IMC 2007: Sessions
Session 301: Divination and Religion in Anglo-Saxon England
Monday 9 July 2007, 16.30-18.00
Sponsor: | MANCASS (Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies), University of Manchester |
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Organiser: | Marilina Cesario, Brasenose College, University of Oxford |
Moderator/Chair: | Marilina Cesario, Brasenose College, University of Oxford |
Paper 301-a | Reading Anglo-Saxon Charms in their Manuscript Context (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Manuscripts and Palaeography |
Paper 301-b | Incubatio in Old English Literature (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English |
Paper 301-c | Oftost on Tiwes niht: The Medical and Prognostic Contexts of the Old English Formation of the Foetus (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English |
Abstract | This session discusses Old English Charms and Prognostics. Works of kind, which are part of a well-established monastic tradition in Anglo-Saxon England, have been erroneously and superficially associated with magic and heathen worship, and classified as ‘folklore’, ‘popular superstition’, ‘monastic superstitions’, or ‘secular works’, without reference to the cultural context of the manuscripts which contain them. What needs to be recognised is that prognostics and charms appear alongside Psalms, homilies, Regularis Concordia, penitential prayers and scientific works such as Ælfric’sDe temporibus anni . The session speakers will address this conjunction, focusing also on contemporary connections between divination and religion. |