The Metrical Preface to Gregory’s Dialogues
If you want to read me, take some time
And trouble to find my excellent examples
Of spiritual life so that you can rise up
Easily and eagerly to your heavenly home
Where you will find goodness and grace, 5
Bliss and blessing, in that holy hall
Where the fortunate gaze upon the Son of God.
You can do this if your mind is sound,
Your soul righteous, and you believe
In your heart in the help of the holy saints 10
And follow their example as this book exhorts.
Bishop Wulfsige, beadsman and servant
Of the Lord of life, the Giver of glory,
Everlasting Ruler of radiant heaven,
Author of creation, commanded me 15
To be written. The bishop who owns the book
Which you now carefully hold in your hands
Humbly begs you to pray for him,
Seeking help from the saints for his soul,
From the holy ones commemorated in this book, 20
That God may forgive him for all his sins
In words and works and grant him rest
With the Ruler of heaven; and he asks the same
For his earthly king and kind ring-giver
Who commanded him to have this book written, 25
Who is Alfred the greatest treasure-giver,
Boldest leader and kindest king
Among the English from first to last
That anyone has heard of in legend or life.
COLOPHON TO BEDE’S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
This poem, entitled The Metrical Epilogue to MS. 41, Corpus Christi College in ASPR, is a colophon which appears at the end of an OE version of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History in the Cambridge manuscript noted in the ASPR title. Robinson (1994, 3–24 and 167–79) explains the organic movement from the end of the History itself through three related petitions (two in prose and this third in poetry), noting that “the petitions themselves form a connected series of appeals for access to God—through direct admission to the Presence, through intercessory prayers of readers, and through devotion to God expressed through pious labor” (13). Robinson explains that the first two petitions are almost certainly by Bede and argues that the formal and thematic connections between the three petitions point to the writer of this poem (either poet or scribe) taking on Bede’s voice (15). See Robinson’s two related articles for more on the complexities of this poem and the colophonic tradition and for his editions of the poem with corresponding translations to which I am indebted in my own poetic rendering. The new title here is suggested by Robinson’s work.
Colophon to Bede’s Ecclesiastical History
Also I beseech each reader of this book, Ruler of a realm, lord of men,
Who might hold this history in his hands
And cradle its covers, that he might promote
With benevolent power the humble word-smith 5
Who wrote this book with both hands,
So that he might craft many more copies
At his lord’s request, his ruler’s pleasure;
And may the Lord of heaven, who reigns over all,
Grant this writer the power to rightly praise 10
Our Lord until the end of his days.
Amen. So be it.
THE RUTHWELL CROSS
The Ruthwell Cross is a stone cross in Scotland which contains, among various religious passages and images, an eighth-century poem fragment in runes, in which the Cross speaks of Christ’s crucifixion. Cassidy describes the Cross as follows: “The Ruthwell Cross stands today in the little church on the edge of the village of Ruthwell, just south of Dumfries, on the site for which, most probably, it was made, ris[ing] at seventeen feet and four inches in height, almost to the roof of the church from a four foot deep well set into the floor of the apse behind the altar…. It is ornamented on all four sides with images and inscriptions in both Latin letters and runes” (3). The language of the Ruthwell Cross poem is similar to that of the central lines of The Dream of the Rood, though there are a number of missing runes on the stone cross, and the exact relation between the two accounts is still the subject of some debate. Elliott argues that “the most likely hypothesis is that the runic passages represent the main portion of an original Northumbrian poem which was later expanded into the much longer poem preserved in the Vercelli Codex” (1989, 120). In my translation, I follow the reading and reconstruction of the runes by Howlett with occasional borrowing from The Dream of the Rood to help with the missing portions.
The Ruthwell Cross
EAST SIDE
1. North Border
God almighty stripped himself
When he wanted to ascend the gallows-tree,
A brave warrior before a gathering of men.
I dared not bow down—[I had to stand fast.]
2. South Border
[A rood, I raised up]
The mighty King, the Lord of heaven,
I dared not bow down to earth.
Men mocked us both, taunting us together.
I was drenched with blood soaking from his side.
WEST SIDE
3. South Border
Christ was on the cross, raised up on the rood.
Noble ones gathered there from far away.
I beheld it all, afflicted with sorrows,
Bowing down [to the hands of men.]
4. North Border
He was [wounded with arrows.]
Then they laid him down limb-weary,
Huddled together near the head of his body,
While they beheld [the Lord resting awhile.]
THE BRUSSELS CROSS
The Brussels Cross is an eleventh-century reliquary kept in the Cathedral of Saints Michel and Gudule in Brussels. How it came to be in Brussels remains something of a mystery. The poem is inscribed on a silver strip around the edges of the cross. It is a condensed statement of the role of Christ’s rood in the crucifixion, and its sentiments are echoed in several lines of The Dream of the Rood in the Vercelli Book. The poem is followed by a prose statement which reads: “Æthelmær and his brother Athelwold had this cross made for the glory of Christ and for the soul of their brother Ælfric.” Donoghue notes that even though this poem uses the device of prosopopoeia common to many of the Exeter Book riddles, it turns the tables on the riddlic game by announcing the solution up front (78). I have expanded the original two lines of the Old English to three in the translation to better keep the alliteration and communicate some of the ambiguities of the original.
The Brussels Cross
Rood is my name—I raised a mighty king,
Bearing his body when I was a cross,
Sorely trembling, soaked with blood.
THE FRANKS CASKET
The Franks Casket is a small whale-bone casket that is also known as the Auzon Casket because it was first discovered in Auzon, France. The casket (minus part of its top and all of its right side) is housed in the British Museum in London. The right side is in the Bargello Museum in Florence. Webster points out that “the scenes that decorate its sides and lid are crammed with detail and have been chosen from a curious mixture of sources—Germanic and Roman legend, Jewish and Roman history, and the New Testament—few of which are instantly recognizable to us” (7), noting further that “the inscriptions that frame the scenes are equally puzzling; mostly written in the Anglo-Saxon runic alphabet, the futhorc, and in Old English … they perform ostentatious contortions, some running backwards, some upside down, others shifting into Latin and Roman lettering; one is even encrypted” (7). What the casket was used for remains unclear, but it may have held relics or a religious book (Webster, 53–60).
Two of the inscriptions are in verse and are included here. The front panel contains a poem whose exact meaning is much debated. It describes in riddlic fashion the stranding of the whale out of whic
h the casket is made and then gives the solution to the riddle. The right side contains three lines of verse that Fulk and Cain say “allude to a Germanic legend that has not been identified conclusively, elements of which are also depicted graphically on the panel” (45). These lines are difficult to translate because the vowels have been cryptically encoded. The word Hos should possibly be emended to Hors, “Horse,” since there is a horse in the carved scene on this side, but the horse is not sitting; it does seem to be named “rush-biter” in riddlic fashion in the scene. The other named character Ertae might be the Erce or earth-mother of the Charm for Unfruitful Land (see below), but this is also uncertain. See Elliott (1989, 133 ff.), Page (177 ff.), and Webster (11 ff.) for a discussion of the lines and the stories depicted on the casket.
The Franks Casket
Front
The flood lifted up a fish on the high beach,
A burial ground. The savage king was sad
When he swam on the shore. Whale’s bone.
Right Side
Here Hos sits on a misery-mound,
A bank of anguish, suffering the ache
Of distress that Ertae has imposed on her—
A den of sorrows, the torments of the heart.
THE METRICAL CHARMS
The Old English charms are found in a collection of manuscripts described by Dobbie (1942, cxxx–cxcxvii), who notes that “there are only twelve which are in metrical form or which contain verse passages of sufficient regularity to warrant their inclusion in an edition of Anglo-Saxon poetry” (cxxx). Bjork notes that these charms “may contain the oldest pre-Christian material in the Old English corpus” (2014, viii). The charms are part of both magical and medical traditions. They are often accompanied by medicinal directions such as “boil feverfew and plantain and the red nettle that grows in grain,” by practical advice such as “throw earth over [swarming bees],” and by magical incantations such as “get out little spear, don’t stay in here.” The magical element of charms often involves some form of comparison or substitution corresponding to the poetic devices of simile and metaphor. In the “Charm for a Sudden Stitch,” the charmist uses simile in exhorting the tumor to “shrivel like coal in the catch of fire” or “disappear like dirt on the wall.” In the other charms, the charmist uses metaphor in comparing swarming bees to a band of “victory women” or rheumatic pain to an “iron stitch … the work of witches.” The use of such poetic and incantatory language may be a means of preserving and passing down effective practices. It may lend concrete visual imagery to a practical cure at hand. It may also function as a way of verbal healing since we know from both anthropological studies of primitive cures and from modern medical experiments that a patient’s response to positive feedback from a physician is sometimes as effective as any prescribed potion. Bjork points out that “the Old English word for charm, incantation, or spell is galdor, which derives from the verb galan (to sing) and which indicates that singing or chanting is central to the charm tradition” (2014, ix). The charms are thus both poetical and practical, and they serve the twin purposes of cure and care. In a larger sense, as Beechy argues, the charms may function “to bind the world through language in its primeval, perfect function: naming = binding … to order the cosmos in relation to human beings,” so that “through sympathetic signification (verbal and ritualistic action) the world is made more favorable to humanity” (2010a, 55).
The sympathetic function of magic assumes a metaphoric equation between objects or actions (“things alike are equivalent”). Thus, the knives of elves and the pains of a “sudden stitch,” which might be anything from a muscle cramp to rheumatism or an angina pain (Cameron, 141), may be poetically and magically linked since they both attack the body. The contagious function of ritual magic assumes a metonymic equation between objects or actions (“things contiguous are equivalent”), so that by controlling dirt, which is a part of the bees’ world, the charmist can magically control the bees as well. Throwing the dirt or dust might also help to settle the bees in a purely practical way. In addition, the charm for the swarm of bees may be sent forth in a veiled metaphoric fashion against other angry or harmful bee-like creatures such as the “slanderous tongues of man.” The beekeeper and charmist need the bees to form a properly sustaining community, just as they need a supportive human community free from slander and threat. The human and natural stingers must be sheathed and a sustaining honey produced.
The charms often include passages in Latin as well as Old English. The poetic portions of the charms may be in traditional or nearly traditional OE metrical form or in what Fulk and Cain rightly call “semi-metrical” form (156). The incantational form of charms, which includes a variety of repeated phrases, sometimes approaches meter, even if it is not scannable according to the traditional techniques. The poetic lines of the charms are often embedded in prose directions. Since it is difficult to make sense of the charms without the full context, both prose and poetry, I have included both in each of the cases here as is traditionally done.
1. CHARM FOR UNFRUITFUL LAND
This charm shows a not uncommon mixture of Anglo-Saxon Christianity and paganism. Jolly argues that Christian charms such as this one “are not some kind of ‘Christian magic’ demonstrating the weakness of early medieval Christianity but constitute evidence of the religion’s success in conversion by accommodating Anglo-Saxon culture” (9). The charm contains both symbolic actions and poetic chants, intended together to promote fertile fields and to ward off any acts of witchcraft that might have tainted or stunted the crop growth in the fields. Portions of sod are dug up to represent the field as a whole (metonymic magic) and are taken to the church, where masses are said over them. Crosses are made to put into the sod-holes under the sod pieces, which are returned in blessed form to the field. The charmist prays to various powers, including his heavenly Lord and Erce, presumably some kind of ancient earth-mother, for help in protecting the field and encouraging the plants to flourish so that fruit and grain together can sustain the lives of people.
Charm for Unfruitful Land
Here is the remedy for how you may restore or improve your fields if they do not grow well, or if some harm has been done to them by sorcery or witchcraft. At night, just before dawn, take four pieces of sod from the four sides or corners of the field. Mark them and arrange them as they stood before. Then take oil, honey, yeast, and milk from 5 each of the cows on that land, and a part of every kind of tree growing on that land except hardwoods, and a piece of every well-known herb except buckbean—and pour holy water on them and let it drip three times on the underside of the pieces of sod, saying: “Crescite, grow, and multiplicamini, multiply, et replete, and fill, terre, the earth. In nomine 10 Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti sit benedicti [In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, may you be blessed].” And say the Pater Noster as often as the other.
And then carry the pieces of sod into the church and let the mass priest sing four masses over them, and let the green, grassy side be turned 15 toward the altar; and after that let someone carry the carry the pieces of sod to the field where they were before. Do this before the sun sets. Then make four crosses of quickbeam or aspen and write or carve upon the end of each: Matheus and Marcus [Matthew and Mark], Lucas and Iohannes [Luke and John]. Lay a cross in the bottom of each hole where 20 the sod has been cut, saying: “Crux Matheus, Crux Marcus, Crux Lucas, Crux Sanctus Johannes” [Cross Matthew, Cross Mark, Cross Luke, Cross Saint John]. Then take the pieces of sod and put them down on the crosses and say nine times these words, “Crescite … [grow],” and the Pater Noster as often as that. Then turn toward the 25 east and bow humbly nine times, saying these words:
Eastward I stand and pray for this land.
I pray for pity, I pray for favor.
I pray to the God of glory, to the Lord of power,
I pray to the holy Guardian of heaven’s kingdom, 30
I pray to the earth, I pray to the sky,
I pr
ay to the true Saint Mary, the holy Mother,
To the power of heaven in the highest of halls—
That through heaven’s healing and the gift of grace,
I can open up this field-charm with my thought, 35
Invoke its magic with my mighty words,
Singing up shoots, gathering up green life,
Filling the fertile earth by my firm faith,
Making beautiful grasslands and meadows,
As the old psalmist, the wise one said, 40
That a farmer should find favor on earth
Who gave alms to the poor and practiced
His faith according to the will of the Lord.
Then turn three times with the course of the sun, stretch yourself out on the length of the ground and say these litanies: “Sanctus, sanctus, 45 sanctus” [Holy, holy, holy], to the end. Then sing Benedicite with outstretched arms and Magnificat and the Pater Noster three times, and commend the land to Christ and to Saint Mary and to the sacred cross in praise and worship and for the benefit of the person who owns the land and all those who work and serve under him. When all that is 50 done, take uncertain seed from beggars and give back to them twice as much as you took. Then gather together all the plowing tools and bore a hole in the plow-beam and put in it incense and fennel and hallowed salve and salt. Then take the seed and set it on the body of the plow, saying: 55
Erce, Erce, Erce, Mother of earth,
May the eternal, all-powerful Lord grant you
Spirited fields, sprouting and greening,
Budding and blooming, flowering and flourishing,
Growing and graining, heavy with harvest— 60
Bright shafts of millet, broad fields of barley,
White stalks of wheat, all the crops of the earth.
May the eternal Lord and his holy saints in heaven
The Complete Old English Poems Page 117