Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Order and Interlace: the Guthlac Poems of the Exeter Book
- 2 Sites of Economy: Power and Reckoning in the Poetic Epitaphs of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
- 3 ‘Absens ero … presens ero’: Writing the Absent Patron
- 4 Power and Performance: Authors and Patrons in late Anglo-Saxon Texts
- 5 Remembering Anglo-Saxon Patronage: the Libellus Æthelwoldi Episcopi and its Contexts
- Afterword
- Bibliography
- Index
- ANGLO-SAXON STUDIES
3 - ‘Absens ero … presens ero’: Writing the Absent Patron
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Order and Interlace: the Guthlac Poems of the Exeter Book
- 2 Sites of Economy: Power and Reckoning in the Poetic Epitaphs of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
- 3 ‘Absens ero … presens ero’: Writing the Absent Patron
- 4 Power and Performance: Authors and Patrons in late Anglo-Saxon Texts
- 5 Remembering Anglo-Saxon Patronage: the Libellus Æthelwoldi Episcopi and its Contexts
- Afterword
- Bibliography
- Index
- ANGLO-SAXON STUDIES
Summary
Part III, Chapter 3 of the Vita Sancti Oswaldi gives an account of how Oswald, in Fleury to learn about the reformed monastic life there, is recalled to England by his dying uncle, Archbishop Oda of Canterbury. The delivery of Oda's message takes place in the public sphere of the monastery, the ‘ueredarios’ (‘messengers’) from England bringing with them ‘immensis muneribus’ (‘immense gifts’) as a material demonstration of friendship and a reminder of Oswald's obligations to his uncle and patron. The request for Oswald's return is explicitly addressed to the whole of the monastic community at Fleury: ‘humili preci flagitabant presulem illius loci omnisque caterue congregationem, ut filium ad patrem dirigerent antequam ex hac uita transiret’ (‘in humble petition they asked the abbot of Fleury and all its congregation of monks, that they might return the son to his father before he [Oda] departed from this life’). The decision about Oswald's departure also seems to be communal, with the abbot taking counsel (‘consilio’), ‘cum commisso sibi agmine et sancta plebe Christi’ (‘together with his charges and all his Christian flock’). When Oswald subsequently takes his leave of Fleury for England, the scene is one of public, demonstrative behaviour and performative speech which ties the monks and the saint together in an enduring bond.
…alii flebant, alii gemebant; non mirabiliter contritasti sunt. Sed felix frater eorum gemitibus condoluit, quibus optauit Domini consolationis auxilium: ‘Si enim’, inquit ille, ‘absens ero uobis corporea uisione, presens ero mentis dilectione, quia pleniter uestram habeo gratiam benedictionis.’
…some wept, others wailed: not surprisingly, they were much saddened. But the blessed monk Oswald had sympathy with their laments: he wished on their behalf for comfort from the Lord of consolation: ‘If’, he said, ‘I shall be absent from you in bodily appearance, I shall be present among you in my mind’s affection, because I am in full possession of the favour of your blessing.’
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- Writing Power in Anglo-Saxon EnglandTexts, Hierarchies, Economies, pp. 80 - 111Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2012