Trees in the Religions of Early Medieval England

Michael Bintley

ISBN 10: 1783273011 / ISBN 13: 9781783273010

Published by Boydell Press June 2018, 2018

General reader wear to the corners, edges, and cover. The covers/corners have some creasing. The pages show some general reader wear as well. The book is in good condition with some normal reader wear. There is hi-lighting to the text. The text has underlining and/or notations. Stock photos may not look exactly like the book. Seller Inventory # 1217379

Synopsis:

Drawing on sources from archaeology and written texts, the author brings out the full significance of trees in both pagan and Christian Anglo-Saxon religion. Author won the Faculty Research Award from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Canterbury Christ Church University. Trees were of fundamental importance in Anglo-Saxon material culture - but they were also a powerful presence in Anglo-Saxon religion before and after the introduction of Christianity. This book shows that they remained prominent in early English Christianity, and indeed that they may have played a crucial role in mediating the transition between ancient beliefs and the new faith. It argues that certain characteristics of sacred trees in England can be determined from insular contexts alone, independent of comparative evidence from culturally related peoples. This nevertheless suggests the existence of traditions comparable to those found in Scandinavia and Germany. Tree symbolism helped early English Christians to understand how the beliefs of their ancestors about trees, posts, and pillars paralleled the appearance of similar objects in the Old Testament. In this way, the religious symbols of their forebears were aligned with precursors to the cross in Scripture. Literary evidence from England and Scandinavia similarly indicates a shared tradition of associations between the bodies of humans, trees, and other plant-life. Though potentially ancient, these ideas flourished amongst the abundance of vegetative symbolism found in the Christian tradition.

About the Author: MICHAEL BINTLEY is Associate Professor in Medieval English Literature at the University of Southampton. He is author of Trees in the Religions of Early Medieval England (2015), and Settlements and Strongholds in Early Medieval England: Texts, Landscapes, and Material Culture (2020), and co-author of Landscapes and Environments of the Middle Ages (2023).

Bibliographic Details

Title: Trees in the Religions of Early Medieval ...
Publisher: Boydell Press June 2018
Publication Date: 2018
Binding: Trade Paperback
Condition: Good - Cash