Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- I Hagiography and the Homiletic Tradition
- 1 A Note on the Sensational Old English Life of St Margaret
- 2 A Place to Weep: Joseph in the Beer-Room and Anglo-Saxon Gestures of Emotion
- 3 Aldhelm's Choice of Saints for his Prose De Virginitate
- 4 Shepherding the Shepherds in the Ways of Pastoral Care: Ælfric and Cambridge University Library, MS Gg.3.28
- 5 “Consider Lazarus”: A Context for Vercelli Homily VII
- 6 More than a Female Joseph: The Sources of the Late-Fifth-Century Passio Sanctae Eugeniae
- 7 Ælfric, Leofric and In Natale Plurimorum Apostolorum
- II Aspects of Community and Consumption
- III Reflections on Old English Scholarship
- Poems
- Hugh Magennis: A Bibliography, 1981–2011
- Index
- Tabula Gratulatoria
4 - Shepherding the Shepherds in the Ways of Pastoral Care: Ælfric and Cambridge University Library, MS Gg.3.28
from I - Hagiography and the Homiletic Tradition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- I Hagiography and the Homiletic Tradition
- 1 A Note on the Sensational Old English Life of St Margaret
- 2 A Place to Weep: Joseph in the Beer-Room and Anglo-Saxon Gestures of Emotion
- 3 Aldhelm's Choice of Saints for his Prose De Virginitate
- 4 Shepherding the Shepherds in the Ways of Pastoral Care: Ælfric and Cambridge University Library, MS Gg.3.28
- 5 “Consider Lazarus”: A Context for Vercelli Homily VII
- 6 More than a Female Joseph: The Sources of the Late-Fifth-Century Passio Sanctae Eugeniae
- 7 Ælfric, Leofric and In Natale Plurimorum Apostolorum
- II Aspects of Community and Consumption
- III Reflections on Old English Scholarship
- Poems
- Hugh Magennis: A Bibliography, 1981–2011
- Index
- Tabula Gratulatoria
Summary
It seems fitting in a festschrift entitled Saints and Scholars to begin by placing Professor Magennis in the long line of lareowas (‘teachers’) stretching back to and beyond Ælfric to the leorningcnihtas (‘disciples’) themselves. Having explained the symbolism of the five loaves, two fish, and great multitude of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, Ælfric says of the leftovers collected by the disciples:
Đa lafe þæs gereordes þæt sint þa deopnyssa þære lare. þe woruldmenn understandan. ne magon; þa scolon þa lareowas gegadrian. þæt he ne losian and healdan on heora fætelsum; þæt is on heora heortum and habban æfre gearo to teonne forđ þone wisdom.
The remnants of the feast, which are the depth of the teaching, the ordinary folk are not able to understand; those (remnants) the teachers ought to gather so that they will not lose them and will preserve them in their pouches, that is, in their hearts, and will always have the wisdom ready to draw forth.
In the manner of these early teachers, Professor Magennis has carefully conserved remnants of the literature and culture of Anglo-Saxon England and parcelled them out in scholarship that continues to provide the sustenance of intellectual refection. In offering food for thought he exemplifies the teacherly generosity of mind and spirit that Ælfric prizes and sums up elsewhere in an alliterative maxim of his own making: ‘Lange sceal leornian. seđe læran sceal’ (‘Long will he learn who will teach’).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Saints and ScholarsNew Perspectives on Anglo-Saxon Literature and Culture in Honour of Hugh Magennis, pp. 54 - 74Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2012