Alfred the Ætheling and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Poem

Inna Matyushina

doi:10.28995/2686-7249-2015-7-83-121

Alfred the Ætheling and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Poem

Inna Matyushina

https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2015-7-83-121

Full Text:

Abstract

The article is devoted to one of the poems of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which is little read and less commented upon. The meaning of the poem on the death of Alfred the Ætheling, the brother of king Edward the Confessor, which is included into the Abingdon and Worcester manuscripts for the year 1036, is reconstructed on the basis of comparison with the later sources of the 11^th-12^th centuries. The analysis of the poem shows that its rhythmical, sound, lexical and syntactic organization goes back not to the Western-Germanic tradition of alliterative verse but to the hagiographical and homiletic tradition recorded in the rhythmical and alliterative prose of Wulfstan and Ælfric. An attempt is made to show that the compiler of the Chronicle composed the poem on the death of Alfred following the example of an earlier rhythmical text on the death of Edward the Martyr included into the Peterborough manuscript as an annal for the year 978.

Keywords

Англосаксонская хроника, аллитерационный стих, гомилетическая проза, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, alliterative verse, homiletic prose,

About the Author

Inna Matyushina

Russian State University for the Humanities
Russian Federation

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Supplementary files

For citation: Matyushina I. Alfred the Ætheling and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Poem. RSUH/RGGU Bulletin: “Literary Teory. Linguistics. Cultural Studies”, Series. 2015;(7):83-121. https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2015-7-83-121

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