Exeter Book

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The Exeter Book is kept in St. Peter's Cathedral in Exeter .

The Exeter Book , also known as Codex Exoniensis , is a 10th century book (or codex ) of works of Old English poetry . It is a gift from Leofric (1050–1072), the first Bishop of Exeter . Since then it has been in the holdings of the capital library of Exeter Cathedral and today bears the call number MS 3501. In the original it probably comprised 131 sheets, of which the first eight have been lost and have been replaced by other pages.

The Exeter Book is the largest collection of Old English literature still in existence today , and one of four books that contain virtually all of the extant Old English poetry. It includes some short poems that are some of the most important works of Old English literature, a number of religious subjects, as well as a number of riddles, e.g. Sometimes with erotic hints.

history

Although the exact date of the writing of the Exeter Book is unknown, it can be described as one of the important products of the Benedictine literary boom. Possible dates of the writing range from 960 to 990 AD. During this period there was an increase in activity and productivity of the monasteries under the new influence of Benedictine principles.

At the beginning of this era, Dunstan of Canterbury became important to the Church and Kingdom of England, culminating in his appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury under King Edgar and enforcing the reform of the monasteries for which this period is known.

By the end of that era, Dunstan had died in AD 988, and England under Æthelred was faced with increasingly determined attacks by Scandinavian invaders.

The history of the Exeter Book can be traced back to 1050 AD after Leofric became Bishop of Exeter. Among the treasures he gave to the then impoverished monastery according to the records is a "mycel englisc boc be gehwilcum þingum on leoðwisan" (i.e. "a great English book of poetic works"). In historiography it is generally assumed that this is indeed the Exeter Book in its form that has been handed down to this day.

content

Among the famous poems in the Exeter Book are:

Text sample

Puzzle 44:

Wrætlic hongað bi weres þeo,
frean under sceate. Foran is þyrel.
Bið stiþ ond heard, stede hafað godne;
þonne se esne his agen hrægl
ofer cneo hefeð, wile þæt cuþe hol
mid his hangellan heafde gretan
þæt he efenlang ær oft gefylde.

Translation:

Something strange hangs on a man's thigh
under his coat. It has a hole in the front.
It's stiff and hard and looks good;
If a man lifts his coat over his knee
then he wants to stick his hanging thing in the appropriate hole,
which is just as long and which he has already filled many times.

Solution: LessülhcS

literature

expenditure
  • The Exeter book riddles. Translated and introduced by Kevin Crossley-Holland. Revised edition. Enitharmon Press, London 2008, ISBN 978-1-904634-46-1 .
Secondary literature
  • Bernard James Muir: The Exeter book. A bibliography. University of Exeter Press, Exeter 1992, ISBN 0-85989-370-7 ( Exeter medieval English texts and studies ).
  • Frank Barlow: Leofric of Exeter. Essays in commemoration of the foundation of Exeter Cathedral Library in AD 1072. University of Exeter, Exeter 1972, ISBN 0-900771-33-X .
  • NR Ker: Catalog of manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1957, no.116.
  • JC Pope: Palaeography and Poetry. Some Solved and Unsolved Problems of the Exeter Book. In: MB Parkes, Andrew G. Watson (Eds.): Medieval scribes, manuscripts & libraries. Essays presented to NR Ker. Scolar Press, London 1978, ISBN 0-85967-450-9 , 25-65.
  • Kenneth Sisam: Studies in the history of Old English literature. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1953, pp. 97-108, 291f.

Web links