The Husband’s Message

Integrity of the poem

The poem is preserved only in the Exeter Book, one of the few surviving
poetic compilations from the Anglo-Saxon period. The Exeter Book came
into existence some time in the 10th century, with some estimates
placing the origin of the book as early as 970. The book contains over 90
riddles as well as many other poetic works.[2] The manuscript suffered
burn damage to the first passage of the poem. The burn spots prevent
anyone from knowing the actual meaning of lines 2 to 8 because some
of the words are missing. From the random words of those lines, it can
be determined that the poem is told in first person, that the speaker
refers to his origin as a tree, that there is a frequent journey by ship, that
another country is involved, and a lord sent the speaker to seek his true
love. There is damage to other lines of the poem as well, though not as
drastic as the damage to lines 2-8.

Summary
The Husband's Message tells the story of a man who was forced to
leave his homeland and his wife due to a feud. The poem takes place
after the feud has ended. The supposedly now wealthy and established
husband carves a message onto a plank or staff of wood and sends it to
his wife or his betrothed, the exact relationship between the man and
woman is never specified, recounting the past years without her,
reflecting on his past misfortunes, professing his love for her and
imploring her to reunite with him in his new home. Thus, the "message"
becomes the physical plank of wood itself, as well as the poem's written
lyrics.[3]

Issues of interpretation
While the overall text of the poem is fairly straightforward, there is some
scholarly debate concerning several matters of interpretation:
Genre
For example, many Anglo-Saxonists contend that the poem is a "love
lyric" to be celebrated for "its ingenious form and its emotive
power."[4] Conversely, other scholars contest that the sense of "loss,"
especially that of time due to unfortunate circumstances and
"happiness," make The Husband's Message seem more like an elegy.
[5]
An elegy is a form of poetry that mourns the loss of someone. Anne L.
Klinck classifies this poem as optimistic, focusing on love and
lamentation, but still places it among the elegies in the Exeter Book.
[6]
Niles groups The Seafarer, The Wife's Lament, Wulf and
Eadwacer and The Husband's Message together as being all the elegies
found in the Exeter Book. Niles also states the 50 riddles in the Exeter
Book resembles the first person speaker, just like The Husband's
Message. This is significant because within all the riddles and this poem,
the reader has to discover who the speaker is.[7]
Identity of the speaker
Another prominent issue with this work is the speaker question: who is,
in fact, the speaker of the poem? While some argue that the speaker is
of a human nature, meaning that the speaker is the husband himself,
using personification of the wood's voice as a literary device, others hold
that the wood itself is the husband's messenger. Those who adhere to
the wood-messenger theory are supported by the evidence provided by
the riddles in the Exeter Book, which use similar personifications.[8] Also,
the poem opens with the lines, roughly translated from a damaged
manuscript, "Now I will tell you especially / what kind of tree I, as
offspring, grew from,"[9] which, if taken literally, may indicate that the
wood is the messenger. But, John D. Niles believes there is no clear
speech developed, and no clear introduction of the actual speaker.
Another group of scholars contends that the speaker switches
throughout the poem, meaning that at times the husband is recounting a
story while at other times the wood itself speaks.[10] Another school of
thought contends that the messenger is a human that has been sent by
the exiled man, but that the message he brings is somehow scrawled
into a piece of wood.
Runes
One last puzzling feature of "The Husband's Message" is that of
the runes, or special characters. Toward the end of the poem, there are
special characters inscribed on the wood the messenger is carrying. In
line 49-50, the reader is introduced to the messenger carrying a rune
stave, which is a stick with a runic message on it, including the special
characters. The characters are "S," "EA," "M," "R," and "W." They stand
out from the rest of the poem due to their size and isolation within the
manuscript. Scholars believe them to be runes, and Anglo-Saxonists are
unsure as to what role these runes are supposed to play in the storyline
of the poem. It has been theorized that they should be "deciphered...as
an oath that the man swears to the woman and are his secret
instructions concerning the journey she must make to find him."[11] This
makes sense in light of the fact that the husband had been exiled in the
past, and it would be to his and his wife's advantage to refrain from
disclosing his new location. Other scholars have attempted to translate
the special characters. In John D. Niles essay on The Husband's
Message, his translation was composed of two groups: the standard
Anglo Saxon futhorc, which is the Runic alphabet with extra letters
added to it to write the old English Alphabet, and Standard Insular Script,
which is a medieval script developed in Ireland and was greatly
influenced by Celtic Christianity in England. The special characters
included in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc are the "S" for sigel, "EA" for ear,
and "M" for mann. The "R" meaning rad and the "W" meaning wynn are
characterized belonging to the insular script. A modern translation was
done by Bradley with the "S" meaning sun, "EA" meaning earth, "M"
meaning man, "R" meaning road, and "W" meaning joy. The characters
are seen as a special code, a riddle, and the only way to break the code
is to understand the runic alphabet.[12]

Connection to Riddle 60 or The Wife's Lament?

Another mystery behind The Husband’s Message is the connection it
may or may not have to The Wife’s Lament and Exeter Book Riddle
60. The Wife’s Lament and The Husband’s Message are similar in style
and mood. Some Anglo-Saxon scholars[who?] link the two poems on
grounds that both treat a separation of lovers, but there is no conclusive
evidence to link them together, only by their modern titles and their
similar styles. The connection to Riddle 60 could be more convincing
only because Riddle 60 is directly before The Husband’s Message. Lines
49-50 of The Husband’s Message speak of a rune-stave, which is used
as a sense of personification. This idea of personification is used in
Riddle 60, and the object which is being personified is a tree or plant.
Due to the connection of personification of a tree or plant, have argued
that Riddle 60 is the beginning of The Husband’s Message,[13] but the
consensus view is that they are separate texts.[14] The 17 lines of Riddle
60 do not contain the contradictions that are found in the other riddles of
the Exeter Book which are seemingly meant to confound the reader.[15]
The poem may well be riddlic in nature, as is indicated by the runic clues
at the end of the piece. The solution has been proposed variously as
either 'Christ' or 'The Gospel'.

ummary of The Husband’s Message

‘The Husband’s Message’ is a husband’s letter to his wife about his loyalty
towards her and through this verse he requests his wife to return to him soon.

‘The Husband’s Message’ is a “secret message” written in poetic form. The

sender engraved the words on a staff of wood and sent it ashore to his wife. In
this Old English verse, the speaker is the wooden tablet and it emphasizes the
loyalty of the husband or the sender to his wife. At first, it gives a primary
description of itself and how it was made. Thereafter, the wooden tablet
discloses its purpose or the sender’s purpose for writing this verse-letter. To
be brief, the speaker was happy and prosperous in the foreign land. The feud
in his native land surprisingly showed a new world to him. Hence, with all
worldly possessions and the loyalty of his liegemen, he only missed his lonely
wife. So, he requests his wife to return to him after getting the letter without
any delay.

Structure of The Husband’s Message

‘The Husband’s Message’ is an Old English text that consists of four stanzas.
The last section of the poem, excluded from the analysis, is in runic alphabets.
It contains secret alphabets that need a cipher to be decoded. However, the
available text in the modern English version is told from a first-
person speaker’s perspective. That’s why it’s a lyric poem. Through this poem,
the speaker expresses his love and loyalty for his wife. It gives the poem the
quality of a love-lyric. Though, critics say ‘The Husband’s Message’ is
an elegy. But, from the text, it doesn’t seem so.

Literary Devices in The Husband’s

Message
‘The Husband’s Message’ begins with a personification. The overall poem is
told from the perspective of a wooden “stave”. Like a messenger of a lord, the
wood on which the letter is engraved, tells the wife what is written on it. Apart
from that, there is a metaphor in the “salt-streams”. Here, the speaker refers to
the sea. It also contains alliteration. Thereafter, in “brow of the hill” there is a
reference to the topmost region of a hill. Thereafter, the writer uses a personal
metaphor in “mournful cuckoo”. Moreover, there is an allusion to the Anglo-
Saxon heroic code in the line, “That ye together should yet give rings”. The
poet also uses several consonances in this poem. However, the poem ends
with a climax.

Tone of The Husband’s Message

‘The Husband’s Message’ begins with an uplifting tone. The exclamation in
the very first line of the poem reflects a sense of happiness and fulfillment.
The speaker’s tone is no doubt glad, fulfilled, and overflowing with love. After
a long time, he was writing a letter to his wife staying in a distant land.
Thereafter, the tone of the poem reflects the sender’s hardship as well as the
wooden staff’s. Both of them had undergone hardships and they were
determined to fulfill their goals. The husband aimed to prosper in the foreign
land and wood’s purpose was to bring its master’s words to the wife.
Moreover, in the last two stanzas, the tone of the poem becomes sad. It lacks
the happy sensation of the beginning. From this change of tone and mood, it
is clear that the speaker badly wanted to get his wife back.

Analysis of The Husband’s Message

Stanza One
See I bring thee a secret message!
A sapling once in the woods I grew;
I was cut for a stave and covered with writing;
Skilled men cunningly carved upon me
Letters fair, in a faraway land.
Since have I crossed the salt-streams often,
Carried in ships to countries strange;
Sent by my lord, his speech to deliver
In many a towering mead-hall high.
Hither Iâve sped, the swift keep brought me,
Trial to make of thy trust in my master;
Look thou shalt find him loyal and true.

‘The Husband’s Message’ introduces the speaker of the love-lyric in the

first stanza. The speaker here is a wooden stave covered with the
message of the husband. Like a messenger, the wood introduces itself
and refers to its origin. Once, it was a sapling in the woods. When it
grew into a full tree, the sender cut it for a stave. At that time, people
generally wrote their message on such a wooden tablet by engraving the
letters on it. However, the stave says skilled men ingeniously carved the
message on it in a faraway land where the husband lived.

Thereafter, it crossed seas and was carried in ships to countries strange

to it. From this section, it becomes clear that the husband settled in a
land very far from the region where the wife lived. However, the wood
tells the wife that the Lord sent it to deliver a message to her. As if the
wood was the other self of the husband, it hurried to deliver the
message anyhow. It underwent several trials on the way to compensate
for the trust the wife had for its master. At last, it requests the wife to
look at the letter and it would tell her about her husband’s loyalty and
truthfulness.

Stanza Two
He told me to come that carved this letter,
And bid thee recall, in thy costly array,
Ye gave to each other in days of old,
When still in the land ye lived together,
Happily mated, and held in the mead-halls
Your home and abode. A bitter feud
Banished him far. He bids me call thee,
Earnestly urge thee overseas.
When thou hast heard, from the brow of the hill,
The mournful cuckoo call in the wood,
Let no man living delay thy departure,
Hinder thy going, or hold thee at home.
Away to the sea, where the gulls are circling!
Board me a ship thatâs bound from the shore:
Sail away South, to seek thy own husband:
Over the water he waits for thee.
In the second stanza of ‘The Husband’s Message’, the speaker reminds
the wife of the old days when they gifted costly arrays to each other. The
speaker refers to their lavish lifestyle in the mead-halls where they lived
happily. But for a bitter feud, the husband was banished from his
country. Thereafter, the speaker urges the wife to visit his husband
living overseas. After reading the letter, she shouldn’t delay.
The persona wishes that no man should hinder her departure and hold
her at home. She might leave at once as it had been a long time since
the husband last saw her.

In the last few lines, the husband indirectly urges the wife to board a
ship and sail away towards the south. The direction is somehow implicit.
There is no direct reference to the place or region where her husband
lived. However, the speaker hints to set out in that direction and she will
probably find him waiting there.

Stanza Three
No keener joy could come to his heart,
No greater happiness gladden his soul,
Than if God who wieldeth the world, should grant
That ye together should yet give rings,
Treasure of gold to trusty liegemen.
A home he hath found in a foreign land,
Fair abode and followers true,
Hardy heroes, though hence he was driven;
Shoved his boat from the shore in distress,
Steered for the open, sped oâer the ocean,
Weary wave-tossed wanderer he.
In the third stanza of ‘The Husband’s Message’, the narrator talks about
his present state. The narrator remarks there are no such things that can
make his heart joyous. Even no greater happiness can gladden his soul.
The husband only wishes to God to grant his wish of getting his wife
back. Then they should give the rings of loyalty together and distribute
the treasure of gold to the loyal liegemen. Here, the writer refers to the
heroic codes of the Anglo-Saxon period.

Thereafter, in this stanza, the speaker says the husband has been living
in a foreign land. It’s far better than his native place. There he found true
followers and “hardy heroes” to protect his kingdom. When he was
driven from his country, he steered alone in the raging ocean. The wave
tossed him and made him exhausted from the journey. Like a
“wanderer”, he was lost and at last found that land to set up his new
kingdom.

Stanza Four
Past are his woes, he has won through his perils,
He lives in plenty, no pleasure he lacks;
Nor horses nor goods nor gold of the mead-hall;
All the wealth of earls upon earth
Belongs to my lord, he lacks but thee.
In the last stanza of ‘The Husband’s Message’ through the poetic
persona, the husband speaks about his prosperity. He says his woes are
past and he has won against all perils. Now, he lives in plenty and there
are no pleasures that he lacks. He has everything that a lord must have,
such as horses, goods, gold, and a luxurious mead-hall. Thereafter,
using hyperbole in this line, “All the wealth of earls upon earth/ Belongs
to my lord”, the speaker wants to glorify the next part of the last line, “he
lacks but thee”. It’s called a climax. Here, the husband describes how
precious his wife is. Her worth is incomparable to the worldly
possessions. For this reason, all the husband lacks, is her presence.
Historical Context of The Husband’s
Message
‘The Husband’s Message’ is an anonymous Old English poem and is found on
folio 123 of the Exeter Book. The Exeter Book came into existence in the 10th
century. The book consists of over 90 riddles and other poetic works. The
manuscript suffered burn damage to the first passage of this poem. Apart from
that, in this poem, the writer highlighted the heroic codes of Anglo-Saxon
society such as loyalty and gift-giving. Moreover, there is a connection
between another anonymous Old English poem, ‘The Wife’s Lament’ with this
poem in the discussion. Scholars are of the view that through this poem the
husband replies to the speaker of ‘The Wife’s Lament’.

Similar Poetry
Like ‘The Husband’s Message’, here is a list of a few poems that similarly
present a husband’s love and loyalty for his wife. And, one can find the
essence of Old English poetry in The Wanderer.

 Her Husband by Ted Hughes – In this poem, Ted Hughes reflects on

the paradoxical situation many married couples often face.
 I Said To Love By Thomas Hardy – It’s one of the best Thomas Hardy
poems. Here, in this poem, the speaker looks at loos and a sense of
regret for the loss of his wife, Emma.
 One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII by Pablo Neruda – In this poem, the
poet describes the feeling of love and how it surpasses any previous
definition of it.
 Never Seek to Tell thy Love by William Blake – It’s one of the well-
known William Blake poems. Here, in this poem, Blake describes one’s
choice to reveal his true feelings to his beloved.