An Analogue to<i>Wulf and Eadwacer</i>in the Life of St Bertellin of Stafford

Brady, Lindy

doi:10.1093/res/hgv126

Cited by 2 publications

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“…A source has also been suggested in the story of Signý and Sigmundr in Vǫlsunga saga, in which Sinfjǫtli is taken from Signý by her brother (and his father) Sigmundr into the forest (where Sigmundr has been outlawed by Signý's husband), where they spend some time magically transformed into the shape of wolves (see the references at note 4 above). Lindy Brady (2016) has also proposed an analogue in an episode in the life of the English saint Bertellin, a text of the twelfth century (though first published in the sixteenth century) containing what she arguesconvincinglyis an Anglo-Saxon narrative tradition of a romantic nature. Bertellin travels overseas (similar to an exile or outlaw), has a clandestine affair with a woman (an Irish king's daughter), makes her pregnant, and evades her family's hostility by taking her to England.…”

Section: Wulf the Outlaw?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Wulf and EadwacerReloaded: John of Antioch and the Starving Wife of Odoacer

Shiels

2022

Anglia

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This study re-examines the idea that Eadwacer in the short Old English ‘Elegy’ Wulf and Eadwacer is a literary representation of the historical Odoacer, a fifth-century Germanic king of Italy, and Wulf is his historical and traditional literary opponent, Theoderic the Ostrogoth. The text of the poem is compared for the first time with the historical records of the contention between Odoacer and Theoderic, and particularly of the siege of Ravenna (490–493). A new and revealing analogue is identified in a seventh-century chronicle of this event by John of Antioch, which introduces Odoacer’s wife as a woman who is starved to death, mirroring a puzzling detail in the poem. It is argued that the historical record (itself featuring literary influence) explains the characters and scenario of Wulf and Eadwacer, which can thus be re-interpreted as a linguistically highly adept and bitter lyric spoken by Eadwacer’s wife, lamenting her marriage to him and longing for her outlaw love, Wulf, set in the landscape of northern Italy. It is argued that it is a unique example of a poem in the (possibly Continental-derived) Anglo-Saxon Theoderic tradition, which was otherwise lost save for a few brief allusions in other poems. It is also suggested that the importance of its speaker and her feminine viewpoint ought to be incorporated into our concept of “heroic” poetry, as it existed in England by the latter tenth century.

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Section: Wulf the Outlaw?mentioning

confidence: 99%