Welcome to the Medieval Reading Group
The Dream of the Rood and the Ruthwell Cross
September 28, 7-9 p.m
Possible topics for discussion include tension between heroic and Christian values, the crucifix as an artifact and as a character, dating of the poem and the Ruthwell cross, and anything you find interesting and wish to discuss further.
The poem is available in Sweet's Anglo-Saxon Reader, of which there are copies in the department library, central library or from 1W6 or 7 (at the owner's discretion!). Three articles, two very short and one longer, are also recommended to prepare for the session:
- Hilmo, Maidie. "The Ruthwell Cross: Images, Latin Inscriptions, and Anglo-Saxon Poem" Medieval Images, Icons, and Illustrated English Literary Texts Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004.
(Longer article. Available on request from 1W6) - Breeze, Andrew. "The Date of the Ruthwell Cross Inscription" ANQ 16:2 (2003) 3-4.
- Bammesberger, Alfred. "A Doubtful Reconstruction in the Old English Ruthwell Crucifixion Poem" Studia Neophilologica 74 (2002) 143-145.
Previous Sessions
May 10 - Medieval Reading Group: Chaucer's Wife of Bath and the recent BBC adaptation.
May 25 - Medieval Reading Group: discussion of selected chapters from Book I & II of St. Augustine's On Christian Doctrine.
June 1 - Medieval Reading Group: discussion of selected chapters from Book III of St. Augustine's On Christian Doctrine.
June 15 - Boethius' De Consolatione Philosophiae
June 22 - Boethius' De Consolatione Philosophiae Session II
July 20 - Romance: The Breton Lai
August 10 - Seduction, Power, and Dirty Talk in Sir Gawain
August 31 - The Old English Bede
Readings
On Christian Doctrine
- On Christian Doctrine - Table of Contents - IntraText CT
- JSTOR: New Literary History: Vol. 1, No. 1, New and Old History, p. [21]
- Robertson, D.W., Jnr. "Historical Criticism." Essays in Medieval Literature. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1980,
- Alan T. Gaylord - Reflections on D. W. Robertson, Jr., and "Exegetical Criticism" - The Chaucer Review 40:3
Consolation of Philosophy
- Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus. The Consolation of Philosophy. Book IV, Prose 6 "Fate and Providence."
- Copeland, Rita. "Roman Theories of Translation: the Fusion of Grammar and Rhetoric." Rhetoric, Hermeneutics, and Translation in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: CUP, 1991. 9-36.
- Fischer, Olga. "A Comparative Study of Philosophical Terms in the Alfredian and Chaucerian Boethius." Neophilologus 63:4 (1979): 622-39.
- Minnis, A. J. "'Glosynge is a Glorious Thyng': Chaucer at Work on the 'Boece'" The Medieval Boethius: Studies in the Vernacular Translations of De Consolatione Philosophiae. Ed. A. J. Minnis. Cambridge: D S Brewer, 1987. 106-24.
Romance: The Breton Lai
- Sir Gowther
- Belson, John B. "How much was known about the Breton Lai in fourteenth century England?" The Learned and the Lewed: Studies in Chaucer and Medieval Literature. Ed. L. D. Benson. Harvard English Studies 5. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1974. 319-36.
Seduction, Power, and Dirty Talk in Sir Gawain
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight — bedroom scenes
- ll. 1179-1310
- ll. 1469-1557
- ll. 1733-1875
Architecture and space, with special reference to three miracle stories of the Old English Bede
- Selections from the Old English Bede
- Miller, Thomas, trans. The Old English Version of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People Cambridge, Ontario, 1999.
- Biggam, C. P. "Grund to Hrof: Aspects of the Old English Semantics of Building and Architecture". Architectural History 45 (2002), 49-65.