Download or read book Anglo Saxon Myths written by Brice Stratford and published by Batsford Books. This book was released on 2022-09-29 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Enchanting tales of the gods, kings, and monsters that populated the Anglo-Saxon world. An atmospheric collection of 30 folk tales exploring stories of cosmology, monsters, conflicts and courtship from the Seven Kingdoms to Middle Earth. This is an entertaining portal into a world overflowing with mythology, magic and all manner of beguiling creatures, which has inspired everything from the Lord of the Rings to Game of Thrones. The book is divided into 3 parts: Scop is a set of stories told by the Anglo-Saxon storyteller Scop, from the creation to the destruction of the world. It explores what remains of the gods and monsters of the Anglo-Saxon cosmology. Wreccan is pagan stories exploring self-discovery and development through exile. Variations of these tales would have told by the Anglo-Saxons themselves, including Sigemund's rebellion and the trials of Beowulf. Bretwalda stories revolve around Bretwalda the chief Anglo-Saxon king who ruled over the majority of the Seven Kingdoms. These stories reflect a period when both the old gods and Christianity existed simultaneously. Remarkable illustrations by Jesús Sotés breathe new life into these tales of the past.
Download or read book Anglo Saxon Myths State and Church 400 1066 written by Nicholas Brooks and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 1998-07-01 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this collection of essays Nicholas Brooks explores some of the earliest and most problematic sources, both written and archaeological, for early English history. In his hands, the structure and functions of Anglo-Saxon origin stories and charters (whether authentic or forged) illuminate English political and social structures, as well as ecclesiastical, urban and rural landscapes. Together with already published essays, this work includes an account of the developments in the study of Anglo-Saxon charters over the last 20 years.
Download or read book Heathen Gods in Old English Literature written by Richard North and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1997-12-11 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Heathen gods are hard to find in Old English literature. Most Anglo-Saxon writers had no interest in them, and scholars today prefer to concentrate on the Christian civilization for which the Anglo-Saxons were so famous. Richard North offers an interesting view of Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian paganism and mythology in the pre-Viking and Viking age. He discusses the pre-Christian gods of Bede's history of the Anglo-Saxon conversion with reference to an orgiastic figure known as Ingui, whom Bede called 'god of this age'. Using expert knowledge of comparative literary material from Old Norse-Icelandic and other Old Germanic languages, North reconstructs the slender Old English evidence in a highly imaginative treatment of poems such as Deor and The Dream of the Rood. Other gods such as Woden are considered with reference to Odin and his family in Old Norse-Icelandic mythology. In conclusion, it is argued that the cult of Ingui was defeated only when the ideology of the god Woden was sponsored by the Anglo-Saxon church. The book will interest students interested in Old English, Old Norse-Icelandic and Germanic literatures, Anglo-Saxon history and archaeology.
Download or read book Anglo Saxon Mythology Migration Magic written by Tony Linsell and published by Anglo-Saxon Books. This book was released on 1994 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a large format introduction to the Anglo-Saxon world, focusing on its spiritual and literary heritage. A large part of the book is dedicated to the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem, the most complete account of runic writing we have inherited. The runic signs and riddles which accompany each of them (presented in Old English and modern translation) are dramatically brought to life by Brian PartridgeAes evocative drawings.
Download or read book Celtic Heritage written by Alwyn D. Rees and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Bede The Reckoning of Time written by Beda (Venerabilis.) and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 585 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the patristic age until the Gregorian calendar reform of 1582, computus -- the science of time reckoning and art of calendar construction -- was a matter of intense concern. Bede's The Reckoning of Time (De temporum ratione) was the first comprehensive treatise on this subject and the model and reference for all subsequent teaching discussion and criticism of the Christian calendar. It is a systematic exposition of the Julian solar calendar and the Paschal table of Dionysius Exiguus, with their related formulae for calculating dates. But it is more than a technical handbook. Bede sets calendar lore within a broad scientific framework and a coherent Christian concept of time, and incorporates themes as diverse as the theory of tides and the doctrine of the millennium. This translation of the full text of The Reckoning of Time includes an extensive historical introduction and a chapter-by-chapter commentary. It will interest historians of medieval science, theology, and education, Bede scholars and Anglo-Saxonists, liturgists, and Church historians. It will also serve as an accessible introduction to computus itself. Generations of medieval computists nourished their expertise in Bede's orderly presentation; modern scholars in quest of safe passage through this complex terrain can hope for no better guide.
Download or read book Anglo Saxon Paganism written by Jamie Lang and published by . This book was released on 2021-05-23 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How Anglo-Saxons in Britain Understood their World 1,500 Years Ago When Anglo-Saxon tribes first settled in Britain in the mid fifth century CE, their beliefs, though varied and developing over time, were essentially pagan and polytheistic. The history of the ways in which the early English understood their world is told here in terms of both the character of specific deities they followed, and the broader nature of their pre-Christian culture. Key themes include the ways in which Anglo-Saxon paganism differed from Scandinavian (Viking) spirituality, and how early English deities compared to those of other early polytheistic cultures, such as the Greek and Sumerian. In order to better comprehend the pagan Anglo-Saxon mind-set, basic Germanic materialist philosophy is contrasted with aspects of ancient Greek idealist philosophy, in particular neoplatonism, and related changing perceptions of the goddess Hecate. Loki's role as an agent of cultural dissent and gender diversity is analysed, and differing views of life after death reviewed. Particular attention is paid to what the Old English Beowulf poem might tell us about English tribal foundation myths, and chapters on the uses of runes and the place of trees in pagan culture are also included. The author seeks to make a case that the early English revered the divine feminine to a degree not found in either Scandinavian paganism or Roman Christianity. As part of this analysis eight north European myths are adapted, retold in short story formats, and evaluated in terms of what they can tell us about important features of early English pagan belief. Early Anglo-Saxon ways of looking at and understanding the world were complex, sophisticated, diverse and pluralistic, and very different from 21st century belief systems. This book seeks to help us comprehend the thought processes of the early English living in Britain one and a half thousand years ago.
Download or read book The Waning Sword Conversion Imagery and Celestial Myth in Beowulf written by Edward Pettit and published by Open Book Publishers. This book was released on 2020-01-14 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The image of a giant sword melting stands at the structural and thematic heart of the Old English heroic poem Beowulf. This meticulously researched book investigates the nature and significance of this golden-hilted weapon and its likely relatives within Beowulf and beyond, drawing on the fields of Old English and Old Norse language and literature, liturgy, archaeology, astronomy, folklore and comparative mythology. In Part I, Pettit explores the complex of connotations surrounding this image (from icicles to candles and crosses) by examining a range of medieval sources, and argues that the giant sword may function as a visual motif in which pre-Christian Germanic concepts and prominent Christian symbols coalesce. In Part II, Pettit investigates the broader Germanic background to this image, especially in relation to the god Ing/Yngvi-Freyr, and explores the capacity of myths to recur and endure across time. Drawing on an eclectic range of narrative and linguistic evidence from Northern European texts, and on archaeological discoveries, Pettit suggests that the image of the giant sword, and the characters and events associated with it, may reflect an elemental struggle between the sun and the moon, articulated through an underlying myth about the theft and repossession of sunlight. The Waning Sword: Conversion Imagery and Celestial Myth in 'Beowulf' is a welcome contribution to the overlapping fields of Beowulf-scholarship, Old Norse-Icelandic literature and Germanic philology. Not only does it present a wealth of new readings that shed light on the craft of the Beowulf-poet and inform our understanding of the poem’s major episodes and themes; it further highlights the merits of adopting an interdisciplinary approach alongside a comparative vantage point. As such, The Waning Sword will be compelling reading for Beowulf-scholars and for a wider audience of medievalists.
Download or read book Toward the Gleam written by T. M. Doran and published by Ignatius Press. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between the two world wars, on a hike in the English countryside, Professor John Hill takes refuge from a violent storm in a cave. There he nearly loses his life, but he also makes an astonishing discovery -- an ancient manuscript housed in a cunningly crafted metal box. Though a philologist by profession, Hill cannot identify the language used in the manuscript and the time period in which it is was made, but he knows enough to make an educated guess -- that the book and its case are the fruits of a long-lost, but advanced civilization. The translation of the manuscript and the search for its origins become a life-long quest for Hill. As he uncovers an epic that both enchants and inspires him, he tracks down scholars from Oxford to Paris who can give him clues. Along the way, he meets several intriguing characters, including a man keenly interested in obtaining artifacts from a long-lost civilization that he believes was the creation of a superior race, and will help him fulfill his ambition to rule other men. Concluding that Hill must have found something that may help him in this quest, but knowing not what it is and where it is hidden, he has Hill, his friends at Oxford, and his family shadowed and threatened until finally he and Hill face off in a final, climatic confrontation. A story that features a giant pirate and slaver, a human chameleon on a perilous metaphysical journey, a mysterious hermit, and creatures both deadly and beautiful, this is a novel that explores the consequences of the predominant ideas of the 20th Century.
Download or read book Gods Heroes Kings written by Christopher R. Fee and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004-03-18 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The islands of Britain have been a crossroads of gods, heroes, and kings-those of flesh as well as those of myth-for thousands of years. Successive waves of invasion brought distinctive legends, rites, and beliefs. The ancient Celts displaced earlier indigenous peoples, only to find themselves displaced in turn by the Romans, who then abandoned the islands to Germanic tribes, a people themselves nearly overcome in time by an influx of Scandinavians. With each wave of invaders came a battle for the mythic mind of the Isles as the newcomer's belief system met with the existing systems of gods, legends, and myths. In Gods, Heroes, and Kings, medievalist Christopher Fee and veteran myth scholar David Leeming unearth the layers of the British Isles' unique folkloric tradition to discover how this body of seemingly disparate tales developed. The authors find a virtual battlefield of myths in which pagan and Judeo-Christian beliefs fought for dominance, and classical, Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, and Celtic narrative threads became tangled together. The resulting body of legends became a strange but coherent hybrid, so that by the time Chaucer wrote "The Wife of Bath's Tale" in the fourteenth century, a Christian theme of redemption fought for prominence with a tripartite Celtic goddess and the Arthurian legends of Sir Gawain-itself a hybrid mythology. Without a guide, the corpus of British mythology can seem impenetrable. Taking advantage of the latest research, Fee and Leeming employ a unique comparative approach to map the origins and development of one of the richest folkloric traditions. Copiously illustrated with excerpts in translation from the original sources,Gods, Heroes, and Kings provides a fascinating and accessible new perspective on the history of British mythology.
Download or read book Racial Myth in English History written by Hugh A. MacDougall and published by Harvest House, Limited, Publishers. This book was released on 1982 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Myths of origin enable people to locate themselves in time and space. They offer an explanation of the unknown and hallow traditions by linking them to heroic events and personages of the distant past. In addition, they form the ground for belief systems or ideologies which, providing a moral validation for attitudes and activities, bind men together in a society" writes the author, who in his interesting and solidly based short study synthesizes several generations of English and continental scholarship in a way that enables a broad readership to obtain a clearer recognition of those elements in accepted mythologies which both unite and divide men.
Download or read book Myth Rulership Church and Charters written by Julia Barrow and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2008 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together a number of essays written by leading scholars in the field of early medieval English history. Focusing on three specific themes - myths, charters and warfare - each contribution presents a balance of both sources and interpretations. Furthermore, they link the subjects: warfare was the predominant theme in Anglo-Saxon myth; charters are an important source for military organisation and can also shed light on belief and cult. Several of the contributions take a wider perspective, looking at later interpretations of the Anglo-Saxon past, both in the Anglo-Norman and more modern periods. In all, the volume makes a significant addition to the study of Anglo-Saxon England, showing how seemingly unrelated topics can be used to illuminate other areas.
Download or read book Water and fire written by Daniel Anlezark and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-15 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Noah’s Flood is one of the Bible’s most popular stories, and flood myths survive in many cultures today. This book presents the first comprehensive examination of the incorporation of the Flood myth into the Anglo-Saxon imagination. Focusing on literary representations, it contributes to our understanding of how Christian Anglo-Saxons perceived their place in the cosmos. For them, history unfolded between the primeval Deluge and a future – perhaps imminent – flood of fire, which would destroy the world. This study reveals both an imaginative diversity and shared interpretations of the Flood myth. Anglo-Saxons saw the Flood as a climactic event in God’s ongoing war with his more rebellious creatures, but they also perceived the mystery of redemption through baptism. Anlezark studies a range of texts against their historical background, and discusses shifting emphases in the way the Flood was interpreted for diverse audiences. The book concludes with a discussion of Beowulf, relating the epic poem’s presentation of the Flood myth to that of other Anglo-Saxon texts.
Download or read book Tolkien s Art written by Jane Chance and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2001-10-26 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: " J.R.R. Tolkien's zeal for medieval literary, religious, and cultural ideas deeply influenced his entire life and provided the seeds for his own fiction. In Tolkien's Art, Chance discusses not only such classics as The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, but focuses on his minor works as well, outlining in detail the sources and influences–from pagan epic to Christian legend-that formed the foundation of Tolkien's masterpieces, his "mythology for England."
Download or read book Elves in Anglo Saxon England written by Alaric Hall and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Elves and elf-belief during the Anglo-Saxon period are reassessed in this lively and provocative study. Anglo-Saxon elves [Old English ælfe] are one of the best attested non-Christian beliefs in early medieval Europe, but current interpretations of the evidence derive directly from outdated nineteenth- and early twentieth-century scholarship. Integrating linguistic and textual approaches into an anthropologically-inspired framework, this book reassesses the full range of evidence. It traces continuities and changes in medieval non-Christian beliefs with a new degree of reliability, from pre-conversion times to the eleventh century and beyond, and uses comparative material from medieval Ireland and Scandinavia to argue for a dynamic relationship between beliefs and society. Inparticular, it interprets the cultural significance of elves as a cause of illness in medical texts, and provides new insights into the much-discussed Scandinavian magic of seidr. Elf-beliefs, moreover, were connected withAnglo-Saxon constructions of sex and gender; their changing nature provides a rare insight into a fascinating area of early medieval European culture. Shortlisted for the Katharine Briggs Folklore Award 2007 ALARIC HALL is a fellow of the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies.
Download or read book Exploring the Northern Tradition written by Galina Krasskova and published by Red Wheel/Weiser. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides an overview of Heathenry, a modern polytheistic religious movement based on the ancient religion of the Germanic and Scandinavian peoples.
Download or read book Anglo Saxon Smiths and Myths written by David Alban Hinton and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
