not derive directly from patristic writings either; nevertheless, Eve's role in these texts may be an Anglo-Saxon modification of the patristic contrast between Eve and Mary, whereby Eve is portrayed as a type of Mary instead of as her antithesis.

Homiliaries and preaching in Anglo-Saxon England

This chapter focuses on the three principal early collections such as the Blickling Homilies, the Vercelli Book, and the two series of Catholic Homilies by AElfric. It looks at the Anglo-Saxon homiletic collections, the ways in which they were used, and the readers and listeners for whom they were intended. A homiliary is defined as a collection of homilies, or texts commenting on passages from the Bible, that follows the order of the pericopes for the liturgical year. Homiliaries often include sermons i.e., texts that treat of a doctrinal or moral theme, or comment on the significance of a feastday, instead of expounding a biblical text, but the principle of arrangement, the cycle of the liturgical year, remains the same. AElfric's primary concern in the Catholic Homilies appears to be the lay congregation. Despite all the features that link AElfric's work with the homiliaries for preaching to the laity, there are others that draw on monastic homiletic traditions.

TWO NEW SOURCES FOR BLICKLING HOMILIES

Journal Article TWO NEW SOURCES FOR BLICKLING HOMILIES Get access R. MACG. DAWSON R. MACG. DAWSON University of King's CollegeHalifax, Nova Scotia Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Notes and Queries, Volume 14, Issue 4, April 1967, Pages 130–131, https://doi.org/10.1093/nq/14-4-130 Published: 01 April 1967

REVIEWS

Journal Article REVIEWS Get access The Blickling Homilies. The John H. Scheide Library, Titusville, Pennsylvania. Edited by RUDOLPH WILLARD. Pp. 72+300 plates. Textus Roffensis. Rochester Cathedral Library Manuscript A. 3. 5. Part II. Edited by PETER SAWYER. Pp. 44 + 236 plates. (Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile 10, 11.) Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger; London: Allen and Unwin, 1960 ( 1961), 1962. £36, £32 net respectively. NORMAN DAVIS NORMAN DAVIS Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of English Studies, Volume XV, Issue 57, 1964, Pages 57–59, https://doi.org/10.1093/res/XV.57.57 Published: 01 January 1964

Beowulf and the Blickling Homilies and some Textual Notes

Richard Morris, in editing the Blickling Homilies, called attention to a passage in the xviith Homily which presents striking resemblances to the description of the mere of Grendel in Beowulf, “of which [in his opinion] it is probably a direct reminiscence.” Though almost sixty years have passed since this resemblance was pointed out, during this whole period it has received scant attention from students of Old English, being either ignored altogether or dismissed with only brief discussion.

The Two Accounts of the Assumption in Blickling Homily XIII

Journal Article The Two Accounts of the Assumption in Blickling Homily XIII Get access Rudolph Willard Rudolph Willard Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of English Studies, Volume os-14, Issue 53, January 1938, Pages 1–19, https://doi.org/10.1093/res/os-14.53.1 Published: 01 January 1938

Notes on the Blickling Homilies. I. St. Martin

Previous articleNext article FreeNotes on the Blickling Homilies. I. St. MartinArthur S. NapierArthur S. Napier Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Modern Philology Volume 1, Number 2Oct., 1903 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/386600 Views: 14 Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Glenn Cahilly-Bretzin The Case of the Missing Birds: Thematic Reshaping in the Transmission of the Anonymous Old English Martinmas -Homily, English Studies 102, no.22 (Feb 2021): 180–192.https://doi.org/10.1080/0013838X.2021.1886677