Professor Borges - A Course on English Literature

those young kings. . . . One would expect, in a poem composed in the Middle Ages, expressions of gratitude to God, that it would thank God for having bestowed victory on the Saxons rather than the enemy. But the poet says nothing of the sort; the poet extols the glory of the king and his brother, “the long glory,” “long Mars,” the poem says literally, “
ealdorlangne tyr
.” (The word
tyr
would be equivalent to the classical god Mars, which also means “glory.”) “They won by the edge of their sword near Brunanburh”—“
sweorda ecgum
,” “by the edge of the sword.” Then the poem says that they fought the whole day long, “From the moment the sun”—“
mære tungol
,” “that famous star,” he calls it—“slid over the fields till the glorious creature sank into the West.” Then he describes the battle, and the poet clearly feels happy at the defeat of his enemies. He speaks about the astute Scottish traitor, Constantine, who had to return to his land in the north and had no reason to boast about the meeting of the spears, the rustling of the standards. . . . He uses a lot of metaphors to describe the battle. But first he talks about Anlaf. He says that Anlaf had to flee in his boats and seek refuge in Dublin, accompanied by a few men who had barely escaped with their lives. And he says that the Saxons spent all day chasing the enemies they hated. There is one mention of God in the poem, only one, and this is when he calls the sun the “bright candle of God,” “
godes condel beorht
.” It is the only mention of the divinity. The poem, though clearly written by a Christian—we are at the beginning of the tenth century—is infused with the ancient Germanic heroic spirit. After describing the battle, the poet pauses with obvious delight at the crow, with his beak “as hard as a horn,” that eats, devours, the corpses of men. And he also talks about “that grey beast in the forest,” about wolves that eat the corpses. All of this with a kind of joy. And when he speaks about the Danes returning to Dublin, he says that they return in shame, because defeat was considered a disgrace, especially when accompanied by flight. Anlaf and Constantine, according to the Germanic ethic, should have made sure they died in the battle they lost. It was disgraceful that they were saved, that they came out of it alive. After that, the poet tells us about the king and the prince. He says that they returned on horseback to Wessex, “each in his glory.” 20 And after this verse of exaltation, something happens that is also peculiar in the Middle Ages, because we need to remember that the people at that time, like the Indians in the Pampas here, wouldn’t have had much historical consciousness. This poet, however, who was obviously an educated man—he had all the ancient metaphors at his fingertips, as well as all the rules of Germanic verse—he says that never had such a great battle been waged on this island, England, not since the Saxons and the Anglos, “proud war-smiths” (he says this as if war were a tool, an iron tool), came to these islands motivated by—and hereTennyson translated “by the hunger of glory.” And he tells us that “over the broad billow broke into Britain with haughty war-workers.”
    In other words, this poet from the tenth century, from the beginning of the tenth century, is recalling the Germanic conquest of England which occurred in the fifth century; he connects his memory of this present victory, which must have been very moving for the Saxons—for it was more common for the Norse to defeat them, and rare for them to be the victors—he linked it to the often secular victories enjoyed by the first Germanic peoples who arrived in England.
    In the next class we will look at another Anglo-Saxon epic poem, one that commemorates a Norwegian victory over the Anglo-Saxons, not a defeat. We will then talk about Christian poetry proper, that is, poetry based on the Bible and on Christian sentiment.

CLASS 5

    "THE BATTLE OF MALDON." CHRISTIAN POETRY. "CAEDMON'S HYMN." THE RUNIC ALPHABET. CHARACTERISTICS OF ANGLO-SAXON ELEGIES

    MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1966
    During the last decade of the tenth century, an event took place in England that had only relative military importance, but it had great relevance for the history of English literature, for out of it came the ballad of “The Battle of Maldon,” which tells of a defeat rather than a victory. One could say that