Richard Fahey | University of Notre Dame (original) (raw)

Richard Fahey

Richard Fahey specializes in Anglo-Saxon literature and is interested in the relationship between Old English, Old Norse and Anglo-Latin literary traditions. While at the University of Notre Dame, Richard has taught courses through both the English Department (a medieval-focused survey course titled "Medieval Monstrosity and the Modern Imaginary") and Writing and Rhetoric Department (two multimedia sections titled "A Way with Words: Media, Rhetoric and Research"). Richard is interested in characterizations of heroes and monsters, especially in Beowulf and Prudentius' Psychomachia, and his dissertation is titled "Enigmatic Design and Psychomachic Monstrosity in Beowulf." Richard is blog manager and a contributor to the University of Notre Dame’s Medieval Studies Research Blog, and he is the editor and major contributor for the “Medieval Poetry Project” and other special series (such as the "North Seas" and "Monsters & Magic"), including two recent pieces which place Beowulf in conversation with current immigration policies and anti-media rhetoric. Richard is also the editor for a project featuring medieval translations and recitations, called The Medieval Poetry Project. Richard has two forthcoming publications, "Teaching the Beowulf-monsters" (in A Practical Guide to Beowulf) and "Decoding gerûni: Runic sacramenta in the Old Saxon Heliand" (in Old English and Germanic Continental Literature). In addition to his studies, Richard is currently working on an avant-garde theatre project titled Monsterbane, which is a modern and multimedia rendition of Beowulf, and the first act "Grendelkin" debuted at the University of Notre Dame in 2017.
Supervisors: Chris Abram, Tim Machan, and Leslie Lockett

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Papers by Richard Fahey

Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe, 2023

Scyld Scefing is often praised as a god cyning “good king” (11), who establishes a heroic encomiu... more Scyld Scefing is often praised as a god cyning “good king” (11), who establishes a heroic encomium in the prologue of Beowulf. However, on closer investigation, we will argue that the brave deeds of Scyld do not appear very different from Grendel’s fyrendæda “crime-deeds” (1001). We will contend that this parallelism has profound ethical implications for both the famous Scyld and the infamous Grendel, and the juxtaposition of the Scyld-episode and Grendel-episode serves to highlight their lexical and thematic similarities. In this article, we will challenge conventional readings of Scyld as an appropriative model of heroism in the poem. We will suggest that while Grendel represents a terror to Denmark, Scyld equally represents a terror from Denmark. In the violent world of Beowulf, heroes and monsters reign supreme, and both pillage, plunder and terrorize their neighbors.

Beer and Brewing in Medieval Culture and Contemporary Medievalism, 2022

The riddle tradition in early medieval England features numerous Anglo-Latin enigmata and Old Eng... more The riddle tradition in early medieval England features numerous Anglo-Latin enigmata and Old English riddles that center on drinking and drunkenness. In these riddles, the transformative effects of alcohol are characterized as both wondrous and monstrous. This chapter will place these respective early medieval English drinking riddles in conversation, especially Boniface’s vice-riddle on ebrietas “inebriation” (Enigma 16), Aldhelm’s Enigmata 78 (solved cupa uinaria “wine flask”) and 80 (solved calice vitreo “glass cup”), Lorsch Riddle 5 (plausible solved calix “drinking glass”), and Exeter Book Riddles 11 (plausibly solved wine “wine”), 27 (plausibly solved medu “mead”), 28 (plausibly solved winbelg “wine-bag”) and 63 (“plausibly solved fæt “drinking cup”). This chapter contend that the extant riddles from early medieval England that are concerned with drinking and inebriation display a range of attitudes when it comes to imbibing alcohol (from joy to horror). The chapter demonstrates a variety of riddling techniques within these Old English and Anglo-Latin texts, which are designed to obfuscate their enigmatic solutions. Finally, this chapter considers the rhetorical presentations and ethical implications of drunkenness in Old English Anglo-Latin riddles. This chapter argues that drinking-riddles from early medieval England destabilize conventional binaries (between the Latin, learned and spiritual on one hand and the vernacular, popular, and secular on the other) by showing respective examples of theological condemnation and festive celebration of alcohol consumption in both Latin enigmata and Old English riddles.

Old English and Continental Germanic Literature in Comparative Perspectives, 2019

This chapter argues for the benefits of comparative linguistic analysis between Old English and O... more This chapter argues for the benefits of comparative linguistic analysis between Old English and Old Saxon, on the basis that the two languages derive from Proto-Germanic, and considering the influence of Anglo-Saxon missionaries in the conversion of early medieval Saxony to Frankish Christianity. I will argue against conventional translations of the Old Saxon geruni as a synonym for the related Old Saxon runa meaning "mystery" or "secret." Rather, I will suggest geruni in the Heliand constitutes something more explicitly spiritual. Based on the lexicographical evidence offered by Latin glosses of the Old English geryne, this chapter will reinterpret the semantics of the Old Saxon geruni, and consider how the narrative contexts, in which the word appears in the Heliand, suggests an affinity between these cognates.

Blog Articles by Richard Fahey

Medieval Studies Research Blog, 2021

Medieval Studies Research Blog, 2020

Medieval Studies Research Blog, 2019

Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe, 2023

Beer and Brewing in Medieval Culture and Contemporary Medievalism, 2022

Old English and Continental Germanic Literature in Comparative Perspectives, 2019

Medieval Studies Research Blog, 2021

Medieval Studies Research Blog, 2020

Medieval Studies Research Blog, 2019

Medieval Studies Research Blog, 2018

Medieval Studies Research Blog, 2021

Medieval Studies Research Blog, 2020

Medieval Studies Research Blog, 2019

Medieval Studies Research Blog, 2017

Medieval Studies Research Blog, 2015

Sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in P... more Sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture and the Monsters & the Monstrous Area of the Northeast Popular Culture Association
Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Richard Fahey, Carl Sell, and Benjamin Hoover

Call for Papers - Please Submit Proposals by 30 September 2023
55th Annual Convention of Northeast Modern Language Association
Sheraton Boston Hotel (Boston, MA)
On-site event: 7-10 March 2024

Beowulfs Beyond Beowulf: Transformations of Beowulf in Popular Culture (Panel)

The Old English epic Beowulf remains an important touchstone for connecting us to the medieval past, yet it also has continued relevance today through its various transformations in cultural texts (especially works of popular culture). Our hope with this session is to expand our knowledge of these works and assess their potential for research and teaching.

Please visit our website Beowulf Transformed: Adaptations and Appropriations of the Beowulf Story (available at https://beowulf-transformed.blogspot.com/) for resources and ideas.

The full call for papers (with complete session and submission information) can be accessed at https://tinyurl.com/Beowulf-Transformed-NeMLA-2024.

Richard Fahey | University of Notre Dame (original) (raw)

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