Editing Earconwald (section)

==The poem of St Erkenwald ==
[[File:A 1932 copy of the medieval poem 'Erkenwald'.jpg|alt=A 1932 copy of the medieval poem 'Erkenwald'|thumb|A 1932 copy of the medieval poem 'Erkenwald']]
Earconwald was the subject of the alliterative [[St. Erkenwald (poem)|St Erkenwald Poem]], written in the 14th century<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Savage |first1=Henry Lyttleton |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zwlEAAAAYAAJ&q=Erkenwald+poem |title=St. Erkenwald, a Middle English Poem, Edited with Introduction, Notes, and Glossary |last2=Gollancz |first2=Israel |date=1926 |publisher=Yale University Press |language=en}}</ref> by a poet from the [[Cheshire]]/[[Shropshire]]/[[Staffordshire]] area.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Austin |first=Sue |date=2024-02-23 |title=Shropshire Day: Natural beauty and culture help county celebrate its own patron saint's day |url=https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/local-hubs/shrewsbury/2024/02/23/reasons-why-shropshire-should-celebrate-its-very-own-day-named-after-the-countys-patron-saint/ |access-date=2024-02-23 |website=www.shropshirestar.com |language=en}}</ref> 

The text is thought to be the work of the [[Gawain Poet|Pearl Poet]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Benson |first=Larry D. |date=1965 |title=The Authorship of "St. Erkenwald" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27714679 |journal=The Journal of English and Germanic Philology |volume=64 |issue=3 |pages=393–405 |jstor=27714679 |issn=0363-6941}}</ref> whose identity is debated and uncertain. If it is true that it is within the set of this author's work, that would mean that text shares its author with:

*''[[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]]''
*''[[Pearl (poem)|Pearl]]''
*''[[Patience (poem)|Patience]]'' 
*''[[Cleanness]]''

{{multiple image
| width             = 120
| image1            = Sir Gawain first page 670x990.jpg
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| image2            = Gawain and the Green Knight.jpg
| alt2              = Sir Gawain manuscript
| footer            = The text and an illustration from the only surviving manuscript of that work: St Erkenwald may have provided inspiration for the same writer as for this text
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| caption1          = Manuscript text in ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight''
| caption2          = An illustration in the oldest copy of the same poem
}}

The poem is significant in the way it deals with the spiritual welfare of people who could not hear the Christian message, and critics have compared it to the ''[[Beowulf]]'' poem in this regard.<ref>{{Citation |title=The Erkenwald Poet's Sense of History |date=2016 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/english-alliterative-verse/erkenwald-poets-sense-of-history/EAFB9EDE077EAB7EA338896BCD6E96B5 |work=English Alliterative Verse: Poetic Tradition and Literary History |pages=127–147 |editor-last=Weiskott |editor-first=Eric |access-date=2023-09-10 |series=Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/9781316718674.007 |isbn=978-1-316-76834-1|url-access=subscription }}</ref><!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Priorslee Hall.jpg|right|thumb|Priorslee Hall, one of the Shropshire addresses occupied by Sir Humphrey Pitt from whom the only known copy of the poem 'Erkenwald' was recovered]] -->The poem has survived in only one manuscript, [[British Library]] MS [[Harleian Library|Harley]] 2250.<ref>London, British Library, MS Harley 2250, ff. 72v to 75v.</ref>  

The document was discovered in 1757 by [[Thomas Percy (bishop of Dromore)|Thomas Percy]]; the manuscript had been in the possession of Sir Humphrey Pitt of Balcony House, Shifnal, and Priorslee, [[Shropshire]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Middle English Alliterative Poetry |url=https://mediakron.bc.edu/alliterativepoetry/st-erkenwald-1/timeline-of-poems |access-date=2023-09-10 |website=mediakron.bc.edu}}</ref> 

Other important ancient literary materials narrowly avoided being burnt as kindling by household staff in the circumstances in which Percy was discovering this important cultural survival.<ref name="Percy1">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/bishoppercysfoli01percuoft#page/n23/mode/2up |title=Percy's Folio Manuscript: Ballads and Romances |publisher=N. Trübner & Co. |year=1867 |editor-last=Hales |editor-first=John W. |volume=I |location=London |access-date=2017-11-20 |editor2-last=Furnivall |editor2-first=Frederick J.}}</ref>

The poem has been linked thematically and in plot terms with the Legend of [[Trajan]] and the Miracle of [[St Gregory]]; that legend itself being referred to in the ''[[Divine Comedy]]'' by [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]] (''[[Purgatorio]]'' (x. 73-75) and [[Paradiso (Dante)|''Paradiso'']] (xx 106-117)).<ref name="Gollancz1"/>

Another possible inspiration for the plot in the poem is found in ''[[Kaiserchronik]]'', the [[Middle High German]] history of [[Roman Empire|Roman]] and [[German language|German]] emperors dating to around 1150.<ref name="Gollancz1"/> 

Some familiarity with the story is also contended for ''[[Thomas Aquinas|St Thomas Aquinas]]''.<ref name="Gollancz1" />

Within pictorial art, the Berne tapestry (copied from paintings by [[Rogier van der Weyden|Roger van der Wayden]] of the [[Brussels Town Hall]] in the mid-1400s, which were lost in the conflicts of the 1600s) and apparently repeated in the [[Cologne|Cologne Town Hall]] in the [[High Medieval]] period, provides a visual expression of the themes.<ref name="Gollancz1" /> 

The intention of this art was to remind judges to dispense impartial justice.