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Widsith
EntityQ1368506· pop 24· linked from 246 articles

Also known as The Traveller's Song

thumb|First lines of "Widsith"

~7 min read

Encyclopedic overview

9 sections
Contents
  • Date of composition
  • Contents
  • Tribes of Widsith
  • Interpretation
  • Original Old English text and translation
  • See also
  • Notes
  • References
  • External links

thumb|First lines of "Widsith"

"Widsith" (, "far-traveller", lit. "wide-journey"), also known as '''"The Traveller's Song"', is an Old English poem of 143 lines. It survives only in the Exeter Book (pages 84v–87r), a manuscript of Old English poetry compiled in the late-10th century, which contains 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 Exeter Cathedral in southwestern 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.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Widsith” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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