Symmetry And Balance In Cynewulf And Cyneheard

9 Pages 2171 Words

2,352 words

Symmetry and Balance in “Cynewulf and Cyneheard”

In their assessment of the narrative of Cynewulf and Cyneheard, recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 755, Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson claim in, A Guide to Old English, that “on both sides men made the heroic choice, and they chose right.” The narrative of Cynewulf, King of Wessex, and Cyneheard, a West Saxon ætheling, illustrates the heroic code of conduct that characterized the warrior men of Germanic tribes. Their loyalty was to their leader, and this bond surpassed any other, even those based on kinship. In the story of Cynewulf and Cyneheard, these loyalties come in direct conflict with one another, and both parties choose right - to fight for their leader despite familial ties to the opposing side.
The narrative itself is unlike any other entry into the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and it reads more like prose than a record of events. The structure gives the impression of a story being told; the repetition of the word “and” at the beginning of sentences, for example, shows a clear passage of time and sequence of events. In Michael Swanton’s edition of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, he describes the encounter between Cynewulf and Cyneheard as a “coup d’etat at Merton..., where the scribe has incorporated what appears to be saga material complete with exchanges in direct speech; this seems undoubtably to derive from oral, perhaps poetic, transmission.” It is certainly one of the most detailed entries in the Chronicle, and has a clear moral intended for the audience.
The entry recorded in the year 755 is a clear representation of values and behaviors understood universally among Anglo-Saxons. The narrative begins with a clear representation of how far this loyalty to a leader stretches. The Chronicle details

Her Cynewulf benam Sigebryht his rices ond Westseaxna wiotan for unryhtum dædum, buton Hamtunscire; ond he hæfde...