The didactic strategies of these poems are varied. They range from impersonal catalogues (
The Gifts of Men, The Fortunes of Men
) and poems spoken by a mostly undeveloped persona (
Precepts, Vainglory. Order of the World, The Phoenix, The Whale
) to full-blown monologues and dialogues (
The Soul and Body
poems, and
Solomon and Saturn
, which contains passages as powerful and memorable as anything in Old English verse).
Judgment Day I
and
The Fates of the Apostles
mix brief autobiographical notes with urgent doctrine;
Descent into Hell
merges the voice of the imagined prophet with that of the poet. Some poems resemble self-help guides on how to win eternity and influence the saints (
Instructions for Christians, An Exhortation to Christian Living / A Summons to Prayer
now one poem); others present themselves as calendars (
Seasons for Fasting, Menologium
misnamed) or mnemonics (
The Rune Poem
).
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Wisdom can and should be competitive and demanding. The eight-line
Pharaoh
illustrates, in miniature, how this "outdoing" works. The questioner asks how many warriors there were in Pharoah's army when they pursued the Israelites. The answer: "I'm not sure, but there were six hundred chariots when they were drowned." The questioner must then "solve" the answer by recalling, first, that all who pursued died and, second, that there were three men in each chariot for a total of eighteen hundred casualties. Directness was not a virtue in Old English poetry.
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Two compositions,
Maxims I
and
II
(the latter made up of three separate poems), consist of strings of commonplaces, generalized reflections on the properties and nature of things; their purpose remains a mystery. The poets provide a sequence of maxims tightly connected in form but disparate in meaning: the statement "a dragon must be in a barrow" is followed by "fish must spawn its kind in the water," "a king must distribute rings in the hall," and finally, "loyalty must be in a warrior, wisdom in a man." Part of our pleasure in these strands comes from their blend of the concrete and abstract, the physical and the moral, the banal and the profound.
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A similar meditation on the multiformity of the world is provided by the nearly one hundred riddles preserved, in two large groups, in the Exeter Book. Among the everyday objects of sense experience transformed by the riddles are wrought instruments (rake and plow), domestic and church equipment (loom, churn, chalice), birds, animals, natural phenomena, weapons, and items of food and drink; there are runes, letters, cryptograms, and items connected with writing and books
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