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Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis examines some projects of moral regulation, implemented by the agents of the church and king in the late Anglo-Saxon period, which sought to modify and govern marital conduct. Theories of moral regulation are analysed in the Introduction, which also examines Germanic marriage practices, as far as they can be recovered, and the Anglo-Saxon church’s inherited attitudes towards marriage. Manuscripts and texts are examined firstly as projects of moral regulation, and secondly as projects which attempted to alter marital behaviour. In Chapter 1, moral regulation is situated within the context of the Benedictine reform through the examination of one manuscript – Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 201 – as a case-study in the cooperative efforts of the church and king to regulate society. In particular, the legislative and penitential texts which are compiled in MS 201 bear witness to the tendency in late Anglo-Saxon England for legislation to be moralised, and for morality to be legislated. MS 201 also includes the unique copy of the Old English translation of Apollonius of Tyre, and the marital morality inscribed therein perhaps accounts for its inclusion in this predominantly Wulfstanian manuscript. In Chapter 2 the riddles recorded in the Exeter Book are interpreted as literary exercises in regulation. This chapter establishes the possible moral and regulatory agenda of the Exeter Book riddles by offering a new interpretation of, and solution to, one riddle. It also analyses the marriages made manifest in some of the so-called ‘double entendre’ riddles, which regulate the moral relationship following Pauline exegesis: emphasis in these riddles is on the sanctity of marriage, wifely obedience, and the payment of the conjugal debt. Conversely, Ælfric, in his Lives of Saints, idealises marriage as characterised by the absence of all sexual relations. In his Life of St Agnes (examined in Chapter 3), and in his Lives of married saints (SS Julian and Basilissa, SS Cecilia and Valerian, and SS Chrysanthus and Daria, examined in Chapter 4), Ælfric makes non-sexual, companionable, and loving marriage morally paradigmatic. Whilst both marriage and morality have been studied by modern critics, neither topic has inspired extended, specific study (with a few, notable, exceptions), and the nexus between these two topics has been hitherto unacknowledged. Although new, and often profound, insight is gained into Anglo-Saxon texts by considering them in the context of moral regulation, the morality they propose, as well as the regulatory process used to impose that morality, varies across context, text, genre, and author. This conclusion is also true for marital morality, Anglo-Saxon perceptions of which differed in each of the texts chosen for evaluation. This thesis does not claim to be comprehensive; nor does it attempt to synthesise attitudes towards marriage and morality, since a synthesis does not do justice to the richness or complexity with which this topic was treated. It is hoped that this thesis will provide insight into not only individual Anglo-Saxon attitudes towards marriage but also processes of regulation and social control, and, indeed, into the intersection between attitudes and processes.

As British Foreign Secretary from November 1900 to December 1905, Lord Lansdowne operated on a long-held coherent body of principles on which he based his foreign policy. Throughout his political life, in fact, he pressed for the renewal of an enlightened—if informal—‘Concert of Europe’ which he hoped could be implemented worldwide. His ‘policy of the entente,’ which reflected his belief in the efficacy of reasonable and ‘gentlemanly’ diplomacy to settle outstanding disputes, left him illsuited, however, to manage Britain’s position as a world power during this period of perceived relative decline. If Lansdowne did indeed have some innate talent for diplomacy, he aspired not to be the next Talleyrand, of whom he was reputedly a descendant, but to become an appropriately detached liberal-minded arbiter. He was the true gentleman-diplomat who, as enlightened reason dictated, always wished to play cartes sur table. In these waning years of the supremacy of British power, the marquis believed in an empire forged no longer through fire and sword, but through the example of free institutions, just administration, and the influence of English culture. He certainly believed that foremost it was these aspects of Western civilization that brought Pax Britannica to the Khyber Pass. In pursuing his ‘policy of the entente,’ Lansdowne presumed initially at least that his fellow European gentlemen would aid him in the higher mission of preserving civilization, and consequently, although secondarily to the Foreign Secretary, the status quo. This, however, proved not to be the case. Lansdowne was perhaps the right man to administer the empire, in much the same manner he dutifully tried to look after and maintain his great estates and care for his many tenants and servants. He was, however, not the right man to charge with its preservation and defense. Fortunately, his policy proved impossible to carry out fully. He received little cooperation from the leadership of other great powers, and in the end the path of British foreign policy was impossible to guide or engineer in the direction he wished.

When warriors fall asleep within Heorot’s decorated walls, they initiate a sequence of events that ultimately ends in slaughter and death. This pattern of sleep, attack, and death predictably appears in each of the monster episodes. Humans sleep and fall prey to an otherworld attacker, who eventually receives death as punishment. Interestingly, the roles of the characters are reversed in the dragon scene. Here, the dragon’s sleep exposes him to harm at the hands of a human, the thief, whose guilt is transferred to Beowulf. In this way, sleep designates the victims and the attackers, but it also helps the audience predict the judgment that will take place at the end of each episode. This judgment becomes specifically Christian when contextualized by other Anglo-Saxon accounts of sleep. As in these texts, sleep in Beowulf functions as a liminal zone connecting the world of the humans with an Otherworld. The intersection of these worlds in Beowulf follows the structural paradigm of the popular “Doomsday motif,” in which an angry Christ comes to earth to surprise a sleeping humanity. A study of the verbal and thematic similarities of Beowulf and Christ III best exemplifies this connection. Other mythographic traditions of Christian judgment within Anglo Saxon texts appear throughout Beowulf. Motifs of Christ’s second coming surround Grendel as he approaches Heorot, and his entrance echoes Christ’s harrowing of Hell. The fight in Grendel’s mother’s lair recalls redemption through water: Beowulf’s immersion represents baptism and the hilt of the sword which saves the Danish nation depicts the great Flood. Finally, the dragon’s fire and its resulting annihilation of a people, at least indirectly, resounds with apocalyptic undertones.

Texte remanié de: Doctoral thesis--Cardiff--University of Wales, 2000.

Texte remanié de: Doctoral thesis--Londres--University college, 2003. / Bibliogr. p. 187-202.

This paper consists of the different components of the introduction to “The Wanderer: a Hypertext Edition” presently housed on the server of the University of Saskatchewan’s Digital Research Centre. All the contents of this paper are available as part of that edition, although in a somewhat different format. This thesis contains two parts: the general introduction concerns the poem’s contents, context, and manuscript circumstance while the editorial introduction argues the rationale for this edition and the particulars of my editorial decisions. The editorial introduction explores how the single extant manuscript witness of “The Wanderer” has been inaccurately represented in transcription as well as the importance of transparency in one’s choices as an editor. The editorial introduction explains how this edition’s principles of transparency and interpretation over authority are based on clear objectives that were made after a survey of scholarly resources freely available on the web that revealed a great need for a freely available critical edition. These principles inform the edition’s rationale and specific editorial choices. The product of such an introduction is an edition that presents its editorial decisions in a transparent manner so that the user can distinguish between aspects of the text present in the document and those introduced by the editor.

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Chapter One describes Britain's nuclear and conventional defence policy towards the United States during 1957-1959. Britain's nuclear policy during these years was based on reconciling British independence with Anglo-American cooperation and cost effectiveness. The British government reduced Britain's conventional forces, but Britain's force strength In Europe had to be adjusted as the Americans began to support calls for a build-up of conventional forces in Europe. Chapter Two deals with Macmillan's policies on SKYBOLT, POLARIS and the NATO MRBM force during 1960. The British government was keen on getting both missiles from the Americans, aiming at a deal that would leave Britain with a maximum degree of independence for her deterrent. The Eisenhower Administration's support for SACEUR's NATO MRBM force proposals thwarted British attempts to get POLARIS. Chapter Three describes Macmillan's attempt at reconciling Britain's nuclear cooperation with the United States with British offers of military cooperation with France during 1961-1962. Such options were considered in order to prevent Britain's deterrent from being subsumed within a multilateral force. An Anglo-French nuclear alignment was one possible alternative to a more obvious example of alliance interdependence, a NATO nuclear force backed by the United States. In Chapter Four Britain's efforts to reduce her conventional forces during the years 1960-1962 are discussed. These efforts coincide with American pressure to build up conventional forces in Europe in the wake of the Berlin crisis. Anglo-American discussions over the conventional force strength issue culminated in the Nassau meeting of December 1962. The general British debate on future commitments and deployments overshadowed the coordination of efforts with the Americans on conventional forces overseas. Chapter Five describes Britain's nuclear relationship with the United States in the aftermath of Nassau. This centred on the drafting of a POLARIS Sales agreement and finding some common ground on the NATO multilateral force issue. On the former, the British position was challenged by American efforts at renegotiating the Nassau agreement. On the latter, the British government was divided over if and to what extent it should cooperate with the Americans on the MLF. The US Administrations under Kennedy and Johnson were only half-hearted in their support for the mixed manned multilateral force. Macmillan meanwhile remained hesitant about suggestions to embark upon a nuclear rapprochement with France. Chapter Six follows Britain's attempt to reach a decision on commitments and conventional force deployments during the years 1963-1 964. Members of the British government were inclined to look at the division of defence tasks between Brita n and the United States in areas outside NATO as another form of Anglo-American interdependence at work. During Douglas-Home's premiership, Britain's role in out-of-NATO areas assumed greater significance.

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