A doomsday passage in an Old English sermon for Lent, revisited

Charles D. Wright

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

In a 1982 article in Anglia, "A Doomsday Passage in an Old English Sermon for Lent", J. E. Cross showed that the author of Fadda Homily no. I (HomM 5) made use of a Latin sermon on the Last Judgment falsely attributed to St. Augustine. Citing the Latin sermon from the Patrologia Latina, Cross concluded that the Old English homilist had freely modified this source by making additions from his own memory of Doomsday commonplaces. A variant text of the Latin sermon, however, proves that the homilist was translating a fuller version that accounts for most of the apparent additions, as well as for further material in the Old English homily beyond the passage isolated by Cross. The new text of the Latin homily enables a better understanding of the Old English homilist's working methods, but also raises important methodological questions for source studies.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)28-47
Number of pages20
JournalAnglia
Volume128
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2010

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language
  • Literature and Literary Theory

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A doomsday passage in an Old English sermon for Lent, revisited'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this