OETG 2016-17 wrap party

This evening OETG-ers of 2016-17 got together to celebrate a productive and experimental year. Thanks have to go to Beth Whalley for organising a speed-translation-editing activity, involving hundreds of strips of paper with various translation options, to be selected and rearranged into 'final drafts' of the poems. Of course, this being the OETG, 'speedy' editing …

OETG #8: ‘natural’ orders of society and environment

In the final week of  term we discussed one of the most well-known passages from Maxims I, lines 71a-80b: The extract begins apparently stating a list of eternal, cyclical truths relating to the turning of the seasons and the passage of time. It seizes the attention of the reader with its sudden change in rhythm. …

OETG #7: meetings of minds in Maxims I

Following on from that striking imperative to frige mec frodum wordum! (‘Ask me with wise words!’) we’ve met again to inquire into Maxims 1 up to line 22b, and there found some other meetings of minds: Eardas rume meotud arærde     for moncynne, ælmihtig god,     efenfela bega þeoda ond þeawa.     Þing sceal gehegan frod wiþ frodne;      …

OETG #6 — Speak your ferð: translating the ‘mind’ words in Maxims I

Translating the opening lines of Maxims I, one is immediately struck by the concentration of words relating to thought, the mind and intellectual activity. Since the maxim poems belong properly to the realm of wisdom and knowledge, it seems important to capture this vocabulary accurately from the outset. Three words/phrases designating the mind occur: ferð, …

Postgrad Forum #2 – Episcopal Exon – Lois Lane

At first Medieval Postgrad Forum of 2017, Lois Lane (History, King's) gave us a detailed insight into the Exon Domesday project that she has been involved with. The project is funded by the AHRC (2014-2017) and is a collaboration between scholars from the King's College London, the University of Oxford, and the Friends and Dean and …

OETG #5 — 4 December: one of three beasts

On our fifth session, we approached the poem's last ten lines. We attempted a different modus operandi on them: each of us had their way with all lines beforehand, and then we tried to assemble a cohesive translation. It was hard to ease the panther into silence, quite literally: a throng of men and beasts gathers …

OETG #4 – 22 November: The Fire-Breathing Devil

In the penultimate session this semester, the religious allegory of The Panther poem seems to come to a climax. In these lines, God, the ruler of mirth and joy, is juxtaposed against the dragon (devil) that is the origin of evil. One point of discussion arising from this section, and an idea that has intrigued …

Postgrad Forum #1 – Images of Iberia in Oswald von Wolkenstein’s poetry – Doriane Zerka

This Thursday, Doriane Zerka from the German Department at King's presented some of her research on Oswald von Wolkenstein (c.1376-1445). This eccentric polymath was a diplomat for the court of Sigismund I, a knight, and prolific writer. In his poems, Doriane explained, he retells his travels across Europe. Doriane's focus is on his poetry about …

OETG #3 – 8 November: intertextual suggestions

Upon the third OETG meeting, we tackled a passage of The Panther which presented us with a rather striking image of the ‘striking animal’. Lines 38 - 39, in fact, go as follows: These ‘three nights’ of the þeodwiga’s sleep cannot but prompt a parallel with Christ, and indeed the following lines do everything to …

Alfred Hiatt, ‘The “Anglo-Saxon” World map in Cotton Tiberius B.V (1): sources and analogues

Alfred Hiatt’s talk on 15 November at CLAMS concerned the map on fol. 56v of the Cotton Tiberius B.V (1) – its sources, its place within the manuscript, and, most interestingly, what the map can tell us of its makers. The map itself is highly unusual compared to other surviving maps from Anglo-Saxon England – …