Riddle 66: the Exeter Book

Ic eom mare þonne þes mindan geard,                          I am greater than this middle plain,

læsse þonne hond wyrm, leohtre þonne mona,              less than a hand worm, brighter than the moon,

swiftre þonne sunne. Sæs me sind ealle                        quicker than the sun. All of the oceans, the flooding,

flodas on fæðmum ond þas foldan bearm,                     are in my embrace and in my bosom

aregrene wongas. Grundum ic hrine,                             green meadows. I touch at the ground,

helle underhnige, heofonas oferstige,                            deep beneath the hell, rise far above heaven,

wuldres eþel, wide ræce                                                and to the glorious homeland I reach out

ofer engla eard; eorþan gefylle,                                     over the yard, to fill the earth,

ealne middangeard ond merestreamas                           all of the middle world and the ocean roads,

side mid me sylfum. Saga hwæt ic hatte.                      wide, by myself. Say my name.

translated by Reid Hardaway

Scholars seem to think that this is one of the less cryptic Old English riddles and there is something of a consensus of 'what' the poem is referring to.  But I'm not so sure.  What/who do you think is the 'I' in the poem? Feel free to leave a comment with your answer - and maybe we can break some new ground in the OE scholarship.

From the Old English Precepts

"Seldan snottor guma sorhleas blissað"

Seldom will the wise man find joy without sorrow.

Ovid, Liber Primus

Siquis in hoc artem populo non novit amandi,
Hoc legat et lecto carmine doctus amet.

- Ovid

If any of the people know nothing about
love-making,
Read and learn from this poem,
and follow the wisdom of love.

Vote for the greatest translator of Homer's Iliad

Who is the greatest translator of Homer's Iliad?

Because our culture was founded in the image of his mythological vision, translating Homer, and retranslating Homer, will be a practice that we always find intellectually rewarding and emotionally exciting.  I do not believe that these new translations serve the purpose to make Homer more accessible to us.  Rather, we are so profoundly indebted to his influence, that we constantly yearn to make ourselves more accessible to him.  In this unbearable state of wish fulfillment, we will always be translating Homer in an attempt to offer a better translation of our own existence in nature.

With this in mind, the question of his particular identity is mostly irrelevant.  In Plato's Ion, the poet's inspiration has no definition, a seemingly endless chain of bolts which fades away beyond the eye's furthest discernible horizon.  The poet attaches him or herself to a tradition of art that he or she is able to embody, but has no ability to explain.

The Greek "ekstasis" literally means out of stillness, or away from balance.  Plato considered the poet's ability not so much a skill, but a transcendent state, a disruption of life's equilibrium which thrusts the poet, and quite unexplainably the audience, into a wild being of intellectual and emotional ecstasy.  Trying to understand this effect on the observer would become the basis of Aristotle's Poetics and the foundation for western literary criticism.

The scene I have chosen for comparison occurs at the end of Book XIII.  Zeus prohibits the Gods from interfering in the war, which leads to a series of Trojan victories on the battlefield. Camping at the edge of Greek territory, the rows of massive fire pits emblazon the night's skyline, like red comets hanging just above the planet's crust.

George Chapman, publishes The Complete Works of Homer in 1616,

When the unmeasured firmament bursts to
disclose her light,
And all the signs in heaven are seen, that
glad the shepherds heart;
So many fires disclose their beams, made
by the Trojan part.
Before the face of Ilion, and her bright
turrets showed
A thousand courts of guard kept fires, and
every guard allow'd
Fifty stout men, by whom their horse eat
oats and hard white corn,
And all did wishfully expect the silver-
throned morn.
__________

Alexander Pope, publication of his Iliad is completed in 1720,

When not a breath disturbs the deep serene,
And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene,
Around her throne the vivid planets roll,
And stars unnumber'd gild the glowing pole,
O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed,
And tip with silver every mountain's head:
Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise,
A flood of glory bursts from all the skies:
The conscious swains, rejoicing in the sight,
Eye the blue vault, and bless the useful light.
So many flames before proud Ilion blaze,
And lighten glimmering Xanthus with their rays.
The long reflections of the distant fires
Gleam on the walls, and tremble on the spires.
A thousand piles the dusky horrors gild,
And shoot a shady lustre o'er the field.
Full fifty guards each flaming pile attend,
Whose umber'd arms, by fits, thick flashes send,
Loud neigh the coursers o'er their heaps of corn,
And ardent warriors wait the rising morn.
__________

Stephen Mitchell, publishes The Iliad in 2011

So, with elated hearts, they sat up all night
on the battlefield, and their watch fires blazes all around them.
As, in the night sky, around the light of the moon,
the stars emerge, when the air is serene and windless,
and the stars shine bright, and the heart of the shepherd rejoices:
just so, before Ilion, the watch fires the Trojans had set
blazed midway between the ships and the river Xanthus.

A thousand watch fires were burning upon the plain
and around each, fifty men sat in the glow of the firelight,
and the horses stood alongside the chariots, munching
white barley and oats, and waited for dawn to arise.
 __________

This Link takes you to a comprehensive list of the translations of Iliad, many of which are followed by the corresponding text,

Aelfric's Old English Genesis, Part I

Eac swylce seo næddre wæs geapre ðonne ealle ða oðre nytenu ðe God geworhte ofer eorðan. And seo næddre cwæð to ðam wife: "Hwi forbead God eow ðæt ge ne æton of ælcon treowe binnan Paradisum?" Þæt wif andwyrde: "Of ðæra treowa wæstme ðe synd on Paradisum we etað: and of ðæs treowes wæstme þe is onmiddan neorxnawange, God bebead us ðæt we ne æton, ne we ðæt treow ne hrepodon, ði læs ðe we swelton." Ða cwæð seo nædre eft tō ðam wife: "Ne beo ge nateshwon deade, ðeah ðe ge of ðam treowe eton. Ac God wat soðlice ðæt eowre eagan beoð geopenode on swa hwylcum dæge swa ge etað of ðam treowe; and ge beoð ðonne englum gelice, witende ægðer ge god ge yfel." Ða geseah ðæt wif ðæt ðæt treow wæs god to etenne

Moreover, the serpent was more deceitful than all the other beasts that God had prepared over the earth; and the serpent spoke to the woman, "Why did God refuse you, bidding you not to eat of all the trees within Paradise?"  The woman answered, "Of these fruit trees in Paradise we eat, and of this fruit tree, here in the center of eternity, God asked us that we not eat, that we not touch the tree unless we should perish."  Then the serpent spoke again to the woman, "No, you will not die, not at all.  But God truly knows that your eyes will open on the day you eat of the tree, and you will be like an angel, knowing both the good and the evil.  Then the woman saw that it was good to eat of the tree.

translation by Reid Hardaway

Aelfric was an Anglo-Saxon monk from the late 10th century. An accomplished scholar, he wrote in the vernacular, as well as Latin.  He composed homilies, grammars, hagiographies, biblical commentaries, and translations of scripture.  The Old English selection of Genesis from above is ascribed to Aelfric.

Aelfric composed in the native Anglo-Saxon because he was committed to the cause of literacy and enlightenment for the English people.  Interestingly, he did worry that his translations of the Heptateuch would inspire the natives to literally imitate the rituals of the ancient Israelites.  I imagine Aelfric was particularly concerned with the Hebrew Bible's consistent endorsement of blood sacrifice and he felt that, given the Germanic inheritance of the Anglo-Saxons, the local English might be keen on resurrecting gruesome rituals from their pagan past, appealing to these new Christian translations as a convenient justification.

Yet, he was finally convinced of the inherent value of writing in the vernacular.  Five centuries ahead of the Reformation, Aelfric translated parts of the Bible into the local tongue, and he did this with the expressed purpose that it should be understood by every Anglo-Saxon in England, either through reading, or more probably through listening.  Such an impulse might sound a bit too egalitarian for an Anglo-Saxon.  But Aelfric was working within a scholastic tradition formalized by King Alfred.  For a civilization that is often referred to as barbaric, the late Anglo-Saxons were, in reality, committed to expanding literacy and education.

The above selection begins at Genesis 3:1.  While this might be the most familiar passage in all of literature, Aelfric makes some very interesting decisions which reflect tendencies that are, in my opinion, uniquely Anglo-Saxon.  The most obvious is the use of OE englum, when the serpent tells Eve that she will be like an "angel" after eating the fruit.  Of course, every Anglo-Saxon reader would have also read "english"; the words are clearly related etymologically, but in this case they are actually the same.  The dative plural of engel, "angel," and the dative plural of engle, "english," are both englum.  Is the serpent, then, suggesting to Eve that if she eats of the apple she will 'truly' be like 'the english'?  Stay tuned for Part II of this special series, Aelfric's Old English Genesis.

Here is a link to the British Library digitized copy of Cotton MS Claudius B IV, an 11th century manuscript which contains the Old English Hexateuch and number of translations ascribed to Aelfric of Eynsham.  Cotton MS Claudius B IV

the top five greatest translations, in history

George Chapman, Homer's Iliad

Arthur Golding, Ovid's Metamorphoses

C.K. Scott Moncrieff, Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu

David Rosenberg, Genesis, the J author

John Dryden, Vergil's Aeneid

Here are the top five translations in history, according to verba scientiae.  Disagree?  You are welcome to make an alternative suggestion in a comment below.  If your comment gets 5 or more +1s, your suggestion will officially become one of the greatest translations ever, replacing one of the current top 5 greatest translations,

guidelines - in order to be an eligible suggestion, you must provide a link to where the translated work can be read -

Luna and the leaves

I think everyone should take some time to look at early manuscripts and consider how fortunate we are, as a culture, to have these landmarks of history.  Even well-educated people, too often I believe, are dismissive of early texts because they think one can only encounter a more primitive mind from a more barbaric age.  From my research, I am convinced of the opposite.  These early texts, often, preserve the best of us.  They represent a profound and sincere desire on the behalf of our predecessors to retain knowledge and make it accessible to future generations.

Looking at these manuscripts, and these beautiful illuminations, I am sure you will come to the conclusion that the minds of the authors and scribes are far from primitive.  

"A collaboration between ARTstor and the Bodleian Library to produce 25,000 images from 35mm filmstrip negatives and positive slides." Luna

To my left is a beautiful page from a 15th century Italian translation of Pliny's Natural History.  Pliny's writings were read throughout the Renaissance - the Natural History, in particular, was important as it reinforced the desire within this classical 're-birth' to shift the focus from the vague abstractions of the heavens toward the sublime potential of the world we actually live in.   

Old English Poetry: The Seafarer

Forþon nu min hyge hweorfeð ofer hreþerlocan,

min modsefa mid mereflode

ofer hwæles eþel hweorfeð wide,

eorþan sceatas, cymeð eft to me

gifre ond grædig, gielleð anfloga,

hweteð on hwælweg hreþer unwearnum

ofer holma gelagu.

For now my mind turns from my body, 

and my soul turns toward the river of the sea,

over the whale's country my soul turns further, 

over that region of the earth, coming again to me 

rapacious and greedy, alone the bird yells,

sharpening the heart, irresistibly, on the whale-road, 

over the flood's wave.

translation by Reid Hardaway

The Seafarer is a beautiful and strange poem.  Of the Exeter manuscript's four major elegies, the Seafarer is unique in its faculty of language and depth of expression.  The poem is a concise and potent meditation on mortality and the frailty of man in nature.   

Ezra Pound estimated that the poem was one of the finest in the 'English' language.  Read his translation here, 'The Poetry Foundation'

I encourage you to post your thoughts or criticisms below, especially if you have studied Old English.

a mysterious ring from medium aevum ,

The craftsmanship is amazing, 90% of the ring is made of pure gold

In Anglo-Saxon archeology, the Staffordshire hoard and the burial site of Sutton Hoo are, by far, the most significant excavations.  But in April 2009, just three months before the discovery of Staffordshire, a small ring was found in Yorkshire by a railway technician who is also a metal detector enthusiast.  The ring's extraordinary and exotic composition makes approximating a date problematic for historians, archeologists, and gemologists alike.    

The inset red glass is clearly inherited from the Anglo-Saxon tradition.  But the prominent sapphire is a mystery, and scholars have suggested India or Sri Lanka as a possible origin.  While we rarely consider the implications, the commitment to nautical voyaging by the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings gave both cultures access to vast trading networks.  
The ring could simply be a piece that was reworked over centuries until finally being lost in a field just south of Yorksire.  But if this artifact suggest a composite of traditions, then we may have to reassess our understanding of the Viking conquests.

Read more here: Rare Ring on Ansax

Ansax.com is a great resource for anyone interested in Anglo-Saxon England - it is a community of scholars who frequently share and discuss the most current research in AS history and literature.

la grotte de Lascaux

Below I have posted a link to one of the most beautiful and interesting experiences on the internet.  The caves of Lauscaux are home to a profound expression of human achievement, paleolithic art. Dating further back than 15,000 years, the cave art of Lascaux gives us a portal into our ancestral being, something lost in the obscurity of the past, yet familiar and intimate, as if we are the bearers of its fragile relic.

Surviving nature's cold indifference with the frailest of resources, the painters of Lascaux needed a way to translate, and thus transform, reality.  The cave paintings are not random graffiti scrawled by an indefinite number of late developing hominids.  Rather, for thousands of years, a single school of art reigned over the human consciousness.  Looking back to a past we can never know, we can only guess that a stroke of genius grasped our collective understanding, investing our evolution, forever, with a profound psychological shift.



By taking a virtual tour, we can peer into the darkest portals of the human mind, an atavistic provocation which re-introduces our consciousness to itself,

take a virtual tour of the cave,

Vergil,

fama et scientiae volant

Salut!

Ubi versus lecti sunt, poeta laudatus est.