Saint Erkenwald

by Unknown, Omar Shakespear Pound

Excerpt from St. Erkenwald (Bishop of London 675-693): An Alliterative Poem, Written About 1386, Narrating a Miracle Wrought by the Bishop in St. Paul's Cathedral

So fresh and untouched were both body and garb, it seemed that the burial must have been but of yesterday. Yet no one could find any record thereof in book or in tale.

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This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Genres: Poetry, Medieval

Paperback

First published January 1, 1924

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Unknown" when the author or editor (as applicable) is not known and cannot be discovered. If at all possible, list at least one actual author or editor for a book instead of using "Unknown".

Books whose authorship is purposefully withheld should be attributed instead to Anonymous.

Reviews

[Teal Veyre · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful medieval poem about baptism. A bunch of dudes unearth a coffin and inside there is a dead body that has been there for who knows how long, yet it's totally preserved. The body hasn't rotted at all and the clothes haven't decayed at all. It basically looks like the guy fell asleep.

So this guy talks directly to the body and asks what the hell is up with him. The body starts talking and explains that he was a super upstanding dude when he was alive. That's why he has a crown on, even though he isn't a king (he was a judge).

Then they ask him where his soul went and he explains that he wasn't baptized. Baptism is the medicine for the poison that Adam put onto all their lips when he bit the apple. Since this man never got that 'medicine', he's stuck in purgatory.

The men are so moved that they beg God to accept the late baptism and run for water.

They baptize the corpse "and all the bells in the city boomed out at once."

When you take into account how important baptism (and Christianity in general) was to medieval Europeans-particularly at this point of European history-this is a really moving poem. They saved this man's soul.

It was really beautifully written and the ending is perfect.

[sk · Rating 3 out of 5]

not too sure what i just read and not too sure it was even english

[Hannah]

The alliteration/consonance of this poem sings to me

[JGB · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a swift poem with a lot to say about salvation & also British heritage. It's surprisingly readable, too.

[Othy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good presentation of the poem with a fantastic introduction. It's too bad, though, that it was published in 1924, and it's rather a sure thing that much more has been written on the poem since then.