2 - The Web of Creation in Wisdom Poems

Summary

Abstract

Active engagement with the mysteries of creation was an important goal of Old English wisdom poetry; these poems require audience understanding of the interconnectedness of the Earth community. Exploring kinship connections between human and other-than-human beings, they anticipate modern ideas about the importance of exchange within ecosystems. The Order of the World encourages active engagement with the other-than-human as a means of praising the Creator. Maxims I, in turn, serves as an example of one such poetic attempt, imagining a world in which non-human forces act in familiar, rather than entirely threatening, ways. The Order of the World and Maxims I suggests that early medieval English thinkers understood and affirmed the interconnectedness of the Earth community.

Keywords: Gnosticism, proverbs, muse, vision, ecosystems

In the first chapter of this book, I suggested that the homiletic and exegetical work produced by Ælfric and Wulfstan in the decades on either side of the apocalyptic year 1000 reveals an early modern earth consciousness which anticipates many of the tenets of modern ecotheology. For Ælfric, the creation story was not an anfealdan gerecednisse (“simple narrative”), but rather, a complex accounting of how se Ælmihtiga Scippend geswutelode hine sylfe þurh þa micclan weorc (“the Almighty Creator made Himself known through His mighty work”). In a homily for the first Sunday after Easter, Ælfric writes that

He worhte Adam of láme. Nu ne mage we asmeagan hu he of ðam láme flasc worhte, and blod, bán and fell, fex and næglas. Men geseoð oft þæt of anum lytlum cyrnele cymð micel treow, ac we ne magon geseon on þam cyrnele naðor ne wyrtruman, ne rinde, ne bogas, ne leaf: ac se God þe forðtihð of ðam cyrnele treow, and wæstmas, and leaf, se ylca mæg of duste arǽran flæsc and ban, sina and fex.

[God] made Adam of clay. Now we may not examine how He made flesh from that clay, and blood, bones and skin, hair and nails. Men often see that from one little seed comes a mighty tree, but we may not see in that seed the roots, nor the bark, nor the boughs, nor the leaves: but the same God that draws forth a tree from the kernel, and fruits, and leaves, may raise from the dust flesh and bone, sinews and hair.