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Abstract
As bestowed linguistic units, personal names imply a namer; they challenge us to discover why the namer gave the name, or more distantly, how the name fits the bearer. Similarly, personal names in literature indicate authorial assumptions and literary traditions. This study assesses literary names from Beowulf to Robert Henryson, tracing patterns in onomastic function, language philosophy, and literary form.
Four types of names are defined: denotative or etymological, personifying, allusive, and connotative. Denotative names are prevalent in Old English literature, manifestations of Anglo-Saxon linguistic naturalism--the assumption that the name is the thing, that nomen est omen. Personifying names become prominent in Middle English poetry in response to nominalism and a rising interest in epistemology. Where Anglo-Saxon poets confidently express piety and nationalism in their figural puns, Middle English poets investigate man and language through personification.
Allusive names also indicate differences between Old and Middle English literary assumptions. Since Old English poetry assumes a single true story that is salvation history, its allusions are figural. On the other hand, Middle English allusive names are less figural than referential; they imply discrete fictive worlds. Similarly, Middle English connotative names capitalize upon literary rather than spiritual traditions. By specifying satiric intent or social class, they foster literary realism. Our lack of Anglo-Saxon connotative names reminds us that we can not impose a simple model on medieval literary development.
Major texts considered: Beowulf, Exodus, Andreas, Wynnere and Wastoure, Havelok the Dane, Piers Plowman, Pearl, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gower's Confessio Amantis, The Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde, Lydgate's Troy Book, Henryson's Testament of Cresseid, and several lyrics and saints' lives.
