BoAr:
FNQ: Hereward I
http:// boar.org.uk/ariwxo3FNQsupI.htm Latest
edit 28 Aug 2008.
Web page & commentary ©
2007 R.J.PENHEY With
thanks to the trustees of the Willoughby Memorial Library
The Bourne Archive
FNQ
This thread begins with the title page
De
Gestis Herwardi Saxonis1.
I.
Incipit
præfatio cujusdam opusculi de gestis Herwardi incliti militis2.
Nonnullis apud nos
scire desiderantibus opera magnifici Anglorum gentis Herwardi et inclytorum
ejus et auribus percipere magnanimitates illius ac gesta3 : nuper nostræ parvitati vestra insinuavit
fraternitas4, interrogans si aliquid in illo
loco ubi degebat de tanto viro conscriptum aliquis reliquerit. De quo enim quum
nos quodam in loco audisse modicum Anglice conscriptum professi fuimus, subito
coegit vestra dilectio illud ad præsens perquiri, et mox in Latinam linguam transferri,
subjungens etiam et ea quæ a nostris audire contigerit, cum quibus conversatus
est, ut insignis miles magnanimiter vivens. Quibus quidem
vestris desideriis satisfacere cupientes, multis in locis perquirendo manus
convertimus, et penitus nihil invenimus, præter pauca et dispersa folia, partim
stillicidio putrefactis at abolitis et partim abscisione divisis5. Ad
quod igitur dum stilus tantumdem fuisset appositus, vix ex eo principium a
genitoribus ejus inceptum et pauca interim expressimus et nomen ;
videlicet primitiva insignia præclarissimi exulis Herwardi, editum Anglico
stilo a Lefrico Diacono ejusdem ad Brun presbyterum. Hujus enim memorati
presbyteri erat studium, omnes actus Gygantum et bellatorum ex fabulis antiquorum,
aut ex fideli relatione, ad edificationem audientium congregare, et ob memoriam
Angliæ literis commendare6. In quibus vero licet non
satis periti aut potius exarare deleta incognitarum literarum7, ad
illum locum tamen de illo usque collegimus ut in propriam et ad pristinam domum
reversus fratrem occisum invenerit : vestræ prudentiæ rudi stilo relinquentes
crudam materiam vel alicujus exercitati ingenii studio ; minus dialecticis et
rethoricis enigmatibus compositam et ornatam. Nihil enim de his amplius exarare
curavimus, semper majora expectantes et necdum penitus aliquid invenientes.
Quos tandem vana spes diu delusit, sicut ab initio a quibusdam dicentibus quod
in illo et illo loco magnus liber est de gestis ejusdem. Ad quem mittentes quæ
promissa fuerant nunc8 comparuerunt. Propterea quidem tunc
omnino illud relinquentes, opus inceptum abscondimus. At tandem a quibusdam
nostrorum vobis diu latere non potuit, illud principium saluti vobis non denegari
ex insperato nobis subito vestra mandavit benignitas. Tunc ergo quod
imperfectum nostrum viderant oculi vestri, curæ nobis fuit iterum, licet non
magni ingenii ope fretis, ad hoc in eo stilum convertere, et vobis iterum in
morem ystoriæ libellulum retexere, de his quæ a nostris et a quibusdam suorum
audivimus, cum quo a principiis illius conversati sunt, et in multis consortes
fuerunt. Ex quibus sæpe nonnullos vidimus, viros videlicet statura proceri et
magni et nimiæ fortitudinis. Et ipsi etiam duos spectabiles formæ viros ex
illis, ut a vobis audivimus, vidistis, videlicet Siwate frater, Broter, de
Sancto Edmundo et Lefrico Niger, milites ejusdem9,
licet a suis membris propter invidiam dolo orbitati speciem artuum per inimicos
amiserint. Siquidem de his et de aliis, quos ipsi in multis probavimus et
vidimus, si non aliter satis nobis daretur intelligi quantæ virtutis dominus
illorum fuerit, et majora esse quæ fecit quam ea quæ de illo professi sunt.
Propterea namque, ut existimamus, ad magnanimorum operum exempla et ad
liberalitatem exercendam profectum erit Herwardum scire, quis fuerit, et
magnanimitates illius audire et opera, maxime autem militiam exercere
volentibus. Unde monemus, aures advertite, et qui diligentius gesta virorum
fortium audire contenditis mentem apponite, ut diligenter tanti viri relatio
audiatur : qui nec in munitione, nec in præsidio, sed in seipso confisus,
solus cum suis, regnis et regibus bella intulit, et contra principes et
tyrannos dimicavit quosque nonnullos devicit. De quibus etiam a genitoribus ejus inceptum cuncta per capitula inserta
sunt, ut leviter possit retineri relectum quod distincte continetur expositum.
The Exploits of
Hereward the Saxon1.
I.
Here begins the
preface of a certain work concerning the exploits of Hereward the renowned
knight2.
Some of us desiring
to know of the deeds of the noble Hereward, of the race of the English,
and his renowned men, and to hear with our ears his generous actions and doings3,
the brethren of your house4 have assisted our ignorance by enquiring
if any man had left anything in writing about so great a man in the place where
he used to dwell. For when we declared that we had heard in a certain place
that a short account had been written about him in English, forthwith your kind
attention had that writing immediately sought for, and before long translated into
Latin, adding also those things which we had happened to hear from our own
people, with whom he was intimate, living nobly as a famous soldier. Desiring
therefore to satisfy these desires of yours, we applied ourselves to enquiring
in many places, and yet in truth found nothing, except a few scattered leaves,
partly rotten by damp, and decayed, and partly damaged by tearing.5
And when the pen had been taken in hand we have with difficulty extracted from
it his descent from his parents and a few things and his character ; that is to
say the early achievements of the very famous outlaw Hereward edited in English
by Leofric
the Deacon, his priest at Bourne. For the intention of this well
known priest was to collect all the acts of giants and ancient warriors from
stories, or from trustworthy narration, for the edification of his hearers, and
for their remembrance to commit them to the English language6.
And although not sufficiently skilled in this, or rather incompetent to
decipher what is obliterated of the unfamiliar language7,
yet we have gathered concerning him that on his return to that place and to his
own ancestral home he found his brother slain. And we leave this raw material,
written in rude style, to your care, and to the zeal of some man’s trained
ability, to be composed and explained in simpler and plainer language. For we
have been able decipher nothing further of this, ever hoping for greater
results but as yet finding nothing thoroughly. For they, whom for a long time a
vain hope deluded, derived from some who said that in such and such a place
there is a great book of his exploits from the beginning, found nothing of what
they had been led to expect, although they sent to the place.* Wherefore abandoning altogether the
search, we have put away the work which had been begun. But from some of our
men it would not long be hidden from you ; and
unexpectedly you have kindly directed that that commencement at least should
not be denied to you. It was then an object of care to us, though not relying
on the help of great ability, that your eyes might see our incomplete work, to
take up the pen once more, and again to unfold to you a little book after the
manner of a history, concerning these things which we have heard from our own
men, and from some of his, with whom they associated from the beginning of his
career, and were in many things his comrades. Of whom we have often seen some,
men (that is to say) tall in stature and huge, and of exceeding courage ; and you yourselves have seen also two men of them
conspicuous for their form, as we have heard from you, namely, Siwate, Broter [sic] of S. Edmund, and Leofric Niger,
his knights9, although they lost the beauty of their
limbs by enemies, being bereft of some members by trickery, through envy. And
indeed of these and others, whom we in many things have proved and seen, if no
otherwise, it were sufficiently given you to understand of what valour their
lord was, and how much greater were the things that he did than what they
reported of him. For besides, as we think, it will conduce to the example of
noble deeds, and to the practice of liberality, to know Hereward, who he was,
and to hear of his achievements and deeds, and especially to those who wish to
undertake a soldier’s life. Wherefore we advise you, give attention, and ye who
the more diligently strive to hear the deeds of brave men, apply your minds to
hear diligently the account of so great a man : for
he, trusting neither in fortification, nor in garrison, but in himself, alone
with his men waged war against kingdoms and kings, and fought against princes
and tyrants, some of whom he conquered. Concerning which things, beginning with
his parents, everything has been inserted by chapters, that what is here
distinctly set down may be easily remembered.
Commentary
* ↑ [Sweeting’s footnote] The Latin here seems quite corrupt.
In many places, as will be observed, the grammar is inaccurate: this is
probably the fault of the scribe.
[RJP’s note] The story was originally written in Old English, by
Leofric the Deacon, early in the twelfth century. Having reached a decayed state,
this document was translated into Latin, collated and augmented by Hugh
Candidus a little before 1170. The copy shown in the frontispiece was
made by or under the instruction of Robert of Swaffham in around 1260 and that
was transcribed by S. H. Miller, in around the 1880s. Miller’s transcription
was translated into modern English by W. D. Sweeting in about 1894. Miller’s
and Sweeting’s work was set for printing in 1895, under the supervision of
Sweeting and I have transcribed this printed version in 2007. During this long
process, errors will have appeared. My brother, whose acquaintance with Latin
is much closer than mine, is kindly working through a further proof-reading and
I have quietly corrected errors of mine which he has found, so far as his work
has yet progressed. His other queries are noted as seems appropriate in each
case and their source acknowledged by the inclusion of his initials, FWP.
Sweeting has done a good job in striking a balance between
following the Latin and providing a comfortably idiomatic English translation. [FWP] There are indeed,
several grammatical errors in the Latin. Some of these are likely to be
scribes’ errors, while others are, more probably, interesting examples of the
slide from classical to low Latin. [FWP]
While Sweeting is not at fault in this, it is important to
be aware when dealing with a text like this one, in considering the writer’s
grammar but particularly, with some aspect of the narrative, that there is a
constant danger of saying in effect, ‘I don’t understand this, therefore it is
nonsense.’ In general, we are likely to obtain better enlightenment if, rather
than dismissing those things which we do not understand, we set them aside for consideration
in the light of what we learn later, from the text or from study generally.
1. ↑ This is the general title adopted by Sweeting, in both the
Latin text and its English translation. So far as can be detected without
actually seeing it, in the original document, there is no general title and the
chapter headings are in reality, not titles in the modern sense but brief
summaries of their contents. Nowhere in the text is the concept of Saxon
ethnicity introduced, except in describing a man against whom Hereward fought (Chapter XXXII).
2. ↑ Insofar as this Hereward text has an authentic title, this is it.
Sweeting translates it as ‘Hereward the renowned knight’ and as ‘The Exploits
of Hereward the Saxon’ but the text never refers to him as a Saxon. He was of
the ‘anglorum gentis’.
It is reasonable to interpret this as his belonging to the race
of the English. Writing in a post-Conquest, Norman ambience, Hugh could
well have had this in mind. The ‘them and us’ dichotomy of that time would have
been between the Norman and the English but the phrase is consistent with an
interpretation specifically as ‘of the Anglian people’. This would fit with the
reasonable deduction from other evidence, that his father was earl of the
Anglian, former-kingdom of
3. ↑ Already, we have the key to
understanding the whole text. The aspect of the text which seems to give people
trouble is that it is a relation of one daring deed after another. Here, we are
told what the writer’s brief is. This is a book written so that we can hear of
Hereward’s deeds, generous acts and exploits (opera ...Herwardi ... magnanimitates illius ac gesta). It does not claim to be anything such as a
general history of his times. The fact that it subsequently sticks to its brief
is not one about which we can reasonably complain.
The story is presented as a series of episodes and the
linking narrative, which would give an impression of the time between them, is
treated very briefly or not at all. If we are to date events referred to in the
text, we need to bring in information from outside sources.
4. ↑ This is Hugh Candidus addressing the
abbot of
5. ↑ In making a translation from, say Latin
to English, since each word may have several possible meanings, the translator
has to take a view of the intended meaning of the passage as a whole as well as
of the words within it. While Sweeting’s translation is valid, it is possible
to take another view, which might offer the chance of a different insight. Using
meanings given by Langenscheidt,
‘.. folia, partim stillicidio putrefactis at
abolitis et partim abscisione divisis’ is reasonably translated as ‘.. leaves,
partly rotten by damp, and decayed, and partly damaged by tearing’ but it might
be translated as ‘.. folios, partly softened by
dripping water and moreover, removed; and partly divided, by breaking off.’ The
first example’s use of ‘rotten’ seems influenced by the use of
putrefacio
in English and the modern word derived from it, putrefy. The Latin verb means
‘to make rotten’ but it also means ‘to soften’. The word translated here as
‘removed’ is written as referring to the leaves (the folios) but Hugh may have
been thinking more, of the writing on them. If so, it sounds as though the ink
had run, making parts of the text illegible.
The document will have been of parchment so in the second
view, we have a picture of a skin which has had water dripping onto it so that
part has been lost by the consequent weakening of its structure or by the
running of the ink. But there has been other damage, perhaps because the edges
of the skin have become brittle by exposure to heat. This would be consistent
with the possible presence of the document at the time of the
While this is not proof, it is consistent with the view
that Leofric the Deacon wrote his account of Hereward’s character in about
1110, that it was in the abbey’s library at the time of the fire, in 1116 and
that its damaged remains were there in around 1170, when Hugh Candidus used
them as the basis of his account.
6. ↑ This is an example of the use of English
as a written language in the early twelfth century. Two writers associated with
Bourne, Orm in the twelfth
century and Robert Mannyng
in the early fourteenth, each wrote in the English of his time. Here we have
Leofric Deacon doing so, rather earlier than either. Leofric himself, played a
part of the story (Chapters XIX,
XXIII and XXXV). He was therefore in
a position to know something of the truth of the matter. He may still have
written it with a bias but at least, his social and political assumptions
should be detectable. Those in turn, should tell us something of his time.
7. ↑ Hugh Candidus, who according to Miller,
was the compiler of the story in its present form, acknowledged here that he is
not fully au fait with English. This
may be because he was of the Norman French culture, or perhaps, because he
wished to appear so. That it was the former is possibly indicated by his
misunderstanding of the Wide Mere name in
chapter XXVI.
8. ↑ This looks like a printer’s error. It
makes better sense if nunc is read as
non. [FWP]
9. ↑ The previous phrase mentions two men
but Sweeting names three. It is possible in medieval
Latin, for the genitive of personal names to end in –e, so given that the nominative is ‘Siwart’, Siwarte seems to
mean ‘of Siward’. Thus we would have ‘namely Boter of St Edmund’s, brother of
Siward, and Leofric the Black, knights of his’. The punctuation of the Latin, as
edited for printing is consistent with this. [FWP]
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