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Title Water and fire : the myth of the flood in Anglo-Saxon England / Daniel Anlezark
Published Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2006

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Description 1 online resource (x, 398 pages)
Series Manchester medieval literature
Manchester medieval literature.
Contents Introduction. Myth ; The Bible and myth ; The classical tradition ; Early Germanic tradition ; Replacing myths -- 'You see the water, you see the wood' : the Bible and the fathers. The Old Testament ; The New Testament ; Patristic interpretation -- A manifold mystery : Bede on the Flood. Audience ; Bede and the Flood ; Ark and Church ; Flood and baptism ; The Flood in history ; Flood and apocalypse ; Noah and Christ ; Noah the preacher ; The Flood and the foolish giants -- Learning the lesson of the Flood. Niall and Noah ; The Annals of St-Bertin ; Alcuin and the Vikings ; Alfred and the Flood ; Ælfric and the Flood ; Before the Flood : Noah and his generation ; The Flood in history ; The Church in the world ; Translation and commentary ; Eschatology -- Flood, covenant and apocalypse in Old English poetry. Genesis A ; Exodus ; Andreas ; The flooding of the city -- Planting Noah's seed. The genealogies ; Sceaf and Wessex ; Reactions -- Beowulf and the myth of the Flood. Creation to Flood ; Ancient work of giants ; Grendel's mere ; Grendel and the underworld ; Wulf's field ; The dragon ; Beowulf's death ; Beowulf and Andreas
Summary "The story of Noah's Flood is one of the Bible's most popular stories, and flood myths are preserved by cultures across the world. This book presents the first comprehensive study of the incorporation of the Flood myth into the Anglo-Saxon imagination, ranging from the works of Bede to Beowulf. Focusing on literary representations, this original study contributes to the understanding of the Anglo-Saxons' perception of their place in a universal history unfolding in the interval between the primeval deluge and a future - perhaps imminent - flood of fire, which would destroy the world. This book examines in detail a diverse range of texts which focus on the myth of the Flood, revealing both an imaginative diversity and shared tradition in the interpretation of the myth. On the one hand, the Anglo-Saxons saw in the Flood a climactic event in God's ongoing war with his more rebellious creatures, especially the foolish giants, while on the other they saw in allegory the mystery of redemption through baptism. Most striking of all is their invention of Noah's fourth son, born in the ark, from whom they claimed special descent. The author carefully studies a range of texts against their historical background, and discusses shifting emphases in the way the Flood was interpreted for Anglo-Saxon audiences. The book concludes with a discussion of Beowulf, where the Flood myth constitutes a sustained metaphor across the poem, and the relationship is explored between its presentation of the myth and that found in other Anglo-Saxon texts."--Jacket
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed June 8, 2018)
digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
Subject Christian literature, English (Old) -- History and criticism
Deluge in literature.
Christianity and literature -- England -- History -- To 1500
English literature -- Old English, ca. 450-1100 -- History and criticism
Mythology, Anglo-Saxon.
Floods -- Mythology -- England
Floods in literature.
BODY, MIND & SPIRIT -- Gaia & Earth Energies.
RELIGION -- Christianity -- General.
Christian literature, English (Old)
Christianity and literature
Deluge in literature
English literature -- Old English
Floods in literature
Mythology, Anglo-Saxon
England
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 1526129655
9781526129659