Hwæt!Introducing Literature

inOld English

Old English Literature Lectures, Michaelmas Term 2011

Dr R. W. Dance

1. Hwæt! Introducing Literature in Old English *

2. Introduction to Old English Poetry *

Beowulf

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.

669 Her Ecgbryht cyning salde Basse mæsseprioste Reculf mynster on to timbranne.

671 Her wæs þæt micle fugla wæl.

668 In this year, Theodore was consecrated as archbishop.

669 In this year, King Egbert gave Reculver to the priest Bass, to build a church there.

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 cynnessumne besyrwan in sele þam

hean.Wod under wolcnum to þæs þe he

winreced,goldsele gumena gearwost wissefættum fahne. Ne wæs þæt forma

sið,þæt he Hroþgares ham gesohte;næfre he on aldordagum ær ne

siþðanheardran 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 couldmost clearly make out the wine-house,

gold-hall of men,decorated with plate. That was not

the first timethat he had sought out Hrothgar’s

home;never before or since in the days of

his lifedid 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

300 400 500 600 700 800 900 10001100

Beginnings of Latin literacy

Alfredian period

Benedictine Revival

Anglo-Saxons come to Britain

AD

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 Anglo-Saxons = 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

300 400 500 600 700 800 900 10001100

Beginnings of Latin literacy

Alfredian period

Benedictine Revival

Anglo-Saxons come to Britain

AD

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 earsand two feet, twelve hundred

heads,a back and a belly and two

handsarms and shoulders, one neckand 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.