ENGLISH POETRY AND OLD NORSE MYTH English Poetry and Old Norse Myth A History HEATHER O’DONOGHUE 1 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Heather O’Donoghue 2014 The moral rights of the author have been asserted First Edition published in 2014 Impression: 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Control Number: 2013957856 ISBN 978–0–19–956218–3 Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this work. For Bernard Acknowledgements This book is greatly indebted to previous scholars who have documented the impact of Old Norse literature and culture in various periods. As will be evident from what follows, without the work of Ethel Seaton, Frank Farley, Margaret Clunies Ross, Margaret Omberg, and Andrew Wawn, I could hardly have even begun my own. In addition, three young schol- ars—Tom Birkett, Eleanor Parker, and Josie O’Donoghue—gave so gen- erously of their expertise and time that without their help with this book I could hardly have finished it. I am deeply grateful to them all. Contents Introduction 1 Prologue—Earliest Contacts: Medieval Poetry and Old Norse Myth 16 1. Antiquarians and Poets: The Discovery of Old Norse Myth in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 28 2. Preromantic Responses: Gray, Blake, and the Northern Sublime 65 3. Parallel Romantics: The Alternative Norse-Influenced Tradition 104 4. Paganism and Christianism: The Victorians and Their Successors 148 Epilogue—New Images: Contemporary Poetry and Old Norse Myth 200 Bibliography 215 Index 231