Vainglory (poem)
"Vainglory" is the title given[by whom?] to a gnomic or homiletic poem of eighty-four lines in Old English, preserved in the Exeter Book.[1][2] The precise date of composition is unknown, but the fact of its preservation in a late tenth-century manuscript provides an approximate terminus ante quem.
The poem is structured around a comparison of two basic opposites of human conduct; on the one hand, the proud man, who "is the devil's child, enwreathed in flesh" (biþ feondes bearn / flæsce bifongen), and, on the other hand, the virtuous man, characterised as "God's own son" (godes agen bearn).
References
- ^ Poole, Russell Gilbert (1998). Old English Wisdom Poetry. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. pp. 372–373. ISBN 978-0-85991-530-4.
- ^ Drout, M. (17 July 2013). Tradition and Influence in Anglo-Saxon Literature: An Evolutionary, Cognitivist Approach. Springer. pp. 151–169. ISBN 978-1-137-32460-3.
Editions
- Vainglory is included, along with digital images of its manuscript pages, in the Old English Poetry in Facsimile Project, eds. Foys, Martin et al. (University of Wisconsin, Madison, established 2019)
External links
- Sacred Texts – Vainglory, Sacred Texts – The Exeter Book
- The Literary Encyclopedia