Alaric Hall | |
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![]() Hall in 2021 | |
Born | 1979 (age 44–45) |
Nationality | British |
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Institutions | University of Leeds |
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Notable works |
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Alaric Hall (born 1979) is a British philologist who is an associate professor of English and director of the Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds. He has,since 2009,been the editor of the academic journal Leeds Studies in English and its successor Leeds Medieval Studies . [1] [2]
Hall received his B.A. in Anglo-Saxon,Norse and Celtic from the University of Cambridge,his M.Phil. in Medieval Studies from the University of Glasgow,and his Ph.D. in English from the University of Glasgow. His Ph.D. thesis was on elves in Anglo-Saxon England. [3]
He has subsequently become an associate professor of English and director of the Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds. Hall researches and teaches the languages,cultures and history of Northwest Europe in the Middle Ages. He has written and edited several works on these subjects. Hall has also written on Icelandic language and literature. [4]
His 2007 book Elves in Anglo-Saxon England received positive academic reviews. The medievalist and Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey described the work as an "exceptionally thorough study",while the Tolkien scholar Dimitra Fimi called it a "solidly scholarly work,with meticulous discussion of philological matters,and also an open-minded (although strictly evidence-based) attempt to look at the bigger picture." [5] [6] [7]
Hall is an environmental campaigner,and since 2018 has regularly stood for election to Leeds City Council for the Green Party of England and Wales. [8] [9] [10] For most of the 2010s he was a resident of the Leeds eco-building Greenhouse and was active in community organising in the local area of Beeston and Holbeck. [11] [12] [13] [14] His activities included campaigning in relation to the United Kingdom cladding crisis. [15]
Within academia,Hall supports open-access publishing and has made his own research freely available online. [16] Correspondingly,he edits Wikipedia,and incorporates editing into his teaching and research at the University of Leeds. [17] [18] [19] He is a member of the University and College Union,campaigning during the 2013 and 2018–2020 UK higher education strikes. [20] [21] [22]
An elf is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology,being mentioned in the Icelandic Poetic Edda and Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda.
Álfröðull is a term and common kenning in Norse mythology. It is ambiguous,referring both to the sun-chariot of the sun goddess Sól and to the rider. Álfröðull is pulled by two horses,Árvakr and Alsviðr. The chariot is pursued by the wolf Sköll. According to Norse mythology,prior to Ragnarök,Álfröðull will give birth to a daughter and after she is eaten by the wolf,the daughter will take her place.
Thomas Alan Shippey is a British medievalist,a retired scholar of Middle and Old English literature as well as of modern fantasy and science fiction. He is considered one of the world's leading academic experts on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien about whom he has written several books and many scholarly papers. His book The Road to Middle-Earth has been called "the single best thing written on Tolkien".
The Drúedain are a fictional race of Men,living in the Drúadan Forest,in the Middle-earth legendarium created by J. R. R. Tolkien. They were counted among the Edain who made their way into Beleriand in the First Age,and were friendly to the Elves. In The Lord of the Rings,they assist the Riders of Rohan to avoid ambush on the way to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.
In Norse cosmology,svartálfar,also called myrkálfar,are beings who dwell in Svartálfheim. Both the svartálfar and Svartálfaheimr are primarily attested in the Prose Edda,written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. Scholars have noted that the svartálfar appear to be synonymous with the dwarfs and potentially also the dökkálfar. As dwarfs,the home of the svartálfar could possibly be another description for Niðavellir.
The Lacnunga ('Remedies') is a collection of miscellaneous Anglo-Saxon medical texts and prayers,written mainly in Old English and Latin. The title Lacnunga,an Old English word meaning 'remedies',is not in the manuscript:it was given to the collection by its first editor,Oswald Cockayne,in the nineteenth century. It is found,following other medical texts,in the British Library's Harley MS 585,a codex probably compiled in England in the late tenth or early eleventh century. Many of its herbal remedies are also found,in variant form,in Bald's Leechbook,another Anglo-Saxon medical compendium.
"Wiðfǣrstice" is an Old English medical text surviving in the collection known now as Lacnunga in the British Library. Wiðfǣrstiċe means 'against a sudden/violent stabbing pain';and according to Felix Grendon,whose collection of Anglo-Saxon charms appeared in the Journal of American Folklore in 1908,“the charm is intended to cure a sudden twinge or stitch,possibly rheumatism that can be due to being shot by witches,elves,and other spirits that fly through the air.”Scholars have often sought to identify this as rheumatism,but other possibilities should not be excluded. The remedy describes how to make a salve,but its main interest lies in the unique charm which follows. This describes how the færstice has been caused by the projectiles of 'mighty women',whom the healer will combat. The charm also mentions elves,believed responsible for elfshot,and provides the only attestation outside personal names of the Old English form of the name of the old Germanic gods,known as the Æsir in Norse mythology.
Deutsche Mythologie is a treatise on Germanic mythology by Jacob Grimm. First published in Germany in 1835,the work is an exhaustive treatment of the subject,tracing the mythology and beliefs of the ancient Germanic peoples from their earliest attestations to their survivals in modern traditions,folktales and popular expressions.
In English folklore,elf-arrows,elf-bolts and pixie arrows were names given to discovered arrowheads of flint,used in hunting and war by the Pre-Indo-Europeans of the British Isles and of Europe generally. The name derives from the folklore belief that the arrows fell from the sky,and were used by the elves to kill cattle and inflict elf-shot on human beings.
In J. R. R. Tolkien's writings,Elves are the first fictional race to appear in Middle-earth. Unlike Men and Dwarves,Elves are immortal,though they can be killed in battle. If so,their souls go to the Halls of Mandos in Aman. After a long life in Middle-earth,Elves yearn for the Earthly Paradise of Valinor,and can sail there from the Grey Havens. They feature in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Their history is described in detail in The Silmarillion.
The Cleopatra Glossaries are three Latin-Old English glossaries all found in the manuscript Cotton Cleopatra A.iii. The glossaries constitute important evidence for Old English vocabulary,as well as for learning and scholarship in early medieval England generally. The manuscript was probably written at St Augustine's,Canterbury,and has generally been dated to the mid-tenth century,though recent work suggests the 930s specifically.
The Royal Prayer Book is a collection of prayers believed to have been copied in the late eighth century or the early ninth century. It was written in West Mercia,likely either in or around Worcester.
The "Leiden Riddle" is an Old English riddle. It is noteworthy for being one of the earliest attested pieces of English poetry;one of only a small number of representatives of the Northumbrian dialect of Old English;one of only a relatively small number of Old English poems to survive in multiple manuscripts;and evidence for the translation of the Latin poetry of Aldhelm into Old English.
England and Englishness are represented in multiple forms within J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings;it appears,more or less thinly disguised,in the form of the Shire and the lands close to it;in kindly characters such as Treebeard,Faramir,and Théoden;in its industrialised state as Isengard and Mordor;and as Anglo-Saxon England in Rohan. Lastly,and most pervasively,Englishness appears in the words and behaviour of the hobbits,both in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings.
Richard Carroll West was an American librarian and one of the first Tolkien scholars. He is best known for his 1975 essay on the interlace structure of The Lord of the Rings,for which he won the 1976 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inkling Studies.
Scholars have identified numerous themes in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings,among them paganism. Despite Tolkien's assertion that The Lord of the Rings was a fundamentally Christian work,paganism appears in that book and elsewhere in his fictional world of Middle-earth in multiple ways. These include a pantheon of god-like beings,the Valar,who function like the Norse gods,the Æsir;the person of the wizard Gandalf,who Tolkien stated in a letter is an "Odinic wanderer";Elbereth,the Elves' "Queen of the Stars",associated with Venus;animism,the way that the natural world seems to be alive;and a Beowulf-like "northern courage" which is determined to press on,no matter how bleak the outlook.
In Tolkien's legendarium,ancestry provides a guide to character. The apparently genteel Hobbits of the Baggins family turn out to be worthy protagonists of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Bilbo Baggins is seen from his family tree to be both a Baggins and an adventurous Took. Similarly,Frodo Baggins has some relatively outlandish Brandybuck blood. Among the Elves of Middle-earth,as described in The Silmarillion,the highest are the peaceful Vanyar,whose ancestors conformed most closely to the divine will,migrating to Aman and seeing the light of the Two Trees of Valinor;the lowest are the mutable Teleri;and in between are the conflicted Noldor. Scholars have analysed the impact of ancestry on Elves such as the creative but headstrong Fëanor,who makes the Silmarils. Among Men,Aragorn,hero of The Lord of the Rings,is shown by his descent from Kings,Elves,and an immortal Maia to be of royal blood,destined to be the true King who will restore his people. Scholars have commented that in this way,Tolkien was presenting a view of character from Norse mythology,and an Anglo-Saxon view of kingship,though others have called his implied views racist.
Philology,the study of comparative and historical linguistics,especially of the medieval period,had a major influence on J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth. He was a professional philologist,and made use of his knowledge of medieval literature and language to create families of Elvish languages and many details of the invented world.
Tolkien has often been supposed to have spoken of wishing to create "a mythology for England". It seems he never used the actual phrase,but various commentators have found his biographer Humphrey Carpenter's phrase appropriate as a description of much of his approach in creating Middle-earth,and the legendarium that lies behind The Silmarillion.
The Old Straight Road,the Straight Road,the Lost Road,or the Lost Straight Road,is J. R. R. Tolkien's conception,in his fantasy world of Arda,of the route that his Elves are able to follow to reach the earthly paradise of Valinor,realm of the godlike Valar. The tale is mentioned in The Silmarillion and in The Lord of the Rings,and documented in The Lost Road and Other Writings. The Elves are immortal,but may grow weary of the world,and then sail across the Great Sea to reach Valinor. The men of Númenor are persuaded by Sauron,servant of the first Dark Lord Melkor,to attack Valinor to get the immortality they feel should be theirs. The Valar ask for help from the creator,Eru Ilúvatar. He destroys Númenor and its army,in the process reshaping Arda into a sphere,and separating it and its continent of Middle-earth from Valinor so that men can no longer reach it. But the Elves can still set sail from the shores of Middle-earth in ships,bound for Valinor:they sail into the Uttermost West,following the Old Straight Road.