De falsis diis facts for kids

De falsis diis, or, in Classical Latin spelling, De falsis deis ('on false gods'), is an Old English homily composed by Ælfric of Eynsham in the late tenth or early eleventh century. The sermon is noted for its attempt to explain beliefs in traditional Anglo-Saxon and Norse gods within a Christian framework through Euhemerisation. The homily was subsequently adapted and circulated by Wulfstan II, Archbishop of York, and also translated into Old Norse under the title ''Um þat hvaðan ótrú hófsk'' ('how false belief began').

The spelling De falsis diis tends to be used of Ælfric's text, and De falsis deis of Wulfstan's.

Ælfric's version

Ælfric's sermon was based to a large degree on the sixth-century sermon De correctione rusticorum by Martin of Braga. At least seven Anglo-Saxon manuscripts contain parts of the sermon, the most complete being Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 178. The following summary is based on that of Arnold Taylor, and the line numbers refer to the edition by John C. Pope.

Wulfstan's adaptation

Wulfstan II, Archbishop of York, adapted Ælfric's homily to how own style (as he did with a number of Ælfric's works). Wulfstan's version is also known as De falsis deis, as well as Homily XII. What made Wulfstan's approach unique was his calculated use of poetic devices and rhetorical style. A single manuscript copy survives in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, in the homiliary (collection of sermons) MS Hatton 113.

Influence

There is evidence indicating that Wulfstan's homilies, such as De falsis deis, were copied at Winchester, Canterbury, Exeter, West Midlands and an unidentified library somewhere in the southeast. This suggests that during Wulfstan's own lifetime, and shortly afterwards, his manuscripts were influential enough to merit the labor-intensive process of copying them by hand. There were several major churches/libraries copying his works, proving that Wulfstan's works were not just popular in one centralized location, rather they were spread to many major cultural centers of England. Another impressive fact is that many later homilists continued to copy segments of Wulfstan's homilies into their own works. This was still happening even two centuries after Wulfstan had written them, which “suggests either that particular kudos attached to echoing the wording of Archbishop Wulfstan or that subsequent compilers recognized the stylistic power of Wulfstan’s work”. The fact that Wulfstan's manuscripts were distributed so widely and were so frequently used in later works points to the significance of his message.

Themes

Though the church was always working towards the destruction of heathen practices, “change came about under varying conditions and with differing success” as people were not willing to quickly abandon the customs and traditions their people had had for generations. Evidence of this is the fact that Wolfstan's De falsis deis was based on Ælfric's De falsis diis, as was a later Icelandic homily called Um þat hvaðan ótrú hófst. Each of these homilies can, in turn, be traced back to Bishop Martin of Braga's De correctione rusticorum. This evidence, in addition to each author's perceived need to write a new homily, lead North to theorize “that the animism which Martin describes was widespread and long-lasting”. “Animism” is the worship of natural elements, which is particularly evident in De falsis deis in lines 13 through 18 when Wulfstan tells of that people believed the sun, the moon, stars, fire, water and earth were all gods. He then takes this a step further and also equates these beliefs with the teachings of the devil.

Similarly, the teachings of the devil are also said to apply to other deities revered by non-Christians, such as in lines 28-29 when Wulfstan describes how people worshipped “world-men” who then became powerful as a result. Another technique involved here is that of euhemerization, when ordinary people attain a god-like status. This is an important point for Wulfstan to make in order to convince non-Christians of the error of their ways; their deities could simply be explained away as deceitful humans. In this way, according to North, “…Wulfstan shows non-Christian beliefs to be a disorderly heap of abuses bereft of any intelligible form or purpose” (207). As for the “teachings of the devil” repeatedly referenced by Wulfstan, David Johnson points out that “when it comes to such euhemeristic discussions of the pagan deities, the concept of demonisation is almost always involved as well”.

Perhaps it is not so surprising that a homilist such as Wulfstan would try to demonize, or humanize, the deities of a culture they were trying to convert. After all, the Anglo-Saxons had only been converted a few hundred years beforehand, and “thousands of pagan Scandinavians had invaded and then stayed to settle in England”. The evidence of England's pagan roots was painfully evident in many places, from folklore to place names and practices. According to very comprehensive lists compiled by Wilson, there are twelve major place-names involving Odin, eight with Thor and three with Tiw in England that still exist to this day (11-12). If these names have been retained to the present day, one can only imagine the prevalence of pagan gods’ names used to name places in Wulfstan's time. Ælfric's “De falsis diis,” upon which Wulfstan's homily was based, also goes into some detail about the origins of the days of the week. These, too, derive names from pagan origins, such as the Danish goddess Fricg being used for “Friday”. Finally, Ælfric also specified in one of his works that “the singing of heathen songs at a funeral is forbidden,” indicating the prevalence of Scandinavian pagan traditions into a Christian era. Though Ælfric and Wulfstan both make many references to Roman gods, both take care to connect them with their Scandinavian counterparts. However, both Wulfstan and Ælfric use an anglicized form of Óðinn (Óðan and Oðon, respectively) rather than the Scandinavian form. This could indicate two interesting points: one, that they were unwilling to associate their ancestors with heathens like the Danes, or two, that they were refraining from informing readers that Óðan/Oðon was the same figure from whom nobility and royalty of their time claimed lineage.

Style

Wulfstan's homilies were intended not to be read, but for public delivery. This necessitated many devices for clarity, “…notably a rephrasing of expressions which might be misunderstood, introduced by þæt is”. One such rephrasing appears at lines 74-75 (An is ælmihtig God on þrym hadum, þæt is fæder and suna and halig gast) when he tries to explain the holy trinity, a concept that might confuse lay-people. Another notable feature of Wulfstan's work is the large number of intensifying words...such as æfre, swyðe ealles to swyðe, georne, mid rihte, ofer ealle oðre þing, swyðe georne, oft and gelome, wide, witode. While several of these examples are present within De falsis deis, one marker, swyðe, was particularly evident, showing up in lines 2 (twice), 37, 38, 41, 53, 66 and 73. Rhyme can also be found within De falsis deis at line 47 when it lists and saca and wraca. There are also an abundance of instances in which Wulfstan used alliteration, such as line 29 (woruldmen þe mihtige wurdan on woruldafelum”) and line 42 (“se sunu wæs swaþeah swyðor). Alliteration and rhyme were prevalent in many works of Wulfstan’s time, and Betherum points out that “alliterative and rhyming pairs of words…became so ingrained that when [Wulfstan] rewrote another person’s composition…the substitution of two words for one is almost invariable” (232). Other elements indicative of Wulfstan’s style include word or sentence parallelism, alliteration and rhyme. Sentence parallelism occurs in lines 9, 12, 14, 42, 56 and 64 with the expression þurh deofles lare. Repetition of such a phrase indicates its importance to listeners, who will then be more likely to remember these points. A great example of word parallelism can be found in line 25, mid muðe and mid modes. In short, Bethurum was quite accurate when she stated that Wulfstan “did not rely upon the inspiration of the moment; his effects are carefully planned” (233).

Certainly Wulfstan must have been a very talented writer, gaining a reputation of eloquence while he still lived in London. In a letter to him, “the writer asks to be excused from translating something Wulfstan had asked him to render into English and pleads as an excuse his lack of ability in comparison with the bishop’s skill” (58). Similarly, “[o]ne early student of Wulfstan, Einenkel, and his latest editor, Jost, agree in thinking he wrote verse and not prose”. This suggests Wulfstan's writing is not only eloquent, but poetic, and among many of his rhetorical devices, another is marked rhythm (229). Taking a look at Wulfstan's actual manuscripts, presented by Volume 17 of Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile, it becomes apparent that his writing was exceptionally neat and well-structured – even his notes in the margins are well-organized and tidy, and his handwriting itself is ornate but readable.

Wulfstan's style is highly admired by many sources, easily recognizable and exceptionally distinguished. “Much Wulfstan material is, more-over, attributed largely or even solely on the basis of his highly idiosyncratic prose style, in which strings of syntactically independent two-stress phrases are linked by complex patterns of alliteration and other kinds of sound play. Indeed, so idiosyncratic is Wulfstan’s style that he is even ready to rewrite minutely works prepared for him by Ǣlfric”. From this identifiable style, 26 sermons can be attributed to Wulfstan, 22 of which are written in Old English, the others in Latin. However, it's suspected that many anonymous materials are Wulfstan's as well, and his handwriting has been found in many manuscripts, supplementing or correcting material (495). He wrote more than just sermons, including law-codes and sections of prose.

Old Norse translation: Um þat hvaðan ótrú hófsk

This Old Norse text is based largely on the sections of De falsis diis that concern the world before the arrival of Jesus. It survives now only in the Norwegian-Icelandic manuscript Hauksbók, in a section written during 1302–10, but may be much older.

Editions

• John Frankis, From Old English to Old Norse: A Study of Old English Texts Translated into Old Norse with an Edition of the English and Norse versions of Ælfric's 'De Falsis Diis', Medium Ævum Monographs, 33 (Oxford: Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature, 2016) ISBN: 978-0-907570-56-1
• Diane Elizabeth Szurszewski, Ælfric's de falsis diis: A Source-analogue Study with Editions and Translations (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1997)