Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-m9pkr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T09:51:47.696Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Anglo-Saxon Poetry and the Historian1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2011

D. Whitelock
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Vernacular poetry of the Anglo-Saxon period survives in considerable bulk—nearly thirty thousand lines. It is certainly a mere fraction of what once existed. What chance has preserved is not always just what one would have chosen, and its historical value is by no means proportional to its extent. It has not been neglected as a source for Anglo-Saxon history, and I do not claim that this paper is about to add to our knowledge of the period. Nevertheless, it may be of some interest to historians to consider both the value and the limitations of Old English verse literature as historical material. I am not concerned to-day with its literary merit, and I propose to narrow my subject by confining myself to English history. The importance of Beowulf and Widsith for the student of Scandinavian history is quite another story.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 31 , December 1949 , pp. 75 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1949

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

2 See A. Mawer, ‘The Redemption of the Five Boroughs’, Eng. Hist. Rev., xxxviii. 551–7.

3 The Battle of Maldon, 11. 265–72.

1 J. Earle, The Deeds of Beowulf (1892), pp. lxxxiii-c.

2 Bond, G., ‘Links between Beowulf and Mercian History’, Studies in Philology, xl (1943), 484–93.Google Scholar

3 Brandl, A., ‘Das Beowulfepos und die mercische Königskrisis um 700’, Forschungen und Fortschritte, xii (1936), 165–8Google Scholar, translated as ‘The Beowulf Epic and the Crisis in the Mercian Dynasty about the Year 700 a.d.’, Research and Progress, ii. 195–203; ‘Beowulf-Epos und Aeneis in systematischer Vergleichung’, Archiv. f. d. Stud. d. neu. Spr., clxxi (1937), 161–73.

1 Beowulf, ll. 898–915, 1709–24.

1 His career has been worked out by Sir Frank Stenton in the Eng. Hist. Rev., xxxiii. 256 ff.; li. 161 ff. W. W. Lawrence, Beowulf and Epic Tradition, p. 276, mentions briefly the possibility that the poet may have had Osred, or else Ceolred of Mercia, in mind when writing about Heremod.

2 Bedas metrische Vita Sancti Cuthberti, ed. W. Jaager, p. 100.

3 The Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus, ed. B. Colgrave, cap. lx. Here and on p. 90 I quote from Mr. Colgrave's translation.

4 Æthelwulf, De Abbatibus, ed. Arnold, Symeonis Monachi Opera (Rolls Series), i. 268.

5 See S. Bonifatii et Lullii Epistolae, ed. M. Tangl, pp. 152–3. I quote the translation by E. Kylie, The English Correspondence, of Saint Boniface, p. 170.

6 Hist. Eccles., v. 22.

1 For a summarized account, see Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, ed. F., Klaeber (3rd ed., 1941), pp. 162–4Google Scholar, and Hoops, J., Kommentar zum Beowulf (1932), pp. 113–15.Google Scholar

2 Schücking, L. L., in his interesting article ‘Wann entstand der Beowulf? Glossen, Zweifel und Fragen’, Beiträge zur Gesch. d. deut. Spr., xlii (1917), 347–410Google Scholar, makes many sound observations on the subject of the dating of Old English poetry, although his tenth-century date for Beowulf has won little acceptance.

1 Asser, Vita Alfredi Regis, ed. W. H. Stevenson, p. 20.

2 Hist. Eccles., iv. 22. Cf. the Old English version, ed. J. Schipper (Bibliotek der angelsdchsischen Prosa, iv), p. 486.

3 The life is dedicated to King Ælfwald of East Anglia, who died in 749. The terms in which the author refers to the fulfilment of Guthlac's prophecy about the success of Ethelbald of Mercia suggests that he was writing after the establishment of that king's hegemony about 730.

4 Sisam, K., ‘Cynewulf and his Poetry’, Proceedings of the British Academy, xviii (1932), 305–7.Google Scholar

1 See Chambers, R. W., Beowulf: an Introduction to the Study of the Poem (2nd ed., 1932), pp. 104–12Google Scholar; Girvan, R., Beowulf and the Seventh Century (Methuen's Old English Library, 1935), pp. 1–25Google Scholar; and works there cited.

1 See F. Klaeber, ‘Concerning the Relation between Exodus and Beowulf’, Mod. Lang. Notes, xxxiii. 218–24; ibid., ‘Die ältere Genesis und der Beowulf’, Englische Studien, xlii. 321–38; Thomas, P. G., ‘Beowulf and Daniel A’, Mod. Lang. Rev., viii. 537–9.Google Scholar

2 This was suggested already by A. Fritzsche, Das angelsäcksische Gedicht Andreas und Cynewulf (1879). See Andreas and the Fates of the Apostles, ed. G. P. Krapp, p. xxxiv; A. S. Cook, ‘The O.E. Andreas and Bishop Acca of Hexham’, Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Science, xxvi. 270 ff.

3 See Tolkien, J. R. R., ‘Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics’, Proceedings of the British Academy, xxii (1936)Google Scholar, passim; Klaeber, F., ‘Die christlichen Elemente im Beowulf’, Anglia, xxxv (1911), 111–36, 249–70, 453–82Google Scholar; xxxvi (1912), 169–99.

4 See Huppé, B. F., ‘The Wanderer: Theme and Structure’, Journal of English and Germanic Philology, xlii (1943), 516–38Google Scholar; O. S. Anderson, ‘The Seafarer: an Interpretation’, K. Humanistiska Vetenskapssamfundets i Lund Arsberättelse, 1937–8, and works there cited. I propose a different interpretation of this poem in a paper to appear in The Early Cultures of North-West Europe (H. M. Chad wick Memorial Studies).

5 Guthlac, ll. 1348–54.

1 Resignation, ll. 117 ff., ed. G. P. Krapp and E. V. K. Dobbie, The Exeter Book (The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, ii), pp. 215–18; W. S. Mackie, The Exeter Book, Part II (Early English Text Society, vol. 194), pp. 164–71.

2 Hist. Eccles., iii. 30. A similar relapse in Northumbria is described by Bede in Vita Sancti Cuthberti, cap. ix.

3 Bede, Vita Sancti Cuthberti, cap. iii (ed. B. Colgrave, pp. 162–5).

1 Felix, Vita Sancti Guthlaci Confessoris (ed. W. de G. Birch, Memorials of St. Guthlac), p. 51.

2 Beowulf, ll. 1384–9.

3 See The Seafarer, ll. 72–9.

4 See H. M. Chadwick, ‘Early National Poetry’, Camb. Hist. Eng. Lit., i. 30; F. A. Blackburn, ‘The Christian Coloring in the Beowulf’, Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc., xii. 205–25; Clark Hall, J. R., Beowulf and the Finnsburg Fragment (1901), p. xxviii.Google Scholar

1 Especially Chambers, op. cit., pp. 125–8.

2 Ibid., p. 127; Tolkien, op. cit., p. 296.

3 Beowulf and the Seventh Century.

4 Hist. Eccles., v. 6; Beowulf, ll. 853–67; cf. A. S. Cook, ‘The Possible Begetter of the O. E. Beowulf and Widsith’, Trans, of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Science, xxv. 335.

1 Felix, op. cit., pp. 20 ff.; cf. Beowulf, ll. 2542–5, 2715–9.

2 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a. 787; Ethelweard, Chronicon (ed. Savile), pp. 841 ff. Cf. Beowulf, ll. 229–319.

3 Cap. 91 (ed. Stevenson, p. 77). See also Stevenson's note, pp. 329–30, and F. Klaeber, Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, p. 141. Cf. Beowulf, ll. 307–11.

4 Cf. Beowulf, ll. 1632–50.

5 Girvan, op. cit., p. 39, refers to Victoria County History of London, i, plate facing p. 158.

1 Schücking, op. cit., p. 393; Tolkien, op. cit., pp. 270 ff.

2 A. S. Cook, op. cit., pp. 281–346; W. W. Lawrence, Beowulf and Epic Tradition, p. 274; Klaeber, op. cit., pp. cxxii ff.

3 See Continuatio Bedae, ed. C. Plummer, Baedae Opera Historica, i. 362; Historia Dunelmensis Ecclesiae, ed. Arnold, Symeonis Monachi Opera, i. 47–9; Alcuin, Carmen de Sanctis Eboracensis Ecclesiae, ll. 1247–86.

4 Lawrence, loc. cit.

5 Historia Regum, ed. Arnold, op. cit., ii. 52.

1 Medium Ævum, xiii. 32 note.

2 W. de G. Birch, Cartularium Saxonicum, nos. 185, 186, 200, 224, 225, 249, 327; M. Tangl, S. Bonifatii et Lullii Epistolae (Mon. Germ. Hist., Epistolae, selectae, i), no. 139; Two Cartularies of the Benedictine Abbeys of Muchelney and Athelney in the County of Somerset (Somerset Record Society, xiv), p. 47.

3 See, e.g., Chambers, op. cit., p. 487. The name may have stood in the source, presumably a poem, from which the poet and his audience derived their knowledge of the Hygelac incident.

1 Andreas, ll. 405–14.

2 Beowulf, ll. 2884–91.

3 Gesta Pontificum Anglorum, ed. N. E. S. A. Hamilton, p. 339. This passage was noticed by P. F. Jones, Mod. Lang. Notes, xlvii. 378, who does not, however, point out its main significance.

4 Bede, Vita Sancti Cuthberti, cap. xxvii (ed. Colgrave, p. 249).

1 The Battle of Maldon, ll. 207 ff.

2 The Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus, cap. xiii (ed. B. Colgrave, p. 29).

3 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a. 901. A very similar formula is used twice in King Alfred's Orosius, ed. H. Sweet, pp. 138, 190.

4 The Harrowing of Hell, ll. 70–3.

1 MS. begen. But could it be for bēgan (W. Sax. bīēgan) ‘to subdue’?

2 Exeter Gnomic Poem, ll. 172–80. The passage is obscure in some minor points. I have accepted Mackie's rendering.

3 Ibid., ll. 146–51. Cf. W. S. Mackie, Mod. Lang. Notes, xl. 91 ff. His view is not accepted by Klaeber, ‘Attila's and Beowulf's Funeral’, Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc., xlii. 265 note.

4 See H. M. Chadwick, The Heroic Age, p. 53; Klaeber, op. cit., 255–67.

1 J. Earle, The Deeds of Beowulf (1892), pp. lxxxiii.-c, suggests that it was composed for the education of Offa's son Ecgfrith; Schücking, op. cit., pp. 400, 407, for a prince of an Anglo-Scandinavian house in the Danelaw.

2 Juliana, ll. 483–90.

3 The Fortunes of Men, ll. 48–50; cf. also Vainglory (Be Manna Mod), ll. 9–21; Judith, ll. 15–32.

4 Exeter Gnomic Poem, ll. 18–21.

5 Ibid., ll. 54–6.

6 The Fortunes of Men, ll. 72–6.

7 The Gifts of Men, ll. 44–8.

8 Ibid., ll. 41–3.

9 Ibid., ll. 72 f.

1 Genesis, ll. 1619–22, 1628 f.

2 The Wife's Complaint, l. 47.

3 Beowulf, l. 73.

4 Riddles of the Exeter Book, No. 12 (as numbered in recent editions), ll. 4, 8; no. 52, 1. 6.

5 Cotton Gnomic Poem, l. 2; The Wanderer, l. 87; Andreas, ll. 1235, 1495; The Ruin, l. 2.

6 Riddles of the Exeter Book, No. 21, l. 3.

7 Exeter Gnomic Poem, ll. 94–9.

8 Poem on the Fasting Seasons, ed. E. V. K. Dobbie, The Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems (The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, vi), ll. 208–20.

1 The Fortunes of Men, ll. 33–43, as translated by Mackie, op. cit., p. 29.