Worlds Made with Words: Old English Poems that Perform

We'll study select Old English works preserved in several media and genres. Our focus is on texts muted in dominant histories of this period: metrical charms, runic inscriptions on whalebone and metal, riddles, spells that curse and heal, and travelogues. These constructions are embedded in polysemous discourses that network through the broad range of cultural discourses available in the Old English Period and link the built environment to the natural one. We will actively fabricate 21st-century approaches to the many-branched worlds of Old English, deciphering the processes these early medieval texts write and performing their songs.