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The Old English Elegy and Critical THE OLD ENGLISH ELEGY AND CRITICAL TRADITION by Anne Lingard Hlbbert B.A., Oxon., 1965; M.A., 1969 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of English We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF,BRITISH COLUMBIA October, 1970 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Depa rtment The University of British Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada Date IS** 6cfM>U-: 1170. i ABSTRACT Critical comment on Old English elegiac poetry is discussed from the following three standpoints: definition of the genre •elegy*; interpretations of representative elegiac poems; stylistic analysis. The theories of critics are evaluated, with.the aim of establishing the features of elegiac poetry in Old English and assessing the adequacy of critical coverage of them to date. Not many critics have attempted to define the Old English, elegy as a genre, and their definitions tend to be either too vague or too restrictive, needing to be qualified in a number of ways. However, it appears that the elegy in Old English is an abstract kind of poetry. Itpresents a state of mind rather than a specific person or event. In addition, there .are certain recurrent features by which the genre can be defined. The elegy presents the viewpoint of •an individual, usually in monologue form.. It often contains structural elements which are conventionale The typical themes of elegy are separation from a loved one, exile, banishment, the contrast between present desolation and past or absent happiness. These themes are associated with con• ventional descriptions, the recurrent features of which ex• tend to quite small particulars of wording and imagery. Interpretations of the following elegiac poems are discussed: The Seafarer, The Wanderer, The Ruin,, The Wife's Lament, The Husband's Message, Wulf and Eadwacer. Critical theories regarding these poems show, by and large, a change from considering.them primitive and pagan (sometimes.with ii Christian interpolations) to stressing their sophistication, unity, and essential Christianity. It is, on the whole, a change for the better, but the sophistication and the Christian element now tend to be overemphasised, especially by those critics who interpret the poems as allegories. Present in• terpretations show two main trends: a tendency to relate the poems to Latin influence, often patristic, and a movement to• wards closer investigation of the poems by internal evidence alone, without regard to sources and analogues. Stylistic studies have mostly considered Old English poetry as a whole, rather than any particular branch of it, but although the elegies employ the same formal devices as the rest of the poetry, they tend to handle them in a freer and more personal way. Also, the tendency of Old English poetry to use external description with a symbolic purpose is particularly shown in the elegies, which make an extensive use of natural description as a vehicle of mood. There has been a change in stylstic analysis similar to that in inter-, pretation. Instead of regarding Old English poetry as un• sophisticated, as earlier scholars tended to do, modern critics stress its subtlety and skilful integration, both structurally and syntactically. This change of attitude has affected criticism of the elegies, although the focus has not usually been specifically on them. The stylistic investigations which have shed most light on the elegy as a type have been the formulaic analyses. Apart from the formulaic studies, there has been little direct stylistic examination of elegiac poetry, and.it is here that most remains to be done, as regards both . formal devices and the looser patterns of imagery and description. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION 1 I. The Definition of Elegy: Theme, Motif, and Structure 5 II. Interpretations'of Six Elegies: The Seafarer, The Wanderer, The Ruin, The Wife's Lament, The Husband's Message, Wulf and Eadwacer Sk• ill. Stylistic Comment on the Elegies I67 CONCLUSION 231 BIBLIOGRAPHY 234- INTRODUCTION This study is an attempt to examine in the light of changing trends in criticism those Old English poems which have been called "elegies'.1 Although there were one or two editions of Old English poetry in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, by and large, scholarly investigation of the poetry begins with the nineteenth. This is espe• cially true of the poems to be considered here. In the case of these poems the starting point is J.J. Conybeare's Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry, published in 1826, which contains certain elegiac poems, along with other specimens of Old English verse. Not much work was done in the first half of the last century, but in the second half Old English scholarship increased rapidly, until by the end of the century a very great deal was being produced. This -'•All titles of poems throughout will be those used by G.P. Krapp and E.V.K. Dobbie in their collected edition of the extant Old English poetry: Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, 6 Vols (New. York, 1931-53). Most of the poems are in Vol. IHf The Exeter Book, 1936. Quotations will be taken from the following editions: l.L. Gordon, The Seafarer (London, i960) •Pr. Klaeber, Beowulf, Third Edition (Boston, 1950) . R.F. Leslie, Three Old English Elegies (Manchester, 1961). (This edition contains 'The Wife's Lament', 'The Husband's Message', and 'The Ruin') Leslie, The Wanderer (Manchester, 1966) All quotations from poems not found in the four above editions will be taken from Krapp-Dobbie. For the sake of consistency, accent-marks will be in• cluded in all cases, whether or not this corresponds with editorial practice. London, 1826. 2 survey, then, will largely concern itself with criticism from the end of the nineteenth century up to the present day, al• though a few significant contributions before this period will need to be noted. The emphasis will be on the work of English and American critics. It will appear that there have been certain tendencies and fashions in criticism prevailing at different times. Aside from the purely textual and linguistic studies, nine• teenth-century criticism frequently shows that the earlier scholars were attracted to Old English for what might be called 'romantic* reasons. They saw the poems as represent• ing their own Germanic origins, primitive and pagan. Their comments are sometimes rhapsodic rather than evaluative: •Read it, Teuton! and your heart-strings will twift&h as if plucked by a hand reached out from the past*.3 Linked with this type.of •criticism* is another prominent nineteenth- century attitude, which in fact persisted long after the end of the century, namely the critical approach which attempted to separate out the 'original*, 'pagan* parts of the poems from the •later*, * Christian* interpolations. This approach has now largely given way to an emphasis on the integrity and thematic unity of the poems as found in their manuscript form. Comments and theories as to the sources and analogues of the poems have always been forthcoming, but they have tended to 3A.H. .Tolman, *The Style of Anglo-Saxon Poetry', PMLA, III (188?), 3^. \ concentrate on more and more detailed and minute particulars. In particular, the poems have been increasingly related to Latin influence, both in theme and style. This trend is not recent, but only in the past thirty years or so has it become widespread and thoroughgoing. The reason for this can be seen to be a reaction against the previous emphasis on the primi• tive and pagan character of the poems. Latin models, classi• cal, and more especially patristic, have been cited. The demonstration of Latin influence is thus linked with the modern emphasis on the essentially Christian nature of the poetry. It is also linked with the modern trend to stress the sophistication, rather than the primitive nature, of the poems. The elegiac poems are not characterised by a clear thought-progression. While the earlier critics simply re• garded them as confused or varyingly interpolated, more re• cent critics have been concerned to explore their hidden meaning, which would give them kinds of inner coherence or consequence that externally they seem to lack. Some critics have thus been led to exegetical, allegorical interpretations. Others, working along the same lines of 'explication de texte* as have been applied to more recent poetry, have examined the poems by internal evidence alone, studying structure, Imagery, and diction. On the one hand, there have been a great many studies interpreting the poems with regard to themes and sources; i.e., these have been studies of 'content*. On the other hand, there have been very few studies of elegiac poetry as a type or of Its stylistic features. For this reason, the chapter on •Interpretations*, below, is very much longer than those on "Genre' and "Style* respectively. In these two chapters, particularly the 'Genre* chapter, much has needed to be added to the statements of critics to illustrate the signi• ficant marks of these poems. Critical statements and theories will be evaluated in the course of this study, with a view to analysing their contribution to our understanding of the elegiac poems. 5 CHAPTER I The Definition of Elegys Theme, Motif, and Structure There have been surprisingly few attempts to define and classify Old English elegiac poetry.
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