THE COMPLETE
OLD ENGLISH POEMS
THE MIDDLE AGES SERIES
Ruth Mazo Karras, Series Editor
Edward Peters, Founding Editor
A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher.
THE COMPLETE
OLD ENGLISH POEMS
Translated by
CRAIG WILLIAMSON
With an introduction by TOM SHIPPEY
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS PHILADELPHIA
Copyright © 2017 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation,
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University of Pennsylvania Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Williamson, Craig, translator. | Shippey, T. A., writer of introduction. | Container of (expression): Alfred, King of England, 849–899. Old English version of Boethius De consolatione philosophiae. English (Williamson)
Title: The complete Old English poems / translated by Craig Williamson ; with an introduction by Tom Shippey.
Other titles: Container of (expression): Caedmon manuscript. English (Williamson) | Container of (expression): Exeter book. English. | Container of (expression): Vercelli book. English. | Container of (expression): Beowulf. English (Williamson) | Container of (expression): Judith (Anglo-Saxon poem). English (Williamson) | Middle Ages series.
Description: 1st edition. | Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2017] | Series: The Middle Ages series
Identifiers: LCCN 2016048011 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4847-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: English poetry—Old English, ca. 450–1100—Translations into English. | Epic poetry, English (Old)—Translations into English. | Didactic poetry, English (Old)—Translations into English. | Riddles, English (Old)—Translations into English.
Classification: LCC PR1508 .C47 2017 | DDC 829/.1—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016048011
Wilt þu, fus hæle, fremdne monnan,
wisne woðboran wordum gretan,
fricgan felageongne ymb forðgesceaft,
biddan þe gesecge sidra gesceafta
cræftas cyndelice cwichrerende,
þa þe dogra gehwam þurh dom godes
bringe wundra fela wera cneorissum?
Are you willing to trade talk with a stranger,
Give a seer or singer, poet or prophet,
A greeting, a welcome with wise words,
Question the far-traveler about creation,
Its natural power, its bodying forth
Into everyday wonder through God’s grace,
Its life-quickening capacity and clout,
Its marvelous moving among men?
—from The Order of the World
DEDICATION POEM
WEAVING WISDOM
Are you willing to trade talk with a stranger,
Unwrap riddles, mix words with the wise,
Wonder how and why each element
Of creation quickens from cell to star,
Each song shapes from Beowulf to blessing,
Each primrose or prayer begins to bloom?
Each day through dom—through judgment,
Through honor or ordinance, majesty or meaning,
Some mystery offers itself up for unraveling
To those who can thread thoughts and hear
The shuttle singing, click and clack,
Across the web, across the centuries.
And you, wanderer of landscape or light,
Can you read runes, sift evidence,
Draw conclusions or a straight line,
Craft arguments in prose or a pot in clay,
Chart the universe, charm the moment
With child’s play?
Here’s an Anglo-Saxon proverb:
A wise man or woman never wearies
Of asking questions about creation,
Never tires of digging up ideas and artifacts,
Never says, “No,” to the dirt of history
Or the mind mucking back through memory,
Rooting about for tribal glory or plain truth.
So that by repeating, rehearsing, revising,
We take the cunning wonder of the world
And weave it into a nest of numbers,
A house of hypotheses, a web of words.
The Anglo-Saxon poet says, Leorna ðas lare—
Learn this lore. So scholars wrote riddles,
Teasing the wits of would-be solvers,
Celebrating the mystery of moon and mailcoat,
Warhorn and harrow, piss and plow,
Weathercock, wine-cup, web and loom.
And across the bridge of language that lifts
Over the river of years, here is my riddle:
What shapes us all from morning to meandering,
From ancient galaxies to ribonucleic acid,
From certainty to serendipity, dawn to doom,
From quarks to quasars, from proofs to passions,
From kisses to calibrations, love to longevity,
From warriors to websongs, high art to half-lives,
From the flowers of heaven to the fields of Einstein?
Let each student who loves a mystery,
Either as a shaman or as a detective,
Inquire after the wonders of creation,
The order of the world, inscribe in her book
Or his understanding the searorun,
The secret skill or inwrought power,
Of each elemental thing, each nascent thought,
Each truth-song inscribed in number or narrative.
Be bold to question, quick to doubt,
Eager to imagine, proud of precision,
Humble at the end of a proof or poem.
Give thanks that some part of this grand,
Unabating, intimate mystery remains
Unknown, whether you want to call it
A unified field, a world-wide web,
Or a shuttle singing through the loom of time.
—Craig Williamson
CONTENTS
Introduction by Tom Shippey
Note on the Texts, Titles, and Organization of the Poems
List of Abbreviations
On Translating Old English Poetry
THE JUNIUS MANUSCRIPT
Introduction
Genesis (A and B)
Exodus
Daniel
Christ and Satan
THE VERCELLI BOOK
Introduction
Andreas: Andrew in the Country of the Cannibals
The Fates of the Apostles
Soul and Body I
Homiletic Fragment I: On Human Deceit
The Dream of the Rood
Elene: Helena’s Discovery of the True Cross
THE EXETER BOOK
Introduction
Christ I: Advent Lyrics
Christ II: The Ascension
Christ III: Judgment
Guthlac A
Guthlac B
Azarias: The Suffering and Songs of the Three Youths
The Phoenix
Juliana
The Wanderer
The Gifts of Men
Precepts: A Father’s Instruction
The Seafarer
Vainglory
Widsith
The Fortunes of Men
Maxims I: Exeter Maxims (A, B, and C)
The Order of the World
The Rhyming Poem
Physiologus I: The Panther
Physiologus II: The Whale
Physiologus III: Partridge or Phoenix?
Homiletic Fragment III: God’s Bright Welcome
Soul and Body II
Deor
Wulf and Eadwacer
Riddles 1–57
The Wife’s Lament
Judgment Day I
Resignation A: The Penitent’s Prayer
Resignation B: The Exile’s Lament
The Descent into Hell
Almsgiving
Pharaoh
The Lord’s Prayer I
Homiletic Fragment II: Turn Toward the Light
Riddles 28b and 58
The Husband’s Message
The Ruin
Riddles 59–91
BEOWULF AND JUDITH
Introduction
Beowulf
Judith
THE METRICAL PSALMS OF THE PARIS PSALTER AND THE METERS OF BOETHIUS
Introduction
The Metrical Psalms of the Paris Psalter
The Meters of Boethius
THE MINOR POEMS
Introduction
The Fight at Finnsburg
Waldere
The Battle of Maldon
The Poems of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
1. The Battle of Brunanburg (937)
2. The Capture of the Five Boroughs (942)
3. The Coronation of Edgar (973)
4. The Death of Edgar (975)
5. The Death of Alfred (1036)
6. The Death of Edward (1065)
Durham
The Rune Poem
Solomon and Saturn I
Solomon and Saturn II
The Menologium: A Calendar Poem
Maxims II: Cotton Maxims
A Proverb from Winfrid’s Time
Judgment Day II
The Rewards of Piety
The Lord’s Prayer II
The Gloria I
The Lord’s Prayer III
The Creed
Fragments of Psalms
The Kentish Hymn
Psalm 50
The Gloria II
A Prayer
Thureth
The Book’s Prologue to Aldhelm’s De virginitate
The Seasons for Fasting
Cædmon’s Hymn
Bede’s Death Song
The Leiden Riddle
Latin-English Proverbs
The Metrical Preface to The Pastoral Care
The Metrical Epilogue to The Pastoral Care
The Metrical Preface to Gregory’s Dialogues
Colophon to Bede’s Ecclesiastical History
The Ruthwell Cross
The Brussels Cross
The Franks Casket
The Metrical Charms
1. Charm for Unfruitful Land
2. Nine Herbs Charm
3. Charm Against a Dwarf
4. Charm for a Sudden Stitch
5. Charm for Loss of Property or Cattle
6. Charm for Birthing Difficulties
7. Charm for the Water-Elf-Disease
8. Charm for a Swarm of Bees
9. Charm for Theft of Cattle
10. Charm for Loss of Property or Cattle
11. Journey Charm
12. Charm for Wens (or Tumors)
ADDITIONAL POEMS
Introduction
Additional Poems of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
1. The Accession of Edgar (959)
2. Prince Edward’s Return (1057)
3. Malcolm and Margaret (1067)
4. The Wedding Conspiracy Against King William (1075)
5. The Rhyme of King William (1086)
6. The Suffering Under King Henry (1104)
Captions for Drawings
Cnut’s Song
Distich: Psalm 17:51
Distich on Kenelm
Distich on the Sons of Lothebrok
Five Memorial Stone Inscriptions
1. Dewsbury Memorial (or Stone Cross)
2. Falstone Hogback Memorial
3. Great Urswick Memorial
4. Overchurch Memorial
5. Thornhill III Memorial
Genealogical Verse
Godric’s Hymns
The Grave
Honington Clip
Instructions for Christians
Lament for the English Church (From the Worcester Fragments)
Lancashire Gold Ring
Metrical Psalms 90:15–95:2
The Soul’s Address to the Body (From the Worcester Fragments)
Sutton Disc Brooch
Two Marginalic Lines
Verse in a Charter
Verse in a Homily: The Judgment of the Damned
Verse Paraphrase of Matthew 25:41
Verse Proverb in a Junius Homily
Verses in Vercelli Homily XXI
Appendix of Possible Riddle Solutions
Bibliography
Index of Poem Titles
Acknowledgments
INTRODUCTION
Tom Shippey
SONG AND POETRY
About fourteen hundred years ago, mourners buried a man in what archaeologists have now labeled “Grave 32” in the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Snape, in Suffolk, England. He was laid out carefully and respectfully, in pagan fashion, with a spear by his right side and a round shield covering the left side of his torso. Underneath the shield, though, the mourners placed what may have been the dead man’s most precious possession: his harp. (Technically speaking, it is a lyre, but Anglo-Saxons would have called it a hearpe.) Made of maplewood, with a soundboard of thin oak, and with attachments, including a wrist-strap which would allow it to be played two-handed, it is an unusually fine instrument even compared with the similar harps recovered elsewhere, one of them from the lavishly furnished royal burial at Sutton Hoo a few miles away. The report of the archaeologist Graeme Lawson notes that it was left “cradled in the crook of the [dead man’s] left arm, almost as though in preparation for performance,” and adds that such graves provide us with “direct archaeological links” to the world in which Old English poetry was composed and preserved (215, 223). The “warrior-poet” of Grave 32 was surely a scop, one of those who (see The Fortunes of Men, ll. 74–77) “sits with his harp at his lord’s feet, / Takes his treasure, a reward of rings, / Plucks with his harp-nail, sweeps over strings, / Shapes song: hall-thanes long for his melody.”
What we now know as poetry, then, began as song, though the tunes and the music have been lost beyond recall. Performers nowadays try to reimagine it, though one may wonder whether any one person can now recreate a whole art form developed long ago by many minds and marked by delighted virtuosity. The Anglo-Saxons’ word for “harp-nail,” or plectrum, was sceacol, and the poet of The Fortunes of Men calls it, in very literal translation, “the shackle, which leaps, the sweet-sounding nail.” It is “the harp’s sweet songs, the poet’s music” that provoke Grendel to envious fury in Beowulf, and there are “sound and music mixed” when Hrothgar’s poet plays the “joy-wood” and sings the story of Finnsburg to the Danish court and its guests (see ll. 89–90, 1060–1161). At a much lower social level, the story of Cædmon told by the eighth-century historian Bede (see the headnote to Cædmon’s Hymn) indicates that it was normal at an Anglo-Saxon drinking-party for a harp to be passed around so that everyone could sing. Cædmon is unusual in that he cannot sing (or play?) and has to hide his embarrassment in the cowshed, from which the angel rescues him by the gift of inspiration. Of course, Bede’s story may not be true, but it cannot have seemed implausible either to the first readership of Bede’s own version, written in Latin, or to the readership of the translation into Old English made more than a century and a half later. For the pagan and pre-literate Anglo-Saxons of the early Anglo-Saxon period, poetry deliver
ed as song was at once the main channel of their own traditions, their highest intellectual art form, and their most valued entertainment. When the messenger who announces Beowulf’s death says that their lord has “laid down laughter” (l. 3022), he is thinking of gamen ond gleodream, “game and glee-dream,” or as we would say, “merriment and joy in music.”
The very high cultural value placed on their native skill by Anglo-Saxons must account for the preservation of Old English poetry in relatively large quantities, rather more than 31,000 lines of it all told, enough to fill the six thick volumes of The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records (and the post-ASPR discovered poems included in the section, “Additional Poems,” in this collection). This body of literature is a striking anomaly on the early medieval European scene. Anglo-Saxons were still writing poems in the traditional style, with fairly strict adherence to the old rules of meter and use of traditional “kennings” (see pp. 17–18) almost up to 14 October 1066, when the last Anglo-Saxon king, Harold, died on the battlefield of Hastings: the latest datable poem we have is the one preserved in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle on the death of his predecessor, King Edward, nine months before. How long they had been doing this is a much harder question. Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, or Ecclesiastical History of the English People, was finished by 731, and his story of Cædmon is set many years earlier, so that Cædmon’s Hymn is often taken to be the earliest Old English poem. But it has been pointed out by Kevin Kiernan (1990) that Bede gives only a Latin version of the Hymn, the Old English poetic versions (in both Northumbrian and West Saxon) being added much later, so that they could have been composed on the basis of the Latin at that later date—though it is an odd coincidence, as Fulk and Cain remark (142, 255), that the Latin falls so neatly into Old English poetic form.
Other contenders for “earliest surviving poem” are carved rather than written (Old English used the same verb, writan, for both), and use the old runic alphabet rather than the Latin alphabet brought in by Christian missionaries. The poem, The Dream of the Rood, survives in long and probably expanded form in the Vercelli Book—an Anglo-Saxon manuscript found against all probability in the cathedral library of Vercelli in northern Italy, perhaps left there by a pilgrim—but some twenty lines of a version of the same poem are carved in stone, in fragmentary form, in runic letters and in a very different far-northern dialect, on the stone obelisk now known as the Ruthwell Cross in Dumfriesshire in southern Scotland. Everything about the Ruthwell Cross is enigmatic, but it could be three hundred years older than the Vercelli Book. There are five lines of Old English poetry, also in runic script, on the Franks Casket, a whalebone box discovered in France, and an early date is suggested by the fact that the engraver not only carved his runes clockwise around the box edges, but did them in mirror-writing along the bottom, as if the left-to-right convention was unknown to him (Fulk and Cain, 45–47).