ENHANCEMENTS AND EMBELLISHMENTS: POETIC COMPOUNDS IN THE OLD ENGLISH WHALE

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11320%2F26%3AK2PXETHV" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11320/26:K2PXETHV - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://sites.smith.edu/dies-legibiles/wp-content/uploads/sites/602/2025/08/Enhancements-and-Embellishments_-Poetic-Compounds-in-the-Old-English-Whale-Google-Docs.pdf" target="_blank" >https://sites.smith.edu/dies-legibiles/wp-content/uploads/sites/602/2025/08/Enhancements-and-Embellishments_-Poetic-Compounds-in-the-Old-English-Whale-Google-Docs.pdf</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

ENHANCEMENTS AND EMBELLISHMENTS: POETIC COMPOUNDS IN THE OLD ENGLISH WHALE

Original language description

As a major feature of Old English linguistic and literary convention, poetic compounds play a significant role in the Old English Physiologus. The vernacular text is derived from the Latin Physiologus B as the next in a long chain of historic translation and transformations to the work’s catalogue of animals, their behaviors, and their allegorical significance. With its linguistic roots in Greek, likely in the city of Alexandria in the third or fourth century, the Physiologus is a text that very much embodies its multicultural past, bringing Indian, Hebrew, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman legends of the natural world into the early Christian world. Somewhere between the fourth and sixth centuries, the Greek exemplar was adapted into Latin among other languages, and in this form entered into Europe where its allegories and fantastic descriptions made it a popular candidate for educational and homiletic contexts.1 With the widespread popularity of the Latin Physiologus, translation projects began adapting the text into vernaculars, including Old English, in the late tenth century. These translations not only transposed the Physiologus into further languages but also adapted them to popular exegetical frameworks to allow for as many layers of meaning and interpretation as possible. As the earliest of these European vernacular re-renderings, the Old English Physiologus “both expands and contracts its source” in order to make use of native diction and thus further assert its message. 2 One of the areas in which this expansion is most obvious and effective is the Whale, in which the anonymous Old English poet draws out his allegorical description significantly to present an evocative image of the deceitful nature both of the animal and of Satan. The use of poetic compounds throughout the Whale serves to embellish the Physiologus poem and strengthen the piece’s connection to the Old English vernacular literary tradition and its own allegorical message.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

O - Miscellaneous

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10201 - Computer sciences, information science, bioinformathics (hardware development to be 2.2, social aspect to be 5.8)

Project

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Continuities

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Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů