Feeding the dragon: The devouring monster in Anglo-Saxon eschatological imagery
Claudia Di Sciacca
This essay deals with two intertwined eschatological motifs of the literary and iconographic culture early medieval England: devouring devil, especially in guise a dragon, mouth hell, fashioned as jowls zoomorphic monster, arguably distinctively English adaptation anthropomorphic hell classical descent. The following analysis will outline intricate, creative interplay crucial themes Christian eschatology demonology, on which theimagery demonic dragon can be said to ultimately rely. In particular, it argued that coalescence these widespread into Anglo-Saxon imagery may have been triggered by cosmology apocrypha popular England, Seven Heavens apocryphon Gospel Nicodemus, its section Descensus ad Inferos. discussion relevant textual, manuscript, evidence willafford intriguing insights shaping this syncretic blending, well hinting at milieu where such blending if not initiated, then least endorsed popularised.Keywords: eschatology; apocrypha; hell; source studies; manuscript studies
SELIM. Sociedad Española de Lengua y Literatura Inglesa Medieval|Institutional Research Information System (University of Udine)