A study of stylistic effects in the Blickling 'Temporale' homilies

• Main Author: Cox, A. M.
• Published: University of Cambridge 1997
• Subjects: 820.9002
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.598112

This thesis examines the prose style of eleven anonymous Old English <I>temporale</I> homilies (Blickling Homilies II-XII). Although it is only in a single late-tenth- or early-eleventh-century manuscript (Princeton, University Library, W.H. Scheide Collection 71) that these items appear together in sequence, later versions of the majority of them survive elsewhere. Following an introduction stressing the number and variety of surviving Anglo-Saxon vernacular preaching collections, the first chapter considers the styles employed in earlier corpora of preaching texts which were exploited by Anglo-Saxon homilists. Chapter 2 includes some discussion of the question of how frequently and in what context vernacular preaching was undertaken in Anglo-Saxon England, but focuses primarily on the range of styles adopted by Ælfric and by the anonymous homilists. Attention is drawn to two Old English translations of passages treating oral delivery, which suggest that advice on this topic was considered useful for a vernacular audience. The third chapter describes firstly the physical characteristics and compilation of the Blickling manuscript; and secondly the structure, major stylistic devices, sources and later versions of each of the <I>temporale</I> homilies. Derived largely from existing scholarship, Chapter 3 represents a more comprehensive synthesis of relevant information than has been available hitherto (in the absence of a critical edition). Chapter 4 analyses the use of six stylistic devices in the Blickling <I>temporale</I> homilies (alliteration and rhyme; the repetition of syllables; thematic repetition; pairing or listing devices; antitheses and rhetorical questions) and reveals that a limited range of effects are combined in varying patterns which reinforce the homilists' themes. Chapter 5 demonstrates that five types of formula are distributed throughout the eleven homilies in order to equip them for oral delivery.