The Story of the Exeter Book
with Emma Laws on Thursday, 12 September 2024
at 7pm at Leonardo Hotel Exeter [Jurys Inn Exeter Hotel]
Neil Ward introduced our speaker as follows: “Written around 970AD, the Exeter Book is the earliest of only four surviving books of Anglo-Saxon literature anywhere in the world. Much admired for its beautiful writing and the quality of its verse, this collection of poetry has been at Exeter Cathedral since Leofric, the first Bishop of Exeter, gave it to his church in 1072. Within its pages are some 40 poems including The Wanderer and The Seafarer, and nearly 100 poetic riddles. Emma Laws, Cathedral Librarian, will tell the story of this extraordinary manuscript and what makes it special: its poetry, history and survival.”
Emma began by saying that the Exeter Book is not a book about Exeter, and it is therefore a misleading name. It also goes by the name of Codex Exoniensis or Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3501. Held in Exeter for 1000 years it was a large book of poetry written in Old English. Most of the books given by Leofric were written in Latin. The Exeter Book was given to the Cathedral in 1072, but is actually older than that, and was probably written between 960-970. The Library doesn’t know who the scribe was and also doesn’t know how it came to Leofric. It may have been written in Devon. Various places of origin have been suggested, including Crediton and Exeter, but there is no evidence to show for certain.
The handwriting doesn’t help place the MS which has a West Saxon dialect. Not a lot is known about our Exeter Book, but it is the largest and best preserved of four sources of Old English poetry. One of these, called the Junius manuscript, is in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, another called the Vercelli Book in Vercelli, Italy, and the Nowell Codex in the British Library, which is the oldest of those three. The Exeter Book pre-dates all of them.
Leofric was Exeter’s first Bishop and possibly came from Cornwall. The Cathedral Archive holds the Golden Charter (so named because the first line is embellished in gold), which is the only known illuminated Saxon diploma in existence. This Charter records Æthelred II’s grant of full episcopal jurisdiction over the diocese of Cornwall to Eadred, Bishop of Cornwall, in 994.
Leofric had travelled to France and had known the Royal Family of Edward the Confessor from 1039-1041 when he accompanied the King back to England. In the third year of King Edward’s reign, Leofric became Bishop of Crediton and Cornwall but in 1050 he persuaded the King to move the Bishopric to Exeter, as it was less prone to Viking raids. Edward and his Queen Edith personally conducted Leofric to his place in the monastery church with great pomp, and thus Leofric became the First Bishop of Exeter.
The Donation List of the books given by Leofric is the earliest surviving catalogue and lists 66 foundation books in the Cathedral. In the 1327 Inventory, the Exeter Book is not listed. The Inventory was an audit of value, and the Exeter Book was not considered of value. It was damaged, used for various purposes and bears glue marks. It had also been used as a chopping board and as a press for gold leaf.
The Cathedral Cloister was destroyed to create a market and in 1506 the Exeter book was lost somewhere in the Cathedral and is one of the books that remain. Archbishop Matthew Parker was looking for books written in Old English, but the Exeter Book was not given to him, though many other manuscripts were. In 1602 100 books were given to the Bodleian Library by Thomas Bodley who is commemorated by a Blue Plaque on the side of a building in Exeter High Street leading to Gandy Street.
Oak gall
In 2025, the Exeter Book will be placed on permanent display in the Cathedral to enable visitors to see it. It has 131 parchment leaves which were made from the hides of cows, pigs and goats. They bear natural defects and sometimes tears were sewn. Skins were soaked and stretched on frames and scraped to remove hair and imperfections. The ink used by scribes was made from oak galls which had been formed by wasp grubs. This was mixed with gum Arabic which thickened the ink and then mixed with wine, beer and gum Arabic which made the ink very sticky. This was a skilled job.
Scribes were monks. Prick marks were made in the margins to mark the lines, and the text was written continuously with no paragraphs. New poems could start as the last line on a page so that no space was wasted. Anglo-Saxon poetry looks like prose and is not written on separate lines. Because of the general degree of illiteracy, the poems were designed to be read aloud. They were intuitively alliterative.
Medieval binding
Old English is very difficult to learn as our speaker had endeavoured to do, and it is very different from Middle English (Chaucer). The oldest manuscripts were written in the form of Runes. Most poems were written anonymously although some were signed in the script. The poem “Juliana” in the Exeter Book totals 731 lines, though damage to the book has resulted in the loss of 130-140 lines. It is one of the only signed poems, being signed by Cynewulf. There was no colour used and there were no illustrations. Only the beginning letter was decorative.
The Exeter Book was re-bound, and the binding had boards to keep the pages flat. The boards were in leather and very thick with a hook for a chain to be attached to a desk, although the Exeter Book was not chained.
The Exeter Book contains 122 individual poems, 100 riddles and elegiac verses which vary in length. Some of the poems were religious and some were double entendres considered very rude by today’s standards.
Emma played a recording of a poem entitled “The Ruin” so the audience had an idea of what Old English sounded like when spoken. The poem included pauses where there were scorch marks on the parchment.
[See also the Wikipedia article on The Exeter Book. Also, the obelisk in Exeter High Street opposite Bedford Street has one of the riddles.]
Sue Jackson
Images kindly supplied by Emma Laws.
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