Anglo-Saxon historical imagination and preservation

• Main Author: O'Dell, Daniel Patrick
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2009
• Subjects: Medieval history; Religious history
• ISBN: 1109078226; 9781109078220

The authors of the late Anglo-Saxon period looked upon their pagan history with Christian eyes. That history tended to get altered in various ways that romanticized and in some cases Christianized that history. This idealized past is seen in most every genre of Anglo-Saxon writing from historical narrative to poetry. There were even elements of the pagan culture that these later Christian authors felt worth preserving. This historiographical thesis explores the ways in which the historical accounts of Anglo-Saxon authors employed a series of motifs to portray Christians, pagans, and heretics. It also examines the various ways in which Anglo-Saxon writers envisioned their history in Christian terms, and how they envisioned Christian history in Saxon terms. Finally, this work illustrates the way in which Anglo-Saxon authors deemed certain elements of their pagan era folk-culture worth preserving by examining charms, ritual and tradition.