| Sumario: | This article reconsiders the emotional tone of The Battle of Brunanburh, which has been seen alternatively as a piece of cold, hard triumphalism or as conveying a subtle sympathy towards the defeated enemies, especially Constantine. I begin by surveying all possible explicit references to emotion in the poem, identifying a key sequence at lines 37-52 which depicts a counterfactual scene of Constantine and Anlaf boasting and exulting over the victory they did not achieve. This scene of emotional performance raises questions about how the poem itself works as an emotional performance. I suggest it functions quite differently depending on whether we see it as a praise-poem for Athelstan delivered at his court in the aftermath of the battle or-which is perhaps more probable-as composed some years later for inclusion in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. In the latter case, the poem conveys undercurrents of anxiety over victory and the ability to hold on to territory and glory. Considering how texts work as emotional performances offers a way, fraught with uncertainty yet I believe worthwhile, to approach not simply the emotion concepts but the emotional experiences of the past.
|
|---|