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| author | Andrew Joseph Clapham |
| title | Purification Rituals in the Beowulf Manuscript |
| abstract | In recent years, there has been a trend among Anglo-Saxon scholars to read the Beowulf Manuscript (Cotton Vitellius A.xv) as
one complete unit linked by theme. This manuscript contains The Passion of St. Christopher, The Wonders of the East, The Letter of Alexander to Aristotle, Beowulf,
and Judith, though both the first and the last entries appear in fragments. Andy Orchard, Kathryn Powell, and Heather Blurton have all identified various thematic
strains in the manuscript and demonstrate that the scribes working on the document carefully planned its order and creation. In my dissertation, I argue that the
Beowulf Manuscript's most defining feature is fact that the texts all cause anxiety about the Other. In each section of the manuscript there is an attempt
at ritual cleansing because the characters are both threatening and vulnerable, flesh is consumed or the consuming of flesh is alluded to, and violent invasion is
imminent. I also argue that the scribes played an artistic role in the construction of this manuscript. We should think of the scribes not as poets but as curators.
They collected various works from many different time periods and attempted to alter the content of the texts as little as possible. Changes primarily are made to
the spellings of words, and words are not substituted to artificially make the text more consistent theologically or as a literary work. Their contribution to the
manuscript is the arranging of these works; all five pieces of the manuscript are in conversation with one another. The scribes thought of the events, images,
characters, and landscapes as reimagined instances of purification from text to text. In each text, characters come into contact with monsters or monstrous
individuals, and they seek to purify a place from the unclean presence of these creatures.
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| school | The Caspersen School of Graduate Studies, Drew University |
| degree | D.Litt. (2018) |
| advisor | James Hala |
| committee | Rita Keane |
| full text | AJClapham.pdf |
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