The Ruin is an 8th century Old English poem from the Exeter Book by an unknown author. The Exeter Book is a large book dealing with mostly Christian verse with about one-third of the Old English poems written in it. The poem's subject is ancient Roman ruins, assumed to be the ruins of Aquae Sulis at modern Bath, England, and the powerful fate (Weird or Wyrd) that has reduced a once lively community and its sturdy stone buildings to ruins. Part of the poem has been lost due the pages being damaged by fire. The Ruin is somewhat “ambiguously” positioned in the Exeter Book between Husband’s Message and preceding thirty-four riddles. The poem itself is written near the end of the manuscript written on both sides of a leaf with the end of the poem continuing on to the next page. The manuscript with The Ruin included in it has a large diagonal burn from a kind of branding in the center of the page. An Old English critic adds to the irony of the kind of shape the manuscript is in and the poem saying that the burn is “an eloquent image of the theme of mutability with which the poem is concerned” as both deal with destruction. As a result of the burn many parts of the poem were destroyed and therefore untranslatable. Although the poem shows no overt signs of Christianity, it embodies some Christian ideals in that it describes the disappearance of a society that placed an emphasis on hedonism and materialism, and could be the work of an early Anglo-Saxon Christiancitation needed. The poet, however, does make several references to Wyrd, an element of North-Germanic pagan mythology. Although the poem seems to be just a mere translation describing what the author sees and his emotional state concerning the decay of the ruins, many different interpretations can be brought forth. William Johnson sees the poem not through the physical sense of the destruction of the ruins primarily but that the poem is written to bring “stone ruins and human beings into polar relationship as symbolic reflections of each other.” Johnson sees the poem as a metaphor for human existence, that all beauty must come to an end. If looked at through this metaphor, the author of The Ruin could merely be describing the downfall of the Roman Empire by showing its once great and mighty bathhouse reduced to rubble just as the empire was, if it is a Roman Bathhouse that the poem speaks of in the first place. Where The Ruin can be seen as the author expressing his emotion and sorrow, The Ruin can be viewed in a different way, one not so emotional but purely imagistic. Arnold Talentino sees the author as not looking at the world for causing the destruction of the ruins, but the people that once inhabited the ruins themselves. Talentino views the author’s emotion as one of anger or ease instead of sorrow and lament. This would also be a very Christian way of viewing the poem, a theme that was evident in many Old English poems. Talentino states, “His [the author] view of what once was and his thoughts about it indicate that the city’s former inhabitants caused its fall, that crumbling walls are, in part at least, the effect of a crumbling social structure.”
The Ruin shares the melancholic worldview of some of its contemporary poems such as The Seafarer, The Wanderer and Deor.
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Because of technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this section. Original Old English Modern English1 Wrætlic is þes wealstan, wyrde gebræcon;
burgstede burston, brosnað enta geweorc.
Hrofas sind gehrorene, hreorge torras,
hrungeat berofen, hrim on lime,
scearde scurbeorge scorene, gedrorene,
ældo undereotone. Eorðgrap hafað
waldend wyrhtan forweorone, geleorene,
heardgripe hrusan, oþ hund cnea
werþeoda gewitan. Oft þæs wag gebad
ræghar ond readfah rice æfter oþrum,
ofstonden under stormum; steap geap gedreas.
Wonað giet se ...num geheapen,
fel on
grimme gegrunden
scan heo...
...g orþonc ærsceaft
...g lamrindum beag
mod mo... ...yne swiftne gebrægd
hwætred in hringas, hygerof gebond
weallwalan wirum wundrum togædre.
Beorht wæron burgræced, burnsele monige,
heah horngestreon, heresweg micel,
meodoheall monig mondreama full,
oþþæt þæt onwende wyrd seo swiþe.
Crungon walo wide, cwoman woldagas,
swylt eall fornom secgrofra wera;
wurdon hyra wigsteal westen staþolas,
brosnade burgsteall. Betend crungon
hergas to hrusan. Forþon þas hofu dreorgiað,
ond þæs teaforgeapa tigelum sceadeð
hrostbeages hrof. Hryre wong gecrong
gebrocen to beorgum, þær iu beorn monig
glædmod ond goldbeorht gleoma gefrætwed,
wlonc ond wingal wighyrstum scan;
seah on sinc, on sylfor, on searogimmas,
on ead, on æht, on eorcanstan,
on þas beorhtan burg bradan rices.
Stanhofu stodan, stream hate wearp
widan wylme; weal eall befeng
beorhtan bosme, þær þa baþu wæron,
hat on hreþre. þæt wæs hyðelic.
Leton þonne geotan
ofer harne stan hate streamas
un...
...þþæt hringmere hate
þær þa baþu wæron.
þonne is
...re; þæt is cynelic þing,
huse ...... burg....This masonry is wondrous; fates broke it
courtyard pavements were smashed; the work of giants is decaying.
Roofs are fallen, ruinous towers,
the frosty gate with frost on cement is ravaged,
chipped roofs are torn, fallen,
undermined by old age. The grasp of the earth possesses
the mighty builders, perished and fallen,
the hard grasp of earth, until a hundred generations
of people have departed. Often this wall,
lichen-grey and stained with red, experienced one reign after another,
remained standing under storms; the high wide gate has collapsed.
Still the masonry endures in winds cut down
persisted on__________________
fiercely sharpened________ _________
______________ she shone_________
_____________g skill ancient work_________
_____________g of crusts of mud turned away
spirit mo________yne put together keen-counselled
a quick design in rings, a most intelligent one bound
the wall with wire brace wondrously together.
Bright were the castle buildings, many the bathing-halls,
high the abundance of gables, great the noise of the multitude,
many a meadhall full of festivity,
until Fate the mighty changed that.
Far and wide the slain perished, days of pestilence came,
death took all the brave men away;
their places of war became deserted places,
the city decayed. The rebuilders perished,
the armies to earth. And so these buildings grow desolate,
and this red-curved roof parts from its tiles
of the ceiling-vault. The ruin has fallen to the ground
broken into mounds, where at one time many a warrior,
joyous and ornamented with gold-bright splendour,
proud and flushed with wine shone in war-trappings;
looked at treasure, at silver, at precious stones,
at wealth, at prosperity, at jewellery,
at this bright castle of a broad kingdom.
The stone buildings stood, a stream threw up heat
in wide surge; the wall enclosed all
in its bright bosom, where the baths were,
hot in the heart. That was convenient.
Then they let pour_______________
hot streams over grey stone.
un___________ _____________
until the ringed sea (circular pool?) hot
_____________where the baths were.
Then is_______________________
__________re, that is a noble thing,
to the house__________ castle_______
References
- ^ Jack Watson, The Anglo-Saxon Poetry Project
References
- Anglo-Saxon poetry: an anthology of Old English poems tr. S. A. J. Bradley. London: Dent, 1982 (translation into English prose).
Talentino, Arnold V. Moral Irony in The Ruin. Papers on Language and Literature 14 (1978): 171-80.
Johnson, William C., Jr. “The Ruin” as Body-City Riddle. PQ 59 (1980): 397-411.
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