From the Sword to the Pen

In this exhaustive study, Nicole Gardiner challenges two views widespread among Old English scholars: namely, that the concept of loyalty as reflected in Old English secular heroic poetry has remained unchanged since Tacitus' time; and that the same body of literature interweaves two different traditions, the native Germanic and the Latin Christian. Through detailed analysis of original source material, the author demonstrates that both views treat Old English secular heroic poetry as a homogeneous body of writing and fail to distinguish between the various ways different Christian poets adapted the Germanic concept of loyalty to a Christian way of thinking.