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Neophilologus (2008) 92:729734
DOI 10.1007/s11061-007-9090-8
Valentine A. Pakis
Published online: 22 January 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008
Abstract It has been argued in the pages of Neophilologus that the fragmentary third poem of the Old English Physiologus series in the Exeter Book is not about the partridge but about the phoenix. The grounds for this argument are speculative, and the case for the partridge is presented as one weaker than it actually is. Throughout the vast Physiologus tradition, the panther-whale-partridge sequence is widespread, occurring in the rst Greek redaction and translations into Ethiopic, Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, Latin, Old French, and Old Icelandic. This tradition should not be overlooked in attempts to identify the theme of the Old English fragment.
Keywords Anglo-Saxon Physiologus Exeter Book Partridge
In volume 91 of this journal, Michael D. C. Drout argues that the fragmentary third poem of the Old English Physiologus concerns the phoenix and not, as is traditionally thought, the partridge (The Partridge is a phoenix: revising the Exeter Book Physiologus).1 If we accept the conclusion of James Marchand and Patrick Conner,2 as Drout in part does, folio 98r of the Exeter Book has nothing to do with the Physiologus series, so that what remains of the latters nal poem, preserved at the end of folio 97v, are the following eight words: Hyrde ic secgan gen bi summum fugle / wundorlicne (I have heard yet more about a certain bird,
1 This is a revision of the authors M.A. thesis at the University of MissouriColumbia (Drout 1993).
2 Marchand (1991, pp. 607609); Conner (1993, p. 104).
V. A. Pakis (&)
Department of German, Scandinavian, and Dutch, College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus, 205 Folwell Hall, 9 Pleasant Street S.E, Minneapolis,MN 55455-0124, USAe-mail: [email protected]
A Note in Defense of The Partridge (Exeter Book 97v)
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wonderful ...).3 This is not much to work with, to be sure, and Drouts case that the fugel of this verse is the phoenix depends on three necessarily speculative arguments, each of which could be valid: First, the three poems comprising the Old English Physiologus represent a single poetic vision with a balanced, tripartite sequence. The panther stands for God, the whale for the devil, and...