The Practice and Theory of Anglo-Saxon Translation Andrew Timothy Eichel University of Tennessee, Knoxville, [email protected]
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University of Tennessee, Knoxville Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 12-2016 Patristic Precedent and Vernacular Innovation: the Practice and Theory of Anglo-Saxon Translation Andrew Timothy Eichel University of Tennessee, Knoxville, [email protected] Recommended Citation Eichel, Andrew Timothy, "Patristic Precedent and Vernacular Innovation: the Practice and Theory of Anglo-Saxon Translation. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2016. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/4134 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Andrew Timothy Eichel entitled "Patristic Precedent and Vernacular Innovation: the Practice and Theory of Anglo-Saxon Translation." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in English. Roy M. Liuzza, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Laura L. Howes, Allen R. Dunn, Thomas E. Burman Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official student records.) Patristic Precedent and Vernacular Innovation: the Practice and Theory of Anglo-Saxon Translation A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Andrew Timothy Eichel December 2016 1 Copyright © 2016 by Andrew Timothy Eichel All rights reserved. ii Acknowledgements A list of the people who have helped me get to this point in my career would be as long as this dissertation. And just as the latter project has been a massive undertaking in which I have overlooked many important points, so to will I no doubt overlook many people that have been integral. I want to first thank my family for their unconditional support of my academic endeavours. It is unfortunate that pursuing my degrees has led me to live far from my family for many years, but they have always been there. To my mother, Wendy, and my father, Tim, I owe a debt that can never be repaid. Along the way towards finishing this degree, I have made many friends, some in academia and others outside of it. They have been there for me as a surrogate family, far more than a network of future career contacts. I needed them before and I need them now. I’m talking to you, Brent, John, and James. Finally, I want to thank my mentors. I am privileged to have been around so many wonderful models for scholarship, education, professionalism, and simply being a humanist. When I could no longer move forward, they pulled me along anyway. And when I made leaps over risky chasms, they rescued me. My high school English teacher, Pat Andres, helped set me on the academic path many years ago. She exposed me to literature as a subject and a passion—thank you, Pat. In my undergrad and MA program, I was fortunate enough to have been noticed by Tim Shonk and David Raybin, who spent many hours turning me into a halfway decent writer and scholar. Tim, my thesis director, has remained a constant source of advice and support…and he still answers my phone calls. David always makes time for me when we are at the same conference, even though I am not a Chaucerian. Faculty is what has made my time at the University of Tennessee so worthwhile. The English Department genuinely cares about its graduate students and this is reflected in its policies and its members. Laura Howes has always been interested in what I want to say and she somehow manages to get me back on track so I can say it. Allen Dunn introduced me to the art and value of criticism and my own writing has been different ever since. Thomas Burman generously gave me his time and his advice before and during the dissertation project. I have been honored to work with Roy Liuzza for six years—he graciously accepted the role of my adviser when I started at UT and he calmly bore through the ups and downs of my PhD education and training. Thank you, Roy, for being such a superlative yet modest scholar and professor. Then there is Rumi. More than anyone else I have mentioned, Rumi understands what I went through to finish this dissertation. She put up with me on my good days and my bad; she even watched my cat, Ashur, despite her jealousy, all those times I went overseas for research and conferences; she would let me drone on and on about whatever I happened to be writing that day and, when I was smart enough to quiet down and listen, she had some insights I had missed. Thank you, Rumi, for letting this project live with us. Thank you for not giving up on me even when I gave up on myself iii Abstract My dissertation investigates Anglo-Saxon translation and interpretation during the reign of King Alfred of Wessex in the ninth century, and the Benedictine Reform of the tenth and eleventh centuries. These two periods represent a time of renaissance in Anglo-Saxon England, when circumstance and ambition allowed for a number of impressive reformation enterprises, including increased dedication to education of both clerical orders and the laity, which therefore augmented the output of writing motivated by scholarly curiosity, ecclesiastical inquiry, and political strategizing. At these formative stages, translation emerged as perhaps the most critical task for the vernacular writers. The Latinate prestige culture that was most often being translated was entrenched in a tradition of spiritual and philosophical austerity so early translators risked more than just their reputations by using the vernacular and thereby announcing its fitness as a vehicle of abstract and spiritual truths. Unfortunately, research into the history of English translation and its contributions to the Western interpretive tradition is still underdeveloped. The Anglo-Saxon period has either been ignored completely or dismissed as derivative, and these assumptions have misrepresented the achievements of Old English translators and restrained essential inquiry. My dissertation expands knowledge of English’s progress by investigating the relationship between the translation and interpretation strategies of the Church patriarchs and the methodologies of Anglo- Saxon writers. This project demonstrates that along with copying the practices and theories of Doctors of the Church like Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory, Anglo-Saxon translators deviated from the parameters set by tradition and turned acts of translation into instances of vernacular variation and innovation. By investigating the intellectual roots and contexts for some of these sites of early translation, I advance a more exact understanding of how and why Anglo-Saxon writers used particular strategies in their encounters with Latin discourse and how these strategies fit into the wider arena of translation and interpretation. iv Table of Contents Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Innovation and Tradition in Alfred’s Prose Psalms .............................. 18 A. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 18 B. Importance of Psalms and Psalters ....................................................................... 22 C. Textual and Hermeneutic Sources ........................................................................ 27 D. Stylistic Translation Examples .............................................................................. 41 E. Structural Changes in Translation ........................................................................ 54 F. Non-Literal Translation .......................................................................................... 56 G. Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 63 Chapter 2: Æthelwold and Mastery of the Benedictine Rule ................................... 65 A. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 65 B. Æthelwold’s Life & Context ................................................................................... 68 C. Æthelwold’s Translation Impetus ......................................................................... 73 D. Æthelwold: the Prestige and the Vernacular ...................................................... 75 E. Æthelwold’s Preface ................................................................................................ 81 F. The Latin Style of the Regula S. Benedicti .............................................................. 92 G. Lectio Divina ............................................................................................................ 95 H. Hermeneutic Style in Latin & Translation ........................................................ 100 I. Some Translation Basics ......................................................................................... 103 J. Manipulating Source Text for Political/Ecclesiastical Reasons ....................... 117 K.