Aldhelm's rejection of the Muses and the mechanics of poetic inspiration in early Anglo-Saxon England

Emily V. Thornbury

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Medieval Literature and History Classical Antiquity Studies Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies

Abstract

Abstract In the metrical preface to his Enigmata, Aldhelm of Malmesbury denies that he has had anything to do with the Muses. While this gesture connects him to his Christian Latin predecessors (and, less directly, to the pagan poets as well), the unique elements of Aldhelm's poem suggest that he is also drawing upon a native tradition of poetry that valued technical skill above lofty subject-matter. By portraying the Muses within this Germanic framework as useless, rather than dangerous, Aldhelm's rejection enabled his successors to employ the Muses, and other Classical allusions, as harmless decorative elements in their verse.

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2011Manuscripts of theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle 2011Anglo-Saxon scribes and scriptoria 2011The biblical manuscripts of Anglo-Saxon England 2011The material fabric of early British books 2011Writing in the Insular world 2012The Cambridge History of Early Medieval English Literature 2012European literature and eleventh-century England 2012The writing of history in the early Middle Ages: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in context

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