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Wulf and Eadwacer Reloaded: John of Antioch and the Starving Wife of Odoacer

Wulf and Eadwacer Reloaded: John of Antioch and the Starving Wife of Odoacer AbstractThis study re-examines the idea that Eadwacer in the short Old English ‘Elegy’ Wulf and Eadwacer is a literary representation of the historical Odoacer, a fifth-century Germanic king of Italy, and Wulf is his historical and traditional literary opponent, Theoderic the Ostrogoth. The text of the poem is compared for the first time with the historical records of the contention between Odoacer and Theoderic, and particularly of the siege of Ravenna (490–493). A new and revealing analogue is identified in a seventh-century chronicle of this event by John of Antioch, which introduces Odoacer’s wife as a woman who is starved to death, mirroring a puzzling detail in the poem. It is argued that the historical record (itself featuring literary influence) explains the characters and scenario of Wulf and Eadwacer, which can thus be re-interpreted as a linguistically highly adept and bitter lyric spoken by Eadwacer’s wife, lamenting her marriage to him and longing for her outlaw love, Wulf, set in the landscape of northern Italy. It is argued that it is a unique example of a poem in the (possibly Continental-derived) Anglo-Saxon Theoderic tradition, which was otherwise lost save for a few brief allusions in other poems. It is also suggested that the importance of its speaker and her feminine viewpoint ought to be incorporated into our concept of “heroic” poetry, as it existed in England by the latter tenth century. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Anglia de Gruyter

Wulf and Eadwacer Reloaded: John of Antioch and the Starving Wife of Odoacer

Shiels, Ian
Anglia , Volume 140 (3-4): 48 – Dec 1, 2022
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Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
ISSN
1865-8938
eISSN
1865-8938
DOI
10.1515/ang-2022-0056
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

AbstractThis study re-examines the idea that Eadwacer in the short Old English ‘Elegy’ Wulf and Eadwacer is a literary representation of the historical Odoacer, a fifth-century Germanic king of Italy, and Wulf is his historical and traditional literary opponent, Theoderic the Ostrogoth. The text of the poem is compared for the first time with the historical records of the contention between Odoacer and Theoderic, and particularly of the siege of Ravenna (490–493). A new and revealing analogue is identified in a seventh-century chronicle of this event by John of Antioch, which introduces Odoacer’s wife as a woman who is starved to death, mirroring a puzzling detail in the poem. It is argued that the historical record (itself featuring literary influence) explains the characters and scenario of Wulf and Eadwacer, which can thus be re-interpreted as a linguistically highly adept and bitter lyric spoken by Eadwacer’s wife, lamenting her marriage to him and longing for her outlaw love, Wulf, set in the landscape of northern Italy. It is argued that it is a unique example of a poem in the (possibly Continental-derived) Anglo-Saxon Theoderic tradition, which was otherwise lost save for a few brief allusions in other poems. It is also suggested that the importance of its speaker and her feminine viewpoint ought to be incorporated into our concept of “heroic” poetry, as it existed in England by the latter tenth century.

Journal

Anglia – de Gruyter

Published: Dec 1, 2022

Keywords: Old English poetry; Old English elegies; Exeter Book; Wulf and Eadwacer; heroic poetry; Germanic vernacular literature; Theoderic; Odoacer; chronicles; John of Antioch

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