Christine Rauer: Lecture Series on Old English Language and Literature

The Department of English Language and ELT Methodology cordially invites you to a lecture series by Dr Christine Rauer from University of St Andrews that will be held on 21–23 October 2024.

Beowulf and Mercia: The House Did Hold Both Ingeld and Christ

21 October 2024, 3:50–5:20 pm, main building of CU FA, room P111

Donald Bullough’s article, ‘What Has Ingeld to Do with Lindisfarne’, Anglo-Saxon England 22 (1993), 93-125, raises important questions about the reception of Germanic legend in eighth-century Mercia, with implications also for our interpretation of Beowulf. The materials discussed by Bullough seem to point in the same direction as recent analyses of Beowulf, especially those by Francis Leneghan, The Dynastic Drama of Beowulf and Neidorf, The Art and Thought of the Beowulf-Poet. These assign to the Beowulf-poet a very idiosyncratic way of reconciling Germanic and Christian motifs, in an almost euhemeristic way. We shall explore some of these important arguments in our seminar. We will also discuss possible positive and negative connotations which may be attached to relevant Beowulf vocabulary, in the various Old English, modern English, and modern Czech versions of the poem.

Old English Dialect Vocabulary: The Value of Older Scholarship

22 October 2024, 9:10–10:40 am, main building of CU FA, room P303

Earlier publications such as Franz Wenisch’s Spezifisch anglisches Wortgut in den nordhumbrischen Interlinearglossierungen des Lukasevangeliums paint a deceptively clear picture of the various dialectal characteristics of Old English texts. These are linked to assumed places of publication and a fairly static model of political relationships. The danger is that our argumentation will ultimately remain circular and may not lead to reasonably reliable outcomes. We will critically evaluate the assumptions behind this earlier scholarship, and make comparisons with more recent theories of dialectal change (for example those of Jacek Fisiak, Richard Hogg, Robert Fulk and Clive Upton) and with updated ideas of Anglo-Saxon political history (including those of Simon Keynes and Barbara Yorke).

Christian Dragons as Symbols of Paganism

23 October 2024, 2–3:30 pm, National Library (Mariánské náměstí), room 136

Christine Rauer’s Beowulf and the Dragon: Parallels and Analogues argued for a syncretic model of Beowulfian dragon imagery. What was not explored in detail in that study is the specifically Christian symbolism attached to dragon imagery, and its more wide-reaching implications for the interpretation of Beowulf. Recent scholarship has shed further light on the potential significance of pagan dynastic life in the poem, although more extensive studies still remain to be undertaken. I would like to outline a number of areas which remain underexplored, and point out some possible lines of investigation for other scholars working in related fields who may well be able to add a new dimension to Beowulf scholarship.