The poem Widsith describes the travels of an ancient Germanic scop or minstrel. It likely originated as an oral poetic form called a thula, which was a list of names and places recited to aid memory. The poem contains several interpolations from different time periods. While it describes real historical figures, it also anachronistically portrays some figures from different eras as contemporaries. The poem was likely compiled and written down in the late 7th century AD by a cleric who aimed to realistically capture the role of an ancient scop through blending factual history with fictional elements.

1. WIDSITH
«FAR-TRAVELLER»
BERNA BOZDAĞ

2. I. THE EXETER BOOK
II. WIDSITH (STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS)
III.INTERPOLATIONS AND LANGUAGE
IV.AUTHORSHIP, DATE OF COMPOSITION
V. PLACE OF SCOP, SCRIBE AND THEIR IMPORTANCE

3. • Exeter Book, the largest extant collection of Old English poetry
• Copied c. 975, the manuscript was given to Exeter Cathedral by Bishop Leofric (died 1072). (he
called the Exeter Book “one big book about every sort of thing, wrought in song-wise)
• Old English poetry has survived almost entirely in four manuscripts: the Exeter Book the Junius
Manuscript, the Vercelli Book, and the Beowulf Manuscript
• Particularly notable is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a historical record begun about the time of
King Alfred’s reign (871–899) and continuing for more than three centuries

4. WILLIAMSON’S INTRODUCTION TO EXETER BOOK
• The condition of the manuscript suggests that it has survived only because it could be put to
practical use in the scriptorium:
• it was used as a cutting board (as the slashes on its front leaves show);
• a messy pot (perhaps of glue) was placed on its exposed first folio on at least one occasion;
• a fiery brand was placed on its exposed back with apparent indifference;
• and the sheets of gold leaf were often stored between its folios, leaving a sparkling residue of gold
on many of its leaves.

5. THE EARLIEST ENGLISH POEMS/INTRODUCTION
• The heroic poems Widsith and Deor allude to stories which were presumably well-known to
audience. 10-11 (In Beowulf, the hero is compared to Siegmund, there are no lays about the
dragon slayer)
• The Old English poet up until Alfred’s time was a man with a public function: he was the voice
and memory of the tribe. Knowing the past, he could interpret life as it came, making it part of the
tale of the tribe. (13)
• the process of writing down an orally composed poem inhibits the characteristic oral style,
slowing it down so that the run of the rhythm is lost. […]Though the two modes of composition
are certainly different in kind, they can appear in the same work in a way that may justly be called
mixed or even transitional (14)

6. • Any theme or episode could be embroidered, contracted, changed or dropped altogether, according to
the receptivity of the audience on that particular evening by the scop. New themes might be borrowed
from another lay, or a flattering reference to the ancestors of the lord before whom the lay was being
sung might be introduced (it is fairly obvious that this happened in Beowulf and in Widsith) (14-15)
• Every re-telling was a new poem, each as authentic, original and authoritative as the last; and every
performance was different.
• iambic pentameter (for the sake of remembering)
• ritual language: used for magical purposes, it played an inseparable part in the rituals that introduced,
celebrated, and interpreted the events and seasons of men’s lifetimes and of the natural year
• the desire to be different: The thirst for originality has no part in oral poetry, though no lay was ever
sung the same way twice; conversely, plagiarism was impossible in oral verse

7. STRUCTURE
• Prologue: Widsith is introduced, and the story of his journey with Ealhhild to the Court of Eormanric her future husband, is summarized
 The Catalogue of Germanic Kings: The Traveller announces his qualifications and names tribes and their founders. At the top of the German
catalogue we find an unknown Hwala and Alexander the Great, who may have been added later. The mnemonic list begins with Attila and ends
with Offa. It is noticeable that, apart from Huns, Goths, Greeks, and Burgundians, all the tribes mentioned come from the coasts of the
Baltic and the North Seas. The stories of Offa the Angle and of Hrothgar and Hrothwulf, the kings of the neighbouring Danes, are given more
fully 34
 The Second Catalogue: Widsith repeats his credentials and lists the tribes he has visited, again beginning with Huns and Goths, and again showing
a good knowledge only of the north-west comer of Europe. Guthere the Burgundian and Aelfwine (Alboin the Lombard) are singled out for special
praise.

8.  The Interpolation (lines 75-87): Chambers suggests that a clerk copied Widsith mainly for its historical and
geographical interest thought that it would not be complete without the mention of peoples who had since come
within the horizon of common knowledge
 Ealhhild and Eormanric: A resumption of the story begun in die Prologue. Eormanric gives the minstrel a ring of
extraordinary value, Widsith presents to his lord, Eadgils, upon his return to his own country. Ealhhild also gives
Widsith a ring before his departure, and the singer spreads the fame of her noble generosity
 The Followers of Eormanric: This is a catalogue of the most famous names in Gothic history and legend
• Epilogue: The end o f the speech is followed by a fine passage on the wierd of the scop and his usefulness to society

9. STRUCTURE AND INTERPRETATION OF "WIDSITH" AUTHOR(S): WILLIAM WITHERLE
LAWRENCE
SOURCE: MODERN PHILOLOGY , OCT., 1906, VOL. 4, NO. 2 (OCT., 1906), PP. 329-374
PUBLISHED BY: THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
• Resembles to: Mandeville’s Travels,The Saga of Gunnlaug “The Snake Tongue”
• Widsith: the earliest account of the life of a Germanic minstrel which has come down to us.
(329)
• Widsith wandered from court to court, exhibiting his art for the diversion of kings and
princes, taking part in their for- tunes, and receiving from them rich gifts in recompense for
his services and his skill
• Minstrel Tradition: traditions of the minstrel profession appear to have been much the same, and
there is in the earlier narrative something of the same independence and pride in being a member of
that profession

10. • Monarchs of different periods are given: arranged, in many cases, in alliterative pairs -Secca
and Becca, the latter the Bikki of the tragic story of the death of Swanhild; Eadwine and Elsa,
Lombard monarchs of widely different periods; Redhere and Rondhere, perhaps mere decorative
names; so also Wulfhere and Wrymhere
• There is a little glimpse of early contests against Huns
• Finally, an epilogue of nine lines closes the piece, recalling rather superfluously that it is thus that
the minstrels wander over the earth and gain everlasting glory.
• Critics have generally agreed upon one point, that a composition full of such discrepancies in
style, subject-matter, and metre, is in all probability not entirely the work of one man.

11. • EX: The passage consisting of 11. 10-49, as has been seen, does not fit into the general scheme
of the whole, and has every appearance of having been composed for another purpose and
utilized or inserted here
• discrepancies : they reveal fundamental differences of time and place and literary interest
 It is hard to distinguish these parts exactly.
 Some of the lines are hypermetric
• The discrepancies in Widsith, which are, on the whole, far more striking than those in Beowulf

12.  LANGUAGE AND DATE: The text of Widsith as we have it is written for the most part
in the West Saxon dialect of Old English. Widsith was composed and reduced to writing
in the latter part of the seventh century. (Malone 118) The kernel of the story goes back
to 4th and 5th century (Lawrence)
 PARALLELISMS: The thulas are connected to Hervararsaga. (118) (Beowulf..)

13. ANACHRONISMS:
• Queen: peace-weaver, an epithet (it can also be found in Beowulf, Hrothgar’s wife ): It is natural to find Widsith in
the train of Ealhhild on this joyful occasion, when minstrels and entertainers must have been particularly welcome, not
only because they could give brilliancy to the festivities, but because they could beguile the tedium of the journey (351)
(yet the man was one and a half centuries older than herself, and Widsith could not have visited both Alboin and
Eormanric, so there is another time issue here.
• Such anachronisms are common in “chasons de geste” which show little sense for historical perspective : Song of
Roland Many instances of similar inconsistency in the time-relations in early and medieval literature might be cited.
(355)
• Yet this is an epic fiction, the sister of a great conqueror might be a fitting bride for renowned Gothic king. In a
similar way, Eormanric was moved down into a later period in the Middle High German conception of the Dietrich of
Bern story.’
• Alboin and Eormanric are not contemporaries.

14. HISTORICAL VALUE:
• The description of the contests between the Goths and the Huns show discrepancies. (358)
• Singers conventionally told of present-giving and the like-it was their business to praise their
patrons. [patrons. Alboin, who appears in Paul the Deacon as a cruel and barbarous king, forcing his wife
to drink from a cup made of her own father's skull, is seen in Widsith in a wholly favorable light] It might
be also related to historical situation: Atilla was both an ally and a threat to Germanic tribes. He
fought with them against the Romans. Deor vs Widsith (?) they are portrayed a bit differently in
those poems
• Legend mingled with history: "It . . . . seems not unlikely that Widsith's lays on the conflicts between
the Goths and the Huns really related to those which took place under Hermanric's immediate successors,
but that the passage has been altered by a later poet, for whom Attila was the representative of the
obliterated Hunnish nation, now passing into the domain of legend

15. • Some scholars think that the prologue was written in Britain: eastan of Ongle. (Müllenhoff:
Osten von Angeln, home of Eormanric)
• ABAB sequence: Many instances of this ABAB sequence have been collected by Heinzel in the
criticism of the application of the "ballad-theory" to Beowulf
 For Further Information: Widsith (Anglica,13) Kemp Malone 1962 “Structure and Style”

16. SUMMARY: WIDSITH (ANGLICA,13) KEMP MALONE 1962
• Thula is the name of an ancient poetic genre in the Germanic literatures. Thulas are metrical
name-lists or lists of poetic synonyms compiled, mainly, for oral recitation. The main function
of thulas is thought to be mnemonic. The Old Norse term was first applied to an English poem,
the Old English Widsith, by Andreas Heusler and Wilhelm Ranisch in 1903
• The scop as an eye-witness: the ideal scop was more than a teller of stories. He was a historian
and a sage, and his words were words of wisdom. The speech of Widsith begins and ends with
well-considered reflections on royal rule, and the First and Second Fits, so different in other ways,
agree in their historical tone. Heroes of story appear, indeed, but in the guise of history

17. THE POET
• The only thing in the poem, indeed, that strikes one as fiction pure and simple is the personal
history of the scop himself.
• The author of Widsith was a cleric. He entered imaginatively into the career open to such a scop
as his and gave us realistic touches (e.g. the boasting and the constant talk about gifts) that show he
wished to make a character as true to life as his design would permit. With the accuracy of a scholar
and lover of the past he put three old thulas into the mouth of his scop of old days and in the added
parts (which he himself composed) he kept strictly to the limits of the heroic age (?)

18. • Detailed catalogue and description, (moving from third person to) first person narration gives the
sense of realism, which continues in even 18th century. “Nothing gives veracity like detail, a
discovery remade in the eighteenth century by Defoe, but no secret to the bard of early times”.
Chaucer has his humorous fling at it [realism]: This storie is also trewe, I undertake, As is the
book of Launcelot de Lake.
• the inevitable changes in oral transmission, and the arbitrary behavior of scribes, one hesitates to
make any dogmatic statements at all about the original form: It is impossible, then, to set any one
"date of composition" for Widsith, since a poem which has taken shape in such a fashion as
this must be called rather a growth, an evolution, and must be judged by critical standards of
a different sort than those which apply to more homogeneous compositions (Lawrence)