Anonymous, The Husband's Message

Juan Camilo Conde-Silvestre (Universidad de Murcia)

Ed. by Hugh Magennis, Queen's University Belfast
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.01: English Writing and Culture: Old English, 500-1066.
Vol. editors: Richard William Dance (University of Cambridge), Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. 940

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Elegy
Lyric

Resources

The Husband's Message (HM) is an anonymous Old English poetic text included in Exeter, Cathedral Library 3501, the Exeter Book [see separate entry on the Exeter Book]. No convincing evidence for dating the poem has been provided so far and proposals range from the 8th century to the mid-10th, when the manuscript was copied. The mutilated state of the last pages of the Exeter Book – affected by burn damage – as well as the absence of headings and the similar design of capital letters and end-punctuation in folios 122b to 123b have provided problems for editors, who do not agree on the number of poems contained in this section of the manuscript. Some …

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1792 words

Citation: Conde-Silvestre, Juan Camilo. "The Husband's Message". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 December 2005 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=545, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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