From Language To Thought:the Concepts Of Time In Old English Literature

Though it has not received explicit critical attention in the previous Anglo-Saxon scholarship, the issue of how time is perceived in Anglo-Saxon literature and culture has a long critical tradition. This can be dated to1895, when Frederick Tupper examined in detail the Anglo-Saxon division of time and what it meant to the Anglo-Saxon clerk and layman. Yet, there is an academic discontinuity between Tupper and more recent Anglo-Saxonists:only in1980s has the issue of time come to the critical focus again. Anglo-Saxonists such as Angus Cameron, Janet Bately, Victor L. Strite and Hans Sauer either investigated some time words in Old English or examined the concept of time in individual Old English texts in the academic context of recompiling a new Old English dictionary, the important Dictionary of Old English. In1982, Paul C. Bauschatz examined early Germanic traditions in the perception of time, and in2003, Malcolm Godden dealt with time, millennium and history with his focus primarily on Old English homilies. However, much remains to be investigated. In particular, the assumptions and concepts from cognitive linguistics offer an opportunity to reconsider the issue of time in the Anglo-Saxon context, supplying a new way to bring together and address in more fundamental terms of "outlook" the ideas of time in Anglo-Saxon literature and culture.For although Anglo-Saxonists such as Godden and Bauschatz noticed the importance of time in interpreting Anglo-Saxon culture, they did not go to the extent of showing how time was fundamental and influenced the perceptions of many other concepts. Crucial means for doing both things are available from cognitive linguists such as George Lakoff, Mark Johnson, Steven Pinker and Vyvyan Evans, who have emphasised the fundamental role of time in understanding our conceptual system. Morever, Evans, most notable for study of temporal cognition, observed two levels of conceptual structure for time:lexical concepts and cognitive models for time. According to Evans, at the first level, time is usually related to eight distinct lexical concepts, while at the second level, time is conceptualised in terms of space and motion. Evans’s elaboration of the two levels of conceptual structure provides a feasible framework for the discussion of time in Anglo-Saxon materials. Yet we need to evaluate whether the eight lexical concepts are equally important, or if some concepts are more prominent than others in the Anglo-Saxon context. Finally, cognitive linguists such as Lakoff and Pinker highlighted the metaphorical nature of time and proposed the conceptual metaphor theory to explain the complexity of time.This dissertation attempts to study the concepts of time in Old English literature on the basis of Evans’s two levels of conceptual structure, through a series of analyses of time words, metaphors, styles, and narrative modes in various Old English texts. At the first level, this dissertation deals with the concept of the future, the most prominent lexical concept in the Anglo-Saxon context. At the second level, it examines the conceptualisation of time in terms of spatial relations and motion such as linearity and cyclicity. Beyond these two levels mentioned by Evans, there is a third level in the Anglo-Saxon context, namely the concept of eternity, which is closed related to the concepts of the future and time flow. An examination of the three levels of time could help to highlight time as a many-sided and widely significant concept, allowing us to penetrate the complexities concerning the development and evolution of various ideas and thought in Anglo-Saxon England.This dissertation is organized to test this approach and unfold its implications. Chapter1begins with a discussion of the major position of time in human thought, then gives a retrospective review of the studies on time in the foregoing Anglo-Saxon scholarship, and finally elaborates on the theoretical foundations and methodologies of this dissertation. The following chapters assess the kinds of temporality described above. Chapter2deals with the concept of the future. When the eschatological future in early medieval Christianity encounters the early Germanic culture which simply views the binary division between the past and the present, the concept of the future becomes significant in the discussion of the Anglo-Saxon concepts of time and lies at the very centre of the conflict and assimilation of these two conceptual systems. Rather than taking an either-or strategy, Anglo-Saxon authors made efforts to strike a balance and to resolve the inner tension concerning the concept of the future in these two conceptual systems. The Beowulf-poet integrated the eschatological future in his narration and described Beowulf as both a Germanic hero who can not escape the wyrd and a Christian martyr who sacrifices his life for future happiness. King Alfred viewed the past glory of England as the reference point for his programme to revive learning in England and thus his concept of the future is the nostalgia for the glorious past rather than an expectation for the prophetic future. King Alfred was not alone in his nostalgic attitude towards the glorious past and in the two Old English poems Deor and The Ruin, the poets equated the concept of the future to a nostalgic attitude of returning to the past. In contrast, Bede strictly followed the Christian tradition and defined the future as the Seventh Age of the world within the Christian framework of time reference. In the case of Chronicle, under its seemingly Christian framework, the concept of the future is dominated by the political rhetoric and logic and is associated with the national awareness of having a politically united England. In this sense, we may claim that the Anglo-Saxon concept of the future lingers between the glorious past and the prophetic future. The Anglo-Saxon authors, exemplified by the Beowulf-poet, Bede, King Alfred, the Chronicle-annalists, etc. maintained different stances on this issue, yet their differences are primarily defined by degrees to which they positioned the future in the continuum from the past glory to the prophetic future.Chapter3examines the concept of time flow. This concept involves the dynamic aspect of the concepts of time and examines how time changes from one state to another. As another dimension of time, it is not only associated with the spatial conceptualisation of time, but also with the development of history. In the traditional discussion of the concept of time flow, the dichotomy between’linear’and’cyclical’ has been made to describe how time changes from one state to another. Whether time is perceived as linear or cyclical determines how history is narrated. In the conceptual system of early medieval Christianity, time begins with the Creation and ends with the Last Judgment, and thus time is linear. In the early Germanic culture that views the binary division between the past and the present, time progresses as a constant and cyclical shift between the past and the present. In the confrontation of the linearity and cyclicity of time, the Anglo-Saxon authors adopted different strategies to resolve this conflict of ideas. In the case of HE and Chronicle, though both Bede and the Chronicle-annalists described a linear progression of history, the linearity of time were understood in a different manner:the former interpreted the linearity of history in its highly prophetic and eschatological sense, while the latter saw linearity as a natural continuation of time. In some other cases like Guthlac A and Christ Ⅲ, the linearity of time was slightly adapted to narrate the history of an individual saint:the Guthlac-poet metaphorised the saint Guthlac as a tidfara ("time-traveller"), while the Christ Ⅲ-poet reversed the linearity of time to recount the awesome process of the Last Judgment. In the most complex case of Beowulf, with the integration of the linearity and cyclicity of time, the Beowulf-poet related the never-ending feuds of the Germanic tribes with a spiral perception of history. This chapter concludes that the Anglo-Saxon authors were more apt to employ the framework of linear time to organise their histories with different historical intentionalities.Chapter4deals with the concept of eternity. The distinction between "everlastingness" and "timelessness" is of great importance:the former indicates the secularity of eternity, while the latter concerns the sacredness of eternity. First, with a comparison between the Latin word ceternalis and its Old English translation ecelice, it concludes that the time words for eternity in Old English are more concerned with the secular meaning. Then, it examines the concept of eternity in Dream and the eagan bryhtm metaphor in HE, and explains why the Dream-poet focused on the secularity of eternity. Finally, with its focus on The Phoenix and The Wanderer, it demonstrates that the Anglo-Saxon transitory experience contributes to their understanding of the concept of eternity as the fulfilment of worldly aspiration. The early Germanic concept of ’everlasting’ eternity and the Anglo-Saxon secular experience of transience function as the receptive background for the Christian concept of ’timeless’ eternity to become adopted and assimilated by the Anglo-Saxon authors in their writings.Drawing together the conclusions of the preceding chapters, the concluding chapter concludes that the Anglo-Saxon concepts of time are the special combination of the two cultural strains in Anglo-Saxon England. The tension and interaction between these two strains have formulated the Germanised Christian concepts of time or the Christianised Germanic concepts of time. The concepts of time, as has been demonstrated, are embedded in nostalgia for the past, the expectation of the end of the world, the judgment of history, the aspiration for national identity, and the contemplation of fate.