Authenticity

The author of St Erkenwald was keen to affirm the historical accuracy of his narrative. Like the alliterative historians I have been examining, he set great store by authenticity. The author of Morte Arthure, as we have seen, promises a history ‘þat trewe es and nobyll’ (16). At the opening of The Destruction of Troy John Clerk regrets that true histories of the distant past are forgotten, but they may be recovered ‘by lokyng of letturs þat lefte were of olde’ (26) – by studying ancient writings; unfortunately some of these authorities, such as Homer, are unreliable:

The true accounts of the Trojan war, he tells us, were set down by Dares and Dictys, both eye-witnesses at the siege, translated into Latin by Cornelius, and fleshed out by Guido de Columnis, the poet's source, who ‘declaret it more clere’ (51–77). The author of the Wars frequently assures his readers of the historical veracity of his account by finishing off his line with an authority tag, ‘as þe buke tellis’ (17, 35, etc.), ‘as I in writt fynd’ (24), ‘þe text me recordis’ (214) and so on, and indeed his poem faithfully translates the Historia de Preliis.

The story of Gawain is framed by the history of the Trojan settlement of Britain by Brutus, even though we must realise that the Green Knight does not feature in this historical account.

St Erkenwald is a historical figure, bishop of London from 675 to 693, the outlines of whose career were recorded by no less an authority than Bede. We are thus securely set in London in the time of early Anglo-Saxon England, not long after the Conversion, by a poem that begins: