Widsith: Glimpses of a Heroic Germanic World
The Earliest Surviving Anglo Saxon Poem by a Wandering Minstrel
Nov 16, 2009
Travels and Heroic History of Widsith
Widsith is an account of a fictitious scop or poet-singer who tells of his travels throughout the Germanic world. It reflects a heroic attitude to the bard’s function and gives us a fascinating view of the Germanic world as viewed by the Anglo-Saxons.
Widsith, preserved in the tenth century Exeter Manuscript of Old English Literature, is woven around the lyric-narrative of the fictitious scop, Widsith.This Anglo-Saxon heroic poem is the nearest one can get to oral pagan literature of the Heroic Age of Germania. It is a recital of actual historical occurrences overlaid with legendary material.
The “far wanderer, Widsith, tells of his travels and mentions the rulers he visited of the Germanic world. His first trip with Lady Ealhhild is to the court of Eormenric, a historical figure belonging to the Migration Period. The poet, belonging to the Myrgingas tribe, starts enumerating the princes he is acquainted with. The normative verse pattern is “A ruled B”. There is mention of the Germanic kings, such as, Atilla, king of the Huns, and Alboin, king of the Lombard’s, who comes two centuries after Atilla. Also mentions Gunther, Wudga, and Hama.
Widsith: A Historical Memoir
The above establishes that the career of Widsith’s travel is geographically and historically impossible. It is rather an excuse to bring together the heroic names famous in history and legend. The enumeration is valuable to bring about the importance of historical geography and literary attraction pertaining to the names and their suggestions. Widsith preserves the memory of the heroes sung in the earliest epic lays by the Germanic people.
The poet’s concern is not with the individual scop but with all who wander in search of heroic fame and generosity in lords and who wishes fame through poetic praise. It is a combination of historical memories and heroic traditions. It is reminiscent of the historical foundations of heroic poetry.The whole world of barbarian wanderings and conquests is well absorbed in Widsith.
Widsith and Beowulf
It shows the nature and extent of the wide Germanic world much like that in Beowulf and thus serves suitably for allusion and analogy. Both Hrothgar and Hrothwulf, who are mentioned in Beowulf , are emphasised by the scop as heroes praiseworthy for keeping peace over a long period of time.
These memories of the heroic Germanic tribes, preserved in the traditional oral lays, seems to have been written down by a monkish scribe making it one of the most interesting records and the oldest in Anglo-Saxon Literature or Old English Literature.
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