Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

This article examines a distinct literary environment in Anglo-Latin and Old English literature: the open sea. It argues that such an environment was formed primarily through sound, where the geophonic actions of water and wind were used to create a literary motif, a location both to test those seeking God and to showcase their faithfulness. Those tested include the pilgrim on their journey, often to Rome, and the saint, often in ascetic seclusion. In Anglo-Latin, the geophony of the open sea was sometimes rendered with the adjective undisonus (‘wave-sounding’), a rare word used consistently in two ways: first, to function as an impediment to the person on their journey; second, to form a miniature open sea to serve as an hagiographical desert. In Old English, the literary motif of the sonic open sea occurs in the poem Andreas, which uses active verbs such as hlynnan (‘to make a loud noise, sound, [or] resound’) to render the acoustic assaults of the sea at storm. Andrew, depicted as a miles Christi, remains faithful, and the open sea calms and silences, in declaration of his victory. By comparing texts in both the Anglo-Latin and Old English traditions, this article highlights in new ways the important role of sound, particularly geophonic productions, in early medieval English literature.

Other Link： https://academic.oup.com/res/article-abstract/75/319/127/7633231

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

Ideas of the world, whether medieval or modern, are complex, fluctuating, sometimes contradictory, and continually evolving. Such perceptions of the world are, in great part, reliant upon the embodied experience of the physical world, which is in turn reliant upon, and transformed by, those very perceptions. This chapter examines the ways early medieval English peoples engaged with and represented one aspect of the world in their literary productions: the sound-world of inanimate forces. It will suggest that such geophonic soundscapes are utilised widely in the Old English corpus, in both poetry and prose. By examining the sonic mingling of water and wind in the Exeter Book Riddle 1, it will demonstrate that one of the primary uses of specifically geophonic literary soundscapes is to inspire awe at the expanse and strength of the elemental world, and in so doing, to encourage reflection upon the extraordinary strength of God to shape and restrain it.

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

This article explores the use of biophonic information in the primary
vitae of one early English saint, Guthlac: Felix’s Latin Vita S. Guthlaci,
the Old English Prose Life of Guthlac, and the Old English poems
Guthlac A and Guthlac B. It reveals that the sounds created by
various animals, from the croak of a raven to the bellowing of a bull,
are utilised for two purposes in these texts: first, to disturb the saint,
to shatter his eremitic pursuits and imitatio Christi; second, to
highlight Guthlac’s successful maintenance of his stablitas in the face
of such sonic attacks. This use of biophony speaks to hagiography
more generally, and aims to provide a model for further study into
the role of sound in Anglo-Latin and Old English literature.

DOI： https://doi.org/10.1080/0013838X.2021.1886675

Other Link： https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0013838X.2021.1886675?scroll=top&needAccess=true

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

This article argues that Bede advocated Gregory the Great’s ideal of the monk-pastor in his early Vita metrica S. Cudbercti, a role that Bede saw St Cuthbert as fulfilling. Part of the way Bede refashions Cuthbert into an idealised Gregorian monk-pastor is by means of lamp imagery directly connected with Jesus’s parable of the lamp under a bushel in the New Testament. Such a presentation of Cuthbert highlights Bede’s conception of the wider relevance of the saint; a depiction often discussed in terms of Bede’s later prose Vita S. Cudbercti and Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. This study reveals that these developments were well underway in Bede’s early metrical life of St Cuthbert.

DOI： DOI: 10.1484/J.PERIT.5.120980

Other Link： https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/abs/10.1484/J.PERIT.5.120980?af=R

Language：English  

Language：English   Book type：Scholarly book

Global Perspectives opens a conversation about early medieval England seen through the lens of comparative and interconnected histories. This conversation interrogates the temporal and geographic field of study commonly called ‘Anglo-Saxon England’, particularly in relation to and from the point of view of other cultural identities, both those nearby and those at a distance, from as far away as the contemporary Pacific. The chapters are interdisciplinary, examining artistic, archaeological, literary, and historical artifacts, converging around the idea that early medieval England does not only define itself, but is often defined by others, specifically here by modern scholarship. The first section examines the transmission of material culture across borders, while querying the possibilities and limits of comparative and transnational approaches, including: the spread of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum var. aestivum), the collapsing of the art-historical ‘decorative’ and ‘functional’, and the unknowns about daily life in an early medieval English hall. The second section reimagines the permeable boundaries of early medieval England, perspectives from the Baltic, Byzantium, and the Islamic world, including: an examination of Vercelli Homily VII (from John Chrysostom’s Greek Homily XXIX); Hārūn ibn Yaḥyā’s Arabic descriptions of Barṭīniyah (‘Britain’); and a examination of the Old English Orosius with relation to the Baltic. The third section addresses the construction of and responses to ‘Anglo-Saxon’ narratives, past and present, including: situation early Medieval England within an Eurasian Perspective; the historical origins of racialized Anglo-saxonism(s); and a comparison between the Hiberno-Saxon Missions and the Anglican Melanesian Mission. Global Perspectives offers no summary conclusion but rather invites readers to enter into new ways of thinking outside traditional boundaries.

Other Link： https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781800105089/global-perspectives-on-early-medieval-england/

Language：English   Book type：Scholarly book

Restoring Creation: The Natural World in the Anglo-Saxon Saints’ Lives of Cuthbert and Guthlac explores the relationship between the natural world (Creation) and humanity through the early English saints Cuthbert and Guthlac in their Anglo-Latin and Old English Lives. It argues that this relationship is best understood through received theological exegesis concerning Creation’s present state in the fallen world. The exegesis has its foundation in St Augustine’s interpretations of the Genesis narrative, though it enters the textual tradition of the Lives via an adapted portion from Augustine in Bede’s verse Life of Saint Cuthbert. Both Augustine and Bede argue, with slight differences, the following: that fallen Creation often functions to urge humanity, the saints included, towards greater holiness; that the Fall produced a relational breach between humanity and Creation (whether actual or ontological); and that the effects of the Fall can be temporarily removed by restoring a portion of Creation into its pre-fallen state by means of sanctity. The end result is a re-centering of the role of the physical world in early medieval literature, which lays the groundwork for a more nuanced engagement with pre-modern notions of the non-human world.

DOI： https://doi.org/10.1017/9781787445604

Other Link： https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781843845300/restoring-creation-the-natural-world-in-the-anglo-saxon-saints-lives-of-cuthbert-and-guthlac/

Language：English   Book type：General book, introductory book for general audience

Event date： 2024.7

Language：English   Presentation type：Oral presentation (general)  

Venue：Leeds University   Country：United Kingdom  

Event date： 2024.6

Language：English   Presentation type：Oral presentation (general)  

Venue：Hiroshima Shudo University   Country：Japan  

In this paper I argued that the deep sea and seafloor, often referred to in Old English with the noun grund, was predominantly constructed in literature as a constantly shifting assemblage of physical interactions (however mediated and conceptual) and metaphorical utilisations, and mainly employed to denote two specific things: 1. A solid foundational surface, sometimes the very foundation of all Creation, and other times, the actual physical seafloor; 2. As an environment (the Deep sea), an aqueous volumetric space, secret and unknowable to all but God and the creatures ordained to live there (from whales to monsters), as well as heroes like Beowulf (echoing Christ) who do battle there. In this way, the deep sea and seafloor are gathered together in a way similar to our modern English noun: the Deep. The paper explored this argument in a number of texts, including Genesis A and The Seafarer (grund as foundation), The Order of the World, Old English Riddle 38, and the Metrical Psalms (grund as environment), and Beowulf (grund and humanity).

Event date： 2024.4

Language：English   Presentation type：Public lecture, seminar, tutorial, course, or other speech  

Venue：Online   Country：Japan  

Event date： 2022.7

Language：English   Presentation type：Oral presentation (general)  

Venue：Leeds University   Country：United Kingdom  

Event date： 2019.7

Language：English   Presentation type：Public lecture, seminar, tutorial, course, or other speech  

Venue：Leeds University   Country：United Kingdom  

Language：English   Publishing type：Book review, literature introduction, etc.  

Other Link： https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/33390/36971

Type：Academic society, research group, etc. 

Type：Academic society, research group, etc.