Isidorean Wolf Lore and the felafæcne deor of Maxims I.C: Some Rhetorical and Legal Contexts for Recognising Another Old English wulf in Sheep’s Clothing

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe tripartite Exeter Maxims, or Maxims I, is an Old English verse catalogue of proverbs and gnomic utterances that is often assumed to be a Germanic repository of pre-conversion lore. Departing from this critical assumption, this essay identifies book twelve of Isidore’s Etymologiae as the probable source for an evocative passage featuring predatory wolves who threaten travellers in Maxims I.C, lines 7–14. This Isidorean analogue introduces several new rhetorical contexts for interpreting this proverb poem as a sophisticated cultural synthesis of vernacular traditions and imported Latin learning. Comparing the wolf of Maxims I.C with lupine imagery in the writings of ecclesiastics like Wulfstan, Æthelwold and Ælfric—and with several early English wolf proverbs—emphasises the spiritual symbolism and didactic value of wolves in the poem and Anglo-Saxon culture more generally. It also connects the diction of Maxims I.C with the legal vocabulary of the “Durham Proverbs” and Old English law codes meant to adjudicate secular feuds and the cultural practice of church sanctuary. Thus, this intertextual source study sheds light on the intellectual preoccupations and compositional context of the Maxims-poet and some of the rhetorical resources available to the poetic community he composed for.