Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf-Manuscript

Description

Monsters and the monstrous, whether from the remote pagan past or the new world of Christian Latin learning, haunted the Anglo-Saxon imagination in a variety of ways. In this series of detailed studies, Andy Orchard demonstrates the changing range of Anglo-Saxon attitudes towards the monstrous by reconsidering the monsters of 'Beowulf' against the background of early medieval and patristic teratology and with reference to specific Anglo-Saxon texts. The immediate manuscript context of the monsters in 'Beowulf' is analysed, shedding light on the poet's treatment of the theme of the monstrous and its integration into his work, and a series of parallel discussions consider a range of medieval treatments of the same theme in a variety of analogous texts (all provided with translation), in Latin, Old English, Middle Irish, and Old Icelandic. The twin themes of pride and prodigies are suggested by tracing changing attitudes towards the concept of pride and establishing a close link between the proud pagan warriors depicted in Christian tradition and the monsters they fight, and with whom they become increasingly identified. An appendix contains new editions and translations (some for the first time in English) of the 'Liber Monstrorum','The Letter of Alexander to Aristotle', and 'The Wonders of the East'. CONTENTS Preface ix Abbreviations viii I. The 'Beowulf'-Manuscript 1 II. Psychology and Physicality: the Monsters of 'Beowulf' 28 III. The Kin of Cain 58 IV. The 'Liber monstrorum' 86 V. The Alexander-Legend in Anglo-Saxon England 116 VI. Grettir and Grendel Again 140 Postscript 169 Appendices: Texts, Translations, and Sources 173 Ia. 'The Wonders of the East': Latin Text 175 lb. 'The Wonders of the East': Old English Text 183 Ic. 'The Wonders of the East': Translation 185 IIa. 'The Letter of Alexander to Aristotle': Latin Text 204 lIb. 'The Letter of Alexander to Aristotle'. Old English Text 224 lIe. The Letter of Alexander to Aristotle: Translation 225 IlIa. 'Liber monstrorum': Latin Text 254 IIIb. 'Liber monstrorum': Translation 255 IIIc. 'Liber monstrorum': Sources and Analogues 318 Bibliography 321 General Index 343