Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-w79xw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-22T22:40:49.501Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 2 - Inventing the Anglo-Saxons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2020

Jeremy J. Smith
Jeremy J. Smith
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
Get access

Summary

In the previous chapter, it was claimed that a text’s formal features reflect contemporary ideologies, and that as a work is copied and recopied these formal features change to reflect shifting socio-cultural imperatives; texts are not only invented in the ancient rhetorical sense (i.e. inventio ‘finding’), but in the modern sense as well. This claim is well demonstrated by the transmission history of a work now canonical in Anglo-Saxon studies: the Old English epic poem Beowulf, surviving in London, British Library, MS Cotton Vitellius A.xv (part II). In addition to Beowulf the codex also contains a poem on the Biblical story of Judith, and three prose works: The Life of St Christopher, The Marvels of the East and The Letter of Alexander to Aristotle. The manuscript was copied by two scribes.

Type
Chapter
Information
Transforming Early English
The Reinvention of Early English and Older Scots
 , pp. 39 - 80
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×