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Pharaoh (Old English Poem)
"Pharaoh" is the editorial name given to a fragmentary, eight-line Old English poem on folio 122r of the later tenth-century anthology known as the Exeter Book. Genre Critical discussion has focused on the genre of the poem. It is preserved in a collection which also contains the Exeter Book Riddles, but is not technically a riddle in form, but rather a dialogic question about arcane wisdom, and is not traditionally counted among the riddles themselves. Other question-and-answer texts in Old English include the much longer ''Solomon and Saturn''. The poem bears a certain affinity to one version of the ''Ioca monachorum'', in which the question is posed how many the Egyptians were who pursued the Israelites, and the answer (1,800) depends on one knowing that there were 600 chariots (Ex. 14.7) and three men in each (according to the canticles in the Roman Psalter). One of the two damaged places in the text, Trahern suggests, may actually have provided the reader with the ability to d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire .... It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th century, and the first Old English literature, Old English literary works date from the mid-7th century. After the Norman conquest of 1066, English was replaced, for a time, by Anglo-Norman language, Anglo-Norman (a langues d'oïl, relative of French) as the language of the upper classes. This is regarded as marking the end of the Old English era, since during this period the English language was heavily influenced by Anglo-Norman, developing into a phase know ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alliterative Verse
In meter (poetry), prosody, alliterative verse is a form of poetry, verse that uses alliteration as the principal ornamental device to help indicate the underlying Metre (poetry), metrical structure, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly studied traditions of alliterative verse are those found in the oldest literature of the Germanic languages, where scholars use the term 'alliterative poetry' rather broadly to indicate a tradition which not only shares alliteration as its primary ornament but also certain metrical characteristics. The Old English language, Old English Epic poetry, epic ''Beowulf'', as well as most other Old English poetry, the Old High German ''Muspilli'', the Old Saxon ''Heliand'', the Old Norse language, Old Norse ''Poetic Edda'', and many Middle English poems such as ''Piers Plowman'', ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'', and the ''Alliterative Morte Arthur'' all use alliterative verse. While alliteration can be found in many poetic trad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exeter Book
The Exeter Book, also known as the Codex Exoniensis or Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3501, is a large codex of Old English poetry, believed to have been produced in the late tenth century AD. It is one of the four major manuscripts of Old English poetry, along with the Vercelli Book in Vercelli, Italy, the Nowell Codex in the British Library, and the Junius manuscript in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The book was donated to what is now the Exeter Cathedral library by Leofric, the first bishop of Exeter, in 1072. It is believed originally to have contained 130 or 131 leaves, of which the first 7 or 8 have been replaced with other leaves; the original first 8 leaves are lost. The Exeter Book is the largest and perhaps oldest known manuscript of Old English literature, containing about a sixth of the Old English poetry that has come down to us. In 2016, UNESCO recognized the book as "the foundation volume of English literature, one of the world's principal cultural arte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anglo-Saxon Riddles
Anglo-Saxon riddles are a significant genre of Anglo-Saxon literature. The riddle was a major, prestigious literary form in early medieval England, and riddles were written both in Latin and Old English verse. The pre-eminent composer of Latin riddles in early medieval England was Aldhelm (d. 709), while the Old English verse riddles found in the tenth-century Exeter Book include some of the most famous Old English poems. History Antique inspirations Riddles are an internationally widespread feature of oral literatures and scholars have not doubted that they were traditional to Old English culture. But the history of riddles as a literary genre in England seems to be rooted in an influential collection of late Antique Latin riddles, possibly from north Africa, attributed to a poet called Symphosius, whose work English scholars emulated and adapted. Aldhelm As the conversion of England to Christianity proceeded during the seventh century, Old English-speakers studied Lat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solomon And Saturn
''Solomon and Saturn'' is the generic name given to four Old English works, which present a dialogue of riddles between Solomon, the king of Israel, and Saturn, identified in two of the poems as a prince of the Chaldeans. On account of earlier editorial tendencies, the two poetical works, ''Solomon and Saturn I'' and ''Solomon and Saturn II'', have often been read as a single, continuous poem. They are considered some of the most enigmatic and difficult poems of the Old English corpus. ''Prose Solomon and Saturn'' The so-called ''Prose Solomon and Saturn'' in the Nowell Codex (the ''Beowulf'' manuscript) is a question-and-answer text dealing chiefly with issues of biblical or Christian lore. It shares much similarity with the later Old English prose dialogue ''Adrian and Ritheus'' and, later still, the Middle English '' Master of Oxford's Catechism''. Poetic versions Themes ''Solomon and Saturn I'', ''Solomon and Saturn II'', and the ''Pater Noster Solomon and Saturn'' in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ioca Monachorum
The ''ioca ''(or ''joca'')'' monachorum'', meaning "monks' pastimes" Walter Goffart, "The Supposedly 'Frankish' Table of Nations: An Edition and Study", ''Frühmittelalterliche Studien'' 17 (1983): 98–130, esp. at 128–130. or "monks' jokes",Charles D. Wright, "From Monks' Jokes to Sages' Wisdom: The ''Joca Monachorum'' Tradition and the Irish ''Immacallam in dá Thúarad''", in Mary Garrison, Arpad P. Orbán and Marco Mostert (eds.) ''Spoken and Written Language: Relations between Latin and the Vernacular Languages in the Earlier Middle Ages'' (Brepols, 2013), pp. 199–225. was a genre of short questions and answers for use by Christian monks. These were often on biblical subjects, but could also deal with literary, philosophical or historical matters. Although they could be straightforward, they were often riddles or jokes. They were probably used to stimulate thought and aid memory.George Ferzoco"Joca (Ioca) monachorum"in Robert E. Bjork (ed.), ''The Oxford Dictionary of the M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records
The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records (ASPR) is a six-volume edition intended at the time of its publication to encompass all known Old English poetry. Despite many subsequent editions of individual poems or collections, it has remained the standard reference work for scholarship in this field. History The edition was conceived by George Philip Krapp (1872–1934), who edited volumes 1, 2, and 5 while Professor of English at Columbia University, with the assistance of his student and colleague Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie (May 9, 1907 – March 23, 1970) was an American scholar of Anglo-Saxon literature who taught English at Columbia University. Early life Dobbie was born in Brooklyn, New York City, in 1907. Education and academic ca .... Krapp died partway through editing volume 3, and Dobbie completed this edition before going on to complete the series by editing volumes 6 (which came out in 1942) and 4 (which emerged in 1953).. According to Henry Wiggins, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old English Poetry
Old English literature refers to poetry and prose written in Old English in early medieval England, from the 7th century to the decades after the Norman Conquest of 1066, a period often termed Anglo-Saxon England. The 7th-century work '' Cædmon's Hymn'' is often considered as the oldest surviving poem in English, as it appears in an 8th-century copy of Bede's text, the ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People''. Poetry written in the mid 12th century represents some of the latest post-Norman examples of Old English. Adherence to the grammatical rules of Old English is largely inconsistent in 12th-century work, and by the 13th century the grammar and syntax of Old English had almost completely deteriorated, giving way to the much larger Middle English corpus of literature. In descending order of quantity, Old English literature consists of: sermons and saints' lives; biblical translations; translated Latin works of the early Church Fathers; chronicles and narrative his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
