Old English Literature – Final Exam

OLD ENGLISH ELEGIES

a) The Wanderer
The narrator is traveling at sea after his lord has died and he was unable to find another one. Exile is torture for him, and he
suffers on his lonely journey on the icy, wintry seas. He remembers the comfort of the kinsmen in his hall and his relationship
with his kind lord. However, he understands the grander scope of life. He urges readers to be wise and avoid being anxious,
brash, proud, or grasping. Earthly life is short, and men pass away. A man should remain courageous and stouthearted,
keeping his emotions to himself. He should also trust God and fear Him, because He is the only one with the power to save a
man’s soul.
b) The Seafarer
The narrator is also alone at sea, but unlike the Wanderer, his exile is voluntary. He is traveling to the land of the exiles
because he felt a yearning in his heart to undertake the journey. However, life at sea is lonely and marked by bitter cold,
freezing rain, and roiling waves. He contrasts the ease of life on land with the difficulties of life at sea, but concludes that the
latter leads to wisdom. A man should be aware that earthly life is short, and everything fades away. Doing great deeds and
making a name for oneself is something to strive for on earth, so that people can remember his name. A man should also look
to God for security and peace, because it does not occur unless God wills it.
c) The Wife’s Lament
The protagonist is in a foreign land, far away from her husband. While her husband was away, his kinsmen turned him
against her, so she is now in hiding (or her husband turned out to be dishonest and sent her away). She is imprisoned under an
oak tree and mourns her marriage. She is devastated by their separation and thinks longingly about happy lovers.
d) The Husband’s Message
The speaker is a wooden staff on which a message from an exiled husband to his wife has been carved in runic letters. The
staff tells how it grew as a sapling beside the sea, never dreaming it would have the power of speech, until a man carved a
secret message on it. The husband’s message tells of how he was forced to flee because of a feud but now has wealth and
power in a new land and longs for his wife. It implores her to set sail and join him.
e) Wulf
The speaker of the poem is evidently separated from her lover, Wulf, both symbolically and materially, and this separation is
seemingly maintained by threat of violence, possibly by her own people. Crying out in her sorrow for her lover, she longs for
him to take her in his arms. She finds comfort in his coming, but it is also bittersweet. She then addresses ‘Eadwacer’, who
may be her husband or her captor, and she appears to identify their ‘whelp’, generally understood to metaphorically imply
‘child’ and possibly a reference to the child’s being the ‘whelp’ of a man named ‘Wulf’. She describes this child as being
taken off ‘to the woods’.
f) The Ruin
The narrator gazes upon an empty, ruined city. He observes broken buildings, towers, and gates, imagining what the city
looked like when proud warriors strode the city streets and treasure piled up in the halls. We learn that a plague swept through
the city and killed all the inhabitants, leaving the narrator to muse on the transience of earthly life.
Themes:
a) Exile & loneliness
 The Wife’s Lament – the Wife is not only inconsolable because of her separation from her husband, but also because of her
exile from her homeland
 The Wanderer – the titular narrator mourns the death of his lord and his inability to find a new one, so he journeys throughout
the lands in isolation, remembering the laughter in the mead-hall
 The Seafarer – although his isolation is voluntary, he recognizes the contrast between a life on land and his struggles at sea,
noting the absence of friends and women
b) Fate (Wyrd)
 the Anglo-Saxons strongly believed in the concept of fate (or wyrd in Old English), so they believed that divine fate governed
the lives of human beings and directed the course of worldly events
 the concept is mentioned in The Wanderer and alluded to in The Seafarer
c) The transience of earthly life & the power of God
 The Seafarer – the narrator encourages the reader to be aware of how short life is and that the only place where they can
really feel eternally happy is in Heaven, but the Seafarer also understands that he gains wisdom from facing nature head-on,
which brings him closer to his fate, and to God
 The Ruin – the poet muses over the mess before him, thinking about the warriors that once stood in the decimated halls and
the piles of treasure that once ornamented the crumbling city
BEOWULF
Beowulf, heroic poem considered the highest achievement of Old English literature and the earliest European vernacular epic.
It tells the story of the Scandinavian hero Beowulf, who gains fame as a young man by vanquishing the monster Grendel and
Grendel’s mother; later, as an aging king, he kills a dragon but dies soon after, honoured and lamented. Beowulf belongs
metrically, stylistically, and thematically to the Germanic heroic tradition but shows a distinct Christian influence.
MIDDLE ENGLISH LYRICS
a) Sumer is icumen in
This song begins with the cooing of the cuckoo. The speaker requests the bird to sing as the summer is coming. At the end of
the spring, nature gets ready to welcome summer. Likewise, the poet also tries to capture the change as well as the images
related to summer. Moreover, the speaker refers to the animals such as the lamb, cow, bullock, goat, and last but not least, the
cuckoo. The main idea of the poem is about the singing of the cuckoo that justly resonates with the ambiance of summer.
b) Betwene Mersh and Averil
The poet begins by evoking the image of birds singing in the springtime, before declaring that he is love. In the refrain he
tells us that he is fortunate: his love has been withdrawn from all other women and lighted on Alison. He describes her beauty
and says that he will die unless she accepts him. He is sleepless and pale with longing for her; no-one can describe her
goodness, for she is the most beautiful of all women. He is worn out with worry that someone else will take her.
c) Stond well, moder, under Rode
This thirteenth-century poem imagines a dialogue between Mary and Christ as he hangs upon the cross. ‘Stond wel, moder’,
by approaching the scene through dialogue (and only dialogue, until the last two verses), creates a particularly effective
impression of immediacy and drama. The interaction between their speeches is vivid and believable: they talk past each other,
Christ trying to comfort her and explain the necessity of his death, while his mother is unable to look beyond his immediate
suffering. The opening lines ask of her an impossible, paradoxical emotional response: to rejoice as she sees her son dying.
d) I lovede a child of this cuntree
A song written from the perspective of a young woman who loved a young man, but she is now sad and upset as he left her.
e) I have a gentil cock
Essentially, this lyric is an extended bawdy pun, with “cok” standing for “rooster” and “penis.” Every attribute and action is
applicable to both cocks. Additional wordplays further enhance the effect.
f) I sing of a maiden
“I sing of a maiden” is a Middle English lyric written about the Incarnation, the divine conception of Jesus to Mary. The
poem is praised by critics for its use of descriptive imagery, superb and unique form, and individualistic language that retains
elements of religious overtones.
g) Adam lay ibounden
 A song written about Adam being bound for thousands of years as punishment for committing the first ever sin. However, it
praises Adam for doing so, because had he not taken a bite from the apple, Mary would have never become Queen of Heaven
and Jesus would not have been born.
h) Of all creatures women be best
The key for the poem seems to be the Latin phrase “Cuins contrarium verum est,” glossed as “The opposite of this is true,”
which follows the title of the poem. While the text goes out of its way to address specific charges against women, namely that
ladies are prone to gossip and enjoy spending their man’s earnings irresponsibly, it does so in a tongue-in-cheek way that
instead reinforces the power of those stereotypes.
THE BOOK OF MARGERY KEMPE
The Book of Margery Kempe is considered to be the first example of an autobiography in the English language. However,
since Margery was illiterate it is said that she had dictated her life story to two scribes. It is one of the earliest known works
of English prose and is considered a significant historical and literary document. The book chronicles Margery’s life as a
Christian mystic, detailing her spiritual journeys, religious experiences, and interactions with various people she encountered
along the way. It provides a unique perspective on medieval spirituality and is seen as a valuable source for understanding the
religious and social practices of the time period.
Book 1
Margery Kempe describes the mystical experiences she suddenly began having as a young woman. Following the birth of her
first child, Kempe suffered a long and severe illness, toward the end of which she had a vision of Jesus Christ reassuring and
comforting her. More visions followed, deepening Kempe’s faith and leading her to embark on a program of prayer,
penitence, and self-denial. Fearful of being tricked by the Devil, Kempe consulted various spiritual authorities about the
trustworthiness of her visions. She came to believe they truly were messages from God. Her religious experiences caused her
to weep, and later on to scream and sometimes writhe on the floor, for extended time periods and in public places. Her
behavior disturbed others, both unnamed clergy and laypersons, and invited cruelty toward her. These manifestations of her
faith and others’ reactions to them continued for years.
In one vision Jesus commanded Kempe to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, which she did despite the considerable
dangers and difficulties involved. Her behavior caused fellow pilgrims to treat her poorly, at times leaving her on her own in
foreign places. On the way back, she stayed in Rome rather than return directly to England. Here, as elsewhere on the
pilgrimage, Kempe was largely dependent on the kindness of strangers, but she continued to give whatever she could spare to
charity. Finally arriving back in England after two years, Kempe found herself under suspicion of heresy, a charge against
which she defended herself before multiple secular and church authorities. Only after several such delays did she make it
home to Lynn.
Kempe’s neighbors, no more charitable than before, continued to complain about her weeping and crying at prayers, and her
friends quietly suggested she leave town. Paying them as little mind as she could, Kempe instead associated with priests who
prayed with her and read to her from mystical texts. In her visions during this period, Kempe contemplated the nature of
forgiveness and damnation, struggling to understand (as many have since) how a merciful God could consign any of his
creatures to eternal suffering. A destructive fire in Lynn was miraculously quenched, bolstering Kempe’s reputation among
the townspeople. Over time, Kempe’s fellow townsfolk reluctantly came to see her as a holy woman to be sought out in times
of personal crisis. In one particularly touching episode, Kempe visited and consoled a young woman undergoing a postpartum
illness similar to the one she experienced many years earlier. Having been given up for mad, the woman recovered under
Kempe’s care, to the astonishment of friends and family.
At this point John Kempe was over 60 years old and had become somewhat frail. He suffered a bad fall, and Kempe—at
Jesus’s bidding—devoted herself to caring for her husband, whose ailments included senility. Subsequent chapters in Book 1
relate miscellaneous visions and miracles, including an episode spanning several chapters in which Kempe witnessed the
Passion, death, and Resurrection of Jesus as if she were there herself. A short synopsis of the Book’s authorship and origins
closes the volume.
Book 2
The much shorter Book 2 appends some information about Kempe’s later years. The main narrative episode is a pilgrimage to
the Continent, undertaken following the death of one of Kempe’s adult sons. Sites visited include Danzig (now Gdańsk),
Aachen, and the small German town of Wilsnack. Returning by way of London, Kempe found herself the subject of petty
gossip about her religious habits, which she endured with her characteristic patience. The book closes with a long prayer
entreating Jesus for mercy.
THE CANTERBURY TALES
“When April comes with his sweet, fragrant showers, which pierce the dry ground of March, and bathe every root of every
plant in sweet liquid, then people desire to go on pilgrimages.”
The General Prologue
The narrator (a constructed version of Chaucer himself) is first discovered staying at the Tabard Inn (in London), when a
company of twenty-nine people descend on the inn, preparing to go on a pilgrimage to Canterbury. After talking to them, he
agrees to join them on their pilgrimage.
Yet before the narrator goes any further in the tale, he describes the circumstances and the social rank of each pilgrim. He
describes each one in turn, starting with the highest status individuals. The Knight is described first, followed by a slue of
others such as The Prioress, The Wife of Bath, The Summoner, The Pardoner, and the last to be described is The Host. All of
the pilgrims are meant to tell two stories on the way to Canterbury, and two on the way back, but only the narrator gets to
actually tell two stories.
The Wife of Bath’s Tale
“Experience”, even if no written authorities existed in the world, “is right ynogh for me”.
The Wife of Bath’s Tale is one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. Before the Wife of Bath tells
her tale, she offers in a long prologue a condemnation of celibacy and a lusty account of her five marriages. It is for this
prologue that her tale is perhaps best known.
The tale concerns a knight accused of rape, whose life shall be spared if in one year he discovers what women most desire.
He eventually turns to an ugly old witch who promises him the answer that will save his life if he does the first thing she asks
of him. The answer—that it is “maistrie,” or sovereignty over men, that women desire—is accepted in court, and the witch
then demands that the knight marry her. In bed she asks him if he would wish her ugly yet faithful or beautiful and faithless.
He insists the choice must be hers. This concession of her mastery restores her youth and beauty, and they live happily ever
after.
The story is a version of the Arthurian romance The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell and is similar to one of the
tales in the 14th-century Confessio amantis by John Gower.
The Nun’s Priest’s Tale
The Nun’s Priest’s Tale is one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.
The protagonist of this mock-heroic story is Chanticleer, a rooster with seven wives, foremost among them the hen Pertelote.
Pertelote dismisses Chanticleer’s dream of being attacked and tells him to go about his business. A fox soon approaches and
flatters him, recalling the exquisite song of Chanticleer’s father. The vain rooster is thus tricked into closing his eyes and
crowing, only to be seized by the fox and carried off. As Chanticleer’s owners and the animals of the barnyard run after them,
Chanticleer suggests that his captor yell to tell them to turn back. When the fox opens his mouth, the rooster escapes. The tale
ends with a warning against flattery.
THE YORK CYCLE OF MYSTERY PLAYS
York plays, a cycle of 48 plays, dating from the 14th century, of unknown authorship, which were performed during the
Middle Ages by craft guilds in the city of York, in the north of England, on the summer feast day of Corpus Christi. Some of
the York plays are almost identical with corresponding plays in the Wakefield cycle, and it has been suggested that there was
an original (now lost) from which both cycles descended.
The plays were given in York on one day, in chronological order, on pageant wagons proceeding from one selected place to
another. The cycle covers the story of man’s fall and redemption, from the creation of the angels to the Last Judgment; six
plays are peculiar to York (the play of Herod’s son, of the Transfiguration, of Pilate’s wife, of Pilate’s majordomo, of the
high priests’ purchase of the field of blood, and of the appearance of the Virgin to the Apostle Thomas).
In the last revision of the York plays, about 14 plays (mainly those concerning Christ’s Passion) were redacted into
alliterative verse. These are powerful and the work of a dramatic genius, often referred to as the York Realist.
MANKIND – A MORALITY PLAY
Like other moralities, Mankind dramatizes the struggle over humanity between the forces of good and evil. Within this larger
thematic structure, scholars have been fascinated by the comedic and potentially subversive tone of the play. The play is
interested in the humour of transgression – five out of seven speaking roles are comic villains, making Mankind the lightest
and most colloquial of the Macro plays. At the same time, the play places a remarkable emphasis on language. Greene argues
that Titivillus and the vices under his command reduce Mankind to the level of a dumb beast, lost and on the brink of
damnation, by drawing him into their perverse, topsy-turvy distortions of language.
EDMUND SPENSER: THE FAERIE QUEENE
The Faerie Queene, one of the great long poems in the English language, written in the 16th century by Edmund Spenser. As
originally conceived, the poem was to have been a religious-moral-political allegory in 12 books, each consisting of the
adventures of a knight representing a particular moral virtue; Book I, for example, recounts the legend of the Red Cross
Knight, or Holiness. The knights serve the Faerie Queene, who represents Glory and Queen Elizabeth I.
The poem derives its form from the Italian romance—for example, in the division into books and cantos and the inventive
energy of the entrelacement (the continually bifurcating and infolded narrative). The poem is written in what came to be
known as the Spenserian stanza: eight lines of 10 syllables followed by one 12-syllable line, rhyming ababbcbcc.
The Faerie Queene was written over the course of about a decade by Edmund Spenser. He published the first three books in
1590, then the next four books (plus revisions to the first three) in 1596. It was originally intended to be twelve books long,
with each book detailing a specific Christian virtue in its central character. When he presented the first three books at the
court of Queen Elizabeth, Spenser was looking for the prestige, political position, and monetary compensation he believed the
work merited. However, he came away disappointed by the relatively small stipend (to his mind) that he received, and
attributed his lack of spectacular success with Elizabeth to her advisor and Spenser’s political opposite, Lord Burghley.
In Books Four through Six, Spenser seems to change the direction of the epic somewhat, possibly curtailing his ambition to
reach twelve Books in total. Arthur still becomes an important figure in the epic, with his quest to reach Gloriana forming the
backdrop to his interactions with the central knights of each Book, but the latter three Books are more intertwined than are the
first three. Book 1 seems to be literarily perfect as a stand-along story, whereas the other books leave an increasing number of
unresolved plot threads to be resolved in later sections. Nonetheless, the six books Spenser managed to complete have their
own internal consistency and leave nothing for a seventh section to wrap up. Edmund Spenser died before he could complete
another book of The Faerie Queene.
Summary:
The Faerie Queene tells the stories of several knights, each representing a particular virtue, on their quests for the Faerie
Queene, Gloriana. Redcrosse is the knight of Holiness, and must defeat both theological error and the dragon of deception to
free the parents of Una (“truth”). Guyon is the knight of Temperance, who must destroy the fleshly temptations of Acrasia’s
Bower of Bliss. Britomart, a woman in disguise as a male knight, represents Chastity; she must find her beloved and win his
heart. Artegall, the knight of Justice, must rescue the lady Eirene from an unjust bondage. Cambell and Triamond, the knights
of Friendship, must aid one another in defense of various ladies’ honor. Finally, Calidore, the knight of Courtesy, must stop
the Blatant Beast from spreading its slanderous venom throughout the realm.
Each quest is an allegory, and the knight given the quest represents a person’s internal growth in that particular virtue. Such
growth happens through various trials, some of which the knights fail, showing how personal development is a struggle
requiring the aid of other forces and virtues to make it complete.