La amon's 'Brut' between Old English Heroic Poetry and Middle English Romance

The two manuscripts of the early Middle English chronicle Laamon's Brut, British Library MS Cotton Caligula A ix and British Library MS Cotton Otho C xiii, display marked differences in their use of vocabulary. Whereas the vocabulary of the Caligula manuscript is consciously archaising, the lexicon of the Otho text is more modern. This study of the lexical fields 'hero', 'warrior' and 'knight' in the Brut chronicle investigates both the backward orientation of the Caligula Brut towards Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry and the supposed orientation of the Otho Brut towards the newly emerging genre of the Middle English romance. The results highlight the creative use of Old English models in both manuscripts and disprove the hypothesised close link between the Otho Brut and the romance genre.

Autorentext

Christine Elsweiler, degree in English and French linguistics and literature at the University of Erlangen in 2004; research visit at the University of Glasgow in 2005 to use the facilities of the Historical Thesaurus of the English language project as part of her doctoral studies; completion of her PhD thesis in historical linguistics in 2009.

Klappentext

The two manuscripts of the early Middle English chronicle Läamon s Brut, British Library MS Cotton Caligula A ix and British Library MS Cotton Otho C xiii, display marked differences in their use of vocabulary. Whereas the vocabulary of the Caligula manuscript is consciously archaising, the lexicon of the Otho text is more modern. This study of the lexical fields hero , warrior and knight in the Brut chronicle investigates both the backward orientation of the Caligula Brut towards Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry and the supposed orientation of the Otho Brut towards the newly emerging genre of the Middle English romance. The results highlight the creative use of Old English models in both manuscripts and disprove the hypothesised close link between the Otho Brut and the romance genre.

Inhalt

Contents: Looking backward - Läamon's Brut and the Old English heroic tradition - Poetic vocabulary - Use of nominal compounds - Alliterative clusters in the Brut and the Otho scribe's divergent poetic understanding - Looking forward - the Brut and Middle English romance - Cultural transfer in the Brut and the Middle English romances.