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The Old English Alexander's Letter to Aristotle : Monsters and Hybris in the Service of Exemplarity

2013; Routledge; Volume: 94; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/0013838x.2013.814324

1744-4217

Omar Khalaf,

Linguistics and language evolution

AbstractThe present article aims at investigating the textual characteristics of the Old English Alexander's Letter to Aristotle. A close comparison with the Latin source reveals the translator's effort to underline Alexander the Great's qualities as leader of his army. This work of re-elaboration promotes Alexander as an exemplary figure of kingship and relegates the Latin text's typical marvellous elements to a secondary level. With reference to Sisam's and Wenisch's observations on the style of the Letter and partially in contrast with the traditional vision of the Nowell Codex as an anthology of texts linked by the concept of the monstrous, the aforementioned observations will be used to outline the hypothesis that the re-elaborations found in the text might originally be designed in the wake of Alfred the Great's translational programme. Notes1Cary, 14–15.2Rypins, xiv. Cf. Kiernan.3Sisam, 96.4For convenience, the division in chapters of the Epistola and the Letter found in Orchard will be maintained.5See also chapters 2, 15.6“[We] lost thirty slaves and twenty soldiers.”7“The serpents killed thirty men of the army and twenty of my own thegns” (my translation).8Twice in chapters 10 and 11, four times in chapter 12, once in chapters 15, 18, 20, 24, 27, 31.9See inter alios Cary; Holländer; and Bunt.10“I am grateful for the bravery of the young men of Macedonia and for my invincible army, since they persevered with such endurance so that I am called king of all kings.”11“For this I thank the Greek army and especially the young men's strength and the invincibility of our troops, because they were with me in the easy things and did not flee from hard ones. But with patience they endured with me so that I was called the king of all kings.”12“It was a sight to see such an army in its variety since it stood out among all the other nations both for its ornaments and its strength. Indeed, as I was thinking about my good fate because of the large number of the young men, I began to feel great joy.”13“And so great was the sight of my troop in splendour beyond all the other mighty kings that there have been in the world, that when I looked at myself and saw my power, my glory, the strength of my youth and the prosperity of my life, I was somehow uplifted with joy in my soul.”14This issue has been thoroughly investigated by George Cary, who identified the Collatio Alexandri cum Dindimo as the most influential source for the medieval Christian moral condemnation upon Alexander, based on his contrast with the king-philosopher Dindimus (168–70). D. J. A. Ross identified numerous manuscripts containing both the Epistola and the Collatio, and two belong to the Old English period—London, British Library, MS Royal 13.A.I and London, British Library, MS Harley 262.15“After the army was assembled, I threw the vessel away so that the soldiers did not feel even more thirsty while I was drinking; I greatly praised Zephirus' kindness to me and I honoured him with appropriate gifts. As this fact made the army steadier, I set my mind on the rest of the journey.”16“And when, as already said, the water was brought to me, I gathered the whole army and my troops and poured it away in the sight of them all, so that I should not drink and leave my thegn, my army and everybody with me thirsty. And then in sight of them all I praised Zephyrus my thegn and gave him precious gifts for that deed. And when my troop was heartened and calmed by this, we proceeded on the way we had taken before.”17“so that they would not lose courage as women do before misfortune.”18“If you are clear of any sexual contact with a boy or a woman, you can enter the sacred grove.”19“if your companions are pure from the touch of women, they may enter the holy place.”20“I have, my dear Aristotle, set up an enviable monument, new and perpetual, so that my immortality, my reputation and the proof of the diligence of the mind would be lasting.”21“And to me the imminent ending of my life is no more painful as the fact that I have reached less glory than I wished.”22“And my memory will stand forever and be an example in which other earthly kings can shelter, so that they know that my power and my honour were greater than those of all the other kings who have ever lived in the world.”23Rypins, xxxvii.24Any consideration on the rewriting of the text will not affect the role it plays in the Nowell anthology. B. McFadden has proposed an interesting hypothesis on the function of the Letter contextualized in the Nowell anthology. He argues that Alexander's struggles against the monsters must be seen as the metaphor of a substantial difficulty in controlling the unknown, the Other which arise from times of uncertainty caused by tenth- and early-eleventh-century Viking invasions, the Benedictine Reform and fear of the coming millennium.25Cf. Rypins, vii.26Bately, 99.27Sisam, 85. See Bately, 99.28Wenisch, 72.