Thureth
"Thureth" is the editorial name given to an eleven-line Old English poem preserved only on folio 31v of British Library MS Cotton Claudius A. III, at the beginning of the text known as 'Claudius Pontifical I'.[1] The poem speaks with the voice of this pontifical or benedictional, interceding on behalf of Thureth who the poem tells us had the book ornamented.[2] As Ronalds and Clunies Ross comment:
As far as we are aware, this is the only specifically identifiable book, aside from the generic book - or possibly Bible - of Riddle 24, that 'speaks' to us from the Anglo-Saxon period, albeit on another's behalf.[3]
Text
As edited in the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records series, the poem reads:
Ic eom halgungboc; healde hine dryhten |
I am a benedictional; may the Lord protect him |
—Translated by Craig Ronalds and Margaret Clunies Ross |
References
- Ronalds, Craig; Clunies Ross, Margaret (2001). "Thureth: A neglected Old English poem and its history in Anglo-Saxon scholarship". Notes and Queries. 48: 359. doi:10.1093/nq/48.4.359-b.
- Ronalds, Craig; Clunies Ross, Margaret (2001). "Thureth: A neglected Old English poem and its history in Anglo-Saxon scholarship". Notes and Queries. 48: 360. doi:10.1093/nq/48.4.359-b.
- Ronalds, Craig; Clunies Ross, Margaret (2001). "Thureth: A neglected Old English poem and its history in Anglo-Saxon scholarship". Notes and Queries. 48: 369. doi:10.1093/nq/48.4.359-b.
- Dobbie, E. V. K., ed. (1942). The Anglo-Saxon minor poems. The Anglo-Saxon poetic records. VI. New York. p. 97.
- Ronalds, Craig; Clunies Ross, Margaret (2001). "Thureth: A neglected Old English poem and its history in Anglo-Saxon scholarship". Notes and Queries. 48: 360. doi:10.1093/nq/48.4.359-b. The article also includes the edited text of the poem at p.360 and facsimile of the manuscript text at p.364.