From Youth to Age through Old English Poetry (with Old Norse Parallels)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_misc/mj.200110538Keywords:
age, wisdom, Old English, Old Norse, Anglo-SaxonsAbstract
It has been argued that the most pre-eminent age of man among the Anglo-Saxons was senectus. This view is based on the fact that many contemporary texts emphasize the wisdom associated with age while ignoring the physical deterioration that it involves. This article examines the representation of this problem in Old-English poetry, and incorporates Old Norse literature to supplement the limited evidence of the former. First, I assess the importance that the Anglo-Saxons granted to wisdom, and the analyze the two paths that youths could follow to become wise: the association with a sage man, and the experience of the world. My analysis produces a very specific result: from the written evidence of Old English it can be concluded that the Anglo-Saxons regarded the intermediate stage between youth and age as the perfecta aetas. In this age a sufficient degree of intellectual maturity has been achieved, while the symptoms of decrepitude and senility are not yet manifest.
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