Maxims (Old English)

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Paul Cavill (University of Nottingham)

Ed. by Hugh Magennis, Queen's University Belfast
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.01: English Writing and Culture: Old English, 500-1066.
Vol. editors: Richard William Dance (University of Cambridge), Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast)

Dates

Date of occurrence c.1000

Places

United Kingdom (Location)

Genres and Modes

Aphorisms/ Maxims/ Proverbs

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Maxims are sententious generalisations: that is, they aim at being true in relation to the concepts and categories about which they are expressed. We recognise Wiglaf’s maxim in the Old English

Beowulf

, “death is better for every nobleman than a life of shame”, as an expression of the Anglo-Saxon heroic code of honour. It is “true” despite the fact that a number of warriors in the narrative context have run away from supporting Beowulf and fighting a dragon. And interestingly, the dragon of

Beowulf

makes “true” the maxim that appears in the poem

Maxims II

, that “a dragon belongs in a burial mound, old and proud of its treasures”. While the two expressions deal with very different spheres of life they nevertheless tell us something about what the Anglo-Saxons thought of…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

830 words

Citation: Cavill, Paul. "Maxims (Old English)". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 September 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1247, accessed 22 November 2024.]

Maxims (Old English)

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback