Satan unbound : the Devil in Old English narrative literature / Peter Dendle.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"The devil is perhaps the single most recurring character in Old English narrative literature, and yet his function in the highly symbolic narrative world of hagiography has never been systematically studied. Certain inconsistencies characteristically accompany the nebulous devil in early medieval narrative accounts - he is simultaneously bound in hell and yet roaming the earth; he is here identified as the chief of demons, and there taken as a collective term for the totality of demons; he is at one point a medical parasite and at another a psychological principle." "Satan Unbound argues that these open-ended registers in the conceptualisation of the devil allowed Anglo-Saxon writes a certain latitude for creative mythography, even within the orthodox tradition. The narrative tensions resulting from the devil's protean character opaquely reflect deep-rooted anxieties in the early medieval understanding of the territorial distribution of the moral cosmos, the contested spiritual provinces of the demonic and the divine. The ubiquitous conflict between saint and demon constitutes an ontological study of the boundaries between the holy and the unholy, rather than a psychological study of temptation and sin."--Jacket

The Evolution of the Anglo-Saxon Devil -- Literature and Cultural Archaeology -- The Devil as Tempter -- Demonic Instigation in Patristic Theology -- Demonic Instigation in Narrative Literature -- The Vercelli Book and the Devil's Arrows -- AElfric -- The Role of the Devil -- The Range of Narrative Functions -- The Life of Nicholas: The Accidental Devil -- The Lives of Margaret: The Devil as Saint-Maker -- The Devil as Observer -- Exterior Evil and the Landscape of Old English Narrative -- The Devil in Hell -- The Devil of the Air -- The Liturgical Devil -- The Devil of the Homilies -- Space and Poetry -- Mise-en Scene in Elene and Andreas -- The Devil and the Demons -- Bede's Ecclesiastical History -- Cynewulf -- The Guthlac Cycle -- Dialogue and Demonology: Defining the Opponent -- Open Registers of Demonic Representation -- The Devil as Idiom.

Print version record.

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