WIDSITH

(seventh century)

Widsithis a 142-line OLD ENGLISH heroic poem preserved in the late 10th-century manuscript called the EXETER BOOK.Most scholars believe that the poem predates the manuscript by hundreds of years, and is probably the oldest poem in the English language—quite possibly the oldest extant poem in any Germanic tongue. R.W. Chambers believed the poem was written in seventh-century Mercia. EssentiallyWidsithis a wandering MINSTREL’s catalogue of heroes, tribes, and places important in the cultural memory of the Germanic peoples in the heroic age prior to their conversion to Latin Christianity.

The poem is made up of seven rather distinct parts. It begins with a prologue in which the poet Widsith (the name means “far traveler”) introduces his journey with Ealhhild, sister of the Lombard king Aelfwine, as she travels to marry Eormanric the Ostrogoth. Precise historians might object that the fourth-century Eormanric was dead 200 years before the sixth-century Aelfwine, but others who see a good bit of folk memory in the poem suggest that here is preserved the memory of late sixth-century Lombard migration from northern Germany through the lands of the Huns and Goths into northern Italy.

The second section of the poem is a catalogue, orthula, of Germanic tribes and their illustrious founders, all of whom Widsith claims to have visited. It becomes clear that Widsith is not an actual minstrel, but rather a generic, ideal “poet” who transcends time. He moves from Attila the Hun through various other tribes, devoting the most time to the Anglian king Offa and the Danes, Hrothwulf and Hrothgar, familiar to modern readers ofBEOWULF. Like the digressions inBeowulf, the intent of the list seems to be to evoke heroic stories familiar to the original audience through oral history.

A second catalogue follows, in which Widsith lists the vast number of tribes he has visited.Within this section is a passage (ll. 75–87) most scholars believe to be a later interpolation,wherein the poet claims a knowledge of Saracens, Romans, Egyptians, and others, expanding Widsith’s knowledge beyond the Germanic realms to the entire known world.

Following this,Widsith continues the story he had begun in his prologue, and describes how Eormanric gave him a precious ring that he, in turn, passed on to his lord, Eadgils, chief of the Myrgings. Widsith says that Ealhhild also gave him a ring, and that in return he sang her praises throughout the world.Widsith then catalogues the most famous of Eormanric’s descendents, alluding to the strife between Goths and Huns.He concludes this section by declaring that in all his travels, he has found that the best men are those God has made lords.

In the poem’s epilogue, Widsith makes some observations about the role of the SCOP, or poet, in society. He decides that the scop is valuable because he is able to bring lasting fame and therefore immortality to his patrons. In fact the poem itself demonstrates this conclusion, as it catalogues some 140 tribes and heroes of the Germanic world from the third to the sixth centuries, many of which the modern world would know nothing about, save through this poem and others like it. Certainly the poet’s claim to have made the generosity of Ealhhild known through the world is true—without this poem no one would know of her. Many critics have seen the value ofWidsithas a historical record. It has also been suggested that the poem, with its emphasis on the generosity of patrons and the poet’s ability to immortalize the lord’s reputation, is, in fact, a begging poem, in which Widsith is asking for a gift from his patron. Certainly it is also a poem about the power of poetry and of the poet himself.

■ Alexander,Michael, trans.The Earliest English Poems. Harmondsworth, U.K.: Penguin, 1966.

■ Chambers, R. W.Widsith: A Study in Old English Heroic Legend. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1912.

■ Creed, Robert P. “Widsith’s Journey through Germanic Tradition.” InAnglo-Saxon Poetry: Essays in Appreciation for John C.McGalliard, edited by Lewis E. Nicholson and Dolores Warwick Frese, 376–387. Notre Dame, Ind.: Notre Dame University Press, 1967.

■ Krapp, George Philip, and Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie, eds.The Exeter Book. The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, 3. New York: Columbia University Press, 1936.

■ Malone, Kemp, ed.Widsith. London:Methuen, 1936. Rallman, David A. “ ‘Widsith’ as an Anglo-Saxon Defense of Poetry,”Neophilologus66 (1982): 431–439.