Overview

Decisive argument on the issues under review by one of the leading Anglo-Saxon scholars. E.G. Stanley has an international reputation as a leading Anglo-Saxonist, and his perceptive and original contributions to the field continue to be sought after by Anglo-Saxon scholars. The two topics included in this book are just such studies. `The Search for Anglo-Saxon Paganism' traces an attitude among writers on Anglo-Saxon literature which exalts whatever is primitive and supposedly pagan or crypto-pagan in the surviving Old English texts of the early Christian middle ages, as demonstrated in the work of such luminaries as Jacob Grimm and J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as a swarm of minor figures. Students of Old English literature will find some of their cherished views on individual texts challenged in the process of tracing them to their foundations; but the book has wider implications as a case-history of how scholarly predilection becomes prejudice and orthodoxy. Although written some years ago, the arguments, with some updates and corrections, remain fresh and invigorating. The second part of the book deals with the search for trial by jury among the Anglo-Saxons. Its beginnings have been sought by some in Germanic legalinstitutions, by others in institutions brought in by King Alfred to whom much that is great and good in the governance of England was ascribed. The author argues that the idealism that characterized advocates of political and legal reform guided them to a few facts about the origin of jury and to many simplifications and errors in which the Anglo-Saxons appeared as shining forerunners. E.G. STANLEY is Professor Emeritus of Anglo-Saxon, University of Oxford.

Full Product Details

Author:   Eric Gerald Stanley
Publisher:   Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Imprint:   D.S. Brewer
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.001kg
ISBN:  

9780859915885

ISBN 10:   0859915883
Pages:   174
Publication Date:   07 December 2000
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Out of Print
Availability:   Out of stock  

Table of Contents

"Part 1 The search for Anglo-Saxon paganism: the romantic background; the English branch of the German tree; Christianity puts an end to the folk-poetry; ""Half-veiled remains of pagan poetry""; English and German views on the conversion of the English; J.M. Kemble; the views of the founders seen through the writings of their lesser contemporaries; English views of the late-19th century and after; stock views disintegrating Old English poems and finding Germanic antiquities in them - disintegration, the search for Germanic antiquities; the gods themselves - appearances veiled by Christianity, overt appearances; ""Wyrd"" -""event"" or ""fate"", norn or fortune, early interpretations of ""wyrd"", ""Wyrd"" in the Leipzig PhD thesis, Germanic fatalism accommodated in Anglo-Saxon Christianity, Germanic fatalism - a key to Anglo-Saxon melancholy, ""Wyrd"" - the mark of heathenism, fate and providence, metod, more recent pagan interpretations of ""wyrd"", ""Wyrd"" in ""Solomon and Saturn"", current views on ""wyrd""; conclusion. Part 2 Anglo-Saxon trial by jury - trial by jury and how later ages perceive its origins perhaps in Anglo-Saxon England: jury - this ""palladium"" of our liberties, sacred and inviolate; delivering the truth not the same as judging; guilt and innocence a matter of conscience; ""England's great and glorious revolution"" (1688), its debt to Henry II's revival of ancient institutions fostering liberty; trial by jury not a proto-Germanic nor perhaps an Anglo-Saxon institution, but what of the 12 leading thegns of the wapentake? why promulgated at Wantage? the 12 of the wapentake probably an institution for the Danelaw only; trial by jury perceived as ""the palladium of our liberties""."

Reviews

Stanley casts a suspicious eye on the romanticised constructs of previous writers and revisitis the sources to examine what is actually present in the materials themselves. SPECULUM Appealingly edited, meticulously researched... An important contribution (to the subject). ANGLIA

Stanley casts a suspicious eye on the romanticised constructs of previous writers and revisitis the Stanley casts a suspicious eye on the romanticised constructs of previous writers and revisitis the sources to examine what is actually present in the materials themselves. SPECULUM

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