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Images of Community in Old English Poetry

Hugh Magennis author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:24th Oct '96

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Images of Community in Old English Poetry cover

This book identifies key features of the audience or readership of Old English poetry in the late Anglo-Saxon period, and relates the interests of these groups of people to themes reflected in the poetic texts.This book explores ideas of community and the relationship of individuals to communities widely evident in Old English poetry. It pays particular attention to the context in which major poetic manuscripts of the late Anglo-Saxon period were received, a time when concerns about community appear to have been of special urgency. The book identifies key features of the audience or readership of Old English poetry in this period, and relates the interests of these groups of people to themes reflected in the poetic texts. Magennis analyses a wide range of poems and examines the imagery on which they draw, concentrating particularly on depictions of hall (including feasting and drinking), stronghold, city and landscape. In a poetry in which communal structures are typically associated with male ideals of warriorship and fellowship, the position and treatment of women is also shown to merit close consideration.

"...the book will be a solid introduction to Old English poetry for an undergradute or beginning graduate student." M.A. Dalbey, Choice

ISBN: 9780521495660

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 16mm

Weight: 500g

224 pages