Aldhelm: The Poetic Works

by Aldhelm, Michael Lapidge (Translator), James Rosier (Translator)

Aldhelm, born c.640 in Wessex, and becoming abbot of Malmesbury and later bishop of Sherborne, was the first English man of letters; up to 1100, his prose writings were the most widely read of any Latin literature produced in Anglo-Saxon England. His surviving prose works include a long treatise De virginitate, and a number of letters; these in particular are an important source of knowledge concerning Anglo-Saxon England. The treatise, a lengthy exhortation on virtue addressed to nuns at Barking Abbey, is a fascinating series of exempla drawn from the prodigious range of Aldhelm's knowledge of patristic literature, and tailored to the expectations of a seventh-century Anglo-Saxon female audience. Because of the extreme difficulty of his Latin, however, Aldhelm's prose works have rarely been read, and have never been adequately appreciated - which this translation seeks to remedy. It is accompanied with an introduction outlining Aldhelm's central importance to Anglo-Saxon literary culture; a critical biography which throws new light on what has previously been assumed about him; and an essay establishing an accurate canon and chronology of his writings.

Genres: Poetry

274 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Aldhelm, born c.640 in Wessex, and becoming abbot of Malmesbury and later bishop of Sherborne, was the first English man of letters; up to 1100, his prose writings were the most widely read of any Latin literature produced in Anglo-Saxon England.

Reviews

[Joshua Finch]

132 pages of this book consist of St Aldhelm's writings, of a total of 268 pages, not including the index. That's a lot of translator commentary, over half. I must admit I didn't read any of it because the academic world houses 99% of the time worldviews alien from and so ignorant of Orthodox Christianity and this translator by titling the book with 'Aldhelm' and not 'Saint Aldhelm' gives us the final clue as to where he falls. All deep matters of religion aside, all of the riddles have their solutions as their titles, and even if you hide all of them with sticky notes, there are still spoilers within some of the riddles in editors' brackets. Doesn't this miss the point at the most common sense level? Also only 104 of these pages are St Aldhelm's poetic works, while 28 of them are a prose work on the topic of poetry, so the title is again somewhat misleading. But enough of the exterior! which at least has a hardcover.

St Aldhelm's poetry rivals that of John Milton's. In many ways it is much more innocent, less occult, and more informative (the more so, the more you are orthodox). The saint Old-helmet (Ald-helm) is playful, makes poems on the founders of churches (apostles), on created things (by riddles), on virgin saints (by poetic hagiography!), and a short poem on a storm that destroyed his church.

I think this work is worth the price just for that hagiography. The poetry is good, and the topic of virginity is something rarely understood, much less sung about with poetic praises.