358

Book reviews

Early Medieval Europe

2008

16

(

3

)©

2008

The Authors. Journal Compilation ©

2008

Blackwell Publishing Ltd

short duration of occupation, it is unsurprising that little chronologicalvariation in the distribution of finds and pottery was identified.

The post-built structures were uniformly small, and the materialculture from the settlement and burials does not indicate that this wasin any sense a ‘high-status’ community. It is therefore surprising to seea direct analogy drawn between the arrangement of a cluster of post-built structures, and the ‘courtyard’ arrangements seen at the imposingand distinctly high-status settlements at Cowdery’s Down and Chaltonin Hampshire. As Reynolds has convincingly argued, such plannedarrangements display a ‘ritual symmetry’ that is a distinctive feature ofhigh-status settlements of the later sixth and seventh centuries (2003,pp. 104–6). Given the poor structural preservation, it is – as the authoracknowledges – impossible to establish whether all the Barrow Hillsstructures were contemporary, or even that they were houses.

Given the settlement’s deliberate juxtaposition with a series of prominentprehistoric monuments, it is remarkable that efforts were made by the Anglo-Saxon community to erase the latter by backfilling the Bronze Age ringditches. The Romano-British cemetery (and possible trackway), on the otherhand, appears to have been respected. The author of the report notes that thisis in marked contrast to early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries, which often deliber-ately re-used and ‘appropriated’ prehistoric and Romano-British monuments.

This is a well-written and clearly presented report. Its appearance,after a somewhat protracted post-excavation history, is a very welcomeaddition to the still small number of early Anglo-Saxon settlements tohave been extensively excavated and published.

References

A. Barclay and C. Halpin,

Excavations at Barrow Hills, Radley, Oxfordshire.Volume 1. The Neolithic and Bronze Age Monument Complex

(Oxford:Oxford Archaeological Unit, 1999).

R. Bradley, ‘The Excavation of an Oval Barrow beside the AbingdonCausewayed Enclosures, Oxfordshire’,

Proceedings of the PrehistoricSociety

58 (1992), pp. 127–42.A. Reynolds, ‘Boundaries and Settlements in Later 6th to 11th Century

England’,

Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History

12 (2003),pp. 98–136.

University of Oxford

HELENA HAMEROW

The King’s English: Strategies of Translation in the Old English

Boethius

. By Nicole Guenther Discenza. Albany, NY: State University

Book reviews

359

Early Medieval Europe

2008

16

(

3

)©

2008

The Authors. Journal Compilation ©

2008

Blackwell Publishing Ltd

of New York Press. 2005. viii + 224 pp. $60 (hardback); $19.95 (paperback).ISBN 0 7914 6447 4 (hardback); ISBN 0 7914 6448 9.

Of all the works in the corpus of Old English translations attributed toKing Alfred, the version of Boethius has long attracted the greatestattention, combining as it does a Latin source-text of particularsophistication with a considerable degree of translatory freedom, not justat micro-level but in the handling of such broader themes as fate andprovidence, kingship and the role of worldly goods. This study isnonetheless the first book-length treatment since F. Anne Payne’s 1968contribution; building on Discenza’s earlier articles in the field, it offersa consolidated literary critical reading of the translation process, guidedby an apparatus drawn from Translation Studies and from the cul-tural theory of Pierre Bourdieu. From the former, Discenza borrowsthe concepts of ‘adequacy’ and ‘acceptability’ to explore the process oftranslation, describing respectively the degree of adherence to a sourcetext, at any level, and the extent of influence exerted by native culturalstandards. From Bourdieu she derives first an attention to legitimatelanguage, necessarily complicated by the mediation of Latin as an existinglanguage of authority; and second, an interest in the market-like operationof cultural forces, with translation as an intellectual commodity, itsproduction involving the substantial investment of ‘cultural capital’,here seen largely as the learning derived from Latin texts. Within thesestructures, the book seeks to identify strategies governing the translationprocess, organized around three contexts: the Neo-Platonic source-text,Christian Latin traditions and the native audience’s expectations.

Discenza begins by stressing the ‘adequacy’ of the translation – howmuch is retained of Boethius’s structures – connecting this with theintended audience for the Alfredian text, rightly seen to have includeda strong lay aristocratic component. Faithful translation conveyed newmodes of thought to this audience, inculcating a habitus of properChristian reading across subjects of late antique inheritance. An importantsource of alteration is identified in the incorporation of patristic modesof expression, reliant both on scripture and on Gregorian ideals ofspiritual leadership. Added notions of duty may have rendered the textmore acceptable to its readers, while encouraging a Christian habitusfor rulership. In argumentation, Boethian logic also frequently appearsqualified by explanations based on exempla and trust, matched by theadditional explication of certain images and classical allusions. Thisagain made the text more recognizable to its readers, offering a newvernacular version of Christian Latin modes of discourse.

Perhaps the most effective chapter concerns strategies that Discenzaassociates with the translation’s ‘acceptability’ to an elite audience newly

360

Book reviews

Early Medieval Europe

2008

16

(

3

)©

2008

The Authors. Journal Compilation ©

2008

Blackwell Publishing Ltd

imbued with vernacular learning. More intensive cross-references toother texts as ‘books’, and a self-consciousness of the translation as a‘book’, are very plausibly interpreted as celebratory of wider participationin reading. The translation’s anticipation and repetition of pointswould have had particular utility when read aloud, while a shift fromabstract to more concrete illustrations, and an associated softening ofBoethius’s syllogistic reasoning, may have been further aids to com-munication. Notably, Discenza identifies further ‘acceptability’ in thethemes of friendship and kingship, both of which are seen to have playedmore significant roles across the text, and in ways which qualified itssetting with structures and values more familiar to its contemporaryaudience. The translation thus made room for good kingship, and formore positive treatment of worldly goods: deeper conceptual trans-formation is, however, suggested in the distinctive terminology of ‘cræft’,the word encompassing both skill and virtue. Uniquely Alfredian, theusage lay at the heart of the king’s legitimate language.

Overall, the critical angle adopted by the book works effectively,heightening the senses in which translation created a Boethius thatwas both new and unique. The integration of an audience shows thecomplexity of translatory communication; Discenza’s interpretation asa whole suggests the considerable power of Alfredian language andliteracy. Some readers may baulk at the attribution of strategies straight-forwardly to Alfred himself as translator, but the book takes account ofdebate over the nature of authorship, offering a positive view of theking’s personal involvement. At times the available categories of analysisseem slightly constraining: as Discenza acknowledges, these strategiesdid not merely reflect elite norms, but sought to inculcate particularattitudes and practices. The theoretical component, though necessarilyintegral to her approach, also has a tendency to dominate, and whilemany aspects of the historical context are acknowledged or alluded to,these would have benefited from fuller exploration, as a further basisagainst which to judge the strength of particular interpretations.Nevertheless, both as a study of translation, and as a reading of Alfrediankingship, the book offers a valuable experiment in the modelling andreconstruction of cultural transformation: thoughtful and nuanced, itdeserves to be read by medievalists in a wide range of fields.

Downing College, Cambridge

DAVID PRATT

The Alamanni and Rome 213–496. Caracalla to Clovis

. By John F.Drinkwater. Oxford: OUP. 2007. xi + 408 pp. £65. ISBN 9780199295685(hardback).