Research project

EMERGENCE: Early Medieval English in Nineteenth-Century Europe

In the 19th century, Old English poems were claimed as cultural heritage by various non-Anglophone nations, including Scandinavians, Germans and Dutch. These competing nationalistic, cultural appropriations happened against the backdrop of a growing interest in early medieval English language and literature across the European continent. Exploring this transnational reception of Old English offers a new perspective on the 19th-century foundations of Old English Studies.

Duration: 2024 - 2028
Contact: Thijs Porck
Funding: European Research Council (ERC

Project team

Thijs Porck – Principal investigator
Rachel A. Fletcher – Postdoctoral researcher
Sander Stolk – Postdoctoral researcher
Lucas Gahrmann – PhD student
Suzanne Klare – PhD student

The 19th century as a foundational period for Old English Studies

When approaching Old English in the 21st century, it is impossible to deny the impact of 19th-century scholarship. When we refer to titles of such Old English poems as The Wanderer, The Seafarer and The Wife’s Lament, we are using titles bestowed on these texts by 19th-century scholars. Several standard editions of Old English texts were made in the 19th century or heavily rely on earlier, 19th-century editions. Lexicographical tools with a relevance for Old English, including Bosworth-Toller’s An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, A Thesaurus of Old English and the Oxford English Dictionary, also have their roots firmly in 19th-century philological practices. The way Old English is taught at university level still relies on paradigms and set texts that were introduced in the 19th century and interactions with Old English in popular culture often build on ideas about early medieval English identity, heroism, paganism and Christianity, first propagated by 19th-century scholars and artists. Such 19th-century engagements with Old English have often been connected to a desire to historically underpin a patriotic sense of Englishness or the perceived racial superiority of white Americans. Problematically, an important transnational dimension has been overlooked: the reception of Old English in continental Europe.

In the 19th century, German scholars dominated the study of the language and literature from early medieval England; the first editors and scholars of the Old English epic Beowulf were Danes; Old English texts were claimed as part of the Dutch literary canon in the Low Countries; some of the first ‘popular’ adaptations of Old English material appeared in French, Dutch, Danish and German; and non-Anglophone scholars discovered important Old English documents in archives all across the European continent. This multi-faceted European, transnational reception of Old English is the focus of the EMERGENCE project, which seeks to identify and analyze engagements with early medieval English across 19th-century Europe. The project, situated on the intersection of history of humanities and medievalism studies, is powered by a bibliographical and relational database and a multi-disciplinary, multilingual approach. It will reveal new, insightful materials, uncover intellectual networks and put forgotten protagonists in the limelight.

OE-BaRD: A Bibliographical and Relational Database

The EMERGENCE project will use a multifunctional database in order to trace how scholars and artists in the nineteenth century interacted with Old English language and literature. The database will enable researchers to track various key elements of the 19th-century reception of early medieval English, including which individuals were engaging with Old English, how they were connected to each other through networks and when and where they worked. This database will allow for the identification of hubs of activity and pinpoint when and where certain texts, methods or artistic appropriations were of particular interest among European authors, as well as showcase developments over time and place. The database will further allow researchers to identify relevant case studies for their individual projects and situate these within a broader context. This database will be powered by the Nodegoat platform.

Results and activities

Publications

Thijs Porck, ‘De Beowulf binnen de Romantiek van de Lage Landen. Mediëvisme en moderne adaptaties van historische literatuur’, in Trouw aan de tekst: Historische letterkunde in de praktijk, ed. Bram Caers, Anna Dlabačová, Paul Hoftijzer, Olga van Marion and Geert Warnar (Hilversum: Verloren, 2024), 272–281, https://doi.org/10.17613/sdwxy-3w153.
Lucas Gahrmann, “[Review of] Old English Studies and Its Scandinavian Practitioners: Nationalism, Aesthetics, and Spirituality in the Nordic Countries, by Robert E. Bjork”, SELIM 30 (2025): 203–4. https://doi.org/10.17811/selim.30.2025.203-4.
Suzanne Klare, “[Review of] Old English Studies and Its Scandinavian Practitioners: Nationalism, Aesthetics, and Spirituality in the Nordic Countries, by Robert E. Bjork”, Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik 85.1 (2025): 133–6. https://doi.org/10.1163/18756719-12340352.
Suzanne Klare & Thijs Porck, ‘Beowolf: A Paper Doll Pirate History (1934-5) and the Reception of Beowulf in Early Dutch Children’s Literature’, Medieval Perspectives (accepted).

Invited lectures and conference contributions (selection)

Thijs Porck, ‘Old English is Dutch and Beowulf is ours! Appropriations of Early Medieval English in 19th-Century Europe‘, English Research Seminar, University St Andrews (30 January, 2024)
Thijs Porck, ‘Thorkelin’s Beowulf and the Reception of Old English in Nineteenth-Century Europe’, Thorkelin as Scholar and Editor: International Seminar on Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin, The Arnamagnæan Institute, University of Copenhagen (14–15 October, 2024)
Thijs Porck, ‘Engaging with Old English in Continental Europe: Methods, Motivations and Appropriations in the Long Nineteenth Century’. Keynote lecture at Historical English Analysis and Research Tradition (HEART), University of Warsaw (11–12 April, 2025)
Suzanne Klare, “Voorwaar! Exploring the Nineteenth-Century Dutch Translation of Beowulf”, Centre for Medieval Studies PGR Conference, University of Bristol (24-25 April 2025)
Lucas Gahrmann & Thijs Porck, “Which Ælfric Is It and Whose? Identifying Ælfric and His Religious Doctrines in the 19th Century”, Ælfric’s Afterlives: Copying, Editing, Studying, Teaching and Remembering the Most Prolific Author of Old English (26–27 June, 2025)
Rachel A. Fletcher, “Navigating Networks of Correspondence: Epistolary Exchange of Knowledge on Early Medieval English”, International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds (7–10 July, 2025)
Suzanne Klare, “To Be (Faithful) or not to Be (Faithful): Exploring Two Nineteenth-Century Dutch Translations of Beowulf”, International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds (7–10 July, 2025)
Lucas Gahrmann, “Quid enim Caedmonus cum Bouterweko? Old English Philology and Christian Pedagogy”, International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds (7–10 July, 2025)

Conferences and sessions (co-)organised

Ælfric’s Afterlives: Copying, Editing, Studying, Teaching and Remembering the Most Prolific Author of Old English, Leiden University (26–27 June, 2025)
International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds (7–10 July, 2025) – three sessions on “Learning the Middle Ages in the Long 19th Century”
International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds (6–9 July, 2026) – three sessions on “Old English in the Long 19th Century”