Epistolary Acts: Anglo-Saxon Letters and Early English Media (Toronto Anglo-Saxon Series) by Zweck Jordan

Author:Zweck, Jordan [Zweck, Jordan]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Published: 2018-02-15T16:00:00+00:00

Then the king sent his son Edward hither with his messengers and ordered that they greet all his nation and said that he would be a loyal lord to them and improve each of the things which they all detested, and each of those things ought to be forgiven which were done or said to him, provided that they all turned to him unanimously, without deceit; and the full agreement was ratified with word and pledge on both sides, and they said each Danish king was forever outlawed from England.

Given that this describes a highly ritualized legal agreement, it seems inconceivable that Edward and the messengers were not carrying a written document from Æthelred both to confirm his message and to authorize them as his representatives, but the Chronicle is unconcerned with clarifying whether the messengers carried a written document.6 Some of the phrasing of the message does echo language found in Anglo-Saxon legal documents, so perhaps learned audiences could be trusted to fill in the blanks, but this should give us pause about putting too much pressure on whether a text explicitly describes a message as physically present or not. It may also be that some kinds of exchanges would have so obviously required a written document that authors felt no need to spell this out explicitly.

However, there are several Old English texts in which messengers are clearly represented as bearing written communication from sender to receiver, and from them we can learn both how Anglo-Saxons imagined the role of messengers in the communication of messages, and also what Anglo-Saxons feared about failed or corrupt messengers. For example, in a scene from The Gospel of Nicodemus, after Joseph miraculously escapes from a sealed prison to Arimathea, and Christ disappears from his tomb, the priests want to recall Joseph to them to find out what has happened. In a charming moment, the elders work out that a letter is the best way to communicate over great distance, asking

“La, on hwylcere endebyrdnysse magon we Ioseph to us gelaðian and hym wyð specan?” Hig þa swa þeah beþohton þæt hig hym seofon weras gecuron, þe Iosepes frynd wæron, and hym to sendon, and ane cartan myd hym seo wæs þus awryten: “Syb sig myd þe Ioseph and myd eallum þe myd þe syndon.”7

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