Widsith is an Old English poem of 144 lines that appears to date from the 9th century, drawing on earlier oral traditions of Anglo-Saxon tale singing. Anglo-Saxon literature (or Old English literature) encompasses Literature written in Anglo-Saxon (Old English during the 600-year Anglo-Saxon Oral tradition, oral culture and oral lore is a way for a society to transmit history, literature, law and other Knowledges The only text of the fragment is copied in the Exeter Book, a manuscript of Old English poetry compiled in the late 10th century. The Exeter Book, Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3501 also known as the Codex Exoniensis, is a tenth century Book or Codex which is an Anthology The poem is for the most part a survey of the peoples, kings, and heroes of Europe in the Heroic Age of Northern Europe: see Tribes of Widsith. The Germanic Iron Age is the name given to the period AD 400 –A In Widsith, there is a long recital of people clans and tribes who were known in the Germanic world of the 6th century. Excluding the introduction of the scop Widsith, the closing, and brief interpolated comments, the poem is divided into three 'catalogues', called in Old English þulas (Old Norse þula, see e. A ags scop was an Old English poet the Anglo-Saxon counterpart of the Old Norse non [[skald]]. Old Norse is the North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age g. Rígþula). The first þula runs through a list of the various kings of renown, both contemporary and ancient ("Caesar ruled the Greeks"), the model being '(name of a king) ruled (name of a tribe)'. The second þula contains the names of the peoples the narrator visited, the model being 'With the (name of a tribe) I was, and with the (name of another tribe). ' In the third and final þula, the narrator lists the heroes of myth and legend that he has visited, with the model '(Hero's name) I sought and (hero's name) and (hero's name). '
The poem contains the first mention of the Vikings by name (lines 47, 59, 80). A Viking is one of the Norse ( Scandinavian Explorers Warriors Merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas It closes with a brief comment on the importance and fame offered by poets like Widsith, with many pointed reminders of the munificent generosity offered to tale-singers by patrons "discerning of songs. "
| lines 45–59: | |
| Hroþwulf ond Hroðgar heoldon lengest | Hroðulf and Hroðgar held the longest |
| sibbe ætsomne suhtorfædran, | peace together, uncle and nephew, |
| siþþan hy forwræcon wicinga cynn | since they repulsed the Viking-kin |
| ond Ingeldes ord forbigdan, | and Ingeld to the spear-point made bow, |
| forheowan aet Heorote Heaðobeardna þrym. Hrólfr Kraki, Hroðulf, Rolfo, Roluo, Rolf Krage (early 6th century) was a Legendary Danish king who appears both in Hroðgar, Hrothgar, Hróarr, Hroar, Roar, Roas or Ro was a Legendary Danish king, living in the early 6th century Ingeld ( AS) or Ingjald ( ON) was a legendary warrior who appears in early Anglo-Saxon and Norse legends | hewn at Heorot Heaðobard's army. Heorot (pronounced /hay oh roht/ heɪ əʊ rəʊt is a Mead hall described in the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf as "the foremost of The Heaðobards or Heathobards ( Old English: Heaðobeardan, Old Low German: Headubarden) meaning "the Warlike Bards" were |
The widely-travelled poet Widsith (his name simply means "far journey") claims himself to be of the house of the Myrgings, who had first set out in the retinue of "Ealhild, the beloved weaver of peace, from the east out of Angeln to the home of the king of the glorious Goths, Eormanric, the cruel troth-breaker. The Myrgings was a clan which together with their king Eadgils of the Myrgings is only mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon poem Widsith. The theme of Weaving in mythology is ancient and its lost mythic lore probably accompanied the early spread of this art Modern Angeln, also known as Anglia ( German: Angeln, Danish: Angel, Latin: Anglia, English: may follow Ermanaric (died 376 was a king of the Gothic Greuthungi at the eve of the Migration Period. " The Ostrogoth Eormanric was defeated by the Huns in the 5th century. The Ostrogoths (Ostrogothi or Austrogothi were a branch of the Goths, an East Germanic tribe that played a major role in the political events of the late The Huns were an early confederation of Central Asian equestrian nomads or semi-nomads with a Turkic core of aristocracy It is moot whether Widsith literally intends himself, or poetically means his lineage, either as a Myrging or as a poet, as when "the fictive speaker Deor uses the rhetoric of first-person address to insert himself into the same legendary world that he evokes in the earlier parts of the poem through his allusions to Weland the smith, Theodoric the Goth, Eormanric the Goth, and other legendary figures of the Germanic past" (Niles 2003, p 10). " Deor " (or " The Lament of Deor " is an Old English poem, from the 10th century AD, preserved in the Exeter Book Wayland (also spelled Weyland, Wieland, Weland, Welent and Watlende) is a smith of Germanic legend In a similar vein, "I was with the Lidwicingas, the Leonas and the Langobards," Widsith boasts,
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- "with the Haethenas and the Haelethas and with the Hundingas.
- I was with the Israelites and with the Assyrians,
- with the Hebrews and the Indians and with the Egyptians. . . "
The poem that is now similarly titled Deor, also from the Exeter Book, draws on similar material. " Deor " (or " The Lament of Deor " is an Old English poem, from the 10th century AD, preserved in the Exeter Book
References
- Anglo-Saxon poetry: an anthology of Old English poems tr. S. A. J. Bradley. Professor Sid (S A J Bradley, Academic, author and specialist in Anglo-Saxon literature London: Dent, 1982 (translation into English prose).
See also
External links
- A Verse Translation by Douglas B. Killings
- The original text of the verse.
- A translation by Bella Millett
- Norton Anthology of English Literature on-line: "The linguistic and literary contexts of Beowulf"
- John D. In Widsith, there is a long recital of people clans and tribes who were known in the Germanic world of the 6th century. Niles, 1999, "Widsith and the Anthropology of the Past", Philological Quarterly.
- John D. Niles, 2003. "The myth of the Anglo-Saxon oral poet" (on-line text)
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