The Husband's Message

"The Husband's Message" [http://www.aspp.ca/index.html] is an Old English poem, the author of which is unknown. It is found only in the Exeter Book, one of the few surviving poetic compilations from the Anglo-Saxon period. "The Husband's Message" is short by comparison to other Old English poems at 54 total lines. The overall theme of love and lamentation also sets the poem apart from most other known Anglo-Saxon works.

Plot

"The Husband's Message" tells the story of a man who was forced to leave his homeland and his wife due to a "feud." The poem takes place after the feud has ended. The now wealthy and established husband carves a message onto a plank of wood and sends it to his wife, recounting the past years without her, reflecting on his past misfortunes, professing his love for her and imploring her to reunite with him in his new home. Thus, the "message" becomes the physical plank of wood itself, as well as the poem's written lyrics. ["Husband's Message, The." "Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature; Letter H"Encyclopedia Britannica]

Issues of interpretation

While the overall text of the poem is fairly straightforward, there is some scholarly debate concerning several matters of interpretation. For example, many Anglo-Saxonists contend that the poem is a "love lyric" to be celebrated for "its ingenious form and its emotive power." ["Husband's Message, The." "Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature; Letter H"Encyclopedia Britannica] Conversely, other scholars contest that the sense of "loss," especially that of time due to unfortunate circumstances and "happiness," make "The Husband's Message" seem more like an "elegy". ["Husband's Message, The. Magennis, Hugh. Medieval England: An Encyclopedia. Ed. Paul Szarmach, M. Teresa Tavormina, Joel Rosenthal. New York: Garland Pub., 1998.]

Another prominent issue with this work is the speaker question: who is, in fact, the speaker of the poem? While some argue that the speaker is of a human nature, meaning that the speaker is the husband himself, using personification of the wood's voice as a literary device, others hold that the wood itself is the husband's messenger. Those who adhere to the wood-messenger theory are supported by the evidence provided by the riddles in the Exeter Book, which use similar personifications. [Anderson, Earl. "The Husband's Message: Persuasion and Problem of 'Genyre'". Cleveland State University 2002.] Also, the poem opens with the lines, roughly translated from a damaged manuscript, "Now I will tell you especially / what kind of tree I, as offspring, grew from," [http://www.aspp.ca/index.html] which, if taken literally, may indicate that the wood is the messenger. However, it is equally likely that this is a mere literary device. Another group of scholars contends that the speaker switches throughout the poem, meaning that at times the husband is recounting a story while at other times the wood itself speaks. ["Husband's Message, The. Magennis, Hugh. Medieval England: An Encyclopedia. Ed. Paul Szarmach, M. Teresa Tavormina, Joel Rosenthal. New York: Garland Pub., 1998.]

One last puzzling feature of "The Husband's Message" is that of the runes. There are runes located towards the end of the poem. Anglo-Saxonists are unsure as to what role these runes are supposed to play in the storyline of the poem. It has been theorized that they should be "deciphered...as an oath that the man swears to the woman and are his secret instructions concerning the journey she must make to find him." ["Husband's Message, The. Magennis, Hugh. Medieval England: An Encyclopedia. Ed. Paul Szarmach, M. Teresa Tavormina, Joel Rosenthal. New York: Garland Pub., 1998.] This makes sense in light of the fact that the husband had been exiled in the past, and it would be to his and his wife's advantage to refrain from disclosing his new location.

Despite these possible ambiguities with the poem's intended interpretation, "The Husband's Message" should be noted for its ability to convey powerful emotion and meaning in a short amount of space.

The Husband's Message

The poem may well be riddlic in nature, as is indicated by the runic clues at the end of the piece. The solution has been proposed variously as either 'Christ' or 'The Gospel'.Fact|date=December 2007

Nu ic onsundran þe secgan wille ...... treocyn ic tudre aweox; in mec æld... sceal ellor londes settan ...... sealte streamas5 ...sse. Ful oft ic on bates gesohte þær mec mondryhten min ...... ofer heah hofu; eom nu her cumen on ceolþele, ond nu cunnan scealt10 hu þu ymb modlufan mines frean on hyge hycge. Ic gehatan dear þæt þu þær tirfæste treowe findest. Hwæt, þec þonne biddan het se þisne beam agrof þæt þu sinchroden sylf gemunde15 on gewitlocan wordbeotunga, þe git on ærdagum oft gespræcon, þenden git moston on meoduburgum eard weardigan, an lond bugan, freondscype fremman. Hine fæhþo adraf20 of sigeþeode; heht nu sylfa þe lustum læran, þæt þu lagu drefde, siþþan þu gehyrde on hliþes oran galan geomorne geac on bearwe. Ne læt þu þec siþþan siþes getwæfan,25 lade gelettan lifgendne monn. Ongin mere secan, mæwes eþel, onsite sænacan, þæt þu suð heonan ofer merelade monnan findest, þær se þeoden is þin on wenum.30 Ne mæg him worulde willa gelimpan mara on gemyndum, þæs þe he me sægde, þonne inc geunne alwaldend god ...... ætsomne siþþan motan secgum ond gesiþum s...35 næglede beagas; he genoh hafað fædan goldes ...d elþeode eþel healde, fægre foldan ...ra hæleþa, þeah þe her min wine...40 nyde gebæded, nacan ut aþrong, ond on yþa geong ...... sceolde faran on flotweg, forðsiþes georn, mengan merestreamas. Nu se mon hafað wean oferwunnen; nis him wilna gad,45 ne meara ne maðma ne meododreama, ænges ofer eorþan eorlgestreona, þeodnes dohtor, gif he þin beneah ofer eald gebeot incer twega. Gecyre ic ætsomne sigel rad geador50 ear wen ond dæg aþe benemnan, þæt he þa wære ond þa winetreowe be him lifgendum læstan wolde, þe git on ærdagum oft gespræconn.

References

Anderson, Earl. "The Husband's Message: Persuasion and Problem of 'Genyre'". Cleveland State University, 2002. (4)

"Husband's Message, The." "Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature; Letter H". Encyclopedia Britannica. (1, 2)

Magennis, Hugh. "Husband's Message, The." Medieval England: An Encyclopedia. Ed. Paul Szarmach, M. Teresa Tavormina, Joel Rosenthal. New York: Garland Pub., 1998. (3, 5, 6)

Notes