widsith is an old english poem of 144 lines. the only text of the fragment is copied in the exeter book, a manuscript of old english poetry compiled in the late 10th century containing approximately one sixth of all surviving old english poetry. widsith is located between the poems vainglory and the fortunes of men. since the donation of the exeter book in 1076, it has been housed in the exeter cathedral in southwest england. the poem is for the most part a survey of the people, kings, and heroes of europe in the heroic age of northern europe: see tribes of widsith. ==contents== excluding the introduction of the scop widsith, the closing, and brief comments regarded by some scholars as interpolations, the poem is divided into three 'catalogues', so-called thulas. the first thula runs through a list of the various kings of renown, both contemporary and ancient ("caesar ruled the greeks"), the model being '(name of a king) ruled (name of a tribe)'. the second thula contains the names of the peoples the narrator visited, the model being 'with the (name of a tribe) i was, and with the (name of another tribe).' in the third and final thula, the narrator lists the heroes of myth and legend that he has visited, with the model '(hero's name) i sought and (hero's name) and (hero's name).' the poem refers to a group of people called the wicinga cynn, which may be the earliest mention of the word "viking" (lines 47, 59, 80). it closes with a brief comment on the importance and fame offered by poets like widsith, with many pointed reminders of the munificent generosity offered to tale-singers by patrons "discerning of songs." {|style="border: 0px" align=center cellpadding=2 cellspacing=0 | |lines 45&ndash;59: |- | |hroÃ¾wulf ond hroÃ°gar heoldon lengest | |hroÃ°ulf and hroÃ°gar held the longest |- | |sibbe Ã¦tsomne suhtorfÃ¦dran, | | peace together, uncle and nephew, |- | |siÃ¾Ã¾an hy forwrÃ¦con wicinga cynn | | since they repulsed the viking-kin |- | |ond ingeldes ord forbigdan, | | and ingeld to the spear-point made bow, |- | |forheowan aet heorote heaÃ°obeardna Ã¾rym. | | hewn at heorot heaÃ°obards' army. |} the widely travelled poet widsith (his name simply means "far journey") claims himself to be of the house of the myrgings, who had first set out in the retinue of "ealhild, the beloved weaver of peace, from the east out of angeln to the home of the king of the glorious goths, eormanric, the cruel troth-breaker." the ostrogoth eormanric was defeated by the huns in the 5th century. it is moot whether widsith literally intends himself, or poetically means his lineage, either as a myrging or as a poet, as when "the fictive speaker deor uses the r
English_heroic_legends Old_English_poems