The ruin
The Ruin ("The Ruin") is an Old English poem composed in the 8th century by an unknown author. It comes from the Codex Exoniensis, a collection of lyrical texts and riddles . The work is an elegy that tells of a city whose buildings have fallen into ruins. The author's gaze is drawn from the current state of decay back to the time when it was praised for its beauty and wealth.
content
The poem The Ruin tells of a city that was supposed to have been built by giants and of which only the ruined ruins can be seen. The poet describes it as follows: “[…] The builders and their human kingdoms - perished, perished and died. The protective wall also sank. Once upon a time there were bright houses, bathhouses, with high rooms in which the cheers of the people echoed as well as in some of the men's festival halls. Many a powerful man had once stood there proud and drunk with wine in his armor and looked at the treasure, silver, precious stones and many a precious pearl. All this has passed and the world has darkened. "
Manuscript and background
The only surviving copy of this poem is partially illegible due to scorch marks and part of the text has been irretrievably lost. In the Exeter book, it is contained between 34 previous quizzes and the text Husband's Message . The actual text is at the end of the manuscript on two pages of the sheet, with the end of the poem on the next page. The section is partially badly damaged by a diagonal burn trail.
A question that occupies the reader of this poem: “What city are we talking about here?” Heinrich Leo linked it to the British city of Bath in 1865 , which other analysts of the text also considered likely. He relied on three pieces of evidence: the hot springs mentioned at the end of the poem, the numerous bathing halls and a circular pool. Another aspect was that the state of Bath was reported in the 8th century when it was very dilapidated and ruined.
William C. Johnson sees the description as more of a mystery, the city as a kind of description of the human body and its decay. "The [human] body is like a building because it encloses and protects its dwellers (the heart and soul), it is like a city and the wall surrounding it, which enclose and protect its inhabitants." ("The body is like a building because it encloses and protects its inhabitants (the heart and soul), it is like a city and a rampart that protects and encloses its inhabitants.")
The Ruin probably fits the melancholy worldview of that time, as it is also shown in other works such as The Seafarer , The Wanderer or Deor .
Web links
- The ruin. on sacred-texts.com (Anglo-Saxon text)
- The ruin. (PDF; 166 kB) on web.utk.edu (English translation)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Arnulf Krause: The real Middle-earth: Tolkien's mythology and its roots in the Middle Ages. Theiss Verlag, Cologne 2012, ISBN 978-3-8062-2478-8 , p. 78.
- ↑ James F. Doubleday: "The Ruin": Structure and Theme. In: The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. Volume 71, No. 3 (July 1972), pp. 369-381, JSTOR 27706243 .
- ↑ The Ruin. on homepages.bw.edu