GSEP 11: Paul Langeslag/Julia Stumpf (eds.), Forcing Nature. Essays in Medieval Literature. Göttingen 2019.

In the dominant world-view of the Western Middle Ages, natura evoked divine power as manifested in creation. Nature was an all-pervasive force, synonymous with God and his visible handiwork, but also a cosmic principle associated with fate and predestination in the Neoplatonic tradition. This volume of student essays tackles nature in a range of physical and metaphysical guises, always centred on its representation in medieval English literature. It contains studies of the visible natural world in elegiac, homiletic, and apocalyptic literature, but it also addresses other faces of nature, from the naked human form to the medieval reception of ancient ideas about free will, and closes with a comparative analysis of the nature of wisdom in Old English and The Lord of the Rings.


Contents:

• Paul Langeslag/Julia Stumpf: "Introduction"
• Bente Offereins: "Free Will and Eternity in the Old English Poem Soul and Body"
• Verena Klose: "Apocalyptic Landscapes in Old English Poetry and Homilies"
• Irina Rau: "Transience in Four Old English Elegies"
• Julia Stumpf: "The Journey of Life in The Wanderer and The Seafarer"
• Verena Klose: "Landscapes between Heaven and Hell in the Old English Guthlac Material"
• Julia Josfeld: "Forms and Functions of Nakedness in Middle English Romances"
• Kai Friedhoff: "Wisdom in Old English Literature and The Lord of the Rings"