"...I'll not be happy save to praise..."
Wolf Thandoy
Heroic Poetry Midterm Essay
23 March, 1986
While there are many things we may never know about the role of poets in dark age British and 'Saxon' culture, there are many we are clearly shown, and others we may surmise.
The primary purpose in a poet's life must have been to secure some sort of living for himself. He would have had not only to acquire the rigourous long term education necessary for composing, but also a repertoire of popular requests and strange and wonderful works to impress his audience, were he to earn patronage in some court. Safe to assume all this meant a good deal of travelling. Indeed, we have in Widsith a profound exposition of this aspect of the poet's fate:
The Makar's wierd is to be a wanderer:
the poets of mankind go through many countries,
speak their needs, say their thanks.
Always they meet someone, in the south lands or the north,
who understands their art, an open-handed man
who would not have his name fail among the guard
nor rest from an earl's deeds before the end cuts off
light and life together.
Lasting honour shall be his,
a name that shall never die beneath the heavens.
This excellent passage brings us to perhaps the foremost function of poets during the heroic era; telling the fame of their lord in such a way that the chieftain's name would be spoken and honoured long after death had come to himself, and all those who shared his seasons on earth. So even today we have before us several poems attributed to Taliesin praising the northern chief Urien; extolling the patron's virtues as an able leader, fiercely successful warrior and generous benefactor.
Another service that the British poets at least were expected to perform was the creation of elegies to those heroes who fell in battle. Viewed as the work of Aneirin, the Gododdin is a lengthy series of elegies, and Taliesin's lament over the death of Urien's son Owen survives as one more example of this kind of work; perhaps the only surviving formal elegy.
In addition to these duties it is said that poets might be called upon to elaborate claims to privilege by recounting a noble's lineage, thereby not only preserving the names of that leader's ancestors, but solidifying the ruler's position with regard to right of descent. Some say the poetry of Llywarch Hen was spawned in this manner.
The poet could in other respects be a powerful political ally, producing such a poem as the Armes Prydein Vawr, a piece seemingly composed with the design of uniting diverse forces to oust the 'Saxons' from Britain, though it is couched in prophetic style. Easy to believe the form was a ploy calculated to influence leaders and men who would have held prophecy in great esteem, however there was perhaps some miscalculation: the Battle of Brunanburh, a poem in Old English that we accept as being about the struggle resulting from Armes, tells from the side of the eastern kings and in equally scathing terms a tale of the slaughter met by the British (and the Scandinavians, but not the Welsh). As a poem, the Battle of Brunanburh must have itself long stood as a potent tool of propaganda among the Saxons. So we can see that although poets served to inflate, preserve and validate the heroic ideals of their sponsors, there were risks involved.
It appears that some few poets, such as Taliesin and Aneirin, managed to do more than share in their patron's glory and wealth; they achieved for themselves celebrated reputations for poetic prowess. Perhaps they were better cared for than Deor, an Anglo-Saxon poet whose disenfranchisement by his prince in favour of a more 'skilful' scop inspired the lament on his condition for which he is now remembered. It is some consolation that the parallels Deor drew to other once widely known tragic situations, punctuated by the repeated phrase, "That went by; this may too", probably intrigued and solaced many listeners and readers over the centuries.
Even Taliesin himself found disfavour in his lifetime. So we find from his 'Petition for Reconciliation' addressed to Urien, the ruler who enjoyed most of the poet's surviving works. Although Taliesin is known to have composed for at least two other chieftains, Cynan and Gwallog, and must have journeyed fairly extensively, this in itself must not have been either an unusual occurrence or cause for misunderstanding. In the petition Taliesin as much as declares that his travelling days are through, and of Urien states that, "Save for God supreme / I will not renounce him." The only clue to the poet's transgression comes a few lines earlier, coupled with a soothing compliment; "Though I did him harm / Making mock of old age, / No man loved I more / Before I knew him."1
It seems reasonable to assume that there was competition among poets for positions in the choice halls. We know that they periodically met with one another to strive for some measure of status among men of their own profession. So also there amy have been an effort on the part of many rulers to retain the services of the better poets, maybe by sponsoring such competitions. As it is written in the Old English Maxims, "It is right for men to have a good poet." This sentiment, and more, was shared by the cultures that contended for British soil during the Heroic Age.
Note:
1It has been suggested that Taliesin offended Urien by his insisting praise for Gwallog (his former chief) - "He who has not seen Gwallog has not seen a man." It occurs to me either that the petition lost something in the translation, or that the intended 'compliment' is cunningly back-handed.