Мільйон дронів наступного року заплутається між гіллям мільярда дерев посаджених трьома роками раніше.
https://bsky.app/profile/odoacer.bsky.social/post/3kgwabzcm6427
I know that those of you who are interested in #OldEnglish might be, like, 'yeah yeah, another analogue to "Wulf and Eadwacer", I've heard it all before...' But I really do think that Ian has nailed the fundamental 'what is the backstory to this poem?' question.
#Theoderic #Odoacer #JohnOfAntioch #medievodons #medieval
(For the original publication, see Ian Shiels, '_Wulf and Eadwacer_ Reloaded: John of Antioch and the Starving Wife of Odoacer', Anglia: Journal of English Philology. 140 (3–4): 373–420. https://doi.org/10.1515/ang-2022-0056.)
At the end of last year, one of my PhD students (the estimable Ian Shiels, not AFAIK on Mastodon) published a fab (albeit sadly closed-access) article on the Old English poem 'Wulf and Eadwacer'. Following up on the possibility (dare one say likelihood?) that Eadwacer is a reflex of the late Roman general Odoacer, Ian hunted through all the Odoacer material and came up with what I think is a very convincing analogue in a seventh-century chronicle by one John of Antioch. A nice example of what can happen when Old Anglicists have a close look at Greek texts :-)
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/ang-2022-0056/html
If you have access to Anglia, I recommend the article :-)
This 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.
Liam O'Mara IV, PhD
El Pregoner del Metall
Alex
Alaric Hall
World History Encyclopedia