Poisoned places: the Avernian tradition in Old English poetry

Scholars have long disputed whether or not Beowulf reflects the influence of Classical Latin literature. This essay examines the motif of the ‘poisoned place’ present in a range of texts known to the Anglo-Saxons, most famously represented by Avernus in the Aeneid. While Grendel's mere presents the best-known poisonous locale in Old English poetry, another is found in the dense and enigmatic poem Solomon and Saturn II. The relationship between these poems is discussed beside a consideration of the possibility that their use of the ‘Avernian tradition’ points to the influence of Latin epic on their Anglo-Saxon authors.

The geographic list of Solomon and Saturn II

Solomon and Saturn II, the second verse dialogue between Solomon and Saturn in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 422, has long enjoyed a rather dubious reputation as an exotic work. In part, the poem suffers a guilt by association with the two other Solomonic dialogues in the manuscript, both of which are fanciful treatments of the powers of the Pater Noster. Kemble's 1848 edition of Solomon and Saturn II formed part of an ambitious survey of the sources and analogues of the later, Latin Solomon and Marculf dialogues. Although the subject matter of Solomon and Saturn II ranges widely from bizarre monsters to proverbial wisdom, Menner's 1941 edition influenced the modern reception of the work by presenting the poem in a predominantly ‘oriental’ context. Menner's learned introduction to both the Solomon and Saturn verse dialogues focused on the mass of exotic legends associated with Solomon. In his opinion, both Solomon and Saturn poems were ‘dependent on lost Solomonic Christian dialogues in Latin’.