2013/11/24 by Lise Jaillant · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Philippine History and Culture #Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies #Social and Cultural Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1353/chq.2013.0055
openalex publication_date 2013/11/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
When publishers started marketing the tale of Beowulf to a large audience of children (and adults) in the 1880s, they capitalized on the aura of the Middle Ages by selling editions with golden titles, decorated initials and reproductions of medieval drawings. The medievalizing aspect of these children’s books offered a suitable format for a tale presented as the founding text in English literature. This article argues that the heroic and nationalistic ideology of these early versions is anchored in their material aspect. The analysis of three juvenile adaptations first published between 1898 and 1908 – A. J. Church’s Heroes of Chivalry and Romance , Thomas Cartwright’s Brave Beowulf , and H. E. Marshall’s Stories of Beowulf Told to the Children – shows that their ‘bibliographic code’ was closely intertwined with archaic translations inspired by nineteenth-century Anglo-Saxon scholarship.