Description
Book SynopsisUndoing Babel is the first extensive examination of the development of the Babel narrative amongst Anglo-Saxon authors from late antiquity to the eleventh century.
Trade Review"Major’s surprising larger point [of this work] is how the story of Babel proves less foundational than one would expect…[This] is a detailed study that impressively brings out the handling of [various biblical texts] across a wide range of retellings throughout the Anglo-Saxon period, even as Major convincingly demonstrates that there may be less at stake in those retellings than meets the eye." -- Jonathan Wilcox * The Review of English Studies, New Series, 1-2 *
"Undoing Babel, wide-ranging yet everywhere sensitive in its analyses, is a fascinating window not only on the fate of Genesis 10-11 in Anglo-Saxon England, but also on wider movements in the ecclesiastical, political, and literary landscapes, presenting a clear picture of both the idiosyncrasies of individual authors and the ways they fit into broader interpretive trends." -- Matthew D. Coker, St. Hilda's College, University of Oxford * Notes and Queries, vol 66 no 1, March '19 *
"[Major’s book] results in a detailed study that impressively brings out the handling of biblical texts across a range of retellings throughout the Anglo-Saxon period, even as he convincingly demonstrates that there may be less at stake in these retellings than meets the eye." -- R. M. Luizza * Journal of English and Germanic Philology, July 2019 *
"Undoing Babel offers a substantial contribution to this field. It will be a very useful book for students, too, and will appeal to readers interested in Christian history, in ethnicity, language, and origins in the early medieval period, and in the reception of the Bible in English more broadly." -- Carl Kears, King’s College London *
Modern Philology *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Genesis 10-11 Introduction 1 Early Jewish and Christian Antiquity 2 Latin Christian Antiquity 3 The Early Anglo-Saxon School at Canterbury 4 Bede and Alcuin 5 Alfred the Great and the Literature of his Reign 6 The Tenth and Early Eleventh Centuries 7 The Biblical Poems of Junius 8 Conclusion Bibliography
