Wulf and Eadwacer
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Wulf and Eadwacer is an Old English poem of famously difficult interpretation. It has been variously characterised as an elegy, a riddle, and a song with refrain, but the poem's complexities are generally considered to defy simple characterisation, especially with regard to its narrative content. The poem's only extant text occurs in the Exeter Book, along with certain other texts to which it possesses qualitative similarities.
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Genre
The characterisation of the poem as a riddle is the oldest of its various treatments, the argument for which characterisation is based largely upon the obscurity of its subject and the placement of the poem within the Exeter Book, preceding the texts of the extant riddles themselves. However, its lack of any apparent 'solution' when treated as such and its various textual problems not characteristic of the riddles it accompanies have led few scholars to pursue a simple 'riddle' interpretation in modern textual study. Rather, the thematic similarity of the poem to The Wife's Lament, also found in the Exeter Book, has caused most modern scholars to place it, along with the Wife's Lament, solidly within the genre of the frauenlied, or woman's song and, more broadly, in that of the Old English elegy. Its adjacency to the riddles has, however, continued to inform commentary and interpretation.
Little other than its presence in the Exeter codex may inform historical study of the poem, and the dating of the poem is essentially limited to what may be ascertained from the history of the Exeter Book itself, for which suggested dates of compilation range from 960CE to 990CE. Proposals regarding its heritage prior to its inscription in the Exeter codex are many and various, but can base themselves on little material evidence. The inclusion of a refrain in the text of the poem may favour an originally non-English origin, as refrains are not conventional to the Old English poetical form. A Scandinavian inspiration for the Anglo-Saxon text would offer one solution for this problem, and has been offered as a possible explanation similarly for its confused language, but this theory as with any other, can only be regarded as extremely hypothetical given lack of substantive corroborating evidence.
Interpretation
The most conventional interpretation of the poem is as a lament spoken in the first person by an unnamed woman who is or has in the past been involved with two men whose names are Wulf and Eadwacer respectively. Both of these are attested Anglo-Saxon names, and this interpretation is the basis for the common titling of the poem (which is not based on any other manuscript evidence). However, even this point proves controversial. Some interpretations favour a single male character, though this is the less orthodox of the two views. In recognition of this fact, Bruce Mitchell has chosen the title "Wulf" for his own reproduction of it.
The speaker of the poem is evidently separated from her lover, both symbolically and materially (Wulf is on iege, | ic on oþerre), and this separation is seemingly maintained by threat of violence (willað hy hine aþecgan, | gif he on þreat cymeð), possibly by her own people (Leodum is minum | swylce him mon lac gife). In sorrow, an unnamed lover takes her in his arms (þonne mec se beaducafa bogum bilegde), and she finds comfort in this, but also pain (wæs me wyn to þon, wæs me hwæþre eac lað). She addresses her lover as 'Eadwacer', which may or may not be a personal name, and appears to describe their 'whelp', generally understood to imply 'child' and possibly a reference to the child's being the 'whelp' of a man named 'Wulf', being taken off to the 'woods' under unclear circumstances. The poem's final lines are likely a metaphor drawn from biblical reference to Matthew 19:6. The lines might be loosely rendered as a whole, "easily torn asunder is that which never was | our song together".
Old English text
- Leodum is minum swylce him mon lac gife;
- willað hy hine aþecgan, gif he on þreat cymeð.
- Ungelic is us.
- Wulf is on iege, ic on oþerre.
- Fæst is þæt eglond, fenne biworpen.
- Sindon wælreowe weras þær on ige;
- willað hy hine aþecgan, gif he on þreat cymeð.
- Ungelice is us.
- Wulfes ic mines widlastum wenum dogode;
- þonne hit wæs renig weder ond ic reotugu sæt,
- þonne mec se beaducafa bogum bilegde,
- wæs me wyn to þon, wæs me hwæþre eac lað.
- Wulf, min Wulf, wena me þine
- seoce gedydon, þine seldcymas,
- murnende mod, nales meteliste.
- Gehyrest þu, Eadwacer? Uncerne earne hwelp
- bireð Wulf to wuda.
- þæt mon eaþe tosliteð þætte næfre gesomnad wæs,
- uncer giedd geador.