THE VERSE OF
iETHELWEARD'S CHRONICLE
In Alistair Campbell's admirable edition of the Chronicon JEthelweardi Book IV chapter 9 ends t h u s .1
Denique Eadgar coronatur in regnum, rex admirabilis. Annis sextenis siquidem per regna meatus,
Bisque dies numero tenuit minus obice septem, (Argiuae hebdómadas gentis posuere magistri, Septimanas recitant post quas nunc uoce Latini. Tingite nunc calamo, Musae, propriumque uocate Carmen, et ignoto uentis properate secundis. Cum placido steterint fontes, aperite poetam.) Fungitur interea regno post anax in arce, Akimannis Castrum a priscis iam nomine dieta, Nec Bathum ab aliis non pro feruentibus undis. Costis pentidies fuerat quam quondam honore Bradifonus domino Moyses sacrarat amore. Aduenit et populus pariter sine nomine turmae, Quin etiam ferro syncipite rasi corona.
Porro a natiuitate domini saluatoris transactus est tunc annorum numerus non-gentesimus et supra septuagesimus adhaerensque tenuis.
Sibi proles Eadmundi summa (Properat equidem, numero bis denis Super augent nouem) seculi prisca Recolligens mente, ingenia forsan Addens et recenti temporis noua Ter monadis decern
Numero fluente coronatur anax. Interea denis, sex et supra Regimen sub ipso
1. A. CAMPBELL ed. & transl. Chronicon JEthelweardi, The Chronicle of JEthel-weard, Medieval Texts (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons 1962) pp. 55-6.
Contentum rite
Stipulator passim praestiterat illi elementorum Postque spiramen reddit authori
Telluris insultus, marcescens ab ea Lumina cernit altitonantis, Omissa tandem luce corrupta, Anglorum insignis rex Eadgarus.
A Caesare quidem nominato mense Iulio (uulgus usitare solet Potius pestis sublimare sollers uisum humanus
Quam magis diuorsi ab alto cuncta cernenti reddere uota) In cursu ogdoi transeunte diei
Auri largus exanime corpus relinquit Monarchus Brittannum
Nobilis, ex stirpe frondens Saxonum, Eadgarus anax; namque sermone Latino Fausti contim nuncuparunt beatam.
Fabii quaestoris patricii Etheluuerdi foeliciter explicit liber quartus.
Campbell successfully explained many features of ^Ethelweard's prose that had puzzled earlier scholars. His arrangement of the hexameters needs no adjustment, but his arrangement of the concluding lines makes them appear anomalous, diffi cult to classify as verse, and his translation omits some words and misrepresents the sense of others. Let us make a few minor changes to his text, restoring the Classical diphthong in saeculi 3, adding a syllable to reddit to restore the sequence of tenses in praestiterat, reddidit, and cernit 10-13, reading eo 12, retaining insul
tus 12, diuorsi as diuerse 19, Brittannum as Brittannorum 23, and namque as nam
25, all recommended for omission metri causa and not translated by Campbell, scanning line 21 with elision in cursu ogdoi and synizesis in diei, for contim
beatam reading contum beatum 26, and arranging the poem in lines of rhythmic
syllabic verse.
Sibi proles Eadmundi summa Properat equidem numero bis denis
4 5 5 4 5 5 4 6 4 3 4 5 4 4 4 4 6 6 6 6 6 6 4 5 6 5 6 5 5 6 6 6 5 6 5 6 6 6 6 5 6 6 5 5 5 10 12 11 12 11 12 12 10 11 11 11 12 10 10 11 23 29 29 29 27 28 25 24 29 27 30 30 24 24 27 Super augent nouem saeculi prisca
Recolligens mente ingenia forsan
5 Addens et recenti temporis noua
Ter monadis decem numero fluente Coronatur anax. Interea denis
10
Sex et supra regimen sub ipso Contentum rite Stipulator passim Praestiterat illi elementorum Postque spiramen reddidit Authori Telluris insultus marcescens ab eo
Lumina cernit Alti Tonantis Omissa tandem luce corrupta Anglorum insignis rex Eadgarus.
T H E V E R S E O F . E T H E L W E A R D ' S C H R O N I C L E
221
25 Eadgarus anax nam sermone Latino Ab alto cuncta cernenti reddere uota
In cursu ogdoi transeunte diei A Caesare quidem nominato mense
Iulio uulgus usitare solet Potius pestis sublimare sollers Visum humanus quam magis diuerse
Relinquit monarchus Brittannorum Nobilis ex stirpe frondens Saxonum
Fausti contum nuncuparunt beatum. Auri largus exanime corpus
5 4 4 5 6 5 4 3 5 5 4 116 6 5 5 5 8 5 4 6 6 6 4 6 12 6 11 6 11 6 11 5 13 6 11 6 10 4 10 5 11 7 13 7 11 290 27 23 28 28 31 26 23 30 30 28 29 708 For himself the lofty offspring of Eadmund
hastens, indeed, in number [of years] twice ten increase above nine,
recollecting in mind the ancient things of the age,
5 and adding new mental powers, perhaps, in a recent period of time, three single [years and] ten in number flowing away,
he is crowned lord. Meanwhile for ten [years] and six beyond, contented rule under the same man the Guarantor of the elements
10 had granted rightly to that man
and after he gave back his spirit to the Author, the impact of the earth fading away from him, he beholds the lights of the High Thunderer,
with the corrupted light [of this world] finally abandoned, 15 Eadgar the outstanding king of Englishmen.
In the month, however, named from Caesar July, the crowd,
the ingenious human plague, is accustomed more to make use of, to elevate, what is seen rather than diversely
20 to give back thanks to the One beholding all things from on high, in the course of the eighth day passing
23 the monarch of the Britons
22 generous with gold left the formerly-spirited body, 24 noble, flourishing from the stock of the Saxons, 25 Eadgar the lord, for in Latin speech
fortunate men have named him 'blessed spear'.
Let us consider some of the ways in which ^Ethelweard fixed his text, first by making his words for numbers exhibit their value. Bis is the second word from the end of line 2, in which there are ten syllables before decern. The first word of bis
decern 'twice ten' or 'twenty' is the twentieth syllable of the poem. After ter monadis decern there are thirteen letters in line 6. In line 8, which begins with sex,
sex 8. In line 21 the eighth letter is the first of ogdoi, the last syllable of which is eighth from the end of the line. The single sentence from A Caesare 16 to beatum 26 contains fifty words, which divide by sesquioctave ratio 9 : 8 at 26 and 24, so that the epogdous of the sentence falls at I ogdoi.
^Ethelweard states clearly that Eadgar was crowned at the age of twenty-nine, at coronatur I anax, the twenty-ninth word. In anax interea denis sex et supra reg imen sub ipso contentum rite Stipulator passim praestiterat illi elementorum there are sixteen words. In A I Caesare quidem nominato mense lulio uulgus usitare solet potius pestis sublimare sollers uisum humanus quam magis diuerse ab alto cuncta cernenti reddere uota in cursu ogdoi transeunte diei I there are 189 letters and spaces between words, 8 July being the 189th day of the year.
Reckoning letters as numerals, A = 1, B = 2, C = 3 ... X=2l, 7 = 2 2 , Z = 2 3 , the value of the word ANAX is 1 + 13 + 1 + 2 1 or 36. There are twenty-nine words before anax 1 and seven words after anax 25, together thirty-six. The value of REX EADGARVS is 17 + 5 + 21 and 5 + 1 + 4 + 7 + 1 + 17 + 2 0 + 1 8 or 43 + 73 or
116, which is exactly the number of words in the poem.
Lines 1-8 exhibit metrical chiasmus of 10-12 and 12-10 syllables at the begin ning and the end and metrical parallelism of 11-12 and 11-12 syllables at the centre. Lines 9-18 exhibit metrical parallelism of 11-11 and 10-10 and 11-11 syl lables at the beginning and the centre and the end and of 11-12 and 11-12 sylla bles in lines 11-12 and 15-16, which are eleven and twelve lines from the begin ning and eleven and twelve lines from the end of the poem. Lines 19-26 exhibit metrical parallelism of 11-13-11 syllables at the beginning and 11-13-11 syllables at the end and of 10-10 syllables at the centre.
The verses perceived thus are no longer anomalous but part of a long tradition of metrical experiment in Anglo-Latin, Old English, and Anglo-Norman. The tra dition followed earlier experiments among Cambro-Latin and Hiberno-Latin writ ers, who understood fully the principles of quantitative metrical poetry but also composed accentual hexameters and devised an astonishing variety of rhythmic syllabic f o r m s .2 As many of these earlier Insular Latin poems survive in English copies, one infers that early Anglo-Latin poets knew them. But the English might also have read poems like Boethius's O Stelliferi Conditor Orbis in De Consola-tione Philosophiae Book I Metre V, composed in quantitative metrical anapestic dimeters, as if they were syllabic. In the following text capital letters and punctu ation marks in boldface represent features of Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F.1.15, folios 12v-13r, written during the second half of the tenth century at Saint Augustine's in Canterbury.3
2. D. HOWLETT, 'Anglo-Latin Poetry' (forthcoming).
3. For fuller analysis see D. HOWLETT 'Hebrew and Latin : Biblical Verse, Boethian Metres' in Pillars of Wisdom : Irishmen, Englishmen, Liberal Arts (Dublin : Four Courts, forthcoming 2002).
O S T E L L I F E R I C O N D I T O R O R B I S 4 1 0
Qui perpetuo nixus solio 4 1 0
Rapido caelum turbine uersas 4 1 0
Legemque pati sidera cogis 4 1 0
5 Vt nunc pieno lucida cornu 5 9
Totis fratris obuia flammis 4 9
Condat Stellas luna minores 4 9
Nunc obscuro pallida cornu 4 9
Phoebo propior lumina perdat ; 4 1 0 1 0 Et qui primae tempore noctis 5 9
Agit algentes Hésperos ortus 4 1 0
Sólitas iterum mutet habenas 4 1 1
Phoebi pallens Lucifer ortu ; 4 9 2 5 Omnia certo fine gubernans 4 1 0
Hominum solos respuis actus 4 1 0
Merito rector cohibere modo 4 1 1
Nam cur tantas lubrica uersat 5 9
Fortuna uices . Premit insontes 4 1 0 3 0 Debita sceleri noxia poena ; 4 1 1
At peruersi resident celso 4 9
Mores solio . sanctaque calcant 4 1 0
Iniusta uice colla nocentes . 4 1 0
Latet obscuris condita uirtus 4 1 0 3 5 Clara tenebris . iustusque tulit 4 1 0
Crimen iniqui 2 5
Within the English literary tradition one may cite patterns composed from dif ferent types of verse line in Old English poems of the late seventh century and the early eighth, 'Caedmon's Hymn', the Old Northumbrian translation of Aldhelm's Enigma XXXIII, 'The Leiden Riddle', 'The Ruthwell Crucifixion Poem' and 'The Dream of the Rood' from which it was extracted, and later the disposition of hypermetric lines in 'The Wanderer'.4 To these one may add the systematic dis position of types of verse line in 'The Gnomic Verses' of The Exeter Book.5
Among Anglo-Latin poets who experimented with forms other than the usual dactylic hexameters, elegiac couplets, and rhyming octosyllabic couplets are Wulfstan Precentor of Winchester late in the tenth century,6 the eleventh-century hagiographer Goscelin of Canterbury, particularly in his Vita Sanctae Edithae
Vir4 . D. HOWLETT, British Books in Biblical Style (Dublin: Four Courts 1 9 9 7 ) pp. 2 6 2
-7 4 , 2 8 0 - 3 0 1 , 5 -7 4 - 8 2 .
5. HOWLETT, 'The Gnomic Poems of The Exeter Book' in Pillars of Wisdom. 6. R. SHARPE, A Handlist of the Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland before 1540, Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin I (Turnhout: Brepols 1 9 9 7 ) no.
ginis,7 and the twelfth-century historian Henry of Huntingdon.8 The direct heirs of this tradition of metrical experiment were Anglo-Norman poets from the early twelfth century onward. The metrical irregularity with which they have been taxed by nearly all modern editors, critics, and literary historians is a chimaera, issued from failure to perceive easily recognizable patterns of varying syllabic length in Le Jeu a"Adam, Jordan Fantosme's Chronicle, La Geste de Burch, The Rhymed Apocalypse, The Holkham Bible Picture Book, and many other compositions pre viously undervalued, but now to be justly admired for metrical precision in won derfully varied f o r m s .9 The concluding verses of his Chronicle reveal jEthelweard as an articulate and competent exponent of this Insular tradition of metrical exper iment.
D. R . Howlett Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources,
Bodleian Library, Oxford OX1 3BG
7. Ibid. no. 395 pp. 151-4.
8. Ibid. no. 461 pp. 171-2. A. G. RIGG, 'Henry of Huntingdon's Metrical Experi ments', The Journal of Medieval Latin I (1991) pp. 60-72. HOWLETT, British Books in Biblical Style pp. 563-9.
9. R . C. JOHNSTON ed. and transl. Jordan Fantosme's Chronicle (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1981). D HOWLETT, The English Origins of Old French Literature (Dublin: Four Courts 1996) pp. 63-4, 105; 'Anglo-Norman Inscriptions' in Insular Inscriptions (Dublin: Four Courts forthcoming 2001); lLe Jeu dAdam' and 'Anglo-Norman Chro
