Runes and the Mortal Condition in Old English Poetry

Author(s): Maureen Halsall

Source: The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. 88, No. 4 (Oct., 1989), pp. 477486
Published by: University of Illinois Press
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Runes and the Mortal Condition

inOld English Poetry
Maureen

Halsall,

McMaster

University

in the Old English

runic alphabet
The
(or
corpus of inscriptions
to the thousands
in
of inscriptions
in comparison
is minute
futhorc)
runes.
Norse
Insular runic texts also differ from their North Ger
manic

in a more

counterparts

fundamental

way.

runes

Scandinavian

to have been used for a variety of purposes,

from secular to
a
of
the exception
very few, the bulk of extant Old
magical. With
were
or
runes
of the
incised
inscribed after the conversion
English
one
most
to
of the
and
striking facts about
Christianity;
Anglo-Saxons
It requires a
with the new religion.
them is their intimate connection
to
ele
Germanic
sort of ingenuity
detect any residual pagan
perverse
ments
The
fact
is
of
Old
runic
texts.1
in the majority
that, for
English
even
are
not
most
runic
the
neutrally
part, Old English
inscriptions
secular but, instead, are closely tied to the Church
and, in particular,
are used
to emphasize
toward the
the medieval
Christian
attitude
the
human
of
body.
mortality
can be adduced
to support these assertions?
What evidence
runes found
are
in both insular and
the
Old
there
First,
English
the conver
These
Continental
very obviously
postdate
manuscripts.
at
were
in
monastic
since
sion,
they
produced
scriptoria
normally
dates ranging from the late eighth century until long after the Nor
seem

man

Conquest.2

In

the

main,

the

extant

manuscripts

tend

to

treat

as a branch of study, setting them out in futhorc order or re

in the Ro
them in alphabet order, listing their equivalents
arranging
rune names.
man alphabet, and sometimes
also listing the traditional
runes

1
see Karl Schneider's
Runen
efforts
in Die Germanischen
For example,
ingenious
am Glan:
namen
the Old English
Hain,
(Meisenheim
Verlag Anton
1956) to interpret
on rune 5: "Der
and ritual. See pp. 338-99
Rune Poem
in terms of Germanic
myth
on Schneider's
in
efforts
V" and also my comments
*|)uranaz:
*{)uraz,
Donnergott
of
Univ.
Rune Poem: A Critical Edition
The Old English
Maureen
Halsall,
(Toronto:
Toronto
Press,
1981), p. 108.
2
treatment
For an exhaustive
see Ren?
in Continental
codices,
1954).
(Bruges: De Tempel,

and Germanic
of English
Journal
?
1989 by the Board of Trustees

of English
runes,
manuscript
R?nica Manuscripta:
Derolez,

Philology?October
of the University

in insular and
both
The English
Tradition

of Illinois

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478

Halsall

Often

Norse

presented

An
which

futharks
for

and other

both

alphabets,

real and fictitious,

are

comparison.3

of runes,
of this kind of learned handling
example
to
context
in
of
their
relation
them
the
broader
attempts
place
occurs
to
De
in
inventione
the
so-called
other alphabets,
linguarum.
ship
to Alcuin's fa
In this brief Continental
attributed
treatise, frequently
mous pupil, Hrabanus Maurus,
the history of letters is traced back to
are supplied,
as well as
Roman
and
Moses; Hebrew, Greek,
alphabets
on
are
of Aethicus
and
variations
what
the curious alphabet
Ister;
Old
distorted
somewhat
Old
runes, accompanied
by
clearly
English
rune names, appear
in the false guise of the letters used by
English
the heathen Germanic
peoples of northern
Europe.4
runes
to have been used for cryp
of
Also,
English origin appear
as evidenced
in the so-called Isruna Tract, where
tographic purposes,
a
of two num
each rune is represented
kind
of fraction, consisting
by
held in
bers which together reflect the position
that rune traditionally
one of the three divisions
the
other
of
uses,
(or ttir)
futhorc. Among
commu
to
this ingenious
invention
in cryptography
monks
permitted
in clopfruna (their medieval
nicate by tapping out messages
equivalent
of Morse
of
the silent hours.5 Such examples
code) even during
even more clearly
learned play with the futhorc serve to demonstrate,
rune lists or the De inventione linguarum,
than the various manuscript
runes were part of the
that by late Anglo-Saxon
times Old English
normal apparatus of international
Christian
scholarship.
in the manuscript
The puzzling
element
evidence
cited is not that
to Continental
runic lore should have spread from England
Europe
could have oc
the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries. This
during
curred

excellent

easily

in a number

of

ways:

via

the

various

Anglo-Saxon

mis

or through Alcuin's
as the
sions to the Continent
influential position
as
as
course
head of Charlemagne's
in
the
well
the
of
school,
palace
of
books
and
visits
of
scholars
between
many
exchanges
continuing
and the great Continental
with known
monasteries
insular
England
such as St. Gall, Bobbio,
What
connections,
Fulda, or W?rzburg.
to survive long enough
teases the mind
is how runic lore managed
3
the reproduction
of St. John's College MS.
See, for example,
17, folio 5V in Derolez,
on pp. 26-34.
of the manuscript
III, and also his discussion
MS. 326, folio
of the De inventione text in Strasbourg
the version
See, for example,
on
nor
and also his discussion
in Derolez,
of the manuscript
reproduced
plate Vila
of the text on pp. 354-55.
of both major
versions
and his variant editions
pp. 332-35
the version
of the Isruna Tract in St. Gall MS.
5See, for example,
270, p. 52, re
in Lucien Musset,
Introduction ? la runologie: en partie d'apr?s les notes de Fernand
produced
20 (Paris: Aubier-Montaigne,
de philologie
Moss?,
1965),
germanique,
Biblioth?que
recon
in Derolez,
and Derolez's
of the manuscript
the discussion
pp. 90?94,
plate XII,
on
tract
120-22.
struction
of the
pp.
plate
4

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Runes and theMortal Condition in Old English Poetry

479

to take place. Why did the

for this transmission
the conversion
not
to the English
Roman
and
Celtic
missionaries
seventh-century
as
a
at
outset
runic
letters
the
suppress
vestige of the pagan
dangerous
runes into Chris
Germanic
past? Why and how did they incorporate
an answer, the
to
tian lore? For evidence
runic
nonmanuscript
leading
after

must

tradition

be

examined.
runes

manuscript

Predating

runes

as much

by

as

four

are

centuries

epi

in wood, bone, pottery, metal, and stone. Of

graphical
extant Old English epigraphical
the five dozen
inscriptions,
it is noteworthy
that fewer than a dozen date from earlier
however,
than

the

incised
or more
of

middle

amples

runes

single

the

seventh

or

names

owners'

Of

century.6

no sign of Christian

exhibit

influence.

or

of

consist mainly

They

scratched

formulas,

unintelligible

ex

rare

these

course,

on a variety of objects, such as brooches

in
and sword hilts, unearthed
the excavation
of early Anglo-Saxon
burial sites.
Of the remaining
dated after a.d. 650
inscriptions,
epigraphical
on
and hence firmly in the postconversion
period,
thirty-six appear
crosses

stone

or

scriptions

and

Cuthbert;8

the Auzon

being
context

on

are incised

that

three

Christian

more

are

fragments

on

the

four

in

runic

best-known

the

It is also worth mentioning

on

inscriptions

least

of the oak coffin of St.

caskets,

reliquary

or Franks Casket.9

even

at

markers;7

grave

in the wooden

apparently

in this
or

nonreligious

neu

tral objects often allude to man's need for divine intervention.10

runes and the mortal dilemma,
connection
between
The persistent
in
era, be
apparent
inscriptions of the Christian
English epigraphical
comes

more

readily

explicable

when

one

examines

the

runic

stones

6
of the entire corpus of English
There
is as yet no adequate
publication
epigraphical
see Hertha
but for a very full preliminary
of these,
runic
bibliography
inscriptions;
&
Die Runeninschriften
des Britischen
Inseln
Vandenhoeck
Marquardt,
(G?ttingen:
rune
of the dating of epigraphical
for a convenient
summary
1961). Also,
Ruprecht,
shows regional
and uses a.d. 650 as a kind
finds made up to about
1970, which
patterns
see the maps
to English
in R. I. Page, An Introduction
of pagan-Christian
watershed,
Runes
(London: Methuen,
1973), pp. 26-27,
figs. 6 and 7.
7
Thornhill
Cross A in Ralph
Elliot, Runes: An Introduction
See, for example,
(Man
Univ.
settaefter:
chester: Manchester
Press,
1959), plate XV, fig. 35 (EJ^elberht:
E|)el
. . .) and the
1
I name-stone
in Page, plate
wini:
Hartlepool
(HildiJ^ryj)).
8
ihs xps symbol
see the
for
the
visible
of
For example,
(too imperfectly
drawing
of St. Cuthbert's
in Page,
from one fragment
coffin
effective
p. 173,
photography)

35

on the Franks
the inscriptions
also Page, pp. 174-82.
pp. 96-108;
on the
the inscription
10For example,
uwalud/o
God,
cy["My
Almighty
h/e/lipae
on the
Derby
plate 4), and the inscription
saves
wrat
His
["God
mercy Hadda
by
J)is
9For

plate

Casket

see Elliott,

plates

XIX-XXIII

and

comb reads: d/[ ]us m/aeus

god al
(see Page, p. 168 and
help Cy(ne)-"]
reads: god gecaj) arae had/da
\)i
bone-plate
and
who wrote
this"] (see Page, pp. 166?68

Whitby
God,

6).

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480

Halsall

at the time of the

in Continental
Germania
erected
is the Kj0levik
invasions.11 A representative
example
Anglo-Saxon
Stone of about a.d. 450, the traditional date of the first arrival of the
reads:
invaders; its inscription
Anglo-Saxon
that were

being

ek Hagusta(l)daR,

HadulaikaR,
Hadulaik

[rests

here].

hl(a)aiwid?

?I,

magu
interred

Hagustald,

minino.
my

son

in a

funeral

mound.12

This is not radically dissimilar

Stone i of about a.d. 750:
Tunwini
becun

settae
aefter

Tunwini

his

set up

from

the inscription

on Great Urswick

aefter Torhtredae
baeurnae;
a monument

gebiddaes

\>er

for Torhtred

saulae.
his

son.

Pray

for

his

soul.13

in crude allit
both are memorial
stones, with
Clearly,
inscriptions
father at the loss of
the grief of a bereaved
erative verse, expressing
his son. The Kj0levik Stone, however,
simply presents us with a pitiful
son proved mortal. The closing prayer
human
fact: that Hagustald's
of the Great Urswick
Stone opens up a supernatural
that,
possibility:
the temporal dorn (or favorable judgment
by men) of the dead
beyond
son named on the stone, there may be an everlasting
dorn (or favorable
and
his
God
by
angels).14
judgment
11
are
runestones
in
available
of these early Continental
conveniently
Photographs
Krause
im
and Herbert
Die Runeninschriften
the second volume
of Wolfgang
Jankuhn,
& Ruprecht,
the memorial
Vandenhoeck
?lteren Futhark
1966), where
(G?ttingen:
stones numbered
warrant
attention.
71-94
particular
12For
the Kj0levik
Stone see Krause #75 or Musset,
plate V.
13
For Great Urswick
i see Page, pp. 154-55.
Stone
of
11. 72-80a
in the G. P. Krapp
and E. V. K. Dobbie
edition
Seafarer,
14Compare
Univ. Press,
The Exeter Book, The Anglo-Saxon
Poetic Records,
3 (New York: Columbia
1936),

p.

145:
aeftercwe^endra
Forl?n
[)aet bi? eorla gehwam
lastworda
lof lifgendra
betst,
aer he on weg scyle,
JDaethe gewyrce,
on foldan
fremum
wi? feonda ri\\>,
deorum
daedum
deofle
togeanes,
aefter hergen,
JDaethine aelda beam
ond his lof sij^an
lifge mid englum
awa to ealdre,
ecan lifes blaed,
dream mid dugu[}um.

And
that will be his praise among
the living who speak after
so, for every noble,
his death,
he must
the best of reputations,
that, before
go on his way, he should
on this earth
to bring
strenuous
it about,
actions
the
manage
through
against
malice
of foes, through
deeds
the devil,
that the sons of men will
daring
against
after praise him and that his reputation
will live always and forever
the
among
the reward of eternal
celebration
the tried and true
life, joyous
among
angels,
warrior
band.

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Runes and theMortal Condition in Old English Poetry

481

to note here that burial rituals are central to the

in
labor involved
religious practices of most nations. The prodigious
on the great pagan memorial
stones that
setting up and carving runes
to the impor
almost litter Scandinavia
offers convincing
testimony
It is unnecessary

tance

of

this kind
for

Hence,

recent

of piety

among

the ancient
the

converts,

Anglo-Saxon

use

Germanic
of

runes

peoples.
on

Chris

stones in seventh-century
tian memorial
had the potential
England
a
of
between
the
old
and
the new burial
advantage
establishing
bridge
same
use
in
that
the
of
much
the
familiar
Germanic
rituals,
way
dryht
in contemporary
Old English
Christian
such
poetry,
terminology
as C dmons Hymn, made
the lordship of the Christian God emotion
more
to Anglo-Saxon
ally real and therefore
readily
acceptable
audiences.15

to the English,
In the minds of the missionaries
the most
important
was
of
world
the
international
the
aspect
temporal
sphere of Christian
to which
the
the Mediterranean
constituted
alphabets
scholarship,
men
were
for
whom
the
missionaries
These
key.
truly important
sacred languages: Hebrew,
letters were those of the three so-called
the
in which were written
the texts that formed
and Latin,
Greek,
in
basis of their spiritual lives. Brief Germanic
scratched
inscriptions
no par
of
would
distortions
letters
hold
northern
alphabet
angular
furnish
the barbaric
ticular appeal for them, unless
symbols might
a vehicle for
some aspect of the gospel message.
If
the es
conveying
runes and mortality
be
between
could
tablished
exploited,
linkage
on pre
then the runic letters, familiar from inscriptions
however,
converts
the
Christian
gravestones,
might be used to teach Germanic
in
of
stoicism
the
face
loss
and
Christian
difference
between
pagan
hope of a better world after death.
to understand
to which
In an attempt
the extent
the connection
runes and mortality
came to be exploited
in ver
between epigraphical
one of the earliest
it is useful to begin by examining
nacular literature,
texts of an Old English poem, which, significantly,
is itself an
recorded
a poem
from
of
lines
Fragments
eighteen
inscription.
epigraphical
are carved in Northumbrian
runes on a huge
about the Crucifixion
stone

cross

(usually

dated

about

sembled early in the nineteenth

inside the church at Ruthwell

A.D..

700)

whose

pieces

and

were

later placed under

century
in Dumfriesshire,
Scotland.16

reas

cover

15
of C dmons Hymn
in E. V. K. Dobbie's
of
version
edition
See the Northumbrian
6 (New York: Columbia
Poetic Records,
The Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems, The Anglo-Saxon
Univ. Press,
1942), p. 105.
16
of all four sides, made
before
For a full-length
the cross was placed
representation
see the
cover in the church,
in George
Handbook
under
drawings
Stephens,
of the Old
Williams
& Norgate,
foldout
Northern Runic Monuments
1884),tne
opposite
(Edinburgh:

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Halsall

482

and north-facing
sides of this magnificent
The broad south-facing
cross present a program
of sculptures
historiated
carefully designed
to emphasize
the body by
the need to humble
(and thus transcend)
of the world in the quest for spiritual
the physical pleasures
rejecting
on man's
in the Ruthwell
The
illumination.17
insistence
sculptures
on
to
the examples
of Saint John
need
the flesh is modeled
mortify
the Baptist and his fourth-century
imitators, the desert fathers of mo
and images of all three of these
Saints Paul and Anthony;
nasticism,
on
cross. Like the asceticism
of
the
model
ascetics actually appear
at night to
in stealing out of the monastery
their native St. Cuthbert
in the icy North Sea,18 such mortification
of
stand for hours immersed
to the Anglo-Saxon
church an attitude of con
the flesh represented
to the world and the body, for
temptus mundi, or deliberate
dying
as the supreme model
for human
which
functioned
the Crucifixion
imitation.
It

is on

the

narrower

east-facing

and

west-facing

sides

of

the

Ruth

that the principal

well Cross, which are devoid of figure
sculpture,
a vine
In
flat
borders
runic inscription
the
appears.
surrounding
of verse describing
how
scroll or tree of life appear runic fragments
his
Passion.19
Christ chose death on the cross, which
shared
loyally
to parts of verses 39?64
of
These
strikingly
correspond
fragments
c.
a.d.
in
the
Vercelli
of
the crucifixion
found
1000,
poem
Manuscript
The Dream of the Rood. Transliter
the poem
that we have entitled
ated,

the fragments

read:

"[+.nd]geredae hinae god alme3ttig })a he wald? on galgu gistiga

raodig ?[ore .]men (bug)[.]"
ic n\ dorstae [&]zsmae
(b) "[.] ic riicnae ?ynirjc hmfunaes h[/]afard tolda
rae[d]u urjket men ba aet[g]ad[r? i]c (waes) [m]i\) b/odae ?>ist[?]mi[?/]

(a)

biir
(c)

"[+]kris[?] waes on rodi hwe|3rae per fus[ce] fearran kw[o]mu [ ]\>

|ilae til anum ic J)aet al bi[h](eald) sa(r.) ic w[^]s m?[/>] s[or]gu[w]
gidrce[f.]d h[n]ag[.]"

limited photographic
of more
than one side, see
p. 130; also, for more
representations
XI, fig. 15.
Elliott, plate XVI and Musset,
plate
17
For various
relevant
of the significance
of the design
of the sculp
interpretations
tures on the broad
see Fritz Saxl, "The Ruthwell
faces of the Ruthwell
Cross,"
Cross,
"The
and Courtauld
Institutes, 6 (1943),
1-19; Meyer
fournal
of the Warburg
Shapiro,
B.
of the Ruthwell
Robert
26 (1944),
Cross," Art Bulletin,
231-45;
Religious
Meaning
"The Ruthwell
Stud
Burlin,
Cross, The Dream of the Rood, and the Vita Contemplativa,"
"The Dream
ies in Philology,
and John V. Fleming,
23?43;
65 (i960),
of the Rood and
22 (1966), 43 ? 72.
Monasticism,"
Traditio,
Anglo-Saxon
18
see Bertram
For Bede's account
Two Lives of St. Cuthbert
of this practice
Colgrave,
Univ. Press,
1940), pp. 188-90.
Cambridge
(Cambridge:
19
For partial and not very clear photographs
of the vinescrolls
the narrow
sides of the Ruthwell
Cross see Elliott, plate XVII.

and

runic

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borders

on

Runes and theMortal Condition in Old English Poetry

(d)

which,
(a)

"[m]i{) s[?]re[/]um giwundad alegdun hiae Mnae limwcerignae gistod

du[n] him [.l?jeles {he?)?{du)m (bih)?li(l)[d]u. (h)i( ) [/>]e(r)[.]"
translated

(c)

brave

runs as follows:

English,

in men's

. . . bow

sight

he purposed

"Wounded

They
beheld

with

I dared
I was

from
afar.
I beheld
. . .bowed
. . .
down

hastening
with
griefs

arrows.

stood beside

laid

They

him, near

. . .20

to climb the

..."

"I . . . the
lord of heaven.
powerful
king,
Men mocked
the two of us, both
together.
"
+ Christ
was
on
to this
the cross.
Yet
noblemen,
troubled

(d)

into modern

"Almighty God bared his body, when

gallows,

(b)

483

him

wet

solitary
all

down,

not

bend

one
that.

down.

blood

with

there
I was

weary

..."
came
sorely

of

the head of his body. There

limb.

they

What
is presented
in these brief lines carved on the Ruthwell
Cross
at the end of the seventh century, as well as in the
poem
much-longer
inscribed three hundred
years later in the Vercelli Book, is the central
faith: the assertion
that voluntary
paradox of the Christian
suffering
and death are the way to eternal glory. This paradox
is the source of
the medieval
that man live the imitatio Christi by daily mar
injunction
of
the
as a disciplinary
way of life viewed not merely
tyrdom
body?a
to ascetic monks
exercise peculiar
like St. Cuthbert
but as a universal
necessity arising directly from such Biblical texts as Matthew
10:38?
39: "And he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy
of me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my
sake will find it." Clearly,
the ancestral runic letters, which once were
on pagan
associated
with the irremediable
pain and loss recorded
Germanic
funeral monuments,
here on the Ruthwell Cross are being
a blueprint
used to describe
actions
that furnish
for transmuting
death into victory.
to insert into his vernacular
verse
decided
Later, when Cynewulf
translations
the runic symbols that spell out his name, his purpose was
clear: to enable readers to pray for the well-being
of his soul on the
states
As he explicitly
his
runic signature
Day of Judgment.
following
at the end of Juliana:
Bidde

ic monna

gehwone

cynnes,
g?mena
he mec
neodful
JDaet

\>e Jd?s gied wraece,

bi noman
minum

20

on the Ruthwell
For a clear version of the runic inscriptions
Cross
(which are almost
see the
to
used as frontispiece
to the B. Dickins
and
impossible
photograph)
drawings
A. S. C. Ross edition
of The Dream
trans
Methuen,
of the Rood (London:
1954). The
and translation
are based on
literation
of these inscriptions
in this paper
given
Page,
pp. 150-51.

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Halsall

484

gemyne
me
J)aet
meahta
I pray
zealous
Lord

each
and
that
on

help

individual
magnanimous,
Protector
He,

that

great

ond

modig,
heofona

on

waldend,
of

the

the

bidde

helpe
gefremme,
mielan
daege.
{Dam
race

human

he will
of

meotud

heim

who

remember

heavens,

me

mighty

this poem
that,
name
the
and pray
by
me
will
afford
Ruler,

recites

day.21

In effect, within each of his poems, Cynewulf

is creating for himself
monument.
the verbal equivalent
of a Christian
grave
as the
Of course, one could argue, on the basis of such documents
Isruna

Tract

and

various

scattered

instances

where

runic

clues

are

sup

that Cynewulf
chose to use runes and
riddles,
plied for Old English
rune names merely
in order to play a learned game,
their associated
a
to solve; and, in
by devising
puzzle for his readers
cryptographic
some
of
this
have
formed
small
his
deed,
may
purpose. My con
part
to convey a great deal more by
is that he intended
tention, however,
to fellow
his use of runes than a potentially
self-defeating
challenge
scholars to discover
him in their
his identity in order to remember
of the Ruthwell
builders
Cross,
prayers. Like the seventh-century
was
be
the
traditional
connection
Cynewulf
consciously
exploiting
tween runic symbols and grief over the inevitable dissolution
of the
in his four
human body. It cannot be an accident
that the passages
woven
are
to C, Y,
into
which
the
runic
poems
symbols corresponding
of mortal
N, (E),W, U, L, and F invariably consist of vivid depictions
A
man's dilemma
in the face of his coming death and judgment.22
to
here
demonstrate
this
of
the
should
suffice
aspect
single example
nature

of

all

four

runic

signatures.

The poem Elene deals with the power of the cross to bring victory
over Max
and renewal: not merely
the martial victory of Constantine
of a unified
entius and the subsequent
reestablishment
temporal em
a
more
of
but
far
kind
pire,
spiritual victory over sin and
significant
demonstrated
when
death?a
which
is
the True
victory
decisively
a
man
to
to
restore
its
life and
Cross is identified
dead
ability
through
to
to
In
devil
of
his
wonted
rob
the
the
prey.23
simultaneously
epilogue
the poem, Cynewulf
describes
how, being old and near death on ac
21 See

and Dobbie
edition of The Exeter Book, p. 133.
11.718-23,
in the Krapp
Juliana,
22For a convenient
of the four Cynewulfian
from the
passages
signature
anthology
see appen
Fates of the Apostles, Elene, Christ II, and Juliana
(with appended
translations)
For substantial
discus
dix A to my edition
of The Old English Rune Poem, pp. 177-80.
"The Art of Cynewulf's
Runic
in literary terms see D. W. Frese,
sions of the passages
in Appreciation,
ed. L. E. Nicholson
and D. W.
Poetry: Essays
Anglo-Saxon
Signatures,"
as well as Daniel G.
Frese (Notre Dame: Univ. of Notre Dame Press,
1975), pp. 312-34,
K. Hall,
Calder,
(Boston: Twayne/G.
1981),
Cynewulf
23 See
edition
11. 876-924
in G. R Krapp's
Elene,
Univ.
2 (New York: Columbia
Saxon Poetic Records,

passim.
of The Vercelli
Press,

Book,

1932).

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The

Anglo

Runes and theMortal Condition in Old English Poetry

count

of his mortal

vention

of

and

learned

he finally

body,

cross

the

as

how,

story of the in

the full
he

result,

485

underwent

spiritual

he was freed from the shackles of worldly

renewal, whereby
anxiety
that follows elabo
and gained the gift of song. The signature passage
rates on the misery
of the poet's previous
condition,
unenlightened
double use of the runic symbols, not only for their letter val
making
ues in spelling out cynewulf
but also for their rune names as Old
to
words
the
of the text:
essential
meaning
English
A waes

secg o?
cearwelmum,
in medohealle

cnyssed
he

]3eah

?aet
h- drusende,
ma?mas

J)ege,

F??-gnornode
aeplede
gold.
+ gefera,
dreah,
nearusorge
him
M- fore
rune,
enge
J)aer
maet,

milpa?as
wirum

modig

gewlenced.
aefter gearum,

gomen
aid onmedla.

h- waes

Always
cen
ing

until

swa

(or

under

'torch'),

even
Yr

apple-shaped
related

gold.
to irre

onym

was

buffeted
by
in the mead-hall

(traditionally
'yew-bow',
or, more
['wrath'
likely,
of nyd (or 'hardship')
(or perhaps
him his eh (or

roads, the proud one galloped

dwindled,
the
formed,

(or
of
ing

'ours').

playfulness
of former
pride

Now

living have
currents.

geardagas

lyfte

though

the companion
mented;
the constraining
mystery
even when
before
self),
has

synt

gewitene,
f- toglideS,

Y- aeghwam bi?

this warrior

then

for?

geliden,

flodas gefysde.
laene

geara

Nu

geogo?hades
glaem.
aefter fyrstmearce
lifwynne

J)raegde
is geswi?rad,
is gecyrred,
geogoS

here

'the

object
endured

the

constraining
'horse') measured

in its filigreed
the

passage
the
Once

days.
of time

but

like a fail
treasures

probably
of wrath'])

years;

la

grief,
oppressive
rune,
i.e., + it
the milestoned

trappings. Wyn
of

of

a hom

(or 'joy')

is trans
youth
ur
was
of youth

splendour
are gone,
the pleasures
days
even as
the hasten
away,
lagu (or 'water') glides
under
heaven
is
(or 'wealth')
feoh
fleeting.24

in the fullness
departed,
For all men

with

sorrow-surges,
he received

the old

as in all his signature passages, Cynewulf

the runic
employs
a lesson
to
in
from
the
order
teach
inherited
pagan past
symbols
about the transitory nature both of bodily delights and of the doomed
world that for a time supplies them. In so doing, he follows the same
pattern of thought as the author of the Old English Rune Poem,25 who,
Here,

24
in Elene see Vercelli MS, folio
For the signature
i33r in Celia Sisam, The
passage
20
&
in Facsimile,
Rosenkilde
Vercelli Book, Early English Manuscripts
(Copenhagen:
p. 101, 11. i256b~7oa.
1976) and also the Krapp edition,
Bagger,
25
see
Veterum Septen
Rune Poem
For The Old English
Hickes,
George
Linguarum
et Archaeologicus
trionalium Thesaurus Grammatico-Criticus
(Oxford,
1705), p. 135; this is
in reduced
form on p. 84 of my edition.
conveniently
reproduced

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Halsall

486

after dealing with the variety of earthly phenomena

in the
embodied
stanza de
traditional rune names, closes his poem with the following
the whole:
signed to summarize
eorla
T
[ear] by]} egle
gehwylcun,
?onn
faestl?ce
fiasse onginnej)
c?osan
hr?w
hr?san
c?lian,

bl?c t? gebeddan;
wynna
Ear

(or earth)

when

gesw?caf).
to every

is loathsome

man,

irresistibly the flesh,

the dead
the

bl?da gedreosaj),
w?ra

gew?ta]},

livid

fruits

body,
begins
one
to choose

fail,

joys

vanish,

to grow
cold,
as its bedfellow;
earth
covenants
man-made

are

broken.26

It ismy contention
in this paper that runic symbols were employed
by
both Cynewulf
and the anonymous
author of the Old English Rune
Poem in order to emphasize
the theme of human mortality,
that this
was a traditional
of
these
inherited
usage
Anglo-Saxon
symbols, and
that ultimately
the tradition derived
from the pre-Christian
practice
of incising runes on Continental
stones.
Germanic memorial
The

Venerable

Bede's

well-known

account

of

the

conversion

of

Kent is relevant once again in this context. There he quotes the often
cited letter of Pope Gregory
the Great to Abbot Mellitus,
in which that
not to destroy
wise human psychologist
advised his missionaries
the
to
reconsecrate
of
the
but
them:
pagan temples
Anglo-Saxons,
Aqua

benedicta

reliquiae
de corde
loca quae
Take

ponantur
errorem
consueuit

in eisdem
fanis
altaria
construantur,
aspergatur,
. . .dum
sua non uidet
fana
destru?,
gens
ipsa eadem
uerum
ac adorans,
et Deum
ad
cognoscens
deponat,

fiat,

familiarius

concurrat.

water
and
holy
sprinkle
. . .When
in them
this

it in these
altars
and
build
shrines,
place
see that their
are not de
shrines
people
error
to banish
will be able
from
their hearts
and be more
stroyed
they
to come
to the
are familiar
but now
with,
ready
places
they
recognizing
and
the true God.27
worshipping
relics

In the Christian baptism of runes and their reemployment

for ortho
we have further evidence of the
dox religious purposes,
far-reaching
in the Gregorian
inherent
possibilities
strategy of intro
missionary
via the known.
ducing the unknown
The Old English Rune Poem, p. 92, 11.90-94.
26See Halsall,
27See B.
and R. A. B. Mynors,
Bede5 Ecclesiastical
Colgrave
Press,
(Oxford: Clarendon
1969), i. 30.

History

of theEnglish

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