Francis Leneghan

The Dynastic Drama of Beowulf (eBook, PDF)

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

A strikingly original approach to Beowulf, linking its structure to the dynastic life-cycle.

The original audience of Beowulf was steeped in ancient Scandinavian royal legend. But for modern readers of the poem, these traditions are frustratingly obscure and confusing.
This book argues that Beowulf is adynastic drama centred on the fortunes of three great royal houses, the Scyldings, Scylfings and Hrethlings. At the centre of the poem is the Geatish hero, whose adventures provide the link between these three dynasties. By unravelling the web of Scandinavian royal legends known to the work's original audience, the volume allows the modern reader to appreciate better the role of the monsters as portents of dynastic and national crises. It begins by offering a new interpretation of the work's structure based on the principle of the dynastic life-cycle, providing explanations for features of the poem that have never been satisfactorily explained, most famously its many digressions and episodes. Highlighting the work's often-overlooked originality, it then proposes that the poet created a fictionalized monster-slaying hero and inserted him into royal legend in order to dramatize specific moments of dynastic crisis. Finally, it brings into focus the poet's debt to biblical paradigms of kingship and considers how the Anglo-Saxons came to read Beowulf as their own Book of Kings.

FRANCIS LENEGHAN is Associate Professorof Old English at The University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Cross College.

---

Dieser Download kann aus rechtlichen Gründen nur mit Rechnungsadresse in A, D ausgeliefert werden.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: The American University in Cairo Press
• Seitenzahl: 323
• Erscheinungstermin: 20. März 2020
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781787446786
• Artikelnr.: 63205024

Autorenporträt

FRANCIS LENEGHAN is Associate Professorof Old English at The University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Cross College.

Inhaltsangabe

Family Trees: The Dynasties of Beowulf Dramatis Personae Introduction:
Reading Beowulf as a Book of Kings Chapter One: The Dynastic Life-Cycle and
the Structure of the Poem Chapter Two: Shaping the Dynastic Drama Chapter
Three: The Role of the Monsters in the Dynastic Drama Chapter Four:
Beowulf and Biblical Kingship Conclusion: Reading the Dynastic Drama in
Anglo-Saxon England Appendices Bibliography