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Audio Talk – MP3 – Beowulf, the Dissolution, the loss of the Anglo-Saxon epic tradition, and the British Memory North European Origins, and Misc Topics (2010) (Click the play button, or right click and “save link as”)47:56 minutes.
In John Grigsby’s “Beowulf and Grendel” (2006 Watkins Publishing, UK) the author reflects with sadness that England truly lacks a native “myth” and tradition. He credits J.R.R. Tolkin’s writings, in part, to filling this hole in the English soul.
His confused sentiment, and nostalgia for myth and legend, shows both a dim awareness of something profound: a folklore and history gap. The British People lack some degree of memory of their ancient origins, unlike some other European nations. There is folklore, but it is mostly recent, from the later middle ages. The example of King Arthur reflects Celtic, not Saxon, themes. Indeed, the British were Celtic before the Saxon migrations, but the themes in King Arthur largely reflect Franco-Norman motifs (and many cleverly disguised Islamic themes), while the character of Arthur might, in a distorted way, reflect a more ancient British king or warlord, King Arthur is hardly authentic Anglo-Saxon lore.
Robin Hood and others heroes are all late figures. And what survives of the history of the pre-Norman Anglo-Saxon kingdoms are simple outlines and brief chronicles, lacking nuances, and possibly disguising very interesting possibilities. In whose best interests, we wonder, is this?
It becomes quickly clear that there is a lost history of the Anglo-Saxon peoples, and that stripped away from the English are deeper traditions and epics. To be clear, epics are not myths, not made up tales of magic and dragons, rather they are part of the folk history of a people, albeit distorted due to oral transmission and age,
a people’s epics give them some degree of understanding of their real history and origins. This was stripped away from the English people under very peculiar circumstances, which we will cover.
There is a profound reason for this memory hole, in this chat between Abuabdullah and Ibn Abdulshafi, we examine Beowulf, Anglo-Saxon epic poetry, and the greatest library purge in English history, to reflect on the shaping of the English soul, and the consequences to removing a people’s memory from them.
For the love of God, keep writing these atcriles.