Research Catalog

Title

The waning sword : conversion imagery and celestial myth in Beowulf / by Edward Pettit.

Author

Pettit, Edward, 1968-

Publication

• Cambridge, UK : Open Book Publishers, [2020]
• ©2020

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xxi, 537 pages : illustrations (chiefly color); 24 cm

Summary

"The image of a giant sword melting stands at the structural and thematic heart of the Old English heroic poem Beowulf. This meticulously researched book investigates the nature and significance of this golden-hilted weapon and its likely relatives within Beowulf and beyond, drawing on the fields of Old English and Old Norse language and literature, liturgy, archaeology, astronomy, folklore and comparative mythology. In Part I, Pettit explores the complex of connotations surrounding this image (from icicles to candles and crosses) by examining a range of medieval sources, and argues that the giant sword may function as a visual motif in which pre-Christian Germanic concepts and prominent Christian symbols coalesce. In Part II, Pettit investigates the broader Germanic background to this image, especially in relation to the god Ing/Yngvi-Freyr, and explores the capacity of myths to recur and endure across time. Drawing on an eclectic range of narrative and linguistic evidence from Northern European texts, and on archaeological discoveries, Pettit suggests that the image of the giant sword, and the characters and events associated with it, may reflect an elemental struggle between the sun and the moon, articulated through an underlying myth about the theft and repossession of sunlight. The Waning Sword: Conversion Imagery and Celestial Myth in 'Beowulf' is a welcome contribution to the overlapping fields of Beowulf-scholarship, Old Norse-Icelandic literature and Germanic philology. Not only does it present a wealth of new readings that shed light on the craft of the Beowulf-poet and inform our understanding of the poem's major episodes and themes; it further highlights the merits of adopting an interdisciplinary approach alongside a comparative vantage point. As such, The Waning Sword will be compelling reading for Beowulf-scholars and for a wider audience of medievalists."--Provided by the publisher.

Subject

• Beowulf
• Swords in literature
• Epic poetry, English (Old)

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Inlcudes bibliographical references (pages [471]-518) and index.

Contents

Introduction : Beowulf, an early Anglo-Saxon epic -- Part 1 : Ice, candle and cross: images of the giant sword in Beowulf. The giant sword and the ice -- The giant sword and the candle -- The giant sword and the cross -- Part 2 : Sun-swords and moon-monsters: on the theft and recovery of sunlight in Beowulf and other early northern texts. Whose sword is it, anyway? -- Ing, Ingvi-Freyr and Hroðgar -- Freyr, Skírnir and Gerðr -- Lævateinn and the Maelstrom-Giantess -- Freyr's solar power and the purifying sword -- Freyr, Heorot and the hunt for the solar stag -- A tale of two creatures: the theft and recovery of sunlight in riddle 29 -- Another tale of two creatures: the loss and recovery of the solar draught-beast in Wið Dweorh -- The solar antler in Sólarljóð -- Grendel, his mother, and other moon-monsters -- The Sun in the pike -- Conclusion : Beowulf, an Anglo-Saxon song of ice and fire.

Call Number

JFE 21-183

ISBN

• 1783748273
• 9781783748273
• 1783748281
• 9781783748280

OCLC

1137850738

Author

Pettit, Edward, 1968- author.

Title

The waning sword : conversion imagery and celestial myth in Beowulf / by Edward Pettit.

Publisher

Cambridge, UK : Open Book Publishers, [2020]

Copyright Date

©2020

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Inlcudes bibliographical references (pages [471]-518) and index.

Research Call Number

JFE 21-183