The Wife 's Lament from the Exeter Book has attracted much notice and speculation due to its mysterious origin and its narrator, who represents one of the few female voices surviving from the Anglo-Saxon period. Many scholars speculate that this work is related to The Husband's Message, another piece of equal length and similar subject matter from the same codex. I propose that the two works were originally symmetrical halves to a single work, in the form of a complaint and reply designed to represent the biblical metaphor of the Church as the Bride of Christ. Extensive parallels to biblical writings as well as to medieval theology suggest that the Wife of The Wife's Lament was intended to personify the voice of the waiting Church between Christ's ascension and his apocalyptic return. Similarly, The Husband's Message seems to embody Christ's promise of return and of the coming of the Kingdom of God: words of encouragement to the Church in her suffering. These voices echo the allegory of Christ the Bridegroom found throughout the Old and New Testaments, especially (in the medieval conception) in the Song of Songs, and provide a context in which the structural similarities of the works become more persuasive. Finally, I postulate that the form of the original work derives from remnants of the ancient Scandinavian cult of Freyja still resident in the cultural consciousness of Anglo-Saxon society even after the conversion to Christianity. In comparing the two stories it can be seen that the Wife's tone of lament echoes the mourning of Freyja at Freyr's seasonal death, and the voice of the Husband recalls Freyr's seasonal return with the spring. With evidence of form, purpose, and context, the argument for original unity accounts for the many mysterious elements in the two works.

x, 208 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / The scattered instances depicting material literature in Anglo-Saxon poetry should be regarded as a group. This phenomenon occurs in Beowulf, The Dream of the Rood, and The Husband's Message. Comparative examples of material literature can be found on the Ruthwell Cross and the Franks Casket. This study examines material literature in these three poems, comparing their depictions of material literature to actual examples. Poems depicting material literature bring the relationship between man and object into dramatic play, using the object's point of view to bear witness to the truth of distant or intensely personal events. Material literature is depicted in a love poem, The Husband's Message, when a prosopopoeic runestick vouches for the sincerity of its master, in the heroic epic Beowulf when an ancient, inscribed sword is the impetus to give an account of the biblical flood, and is also implied in the devotional poem The Dream of the Rood, as two crosses both pre-and-post dating the poem bear texts similar to portions of the poem. The study concludes by examining the relationship between material anxiety and the character of Weland in Beowulf, Deor, Alfred's Consolation of Philosophy, and Waldere A & B. Concern with materiality in Anglo-Saxon poetry manifests in myriad ways: prosopopoeic riddles, both heroic and devotional passages directly assailing the value of the material, personification of objects, and in depictions of material literature. This concern manifests as a material anxiety. Weland tames the material and twists and shapes it, re-affirming the supremacy of mankind in a material world. / Committee in charge: Martha Bayless, Chairperson, English; James Earl, Member, English; Daniel Wojcik, Member, English; Aletta Biersack, Outside Member, Anthropology

Entre la deuxième moitié du Xe siècle et le début du XIe siècle, le poème en vieil-anglais Judith est rédigée dans un des grands centres monastiques du monde anglo-saxon. Ce poème, basé sur le texte biblique du Livre de Judith, est le résultat de la rencontre du matériel biblique traditionnel et de la tradition poétique héroïque anglo-saxonne. De cette rencontre, surgit une œuvre célébrant l’histoire biblique et les enseignements moraux qu’elle porte, ainsi que les valeurs de la culture aristocratique anglo-saxonne et de l’héroïsme. Le poème Judith est donc un exemple fort d’adaptation culturelle du matériel biblique. Ce mémoire s’intéresse à cette question d’adaptation culturelle, mais plus encore celle de la coexistence de différentes traditions et références culturelles au sein du Judith. À travers ce mémoire, il sera question de déterminer la nature de cette coexistence, à savoir comment celle-ci s’articule-t-elle ? Est-ce que le poème présente un cas de hiérarchisation entre ces différentes références culturelles ? Ou bien serait-il plus juste de parler de pluralisme et de parallélisme culturels ? Finalement, qu’elle est l’importance du contexte historique du Xe et XIe siècle dans l’élaboration du Judith ? À la suite de notre analyse du poème et du contexte historique nous démontrerons que le Judith est une œuvre de parallélisme culturel où chaque référence culturelle est présentée sans besoin de hiérarchie. De plus, nous démontrerons que le Judith est le résultat des mutations de la société anglo-saxonne entre le IXe et le XIe siècle et de l’instabilité politique et militaire causée par les conflits entre Anglo-Saxons et Scandinaves. / Between the second half of the10th century and the beginning of the 11th century, the Old English poem Judith was written in one of the great monastic centers of the Anglo-Saxon world. This poem, based on the biblical text of the Book of Judith, is the result of the meeting of traditional biblical material and the heroic Anglo-Saxon poetic tradition. From this encounter emerges a work celebrating biblical history and the moral teachings it carries, as well as the values of Anglo-Saxon aristocratic culture and heroism. The poem Judith is therefore a strong example of cultural adaptation of biblical material. This thesis is concerned with this question of cultural adaptation, but even more with that of the coexistence of different traditions and cultural references within the Old English poem Judith. Throughout this thesis, it will be a question of determining the nature of this coexistence, namely how is it articulated? Does the poem present a case of hierarchization between these different cultural references? Or would it be fairer to speak of cultural pluralism and parallelism? Finally, how important is the historical context of the 10th and 11th centuries in the development of this poem? Following our analysis of the poem and its historical context we will demonstrate that Judith is a work of cultural parallelism where each cultural reference is presented without the need for hierarchy. In addition, we will demonstrate that the Judith is the result of changes in Anglo-Saxon society between the 9th and 11th centuries and the political and military instability caused by conflicts between Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians.