Hwæt!
Introducing Literature in
Old English
Old English Literature Lectures, Michaelmas Term 2011
Dr R. W. Dance
Beowulf
1.
2.
Hwæt! Introducing Literature
in Old English *
Introduction to Old English
Poetry *
3.
Introduction to Beowulf
4.
Dating and Context
5.
Monsters and Meaning
6.
The Finnsburh Story:
Fragment and Episode
Some Old English Voices 1
668 Her Þeodorius mon hadode to
ercebiscepe.
668 In this year, Theodore was
consecrated as archbishop.
669 Her Ecgbryht cyning salde Basse
mæsseprioste Reculf mynster on
to timbranne.
669 In this year, King Egbert gave
Reculver to the priest Bass, to
build a church there.
671 Her wæs þæt micle fugla wæl.
671 In this year, there was the great
mortality of birds.
Some Old English Voices 2
Eala seo wlitige, weorðmynda full,
heah ond halig, heofoncund Þrynes,
brade geblissad geond brytenwongas,
þa mid ryhte sculon reordberende,
earme eorðware, ealle mægene
hergan healice, nu us Hælend God
wærfæst onwrah þæt we hine witan
moton.
O beautiful one, replete with glories,
high and holy, celestial Trinity,
blessed widely across the spacious
plains,
whom speech-bearers must rightly,
wretched earth-dwellers, with all their
might
praise highly, now that God, true to his
pledge,
has revealed to us the Saviour, that we
may know him.
Some Old English Voices 3
Wulfes ic mines widlastum wenum
hogode,
þonne hit wæs renig weder ond ic
reotugu sæt;
þonne mec se beaducafa bogum
bilegde,
wæs me wyn to þon — wæs me
hwæþre eac lað.
Wulf, min Wulf! wena me þine
seoce gedydon, þine seldcymas,
murnende mod, nales meteliste.
I thought with hopes about my Wulf’s
far wanderings,
when it was rainy weather and I sat
sad;
when the warrior laid his arms about
me,
it was joyful to me — but it was also
hateful to me.
Wulf, my Wulf! my expectations of
you
have made me sick, your rare visits,
my grieving mind, not lack of food.
Some Old English Voices 4
Wala þære yrmðe and wala þære
woroldscame þe nu habbað Engle,
eal þurh Godes yrre! … Ac ealne
þæne bysmor þe we oft þoliað we
gyldað mid weorðscipe þam þe us
scendað: we him gyldað singallice,
and hy us hynað dæghwamlice; hy
hergiað and hy bærnað, rypað and
reafiað and to scipe lædað; and la,
hwæt is ænig oðer on eallum þam
gelimpum butan Godes yrre ofer
þas þeode swutol and gesæne?
Alas for the misery, and alas for the
public shame which the English
now have, all through God’s anger!
… But all that disgrace which we
often suffer, we repay with honour
to those who shame us: we pay
them continually, and they
humiliate us daily; they harry and
they burn, plunder and rob and
carry things off to their ships; and,
lo, what else is there in all those
happenings except God’s anger,
clear and manifest, towards this
nation?
Some Old English Voices 5
Þa com of more under misthleoþum
Grendel gongan, Godes yrre bær;
mynte se manscaða manna cynnes
sumne besyrwan in sele þam hean.
Wod under wolcnum to þæs þe he
winreced,
goldsele gumena gearwost wisse
fættum fahne. Ne wæs þæt forma sið,
þæt he Hroþgares ham gesohte;
næfre he on aldordagum ær ne siþðan
heardran hæle, healðegnas fand!
Then Grendel came walking off the moor
under the mist-slopes, he bore God’s anger;
the wicked attacker intended to ensnare
some one of mankind in the high hall.
He advanced under the clouds to the point
where he could
most clearly make out the wine-house,
gold-hall of men,
decorated with plate. That was not the first
time
that he had sought out Hrothgar’s home;
never before or since in the days of his life
did he encounter hall thegns and worse
luck!
The Range of Old English Literature
Poetry
• More than 30,000 lines
• Some 185 different poems and fragments
• Most survive in only one copy
Prose
• Considerably more, mostly surviving in multiple copies
• Of the homilies alone, there are more than 50 manuscripts
extant
Chronology
AD
300
400
500
600
700
Anglo-Saxons
come to Britain
800
900
1000
1100
Benedictine
Revival
Beginnings of Latin
literacy
Alfredian period
Literacy in Anglo-Saxon England
• Literacy (= manuscript literacy using the Latin alphabet)
only begins with conversion to Christianity
• NB especially St Augustine’s mission to Canterbury in 597
AD
• For the first couple of centuries, literacy for the AngloSaxons = writing in the Latin language
• Major early Anglo-Saxon Latin authors include Aldhelm
(c. 640–710), Bede (c. 673-735) and Alcuin (c. 735–804)
Early Activity in Old English: Glossing
The Vespasian Psalter: Latin c. 725, OE gloss c. 850
Old English Legal and Documentary Prose
• One of the earliest Old English texts known to have been
composed is the Law Code for King Æthelberht of Kent
(c. 602)
• Laws continued to be composed in English throughout the
Anglo-Saxon period
• Other legal/documentary texts: charters (diplomas and
writs), wills, letters, The Reeves’ Memorandum
• But many of these texts (including Æthelberht’s Laws)
only survive in much later copies …
An Important Distinction
• Composition
• Transmission
Chronology
AD
300
400
500
600
700
Anglo-Saxons
come to Britain
800
900
1000
1100
Benedictine
Revival
Beginnings of Latin
literacy
Alfredian period
Old English Poetry
• Old English poetry has its origins in the Germanic past,
and began as an oral medium
• Compare the similar metres and styles of other early
Germanic poetry (Old Norse, Old Saxon, Old High
German)
• Old English poetry continued to be composed throughout
the Anglo-Saxon period
Dating Old English Poetry
• Some poetry is closely datable: e.g. Bede’s Death Song (c.
735), The Battle of Brunanburh (not long after 937), The
Battle of Maldon (not long after 991)
• But most isn’t …
• And NB almost all survives in just four late manuscripts:
The Junius MS; The Exeter Book; The Vercelli Book; The
Beowulf MS
Old English Poetry: the main ‘genres’
• Secular, ‘heroic’ poetry (including Beowulf)
• Religious poetry (often translated from Latin originals e.g. Christ I)
• Other widely recognized genres include: Elegies (e.g. Wulf
and Eadwacer), Riddles, Wisdom Poetry
A Riddle. In the dark?
Wiht cwom gongan þær weras sæton
monige on mæðle, mode snottre;
hæfde an eage ond earan twa
ond II fet, XII hund heafda,
hrycg ond wombe ond honda twa,
earmas ond eaxle, anne sweoran
ond sidan twa. Saga hwæt ic hatte!
A creature came walking where people
sat,
many folk at an assembly, wise at
heart;
it had one eye and two ears
and two feet, twelve hundred heads,
a back and a belly and two hands
arms and shoulders, one neck
and two sides. Say what I am called!
Riddle 86 (from the Exeter Book)
A Garlic-Seller with
One Eye
King Alfred on the decline of learning in England
… ond hu him ða speow ægðer ge mid
wige ge mid wisdome; ond eac ða
godcundan hadas hu giorne hie wæron
ægðer ge ymb lare ge ymb liornunga,
ge ymb ealle ða ðiowotdomas ðe hie
Gode don scoldon; ond hu man
utanbordes wisdom ond lare hieder on
lond sohte, ond hu we hie nu sceoldon
ute begietan gif we hie habban
sceoldon.
… and [then I remembered] how things
then went well for them both in
warfare and in wisdom; and also the
religious orders, how eager they were
both in teaching and in learning, and in
all the services which they had to do
for God; and how people from abroad
sought wisdom and teaching here in
this country, and how we should now
have to obtain them from abroad, if we
had to have them.
Alfred the Great, Preface to his
translation of Gregory’s Pastoral Care
And the solution …
Þa gemunde ic hu sio æ wæs ærest on
Ebreiscgeðiode funden, ond eft, ða hie
Creacas geliornodon, ða wendon hie
hie on hiora agen geðiode ealle, ond
eac ealle oðre bec. Ond eft Lædenware
swæ same: siððan hie hie geliornodon,
hie hie wendon ealla ðurh wise
wealhstodas on hiora agen geðiode.
Ond eac ealla oðra Cristna ðioda
sumne dæl hiora on hiora agen geðiode
wendon. Forðy me ðyncð betre, gif
iow swæ ðyncð, ðæt we eac suma bec,
ða ðe niedbeðearfosta sien eallum
monnum to wiotonne, ðæt we ða on
ðæt geðiode wenden ðe we ealle
gecnawan mægen …
Then I remembered how the Law was
first established in Hebrew, and
afterwards, when the Greeks learned it,
they then translated it all into their own
language, and also all other books.
And afterwards the Romans exactly the
same: after they learned them, they
translated them all through wise
interpreters into their own language.
And also all other Christian peoples
translated some part of them into their
own language. Therefore it seems
better to me, if it seems so to you, that
we also translate certain books, those
which are most necessary for all people
to know, into that language which we
can all recognize …
Old English Prose Translations
of the Alfredian Period
King Alfred’s translations:
•
•
•
•
Gregory’s Pastoral Care
Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy
Augustine’s Soliloquies
Psalms 1-50 in the ‘Paris Psalter’
Old English Prose Translations
of the Alfredian Period (cont)
Translations by others:
• Gregory’s Dialogues (Wærferth of Worcester)
• The Old English translation of Orosius’ Seven Books of
History against the Pagans (anon)
• The Old English translation of Bede’s Ecclesiastical
History (anon)
And NB also: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle(s)
Old English Prose after Alfred
• NB the Chronicle continues in various guises throughout
the Anglo-Saxon period (and beyond …)
• From the mid-tenth century (probably), homiletic
literature: early collections are the Blickling Homilies and
the Vercelli Homilies
• Also from this period come translations of various ‘basic’
religious texts: creeds, penitentials, and full-text
translations of the Gospels
English writers of the Benedictine Revival
Ælfric
• The ‘Catholic Homilies’, Lives of Saints, Old Testament
translations, Grammar of Latin, etc.
Wulfstan
• Homilies, Laws and administrative texts
And NB also Byrhtferth of Ramsey
• Enchiridion
Image from Ælfric’s translation of Genesis, MS Cotton Claudius B. iv
Some Anglo-Saxon medical lore …
Eft is oðer wise be þissum þingum þæt
þu meht witan on bearn-eacenum wife
hwæþeres cynnes bearn heo cennan
sceal: gif heo gæð late and hæfþ hole
eagan, heo cenneð cniht; gif heo hraðe
gæþ and hafað aþundene eagan, heo
cenneð mæden cild.
Again, there is another method
concerning these matters, that you can
tell regarding a pregnant woman of
which sex she is to bear a child: if she
walks slowly and has hollow eyes, she
will have a boy; if she walks quickly
and has swollen eyes, she will have a
girl.
A Wonder (of the East!)
Summary
Prose
• Humble beginnings
• First great peak with Alfredian period
• Second great peak with Benedictine Revival (Ælfric and
Wulfstan)
• Great variety of genre and style:
legal/documentary/pragmatic; great translations of Latin
texts; chronicle; homilies and saints’ lives; plus travelogue,
science, etc.
Summary (cont.)
Poetry
• Goes back to Germanic oral origins
• Probably being composed throughout period; dating not
easy
• Great range and diversity of subjects: heroic, religious,
elegiac, wisdom, etc.