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Reordberend in Old English Poetry

Carolyn Gonzalez

Journal of Foreign Languages and Cultures, vol.3, no. 2

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054 Foreign Languages and Cultures Vol. 3 No. 1 June 2019

Reordberend in Old English Poetry

☉ Carolyn S. Gonzalez
Iowa State University

Abstract: A peculiar term appears in five Old English poems. The term is “reordberend,” which
translates to “speech-bearers” in modern English. The reordberend are described in Dream of
the Rood , Daniel , Andreas , the Christ poems, and Elene . Speech is the defining characteristic
of humanity in these poems, an intrinsic part of what it is to be human. However, objects
also speak in Old English poetry and therefore, the ability to express thoughts and feelings
by articulating sounds is not a skill that belongs exclusively to humankind. Silence often
surrounds the reordberend despite the significance of speech in each poem. The reordberend
bear speech as an ability, as the potential to carry out speech in the future; this is quite
different from actively speaking. The lack of conversation from the speech-bearers is ironic
and paradoxical. Considering how speech occupies each poem and examining the moments
in which the reordberend appear in apocalyptic and prophetic Anglo-Saxon poetry reveals
a complicated message concerning humanity’s ability to participate in God’s activity in the
world.
Keywords: Old English poetry, reordberend, speech, Dream of the Rood , silence

CLC: I054 Document Code: A Article ID: 2096-4374(2019)01-0091-12

The opening of Dream of the Rood directs attention to a peculiar term used to designate a specific
group of people. They are the “reordberend,” or “speech-bearers.” According to the Concordance to the
Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records , it is a term that appears in four additional Old English poems. Daniel ,
Andreas , the Christ poems, and Elene all use the term to illustrate speech-bearing as an essential
characteristic of human beings. However, in Anglo-Saxon poetry, and not subtly in Dream of the Rood ,
objects can, and often do, speak as well. Therefore, if speech is not something that belongs exclusively
to human speech-bearers, a question surfaces as to just how practical a term reordberend is. Speech
is vital to each poem yet the lack of conversation from the reordberend is ironic and paradoxical.
Nevertheless, the term generates a deeply theological meaning regarding humanity’s ability to
participate in God’s activity in the world.
 Carolyn S. Gonzalez Reordberend in Old English Poetry 055

What Does Reordberend Mean?

The compound term reordberend recurs in Old English verse: twice in Dream of the Rood , twice in
the Christ poems, and once in Daniel , Andreas , and Elene . A similar term, reordian , appears in several
Old English texts, notably in Beowulf , when the raven communicates speech. In reordberend, there are
two aspects to consider. First, the berend , or people, are distinguished from beasts in that they are gifted
with speech to cry and lament their grievances. Second, reord often appears in each poem when humans
are silent. Roberts, Kay, and Grundy attempt to clarify reordberend’s meaning by simply demystifying
the term as “people” (Roberts et al. 1264). Moreover, etymologists have agreed that two Old English
words, reord and gereord , and their verb forms reordian and gereordian, seem identical in appearance
but different in meaning.
On the one hand, the nouns reord and gereord mean “speech, voice, or language” and, on the other
hand, reord and gereord sometimes mean “food or meal” (Pokorny 852). The weak verb of the second
class, reordian , is derived from the noun reord, and so it seems logical to begin with the noun before
examining the verb. Erin G. Stanley points out that early etymologists hoped to recover a meaning of
reord that might be truer to the “primitive sense . . . perhaps a lost ‘noise’ or ‘roar’ rather than well-
recorded ‘speech’ ‘speak’ or ‘language’” (10). When it comes to the berend part of the word, there
exist in Old English several compound “berend words,” such as, sædberende and sweord-berende , and
many berend words “belong to the same spiritual category as deaðberende ,” carrying deeply theological
undertones (20).
The marriage of reord and berend creates a compound word that ties together the literal and the
spiritual in Old English poetry. In the Christ poems, the reordberend raise their voices in praise of
the Virgin Mary and the Holy Trinity. At the end of Elene , the reordberend are described as standing
in fear of Judgement Day yet there is no hint that their voices will be used for praise as they are in the
previous poem. Then in Andreas , Christ speaks reordade and asks how the reordberend
expounded divine mystery. The various uses of the term in Old English poetry consistently connect
humankind to their faith yet the treatment of speech and silence in each poem changes the way the
term can be interpreted. Equally complexing is reordberend’s status as a kenning — whether it should,
or even can be classified as one.

Reordberend as a Kenning

The ability to bear speech not only marks human beings as different from other living creatures but
it is also an intrinsic part of what it means to be human. The term itself may be described as a kenning,
if we apply Albert C. Baugh’s definition. Baugh defines a kenning as a “two-member (or two term)
circumlocution for an ordinary noun” (29). Heusler, on the other hand, more narrowly defines a “pure”
kenning:

This is an Old Icelandic term, and its nature and uses are fully explained by Snorri in the
thirteenth-century in his work on the craft of the trained poet (Skaldskaparmal). A kenning may
loosely be defined as the poetic interpretation or description of a thing or thought by means of
a condensed simile: and in Old English such a condensed simile normally takes the form of a
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compound. (137)

The “pure” kennings, as Heusler noted, are relatively rare in Old English poetry. Yet to other critics,
part of reordberend’s paradoxical nature derives from the compound term’s ambiguous state as a
kenning. Thomas Gardner asserts, like Heusler, that “the distinctive aspect of a kenning is its context”
and furthermore, “the kenning is distinguished from the merely descriptive epithet (with which it is
often confused by the moderns) by the presence of an inherent or implied condensed simile” (112-113).
Whether or not reordberend is a true kenning remains contestable. Reordberend is typically translated
rather straightforwardly as human beings who literally possess the ability to bear speech. A more
clearly defined kenning, such as word-hord (speech) or bancofa (body), works more metaphorically.
This being said, the context surrounding reordberend in each Old English poem varies and so does the
term’s usage.
Ann Stewart states that “the dizzying sense of double vision produced by a kenning is the result of
demanding that the reader hold simultaneously in his mind two quite different views of the subject” (119).
Furthermore, compound phrases in Old English serve as a vehicle for play. The kenning is the perfect
embodiment of the simultaneous presence of two worlds of discourse, “the figurative one represented
by the base word and the real one represented by the limiting word” (Stewart 120). The term
reordberend carries significance when examining moments of irony in Dream of the Rood ; it resonates
with Stewart’s observation that compound terms in Old English frequently present interpretative
challenges.
Dream of the Rood begins with tranquility as the narrator, a dreamer, finds himself awake at the
midnight hour. He has a vision in which a large tree, beaming with light, changes form and color; it
seems to be alive. Not far into the dream, as if responding to the narrator’s tears upon seeing it, the
tree begins to bleed and eventually talk. It soon becomes apparent that the tree is the Cross itself upon
which Christ was crucified. The story of the Passion of Christ is delivered from an unusual first-person
witness — the instrument of death, the cross itself — instead of from Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John.
The significance of an inanimate object speaking is worth taking into consideration when examining the
speech of humans in the poem.

Reordberend in Dream of the Rood

When the “reordberend” in Dream of the Rood first appear, they are not actively speaking. The
poem opens with:

Hwæt! Ic swefna secgan wylle,

hwæt me gemætte to midre nihte,
syðþan reordberend reste wunedon!
Þuhte me þaet ic gesawe syllicre treow
on lyft lædan, leohte bewunden,
beama beorhtost. (1-6)

Translated to:
 Carolyn S. Gonzalez Reordberend in Old English Poetry 057

Lo! I wish to tell of the best of dreams,

which came to me in a dream in the middle of the night,
after speech-bearers went to rest.
It seemed to me I saw a wonderful tree,
lifted into the air, surrounded with light,
the brightest of trees. (1-6)

Humans are identified as speech-bearers precisely at the moments when their speech is absent,
impossible, or failed. Reordberend is part of the opening few lines, preceded by the characteristic
exclamation “Hwaet!” which has been translated as “Lo!” “Behold” “Hark!” or “Listen!” The opening
lines make space for the vision to be told, claiming attention and inviting the listener to participate in
the poetic event. This perhaps could have been the moment when the scop would gain the attention of
those waiting to hear his verse.
It should be noted that Dream of the Rood is not a poem which undervalues speech. The cross’s
address to the poet changes his idea of himself and his life and causes him to join the ongoing
pronouncement of redemption. The poem then enacts this process as telling the story. Speech is vital
in this poem. A parallel to the biblical story of Cain can prove useful when examining the significance
of humankind’s ability to speak. Akin to how Cain “bore” the mark, a symbol of humankind’s past and
their nature, the reordberend bear speech. However, they also bear speech as an ability, as the potential
to carry it out in the future. This is quite different from actively speaking.
The vision in Dream of the Rood appears at a time of silence and stillness in the poem, into which
broke a revelation from an unexpected source. This harkens to traditional Christian practices of silent
prayer. Pieter W. Van der Horst notes the significance of silence and prayer in the early medieval period.
The point of silent prayer, he argues, would be that “Prayer is for God alone; it requires no human
audience. The soul in prayer must be turned only towards God” (Van der Horst 3). Furthermore, “silence
in the early monasteries must have contributed to an atmosphere in which praying silently became
more and more acceptable” (20). The significance of silence in Dream of Rood is equally as important
as speech. When speech-bearers are not speaking, what they are doing is listening. This is where the
theological meaning of the poem surfaces. Speech functions as an echo of God’s act of creation, of
speaking humanity into being. It might particularly be regarded this way in a complex oral poetic
tradition. Speech can be used for good or for ill, but the possibility of performing this act opens the
possibility of participating in God’s activity in the world.

Reordberend in Daniel

Listening to God’s word also serves as a way of participating in God’s activity. At line 123 in the
poem Daniel , the reordberend are at rest, just as they are in Dream of the Rood . Daniel, wise in his faith,
is God’s prophet who has now come to face judgement. Loosely based on the biblical book of Daniel,
the Old English poem omits the majority of the apocalyptic and prophetic writing found towards the
end of the biblical source. Rather, Daniel focuses instead on the first five chapters of the story, leaving
out the part where Daniel is thrown into the lions’ den. The primary focus of the Old English poem is
 Journal of
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the story of The Three Youths , Daniel, and their encounters with the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar
II. The poem Daniel uses language similar to that in Dream of the Rood when talking about the dream
of Nebuchadnezzar, the king who takes Daniel and other Hebrew youths into captivity in Babylon.
Daniel possesses the ability to interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream:

Het þa tosomne sinra leoda

þa wiccungdom widost bæron,
frægn þa ða mænigeo hwæt hine gemætte,
þenden reordberend reste wunode. (120-123)

Translated, this excerpt reads:

He ordered then his people to gather,

those who bore the most learning in magical skill,
and asked the assembly what he had dreamed,
while speech-bearing men occupied their slumber. (120-123)

The lack of chat from the reordberend found in Dream of the Rood is mirrored in Daniel . However, the
reordberend in Dream of the Rood are not specifically mentioned as silent or sleeping. Nevertheless,
in both poems, it is not the speech-bearers who are shown participating in this ongoing practice of
speech. This lack of participation gets at the sense of speech’s absence in Daniel , at least coming from
the speech-bearers.
The speech-bearing seems somewhat ironic in the Daniel example, where humans are responding
to a command from someone else. In the examples so far, humans are identified as speech-bearers
precisely at the moments when their speech is absent, impossible, or failed. They are asleep, or
listening, or unable to answer a question, or silent before judgement. This could mean that reordberend
is simply an ironic poetic term, designed to highlight characters’ inability to carry out a central part of
their human nature. Perhaps the definition might be closer to something like “those who ought to bear
speech” or “those who would usually be speaking.”

Reordberend in Andreas

God does sometimes speak in Old English poems. In the medieval imagination God, the all-
knowing father who can never be fully known by his creations, is the ultimate speaker. In order to
carry out the word, the bearers of speech must first listen to the word of God. In another Old English
poem, Andreas , the surrounding language again suggests that the reordberend are not actively speaking.
Andreas is the first poem found in the Vercelli book, the same manuscript in which Dream of the Rood
appears. The poem tells the story of Saint Andrew the Apostle. However, unlike the biblical Saint
Andrew, the Old English poem depicts the saint as an Anglo-Saxon warrior fighting against evil forces.
This opens Andreas to the possibility of having both heroic and religious significance. Under the guise
of a sailor, God demands of Saint Andrew:
 Carolyn S. Gonzalez Reordberend in Old English Poetry 059

Gif ðu þegn sie þrymsittendes,

wuldorcyninges, swa ðu worde becwist,
rece þa gerynu, hu he reordberend
lærde under lyfte. Lang is þes siðfæt
ofer fealuwne flod; frefra þine
mæcgas on mode. (417-422)

Translated to:

If you are He that Sits in Majesty,

of the Glory-King, as your word claims,
then recite those mysteries, how he instructed
the speech-bearers under the lofty sky.
Long is the journey-path across the fallow waves:
comfort your servants in their hearts. (417-422)

Speech is literally a response to God here, and fulfilling of God-given capacities. Again, the speech-
bearers in Andreas are in fact not speaking, they are listening. “Under lyfte” means “as capable of
speaking” on earth but also as capable of understanding speech. They are receiving both teaching and
narrative, which enables Saint Andrew to reply to God in both a literal and metaphorical sense. He can
relate “the secrets of how [God] taught the speech-bearers” to the stranger who is questioning him,
and in doing so, fulfil his abilities as reordberend. Likewise, Saint Andrew participates in the ongoing
speech which originated with God (Stanley 28). God is never described as language bearing in these
poems, though he is at times reported as the speaker, such as he is in the Andreas excerpt. Andreas
does not know that the seaman in conversation with him is none other than the Savior himself.
Belief in miracles and the divine presence is assumed in Old English literature. This belief holds
particularly true when it comes to a story about a saint’s life such as Andreas . The saint’s life is a type
of narrative meant to evoke a wide range of responses. Claire Fanger notes that such stories are “designed
not merely to teach, but to provoke admiration and astonishment, to excite the reader to fear and wonder
. . . the narrative involves God’s choice of certain human individuals to be conduits for, as well as to
show signs of, divine power” (124). The reordberend serve this purpose in Andreas , as Saint Andrew
directly interacts with divine power, portraying a special understanding of divine wisdom.

Reordberend in the Christ Poems

The reordberend do speak sometimes and when they do, it is typically when they engage in a
dialectic with those in heaven — angels, saints, and the ultimate word-bearer himself. In the Christ
poems, the reordberend all over the world are said to call upon “Logotokos,” or “Word-bearer.”
Logotokos appears four times across the collection of Christ poems and each time it is used, Mary is
typically described as the “one who bears the world” yet here, she is described as the one who through
which the word of God was brought to humankind. The triad of Christ poems can be found in the
Exeter book and the poem spans Christ’s Advent, Ascension, and Final Judgement. Christ III focuses on
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the Second Coming and Last Judgement. The reordberend appear relatively late in the poem:

Daga egeslicast
weorþeð in worulde, þonne wuldorcyning
þurh þrym þreað þeoda gehwylce,
hateð arisan reordberende
of foldgrafum, folc anra gehwylc,
cuman to gemote moncynnes gehwone. (1021-1026)

Translated to:

The most terrifying of days

shall come into the world,
when the Glory-King in his majesty chastises
every nation, commanding the speech-bearing to arise
from their earth-graves, and every single person,
each one of mankind to muster at the moot. (1021-1026)

The “speech-bearing” seems ironic in this example, where humans not only are responding to a
command from someone else but being summoned to a “moot” where there will be no mooting for
them. Once again, the reordberend are not the ones speaking. They are required to listen and be judged
on their failures of speech in the past. The theme of judgement permeates the doom-laden context of
the third of the Christ poems. As Christopher Chase points out, moments such as this are a key feature
of the Christian judgement genre. Dream of the Rood , Daniel , Andreas , and the Christ poems are often
classified as judgement narratives.
The primary features of the Christian judgement genre are derived from the prophetic and
apocryphal oracles of Jewish literature. In these oracles, “the destruction of a nation is announced and
its punishment described . . . God himself sits in judgement, in intertestamental apocalyptic as the
Messiah or the Son of Man” (Chase 16). The shared literary-theological characteristics of these poems
illustrate the emphasis of Christ’s sufferings as an integral part of early piety in the Anglo-Saxon world.
The reader, or listener, of these poems must listen to the judgement of the redeemer.

Reordberend in Elene

Speech is vital in Old English poetry, bound up as it is with the notion of the proclamation of the
Gospel. But it is not the speech-bearers who are shown participating in this ongoing and saving practice
of speech. Another instance of the word reordberend can be found in Elene , a poem about Saint Helena.
The conflict at the poem’s center, while simplistic and forced, centers on the significance of speech. In
Elene , the misbelieving Jews are confronted by the saintly empress and after some judicious torture, the
wisest of them converts, finds the Cross, and performs a miracle; the bystanders are suitably impressed.
Shortly afterwards, the wise one manages to dig up the nails with which Christ was crucified and Elene
leaves, satisfied. The poem then concludes with the narrator’s personal statement that he is sorry for his
 Carolyn S. Gonzalez Reordberend in Old English Poetry 061

sins. An apocalyptic passage describes the narrator’s warning of the Last Judgement:

Swa a þeos world eall gewiteð,

ond eac swa some þe hire on wurdon
atydrede, tionleg nimeð,
ðonne dryhten sylf dom geseceð
engla weorude. Sceall æghwylc ðær
reordberendra riht gehyran
dæda gehwylcra þurh þæs deman muð,
ond worda swa same wed gesyllan,
eallra unsnyttro ær gesprecenra,
þristra geþonca. (1277-1286)

Translated as:

So this whole world will disappear

and the hungry flame will also seize those that were born here
when the Lord himself seeks out judgment with an army of angels.
Every one of the voice-bearers must hear correctly there
about all of their deeds through the mouth of the Deemer,
and they must be held to account for all of their unwise words
spoken of old, their shameless thoughts. (1277-1286)

Once again, the reordberend are not the ones speaking. Instead, they are required to listen, and be
judged on their failures of speech in the past. This being said, the poem’s attention to the importance
of words and articulation resonates with the use of the term reordberend in the poem. Thomas Hill
describes how main outlines and much of the detail in Elene appears segmented, the poem’s message “is
a sophisticated and carefully articulated work, whose structure and narrative conventions can best be
understood in terms of certain traditional figural patterns” (162).
The debate between Elene and the Jews is unrealistic both in detail and substance. The Jews, for
example, answer Elene in a group as though they were a chorus. Perhaps this is simply a matter of
narrative convention and not intrinsically significant, but the fact that the debate itself is not presented
realistically might suggest otherwise. As Hill argues, “there is no real debate in the sense of any
exchange of argument; Elene simply berates the Jews while they stand there uncomprehendingly” (166).
The confrontation between Elene and the Jews is a conflict between the wisdom of the old and the new.
Likewise, this is an argument concerning who should proclaim the word of God. The story of Elene’s
search for the cross is not explicitly the story of the end times, but in certain respects the narrative does
bear eschatological significance. Elene’s speeches to the Jews are not persuasive rhetoric, but rather,
explicitly judgmental. The addresses are similar in tone and content to the way Christ and the sinners
speak.
The compound term reordberend is one that is specific to human speakers in Old English poetry.
God accuses humans, described as capable of speech, of having committed sin in words and actions.
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Their words and deeds lie in the past; God’s words on Judgement Day are of the present, and again
at that trial there is no place for speeches in defense of reordberend sinners. However, in additional
poems, reord can be used of creatures other than humans. Erin G. Stanley concludes that in “each of
the nine poetic uses of reordberend it is found to refer to humans always, but not always when humans
are described as speaking. The conclusion shows how reord can in poetry be used of creatures other
than humans, and without asseverating a single definition of reordberend” (9). The use of reordberend,
to which nothing corresponds in the source, is “intellectually high: language understood as the means
of communication, utterance and understanding” (29). Each poem focuses not just on the activity of an
open mouth but also on the activity of an open ear.

Dream of the Rood, Daniel , Andreas , the Christ poems, and Elene all use the term reordberend
to illustrate the theological significance of speech-bearing. Spoken into being as articulate creatures
themselves, the reordberend bear speech as part of the image of God in which they were created. The
compound term reordberend is one that perhaps is a kenning and is specific to human speakers in
Old English poetry. Each poem examined relies heavily on speech and silence to convey meaning,
and through the inclusion of the reordberend, the complicated relationship between the two surfaces.
Speech can be misused or corrupted, and sometimes, listening is more important than praying for
the reordberend. Bearing speech is not the same thing as carrying out speech, as humans are not the
only speakers in Old English poetry. After all, “speech-bearer” does not literally mean “speaker.”
The reordberend’s interaction with and devotion to divinity in the Anglo-Saxon world is complex and
perhaps not as straightforward as it may initially appear.

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