Tanya Shtelmah
The literature of the period was (almost without exception) written in monasteries, and thus enveloped in the Christian world. It is not surprising, therefore, to see a summary of Old English philosophy as being aimed primarily at 'the understanding of Christian faith and its defence against those who attacked it'.
Perhaps the most striking concept is that of 'wyrd' ('fate'), which appears consistently in Old English literature. This has been discussed earlier, and cannot be taken as any proof of a pagan belief in a deified Fate, but clearly has links with discussions of predestination and free will: e.g. did God control all fate (as Alfred seemed to think) was it some unknown force termed 'wyrd'; or did man have an entirely free choice in how he behaved (as Ælfric argues)? More here
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1 comment:
Dear Tanya,
It's great that you are interested in Old English literature. Very few understand how fascinating the literature of this period is ... and challenging to read. I wish you luck by further research of Cognitive Linguistics.
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