The Exeter Book
A Statement of Significance
Prepared by
Ann Barwood, Canon Librarian and Peter Thomas, Cathedral Librarian
September 2014
Said to be the foundation volume of English literature, the Exeter Book was written
down earlier than the more famous Beowulf. The manuscript has been in Exeter since
the 11th century and some of the Riddles have been incorporated by Michael Fairfax
in his Riddle Sculpture in Exeter High Street.
The Exeter Book is a tenth-century codex (manuscript book) of old English poetry. The
precise date when it was compiled and written down is unknown, but it is rightly
acknowledged to be one of the great works of the English Benedictine revival of the tenth
century and proposed dates for its compilation range from 960 to 990.
The Exeter Book’s heritage becomes traceable from 1072 when Leofric, the first Bishop of
Exeter died. Among the treasures which his will shows him to have bestowed upon the then
impoverished Cathedral is one famously described as “i mycel englisc boc be gehwilcum
bingum on leoo-wisan geworht” (“a large English book of poetic works about all sorts of
things”)
The manuscript is written in darkish brown ink and in a hand of fine character. It contains
no colour and little ornamentation of any kind except some rather uncomplicated
decoration to several initial letters. On a few leaves, however, there are ornaments and
other features made with a stylus rather than pen and ink. These are known as drypoint
drawings and were not part of the original design of the book.
In its present form it contains 131 leaves of strong vellum, but some of these are damaged
particularly at the beginning and end of the volume, and several leaves are missing.
Dr Robin Flower (1881 – 1946) describes the script in this way:“The Exeter Book in its best pages … is written in what one may unhesitatingly describe as
the noblest of Anglo- Saxon hands. The script achieves a liturgical, almost monumental,
effect by the stern character of its design and the exact regularity of its execution”.
How much of the manuscript is now lost or when the losses occurred is not known. It must
have been lying about unbound for centuries, exposed to all sorts of casual damage.
RW Chambers (1874 – 1942), a friend of J.R.R. Tolkien, remarked: - ‘the wonder is
that any part of it should have survived’.
However, even in its imperfect state its importance to the study of Old English poetry is
almost incalculable. There are only three other codices of Anglo- Saxon poetry in existence:
the manuscript of Beowulf in the British Library, the ‘Junius Manuscript’ in the Bodleian, and
the manuscript now in possession of the Cathedral Library of Vercelli in Piedmont (-the
‘Vercelli Book’). Though it cannot fairly be maintained that any single poem in the Exeter
Book rises quite to the artistic level of Beowulf, it is at any rate certain that the Exeter
Collection is at once the largest and the most varied of the four codices.
The stately and heroic narratives of Guthlac and Juliana, the echoes of the early days of the
English people in Widsith and Deor, the strange half-lyrical charm of the Wanderer, with its
regret for happier days long past, the Seafarer, with its pictures of the hardships and
fascinations of the sailor’s life, the description of a dead Roman city Bath perhaps -in the
Ruin, and the unique Riddles – all these make up an anthology of the very greatest interest
and importance.
The nearly 100 riddles are poems of great charm, zest and subtlety. Ranging from natural
phenomena (such as icebergs and storms at sea) to animals and bird life, from the Christian
concept of the Creation, to prosaic domestic objects (such as a rake and a pair of bellows),
and from weaponry to the peaceful pursuits of music and writing, they are full of sharp
observation, earthy humour and above all a sense of wonder.
The predominant version of Old English in the Exeter Book is that of Wessex, (as is most
surviving Old English). This suggests that the book was written in the West Country,
possibly in Exeter, Crediton or Glastonbury, but the reason for the book’s name rests in its
provenance rather than its content.
The manuscript as a physical object reveals a surprising amount about its history and
changing status over the centuries. The first surviving page of poetry has suffered a spill
from a glue pot, and also appears to have been used as a chopping board (having a gash in it
and a sewn tear). When the book was seen as just a pile of parchment, it was evidently used
as a press for gold and silver leaf, as minute traces have been detected on some pages.
We can only surmise, but most experts believe that many of the poems and riddles are a
good deal older than the manuscript, and would have been recited by possibly illiterate
bards with very good memories. What is certain is that the poems reflect life between the
Roman and Anglo- Saxon periods. The significance of the Exeter Book for Old English
scholarship, and the history of English literature can scarcely be overstated.