manuscript with him at that time. The codex (volume
of a manuscript) was written sometime between 960
and 980 C.E. by one scribe; however, the date cannot
be confi rmed. All we know for certain is that Leofric’s
will mentions “one large book in English, concerning
various matters, written in verse,” and that the bishop
died in 1072. This means that all the materials in the
Exeter Book were composed before that date.
The Exeter Book is large. Each of the folios (pages)
measures 12.5 inches by 8.6 inches, which is slightly
larger than a standard sheet of copy paper. It is a plain
volume, containing only a few line drawings and no
illuminations (colored and/or decorated drawings) or
ornamentation. However, each poem begins with an
oversized initial capital, and the remainder of each fi rst
line is written in small capitals. The text has had a
checkered past. At one point, it was used as a cutting
board. It has large knife slashes on the fi rst page, and
where two particularly deep ones converge, a large tri-
angle of vellum is missing. The book was also used as a
beer stand and has a mug ring on the eighth folio; con-
sequently, there are brown ale stains on that folio and
the following two. Several of the leaves are missing,
although the cause of their disappearance is unknown.
Eight additional leaves were bound into the beginning
of the manuscript prior to the early modern (Renais-
sance) era, but these are not the original folios. In fact,
one of these pieces is Leofric’s donation list. However,
the most severe damage has been done to the fi nal 14
folios of the manuscript. On these, a long diagonal
burn destroyed a large portion of the text.
The Exeter Book contains some of the most famous
pieces of ANGLO-SAXON POETRY, including the great ele-
gies, “The WANDERER,” “The SEAFARER,” and “The
WIFE’S LAMENT.” It also contains the majority of the
surviving clever ANGLO-SAXON RIDDLEs (96 in total), as
well as the physiologius poems (animal poems) “The
Panther,” “The Whale,” “The Partridge,” and “The
Phoenix.” Several of the gnomic verses (Maxims I)
appear, too. The other texts include: Christ A, B, C
(also known as Advent Lyrics, Ascension, and Judgment);
Guthlac A, B; Azarias; Juliana; The Gifts of Men; Precepts;
Vainglory; WIDSITH; The Fortunes of Men; The Order of
the World; The Riming Poem; Soul and Body II; “DEOR”;
“WULF AND EADWACER”; Judgement I & II; “Resignation”;
Descent into Hell; Alms-Giving; Pharaoh; The Lord’s
Prayer; Homiletic Fragment; “The Husband’s Message”;
and “The RUIN.” None of these poems has a title in the
manuscript; all are modern conventions. The contents
of the Exeter Book represent one-sixth of the surviv-
ing Old English corpus. Two of the poems, “Juliana”
and “Ascension,” (Christ A), are signed with an ACROS-
TIC forming the name of the enigmatic poet CYNEWULF
in the FUTHARK ALPHABET.
Unfortunately, we do not know much else about the
composition of the Exeter Book or its scribe. We are
left, instead, with questions, especially about the order
of the texts: Did the scribe put them in the order of an
original example? Did he or she recopy the texts in
their current order? Did he copy them at random as
acquired? These questions will most likely remain
unanswered. Nevertheless, the Exeter Book is an amaz-
ing monument to the early days of English literature.
FURTHER READING
Conner, Patrick W. Anglo-Saxon Exeter: A Tenth-Century
Cultural History. Studies in Anglo Saxon History 4. Wood-
bridge, Suffolk, U.K.: Boydell Press, 1993.
Muir, Bernard J., ed. The Exeter Anthology of Old English Poetry:
An Edition of Exeter Dean and Chapter MS 3501. 2 vols.
Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1994. Revised 2000.EXETER BOOK 171