Siward the dragon-slayer: mythmaking in Anglo-Scandinavian England

Journal article

This article examines a legendary narrative about the life of the Danish-born Siward, Earl of Northumbria (d. 1055), which is preserved in a thirteenth-century manuscript from Crowland Abbey in Lincolnshire. This narrative, several elements of which have close parallels in Old Norse literature, has usually been treated as a fragmentary survival of an oral legend, accidentally preserved by an unwitting monk; however, when read within its institutional and manuscript context, it emerges as a narrative with a clear purpose, shaped by the interests of the community at Crowland in providing a history for the earldom held by their benefactor and patron, the martyred Waltheof. The article considers the evidence for interpreting the narrative within the wider context of other legends about Danish settlement known to have been circulating in the East Midlands between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, and suggests a new approach to understanding the development of the Siward narrative by placing it in this region.

Authors: Parker, E

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Springer
• Journal: Neophilologus
• Publication date: 2013-08-01
• Edition: Accepted Manuscript
• DOI: 10.1007/s11061-013-9371-3
• EISSN: 1572-8668
• ISSN: 0028-2677
• Language: English
• Keywords: Anglo-Scandinavian; literary history; Danelaw; settlement; origin myths
• Subjects: English and Old English literature; Languages (Medieval and Modern) and non-English literature; English Language and Literature