King Cnut's Song and Ballad Origins
by Louise Pound
Modern Language Notes, Vol. 34, No. 3 (Mar., 1919), pp. 162-165
KING CNUT'S SONG AND BALLAD ORIGINS
King Cnut's song, according to Professor Gummere,[1] gives us our "first example of actual ballad structure and the ballad's metrical form, which is to be met in English records." He quotes the account from the Historia Eliensis of 1166. Cnut, with his queen Emma and divers of the great nobles, was coming by boat to Ely, and, as they neared land, the King stood up, and told his men to row slowly while he looked at the great church and listened to the song of the monks which came sweetly over the water. " Then he called all who were with him in the boats to make a circle about him, and in the gladness of his heart he bade them join him in song, and he composed in English a ballad [cantilenam] which began as follows:
Murie sungen the muneches binnen Ely,
Tha Cnut ching rew ther by.
Roweth, enihtes, noer the land,
And here we thes muneches saeng!
The chronicler turns this into Latin, saying then, " and so the rest, as it is sung in these days by the people in their dances, and handed down as proverbial."
The Latin original reads: quae usque hodie in choris publice cantantur; et in proverbiis memorantur. [2]
Professor Gummere takes many chances when he translates, with the certainty implied by italics, in choris publice as " sung in their dances." The classical Latin chorus had three meanings-a choral dance, the persons singing and dancing, and a crowd or throng of any kind. For mediawval Latin chorus, the meaning choral dance fades. The citations given by Ducange [3]refer to groups of singing people, often ecclesiastics, and they do not imply dancinig by the participants in the singing.
The presence of the dance element in the twelfth century singing of
Cnut's song is anything but certain. But let that pass for the
moment. The validity of the song as material for illustration of
ballad history turns, it seems to me, upon whether the missing lines
are epic or lyric, i. e., whether the piece was a ballad or merely a
song. If it was lyrical only, or the chronicler's story of its origin
posthumous and spurious, the four lines are of doubtful value for
affording us our first glimpse of actual ballad structure. But,
granting that the chronicler's story is genuine, or fairly so, and that
the missing verses were epic, these things may be noted:
1. The improvisation pictured is the King's, as he is surrounded
by his nobles. It is aristocratic, not humble. If the ascription of
the song to Cnut himself be denied, the authorship must go to his
professional bards.
2. Cnut's song is not, in its origin, a dance song, whether or not
it became one. The King's boat would be no appropriate place for
a typical festal throng to dramatize a ballad-that species which,
according to the current American view, is differentiated from other
lyric verse chiefly by having had its origin in the dance. The testimony
of the chronicler and of the song itself points to the inference
that it started as a rowing song. Many Danish songs seem to have
been rowing songs, judging from their refrains. Here are some
illustrations: 4
2 Thomas Gale, Historiae Britannicae, Saxonicae, Anglo-Danicae, SeriptorIes,
2 vols. Oxford, 1691. Vol. I, p. 505. Quo difficultate ad suam
festivitate Rex witanutus in Ely pervenit, et de longe audiens Monachos
cantilenam cmposuit.
3 Glossarium Mediae et Infirmae Latinitatis. Equally venturesome is
Professor Gummere's translation of cantilena as ballad rather than song.
4From The Mediaeval Popular Ballad of J. C. H. R. Steenstrup, translated
by E. G. Cox. The numerical references are to Grundtvig's Danmark's
Gamle Folkeviser.
164 MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES
All ye row off. No. 124.
Betake yourself to the oar. No. 140.
To the north-
And now lay all these oars beside the ship. No. 460.
Row off noble men!
To the maiden. No. 244 (Norwegian).
Row out from the shore, ye speak with so fair a one! No. 399.
Cnut's song ranges itself very well beside these-
Row, cnihtes, noer the land,
3. As to form, the song presents no very clear testimolly. There
is rhyme, possibly, though not certainly. The assumption of it
necessitates giving the name Ely a final accent. The septenar
rhythm is absent, as expected in a twelfth century lyric. There is
some alliteration, "murie sungen the muneches," and " Cinut
ching " and " cnihtes," but this, like the rhyme, may be accidental.
The form is not that used by the Old English professional bards,
but is more lyrical. Whether there was strophe structure, say two
or four lines, rhymeless or rhymed, with refrain,5 is not clear from
the lines that remain to us. Nor should it be forgotten that they
do not come down to us in eleventh but in twelfth century form.
4. If the chronicler gives the history of the song accurately, and
Professor Gummere interprets choris publice correctly, that history
follows a usual process. There is origin among upper circles,
descent among and preservation by the people, and utilization of
the song by them as a dance song. Compare The Hunt Is Up of the
reign of Henry VIII, used long after its upper circle origin
widely and popularly as a dance song.
If Cnut's song is a ballad, or narrative song, it points to aristocratic
emergence for this species, and away from its origin in the
festal dances of villagers. I believe, however, that Professor Gummere's
latest position 6 is that, having originated as dance songs,
ballads became real ballads, i. e., narrative songs, only by "augmen-
6 Deor's Complaint from the Exeter Manuscript of Cnut's century, wvith
its two to seven lines plus refrain, has similar structure, but is more
literary-is less simple and oral.
6 The Popular Ballad, 1907, and his chapter in The Cambridge History of
English Literature, 1908.
REVIEWS 165
tations," by an " epic process " after they have become " divorced
from the dance."
The conditions that produced the medixval ballads are supposed
by Professor Gummere to have prevailed till about the close of tLe
fifteenth century,7 after which communal ballads can no more be
made, because of changed social conditions; ballad-making becomes
a ' closed account." The eleventh century ought to be early enough,
theni, to be valid for illustration of ballad origins. TIow does
Cnut's song help the theories of the communalists, in particular of
the Harvard school of communalists? It did not originate in the
dance, as it should have done to be an early ballad-indeed we do
not know that it was ever a ballad at all, in theme or structure;
and, if it was ever utilized as a dance song, it was at a time when
it should have been divorcing itself from the danice and submitting
to the " epic process."
LOUISE POUND.
University of Nebr aska.
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Footnotes:
1. The Popular Ballad, pp. 58 ff., 249; also Old English Ballads, 254.