Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
Loading next page...
/lp/university-of-north-carolina-press/the-middle-english-athelston-and-1381-part-i-the-politics-of-anglo-TemT43QqwV
References
References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.
- Publisher
- University of North Carolina Press
- Copyright
- Copyright © Studies in Philology, Incorporated
- ISSN
- 1543-0383
Abstract
<p>Abstract:</p><p>This is the first of two articles for <i>Studies in Philology</i> that situate the Middle English <i>Athelston</i> within the context of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. The article traces the poem's fictional scenario of a historical Anglo-Saxon king occupying the throne of late fourteenth-century England, along with its legal preoccupations, obfuscation of the hero role, and the centrality of the verbal oath, to the political vision and recruitment practices of the peasant insurgents, who sought to restore perceived rights and privileges enjoyed by their predecessors under the Anglo-Saxon kings, a vision they pursued first in the law courts before taking to the streets. Through a series of type scenes structuring the entire poem, the poet frames Athelston as an outlaw, a tyrant, and a heathen despot respectively, ultimately discrediting him as a ruler along with the divisive political vision he embodies, offering instead a more conciliatory, state-sanctioned model of Anglo-Saxon identity in the form of St. Edmund.</p>
Journal
Studies in Philology – University of North Carolina Press
Published: Jan 15, 2020