Ecgtheow's Message?: A Possible Link between The Husband's Message and Beowulf.

Ecgtheow's Message1 } A Possible Link between The Husband's Message and Beowulf. Edward Bridle In producing this article I have added one more name, m y own, to the list of those w h o have tried to connect the Old EngUsh elegies The Wife's Lament and The Husband's Message to one or another of the recorded Germanic tales of exUe and separation. This is an effort which has been caUed 'either fatal or foolish', with the further observation that 'unless a goodly number of Anglo-Saxon scholars have been afflicted with a pecuUar blindness, there should be few possible analogues left unturned'.2 1 do, nonetheless, permit myseh to beUeve that at least one analogue has so far been left unturned, and a m perhaps foolish enough to try to be the one to turn it. Critical attention to these two elegies has tended to concentrate on The Wife's Lament. This poem is certainly the more dramatic of the two; moreover, it has the advantage that its text has survived intact, 1 An earlier version of this article was read at the Australian Univ Language and Literature Association XXVTIIth Conference, University of N e w England, Armidale, N.S.W., 1995. 2 Jane L. Curry, 'Approaches to a Translation of the Anglo-Saxon The Wife's Lament', Medium JEvum XXXV (1966), pp. 187-98, at pp. 187f. P A R E R G O N ns 15.1 (July 1997) 2 Edward Bridle whereas The Husband's Message, separated from i t by seven leaves of manuscript, faUs into that part of the Exeter Book which has apparently suffered damage from an accidental burn. When the question of sources and analogues is considered, The Husband's Message is normally treated in company with The Wife's Lament, it at aU. When i t does receive attention in i t s own right, this attention focusses on either the problem of the poem's relation to Riddle 60, which precedes i t in the manuscript, or the meaning of the runes in the poem's concluding lines. In a spirit of some perversity, I have elected to ignore both of these issues, and to consider the 'sources problem' particularly as i t pertains to The Husband's Message. This slight shift in perspective does seem to have let m e identify a new possible analogue—to this poem alone, not to The Wife's Lament—whose dominant position in the Uterature on these two poems has perhaps diverted attention from i t s consort's potential connections. Let m e f i r s t recapitulate the story of The Husband's Message? Previously (on aerdagum) the man and woman had dwelt together in the same country (an lond bugan) in freondscype (a term which will require some consideration), until hine fdehfpo adraf, a feud drove him into exUe (lines 17-20a). He departed alone, by ship across the sea (4144a ). He has now risen above his misfortunes (wean oferwunnan), and has wealth and position (45b-47) in foreign parts (Igeonjd elfeode, 37a). A damaged passage (35b-39a) appears to enlarge upon his prosperity. He lacks only the presence of the woman (30-35a, 48), and has now sent a trusty messenger (3-9a) to remind her of the vows once made between them (13-16, 49-54), and teU her onsite ssenacan, pat pu sud heonan/ofer merelade monnan findest, to take ship southwards to join him beyond the sea (20b-29), where he anticipates that together they shaU deal out treasures to his foUowers (33-35a). The situation occupied by the man and the woman before the man'sflightinto exile requires some clarification. They dwelt on meoduburgum, amongst cities containing meadhaUs,4 a reference 3 This poem, and all other citations from the Exeter Book, are taken from the edition of Bernard J. Muir, The Exeter Anthology of Old English Poetry (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1994). Ecgtheow's Message? 3 which must signify prosperity as understood by an aristocratic warrior culture.5 The w o m a n hersetf is of high birth and status; the poet calls her peodnes dohtor (48a) and...