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This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ The Old English Orosius Writing an Anglo-Saxon History of the World Walker, Victoria Elizabeth Harriet Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 01. Oct. 2021 The Old English Orosius: Writing an Anglo-Saxon History of the World Victoria Elizabeth Harriet Walker Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English, King’s College London 2016 2 Abstract The Old English Orosius (OE Orosius) shares a significant relationship with the fifth- century Latin Historiarum adversum paganos libri septem (Historia) by Paulus Orosius – its principal source of information. But the OE Orosius is also an Anglo- Saxon history of the world on its own terms. This thesis aims to examine, firstly, how the OE Orosius is engaged actively with the historiography and historicity of the Historia and, secondly, how humans of temporal and geographical distance from Anglo-Saxon England are conceptualized. I approach the OE Orosius as a product of an Anglo-Saxon culture that is broadly conceived, considering the intersections of classical influences, Germanic traditions and Anglo-Saxon reception that can be located within the text. Each chapter of this thesis uses a different methodology to ‘read’ the OE Orosius. Chapter 1 interprets the geographical description of the first chapter of the text as a cartographical framework for Anglo-Saxon perspective, knowledge and historiography. Chapter 2 focuses on the role of gender in the establishment of models, bysena, and the movement of power, translatio imperii, using three parallels from the text (Ninus of Assyria and Semiramis and the Amazons, King Cyrus of Persia and the Scythian Queen Thamyris, Babylon and Rome) to appreciate how world and Roman history are rewritten according to Anglo-Saxon hindsight. Chapter 3 addresses how the ‘Matter of Rome’ is negotiated in the OE Orosius through representations of materiality, subject matter and materials. In Chapter 4, I use the theories of queer time and entanglement to explore responses to paganism in the schemes of Christian cosmology and world history. The arguments that are woven through my chapters add to our understanding of the OE Orosius as a piece of historiography. They might also contribute to our knowledge of the historical consciousness of the late Anglo-Saxons. 3 Table of contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................. 2 Table of contents ............................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... 4 Abbreviations .................................................................................................................... 5 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 7 The OE Orosius and King Alfred .................................................................................. 11 The Cotton Manuscript rubric ..................................................................................... 15 The chapters of my thesis ............................................................................................ 21 Chapter 1: Verbal mapping and the voices of Ohthere, Wulfstan and Orosius .............. 27 Mapping time .............................................................................................................. 29 The names on the map ................................................................................................ 36 Alfred, Ohthere and Wulfstan on the map .................................................................. 45 Voice, convention and perspective .............................................................................. 55 Orosius and the Old English author ............................................................................ 58 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 64 Chapter 2: Bysena and translatio imperii: three parallels of gender and power .......... 66 Parallel 1 – Bysena and origins: Ninus and Semiramis, and the Amazons ................ 67 Parallel 2 – Cyrus, King of the Persians and Thamyris, Scythian Queen ................... 82 Parallel 3 – Babylon and Rome ................................................................................... 91 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 97 Chapter 3: Material history and the Matter of Rome ................................................... 100 The sack of Rome ...................................................................................................... 103 Rome, Babylon and the enta geweorc ...................................................................... 106 Roman stones ............................................................................................................. 112 Timbering the Matter of Rome................................................................................... 115 Chapter 4: Entanglements: queer time and faith ......................................................... 123 Þas tida/ on þæm dagum ......................................................................................... 126 Middangeard and eorþe ........................................................................................... 135 Punishment, redemption and conversion ................................................................. 142 Queer temporalities and queer faith ......................................................................... 147 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 152 Anglo-Saxon history and identity .............................................................................. 153 Plural histories .......................................................................................................... 155 Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 158 4 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Clare A. Lees for her tremendous support and guidance at every stage of researching and writing this thesis, from my PhD proposal to the final draft. I am indebted to Clare for nurturing creativity in my work but demanding academic rigour. I would also like to offer my sincere thanks to my examiners, Dr Alfred Hiatt and Professor Elizabeth Tyler, for their thoughtful and constructive feedback. I would like to thank Patricia Walker and Catherine Wright for their eagle-eyed proofreading. Any errors that remain are my own. I am very grateful to Clare, Dr Josh Davies, the Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies at King’s College London and my early medieval researcher peers for the numerous public engagement projects I have been involved in during my doctoral research. These projects have encouraged me to consider the impact of my work beyond the academy and to value collaboration with colleagues within and outside of the field of Anglo-Saxon studies. I owe extreme gratitude to my family for everything they have done to help make this thesis happen. Mum, Dad, Sarah, James, this thesis is for you and simply could not have happened without any of you; the achievement is yours as well as mine. Matt, for your unshaking belief in me and incredible support throughout this process – thank you from the bottom of my heart. I dedicate this thesis to grandad, who inspired my desire to learn, and nanny, who was always rooting for me. I hope this would have made them proud. 5 Abbreviations Anglia Anglia: zeitschrift für englische philologie ASE Anglo-Saxon England ASPR Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, ed. by William Philip Krapp and Elliot Van Kirk Dobbie, 6 vols (New York: Columbia University Press, 1931-1953) Bodley Fragment Oxford, Bodleian, MS English History e. 49 (30481) CUP Cambridge University Press Cotton Manuscript London, British Library, MS Cotton Tiberius B.i Cotton Map London,