Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 4968
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  • Title: Germanic Mythological Motifs in "Juliana"
  • Source: Old English Newsletter 25, 3 (Spring 1992): Appendix A: Abstracts of Papers in Anglo-Saxon Studies. Conference paper presented at the Twenty-Seventh Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 7-10, 1992, Tenth Symposium on the Sources of Anglo-Saxon Culture, Session 83: "Sources
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Conference Paper Abstract
  • Subject (See Also): Cynewulf, Poet- Juliana Hagiography Literature- Verse Mythology- Scandinavian
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  • Geographic Area: British Isles
  • Century: 9-10
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  • Abstract: The changes Cynewulf made to the story of St. Juliana (as it is found in the Acta) suggest that the poet anticipated the reaction of an Anglo-Saxon audience who remembered the traditions of Nordic paganism in their own pasts, and who, he knew, would respond to certain Odinic coloring in his rewritten narrative. Because critics have sought to place Juliana within the parameters of the Christian story of good versus evil--a story which, in its exemplary form, recounts Christ's battle with Satan- -they have disregarded or failed to explore adequately its Nordic influence in general and Germanic mythological motifs in particular. In fact, a focus on the Germanic elements Cynewulf imported into Juliana reveals that Heliseus, not a satanic extreme as has been alleged, hut a Germanic ideal, is an exemplary representative of the pagan religion, emhroiled not in a simplistic battle between good and evil, but in a compelling struggle for power with Juliana, the ideal representative of the Christian religion. Cynewulf's didactic message that the proponents of paganism fail against a servant of the true God is given persuasive force not simply because Juliana's defeat of Heliseus plays out the Christian narrative of Christ's triumph over Satan. Rather, Cynewulf convinces because, by showing that Heliseus failure arises from his attempts to use pagan, particularly Odinic, methods to defeat Juliana, he demonstrates that Heliseus is ultimately abandoned by his gods and that the rewards supposedly his as a result of his piety to these gods ultimately belong to Juliana. [Reproduced by permission of Robert Schicler, the “Abstracts of Papers in Anglo-Saxon Studies” editor, and the editors of the “Old English Newsletter.”].
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  • Year of Publication: 1992.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 00301973