A Tale of Two Words

The two words in question are the Modern High German recke, which means 'knight, hero, warrior'. The other word is its modern English cognate wretch, which means 'one who is sunk in deep distress, sorrow misfortune or poverty; a miserable, unhappy or unfortunate person". It was striking to me how different the modern equivalents are and to whoever wrote the entry for the Oxford English Dictionary, since the entry on the etymology of the word says 'the contrast in the development of the meaning in English and German is remarkable.' Indeed, they are light years apart. There was an Old Norse word rekkr, meaning 'man' which disappeared from modern Icelandic.

The Old English version of wretch was wrecca or wræcca from the Old Germanic wrakja (n). Old Saxon was wrekkio and was applied to the Magi in the Heliand as "foreigners". Sigemund, in Beowulf, is called the most famous of wreccena, as he is a wandering hero. Hengest is called a wrecca, a mercenary, but Beowulf makes a point of making sure Hrothgar does not take him for a wrecca. The woman in the OE 'Wife's Lament' calls herself a friendless exile and the man in 'The Seafarer' calls himself a wræcca, an exile, as well. Wrecca is pronounced 'wretch' as the double 'cc' has that 'tch' sound. Like wicca, which is pronounced 'witch'. It is interesting to note that English chose to emphasize the negatives aspects of the word, where the German chose the glorious. Might be a good topic for a paper.

A Nice Turn of Phrase in Beowulf

"hleorbolster onfeng eorles andwlitan" l. 688b-689a in the Klaeber edition. It means 'the cheek-bolster (pillow) received the hero's face(head)". Wonderful isn't it? This is an example of why Beowulf is such a work of art. It isn't the hero laying himself down, the pillow is the subject. It is active in taking, receiving the hero.

Death and the Hero

One of the funnier moments in Njal's Saga was when Thorgrim went up to Gunnar's house to see if he was home and Gunnar ran him through with his halberk. Thorgrim staggered back to Gizur, who asked him if Gunnar was home. Thorgrim replied that, he did not know if Gunnar was home (he didn't actually see him) but his thrusting spear was and then died.

It is rather like a part of of Grettir's Saga when Thorbjorn attacked Atli and ran him through with his spear. As he died, Atli looked down and said that he could see that broad spears are the fashion these days. While I am not certain I could be so nonchalant in facing my own death, the epic hero was.

In The Iliad, Lycaon, a Trojan prince, grabbed his captor Achilles about the knees and begged for his life. Achilles said to him,

"Die, die, my friend. What tears are these? What sad looks spoil thy face? Patroclus died, that far pass'd thee: nay seest thou not beside, myself, ev'n I, a fair young man, and rarely magnified, and (to my father being a king) a mother have, that sits in rank with goddesses; and yet, ..., death , and as violent a fate, must overtake ev'n me."

One has to wonder. Were such men ever real or perhaps seeing the inevitability of death frees one from caring about it. Charles I of England died on this day 1649 on the scaffold, executed by Cromwell with Milton's support. He said that he was going from a corruptible crown to an incorruptible one, where no disturbance can be. Nice last words. I like the ones Joan Crawford is said to have uttered to her maid who started praying, "Dammit don't you dare ask God to help me." See, women can be brave too.

From Njal's Saga

Here is a small excerpt from the Robert Cook translation (available through Penguin Books) to give you a taste of how modern the story sounds. It is a conversation between Unn and her father about Hrut, her husband.

"Then Mord spoke to his daughter: 'Now tell me everything that's going on between you, however big it may seem in your eyes.'

'Alright then,' she said. 'I want to divorce Hrut, and I can tell you what my main charge against him is - he is not able to have sexual intercourse in a way that gives me pleasure, though otherwise his nature is that of the manliest of men.'

'How can that be?' said Mord. 'Give me more details.'

She answered, ' When he comes close to me his penis is so large that he can't have any satisfaction from me, and yet we've both tried every possible way to enjoy each other, but nothing works. By the time we part however, he shows he's just like other men.'

Mord spoke, 'You've done well to tell me this.' "

This is the curse the old queen of Norway laid on Hrut when he left. :-)