St. Erkenwald (poem)

St. Erkenwald is an alliterative poem of the fourteenth century, thought to have been composed in 1386. It has sometimes been attributed to the Pearl poet (or Gawain poet). It takes as its subject Erkenwald, the bishop of London between 675 and 693.

It exists in only one manuscript, MS Harley 2250 in the British Library. The first line in the manuscript begins with a rubricated letter "A" two lines high and line 176 begins with a similar letter "T". The first modern edition was published by HL Savage and Israel Gollancz in 1926. The author is unknown, but there is some evidence it may have been the Pearl Poet, who wrote the poems Pearl and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, among others.

Poetics
The poem consists of 352 lines. Alliteration is used consistently throughout the poem, usually with three alliterating words per line.

Subject
The poem’s narrative line presents an incident in the life of Saint Erkenwald. During the construction of a cathedral on the site of a former pagan temple a sarcophagus is unearthed. It is engraved with an untranslatable script, possibly runes, and contains an uncorrupted body dressed in the garments of a king. Bishop Erkenwald is summoned; after praying to God that he may resolve this mystery, the corpse revives. In response to Erkenwald’s questions, it is revealed that he was an eminently just judge who lived during pagan Britain times, under King Belinus. He was honored with royal garb because of his many impartial decisions. Erkenwald’s tears baptize him and the corpse dissolves into dust as the soul of this just man enters eternal peace.

Theme
By presenting an exemplum, this poem addresses the question of whether salvation was possible to persons who lived morally admirable lives without having the opportunity to receive Christian Baptism. The miracle in the story demonstrates graphically that salvation was possible for such persons.

Editions

 * J.A. Burrow and Thorlac Turville-Petre. A Book of Middle English, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996) ISBN 0-631-19353-7
 * Clifford Peterson (ed.) and Casey Finch (trans.). In The Complete Works of the Pearl Poet (Berkeley: University of California Press. 1995) ISBN 0-520-07871-3 (with facing page Modern English translation).
 * Ruth Morse. St. Erkenwald (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer Ltd, 1975) ISBN 0-87471-686-1.
 * Henry L. Savage. St. Erkenwald (Hampden, Connecticut: Archon Books, 1972) ISBN 0-208-01136-6
 * Clifford Peterson. St. Erkenwald (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1977) ISBN 0-8122-7723-6

Commentary and criticism

 * Larry D. Benson, 1965 “The Authorship of St.Erkenwald.” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 64: 393-405.
 * Christine Chism, Alliterative Revivals (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2002) ISBN 0-8122-3655-6.
 * J. R. Hulbert, 1918 - 1919 “The Sources of St. Erkenwald and the Trental of Gregory,” Modern Philology 16: 485 - 93.
 * T. McAlindon, 1970 “Hagiography into Art: A Study of St. Erkenwald.” Studies in Philology 67: 472 -94.
 * Ruth Nissé, "'A Coroun Ful Riche': The Rule of History in St. Erkenwald." ELH 65.2 (1998): 277-95.
 * Monika Otter, "'New Werke': St. Erkenwald, St. Alban's, and the Medieval Sense of the Past," Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 24.3 (1994): 387-414.
 * William A. Quinn, 1984 “The Psychology of St. Erkenwald.” Medium Aevum 3, No. 2: 180 - 93.
 * G. Whatley, “Heathens and Saints: St. Erkenwald and its Legendary Context.” Speculum 61.2 (1986): 330-63.
 * Helen Young, 2007 "Refusing the Medieval Other: A Case Study of Pre-Modern Nationalism and Postcoloniality in the Middle English "St Erkenwald"." 'The Politics and Aesthetics of Refusal.' Eds Caroline Hamilton, Michelle Kelly, Elaine Minor, Will Noonan. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 140 - 65.