The Reception of Myth in the Old English Boethius: The Pleasure of Telling the ‘False’ to Assert the ‘True’
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14672/fg.3141Keywords:
Old English Boethius, mythAbstract
In the Old English Boethius, references to myth are often introduced or accompanied by the clarification that they are untrue stories, but necessary to explain important truths. This attitude, common to medieval Christendom, is made explicit on several occasions in the Old English Boethius. Respecting the function proposed in the original, the mythological material is then reworked through omissions and additions to suit the specific reception the work would have had in Anglo-Saxon England in the Alfredian period. The comparison with the possible sources studied by the critics offers interesting conjectures, while the analysis of individual passages seems to reveal peculiar translation strategies in the repositioning of episodes involving figures such as Orpheus, Hercules or the giants. The aim of this article is to investigate which translation strategies are adopted for the representation of the myth in the vernacular reworking: beyond didactic requirements, it seems to be guided by the fascination of these ancient tales, which are set in worlds that are geographically and chronologically unknown, tales whose reality is not to be believed, but which the author presents in detail, sharing with the audience the pleasure of extraordinary and astonishing stories.
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