Hateful Hills and Joyful Dread: Emotive “Filler Words” in the Old English Metrical Psalms

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe poet-translator of the Old English Metrical Psalms is widely censured for (among other things) his allegedly mechanical use of filler-words to complete the metre in his lines. This article argues for a more positive purpose for many of these additions, especially those drawn from the semantic field of emotion. Additions to the poet's Latin source can function to reinforce for his Anglo-Saxon audience the theological sense of the psalms he translates, to add a degree of exegesis, and even (at times) to create a moment of poetic intensity. Such possibilities do not entirely acquit the poet of the charge of pedestrian verse production, but they do suggest that he has not always been given enough credit for his achievements. Within the context of his general approach to translation—which is sometimes thoughtful and always orthodox—this poet’s deployment of so-called filler words may frequently be defended as apt and occasionally as successful in its ambition.