<i>Genesis A</i>and the Anglo-Saxon ‘migration myth’

Battles, Paul

doi:10.1017/s0263675100002404

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Some recent studies offer more nuanced perspectives on Genesis A, which show that generically "Christian" or "Germanic" motifs can in fact point to specific cultural and exegetical backgrounds. Paul Battles identifies the "Anglo-Saxon migration myth" as an important narrative element within the supposedly purely biblical Babel episode: 15 the poem departs from traditional exegesis by introducing an account of purposeful migration, underlined by the repetition of the phrase "tofaran sceolde […] on landsocne" (ll. 1664-1665; should scatter … in search of land), "toforan þa […] on landsocne" (ll.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to Battles, the narrative recalls the Anglo-Saxon migration to Britain and situates "the Anglo-Saxons' immediate, regional-tribal history within the larger framework of universal Christian history." 16 It is important to recognize this culturally specific process, especially since "the power of the vernacular to unite scriptural and ancestral history" was already described in relation to the Old English Exodus by Nicholas Howe in 1989. 17 Equally, we must be careful of supposedly purely "Germanic" episodes, as Andy Orchard's defense of a doctrinal reading of Abraham's victory in the War of Nine Kings shows.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Beyond “Germanic” and “Christian” Monoliths: Revisiting Old English and Old Saxon Biblical Epics

Angerer¹

2021

The Journal of English and Germanic Philology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The notion of early medieval vernacular biblical epics, such as the Old English Genesis poems or the Old Saxon Heliand, as a meeting ground for the teachings of the Bible and the Germanic world has long been a staple of criticism. There are countless analyses arguing either for the "Germanization" of Christianity or the "Christianization" of Germanic, or "heroic," motifs in these texts; yet such an approach tends to suffer from a lack of reflection on what is imagined to be "Germanic" or, indeed, "Christian." 1 Too often, thematic studies are based on the assumption of a homogenous "Germanic" or "Christian" tradition from which a text derives, 2 and even very recent scholarship is still too dependent on binary and mutually exclusive categories. To identify certain components of a text as either "Christian" or "Germanic" is to underestimate the extent to which an image can fuse "Christian" or "Germanic" elements in order to draw on multiple resonances. Only a more inclusive view allows us to explore the emphases of a specific narrative structure in its particular context: texts that are both Germanic and Christian can take very different forms.A new approach is needed to explicitly trace parallels and fundamental differences between poems in different styles and from different literary traditions. This heterogeneity in both theological focus and traditional Germanic influences is amply illustrated by the Old English poems on Genesis, contained in MS Junius 11, and the poetic corpus of Old Saxon, a closely related Germanic language. The poem commonly called Genesis B, a transliteration from the Old Saxon interpolated into the longer Old English Genesis A, is substantially different in narrative focus from the Old English text. Together with the surviving fragments of its Old Saxon antecedent, it does, however, show a certain affinity with the ninth-century Old Saxon gospel harmony which J. A. Schmeller, its first editor, named after its central figure, the Heliand. As shall be shown, all of these texts in alliterative meter may legitimately,

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%