Kathy Lavezzo
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501703157
- eISBN:
- 9781501706158
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501703157.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This chapter examines the unstable geography of Christian and Jew during the Anglo-Saxon period through an analysis of Bede's Latin exegetical work On the Temple (ca. 729–731) and in Cynewulf's Old ...
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This chapter examines the unstable geography of Christian and Jew during the Anglo-Saxon period through an analysis of Bede's Latin exegetical work On the Temple (ca. 729–731) and in Cynewulf's Old English poem Elene. It takes as its starting point how Bede and Cynewulf tackle a material long associated with Jewish materialism, stone, in comparison with Christian materialism and descibes their accounts of the sepulchral Jew as well as the stony nature of Jews. It also considers how Bede and Cynewulf construct Christianity by asserting its alterity and opposition to an idea of Jewish carnality that draws on and modifies Pauline supersession. The chapter concludes with an assessment of how Bede's and Cynewulf's charged engagements with supersession and “Jewish” places contribute both to our understanding of Anglo-Saxon material culture and to the important role that ideas of the Jew played in such materialisms.Less
This chapter examines the unstable geography of Christian and Jew during the Anglo-Saxon period through an analysis of Bede's Latin exegetical work On the Temple (ca. 729–731) and in Cynewulf's Old English poem Elene. It takes as its starting point how Bede and Cynewulf tackle a material long associated with Jewish materialism, stone, in comparison with Christian materialism and descibes their accounts of the sepulchral Jew as well as the stony nature of Jews. It also considers how Bede and Cynewulf construct Christianity by asserting its alterity and opposition to an idea of Jewish carnality that draws on and modifies Pauline supersession. The chapter concludes with an assessment of how Bede's and Cynewulf's charged engagements with supersession and “Jewish” places contribute both to our understanding of Anglo-Saxon material culture and to the important role that ideas of the Jew played in such materialisms.
Stephen D. White
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300091397
- eISBN:
- 9780300129113
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300091397.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Anglo-Saxon / Old English Literature
This chapter examines the story of Sigeberht, Cynewulf, and Cyneheard to understand kinship and lordship in early medieval England. It analyzes the plot of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 757 and ...
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This chapter examines the story of Sigeberht, Cynewulf, and Cyneheard to understand kinship and lordship in early medieval England. It analyzes the plot of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 757 and argues against the claim that this story sketches a conflict of kinship and kingship, loyalty to family or leader, which many have likened to the stark tales of the Icelandic sagas. It suggests that modern readings of the story depend on the assumptions of nineteenth-century historiography and on readers' acceptance of its ideology.Less
This chapter examines the story of Sigeberht, Cynewulf, and Cyneheard to understand kinship and lordship in early medieval England. It analyzes the plot of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 757 and argues against the claim that this story sketches a conflict of kinship and kingship, loyalty to family or leader, which many have likened to the stark tales of the Icelandic sagas. It suggests that modern readings of the story depend on the assumptions of nineteenth-century historiography and on readers' acceptance of its ideology.
