‘And thus did Hezekiah’: Perspectives on Judaism in the Old English Prose Psalms

Butler, Emily

doi:10.1093/res/hgw055

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“…11 As Emily Butler has shown, the historically-focussed introductions present Old Testament history, namely the experiences of kings David and Hezekiah and their people, as a relevant model for the contemporary Anglo-Saxon audience. 12 This historical focus in the introductions is consonant with the translator's unusual tendency to follow the literal or historical, rather than allegorical, interpretation of that as the Irish 'were the main transmitters of Theodore during the early Middle Ages', it seems very likely that the translator of the Prose Psalms made use of a Hiberno-Latin commentary on the Psalms, especially as the fourfold interpretative scheme featuring two historical introductions probably originated in Ireland. 13 In these introductions, the translator places a great deal of emphasis on David as original composer of the Psalms.…”

Section: The Old English Prose Psalms: Manuscript and Authorshipmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Mind in the Old English Prose Psalms

Faulkner

2019

The Review of English Studies

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The Prose Psalms, an Old English translation of the first 50 psalms into prose, have often been overshadowed by the other translations attributed to Alfred the Great: the Old English Pastoral Care, with its famous preface, and the intellectually daring Old English translations of Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy and Augustine’s Soliloquies. However, this article proposes that, regardless of who wrote them, the Prose Psalms should be read alongside the Old English Consolation and the Soliloquies: like the two more well-studied translations, the Prose Psalms are concerned with the mind and its search for true understanding. This psychological interest is indicated by the prevalence of the word mod (‘mind’) in the Old English text, which far exceeds references to the faculty of the intellect in the Romanum source. Through comparison with the Consolation and the Soliloquies, this article demonstrates that all three texts participate in a shared tradition of psychological imagery. The three translations may well, therefore, be the result of a single scholarly environment, perhaps enduring for several decades, in which multiple scholars read the same Latin, patristic writings on psychology, discussed these ideas among themselves, and thereby developed the vernacular discourse observable in these three translations. Whether this environment was identical with the scholarly circle which Alfred gathered at the West Saxon court remains a matter for debate.

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Section: The Old English Prose Psalms: Manuscript and Authorshipmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Mind in the Old English Prose Psalms

Faulkner

2019

The Review of English Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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‘And thus did Hezekiah’: Perspectives on Judaism in the Old English Prose Psalms

Cited by 1 publication

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The Mind in the Old English Prose Psalms

The Mind in the Old English Prose Psalms

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