Book
Overview
My book is The Exeter Book, which is the largest and potentially oldest known codex of 10th century English poetry. Currently, it resides at Exeter Cathedral in Exeter, England.
Appearance
The Exeter Book is bound in a black leather, adorned with simple line and flower etchings. This encases the three separate booklets that Patrick Conner suggests, which are all slightly different in appearance. All pages are a worn, brownish-yellow with black ink inscriptions. There are also decorative drop caps at the beginning of each separate piece, written in black and occasionally red inks. On some of the pages, there are carefully inscribed dry point artworks, depicting images such as robed figures, angels, lettering, and foliate designs.
The damages to the Exeter Book also stand out in its appearance. Pages 8r to 12r show distinct brown stains that fade as the pages progress, as if a substance was spilled on 8r and bled through to 12r. Holes and what appear to be slash marks or rips occur on various pages, especially towards the end of the book. Starting on page 110, these damages progress from smaller to larger by page 130. There is an occasional fading of the ink, especially in the first section of the book, but most pages still show legible inscriptions.
Content Summary
As briefly mentioned before, the Exeter Book contains a variety of poems and riddles. I will begin by describing a few notable poems to provide a sense of the topics and themes common in 10th century English literature.
The first poem I will discuss is “The Ruin”, which is a poem written by an unknown author which meditates on the glory of an unnamed past city in the past, and contrasts this against its melancholic rot in the author’s present. Many literary critics have likened the city discussed to the ancient Roman city of Bath. While this poem has undergone many different readings, I believe a collective anxiety of the 10th century English people, especially in the face of natural destruction and desolation, is imagined clearly in this poem. In a similar melancholic fashion, “The Seafarer” (author also unknown) is commonly thought of as an elegy that begins by describing the lonesome and pitiless conditions of a man living at sea and slowly diversts into a deeply Christian message by the end of the poem. Potentially the most famous poem contained with the Exeter Book is called “The Wanderer”, which again is an anonymous poem that tells the tale of a man in exile as he expresses both the comforts and joys of his old life, and his current destitution and reliance on faith for survival. Finally, a very famous riddle from the Exeter Book is called Riddle 26, to which the solution is a religious text or the Bible. While Riddle 26 is graphic at some points, other riddles in the Exeter Book are occasionally less depressing than the poetry, some even bawdy in nature.
Looking at these key examples, some common themes of 10th century English works include melancholy, destruction, glory, religion (Christianity), hardships, perseverance, and more. Through analysing these creations, we may tap into the collective psyche, values, religion, and identity of the historic period and culture in which they were written. Although all 10th Century English literature is super depressing, learning about common themes and content within the Exeter Book can shed light onto not only the artistic concepts of the time, but also allows us to better trace how these themes and content have influenced other pieces of art throughout history.