The Banished Wife's Lament

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THE BANISHED WIPE'S LAMENT

The company of ladies in Anglo-Saxon poetry is not a large
one. If Judith, Elene, and other heroines from foreign lands are
left out of consideration, their number is small indeed. This is
of course due in large measure to the fact that a relatively small
amount of poetry based upon Germanic themes has been preserved.
If woman plays a minor part in Beowulf, one of the Waldhere
fragments gives a hint that the case may have been otherwise in
some of the epic material that has perished. It is doubtful if the
dramatic intensity of such figures as Brunnhild or Gudrun in the
poetic Edda would have been paralleled in the less impassioned
West Germanic verse, but it seems likely that the emotions of
women would have interested poets who could depict so graphically
the feelings of men like the Wanderer or the Seafarer. And
there are, as is well known, illustrations of this interest in the
woman's point of view in the Anglo-Saxon lyrics. The most con-
spicuous of these illustrations is the poem generally known as the
Banished Wife's Lament} Here the whole emphasis is thrown
upon the element of love. Oppressed by profound grief, the wife
briefly reviews her unhappy career, bewails her present desolate
situation, and ends with a cry of despair surprisingly modern in its
intensity.

The piece is an uniisually significant one. Its sustained pas-
sion, its well-rounded form, and its vivid portrayal of a dramatic
situation give it an important place in Anglo-Saxon poetry. Like
so much of the minor verse, however, it is far from being easy of
comprehension. There is much in the language which offers
difficulty, and the larger questions of the interpretation of the
whole, and its possible connection with incidents of heroic saga,
are not easily disposed of. The lady has succeeded in throwing
over her tale something of the obscurity of her gloomy abode in
the forest. As to her present unhappy condition there can be no
doubt, but her lamentations give no very clear idea of the series of

iQr Complaint. Grein-Wdlker, " Klagre der Frau," BibliotTiek der ags. Poesie, Vol. I, pp.
302 S.
387] 1 [MoDEEN Philology, January, 190*

2 William Witheele Lawbence

distressful strokes in her past history. There is, then, in addition
to the literary merit of the piece, all the fascination of a problem,
or a series of problems, and scholars have not failed to attack these
with energy and patience. But the results of these investigations
have often been radically dissimilar. Indeed, a review of critical
opinion from the beginning shows a considerable lack of unanimity
all along the line, and confirms the impression that the last word
about the poem has not yet been spoken.'

The purpose of the following notes is to call attention to the
translation of certain passages which appear to have been generally
misunderstood, and to consider the probable explanation of the
whole situation, which is only vaguely outlined in the poem. For
the sake of brevity, detailed references to the work of previous
investigators have generally been omitted, excepting where a
special examination of their theories seems profitable.

Our first duty appears to be the rehabilitation of the character
of the husband of the unfortunate lady. True, she says that he
has banished her into the woods, but this is a matter in which she
may have been deceived, as we shall see. It is more important to
look at the passage following, in which she is held to accuse him
of treacherously masking murderous thoughts under the pretense
of friendliness — as Trautmann puts it — "die verse .... in
denen die frau bejammert einen seine gedanken verhehlenden und
auf mord sinnenden gemahl gefunden zu haben."^

ForPon is mm hyge geomor,

8a ic me ful gemeecne monnan funde,

heardsasligne, hygegeomorne,
20 mod mipendne, morpor hycgend(n)e,

blipe geb»ro. Ful oft wit beotedan

Peet unc ne gedielde nemne dea5 ana

owiht elles; eft is Peet onhworfen!

is nu swa hit no waere,
25 freondscipe uncer.'

Do not the characteristics set forth in 11. 19-21 explain the

1 For a review of critical opinion, see WUlker, Grundriss der ags. Litteratur^ pp. Z2A-^ ;
Schfloking, Zettschrift f. deutsches Alterthum, Vol. XLVIII, pp. 436 fl.

'^Anglia, Vol. XVI, p. 223. Miss Edith Kickert, Modem Philology, Vol. II, p. 366, n. 4,
gives a similar meaning to the passage. See also Boeder, loc, cit., below.

3 The text is that of the Qrein-Wfllker Bibliothek, with the addition of the vowel-
qnantities, and some changes in punctuation.

388

The Banished Wife's Lament 3

phrase /mZ gemcecneP And are they not virtues, at least according
to Anglo-Saxon conceptions, and not the reverse? The correct
translation would, I believe, run something as follows: "And so
my heart is sad, since I (had) found a man well suited to me, one
who had experienced misfortune, serious-minded, concealing his
feelings, mindful of death, of pleasant demeanor." The husband
was congenial in the first place, because he had, like her, known
misfortune. Trouble has been her companion since her youth
(11. 2-4), and the man who also had known the uses of adversity
might well be in sympathy with her. The adjective hygegeomor
seems to describe the effect of misfortune upon the character of
the man — "sad (or, more probably, serious) of thought."

This word hygegeomor, as well as the rest of the passage, can
perhaps best be explained in connection with 11. 42-45.

A scyle geong mon wesan geomormod,
heard heortan gel^oht, swylce habban sceal
blipe gebeero, eac Van. breostceare,
sinsorgna gedreag.

Leaving the interpretation of 11. 17-21 for a moment, let us
consider the meaning of this section of the poem. Here, too,
I believe that critics have been astray. Roeder,' for example,
understands this and what follows as a series of imprecations;
here "ruft die Frau Verwflnschungen herab" upon a nameless
young man who is involved in an intrigue which has caused the
separation of husband and wife. There appears to be no reason
for introducing a third person into the story. The main thing to
notice at present is that the lines are only a series of reflections
of a general character — one of those moralizing incursions into
poetry of which the Anglo-Saxons were so fond. " Ever ought a
young man to be serious of mind, steadfast the thoughts of his
heart, (he should have) a pleasant demeanor as well, also care,
the weight of constant anxiety." This train of thought, although
beginning in the conventional, abstract manner, is obviously
suggested by the man whom the lady has ever in mind, the man
of whom she speaks openly again in 11. 476 ff., her husband.

1 For Roeder's interesting and ingenious, though unconvincing interpretation, see his
monograph, "Die Familie bei den Angelsachsen," in Morsbach's Studien zur engl, Fhilo-
logic. No. 4, pp. 112-19.

389

4 William Witheele Lawrence

It is unnecessary to emphasize the fact that Anglo-Saxon poets
frequently turn aside from the matter in hand, both in the epic
and the lyric, to introduce moral reflections suggested by the
situation. The Wanderer forgets his personal misfortunes for a
time, and reviews at some length the characteristics which should
distinguish a prudent man.' The Seafarer affords a curious
parallel, in a didactic passage,^ to the use of the two forms sceal
and scyle in the lines above. In Old Norse the passion for
pointing a moral is fully as strong. In the Sigrdrifumdl, for
instance, Sigrdrifa (Brunnhild), after having been awakened by
Sigurd on the fire-encircled mountain, proceeds to reward the hero
with a series of moral precepts. In the Hgvamdl this material
constitutes the chief interest. The considerable amount of gnomic
verse in Anglo-Saxon affords many parallels to the passage under
discussion. Consider the word geomormod. One virtue frequently
emphasized was a proper realization of the serious future. A
young man ought to have his mind on other than trivial subjects.
The wise father instructs his son;

Seldan snottor guma sorgleas blissaS,

swylce dol seldon drymeS sorgf ul

ymb his forBgesceaft, nefne he fsehpe wite.'

The upshot of this clearly is that the wise man seldom gives
himself up to unrestrained joy — it is not well to be sorgleas,
constant seriousness is desirable; while the foolish man is seldom
plunged into gloomy thoughts about the future, unless he is in
some present trouble. The condition of the world, the transi-
tory character of human things, dwelt upon by the Wanderer and
the Seafarer, go to make a man's disposition sober.

For Pon ic gepencan ne maeg geond pas woruld
for hwan modsefa mm ne gesweorce,*

is the cry. I take geomormod, then, to express this due sense
of the seriousness of life, and hygegeomorne to have a similar
meaning. Compare the Elizabethan word sad. Breostceare and
sinsorgna gedreag form poetic repetitions of geomormod. After
the caution that a young man should be of cheerful exterior, the

ILL 65ff.. 2L1. 109ff.

3 " Des VaterB Lehren," Qrein-WUlker Sibliothek, p. 355, 11. 54-56.

* Wanderer, a. iSf.

390

The Banished Wife's Lament 5

moralizer hastens again to drive home the main lesson. Yet it
was none the less a virtue to be amiable. The wise father, in the
course of his moral instructions, utters the warning: "ac beo
leofwende!"' Evidently a seriousness which manifested itself
in a gloomy demeanor was as much of a mistake as frivolity.

We shall take up this passage again later, in connection with
what follows. It will be noticed that the parallelism to 11. 17 ff.
is striking. In those the lady grieves that she has had to lose a
man who was serious, self-restrained, and prepared for calamity,
yet cheerful. The same phrase, hllpe gebcero, occurs in each
passage, and hygegeomor is much like geomormod.

Let us now consider 1. 20, 7ndd mipendne, morpor hycgend{n)e.
The wise man keeps his thoughts to himself, which is the virtue
brought out in mod mipendne. The father's instructions, from
which quotations have already been made, are again in point:

Waerwyrde sceal wisfsest hsele
breostum hyegan, nales breahtme hlud.^

The Bos worth -Toller lexicon renders the unusual word wcer-
wyrde "cautious of speech." The general sense is in any case
plain. The Wanderer, too, offers a good parallel:

Ic to sofie wat
paet bip in eorle indryhten Peaw
paet he his ferSlocan fseste binde,
healde his hordcofan, hycge swa he wille.'

Other citations are hardly necessary. The phrase morpor hyc-
gendne, however, requires more attention. I believe it may have
been universally misunderstood in this passage. I take it to
mean "meditating upon death," and not "brooding over murder,"
mord sinnend (Roeder).* The similarity of certain Anglo-Saxon
words to their representatives in modern English and German
occasionally blinds us to differences in their meaning. "Murder"
means nowadays "intentional and unlawful homicide."^ But the
use of the term morpor in early days was much less specialized.
It meant, apparently, any kind of violent death. Its use in

1 L. 92. 2 Ll. 57, 58. a LI. 11-14.

**' Wir bekommen nicht zu wissen, welche Rftnke die Sippe des Mannes Hbte. SoUte
• sie ihn vielleicht zu einem Morde angestiftet oder ihn so gereizt haben, dass er einen Ange<
hOrigen seines eigenen Geschlechts erschlug ? " Boeder, p. Hi.
5 Webster's Intertiational Dictionary.

391

6 William Witheele Lawkence

^eoicwZ/ illustrates perfectly the fact that the modern word "mur-
der" will not always serve as a translation. Grendel is spoken of
(1. 683) as morpres scyldig, although killed in a fair fight. The
purely accidental slaying of Herebeald by Haethcyn is referred
to thus:

Wses pam yldestan ungedefelice

maeges d^dum morpor-bed stred.'

The citations which have already been given h propos of the word
geomormod are again in point here. Meditation upon one's
latter end cannot fail to induce seriousness. Nothing in the
text justifies giving an adversative meaning to blipe gebcero, and
translating "holding murder in his thoughts, yet so blithe of
bearing," as Stopford Brooke does.^ Of course the rendering
"murder" is not absolutely impossible, since that was one of the
ways to meet a violent end. But the word as it stands is not so
specialized in meaning, and unless something hitherto undis-
covered is revealed in the context to justify that rendering, it
gives a false impression of the passage. In days when a man was
as constantly beset by peril as he was in the eighth century, it
was well to have the possibility of a sudden end in mind, in what-
ever form that might come.

The husband emerges from the ordeal of a rigid examination
of the lines, then, not only unscathed, but with added virtues to
his credit. We may now briefly consider an attack recently made
upon the personality of the unfortunate lady, which is no less
than an attempt to prove that the piece does not depict the sor-
rows of a woman at all. Upon a hasty review, this revolutionary
theory sounds plausible, especially as the author. Dr. L. L. Schtlck-
ing,'' has incidentally made comments upon the text, some of
which are entirely sound. But the more closely the hypothesis is
examined, the more evident its untenability becomes. It is not
wholly a new one; the earliest editors were of the opinion that a
man must be regarded as the protagonist. This was due to

^Beow., 11. 2435-6. The Heyne-Sooin glossary defines mor^or as "gewaltBame TOtung,
Mord," but is not equally careful iu defining the compounds. The meaning of the word is
further extended to **torment, injury," or sins of various kinds, even adultery. See Grein's
Sprachachatz^ and the Bosworth-Toller lexicon,

2 History of Early English Literature^ p, 360,

3 For Schacking's article, see n, 1 above, p, 388.

392

The Banished Wipe's Lament 7

defective knowledge of Anglo-Saxon, however, or to failure to
notice the feminine terminations which indicate the sex of the
speaker. Dr. Schticking thinks he finds a way to get rid of these
troublesome endings, and adds many other reasons to support his
view. Before we can allow the unhappy lady to have another woe
added to her store by being put out of existence altogether, in the
pages of the Zeitschrift filr deutsches AUerthum, it may be
well to show briefly how strong is her defense, and how weak the
case of her adversary. So much seems to be demanded by gal-
lantry, if not by scholarship.

A most serious objection to Schticking' s view presents itself
at the very outset — the feminine endings just mentioned.

Ic pis giedd wrece bi me ful geomorre,
minre sylfre si5 ; ic pset secgan mseg,
hwaet ic yrmpa gebad, sippan ic up weox,
niwes oppe ealdes, no ma ponne nu;
a ic wite wonn minra wraecsipa!

Schllcking acknowledges that geomorre and mlnre sylfre cannot
be explained away as lapses due to the scribe, and properly rejects
Thorpe's high-handed restoration of the masculine forms. But
his method of disposing of the case is hardly less arbitrary. He
thinks that these two lines, at least in their present form, are not
original, since feminine inflections applying to the speaker do not
elsewhere occur, and suggests that the last man who dealt with the
poem in its original form misunderstood the situation, and either
inserted the feminine forms instead of the masculine, or else pre-
fixed the two lines in question to the poem as he found it. The
latter hypothesis he thinks more probable, since the meter in 16
requires the feminine termination. The piece perhaps began
originally, he maintains, as follows:

Hwaet! ic yrmpa gebad, sippan ic iip aweox,
niwra oPPe ealdra no ma ponne nu.

Textual errors occur in various places, and he calls upon the
patchwork theory to help out his case. "Wie vielleicht auch
die zusammensetzung des Wanderers dartut (vgl. Boer, Z. f. d.
Ph., 35, 1 ff., nicht in alien punkten Qberzeugend), haben wir es

393

8 William Witherle Lawkenoe

bei den im Exeterbuch tlberlieferten lyr. gedichten nicht mit
einer reinen tlberlieferung zu tun."'

To attribute to misunderstanding or interpolation the two lines
which absolutely contradict the theory is practically to beg the
whole question. Schucking sees in the addition of the first two
lines a "lyric tradition," and compares the opening of the Sea-
farer. But if the hypothetical beginning of the piece, Hwcet! ic
yrmpa gebdd, etc., is as natural as he finds it, would it have been
necessary to prefix the two opening lines, when this lyric tradition
is only occasionally observed ? Suppose, for the sake of argument,
we grant that the lines were added later. We should then
have to assume that the redactor intended pcet to refer to giedd,
and so placed a full stop after the end of 1. 2. This seems
improbable — giedd secgan is unusual, at least. Moreover, this
would leave niwes oppe ealdes without other antecedent than
yrmpa, which is feminine. It will be observed that Schficking,
in his reconstruction of the old beginning of the piece, changes
this phrase to nlwra oppe ealdra. It might be conjectured, on
the other hand, that the reviser ingeniously altered hwcet from
an interjection to a pronoun, its antecedent being pcet (1. 2),
which is the accepted construction of the lines today, and also
that he gave the present form to the first half of 1. 4. This is
much like the processes of Boer, in the article to which Schtick-
ing alludes. I have already criticized those arguments elsewhere,
both in matters of detail and of method. Anyone who believes
that the Wanderer is a composite of the sort that Boer makes it
out to be will have little difficulty in regarding these first two
lines as an excrescence to be lopped off at will. No one will
deny that there are many textual errors in the lyrics, but that
these are necessarily evidences of divided authorship or of editorial
revision I see no reason to believe.

These observations apply equally well to the alternative theory,
that the first two lines were not prefixed, but merely altered. The
whole idea that some man who recast the piece misimderstood its
meaning makes argument almost impossible. If we cannot take

1 p. 447. For a review of Boer's work, cf. article by the present writer in the Journal of
Bermanic Fhilology, Vol. IV, pp. 460-80.

394

The Banished Wife's Lament 9

the plain evidence of grammatical forms for what it signifies, we
might as well forsake all reasoning from the known facts the
poem affords. The men who perpetuated it in Anglo-Saxon times
must have had at least as good an idea of its meaning as we, and
the presumption is all in favor of their having had a better.

Schftcking lays much stress upon the word leodfruma^ (1. 8),
emphasizing the fact that it does not mean "husband" but "prince,"
which no one will dispute for a moment. But he seems to think
it strange that a noble lady should speak of her husband as her
"lord," although he admits that Wealhtheow addresses Hrothgar
as freo-drihten min, and that sin-frea is likewise used of a hus-
band, Beow., 1170. Why is not the analogy of such words as
drihten or frea perfect ? Here too the original meaning is not
"husband," yet they are clearly used of a lord in this relation.
Perhaps a quotation from Roeder's investigation of the Anglo-
Saxon family will clear up this matter most quickly. It will be
observed that Roeder is not making these statements in connec-
tion with this particular poem. "Der Mann erscheint als der
Herr und Gebieter der Frau: Gen., 2225 nennt Sarah ihren
Gatten drihten mm! oder eTheisstihrman-drihten, 2242 .... 2729
frea-drihten, ebenfalls von Abraham. 2783 apostrophiert ihn
Sarah: mln swces frea! .... Es lasst sich also auch hier
bemerken, dass man die eheliche Gemeinschaft als ein Komitats-
verhaltniss ansieht .... Einmal wird in den Ratseln 62.4 der
Mann sogar der "holde" Herr der Frau genannt: holdumpeodne."^
Other examples might be cited.' The common later English
usage makes it seem entirely natural for an Anglo-Saxon lady to
have addressed her husband as her lord. Schticking admits: "An
sich ist dies wohl nicht absolut ausgeschlossen .... immerhin
gibt diese stelle im verein mit dem folgenden zu denken,"* pro-
ceeding then to other arguments. But if this point has no weight,
it cannot support subsequent proofs. In logic, as in mathematics,
X-\-0 = X, and no more. There is no chain of reasoning more
fallacious than that built of separate arguments each of which
amounts to nothing in itself.

1 p. 438. 2 Boeder, loc. cit., pp. 109, t.

3 Genesis, 1. 655 ; Beow., 1. 641 ; Qnom. Exon., 1. 91.

* P. 440.

395

10 William Witheble Lawrence

Nothing in 11. 9, 10 makes it improbable that the speaker is a
woman, although we are told they are "von der grossten wichtig-
keit." Schticking is probably right in translating folgad secan
"gefolgschaftsdienst zu suchen." As for the phrase wineleas
wrcecca, there is no reason why it may not apply to a woman as
well as to a man; cf. Dohtor se Bahiloinisca wrcecca, filia Bdb-
iloinis misera, Ps. Lamb., 136, 8. Yet upon this point Schticking
lays great stress, not stating it quite exactly; "damit ist nun der
wichtigste punkt Mr die erklarung des gedichts bertlhrt: kann der
sprecher der von sich sagt, dass er als freundloser 'recke' neue
gefolgschaft suche eine frau sein? ich halte es ftir unmoglich."'
But the word wrcecca does not mean "recke," it means "der
umherirrende heimatlose," as Schticking himself says. He
admits, too, that the expression may be used of a woman entering
service in a foreign land. But this, he says, is "unwahrschein-
lich." Why? Such incidents are common in early story .^ All
this is worth no more than the leodfruma argument, as far as
proof goes. Similarly, /reowdscipe (1. 25) may certainly be used
of the love of a man and woman, cf. freondmynd, cogitationes
amatoriae, Gen., 1830, 1831; freond-rceden[n) , conditio ama-
toria, Jul., 34, 71, etc' But Schticking remarks : '^freondscipe mit
Roeder als 'liebesbund' zu tibersetzen, liegt kein grund vor. vgl.
frynd v. 33." What the point of this reference is does not appear.
Of course the dual form uncer disposes of any idea that freond-
scipe may refer to the relation between others than the speaker
and the mon of 1. 18.

Moreover, Schticking' s interpretation involves much shifting
of subject. pcBS monnes (1. 11) is not the same person as min
leodfruma (1. 8), although there is no intimation of any other
man's coming into the narrative except what one may imagine in
folgad secan. The person whose kinsmen are plotting to estrange
him from the speaker is not the one whom the speaker has men-

IP. 440.

2 Miss M. R. Cox, in treating the variants of the Cinderella-story, enumerates many
instances of the "menial heroine" incident (Publications of the Follc-Lore Society, XXXI).
Cf. especially her Preface. "Numberless instances," she says, "might be adduced in which
a hero or heroine must undergo a term of servitude before fulfilling an exalted destiny"
(p. xl).

3Cf. Roeder, p. 95.

396

The Banished Wife's Lament 11

tioned with tenderness in 1. 7 ; the hldford mln of 1. 15 is not the
mm hldford of 1. 6. Another shift comes in 1. 18. The ful gemcec-
ne monnan is not the mon of 1. 11, the new lord to whom our
attention has supposedly been diverted, but lord number one is
introduced without any indication that a change has been made.
It is scarcely conceivable that anyone reading or hearing this for
the first time would interpret the situation as Schttcking imagines
it, unless the outlines of the story were familiar. There are shifts
of subject in early poetry, but nothing quite so wild as this.

It is hardly worth while to examine these arguments further.
Other errors might be pointed out,' but enough has been said to
lead to a safe conclusion. There is no valid evidence that the
speaker must be a man and cannot be a woman, while there are
the best of reasons for holding that the speaker must be a woman
and cannot be a man.

More interesting to the general reader, and more important for
literary history and aesthetic criticism is the question of what the
interpretation of the poem as a whole shall be. What is the
story, obscurely shadowed forth, which it tells?

It is a difficult problem to solve — an impossible one, I believe,
unless one looks beyond the limits of the text. There is so much
in the language that admits of varied translation that it is hardly
surprising that there has never been any unanimity about the
underlying plot. Even if an exact and literal translation could be
agreed upon, it is highly doubtful if it would be possible to
reconstruct from this the situation as the poet conceived it. More-
over, in a poem of lyrical character a detailed and circumstantial
narrative cannot be expected. It seems likely that three or four
hypothetical plots might be proposed, none of which would be
inconsistent with the text, because so much allowance must in any
case be made for the omissions in the story. The interpretation
of the piece as it stands, with all its ambiguities upon its head, is
ten times more difficult. And if it is obscure to the lynx-eyed
modern investigator, who reads it over and over again, and weighs

' Cf . n. 2, p. 403, below ; on pissum londstede, 1.16, does not appear to mean that the
speaker is living "im neuen lande," but rather in the country of the hlaford of 1. 6, who
departed heonan of leodum; ahte, too, is preterit. Does on eorpan (1. 33) mean "fern"T
(Schttcking, p. 441).

397

12 William Witheele Lawbenoe

the evidence of each detail with minute care, would it not have
confused the people for whom it was originally composed ? What
would a listening throng have made of it, if they had been obliged
to evolve the story for themselves?

Assume, on the other hand, that we are dealing with a lyric
treatment of some theme familiar to everyone in Anglo-Saxon
times, and these difficulties vanish. With the general course of
events already in mind, an audience could have understood and
appreciated the telling of the tale, and the minstrel would have
been unhampered in bringing out its pathos and its passion. And
this proceeding was just what such an audience would have
expected. Nothing was commoner than for the poet to touch only
upon certain moments in a story and suppress others, as suited
his artistic purpose. Certain situations are thus thrown into high
relief, as in the poetic Edda. But unless the audience knows the
story, this procedure is impossible. The Wife^s Lament may
well be like certain episodes in Beowulf — the Finn-episode, for
instance, a narrative the true course of which can only be guessed
at from the lines as they stand. Unfortunately, the story of Finn
has not been preserved in other sources, but there is reason to
think that we are more fortunate in the present case. At all
events, whether one believes a priori that the poem is based upon
heldensage or not, it is clear that one cannot properly interpret
any piece of Anglo-Saxon verse by focusing his gaze upon it alone,
and disregarding all the material in song and story which it
recalls today, and which it must have suggested even more to a
man of the eighth century.

Identification of the events here narrated with those of some
heroic tale has already been proposed several times, but never
worked out in a wholly convincing way. Nor has the relation of
the Anglo-Saxon lyric in general to material of this sort been satis-
factorily treated. Ten Brink's statement that it is improbable
that such relations exist' — with the exception of Dear's Lament
— has frequently been quoted, and deserves all consideration, as
coming from so high an authority. Miss Rickert, in the article
already alluded to, disagrees with him, and argues at some length

1 History of English Literature, tranal. Kennedy, Vol. I, p. 61.

398

The Banished Wife's Lament 13

for the identification of this poem with the Offa-saga.' Her
monograph is careful and complete, yet exception may be taken
to some of her observations upon this particular poem, and espe-
cially to some of her conclusions regarding the lyric. Let us first
consider the general situation, and then the claims of the Offa-
saga to be a key unlocking the mystery of the misfortunes of the
distressed wife.

It seems evident, upon careful examination, that no such state-
ment as ten Brink's, that the Anglo-Saxon lyrics are or are not
based upon heldensage, will serve. In three of these, the Wan-
derer, the Seafarer, and the Ruin, it appears to play no part.
In three others, the Banished Wife's Lament, the Husband's
Message, and Signy's Lament (the First Riddle), the very back-
bone of the dramatic structure is in all probability a well-known
heroic tale. In two others the connection is of a different sort.
Widsith — if we may include his story under lyric verse — cites
famous warriors as his patrons with unblushing insouciance, in
one instance introducing himself in a circumstantial way at the
courts of Eormanric and Eadgils.^ But he deals with names, not
with situations. The interest of his tale is that of a catalogue, in
the main. What little story there is in the poem is his own, not
that of the heroes whom he has seen. Again, Deor, in his lament,
fortifies his heart in adversity by recalling the misfortunes of
famous personages. Here, too, the connection is external. In-
cidents of saga have nothing to do with his troubles except as
affording parallels.

It will be observed, then, that the Anglo-Saxon lyrics are not
all of a similar character as regards plot, for it is here that the
distinction must be made. In the Wanderer the events narrated
are simple. The exile's lord has died ; he has been forced to seek
a new one. This is all ; the interest of the poem depends not upon
the events of the Wanderer's life, but upon his description of the
effects of exile and the decay of the fair things of the world upon
the heart. There is no need to turn to saga to explain all this,
and the situation is too vague and general to permit of satisfactory

1 Modem Philology, Vol. II, pp. 365 B.

2 Cf . article by the present writer, Modem Philology, Vol. IV, No. 2.

14 William Witheele Laweence

identification. The Seafarer shows even less "plot" than the
Wanderer. No train of events is narrated. A sailor contrasts
the hardships of voyaging with the security of life upon shore,
yet emphasizes the mysterious call of the sea. As for the Ruin,
it was obviously inspired by the remains of some city, the name
of which it would be interesting to know, but this is not necessary
to the enjoyment of the piece, and there is nothing to suggest
connection with the heldensage about this bit of realistic de-
scription.

On the other hand, the Husband'' s Message, the so-called First
Kiddle — not a riddle at all, but a dramatic soliloquy — and the
poem at present under discussion are very different. Here, despite
the "lyric cry," there is obviously a very definite and somewhat
involved story underlying the whole, a story not clearly set forth,
but one which must be understood if the piece is to be fully
appreciated. These three poems seem, then, to stand entirely
apart from the rest in this regard. Moreover, they have all been
connected with familiar old stories, and the resemblances seem too
strong to be purely fortuitous. Following the demonstration that
the First Riddle contains Scandinavianisms which indicate con-
nection with Old Norse,' Professor Schofield pointed out the
striking likeness to a situation in the Volsungasaga, and renamed
it Signy's Lament.^ He has also noted that the Husband's Mes-
sage is much like an episode of the Tristram saga, which appears
to have been current in England in early times,' and has promised
an article upon this subject. The parallelism between the TFV/e's
Lament and certain parts of the Offa-saga — or, if one prefers, the
Constance-saga — is remarkable, especially when certain resem-
blances not hitherto noted are considered.

Miss Rickert suggests that the lyric poems may have formed
portions of lost epics. This affords an opportunity for interesting
speculation, but in the scarcity of surviving epic material, no
ground for satisfactory conclusions. There seems to be no reason
why the giedd or short monologue of the epic should not have been
current in isolated form as well, or even have been preserved after

1 Publications of the Modern Language Association, Vol. XVII, pp. 247 ff.

2 Ibid., pp. 262 ff.

s English Literature from the Norman Conquest to Chaucer, p. 202.

400

The Banished Wife's Lament 15

the longer poem had passed out of memory, since an epic was to
men of early days a necklace the pearls of which might be detached
at will. And when lyric interludes in stichic verse formed a part
of epic poems, there would have been no incongruity in giving
this form to similar pieces having no direct connection with longer
works. But it is hard to see how Miss Rickert can see in the
Wanderer and the Seafarer "a definite dramatic situation the
details of which are more or less obscure,'" and believe that a
definite saga-episode must have been in the poet's mind. The
point seems to be that the whole is indefinite. Any exile in the
conventional position of the Wanderer, any sailor who has experi-
enced the strange fascination of the sea may be the protagonist.
It is easy to pick out moments in various sagas to which the expe-
riences of these men apply — Miss Rickert suggests two for each
poem — but nothing leads to satisfactory identification. On the
other hand, consider the Husband^ s Message or the Wife's Lament.
Any woman banished into a wood or any husband or lover writing
to his lady will not satisfy the demands of the situation. There
is of course no way of proving that the poet of the Wanderer or
the Seafarer may not have had saga-figures in mind, but there is
nothing to show that such was the case. They may be explained
and enjoyed as typical figures; the others may not.

In the absence of documentary evidence, it seems equally im-
possible to prove that the Banished Wife's Lament is or is not
based on the Offa-saga. The question is rather whether the
resemblances in incident and mood are sufficiently close, and
whether such facts as have been determined in regard to the early
history of the Off a material render the hypothesis a likely one.
It should not be forgotten that the general reasons stated above
for assuming a saga-basis for the poem will still hold, even if the
particular identification here reviewed be rejected.

It is not the design of the present paper to give a summary of
the arguments which point to this relationship with the Offa-saga.
For this the reader is referred to Miss Rickert's monograph, and
to Gough's discussion of the Constance-saga in PalcBstra XXIII.
The twelfth-century Vita Offm Primi, which Miss Rickert uses

I p. 371.

401

16 William Witheble Lawrence

as the basis of her work, deserves careful attention as the earliest
elaborated account, and doubtless preserves many details of the
story as it existed in the eighth century, but various changes and
additions must have taken place in the four centuries intervening,
for many of which the fusion with the Offa Il-Cynethryth material
is doubtless responsible. While Gough's reconstruction of the
hypothetical primitive form shows certain elements which must
have been prominent in early times, no extant version reproduces
the tale as it existed when this lyric was probably written.

There is no doubt, however, that the story of the shadowy
Anglian king Offa, blended with mdrchen elements, was well
known in England in the time of Cynewulf. Some details in
regard to him are familiar from Beowulf and Widsith, and both
Suchier' and Gough agree in locating the earliest form of the
saga in Anglian territory. Everything goes to show that it would
have been entirely natural for the author of this lyric to have
used the saga as literary material. The resemblances of incident
are thus fortified by the inherent probability of such borrowing.

These resemblances, if accidental, are remarkable. The hero-
ine's early years of misfortune and exile, her husband's departure,
the hostility of his kinsfolk, her banishment into a wilderness at
his orders — all this is quite in keeping with the account in the
saga. The narrative element, however, soon becomes subordi-
nated to the lyric complaints. Certain passages for which I would
suggest another interpretation than Miss Rickert's have already
been discussed. It remains to explain the closing lines, which
she has had difficulty in reconciling with the earlier part of the
poem and with the saga itself. There is a strong resemblance to
the Vita here which she has failed to note.

The translation of 11. 42-53, as I understand them, runs as
follows:

Ever ought a young man to be serious of mind, steadfast the thoughts
of his heart, (he should have) a pleasant demeanor as well, also care, the
weight of constant anxiety, whether^ he have achieved all his worldly

1 " tiber die Sage von Offa and I>ryI)o," Paul-Braune Beitrdge, Vol. IV, p. 521.

21 should accept Schflcking's explanation ot sy . ... ay. Gelona means literally, "pro-
ceeding from, dependent upon." Cf. mod. colloquial " along of." The contrast In the lines
that between a successful and an unfortunate man — to paraphrase, " whether he have as

402

The Banished Wife's Lament 17

joy, or be far and wide surrounded by hostility' in a far-distant land —
where ^ my friend' sitteth beneath the rocky cliff, beaten by the storm,
weary-hearted, drenched with water in his dreary hall! He endureth
mighty sorrow; he remembereth too oft a more joyful dwelling. Woe is
his who must in longing await the coming of a dear one!

It is important to recollect that we are getting the story from
the woman's point of view, that she does not know the real state of
affairs. Vaguely she feels that her husband's relatives are at the
bottom of the trouble, but cannot particularize. The forged order
of banishment has brought, in addition to her physical sufferings,
the agony of supposing that her husband is estranged from her.
More than this, the false letter contained the news of the king's
defeat and of his imminent peril.* So she has also to bear the
thought that he is now among victorious enemies. This explains
the closing lines. After the lyric elaboration of 11. 29-41, her
thoughts turn to the qualities of the ideal man, whether he be for-
tunate or be ful wide fah feorres folclondes, which she supposes

a result of his efforts all the joy that can be his on earth, or be hunted down in a foreign
land, he should still be mindful of the future life." Perhaps the implication is that the
lady^s husband was lacking in this high seriousness.

^Fah means literally "proscribed."

2 1 read pSr (Thorpe, EttmOller) instead of past. One wonders how Schttcking would
translate the entire passage, especially how he reconciles 11. 43, 44, and 45a with his concep-
tion. In his paraphrase he completely ignores them : " denn ein junger mann (wie ich) muss
immer traurig sein, ob es ihm selbst nun gut geht Oder bOse, wenn es seinem herrn so schlecht
geht, wie dem meinen." This really gives a false idea of the train of thought. The con-
struction otpcet, (1. 47) is in any case harsh as the text stands. Schfkcking takes it as a con-
junction referring to geomormod^ five lines back, with another independent clause, swylce
habban sceal blipe geb^ro, etc., and the "alternative hypothesis" 11. 45, 46 intervening.
This is surely a good deal of a strain, "grammatisch .... ein wenig aus der roUe gef alien,"
indeed. The meaning seems to be, on this hypothesis, that the young man is not only sad,
but resolute of heart and of blithe exterior because his lord is faring so badly. The passage
intervening between geomornwd and pmt is not parenthetical in form, and it is difficult to
see how it can be in sense.

3 Wine, as well as freond, may mean "husband;" cf. Bosworth-Toller.

*Cf. Originals and Analogues, Chaucer See, Vol. I, pp. 71-84, for a reprint of the Vita.
The text of the forged letter is as follows: "Rex Offa, majoribus et prsecipuis regni sui,
salutis et prosperitatis augmentum ; universitati vestrse notum f acio, in itinere, quod arri-
pui, infortunia et adversa plurima tam mihi quam subditis meis accidisse, et majores
exercitus mei, non ignava propria, vel hostium oppugnantium virtute, sed potius peocatis
nostris justo Dei judicio interiisae. Ego autem instantis periculi causam pertractans, et
conscientisB meae intima perscrutatus, in metemipso nihil aliud conjicio altissimo dis-
plicere, nisi quod perditam et maleficam illam absque meorum consensu, uxorem imperito
et infelici duxi matrimonio : Ut ergo de maleflca memorata, voluntati vestrse ad plenum
quam temere oSendi, satisflat, asportetur cum liberis ex ea genitis ad loca deserta, homini-
bus incognita, feris et avibus aut sylvestribus prsedonibus frequentata; ubi cum pueris
suis puerpera truncata manus et pedes exemplo pereat inaudito."

403

18 William Witherle Lawrence

is the condition of her lord at the present moment, and this in turn
brings the direct mention of him, overcome by his foes in the
rainy and dreary Scottish country. The keynote of the poem,
expressed in the last two lines, applies equally well to husband or
wife.

Two objections to this identification should be considered.
Wtilker finds it strange that the child or children mentioned in
the saga are not alluded to in the lyric.^ Miss Rickert replies:
"But these in V play no part except as they are connected with
the foundation of St. Albans." It ought to be added at this point
that this did not take place until the latter part of the eighth
century, the foundation being due to the repentance of Offa II
(died 796) for the murder of iEthelbert, king of the East
Anglians.^ If the children are unimportant in the twelfth-century
story except in this connection, it is unlikely that they were
prominent in the eighth-century form of the saga. Moreover,
this touch, of which such skilful use was made by Chaucer, may well
have appealed less to the Anglo-Saxon poet, who was directing all
his energies to making the relationship between the wife and the
husband vivid, and confining himself to the compass of a brief
lyric.

Again, the interpretation of the phrase folgad secan in rela-
tion to the saga is not clear. Possibly the lyric adds a touch not
in the Vita. The meaning sometimes adopted, that the lady
sought her lord or his body of followers, receives a little support
from the statement in the Vita that he departed "cum Equitum
numerosa multitudine." But Schticking's rendering of the phrase,
"to seek service," is probably the right one. In various versions
of the tale the wife does the work of a servant at different stages
of her career. Miss Rickert seems to regard feran gewdt as
referring to the banishment of 11. 15 and 27, but these particular-
ize the punishment; she must dwell in a cave in the forest — a
very different thing from any meaning to be read into folgad
secan. Perhaps we are to take the situation to be that, driven
from home by the hostility of her husband's kin, she returned to

1 Grundriss, loc. cit.

2 Cf . Hunt, History of the English Church from Its FouTidation to the Norman Conquest^
p. 235.

401

The Banished Wife's Lament 19

an occupation similar to that before her marriage. The wicked
relatives, not content with this, then ordered her banishment to the
wood. The question is difficult of solution, but the discrepancy
does not seem a serious one.

Taking due account of these resemblances and differences, it is
difficult to sum up the question with absolute impartiality. The
Offa-saga certainly explains most readily the puzzling situation in
the lyric. Schtlcking asks, for example: "Wie soUte der mann,
der gatte, den v. 47 ff. selbst in der bedrangtesten lage im fremden
lande zeigen, der frau befehlen kQnnen, im wald zu leben?" If
one tries to answer this from the evidence of the lines alone, one
struggles about in a maze of blind conjecture. The saga makes
the solution plain at once. Yet in the absence of the confirming
evidence of proper names, a matter which Miss Rickert has dis-
cussed at length, it is impossible to speak with confidence of the
connection which the resemblances of incident lead one to assume
between the two. Operations with saga-material are always
dangerous. But the general proposition that the true elucidation
of the poem will come from a heroic tale nevertheless remains
sound. It must be conceded that some such story as this is far
more likely to form the basis of the lyric than an imaginary train
of events concocted in the brain of some modern critic. Invention
was rare in early times ; poets were not given to originating their
plots when there were such ample stores from which to borrow.
Their preference was ever for reshaping a twice-told tale, giving
it freshness by new touches added here and there. All this
is really too familiar to call for repetition, although one of the
most dangerous pitfalls into which the critic stumbles is forgetful-
ness of the literary methods of early times. Whatever may be
thought of the Offa-saga as a parallel, then, there remain the best
of reasons for believing that the lyric is founded upon material of
the same general character.

Finally, if we may trust the evidence of the old tale, it is pleas-
ant to think that this Anglo-Saxon Mariana finds happiness in
the end, like her later sister in the moated grange.

William Witheele Lawrence
Columbia University

405