The Old English Durham and the cult of Cuthbert
The Old English Durham is a short poem in praise of the final resting place of Saint Cuthbert, the great seventh-century Anglo-Saxon hermit saint. The present essay argues that the poem asserts the primacy of Durham as cult centre, over the previous centres of Lindisfarne and Chester-le-Street, by d...
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| פורמט: | Journal article |
| יצא לאור: |
University of Illinois Press
2016
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| _version_ | 1826289502072602624 |
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| author | Appleton, H |
| author_facet | Appleton, H |
| author_sort | Appleton, H |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | The Old English Durham is a short poem in praise of the final resting place of Saint Cuthbert, the great seventh-century Anglo-Saxon hermit saint. The present essay argues that the poem asserts the primacy of Durham as cult centre, over the previous centres of Lindisfarne and Chester-le-Street, by depicting the city as a space exceptionally suited to Cuthbert and blessed by his presence. The Durham poet presents a selective and idealized description of the city of Durham that uses a hybrid of natural and built space to echo the representation of Cuthbert’s homes on Farne and Lindisfarne in the hagiographic tradition. The result is a fusion of the eremitic space of the hermitage and the coenobitic space of the monastery, both types of the City of God, which creates a sense of continuity from the spaces that Cuthbert occupied in life and demonstrates the fitness of Durham Cathedral as a resting place for the saint. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T02:29:51Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:a6ddd452-1372-4b9c-ba60-581bfac7896c |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T02:29:51Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | University of Illinois Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:a6ddd452-1372-4b9c-ba60-581bfac7896c2022-03-27T02:50:23ZThe Old English Durham and the cult of CuthbertJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:a6ddd452-1372-4b9c-ba60-581bfac7896cSymplectic Elements at OxfordUniversity of Illinois Press2016Appleton, HThe Old English Durham is a short poem in praise of the final resting place of Saint Cuthbert, the great seventh-century Anglo-Saxon hermit saint. The present essay argues that the poem asserts the primacy of Durham as cult centre, over the previous centres of Lindisfarne and Chester-le-Street, by depicting the city as a space exceptionally suited to Cuthbert and blessed by his presence. The Durham poet presents a selective and idealized description of the city of Durham that uses a hybrid of natural and built space to echo the representation of Cuthbert’s homes on Farne and Lindisfarne in the hagiographic tradition. The result is a fusion of the eremitic space of the hermitage and the coenobitic space of the monastery, both types of the City of God, which creates a sense of continuity from the spaces that Cuthbert occupied in life and demonstrates the fitness of Durham Cathedral as a resting place for the saint. |
| spellingShingle | Appleton, H The Old English Durham and the cult of Cuthbert |
| title | The Old English Durham and the cult of Cuthbert |
| title_full | The Old English Durham and the cult of Cuthbert |
| title_fullStr | The Old English Durham and the cult of Cuthbert |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Old English Durham and the cult of Cuthbert |
| title_short | The Old English Durham and the cult of Cuthbert |
| title_sort | old english durham and the cult of cuthbert |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT appletonh theoldenglishdurhamandthecultofcuthbert AT appletonh oldenglishdurhamandthecultofcuthbert |