Seminar: “Rhyming Connections: The Aurality of Tenth-Century Anglo-Latin Literature”
Tristan Major (LMS Candidate, PIMS)
One of the key Anglo-Latin works of the tenth-century Benedictine reform is Lantfred’s Translatio et miracula Sancti Swithuni (972 x 974). Written to commemorate the translation of the relics of Swithun at Winchester, the text recounts numerous posthumous miracles in a style marked by lengthy sentences, some rare vocabulary, and rhyming prose. Although the ornate formal features of Lantfred’s Latin style act to elevate the status of the saint and promote the nascent monastic reform movement in England, they may also be understood as functioning to facilitate, not obscure, aural comprehension. Specifically, Lantfred’s rhyming prose not only breaks the longer sentences into smaller syntactical units that are easier to digest mentally, but it also often uses sonic effects that heighten the content of the narrative and set an appropriate tone for a listening audience. Additionally, Lantfred’s rhyming prose is not unique to the period; it is a staple of late tenth-century hagiography found frequently on the continent as well as among some of Lantfred’s English contemporaries. Of particular interest is the Latin of Ælfric of Eynsham, who was trained at Winchester during Lantfred’s sojourn and who uses similar aural effects in his Latin compositions meant for oral delivery, which find loose parallels to the aural effects found in his Old English homilies. These formal features of the Latin prose of the period urge a need to reconsider the nature of tenth-century Anglo-Latin literature in order to account for the probability that certain, superficially difficult, texts were originally intended not to confuse and bedazzle but rather to be understood by a listening audience.
Image: Rouen, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 1385 (U. 107), fol. 79: Lantfred, Translatio et miracula Sancti Swithuni, c. 37