1

2nd year

ENGLISH LITERATURE
FROM THE BEGINNINGS TO THE END OF THE 18TH CENTURY
with Klaudyna Hildebrandt

1st TERM

Old English Widsith, Deor’s Lament

OE prosody, Beowulf, Riddles
Venerable Bede, Caedmon, Cynewulf, Dream of the Rood,
Alfred the Great, Aelfric – Colloquy on Occupations
Middle English Poema Morale, Orrm, Layamon, songs, medieval allegory: The Pearl
Ancrene Riwle, Geoffrey Chaucer – Canterbury Tales: Prologue, Wife of Bath’s Tale
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, medieval ballads
the Renaissance Sonnets: Wyatt, Surrey, Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare
Spenser – Faerie Queene, Sidney – Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia
Development of theatre, revenge tragedy: Kyd – The Spanish Tragedy
Elizabethan theatre – The Globe
Development of comedy, Shakespeare – Much Ado about Nothing (video)

2nd TERM

the Baroque Cavalier Poets

Metaphysical Poetry
Milton – Paradise Lost, sonnets, L’Allegro, Il Penseroso
the Restoration Restoration comedy, Dryden – McFlecknoe, An Essay on Dramatic Poesy, Pepys –
Diary
the Enlightenment Mock-heroic epic, Pope – The Rape of the Lock
Satire, Jonathan Swift – Modest Proposal, Cassinus and Peter, Gulliver’s Travels
Journalism – Addison, Steele
The early novel – epistolary novel (Richardson), memoir novel (Defoe),
picaresque novel (Fielding), sentimental novel (Sterne), Gothic novel
Novel of manners – Jane Austen – Sense and Sensibility (video)

This beaker, dating from 2500-2200BC, was found at Rudston, East Yorkshire. It is typical of the earliest style
of Beaker pottery, and was associated with the burial of a female adult.
You will find more on Beaker culture at:
http://www.stephen.j.murray.btinternet.co.uk/bronze.htm
 2

OLD ENGLISH

Widsith means „far journey”, but here it is used as a proper name of the scop who tells the tale. The
poem reflects the 5th and 6th centuries, the time of the great migrations of peoples which brought about the fall of
the Roman empire. The poem is not to be taken as the record of actual travels of a real scop: someone who had
been at the court of Eormanric, who died A.D. 375, could not have been in Italy with Alboin, who invaded it in
A.D. 568. Passages referring to the Medes, Persians, Israelites, Aeneas or Alexander the Great are incongruent
interpolations by later hands. Widsith was probably composed in the 7th century; the poem has been preserved in
the Exeter Book.

WIDSITH

Widsith spoke, unlocked his word-hoard.
He of all men of the tribes over earth
wandered far among folk, often on the hall-floor
took the wished-for treasure. From the Myrging tribes1
his race sprang. He with Ealdhild2,
the fair peace-maker, for the first time
had sought the home of the Goth-king
from Angel3 in the East, the home of Eormanric,
hateful oath-breaker. Many things he uttered:
“I have heard of those who wielded might.
Every chief must live by noble custom,
― lords one after the other ruling their land ―
he who wills that his throne be lasting.
There was Hwala for a while the best,
and Alexander, the noblest of all
the race of men, who most prospered
of those I have heard of over the world.
Attila ruled the Huns, Eormanric the Goths,
Becca4 the Bannings, Gifica the Burgundians;
Caesar5 ruled the Greeks, and Caelic the Finns,
Hagena the Sea-Rugians, and Heoden the Gloms;
Witta ruled the Swabians, Wada the Halsings,
Meace the Myrgings, Mearchealf the Hundlings;
Theodoric ruled the Franks, Thyle the Rondings,
Brecca the Brondings, Billing the Warni,
Oswin the Eowans, and Gefwulfe the Jutes;
Finn Folcwalding ruled the race of Frisians,
Sigehere ruled the longest over the Sea-Danes,
Hnaef the Hocings, Helm the Wulfings,
Wald the Woings, Wod the Thuringians,
Saferth the Secgi, Ongentheow the Swedes,
Sceafthere the Imbri, Sceafa the Longobards,
Hun the Haetwari and Holen the Wrisni,
Hrinweald was called the king of the Sea-rovers;
Offa6 ruled the Angles, Alewith the Danes,
the most high-spirited among men;
yet he overcame not Offa, in deeds of earlship,
but Offa gained the greatest of kingdoms
while yet a child, the first of men.
None were his equal in noble valour
with his sword alone in the battle-line.
He marked the boundary against the Myrgings
at Fifeldor7. They held it thenceforth,
Angles and Sweafe, as Offa struck it.
Hrothful and Hrothgar8 held for a long time
peace between them, uncle and nephew,
when they had driven away the race of Vikings
and bowed down the band of Ingeld,
cut down at Heorot9 the Heathobard glory.
So I wandered long in strange lands
round the wide earth. Of good and evil
learned I much, away from my own land,
from my free kinsmen far straying.
So may I sing and tell tales
and say before many in the mead-hall
how kingly men did kind deeds to me.
I was with Huns and with Goths,
with Swede and Geats and South-Danes,
with Wendlas and Waernas, and with Vikings,
with Gepedae and Wends10, and with Gefflas,
with Angles and Swaibians, and with Aeneas.

1
Myrging tribes probably dwelt between the Eider and the Elbe; most of the tribes mentioned by Widsith lived
on the shores of the North Sea or the Baltic.
2
Ealdhild was probably the wife of Eormanric; the story is that he murdered her.
3
Angel: the boundaries of the Angles, in southern Denmark
4
Becca was sent by Eormanric to woo Ealdhild but proved traitor to him.
5
The name of Caesar is used here as a general title of the Emperor of the East.
6
This is Offa I, king of the Angles while they were still in their continental home; he was later confused with
Offa, the Mercian king of the 9th c. ruling Angles in Mercia.
7
Fifeldor: the river Eider.
8
Hrothful and Hrothgar are both heroes of the epic poem Beowulf.
9
Heorot was the great hall of King Hrothgar; several such references in Widsith corroborate the epic.
10
Wends: tribes of Slavonic origin occupying vast territories in eastern and middle Europe.

With Saxon I was, and with Secgi, and with
Sweordwearas;
With Hronas I was and with Danes, and with Heatho-
Reami,
with Thyringians I was, and with Throwendas,
and with Burgundians when they gave me a ring;
there Guthere11 gave me a goodly treasure
to pay for my song; he was no sluggish king.
With Franks I was and with Frisians, and with
Frumtings;
with Rugians I was and with Glomans, and with the
Rome-Welsh.
I was likewise in Italy with Ealfwin12;
he had, of all men whom I have heard of,
the readiest hand to reward with praise,
the greatest heart for the giving of rings,
of bright armlets — the son of Eadwin.
With Saracens I was, and with Syrians,
with Greeks I was, and with Finns, and with Caesar
who wielded power over the wine-city.
With Scots was I, and with Picts, and with North
Finns,
with Lidwicings was I, with Leonas, and with
Longobardans;
with Haethi and Haerthi, and with Hundings.
With Israelites I was, and with Assyrians,
with Hebrews and Italians, and Egyptians,
with Medes and Persians, and with Myrgings,
with Modfings, and again with Myrgings,
and with Amorites. With East Thuringians I was
and with Eolas and Istas and Idumingas.
And I was with Eormanric all the time;
there the King of the Goths did good to me.
He gave me a ring, the Ruler of City-peoples,
which was patterned of pure gold,
six hundred pieces, counted by shillings.
This I gave to Eadgils,
my protecting prince, when I came home,
to repay his love; for he gave me land,
my father’s dwelling-place, he, the Myrgings’ Prince.
And to me Ealdhill gave another ring,
Eadwin’s daughter, noble queen of earls.
Her praise went far round many lands
when I in my song must say aloud
where under the heavens I had best known
a queen gold-adorned, giving treasure.
When Shilling and I with clear voices
lifted a song to our lord of triumphs,
loud to the harp the hall-roof rang out.
Then many men, proud of mood,
men who knew well, spoke out and said
they had never heard a nobler song.
11
Guthere is the Günther of Nibelungenlied.
12
Ealfwin is Alboin, son of Eadwin, the king of the Lombards in the 6th c.
13
An allusion to the struggles between the Goths and the Huns. In Attila’s time the Goths did not live in the
confines on the Vistula river, their passage through the land having occurred in earlier time.
3
When I wandered long in the land of the Goths,
there I sought the surest comrades.
That was the household of Eormanric.
Hethca sought I, and Bedca, and the Harlungs.
Ermerca sought I and Fridla, and Ostrogotha,
the wise and good father of Unwen.
Secca sought I and Becca, Seofola and Theodoric,
Heathoric and Sifica, Hlitha and Incgentheow;
Eadwin sought I, and Elsa, Argelmund and Hungar,
and the proud company of the With-Myrgings.
Wulfhere sought I, and Wyrmehere; often war failed
not
when the Gothic host with hard swords
must needs defend their old homeland
from the horde of Attila by Vistula wood13.
Radhere sought I, and Rondhere, Rumstan and
Gislhere,
Withergild and Feotheric, Wudga and Hama:
they were not the worst of comrades,
though I have named them the last of all.
Full oft from that band there flew out a spear,
whining and yelling, towards the hostile foe.
Wudga and Hama ruled there
with wound gold over men and women.
So I have found it in my far journeys,
that he is dearest to land-dwellers
to whom God gives power over men,
holding it the while that he lives here.
Wandering so round many shores
we say our needs, we speak our thanks;
ever south or north we shall meet with one
wise in songs, unselfish in gifts,
who before his earls gives due measure
in noble fashion, till all fades and passes,
life and light together. He who wins true glory
has under heaven a high doom.”
 4

A Sutton Hoo gold belt buckle, inlaid with red garnets

DEOR’S LAMENT

Weland14 for a woman learned to know exile,
That haughty earl bowed unto hardship,
Had for companions sorrow and longing,
The winter’s cold sting, woe upon woe.
What time Nithhad laid sore on him.
Withering sinew wounds! Ill-starred man!
That was surmounted; so may this be.
This poem is interesting not only because of the
refrain, which is an unusual feature in OE poetry,
but especially because it refers to tragic stories
which were well-known in Anglo-Saxon England,
but which have not been preserved for us
in English poems. The personal tone of the last
stanza is also unusual in OE poetry.

On Beadohilde15 bore not so heavily

Her brother’s death as the dule in her own heart dule - sorrow
When she perceived, past shadow of doubt,
Her maidhood departed, and yet could nowise
Clearly divine how it might be.
That was surmounted; so may this be.

Of Hild’s16 fate we have heard from many.

Land-bereaved were the Geatish chieftains,
So that sorrow left them sleepless.
That was surmounted; so may this be.

Theodoric17 kept for thirty winters

In the burg of the Maerings; ‘twas known of many.
That was surmounted; so may this be.

We have learned of Eormanric’s18 We geascodon Eormenrices

Wolfish disposition; he held wide dominion wylfenne geþoht; ahte wide folc
In the realm of the Goths. That was a cruel king. Gotena rices; þæt wæs grim cyning.
Many a man sat bound in sorrows, Sæt secg monig sorgum gebunden,
Anticipating woe, often wishing wean on wenan, wyscte geneahhe
That his kingdom were overcome. þæt þæs cynerices ofercumen wære.
That was surmounted; so may this be. þæs ofereode, þisses swa mæg.
A man full of sorrow-care sits bereft of joy.
His spirit grows dark; he thinks in himself
That endless will be his lot of woe.
He may then remember that round the world
the wise Lord ever wends his ways;
He gives honour to many a man,
Abiding glory; but to some misery.
I will now say this of myself.
Erewhile I was Scop of the Heodenings,
Dear to my lord. Deor my name was.
A many winters I knew good service;
Gracious was my lord. But now Heorrenda,
By craft of his singing, succeeds to the landright
That Guardian of Men erst gave unto me.
That was surmounted; so may this be.

14
Weland - the famous smith of Teutonic legend, was captured by Nithhad, but he avenged himself and escaped.
15
Beadohilde - the daughter of Nithhad, was raped by Weland and bore a mighty son Widia.
16
Hild - refers to Maethild and her lover Geat; their story has been lost.
17
Theodoric - among the stories which gathered round the historical Theodoric (454-526), king of Ostrogoths,
was a story of his thirty years’ exile.
18
Eormanric - Ermanaric (Hermanric), ruler of the Ostrogoths, committed suicide in 375 when the Huns invaded
his empire; his rule was oppressive to his people. Eormanric is several times mentioned as a hero in the poem of
Widsith.
 5

LINKS to the text of BEOWULF (various translations):

www.alcyone.com/max/lit/beowulf/
www.lone-star.net/literature/beowulf/
There are also other translations; the one by Seamus Heaney, while perhaps not the most faithful, is peculiarly
Irish-sounding, and a great read.

BEOWULF as an EPIC
(compiled from various sources by Klaudyna Hildebrandt)

J.R.R. Tolkien was probably right in explaining the poem as a myth and the monsters as embodying
evil; however, it is best to consider the significance of the myth and the monsters within a larger consideration of
Beowulf as an epic. An epic is universal, taking in all life and representing it in such a way that the general truth
of the presentation is universally recognised. There are four criteria of this universality:
a) its scope embraces the universe: war and peace, men and gods, life and death;
b) its presentation is objective: its scenes, events and characters form an inter-connected reality, presented from a
consistent and impartial viewpoint.
c) it possesses internal unity, springing not necessarily from a unity of action, but unity of consciousness, an
ethos which arises from intuition of unity and continuity of life; in an oral, public poem this unity of
consciousness must come from the nature of the society which produced it;
d) it tells a story of some significant action.
If these are the qualities of an epic, then Beowulf is not only a heroic poem – a poem about a hero, not only a
myth, but an epic.
A) It is inclusive in that it comprehends life and death, peace and war, man and God. The poem shows
the life-cycle of a hero in Beowulf and of a people in the Danes and the Geats. It shows the human society at
peace in Heorot and at war in Sweden and other places. The hall Heorot is the home of all that is stable and
venerable in human life and society: order, custom, compliment, ceremony, feasting, poetry, laughter, and the
giving and receiving of treasure and vows. As for wars, apart from full tribal wars, which are honourable, we
have feuds between kindreds and within kindred. As for men and gods, the poem does not keep to the merely
human level: Grendel and his mother are monsters, ‘cruel spirits’, descended from the first murderer, Cain, and
are only partly human; the origins of the dragon are even more obscure. God is present at all crucial points of
action, especially the monster-fights. Human history also lends scale and scope to Beowulf: it takes place in the
historical world of the Baltic and North Seas over the two or three centuries at the end of the Age of Migrations;
and history is supplemented by legend.
B) The other criterion is objectivity. The poem is fair, even sympathetic, to monsters, but as they are
not men, their fall cannot be tragic. But every single one of the numerous human deaths in the poem is given its
full weight and significance. Death, irrespective of nationality, importance or merit, is always accorded due
space and honour, recorded with equally scrupulous fidelity and care. The poet, the impartial chronicler of these
tragedies, does not have the impersonality of the Homeric voice, who ‘left the stage to his personages’, as
Aristotle commented. The Beowulf-poet not only reports what he had heard or what ‘we have learned’, but also
frequently comments. But this commentary respects the objectivity of the epic synthesis. The human concern is
moral, emotional, even anxious; it is certainly very different from the impartiality of Homer, it is more like
Virgil’s. But the poet’s involvement does not disturb the balance of the story: he allows the action to carry the
significance of the poem. While remaining outside the poem, he deepens and widens its moral perspective and
development.
Much of the objectivity of the poem comes from the traditional presentation of life in the heroic world.
It has crystallised into generic scenes: voyage, welcome, feast, boast, arming, fight, reward. Identities are
preserved by rich sets of names, such as those attached to God, kings or swords. Values are constant: sunlight is
good, cold is ominous. Actions, names, and values are standardised in epic formulae, and so are relations: for
instance, death is represented as sleeping, or leaving life’s feast. But perhaps the most important stabilising
factor in preserving the epic synthesis is the consistent manner in which Nature is presented. The stage upon
which the human drama is enacted is large and simple. Men are hoeleth under heofenum, ‘heroes between the
heavens’; they are be twoem seonum, ‘between two seas’, on middanyeard, on ‘middle-earth’, swa hit
woeterbebugeth, ‘surrounded by water’. This sense of always knowing where we are is not only spatial but
temporal: the coming of day or night or the seasons is never omitted. Likewise we know where every man
comes from. A man is identified as someone’s son or someone’s kin. Each action in Beowulf has a full spatial
and temporal dimension. Not only the physical, but the metaphysical, ethical and moral universe of the poem is
also fixed and unalterable in its operations of cause and consequence, origin and end.
C) The third criterion, the unity of consciousness, springs from the second, the consistent objectivity of
presentation of the world. The ethos in Beowulf is a sense of solidarity with the universe and also of solidarity
with the audience. Even for Grendel a respect of a kind is felt. This acceptance of life in all its forms and all its
 6

laws must come from the tradition of the society. A public poet does not interpret life differently from his
listeners. But even if the poet voices the communal view, this is not a primitive view. The poet admires,
idealises, identifies with the epic synthesis and works within its conventions, but he is more reflexive, more
analytic. Where his voice is heard, the poet makes Beowulf more of an elegy than celebration of heroic life,
partly because he laments the passing away of his heroic ancestors, partly because he has a horror of war such as
might be felt in a settled society in an insecure age, partly perhaps because the poet is a Christian. The audience
of the 8th century Beowulf had heard sermons and looked back upon the Age of Migration as their heroic age. To
a literate consciousness deepened by Christianity, the heroic world of these heathen ancestors have seemed
doubly admirable and its limitations doubly tragic. The mythic unity of consciousness is supplemented by the
moral and thematic concerns of Beowulf’s literary redactor, the Beowulf-poet.
D) The fourth characteristic of an epic is the significance of the story. The main story of Beowulf is of
a hero who braves two life-or-death fights against monsters who had killed all previous opponents and dies in the
third encounter with a dragon, whom he also succeeds in killing. The fights are encounters with death in three
different shapes and take place in extreme and strange situations where the hero is out of his natural element.
The main subject of Beowulf is the human challenge to death, and the glorious and tragic potentialities of that
challenge. Much of the power of Beowulf comes from this elemental and basic level, and the mythic quality of
some episodes plays a considerable part in the total impression made by the poem.
The epic — as opposed to the merely heroic — potentialities of this story are activated by its relation to
the wider theme of human social order. The story of Beowulf is not of a hero’s fortunes against the three
monsters, but of a hero defending mankind against its enemies. The stress is more upon mutual obligation than
on individual glory. The hero was perhaps originally a semi-divine representation of humanity. But the hero
must also be a champion, mere heroism is arrogant and irresponsible. The brilliant Achilles is a ‘breaker of
cities’ rather than a ‘shepherd of the people’. The heroic ideal of individual courage is accompanied by
complementary ideal of responsibility towards kindred, the responsibility of the lord towards his people and their
mutual service. Beowulf is called monna mildust, ‘the mildest of men’, he is gentle, gracious and kind, eloquent
and courteous, modest and ceremonious; he is a very gentle bear. He is an ideal hero, but also an ideal thane and
lord. His death, though tragic, is also glorious.
To conclude, one could express the poem’s understanding of a deeper reality by saying that the life and
death of the hero recapitulates the life-cycle of the race: the heroic generation is born, flourishes and dies. To the
elemental power of the original tale (or myth) the teller has added a set of human and social themes, so that the
single-handed ‘adventure’ comes to express the struggle of the forces of life and death in human society and
human nature, and the monsters become malign embodiments of human evil.

ALLITERATION

Alliterative lines from Beowulf:

Com on wanre niht
scriðean sceadu-genga. Sceotend swæfon,
þa þaet horn-reced healdan scoldon,
ealle buton anum...
Đa com of more under mist hleoþum
Grendel gongan, Godes yrre bær...

Came on the dark night

gliding, the shadowy prowler.
that the antlered hall
all but one.
Then came from the moor
Grendel going
The warriors slept
were to hold,
under the misty cliffs
God’s anger he bore

Alliterations and distribution of stresses in the passage from Deor’s Lament:

We have learned of Eormanric’s We geascodon Eormenrices

Wolfish disposition; he held wide dominion wylfenne geþoht; ahte wide folc
In the realm of the Goths. That was a cruel king. Gotena rices; þæt wæs grim cyning.
Many a man sat bound in sorrows, Sæt secg monig sorgum gebunden,
Anticipating woe, often wishing wean on wenan, wyscte geneahhe
That his kingdom were overcome. þæt þæs cynerices ofercumen wære.
That was surmounted; so may this be. þæs ofereode, þisses swa mæg.
 7

This passage from The Battle of Maldon (993) describes the feelings of an old warrior whose band and whose
lord face certain defeat in a battle against overwhelming forces of the enemy:

Courage shall grow keener, clearer the will,

the heart fiercer, as our force faileth.
Here lies our lord, levelled in dust,
the man all marred; he shall mourn to the end
who thinks to wend off from this war-play now.
Though I am white with winters I will not away,
for I think to lodge me alongside my dear one,
lay me down by my lord’s right hand.

This old warrior expresses the ideal of warrior loyalty, the love of fame and honour embodied in the Germanic
and originally pagan forms of the warrior life.

The central speech, the pivot of the epic Beowulf is Hrothgar’s speech in the middle of great success:

Put away arrogance,

noble fighter! The noon of your strength
shall last for a while now, but in a little time
sickness of the sword will strip it from you:
either enfolding flame or a flood’s billow
or a knife stab or the stoop of a spear
or the ugliness of age; or your eyes’ brightness
lessens and grows dim. Death shall soon
have beaten you then, O brave warrior!

We see here a man on the verge between the brightness of youthful achievement and death. The first half of the
work is the record of glory, the second deals with sombre things like old age, weakness and betrayal.

You can find out more on the Sutton Hoo ship burial and treasure at the following sites:

http://www.archaeology.co.uk/ca/timeline/saxon/suttonhoo/ship/suttonhoo.htm
http://csis.pace.edu/grendel/projs4a/sutton.htm
http://www.britainexpress.com/History/sutton-hoo.htm
 8

ANGLO-SAXON RIDDLES AND CHARMS

Out of all the A-S riddles, of which nearly a hundred has been preserved, comparatively few owe much to the
Latin riddles on the same subject. Generally speaking, the OE poets developed the themes in their own way.
The riddles vary greatly: some are merely obscure or ingenious. The text of some is so imperfect that we cannot
know neither their meaning nor their worth. But several show a remarkable skill in workmanship. They show
many traces of old folk-lore and give an intimate picture of English life before the Norman conquest.

Father and mother gave me up dead in these days, nor was; life or stir yet within me. Then one, a
kinswoman very gracious, began to cover me with garments, held and guarded me, covered me as honourably
with protecting a robe as her own child, till beneath her bosom, as my destiny was, I became mighty in spirit
among those who were no kin of mine. The beautiful kinswoman afterwards fed me, till I grew up, could set out
more widely on journeys; she had the fewer of her own dear sons and daughters by what she did thus.

I am ____________________

I was an armed warrior. Now the proud young champion covers me with gold and silver, with curved and twisted
wires. Sometimes men kiss me; sometimes I summon pleasant companions to battle with song; sometimes the
steed bears me over the ground; sometimes the sea-horse carries me, bright with ornaments, over the surges;
sometimes a maiden ring-adorned fills my bosom; sometimes I must lie stripped, hard and headless, on the
tables; sometimes I hang, decked with trappings, fair on the wall, where men drink; sometimes warriors bear on
the steed the noble war ornament; then, gleaming with treasure, I must draw in breath from a man’s bosom;
sometimes with my utterance I invite proud men to wine; sometimes I must rescue with my voice booty from
foes, rout the plundering enemies. Ask what is my name.

I am ____________________

My nose is downward; I go deep and dig into the ground; I move as the grey foe of the wood guides me,
and my lord who goes stopping as guardian at my tail; he pushes me in the plain, bears and urges me, sows in my
track. I hasten forth, brought from the grove, strongly bound, carried on the wagon, I have many wounds; on one
side of me as I go there is green, and on the other my track is clear black. Driven through my back a cun ning
point hangs beneath: another on my head fixed and prone falls at the side, so that I tear with my teeth, if he who
is my lord serves me rightly from behind.

I am ____________________

The A-S charms preserve both superstition and folk-lore. Pagan and Christian elements are curiously
mingled in them, showing how the old beliefs and customs were gradually overlaid and transformed by the new
faith. The church won people away gradually, not abruptly, and the churchmen themselves were often
credulous.
The charms are difficult to date. They are preserved in manuscripts of the 10th c. or later, but those
passages which are untouched by Christian beliefs are probably among the oldest lines in the OE language.

For a swarm of bees

Take earth, cast it with thy right hand under thy right foot, and say:
I put it under foot; I have found it.
Lo, the earth can prevail against all creatures,
And against injury, and against forgetfulness,
And against the mighty tongue of man.

Cast gravel over the bees when they swarm, and say:
Alight, victorious women, descend to earth!
Never fly wild to the wood,
Be as mindful of my profit
As every man is of food and fatherland.
 9

The purpose of this charm is not so much to prevent bees from swarming as to keep them from going too far
when they swarm. The man referred to may be the sorcerer who is thought to have caused the swarm. The
flattery about the ‘mighty tongue’ may be intended to mollify him, just as the phrase ‘victorious women’ is
meant to flatter and pacify the bees.

Against wens

Wen, wen, little wen, wen - tumour on the skin, especially on the scalp
Here thou should not build, nor have any abode.
But thou must pass forth to the hill hard by,
Where thou has a brother in misery.
He shall lay a leaf at thy head.
Under the foot of the wolf, under the wing of the eagle,
Under the claw of the eagle, ever mayest thou fade.
Shrivel as coal on the hearth,
Shrink as muck in the wall, muck - filth, dirt
And waste away like water in a bucket.
Become as small as a grain of linseed, linseed - seeds of flax
And far smaller also than a hand-worm’s hip-bone,
And become even so small that thou become naught.

In this charm the exorcist begins in a tone of command (lines 1-3). Then he becomes more persuasive (lines 4-
5), and then again assumes stern voice (lines 6-7). The charm ends with a series of similes.

The great “purse lid” from Sutton Hoo, with elaborate gold decorations on the outside. The purse was probably
attached to a wide leather belt by the three hinges at the top and fastened by the sliding catch at the bottom. It
contained 37 gold coins, dated to around AD 625.
 10

CÆDMON’S HYMN

This is a literal translation of the Cædmon’s Hymn:

Now we must praise heaven-kingdom’s Guardian,
the Measurer’s might and his mind-plans,
the work of the Glory-father, when he of wonders of every one,
eternal Lord, the beginnings established.
He first created for men’s sons
heaven as a roof, holy Creator;
then middle-earth mankind’s Guardian,
eternal Lord, afterwards made -
for men earth Master almighty.
Several manuscripts of Venerable Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People contain the Old English
text of Cædmon’s Hymn in addition to Bede’s Latin version. The poem is given below in the West Saxon and
Northumbrian form.
In Old English spelling æ, as in Cædmon’s name, is a vowel symbol that has not survived; it represented the
vowel of Modern English cat; þ and ð both represented the sound th. The large space in the middle of the line
indicates the caesura. The alliterating sounds that connect the half-lines are in bold script.
a) West Saxon version
Nu sculon herigean heofonrices Weard
Meotodes meahte ond his modgeþanc
weorc Wuldor-Fæder swa he wundra gehwæs
ece Drihten or onstealde
He ærest sceop ielda° bearnum
heofon to hrofe halig Scyppend
ða middangeard mancynnes Weard
ece Drihten æfter teode
firum foldan Frea ælmihtig

° the later manuscript copies read eorþan, ‘earth’, for ælda (West Saxon ielda), ‘men’s’. This later version (‘for
the children of earth’) has been chosen in the MoE translation below.
b) Northumbrian version
Nu scylun hergan hefænricæs Uard
Metudoes moecti end his modgidanc
uerc uuldurfadur sue he uundra gihuæs
eci Dryctin or astelidoe
he ærist scop ælda barnum
heben til hrofe haleg scepen
the middungeard moncynnes Uard
eci Dryctin æfter tiadee
firum fold Frea allmectig

The story of Cædmon’s inspiration preserves what is the only biographical information, outside of what
is said in the poems themselves, about any OE poet. Cædmon was clearly an oral-formulaic poet, one who
created his work by combining and varying formulas - units of verse developed in a tradition transmitted by one
generation of singers to another. In this respect he resembles the singers of the Homeric poems and oral-
formulaic poets recorded in the 20th c., especially in the Balkan countries. Although Bede tells us that Cædmon
had never learnt the art of song, we may suspect that he concealed his skill from his fellow workmen and from
the monks of the monastery of Whitby in which he was a cowherd because he was ashamed of knowing ‘vain
and idle songs’, the kind Bede says Cædmon never composed. Cædmon’s inspiration and the true miracle, then,
was to apply the metre and language of such songs, presumably including pagan heroic verse, to Christian
themes.
The Hymn is a good short example of the way OE verse with its traditional poetic diction and
interwoven formulaic expressions is constructed. Eight of the poem’s eighteen half-lines contain epithets
describing various aspects of God: He is Weard (Guardian), Meotod (Measurer), Wuldor-Fæder (Glory-Father),
Drihten (Lord), Scyppend (Creator), and Frea (Master). God is heofonrices Weard or mancynnes Weard
(heaven’s or mankind’s Guardian), depending on the alliteration required. This formulaic style provides a
richness of texture and meaning difficult to convey in translation. As Bede himself said about his own Latin
paraphrase of the Hymn, no literal translation of poetry from one language to another is possible without
sacrifice of some poetic quality.
 11

CÆDMON’S INSPIRATION

From Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, Book IV, Chapter 24

Translated from Latin into Anglo-Saxon by Alfred the Great; Modern English translation by Benjamin Thorpe.

In this Abbess’s Minster19 there was a certain brother extraordinarily magnified and honoured with a
divine gift; for he was wont to make fitting songs which conduced to religion and piety; so whatever he learned
through clercs of the holy writings, that he after a little space, would usually adorn with the greatest sweetness and
feeling, and bring forth in the English tongue; and by his songs the minds of many men were often inflamed with
contempt for the world, and with desire of heavenly life. And moreover, many other after him, in the English
nation, sought to make pious songs; but yet none could do like him, for he had not been taught from men, nor
through men, to learn the poetic art 20; but he was divinely aided, and through God’s grace received the art of song.
And he therefore never might make aught of leasing 21 or of the idle poems, but just only which conduced to
religion, and which it became his pious tongue to sing. The man was placed in worldly life until the time that he
was of mature age, and has never learned any poem; and he therefore often in convivial society, when, for the
sake of mirth, it was resolved that they all in turn should sing to the harp, when he saw the harp approaching him,
then for shame he would rise from the assembly and go home to the house.
When he did so on a certain time, that he left the house of the convivial meeting, and was out to the stall
of the cattle, the care of which that night had been committed to him – when he there, at proper time, placed his
limbs on the bed and slept, then stood a certain man by him, in a dream, and hailed and greeted him, and named
him by his name, saying “Cædmon, sing me something”. Then he answered and said: “I cannot sing anything,
and therefore I went out from this convivial meeting, and retired hither, because I could not”. Again he who was
speaking with him said, “Yet thou must sing to me”. Said he, “What shall I sing?” Said he, “Sing me the origin
of things”. When he received this answer, then he began forthwith to sing, in praise of God the creator, the verses,
and the words which he had never heard, the order of which is this:22
Now we must praise the guardian of heaven-kingdom,
the Creator’s might and his mind’s thought,
glorious father of men, as of every wonder he,
Lord eternal, formed the beginning.
He first framed for the children of earth
the heaven as a roof; holy Creator;
the mid-earth the guardian of mankind,
the eternal Lord, afterwards produced;
the earth for men; Lord almighty!
Then he arose from sleep, and had fast in mind all that he sleeping had sung, and to those words
forthwith joined many words of song worthy of God in the same measure.
Then came he in the morning to the town-reeve, who was his superior, and said to him what gift he had
received; and he forthwith led him to the abbess, and told, and made that known to her. Then she bade all the
most learned men and the learners to assemble, and in their presence bade him tell the dream, and sing the poem;
that, by the judgment of them all, it might be determined why or whence it was come. Then it seemed to them all,
so as it was, that to him, from the Lord himself, a heavenly gift had been given. Then they expounded to him and
said some holy history, and words of godly lore; then bade him, if he could, to sing some of them, and turn them
into the melody of song. When he had undertaken the thing, then went he home to his house, and came again in
the morning, and sang and gave to them, adorned with the best poetry, what had been entrusted to him.
Then began the abbess to make much of and love the grace of God in the man; and she then exhorted
and instructed him to forsake worldly life and take to monkhood; and he that well approved. And she received
him in the minster with his goods, and associated him with the congregation of those servants of God, and caused
him to be taught the series of the Holy History and Gospel; and he, all that he could learn by hearing, meditated
with himself, and, as a clean animal, ruminating, turned into the sweetest verse; and his song and his verse were so
winsome to hear, that his teachers themselves wrote and learned from him.

19
The Abbess Hild, or Hilda, (died 680) came from the royal family of Northumbria. She was one of the most
important women in the history of early English Christianity. She was first abbess of Hartlepool near Durham,
then Tadcaster near York. In 656-658 she built an Abbey at Streaneshald, later called Whitby, in Yorkshire,
which is the ‘minster’ in which Caedmon’s career began.
20
By poetic art Bede means here OE bardic poetry, such as any scop would be expected to know.
21
leasing - lying
22
Benjamin Thorpe’s version is a more ‘contemporarised’ Modern English translation.
 12

CYNEWULF (mid-8th c.? - first quarter of the 9th c.?)

ELENE
(fragments)

Three hundred and thirty three years after the King of Glory was born in the likeness of man,
Constantine23, whom God strengthened with might and splendour, raised weapons against his
hateful foes, Huns and Goths and Franks; and spears gleamed on the Danube. In the battle-clash
the enemy exulted, and heart-care pressed on the king of the men of Rome. But night came:

Then in sleep there appeared to the Caesar

where he lay in slumber among his hosts
a dream vision to the battle-proud one.
He seemed to see someone shining
in man’s form, fair and bright of face,
an unknown warrior appearing to him
more beautiful than any he had seen under the skies
before or after. He sprang from sleep
clad in his board helmet. And the messenger,
herald bright with beauty, swiftly spoke to him
and named him by name - night glided away -
„Constantine, the King of Angels,
Wielder of destinies and Lord of Hosts,
makes a covenant with thee. Be not adread,
though the strange armies threaten thee with terror,
with the hard sword-blade. Look up to heaven,
to the Keeper of glory; thou shalt find help there,
a pledge of victory”. Prompt he was
at the holy one’s binding - he unlocked his heart,
he looked up as the herald bade,
trusty weaver of peace. He saw, bright-shining,
the Tree of glory over the cloud roof,
splendid with gold; gems gleamed there.
About the bright rood was written in letters
all resplendent: „By this sign
in the fierce war thou shalt conquer thy foes,
check the loathed enemy”. Then the light went away;
it rose upward, and the herald with it
to the company of the pure ones. The King was blither
and free from sorrow in his inward spirit,
the prince of men, through that fair sight.

In the battle-clash that came at dawn, with the thronging spears and the song of trumpets, Constantine crushed
the Huns. He then sought to know the meaning of his vision from men wise in the old writings. They told him
of the One God in Threeness, and of how the Son in hard pain hung on the Rood. They told him all they had
learned from Sylvester24. He, believing, received Baptism, and his new joy kept God’s law, unslow in His
service day and night. He bade his mother, Elene25, go find where the true Cross lay hidden.

[...]
At the end of the poem its author, Cynewulf, speaks in person:
23
Constantine the Great, Roman Emperor, A.D. 306-337. He was converted to Christianity, reputedly after
seeing a luminous cross in the sky with the words in hoc signo vinces („By this conquer”) before the battle at
Pons Mulvius near Rome in which he defeated his rival Maxentius. In consequence, in 312 he granted the
Christian Church official freedom and legal status. In 330 he transferred the capital of the Empire from Rome to
Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople.
24
Bishop of Rome 314-335; did not baptize Constantine; the rite was performed by Eusebius, bishop of
Nicomedia.
25
Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, converted to Christianity by her son. He was chosen emperor in
306 in Britain; the legend of Helena’s British origin has no authority. It is said that she discovered the True
Cross, having instituted a search for it in consequence of the emperor’s vision.
 13

Thus I, old and ready to leave my dying body,

wove my word-craft, wondrously fashioned it,
pondered sometimes, and sifted my thoughts fine
in the deep night-time. About the Rood
I knew not aright till Wisdom unveiled
through its glorious might a wider knowledge
to my heart’s thought. I was stained by my deeds,
fettered with sin tortured with pain within,
bitterly bound by my sorrows around,
ere the glorious King bestowed unstinted lavish, bountiful
lore, like a light, a gift fair and bright
as a heritage to my old age,
measured it to me, poured it out free
and bright on my mind, and again I would find
my body unbound, heart-secrets unwound,
unlocked my song-craft which with joy I used
willingly in the world. Not once but often
have I remembered the Tree of Glory
since I unveiled the wondrous truth
about that bright wood, as I found it in books
in the course of destiny, made known in writings
of that glorious beacon. Ever until then
was the man whelmed in care, a smouldering torch26
though in the mead-hall he received treasure,
dappled gold. Misery mourned,
a companion of need; he suffered cruel sorrow,
a pressing secret, where once his steed
measured the mile-paths, ran in his pride,
bright bound with gold. Joy has withered
and gladness, after years; youth has gone,
the old high spirit. The wild ox was once
the delight of a youth. Now the days of old
have hastened by at the times measured;
life-joy has passed, even as the waters glide
and the tides slip away. The wealth of a man
passes under the skies; the land’s fair things
vanish under the welkin, like to a wind welkin - sky
when before men’s eyes it sweeps loudly upward,
roams through the clouds raging on its way,
and afterwards swiftly sinks to silence,
pressed hard down into the dungeon,
crushed with woes.

And at the end of the tale comes the great Judgment when those made pure by fire shall go into beauty.

26
The eight underlined words in the following sentences form the name of the author: C-y-n-e-w-u-l-f. The old
English words of the text are cen (torch), yr (bow), ned (need), eoh (horse), wymn (joy), ur (bull), lagu (water),
feoh (wealth).
 14

THE DREAM OF THE ROOD

The Dream of the Rood is the most beautiful of old English religious poems. The radiant vision,
the simple devout wonder of the dreamer, the pathos of the crucifixion as told by the Cross are
unmarred by the lifeless set phrases so common in old English religious verse. The authorship of
the poem has been much discussed. Before the poem was discovered in the Vercelli Book, some
lines were found and deciphered on an old stone cross at Ruthwell near Dumfries in Scotland.
These lines, which correspond to certain portions of the poem, were ascribed to Cædmon, but the
arguments which supported this theory have been discredited. A good case has been made out for
regarding Cynewulf as the author, though there is no certainty in the matter. In style and mood
The Dream of the Rood offers many resemblances to the known poems of Cynewulf, and Elene
shows his interests in the cross as a subject for poetry.

THE DREAM OF THE ROOD27

Lo, I will tell the best of dreams

that came to me dreaming in the midst of night
when living men had sought their rest.
It seemed that I saw that noblest of trees
aloft lifted wound with light,
brightest of wood; all that beacon
was flooded with gold, and gems stood
fair on the earth beneath; there were five more
up on the crossbeams. The Lord’s angels all gazed upon it
fair throughout creation - that was no felon’s gallows -
but there beheld it holy spirits
men upon earth, and all this noble creation.
Wondrous was the victory-tree, and I stained with sins,
wounded with wrong. I saw the tree of glory
clad with honour, shining joyful,
girded with gold; and noble gems
had worthily clasped their Maker’s tree.
Yet through that gold I could see afar
the struggle of poor ones, when it first began
to sweat on the right side. I was all troubled with sorrows,
fearful was I for the fair sight; I saw that eager beacon
change its raiment and colour; now it was bedewed, wet,
stained with blood poured out; now wound with treasure.
Yet I, lying there a long while,
gazed heart-repentant on the Healer’s tree,
until I heard that it spoke aloud;
it uttered words, that best of wood:

„It was long ago, I yet remember,

that I was hewn down at the wood’s end
torn from my place. They took me there, strong foes,
they set me up as a gazing-stock, bade me lift on high their felons.
Men bore me on their shoulders, till on hill they set me,
many foes fastened me there. Then I saw mankind’s Lord
swiftly come with courage, for He willed to mount on me.
Then dared I not, against the Lord’s word,
bend or break, when I saw
the earth trembling, I might there
have felled all my foes, but I stood fast.

27
Rood: the cross of Christ (old use); also rood-tree, a crucifix, especially one placed on the rood-screen between
the nave and choir in a church.
 15

*****************************************

Then He stripped Himself, the young Hero, that was God Almighty,28
strong and firm-hearted He mounted the mean gibbet;
noble-hearted in the sight of many He would set free mankind,
I shook when the Prince clasped me, but I durst not bow to earth,
fall to the ground, but must needs stand fast.
A rood I was raised aloft, I lifted the mighty King.
Lord of Heaven, I durst not bend.
They drove me through with dark nails, on me the marks are plain,
wide wounds of hate. I durst not harm any of them.
They mocked us both together. I was all wet with blood
poured from the Man’s side when He had sent forth His soul.

*****************************************

There on the hill I underwent

many bitter things. I saw the God of Hosts
sorely stretched out. Darkness there
had wrapped in clouds the Ruler’s Body,
its fair radiance. A shadow went forth,
was under clouds. All creation wept,
bewailed the King’s death, Christ on the rood.
But there came from afar eager nobles
to Him all alone; I beheld all that.
Sore was I troubled with sorrows, but I bent down to the hands of the men
humbly, with hearty will. There they took Almighty God,
lifted Him down from the heavy pain. They left me standing
wet with blood; I was all wounded with shafts. shafts - spears
They laid him down, limb-weary; they stood at His body’s head;
they gazed on Him, Heaven’s Lord, and He rested there awhile,
tired from the great strife. They began to make his grave
in the sight of His foes. They carved it from the bright stone,
they laid in it the Lord of Hosts. They began to Sing a sorrow-song
alone in the evening tide. Then they went away,
weary away from the great crowd. With a few He rested there.

We were there grieving a good while;

we stood in our place. A cry went up
from the heroes there. The body grew cold.
the fair soul-house. Then someone began
to fell us to earth; terrible was that wyrd!
They dug for us a deep hole; yet there the Lord’s thanes,
His friends, found me
and set me then in gold and silver.
Now mayest thou hear, my loved hero,
how I have born the bale of evils, bale-grief
of sore sorrows: Now is the time come
that men over earth, and all this noble creation,
shall give me honour far and wide.
They pray by this bright sign; on me God’s Son
suffered once; for that I am shining now,
lifted high under heaven; and I can heal
any of those who bear me reverence.
Once was I the greatest of torments,
most hateful to men, until I made wide
they way of life to speech-bearers.
Lo, He has honoured me, the Prince of glory,
over all trees of the wood, He the Keeper of Heaven,
28
Lines between asterisks correspond to the Ruthwell inscription.
 16

even as Almighty God, for mankind’s sake

honoured His Mother, Mary herself,
the most worthy of all women.
Now I bid thee, my beloved one,
tell of this sight to other men;
unveil in words that this wood is glorious
since God Almighty suffered on it
for the many sins of all mankind,
and for Adam’s deed done long ago.
There He tasted death, yet the Lord arose
with great might, so to help men.
Then He mounted to Heaven; thither shall He come
into this middle-earth to seek mankind middle-earth: this world
on Doomsday, the Lord Himself,
Almighty God, and His angels with Him.
Then will He give, He who wields doom forever,
judgment to each one, as he earned it before
in the swift-passing days of life.
Nor will anyone be unafraid
of the dread words that the Wielder will say.
Then shall He ask before those many men
which of them, for the Lord’s name, willed to taste
of bitter death, as He did on the Cross-beam.
But they shall then fear, and think a little
what they could say to Christ in answer,
Not need anyone be then afraid
who bears in his breast the best of beacons;
but through the rood each shall seek a kingdom,
every soul come from earth-ways
who with the Wielder will to dwell”.

I prayed then to the beam, blithe in mood,

with hearty will, when I was alone
and few near me. Then was my heart’s thought
urged on its far way, oft it had borne
times of weary longing. I have hope of life now,
that I shall go seek the victory tree;
more often now than all other men
I honour it well. My will is bent to it,
strong in my heart, and my hope of safety
goes straight to the cross. I have now but few
friends on earth but they are gone hence
from the world’s joys, seeking the King of glory.
They live now in Heaven with the High Father;
they dwell in light, and I lingering
long for that day when the Lord’s rood
which here on earth I once gazed upon
will come to fetch me from this fleeting life,
and bring me there where is great bliss,
joy in heaven, where the Lord’s fold
sits feasting in bliss unending,
and set me there where I may forever
dwell in glory, safe with the holy ones,
and taste their blessedness. May the Lord be my friend
who once suffered here on earth
on the gallows tree for men’s sins.
He set us free and gave us life,
a heavenly home. Hope was made new
with blossoms and with bliss where He bore burning pain.
The Son was victory-fast in His far-going, triumphant in his journey
 17

mighty and enriched when He came with many,

a spirit-army, into God’s kingdom,
The Almighty Lone-Wielder was bliss to the angels
and all holy ones who ere in heaven
dwelt in glory when their Ruler came,
Almighty God, where His homeland was.

BEDE’S DEATH

From Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum

Translated from Latin into Anglo-Saxon by Alfred the Great; Modern English translation by Margaret Williams.

And one of those who were with him said: “Dear Master, there is still one chapter missing. Does it
seem to you too difficult to be asked to finish it?” But he said: “It is easy; take your pen, make ready and write
swiftly”. And he did so. And about the ninth hour he said to me: “Run quickly and call the priests of our
monastery to me once more, that I may give them little presents, such as God has given to me. Rich people in
the world are careful to give gold and silver and precious things; and with much charity and joy will I give to my
brothers what God has given”. And speaking to each one he begged them to say Mass for him and to pray
earnestly; and they willingly promised. And all mourned and wept, because he said that they should see his face
no more in this world. They rejoiced when he said: “It is time that I go to Him who sent me, who made me, who
formed me from nothing. I have lived a long time; it is well; my loving Judge foresaw my life; the time of my
dissolution is at hand; I long to be dissolved and to be with Christ”. These and many other things he said with
joy. The day wore on till evening, and the same boy said “Dear Master, there is yet one sentence unwritten”, and
he said “Write quickly”. And after a moment the boy said: “Now the sentence is written”. And he said “Good.
In truth I can say, it is finished. Take my head in thy hands, for I would like much to sit facing the holy place
where I was accustomed to pray, that, thus sitting, I may call upon my Father”. And so upon the pavement of his
cell, singing “Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto”, he breathed the last breath from his body and thus went
away to the Kingdom of Heaven.

Venerable Bede was born in 673 and died in 735 in the monastery of Jarrow. He was buried there, but
his bones were taken to Durham during the first half of the 11th c.

KING ALFRED THE GREAT (849-899)

PREFACE TO PASTORAL CARE OF POPE GREGORY THE GREAT

This Book Goes to Worcester29

Alfred the King greets Waerfeth the Bishop with these words, lovingly and in friendly wise; and he
wants thee to know how it has often come into my mind how many wise men there were formerly throughout the
English people, both in the priestly and in the worldly state; and what happy times there were among the English
people; and how the kings who had the power over the people in those days obeyed God and His messengers;
and how they held peace and morality and power within their borders and also widened their land outward; and
how they had God-speed both in war and in wisdom; and also those in priestly orders, how zealous they were for
lore and for learning, and for all the good service that they should do for God; and how men without our borders
sought wisdom and lore hither in our land; and how now we must go out beyond if we would have them. So
clean fallen away was learning among the English people that there were very few this side of the Humber who
could understand their Mass-Book in English or even change a letter from Latin into English; and I think that
there were not many beyond the Humber. There were so few that I cannot think of a single one south of the
Thames when I took the kingdom. God be thanked that we have now any teachers at all. And for this I beg thee
that thou do as I believe thou wilt; that thou free thyself from all the worldly things as often as thou canst; that
thou mayest make use of that wisdom which God gave thee, there where thou canst make use of it.
Think well what shame has come to us before the world, that we neither love wisdom ourselves nor let
other people love it; the name alone we loved, that we were Christians, and very few of the virtues.
When I remember all this, then I remember also how I saw, before all was ravaged and burned, how the
churches stood around all England, filled with treasures and books and a great company of God’s servants; and
little they felt the profit of books, for they could not understand them because they were not written in their own
29
The name of the diocese and that of the bishop of course varied in the copies sent to different dioceses; all
dioceses were supposed to have a copy of Pastoral Care.
 18

tongue. As if they said: “Our elders, who held these places before us, they loved wisdom, and through it they got
wealth and left it to us. Here we may see their traces, but we cannot follow after them, and for that we have lost
both the wealth and the wisdom, for we would not bend to their footsteps with our hearts”.
When I remembered all this, then wondered I very much at the wise men who were once throughout
England and who had learned all their books fully, that they had turned no part of them into their own tongue.
But soon I answered myself and said: “They did not think that ever men would be so reckless afterwards and that
lore would be so fallen away; therefore by their own desire they did not do it, and they willed that there should
be more wisdom in the land where more tongues were known”.
Then I remembered how the Law was first written in the Hebrew tongue, and afterwards how the
Greeks learned it and turned it all into their own tongue, and also other books. And also the Latin people, when
they had learned it, they changed it all thorough wise translators into their own tongue. And also other Christian
peoples changed some part of it into their own tongue. For this it seems well to me, if it seems well to thee, that
we may also change into the tongue that we all know the books that are most needful to be known by all men,
and we will bring it about, as we very well may with God’s help, if we have the stillness, that all the youth of
free men of England, those that have the opportunity to give themselves to it, should be bound to learning, while
they can be bound to no other usefulness, until the time when they all know how to read English writing; let
those further learn the Latin tongue who desire to learn it, and to rise to a higher state.
And when I remembered how before this, the knowledge of the Latin tongue had fallen off
throughout England, and yet men could read English writing, then I began, among the other various and
manifold troubles of this kingdom , to change into English the book that is called Pastoralis in Latin, and in
English Shepherd’s Book, sometimes word for word, sometimes sense for sense, as I had learned it from
Phlegmund my Archbishop and from Asser my Bishop and from Grimbold my mass-priest and from John my
mass-priest. When I had learned it I changed it into English, as best I understood and most carefully might
render it; and to each bishopric in my kingdom will I send one, and in each is an aestel 30 worth fifty mancessa31.
And I beg in God’s name that no one may steal the aestel from the book, nor the book from the minster; it is
unknown how long there will be learned bishops as there are now nearly everywhere, thanks be to God. For this
I wish that the book may always be in its place, unless the Bishop has it with him, or unless it has been loaned to
someone or someone is writing it.

www.mirror.org/ken.roberts/alfred.jewel.html

30
An aestel may have been some kind of an ornamental book-mark, a sort of ex-libris, mounted presumably on a
strip of leather attached to the book’s cover; possibly the Alfred Jewel may give an idea what it was like.
31
A mancus is a money-piece worth one eight of a pound.
 19

AELFRIC (955?-1025?)
From A COLLOQUY ON THE OCCUPATIONS
1
Pupil: We children pray thee, O teacher, that thou teach us to speak aright, for we are untutored and speak
corruptly.
Master: What would ye talk about?
Pupil: What care we what we talk about, provided it be right and fitting, not idle or wicked?
Master: Would ye be chastised in your learning?
Pupil: We had liefer32 be chastised for the sake of learning than not to know; but we know thee to be kind,
loath to inflict a flogging unless thou are forced to do so by our stupidity.
Master: I ask thee […] what occupation hast thou?
Pupil: I am a confessed monk, and I sing every day seven times with my brothers, and I am busied with
reading and singing; but nevertheless I should like to learn to speak in Latin.
Master: What do these thy companions know?
Pupil: Some are farmers, some shepherds, some cowherds, some indeed are hunters, some fishers, some
fowlers, some merchants, some cobblers, salt-workers, bakers.

2
Master: What sayest thou, farmer, how goest thou about thy work?
Farmer: Alas, dear master, I am sorely in need; I go out at dawn, forcing my oxen to the field, and I yoke them
to the plough; there is no winter so severe that I dare lounge about my home for fear of my lord 33, but
with yoked oxen and affixed ploughshare and coulter with the plough every day I must cultivate a full
acre or more.
Master: Hast thou any companions?
Farmer: I have a boy who urges on the oxen with his goad, who is now hoarse with cold and bawling.
Master: What more dost thou in a day?
Farmer: Well, I certainly do more, I must fill the bin of the oxen with hay, and water them, and carry out their
dung.
Master: Hey! Hey! That is a lot of labour.
Farmer: Yes, master, it is a great labour, for I am not free.

3
Master: Well, cowherd, what kind of work dost thou do?
Cowherd: Alas, my lord, I labour very hard: when the farmer unhitches the oxen, I lead them to pasture, and all
night I stand watching over them against thieves, and then in the early morning I give them back to the
farmer well filled and watered.
Master: Is this one of thy companions?
Cowherd: Yea, he is.

7
Master: Well, merchant, what sayest thou?
Merchant: I say that I am necessary to the king, and to the nobles and the wealthy, and to all people.
Master: And why?
Merchant: I get in my ship with my cargoes, and I row over the watery wastes and I sell my goods and buy
valuable goods in return, which are unknown in this land, and I bring them hither to you with great risk
over the sea, and sometimes I suffer shipwreck with the loss of all my goods, myself barely escaping
alive.
Master: What sort of things dost thou bring us?
Merchant: Robes of pall34 and silk, precious jewels, and gold; strange booty, spices, wine and oil, ivory and
brass, bronze and tin, sulphur and glass, and many other such things.
Master: Wilt thou sell thy goods here for the same price as thou didst buy them there?
Merchant: I will not. What profit would there be for me from my labours? But I will sell them here at a greater
price than for which I bought them there, that I may get some advantage from it, whence I can feed
myself and my wife and my son.

32
rather
33
The farmer is not a freeman: he is still the churl bound to the land of the earl (his lord). In Anglo-Saxon times
after years of long, hard service a churl could amass enough riches to enable him to buy his way out of bondage
and become a freeman.
34
Pall – expensive linen fabric.
 20

8
Master: What sayest thou, wise man35? Which trade, as it seems to thee, is the more important among all these
people? Which, as it seems to thee, holds sovereignty among all the trade of the world?
Councilor: Tilling of the earth, because the farmer feeds us all.
Smith: Whence does the farmer get his plowshare or his coulter, who does not even have a goad except from my
trade? Whence does the fisher get his fishhook, or the cobbler his awl, or the tailor his needle? Is it not
from my works?
Councilor: Truly thou speakest rightly: but we had all liefer live with the farmer than with thee; because the
farmer gives us bread and drink; thou – what dost thou give us in thy smithy except iron sparks and the
resounding of beating sledges and blowing bellows?
Carpenter: Which one of you has no need of my trade? I make thy house and many a vessel and ships for all of
you.
Smith: O carpenter, why dost thou speak so, when not even one hole couldst thou make in thy business without
the fruits of my labour?

10
Master: Thou, boy, what didst thou today?
Pupil: I did many things. In the night, when I heard the bell, I arose from my bed and went to church and sang
matins36 with the brothers; after that we sang about all the saints and the daily lauds; after that we sang
prime-service and seven psalms with the litany and early morning mass; after that we sang midday mass
and ate and drank and slept, and again we arose and sang nones; and now we are here before thee ready
to hear what thou hast to tell us.
Master: When will you sing evensong or compline?
Pupil: When it is time.
Master: Wert thou scourged today?
Pupil: I was not, for I behaved circumspectly.
Master: And how about thy companions?
Pupil: Why dost thou ask me about them? I dare not disclose to thee our secrets. Each one knows whether he
was scourged or not.
Master: What eatest thou by day?
Pupil: I still enjoy meat, because I am a child – leading my life under the rod.
Master: What more dost thou eat?
Pupil: Roots and eggs, fish and cheese, butter and beans, and all clean things I eat with much gratitude.
Master: Thou muse be very eager to grow, when thou eatest all things that are put before thee.
Pupil: I am not so big a glutton that I can eat all kinds of food at one meal.
Master: How then?
Pupil: I enjoy sometimes this dish and sometimes that dish in moderation, as befits a monk, not with greed, for I
am not a glutton.
Master: And what dost thou drink?
Pupil: Ale, if I have any; or water, if I have no ale.
Master: Dost thou drink wine?
Pupil: I am not so well-to-do that I can buy wine for myself; and wine is not a drink for children or foolish
people, but for the old and wise.
Master: Where dost thou sleep?
Pupil: In the dormitory with the brothers.
Master: Who wakens thee for matins?
Pupil: Sometimes I hear the sound of the bell and arise; sometimes my master wakens me sternly with the rod.
Master: O all ye good children and delightful pupils, your master admonishes you that you obey the laws of God,
and keep yourselves excellent wherever you may be. Go with devotion when you hear the church-bell,
and go into the church and bow yourselves humbly before the holy altar, and stand with devotion and
sing whole-heartedly and pray for your sins, and depart without foolishness to the cloister or to study.

35
Apparently the Councilor is a member of the Witenagemot, assembly of wise men, the most influential earls
and elders of the tribe forming the ruler’s council.
36
Matins – the first service of the day; lauds – the seven psalms of praise sung after matins; nones – the office at
the ninth hour (3 p.m.); - compline – the last service of the day, held after supper.
 21

SERMO LUPI AD ANGLOS

This is one of the most important and powerful sermons of the Anglo-Saxon world. The Sermon of the Wolf to
the English was composed by Wulfstan II, Archbishop of York and Bishop of Worcester, in approximately AD
1014, under the pseudonym Lupus.

The sermon of the Wolf to the English, when the Danes were greatly persecuting them, which was in the year
1014 after the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Beloved men, know that which is true: this world is in haste and it nears the end. And therefore things in this
world go ever the longer the worse, and so it must needs be that things quickly worsen, on account of people’s
sinning from day to day, before the coming of Antichrist. And indeed it will then be awful and grim widely
throughout the world. Understand also well that the Devil has now led this nation astray for very many years,
and that little loyalty has remained among men, though they spoke well. And too many crimes reigned in the
land, and there were never many of men who deliberated about the remedy as eagerly as one should, but daily
they piled one evil upon another, and committed injustices and many violations of law all too widely throughout
this entire land.

And we have also therefore endured many injuries and insults, and if we shall experience any remedy then we
must deserve better of God than we have previously done. For with great deserts we have earned the misery that
is upon us, and with truly great deserts we must obtain the remedy from God, if henceforth things are to improve.
Lo, we know full well that a great breach of law shall necessitate a great remedy, and a great fire shall
necessitate much water, if that fire is to be quenched. And it is also a great necessity for each of men that he
henceforth eagerly heed the law of God better than he has done, and justly pay God’s dues. In heathen lands one
does not dare withhold little nor much of that which is appointed to the worship of false gods; and we withhold
everywhere God’s dues all too often. And in heathen lands one dares not curtail, within or without the temple,
anything brought to the false gods and entrusted as an offering. And we have entirely stripped God’s houses of
everything fitting, within and without, and God’s servants are everywhere deprived of honor and protection. And
some men say that no man dare abuse the servants of false gods in any way among heathen people, just as is now
done widely to the servants of God, where Christians ought to observe the law of God and protect the servants of
God.

But what I say is true: there is need for that remedy because God’s dues have diminished too long in this land in
every district, and laws of the people have deteriorated entirely too greatly, since Edgar died. And sanctuaries are
too widely violated, and God’s houses are entirely stripped of all dues and are stripped within of everything
fitting. And widows are widely forced to marry in unjust ways and too many are impoverished and fully
humiliated; and poor men are sorely betrayed and cruelly defrauded, and sold widely out of this land into the
power of foreigners, though innocent; and infants are enslaved by means of cruel injustices, on account of petty
theft everywhere in this nation. And the rights of freemen are taken away and the rights of slaves are restricted
and charitable obligations are curtailed. Free men may not keep their independence, nor go where they wish, nor
deal with their property just as they desire; nor may slaves have that property which, on their own time, they
have obtained by means of difficult labor, or that which good men, in Gods favor, have granted them, and given
to them in charity for the love of God. But every man decreases or withholds every charitable obligation that
should by rights be paid eagerly in Gods favor, for injustice is too widely common among men and lawlessness
is too widely dear to them. And in short, the laws of God are hated and his teaching despised; therefore we all
are frequently disgraced through God’s anger, let him know it who is able. And that loss will become universal,
although one may not think so, to all these people, unless God protects us.

Therefore it is clear and well seen in all of us that we have previously more often transgressed than we have
amended, and therefore much is greatly assailing this nation. Nothing has prospered now for a long time either at
home or abroad, but there has been military devastation and hunger, burning and bloodshed in nearly every
district time and again. And stealing and slaying, plague and pestilence, murrain and disease, malice and hate,
and the robbery by robbers have injured us very terribly. And excessive taxes have afflicted us, and storms have
very often caused failure of crops; therefore in this land there have been, as it may appear, many years now of
injustices and unstable loyalties everywhere among men. Now very often a kinsman does not spare his kinsman
any more than the foreigner, nor the father his children, nor sometimes the child his own father, nor one brother
the other. Neither has any of us ordered his life just as he should, neither the ecclesiastic according to the rule nor
the layman according to the law. But we have transformed desire into laws for us entirely too often, and have
 22

kept neither precepts nor laws of God or men just as we should. Neither has anyone had loyal intentions with
respect to others as justly as he should, but almost everyone has deceived and injured another by words and
deeds; and indeed almost everyone unjustly stabs the other from behind with shameful assaults and with
wrongful accusations – let him do more, if he may.

For there are in this nation great disloyalties for matters of the Church and the state, and also there are in the land
many who betray their lords in various ways. And the greatest of all betrayals of a lord in the world is that a man
betrays the soul of his lord. And it is the greatest of all betrayals of a lord in the world, that a man betray his
lord’s soul. And a very great betrayal of a lord it is also in the world, that a man betray his lord to death, or drive
him living from the land, and both have come to pass in this land: Edward was betrayed, and then killed, and
after that burned; and Æthelred was driven out of his land. And too many sponsors and godchildren have been
killed widely throughout this nation, in addition to entirely too many other innocent people who have been
destroyed entirely too widely. And entirely too many holy religious foundations have deteriorated because some
men have previously been placed in them who ought not to have been, if one wished to show respect to God’s
sanctuary.

And too many Christian men have been sold out of this land, now for a long time, and all this is entirely hateful
to God, let him believe it who will. Also we know well where this crime has occurred, and it is shameful to
speak of that which has happened too widely. And it is terrible to know what too many do often, those who for a
while carry out a miserable deed, who contribute together and buy a woman as a joint purchase between them
and practice foul sin with that one woman, one after another, and each after the other like dogs that care not
about filth, and then for a price they sell a creature of God – His own purchase that He bought at a great cost –
into the power of enemies. Also we know well where the crime has occurred such that the father has sold his son
for a price, and the son his mother, and one brother has sold the other into the power of foreigners, and out of
this nation. All of those are great and terrible deeds, let him understand it who will. And yet what is injuring this
nation is still greater and manifold: many are forsworn and greatly perjured and more vows are broken time and
again, and it is clear to this people that God’s anger violently oppresses us, let him know it who can.

And lo! How may greater shame befall men through the anger of God than often does us for our own sins?
Although it happens that a slave escape from a lord and, leaving Christendom becomes a Viking, and after that it
happens again that a hostile encounter takes place between thane and slave, if the slave kills the thane, he lies
without wergild paid to any of his kinsmen; but if the thane kills the slave that he had previously owned, he must
pay the price of a thane. Full shameful laws and disgraceful tributes are common among us, through God’s
anger, let him understand it who is able. And many misfortunes befall this nation time and again. Things have
not prospered now for a long time neither at home nor abroad, but there has been destruction and hate in every
district time and again, and the English have been entirely defeated for a long time now, and very truly
disheartened through the anger of God. And pirates are so strong through the consent of God, that often in battle
one drives away ten, and two often drive away twenty, sometimes fewer and sometimes more, entirely on
account of our sins. And often ten or twelve, each after the other, insult the thane’s woman disgracefully, and
sometimes his daughter or close kinswomen, while he looks on, he that considered himself brave and strong and
good enough before that happened. And often a slave binds very fast the thane who previously was his lord and
makes him into a slave through God’s anger. Alas the misery and alas the public shame that the English now
have, entirely through God’s anger. Often two sailors, or three for a while, drive the droves of Christian men
from sea to sea – out through this nation, huddled together, as a public shame for us all, if we could seriously and
properly know any shame. But all the insult that we often suffer, we repay by honoring those who insult us. We
pay them continually and they humiliate us daily; they ravage and they burn, plunder and rob and carry to the
ship; and lo! what else is there in all these happenings except Gods anger clear and evident over this nation?

It is no wonder that there is mishap among us: because we know full well that now for many years men have too
often not cared what they did by word or deed; but this nation, as it may appear, has become very corrupt
through manifold sins and through many misdeeds: through murder and through evil deeds, through avarice and
through greed, through stealing and through robbery, through man-selling and through heathen vices, through
betrayals and through frauds, through breaches of law and through deceit, through attacks on kinsmen and
through manslaughter, through injury of men in holy orders and through adultery, through incest and through
various fornications. And also, far and wide, as we said before, more than should be are lost and perjured
through the breaking of oaths and through violations of pledges, and through various lies; and non-observances
of church feasts and fasts widely occur time and again. And also there are here in the land Gods adversaries,
degenerate apostates, and hostile persecutors of the Church and entirely too many grim tyrants, and widespread
despisers of divine laws and Christian virtues, and foolish deriders everywhere in the nation, most often of those
 23

things that the messengers of God command, and especially those things that always belong to Gods law by
right. And therefore things have now come far and wide to that full evil way that men are more ashamed now of
good deeds than of misdeeds; because too often good deeds are abused with derision and the Godfearing are
blamed entirely too much, and especially are men reproached and all too often greeted with contempt who love
right and have fear of God to any extent. And because men do that, entirely abusing all that they should praise
and hating too much all that they ought to love, therefore they bring entirely too many to evil intentions and to
misdeeds, so that they are never ashamed though they sin greatly and commit wrongs even against God himself.
But on account of idle attacks they are ashamed to repent for their misdeeds, just as the books teach, like those
foolish men who on account of their pride will not protect themselves from injury before they might no longer do
so, although they all wish for it.

Here in the country, as it may appear, too many are sorely wounded by the stains of sin. Here there are, as we
said before, manslayers and murderers of their kinsmen, and murderers of priests and persecutors of monasteries,
and traitors and notorious apostates, and here there are perjurers and murderers, and here there are injurers of
men in holy orders and adulterers, and people greatly corrupted through incest and through various fornications,
and here there are harlots and infanticides and many foul adulterous fornicators, and here there are witches and
sorceresses, and here there are robbers and plunderers and pilferers and thieves, and injurers of the people and
pledge-breakers and treaty-breakers, and, in short, a countless number of all crimes and misdeeds. And we are
not at all ashamed of it, but we are greatly ashamed to begin the remedy just as the books teach, and that is
evident in this wretched and corrupt nation. Alas, many a great kinsman can easily call to mind much in addition
which one man could not hastily investigate, how wretchedly things have fared now all the time now widely
throughout this nation. And indeed let each one examine himself well, and not delay this all too long. But lo, in
the name of God, let us do as is needful for us, protect ourselves as earnestly as we may, lest we all perish
together.

There was a historian in the time of the Britons, called Gildas, who wrote about their misdeeds, how with their
sins they infuriated God so excessively that He finally allowed the English army to conquer their land, and to
destroy the host of the Britons entirely. And that came about, just as he said, through breach of rule by the clergy
and through breach of laws by laymen, through robbery by the strong and through coveting of ill-gotten gains,
violations of law by the people and through unjust judgments, through the sloth of the bishops and folly, and
through the wicked cowardice of messengers of God, who swallowed the truths entirely too often and they
mumbled through their jaws where they should have cried out; also through foul pride of the people and through
gluttony and manifold sins they destroyed their land and they themselves perished. But let us do as is necessary
for us, take warning from such; and it is true what I say, we know of worse deeds among the English than we
have heard of anywhere among the Britons; and therefore there is a great need for us to take thought for
ourselves, and to intercede eagerly with God himself. And let us do as is necessary for us, turn towards the right
and to some extent abandon wrong-doing, and eagerly atone for what we previously transgressed; and let us love
God and follow God’s laws, and carry out well that which we promised when we received baptism, or those who
were our sponsors at baptism; and let us order words and deeds justly, and cleanse our thoughts with zeal, and
keep oaths and pledges carefully, and have some loyalty between us without evil practice. And let us often
reflect upon the great Judgment to which we all shall go, and let us save ourselves from the welling fire of hell
torment, and gain for ourselves the glories and joys that God has prepared for those who work his will in the
world. God help us. Amen.
 24

CHRONOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF THE OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE

The presence or absence of pagan elements in a particular Anglo-Saxon poem, or the presence of Christian
elements in it, is one of the criteria of the chronological classification of Old English literature. The earlier
Anglo-Saxon poems, composed and transmitted as oral poetry, would be essentially pagan in spirit and would
only have few Christian additions. The later OE poems would be thoroughly Christian in character, with some
traces of the pagan spirit. So, if pagan and Christian elements are applied as a criterion of division, texts of the
OE period may be grouped in the following way:
 The oldest A-S poetry, pagan in spirit and ideas, with a few, rather mechanical, Christian additions:
Heroic epic: Beowulf, fragments of The Battle of Finansburgh;
Elegiac poetry (The Exeter Book): The Wanderer, The Seafarer, Deor’s Lament
Charms and Riddles
 Christian poetry that drew inspiration from the Bible or lives of saints and was concerned with heroic deeds
performed by great individuals (e.g. Christ, Moses)
Biblical paraphrases ascribed to Cædmon (2nd half of the 7th c) or his followers: Genesis,
Exodus, Daniel, Christ and Satan (The Junius Manuscript)
Narrative and lyrical poems drawing on the Bible, the Apocrypha or saints’ lives, attributed to
Cynewulf (2nd half of the 8th c) or his followers: Christ II, The Fates of the Apostles, Elene,
Juliana, The Dream of the Rood (the Exeter Book and Vercelli Book)
 Heroic lays of the 10th c., which are narrations of actual battles fought in the 10th c. by the English against
the Danish invaders. They praise the old heroic ideals of courage, magnanimity and obligations of loyal
service to the overlord: The Battle of Brunanburgh, The Battle of Maldon.
 Latin prose; its greatest achievement is Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum by the Venerable Bede,
completed in 731;
 Anglo-Saxon prose (written mainly in West Saxon dialect):
Translations by King Alfred or his scholars (2nd half of the 9th c.) of the most important Latin
works of the times (Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Cura Pastoralis by
Pope Gregory the Great, Boethius’ De Consolatio Philosophiae, Orosius’ Historia Adversus
Paganos)
The writings of Aelfric (paraphrases of some parts of the Bible, sermons, Lives of the Saints)
and Wulfstan (Sermo Lupi ad Anglos)

See the Bayeux tapestry and read about the amazing narrative it tells at:
www.sjolander.com/viking/museum/bt/bt.htm
www.bayeuxtapestry.org.uk/