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Issue 7 Spring 2004

ISSN 1526-1867 Issue Editor: Michelle Ziegler

Fifth Anniversary Issue 1999-2004

Letter from the Editor
Articles
Milk Symbolism in the Bethu Brigte by Thomas Torma, University of Ulster Of particular importance to the Brigidine hagiographers was Brigit's close associations with dairy products. This article explores the role which dairy products play in the Bethu Brigte, the ninth century Old Irish biography of St. Brigit. In particular this article focuses on the relationship between milk and purity in these lives.   Columba and Spiritual Proximity by Alexander Rolfe, George Fox University, Newberg, Oregon. This essay argues that nearness to other monks was a dominant theme in Adomnan's Life of St. Columba. Spiritual proximity is of much greater concern in early Irish monasticism than in Benedictine or Pachomian monasticism, even while the Irish are noted for lonely peregrinatio.   Civilized Rage in Beowulf By Thomas L. Wymer and Erin Labbie, Bowling Green State University This article explores the ways in which battle rage is presented as a positive force in Beowulf. The admonitory theme of the dangers of uncontrolled rage manifested by the monsters, well explored in the critical literature, is balanced by the glorification of appropriately controlled and directed rage exemplified in Beowulf, a point that has gone unnoticed. Discussion focuses on the contexts in which forms of belgan appear, forms that denote the heightened emotional state of battle rage rather than the weaker states of anger as most translators render it. Seen in terms of Norbert Elias' notions of the civilizing process, the warrior culture of Beowulf exemplifies how rage functions ambiguously in this early stage of cultural development as both a sustainer of and a threat to civil order.
History by Biography
Athelstan of England: Christian King and Hero by Kent G. Hare, Northwestern State University of Louisiana Despite his obscurity in modern memory, the tenth-century English King Athelstan enjoyed great fame in the Middle Ages. The Old English chronicle-poem The Battle of Brunanburh provides just one example of tenth- to twelfth century lore and legend that celebrated his renown as Christian king and hero.
The Forum
Arthur of Dalriada Revisited by Richard Lathe, Edinburgh
Columns
Continental Business Anglo-Saxon Women's Letters by Michel Aaij, University of North Carolina, Asheville Discussed in this review: Janine Cünnen (2000), Fiktionale Nonnenwelten: Angelsächsische Frauenbriefe des 8. und 9. Jahrhunderts [Fictional Nuns' Worlds: Anglo-Saxon Women's Letters of the 8th and 9th Century]. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag. ISBN 3825310698. 364+xi pages, 1 illustration.
Electronic Medievalia The Doomsday Machine, or, "If you build it, will they still come ten years from now?" What Medievalists working in digital media can do to ensure the longevity of their research by Daniel Paul O'Donnell, University of Lethbridge, Canada
Reviews
Book Reviews Richard Barber's The Legends of King Arthur. Reviewed by Jennifer Dean. T.M. Charles-Edwards' Early Christian Ireland. Reviewed by David J. Duncan. Cinema Arthuriana:Twenty Essays. (revised edition) Edited by Kevin J. Harty. Reviewed by Rebecca Umland. Rome and the North: the Early Reception of Gregory the Great in Germanic Europe. Edited by Rolf H. Bremmer, Jr, Kees Dekker, and David E. Johnson. Reviewed by Brad Eden, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. N. J. Higham's King Arthur: Myth-Making and History. Reviewed by Craig R. Davis. John Lindow's Norse Mythology: a guide to gods, heroes, rituals, and beliefs. Reviewed by Brad Eden. Andrew E. Mathis' The King Arthur Myth in Modern American Literature. Reviewed by Kelly A. O'Connor-Salomon
In Memoriam
Robert Thomas Farrell, Archaeologist and Anglo-Saxonist, 1939-2003 John Kelleher, Professor of Irish Studies, died 1 January 2004 W.R.J. Barron, Arthurian Professor Emeritus, died 15 April 2004 Charles T. Wood, Medieval Historian, 1933-2004
Next Issue Highlights
Issue 8: Traders, Saints, and Pirates: The Sea in Early Medieval Northwestern Europe

 

 

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The Heroic Age, Issue 7

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Staff for this Issue

 

Issue Editor: Michelle Ziegler

Editor-in-Chief: Michelle Ziegler

Reviews Editor (Books and Film): Brad Eden

Electronic Medievalia Editor : L.J. Swain

Copy Editing: Michelle Ziegler

Production Editor: Michelle Ziegler

 

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USA

©2004. The Heroic Age. All rights reserved.

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