The term gnomic (meaning "sententious" or "aphoristic") was originally applied to ancient Greek poets like Solon and Theognis, who wrote short moralistic poems in the sixth century B.C.E. By extension, it has been applied to similar kinds of short aphoristic passages in medieval Germanic languages, in particular two Old English compilations (also called "Maxims I" and "Maxims II"), the first of which appears in the EXETER BOOK, and the second of which is included as part of a prologue to the ANGLOSAXON CHRONICLE in the British Museum manuscript Cotton Tiberius B.i. They seem to have been recorded in their present form sometime in the 10th century.
These maxims usually express a generalized observation concerning the world or about human beings' behavior in it.Most of these generalizations include verbs like shall or must. As such, the gnomic verses express something about wyrd—about the way things are fated to be in this world.When the poet says that
Frost shall freeze
fire eat wood
(Alexander 1966, 88)
he expresses the inevitability of these natural laws.
When he says:
Courage must wax
war-mood in the man,
the woman grow up
beloved among her people,
be light of mood
hold close a rune-word
(Alexander 1966, 88)
he expresses the expectations society has for the two genders, expectations that should presumably be seen as just and inviolable: This is how people should behave.
The intent of the Old English gnomic verses is to express natural, moral, and social truths in a brief, solemn, authoritative manner.
Bibliography
■ Alexander,Michael, trans. The Earliest English Poems. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1966.
■ Williams, Blanche Coulton, ed. Gnomic Poetry in Anglo Saxon. New York: Columbia University Press, 1914.
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