Heide Estes - An Enemy Robbed Me of Life; Voices of Nature in Old English Poetry
Update: 2015-06-03
Description
In a series of Riddles written in about the year 1000, animals, plants, and even ore from the earth complain about being torn from their homes and deprived of life so as to become things useful to humans – a book, a bow, an inkwell.
These Riddling voices seem to answer back to Beowulf and similar heroes, who indiscriminately slaughtered animals and monsters alike with regard only for human priorities.
We tend to think that early cultural formations gave humans more access and empathy for natural environments and that modern alienation from nature emerged as a result of the Industrial Revolution. However, the models articulated in Beowulf and the Riddles suggest that utilitarian ideas about nature existed 1000 years ago alongside a recognition that humans did not possess the only voices worth listening to.
This talk took place in Clare Hall on 2 June 2015.
These Riddling voices seem to answer back to Beowulf and similar heroes, who indiscriminately slaughtered animals and monsters alike with regard only for human priorities.
We tend to think that early cultural formations gave humans more access and empathy for natural environments and that modern alienation from nature emerged as a result of the Industrial Revolution. However, the models articulated in Beowulf and the Riddles suggest that utilitarian ideas about nature existed 1000 years ago alongside a recognition that humans did not possess the only voices worth listening to.
This talk took place in Clare Hall on 2 June 2015.
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