13 - The Edgar Panegyrics in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

Summary

WHILE rhetorically and stylistically less brilliant than The Battle of Brunanburh, two other poems from the ASC, known as The Coronation of Edgar (in the entry for 973) and The Death of Edgar (975), deserve attention because of what they reveal about the politics and culture of Edgar's period. These poems have much in common with The Battle of Brunanburh and another of the Chronicle's panegyrics, The Capture of the Five Boroughs and, taken together, they celebrate three tenth-century kings, Æthelstan, Edmund and Edgar, distinguishing them from the monarchs that are only mentioned in non-poetic entries. Thus they eulogize the kings who were actively involved in the process of the Benedictine reform, probably a particularly relevant event to the tenth- and eleventh-century chroniclers.

Yet within this group, the poems about Edgar are distinct because they focus not on single battles against heathens, but on particular moments in the king's reign that allow for elaboration on his strengths as a monarch, setting Edgar above the others. By focusing solely on the two Edgar poems of the Chronicle, in this article I intend to demonstrate that the two pieces are probably literary products created to propagandize reformist ideas. From this, it might be inferred that these poems were viewed by their author(s) and contemporary audiences as pro-reform panegyrics. A comparative analysis of the diction, imagery, and themes offered by the two texts not only suggests that they could be read as interrelated eulogistic pieces but also that they might illustrate the existence of a well-established tradition of praise-poetry running parallel to the development of the Benedictine reform.