Old Englishness in King Horn and Athelston

Book excerpt: This volume compares characteristics of Old English literature to ‘Matter of England’ romances to determine whether key aspects of the poetry of the former continued in these stories on into the Middle English period. First, the book demonstrates the contemplative tone, respect for nature, and communal mindset present via monastic and hagiographic traditions in Old English poetry, before arguing that the midland romances, King Horn and Athelston, also possess these characteristics. Ultimately, it reveals important aspects of the afterlife of Old English literature and culture in England. Some intriguing discoveries are detailed, including unexpected points of contact between the English and Arabs in both the pre- and post-Conquest periods, as shown by the etymology of Saracen diction in King Horn. Furthermore, comparisons with the dreamer in The Dream of the Rood and an examination of the Old English verb “þencan” used by the Saracen reveal a complicated characterization, which goes deeper than what may be expected for the stock pagan enemy in Middle English romance. The book also investigates the possibility that, in Athelston, there is a reference to the Viking Guthrum, revealing the complex associations that late medieval English culture might have had with its Viking/Anglo-Saxon past. Finally, while looking at Athelston through the lens of the Anglo-Saxon natural world, this study probes what feels like a very Old English sense of kenotic love (via St. Edmund). This is manifested in the promise of grace at the outset of the romance, one that oversees not only a chain of events leading to King Athelston’s final submission and repentance, but also the unification of disparate cultures and a leveling of hierarchies. These romances seem to imbue the stories with a spiritual component, a “concrete universal,” and signify metonymy similar to the elegiac hopeful longing and the communal in the Old English poetry.