A CHRISTOLOGICAL READING OF THE RUIN.
A CHRISTOLOGICAL READING OF THE RUIN.

Summary/Abstract: The foremost goal of this work is to put forward a Christological interpretation of The Ruin, an old English poem found in the Exeter Book that has been catalogued by critics among the Old English Elegies. Comparisons with the Bible will uphold my design, which pivots on the image of Christ as a cornerstone. I shall undertake an allegorical reading, thus I recall that ambiguity and mystery are present in the etymology of the term allegory, which is roughly glossed from the Greek αλλος ‘other’ and γορeία ‘speaking’. More specifically, the term occurs in the Oxford English Dictionary (Simpson & Weiner 1989) as extended metaphor. The author might wish to disguise the meaning of his text thus challenging the reader to disclose it. I hereby accept this challenge.

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