Search

Medieval Lincolnshire is an interesting area in linguistic terms, not only because the boundary between the Northern and East Midland dialects in ME possibly ran horizontally across the shire, but also because historical dialectologists have proposed that some linguistic features could have diffused into it from the south, the west and the north. In this paper, we intend to reconstruct some socio-historical aspects of late Anglo-Saxon and early Norman Lincolnshire (c.900–c.1250) which could have contributed to this linguistic panorama in ME. Not disregarding the proposal that patterns of Danish settlement and contact between OE and ON could have affected the diffusion of innovations throughout this shire, attention will be given to other aspects of the process: (a) the characteristics of the medieval landscape which, by hindering or favouring communication, may have conditioned the distribution of language variants; (b) aspects of early political history and their possible linguistic sequels; and, mainly, (c) the specific socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the area which could have favoured the spread of linguistic features by promoting the concentration of people in urban settlements as well as the mobility of speakers and, in general, the loosening of some close-knit networks of interpersonal relations and the establishment of weaker ties between individuals.

The Middle Ages has been privileged in countless adaptations within popular culture. The number of movies, novels, graphic novels, toys, computer games and even amusement parks based on different aspects related to this historical period is indeed very high. The anglo-saxon poem Beowulf is not an exception and there are dozens of adaptations or recreations which ‘appropiate’ the poem in different formats. Some of the most recent are the Hollywood movie Beowulf by Robert Zemeckis (2007) and the novel Beowulf by Caitlin R. Kiernan (2007), both relying on the script by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary (2007). In this paper I study both proposals, firstly by looking at them from the perspective of popular culture and secondly by tracing their connections with the original Old English poem. This allows me to draw the literary and cultural strategies which link the adaptations to the original, thereby adding an intellectual component to the popular versions.

The short story "A Lesson on a Tortoise", written by D. H. Lawrence in 1909, has traditionally been disregarded by criticism as a very minor piece of work. This paper aims to show that the story has a threefold importance: firstly as an autobiographical portrait of Lawrence's activities as a teacher in Croydon; secondly as an example of Lawrence's ability to use realistic techniques; and thirdly as a reflection of the author's crisis of social identity. The paper concentrates on the last aspect and traces the personal and intellectual facets which came to shape Lawrence's ideas on the subject.