Jill Fitzgerald 
Rebel angels 
Space and sovereignty in Anglo-Saxon England

Over six hundred years before John Milton’s
Paradise Lost, Anglo-Saxon authors told their own version of the fall of the angels. This book brings together various cultural moments, literary genres and relevant comparanda to recover that version, from the legal and social world to the world of popular spiritual ritual and belief. The story of the fall of the angels in Anglo-Saxon England is the story of a successfully transmitted exegetical teaching turned rich literary tradition. It can be traced through a range of genres – sermons, saints’ lives, royal charters, riddles, devotional and biblical poetry – each one offering a distinct window into the ancient myth’s place within the Anglo-Saxon literary and cultural imagination.

Table of Content

List of figures
Introduction
1 Lands idle and unused
2 The anxiety of inheritance
3 Rebel clerics, monastic replacements
4 The angels’ share
5 A homeland as a possession
6 A new praedestinati in Wulfstan’s Sermo Lupi ad Anglos
Afterword
Bibliography
Index

About the author

Jill Fitzgerald is Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the United States Naval Academy