A Sparrow in the Hall

In one of the best-known episodes of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History (731), King Edwin of Northumbria is in 627 debating whether to convert to Christianity. A thoughtful man and a good king, he consults his advisors, one of whom says:

The present life of man, O king, seems to me, in comparison of that time which is unknown to us, like to the swift flight of a sparrow through the room wherein you sit at supper in winter, with your commanders and ministers, and a good fire in the midst, whilst the storms of rain and snow prevail abroad; the sparrow, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry storm; but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight, into the dark winter from which he had emerged. So this life of man appears for a short space, but of what went before, or what is to follow, we are utterly ignorant. If, therefore, this new doctrine contains something more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed. (Book 2, Chapter 13)

The transience that troubles Edwin’s counselor pervades Old English poetry, finding its most poignant expression in the elegies collected in the late-tenth-century anthology of Old English poetry known as the Exeter Book.  The Exeter elegies mourn the loss of peoples, buildings, riches, friendships, and lifestyles. Survivors traverse post-apocalyptic land- or seascapes, having lost everyone and everything they’ve known and loved.  Still, they persist, translating loneliness into loveliness through poetry.

This week’s bundle includes four of the Exeter elegies. All of these elegies have been given titles by modern scholars, but we are presenting them to you without those titles so that you will experience them as an eleventh-century reader of the Exeter Book might have.  It is for you to decide what these poems are about. What would you entitle them if the choice were yours—or would you let them speak for themselves, as medieval poets and scribes did?  Consider how titles interpret—and perhaps misinterpret—texts.  After you’ve finished reading the poems, we’ll tell you what the modern scholars have called them and you can decide whether you agree or disagree.

As you read, note the different factors that produce loss (death, disease, passage of time, etc.).  Which seem to come up most often?  From the poets’ descriptions, can you imaginatively reconstruct the lost world they lament?

Note, too, the meandering style of the elegies; the poets shift from one topic to the next without articulating the connection between them.  Can you discern the connections that are implied but unstated?