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EN4311   Old English Poetry: Lordship and Landscapes

Academic year(s): 2025-2026

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 30

ECTS credits : 15

Level : SCQF level 10

Semester: 2

Availability restrictions: Not automatically available to General Degree students

Planned timetable: 12 - 2pm Friday

A close study of a selection of Old English poetry, including elegies, laments, riddles, and heroic narratives, illustrating the distinctive thematic and stylistic qualities of Old English poetry. Particular attention will be paid to hierarchical relationships between male characters and interactions between male and female characters, as well as the landscapes and other environments described in the poems (ecocriticism). Students will be able to test their imagination against texts which are in many cases so enigmatic and so short that scholars have not been able to establish their meaning and context. Despite their mysterious content, the fragments nevertheless manage to convey a haunting sadness and should be seen as some of the most beautiful poems in the English language. The EN4311 part of Dr Rauer's teaching website 'The Nosebag' can be accessed at: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~cr30/nosebag/EN4311/EN4311Menu.htm (Log-in with St Andrews username and password required)

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisite(s): Before taking this module you must pass EN2003 and pass EN2004

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: A 2-hour weekly seminar (x 11 weeks) 2 office hours (x 11 weeks)

Assessment pattern

As used by St Andrews: 2-hour Written Examination = 50%, Coursework = 50%


Re-assessment: exam = 100%

Personnel

Module coordinator: Dr C Rauer
Module teaching staff: Dr C Rauer
Module coordinator email cr30@st-andrews.ac.uk

Intended learning outcomes

  • 1. Acquire a good knowledge and critical awareness of a range of Old English poetic texts and genres.
  • 2. Deepen their knowledge of Old English language, and cope more confidently with texts in early English and difficult language.
  • 3. Develop self-awareness in reacting to culturally, historically and spiritually alien materials.
  • 4. Recognise modern preoccupations with environmental sustainability and conflicted human behaviour in the written output of earlier generations and understand the timelessness of such topics.