Anglo-Saxon conceptions of the inner self : An exploration of tradition and innovation in selected cynewulfian and alfredian texts

The extant vernacular literature of the Anglo-Saxons bears witness to a profound
and widespread interest in the inner domain of human experience, as can be seen in the
great variety of vocabulary relating to inner faculties and processes and in the diversity
of recurring fonnulas, expressions and metaphors depicting the inner life. This thesis
examines the remarkably innovative conceptions and expressions of the inner self which
we find in a number of Cynewulfian and Alfredian texts.
Part One of this thesis considers the diverse approaches to matters of soul, mind
and self in a number of disciplines in order to introduce the relevant tenninology and
accompanying critical controversies. In Chapter One, I argue for a definition of the
inner self as the centre of agency, experience and identity and consider the way in which
attention to the inner domain is a useful henneneutic tool for the analysis of
anthropological and psychological ideas in the Western intellectual tradition. Chapter
Two introduces the relevant Old English vocabulary in reference to divergent critical
approaches and the persistent difficulties which we face when trying to analyse AngloSaxon
anthropological and psychological ideas in tenns of a rigid soul-body or spiritmatter
dualism. Chapter Three examines how attention to the inner domain allows us to
appreciate the diversity of vernacular accounts of psychological workings and of
differing anthropological schemata in Old English literature.
In Parts Two and Three, I examine a number of texts, both in poetry and prose,
which explore the inner self in reference to larger ideas about human nature and human
purpose and which engage with the implications of Latin Christian anthropological
ideas. In Part Two, Chapters Four. Five and Six examine Cynewulfs Christ II, Juliana
and Elene respectively. with particular emphasis on the way in which the poet underpins
his didactic instructions with of human nature, human types and individual characters. In Part Three, Chapters Seven
and Eight explore the systematic approach to psychological and anthropological ideas in
the Alfredian 'philosophical' works, namely the Consolation and Soliloquies.
respectively. In all of these case studies, I focus on the way in which the internal
coherence of ideas in the texts (and in the respective canons) informs the authors'
constructions of interiority and in doing so illustrate that a philosophical approach to
both poetic and prose texts allows a wider appreciation of innovative thought and
expression relevant to human and personal identity in the Anglo-Saxon perioddetailed explorations of the human condition in accounts