In:
Anglo-Saxon England, Cambridge University Press (CUP), Vol. 21 ( 1992-12), p. 23-36
Kurzfassung:
After the conversion of the various Anglo-Saxon royal houses to Christianity in the seventh century, the mythology of the late pagan cults which had supported their sovereignty was supplanted, but not utterly destroyed, by the sacred history of the Bible. Myths in which the old gods sired the founders of current dynasties proved uniquely adaptive. These foundation myths were preserved at a secondary stratum in the new ideological order, in that body of dynastic pseudo-history and heroic legend which was important but subordinate to the authoritative canon of Christian scripture. As J. M. Wallace-Hadrill suggested, the nascent Anglo-Saxon dynasties needed legitimizing ancestors as much after, as before, their conversion. And if they could no longer have gods, they would settle for men of the same name.
Materialart:
Online-Ressource
ISSN:
0263-6751
,
1474-0532
DOI:
10.1017/S0263675100004166
Sprache:
Englisch
Verlag:
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Publikationsdatum:
1992
ZDB Id:
2090610-9
SSG:
7,25
