1 - The Sense of an Ending: Time and Temporality in the Vita Ædwardi Regis
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 April 2021
Summary
In the second half of the eleventh century an anonymous monk began to write. Invoking his Muse, he set to work after a period of inactivity. Ostensibly, he was writing to restore his fortunes and the Muse had given him the subject for a potential bestseller: the life of Edward the Confessor. And so it came to pass: just as Solomon had succeeded David, with the age of wisdom replacing the age of war, Edward's reign ushered in a new age of plenty and prosperity. Edward would be a new Solomon, whose reign had been foretold before his birth. But the Muse was proposing not one but two subjects for the work: alongside Edward, he would also sing of his queen, Edith:
Ipsius hinc lateri depinges imperiali
que sociata uiget, hec tua spes et opes,
altera pars hominis, species eadem probitatis,
altius ingenium conciliumque citum.
Conuenit nusquam terrarum par sibi quicquam:
corpore nam gemino unus habentur homo.
[You’ll paint who thrives at his imperial side
The object of your hopes, your champion
His other part, alike in probity
Profound, intelligent, prompt counsellor
Their equal is not found in all the world
One person dwelling in a double form.]
Edith and Edward's ‘twinned bodies’ are repeatedly stressed throughout the work, and their narratives linked in a series of paired forms: as husband and wife, ‘father’ and ‘daughter’, and, implicit in their twinned nature, ‘brother’ and ‘sister’. Alongside these twinned-but-linked narratives other subjects with other stories appear, most notably Edith's brothers, Harold and Tostig, and her father, Godwin:
Ipsius inde patrem fidei pietate cluentem,
scribes Godwinum iura beasse ducum.
Ac uelut Elisii fons unicus irrigat orbem,
progenitis ex se fluminibus quattuor,
fetibus ut uariis fecundent uiscera terre
ac foueant proprio condita plura sinu,
sustinet Anglorum pietas sic celica regnum,
hoc duce progenitis pignoribus quattuor.
[You’ll write that Godwin, her own sire, renowned
For loyalty, enjoyed the rights of earls
And just as one Elysian spring can throw
Four streams to irrigate the world, implant
The entrails of the earth with various fruits
And foster many treasures in their folds
So heavenly goodness holds the English realm
High with four children bred from this great earl.]
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- Information
- Medieval TemporalitiesThe Experience of Time in Medieval Europe, pp. 17 - 32Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2021