Verse and Virtuosity: The Adaptation of Latin Rhetoric in Old English Poetry

by Janie Steen

Overview

While there is little evidence of formal rhetorical instruction in Anglo-Saxon England, traditional Old English poetry clearly shows the influence of Latin rhetoric. Verse and Virtuosity demonstrates how Old English poets imitated and adapted the methods of Latin literature, and, in particular, the works of the Christian Latin authors they had studied at school. It is the first full-length study to look specifically at what Old English poets working in a Latinate milieu attempted to do with the schemes and figures they found in their sources.

Janie Steen argues that, far from sterile imitation, the inventiveness of Old English poets coupled with the constraints of vernacular verse produced a vital and markedly different kind of poetry. Highlighting a selection of Old English poetic translations of Latin texts, she considers how the translators responded to the challenge of adaptation, and shows how the most accomplished, such as Cynewulf, absorb Latin rhetoric into their own style and blend the two traditions into verse of great virtuosity. With its wide-ranging discussion of texts and rhetorical figures, this book can serve as an introduction to Old English poetic composition and style. Verse and Virtuosity, will be of considerable interest to Anglo-Saxonists, linguists, and those studying rhetorical traditions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442691308
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	05/24/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Janie Steen received her PhD from the University of Cambridge, and has taught at the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, and Leiden University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations

Introduction

1 Knowledge of Rhetoric in Anglo-Saxon England

2 The Patterns of Latin and Vernacular Verse

3 The Figure of The Phoenix

4 A Dead End? Judgment Day II

5 Through the Looking-Glass: Riddles 35 and 40

6 The Verse and Virtuosity of Cynewulf

Conclusion

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Steen provides a rich commentary on the complex ways in which Latin models have shaped Old English poetic style. Her book contains extremely informative and useful illustrative figures.—Year's Work in English Studies, vol 89:01:10

From the Publisher

Steen provides a rich commentary on the complex ways in which Latin models have shaped Old English poetic style. Her book contains extremely informative and useful illustrative figures.

Year's Work in English Studies