As Though “Wit” Never Were

The cryptic speaker of the Old English poem we call The Wife's Lament has long been the subject of speculation. She is painted as hopeful,1 mournful,2 vindictive;3 her song is a lament by a dead woman,4 a curse by a living woman5—or, perhaps, not a woman's song at all.6 For some, she evokes erotic longing; for others, bitter regret. In many ways, however, this plethora of interpretations demonstrates the limitations of a narrative-driven analysis when that narrative remains unclear; barring future manuscript discoveries (or time travel), our speculations regarding the “true” nature of the Wife's circumstance must remain exactly that. What we are left with is the poem itself: a concrete manifestation of language and syntax that presumably has, beyond the unknown specifics of the narrative, a discrete rhetorical structure that remains intact. In this paper I aim to move beyond the identity of the Wife as speaker towards an exploration of The Wife's Lament as speech—to examine the impact rather than the origin of the text.7 In particular, I turn to grammatical rather than narrative structures, focusing on the Old English dual pronoun as an interpretive crux. I show that the dual pronoun works throughout the Old English corpus not simply to emphasize unity, but to navigate difference and negotiate power differentials between speakers. Further, I argue that because the dual pronoun so frequently highlights, even complicates, tensions between ic, “I” and þu, “you” in the larger Old English corpus, its prominent usage in The Wife's Lament must be read not as incidental but as crucial to the structural composition of the poem. Finally, drawing upon larger grammatical and historical contexts, I argue that the last section of the poem is most gainfully interpreted not as a curse or as a gnomic invocation but as a plea for reunification. The metaphoric, rhetorical, and syntactic structures used in The Wife's Lament work to reunite the poem's “broken” dual pronoun, remaking the emotional bond between the speaker and her lost lord through the textual construction of shared experience.The crux of my exploration lies in media res, as it were, at Line 24a: “Is nu,” the speaker declares of her relationship with her lost lord, “swa hit no wære / freondscipe uncer” (Our friendship is now as if it never were) (ll. 24a-25a).8 Anne Klinck describes this moment as the first of two temporal shifts within the poem; the speaker moves, according to Klinck, from an account of past circumstances through a description of her current struggles, and finally into a rumination on the future of the man who has seemingly abandoned her.9 It is also, however, the site of a distinct grammatical shift: the loss of the dual pronoun. Prior to this point in the text, the speaker refers to herself and her lord as a mentally and emotionally matched pair; they are “ful gemæcne” (fully suited to one another), to the extent that they function as a single syntactic unit (l. 18a). Even when his kinsmen arrange to divide them, ensuring that “wit gewidost in woruldrice / lifdon laðlicost” (we two, farthest apart in the world-kingdom, lived most wretchedly) (ll. 11b-13a), their bond remains grammatically intact: the wit is unbroken by temporal and physical distance. Indeed, it is only when the speaker discovers an internal shift in her lord that their unity suffers; in “mod miþendne” (concealing his mind), the man the speaker loves creates a deeper rift than that of time or space (l. 20a). His deceit fractures the whole perceived by the speaker, splitting their shared syntax—and the poem itself—into two distinct parts.The use of the dual pronoun to indicate spousal unity is, perhaps, not unexpected.10 But its rhetorically sophisticated function in The Wife's Lament is characteristic of a larger pattern of use throughout the Old English corpus: in practice, the dual pronoun often appears at sites of struggle rather than accord, working to create or assert personal bonds rather than simply to represent them.11 These contested ties can be, as in The Wife's Lament, spousal and/or sexual: in Ælfric's Lives of Saints, for example, the reluctantly wedded virgins Julian and Basilissa find grammatical unity in physical separation. “Gif wit þurhwuniað on ansundum mægðhade,” Julian tells his young bride, “and hine clænlice lufiað, þonne cume wit to his rice and wit ne beoð totwæmede ac a to worulde blyssiað” (If we two persevere in uncorrupted virginity and love him [Christ] purely, then we will come to his kingdom and we will not be divided but will rejoice forever).12 Ælfric's use of the dual pronoun to illustrate a bond superior to earthly or corporeal marriage echoes the nameless wif, “wife; woman” in the Old English Life of Malchus, who throws herself at the feet of St. Malchus when he would rather martyr himself than sleep with her: “Ic þe þonne andette, þæt ic swelte, ær ic wille beon to þe geþeodad,” she cries, “ac hafa þu me to þan geþungennestan wife, and wit syn ma þurh þa sawle tosamne geþiodad, þonne wit syn þurh þone lichaman” (I confess to you that I will die before I will be joined to you, but have me as your most pious wife, and we two shall be more united together through the soul than we are through the body).13 The dual pronoun here underscores the sincerity of her claim: in their desire for chastity, they are truly one. In both texts, the dual pronoun legitimates nontraditional spiritual marriages, asserting at a syntactic level what might be socially contested.But while contemporary critics often interpret The Wife's Lament in the context of romantic or erotic longing, wit is not limited to the language of marriage or lovers’ vows; it may also assert bonds of familial affection, shared experience, or moral obligation.14 We see these rhetorical patterns attested elsewhere, in poetry as well as in prose, and in secular as well as religious contexts. Syntactic unity can be brought about by shared suffering as well as shared pleasure: in the aforementioned Life of Malchus, for example, the text employs the dual pronoun long before any question of sexual intimacy arises. Instead, Malchus refers himself and his unsæligan wif, “unfortunate wife” as a syntactically unified pair from the moment they are sold into slavery until the moment he (much later) deposits her in a nunnery.15 And in another of Ælfric's works, the (previously syntactically separate) brothers Valerian and Tiburtius are told by an angel of God that “git sceolan, begen þu and þin broðor, beon gemartyrode samod” (you two, both you and your brother, shall be martyred together).16 In martyrdom, their pure Christian spirits are shown to be cut from the same grammatical cloth; faith and suffering bind the brothers in a way that blood could not. In Exeter Riddle 60, the dual pronoun similarly indicates an intensification of closeness, this time through the private space of writing. The speaker, most likely a reed pen, who “sceolde / for unc anum twam ærendsprec” (must before the two of us only speak my message) (ll. 15a-15b), is not separated from its audience but instead is intimately dependent upon their relationship.17 Here the dual pronoun underscores a unique type of internal accord: the speaker's message must be delivered by the hand of the recipient, revealed only when its initial audience—in this case the scribe—writes with it. Only together may the reed and the writer produce the message; in a somewhat puzzling temporal conundrum, the scribe must write what the speaker wishes to reveal to them.Elsewhere in the Exeter Riddles, the speaker of Riddle 88 poignantly described as gumcynnes anga, “solitary among men,” echoes many of the sentiments expressed in The Wife's Lament while mourning a lost brother: [E]om ic gumcynnesanga ofer eorþan; is min agen bæcwonn ond wundorlic. Ic on wuda stondebordes on ende. Nis min broþor herac ic sceal broþorleas bordes on endestaþol weardian stondan fæstene wat hwær min broþor on wera æhtumeorþan sceata eardian scealse me ær be healfe heah eardadewit wæron gesome sæcce to fremmanne. (ll. 17b-26b)(I am alone among men upon this earth; my own back is dark and wonderful. I stand on wood, at the end of the board. My brother is not here, but, brotherless, I must remain in my place, stand fast on the end of the table. I do not know where my brother must dwell among the possessions of men, he who used to live by my side. We two were united in waging war.)18This riddle's use of anga, recalling the anhaga, “solitary one” of The Seafarer, in combination with familiar themes of exile and loss, invokes a wider tradition of OE elegiac poetry.19 The speaker has been separated from his brother, and mourns his loss; like the speaker of The Wife's Lament, he must remain in a state of isolation, unable to leave his place at the table just as she is unable to abandon her “eorðscræf” (earthen cave) (l. weardian can or it here as remain of the is attested in the OE corpus, and echoes the of the who a at her own In Riddle however, the wit of the poem indicates a rather than a the as or speaker has been into an are of the same and not the speaker the nature of their the not only by time and space but by a of current and dual pronoun is not used simply to represent the bonds between but to create in a the ties are often or by the of the dual pronoun. is not a of the or of the the dual pronoun at in the text to power and between speakers. of this is to at the of ic wit ic þæt me a on (ll. now that I am for this on what we two of that if I my at your you would stand for in my the dual pronoun to an and blood relationship between himself and the to the perhaps, he has that in the of in his he will the same and that own would be to These are must own men, and the that would have been to the to his lord and is also he from the of the that the will the of the of an blood or to to his The wit of the poem here both to the between and and to own to the that he has as well as himself with the of It also a emotional the that to this would be in to their shared of The of is in the of from their relationship with his he his a with the dual that him in a the of the with a of the þæt wæron begen þa þæt wit on on þæt þa wit on on wit unc he on no ic him wit on þæt unc (ll. as and when we were both in that we with our on the we it. We when we in the a in with we to the from could not one from me on the no in the would I from we were together in the for until that us use of the dual pronoun in this the bond between himself and his while his own superior move beyond and he will not abandon But when the them, describes his own the in a way that no as to the of the in he The shift from the dual to the underscores not simply the moment of their physical but also the moment in as it were, the the of their shared His syntactic him to move beyond his and beyond the and most the dual pronoun to to as he about the to “ac wit on / he ofer we two shall from the if he to a (ll. Here it that is the of the he and are matched in The rhetorical of this lies in the of and the of and has been while the not be the dual pronoun that relationship with is more his relationship with the that dual pronoun is used to both and as well as the that this in to romantic or erotic It can also be rhetorically the speaker to a in of or to assert unity where two in be at in of the in are not the wit of the poem is the by the speaker upon or a unity of or rather than a state of physical It is in the context of The Wife's Lament, that the of the speaker from her lord is what has the poem's dual pronoun. Instead, it is her of his emotional But the speaker, in his of has limited and to for her Anne Klinck in English their in or in remain in the of Klinck that the of English she that as “Gif hit hit þonne is, ond him man his (If one a the shall if it is not it then is her and him his Klinck this as of larger patterns of is no in these that what like and is we we can as rather than but the that the two are not in the Old English indicates that the of these not more has shown that English have their own and they also on Even when into they often so through a And these and do not the described by the speaker of The Wife's Lament, they do of the a in likely to if to for from a or the of her speaker of The Wife's Lament, however, not speak to her lord as a she as his the the speaker language with bonds of or the to her the man is min and must a (ll. as a might a if abandoned by his have this invocation of a relationship through the as an internal of for the speaker is of her as a that she must to to her while that the speaker that to a within the or of in to the speaker's within her these interpretations a of the poem's rhetorical within the of the it is not the speaker who has to her Instead, it is her lord who has upon his a she she remains an in his subject to his he has her he has not in a way that and be for what she as his or (l. that the speaker's use of a in The Wife's Lament is to her of the poem's The language of men evokes the between in as her the speaker her lord of a to the with has a among a and an for can be The language of the from the speaker's of her own instead a by she may her The poem's are within this Ic me Ic þæt ic ic no ma þonne ic (ll. this song about my own I may that what I have I or were never more than have the of my from as the in the last of this Klinck, and to as the of Klinck as however, can also be as to a of or we this to be in The Wife's Lament, the speaker's song a of rather than an In a she is to her suffering with a of in her she then that to a wider the of her Finally, in as a of a she his as that can be in an to the use of the in the in this be to rather than or the of the the with a of is not a song for the of it a call to call for appears to have been a in to is but is and that of in with limited to a upon her however, a for may of as a man and her as for while of the of her to what his religious in might God could for who the of were to a the of even as they the of however, as and a within a religious English in to and for their In the same of and are within the on a when their kinsmen have to in or that the of in and when with Old English and I and use of the dual pronoun by a grammatically speaker to assert demonstrates the of syntax in In these the grammatically is to in with her the The poem's in the has the to or the of the is at with but not in Old English religious it also in Ælfric's and in the of Exeter Riddle that the poem's on as the of in with the of the English to produce physical as and in the of the But this also with the of the and soul as a spousal the sawle of and I and is to her as the speaker of The Wife's Lament is at the of her the is described both as a sawle and a it is not for and syntactic to in Old English the grammatically wif, for example, is only used to are to interpret the as In describes the soul as of the is and þæt þæt is þæt to the soul is the of the and it is that the that is the be subject to her Ælfric's soul is not wedded to her but the of marriage I here is not unique to the and both and as and relationship between and the wedded to their The of the soul within the echoes the of an English in the of her and an that the will on she as the English according to the of their and with a of she is into the and in the of the a she is for his the the dual pronoun to the to she has not She declares her to the ic þe of / ond me (I could not come of you, by and your (ll. declares of their that (I our with (ll. She underscores their unity only to herself of ic, “I” before in a to shared syntactic And to she that must what þu, “you” for þu shall for unc what will you to the she The of is that she has the has herself in a of herself from the even she In she to a of like for the of a to his ond he hit sceal þæt is ond hit And ne þæt he ne into his þæt þæt he any man to his and he is it has been brought the and she is to be But she must the that is, her and her her if it is brought any of she is And no can her to place his what he a grammatical of in her own use of the dual pronoun a space within the of her the of her In a in most were on kinsmen for and she to herself only when her has “you” and “I” because the two are no Wife's may as the for her just as the syntactic separation. In of and the speaker of The Wife's Lament to a she both the for and the audience of that In the of her the speaker's use of the with the of a the poem as a site of a as it were, to in the speaker's of In this that the last of the poem represent an curse upon a man who has would to a for the rhetorical case the speaker has for the of is as and the read with a future the a for him his worulde þæt min min to þe (ll. that young man be in the have a in to that of him be dependent upon himself for his or in a so that my will the by My lord, in by will in the that of of also will more be to the one who must in a the as remains an one. the speaker an exile for her and and that her she to assert a of through her use of the In she to abandon the text as an of Instead, the poem to the of and the and the speaker of The Wife's Lament, the the dual pronoun (or to emphasize her current from the here the is not In a of the the the on his she could her with her that beon (we two have no to be (l. on the of a as well as a a with the a and at the side. the speaker of The Wife's Lament, she an in ic and þu may the or relationship expressed in the speaker's many have a more gnomic of this section of The Wife's the speaker's that young man must be in (ll. is with the of in gnomic The speaker of a poem as to a his to be on and in (ll. and a what is (l. while I þe in his / him his is he who in his is he who his (ll. In both is on and of personal is no is of a a this of textual and it that an English audience would have the Wife's to or as or even a narrative The Wife's Lament appears to with a curse or a both somewhat both with the rhetorical the speaker has here, a turn towards the grammatical of the text the of the dual pronoun in the speaker a of to an between herself and her She within an echoes the of the described in elegiac her is of with (ll. recalling the that her of the In drawing these she to what be her place in her to the rift within the poem and the speaker by the of the dual of structures, one and the by upon a larger English regarding the describes physical in the English as ond and until and and that is, the and the of not the have while the has at an for at a It is even to or with we The Wife's Lament to be within this the speaker her lived as an of rather than rather than rather than by the of and In the herself within by the speaker declares both to be “Ic on for ic ne / (I alone at because of I am never to find for my (ll. is not a one of a or pair is not a within these the speaker to herself as the she would in her She to abandon her place at his in just as she a syntactic to intimacy her use of the min in as in the the speaker to her grammatical by the of his than a narrative the speaker's to her as an of its the of her her argue that the within the poem a plea for reunification. The speaker of The Wife's Lament her lord not for the of but in to his of the into with her that young man be in as she is in so that he more It is in in and that the two have been for the speaker, it is in and that a must The speaker of The Wife's Lament a for The poem a of narrative in the wit of by a of rhetorical and syntactic that aim to the of that The speaker's in the and section of the poem as the of this larger rhetorical to reunite the Wife and her lord in even as they remain separated in the physical the of her within the discrete of the to to it is to the dual pronoun. In this the concrete grammatical structures within The Wife's Lament reveal a rhetorical that of the poem's narrative of the speaker's origin or she her audience with a of loss and struggle and upon a of and she her song into a back the that her from what she is her place in the And on these she her the speaker's her to her audience and beyond the she so

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