Originality in Old English Poetry

Emerson, O. F. ‘Originality in Old English Poetry.’ RES, 2 (1926), 18-31.

…Old English Fenix, with its 677 lines, is based on the Lactantian Phoenix of 170 lines.

[Spelling]…as did Gower and the Poet of Pearl...

Of the 380 lines in the Old English Fenix which are based on the Latin poem, 145, follow the original, as well as some seven parts of half-lines.

148 lines of the English poem, or less than one-half by a little more than 80 lines…follow the Latin original

…60 full lines and parts of a dozen others were not used at all, [lines are cited]

…677 lines out of a little more than 100 immediately before him,…evidence of originality and power…

Gaebler…avoidance of reference to the sun god…Solis nemus (line II) as sunbearo, “sunny grove.”

…other omissions…Latin references to the Sun myth in relation to the Phoenix.

Latin poem, …attendant of the Sun…obedient and submissive. Thereto,…

…overseer and priestess of the grove and woods, …alone admitted to the secrets of Phoebus...

…question how far even the Lactantian poem intended to make reference to the ancient Heliopolis…not mentioned…by either Herodotus or Pliny,…first appears in the Annales of Tacitus.

…solis ad urbem of some Lactantian texts…is a modern reading for solis ad ortus…

…safe to say, therefore, that the English poet had no text reading urbem before him.

…fairly sure that he would have omitted it…

...Lactantian poem…makes reference to an altar in the sacred temple...

He does omit…Lactantian lines 121-22…Phoenix tarrying at the altar and exposing the precious relics of his former body in the temple. In the English poem the Phoenix flies to Syria and then returns at once to his home.

...Lactantian…not…clear…home of the Phoenix…primo…oriento remotus …seem…that the poet had India in mind…following the Greek Physiologus, rather than Arabia, following Herodotus and the Christian Fathers generally…

…Poet may have been as indefinite in his eastern geography as some other early writers.

…all references to classical divinities and classical myths are omitted by the English poet.

…grove of the Sun (line 9 of the Latin), fires of Phaeton (l.10) the waters of Deucalion (14) Aurora (35), the nascent Phoebus (41) Sol’s opening the doors of the shining gate (43), the music of Cyrrhaean strains (48), and the Cyllenean lyre (50), Phoebus bringing back the horses (of the sun) to the open heaven (51) Aeolus shutting in the winds (73) the constellation Cancer (125), Flora (128) Iris (133), the head of Phoebus (140), the bird of Phasis (143), the references to Venus (164-65)

…Greeks of line 70…Assyrians…Arabs…80…Pygmies…India…81…Sabaean land…82…Arabians…145…Egypt…151

…extensions and modifications of the original…by the English poet...

…bare mention in the original of the sun’s vernal chariot has produced from the English poet a description of an eternal springtime, an entirely different idea from that of the Lactantian poem.

…a few similarities between the Latin and English and a general following of the same order, there are significant elements of difference. As conceived by the English poet, the Phoenix made a distinctly individual picture.

…four lines…Lactantian poet…Phoenix…drawing to itself, after its new birth, every kind of bird to attend him as he flies back to his home.

English poet has extended these four lines to twenty 335-355 inclusive,

…many particulars not in the original.

…birds…come from all directions…surround the Phoenix in a ring.

They exalt the Phoenix as king…turn away, sad in mind because they can not equal the swift flight of their leader, …renewed in youth

Lactantian... “when she has arrived at the regions of pure ether, she presently retruns”

English poet has bettered the Lactantian…lordship over the race of birds, and inhabited the waste places with them for a time.

…burdened with years he flies to Syria to seek the new birth, the bird’s give him the same attendance as in the later passage, until from them he “shoves on sharply” to his solitary death and renewal. Especially 163b through 165..no basis in source...

Yet here…each wishing to be thane and thew …lonely Phoenix some companionship.

Latin speaks of the Phoenix as being changed like caterpillars into butterflies. The English poet has altered this figure to that of the seed sown in the ground and coming to new life in the spring.

…he begins his figure of the seed with the previous harvest when the husbandman brings home the fruits of the earth ere the coming of winter, lest the rain should destroy them in the fields

…vignette of English pastoral life in fall and winter…then…begin...figure of the new birth…

From these same fruits shall again be produced the joyous “wealth of earls”...

…fruits of the earth are born again, “the treasures of the ground.”

…praises his character in the language of war and battle…Beaducraeftig, "war-strong"... guthfrecan “war bold one” …common characteristics of Old English poetry generally,…

...he calls the sea sealte streamas, “salt streams,” as Shakespeare called it salt green streams in MND III,ii,393 (Cooks’ note).

There is no reference to God or to a Christian divinity in the Lactantian poem…full of heathen myths or deities…consistently omitted by the English poet.

This seems the best reason for supposing the Latin poem was written by a non-Christian, or by Lactantius before he became a Christian.

[English poet] …more than a score of direct allusions to the Creator.

…more striking is his originality…lines 381-677…early Christians had used the Phoenix as a symbol of the resurrection of the body and as a proof of its possibility.

…Clement of Rome…AD 96, Tertullian, Epiphanius, Ambrose, and Rufinus

381-6…likening the new birth of the Phoenix from the pyre to the soul of the blessed obtaining eternal life through dark death…new elements that such happiness comes only after sore suffering

…likens…Phoenix to the righteous…who keep the faith in these troublous times…allegory…extended to its life before as well as after its new birth…symbol of the life of the righteous here and hereafter.

…poet…symbolism of the Phoenix to the whole life of man…place…in…paradise,…fell…excluded from the garden…seek…sorrowful seats…in this valley of death…until the King of Glory should again…open paradise…

Here is taken up the likeness to the Phoenix.

…man cast out of paradise and wandering in the world is like the journey of the Phoenix, when weary and oppressed with years he goes to seek the protection of the wood and to build his nest.

Creator…favour to those who obeyed him…by holy virtues, righteous deeds. According to the poet, that graciousness of the Creator is the high tree of safety from the wiles of the devil.

…no believer in faith without works…built of righteous deeds, almsgiving, prayers, shunning evil, keeping the divine law.

…fire of judgment…favourite theme of mediaeval writers, and of English poets among others…Elene…Juliana…Doomsday

"Then shall appear…to the people of this world in that manifest time the fair and joyous symbolism of the bird”

Contrary to the usual practice…emphasis upon the righteous rather than the wicked in the judgment day

…testimony of Job regarding the resurrection...

Commentary…attributed to Philip the Presbyter…in 456…Jerome, or attributed to Bede…out of this hint…passage of 43 lines.

…paraphrase…based…wholly on Job XXIX.. 18, …language quite the poet’s own.

…mediaeval notion of remaining in the grave until doomsday…new life…with the Lord.

I shall choose a bed of death…into the bosom of earth, and then after death, like the Phoenix, through the grace of God have renewed life in the resurrection...

…poet returns to the symbolism of the Phoenix. It gathers the bones, ashes and embers, and flies to the garden of the Lord, towards the sun

…symbolism of the sun in the original Phoenix story is brought out, but thoroughly Christianized, as will be seen

When the saving Christ shall appear over the high roofs, the chosen spirits shall follow him as birds of bright plumage into the peace of the Lord.

…crown of glory that shall be given to each…two songs of praise...to God the Father, next to Christ who was born on earth…

…Christ …by the new symbolism, the Phoenix. His life and death…likened to the fair and fragrant herbs with which the Phoenix surrounds himself in his nest.

…brief admonition to praise the creator

…closes with eleven lines in which English and Latin are cleverly united…to conform to metrical requirements...

…initial purpose to make a thoroughly Christian poem of the Lactantian phoenix. Next has been illustrated his selective power, his omissions of considerable portions of his original, and his free use of what lines he retained…elaboration of the symbolism in the last 297 lines…

The likeness of the Phoenix to Christ appears, perhaps first in the Greek Physiologus…poet is clearly not following that source in detail…

…Greek…”The Phoenix resembles our Saviour, who came from heaven with his two wings full of fragrance, that is of virtuous celestial words, in order that we with holy prayers may extend our hands, and send up spiritual fragrance by means of our good lives. English poet has much extended the single, though elaborate reference to odours in the Lactantian poem (ll 95 ff).