Download or read book Monster Relics in Medieval English Literature written by Christopher Lee Pipkin and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monster Relics in Medieval English Literature examines descriptions of the monster trophies used to prove medieval heroes' stories, arguing that these objects can be better understood as relics, on analogy with the medieval cult of relics. This is due not only to their status as numinous and otherworldly material objects, but also to their complicated aesthetic relationship with the text that describes them, as it retells an account these objects originally illustrated or inspired. The "monster relic" is both the sign of the hero's deed and the deed itself, serving as a kind of first draft of story. I examine the rich descriptions of, and reactions to, monster relics in Beowulf, the Alliterative Morte Arthure and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, allowing historical relic cults to illuminate how these descriptions trouble the boundary between object and narrative, as well as between sacred and secular. In Chapter 1, I lay out the historical context for my argument. I respond to the objection that monster relics are best understood as trophies by demonstrating that monster relics are not mere symbols of a hero's deed, but wondrous objects in their own right, eliciting veneration from a hero's audience. In addition, I briefly survey records of monster relics in classical, biblical and medieval shrines to demonstrate that the place for monster relics was usually a holy place. Monster relics such as Goliath's sword or Satan's tail allowed observers to access sacred story, just as saints' relics did, and they were often found side-by-side in holy places, relic lists and narratives. Chapter 2 examines monster relics in Beowulf; namely, the head and arm of Grendel, as well as the sword-hilt Beowulf finds in the lair of the Grendel-kin. I highlight how, in Anglo-Saxon England, gifted relics were often used to unite peoples even as they connected the English with the holy stories represented by these relics. I argue that Grendel's body parts, like the parts of saints, are associated with treasure. His relics thus become the poem's central gift, as his beautiful-yet-ugly remains become objects upon which Beowulf, the Danes, and readers project otherwise irreconcilable meanings, allowing them all to be united by his dismemberment. In Chapter 3, I consider the episode of the Giant of Mont-St-Michel as it is retold in the 14th-Century Alliterative Morte Arthure. I argue that in this iteration of the most well-known Arthurian giant-killing, the giant's body becomes a parody of the nonexistent relics of St. Michael. The poet's use of the giant's body and mountain for sacred parody is at once blasphemous and redemptive - a paradox echoed in the giant's mixed body, which corresponds to the troubling polyvalence of both monsters and holy objects. Chapter 4 considers monster relics in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as gifts of a monster who will not die, involving Gawain in an ongoing relationship with his green enemy. I argue that because he is alive, this monster is able to correctly interpret his own relic as a "token" of Gawain's adventure - an understanding that accommodates both of the flatly symbolic and mutually exclusive interpretations of the girdle (Gawain's shame and Gawain's honor) that are supplied by Gawain and the Round Table. I draw attention to the poet's comparison of the girdle to the Crown of Thorns, demonstrating that the Crown of Thorns, likewise, was a relic that accommodated opposing symbolic meanings. Chapter 5 concludes by arguing that the cult of relics can be used to understand the nature and function of other wondrous or magical objects in medieval literature. Among other things, I suggest that medieval stories themselves are monster relics - that is, verbal fossils of purportedly strange events which in themselves resist - and invite - conflicting interpretations.