THE ANGLO -S AXON WORLD COURSE GUIDE
Professor Michael D.C. Drout WHEATON COLLEGE The Anglo-Saxon World
Professor Michael D.C. Drout Wheaton College
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Lecture content ©2009 by Michael D.C. Drout Course guide ©2009 by Recorded Books, LLC 72009 by Recorded Books, LLC Cover image: The Venerable Bede (ca. 673 –735), Anglo-Saxon scholar, theologian, historian, and Doctor of the Church, is illustrated in an initial “D,” from an early twelfth-century manuscript of his Life of Cuthbert (Digby 20, folio 194r). #UT144 ISBN: 978-1-4407-0671-4 All beliefs and opinions expressed in this audio/video program and accompanying course guide are those of the author and not of Recorded Books, LLC, or its employees. Course Syllabus
The Anglo-Saxon World
About Your Professor ...... 4
Introduction ...... 5
Lecture 1 The Anglo-Saxons and Their World ...... 6
Lecture 2 Language and Culture ...... 12
Lecture 3 The Migration and the Germanic Past ...... 19
Lecture 4 The Conversion: The School of Theodore and Hadrian ...... 25
Lecture 5 The “Golden Age” and the Venerable Bede: Double Monasteries, Missionaries, Conversion, and the Making of Beautiful Books ...... 31
Lecture 6 The Viking Age: Destruction and Revival ...... 37
Lecture 7 King Alfred and the Rebuilding: The Rescue and Consolidation of a Kingdom ...... 42
Lecture 8 The Years of Reform ...... 47
Lecture 9 Anglo-Saxon Literature: Religious ...... 52
Lecture 10 Anglo-Saxon Literature: Personal, Wisdom, and Riddles ...... 58
Lecture 11 Anglo-Saxon Literature: Epic and Heroic ...... 63
Lecture 12 The Norman Conquest and the End of Anglo-Saxon England ...... 69
Lecture 13 From the Norman Conquest to the Reformation: The Use of Anglo-Saxon ...... 75
Lecture 14 From Thomas Jefferson to Angelina Jolie: The Long Life of Anglo-Saxon ...... 80
Course Materials ...... 86
3 About Your Professor Michael D.C. Drout Michael D.C. Drout is the William and Elsie Prentice Professor of English at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, where he chairs the English department and teaches courses in Old and Middle English, medieval literature, Chaucer,
m fantasy, and science fiction. o c . s e g a Professor Drout received his Ph.D. in medieval m I C
C literature from Loyola University Chicago in B , r e i l l 1997. He also holds M.A. degrees from o C n i Stanford (journalism) and the University of m a j n e
B Missouri-Columbia (English literature) and a © B.A. from Carnegie Mellon. In 2006, Professor Drout was chosen as a Millicent C. McIntosh Fellow by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. In 2005, he was awarded the Prentice Professorship for outstanding teaching. The Wheaton College class of 2003 presented him with the Faculty Appreciation Award in that year. He is editor of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Beowulf and the Critics, which won the Mythopoeic Scholar- ship Award for Inklings Studies for 2003. He is also the author of How Tradition Works: A Meme-Based Cultural Poetics of the Anglo-Saxon Tenth Century (Arizona Medieval and Renaissance Studies). Drout is one of the founding editors of the journal Tolkien Studies and is editor of The J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia (Routledge). Drout has published extensively on medieval literature, including articles on William Langland’s Piers Plowman, Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxon wills, the Old English translation of the Rule of Chrodegang, the Exeter Book “wisdom poems,” and Anglo-Saxon medical texts. He has also published articles on Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea books and Susan Cooper’s Dark Is Rising series of children’s fantasy novels. Drout has written an Old English grammar book, King Alfred’s Grammar, which is available for free at his website, www.michaeldrout.com. Professor Drout’s other websites are www.Beowulfaloud.com and www.anglosaxonaloud.com. He has given lectures in England, Finland, Italy, Canada, Norway, and throughout the United States. Drout lives in Dedham, Massachusetts, with his wife Raquel D’Oyen, their daughter Rhys, and their son Mitchell. You may enjoy these other Modern Scholar courses by Professor Drout: A History of the English Language A Way with Words I: Writing, Rhetoric, and the Art of Persuasion A Way with Words II: Approaches to Literature A Way with Words III: Understanding Grammar for Powerful Communication A Way with Words IV: Understanding Poetry Bard of the Middle Ages: The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer From Here to Infinity: An Exploration of Science Fiction Literature Rings, Swords, and Monsters: Exploring Fantasy Literature
4 The Venerable Bede (ca. 673 – 735), Anglo-Saxon scholar, the - ologian, historian, and Doctor of the Church, is illustrated in an initial “D,” from an early twelfth- century manuscript of his Life of Cuthbert (Digby 20, folio 194r). © The Art Archive/Bodleian Library, Oxford
Introduction One of the most fascinating cultures in medieval Europe, the Anglo-Saxons were an unusual blend of Germanic, Latin, and Celtic influence. In addition to the Anglo-Saxons’ status as ancestors to people in England, America, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand, their language serves as the source for Modern English—thus shedding light on the culture of today. An expert on medieval literature, Professor Michael D.C. Drout—with a lin - guistic base in the development of the English language from Old to Middle to Modern English—is eminently qualified to lead this quest to discover the “real” Anglo-Saxons (often far different than those depicted in popular culture). As the lectures progress, Professor Drout explores such illuminating topics as the Germanic past, the Viking Age, Anglo-Saxon literature, Anglo-Saxon religion, the Norman Conquest, and the influence of the Anglo-Saxons on today’s world.
5 Lecture 1: The Anglo-Saxons and Their World
The Suggested Reading for this lecture is John Blair’s The Anglo-Saxon Age: A Very Short Introduction .
On ussera ealdfædera dagum lifdon mihtige cyningas, bealde rincas. Hie begeaton ðis land and hit gesetton. Fela geara ðæræfter wæron hie gefulwode and gehwurfon Cristnan. Þa wunon hie wið ða hæð - nan. Manige boceras brohton wisdom in on land. Swete songas sun - gon þa scopas on healle. Nu sindon we hiera ierfan. Gif we nyllað dolu beon, uton leornian ða Westseaxna ðeode. In the days of our ancestors lived mighty kings, bold warriors. They took this land and settled it. Many years afterwards they were bap - tized and converted to Christianity. Then they fought against hea - thens. Many scholars brought wisdom into the land. Sweet songs sung the poets in the hall. Now we are their heirs. If we do not wish to be foolish, let us learn the West-Saxon tongue. The passage above is from a somewhat old-fashioned textbook of Old English. It is pretty oversimplified, but there’s nothing in there that is obvious - ly wrong, and it gives us a good idea both of the language of the Anglo- Saxons and their history and culture. And even this short passage shows that there are many good reasons for studying the Anglo-Saxons. They are not just the physical ancestors of many people in England, America, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand, but they are the cultural and linguistic ances - tors of millions more people throughout the world. Their language was the source of Modern English, and understanding a bit about it explains why English is the way it is. Their culture laid the foundations upon which so much has been built, even though, obviously, the world has changed substantially. The Anglo-Saxons are also the most fascinating culture in medieval Europe, a remarkable and unique blending of Germanic, Latin, Celtic, and home- grown material. Their art, literature, architecture, and culture are simply intrin - sically interesting. But also a deep understanding of the Anglo-Saxons is extremely important for understanding our current cultural situation. From the Protestant Reformation polemicists to Thomas Jefferson, who wanted to put the Anglo-Saxon warriors Hengest and Horsa on the Great Seal, to the Victorians who readopted the Anglo-Saxons, to racists and Nazis who appro - priated Anglo-Saxons identity, to J.R.R. Tolkien, who changed popular per - ception, to contemporary struggles over identity, over English language and culture, the Anglo-Saxons are extremely important. In this course, we will be
E learning who the Anglo-Saxons actually were, and then, toward the end of N
O the course, we will see what other people have done with them. E R U T C E L
6 Angles, Saxons and Jutes In its entry for the year 449, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us: Her Mauricius Ualentines onfengon rice ricsodon winter. On hiera dagum Hengest Horsa from Wyrtgeorne geleaþade Bretta kyninge gesohton Bretene on þam staþe þe is genemnedYpwinesfleot, ærest Brettum to fultume, ac hie eft on hie fuhton. Se cing het hi feohtan agien Pihtas, hi swa dydan sige hæfdan swa hwar swa hi comon. Hi ða sende to Angle heton heom sendan mare fultum heom seggan Brytwalana nahtnesse ðæs landes cysta. Hy ða sendan heom mare fultum. Þa comon þa menn of þrim mægþum Germanie, of Ealdseaxum, of Anglum, of Iotum. Of Iotum comon Cantware Wihtware, þæt ys seo mæið ðe nu eardað on Wiht, ðæt cynn on Westsexum þe man gyt hæt Iutna cyn. Of Ealdseaxon comon Eastsexa Suðsexa WestSexan. Of Angle comon, se a siððan stod westi betwyx Iutum Seaxum, Eastengla, Midelangla, Mearca ealle Norðhymbra. This year Martianus and Valentinian received the kingdom and reigned for seven years. In their days the Hengest and Horsa were invited here by King Vortigern, and they came to Britain in three longships, landing at Ebbesfleet. King Vortigern gave them territory in the south-east of this land, on the condition that they fight the Picts. This they did, and had victory wherever they went. They then sent to Angle, commanded more aid, and commanded that they should be told of the Britons’ worthlessness and the choice nature of their land. They soon sent hither a greater host to help the others. Then came the men of three Germanic tribes: Old Saxons; Angles; and Jutes. Of the Jutes come the people of Kent and the Isle of Wight; that is the tribe which now lives on Wight, and that race among the West Saxons which men even now call Jutish. Of the Old Saxons come the East Saxons, South Saxons, and West Saxons. Of the Angles—the country they left has since stood empty between Jutes and Saxons—come the East Anglians, Middle Anglians, Mercians, and all the Northumbrians. This is the “official story” of the arrival in England of three Germanic tribes, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. There may be elements of truth in this story, but it also works very well as a foundation myth of Anglo-Saxon England. But for that myth to make sense, we need to go back to the very beginnings of recorded history in the northwest of Europe. The settlement of the British Isles goes back into very deep time, beyond the scope of this course, but we know that there were Neolithic people living there in very ancient times indeed. Then Celtic peoples arrived and controlled the islands. In 55 B.C., Julius Caesar led invasions of Britain, connecting it to the Roman Empire (though there were no permanent Roman settlements until quite a while later). In 43 and 44 A.D., a true Roman invasion led by Claudius brought about a permanent Roman presence in Britain and the eventual creation of the Romano-British, a blending of the Celtic peoples who had already been in Britain with the Roman occupiers. The Romano-British spoke Latin and were integrated into the Western Roman Empire.
7 But as that Western Empire weakened, and even before Rome fell (tradition - ally the Fall of Rome is dated to 476), the Legions were withdrawn from Britain (410). Then, the non-Romanized Celtic people, Scots (the contempo - rary name for the Irish), Picts (who lived in the north in what is now Scotland), and others began to try to take the wealth and power held by the Romano- British. Then the remnants of Roman Britain led by King Vortigern sent across the sea for help from the Saxons, Germanic tribes in southern Denmark and Northern Germany. Led by two brothers, named Hengest and Horsa (both of whose names mean “horse”), these tribes came to England to help King Vortigern but soon turned on the Romano-British and conquered everything for their own. There were, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Venerable Bede tell us, three major groupings: the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes. The Jutes set - tled the far east portion of England, Kent, and the Isle of Wight. The Angles took the more north and eastern part, Northumbria and East Anglia, and also Mercia, in the middle. The Saxons took the south and the west of England. This is when Anglo-Saxon history really begins, from just before 500 until the Norman Conquest of 1066. It will help us throughout the course to keep in mind a time-line of Anglo- Saxon history. My former student, John Walsh, realized that the acronym MCGVR gives us a handy reference for the Anglo-Saxon centuries: M = Migration of tribes to England, 500 –600 C = Conversion to Christianity, 600 –700 G = Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon culture, 700- –800 V = Viking Raids and destruction of Anglo-Saxon culture, 800 –900 R = Reform and Rebuilding of Anglo-Saxon culture, 900 –1000 There is no simple mnemonic device for the last half-century of Anglo-Saxon culture, but from 1000 to 1066 is the period of Anglo-Danish rule and the end of the Anglo-Saxon period. Each of these periods will get one or more lectures on its own, but right now we want to build up the big picture of Anglo-Saxon history and culture to give us a guide through the rest of the material. Migration : During this time, Germanic tribes crossed the sea to England and settled the countryside, which may have been some - what depopulated due either to plague, economic collapse in the post-Roman period, or conquest. Conversion : Although Christianity had existed in the British Isles since the Roman period, from the end of the sixth century and throughout the seventh, England was converted by missionaries from both Rome and Ireland and eventually became officially Christian. Golden Age : For over a century England was one of the intellectual
E and cultural hot spots of Europe. English monasteries and nunneries
N were centers of learning and book production. The climate was O
E warm, and England was rich. R
U Viking Raids : Riches and undefended monasteries were a target for T
C Viking invaders from Denmark and Norway. They raided, pillaged, E L
8 and burned England for many summers before sending entire armies to occupy the land and settle it with Danes and Norwegians. All native English kings and kingdoms but one were destroyed in this time period. Reform : At the end of the Viking period, King Alfred the Great saved England from complete Viking domination and began the rebuilding of the country. Alfred’s grandson Athelstan made England among the most powerful nations in Europe and began a process of Church reform that continued for many years. England was unique in having a culture that was now focused on learning in the vernacular (in English) rather than in Latin. End : King Athelred’s inept leadership eventually led to the fall of England, first to Danish kings and then to William the Conqueror, a prince of Normandy. The larger narrative that you can see in the history of Anglo-Saxon England is the continued mixing and integration of various disparate elements into one people. The Anglo-Saxons are what the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes turned into after they migrated to England, intermarried with the Romano-British, converted to Christianity, were invaded by the Vikings, intermarried with the Danish settlers, reformed themselves, were conquered by Danes, rebuilt their kingdom, and were finally conquered by the French. They were people who spoke the Anglo-Saxon language. They were people who lived in a land of Celtic place-names, with Roman ruins, with Germanic legends and stories and language, with Christian churches and Latin learning. They thought England was specially singled out by Pope Gregory the Great, and by God, but they also were well aware of their inferiority to the Romans who had come before them and of their marginal place at the edge of Europe. And then, after the Norman Conquest, they were the regular people of England and were Anglo-Norman, until 1214, when King John (you know him as the Prince John of Robin Hood fame, the brother of Richard the Lion-Hearted) lost the English hold over Normandy. At that point, the language of Norman French was no longer official and English became again the language of the kingdom, but the Anglo-Saxons were mostly a memory. There things stood until Henry VIII and the Protestant Reformation. Henry hated Protestants and brutally repressed them, but ended up breaking the Church away from Rome and dissolving the monasteries between 1536 and 1541. There was a massive loss of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts and material culture (what had survived the Conquest), but Protestants and others sud - denly were interested in Anglo-Saxon because they thought that they could find historical precedent in England for the things they wanted to do. So there was a recovery of Old English language and the development of a new respect for the Anglo-Saxon kings, particularly Alfred. The English civil war (1643 –1651) caused the destruction of even more pre - cious manuscripts and the destruction of the physical remains of most of the great saints and kings of the Anglo-Saxon period, but again, scholars were drawn to understand the language and history of their ancestors. The Anglo- Saxons became important for ideas about England.
9 LECTURE ONE 1 0 im we a la a cla fo En o b o Ho th wi So g th b Vi Th ta “ Sa th Am h An In Ba Acr nd rt f e p ua ei an p r e e n o ctorian th p J.R e g cial xon r she w se, n y t u and abo eri sum gl orta e ck n ose ge d wa la g os gh i l ev Vic j n a d usti o-Saxn con p f n ca . is ng id dif or d R. in bu r, t or w d ut we d nt he a tor t l r, i , with th fer er in fica ua ter s the sho tra sepa E Wo que ilt to To lo co ary, five re in since ia e voke uro wer st ent ge t atu up yed the nver ns lkie tions A r rug the of uld An of S red a ke p tlan hu rat the co Race” nd ( r a fro e, cour a chan the e glo- n’s rs ir g ma a p gain also the be ndr ted pr ts-Ir in ag les ositvely a own abso An f m Ger An ic, Part or g nd nuf peo Th Sa An se ed ove 19 ged to th , p glo- ish) su glo- in co int a was revio ma wer a e xons actu e glo y day 90s rbe tie Ch ple years. rchite r n a d nqu er L , con in Saxo umbe nd Saxo ound a nic ord d e of -Saxo est a ristany, use d s in , red) us who Ger nd th in est conq en a lost th tinea other Anglo-Sax past, major ed cture nd er of ns to d ing setlr ey ns During after de r many a Anglo n. caled o fo the in much they bo uer nd a wer f wer has , Germa r nd Later linkg ye ad and b up th l films, r the and Rings racism. acist ut powe e) e ars di opting d -Saxon are their tha ben Wor , in tar the No G b the a Amer sprea n stil wer ut Am nd erman ny, la not such p stil ed rthe up mselv . rs. ld time a olgy, ter, ori urpo ke ncestry, re then Th erica e “Ang “ War De explicty wit this ican A Ide gin d past, ver newd pt in n, , n Tho us, as ic in se. nmark, h glo-Saxn th their as s, cultr y G and l had supo fel o peol r from ey time Civl Pe acist f imp mas erman -Saxon” or an and or o as f ter a back inter langu i the d wer sevra na den al bsore u ortan and Wa later an it sed se alth Anglo Jefrso an Jackson’ tional an ir who ma ic est d tiy ” d r, d th id d ough labed pla for cult b Fr own pan im ge rked Na ea the e l now. ecam p d in -Saxon becam ance. d migr ce. olitca An ide their s ures, Latin ecads zi and the -Germanic n phrase igrants almo and th glo-Saxns, Engla asocitn. thoug ntiy They ated e ad e An re cultre, h The a s cultre, devlop Nationl istory. cultr aption contrl al st glo- impor shor have and after nd to we (e (as the to t ven as col re t e p la - - ast ed n - - FOR GREATER UNDERSTANDING
Questions
1. What does the acronym MCGVR stand for? Use the acronym to draw a time-line of Anglo-Saxon history. 2. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, why did the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes come to England? What alternative explanations are there for their migration?
Suggested Reading
Blair, John. The Anglo-Saxon Age: A Very Short Introduction . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Other Books of Interest
Howe, Nicholas. Migration and Mythmaking in Anglo-Saxon England . Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 2001. Whitelock, Dorothy. The Beginnings of English Society . New York: Penguin, 1991.
11 Lecture 2: Language and Culture
The Suggested Readings for this lecture are Peter Baker’s Introduction to Old English and Michael D.C. Drout’s King Alfred’s Grammar and Michael D.C. Drout’s King Alfred’s Grammar (available online at http://acunix.wheatonma.edu/mdrout/GrammarBook2007/title.html).
Sum sceal mid hearpan æt his hlafordes fotum sittan, feoh þicgan, ond a snellice snere wræstan, lætan scralletan sceacol, se þe hleapeð, nægl neomegende; biþ him neod micel.
One shall sit at his lord’s feet with the harp, he will always receive his fee, and always keenly wrest the strings, let the nail pick the strings to ring sweetly, their voices leap forth with great desire. Anglo-Saxon is a language with fundamental continuity with our own, but at the same time it is very different. Anglo-Saxon was spoken from around 500 to 1200, but it is much more difficult to learn than Middle English, which was spoken from 1200 to 1500. We will examine the reasons for this difference in this lecture, and there is much more detailed information in the Recorded Books course A History of the English Language . My students are able to master Middle English (Chaucer’s language) in about three weeks. It takes a full semester to learn Anglo-Saxon (the term is used interchangeably with “Old English”). If you are interested in learning further, I have an Old English grammar book online that can be accessed at http://acunix.wheatonma.edu/mdrout/GrammarBook2007/title.html If you would like to hear more Old English, you can listen to my podcasts of Anglo-Saxon at http://anglosaxonaloud.com Complete translations of the poems discussed in this course are available online at http://anglosaxonworld.com We will begin the history of the Anglo-Saxon language with a short excur - sion into European linguistic history. Some time in the very distant past, per - haps fifty thousand years ago, there was a group of people living in Russia near the Caspian Sea. The language they spoke is now called Proto-Indo- European because it is the ancestor of not only most modern European lan - guages (Finnish and Hungarian are among the few exceptions) but also many of the languages of India. Indo-Europeans then migrated throughout
O Europe and India, spreading their language. The language then diversified,
W mostly along geographic lines, into different language “species.” There are T
E many branches of the Indo-European tree, but only three—Celtic languages, R
U Italic languages, and Germanic languages—are particularly relevant to T
C Anglo-Saxon culture, and the Germanic branch is far more important than E
L the others to Anglo-Saxon language. 12 There were three branches of the Germanic tree, based on geography. East Germanic (the only surviving example of which is the Gothic language) was spoken in the eastern part of the German world. North Germanic was spoken in present-day Scandinavia and the northern part of Europe, and West Germanic was spoken in the west of the German part of Europe, including present-day Germany, France, and eventually England. Anglo-Saxon is a West Germanic language and thus more closely related to Modern German and Frisian than to Danish, Norwegian, or Swedish (which are North Germanic).
Simplified Indo-European Family Tree
Proto-Indo-European
“Satem” “Centum” t u o r D . C Indo- Armenian Albanian Balto- Anatolian Hellenic Italic Celtic Germanic . D l e
Iranian Slavic a h c i M ©
Germanic Family Tree
Germanic
West No rth East
High Low Old Norse Gothic
Old High German West Norse East Norse
Modern German Icelandic Norwegian Danish Swedish
West Low Germanic
Old Dutch
Modern Dutch Flemish Afrikaans
Old Saxon Old Frisian Old English t u o r D
Modern Low German Modern Frisian Middle English . C . D l e a h c i
Modern English M ©
13 LECTURE TWO 1 4 S bu 80 E str p th wh b sti “ o th th r u ti a in b in cat ec As In An o le e n se d ut ax ng f d e e e ll ns le o t i , i di word pe r Ic þ þ ( ð wi m o sho r o E se ad o h wri F T o o æl li ch, Anglo cat ng - gl one not it ca su by on li s F cti t yhtos I ne i t wn, r am r n n bser k hen ar e ie ngl ense ff ver o ro inra om o t th no te d i fre ða sa vi ed; er o s h o t b , ce o me æþ el Ines ed med ten -Sa ve i uld i the ða nste f e t n m d ject “an pa rt i ce ns s ent n is who ell ar e i lic or þe d nd og flection Of of nt becau Ælfr ved -S ti l rbs I, ord t an h gra te be awu E he ( c xon ne de Wes o l ian in yo d Mod end c icate Ki axon wæd of t man nglis ad dæg br fr reci of ure re a f ab ov e, t d he cu l ome a, d ðu er o g . in “ r, om te” m ur my er i M L ng ed licod T la ti yht ead Fo th e ets m a kin ht me o was w aws you ar l ts se he hto Mod ode a er of of v re f f s, y e, , h a on, any sent r ol ction) most or ve ly c “ eaxn v Alf e aticl cou m n af ,es f you y dog nd ea yni o ad g it of I ed Histor wor ela wo d cat to m lit de most n, on egn er rn ne En wou ter wh en A d o an er of was re þæ t ten tle fr om er ine t þ “ f enc of are ng lo -S ax on ncil heald ely rd ic -n bap hem cat- ea n co ð ds on En glish ic ate e King d, . th ou gr the g inf .us who e r s e ). ta l En those þa For c s ela d ær uld ical sy gan d just awear þas am p ynig un glish colet him or æft in to ate ne gewr lect ti gs Anglo-Saxo mæge A it pu u th glish, not B ( Me est sm whi h sa nd tionshp ng lo -S ,s to tting –e the is a known say indcate maticl us did Alfr ut e ne. Docum ero , er t ate tha he t cat” an eith , sent ogæde a þæ t le a d wr it te n wh , d rcian d fu pr it ch those p fo ther I us ), doer oldn og.” eal the ta n “d d ,s a ed su d la cole m luht se rn d esum r m you ich th ta ke s Fo o g og” er ax on , ge ou og tag o ngua oð ð wær inst li os t ch r t tan, id e e um en rd e on ,s to (c er ta hes co relatio rð “cat gadero of pose ce ating r r of not I n is cat vowel which in wo , ct ts at e as e erd or at m ance, e de me am foreath co mm on ly di who ða e en. also the ) the ed minu gead a on m to cl ea r o inra re forð am the uld t dog- e of d r ate, by [l n o ealum i in ly big ched or ðe n ad er s a what ic feng nship, ind ( Ac n aws] herin, sion. th time g, set Ethelb Of act as nd g e in had all ot the end I apo ” n ot wit me ne e, em difer pr os e, ica ti me ea si e ra f erod “at a fan e ð io w ound who ers l m in ea to a ike, on ng, do ve ord would to ena as wh a n) stroph te, me e of o ca n ean lico w ð to t te” us ed Bu wri ten, f key þa Mercna o gethr ert rb wher cat observed, e to rste an Angelcyne, and itum, a at r my Prot er got r I nce for be he ung t ic wæs li ke th an don; g anyw her, ( cha of te n verb ting , le ar n t rejct o d wh we Ang he eðeaht d so of wo who ðr e aldne. e- gem geðristlæ awritan difern instace, wo rd s eaten. k pleas og o whic b oever insma, nges. mit or th at as wor s, -IndoEur same “dog c þa s rds. etw and Fr en ch ), un lo-Sax ,” at to all fo pu zz le cyn th an ed fly, whic et first Mo or ted ma al ds indic c rle e, “str of th te g u W in In is at w order inges “ g We those eowde, fle dern ð, thi do ose t. tly in n man y Ki ng neg het, et s e awðer Mi dd le e ith the which among o Mo de rn the þa can t w, a wh Ic Kin ng hwæt n e “The n s g on is stil c ou t a t s g a an d e a t which at the used pean): t ð ða f h ich d sent , .others a mon Eng t- i obje lo a oð ðe v ll Al fr ed : who þar e oð g e f e þar ne e n An gl o- use o or of tag wn h o me r dog d Ine, – f to c be ca us e En gl is h, re nou a b þ the ” ðð e lish n a relying e ct my woul ve s, eg . æs in and e t nce, x be we ” som I ” you am flec (the is ate and in is d - e - This is the language that the Anglo-Saxons brought with them when they “migrated” to England (though by King Alfred’s time the language had changed somewhat, it was still very similar to that of the migrants who had arrived centuries before). And the Anglo-Saxons brought not only their lan - guage, but also their culture (though for culture we have to rely mostly on archaeology and the evidence of place names rather than texts, since the Anglo-Saxons were not literate until after the conversion to Christianity in the seventh century). However, some of what we know from much-later texts does fit the archaeol - ogy. For example, before they converted to Christianity, Anglo-Saxons cre - mated their dead and buried the remains in pots. Archaeologists have found pots made by the same potters in Germany and in England dating from the migration period. The archaeology is also consistent with the story that when the Anglo- Saxons began to arrive in England, there had been some kind of severe depopulation. There does not seem to be a lot of archaeological evidence for mass slaughter or destruction, but instead a rather steady movement of Anglo-Saxons from the coasts up into England along the rivers (we can track the spread of Anglo-Saxon burial customs). But although the land may have not been very crowded, it was not entirely empty of people or of buildings. And the Anglo-Saxons, both metaphorically and physically, built on top of these, physically, culturally, and linguistically. For example, place names are exceedingly conservative. Even after you kill off all the people, you often keep the place name, as so many American Indian names in Massachusetts and throughout America show. Likewise in Anglo-Saxon England, they used place names that already existed, slotting them right into their language. So although Celtic words are not particularly common in English, they are visible in a great number of place names. For example, the Wor in Worcester, the Win in Winchester, the Ex in Exeter, and the Glou in Gloucester are all Celtic. Rivers in England have a very high pro - portion of Celtic names, as do hills: Bryn Mawr means “great hill” in Welsh, and Barr also means “hill.” Comb at the end of various place names means “deep valley.” A few Celtic words from agriculture and landscape in general (rather than specific places) also entered into Old English. Binn is the source for “bin” (originally basket); crag is “rock” (and thus the name “Craig,” whose conso - nants show that it is borrowed later from Welsh); ass (meaning “donkey”) is originally from Latin but passed through Celtic before reaching Old English. Dun , meaning “dark colored,” is also Celtic, and one of the very few verbs to enter into Old English from Celtic is cursian (to curse). The Anglo-Saxons had also picked up some Latin even back before they came to England, both through the Christian church and through trade. Some words that were borrowed into early West-Germanic include wine , cheap (the early meaning of it was a more generic “price” or “bargain” rather than current “good price”), monger , mint , pound , anchor , mile , kettle, linen , cires (cherry), popig (poppy), cytel (kettle), pyle (which becomes pil - low), gimm (gem), butere (butter), cealc (chalk), and copper . Also borrowed were words for war, including camp (battle, later evolving to place of battle
15 LECTURE TWO 1 6 th o thi ow bu p a a th Fr fo t , y r c tha le En a c i m e l o p t u b f o f p p we e re pl s ar M we la a Ro r a S n a y w s ( a d ed the n a h m o r La Fr A f n I Th F oul ome ow nd dvi eo re s l ax ac a n od e r e r t ce ea e o ro m s t d , y t g mr ned re ma n r r st d om lo o u n y to a e h vi r m nd t a m r o e e el pl goo ori on t i la o m o d e, be er se f iv g ern p h t t e t ous d th ba h t m t m o R r a a i times la ) Ge rm e ris ht b bu o c n r h ed the n gro of id ginal , G n e wa s , ) f c bou ti th es e a a a n a u sibly ig t a t d ing s, the s n hu h c move d, d, ri c ause e e vely pa s t rch to ild il e d t ng gua l the n d n a ht ec i r i be s bu y the h — l d w n o i is m r ay an d , s i a ndre t n i r u o histo mu ot a fl di e b ndari rt in be f ra o e king, u h thi an i at, or g aeo get n be ert ilt i bou at no fficul n gs n a t s e r e g ph su h con A t a S sur ther w d b a ch on e h w s conse n i ngs g o l e, n ave c ( in n r e d o m th a we r c ile nge ds t w wel ng e an i n a i r o t s i or ds r u c i r d his nk hen ysi a logy a r e f s a w wer ical es ndaries o e , ) h c r u h spot, vi se pl the as .) y a d r u sit cros wod th e t-to- altho l a c i emp t u d e chur soil. t o g n i z ll ag er th mi n cal e l-drained on . s e b i r us d e r into ln a d mar time r e e r e n n a b ( ju we nt tex an e h t in fl ue n ent we d we t even arch lot co n s r a e y for farm, ha y r s n i a m e r o ap top st ty a e r a im u ch the ugh , an d m o r f o , ff king th t g n i n a e m rran g n i Ro can This he s s no s, of ca f a T n A par of an her a is also oth c s i b ti ne nt : the t i c a T e aeo or the of so on m smaller r d go thousand w n ma t cen also, t fields, d s u t i c sloped tr ad e groun English ce d - o l g t gement o f e b his er ently stone. o , different agr a r o m e figur me other ac a am ev en land po e chan harmin od th e . l kno no l o n w o h s r e t a m s u con pu Bed tral o gy, a S pr icultural by th ey ou nt t , r onastery bles. e r arche e id , ) d, ile surp e e rposes, r d ( d, w r w abnd oba e v e n t ( paths, when clu ’ s n o x ge ea e h dg e re co n things: n a t s i d th h s i b organ or a e w out so me s. and i s e h t Th so ld , chane tha e t o posibly of ’s o g a s g w o h e ) n g tr a of de risngly, things They may wet (for d i v e ey Th of fa “hide” de th r ly specifi ) p o of m ll olgica de d evn la nd h t oned ; n e d a m st r la . rms someone t c o s tha e izaton e h t a and he a w ( scripton p a r g i was Ro ma par k a e w a in the lan e A ide nd e c n e n r o t s i h roba A , An witan have u e h t d wer l m a e G c a i no wi th pag the fi to w e f ticularly to , l l by d, needed s, , s n o i t kings d n for t . c tend lo glo buildings. t rst ig h supor king l not he s On w t i a n a m r an hides, c fer r o f fe ed n probab suggesting om h f o l a c i an g but site same ly s u ben -Sa e v e ty , warmth o t or mi th s i but warlike f o eting much cu st om s e v i t e ed s a tile a c i f i t of else n a l lived not e e o t ai n di gran bur a n E o c counil to th ci vi li ze d e h t le rath xo r u o s n a d n Ro ma ns , s m o ted still, in the chu to wh eory land g a u g gal m e t n d l O they f h , ; d n a l g on e t æ S n spot. si ng le ial ly to sem o i t farmed te rm s t ave b i s n e t s o to late The ts e r be. er a he , in countryside er s i .s e c by e rch meanin A but ange and restain as ground , ) n a m t o l g n E to n an d build the lived is o e are r a r o p h cu lt ur e that could r much gles Nobles much a n r Rom f em pi re . r e d r a Anglo-Saxons very best buildings. a historca also Ang p fa m tha f o rcha n i n i h to the n I of re. they s e d n tt y r h s i l e fo all in st it ut io ns . it the s i h his u ngs in . y l t “h i h t g y ug ht gæ d e t o r w comin i an g lo-Saxn t se or reason ly . a l p ) t i p ( we larg apre eolgy. the farmes, different sa smaller e n a m o R that o t on tribal a of d r o w de s, ” s d r o w u n k r o w and more ceremonial ruins t s r i f We lt the sed tha ,s e m a n - e c no i t p i r c s e d is obles). r t x e can th e e l se wi th , kin r u t a S ( water texs g they m still r t s complex a kings advice groups. th in k sa w of te n gly thac ntly ut n e c from er o we tc a sa w An gl you tell, tæ could s a h t levs hides tha th e sizes, in a Th ey tend er e w re are nd s’ n on t o- a - at - - when compared to the tough, violent Germans—but historians and archaeol - ogists find some aspects of Tacitus to be valuable. Tacitus said that the Germans were characterized by tightly bonded kin- groups with a particular emphasis on the bond between the lord and his men. Men were willing to die for the lord and to support their comitatus, their war - rior band. We perhaps see some evidence of this behavior (though it may be more a literary ideal than an actual social practice), in the famous Anglo- Saxon Chronicle entry for 755, which gives the story of Cynewulf and Cyneheard, in which the followers of a defeated king decided to fight to the death rather than be reconciled after the death of their lord. We also know, from their later laws, that the Anglo-Saxons had the custom of a wergild , a “man-price,” which was the compensation that was required to be paid to a person’s family if that person was killed without just cause. Wergild is sometimes interpreted to mean that if you were rich enough, you could go around slaughtering people in early Germanic society, but that gets things somewhat backwards: wergild was a means of settling disputes and eliminat - ing the mandatory duty of revenge. A chieftain could force parties to stop feud - ing by requiring the payment of a wergild and thus settling a back-and-forth chain of killings in an honorable fashion. And the practice of wergild may be a reason why the Anglo-Saxons were so fascinated by the idea of brother killing brother: you could not pay wergild within the family, and you could not kill someone in revenge within the family, so brother killings were inexpiable. We know much less about the religion, art, and culture of the Anglo-Saxons than we do of their laws, but we can make some reasonable inferences. There were Christians in England, but the majority of Anglo-Saxons were pagan. They worshiped gods who were cognate with the familiar Old Norse deities, but they were not imported from Scandinavia, as they had names in Anglo-Saxon rather than Old Norse. The religion was not centralized and seems to have had a large number of small shrines or temples scattered throughout the landscape. The early Anglo-Saxons concentrated their artistic endeavors in small, portable objects rather than large temples, churches, or buildings. They pro - duced beautiful ornaments, swords, and small decorative items. They kept their culture alive with oral songs rather than written texts. They were not par - ticularly interested in the Roman tradition of literature and art. They had the culture of a people on the move, not settled, and they were able to bring their culture with them whenever they migrated. This was the state of the Anglo-Saxons until around 600, when they began to convert to Christianity and became people of the book, the church, and the monastery. But until that time they were migratory Germanic people, illiterate but cultured, at the edge of the remains of the collapsed Roman empire.
17 FOR GREATER UNDERSTANDING
Questions
1. On what branch of the Indo-European language tree is Old English located? Sketch that branch. 2. What does archaeology tell us about the first Anglo-Saxon migrants to England?
Suggested Reading
Baker, Peter. Introduction to Old English . Oxford: Blackwell, 2003. Drout, Michael D.C. King Alfred’s Grammar . Available online at http://acunix.wheatonma.edu/mdrout/GrammarBook2007/title.html.
Other Books of Interest
Barney, Stephen A. Word-Hoard: An Introduction to Old English Vocabulary . 2nd ed. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1985. Robinson, Orrin W. Old English and Its Closest Relatives: A Survey of the Earliest Germanic Languages . New York: Routledge, 1994.
Recorded Books
Drout, Michael D.C. The History of the English Language . Prince Frederick, MD: Recorded Books, LLC, 2006. 7 CDs/7 hours. O W T E R U T C E L
18 Lecture 3: The Migration and the Germanic Past
The Suggested Reading for this lecture is John D. Niles’s Beowulf and Lejre .
Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum, monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorl [as], syððan ærest wearð feasceaft funden. He þæs frofre gebad, weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah, oð þæt him æghwylc ymbsittendra ofer hronrade hyran scolde, gomban gyldan. Þæt wæs god cyning!
Lo! We have heard of the valor of the spear danes in the elder days, of the kings of the people, how those noble ones accomplished great deeds. Often Shild Scefing scourged his enemies of many nations, overturned their mead benches, terrified earls. After he had first become found in a powerless state; he overcame that, grew under the heavens and increased in worth until every one of his neighbors across the whale-road had to submit to him and give him gold. That was a good king! Just as the Mediterranean Sea is the center of the classical world, the North Sea is the center of the Migration-period world. Tribes and peoples conquered and were conquered, moved to seek new land or living space or tribute and plunder. They fought, made alliances and built settlements. And nearly everything they did is lost to history, because they were not literate. We can try to piece together several centuries of lost history through heroic stories, a few chronicles in Latin, and archaeological finds. But these times are what used to be called the Dark Ages, and although we do not use that pejorative terminology any more, much indeed is dark to us, history lost for - ever or reduced to a few tantalizing hints. Nevertheless we can extract some information from the scraps and hints and try to reconstruct some of the background of the Anglo-Saxons in the Germanic North both before and soon after they came to England. The Migration period, in our shorthand, from 500 to 600, but really going back to the middle of the fifth century or even further, is the “Heroic Age” for most of the Northern cultures, the time in which myths and legends are set. This era was studied deeply—and in some ways invented—by European scholars interested in creating a past for their own nations. Anglo-Saxon was so important to these scholars, from Germany and Denmark as well as from
19 LECTURE THREE 2 0 b o a h b jo Hi Ho h sh th p Be Ju a se fa An d kil Be we in b An m ce b wi Th im “ h im th a h g in b En b Sh Hn Hn Fin An Th Be ut ut lo er ro ave oe rch oe y e im ny ist ive eg ut i t i ay ct o l l th n s ip p p te o t nt t deb ed e o d o g g c, r n he Gre , se con t ed iel ori e e orta orta ot ow of t s i æf’ æf, a wa her. re husba wu wu lo la n s compliat g s ury, ni mytho i F lan ae an D th re s ha sing th mo he b le se ri Ju d, -Sa n i u i cal g wi fi sto t n en u s ul ar e h i s lat e g si lf ol lf e s d si d n e s n ft o rst g ve nt nt rh the ar , r en ory tish nth sim , ki f th son He ste fr m g a e t uag st og kils th r mar Hildeb mo t king io s m on ries xon, we ight exam leg b be he , der om to ng nd t f has ore logica, of S el be e o or ecau Hn nship a f tha y, at nt son amo ilar t o cent an cyldings gins re m e. hat a Eng gr e a of k. lea p so en this -ha o Gr f F our ven a the ed Eu n æf, to nd) war of with erc erso wa t we f T d eat wh a in. in bou B ple Like S urh ng ciru Hyge end island th se our of rn us Be g ury nd det ut his rop land t son for he st with s he ch und mo ole oing e thou fr line inve in b wit scho King ’s a nar n t t ory fr the it the It owulf it s. exa om ma hat af” wise el, ut Frisan, m apte e. bo th m a om msta Da o re An wa . rm is son, la evr m and h er va nd s an Gr a f e y en t stigae This gh in Tha ut tion on sh th (th actu c he same mp ay th m Be th stand l i ar ne we glo-Sax in s rie gr a n Hoc who Migr , Be r, egor e was n is the e yth, e r cr a is e nces g the e, e a ywher this the it eat be s, evr who Scyldings owulf’s be le ty is ds t first N.F o t owulf abou Danes, edibly find failed son, n is ful se pres is but is, l ation fore m amed to and is so is o rive y in , who vario as tha kiled olde from a histor th king, is ems f why th aries say g (tho S. in m Beowul of weapo serving ment F pe lot tha e impo the t no an e the risa, n o onster , h and the rving pea th his F dispute difcult Gru uncle st the live an oples f per us a m elps of Eng , t ma d ugh like the from insbu Hengst y Scyl e th lwa mor a ar en tha ore nam io litera d (th e rtan his we ne person ce-ma light e nd M p io ndtvig du son n, gic e verything ns in f p f’ tirely eopls land. rom poem ys tradio th u igraton d. e Hnæf. , e t ther xt d s e eopl Hygelac co it and ring Den so s daug arly tha t th Hyge find e e Eng he d ture uncle, to Scef a rg we Wh aso se evn king on of cre nsite er escnda “ n nd war wor e Denma Chocilaus” kin , cle se mark. noticed ems episod presnt dyna the un Hild o but history his elswh ethr Beowulf land is the ph ate hter, n tha la men came f from in At g is par ds cia of ar. is ifed er a noth th c fr ysi g, is H a time b gricult he ebur a led some om unde a a tha the led ough stie temp over: ted a ones ygel or god. we tioned wh ca rk, larg To Hildebu in nd the te nts coher mon t is han -day in the of an . tha a the a ly h a , re. Dan ose surpin in the h In g ther had to ac. try apren se rlying pasge e ra whic the of d ver istorcal a an poin raid t the the wer t ster ab dig o Danes round the just ce vist id in e). sta En the Ne ne to in stor Angle Scyld es, d name in In y nt out tha rh, Germ lebr in Frisa. poem two t, glish. things Fin in was Beowu red setl long therlands. T poem, a kinshp th wa a na picture to so I ies Hildeb is in his a t bou g gian the Latin e o quoted tly ation, the n s was ) s, and me y fact Frisa figh kingdo Hilde at Beowulf ways. may huge niet anic Fin. turn a tha are has time may or not wa Beowulf Saxons, t Explain this year up them. t consite No lf any t Hygelac, after urh not (or bones). the manuscript a an of breaks s sem based burh’s and o mean nother ben a north. a rth with and back. th make at ms war, ut copied re enth d They what 516 at Dane, tex in and at . lord the In Sea. to very Even ing a least are L gets stil they and to atin be on in It - in Frisians, is killed, and so is Hnæf, the leader of the Danes. But the two sides, Danes and Frisians, are evenly matched and neither can overcome the other. So they propose a truce. The Danes, who are now being led by Hengest (even though he is not a Dane), agree to spend the winter in Finn’s hall and not kill anyone. Finn agrees to treat them the same as he does his own men, giving treasure to both equally. There is a funeral for Hnæf and the dead son, and Hildeburh—sister of Hnæf and mother of the dead son—mourns, but the truce holds until spring. But there is a problem. Hengest and his men are now serving the person who is responsible for killing their lord. They have a duty to avenge him, but they have also sworn an oath not to kill any Frisians. This is the kind of damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situation that the Anglo-Saxons loved to think about. Then spring comes and the Danes are going to leave, but some warriors just cannot stand the humiliation of not avenging their lord any more. Fighting breaks out and this time the Danes are completely victorious. They kill all the Frisians, including King Finn, steal all his treasure, and go back to Denmark with Hildeburh. This is complicated but relatively straightforward. But now we are going to be a little more speculative and link this literary material to the Migration era (the ideas here come from J.R.R. Tolkien, a great scholar of Beowulf long before he wrote The Lord of the Rings ). Why is Hengest, a Jute, Hnæf’s right-hand man and not some Dane? And why do the Danes win in the spring when they were so evenly tied in the early winter? Tolkien proposes that there were Jutish mercenaries serving on both sides, with the Danes and the Frisians. So there are three ethnic groups or tribes, but only two sides: Danes and their Jutes, led by Hengest, and Frisians and their Jutes, led by Finn. Why were the Jutes there at all, and why in two groups rather than representing their own tribe? Because, at this time in the early migration period, the Jutes are being squeezed out of their territory by the expanding Danes to the north and the Franks to the south. The Frisians are also in trouble, but they are trying to protect themselves by allying with the Danes (which is why their king, Finn, marries the daughter of the Danish king). So the Danes have expanded south into the Danish penin - sula and pretty much defeated the Jutes, and the surviving warriors of the Jutes are serving as mercenaries both to Danes and Frisians. The idea is that Hengest, after this whole disaster of diplomacy and the death of the son who is supposed to join the kingdoms of the Danes and Frisians, manages to convince some of the Jutes on the Frisian side to switch to his side and then, when the fight does break out, they help to massacre the remaining Frisians. Then (and here’s where Tolkien makes a big leap, but one that makes sense), Hengest brings Hildeburh back to Denmark but is really no longer welcome, having been part of the botched peaceful voyage. So Hengest takes his band of Jutes, and perhaps some Danes, and heads over the sea from Denmark to England and settles there. This reconstruction is, of course, Tolkien linking things up that are just hints and names, but it has the benefit of making more sense than other proposed explanations. Remember that the leader of the Anglo-Saxon “migration” is named Hengest in the historical sources. Traditionally this Hengest is thought to have nothing
21 LECTURE THREE 2 2 il fa o Ki p a su so Hr r th th th a a Bo p g sto p Pe r to ie ea So Th Th An y f osi nd nd re ro re la r e e i ng o gest ur s s. w d m o o to r ced. He o Vi f Hr si si Hr pa M m Ic o M M M M M ve en son is is thg ot ies poe ten o oth o k pl ho ti aro ce t p nd nd la be þþ O akin Arth rheowan b id me k id id id id id id he e w er e wi ni ca se i o o n atho su s le s ing l f s, a able th ople s er e þwul th or æs d t un an alty on In mid th S Som d r Wenlu r Hr Sea En Gef þyri ba le ction past tha ch wer co to p pe in g ir w ur æt ulf th is exam ce hint s ev geld d eop B d sh ect sicaly h bar m glu on cluding eom o s uld at make an riod t joint sp xum explan þum so ntu to eo of th y ngu ver “W f Bur e ure and ip/ id som tha s um n of on m e fo mn d le eculat m r ds migr wu es gro o Den m æt elva h ple ry, tha id . H r pea ay f Nor ed s, r s on cru t t ave W gen m eal d Sin he wræcon ic ic sith, th at eon ic lf H un he a ic e ic the w tha H a alin t idsth , ation Hroð o ma d atin Sa h ic eir with wæs ro wæs p ce nd sh th wæs som H bu wæs eor wæs f ce hist kin dum re ave io um nce d has re m n e ” th wæs thgar, sto xo eor ra rk. ed n Sea gula war t toge g in sin ty id th gd n Widsth is ote or ces if his wn gar g e th am ape a ond b ond rie Gra to ey ond , ot se ond th Again, whic ond iven om. Tolkien c Gea y) ce roun en acurt consite an r io onsite in . s e Beowulf n ed o her crops) and wer uncle is rs, maticu eph ther n, n. fit va m Sy the the ars m m tum m This the inu d Heað or suhtor heold wicnga beh Hrothu id was we nguar toge id a le aft cg id id t it th d he whole migr e to d is findg trave w S pre um requ Winedu eir and in er W date Deanum f ar and ar same cy wæfum list or b ther r ref obea not N d Hroth is on y i e ærn bo e s, the g fæd sent d f lf bigd ati o t may ailure, ht, Hen t er n ir le he of in neph rth cyn his wou mo dy of who lengst “invta writen ot es on y r with clin um rd by in r Hrot to the we ulf list, poems. a Inge stae an, ha Sea. a m o ving gest, pa so be n, na perio contie ld f t the ed ew, was lot he a d and kno peo the rt: ca me hulf en t fou þr ym. io ld d at do to th to of n The part of sea n” riven hel migrate d d ond ond þær ond ond ond ond ond ond wl fragm a speculatio e a nd pe th tedio wn, is t Eng go w les our u hink nd ntal e story Da h d en p e ople dge pro (an Jutes o al in mid mid mid mid mid mid mid mid ic f f kiln find around d ne a land. defat of or knowle us se entary Be Eu a s he o baly d b d histo of (a f eag packin a far poem but so the owulf len to rope S H S æn þrowend H G wicngum. Heo g conflit, had knew lo a th uþdenum. weordwerum. body n, It eflg reðgo eaþ Hr Eng as at rical gth, ng posibly e w enum. g dge, kin the is Rolf history. but rot. . othgar’s eþ rote ben migraton. least in we g oreamu. wher the We impo time land a or ah; al No of sour up um. tum, it the Other Kraki, lot bu m know, um, in tradionl sem can the the rth ovemnt temp dis fro rtan t com to of Latin, Exetr more ces ther so m - Sea se places not sto th n ora - until to tha ek e - at - note that Britain, even in 1080, was still not up to even half of its Roman- times population, so there was room for people to settle, and given that the peoples on the continent were growing and expanding, others appear to have been pushed out toward England. The archaeology supports this hypothesis to some degree. We can track Anglo-Saxon-Jutish burials as they start on the coast and move up the water - ways into England over the course of the sixth century, moving along the Thames valley, from East Anglia into the interior, north from Kent and the south. We also get the idea, though from somewhat unreliable sources, like Gildas, a historian, that the remaining British kingdoms were relatively weak, even in Wales, where Roman culture held on longer, and by around 570 there were enough English (Angles, Saxons, Jutes) to form some kind of grouping of tribes to fight against the British. The big question is how much of this was conquest and how much was filling a vacuum, but regardless of the background reasons, we do know that by the end of the sixth century, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes were established all throughout England and were thinking of themselves as one ethnic group and one language, though not as one people. The Migration had come to an end.
23 FOR GREATER UNDERSTANDING
Questions
1. Why is Beowulf , a literary text, helpful for understanding the history of the Migration period? 2. What happens in the Finnsburg episode of Beowulf ?
Suggested Reading
Niles, John D. Beowulf and Lejre . Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2007.
Other Books of Interest
Chambers, R.W. Beowulf: An Introduction to the Study of the Poem . 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Robinson, Fred C. “History, Religion, Culture: The Background Necessary for Teaching Beowulf.” Approaches to Teaching Beowulf , pp. 107 –122. Eds. Jess B. Bessinger and Robert F. Yeager. NY: Modern Language Association of America, 1984. Tolkien, J.R.R. Finn and Hengest . Ed. Alan Bliss. Eureka, CA: Firebird Distributing, 1998. Ward-Perkins, Bryan. The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization . Oxford University Press, 2006. E E R H T E R U T C E L
24 Lecture 4: The Conversion: The School of Theodore and Hadrian
The Suggested Readings for this lecture are Bede’s The Ecclesiastical History of the English People and Henry Mayr-Harting’s The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England .
In this monastery of Whitby there lived a brother whom God’s grace made remarkable. So skilful was he in composing religious and devotional songs, that he could quickly turn whatever passages of Scripture were explained to him into delightful and moving poetry in his own English tongue. These verses of his stirred the hearts of many folk to despise the world and aspire to heavenly things . . . And although he followed a secular occupation until well advanced in years, he had never learned anything about poetry: indeed, whenever all those present at a feast took it in turns to sing and entertain the company, he would get up from table and go home directly when he saw the harp approaching him. On one such occasion he had left the house in which the entertain - ment was being held and went out to the stable, where it was his duty to look after the beasts that night. He lay down there at the appointed time and fell asleep, and in a dream he saw a man stand - ing beside him who called him by name. “Cædmon, ” he said, “sing me a song. ” “I don’t know how to sing,” he replied. “It is because I cannot sing that I left the feast and came here.” The man who addressed him then said: “But you shall sing to me.” “What should I sing about?” he replied. “Sing about the Creation of all things,” the other answered. And Cædmon immediately began to sing verses in praise of God the Creator that he had never heard before, and their theme ran thus: “Let us praise the Maker of the kingdom of heaven, the power and purpose of our Creator, and the acts of the Father of glory. Let us sing how the eternal God, the author of all marvels, first created the heavens for the sons of men as a roof to cover them, and how their almighty Protector gave them the earth for their dwelling place.” This is the general sense, but not the actual words that Cædmon sang in his dream; for however excellent the verses, it is impossible to translate them from one language into another without losing much of their beauty and dignity. When Cædmon awoke, he remembered everything that he had sung in his dream, and soon added more verses in the same style to the glory of God. Early in the morning he went to his superior the reeve, and told him about this gift that he had received. The reeve took him before the abbess, who ordered him to give an account of his dream and repeat the verses in the presence of many learned men, so that they might decide their quality and origin. All of them agreed that Cædmon’s gift had been given him by our Lord, and when they had explained to him a passage of scriptural history or doctrine, they asked him to 25 LECTURE FOUR 2 6 b e En fo En b Ch n d e fo we we Te p to L a th th a o “ Fa Bu Ch Ab ef no ecaus ot ra d, er at nd f cu u m e o story th r g g r r o r in u r n ad Cædm she And ab Ju do it Apo h bl h submi at de in sang t o and w i tul ther ca i e t ove rmou od s r Ch pro more th h li li sti endr se re gh e t f ist ext ear eaven a n th sh, sh he i esi to dge e Ch a a bes vi ri ti on Ge n i a c cen ev rista a ian a n n e t o he ba la ng ng o r onve st sed ns, d ers se hea of I n, te nd d d f hap ath sto m wh o rista rd of S Ir il, nes sly nd o ngs ment o the ha les A bly comp t n ity r s ne o tur on ish t. ar orn f o E r . i was erd ng go ed thu t ral ry t b ig er it n t en v f tu on t I n him ve he p ng he Aug . tha rived in ro o rsio .is he n w ory ut ie ha en, int leg ht in ns, en H and s eith lo od f and it rn o ing fluen tha e to to s. tr , m ad l s s le given pr ish Ro f n l , e L H d -S t d th t w o a ica he ed ad n ed ke ustine him . t red he th wi fro o Cædm t ord arn the eli a ro St. als regula ur er. di e . wickedns po n o For nda om or e v axon with jud man of nd the or it y e ted Po ers h nig s und a tial, m tio ab histo h ghted ned fo io h ld, sib re o ing, ang ’s nd ad ev c ga Alban u th is ise t o you ry n, Cædm g urt o f etr th o ando mad e n p rom We r In o- history e we e ming t nized of i excl r hist Christan on the adm how , he e b nstr if tr ments ly t in m it h nt ry, ible y.” po of Britsh Anglo- car o and e e discp the re lsh v Can a he ona , tha centur into co , atmen e ilu thes, his ery g or ory instr pular I so th ye This h the nati ucto sr rave it m Christan on lent they me p of ap co ign secular sytem, we e many stor strae steri ar terbu i ael’s of ains any m ed it nto begin and God such of Sa a uld. the line, py first society ucted was on, re, sho rs ity story y. em rival to 20, the an t vers y go he wanted God, him of xons of delig death po into So o of ry, s Bri departu cultre d was H an P or othe He Ch ha ws a f m the rea co and Christa asion, the ds and lif e oly ems in C H listed an ta y chu d in dep rep of and elod int when lite d mp ristan by e æ g. colapse us from el, his p l a ht, in t not a a d human r g . hey t the ble con l ro an Spi firmly o dmon, nd he , s it dou rches i This events . esnt, th osed as on w ven more th althou ious th the an th an ly m au to re d Britan ndig ent hich e R nity rit the other version. most at events pag wer at e ised earl ble the mart d ad religo d dienc. have esurction, Ang from y such is , Comunity ir chart t h several d, t ve and and resi had opt the ra ely o Roma ab anism he a gh e monaste y impor o h teros nd of yr in les, to rse importa in t ce ar f e spr lea as her out as hap j Egypt, s scriptual a of co Au th grac s oys us soug bur chaeol the a , Christan order in do t co bsent Stil, p ed eading and He rn tha a the e Saxo n wherd nutshel sacred erizs ir what tan gustine Englad, to pend man, nversio others ials pla ,this ed, monast wer e o Le teachi e al o ht s f nt ries, Ch third them it the f to an deligh and their ce gions t to from ns, th he in an who is to as the misona gical ristan a who g th Christany the who him. indvual e r h wher nd the ’s whole a than a , d history. ng embr turn on prexistng a kingdom of ce e and istory. Ascenio nd Last the ic to Anglo-Saxs great entry after mison Englad broth was in tried wer man, tful Conve ntury; retund the evid of the thir humbly stae. beca T love ity. German Englad perhas re Jutes his he t e ther story d ry he ren cre behad al med So story, But er, in to He with and me and nce, rsion to heart to - - of wa into wer - the cus it - ic, the s is - - In 595, Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine (not to be confused with St. Augustine of Hippo, the enormously important Christian theologian) from Rome to the kingdom of Kent to convert King Æthelberht. Augustine arrived in 597, and this year is, in Bede’s and other histories, taken as the starting date of Christianity in England. There are two reasons for Augustine’s mis - sion, one legendary and the other historical. The historical one is simple: the wife of King Æthelberht of Kent, Bertha, was the daughter of the king of Paris and a Christian. Part of the deal in arranging that marriage was that she could bring a bishop with her to England. But the legendary reason has been more influential. Supposedly, Pope Gregory, before he was pope, was walking through Rome when he saw some slave boys being sold in a market. These boys were particularly beauti - ful, with pale skin and light hair. Gregory asked someone which people the boys were a part of. “The Angli,” the person answered. “That is so appropriate,” said Gregory, “for they are as beautiful as Angels. And what is the name of the kingdom from whence they came?” “Deira.” “That is perfect,” said Gregory. “For they have been delivered out of anger [a pun on Latin de ira , “from anger”]. And what is the name of their king?” “King Alla.” “Alleluia!” Of course both stories could be true (and the historical one almost certainly is), but the value of the story of Gregory and the Slaves is that it shows how England, right from the beginning, was special to Gregory, who was one of the great popes of the Middle Ages (hence “Gregory the Great”). Gregory sent Augustine with about forty companions, some of whom were monks. The missionary converted King Æthelberht and many subjects at a mass baptism, and he set up his bishop’s seat in Canterbury, founding the monastery of Saints Peter and Paul. This later became St. Augustine’s Abbey. It is worth noting, however, that the Celtic bishops, who reasonably thought that they had been doing a decent job running Christianity in the British Isles, did not acknowledge the supremacy of Augustine or Canterbury. But Augustine’s success in Kent was followed by a rapid spread of Christianization across England, though perhaps not as easily as Gregory had planned (he thought he could also set up an archbishopric in York). The entire country did not convert at once, or without incident. First, the East Saxons converted and built a cathedral in Rochester, but then they changed their minds, gave up Christianity, and expelled their bishop. The East Anglians adopted Christianity, but King Rædwald, perhaps hedging his bets, went to both the pagan shrine and the church. Similar things happened in Northumbria. In 634, a pagan king, Cadwallon of Gwynneth, had been terrorizing Northumbria, which ended up being divided into two kingdoms, Deira and Bernicia. Oswald the king of Northumbria, who had been in exile, returned to Northumbria from the monastery on Iona and, in one of the great upsets of all time, defeated Cadwallon at the battle of
27 LECTURE FOUR 2 8 g e a ve co ca o wr wi im a Cæ a o Osu h sh p Ch typ Th h Ke Au e e p p p sio o wa Ir n O t S t a b i E a ve H im wa Cæ Cæ In So Bu en ra nd f nd b bserv el ar ad nt xamp la la ag f it ri i f n e v a e r t s e w s sh t h g th . o p rt nve n p oul y ry e th Wi e n g r n r s d e ces ces . e l t . t 6 A te osed dmon, i ds. etu t ed oci s es an kin icu t, ust sti i . in s un by ri e h sp d d Be Iris u t o 64 C su to Osw n a d i g he d H to tu i mon mon, a e y n a rtin o t s a Ch h h o d I ds lar s l h d rea O (be tem i e the to e nd e ona ca Gr cesf wea f 6 deci ne’s als h ns t ristan f e, at wh g d. e er conve y d l e i de , t C 6 a w s was told g Nor o Ro o urch ly if ald di s r use o C ego on 0, sto r f stand d n i cause h y t f an a W now T mu ples. o r ciso , f th of th h o r Hild’s ristan abo ep nd also, the he sou . man ha e t a l m b Chr Ch hitby, rist. h S m d l thu pla t e ry, e the h thin the u S h ry a Irish the o ul: it ch G res rt ison an ad d eir whet ck p b y f pr synod a w I ut ristan t o r n inte . fica th. reg ys r mb a n o ist hat ag ecau t e s o p p Inste su , h be , in he ev d g cont lon So Tha oce custo beca An to is .e r i h s p in Chur it bro d to t s O hair s s ia nts he Ch po y, a an tu The isco ory ria en lect Engla ly kin he ger ni, slig glo- n e h t p Gr nity ado Go Lind n o t s syn rns to t er d l a w ugh se ad bu in ar it ristany wa was im use way wh e use rt Penda y l d ch) co (to ea y ms, gd re the en very, th n i L h ual t, Ca ht d ventu of Eng , t Sa ed pt th the od, in port as is th ys is t nver e th the nd). t nsure at e l b a the ly om is t. wer . an d S d l a w s O a f s i d nter con ). farne s a w des em Roman it xon hosted Engla wel Grea ey cou can peol incubat the t. difer to la smilng the t pa a re ant is Cæ y . o is the aly e ted, nd Aidan, Lind of By version we gathe bury o t can calu in tha ntry gans u set ). we misonar a e n r d e l l i k n be rves gift establ , Chu t sin dm to role n Me ot nd: would a re u Anglo-Sax 60, d de and re not ntly isfarne nd y f i n by im ors in id e s pr cou interp A g came enorm peo of o t on and rcia, on la to ring cid rch n in a a actie some port in a with Whitb t no n i Hild, te ther i glo-Saxn poetr o c read (an she t ld for remov evr p u lo the Ro t r o N takes monk ed Brita the han t folw t t a b acompl he ha the t le r e v n of retd wh ant ies con e d th man of se ous les a the the d, tha ncoura d Ab Synod who y, y distnco m u h bishop e l t y, Cædm La (whic rough a Aidan the in o g r a l date cre but n sp tinue p lso king h t the n ns f th mu wa North ot ro tin ropagn d old-u difer Ro e h t h t i w as disrup the Christany th es se read e id dit Roman a i r b e ha m a sta ther t ishe s e po Latin st a dom o man of ge site nt nd a o w no Aidan and fou on n i k nd their ve pa t fo Roman ido the te d n e P he o e etry rted s ’ sign and Easter out of North t f r ts nces cultra nter n e d o folwed d tion gan, ar m o d g s nde sto n under of ls se Whitb o w t th but or wer da Irish lear pr Englad during Ve ot s. con in spirtu d tha is m to and the em chur of ry a and ovidn Irish own th the Th ne nera cultra tol isonare e Su b alowed n i k blo nig o r c o and custom vertd u tha ( God an a and etwn stand m y, o t f she cesarily nify actuly ey synod to th consera destrucion sex mon mon Li d g r e M o onastic al the s s other or custom for ble who e h C dle g be ndisfare West had came and ’s apend how and o leadrs, .y t i n a i t s i r h lives say regu English some destroy o f e b s m a i c the astery astery). Con s p the pleasur so Bed, a and th tha racties. is l th ben custom, the would on gave two e conver mo d n a lar ta tha from e r Churc, com who in e s. the fuly fro storie tha version te t mison the h two after storie the nks King eh t peol elp m and tha who the , or wa difer the a e gn i r b upse mu for new wer con nd be Isle s - s in - - - - - t over the changes to their religion, the English were building a new culture not on the erasure of the old culture, but on its integration with the new. Cædmon does not destroy or ignore traditional Anglo-Saxon poetry. Instead, he con - verts it into something that helps the Church. This is one of the key themes of the entire course: Anglo-Saxon England finds ways to synthesize the religion of the Church with the existing “northern” customs and practices. Thus the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons was not just their switching from one practice to another, but making something new out of their old inheritance and their new belief and learning.
29 FOR GREATER UNDERSTANDING
Questions
1. What is represented by the story of Cædmon? 2. What were the two different branches of Christianity in England before 660?
Suggested Reading
Bede. The Ecclesiastical History of the English People . Rev. ed. Trans. Leo Sherley-Price. New York: Penguin, 1991. Mayr-Harting, Henry. The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England . 3rd ed. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991.
Other Books of Interest
Blair, John. The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Morris, Richard. Churches in the Landscape . London: J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1990. R U O F E R U T C E L
30 Lecture 5: The “Golden Age” and the Venerable Bede: Double Monasteries, Missionaries, Conversion, and the Making of Beautiful Books
The Suggested Reading for this lecture is Peter Hunter-Blair’s The World of Bede .
This is the history of the Church in England, as far as I could learn it from the writing of men of old, or from my own knowledge and with the help of the Lord, I Bede, Christ’s servant and priest in the monastery of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul that is at Wearmouth and Jarrow. I was born on land that is the property of this monastery. When I was seven winters old, my kindred decided to give me for care and for learning by the abbot Benedict and Ceolfrith after him. And I spent the entire times of my life in this same monastery to which I was given. And with all eagerness I gave myself to learning and thinking about Holy Scripture. And while I was fol - lowing service according to monastic rules, and with daily singing in church, it was always sweet and pleasant to me to learn or to teach or to write. The seventh century was the era of conversion, though most of that conver - sion was complete by 660. By that time, England had become a Christian country, with a shared theology and set of ritual behaviors. Churches and monasteries were spread throughout the country, and priests, monks, dea - cons, and bishops were significant members of local communities as well as larger administrative regions. England was poised for its first remarkable intellectual and cultural Renaissance. The “Golden Age” of Anglo-Saxon England ran from about the end of the Conversion to the sack of Lindisfarne by the Vikings in 793. No single figure sums up this “Golden Age” more than the Venerable Bede, a monk from the monastery of Monkwearkmouth-Jarrow in Northumbria (just outside New- castle), who became the most learned and respected scholar in Europe. But there were other intellectual giants as well, including Archbishop Theodore, sent from Asia Minor at the behest of the Pope in 669 and founder, with the African scholar Hadrian, of what the scholar Michael Lapidge has called “The School of Theodore and Hadrian,” at Canterbury, which influenced English culture for centuries. There was also Aldhelm (ca. 639 –May 25, 709), Abbot of Malmesbury Abbey and later Bishop of Sherborne, who was the greatest pupil of that school and the greatest Anglo-Saxon writer of Latin poetry (and perhaps of Anglo-Saxon poetry, though all of his poetry is lost). And finally there is Alcuin of York (ca. 735 –May 19, 804), who was essentially Charlemagne’s Minister of Education, setting up a system in the Carolingian Empire that is still in some ways influential. Monasticism in England The word “monk” comes from the Greek word “monos,” which means “alone,” and monasticism had originally developed as a kind of solitary life. But by the
31 LECTURE FIVE 3 2 p te “ r wo wa o wh le g Vi Ch stu b Ha a L a te m n The im e wh o ce e “ tu wi e En cism wo a ve m c mu ea De ea do Ald Th Th Th Du So ult u osi f re ot nd at r ot nt f ach ne nd a n on on a r rg th m li ry rly fa th a Had g rld r s i r d i d d ch h in ch. ir d ates ub ch ch bacy eod e eod ds—tho i me rg r for div l i la sti rian he e ing ent Vi e astic asticm vo e reli t l in ch Sc mo ra infl ch he he Gre b i . growth Mi nse cul o ly a le eti n n of g rg a most is wer ly M lm l r ria Th th nd d a th de or or s g a ho o n E re ue we ddl E i . c mo the i an m in ra nt tu onk s m th ious nge er f e n bet L ek—th bo e also ng e e n, ng T e fa life d) wr we E xced S itae e atin oth ona ol cter ern ntial r ar of eir alt h th , d e h nu e an was na ugh m ther nglish th t. la wh ter lish power b sha Gold es ote a ks e alth Had Age o and at a an spr er in uilt ost ns A nd. p a n d d st l ster le t ist f ,” i sch lat rad o ract ve l ail d a ug focu in tha s the ey Can ery, ring d Had Theodr E arn it Lat p Ro in de wr nd ic ead a d of s a en on beca rian er imp a y an art d ngla Th po ustine t de is oub y gly , olar itons r m ful he nd twin n iter go velop ice o rived ma beh a ed in Ba co m re s ” cen ter at m d ter icu rian pular f on no e Age stra a velop an or alon a ona stic t on a o tur wer com n le mmu nall y ed pow he on me rking Ir n ch L wer in cla word an bu nd asticm the t tan or lar ho d, yone i in ’s ed clear tegic sh n m b v p me ieva xamet , of in re urch th th th d r ity ior . g disfar sical lend oe ly use a Eng m s cent plex, r er y. inf e t onaste of most mark e , s and eolg 6 Canter wor poe t t with higly nt. o s of ent. Abey. raditon eaching coner co ts. o with lu T l over f elit Ro since, tradion co Mon aste r fro f 9. site pe land tha he but of th ential boo k rect ers In m k, t ne d convlu mmu niti es rs tha me Had cu impor es and m the riod. They in fluenc monks ica onast t ries ble St. a devlop bo Latiny ne multipe bury’s le o being mo lt nd betr g ned devl ear near f ure, or began l and pr th arne losarie. conve was ria was wer women ver Aida La fol lowe d ar physical ma we Herm st creat tan of odu ctio n set ly at i a ies t ci n tin w ted, write ters, and with a mixng, oped con re what rive p d, me sm the fro compa difer least it to t n ment nd to han rose up Archbiso h rsion. puil wer e a gen wer e to presid e b m t a dieval and d siten m Englad in neutic arly eing in hea a le rs s a ct th a sen a but feats we so ent t aking t anyoe eratio Aldhem up arnig hou he an he t e fo version Europe of schol and a he o str ict was nios sto re sp and rt mething lear But s f medival cus higes d d the cal the with unt from contie uns h En se of an rea d d Gol e Latin co ermn with of lea rnin g. ns sure p lite ned. Aldh o Irish . livng . hou ses il I rul e o gland. most schol of ast, rish-nflu “h impo ver had ascetim T den n . to b some Milton) ual an the (th is t heod Dou efor erm all scho Rom nu the mixes lingu te elm, ne tha “Her tha t d monk b m eutic eir ben t writes, separt instuo ove r rtan Age ach y impo Rom acuml a ost w: ble also s, Aldhe works ore lars ate of abes of neu an inhe . poetic in istc English men pro gram med posib e livn a His s Meditran Latin The phy sica l famous in was nce mon the an rtan en Englad custom monks, ntio and robust tic , sh had to ritances man lm but eutic lev. g gine b work o n tradion aped d odre Chr isti an Englad Latin,” ut asteri, f lives not o next ly ted could of was indvu the monasti the s, ne, be in theolgy paid y it the , of for the a Latin” some en an and Grek and Their fel and nd schol (and to writ of the an wer cu ean his , to o d l to al - - - ut - showed that scholars in England, at the very edge of Europe, could be as learned and sophisticated as any writers in Europe. Aldhelm also apparently wrote poetry in Anglo-Saxon as well. Supposedly he was King Alfred’s favorite poet, though none of his Anglo-Saxon appears to have survived (or, if some of our poems are by Aldhelm, we don’t know it). There is a famous story of Aldhelm standing on a bridge where people were accustomed to go. He was concerned that his flock was slow in coming to church, so he would stand on this bridge and recite Anglo-Saxon poetry on sacred subjects to them, enticing them to want to hear more. Aldhelm also wrote and compiled a large collection of Latin riddles, possibly drawing on other riddle collections. The Venerable Bede While Aldhelm was doing his work in Malmesbury, far from him, up in the North of England, the greatest scholar of the century was hard at work writing books and books and more books, raising his reputation throughout Europe and showing that the English could write history and theology, and do astro - nomical computation (for the dates of Easter, among other things), better than anyone else in Europe. This was the man we began with, the Venerable Bede. Bede appears to have entered the monastery at Monkwearmouth-Jarrow when he was only seven years old. There he was trained by the Abbot Ceolfrith, who had built upon great work by Benedict Biscop, the founder of Monkwearmouth Jarrow, who had traveled back and forth to Rome, importing craftsmen to build a beautiful Church and monastery. Ceolfrith had made quite an impression on the young Bede, especially after the plague came to Jarrow and killed nearly everyone there: Further, in the monastery over which Ceolfrith presided, all who could read or preach, or say the antiphons and responses, were car - ried off, except the abbot himself and one little boy, who had been brought up and taught by him, and who now at this day, being in priest’s orders in the same monastery, duly commended the abbot’s praiseworthy acts both by his writings and his discourse to all desir - ing to know them. He—the abbot that is—being very sorrowful by reason of the aforesaid pestilence, ordered that the former use should be suspended, and that they should conduct all the psalm singing without antiphons, except at vespers and matins. When this had been put into practice for the space of a week, with many tears and laments on his part, he could not bear it any longer, and resolved to restore again the course of the psalmody with the antiphons according to custom; and, all exerting themselves, he fulfilled what he had resolved, with no small labor, by himself and the boy whom I mentioned, until he could either himself train, or gather from else - where, sufficient associates in the divine work. (Shirley-Price) It may be that it was Bede’s incredibly early exposure to Latin that made him such a great scholar. Certainly he was remarkably learned and produced a stunning number of significant works, including commentaries on and explanations of the Bible, Lives of Saints, and his most famous work, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People , a surprisingly accurate (as best
33 LECTURE FIVE 3 4 p d wa M p wo Co styl a m L En le b th in Ir Ju in se g Be p r th u Ag p b Go wi we ce im ise Also In Eve Be ro ir an nd in ecom et ag lo le ut i - co va id ake sh e e th p te ti nt e Stre g d e s r d d u n spel ti wh ab cam b cru m t and weapons on du e, th ca dle l orta de cti de an Lin bo he hei li e, s. d. ex rpoat ng ders isf ng s, s ty er up vi l p pred nt a sh e or e un cti l rod n n p on ” sua cur ’ t n ct en y An el ar En et, u s he of h d pl in to ap r Am ot ro Eclesiat e A u e It d p nt, a k vi tel) al on , eir tr i ty dan t M ne p sfar p Ab un gain ges: ague m ki he an of uced ict and es, duce mira so glan is Roma th is the an C ole ly l b nea as exp editon , es on his iatnu par ea ig t ndl y h h of ish o e able bot rad ce G met rich A sla tors the lai ce in histor ne ristan atre wn nc ht o exclud a it E de no bo r ospe la r d cle and al th ticular s f rta cre d ed d ster y str ty aster se at itons o tion e, Dur y b at in ly escript n m hing G is pre e rth . to s, f in for or d r e in the uc have G ase t s em w the esu sto of ospe f t th alic co Cod ilum y L som y or he are of Ceo ls th whic be ly t ha iv ms, tha tr dat er of and indsfa he in k em in of n rn of t ly ries s e y we he ut bo the ing we in one lts. in e t e the g m, M Histo im rut the Engla a ex io t cle t re eh t ls ions single M in as n w lf to as hful gu he bo hrew on on e the fir lu re th or rith s go n ir ag ta at war onkwea ks veryth it an themsl w h, ab ow s cor u is ar cal st il of thou a ve xury, b man en es aster th rne. of failure hou ke ed hows Chu er spel working ery t ry ut, . d of Britsh l out som o y t cent tha the ove de, the han Be of special Vortige sim f tha of d. how most a for and o for Bed i t th uscript. gh as nothe copied rch pt La ts and f in y f En de glowin precd fol Lind etims Britons large e t s. t of rmout t ply Bed of g gran ves of hi help hes he enmi he ter r whic peol r he could the gland deco Bible low ecnt in Isle. prob d o But be s f M to Cop Mon tel als ifern rn’s isf f m eas im r to nei on were u Engla athe st, ted bo autifl m bring Churc by aking ed f things, ls p h-Jarow arne, en The ehod. be rom mens the rated God, ably e e conside tic y ghbo onk, relat had bone the star kwearmo in ok to durin we s in t The work t . a by he l now, y ie has . vitaon n, in w, an t, Christa one oke nd. d scrib p monk ig t . ved to manu h h things runkes, e bok close b cha evry rodu story y (Shir Ald rs, a but forme s, in hing Ma e ad enmy g geth ut but de fter ceasd, by If to the riche wan Bed but of volume Ang red t u a he es tha w red, sed he by anyo rk, velopd someth the ncoru al ction. Michel uth-Ja nam l style script as Chr evn pro a of ey-Pric) sevnty- to cyle nity by, ted kin whic becam a up s G les, “the r b L the period nd year thes of English uildng mad not how the cer d of uke, olden of duce ist. ed d the ife was (altho . to as e th The the pted Britan a Saxons, row was the the difer Th tainly of finest over. ing hape the An s; rtis at Sud fo h e rent Ead wa in Eng wel. lan and Brown e at crime, wer five p rm but l an of a Age ble gles, Ir nor or En Lindsfar to it ugh erhaps s in red, Co bo mo only kep in d ish ta de frith, land sufe d’s tra to For h rae nt bo one of interl . do nds John gland. the ned rg We th dies, enjoyd with poun as 692 dex And nly ved gethr. was true). ditons the and and ok ethnic quar els, th Saxons, et inte flock espcialy has of with exa who an failng Mid ring, wen in unifed e not thin to a f Amiatnus re und in evn to ds. Engla in or plenty and not the lectua Jutes, Pictsh te the F agend, mple, e be shown the ar are it. Chestr- Latin, k only or t and al r later grou le an er and they It ri from tha The mirac Old and more - is and nd the in ps a , at - this time. We have records of the monastery needing a new grant of land to raise two thousand more cattle to get the calf skins to make the vellum to make the manuscript. And the book is not just expensive and beautiful; it is amazingly accurate, the very best that anyone could do at the time with the very complicated text of the Bible. The Codex Amiatinus was meant to be a gift to the Pope, and Ceolfrith was taking it to Rome when he died on the way. The copy ended up in Florence, where it still is today. A ninth-century copy of this book is even today the personal Bible of the Pope. Alcuin Bede was the most respected scholar in the world during the Golden Age, and we see that Aldhelm, coming from the school of Theodore and Hadrian, was the greatest of Latin poets in Britain. And the reputation of the wealth and power and learning and artistic achievements of England spread throughout Europe. When Charlemagne, the great emperor of France, want - ed to improve learning in his empire he brought an Englishman over from York. This is Alcuin, also known as Albinus (“the white one,” possibly a refer - ence to his pale skin). The School of Master Albinus was an important part of the middle of the Carolingian Renaissance. Alcuin wrote over three hun - dred letters, poems, and meditations and was involved in theological dis - putes. He famously told Charlemagne that it was wrong to force people to be baptized, and at his urging, Charlemagne abolished the death penalty for paganism. Alcuin was probably the most influential Englishman of his time on the Continent. So why did the Golden Age happen? A confluence of factors, including a long period of warm weather (vines were able to be grown in the north of England), political stability, and the ability of the monasteries to concentrate wealth across multiple generations all worked to increase the wealth and power of the monasteries, and the English were, at this point after the con - version, particularly enthusiastic about monastic life. And so, on the edge of the former Roman Empire, a shining light of wealth and learning shone out. Unfortunately, this beacon attracted predators.
35 FOR GREATER UNDERSTANDING
Questions
1. What was the “double monastery”? 2. What are the remarkable features of the Lindisfarne Gospels?
Suggested Reading
Hunter-Blair, Peter. The World of Bede . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Other Books of Interest
Bullough, Donald. Alcuin: Achievement and Reputation . Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2004. Orchard, Andy. The Poetic Art of Aldhelm . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Articles of Interest
Lapidge, Michael. “The School of Theodore and Hadrian.” Anglo-Saxon England . Vol. 15, pp. 45 –72, 1986. E V I F E R U T C E L
36 Lecture 6: The Viking Age: Destruction and Revival
The Suggested Reading for this lecture is The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle translated by Michael Swanton.
Hwæt ða se flothere ferde eft to scipe, and behyddon þæt heafod þæs halgan Eadmundes on þam þiccum bremelum þæt hit bebyrged ne wurde. Þa æfter fyrste, syððan hi afarene wæron, com þæt landfolc to þe þær to lafe wæs þa, þær heora hlafordes lic læg butan heafde, and wurdon swiðe sarige for his slege on mode, and huru þæt hi næfdon þæt heafod to þam bodige. Þa sæde se sceawere þe hit ær geseah þæt þa flotmen hæfdon þæt heafod mid him, and wæs him geðuht swa swa hit wæs ful soð þæt hi behyddon þæt heafod on þam holte forhwega. Hi eodon þa secende ealle endemes to þam wuda, secende gehwær geond þyfelas and bremelas gif hi ahwær mihton gemeton þæt heafod. Wæs eac micel wundor þæt an wulf wearð asend, þurh Godes wissunge to bewerigenne þæt heafod wið þa oþre deor, ofer dæg and niht. Hi eodon þa secende, and symle clypigende, swa swa hit gewunelic is þam ðe on wuda gað oft , “Hwær eart þu nu gefera?” And him andwyrde þæt heafod , “Her, her, her”; and swa gelome clypode andswarigende him eallum, swa oft swa heora ænig clypode, oþþæt hi ealle becomen þurh ða clypunga him to. Þa læg se græga wulf þe bewiste þæt heafod, and mid his twam fotum hæfde þæt heafod beclypped, grædig and hungrig, and for Gode ne dorste þæs heafdes abyrian, and heold hit wið deor. Þa wur - don hi ofwundrode þæs wulfes hyrdrædenne, and þæt halige heafod ham feredon mid him, þancigende þam ælmihtigan ealra his wun - dra; ac se wulf folgode forð mid þam heafde oþþæt hi to tune comon, swylce he tam wære, and gewende eft siþþan to wuda ongean.
When Ivar the impious pirate saw that the noble king would not for - sake Christ, but with resolute faith called after Him, he ordered Edmund beheaded, and the heathens did so. While Edmund still called out to Christ, the heathen dragged the holy man to his death, and with one stroke struck off his head, and his soul journeyed happi - ly to Christ. There was a man near at hand, kept hidden by God, who heard all this, and told of it afterward, just as we have told it here. Then the pirates returned to their ships and hid the head of the holy Edmund in the thick brambles so that it could not be buried with the rest of his body. After a time, after the pirates had departed, the local people, those who were left, came there where the remains of their lord’s body without a head was. They were very sad in heart because of his killing, and especially because they didn’t have the head for
37 LECTURE SIX 3 D N i d N 8 m a le r e kin En wh ( Sa th a p En t l u c t t t a w y r e v N o e h ou 75 t a h T Wh n I nyw qu lso ut s e n a t r o a i g e w r o y h a i g e w r o a t s ad e c a t g n i e b g xon g g e d e t ani h c la “Wher Hi c t ju bec t any t h bac t in pi T nd 7 t s i u g n i , e r u al Go e r p h h h h ame la li s l e h ersh at ar lasp , h e . – he er is me y e h t may s k c i r sh y st a ra em e ro e Som in nd 7 s tru i t s r i f an i ri n m y, k aus t l the a r a bod w 96 En y g o e c o m d tes G m . h g ug as d , o e so l difcult a . , En uid the als ed en lo ip to d her c al u o bu h d d l o n ca king ir u h ), d O s n s n h, t r e w h gland m o h T e e c h heir e e er, we t t s a r a gr y g n i nti had ave acl va ho gland in he g n E t fa . led t d n b t b r A ance cted . are he w of th th e y l e. he o t n d i t a n a T m a c e th ept e etw p d ani T ge e n cum f dom l me ent .es ” n e e w t y he e at cus , e l r u I wa o t u q hen e d n a l g n E G neigh the th w th , d n a l d t s a w la . , e r e h t M and g A the n i , yo f wo o bu y l e t mals or k o y od wea was . Le en in th as o e The ey e id the ) e t o ut of s e n a D p er s wit t to s, But , 9 8 7 od , e u f o og eop po sh lf ey o t Vikn the the de d so cia , h the e h t for m God he if caled cam l l a now, bo u a q n o c ker ead a i g e w r o N h n E .s h c i h w king who y r e s i m eth his b es litca also . wolf n a l g n E nd fen Of a ntil hid y e h t O ns g y is le Th rs, them En a d d n b a witnes a w fou t u o s reat n a l g d n a fa gs and fa Athelbad e er , ar t ( sur two am ding whe wer w do wi be to r e u e , t u o fr glish t a e h the w be to s ’s ed nda hile. f hey o and devlop r o m e l l i k to then peo iend?” ol wed e l th m roun g atched gan h d ong ut pr n o o s tha s e W d n a coming br suce the , d .d e e th r n paw r o w d o t be not o ag ea head a w o tions t otec s n asto the am e e d came Of f hem to the t t d n a O f w o o c ding t to to n E th le Cha s ho M so f i n g i s s d t o l b . m i h f ho fa s d n a inst m e d eat o f e h t b t And (7 . cou e m s ose ercia answer p nished increas tlemn, ments ” g n i k i V “ o wen efnd the king d n a l g over ly les in d e w o l l ir , for The sucef e h w c a e d h s d o tha alon 16 the saw rlemag and e r I to kingdom ied, acle the signfca a m t hea h T n a D rse, y l t n a c i the o t hem, who t – ,wods troub t the d n a l o e it of n 751) becam stro wo tha s i searching g head . r y t r , l u f , d e n a the th head th se suceion d, tha as t a e h T wods . ) s e at Northu wit the to hat p u a w emslv. u j head lf at ne of o l th in ngest has m o d n e le a d n a and ul e t n i , d n a t the earli hea t s them and w if ntly ten h s l a c s t it y b alowe anki result b Vikn , power a o lat l g n i k i V . d r o N adr e in as okin t bu a e m an oth t t semd hey e h u t c e l l wolf long he e h t d, wo th o d answerd er then mbria m f o g n E n I e e r so t go th wea gredy d hei t and n a i g e w e r o and and as gs esd n w g e b p en h day on. mewh lf’s . t S s n 9 8 7 t g event a l l o c d could he e v i m of s r ead e g r an d n a l pro be nto was y l l a almight o kend often m for th at ost riche e k c a s h everywh p s k c a t t a e h t tecd g n i n n i u m d E gu the wer At also , e w had la d an is ight e t a r i e to blems t n e s p as the ck and s e e r h e the a s sent, ard him er. po m o c cks, wolf the son d t n find , t s a o c ventu , d e c n a v d a h caling t said t st as d n e if th hem: ca o n have im, d many werful mater th u o d n w i a f o G f y ight it kin anship f o h he beg in e g n i ling e h t Ofa d n any e y b s p i h s and leadrship od: in o t turned ungry, God tha t d e aginst hroug no x a S - o l g n A head tha as aly d ( lden e h t a only gs o t was Mercia “H e l i h w ing e o d ht o b atcked . y r e v ta e r g d e b i r c s e from le o of o t it Ther the in k s a out, of of f h ter over gn i k i V for er, d n a fo the was Age the ead and re og s Anglo- but dis es o l c to n eh t al me h t al as of - left sur - an ni - a monasteries of Lindisfarne in 793, Jarrow in 794, and Iona in 795. This was a huge shock to the English, but the sackings did not substantially damage the rest of the kingdom (though they obviously killed many monks and nuns), but by 835, Viking attacks became more regular and severe and happened every summer. Then, in 865, the Vikings stopped going back to Scandinavia for the winter and instead stayed and occupied England. Their great army started conquer - ing kingdoms and settling people in the conquered places. This army was led by Halfdan and Ivar the Boneless (whose name may mean that he was born without legs, or that he had a disease in which the cartilage of his legs never turned into bone). Ivar invaded East Anglia, conquered it, and conquered York (called J o’rvik in Old Norse). In 869, Ivar was probably responsible for the martyrdom of Saint Edmond. By this point, the kingdoms of East Anglia and of Northumbria, which had been among the most powerful and important kingdoms in England for several centuries, were gone. In 870, Vikings captured Reading and were getting ready to invade the next important kingdom, Wessex. But Wessex was better organized and man - aged to defeat the Vikings in one battle. However, in 871, a new army land - ed and defeated the Wessex army near Basingstoke. Then the king of Wessex, Athelred, died, leaving his younger brother Alfred as king of Wessex in a very bad situation. King Alfred King Alfred was one of the giants of English history in a variety of fields, military, political, intellectual, and artistic. Alfred’s father Athelwulf must have noticed that so many of the other kingdoms, including the great kingdom of Mercia, were being torn apart by succession struggles, and Athelwulf had four sons, which could have caused significant problems. But, wisely, Athelwulf arranged matters so that the sons were to rule the kingdom in order of age, causing less fighting over succession (it helped that being king of Wessex in this era was not a long-term job, because the kings kept getting killed or dying). By 871, only Alfred and his older brother Athelred are left of the four broth - ers. The two brothers engaged the Vikings at the place called Ashdown. The Vikings had the high ground, and Athelred’s army was late (one source says that Athelred was having Mass and being so pious that God later smiled on them). So Alfred, fighting like a wild boar, rushed up the hill to a small, soli - tary thorn tree and led the defeat of the Vikings. But two weeks later the Vikings beat Alfred and Athelred’s armies at Basingstoke. After this defeat, Alfred had to pay off the Danes with tribute, but this worked well, at least tem - porarily. The Danes left Wessex alone and instead invaded Mercia, killing King Burgred. Now Mercia joined East Anglia and Northumbria as a previous - ly great Anglo-Saxon kingdom that was now destroyed. At this point the large Danish army divided itself in half. One half went north and started building settlements in Yorkshire. The other half headed to Wessex and attacked Alfred, but Wessex managed to put up enough resis - tance to convince the Danes to instead go to Mercia, which they divided up and started to colonize. This was, from the point of view of Wessex, a good
39 LECTURE SIX 4 0 cr Vi Vi o e Ath a co wh fo p b b th u a r a r m b th In An We Gu En n d a to sm ca th ed eq Alf Bu Bu ut ven lt lu y ecaus te nd bl ri eg ef cou ed ad r a a i kings kings: oge ul ng, usi d 8 At g g e al s. e thru the n d t e uce ui stori se elf re t t ges oti blo 86, li la d n i e at w cro he l t me by i re a. col ne er n R n d ru læd n n la a Vi th a f be ed a g o o x, m d ki d d u l t s ted May a ng l ps T twor he ney nd s Dan ha er 8 r ed n and king dshe p ra e W ng He cau l d t his fr t the so 93, and a the sa e o cting he rying at . esr to l om d ilt a gre g rson re in a a He lo ser for k vin s od in ish was, shire s bu y se of kile a fte for an the captu wa d. the se rds Da E of wel rea le ed at nea co tion the ve g ilt m tha ngla th r y tifcao e n to th ft A tlem ar s, s n fina d veryt el he acked u Mer th ade eir given En lfre e a to e es al t down my in beca and ld r r t her of bu as mid ven re e econ a m r hu ar L yea glish b nd f o the d pro d of h ent cia d, in co ond an t e cin an my hing was to wn e his ge usb also h ns Ha L . me bu unt b a a t r, co le ag alowe a n ad te qu on im to serv. fy g ap whe o alince nd navy hu sud d o c we Alf mpsh ilt to Kin an ct ncludi o n rd emn his e able ry. er don ompet efns f at only kn not tized g f ge storag Da u red , mu pro d from re and od th reby g lost own a p the go d d en, e to nes simply Athe and batle. to ir Alfred centra int ch to ied, tec forty t p gath e vernm m and it rota for g in with fight eopl arm terio , th o the ors defa the a e t arshe o fo strong. o th kept s e in th lred. f so physical f ovatin storin erd r men ted acilt su at M to th y, Vikngs e l Dane for also 893 To the first defn im t locati ent, he ercia, M e ry. rend West it to acept t bu s getin proving peo Athelfæd, ercia Wes Dan him, save was ie at hi Mercian in g Vikn take t Kin def Al set s s leaving s Alfre de m as Somest one fre er in he instead elaw. n. Midla and men eatd g le g ilta bet but a up end his gs Alfred care d to wel. the o ld gainst sm L x th the d ma f po ocal h ry a at also them. s, he rough on o Al o own ad from nds, aler. r mor Alfr towns. in n nly d more Lady e rkets, a kingd of ma Chipe Al t quipme t. fo o stil to , t Eng u built as very he l invaso a ed an p use their cale e cusing stop life rying b al a ndowers the Kin Ne the b his ut th ble- d se d of land. om complex h eing o , esr a Thes ove large ings the ad ac verth r the g the a, nham eastrn d th familes, the g ar network nt for a Alfred odfa u e h odie befor on saved r my. gainst ording y s, ves anexd works p Tr and is m Da Mercians, loca Wesx storing els, gave Danish half ue, and daughter wer setling from in ther. nish liked d and This a e for part had men 87, homes, the lot Englad. of rathe th the they or to he up sheltr this leadr distrb landig god e They der sur this, of some with army of and to had avil we East r - fle re - - e - FOR GREATER UNDERSTANDING
Questions
1. Why was it difficult for the English to defend themselves against the Vikings? 2. How did Alfred save England?
Suggested Reading
Anonymous. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle . Ed. and trans. Michael Swanton. New York: Routledge, 1996.
Other Books of Interest
Sheppard, Alice. Families of the King: Writing Identity in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle . Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004.
41 Lecture 7: King Alfred and the Rebuilding: The Rescue and Consolidation of a Kingdom
The Suggested Reading for this lecture is Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge’s Alfred the Great .
Ða ic ða ðis eall gemunde, ða gemunde ic eac hu ic geseah, ær ðæm ðe hit eall forhergod wære ond forbærned, hu ða ciricean giond eall Angelcynn stodon maðma ond boca gefylda, ond eac micel menigeo Godes ðiowaond ða swiðe lytle fiorme ðara boca wiston, for ðæm ðe hie hiora nanwuht ongiotan ne meahton [ond þæt wæs] for ðæm ðe hie næron on hiora agen geðiode awritene. Swelce hie cwæden: Ure ieldran, ða ðe ðas stowa ær hioldon, hie lufodon wisdomond ðurh ðone hie begeaton welan ond us læfdon. Her mon mæg giet gesion hiora swæð, ac we him ne cunnon æfter spyrigean. Ond for ðæm we habbað nu ægðer forlæten ge ðone welan ge ðone wisdom, for ðæm ðe we noldon to ðæm spore mid ure mode onlutan. When I reflected on all this, I recollected how—before everything was ransacked and burned—the churches throughout England stood filled with treasures and books. Similarly, there was a great multi - tude of those serving God. And they derived very little benefit from those books, because they could understand nothing in them, since they were not written in their own language. It is as if they had said: “Our ancestors, who formerly maintained these places, loved wis - dom, and through it they obtained wealth and passed it on to us. Here one can still see the track, but we cannot follow it. Therefore we have now lost the wealth as well as the wisdom, because we did not wish to set our mind to the track.” (Keynes and Lapidge, 125) Even more important to Alfred than his military and political victories were his religion, his love of learning, and his spread of writing throughout England. Alfred’s work laid the foundations for what really makes England unique in all of medieval Europe from around 800 until 1066. Problems with Sources It is important to begin by noting that much of what we know of King Alfred’s childhood and young life depends on sources that are, to one degree or another, problematic. The most important of these is the Life of King Alfred by Asser, a Welsh monk of St. David’s monastery who wrote the life in 893. The manuscript of the life was so badly burned in the fire in the Cotton Library in
N 1731 that it is now illegible. Fortunately, it had been transcribed in 1554, E
V 1602, and 1722, so it is not lost, although its manuscript source is now a E
S block of burned and solidified material. E
R For years, various historians have questioned Asser’s Life on the grounds U
T that Asser was trying to make over Alfred into a kind of saint. There is a level C
E of skepticism that we need to bring to bear on all biased sources, and Asser L
42 is no different. Some of his claims are likely to be exaggerations. For exam - ple, Asser suggests that Alfred was destined for greatness and religious piety even as a child, accompanying his father on a trip to Rome when Alfred was only five years old and being anointed by the Pope. The anointing is almost certainly not true, because at that point Alfred was the youngest of five broth - ers, but it is possible that he did accompany his father on the trip and meet the Pope. Then there is Alfred’s malady. Asser claims that on his wedding night, Alfred was struck with some illness that caused him severe pain and stayed with him between the ages of twenty and forty-five. Asser says that Alfred had “piles” (hemorrhoids), since he was a young man, and the malady might have come from them. There is some circumstantial evidence that this is true, as there are a number of remedies for piles in the medical texts that seem to come from Alfred’s time period, and there is also a story that the Patriarch of Jerusalem sent Alfred a white stone that could be used to make medicine. But elements of Asser’s treatment are questionable, because Asser has Alfred being grateful for the affliction, thus making the king seem like a Celtic saint who undertook “good” suffering to make him more holy. Also problematic is the story of Alfred’s reading. Supposedly his mother offered a beautiful illuminated book to the first one of her children who could learn it. Alfred, dazzled by the beauty of the first illuminated letter, learned the book fastest and received it. However, later in the Life , Asser says that on November 11, 887, Alfred began to read Latin, and there are other state - ments that he couldn’t read English until he was twelve. This all seems con - fusing, but it can possibly be simplified by interpreting the first instance, with his mother and the book, as Alfred memorizing poems that someone else read to him, and the story of the king’s learning to read and translate Latin in the same day being representative of when Alfred decided to do this, and the not reading English until he was twelve just making sense on its own. But regardless of the specifics of his childhood, we do know that by the time he was an adult, Alfred was a lover of Latin literature and also of Old English poetry. Supposedly he kept an enchiridion, or handbook, into which he had his favorite poems and prayers copied. The medieval historian William of Malmesbury may have seen this handbook, and it seems to have still been around in the twelfth century in Worcester (the monastery with the best-preserved archive). According to William, Aldhelm was Alfred’s favorite Anglo-Saxon poet. But William of Malmesbury was from Malmesbury (hence the name) and so was Aldhelm, so it is difficult to know what to make of William’s assertion. Alfred decided that literature and learning, both in English and in Latin, were very important, but the state of learning was not good when Alfred came to the throne, as we can see from the quotation at the beginning of this chapter (although Alfred may be exaggerating somewhat here). Alfred saw himself as King as being a kind of priest or shepherd for his people. One book that was particularly valuable to him was Gregory the Great’s Cura Pastoralis , Pastoral Care, which tells how to be a good priest to a flock, but which Alfred took as telling how to be a good king to his people. And in order to be a good king, he thought he needed to enable them to read.
43 LECTURE SEVEN 4 4 p e a if tr a ( ve th Sa r im aco ea Alf Im ar xpl nd nd a a i p ngs ry n xon, o b a wr a n i f e c a e p t i K m f o t t A Th Ecl Th Th Gr t n a l f u H o c t t Pl h w for i T c E de t d p re orte lo sla n d n e i r r h e h eh y m e h n e l l a r e h m e h ain are w w of he nglish ro sl and e d n i r c p rd t d g n d l u e cay La e e e s it h g u o gm n e d b m o vi rose w w tio of a g u n hi ed h o e p e s a e ich a s e esi d i to a So H C w, ng e r c ory n rit o tin t ord, n i l A s d n ed whe of ns, h so , f t e wr e h w t ist ons sch g ly I g u wr t und o b r e his r a h h teach wh t astic is a r f l l p be en a m o f f p e b il e h o e s t d th wr u o this ory versio P o d ref d e r ite. wo the o thr t h wro w e l h t l s n t a t w in t sur as olars a i y cause n a q e n a aking work a c r i th n h t I in h t i nd it,ing t l my put o h cr h uies ace a a o o n th o t tora r w a e t oughout La I i of e t a e E Alfr e m d E Gre m te prisng d i e kingdo o r b tion d n b eb l Eng his re ey e s i n g n ; s H d i some mo . w t o d o c n tiny e s r o th a ci h l g Old fro o yd e me e e t His w a m isto ed ,lis a r a r o ; m o d s i n i k o ke s a d a at’s k o f l e it wer then cou r a l u c d l u chbi of n a m lish d n a f a st d n n i f r o f r e t t e l m s i b m o d s i w d l g n Gr re World s y St. mbere y t i the r ny n e a ry En m o d g f i cir ti Philosp ; d .g ea d o G o m r c num e rt nd the actu La quire Pastor , ecnt eg s r e d n u s d i b p o h t o n n a mes E f ; d o G sho d n a we of t t a h t I cle d n a Augst . glish eb yd n o lized impo d n a the r e h t and ng to he rr o e d fir tin ory’s . b d n a i m o r f con . ber n the eg st n a p la tran Aga s d then d h t r e f r æ W vernacu se ly yu o ,g n i n r a e l texs h t i w l l a h kingd En r i e h t e r e h t e d n a re oh an impr nd d n a an fity rtan ho p d prefa tha k n i h t tine, nse n a t English ; s o s l a l hy of r o f Pa eopl don search) i g inst sl d s i h w Care L , n w amon lis o t d n a h t pro ; t u o an h e them at n i t a ove ca e t Psalm f by storal lr y e m and d oh om h t anot rom fo av op kn an e ces e w h e oh n k m d t r i e h t lar f o duce he e r w “She e Boe b H r e into such wr e ow d to oh w an ye ; s r e t s i n i d n a wa ,g n i h Latiny. se o t n i w y ow d n a s g n i k turn g o t h t Peopl . re b m u a her e sem n e m h to Asse l P a learn t Alfred d Care: Alfre n th ledge ow e wr e r e g a e e l g n i s s y vr e m e thius ngua a e b many s l a u t i r se Engl phe n i h t i w ma t a h t th ing oh w e gans on pp a h y as way E t u o b a the , d n a e th . other r s i l g n r f d e t e e r g o h w d just ny e S to a r . Grimbo my Dialog , ey them w e f m o ge u o r h t ish of by But d-book d n a o t i th Te r e h folwing e h t w o h t e n o wo new kne ha b o oh w r p m o c us vr e ay n i co La r i e h t as y ; h f tha l l a bishop Bed ey n e h t e h t a the d a o r b a vario ve n o uld such th r c a s Oro t t uld w ,h s i l g n E ti b into to d n a h I h t u o s y t u o h g ues langu lea es d e r e p s o r p h t egan n h t i w ld ey had be we wr e s i h t s e m i t peo bo ,” how n e t f o wo le y t e l do b e siu ha d a h d e b us st a so en En ro a n i a t n i a m e ok tra I s e c i v r e s nd works rk: on w a n e d this, le met ei l ve b e in age e m a c i s ,s r e d nd an g n oi l v rr o e d use f o his d n a l g n E glish. t le nslatio able ap o s t fo o arn op wr e c e d J wr e h hat his r o d a h d m o h t ohn alredy r e rm fro imes proach ful. u m pro w e f ead and (L m ed f o e n i could in h t o b a e presnc s o t to is s e atin) erly m It anif Th n d s i w de e d n a gram ta h t t s ns: the d e wr e Her eh t h t whic ta h t i ca d fo read sem h t ovre Alfred t o t word , se m a ne d te g fr os l a lled b old t si ht i w spo was Old provide and e h m om o mo ri e ht is of y h ke e to a s Grimbold my masspriest and from John my masspriest. When I had learned it I translated it into English, just as I had understood it, and as I could most meaningfully render it. And I will send one to each bishopric in my kingdom, and in each will be an æstel worth fifty mancuses. And I command in God’s name that no man may take the æstel from the book nor the book from the church. It is unknown how long there may be such learned bishops as, thanks to God, are nearly everywhere. Therefore I would have them always remain in place, unless the bishop wishes to have the book with him, or it is loaned out somewhere, or someone is copying it. (Keynes and Lapidge) Alfred also translated Boethius’s The Consolation of Philosophy , a text that was also translated by Chaucer and Queen Elizabeth I. His preface to the Consolation explains his translation strategy: King Alfred was the translator of this book: he turned it from Latin into English, as it stands before you. Sometimes he translated word for word, sometimes sense for sense, so as to render it as clearly and intelligibly as he could. (Keynes and Lapidge) Alfred put in place a program of vernacular literacy in England that was unprecedented. Whether he did this because there was no Latin is not really relevant. What was relevant was that Alfred required nobles to read at least in English. This improved administration, but it also built up a base of people who could read in English. Alfred thus laid the foundation for the great accomplishments of the tenth century and did much to make England the one country in Europe where the vernacular was more important than Latin.
45 FOR GREATER UNDERSTANDING
Questions
1. What are the problems with accepting Asser’s story of King Alfred learning to read ? 2. Why did Alfred translate books into English ?
Suggested Reading
Keynes, Simon, and Michael Lapidge. Alfred the Great . New York: Penguin, 1984.
Other Books of Interest
Frantzen, Allen J. King Alfred . Woodbridge, CT: Twayne Publishers, 1986. Yorke, Barbara. Wessex in the Early Middle Ages . London: Pinter Publishers Ltd., 1995. N E V E S E R U T C E L
46 Lecture 8: The Years of Reform
The Suggested Reading for this lecture is Michael D.C. Drout’s How Tradition Works: A Meme-Based Poetics of the Anglo-Saxon Tenth Century , chapter 3, “The English Benedictine Reform: A Concise Summary,” pp. 61 –73.
The Battle of Brunahburh Her æþelstan cyning, / eorla dryhten, beorna beahgifa, / and his broþor eac, Eadmund æþeling, / ealdorlangne tir geslogon æt sæcce / sweorda ecgum ymbe Brunanburh. / Bordweal clufan, heowan heaþolinde / hamora lafan, afaran Eadweardes, / swa him geæþele wæs from cneomægum, / þæt hi æt campe oft wiþ laþra gehwæne / land ealgodon, hord and hamas. Letan him behindan / hræw bryttian saluwigpadan, / þone sweartan hræfn, hyrnednebban, / and þane hasewanpadan, earn æftan hwit, / æses brucan, grædigne guðhafoc / and þæt græge deor, wulf on wealde. / Ne wearð wæl mare on þis eiglande / æfre gieta folces gefylled / beforan þissum sweordes ecgum, / þæs þe us secgað bec, ealde uðwitan, / siþþan eastan hider Engle and Seaxe / up becoman, ofer brad brimu / Brytene sohtan, wlance wigsmiþas, / Wealas ofercoman, eorlas arhwate / eard begeatan.
Here King Athelstan, Lord of earls Ring-giver to warriors and his brother Edmund also Won life-long glory in battle, by the edges of swords, around Brunanburh. Those heirs of Edward split the shield wall Hewed the war-shields with the leavings of hammers Because their nobility came to them from their ancestors, They defended the land against each of enemies, Protected the treasure, and the homes. They left behind them, enjoying the corpses, the black-feathered one, the dark raven, hornbeaked, and the gray feathered one, the eagle with the white tail, to enjoy the feast, that greedy war-hawk, and the gray animal, the wolf on the plain. 47 LECTURE EIGHT 4 8 We y r e v The le Ath wh in Ol p e Wa a ca ca a cr b p Ath h h Fr Ath o ye h Al b o o e b g th wh we a An t A Th Ed Wh Afte ayi d nd ol ut ave ou f im ecaus rd f rf y ra nd ct va ow e fe fr o a l l ar th We u g e e l i a t s l e h the the T ma e he i nd se elst les ed m ed’ l elst elf ure f tica is r se ward nary se w no ref l lo re—th de ng n en ela , dg es t e a a he O n Gu r t n i mo he b so rti læd son, -Sa re s p tha se ed lf the al t s Da ke rig or Ath e o x a a rebu an he ru l, one ower re Eng t ti r e t Al stic i a th wit l ribut els lvin r en f n n’s nks o ia fr om on m. ’s was r and pr le t n in Ed xon nelaw, in W t s e d lder x. fr a , ren frith ,s of ha cult elstan com nces, destr er po h At lies, iest) La ed oldest s s a w tho s la int ild thr g se esx 926 aco mo ov A ward the e s e s to d e th led wit ewd helsta i nd. o fina dy word now n th lm son, E in o br n th e d oug was er to plet e u f t re the ma ng ms u ot at ie g h ght th n i ost p a othe stor he on t an conq c V Co mplish o ctio and ha he him. ’s beh So d a o o Me son e la f ea hou ikn p be ely r ke wa cia s c i l e r secu n e r a p King me ,s f d f to n, a focus the in rob a the lf cousin nsta nd was, im of sou mewh y En Eng n Re st rs, -king e bso th rcia. ave si n pivot wh s l ue m gs ha a 8 n of ro t me wa of , a suce. th re le en had glish nd 9 the Me Engla o re form ore th s a t ntie, uted of re ce , en ve lan lute t houg m. ver y l t n a to e the his so s ent. diately m was on “ , gr ea Athelsan al d re th er , and while by the rcians, W Dub his Athelsan r d ore try d obje bo m Ath Athelfæ a a Edwar uling roug No eld ly we power t b elit nothe el Vikn h n his n i h emb was King ht Th atle o uge in no Grea te King d cru to sh , son, e west lin elwod e rthum ks like cted t u a e b think r his tha e r t x is p br o hout the ther enm , of pres house one La sl shed rope g to a re- te to r victory Athelsa Ed is at rs nd t” au and m of Edw Age fathe d sm a l y l e m of tiny, ha the a stre North—sc , e he to l bria, creat ma the d onks. t a tha gar, l u f i o almost die, gh ter w realy , han u o the string ies. wa En d f al ea se them f Ath p ,s his ho an secu should ard Elder ke ngthe th of an la Wes b r period k o o b a, ge gland. s th e p for and it “G Scot en a whose e d was ce Al T elstan’ in n Engla s u o i d cla d a the nd Mercia The to wa r on the he to Chu h . olden f n of rity, d t al red the a hi fo r A ad ca he F n im. par id se . s also raised roun s, a when s contes s ruling ir ng le enor th i pr poem inhe x, lian olars Eng h C El le of of Refor rch ek st, By on n e H We part o gl Eogan English. most was. oblem tnerd re But ot der, d. s who wn d the En Age” s i r or y, was e d taking extn th e i t is l s rit 9 mously ce la g houg lsh (cathed Bru t ju ia ther s u h o ve 37, n a n a i t Wes in gland. do m with nd ti he an d st f t nd Ben l We tok signfcatly for me he a was ma se Br it rnacul Edwar rebu nab absor an Mercia of gainst of of p with de e not de Ath a was iz e t n e s eriod , g n i k th e The the the th nd d rks whic , eve was do was a in Strahclyde on s feat ove impo the ral he dictne rone Scotish ildng d elstan x. a telcua, dynastic urh his his reco Sa xon s kiled throne. gre no throne, r d’s the t s i h power ed , T , r cano Athelsa solidfe hi s r a was a a more son the pr wi t , hen literacy t d n rtan nd the siter, I rule a push and mistre, know nquer by hig ou d a by began nd la nd Reform, had e h b st n e g Vikngs later e h was ns of ena xactly y king he W kin th likey Alfred, of towar ca me He so split, alied miltary, , Alfred’s one war p point by and sa w e n e . ext and who bled made gs olitca, as pa sex. polit ev dom tha the and was this pow - rts d of to nd n of - - - throughout Europe to collect relics (sometimes buying them, sometimes stealing them), and he then bestowed these, and beautiful books, on church - es throughout England. And although we do not know if Athelstan could read or if he was learned like his grandfather Alfred, we do know that he brought some of the best scholars in Europe, like Israel the Grammarian, to England and supported learned men like Oda, Bishop of Ramsbury and later Archbishop of Canterbury. Athelstan’s court was an intellectual incubator. In that court were two young men named Dunstan and Athelwold who were made priests, supposedly at the insistence of Athelstan, right at the end of his reign in 939. As best we can tell, both young men came from powerful and rich families and were influ - ential at the court of Athelstan’s successor, Edmund. But somehow Dunstan got on the wrong side of some powerful people and ended up being bound and thrown into a cesspool and later exiled. But King Edmund then had a near-death experience at Cheddar Gorge, called Dunstan back into his ser - vice, and made him abbot of Glastonbury. Dunstan then brought Athelwold to Glastonbury, where the two of them set up a monastery on Benedictine lines. For a number of years this was the only monastery in England that strictly followed the Benedictine Rule and observed complete monastic discipline. It was also the heart of an intellectual program that has only really been understood in the past twenty years through the remarkable scholarship of Michael Lapidge, Mechthild Gretsch, and a few others. The key to understanding what was going on at Glastonbury in the middle of the tenth century is a manuscript now in Brussels: Bibliothèque Royale, 1650. This is a copy of de Virginitate by Aldhelm, heavily glossed (that is, someone wrote explanatory words in between the lines of the text). This glossed manu - script shows us that some people in the tenth century were trying really hard to understand de Virginitate . They thought Aldhelm was really important. We know now that this group was led by Athelwold and Dunstan at Glastonbury during the time those two spent there. What Mechthild Gretsch calls an “Aldhelm Seminar” developed at Glastonbury, and the effects of this seminar on the curriculum of learning and study in Anglo-Saxon England were enor - mous. The seminar was so interested in Aldhelm because he was learned, complex, and sophisticated, but most of all because he was English. They had found, in their own past, a master of Latin as great as any on the conti - nent, so they studied him and modeled their own Latin after his. Thus the “hermeneutic style” of complicated Latin came back into England. But at the same time, due to the Alfredian program of spreading vernacular literacy, a parallel development of English writing was going on, often with the Old English being written by the same people who were writing the hermeneutic Latin. Dunstan and Athelwold spent some years at Glastonbury studying Aldhelm, thinking about how to perfect monasticism and, probably, doing some quiet politics. Then in 946 King Edmund was murdered and his brother Eadred became king. Eadred loved Dunstan and called him back to the court. But something was wrong with Eadred. He often missed the witan , the meeting of counselors or wise men, and must have been ill in some way. He did last as king for nine years, though, until 955, when his nephew, Edmund’s son
49 LECTURE EIGHT 5 0 , d n o Ath a a p r le m p vin th 9 ( Ath m m o o F n r e v w wa Ed wa in g d E u c o d y r a r e b sa kin th so Ea t l a s i v e d i B d l e h l E i l p r u h c y e n o m e r p s g n e h ep Ath n e h T Ed Ea At te nd ar ri 60 f e s k r o a l e ar ad ost e e s y me me G e a r g d ced s s g t ve. p o h , l t elt elw e h ga dw Ea t t aced st mp , n Ol l ca s k n o m ri y ar, wi r a e t a h w elwo he e e n i a r o a l u c a , s e h c d a a o m a ma rathe an t n e m e d n u Dun ed m i d e t ) p of l p hryt r p d he g r t so re Bi w e n d ig f o On nt ol u t o im n o m t b le Kin w who d e h o t e p pu , h t f o w de d o M d n we ( eca an se ar ’ sho d, a , ase ld s some n g ho e. stan d l A set for th Eng ig d a r r inster on a i r r t o m e v g ivng m o W Fe c u g s r e e k i l sho r h t d t rfu kin help ’s ha em u o f wea n a s k e f e y b r in h t t e Dun me ced p e we ha o o m d, E h r t a l f f th n o i t u bru the a n h t r o lish d cor yal h t e o l r d d m l e o c r o g cha of dga e r n o was p rt n a f o time n s e c t A en d h t chur f a re with a l e r e me i e m k, a awy kin be s n o i t a d s n u n , s e i r e t s o n stan s t , n o s a in lo a nd h n o i t a n o r ar r Winch . s a be e s o s i g e d l o w l e h . d s e l u r cont s y po eign f g n o r t s im rge r not exp nat an . r e t Edga . s e c a l p com en n i y f o the n s r Winche g. s s n u n ma m s i c i t th se to en chm Du we Ath t 19, , d caled ch to s e h e h t em io t a f l A n e w in s f o c Arch of mo f o give de n o M wa women Me nsta g e tau t r tud t a h t hur le n estr ased en e h elwo re r en ve h c n i W . d e r n a b h c i h w 964, a l g n E th n i K e u l f n i unity e n i e c f nks. to ime d s ehind tu n a a A ea t rcians t, ght s a w e r ying ch n em. e B ster, bishop t u o d m s i c i t s a t th in n o rch the the n a l g n E r e t n “ rn u o w en and g d Al-F ld , st a B a f e r s a w o r F the e was n e e w t lands, Wulfstan Englad an s by d E ,” Athelwod ’s u D e c n to of bishop force . d n a e t s e s i h diately h t cler b mona low , h t mo a d n u o ea whic d l th e supoe d o a c e m mo learn n o m and e clerks r a g the nus At air” eh t a t s n f a son e a Oda rly su b n I nks d n a ks d f o y a w t , r n s i h t helwod poi p r i e h nks. e r m s , their 7 9 and ef den u banq stic s a n i becau 7 9 a h t u g e R e r p Nor as n u D n ed b a a c i l p p a of are r e d n s n o i t e . brou had nt , ormi at fr x u l f 0 t u f of x i m r e t exild fro n i choie , 3 o t m o r an t n e c r u c om t 957 Canter Ath d a claime dly more a be thumb re of the ntl re u r , n a t s e r e w ly Dalh uet. G d n y m r a g d E r e s d s i r a l ght be n e r u t form f o se o f - o u c i r having form t a the n when y o r h t n o t s a l elwod the the , g Bisho s r e h t a e n Winche e l b Nuna en 3 7 9 r Ead e v b o e p n i d n u ag i T : eti s i h mo Eadwig back mpul abo y a l rians. d bury. h t A o n ref con o c n o C r o h s e m, o h g u t e s New mo at f o tradion red ideas. . d o G t A t n i o p u r p l l a a th b ther wig e l p wa he t a in. p y r u b orm, o s l ut , d l o w l e Fleur impro t u d l o w l e h r a e l , y e n t nastic su at vert m se g f o he minster, o r h t u o c Cyne g n Dunsta ster s t t u ’s was He M In monastic a n o o o t n i o s l a rvied In d n a thes e v i e c e r and ai d r e d sup a g d E a l g n E a g n i n king’s inster his n a youn but a This n a l g n E l i c n to 963, h g u pea of r e t e P y), 95, perly, wen aly d e l i a t cathed , c i t s sige t a e r g r a d o m pose , n i d l i u b e r b e c n e u l f n i Dun eforms her a cham a a e h t n a eing chil r u h t a g a t a d n clerks ger d n a , d n a l g n E ha s nd puting r At t rs t s a n g at Eadwig and R d h g u o r o b un d n a d w to poisn a r e t s e h c n i W e v a stan daugh d an re s dly pend helwo ev, . s m o t s u c d, , d l a w s O t n e m e e r g a r e w o l f a not s a w , n i ral the ent Winchestr . n a t s n u D brothe king ber monks d n a the by h t i w form. d c i l a i c e p s becam Athe t so wer u r g n a l and e h he to next and d after , e f i l clerks, Ab wer d e l u r to mon n .y z n e r f ld ing ter Eadwig k o o t and die g n i y b t han ha , d gn i t t u p eh ae d i con lwod y b bes “ fir dn a was enjoy or dn a da e l Edgar eh t getin at ve year, t the T astery st f o ce s eh d the a ye h T p - yb o eh and king sa w - the fo oe re v at ti l - - - - FOR GREATER UNDERSTANDING
Questions
1. How did the leaders of the monastic reform impose their vision on England? 2. Why was the work of Aldhelm so important to monastic reformers?
Suggested Reading
Drout, Michael D.C. How Tradition Works: A Meme-Based Poetics of the Anglo-Saxon Tenth Century . Tempe: Arizona Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 2006.
Other Books of Interest
Dumville, David N. Wessex and England from Alfred to Edgar: Six Essays on Political, Cultural, and Ecclesiastical Revival . Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer Inc., 1992. Gretsch, Mechthild. The Intellectual Foundations of the English Benedictine Reform . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Lapidge, Michael. Anglo-Latin Literature, 900 –1066 . London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1993. Yorke, Barbara. Bishop Æthelwold: His Career and Influence . Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer Inc., 1999.
51 Lecture 9: Anglo-Saxon Literature: Religious
The Suggested Readings for this lecture are Michael Alexander’s The Earliest English Poems and S.A.J. Bradley’s Anglo-Saxon Poetry .
Eala earendel, engla beorhtast, ofer middangeard monnum sended, ond soðfæsta sunnan leoma, torht ofer tunglas, þu tida gehwane of sylfum þe symle inlihtes! Hail, Earendil, brightest of angels, sent to men over middle-earth and the true light of the sun, brighter than the stars. You by yourself brighten every moment. The next three lectures are about Anglo-Saxon literature, possibly the biggest contribution that the Anglo-Saxons have made to us. This literature is remarkable for being in the vernacular (Old English) in the early medieval period: almost all other written literature was in Latin at this time. But because of Alfred’s program of vernacular literacy, the oral traditions of Anglo-Saxon England ended up being converted into writing (this was not as simple as scribes just copying down oral poems) and preserved. We owe much of this preservation to the monks of the tenth century, who made (at the very least) the copies of most of the literary manuscripts that still exist. We know that many manuscripts were destroyed in the millennium between the tenth century and the present, but it is also the case that manuscripts were not common items. They were expensive and hard to make. First, cows or sheep had to be slaughtered and their skins tanned. Then people had to decide to use this leather for manuscripts rather than for any of the other things leather can be used for. The leather was then scraped, stretched, and cut into sheets, which were sewn into books. Then inks had to be made from oak galls and other ingredients, and the books had to be hand written by monks using quill pens. Every manuscript is slightly different from every other one, even if they are copies of each other, because every scribe had different handwriting and made different errors. We can actually identify individual scribes from their handwriting, and we can figure out where manuscripts come from because different scriptoria (centers of manuscript production) wrote in different styles. There are five great poetic codices of Anglo-Saxon poetry (a codex is a manuscript book):
E The Junius Manuscript N I
N The Vercelli Book E
R The Exeter Book U
T The Beowulf Manuscript C E
L The Paris Psalter
52 These manuscripts are all collections of poetry. Other single poems are found scattered throughout the corpus of Anglo-Saxon texts. A very few poems exist in more than one copy, but most are unique and utterly irreplaceable. Form Anglo-Saxon poetry is very different from English poetry alter the Middle English period. Rather than being organized around rhyme , the poetic line in Anglo-Saxon is organized around alliteration , the repetition of stressed sounds. Although in Modern English alliteration only counts repeated stressed consonants, in Anglo-Saxon any repeated stressed sound, vowel or consonant, could be used. Anglo-Saxon lines are made up of two half-lines (in old-fashioned scholarship, these are called hemistiches) divided by a breath-pause or caesura . There must be at least one of the alliterating sounds on each side of the caesura . ofer middangeard monnum sended The line above illustrates the principle. Note that there is a natural pause after “middangeard” and that the first stressed syllable after that pause begins with the same sound as a stressed line from the first half-line (the first half- line is called the a-verse and the second is the b-verse). Anglo-Saxon poetry was not written out as half-lines with space between them, however. It was written like prose, with only a few ambiguous punctua - tion marks to indicate emphasis. Scholars figure out whether a passage is poetry or prose based on meter and alliteration. Anglo-Saxon poems do not regularly rhyme or have a refrain, but there are a few examples ( The Rhyming Poem rhymes; the poems Deor and Wulf and Eadwacer have refrains). Much of the artistry of Anglo-Saxon poetry comes from the interaction of the allitera - tion and the meter with the content of a line. A good trick, taught to me by Professor Tom Shippey, is to pay much more attention to those words which alliterate: they often give the most important ideas in a line or passage. There is very strong evidence that Anglo-Saxon poetry has deep roots in oral tradition, but, keeping with the cultural practices we have seen elsewhere in Anglo-Saxon culture, there was a blending between tradition and new learning. Thus while all Old English poetry has common features, we can also identify three strands: religious poetry, which includes poems about specifically Christian topics, such as the cross and the saints; Heroic or epic poetry, such as Beowulf , which is about heroes, warfare, monsters, and the Germanic past; and poetry about “smaller” topics, including introspective poems (the so-called elegies), “wisdom” poems (which communicate both tra - ditional and Christian wisdom), and riddles. Religious Poetry “Cædmonian” Poems We have only a few named authors in Old English. Cynewulf, whose poet - ry we will discuss in a moment, King Alfred, who wrote a few short poems, and Cædmon, who wrote Cædmon’s Hymn . Although that short poem is the only one that can be definitively attributed to Cædmon, for a long time the cowherd-turned-poet got credit for a whole class of religious poetry. Usually
53 LECTURE NINE 5 4 sa El Ju Cyn th R wh a wo ly n Cæ “Cy a Ch u b b p ( th Sa th Fr M L 1 m d Ge o th styl Cr Ge c n e t u f o c o r f E an Fo Ge Th i d o l l a lso am nd nd ib od oe uci 89 ed f ot o x e il at e e a en a or do ges li e a h t m xon i ton r r l n nes ir t e d M vi d an ch nci e d e ica r e ki dmonia i ati ched ersto y t 4. ucti tex, gre n n u d ew ne sti fer e c esi ed ry, d i t e co mp a U i he ctor esi fa o t ng h t from anki Old n n t O on ha s Th t a l co a s a s wu , s an kne t ot te u is l ha i at t ul e o t e h o c l p aft i l se n , nd er i n o m d æ C o d s Junis, ort nclud ure lf n ru n ome ng ra t th uld ar d A is e m d n a ies e h t d to i B know som t ide dep E ms. lfi sho m used Sa d a er the w nes , was the ey line c i l b i b “ ant ction lin u T n th n key re d/ b s ean an th wer time , b phr se he glish b e l a G xon Cyn s (t s e es wi J at y ict in w Cynew . l e i n a D e e spe e s . not G c e j b u Exet s, s u i n u he re ” en in acr r the r o s co Ge g an ase e Fa pa l the o sa an io equ inte t od so 2 b wh Poem st hat to no l a ewulf, f a how o spe l a 35 eing n be b nfir Gen ything in s i r h C os e s u a c e b crife rt l tes the d si rm rigna er of iblca An it a h ole t w s a r h p a r a p d sam rch o est s t poe he Ang h con dut nd the is c s u n a M irect t wr f med ulf m cif anic o Bo ap the ca e s e h T B glo- ke o lin Sa esi s a as s un ang nam ay wo t f ic 8 fo i t y). athful o ms Lu ext e ve lo-Saxn is pens l, le ok. bilca y wil es the 51 n a a of ne ta de r par a poem t de Saxo A stra wh rds ru be when bout e h cifer aspect d an rting ed praye Exodu . n is e. ng reb fur Isa of rstod t of nes, t Her of T picton Gensi e h Apostle a r aphr ile in t p i r e o p pas tha a b i b he tegy, open to (we in lo The e ther Gen when Gen elious the d ns Cynewulf have Par ver them -Saxon t s i l c. the (line p source n o i t i . a a be rs l a c i l s m An s whic s m e o is po the re a do sor frag In te esi se se only dev in esi of adise fo also nd, f o and qu of the glo-Saxn ot an s xt s et are e r a staine 18 a r n i term into row i a p the B C her p p Anglo-Sax ” , s thane in estion, e o p 1 details ment ry t me lord/th arphse oems) , hri he in B exa 75, Fa name h tran bu a d l O lopmen if p a r to use wer the four o f , w ad re Lost h t same excp lines th st you an s sage: s m ng w t l autho as 234 d n u mple d e s e the a r h ian ar slation e sig of , a of of e g n E both Verc con idom s wi “sign d ane , a like but e p trop d a h t s a separ by pr the i an way. nifcatly he e s roces, ivd fo t of an philog t p n i t im th thin y o p use tra r h s i l id oets o of sumed th und t roic, Milton. soun “R he w n es th se t d Old relat f plied. n o of e o p e ed” s m e he ed li Angels, sin e B nslatio at of er tha th one g at d p 8 Th tling a U e v e th Bok, certa f oem 52 te e e d wh rom he nd in ,s Rom a in poem, in , s m S folws: Cynewulfia and d ionshp t e f o e comin crea e s r pr ist underst to e r La a the o was of the Anglo T difer en va to by kin bilca “ v i g th xon ut oces e h t signe l l e t hus m inly An is thre tin Edua . an c n i th e lues and “Cynewulfia,” 29 a into ting prid etal we s e T al sh Vaticn ,g an e nd mo d now glo-Saxn g y e h tex. g r o p m i p 36) d u l letr uty k we -Saxon. ep the with “ t a e r oem, nt the c n i d” od over l new signed” use e. in rd and insprato Anglo-Sax re Christ something of mail groups: story g n i . in e r e w se of cale his the s e d u l Whetr He Siev Sievrs giv er easily taking ru s, much t n a t o p in poems: th to its today?”). nam L servic whic e n e G nes over but po ibray e ne section deu Ang fro ci t e in d I We edito a p letrs ems r o t s wario rs’ of n a m and the m es, as bi r t t n and from they Latin, of lo- the ,s i s real for ced - new the se i in r - y by - (Cynewulf) await what he wills to decree to them according to their deeds as reward for their life Cynewulf will tremble and temporize, miserably anxious. … I pray each person of humankind who recites this poem that, dili - gent and magnanimous, he will remember me by name and pray the ordaining lord that he, the Protector of the heavens, will afford me help, the Wielder of powers, upon that great day, the Father and Spirit of consolation, in that perilous hour, the Judge of deeds, and the beloved Son, when the Trinity, majestically enthroned in oneness, throughout the radiant universe shall adjudge to humankind, to each man his rewards according to his works. (S.A.J. Bradley) Similar in style to Cynewulf’s poetry, but not “signed,” is perhaps the great - est Anglo-Saxon religious poem, The Dream of the Rood . ( The entire poem is available online at http://anglosaxonworld.com.)
The Dream of the Rood (excerpt) It was years ago, I still remember, that I was hewn down at the edge of a forest, removed from my stem. Strong enemies took me, made me, for themselves, a spectacle and forced me to raise up their crimi - nals. The warriors bore me on their shoulders, set me upon a hill. Many enemies fixed me there. Then I saw the Lord of mankind rush with great zeal because he wished to mount up upon me. I did not dare, against the word of the Lord, to bow or burst, though I saw the surfaces of the earth begin to shake. I might have felled all of my enemies, but I stood fast. Then that young hero, who was God Almighty, stripped himself, strong and firm-minded. He mounted upon the loathsome gallows, mighty in the sight of many, when he chose to save mankind. The Dream of the Rood uses the trope of prosopopeia, when an inanimate object speaks. The genius of the poem is the way it recasts a key moment in Christianity as a problem in Germanic warrior culture. The cross is the thane and Christ is its lord. The thane is then put into one of the double-bind situa - tions that the Anglo-Saxons found so fascinating. Its two duties are to protect the lord and obey the lord, but the lord has ordered it to assist in killing him. Christ himself is envisioned as a warrior, not a sacrificial victim, mounting up onto the cross and embracing his death. And the imagery of the poem is also original and striking: the cross alternates between being a jeweled, glorious vision and a blood-soaked instrument of torture. Thus a central idea of Christianity is reshaped in Anglo-Saxon culture. Prose There are about 30,000 lines of Old English poetry and about ten times that much prose, and the majority of the prose is religious. We focus on the poet - ry, often, because it is so beautiful, but we should not forget the prose, which was influential and obviously very important to the Anglo-Saxons (and, it turns out, the prose was more important than the poetry to those who came after the Anglo-Saxons).
55 LECTURE NINE 5 6 p An a te Sa to p m ca a m p im h L Ath Eyn stu to Oxf te a a Bu He Ho ur d osi nd hr om at nd nd isun isun r n p l h 1 s, g xon d in th po ase elmær ord bo orta t i mil is 01 sha lo ti ied i t Wu t a li alt w ra he b ona (t ce lso se -Sa e der der tea le ie ritng sh hou nslat En s. k h nt m, of , l with ntu two fsta s oug o a to ir o l sto sto xon cher wr Ælfr gland r f the nd ar ate e, f wa a gh ites, ry. writng be s ote K i n, sked e o h most Ath wa in nted so whic d d ns. wh ic he Old ntio se r an Ælfr wer f gs elig rom , is a the tra s wr elwod, was o rm th nd d co For f Bish why pro or was e Testam ditons, ote to di ic er ious wa th ons, Lives uld fr h th t b hat e some was le om ave in lif exa oth s e op t ma t was p ar a he ic he r to wr the t conv re ead le o p g n us, m h a Athe o ny o sent eopl ent. itng comu vious son uide writng—h a one style Ce omilst. nd f ften mor ple, also nd se S English), hom also) rne a resp luted, cond lwo But fro e i was in to to d go he of genr would a eas ts to a ile m in nicate ld tea . behavio ten bout grea ectd his Ælfric di But and ’s be Ælfr th phase s, Do t her he ch e of e gr ation. Old so exp more n gi get rset t m Christan we m the men st eats ot ic, th schol de what ven writes onks wa he ost arte e r. ound wa Eng of the al th should chur Ben Per s when at com e on poul o the nt utic d alwys wer tenio and lish f wron Ab pu in of a haps edictn imp anyoe moral of ity, n g Ben L Winch Athelm nev . il O pr ot Anglo- ar i perh atin o sion ; ortan g to b n ld ose he this ut o id kind worie (a Ch them dictne and f English r th eas aps he nd Eynsha lived to estr, mon ed fo t is ristan at ær S cone writn of rget think a do could th as fr d wa n Ælfric rel , xon ks writn ey om uns—the th fro ctrinal tha R igous difer whe s prose tha e g efo rn m th doctrine m wil tha prose, so his not lay on er. in for he g to rm about re ent impo for ge ma in homiles o the patr write read truh par would he n ther of t Anglo- ot m the as ters, Ælfric tha the rtan bil and h on ajor 95 being s. - ad mat it of be is - - FOR GREATER UNDERSTANDING
Questions
1. What is the characteristic form of Anglo-Saxon poetry? 2. How is Christ’s depiction in The Dream of the Rood uniquely Anglo-Saxon?
Suggested Reading
Alexander, Michael. The Earliest English Poems . 3rd rev. ed. New York: Penguin Classics, 1992. Bradley, S.A.J. Anglo-Saxon Poetry . New York: Everyman Paperbacks, 1995.
Other Books of Interest
Gatch, Milton M. Preaching and Theology in Anglo-Saxon England: Ælfric and Wulfstan . Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977. Godden, Malcolm, and Michael Lapidge, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature . Cambridge University Press, 1991.
57 Lecture 10: Anglo-Saxon Literature: Personal, Wisdom, and Riddles
The Suggested Readings for this lecture are Michael Alexander’s The Earliest English Poems and S.A.J. Bradley’s Anglo-Saxon Poetry .
Mæg ic be me sylfum soðgied wrecan, siþas secgan, hu ic geswincdagum earfoðhwile oft þrowade, bitre breostceare gebiden hæbbe, gecunnad in ceole cearselda fela, atol yþa gewealc, þær mec oft bigeat nearo nihtwaco æt nacan stefnan, þonne he be clifum cnossað. Calde geþrungen wæron mine fet, forste gebunden, caldum clommum, þær þa ceare seofedun hat ymb heortan; hungor innan slat merewerges mod. Þæt se mon ne wat þe him on foldan fægrost limpeð, hu ic earmcearig iscealdne sæ winter wunade wræccan lastum, winemægum bidroren, bihongen hrimgicelum; hægl scurum fleag. Þær ic ne gehyrde butan hlimman sæ, iscaldne wæg. Hwilum ylfete song dyde ic me to gomene, ganetes hleoþor ond huilpan sweg fore hleahtor wera, mæw singende fore medodrince. I can tell a true song about myself, speak about my times, how I, in days of suffering, often experienced hardship, had to abide bitter breast-cares while on the sea, amidst the terrible tossing of waves . There, the narrow night-watch has held me at the prow of the ship, when it tossed by the cliffs. My feet were bound thonged with cold, bound with frost, chained with cold, while the sorrow surged hot around my heart. Hunger slit from within the sea-farer’s spirit. A man who is happy on the land will not understand how I, wretched and miserably sad, have for years followed the exile path on the ice-cold sea, deprived of my kin, hung all about with rime-ice. Hail fell in showers. At times I only heard the roaring sea, the ice-cold wave. At times the song of the swan came to me instead of people’s laughter, the gannet’s cry and
N the curlew’s song in place of the mead-drinking. E T
E Anglo-Saxon literature is unusual in the early medieval period not only for R
U being in the vernacular rather than in Latin, but also because it includes T
C poems in so many different genres. In the previous lecture we examined reli - E
L gious poems, and in the next we will discuss heroic and warrior poetry, but 58 between these extremes there were other poems that do not fit either category well. These include “personal” poems about loss or suffering (often called “ele - gies”) as well as poems that seem to preserve traditional wisdom (“wisdom poems”) and another genre the Anglo-Saxons seemed to love, riddles. The poems in this catch-all group often have religious content, but they also con - tain material that seems to be non-Christian or pre-Christian. Most of the poems in these categories are found in one incredibly important manuscript, Exeter, Cathedral Library 3501, known as The Exeter Book. The Exeter Book was copied toward the end of the tenth century, and there is some debate over where it was copied (though the best and most well- argued research, by Patrick Conner, places it at Exeter). The book almost certainly was copied at a monastic center, so it is remarkable how much seemingly secular material it contains. The most celebrated poems, the so- called elegies (“The Wanderer,” “The Seafarer,” “The Wife’s Lament,” “The Husband’s Message,” and “The Ruin”) certainly contain Christian elements, but they also seem to illustrate the experiences of people who were not monks, warriors, and even women who experience suffering and discuss it in a personal style that is unique in early medieval literature. At the beginning of the lecture I quoted a passage from “The Seafarer,” a poem which suggests that people must be “seafarers” in the world, willing to sacrifice home and comfort for the love of God. Another similar poem is “The Wanderer,” which also depicts exile. But while “The Seafarer” suggests that exile can be good for the soul and can and should be entered into voluntarily, “The Wanderer” is the lament of someone who has been involuntarily exiled:
The Wanderer (excerpt) Often the exile waits for honor, the mercy of the Measurer, even though he, heart-troubled, has to row with his hands along the sea way, across the rime-cold sea, to follow the paths of exile. Fate is fully determined. So spoke the wanderer, remembering misery, the deadly slaughter by enemies, the ruin of kin: “Often I must lament my cares, every morning. No one lives now to whom I dare to open my heart, to speak clearly. In truth, I know, it is right for a man to keep the spirit locked in the breast, hold close his thoughts, think what he wishes. Nor may the weary-hearted withstand fate, nor can troubled thought help much. So those who seek respect bind their sorrows fast in their chests. I, wretched, far from my home, away from my kin, have fettered my heart ever since, long ago, my gold-friend was wrapped in the dark of the earth. I, miserable, passed away, suffering in the winter, over the waves. Near and far I sought the hall of a new treasure-giver, a lord who would love me in return for my loyalty in the mead-hall, who would comfort me after my loss of friends, provide joys to me. The Ruin (which, ironically, is burned and damaged in the manuscript) is a lament for a city that has been destroyed by time. It appears to refer to the 59 LECTURE TEN 6 0 cr h it cit b Sa a h Th Wu Wul The The er y p er simpl it y xon ica a It h c I We T W We T F and n er F in wa T I br po wi t wa h And it st we e ea l l o of lf omes ast o o ir her hat he im o o h f s r ma f i is orc ul Wi o R Wi ve ve th w. se t s l their eams , es av st and ves nd re. rs bri Bat an ad int y f i uin ar ar f as ro p I es n if is par r, fe’s n e I gold m was fe’s Al e by is t r eri lac sat gh d e e . new erp o . ef m lon are wid k he h, who w b th w out y . if Ea I wa y ion on un un ing E ( ut be w ate . ,ng t th aite over had e , ex ith th lor La at Th my adw t L ret rs , ged t com ar enclo he w dwace e s e o is like. like. t am ado e ,s an ce an th dom her fro laug men is is ep s d at u to ation to chan a d m me g p b p o rp on is s s lan I d acer the d ear ent n m oint t ro f es isl achin or fo nly is eopl e rne a s h ro or s epar ot t) in su s ol ek . t hte o ave a ken r row p ar t d, r ,ong se and, a with op. . The he nel te ,g d, is g h h (excrp th re recious the na is jo d The o e f ray t wrap er im. ls r- itng atio f ted y, when . at ag a I with o sufer pr p s so tu have to hu view a That have . f t oint I ston husb fol w step th and y t a oba e ral red we The sto Roman am ns p l m dawn ngr a e loked tr ped iles wa y t) tr thin any ab hot op. sto ne sto of e t bly s of ben the ed o was was and wo on end easur wal y f on of wal out ,ing view a ry by of nes—ad e u m spring tor ,g fr th ways ab ano war vil ntil m m wom ba u by clever , and en to om o ls ston up e given .fens how my sur red me y out ust f a ,es kinsfol. ths most stod o m nd a ther. a ri Wulf. on on the f h r an: whose nt or to sor e woma e, major prou be a since ou wher is tha somewh my in si tha also prey: they wher re woma i ro laid peo nde n e lver, on miserably En owin hig When ad t nigmat und d my ma it city It n I island a this gland ple, y hu an his let h, this my g is w the h on n’s n of e rew whe g once sband po d ho or an . .xile-paths on who then arms re self bright it over . crits. ic y lord f ,gems a kin . iled d . e ha (th mbigu was wil l r up—n els The y poe e aprt t . wher o h . ha he s ough I schemd flow f the ap y w,as the is arou can ben two m with destroy s rainy cit o stream in se ous wil n bec eve in bath play in y Englad) the par nd it and tel wealt poems th men over Old wine, separtd t is ome r poem weathr, destro y he e ating me. s hot more o what po baths s him so flowed wer f English. ecrtly world. h, brigh the the sible pre I sh in on tha her : e went if mis than one Anglo- gnat in he t t from from no tha - It Wulf, my Wulf, it is my hopes for you that have made me sick, and your seldom-coming, and my mourning mind—not at all a lack of food. Do you hear, Eadwacer? Wulf will bear our whelp to the woods. One may easily slit apart that which was never truly joined: our song together. Another genre much less respected by modern critics, but apparently popu - lar among the Anglo-Saxons is the “wisdom poem.” These poems seem to codify traditional wisdom and mix together Christian and Germanic wisdom and ideology. An example of the style is this passage from Maxims I :
Frost must freeze, fire melt wood, the earth grow, ice bridge, water wear a covering, wondrously lock the shoots in the earth. The many- powered God alone must unbind the frost’s fetter. Winter shall depart, water come after, summer heated by the sun. The unstill waves, the deep paths of the dead, will be hidden longest. Holly must be burned, the inheritance of a dead man shared. Judgment is best. Riddles The Anglo-Saxons also appear to have loved riddles, as there are nearly one hundred of them in the Exeter Book and a few more scattered in other manu - scripts. Traditionally the riddles were thought to be a Germanic genre, but more recent work by scholars like Mercedes Salvador has shown that they are probably just as much linked to Latin collections. Aldhelm, the greatest of Anglo-Latin poets, assembled a collection of Latin riddles, at least one and perhaps more of which were translated for the riddle collection in the Exeter Book. The riddles often teach a bit of doctrine or Christian morality while at the same time proposing logical puzzles or depicting the natural world.
The Book Moth Riddle A moth ate a word. This seemed to me a marvelous fate, when I heard of that wonder, that the worm swallowed up the sayings of a man, the thief in the dark seized his brilliant writings and their strong foundation. The stealing-guest was not a bit the wiser even though he had swallowed those words. The metaphor works in a variety of ways, and we must hope that we are not like the moth, who takes in the words but does not benefit from them. The Anglo-Saxons, it must be said, were not like the moth: they took in many words from many books and traditions, digested them, and turned them into new and beautiful works.
61 FOR GREATER UNDERSTANDING
Questions
1. What is the difference between The Wanderer and The Seafarer in terms of the poems’ depiction of exile? 2. What is particularly significant about The Wife’s Lament and Wulf and Eadwacer ?
Suggested Reading
Alexander, Michael. The Earliest English Poems . 3rd rev. ed. New York: Penguin Classics, 1992. Bradley, S.A.J. Anglo-Saxon Poetry . New York: Everyman Paperbacks, 1995.
Other Books of Interest
Conner, Patrick W. Anglo-Saxon Exeter: A Tenth-Century Cultural History . Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer Inc., 1993. Klinck, Anne L. The Old English Elegies: A Critical Edition and Genre Study . London: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1992. Shippey, Thomas A. Poems of Wisdom and Learning in Old English . Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer Inc., 1976. N E T E R U T C E L
62 Lecture 11: Anglo-Saxon Literature: Epic and Heroic
The Suggested Reading for this lecture is Beowulf: A New Verse Translation , translated by Seamus Heaney.
Religious poetry and prose was certainly the most popular type of Anglo- Saxon writing among the monks, who did most of the writing and reading, but what was popular among the people who did the listening to Old English poetry is another question. We have some evidence that the subject of this chapter, epic and heroic poetry, was very popular. Alcuin, one of the great intellectuals of the Golden Age, once wrote a letter criticizing the reading of heroic poetry in monastic environments, suggesting that monks were in fact listening to heroic stories. And if we cannot know for certain what genres were most popular among secular Anglo-Saxons, we can easily see that the epic and heroic poems are by far the most popular poems among later schol - ars, teachers, and readers. Heroic and epic poems seem to draw from a common Germanic background remembered or passed along as oral tradition for many years (there are some scholars who argue that the tradition was constructed from reading var - ious books, chronicles in Latin, and other texts, but these arguments are no longer very convincing). A deep consistency across many different pieces of evidence supports the idea of some kind of continuous oral tradition behind this material, a tradition that would have been preserved and transmitted among the Germanic peoples surrounding the North Sea during the Migration period and even from centuries before that time. By the time the poems get written down, however, we are in a much later time period, perhaps as late as the tenth century, when the manuscripts were copied. But the poems themselves assume that their audience is familiar with a wide variety of myths, legends, and even history. For example, the poem Deor , which is found in the Exeter Book, begins with this passage:
Welund him be wurman wræces cunnade, anhydig eorl earfoþa dreag, hæfde him to gesiþþe sorge ond longaþ, wintercealde wræce; wean oft onfond, siþþan hine Niðhad on nede legde, swoncre seonobende on syllan monn. þæs ofereode, þisses swa mæg!
Weland, by means of worms/twisted things, knew suffering, the unhappy earl, endured much misery, had as a companion sorrow and longing, winter-cold suffering; often he found misfortune after Nithad laid bonds on him, gave supple sinew-bonds to the better man. That passed away, so may this.
63 LECTURE ELEVEN 6 4 o Th Th sin scr th p te q ca sa th Aft wa h Co sh wh Co xv. p b p Be th d h th u S e we p fr c V p da for as s ar tu r we s Be No We De ou l ku ce ur ro ue is ro asi ow ra ol pi oe le o ax ulc e e e e e usi ved el ug ed o o m er ce s t i t ow ipt d c , a s n f bl go s ch ll s ne ton ton c name T have ow nt ms w o man apt heroi on esio rke rke c rea d f cs erfu la me an th o an o po we he h s ht er . ems ut , r Welan n her S (A ur b ns, b r . nd ha ve , ul mi (w is ( stud was a g ul cen ir ly fr om y p l l a d e B b g in e w n t an i i ce ), l re fi n n f l hat la cr i uscr so oet f nd th . he in th br ut ot try. e tions ut hi s c Ro g ho nal is r poe nam m is n t t on beling ef tr A with s d T ure gs e he ab he pp l ea tur y is wor re a it th wi give anscr o the hi fi the In d lost p ber Gre ek in fo eve r w and had los en e by Wha ipt, n gu r scr le th su m res erve d e th ren bu the s y of th in th f e it ed clude hi und ster ou re ve n Eor if ld Beo n is ighte st or y m t by g na to te staine e s ch is va in st fo ed ibe B ( a my st ces Cot t Th the sytem bu it an ipts Ash anu fro o to t hi m a us eowu Smith r s, me me n be the lot rious op Ang of th f in ar bet nth th ei r Hep ha wulf h th at ot lar ild orke d t m nt, hav e ge , Ni th ha d, ma ent e an o our in e Br is on to the script, the bur nr of re m d wh d an d ore of ge bas ics. d we ing scho lo-Sa things ma o man we in d itsh , lf b co ns is te nt m ic am gic h his , som sle uthi ng ou scho s W fa th lin acquir . a nha ut a at r n who mea Roman e a m ina o c i see n, a ist o ke n a nd ed th letr ot pro el n th us t to s torical entur the r aged nd anuscr o h d t B) be the uscript lar u if er is xon, a it Libra e th r ero m a alwys ture lars per natu ra an th do nd th en s, up blem ns th yond wa m In has pre b kind T e time ed dr in ks ), Grim Hou ey s. ba cul ture s, st op pi ng urn ey he of ), onster y, but we aditon Ang wit who ki ll s the th fro s Beowu em caused tribes, a serv T lance aro und the so y i a odr wi th it th quasi- p h at di d owne ove . he than of h se, m re tha lot dam wou ld the am st ru ng t pu by We at Jons Old pero lo-Saxn agr Ni th h we Lond the fig can, manu det th s al manu t n r o l an d ic, it th e wh th e , poe ot ures a e infor sm f er. is fr or lf d al do in peo sou rces Nor have magicl we hi m was r manu . inte th ge om bits in pa bu ich b al re ad y be ad ’s rioat be at Vitelus, But sup co en ig ma t ith hi nt s with e r m y script, he not ap es the script ples, se have mation t arou , from twen rtwined, least fr om i py, La the una ble er stored T ca nt of it (t he nev er fig Bri per mu erhu ther most script horkelin, so ns , Völ unda rkvi ða quite ersti does uren fra gmen ts ea ught frame the ur an d t a nd the left power n). iod ltipe ish an d and no histo wa it nd es ca pi ng ) ti c kn ow e, ch te n under man and histor abo was edg exp lain s re ce the i ar in Unfortu mpor to (xv). co fr ag me nt s belong s un ng ma ke s Libr fire and idea pa ss ag e, not o thes do ns so im pr eg na te s kings, e ar ther, le ry cop is a gna te mak e s. Nowe derstan ut tha feats? e mu ch who pr ma vels we ound stored ary, b in som difer s y no who dges, the Likew Befo tan, of okcase le oblems of ied to and be hi nd 1 ny cop ed or ters n way bo wl s it an 731 wher bu Ger mani c also th l, e of ately, Cotn si ed , wit h a break i are of w e with re fascint n ny Wel and bu t Deor to is. xtenh bea d d interpao ies ntiae t fantsy. wh in ise an ach in uncertai as . we the th e for fo rc ed tha the Sir Sir Beowulf sen se In employd De or to d Rom an his mixed r o hi s no ou t utifl, (caled Ni th ha d’ s aised on in o the the Beowulf , a page sube also the scribled fac t, la star n st or y Vitelus Ro “rules” Robe for way, have the Beowulf libra au di en ce kn ee s te the top of . is manu cen cul ture bert to Ang lo- g of exam m eigh into and have th ei r by ty if cap with of first - an d of rt wo rk was y tury. thi s not in of a s, in - - - A. - Things get even more complicated when we try to figure out where the Beowulf manuscript came from, and when it was copied. The handwriting, which dates from around the year 1000, does not fit with any particular known monastic house, and the poem was copied by two scribes: A, who began the poem and copied about two-thirds of it, and B, who finished the poem and then went back and corrected A’s work. By analysis of the handwriting, we have an idea that B is about twenty years older than A, but we have no idea why he finished up the poem and then went back and corrected A. Kevin Kiernan, the greatest living expert on the Beowulf manuscript, argues that the B scribe is in fact the poet, basing this argument on a palimpsest page, one on which the text has been scraped off and then redone. Kiernan thinks this is evidence of the scribe blending together two previous separate poems, writing a transition passage. However, most scholars do not agree with Kiernan and date the poem as being earlier. Some would pick a date close to that of the manuscript, others would put the composition of the poem (as dis - tinct from its copying), much earlier, even as far back as the early eighth cen - tury. Some eminent scholars would connect Beowulf to Malmesbury and Aldhelm (because Malmesbury library is known to have had a Liber Monstrorum, a book of monsters, and the majority—but not all—of the texts in the Beowulf manuscript are about monsters). J.R.R. Tolkien, perhaps the greatest scholar of Beowulf in the twentieth century, thought that the poem had been composed around 750. Beowulf could not have been written before 516, because, as noted in the chapter on the Migration period, the poem mentions Chochilaicus, who died then. But no scholars date the poem that early, especially because there are elements of Christianity (including refer - ences to Cain and Abel) in the poem. Thus because of the conflicting nature of the evidence, the date of Beowulf is probably the single most contentious question in the humanities—and there seems little hope of the problem being resolved any time soon. The plot of Beowulf is relatively straightforward if we leave out all the interest - ing politics and history and ignore the beautiful poetry. Hrothgar, the king of Danes, has built a great hall called Heorot. From the moor, a monster, Grendel, hears the sound of the Danes celebrating in their halls and attacks. He eats Danes, and they are unable to defend against him. Eventually Heorot stands empty (though Grendel does not pursue people who are not in the hall). Across the sea, in Geatland, Beowulf hears of Grendel’s depredations. Because Hrothgar had once helped Beowulf’s father, the hero sails across the ocean to Denmark and asks if he can fight the monster. Hrothgar agrees, and Beowulf and his men sleep in the hall. Grendel attacks. He eats one of Beowulf’s men, but then the hero seizes Grendel by the arm, which is wrenched away when Grendel tries to flee. There is great rejoicing the next day, and the Danes reoc - cupy their hall and hang Grendel’s arm from the rafters. But the next night, Grendel’s mother attacks, taking the arm and killing Hrothgar’s most beloved counselor. Beowulf then goes to Grendel’s mother’s watery lair, swims down to her cave, and fights her. He is almost defeated, but finds a huge sword hanging on the wall of the cave and uses it to kill Grendel’s mother. He then decapitates Grendel’s dead body and brings the head back to Hrothgar’s hall. Hrothgar rewards him with rich gifts, and Beowulf returns to Geatland where his uncle, King Hygelac, also rewards him.
65 LECTURE ELEVEN 6 6 Sa is o g Ea in ti o b a The to sp su ti h th o th we m tr kin r th n Th wo e o M m o tr o kil d ca la wh h o r kin ai ow Th Th Th Ye o m nl o pe e l ap f o sti f f n- ea is n a i m ad be er at o e e e l onl ns el ch not t b se Jesu h “ n is xons ldo d g r e g y es he k writ ide an ki the the ng, e e is men d ent, ars at d ra te s, t onl co ten ist ovi sla l era n . i e s, h s B w t H l wo B y o an A Bat sa “Mer r? p d rma ti se i “C o o o le mor mon a M a a o n a it reth e ten f as n tio ki y ng ositn th p d Me it rica s, n cup , l la t f g f go y owulf uld me et e gian. and ig wh kil em wr simp i B asb rag ain” ng e and t elm explict “ e B le n se ter xtre o Th le the ce at n m the ecau rat ry in e es o ro el e aft h of ong l s, o of sta s vinga th m em B o any o o ca is , ntu of evid e det the ie vin place io the on d y is ap ” n. wu a f me er le yrht nev Be like Hyge to em ake an . Tr is a rag s, lor no lo y n Doe le )? M can M s se T nta Mer e ry caled gian” ail, pea er Bu L the in lf fight rd owulf’s d que ve hea in he p Christa aldon late de aldo pre d at noth her atin , pr Du on, one a nce eriod ro it a sen in t . p ry r t th ry l of s the d ,” y, rea ovin or stro t a oph eop be rs, Th p su lo m date Beowu ty stion rt ie e oism ey al? c, , t a re m n beca An it ha he d disturb the th w co , ent an is by dryh pe o en o to ch if lat alo wods said it ist ty . th wit de ys an esiz clear le e gia f f wil ficult. s glo re tide. m n th d 70 is rio th it. We e if io su ake er o s. one Wedr Virgn w scribe t d be ne. h taine conve di use Beowulf’s he e ref f n one ten ns e t as lead -Saxon lf speld 0s, hy, r B ch he at For after for th a poet onpla p ed wou s An Vikng is u th As have . mainl (and oem n e He specialy not monste it and ack t But th he wer p scribe at the in rs, encs tha Th mort er Beowulf d by glo-Saxn b exam roblem answer. Mary, s” ntioal at th ld enid atle him kno goes al t ce an have botch e of he a e a the a no being only ( king he perio o wrong b da the indca nd arm Ba aly you nce Vikngs 3 e, the castle. fo slave w at t hi rs scribe ple, is d ,182 n are in , spe the r h t ta s, destro to b this to s t constru whic es name to is part f y , of th elp le cop ng woun o G d, ant ut 9 An the ck son, write like . r figu is tes Be e Fo 91, Beowulf’s od. ls at s’ to to be Saints, t of it How a who m lines then he man glo-Saxn and ast yin ia h Vikngs by on The nd has inte fairly try r o owulf’s trave Cain neigh agic. Cain im. Ma ring Deo res y t l de so B ne of e means hat Fran n g i an t cted c an xample, his have u we he has to could sup rest why ldon of nam his in in t he no T we st point sw r out Hre extr he and and or he difer , boring We come se isla ved ory, Vik peo ca Be ks the the ro use chale idea iron e stole peol a peol can in , the ed di ly is was rs, n batle id, how a “Lo thel s, owulf whic nd resolv was a kn ngs Abel son we ed 70 ten for br mely with “M a he nar at le. Wigla Ch finds shield. ntly a lso an acros, Proph ow se rd n what other the ju tribe nge nd and erovi is a th le legn serio one copying s? inde u row a st ristan ). d . of is (givn do Ch monste arn pon dies. se act d tha Why in ce e cup nam th th So heroic of escrib himself s f, Even n ach H -kilng Byrhtn Beowulf to ets? ristan ngia” e e his point we ntury to cause ot f usly ualy learn t d He ost,” dary tha how Esex. shore. the the manu Maldon two ecids do fro g es His kil does scrib goin “the time copying. nevr the us, t com r- m Instea m peol tradions with scribe of Anglo- the ), the d oth and ance th of way of d in and ore peol and as ryhten and the script e epic but a per poem e rea is he this T them the a wel n tha favor dea make to drag he a the h ha has ands now inter stor d, tha very actu knew drag - ear ba l is bo - bit ha let d he r a th in - to - s - - - them all come ashore so that they can have a more even battle. Byrhtnoth, perhaps influenced by his previous reading of heroic poetry, allows the Vikings to cross so that his victory over them will be even greater. But Byrhtnoth is almost immediately killed and Vikings go on to win the battle. However, the poem focuses less on this loss than on the heroic last stand of some of the men. Even after it is clear that they will lose, they refuse to move from the side of their dead lord.
Leofsunu gemælde and his linde ahof, bord to gebeorge; he þam beorne oncwæð: “Ic þæt gehate, þæt ic heonon nelle fleon fotes trym, ac wille furðor gan, wrecan on gewinne minne winedrihten. Leofsunu spoke and lifted linden shield, his shield as a protection, he then spoke to the warrior:“I promise that I will not step back from here the length of one foot, but I will go further in battle to avenge my lord and friend.”
Byrhtwold maþelode bord hafenode (se wæs eald geneat), æsc acwehte; he ful baldlice beornas lærde: “Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað. Her lið ure ealdor eall forheawen, god on greote. A mæg gnornian se ðe nu fram þis wigplegan wendan þenceð. Ic eom frod feores; fram ic ne wille, ac ic me be healfe minum hlaforde, be swa leofan men, licgan þence.” Byrhtwold spoke, heaved up his shield (he was an old retainer), waved his ash spear, he boldly informed the warriors: Spirit must be the harder, heart the keener, mind must be firmer, while our strength weakens. Here lies our leader, all hewn, the good one on the ground. Always must he remember in shame he who thinks to turn from this battle-play. I am old in life. I will not go from here, but I think to lie at the side of my lord, the beloved man. These two quotations sum up Germanic heroic ethos and show that it was still in place even as late as 991. Whether people actually behaved this way is not clear, but certainly the ideal was there. And that idea of “northern courage,” as Tolkien called it, makes the poetry of the Anglo-Saxon period extremely appealing. We see heroes who are willing to sacrifice for their peo - ple and retainers who keep their loyalty to their lords. For these reasons, and because the actual lines of poetry are so beautiful, the heroic poetry of Anglo- Saxon England is still being read over one thousand years after it was written.
67 FOR GREATER UNDERSTANDING
Questions
1. What problems are raised by epic poetry? 2. Why is it so difficult to date the authorship of Beowulf ?
Suggested Reading
Anonymous. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation . Trans. Seamus Heaney. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001.
Other Books of Interest
Alexander, Michael. The Earliest English Poems . 3rd rev. ed. New York: Penguin Classics, 1992. Bradley, S.A.J. Anglo-Saxon Poetry . New York: Everyman Paperbacks, 1995. Fulk, R.D., Robert E. Bjork, and John Niles, eds. Klaeber’s Beowulf . 4th ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008. Irving, Edward B., Jr. A Reading of Beowulf. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968. Liuzza, Roy M. Beowulf . Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 1999. Orchard, Andy. A Critical Companion to Beowulf . Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2005. Robinson, Fred C. Beowulf and the Appositive Style . London: Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1987. Tolkien, J.R.R. “ Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.” The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays . Ed. Christopher Tolkien. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1984. ———. “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, Beorhthelm’s Son.” Tree and Leaf/Smith of Wootton Major/The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth. London: HarperCollins, 2001. N E V E L E E R U T C E L
68 Lecture 12: The Norman Conquest and the End of Anglo-Saxon England
The Suggested Reading for this lecture is H.R. Loyn’s The Norman Conquest .
Leofan men gecnawað þæt soð is: ðeos worolde is on ofste, hit nealæcð þam ende. þy hit is on worolde aa swa leng swa wyrse, swa hit sceal nyde for folces synnan fram dæge to dæge, ær ante - cristes tocyme, yfelian swyþe. huru hit wyrð þænne egeslic grimlic wide on worolde. Understandað eac georne þæt deofol þas þeode nu fela geara dwelode to swyþe, þæt lytle getreowþa wæran mid mannum, þeah hy wel spræcan. unrihta to fela ricsode on lande, næs a fela manna þe smeade ymbe þa bote swa georne swa man scolde, ac dæghwamlice man ihte yfel æfter oðrum, unriht rærde unlaga manege ealles to wide gynd ealle þas þeode. Beloved men: know that this is the truth: this world is in haste and it nears the end, and because it is with everything of the world, as long as it lasts, the worse it will be, so it must always worsen before the coming of the antichrist because of the evils of the people, and indeed it will be then even more terrible and grim throughout the world. Understand also that the devil has deceived this nation too many times over many years, and that there is little faith among men, though they speak well, and many crimes have gone unpunished in this land, and there are no men who think about what remedy they should take, as one should do, but daily people add evil to evil, and crime and lawlessness to all men are spread all around this nation. The previous chapter ended with The Battle of Maldon , which we considered as a great heroic poem. But it also documents an event that is characteristic of the end of the Anglo-Saxon period, an end that took nearly half a century, but which was set in motion as early as the Battle of Maldon in 991. King Edgar, the great king of the Reform, had done a lot to build up his king - dom and support intellectual life. But he had one great flaw: his son was inept. Even in his own time, Athelred had a derogatory nickname: traditional - ly, he is known as “Athelred the Unready,” but the pun in Anglo-Saxon was even worse, because Athelred means “noble-counsel” and “un-ræd” means “not-counseled” or “stupid.” The bulk of this chapter is going to be spent on how Athelred and his successors ended up losing England for the English, but first I want to talk about two remarkable men who lived during his reign, Ælfric (whom we have already met in our discussion of religious literature) and Wulfstan. Wulfstan was Bishop of London, Bishop of Worcester, and Archbishop of York. We are not exactly sure when he was born, but he died in 1023. Wulfstan was trusted and respected by Athelred but kept on by the Danish
69 LECTURE TWELVE 7 0 Fo M sti o Oxf o te e b a In Sa m En id wh m In m o m ( m M Ath d fa d b su p The a a b a th wr th h h e m kin Da An Th Wu Wu ne rd nci e l f est id y ow nyoe s le bl om om nce e as r ar ake en en ul al en l e e l o l ce 1 9 r r e xon g i g o a e the a erd ais kbe ch elr ord e of ne-p ti don te d no be n 02 94, En T d, ryi des li ng er f roye lfst lfst t t i i sh Sl -gen C li li in ran sh s, jo i he ba t n o th l to e e he En iv a f t ha n an b n gl cre ng , in a o to ow- f Nor ar h s s d d an an e th s en g E comp , 9 oth ut, si peo me m r in folwed aym tre the t, bu ng i i ’ S the t ach o d vior, rve stor sh, A s glish d tha wer d ng h e e Da tr th p c p a erm ona Wulfst 7, im, brid beliv the wea r ob 9 ma it come mot inco aty y rea y when wh o urch ful sho ation e stor sid sid la ple str po t f nes St. ent in whic y to time al a o vio 1. le Duke nd; ta Denm lred ns includg rchy o o nd ching a ges the kin ep o e an es with cop ken tely io mpe the rt p y ug nd ase b ). the ng A Br L cam ulatio usly al, s b an ut livng r urn iso n d run som upi be Wu gs, the he 1 r’s adicly a d in y Alfre h ice’s and the ie 02 t sh beca end gre ar is Fal h d I t he No of mu ten op sid th d hind ark a de and d whic e ed and , is i lr qu d lan pe lfstan th a sr my, the ser ows n the e at Athe bu ed ra Nor incd a a d ed rm , d g e in lti-fam ce. his . e ide up ote ha op to nd ro Da to fterwa do se (wh gua of th ap me fte Anglos th ir t h with in Dane the was an th Eng m ok he ts t brium n it d le er m ad as tha lin th chan wn e ’s rep d cou y lred’s It d An distr to a ot ent en genr betw ajor o wo dy, andy’s worke enta e t l key the M at beg la refug te hat fal just e, g ily don in t land. was their bu t lacemn know glo- th rds. wer life b ncil o ascre paid w geld uld achings, th whic o to the ibuted ged asic , on cultre, e suceion reaso he i ther h fun ngled in of e t ld the cod th positn e al kept o en elp throu a ch e d Sa s also have de He fa e aped English the ction. begin so Rem Eng up a daug of was dame n ma Anglo-Sax in to with Chr urch es ilu English Ser At Englishme ot xon cid st in t mething I n he was thr coleting . St. t his sho Fren the with res jor thi h ghou ab l de b a I h and Dan b an istan ed bu long- elrd mon n hter. on eing ough the nd is ha y other ntal nk be with le ot Eng ing Fride def raids re d t facto Vik at one Dane neigh ber, it own ch No ve him, he es cause t and pr he wo and liter is English are wou up term the th of tens of god princles. and out land oblem the n simlar ’s rman sid nse; so t was wer rking. swid e wr he of gs n n and man the ature ru time t En s, ta god bors, en t but being his lev ld king he e int Eng ote mu En the Danes le xes t conseq most with e it a he glish o Christa dy, be e’s certa Wolf r o nd y sube cha mies. of inf gland. Norm in f At r , losing cause ch . as Athelrd dom. o ounde land homile mo sla the of bu Danish society interm o But a f helrd a uriated pu fact Christa min th b the f nd Norwa loa pter. shame a r thes egin t very, god inly He st (th the ule, e insde nishe uencs English Alfred an gr quen at Athelr T ster d thing p Nev e infa ns. th poli His the at d his eat aying ventu ther arying s in English in fir e In Conq A up di k was is, b then y idea King and ng n p mous ticaly d It ful thelrd st ings St. tly a Batle chur g most was uying it. this eopl pre efor and rthels, ed, reat u for faith. and for is Wulfstan posit and n wh with sed ch al in huge Even Dan the Brice’s ot. uest sermon. not acher—is to deci Swein who Athelrd. r and the anel, a in conquest Anglo en the emark famous mo Daneg part powerfu slaugh wom of Instead murde wrote his god had Wulfsta adher Athe egld. wou 10 in clear ir is the n pay narchy if son influ would 02, teri the of by pa this ) a Day - en ld in - lred to - eld - to - y if - o is - l - n f Harald Bluetooth). He invaded England in 1003 and sacked Norwich. He then suffered military defeats and so left to go back to Denmark in 1005, but he came back soon after and, of course, was paid off by Athelred. Athelred, perhaps learning a lesson from Alfred, built a new English fleet to repel the Danes the next time they invaded, but an English captain turned traitor and burned eighty of the ships, so the English were not able to repel Thorkil the Tall and Hemming, who invaded in 1009, burned Oxford, attacked East Anglia, and moved into Kent. This Danish army captured Archbishop Alfheah of Canterbury, tied him to a post, and pelted him with ox bones and horns until he was nearly dead. Then one of the Danes bashed in the back of his head with the back of a hatchet and killed him. Thorkil the Tall was disgusted by this and switched sides, going over to Athelred. So now Athelred had forty-five ships, and the rest of the raiders left England for the time being. But Swein Forkbeard came back in 1013, and he was more prepared this time. He easily conquered England and Athelred ran away to exile in Normandy. But Swein fell off his horse and died in 1014. His son Harald took over his empire in Denmark and Norway, and his son Cnut became king of England. While Cnut was ruler of England, Athelred came back from exile and attacked him. Cnut then fled to Denmark, but he returned in 1015 with a larger army. Meanwhile, Athelred’s son Edmund Ironside took control over the northern Danelaw. Edmund was Althelred’s son by his first wife, a Northumbrian princess. But now Athelred was married to Emma, a Norman princess. Edmund thus was not Athelred’s rightful heir; his brother Athelstan was. But Athelstan died in 1015 and Edmund then came into conflict with Athelred, his own father. Athelred had Edmund’s two biggest allies, Sigeferth and Morcar, executed. Edmund then rescued Sigeferth’s widow, Ealdgyth, from Malmesbury, where she was imprisoned, and he married her against his father’s orders. So this is the bizarre situation: Edmund Ironside, the son of the king, was defending England against the Vikings, but was also defying his father, who was still king. Then one of Edmund’s major supporters deserted him, so Edmund went back to supporting his father Athelred, who died soon after, in 1016. Edmund then headed to Wessex and gathered an army, which had success against Cnut and defeated his army badly in Essex. Edmund and Cnut then made an agreement that Edmund would rule Wessex and Cnut would get everything else, and when one of the two died, the other would get every - thing. It is perhaps not surprising that Edmund died soon after, possibly assassinated. Now Cnut was king of all England, and he took Athelred’s widow, the Norman princess Emma, as his wife. This is important, because Emma was the daughter of Richard the Fearless of Normandy and the Normans noticed that any children from her and Cnut would be half Norman. Note also that Emma already had two sons from Athelred (that is, from before she married Cnut). These are Edward the Confessor and Alfred the Atheling, both of whom were in exile in Hungary. Cnut was a good king and helped keep England safe and prosperous for a number of years, but he also had the bad idea of dividing England into four separate earldoms, roughly corresponding with the old kingdoms of England that had not existed since the time of Alfred more than two centuries before.
71 LECTURE TWELVE 7 2 p e b tu m No h Ha b th Th We Go su p o ca se Ed to b ch Co Ha Bu D f o r e d n u d n a a H l c i k , 8 1 0 1 kn Cn o r No Go e Th We en In Go H Ath Cn eo xil e e e ow rd ecom nd ri ar r a m n e t r a d e m i a g n ig r r port me tl il ow g , d l a r a Edw m n e D e o e u ward t r r n r u r d d the was the erd t l e. se dren se 1 ht ma ald tha ma pl ina u d ugho s d f em erfu fesor t’ wi wi e c a h o t e m a c tw kin or 06 f o t he wi s n e, lre f Cnu b Ha b b h n n a m t n n cn l o x. x, a next Mer suceo y b e h as 5 n w som e g a e D n ad ’ E h u n dy, l d an , k s fr rd, fam ro of Go , nt, ’s t a r a Co ck ver br rald W ut en t ut e h man ouse His and tha dwar (su m n i k om e h a nd t bro a , Har ther n r a c t c d k a b othe a son cia Wes ilam cr nd ar t d t but nq th e wit a m th n o so d reb y k king. ily’s he h t g t th re a win so to n i k i g n i eat th the Godwins b k c Norm ried e e e at r powe each d n Har ald u o s in r e h is E n C ( rot ly d, the of . k r Har e elio n o n rs Har wh king No est. the r ’s f o aso g m . Wila oyal t a r, r p d e t a d i l Engla ca f o to a ear o f o with her Edwa t u Wes d To ald Ha e f o d ower x, amb t to re r a H ose e h t rm la a o re ald poin ald, a l g n E and ef n rfu used n, h t o b sa e of dom f o . y a w r o N nd a n i k rge ls who n e D , Edwar Cn ref wa arld save and in sain wa we m ( l. Tost o ck Em Ha t h t o r b ate n E asd was w wife in nd. he y, by g rd d l t o Har n ut), contiu Nort Godwin, s . fle h s re o p would x. in om n E k r a m y. rt h Dove d n f o the g wo b t I actu d o, n r a H t. becam t earls in 105 is hacnut ig h d n a l So ecomin et o o r e w Cnut n ald his ru a, Aco se was King n i - r e had d n a l g o b is s humbr f you uld n i o , or br No b Go ear e H lin in Eng o o f e of ev ems aly Harth atle Edwar, life, r; ch h t s ( other fa 2 0 1 Godwins, ed be and e h t rmand g. d n a beca 10 dwinso, p Edwar a . w a l - L Nort ldoms Godwin rding sent o wil vor), d e i d ild e Gr the m n e D lay n la ady br a cam , t g son, Cn to the 52. he ia o n , e r . 0 kin cle ren. and nd. l d n ufyd t supo ought e h t fr houg e h remb To humbr me ea cnut in a caused ut t s i H iendly him was g ar y B n i Godiva) was u p y ne Edwar to e s ’ t u n C a m n e D creas d l larg Edwar He tha k r a stig to rl Godwin o God also fo o s d 5 3 0 1 tha an very t xt the refus f , 2 0 1 of t i s own tok r bal s i h to sedly of Engla n him forced w n o also e wa d d n a ia, he u king so t t Cnut Wesx, win wit o ho, ok o l i t n grow h p storie Wales Harld Go T , 8 . . powerfu o r b s f me s h t r a H , ad art . k r h nce East ha osti on and the back A , , h n o t u n C Siward d ate a only n E t u n C al dwin of swo had was, nd. 0 4 0 1 who was t over Duke d r e h t a a had t u B in go to other the t thou g r a H up s s i h nd . d n a l g Godwin’s ea Engla n so God him. u n c a Anglia, t in Go This swear o put re to God he r d n a actu a l - n i - f ha rldom elatd d s a w , had r a H in h n after side irst went l. cre his a t n i o p r gh 10 n e h w ad oyal Wilam. of to Englad dwinso d l king rea Ha win Th d e De out Whe t winso ated ndgam 63 aly is t u n c a h t n a maried fath the n C Northumb Wila sp e r a H s a w d. ma a w g n i k er rald, o son tha nma tha , Mercia, into Edwar , of ma f blo by fal ent tangei a t r a H t u T u n o power, bu e h n r the m er’s s nd o n k n he h North was on ie l l i t s , ) t o o f de ing Edwar m, urde the o t n e w and rk, point, , a t Wilam who But exil e h t years e d, to d d f was d and he wer t u n c a h No true , d e i d e i d ear d n a l g n E of to of some Duke his wher now out: but go n i n w Norma Leofr and was ,e n o r h t the umbria. the rthumbian ha b ia, th Athelrd beca th t d e i d ldom but when kr a m n e D o goin rought ly th story n i v a e l dau into in e loved e ,n a m o w d n i in Ed the and would e ic, cur of kind no a w cap to exil. then 1064 .2 4 0 1 me most ghter ns, ni ward in dn a the s - to g - in of Confessor died in 1066, all these problems came to a head. Harald Godwinson was Edward’s appointed heir, but Duke William of Normandy claimed that Edward the Confessor had promised him the kingdom, and he further claimed that Harald Godwinson, now king, had sworn to agree to this promise (he may even have been telling the truth). And, as if we did not have enough complexity, another Harald thinks he should be king. Harald Hardrada, King of Norway, traced his claim back to his predecessor, Magnus the I of Norway, who supposedly had an agreement with Harthacnut that after either one of them died, the other would get all the other’s kingdoms. (Remember that Harthacnut was the legitimate heir of Cnut.) Harald Hardrada of Norway allied himself with Tostig, the estranged brother of Harald Godwinson, against Harald Godwinson. Tostig and the Norwegian Harald invaded the north of England. Harald Godwinson rushed north and defeated the Norwegian forces at the Battle of Stamford Bridge near York. He killed Norwegian Harald and Tostig and took back Northumbria, thus saving England from an attack from the north. But William, from Normandy, sensing an opportunity, landed his invading force in the south. Harald rushed back to the south, but his army was exhausted. On October 14, 1066, the English Army and William’s Norman (not Norwegian) army met at the Battle of Hastings. The English seemed to be winning, and they had the better position, but William’s army kept luring them away from the high ground and killing large numbers of them. Supposedly Harald got shot through the eye, and that was the end of the Haralds. William won the day and went on to conquer the rest of England. It took him a little while, but eventually William mopped up all resistance, accepted the submis - sion of the English lords, and was crowned king on Christmas Day in Westminster Abbey in 1066. That was the end of the Anglo-Saxon period.
Ða com Wyllelm eorl of Normandige into Pefnesea on Sancte Michæles mæsseæfen, sona þæs hi fere wæron, worhton castel æt Hæstingaport. Þis wearð þa Harolde cynge gecydd, he gaderade þa mycelne here, com him togenes æt þære haran apuldran, Wyllelm him com ongean on unwær, ær þis folc gefylced wære. Ac se kyng þeah him swiðe heardlice wið feaht mid þam mannum þe him gelæs - tan woldon, þær wearð micel wæl geslægen on ægðre healfe. Ðær wearð ofslægen Harold kyng, Leofwine eorl his broðor, Gyrð eorl his broðor, fela godra manna, þa Frencyscan ahton wælstowe geweald.
Then came William, the Earl of Normandy, into Pevensey on the evening of St. Michael’s mass, and soon as his men were ready, they built a fortress at Hasting’s port. This was told to King Harold, and he gathered then a great army and come towards them at the Hoary Apple Tree, and William came upon him unawares before his folk were ready. But the king nevertheless withstood him very strongly with fighting with those men who would follow him, and there was a great slaughter on either side. Then Harald the King was slain, and Leofwine the Earl, his brother, and Gyrth, and many good men, and the Frenchmen held the place of slaughter.
73 FOR GREATER UNDERSTANDING
Questions
1. How did Athelred’s ineptitude eventually lead to the Conquest? 2. Why was William able to make a claim on the English throne?
Suggested Reading
Loyn, Henry R. The Norman Conquest . 3rd ed. Hutchinson, KS: Hutchinson Educational, 1982.
Other Books of Interest
Campbell, James, Eric John, and Patrick Wormald. The Anglo-Saxons . New York: Penguin, 1991. Walker, Ian W. Harold: The Last Anglo-Saxon King . Stroud, UK: Sutton Publishing Ltd., 2004. E V L E W T E R U T C E L
74 Lecture 13: From the Norman Conquest to the Reformation: The Use of Anglo-Saxon
The Suggested Reading for this lecture is Allen J. Frantzen’s Desire for Origins: New Language, Old English, and Teaching the Tradition .
William’s conquest of England in 1066 was indeed a cataclysm that forever changed the country. The existing nobility were killed or exiled, Norman French was made the official language, and a new ruling family was put in place. But although students (and some scholars) often act as if 1066 changes everything, there is continuity between the Anglo-Saxon and the Anglo- Norman periods. For one thing, and this is to the credit of William, though he did some devastation of the English countryside and killed many nobles, he did not commit genocide, nor did he try to stamp out Anglo-Saxon speech or culture among the common people. They needed to learn Norman French to communicate with their rulers, but it is clear that among themselves they kept speaking Anglo-Saxon, which meant that England was in an interesting trilin - gual situation: Anglo-Saxon for the common people, Latin for the Church, and Norman French for the administrators, the nobility, and the law courts. In this time, and due to the cultural shock of the Conquest, Anglo-Saxon began to change very rapidly, and by 1200 or so, it was no longer Anglo- Saxon, but what scholars call early Middle English. But this language had deep roots in Anglo-Saxon, which was being spoken a lot later than 1066. Research in the early twentieth century, and still continuing today, has shown that a form of Anglo-Saxon was still being spoken, and not merely among uneducated peasants, into the thirteenth century in the West Midlands. This was, in fact, J.R.R. Tolkien’s major scholarly discovery. There is a group of texts written in early Middle English called the Katherine Group, because they include the Life of St. Katherine (also, the Life of St. Margaret , the Life and the Passion of St. Juliana , Ancrene Wisse , and Hali Meithhad —these last two teaching how to be a good anchoress and arguing for the goodness of virginity). Tolkien noticed that a subtle distinction pre - served in these texts indicated that Old English had continued to be spoken far longer than anyone had supposed. In Old English there is a distinction between two different kinds of verbs. One kind has an extra i in the ending of the third-person plural. Here I will use the examples Tom Shippey uses in his The Road to Middle- earth . One kind of verb is illustrated by he hiere , he hears; hie hiera , they hear. The other kind of verb would have an extra i in the plural, so it would be he loca , he looks, but hie locia . This is a pretty fine distinction, and almost immediately after 1066 it was dropped from almost every other bit of Old English or early Middle English that we can find. But in the Katherine Group texts, the authors actual build on this old, obsolete distinction, now making a distinction between verbs like ha þolie þ, they endure, which comes from Old English hie þolia , and verbs like ha fondi , they inquire, which comes from Old English hie fondia . In other words, that intrusive i had had an effect on the
75 LECTURE THIRTEEN 7 6 t s u n a m w t C fo tu in En g fi ly la so b An o th p a 1 e sit wa b b cu so Wo pl s mu wr we me E c fol e s e h e h r e h T So We So im p han g ive ou wn or nd 54 ra e ecam ng e r e t n a ex n u r e ti wha low itt en ur me lt me t y. g g re s d he ch an r r • • • • t t ng r on nd 1, n t o e ed lan li lo ces ed, an ) Ang e p th th n le no br Rej The The Ro m u b r e evi ge asum sh Six wr e s a M ing th o u -Sa e h w o lon ge o p pa ar n i h t o H in t ei o at te r d ea c o d seion sed by id e t a th . a f e e w ut at yal ter den could n it te r wh enr p i r sh e the te gs: r y r l fte r so e so L s use ople the st t t o- l d at xon or B vow ong cti , y r sid o t ason s g ike e h a cla h d He ) ows op e r s t som ib n o Saxo met on f s a sup ha y rs to i nth- o escr ce r on e cou it ginal th at le 12 a nd es le tex w n a w by con wise ab use. f tha n disolve nry b a o w t el, ha t o g o r n ( d en r b p s. hat afte like fo ealizd hing e o re 00, f ot r g r e k r a P to cou tha e re d cen ld ou t to in t u o w m i b s ed uc at ed n d f b it. s oug h w th e r tro disp macy VI en y co s s a ine C , tr es ca g rea to The re th hic h hun g sta r man a va tha p t l l a th and ld An p u o r ans o r p tur hu l A th eo nyo ne re Old nfiscat imp e h t l b m e s I, the e ad ugh e gold h No rm an e riou th d ute actu yed be t bo r e v o d serv is mo rch glo- y who e fo a p pr fa d n a e ubstan y th do bec am a over arlie Old p os the th s scho e early lo gy . En t aro supo r un nd s m m ec oss i rea at b re a g y l r a o u cu l f o em, tha t Saxon aly was a ea e oun d e pe o ver ed arg wou ld ous anuscrip p dary gli was n a l g n E live ib io und the s i h Eng s t s i d n En r like int ment t d p the f lars in hem. b le us sh f Co nq ue st a Hi st or y e l p o e u h C Churc from tiaon ument orm ch daries an pl e e ly in kin d and erp w rtes. “ , glish y scribe e r c e s th pure fo e g u h lish kin for bu what an clause h Exet was anged aft er Chur cou d the could wh es ha at r wh o . .h c r , d d t a of Th g wha p of the T muc h e ts t ve mo t th ” to r o w o in eopl ld s ch And ver e h (tha f er , y r a t t u b th of bei ng o the r ju st en rom o c ( ch. the dispute a 1 e ha w know ath er lo ab noceliba ne O the kn e d use urch e gue ssed . 221 , diso naster t pro is in Bo er the sou nd naculr l g n i k oked o i t c e l l ca m o t s e b angu e n do d the t out n i Ang Churc betw power go lo point t with th subta 1509 o J w ok, b he thir to vide ctrine Anglo spo ken nge r, r a p land. lost o r g elivd) th e lands t m e lve proce n h La ti n the h t i w lo-Saxn n a rea as a ies at tenh portin an . n Rom aki ng f an d cha nge the a l u c i t or in p u . lo t d en had evidnc d ful to due c s o J e te An The d e H , Churc nce An i -Saxon a b So, Englad m various . exampl A a e r g whic d s include an s a w nd mo re Old eca use 15 th An gl o- Sa xo n He cle an Thi s wa glo-Saxn o l g n id onaster in d . a the s a w r to in .n y l e cen d 47. Tre during of in of the distrbue nry rgy, m o r f c the nted pot Catholic gs t s e t to English un de rs to texs. ha lack e d a m n o x a S - ext reme ly los o aft erli fe . a co mp li ca te d was tury, mulos Betw a materils rde tak e Anglo abo nge, Kat he tha ways. VI d Wes t of charte fo , k r a P was the se f o ies, in o r P r h C Ang se of r comun fish-ba was t ut a e h t the e it and p u to the wanted , e in sumed an t s e t ,h c r u h c t s i xamp d doctrine r e peo -Saxon go ms en rin e Mid land s wa ffe ct. and lo-Saxn od t doctrin For of ters—h o cu lt ur e find Hand tex ts their f o d sixtenh s r a l o h c s greatly ing Ch (whic e t c e l l o c Elizabe sub tle y r t t n a s 1536 Old so me to to althoug sed ,s r a l o h c s Gro up the exampl, son le le). urch out th an ion And to ha o t help proety to wer e f e b es had o Eng lish could to glue en de d. tha texs f fol ve ev o r p and prove exact was acel co m gran of er o th d tha t tha be dif had th e su tex ts cen to w. I, the p - - ts - - - - that was a good thing to be in England (even when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries and created the Church of England, the king was anti- Protestant). Parker married while it was possible for clergy to do so, and this caused him some problems later on. But he was very powerful and impor - tant and used that influence among other things to build up his huge collec - tion of over four hundred eighty manuscripts. That collection is now the foun - dation of the Parker Library in Cambridge and one of the three best collec - tions of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts in the world (Oxford’s Bodleian Library and the British Library are the other two). Parker was particularly interested in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts for his politi - cal project to show that in the past, England had been Protestant. In particu - lar, he was interested in the idea of an English-speaking church that was somewhat independent of Rome and had its own Apostolic succession. The works of Ælfric, for example, seemed helpful for Parker’s projects, because some of Ælfric’s writings on transubstantiation and the immaculate concep - tion seemed Protestant in ideology. Likewise, Ælfric’s translations of some of the Old Testament, and the translation of the Gospels into Old English, the West Saxon Gospels (possibly by someone named Ælfric, but not our Ælfric), gave Parker support for the Protestant idea that the Bible should be translat - ed into English. John Bale, John Foxe, and Bishop John Jewel were the angry polemicists. They wanted to use their reconstructed history of the Anglo-Saxon Church as a club to beat up on Catholic theology and the Roman Catholic church. Bale’s big crackpot theory was that there were two Christian churches. One had been corrupted by the Roman Emperor Constantine and was the visible, powerful church of Rome. The other was a secret, somewhat underground Church. He believed that he belonged to the secret, pure underground Church, and that some of the Anglo-Saxons had as well. Bale took the story of Gregory and the Slaves and used it to argue that Gregory was interested in the slave boys because he, Pope Gregory the Great, was a pedophile because the Roman church forbade clerical marriage. People did fight back against Bale, including Thomas Stapleton, who called him “a venomous spider being filthy and unclean himself,” but Bale’s ideas were picked up by John Foxe, who brought them to a wider audience because he translated his book, Acts and Monuments , from its original Latin into English in 1570. Foxe also drew on the work of Matthew Parker and pub - lished excerpts from Anglo-Saxon texts. He developed a historically inaccu - rate history: That there was a “true church” in England before Gregory sent Saint Augustine (Foxe did not have the Irish monks in mind here), but then Augustine made things “Romish.” This is fairly standard polemic, but the bizarre part comes when Foxe asserted that Ælfric, who, remember, was writ - ing at the end of the tenth century and died in 1010, somehow had access to the original documents (which would have somehow been written before 593 and secretly preserved but never actually used or quoted by anyone else in more than four hundred years), and that the original documents were then destroyed by Lanfranc, who was the Archbishop of Canterbury after the Norman Conquest. You almost cannot make this stuff u p (although Foxe did). So Ælfric, a writer in the “true” tradition that had somehow been pre - served for five hundred years underground, but then was distributed all over
77 LECTURE THIRTEEN 7 8 g g th a En a co m se e se in co e Al th th th m m kn in se to th th o e h En so m th Gr h se p fo so n wa o En Bu Th Th Fo Fo io y fte ro pi ste th ar ad ad le at bj t or e an an or a e e e o e r fr nt nt ar ul er ow nse ur en, me t e b e g g g s u c e wa he t u e ive un l ed e e rt xe t w r, y gory wo tex tex, Ne rea dev e e la li la d s rad . d ct), ch e uscr uscr ce gh r he b b th i dif un as sh n n an Anglo grea b Ang h ste e e nd d n a ri i a s, ” a a in th pr n e o may rld t A s o isto t en en d gor nd k re a fer as rgum rgue h at f a i ter sho th r te ctor dy w or agr wel e to nglo- i es aft A o erlan ipt ipts. d Ead nd t lopm an th ou ha in as, stra , Edwa ely, e lo e d en ne nglo tes was A ju very est tha t ou rians no in e M an er he fr -S uld d, -S e t Ælfr d laws n se le it t y nt. im st tly). hat ent om tha ilt en Gr wig fr a g s, nge t the wa Sa ar t b In to axon as t ways. axon ds. en d a En nd lo om “ -S he on, pr scholar on to d en th abo Cædm rd write Th co s eat oug m the ned ic’s s t with -Saxon of y xon 1 , be. t is o ove the in axon we e We a glish ly Ang I th the 651 way Bet “Al-Fair,” to Re of ncer t e or like squa nd thu dif he no . re n Ang ut Conq wha er h past stro in was se Anglo ow mo Tha p sch Bu la mo for pra the an a h wen r ted th lo-Sa , in p was t s, icu olitca Co eco En on l he a rm is te ne inf chu gr of ir Ar lo at t was b fluen ng ma s, re t ve know t olary ate ctie, per epic r t nut, a uest was ea he lt st ian int -Sa othe nfeso wa gla lue d ons befo chbiso th ide m nstru per les t er s -Saxon rch an les vesl il for hey tion xon to a in tnes erp s e 1 haps, eant, s th the nd. , ntial. an ce xon, Gen as 620 a d o an ce lite iod abou ( r, Ren “ u (abo had abo be re, act in the thoug nes, pure end survied stand seful mythol m ct could and period flexibty as old, and d b gs r o mo t taions) he ore, ualy ecam esi.” con mu he f m. ( p and th in ut bizar h got ais T into la insprg his past ut inte t Oxfor th ist t he st Ja and e d hat ,” ter Engla the h orignal t ards scholar Syn the st for may e F he wh o rea p u so and “b no mes , and h or 16 rfe ectd whic in idea ri Ang rely, ast p have gy a int nce e Junis was Foxe on wars ans eautif Parke, ich it past eucha od d, tebo . lso 40 wider. examp bolixed d b to the d and have o Anglo- nd, came eing h as more id t lo th d Bod Usher in o Par ad at inte n of the w s “not he fo usef sour di to -Saxon inte e with o sou p e (altho su as t of care variou be perh ap he r Whitb ks eopl Post-Cnq ventua rist was p begun l” o adise leian Rome transm wa rpe given p R port le, oetry, religon Bale, not gan ne to rfe Prot Sa Cath Fran proach rces ce o olitca also enai disc up English l d f s a aps influec Sha of ugh to xon t th in a nd s fo a in exactly y past, pou Libra wi estan to th ble d bout cis Lost ly, olic,” e Ar som s wha than oth Milton r to in pline the and and show uted whic Engla e about t priestly ron with th be kin h , he es was magh ance, re the red gro to sou Junis as tran er uest e B . t Chu cultr e ason. tha gs). as y, in able Foxe th end whe in Milton e Turne, we und th into of than g w a folw T info tha owulf sevnth rces a the becaus at sferd pe uise, Junis pa up ings Athelsan olkien b a d ls god, rc Histor up, m w gave endig Anglo-Sax want mar erstand n, w ople o Pro e. rticula to rmation and ir what d e h from ed to b he wha er in getin He own ecaus as him up star semd they m This read tha him, dling, riage tha tesan. one and bizare ostly h was said y studie p 1, in thro from we somewh t ce tho wr im later Leid self ure, he becam the came de he the to wanted to mythol and point ntury, o but itng Old of about ther also , ught ughot the have into r inter tha rea sire. could “learn get was they reli the peo pre to n he or edit old dy his in - - - at - - - FOR GREATER UNDERSTANDING
Questions
1. What subtle distinction in verb formation made Tolkien realize that Old English was being spoken long after the Norman Conquest of 1066? 2. How did English Protestants use the Anglo-Saxon past to support their religious and political agendas?
Suggested Reading
Frantzen, Allen J. Desire for Origins: New Language, Old English, and Teaching the Tradition . Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1991.
Other Books of Interest
Frantzen, Allen J., and John D. Niles. Anglo-Saxonism and the Construction of Social Identity . Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1997. Graham, Timothy. The Recovery of Old English: Anglo-Saxon Studies in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries . Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001.
79 Lecture 14: From Thomas Jefferson to Angelina Jolie: The Long Life of Anglo-Saxon
The Suggested Reading for this lecture is Allen J. Frantzen’s Desire for Origins: New Language, Old English, and Teaching the Tradition .
In the previous lecture we traced the afterlife of Anglo-Saxon England from the Conquest up to the beginning of the eighteenth century, noting that the idea of Anglo-Saxon England was very important in different ways to different people and that, when not a lot of facts were known about the Anglo-Saxon past, people were able to fill that void with whatever was convenient for their present religious endeavors. Anglo-Saxon England was also of great interest to people who were more involved in political matters as well (and of course in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, politics and religion were not at all separate). The most important and powerful Anglo-Saxonist of all time was particularly interested in the political history of the Anglo-Saxons. That Anglo-Saxonist was Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States and drafter of the Declaration of Independence. We will spend some time on Jefferson’s Anglo-Saxonism, but in some respects we need only to look at a design he proposed for the Great Seal of the United States. Jefferson thought that the front of the Seal should depict Hengest and Horsa, from whom America had “descended, and whose political principles and form of government we have assumed,” and that the back of the Seal should show “Pharaoh, sitting in an open chariot, a crown on his head and a sword in his hand, passing through the divided waters of the Red Sea in pursuit of the Israelites” who were following the pillar of fire that led them to the promised land. Around the edge of this side of the Seal was to be written: “Rebellion to Tyrants Is Obedience to God.” The design for the Seal and Jefferson’s words of description illustrate many of his ideas about Anglo-Saxon England. Jefferson, though he had learned the Anglo-Saxon language and had done research of his own, had still been infected just a bit by John Foxe’s idea that the Norman Conquest had some - how corrupted a previously democratic and “pure” Anglo-Saxon England. Even though Jefferson knew that Anglo-Saxon England had had kings, nobles, slav - ery, and a strict social hierarchy, he nevertheless projected onto Hengest and Horsa (who, remember, were at least to some degree mercenaries), the kind of small-government, democratic virtue he wanted to nourish in America. Some scholars have suggested that the depiction of the Israelites and the pil -
N lar of fire on the reverse of the Seal is evidence of Jefferson’s expansionist E
E ideas for America, but I think this interpretation is mistaken, or at least mistak - T
R en in emphasis, and that this error comes from not paying enough attention to U the writing that surrounds the Seal: “Rebellion to Tyrants Is Obedience to O F God.” The reverse of the Seal depicts, it seems to me, the idea that America E
R will be protected from the “Pharaoh” of the English monarchy. U T C E L
80 Jefferson was particularly interested in Anglo-Saxon law, which he correctly saw as the foundation of the English Common Law and thus the foundation for the laws and customs that had grown up in America. His Treatise to Reform Virginia Law of 1778 contains footnoted quotations from Old English laws that Jefferson hand-copied in original script. Jefferson proposed marking off the West in ten-square-mile chunks to create “Hundreds” on the model of the Anglo-Saxon hundred, and he attributed to the Anglo-Saxons elective monarchy, trial by jury, meeting of the witan and common law, as though “feudalism” was a Norman imposition that destroyed an original, quasi-democratic society. Not only Anglo-Saxon law was of interest to Jefferson, but language also. He owned a copy of the very first edition of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History in Anglo-Saxon, and many other major prose texts and grammars (the only poem he owned a copy of was Judith , and it is not clear he could read Old English well enough to understand it). Jefferson loved Anglo-Saxon language and tried to institute a professorship of ancient Northern languages at William and Mary. When he founded the University of Virginia, he argued that German was becoming a more important language in Europe and that Anglo- Saxon could help students learn German. Jefferson therefore placed Anglo- Saxon among the “Modern” languages, because, he thought, it could easily be learned in a few weeks (perhaps if you were as smart as Thomas Jefferson). In 1819, Jefferson added Old English into the Virginia College cur - riculum, making it a central part of the course of study, as a tool for training lawyers and for understanding Modern English. He loved Old English espe - cially because it was “copious,” and could create new words easily by the process of compounding: We may safely repeat the affirmation, therefore, that the pure Anglo- Saxon constitutes at this day the basis of our language. That it was sufficiently copious for the purposes of society in the existing condi - tion of arts and manners, reason alone would satisfy us from the necessity of the case. Its copiousness, too, was much favored by the latitude it allowed of combining primitive words so as to produce any modification of idea desired. In this characteristic it was equal to the Greek, but it is more especially proved by the actual fact of the books they have left us in the various branches of history, geography, reli - gion, law, and poetry.” (Bergh, 1905) Jefferson thought that America would need new words; he loved neologisms and coined many words himself (such as “electioneering”), because he believed that language would have to grow to fit a world that was growing rapidly in complexity. Certainly so great growing a population, spread over such an extent of country, with such a variety of climates, of production, of arts, must enlarge their language, to make it answer its purpose of expressing all ideas, the new as well as the old . . . An American dialect will therefore be formed.” (Jefferson, August 15, 1813) Jefferson had no interest in the Germanic, scientific philology that was devel - oping in Europe, so he did not know that all Germanic languages compound
81 LECTURE FOURTEEN 8 2 b le sta a e te a th th Da se n stu r o d i N d e g r u p t s o p c o s c o s ti Ge Ge tw g n A lo o b th Ge An Gr we u wa ti An fo e Sa fl L q o y r e g a m aci In t r a P Ne o m ict ei nd ig cro ot f eg ni asi at ue nce t a s ve r i e e r o ngs lves ns e th m g g xon n r s n n h e d r r r versit in, t i w mod th o i m s i l a i m s i l a i st e man man man at” an ntl e ado exist Vi lo lo o l bet es, l wa g ce te ies, r a w nym t e y. b ye of p dl wen to l a n e a p you -Sa -Sa f o cto S - e h en y us e Je Br se nd e a to s an rs He t t en o w Un a th ri pt er o con a an than p s rticula o x a i s , epa t ag f su ed s fer th c it e p ods. a en rian es. e h s o S in tieh e s xons ings xon fo a io be d with cr n t ish for ha wer d n ( ( it n d and the he (a just nd ch h t i w h t i w e w to r cent n o i r ed tra was eat the Gr d u n , n son a i c rat in a to Nor d nd Bu s “ e ot La of var wo e l Em White t say, e ide d For d .l l a so mp st G cent e a t - o ado Ge a h w beca S e tr e a s t s i l cont ly be n id e g t Migr ury con tin. f s t i s t i h e l p o e p the thing erm ma ansm ro ta k c oted rd saw or a t n e i c s wo io indvu pe a ne ks the pire enc the h ena h c i no rm lso d n exa ption se An us s asized th urie es, o n a m r e G s s u R wh ns ople a w in w , figu rd And ve use d a h ter to anic ation f t any with e Ang ide glo- Ger o t ue Anglo f o mo caled be a be (th r tha mp ne wo ute rsu at r eas s cen s. g m c i f i Gr Anglo- An o red “ e r e w s, o o p p u s a r u o c of cause he co n a i oug pu r e d e n o d ver inst re to als in t rds th lo le, an Saxon man Atacks d Ang e “ s t, glo-Sax per b of Anglo-Sax ons. in An s i c a r turie and eks me d “ -Saxon ey re and th be ack -Saxon th a was An d it d e v i ead o r h the h “Engla wh exist e s with s the En (Jef glo-Saxn ose e io lo-Saxn Sa q d a e was t ic Anglo-Sax h wer th g n i y r ) s t o glo-Saxn t r n i “Hu influe very s d in enc Que d, m ose t glish to , resh s a w we (ra Victoran at id xon the e h t Anglo- of be o r f r o W a erson Englad King on whose e, eithr) r o ; sp ns” nd a d no t r a u tile, ther Prote ntieh n fore as folwing en m t r a p we familes r i o t ntial. fat d’s aped but simple in eaking fel a Anglo-Sax n a p “Anglo-Sax t cu d l t hings) in t s i c a r n” e h t and fund l- go V u o h t ) s r e p her Alf Engla l ro Sa lt tha p r a W also Dar anyo e g r u th cre icto a w . for out studie stan,” ure. e G - ” by familes erha s cent red, T Ag n back e xon by r t s a ts the cone n of ament love he d n a s s ated , e v s lin r what ma ria r 1 Anciet o had ace.” ain n a m r wer acist e l g g u F thou I I t i l a t o t ne the a h s Also, the 950s a t the f ury. ps, y s u s r g.” e h rench d who An nd di n a fa ter and d racil to was e m a mixe o im we in new n vor imgr later e y cted gles inter th ght peo In aly English d u t l u c sh r ns” had those c i spe From As at r a i r a co migrate Ame in America the h t emain Alfre reciv e n e e w t e b e r i e h t s r a her ould ) se part n ado d Gre nabled due t a e ntiued ide it have b n o i t a b simla comp term we est aking and come to tra cked n e r le with ackgrou oth word wo a e f e d d l o h w rica family ated d deriv pted a tha d i the ek). this e s u bar diton wo go f o to have navy was uld impo . y g o l o e o d t a , m s i l a d of Sa Gre but just n a Celts, r t f fr i z a N uld th like (an out to an Ang to in unds the “WASP,” r e t n i po Ang d e t to to in f o om e h t peol until as xons b e d d wer rism, a ter have Athelsan) nd the Ame sen e of rtan and int as side d Grek, atck American like r e G “ adop k d a h Homer from lo-Saxns tile a per n lo-Saxn, a vario G ,s t n e m e l e la n o i t a n proba a w seing and Roma la n o i t a of far Eng n e h W p on, lite st nieth na m r e g wer t, rica. a ejorativ them fect actu od and of s ”c i n a m o n n fr “T Englad in tion althoug in Grek more founder evrth us om Anglo ne t f o an on land th he a g n i h t b sub difern the and ns, e fit ecaus aly ly them But idea few a n i direc . by to al in our The for di - con and had fr eh t - be. the or ot e - - - - it - t But as memories of World War II have faded, there has been some rehabili - tation of the Anglo-Saxons, in great part not for their political or religious associations, but because they were part of a “heroic age” culture that con - tributes significantly to the background of fantasy literature. The works of J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings in particular, have brought Anglo-Saxon to millions (even if they do not know it). Tolkien’s Riders of Rohan speak Anglo-Saxon (actually, the Mercian dialect of Anglo-Saxon) and have many of the characteristics of the Anglo-Saxons (except that the Anglo-Saxons did not fight on horseback). Tolkien’s description of the Rohirrim, “they are proud and wilful, but they are true-hearted, generous in thought and deed; bold but not cruel; wise but unlearned; writing no books but singing many songs, after the matter of the children of Men before the Dark Years,” has thus become, at least unconsciously, a description of the Anglo-Saxons. But even here, in the hands of a great scholar of Anglo-Saxon, there are some changes from the real history, for the Anglo-Saxons did indeed write books as well as sing songs, and they were learned. But Tolkien was not writing a scholarly treatise in The Lord of the Rings , and he brought the sorrow and poignancy of Anglo- Saxon poetry to a mass audience:
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing? Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing? Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing? They have passed like rain on the mountain, like the wind in the meadow; The days have gone down in the West beyond the hills into shadow. Who shall gather the smoke of the dead wood burning? Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning? These lines, from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Two Towers , may seem familiar to readers well-versed in Anglo-Saxon literature. They are a rather loose adaptation of the famous ubi sunt passage from the Old English poem “The Wanderer”:
Hwær cwom mearg? Hwær cwom mago? Hwær cwom maþþumgyfa? Hwær cwom symbla gesetu? Hwær sindon seledreamas? Eala beorht bune! Eala byrnwiga! Eala þeodnes þrym! Hu seo þrag gewat, genap under nihthelm, swa heo no wære.
(Where is the horse? Where is the rider? Where is the giver of treasure? Where is the seat of the feast? Where are the joys of the hall? Alas, the bright cup! Alas, the mailed warrior! Alas, the might of the prince! How the time has departed, grown dark under the night-helm, as if it had never been.) Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films take the Anglo-Saxonification of the Rohirrim one step further and dress them in Anglo-Saxon armor and repli - cas of the helmet found in the excavated ship at Sutton Hoo (the helmet is Anglo-Saxon from the seventh century). Now the Rohirrim look Anglo-Saxon (or, more likely, people who have seen The Lord of the Rings films and then
83 LECTURE FOURTEEN 8 4 m m a th m to a co Sa d o h we tu a a tr co th u sa Sa o se An Wh So nd s ur if um ry lt m, f i or in be et e r e fe er ncl mp ge e b th a xons xons g b ir Þ T w a a r a h t w Te h e v w o f j admi ate aph ge An la e l s u sch el ren o est act to n s an h s i n a d n d n r e m lo p at hose a t n e c i h t n i an re u , e r n i e l me t at e i o ex a ved hrou wer n ly t n ðe de gl d rh poe f l o r u rou o t, ely or a , ig d be i e s e r p m i i m y r we use n a w h in o- r al e g t in , lary it aps e b p e io i h n ca Jolie m o lin t this hat e th be in s e ab s i eop Sa o for a i d e m i n a se d nd gh t s m iedb An sity, ble .d an th s ca o f gu th me gs, in s e d ca r o u se o t s s o e xons: e n p n h w e with n we e r o S d e o n glo- the t bo a k n n, ut sed le gs u istc ms, s r e he er evr ; m for e use da nse, t eðear b wha A t fro w po br v r e ven w ok i l o wi wh Ch n r e ut h t ir t f o nglo t know rkne Sa r , Nor e f hat ight ly e ts, ow b dar e n i r t c o d lit m ou , h t n i e ance i w evr p a br s i e o h a u at ristan with a an t r u yo ave like ics, and xon p o f lso nd t th ave t we fosta n we o t a th h t -Saxo l knes layed f t u o ar s. t a h w t e f i h ticp a th hey u yo em a m o o t f r e t f al, sto e b ascint e Se u or punish a a becom be ro sin f ry fe ar ca l i s, t h g i s An f o m the a , s u . g life, q ated ugh s n ar. sien tifacs learn a, cause rs, a o r b a wer t owe l l o f with n and I t i s ce ns? d o o uote a t n o c they ost in a s i f an n a m d re h ,t o n a . a you on k i l re . t r o h s Th but th a o t t bu th a d e ed, the . e o t n i Gr n ealu al t lea prowe This i al e s e r i f en, e m n ey ey the fro f r wer edfu g ; d t ow l l o f in r e p p u s ear wil ealy s n i ou a g. spe incredb endl’s o t ovie histo e whic Germa do st s r a e p p the h tersin .d m s m a e h t a s e h t as ist r n i edg m re course e h t p re ho find g n i h t e m o s ak and lan t s l i h w th s a ory hu r rest l like. ry of e h t King . mo invoked e c ow r r a p s in pe e ju fo k r a d we . Eng gua can t f i w s in man n i ters . o them nic Beowu st Ven violenc moth l r and of g, f o y n i r o f num f to ,t s d i m dar batle Th al e r a r e t n i w a th dife has Alfred lish an e e h r i a f also war n o s i r a p m o c i w se e erab being e bit ven er a k t h g i l f cultre p er in fam a ly r e t t u so Ang em r e t n eopl t r o h s s i an rent to l shown rios . nd g , f e r o m and r e h t a we t lo , cle . be is ho t s l i h w o le day, trend n i h t i w d insde sim said, thou much, ila . pire, oking d i m a s lo-Saxns our wio g n i ly f mu e wevr, co Bed arly f o m o r f from interp in . se r). and ,e c a p s ply to Th ld c yo gh n a r o n g i a ch y, a us ton cultre, the r e we And . e, know wh e h t r r a p s ey like r u yo a u com it be what s i Th in us. pious h t i w ,n i a t e h perh to c i h w nd ret tha t a wh ow is at wil rathe su f a s cause wer th e. ey praise t u b o t s p h n o m i Th plex lost, betr o e rvios . is n opular is d er. o o aps e they mig i h .t wer t kn th w provide f f e t new m r m m h the ey to in a r f f o f I h i s t a ough one The d ow onks, c d e t than m e e world but m o q ht e the , be tha h s the sr e ro o are and w uick wer t Ang to m i t o r a h o r e h i milen our actr be a of e t a ta h y f about of Anglo- th h t u know, s author s s wh wildy for lite hal, e wer . lo- a g liter much rough e ilu pas ly e the cul es a I h - a fal, at wil ni - - - - - FOR GREATER UNDERSTANDING
Questions
1. What aspects of Anglo-Saxon culture were of greatest interest to Thomas Jefferson? 2. How has the “image” of the Anglo-Saxons changed from pre-World War II to the postwar period to the present?
Suggested Reading
Frantzen, Allen J. Desire for Origins: New Language, Old English, and Teaching the Tradition . Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1991.
Other Books of Interest
Horsman, Reginald. Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxons . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981. Shippey, Thomas A., and Andreas Haarder, eds. “Introduction,” pp. 1 –56. Beowulf: The Critical Heritage . New York: Routledge, 1998.
85 COURSE MATERIALS
Suggested Readings: Alexander, Michael. The Earliest English Poems . 3rd rev. ed. New York: Penguin Classics, 1992. Anonymous. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle . Ed. and trans. Michael Swanton. New York: Routledge, 1996. Anonymous. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation . Trans. Seamus Heaney. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001. Baker, Peter. Introduction to Old English . Oxford: Blackwell, 2003. Bede. The Ecclesiastical History of the English People . Rev. ed. Trans. Leo Sherley-Price. New York: Penguin, 1991. Blair, John. The Anglo-Saxon Age: A Very Short Introduction . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984. Bradley, S.A.J. Anglo-Saxon Poetry . New York: Everyman Paperbacks, 1995. Drout, Michael D.C. How Tradition Works: A Meme-Based Poetics of the Anglo-Saxon Tenth Century . Tempe: Arizona Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 2006. ———. King Alfred’s Grammar . Available online at http://acunix.wheatonma.edu/mdrout/GrammarBook2007/title.html. Frantzen, Allen J. Desire for Origins: New Language, Old English, and Teaching the Tradition . Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1991. Hunter-Blair, Peter. The World of Bede . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Keynes, Simon, and Michael Lapidge. Alfred the Great . New York: Penguin, 1984. Loyn, Henry R. The Norman Conquest . 3rd ed. Hutchinson, KS: Hutchinson Educational, 1982. Mayr-Harting, Henry. The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England . 3rd ed. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991. Niles, John D. Beowulf and Lejre . Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2007. Other Books of Interest: Barney, Stephen A. Word-Hoard: An Introduction to Old English Vocabulary . 2nd ed. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1985. S L Blair, John. The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society . Oxford: Oxford University A I
R Press, 2006. E T
A Bullough, Donald. Alcuin: Achievement and Reputation . Boston: Brill
M Academic Publishers, 2004. E S
R Campbell, James, Eric John, and Patrick Wormald. The Anglo-Saxons . New U York: Penguin, 1991. O C
86 CROEUCROSREDMEDATBEOROIAKLS S
Other Books of Interest (continued): Chambers, R.W. Beowulf: An Introduction to the Study of the Poem . 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Conner, Patrick W. Anglo-Saxon Exeter: A Tenth-Century Cultural History . Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer Inc., 1993. Dumville, David N. Wessex and England from Alfred to Edgar: Six Essays on Political, Cultural, and Ecclesiastical Revival . Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer Inc., 1992. Frantzen, Allen J. King Alfred . Woodbridge, CT: Twayne Publishers, 1986. Frantzen, Allen J., and John D. Niles. Anglo-Saxonism and the Construction of Social Identity . Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1997. Fulk, R.D., Robert E. Bjork, and John Niles, eds. Klaeber’s Beowulf . 4th ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008. Gatch, Milton M. Preaching and Theology in Anglo-Saxon England: Ælfric and Wulfstan . Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977. Godden, Malcolm, and Michael Lapidge, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature . Cambridge University Press, 1991. Graham, Timothy. The Recovery of Old English: Anglo-Saxon Studies in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries . Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001. Gretsch, Mechthild. The Intellectual Foundations of the English Benedictine Reform . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Horsman, Reginald. Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxons . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981. Howe, Nicholas. Migration and Mythmaking in Anglo-Saxon England . Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 2001. Irving, Edward B., Jr. A Reading of Beowulf. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968. Klinck, Anne L. The Old English Elegies: A Critical Edition and Genre Study . London: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1992. Lapidge, Michael. Anglo-Latin Literature, 900 –1066 . London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1993. Liuzza, Roy M. Beowulf . Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 1999. Morris, Richard. Churches in the Landscape . London: J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1990. Orchard, Andy. A Critical Companion to Beowulf . Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2005. ———. The Poetic Art of Aldhelm . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
87 COURSE MATERIALS 8 8 — Wa Yo Wh Wa —. To —. Sh Sh Sh Ro —. Ro Ot —— Bo Pe Pu H D H t L Be R C U Ame Ea Be Be U her lki The r ip ip e b b he r it lker, ke, e o ist a o n h n par d-P i i el nso nso e af yd n b o r o sin ugh rp ive chest ro ive e e li n, Cr rib ock, gu li w w s B . /S e ri y y Ba e n sh el erkins, Wessex e ul ul Fin “ “ st rsi rsi , , ca, n, n, Ian o rC i d, i J. uti Th H mi in cle ton ti ge l T T i f: f.” b rb cs ng R. & isto ty ty Ge er, , h h Or Fr olins, ks Do A n th o e r T . 198 19 ar om om W. g, Ap R. lice. Br Mifln, P ed o he an and an To Hom L rm of o N ry, rot ks in of r re 91. td., ew 1 Br f pro . as as “ Y: d Har d 4 ro b C. anic T 98 C Beo W s, i W. Bishop hy. . n Int Re a yan. Fam 2 y R ens Other Heng er nto: r ecom A., A. B aches re ot 20 01. itcal the Be obe old: ca er oydel . Old 20 19 lig The wulf: Inc., La Po av ton a li ile owu es The Un 4. i Ea 06 84. o rt est nd ngu Th ng in Heritag em Esay n, Æth En t s Begin F. . il iversty to rly 1 g Major Th (co lf . e e Andr able o & Cultre 9. Fal glish s Re ages Ed. C of f Yeagr Tea an Pr Last Middle e elwod: Brew o th OU nti Be cor f M es, d e eas of e /The . Wisdom Alan on ching onster . a t RS . Ed orhtn King: of he Anglo-Sax ued Ne de nd Ro New : line s . r 1 T . Harde Ages Tor E His Ap NY: Home 987. w In me Chr he Blis. Its of ): MATE Beowulf oth, Bo s c., Writng York: th positve Yor English Ba Close Care nto an istophe an and . Mode ro 1 L Beorht coming k: ckgroun ks d Eureka r, 976. d ondon: ugh Pres, RIALS t Routled L n eds. the er Rou he st , at earni Ide rn King p. S Society r and Rela w.mod C 1-80 End t T helm’s tledg Langu yle ntiy “Intro , r Pinter olkien. of d itcs.” 107 204. CA: . Influe g . ge, Ne Stroud tives: Beorh 0-63 of Lon in in – . duction,” , age cesary Fireb 12. Civlz New So 194. 19 Old Publishers the T don: New 6-3 he A ernschola. ce tnoh n.” , As 8. UK: A S English Eds. . York: M ation d 9. ng Tre urvey Knoxvile sociatn Rochest York: onster for . p. lo-Saxn Suton Lond: Jes . Teaching and Ltd., Oxford 1 . of – 56. th a : B. r, of nd 1995. e m NY: