''Solomon and Saturn'' is the generic name given to four
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
works, which present a
dialogue
Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. As a philosophical or didactic device, it is c ...
of
riddle
A riddle is a statement, question or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Riddles are of two types: ''enigmas'', which are problems generally expressed in metaphorical or allegorical language that requir ...
s between
Solomon
Solomon (; , ),, ; ar, سُلَيْمَان, ', , ; el, Σολομών, ; la, Salomon also called Jedidiah (Hebrew language, Hebrew: , Modern Hebrew, Modern: , Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yăḏīḏăyāh'', "beloved of Yahweh, Yah"), ...
, the
king
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
of
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, and
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...
, identified in two of the poems as a prince of the
Chaldea
Chaldea () was a small country that existed between the late 10th or early 9th and mid-6th centuries BCE, after which the country and its people were absorbed and assimilated into the indigenous population of Babylonia. Semitic-speaking, it was ...
ns.
On account of earlier editorial tendencies, the two poetical works, ''Solomon and Saturn I'' and ''Solomon and Saturn II'', have often been read as a single, continuous poem. They are considered some of the most enigmatic and difficult poems of the
Old English corpus.
''Prose Solomon and Saturn''
The so-called ''Prose Solomon and Saturn'' in the
Nowell Codex
The Nowell Codex is the second of two manuscripts comprising the bound volume Cotton MS Vitellius A XV, one of the four major Anglo-Saxon poetic manuscripts. It is most famous as the manuscript containing the unique copy of the epic poem ''Beow ...
(the ''Beowulf'' manuscript) is a question-and-answer text dealing chiefly with issues of biblical or
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
lore. It shares much similarity with the later Old English prose dialogue ''
Adrian and Ritheus'' and, later still, the
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
''
Master of Oxford's Catechism''.
Poetic versions
Themes
''Solomon and Saturn I'', ''Solomon and Saturn II'', and the ''Pater Noster Solomon and Saturn'' in MS
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College (CCCC) 422 are often compared to the ''
Vafþrúðnismál
''Vafþrúðnismál'' (Old Norse: "The Lay of Vafþrúðnir") is the third poem in the ''Poetic Edda''. It is a conversation in verse form conducted initially between the Æsir Odin and Frigg, and subsequently between Odin and the jötunn Vafþr ...
'' and ''
Alvíssmál
Alvíssmál (Old Norse: 'The Song of All-wise' or 'The Words of All-wise') is a poem collected in the ''Poetic Edda'', probably dating to the 12th century, that describes how the god Thor outwits a dwarf called Alvíss ("All-Wise") who seeks to ...
'' and other similar poems in the Old Norse ''
Poetic Edda
The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems, which is distinct from the ''Prose Edda'' written by Snorri Sturluson. Several versions exist, all primarily of text from the Icelandic me ...
''.
Kathryn Powell has described these poetic versions as an example of an "
orientalist fantasy" which works to suppress anxieties about the English cultural identity. She argues that they attempt to minimise anxieties about the unstable condition of knowledge, the future of the kingdoms and the Christian faith by "displacing any lack of knowledge, political stability or faith onto the Eastern and pagan figure of Saturn and the
Chaldea
Chaldea () was a small country that existed between the late 10th or early 9th and mid-6th centuries BCE, after which the country and its people were absorbed and assimilated into the indigenous population of Babylonia. Semitic-speaking, it was ...
n people he represents". Instead, Powell suggests, the dialogues' original readers would have been encouraged to identify with the figure of Solomon, who is constructed as a model of Christian ideals and behaviour.
[Kathryn Powell]
, 'Orientalist fantasy in the poetic dialogues of Solomon and Saturn', ''Anglo-Saxon England'' 34 (2005), 117-143 Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press
A university press is an academic publishing hou ...
Date
As with most
Old English poetry
Old English literature refers to poetry and prose written in Old English in early medieval England, from the 7th century to the decades after the Norman Conquest of 1066, a period often termed Anglo-Saxon England. The 7th-century work ''Cædmon ...
, the ''Solomon and Saturn'' poems have proven notoriously difficult to date. Patrick O'Neill has argued for a connection to the court of
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who bot ...
(reigned 886 – 26 October 899) in the ninth century,
[Patrick O'Neill, 'On the date, provenance and relationship of the ‘Solomon and Saturn’ dialogues', ''Anglo-Saxon England'' 26 (1997), 139-168.] whereas Daniel Anlezark sees the poem as fitting into the mid-tenth-century cultural milieu of
Dunstan
Saint Dunstan (c. 909 – 19 May 988) was an English bishop. He was successively Abbot of Glastonbury, Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Bishop of Worcester, Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury, later canonised as a saint. His work restor ...
's
Glastonbury
Glastonbury (, ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury ...
.
The ''Solomon and Saturn'' texts are often considered the earliest forms of a wider European literary tradition that comprises similar works such as the dialogue between
Solomon and Marcolf
Solomon and Marcolf is a medieval narrative describing the adventures and conversations of Solomon and Marcolf, or Marolf. The adventures have some connection with those of Ashmedai, while the conversations consist chiefly of riddles similar to ...
.
''Solomon and Saturn I''
''Solomon and Saturn I'' is one of the few Old English poems to survive in more than one manuscript. It appears in MS CCCC 41 and MS CCCC 422. Along with the ''Pater Noster Solomon and Saturn'', ''Solomon and Saturn I'' contains
rune
Runes are the letter (alphabet), letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, a ...
s as a sort of riddling
shorthand
Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''ste ...
in which runic characters stand for the words in
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
that name them. From this, we know some of the names for the extended set of runes used to write
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
. The prose version has as one of its riddles: "Who invented letters? Mercurius the giant". The Anglo-Saxons routinely identified
Mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
with Woden (known in
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
as ''Óðinn'', and widely today as
Odin
Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered Æsir, god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, v ...
), who gave his name to
Wednesday
Wednesday is the day of the week between Tuesday and Thursday. According to international standard ISO 8601, it is the third day of the week. In countries which have Friday as their holiday, Wednesday is the fifth day of the week. In countries ...
.
[J. S. Ryan ]
Othin in England: Evidence from the Poetry for a Cult of Woden in Anglo-Saxon England
''Folklore'', Vol. 74, No. 3. (Autumn, 1963), pp. 460-480. See p.476.
''Solomon and Saturn II''
''Solomon and Saturn II'', which is often regarded as having more aesthetic merit, contains a number of riddles, including two of the most obscure passages in Old English literature: the ''Weallande Wulf'' and ''Vasa Mortis'' riddles.
''Weallende Wulf''
Saturn's first riddle describes a
dragonslayer
A dragonslayer is a person or being that slays dragons. Dragonslayers and the creatures they hunt have been popular in traditional stories from around the world: they are a type of story classified as type 300 in the Aarne–Thompson classifica ...
named Wulf and the wasteland that arises after his death. The poem's earlier editor, Robert Menner, argued that the ''weallende Wulf'' passage ultimately stems from ancient Hebrew legends regarding
Nimrod
Nimrod (; ; arc, ܢܡܪܘܕ; ar, نُمْرُود, Numrūd) is a biblical figure mentioned in the Book of Genesis and Books of Chronicles. The son of Cush and therefore a great-grandson of Noah, Nimrod was described as a king in the land of ...
and the builders of the
Tower of Babel
The Tower of Babel ( he, , ''Mīgdal Bāḇel'') narrative in Genesis 11:1–9 is an origin myth meant to explain why the world's peoples speak different languages.
According to the story, a united human race speaking a single language and mi ...
. He interprets Wulf as the Babylonian god
Bel, who is connected to Saturn in
Isidore
Isidore ( ; also spelled Isador, Isadore and Isidor) is an English and French masculine given name. The name is derived from the Greek name ''Isídōros'' (Ἰσίδωρος) and can literally be translated to "gift of Isis." The name has survived ...
's ''
Etymologies
Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words and ...
''.
Andy Orchard
Andrew Philip McDowell Orchard (born 27 February 1964) is a scholar and teacher of Old English, Norse and Celtic literature. He is Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Pembroke College, Ox ...
has found similarities between Wulf and ''
Beowulf
''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...
''. And Daniel Anlezark has found the passage to participate in an "
Avernian tradition", which describes impassable wastelands of
ancient history
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cove ...
. Tristan Major has suggested that the passage is an orientalist conflation of biblical and classic material, and that Wulf is to be identified with the mythological
Perseus
In Greek mythology, Perseus (Help:IPA/English, /ˈpɜːrsiəs, -sjuːs/; Greek language, Greek: Περσεύς, Romanization of Greek, translit. Perseús) is the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus ...
.
''Vasa Mortis''
The riddle describes a mysterious bird that will be bound until
Doomsday
Doomsday may refer to:
* Eschatology, a time period described in the eschatological writings in Abrahamic religions and in doomsday scenarios of non-Abrahamic religions.
* Global catastrophic risk, a hypothetical event explored in science and fict ...
; it has been bound by Solomon and is feared by the leaders of the
Philistine
The Philistines ( he, פְּלִשְׁתִּים, Pəlīštīm; Koine Greek (LXX): Φυλιστιείμ, romanized: ''Phulistieím'') were an ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan from the 12th century BC until 604 BC, when ...
s. The final line of the passage names the bird as ''Vasa Mortis''. Robert Menner has argued that ancient Jewish origins on Solomon's struggles with demons are at the heart of the Old English riddle; he identifies the ''Vasa Mortis'' with the demon
Asmodeus
Asmodeus (; grc, Ἀσμοδαῖος, ''Asmodaios'') or Ashmedai (; he, אַשְמְדּאָי, ''ʾAšmədʾāy''; see below for other variations), is a ''prince of demons'' and hell."Asmodeus" in ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chica ...
. Cilluffo sees parallels between the ''Vasa Mortis'' and the description of Fame in
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...
's ''
Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; la, Aenē̆is or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan_War#Sack_of_Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to ...
'', as well as the nocturnal monster in the Anglo-Saxon ''
Liber Monstrorum
The ''Liber Monstrorum'' (or ''Liber monstrorum de diversis generibus'') is a late seventh-or early eighth-century Anglo-Latin catalogue of marvellous creatures, which may be connected with the Anglo-Saxon scholar Aldhelm. It is transmitted in seve ...
'' and the griffin in the ''
Wonders of the East
''The Wonders of the East'' (or ''The Marvels of the East'') is an Old English prose text, probably written around AD 1000. It is accompanied by many illustrations and appears also in two other manuscripts, in both Latin and Old English. It descri ...
''.
[Cilluffo, "Mirabilia ags."]
References
Bibliography
Editions
*Anlezark, Daniel, ''The Old English Dialogues of Solomon and Saturn'', Anglo-Saxon Texts 7, Cambridge, 2009.
*Cross, James E. and Hill, Thomas D., ''The 'Prose Solomon and Saturn' and 'Adrian and Ritheus, Toronto, 1982.
*Dobbie, Elliott van Kirk, ''Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems'', Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 6, New York, 1942.
*Foys, Martin ''et al.''
Old English Poetry in Facsimile Project'' Madison, 2019.
*Kemble, John M., ''The Dialogue of Salomon and Saturnus'', London, 1848.
*Menner, R.J., ''The Poetical Dialogues of Solomon and Saturn'', MLA Monograph Series 13, New York, 1941.
Scholarship
*Anlezark, Daniel. "Poisoned places: the Avernian tradition in Old English poetry." ''Anglo-Saxon England'' 36 (2007): 103–126.
*Cilluffo, Gilda. "Mirabilia ags.: il Vasa Mortis nel Salomone e Saturno." ''Annali Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli Filologia germanica'' 24 (1981): 211–226.
*Dane, Joseph A. "The structure of the old English Solomon and Saturn II." ''Neophilologus'' 64.4 (1980): 592–603.
*Major, Tristan. "Saturn’s First Riddle in ''Solomon and Saturn II'': An Orientalist Conflation." ''Neophilologus 96 (2012): 301-313.
*Menner, R.J. "The Vasa Mortis Passage in the Old English Salomon and Saturn." In ''Studies in English Philology in Honor of F. Klaeber. Minneapolis, 1929.
*Menner, R.J. "Nimrod and the Wolf in the Old English ''Solomon and Saturn''." 'JEGP' 37 (1938): 332–54.
*Nelson, Marie. "King Solomon's Magic: The Power of a Written Text." ''Oral Tradition'' 5 (1990): 20–36.
*O'Brien O'Keeffe, Katherine. ''Visible Song: Transitional Literacy in Old English Verse''. Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Ch. 3.
*O'Brien O'Keeffe, Katherine. "The Geographic List of Solomon and Saturn II." ''Anglo-Saxon England'' 20 (1991): 123–42.
*O'Neill, Patrick. "On the date, provenance and relationship of the ‘Solomon and Saturn’ dialogues." ''Anglo-Saxon England'' 26 (1997): 139-168.
*Orchard, Andy. ''Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf Manuscript''. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1994.
*Paz, James. "Magic that Works: Performing Scientia in the Old English Metrical Charms and Poetic Dialogues of Solomon and Saturn." ''JMEMS'' 45.2 (2015): 219–43.
*Powell, Kathryn. "Orientalist fantasy in the poetic dialogues of Solomon and Saturn." ''Anglo-Saxon England'' 34 (2005): 117–143.
*Shippey, T.A. ''Poems of wisdom and learning in Old English''. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1976.
*Vincenti, A.R. von. 'Die altenglischen Dialogue von Salomon und Saturn mit historische Einleitung, Kommentar und Glossar. Leipzig: Deichert, 1904.
External links
(Old English)
{{Old English prose
9th-century poems
10th-century poems
Anglo-Saxon paganism
Anglo-Saxon runes
Old English poems
Riddles
Saturn (mythology)
Solomon
Chaldea
Orientalism
Alfred the Great
Glastonbury