Although the word 'hero' does not occur in Old English, the concepts of heroism and heroic virtue in Old English and early Middle English poetry have inspired a long and rich critical history. Indeed, these concepts have in many ways defined much of the criticism, particularly of the early period and specifically of Beowulf and The Battle of Maldon. Late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century scholars such as Levin L. Schucking and Friedrich Klaeber recognized heroism as central to the literature, and in 1958, R. E. Kaske defined heroic virtue according to the formula sapientia et fortitudo, as the 'controlling theme' of Beowulf. These concepts, however, are not static, but rather they change throughout the period and even within individual texts In each of the four texts that I analyze in this dissertation--- Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon, AElfric's Maccabees, and Layamon's Brut---crises arise to test the respective heroes. How the reader judges the hero depends largely upon how the writer responds to the sometimes problematic ethics of heroic action. Not only is heroic virtue an elusive concept to define, it also conflicts often with other ethical, theological, or political paradigms present in the texts. It is difficult, for example, for a poet to reconcile in a single text a martial ethic and a Christian ethic, or heroic pride and the Christian sin of pride, or heroic autonomy and the centralized power of kingship. This difficulty can create an ethical problem for the writer or an interpretive problem for the reader or the critic. A writer may encode in the text such ethical complexity, which will make it difficult for the reader to arrive at a consistent or comprehensive interpretation; however, the more didactic writer may wish to resolve any ethical problems and to guide the reader towards what he or she considers a proper or orthodox interpretation / acase@tulane.edu
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TULANE/oai:http://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/:tulane_27273 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Contributors | Halbrooks, John V (Author), Kuczynski, Michael P (Thesis advisor) |
| Publisher | Tulane University |
| Source Sets | Tulane University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Access requires a license to the Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest) database., Copyright is in accordance with U.S. Copyright law |
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