Article

Name: The Variability of the Prayer’s Address to the Lord in the Anglo- Saxon World Picture

Authors: A. V. Proskurina

Novosibirsk State Technical University

Abstract: The concept of faith in the nature of the divine, as an integral part of human life, has existed since time immemorial. People from the beginning of time pray to certain gods, revered by one or another confession. Thus in the infancy of mankind the world was understood through the prism of the deeds of the spirits, in fact, this understanding of life has survived to the present day, where the influence of shamanism is especially high. Christianity, adopted by various cultural environments, has introduced a different understanding of the world, based on paganism. In other words, the veneration of various deities turned into an appeal to saints, pagan holidays were painted in Christian morality, and worship of deceased ancestors was replaced by funeral prayers for their sinful souls. It is worth noting that the most important and attractive idea of the new Christian religion remains the immortality of the soul, which contributed to a rethinking of the perception of time. The paper highlights the integral traditional formula of the prayer “Pater noster” that has reached our days because of the New Testament, whereas its earlier variational formulations remained at the level of literary monuments. So, in the article the prayer to the Lord, which came to our days as part of a poetic collection of the 10th century The Exeter Book, is presented. This prayer is an extension of the New Testament prayer through additional appeals to the Lord, as well as additional lexemes that are not found in the Biblical version. The author notes that at the dawn of the Christianity of the Anglo-Saxon world, there were many accepted versions of the naming of Jesus Christ and results literally fixed lexemes of the Old English language, reflecting the name of the Son of God.

Keywords: Jesus Christ, prayer, “Pater noster”

Bibliography:

A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary / John R. Clark Hall. 2nd ed. 1916.

An Anglo-Saxon dictionary, based on the manuscript collections of the late Joseph Bosworth. URL: http://lexicon.ff.cuni.cz/texts/oe_bosworthtoller.html (accessed: 23.05.2018).

Baker P. S. Introduction to Old English. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publ., 2007, 416 p.

Bibliya [The Bible]. Ros. Bibleyskoe ob-vo, 2008, 1296, XXXII p.

Eliade M. Aspekty mifa [Aspects du mythe]. Transl. from Fr. by V. P. Bolshakov. 4th ed. Moscow, Akademicheskiy Proekt, 2010, 251 p. (in Russ.)

Eliade M. Istoriya very i religioznykh idei: ot Gautamy Buddy do triumfa khristianstva [History of Faith and Religious Ideas: From Gautama Buddha to the Triumph of Christianity]. Transl. from Fr. by N. B. Abalakova, S. G. Balashova, N. N. Kulakova, A. A. Starostina. 2nd ed. Moscow, Akademicheskii Proekt, 2009, 676 p. (in Russ.)

Novyy entsiklopedicheskiy slovar [New Encyclopedic Dictionary]. Moscow, RIPOL klassik, 2012, 1568 p. (in Russ.)

Old English shorter poems. Edited and translated by Christopher A. Jones. Harvard University Press, 2012.

Proskurin S. G., Proskurina A.V. Kul'turnye transfery i teksty [Cultural transers and texts]. Monograph. Novosibirsk, NSU Publ., 2017, 176 p. (in Russ.)

Proskurin S. G. Kurs semiotiki. Yazyk, kul'tura, pravo [Course of semiotics. Language, culture, law]. Novosibirsk, NSU Publ., 2013, 226 p. (in Russ.)

Proskurin S. G., Tsentner A. S. K predystorii pis'mennoy kul'tury: arkhaicheskaya semiotika indoevropeytsev [To the prehistory of written culture. Archaic semiotics of Indo-Europeans]. 2nd ed. Novosibirsk, NSU Publ., 2014. 196 p. (in Russ.)

Stepanov Yu. S. Konstanty: Slovar’ russkoi kultury [Dictionary of Russian culture]. 3rd ed. Moscow, Akademicheskii Proekt, 2004, 992 p. (in Russ.)

Tylor E. B. Pervobytnaya kultura [Primitive Culture]. Transl. from Engl. by D. A. Koropchevskiy. Moscow, Politizdat, 1989, 573 p. (in Russ.)