Widsith: A Study in Old English Heroic Legend

by Raymond Wilson Chambers

Overview

One of the few records of German heroic poetry, Widsith was found in the Exeter Book, a manuscript of Old English poetry compiled in the late tenth century. The tale, in which the wandering poet and narrator Widsith recounts his travels across northern Europe, is often seen as a catalogue of tribes, people and heroes who existed between the third and fifth centuries. Yet it is also, in Raymond Wilson Chambers' words, a rare and valuable 'record of lost heroic song'. Originally published in 1912, Chambers' study provides an introduction to the background of the German heroic tradition, as well as detailed analyses of specific aspects of Widsith, such as the metre, geography, and critical reception of the poem. This scholarly edition also includes an annotated version of the poem, and maps, as well as an appendix which will be valuable to students and scholars of Old English literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108015271
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/31/2010
Series:	Cambridge Library Collection - Literary Studies
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.70(d)

Table of Contents

I Widsith and the German Heroic Age 1

II The Stories Known to Widsith: Gothic and Burgundian Heroes 12

III The Stories Known to Widsith: Tales of the Sea-Folk, of the Franks and of the Lombards 66

IV Widsith and the Critics 127

V The Geography of Widsith 153

VI The Language and Metre of Widsith 166

VII Summary and Conclusion 177

Text of Widsith, with Notes 187

Appendix:

A Bibliography 225

B "Maurungani" and the "Geographer of Ravenna" 235

C Eastgota 236

D The Jutes 237

E The original homes of the Angli and Varini (Engle and Wærnas) 241

F Iste 248

G Idumingas 250

H The term Hrædas applied to the Goths 252

I Ermanario as the foe of the Huns 253

K The last English allusion to Wudga and Hama 254

L The Geography of the Orosius compared with that of Widsith 254

M Schütte's Law of initial and terminal stress 255

N The beag given by Eormanric 256

Maps and Index 258