Editing Deor (section)

==Summary==
[[File:A minstrel sings of famous deeds by J. R. Skelton c 1910.jpg|thumb|A [[scop]] recites poetry to harp accompaniment]]
"Deor" is a lament in the voice of a poet exiled from his former life of luxury, respect, and popularity. He compares his current predicament to the predicaments of figures from stories traditional in medieval Germanic-speaking culture.

The first twenty-seven lines of the poem present five vignettes, alluding to traditional stories and separated by a refrain (for which there is no close parallel elsewhere in Old English poetry) which says "{{lang|ang|þæs ofereode, þisses swa mæg}}" (usually translated "that passed over, so may this").<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Lorden|first=Jennifer|date=2021|title=Revising the Legendary History of ''Deor''|journal=Medium Ævum|volume=90|pages=197–216}}</ref>{{rp|199}}<ref>The Old English {{lang|ang|þæs}} and {{lang|ang|þisses}} of the refrain are both genitive, not nominative. A more literal translation would read "of that went away, and so may of this"—which is difficult to make sense of in Modern English. Reinserting an elided "it" might render "It (sorrow) went away from that (situation), (and) so it (sorrow) may from this (situation)." But this refrain can point at two very different statements: first, that remedy came about, one way or another, in each situation, or, alternatively, that the continuous flow of time (a favourite Anglo-Saxon topic) erases all pain (though not necessarily healing all wounds).</ref> Although the precise significance of this refrain is debated, it clearly indicates that the misfortunes described in each vignette were eventually overcome. Four of the five vignettes mention characters well known from stories associated with [[Theodoric the Great]], but it is unclear what the other is alluding to. Partly for this reason, many scholars have assumed that there is no narrative thread running through the poem.<ref name=":0"/>{{rp|197–98}} Recent work has, however, argued that the vignettes imply a narrative sequence connected with Theodoric;<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Brljak|first=Vladimir|date=2011|title=Unediting ''Deor''|journal=Neuphilologische Mitteilungen|volume=112|pages=297–321}}</ref> in particular, Jennifer Lorden has argued that the vignettes trace the career of [[Witege|Widia]] as most clearly attested in the Old Norse ''[[Þiðreks saga]]''.<ref name=":0"/>

The first vignette presents the travails of the legendary smith [[Wayland Smith|Weland]] caused by his enslavement by the king [[Niðhad]].<ref name=":0"/>{{rp|201–4}}

The second turns to the difficulties experienced by Niðhad's daughter [[Böðvildr|Beadohilde]], implicitly when Weland takes revenge on her father by murdering her brothers and getting her pregnant.<ref name=":0"/>{{rp|201–4}}

The text of the third vignette is ungrammatical and its meaning uncertain. In the 1930s, [[Kemp Malone]] influentially proposed that it talks about characters called Geat and Maethild, and that their story is the same as that told in the much later Scandinavian ballad known as [[Harpans kraft|the Power of the Harp]]. Variants of this ballad from all the Scandinavian nations are known, and in some of these variants the names of the protagonists are Gauti and Magnhild.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Malone|first=Kemp|date=1 January 1936|title=Mæđhild|journal=ELH|volume=3|issue=3|pages=253–256|doi=10.2307/2871575|jstor=2871575}}</ref> Numerous other interpretations exist, including that the vignette is part of a well integrated narrative sequence and concerns Niðhad.<ref name=":0"/>{{rp|208–11}}

The fourth vignette presents the thirty-year reign of Theodoric the Great. A possible connection between this and the preceding sections is that the Old English poem ''[[Waldere]]'', as well as German and Old Norse analogues, have Widia, the son of Weland and Beaduhild, as one of Theodoric's foremost retainers.<ref name=":0"/>{{rp|205–7}}

The fifth vignette comments on the miseries inflicted by [[Ermanaric]] of the [[Goths]], implicitly following his usurpation of Theodoric's power as recounted in legendary Germanic-language stories. In Lorden's argument, these events too are ones which centrally feature Widia.<ref name=":0"/>{{rp|205–7}}

The remainder of the poem (lines 28–42) turn to the narrator's own sorrow at having lost his position of privilege. At the poem's conclusion, we learn that this person (who, depending on the interpretation of the Old English, may be called Deor) reveals that he was once a great poet among the [[Heodenings]], until he was displaced and sent wandering by [[Heorrenda]], a more skillful poet.<ref name=":0"/>{{rp|207}} Once more, it is clear that the poem alludes to stories attested more widely in the medieval Germanic-speaking world. According to [[Norse mythology]], the Heodenings (''Hjaðningar'') were involved in the never-ending "battle of the Heodenings", the [[Hjaðningavíg]].<ref>Malone, Kemp. "An Anglo-Latin Version of the Hjadningavig". ''[[Speculum (journal)|Speculum]]'', Vol. 39, No. 1 (Jan. 1964), pp. 35–44.</ref> Heorrenda (Hjarrandi) was also [[List of names of Odin|one of the names of]] the god [[Odin]].