Anonymous Essays
Morality Plays or Mortality Plays: Religion in 'Everyman' and 'The Brome Play of Abraham and Isaac' College
The Brome Play of Abraham and Isaac
Religion has long been a source of inspiration for the performing arts. This influence can be seen at all levels of performance throughout history, from church basement productions of the birth of Jesus to the fist of God casting itself down at...
Face the Consequences: A Reading of Hrafnkel’s Saga College
Hrafnkel’s Saga
Legality, although often intertwined with morality, is not to be confused with it. In Hrafnkel’s Saga, Hrafnkel is a chieftain who makes an oath to slay anyone who rides his beloved Freyfaxi. He generously provides Einar with a job, only asking...
The Bravery of Byrtnoth College
The Battle of Maldon
When reading The Battle of Maldon, I found myself attempting to grade the noble Byrhtnoth using the heroic code as a rubric. Initially, I doled out poor marks, labeling Byrhtnoth as a failure according to the heroic code. However, after...
Language and the Heroic Code: The Battle of Maldon College
The Battle of Maldon
The Battle of Maldon uses linguistic tools to glorify the military capabilities of the Saxons, who are in reality the losing side, while minimizing the victory of the invading Vikings. Through use of language the poem eternalizes both individual...
National Identity across the North Atlantic in Sagas and Other Sources College
The Orkneyinga Saga
As Medieval (13th century) texts focused on the Viking Age settlement (9th-10th) of the islands of the North Atlantic, sagas can be analyzed as vital accounts of these cultures, both in the era depicted and in the time of composition. For example,...
The Effect of Narrative Style in "The Man Who Thought Himself a Woman" College
The Man Who Thought Himself a Woman
Narration style plays a significant role in the way an audience receives and interprets a story. An intrusive narrator can manipulate a reader’s understanding of a specific character or event based on the narrator’s personal biases and imposed...
Gilgamesh and Inanna: Ancient Approaches to Universal Questions College
Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth
Although the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Myth of Inanna were written around the same time period and in the same civilization, the characters portrayed and their viewpoints on death, life, self, identity, and nature couldn’t be more different....
Historical Distortion and Propaganda College
The Poem of the Cid
The Poema de Mio Cid’s (The Poem of My Cid) many examples of historical distortion and unexpected silences on the subject of figures who are known as having acted in the historical time period are evidence either of genuine misinformation...
Transgression and Resolution in 'Sir Gowther' and 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' College
Sir Gowther
An emerging feature in all penitential romances is the concern with social reintegration, healing and peaceful resolution, at the end of a long sequence of highly disturbing events. (RADULESCU)
Middle English popular romances, such as Sir Gowther...
