Crux christi/cristes rod: Interpreting the Anglo -Saxon cross.
Item
-
Title
-
Crux christi/cristes rod: Interpreting the Anglo -Saxon cross.
-
Identifier
-
AAI3083714
-
identifier
-
3083714
-
Creator
-
Vaccaro, Christopher T.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: E. Gordon Whatley
-
Date
-
2003
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Literature, Medieval | Religion, General | Literature, English
-
Abstract
-
Few images garnered as much attention and occupied as much of the Anglo-Saxon imagination as that of Christ's cross. This project constructs a hermeneutic apparatus by which to better understand the cross through the assemblage of literary works dating from the late eighth to mid-eleventh century. In its methodology, it combines contemporary critical approaches alongside close comparisons of textual source material. Anglo-Latin and Old English texts, excepting the Dream of the Rood, are situated in the context of the Latin tradition beginning with Jerome's Vulgate Bible and continuing up to the literature that comprised the early English liturgical and devotional corpus. The analysis brings to the fore three core-properties associated with the cross: compunction, fecundity, and apotropaism. These categories, much as the chapters that examine them, are distinct but overlapping. Through an examination of various influential hymns and homilies, Chapter One establishes the place of these properties within the tradition of the early medieval Church. Chapter Two examines the influence of this tradition on the devotional anthologies of the ninth through eleventh centuries and provides, by means of an appendix, a working edition of Anglo-Latin, Old English, and macaronic prayers, some of which have not been edited or translated in a published edition. Chapter Three explores a nexus of inseparable themes utilizing Cynewulf's Elene to bring to relief the cross's penitential attributes. Compunction, victory, and conversion come together in this powerful reflection on the cross's ability to save a penitent sinner. The complex interpretive possibilities available to the Anglo-Saxons become clear in Chapter Four which situates its analysis within the context of "popular" Christianity. Employing a field-remedy and a riddle, the chapter sees the fecundity of the cross as essential to the health of the Anglo-Saxon community. Finally, Chapter Five locates an apotropaic presence within the arrangement of the British Library Cotton Tiberius A. iii manuscript and highlights significant verbal echoes in a treatment of the Good Friday service, a set of cross-prayers and a vernacular life of Saint Margaret. Overall, the project's innovation lies in its synthesis and analysis of a broad range of material hitherto not considered together.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
