Article

Name: Religious concepts in the Old English tradition

Authors: A. V. Proskurina

Novosibirsk State Technical University

Abstract: The paper highlights the issues of acceptance of Occidental Christianity by Anglo-Saxons and as a result it caused the change of their religious worldview. So, the author indicates that the transfer of information, which excludes pagan connotations, has an influence on a choice of a word cross in the Anglo-Saxon Christian culture. However, belief in pagan deities wasn’t damaged under the influence of evangelization, and the reference to widely revered god Woden indicates it. The article also shows that the Old English bestiary, unlike the other bestiaries, does not represent a vast description of various living and nonliving creatures, but it retains the main message of the Physiologist – a description of the kind of living / non-living creature from the point of view of Christian morality. The unknown author translated a fragment of the Latin translation into Old English, which came to our days as part of a poetic collection of the 10th century The Exeter Book. This translation includes the following three poems (or, as it is also considered, this is one poem consisting of three parts): ‘The Panther’, personifying Christ, ‘The Whale’, represented as the image of the Devil, and ‘The Partridge’. In the first part of this poetic text Christ is represented in the form of a panther, the second part sheds light on the image of the Devil which is described as a whale, and, as in the third part, sinners and their further fate are mentioned. The choice of these living creatures by the unknown poet was not accidental, because they represent the inhabitants of the three elements created by God: the earth (panther), water (whale), air (bird). Three parts of one poem symbolize the death of Christ in the salvation of people and His resurrection. So, in ‘The Panther’ it is symbolically told about the death of Christ, His descent into Hell and resurrection from the dead. The part of ‘The Whale’ tells us about the souls of sinners who fall into Hell. The final part of the poem ‘The Partridge’ describes the day of the Last Judgment, when the souls of sinners and the righteous will appear before God. In conclusion of the article the author shows that the religious scheme of the individuality which is represented in bestiaries is distinct: the pages of allegorical stories tell us about different mythical and real animals, birds, and also about magic stones. In the Old English bestiary, however, the scheme of the individuality is viewed through the prism of real living creatures personifying Jesus Christ (panther), Satan (serpent, whale), and the souls of sinners (fish). Let us note that the image of Christ is the most individual. Thus, the description of the panther is presented in more details; this image in the Old English tradition appears more perfect.

Keywords: Anglo-Saxons, Christianity, sin, concept, belief, bestiary, Jesus Christ, Satan

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