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Introduction to "Cynewulf and Cyneheard"

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is one of our most important sources for the history of the pre-Conquest period. Begun almost certainly during the reign of Ælfred the Great (ruled 871 - 899) and probably at his instigation, the Chronicle is a year-by-year history of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. For places and events remote from Ælfred s Wessex, the entries tend to be short and sparse, with at most one line for each of the year numbers written consecutively down the left-hand side of the page, and with frequent years left as blank lines except for the year number. (Reference to this layout explains the peculiar use of the word her at the beginning of Chronicle entries: "here in this year, third from the bottom on the page here, Bishop X died." ) For events close to Ælfred s own time and place, the entries are fuller, with a particularly extensive series narrating the events of Ælfred s own reign.

Cynewulf and Cyneheard

The story of Cynewulf and Cyneheard is thus a surprisingly detailed insertion into a section of the Chronicle that is otherwise a pretty bare-bones listing of accessions to and departures from thrones and bishoprics. It is perhaps not strong on characterisation, but it has a great deal of narrative structure and complexity. Also, its style seems different from even the more detailed stories elsewhere in the Chronicle. Partly for this reason, some scholars have speculated that, rather than deriving either from written sources (like the annotated Easter tables that may have formed the basis for the early part of the Chronicle) or from reports comtemporaneous with the relevant Chronicle entries (such reports or even eyewitness knowledge must have been the source for much of the Ælfredian and post-Ælfredian part of the Chronicle), the story of Cynewulf and Cyneheard might be the product of the traditional story-teller s art--an orally transmitted saga inserted into its appropriate place in the much drier surrounding written chronicle text.

Whether its origin is oral or not, the story has a spareness that can be disconcerting for first-time readers. Part of the reason is that it depends heavily on cultural expectation. For example, the actions of the characters are impossible to comprehend unless we are aware of the cultural and ideological expectation that members of a leader's comitatus (troop of retainers) would fight to the death rather than surrendering to the leader of an attacking troop, even if their lord were dead--their relationship with their lord was supposed to be the most central one in their lives, replacing ties of kinship. The followers of both leaders in this story exhibit this Anglo-Saxon virtue of unwavering loyalty, a fact that the story itself seems to consider a sign of the leaders' nobility.


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Contact: Murray McGillivray at mmcgilli@acs.ucalgary.ca or the Listserv at mailto:eg401-m@acs.ucalgary.ca