On P 105 We See Anglosaxon Wyrd Fate Again What Is Different This Time
journal article
Studies in Philology
, pp. 713-738 (26 pages)
Published By: University of North Carolina Press
https://www. jstor .org/stable/44329613
The Old English word wyrd has a long and contentious history in Anglo-Saxon studies. Early scholars translated this word as ''fate" and considered it a rare preservation of pre-Christian belief in the extant corpus. More recently, the scholarly consensus has agreed that all extant Old English literature was written in a completely Christian context that would not have been willing to preserve pagan conceits. Thus, the word is now almost universally translated as "lot" or "event" with the caveat that all events are under the direction of divine providence according to a Christian view. This essay argues that the use of the word wyrd in The Second Dialogue of Solomon and Saturn problematizes the neat dichotomy between Christianity and paganism that has been used to characterize Anglo-Saxon religious identity. This text is entirely and unequivocally Christian; in fact it is acutely focused on establishing the validity of Christian belief. But the questions this text poses, particularly about the nature of wyrd, reveal a level of doubt about the authority of the Christian God that challenges the view that wyrd is entirely benign in a Christian context. I argue that this doubt regarding wyrd's relationship to the Christian God in The Second Dialogue of Solomon and Saturn represents a particular challenge to Christianity in the Anglo-Saxon religious imagination, a challenge to which Christianity had to respond if it was to remain relevant in early medieval England.
Founded in 1903, Studies in Philology addresses scholars in a wide range of disciplines, though traditionally its strength has been English Medieval and Renaissance studies. In recent years Studies in Philology has published articles on British literature before 1900 and on relations between British literature and works in the Classical, Romance, and Germanic languages. Prior to June 1987 it also published articles focused on literature other than British.
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Source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44329613
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