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Papers by Daniel Donoghue

Choice Reviews Online, 2008

Anglo-Saxon England, 1986

The Metres of Boethius offer a unique opportunity to study the complex subject of Old English ver... more The Metres of Boethius offer a unique opportunity to study the complex subject of Old English verse syntax. They enjoy this distinction because of the unusual way in which they were composed. The versifier did not work directly from the original Latin metra of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy but from an Old English prose intermediary, freely translated from the Latin originals. King Alfred was the author of the prose translation and was probably also responsible for turning the parts of the prose corresponding to the Latin metra into Old English verse. Since a copy of the prose model survives, it affords us an opportunity to compare the two versions in order to judge the versifier's debt to the prose. He apparently followed it quite faithfully and without referring back to the Latin originals. In many verse passages one can find words and half-lines which are direct transcriptions from the prose. Consequently the Old English Metres are generally considered nothing more ...

Choice Reviews Online, 2004

Amazon.co.uk You will be given a thorough introduction to the Old English language phonology, mor... more Amazon.co.uk You will be given a thorough introduction to the Old English language phonology, morphology, syntax, and you will develop skills in translating short texts in. This innovative and intriguing introduction to Old English literature is structured around what the author calls 'figures' from Anglo-Saxon culture: the Vow, the Hall. Old English Literature A Short Introduction Ebook Free-Video. Old English literature sometimes referred to as Anglo-Saxon literature. Larry Benson introduced the concept of written-formulaic to describe the status of. Related to the heroic tales are a number of short poems from the Exeter Book Introduction to Middle English Literature: The Medieval World This innovative and intriguing introduction to Old English literature is structured around what the author calls 'figures' from Anglo-Saxon culture: the Vow, the Hall. Old English-an overview Oxford English Dictionary Exams Course.

DQR studies in literature, 2013

Much of the literary interpretation of Lawman's Brut has been directed to the major actors wh... more Much of the literary interpretation of Lawman's Brut has been directed to the major actors who play out the grand drama of history, such as Arthur, or to issues of sweeping importance, such as the portrayal of ethnic or national identity. In this article I would like to change the focus from the powerful to the powerless, from the enfranchised to the disenfranchised; in particular to the ranks of the unfree. Lawman's adaptation of the anecdote concerning Gregory the Great's encounter with the Anglo-Saxon slaves in Rome will become a focus of the discussion. This anecdote has attracted considerable attention since Madden in 1847 and Wulcker in 1876 because it seems to be the only place Lawman's text may owe something to Bede's Ecclesiastical History,1 which is very likely "Ipn Englisca bokf makede Seint Beda" explicitly cited by Lawman in his prologue.2I will approach my topic from two contexts: first, the broader historical context of what the instituti...

Acknowledgements. List of Illustrations. List of Abbreviations. Introduction. 1. Godgifu of Merci... more Acknowledgements. List of Illustrations. List of Abbreviations. Introduction. 1. Godgifu of Mercia. 2. Godiva Emerges. 3. Godivaa s Progress. 4. Peeping Tom. 5. Godiva Domesticated. 6. Godiva Displayed. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

Reading Old English Texts

The Modern Language Review, 1994

University of Toronto Quarterly, 2007

Speculum, 1990

By Daniel Donoghue A central topic in the scholarship of La3amon's Brut has been the apparent inc... more By Daniel Donoghue A central topic in the scholarship of La3amon's Brut has been the apparent inconsistency between its verse style, in many ways reminiscent of classical Old English verse, and its content, much of which vilifies the first generations of Anglo-Saxon invaders in Britain and praises their enemies the Britons. Jorge Luis Borges, an admirer of Old English poetry and La3amon, sets this opposition in the strongest possible terms: "Layamon sang with fervor about the ancient battles of the Britons against the Saxon invaders, as if he were not a Saxon and as if Britons and Saxons had not been, since Hastings, conquered by the Normans."' He goes on to note how little we know about the author of Brut and the circumstances of its composition, and concludes by calling La3amon a "forgotten man, who abhorred his Saxon heritage with Saxon vigor, and who was the last Saxon poet and never knew it."2 Borges's quaint and unflattering portrait of La3amon has found little favor among other students of La3amon, who prefer to reconcile the discrepancy between his style and content in terms of irony. According to this view, any possible contradiction is neutralized under the unifying claims of nationalism, and the struggle between the noble Britons and the villainous Anglo-Saxons is interpreted as a temporary stage in the teleological movement of history toward nationhood, where the competing races merge into a united England. The higher principle of nationalism thus reconciles the irony of La3amon's use of an Anglo-Saxon verse form to disparage the earliest Anglo-Saxons. In place of Borges's naively self-hating Anglo-Saxon and everyone else's visionary nationalist, I propose an altogether different interpretation for La3amon and his poetic strategy. In this article I argue that there is no need to reconcile the style and content, because the disparity is consistent with an ambivalence toward the past which La3amon demonstrates throughout his chronicle and which can be seen as part of a wider cultural ambivalence in twelfthand thirteenth-century England.3 The players in his history (primarily the Anglen and Brutten) are defined not by nation but by race, and the unifying principle of his history is not nationhood but divine providence, as Borges, "The Innocence of Layamon," Other Inquisitions, 1937-1952, trans. Ruth L. C. Simms (New York, 1965), p. 161. My thanks to Professor Fred C. Robinson for this reference. A shortened version of this paper was delivered to the Southeastern Medieval Association Conference at the University of Richmond in 1988. I wish to thank Professors Derek Pearsall, Larry Benson, Nicholas Howe, Mr. Stephen Brehe, and the anonymous readers for Speculum for their suggestions and comments. 2 "Innocence," p. 162. 3 On the date of composition see E. G. Stanley, "The Date of La3amon's 'Brut,"' Notes & Queries 213 (1968), 85-88, where he argues for the limits from "1189 to some time not very early in the second half of the thirteenth century" (p. 88).

English Language and Linguistics, 2013

Choice Reviews Online, 2008

Anglo-Saxon England, 1986

The Metres of Boethius offer a unique opportunity to study the complex subject of Old English ver... more The Metres of Boethius offer a unique opportunity to study the complex subject of Old English verse syntax. They enjoy this distinction because of the unusual way in which they were composed. The versifier did not work directly from the original Latin metra of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy but from an Old English prose intermediary, freely translated from the Latin originals. King Alfred was the author of the prose translation and was probably also responsible for turning the parts of the prose corresponding to the Latin metra into Old English verse. Since a copy of the prose model survives, it affords us an opportunity to compare the two versions in order to judge the versifier's debt to the prose. He apparently followed it quite faithfully and without referring back to the Latin originals. In many verse passages one can find words and half-lines which are direct transcriptions from the prose. Consequently the Old English Metres are generally considered nothing more ...

Choice Reviews Online, 2004

Amazon.co.uk You will be given a thorough introduction to the Old English language phonology, mor... more Amazon.co.uk You will be given a thorough introduction to the Old English language phonology, morphology, syntax, and you will develop skills in translating short texts in. This innovative and intriguing introduction to Old English literature is structured around what the author calls 'figures' from Anglo-Saxon culture: the Vow, the Hall. Old English Literature A Short Introduction Ebook Free-Video. Old English literature sometimes referred to as Anglo-Saxon literature. Larry Benson introduced the concept of written-formulaic to describe the status of. Related to the heroic tales are a number of short poems from the Exeter Book Introduction to Middle English Literature: The Medieval World This innovative and intriguing introduction to Old English literature is structured around what the author calls 'figures' from Anglo-Saxon culture: the Vow, the Hall. Old English-an overview Oxford English Dictionary Exams Course.

DQR studies in literature, 2013

Much of the literary interpretation of Lawman's Brut has been directed to the major actors wh... more Much of the literary interpretation of Lawman's Brut has been directed to the major actors who play out the grand drama of history, such as Arthur, or to issues of sweeping importance, such as the portrayal of ethnic or national identity. In this article I would like to change the focus from the powerful to the powerless, from the enfranchised to the disenfranchised; in particular to the ranks of the unfree. Lawman's adaptation of the anecdote concerning Gregory the Great's encounter with the Anglo-Saxon slaves in Rome will become a focus of the discussion. This anecdote has attracted considerable attention since Madden in 1847 and Wulcker in 1876 because it seems to be the only place Lawman's text may owe something to Bede's Ecclesiastical History,1 which is very likely "Ipn Englisca bokf makede Seint Beda" explicitly cited by Lawman in his prologue.2I will approach my topic from two contexts: first, the broader historical context of what the instituti...

Acknowledgements. List of Illustrations. List of Abbreviations. Introduction. 1. Godgifu of Merci... more Acknowledgements. List of Illustrations. List of Abbreviations. Introduction. 1. Godgifu of Mercia. 2. Godiva Emerges. 3. Godivaa s Progress. 4. Peeping Tom. 5. Godiva Domesticated. 6. Godiva Displayed. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

Reading Old English Texts

The Modern Language Review, 1994

University of Toronto Quarterly, 2007

Speculum, 1990

By Daniel Donoghue A central topic in the scholarship of La3amon's Brut has been the apparent inc... more By Daniel Donoghue A central topic in the scholarship of La3amon's Brut has been the apparent inconsistency between its verse style, in many ways reminiscent of classical Old English verse, and its content, much of which vilifies the first generations of Anglo-Saxon invaders in Britain and praises their enemies the Britons. Jorge Luis Borges, an admirer of Old English poetry and La3amon, sets this opposition in the strongest possible terms: "Layamon sang with fervor about the ancient battles of the Britons against the Saxon invaders, as if he were not a Saxon and as if Britons and Saxons had not been, since Hastings, conquered by the Normans."' He goes on to note how little we know about the author of Brut and the circumstances of its composition, and concludes by calling La3amon a "forgotten man, who abhorred his Saxon heritage with Saxon vigor, and who was the last Saxon poet and never knew it."2 Borges's quaint and unflattering portrait of La3amon has found little favor among other students of La3amon, who prefer to reconcile the discrepancy between his style and content in terms of irony. According to this view, any possible contradiction is neutralized under the unifying claims of nationalism, and the struggle between the noble Britons and the villainous Anglo-Saxons is interpreted as a temporary stage in the teleological movement of history toward nationhood, where the competing races merge into a united England. The higher principle of nationalism thus reconciles the irony of La3amon's use of an Anglo-Saxon verse form to disparage the earliest Anglo-Saxons. In place of Borges's naively self-hating Anglo-Saxon and everyone else's visionary nationalist, I propose an altogether different interpretation for La3amon and his poetic strategy. In this article I argue that there is no need to reconcile the style and content, because the disparity is consistent with an ambivalence toward the past which La3amon demonstrates throughout his chronicle and which can be seen as part of a wider cultural ambivalence in twelfthand thirteenth-century England.3 The players in his history (primarily the Anglen and Brutten) are defined not by nation but by race, and the unifying principle of his history is not nationhood but divine providence, as Borges, "The Innocence of Layamon," Other Inquisitions, 1937-1952, trans. Ruth L. C. Simms (New York, 1965), p. 161. My thanks to Professor Fred C. Robinson for this reference. A shortened version of this paper was delivered to the Southeastern Medieval Association Conference at the University of Richmond in 1988. I wish to thank Professors Derek Pearsall, Larry Benson, Nicholas Howe, Mr. Stephen Brehe, and the anonymous readers for Speculum for their suggestions and comments. 2 "Innocence," p. 162. 3 On the date of composition see E. G. Stanley, "The Date of La3amon's 'Brut,"' Notes & Queries 213 (1968), 85-88, where he argues for the limits from "1189 to some time not very early in the second half of the thirteenth century" (p. 88).

English Language and Linguistics, 2013