Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T00:40:35.305Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Discretio spirituum and The Whale

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2013

Jeremy DeAngelo
Jeremy DeAngelo*
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This piece identifies an extension to the lesson of the Exeter Book poem The Whale. The work not only admonishes its audience to guard against temptation masquerading as virtue, but also indicates how one may go about doing so. The selection of the whale as a subject places the poem within an extensive biblical and patristic tradition concerning sea creatures that was well represented in Anglo-Saxon England. Specifically, the allusions present in The Whale identify discretio spirituum as the essential skill needed to avoid disguised temptation, and point to Pride as the weakness most capable of leading Christians astray.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 42 , December 2013 , pp. 271 - 289
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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.)