In this thesis, the reception of classical mythology in the Old English adaptation of Boethius' 'De consolatione philosophiae' is analysed. It demonstrates that the author of the Old English...Show moreIn this thesis, the reception of classical mythology in the Old English adaptation of Boethius' 'De consolatione philosophiae' is analysed. It demonstrates that the author of the Old English Boethius is familiar with classical mythology, and that he has consciously adapted his material to make it more suitable for his Christian Anglo-Saxon audience unfamiliar with classical mythology.Show less
Gold, jewels and a cross that is able to speak: these elements are nowhere to be found in the Biblical story about the crucifixion of Christ, but they do appear in the Old English poem The Dream of...Show moreGold, jewels and a cross that is able to speak: these elements are nowhere to be found in the Biblical story about the crucifixion of Christ, but they do appear in the Old English poem The Dream of the Rood. This poem is a retelling of the Biblical story of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection and there are three characters in this poem: the Dreamer, the Cross and Christ. These characters are linked, because they all experience one or multiple physical or mental transformations. The poet intended for these transformations to be an inspiration for the reader of the poem. Especially the transformation of the Dreamer is supposed to be inspirational, because the Dreamer is the most relatable character for the reader through the focus on their human nature. The question that is discussed in this thesis is: what does the transformation of the Dreamer look like and why can it be inspirational for the reader? The suggested answer to this question is that the poet of The Dream of the Rood used the character of the Dreamer to illustrate the life-changing effect that knowledge of the Bible and following the example of Christ can have on a human being. The reader of the poem is encouraged to follow in the footsteps of the Dreamer, the first step being reading The Dream of the Rood.Show less
This thesis will discuss how Le Guin has adapted both the standard medieval dragon and the dragons in the narratives of Tolkien and Lewis in her own work, The Books of Earthsea.
This thesis explores the existence of Old English elegiac elements in Breton Lays from Medieval England. These Breton Lays include Marie de France's "Lanval" and "Chaitivel", as well as "Sir Orfeo"...Show moreThis thesis explores the existence of Old English elegiac elements in Breton Lays from Medieval England. These Breton Lays include Marie de France's "Lanval" and "Chaitivel", as well as "Sir Orfeo". The thesis examines the existence of elegiac elements in Old English poems, and refers to "The Wanderer", "The Seafarer" and "The Ruin" to delineate markers in Old English elegiac poems.Show less
This thesis studies leadership in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion by way of social network analysis (SNA) methods. I combine the fields of leadership studies and social network analysis by...Show moreThis thesis studies leadership in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion by way of social network analysis (SNA) methods. I combine the fields of leadership studies and social network analysis by constructing and analysing the social networks in The Silmarillion. I analyse which characters act as leaders in a selection of tales from Tolkien’s Silmarillion, since these tales form the basis for Middle-earth and lay bare the roots of how power and leadership function in Tolkien’s secondary world. In order to do so, I use the social network visualisation software Visone, which also enables users to conduct various calculations on the constructed networks. Social networks can lay bare the key actors in a network and show the ways in which leaders exert their power, which is why I compare the Silmarillion network to networks that depict leaders and leadership types in real life. In doing so, I examine which characters come to the fore as leaders in The Silmarillion, how they exert their power, and how realistic the social networks in Tolkien’s fictional narrative are. The characters that came to the fore as leaders when observing the social networks of The Silmarillion were mostly kings and Valar. In this way, the results indicate that leadership is presented realistically in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Silmarillion, and they also provide information about the ways in which the leaders of the work exert their power. This thesis showed that SNA can be used successfully to study works of fiction, and that it could be further used in order to obtain a deeper understanding of Middle-earth, realistic fiction, and good leadership.Show less
This thesis compares the property rights and inheritance rights of women in the Germanic laws of the Visigoths, Lombards and Anglo-Saxons from the sixth to the ninth century AD.
This bachelor thesis (2020) explores how a target-oriented and a source-oriented translation of the Old English poem 'The Dream of the Rood' into Dutch affect the choices in translation procedures...Show moreThis bachelor thesis (2020) explores how a target-oriented and a source-oriented translation of the Old English poem 'The Dream of the Rood' into Dutch affect the choices in translation procedures and how these choices ultimately shape the resulting target texts in prose and verse translation respectively.Show less
Reading Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings through the literary criticism trauma theory. Investigates the impact of war trauma on the presence of heroism, evil and post-war developments.
The Nowell Codex is popularly known as a book of monsters. It was a fascination with the monstrous which conceivably motivated the medieval compilers to assemble the codex's current constituent...Show moreThe Nowell Codex is popularly known as a book of monsters. It was a fascination with the monstrous which conceivably motivated the medieval compilers to assemble the codex's current constituent parts. This thesis argues for another unifying theme, that of 'community', which connects all of the Old English texts. As such, each text is subjected to a close reading centred around communal affairs such as the Germanic warband, kingship and hospitality in order to highlight their central importance to the understanding of the individual texts and the codex as a whole. Taken together, these close readings strengthen the main claim of the thesis that community represented a crucial driving force behind the compilation of the Nowell Codex.Show less
