Aelfric's adaptations of Vita Sanctae Eugeniae

Author

Margery Weber Murphy

Date of Award

8-1988

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

English

Major Professor

Mary P. Richards

Committee Members

Joseph Trahern, Thomas Heffernan

Abstract

Aelfric of Eynsham, the foremost writer and scholar of his century, taught Latin and translated Latin into Old English as part of his work at Cernel Monastery, Dorset, England, in the latter part of the tenth century. Among his translations is the Lives of Saints, adapted in part from the medieval Latin Vitae Patrum. Few studies have been undertaken of Aelfric's saints' lives in relation to his sources. Each new study contributes to our understanding of the homiletic tradition and our awareness of tenth-century thought and culture. Dorothy Bethurum, Cecily Clark, and Judith Gaites have made such contributions with their analyses of Aelfric's methods of translation and adaptation. This thesis depends upon their analyses for insight into Aelfric's forms of abridgement, but expands upon their analyses in three ways. First, the five methods of analysis devised by Bethurum, Clark, and Gaites have been combined, and amended to include a sixth method of analysis. Additionally, thorough analysis has now been completed of yet another of Aelfric's works, the "Life of Eugenia" in relation to his source, the anonymous medieval Latin "Vita Sanctae Eugeniae." And finally, a thousand years after Aelfric's translation of the "Vita" into Old English, a new translation of the "Vita" has been made in Modern English, and appears in the thesis appendix.

Recommended Citation

Murphy, Margery Weber, "Aelfric's adaptations of Vita Sanctae Eugeniae. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 1988.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/13277