Widsith

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Widsith

Widsith is an Old English poem of 144 lines that appears to date from the 9th century, drawing on earlier oral tradition

Oral tradition

Oral tradition, oral culture and oral lore are messages or testimony transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants....
s of Anglo-Saxon tale singing. The only text of the fragment is copied in the Exeter Book

Exeter Book

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 of Anglo-Saxons poetry....
, a manuscript of Old English poetry compiled in the late 10th century containing approximately one sixth of all surving Old English poetry. Widsith is located between the poems Vainglory
Vainglory (Old English poem)

Vainglory is the title given to an Old English gnomic or homiletic poem of eighty-four lines, preserved in the Exeter Book. The precise date of composition is unknown, but the fact of its preservation in a late tenth-century manuscript gives us an approximate terminus ante quem....
and The Fortunes of Men
The Fortunes of Men

The Fortunes of Men, also The Fates of Men or The Fates of Mortals, is the title given to an Old English gnomic poetry of 98 lines in the Exeter Book, fols....
.

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Encyclopedia

Widsith is an Old English poem of 144 lines that appears to date from the 9th century, drawing on earlier oral tradition

Oral tradition

Exeter Book

Germanic Iron Age

The Germanic Iron Age is the name given to the period A.D. 400?A.D. 800 in Northern Europe and it is part of the continental Age of Migrations....
of Northern Europe: see Tribes of Widsith

Tribes of Widsith

In Widsith, there is a long recital of people, clans and tribes who were known in the Germanic world of the 6th century. Here follow many excerpts from this poem with a translation and links to the tribes and people which have articles in Wikipedia, for easy reference....
. Excluding the introduction of the scop
Scop

A was an Old English language poet, the Anglo-Saxons counterpart of the Old Norse '.As far as we can tell from what has been preserved, the art of the scop was directed mostly towards epic poetry; the surviving verse in Old English consists of the epic Beowulf, religious verse in epic formats such as the Dream of the Rood, h...
Widsith, the closing, and brief interpolated comments, the poem is divided into three 'catalogues', called in Old English þulas (Old Norse

Old Norse

Old Norse is a North Germanic languages that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
þula, see e.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 refers to a group of people called the Wicinga cynn, which may be the earliest mention of the word "Viking

Viking

A Viking is one of the Norsemen explorers, warriors, merchants, and Piracy who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century....
" (lines 47, 59, 80). 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 Hroðgar Hro?gar, Hrothgar, Hr?arr, Hroar, Roar, Roas or Ro was a legendary Danish king, living in the early 6th century.A Danish king Hro?gar appears in the Anglo-Saxons Epic poetrys Beowulf and Widsith, and also in Norse sagas, Norse poems, and medieval Danish chronicles.... 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 Ingeld Ingeld or Ingjald was a legendary warrior who appears in early Anglo-Saxon and Norse legends. Ingeld was so well-known that, in 797, Alcuin wrote a letter to Bishop Higbald of Lindisfarne questioning the monks' interest in heroic legends with: 'Quid enim Hinieldus cum Christo?' - What has Ingeld to do with Christ?... to the spear-point made bow,
forheowan aet Heorote Heaðobeardna þrym.	hewn at Heorot Heorot Heorot is a mead hall described in the Anglo-Saxons epic Beowulf as "the foremost of halls under heaven." It served as a palace for King Hro?gar, a legendary Danish king of the sixth century.... Heaðobard Heaðobard The Hea?obards or Heathobards meaning "the Warlike Bards") were possibly a branch of the Langobards, and their name may be preserved in toponym Bardengau, in Mecklenburg, Germany.... s' army.

The widely-travelled poet Widsith (his name simply means "far journey") claims himself to be of the house of the Myrging

Myrging

The Myrgings was a clan which together with their king Eadgils of the Myrgings is only mentioned in the Anglo-Saxons poem Widsith. They are mentioned as the people of the skald Widsith....
s, who had first set out in the retinue of "Ealhild, the beloved weaver of peace

Weaving (mythology)

The theme of weaving in mythology is ancient, and its lost mythic lore probably accompanied the early spread of this art. In traditional societies today, westward of Central Asia and the Iranian plateau, weaving is a mystery within woman's sphere, and where men have become the primary weavers in this part of the world, it is possible that th...
, from the east out of Angeln

Angeln

Modern Angeln, also known as Anglia , is a peninsula in Southern Schleswig in the northern Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, protruding into the Bay of Kiel....
to the home of the king of the glorious Goths, Eormanric

Ermanaric

Ermanaric , was a king of the Goths Greuthungi at the eve of the Migration Period....
, the cruel troth-breaker." The Ostrogoth

Ostrogoth

The Ostrogoths were a branch of the Goths, an East Germanic tribes that played a major role in the political events of the late Roman Empire. The other branch was the Visigoths....
Eormanric was defeated by the Huns

Huns

The Huns were a confederation of Central Asian Eurasian nomads or semi-nomads, who had established an empire in Eurasia. The Huns may have stimulated the Migration Period, a contributing factor in the collapse of the Roman Empire....
in the 5th century. 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

Deor

"Deor" is an Old English poetry, from the 10th century in poetry Anno Domini, preserved in the Exeter Book. The poem consists of the lament of the scop Deor, who lends his name to the poem, which was given no formal title....
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

Weyland

In Germanic mythology, Wayland or V?lundr is a legendary Smith . In Old Norse sources, V?lundr appears in V?lundarkvi?a, a poem in the Poetic Edda, and in ?i?rekssaga, and his legend is also depicted on the Ardre image stone....
, Theodoric

Theodoric

Theodoric is a Germanic languages given name frequently encountered in early medieval European history. Variant spellings include forms such as Theoderic, Theudoric, Theuderic, or Theuderich....
the Goth, Eormanric the Goth, and other legendary figures of the Germanic past" (Niles 2003, p 10). Historically, we know that one speaker could not travel to see all of these nations in one lifetime. In a similar vein, "I was with the Lidwicingas, the Leonas and the Langobards," Widsith boasts, "with heathens and heroes 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
Deor

"Deor" is an Old English poetry, from the 10th century in poetry Anno Domini, preserved in the Exeter Book. The poem consists of the lament of the scop Deor, who lends his name to the poem, which was given no formal title....
, also from the Exeter Book, draws on similar material.

External links

"The linguistic and literary contexts of Beowulf"
John D. Niles, 1999, "Widsith and the Anthropology of the Past", Philological Quarterly.
John D. Niles, 2003. "The myth of the Anglo-Saxon oral poet" ()

Widsith

See also

External links