What Is an Elegy? 7 Must Read Elegy From the Old English Period

 

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The Teutonic love of combat, snobbishness, pride, fame, and bloodlust are all prominent in Anglo-Saxon poetry. However, some poems stand out from the genre due to their lyrical nature and melancholy tone. 

Elegy is a morning poetry of grief. The term "elegy" originally applied to all forms of poetry produced in a specific metre, sometimes known as "elegiac metre." An elegy's subject could be anything tragic, humorous, serious, depressing, or sentimental. But over time the definition of an elegy got narrowed. The term was only used to refer to a certain type of wailing poem characterising subjectivity, reflectiveness, and pensiveness. 

1. Widsith

Anglo-Saxon literature either has an epic or lyrical theme with the exception being Widsith. Preserved in The Exter book, Widsith is short for "the far goer" or "far traveler." The poem has 143 lines and is divided into three sections:

Prologue: The opening lines 

Widsith's speech: The following 125 lines

Epilogue: The final lines

Widsith is a burial minstrel's autobiography that details his extensive journeys throughout the Germanic world. While on his journey, he paid visits to numerous tribal leaders, rulers, kings, and princes and received valuable gifts from them. Some of these individuals are well-known in history, like Ecermanie, Attila, the Hauns king, and Albion, the Lombard king. 

It is a useful resource for learning about social and historical records from prehistoric times. What most impresses us is how equally important treatment was given to Huns, Goths, Burgundians, Franks, Danes, Swedes, Wends, Saxons, and many others.

It is possible to specifically include "the Ruined or Ruined Burg, the wife's complaint, The Husband Massages, Deor's Lament, the wanderer and the Seafarer" among the Angles-Saxon elegies.

2. The Ruin of the Ruined Burg

In the concept of the elegiac Note, "The Ruin of the Ruined Burg" stands out as particularly noteworthy. The unidentified poet & "the Ruin" laments impulsively over the sorrowful decay of this city of Bath, for the loss of its pomp and splendour, crowd and noise, attraction and business.

3. The Wife's Complaint

It's a monologue. The young wife laments her unfair separation from her devoted husband in this elegy. Both impetuous and reflective, the poetry. The poem has a strong personal tone, and the poet expresses her sentiments and passion with compassion.

4. The Husband Message

In "The Husband Massage," the poet depicts the husband's message carved on wooden tablets that are forwarded to the husband and the loved woman, such as "The wife's complaints." This poetry also exudes an unsophisticated, real, and passionate feeling. The two poems mentioned above are thought to be the first examples of English love poetry.

5. Deor's Lament

In this poem, the Saxon minstrel is depicted once more, this time primarily in mourning rather than in joyful travelling. It is a 42-line elegy. Decor once enjoyed a lord's favour, but his position has since been replaced by a firing. It has a lyrical structure and could be considered the very first English song. In a flawless Anglo-Saxon lyric, it has more poetry than "Widsith" did.

6. The Wandered 

The Wandered is a 115-line elegy written in Anglo-Saxon by an unidentified author. A young man's lament for his deceased mentor is expressed in this song. To find a place of peace and safety under a new lord, the traveller sails a ship by himself, without companions. While sleeping, he thinks about the joy of his previous days, but when he awakens, all he finds are terrible waves and feelings, which only add to his agony. He finally concludes that mankind generally experiences misery. The poem concludes with the traditional Christian adage, "Good is the man who never loses his faith in God," which is a fitting way to close.

7. Those at Sea

It is a poem of about 100 lines. Whether the poem is a seaman's monologue or a conversation between two sailors, one young and one old, is different to infer. The first portion, the audible ship of ocean life, seems to be divided into two pieces, the gentle call of the sea is a little more seductive. The second section uses allegory to show how the woes of the sea are the problems of life on earth. It paints dark and violent images of the northern seas, where the anguish of the waves and wind mix with the pain of the cold.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it may be claimed that Anglo-Saxon poetry has lyrical and elegiac moods and tendencies but is not of a calibre that requires literary recognition.

Written by Garima Jain