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Old English wisdom poetry: elegies, gnomic verse, poetic riddles and charms.
1. Cornerstones of medieval philosophy and the medieval Christian Weltanschauung (world-view):
" Logocentrism - in medieval understanding, the focus on the Holy Logos (the Scripture) and on the
power of words as an emanation of reality.
" Pansemiotism - the meaningfulness of everything (the idea of the divine plan and divine purpose of
everything that happens).
" Polysemy  multiplicity of the layers of meaning. The example of the Bible (the Holy Scripture): sensus
historicus (literal sense); sensus allegoricus (symbolic meaning); sensus tropologicus/moralis (moral
meaning); sensus anagogicus (the secret, gnomic meaning of the text).
" Universals  knowledge derived from the universal, not particular ideas. But how to distinguish one
from the other?
2. Old English wisdom poetry (gnomic verse)  the homiletic effect:
" Old English word giedd  multiple meaning:  song, lay, poem, speech, tale, sermon, proverb, riddle,
maxim, sentence, word.
" Elegies (including love elegies): The Wanderer, The Seafarer, Deor s Lament (interesting, as it
refers to Germanic past and legend), Wulf and Eadwacer, Wife s Lament
" Gnomic texts  Maxims, The Order of the World, The Fortunes of Men
" Poetic riddles and dialogues  the Exeter Book riddles, Dialogue between King Solomon and Saturn
" Charms  remnants of old verbal magic, mixture of pagan and Christian beliefs and rituals
" Wisdom elements also present in other types of poems (e.g. maxims and instructions in heroic
poetry, gnomic elements in religious verse).
3. Old English elegiac poetry  existentialism among uncertainties.
a. Most of it preserved in the so-called Exeter Book (10th/11th c.);
b. frequent motifs of Old English elegies  the imagery:
" rough sea and the hostile nature (wintry landscapes, wind, ice, frost, hail, rain);
" the image of the sea as the mare vitae   the sea of life
a. the common motifs of Old English elegies  ideas:
" loneliness; separation; death of friends, families; the hopelessness of earthly existence;
" the voyage  life as a journey
" exile  understood both literally and as earthly exile
" wise suffering and moral lessons to be drawn from it.
" the search for some sense in life  both here on earth and beyond
" didactic value of such poetry
" gnomic elements of such poetry
4. The roots of Anglo-Saxon existentialism in the times of uncertainty:
a. the question of how to make sense in the world of instability;
b. wyrd  Old English fate, sense of fatalism and uncertainty of human existence, of the
impossibility of changing what cannot be changed and is beyond human control  possible
Germanic and Nordic influences (cf. Urðr, one of the Nordic Norns, women who rule the fate);
c. Transitoriness, evanescence of earthly things: ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt   where are those
who were before us ;
sic transit gloria mundi   thus passes the glory of the world ;
d. The influence of Christian philosophy  especially of King Alfred s translation of Boethius De
consolatione Philiosophiae (On the consolation of philosophy)
But also the works of:
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Aristotle (Platonic philosophy), St. Augustine (of Hippo), Isidore of Seville (Etymologies),
Gregory the Great (Moralia in Iob, Moral teachings in the Book of Job)
Anglo-Saxon scholars:
Bede (672?-735), Alcuin of York (735?-804), Aelfric (955?-1010?)
5. Christian elegies  The Wanderer and The Seafarer:
a. The Wanderer:
" a lamentation of a man deprived of his past happiness and security beside his lord and friends,
now searching for a new patron  also metaphorically
" The Wanderer and the idea of suffering as a blessing, a divine gift.
" the narrator of the poem as a man haunted by the memories of his happy past and who cannot
set himself free from them
b. The Seafarer:
" the conscious choice of the life of hardship on the sea  the desire to live life fully, to live it to
its extremes  also as a metaphor of choosing the difficult life  on the sea and close to God,
over the easy life  on land.
" The Seafarer and the idea of  the world being old  an elegy describing the pitiful state of
what used to be a splendid, most probably Roman city.
6. The existential conflicts  internal and external conflicts in The Wanderer and The Seafarer poems:
 man vs. nature or the external world;
 man and the internal / external exile;
 man vs. himself;
 man and the memory of his past (as torment);
 man vs. other people;
 man and an exemplum [an example, a moral lesson];
 man vs. God;
 man and the quest for the sense of existence.
From the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the entry for the year 891:
Old English: Þrie Scottas comon to Ćlfrede cyninge on anum bate butan ćlcum gereþrum of Hibernia þonon hi
bestćlon forþon þe hi woldon for Godes lufan on elþiodignesse [exile] beon hi ne rohton hwćr& þus hie wćron
genemnde: Dubslane ond Maccbethu ond Mćlinmun.
Modern English translation: Three Scots came to King Alfred [the Great] in a boat without a rudder from Ireland,
whence they had stolen away because they wished to be in a foreign land, they cared not where, for love of God&
Their names were Dubslane and Macbeth and Mćlinmun.
7. Love elegies and love poetry  Wulf and Eadwacer, Wife s Lament and Husband s Message.
a. the passion, intense emotions and intimacy of expressing the pain of separation and longing for the
beloved;
b. the hopelessness of the situation in Wulf and Eadwacer and Wife s Lament  the elegies narrated by
women separated from their lovers;
c. the hope and desire to be reunited in The Husband s Message
d. the mysteries of the love poems  who are the speakers? What circumstances do they narrate?
Wulf and Eadwacer, a poetic translation by Burton Raffel (1998)
My people may have been given a warning:
Will they receive him, if he comes with force?
It is different for us [lit.: difference is us]
Wulf is on one island, I on another.
An island of forts, surrounded by swamp.
That island belongs to bloody barbarians:
Will they receive him if he comes with a force?
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It is different for us. [lit.: difference is us]
Hope has wondered in exile, with Wulf.
When the rain was cold and my eyes ran red
With tears, when heavy arms reached out and took me
And I suffered pleasure and pain. Wulf,
Oh my Wulf, it was hoping and longing for you
That sickened me, starved for the sight of you,
Bent with despair deeper than hunger.
Listen Eadwacer! The wolf will carry
Our wretched cub to the shade of the wood.
It s easy to smash what never existed,
You and I together [lit. the song, poem, riddle of us two together]
8. Old English wisdom poems (e.g. Maxims, The Order of the World, The Fortunes of Men, The Dialogue of
Solomon and Saturn)
a. maxims, proverbs, moral and didactic instructions, dialogues / riddle contests (between King Solomon
and a man called Saturn),
b. their concern  discussing the nature of wisdom, the importance of exchanging and sharing wisdom,
the nature of life, the nature of things in the surrounding world
c. the form  often short, concise, sometimes unrelated statements  very proverbial and unclear.
9. Anglo-Saxon charms  short texts employing the belief in verbal magic.
a. Bald s Leechbook  a 9th c. medical book containing sensible medical advice but also magical
medicine and charms.
b. belief in verbal magic and the power of words
c. pagan elements conjoined with Christian belief
From The Exeter Book Maxims:
Forst sceal freosan, fyr wudu meltan, [Frost must freeze, fire consume wood,
eorþe growan, is brycgian, earth burgeon, ice build bridges,
wćter helm wegan, wundrum lucan water wear helm, wondrously confine
eorþan ciþas. An sceal inbindan earth s young sprouts. One alone shall
forstes fetre felameahtig god; [71-75/1-5] unbind frost fetters, Almighty God.]
Luis Rodrigues trans.
From The Order of the World:
Leorna þas lare. Ic þe lungre sceal [Learn this lesson. I am soon to tell
meotudes mćgensped maran gesecgan, you of God s mighty power, greater than
þonne þu hygecrćftig in hreþre mćge thou, though wise, can internally grasp
mode gegripan. Is sin meaht forswiþ. in thy mind. Is your power great?
Nis þćt monnes gemet moldhrerendra, It is not meet for man, of those who move on earth,
þćt he mćge in hreþre his heah geweorc to explore in his mind God s noble work
furþor aspyrgan þonne him frea sylle any further than the Lord will allow
to ongietanne godes agen bibod; [23-30] him to perceive what he himself ordains;]
Luis Rodrigues trans.
10. Riddles in literature and culture.
a. widespread form, conjoining the ideas of:
" verbal jokes, games, laughter, reversal of reality, creativity  the idea of guessing the secreted
identity.
" mystery, hidden knowledge, search for the meaning (in poetic riddles) as frequently leading to
a deeply Christian perspective, marvelling at divine creativity.
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b. the idea of making what is common strange, what is everyday, unusual; estrangement as one of
the roles of literature.
11. Old English riddles.
a. influence of 7th/8th c. Anglo-Latin tradition  Latin riddles by bishop Aldhelm (639?-
709).
" Latin poetic riddles, frequently referring to etymologies, refined Latin poetic forms.
" popular in education.
b. about 90 riddles recorded in the Exeter Book (10th/11th c.)
c. mysterious, unclear until now solutions to some of them.
d. multiplicity of themes and solution  from serious (Creation riddle), existential (Shield riddle),
religious (Bible riddle) to jocular and erotic (double entendre, i.e. erotic riddles).
e. runic alphabet and runic signs employed by riddles  runic signs as bearing not only phonetic
sense, but also semantic dimension (runic signs corresponded both to sounds/letters and words/concepts)
Riddle 7 (translated by Craig Williamson)
Hrćgl min swigað, þonne ic hrusan trede, My gown is silent as I tread the seas,
oþþe þa wic buge, oþþe wado drefe. Haunt old buildings or tread the land.
Hwilum mec ahebbað ofer hćleþa byht Sometimes my song-coat and the
supple wind
hyrste mine, ond þeos hea lyft, Cradle me high over the homes of men,
5 ond mec þonne wide wolcna strengu And the power of clouds carries me
ofer folc byreð. Frćtwe mine Windward over cities. Then my bright silks
swogað hlude ond swinsiað, Start to sing, whistle, roar,
torhte singað, þonne ic getenge ne beom Resound and ring, while I
flode ond foldan, ferende gćst. Sail on untouched by earth and sea,
A spirit, ghost and guest, on wing.
Riddle 44 (translated by Craig Williamson)
Wrćtlic hongað bi weres þeo, A small miracle hangs near a man s thigh,
frean under sceate. Foran is þyrel. Full under folds. It is stiff, strong,
Bið stiþ ond heard, stede hafað godne; Bold, brassy, and pierced in front.
þonne se esne his agen hrćgl When a young lord lifts his tunic
5 ofer cneo hefeð, wile þćt cuþe hol Over his knees, he wants to greet
mid his hangellan heafde gretan With the hard head of this hanging creature
þćt he efenlang ćr oft gefylde. The hole it has long come to fill.