| Paper 303-b | Attitudes towards War in Anglo-Saxon England: The Biblical Models of Genesis, Exodus, and Judith
(Language: English)
Lucrezia Pezzarossa, Department of English & Related Literature, University of York
Index terms: Biblical Studies, Language and Literature - Old English, Mentalities, Military History |
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| Paper 303-c | And They Called It England: Place-Naming and the Anglo-Saxon Emigration to Byzantium
(Language: English)
Rachel S. Anderson, Department of English, Grand Valley State University, Michigan
Index terms: Geography and Settlement Studies, Language and Literature - Old English, Language and Literature - Scandinavian, Social History |
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| Abstract | Paper -a:
Recent scholarship has raised the interesting possibility that, during the late 9th-century, the Anglo-Saxon migrations may have been deliberately re-imagined in an attempt to claim a common pre-migration ancestry for the Anglo-Saxons and the Danes. If true, this would have important implications for our understanding of social and political interactions between Anglo-Saxon and Danish groups during a period traditionally seen as characterized by ongoing Anglo-Danish military conflict. This paper considers whether it is indeed reasonable to claim that the Anglo-Saxon migrations were re-imagined with a view to claiming kinship with the Danish invaders.
Paper -b:
This paper will focus on the so-called 'battle-scenes' of the Old English biblical poems Genesis, Exodus, and Judith. Its aim will be three-fold: first of all, to show how all three texts, although markedly different from each other, express a similar interpretation of war as being determined by God. Secondly, some suggestions will be put forward concerning the sources of such a specific interpretation. Lastly, I will discuss how the biblical models elaborated in these poems heavily influenced the cultural understanding of the Viking invasions and the development of complex attitudes towards war during the late Anglo-Saxon period.
Paper -c:
According to the anonymous author of the Old Norse Jatvarðar Saga, a group of Anglo-Saxon nobles fleeing from King William's rule in a newly conquered, post-1066 England traveled south to Constantinople, and by their service to the Emperor there they were able to colonize a remote settlement, probably somewhere near modern-day Hungary, that they renamed 'England'. Rather than debate the historical veracity of this event, this paper will address this text's presentation of the act of naming a place of settlement for one's ethnic homeland and discuss the significance of this early example of a phenomenon more associated with 15th and 16th century new world exploration.
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