Browsing by Author "Olesiejko, Jacek"
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Item A review of: "Beowulf: A new translation". By Maria Dahvana Headley. FSG Originals, 2020. Pp. 176.(Adam Mickiewicz University, 2021) Olesiejko, JacekItem Grzech i tradycja moralna w poezji staroangielskiej: próba analizy poetyki tropologicznej(2012-04-12T09:09:33Z) Olesiejko, Jacek; Sikorska, Liliana. PromotorNiniejsza rozprawa doktorska pt: „Grzech w poezji staroangielskiej: próba analizy poetyki tropologicznej” dotyczy pojęcia grzechu i moralności w poezji okresu staro-angielskiego. Motywem literackim, który najciekawiej obrazuje różnice kulturowe wynikające ze starcia się tradycji pogańskiej z Chrześcijaństwem, jest grzech pychy. Staro-angielskie słowo ofermod było odpowiednikiem łacińskiego pojęcia superbia, pycha. Grzech pychy jest głównym tematem trzech wierszy omawianych w rozdziale pierwszym, Genesis B, Danielu i Beowulfie. Drugi rozdział porusza tematykę Miles Christi, czyli żołnierza Chrystusa w trzech poematach, w Julianie Cynewulfa, Legendzie o św. Andrzeju Apostole i w Judycie. Metaforyka Miles Christi była bardzo popularna w poezji staro-agielskiej. W poezji anglosaskiej, w figurze Miles Christi najściślej dokonuje się synteza germańskich wartości Heroicznych z Chrześcijańską nauką o moralności. Rozdział trzeci traktuje o wpływie, jaki sakrament pokuty kształtujący się we wczesnym średniowieczu miał na tradycję wernakularnej poezji religijnej okresu staroangielskiego.Item Heaven, hell and "middangeard": The presentation of the universe in the Old English "Genesis A"(Adam Mickiewicz University, 2009) Olesiejko, JacekSince the times of Antiquity, people have looked up to the sky and developed various conceptions of Heaven and Hell. Already in the ancient Egypt people developed the tripartite conception of universe with earth placed between the Heaven inhabited by gods above and Hell below. The Old English poetic text of Genesis (MS Junius 11; compilation dated to the 10th century) presents the earthly paradise, Hell and Middangeard (or the middle earth). Both Genesis A and B that comprise the poem indeed show a single and consistent descriptions of cosmos. The overt consistency may well seem as interesting as the tradition that the poem draws upon as well as distorts. The universe found in the poem is a fusion of the Christian religious learning as well as Germanic tradition. The idea that marries Heaven, earth and Hell in the poetic sequence of OE Genesis is the concept of hall and anti-hall, city and anti-city. The aim of the following paper is to investigate the modes of this presentation of these parts of the universe by the analysis of the clusters of meaning that are associated with hall and city.Item The Grendelkin and the politics of succession at Heorot: The significance of monsters in "Beowulf"(Adam Mickiewicz University, 2018-06-11) Olesiejko, JacekThe article considers the significance of the Grendelkin as monsters, bringing to attention the Isidorian understanding of the monster as a sign, portent, and admonition. In the original Beowulf the Grendelkin are not described as possessing many of the inhuman qualities that have been applied to them in the later critical tradition or by its translators. Isidore acknowledges in Etymologies that monsters are natural beings, whose function in the system of creation is significant. The present article considers the significance of the Grendelkin in the poem and argues that Grendel and his mother function as signs underlying themes of feud and succession in the poem. The article also brings attention to the multiple references to body parts, such as hands, and their function within the poem as synecdochic representations of the Danish body politic. The article explores the sexualised and gendered perception of the body politic in the poem.Item Treasure and spiritual exile in Old English "Juliana": Heroic diction and allegory of reading in Cynewulf’s art of adaptation(Adam Mickiewicz University, 2013) Olesiejko, JacekThe present article studies Cynewulf’s creative manipulation of heroic style in his hagiographic poem Juliana written around the 9th century A.D. The four poems now attributed to Cynewulf, on the strength of his runic autographs appended to each, Christ II, Elene, The Fates of the Apostles, and Juliana are written in the Anglo-Saxon tradition of heroic alliterative verse that Anglo- Saxons had inherited from their continental Germanic ancestors. In Juliana, the theme of treasure and exile reinforces the allegorical structure of Cynewulf’s poetic creation. In such poems like Beowulf and Seafarer treasure signifies the stability of bonds between people and tribes. The exchange of treasure and ritualistic treasure-giving confirms bonds between kings and their subjects. In Juliana, however, treasure is identified with heathen culture and idolatry. The traditional imagery of treasure, so central to Old English poetic lore, is inverted in the poem, as wealth and gold embody vice and corruption. The rejection of treasure and renunciation of kinship bonds indicate piety and chastity. Also, while in other Old English secular poems exile is cast in terms of deprivation of human company and material values, in Juliana the possession of and preoccupation with treasure indicates spiritual exile and damnation. This article argues that the inverted representations of treasure and exile in the poem lend additional strength to its allegorical elements and sharpen the contrast between secular world and Juliana, who is an allegorical representation of the Church.Item Urban imagery in the Old English "Exodus" and its hermeneutics(Adam Mickiewicz University, 2022-02-05) Olesiejko, JacekThe present article offers a critical reading of the Old English Exodus, a poem that is an Old English versified adaptation of an episode from the biblical story of Exodus that narrates Israelites’ passage across the Red Sea and the destruction of Pharaoh’s army. The aim of this article is to analyse the poem’s urban and exilic imagery that strongly relies on the metaphorical representation of the Israelites as a city, as they are actually in exile and on the way to Canaan, and of the metaphorical representation of the walls of the Red Sea as the walls of a hall that is destroyed along with the Egyptian army. The argument of the present article is that in Exodus the poet uses the imagery of a hall and exile, derived from heroic and secular verse, as a hermeneutic key to read the biblical exodus typologically, tropologically, and anagogically. The metaphor of the key that opens the Scripture, which the poet uses in Exodus, encourages the reader to unveil the hidden meaning of the narrative. The poet inverts the conventional imagery of the hall and exile in the poem to emphasise narrative moments that require the reader to explore the letter of the poem for additional layers or signification.Item Wealhtheow’s peace-weaving: Diegesis and genealogy of gender in "Beowulf"(Adam Mickiewicz University, 2014) Olesiejko, JacekThis article uses Charles S. Peirce’s concept of icon and Judith Butler’s idea of genealogy of gender to study levels of fictionality in the Old English poem Beowulf. It shows that Wealhtheow, the principal female character in the epic, operates as a diegetic reader in the poem. Her speeches, in which she addresses her husband King Hrothgar and Beowulf contain implicit references to the Lay of Finn, which has been sung by Hrothgar’s minstrel at the feast celebrating Beowulf’s victory. It is argued here that Wealhtheow represents herself as an icon of peace-weaving, as she casts herself as a figuration of Hildeburh, the female protagonist of the Lay of Finn. Hildeburh is the sister of Hnæf, the leader of the Danes, and is given by her brother to Finn the Frisian in a marriage alliance. In her role as a peace-weaver, the queen is to weave peace between tribes by giving birth to heirs of the crown. After the courtly minster’s performance of the Lay, Wealhtheow warns her husband against establishing political alliances with the foreigner Beowulf at the expense of his intratribal obligation to his cousin Hrothulf, who is to become king after Hrothgar’s death.