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Bawling and brawling: why the vibrant Old English tradition is more than "ape's bumfodder"

Irvine, SE; (2018) Bawling and brawling: why the vibrant Old English tradition is more than "ape's bumfodder". TLS - The Times Literary Supplement , No. 59 pp. 26-27. Green open access

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Abstract

“Oxford Dons call for slaying of Beowulf” ran the headline in the Daily Telegraph in 1998, as battle lines were drawn in the simmering feud over retaining compulsory Old English at the University of Oxford. Two years later, for the THES, it was “goodbye to Beowulf” when the voting found in favour of making Old English optional. Philip Larkin, who famously referred to Old English poetry as “ape’s bumfodder”, would presumably have lost little sleep over this. But for many devotees of Old English, Oxford’s decision appeared to mark a gloomy turning point for the future of a subject which for a long time had garnered little public appeal and which undergraduates increasingly seemed to view as irrelevant. Even as Oxford was cutting the cord, however, initiatives from elsewhere were breathing new life into the subject that would prove such fears to be unfounded. Chief among these was the…

Type: Article
Title: Bawling and brawling: why the vibrant Old English tradition is more than "ape's bumfodder"
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Publisher version: https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/private/beowulf...
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Dept of English Lang and Literature
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10069679
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