Heather O'Donoghue

English Poetry and Old Norse Myth: A History traces the influence of Old Norse myth on poetry in English from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day. Many major poets were inspired by this mythic material. Some, such as the Anglo-Saxon poet of Beowulf, or Walter Scott, used mythic references to set the scene of a distant but dramatic Northern past. Others, such as Thomas Gray, or Matthew Arnold, adapted actual Old Norse mythological texts in wayswhich both responded to and formed the literary tastes of their own times. Still others, such as William Blake, or David Jones, reworked central mythic elements -- valkyries weaving the fates of men, or the great WorldTree on which Odin sacrificed himself -- into their own poetry. This book shows how both major and minor poets in English have reflected changing attitudes towards the pagan North.

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