Skip to main content
Log in

The expression of emotional distress in Old English prose and verse

  • Published:
Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The Old English elegies and Alfred's translation ofDe Consolatione Philosophiae were examined for the presence of abstract nouns denoting adverse mood states. Large numbers of these nouns were discovered and grouped into five categories. This counters the arguments of those who believe the Anglo-Saxons expressed negative emotions chiefly in somatic terms.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alexander, M. 1991 The Earliest Poems. London: Penguin Classics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bosworth, J., T. N. Toller 1898 An Anglo Saxon Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cockayne, O. 1865 Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England Vol II. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts and Green.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diekstra, F. N. M. 1971 The Wanderer 65b-72: The Passions of the Mind and the Cardinal Virtues. Neophilologus 55: 73–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Godden, M. R. 1985 Anglo Saxons on the Mind.In Learning and Literature in Anglo Saxon England: Studies Presented to Peter Clemoes on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday. M Lapidge & H Gneuss, eds. Cambridge.

  • Henry, J. 1936 The Linguistic Expression of Emotion. American Anthropologist 38: 250–256.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, S. W. 1986 Melancholia and Depression. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klinck, A. 1992 The Old English Elegies: A Critical Edition and Genre Study. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leff, J. P. 1978 Psychiatrists' versus Patients' Concepts of Unpleasant Emotions. British Journal of Psychiatry 133: 306–313.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1988 Psychiatry Around the Globe. London: Gaskell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mumford, D. B. 1992 Emotional Distress in the Hebrew Bible Somatic or Psychological? The British Journal of Psychiatry 160: 92–97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, H. B. M. 1982 Comparative Psychiatry: The International and Intercultural Distribution of Mental Illness. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosier, J. L. 1964 The Literal-Figurative Identity of the Wanderer. Proceedings of the Modern Language Association 79: 366–369.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sedgfield, W. J. 1899 King Alfred's Old English Version of Boethius. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yanping, Z., X. Leyi and S. Qijie 1986 Styles of Verbal Expression of Emotional and Physical Experiences: A Study of Depressed Patients and Normal Controls in China. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 10: 231–243.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Nicholson, S. The expression of emotional distress in Old English prose and verse. Cult Med Psych 19, 327–338 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01381916

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01381916

Keywords

Navigation