Weaving Words and Binding Bodies : The Poetics of Human Experience in Old English Literature

__Weaving Words and Binding Bodies__ presents the first comprehensive study of weaving and binding imagery through intertextual analysis and close readings of __Beowulf__, riddles, the poetry of Cynewulf, and other key texts.

References to weaving and binding are ubiquitous in Anglo-Saxon literature. Several hundred instances of such imagery occur in the poetic corpus, invoked in connection with objects, people, elemental forces, and complex abstract concepts.

Weaving Words and Binding Bodies presents the first comprehensive study of weaving and binding imagery through intertextual analysis and close readings of Beowulf, riddles, the poetry of Cynewulf, and other key texts. Megan Cavell highlights the prominent use of weaving and binding in previously unrecognized formulas, collocations, and type-scenes, shedding light on important tropes such as the lord-retainer “bond” and the gendered role of “peace-weaving” in Anglo-Saxon society. Through the analysis of metrical, rhetorical, and linguistic features and canonical and neglected texts in a wide range of genres, Weaving Words and Binding Bodies makes an important contribution to the ongoing study of Anglo-Saxon poetics.

Contents 5 Acknowledgments 7 Abbreviations 9 Editions 11 Construction and Constriction: Introducing Human Experience in Old English Poetry 15 Part I – Webs and Rings: Experiencing Objects 27 1. The Material Context of Weaving 29 2. The Woven Mail-Coat 59 3. The Material Context of Structural Binding 80 Part II – Fetters and Chains: Experiencing Bondage 105 4. Binding in Nature 107 5. Imprisonment and Hell 132 6. Slavery and Servitude 169 Part III – Patterns and Nets: Experiencing the Internal and the Abstract 205 7. The Body and Mind 207 8. Language and Knowledge 243 9. Creation, Magic, and Fate 263 10. Peace 292 Weaving and Binding: Conclusions on Human Experience and World View 308 Bibliography 315 Index 345