The Shipwreck (1805), Joseph Mallord William Turner
Most people who know anything at all about Old English poetry will be aware of the existence of Beowulf. Perhaps they will even have read it. But far fewer will be aware of the 90% of Old English poetry that is not Beowulf.
It’s a shame, because the back catalogue of Old English poetry — the deep cuts — are well worth reading. And, in general, these poems are much easier (and shorter) to read than Beowulf.
The entire corpus of surviving poetry written in Old English stretches to about 30,000 lines; around 3000 of which make up the single poem Beowulf. But the rest, written somewhere between AD 700 and 1066, is divided among many shorter poems, mainly preserved in four manuscripts, none of which approaches the fame of Beowulf.
Ironically, despite its fame, Beowulf is probably the hardest poem to start with: it’s long and frequently obscure, requiring a mountain of commentary to explain all of the lore.
Furthermore, scholars disagree on pretty much all the big topics about Beowulf. When it was written, where it was written, whether it was a product of oral tradition, whether it’s fundamentally Christian or pagan, how much we can trust the seemingly historical material in the poem… is all fiercely fought over. These controversies are worth exploring, in my opinion, but it’s sometimes nice to get started at the shallow end.
Although Beowulf is great heroic poetry, the Old English poetic corpus has a lot more to offer than just heroic poetry! It also contains elegiac poetry, which are meditations on the fleeting nature of life. It contains riddles as well, some of which are quite salacious. There are also wisdom poems, which provide the kind of timeless, well, wisdom that you also see in the Biblical books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes or the Old Norse Hávamál. Finally, there are religious poems, which transpose Christian themes into the Germanic worldview.
In each of these genres, there are works that rise to the level of great art that has stood the test of time. They’re just sadly not so well-known today. And I think that’s a shame, because they’re full of surprises: talking objects, epic battlefield speeches, and poetic imagery you’ll find nowhere else in English literature.
I’d like to introduce you to five of them here, one in each genre, each of which you could read in translation in a single sitting. I’ll give you a taste of each poem, why I think it’s special, and how you can read it right now.
You're reading The Dead Language Society. I'm Colin Gorrie, linguist, ancient language teacher, and your guide through the history of the English language and its relatives.
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