E-Books →The Old English Boethius with Verse Prologues and Epilogues Associated with King Alfred

Free Download Susan Irvine, Malcolm R. Godden, "The Old English Boethius: with Verse Prologues and Epilogues Associated with King Alfred"
English | 2012 | pages: 474 | ISBN: 0674055586 | PDF | 14,2 mb
The Old English Boethius boldly refashions in Anglo-Saxon guise a great literary monument of the late-antique world, The Consolation of Philosophy. Condemned to death for treason around 525 ce, the Roman scholar Boethius turned to philosophy to transform his personal distress into a powerful meditation on fate, free will, and the human capacity for virtue in a flawed, fallen world. Boethius's Latin dialogues found a receptive audience in Anglo-Saxon England, where they were translated into Old English some time around 900. The translator (traditionally identified with King Alfred) freely adapts the Latin for a new audience: the Roman Fabricius, for example, becomes the Germanic weapon-smith Weland. The translation replicates Boethius's alternation of prose and verse―only in this case Old English prose alternates with alliterative verse.