The Wolf Letters. Will Schaefer

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The Wolf Letters - Will Schaefer

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rhythmic potential, and in every instance he had deployed his words accordingly. Although he wrote in superb Latin, he wrote it very much like an Anglo-Saxon bard might, crafting colourful word-combinations, playing with the pleasing music of the language.

      The possibility that Ohthere wrote as many as eight hundred years since classical Latin - pure Latin - was the norm made his letter even more remarkable.

      Some scholars are so proficient at dating documents from the calligraphy that they can confidently attach specific years, districts, monasteries - even individual scribes - to less than half a dozen words if the script is distinctive enough.

      A colleague had recently told me about a learned Catholic priest from Ireland who excelled in this field. He’d had business at Ampleforth Abbey in Yorkshire one night, and lost in whatever he was doing, he’d worked right through until the early morning. Naturally, the visiting priest slept late, but he was woken by the monks, who were concerned that he might miss his train from York to Liverpool.

      Since the priest was running late, the abbot arranged for one of the brothers to take the monastery car and run him into York, and they would have reached the station in time had they not been forced to turn back for the briefcase he had forgotten to pack in the morning’s panic. By missing the train he also missed his ferry back to Ireland, and was obliged to spend an extra night at Ampleforth Abbey.

      After the monks’ evening prayers, the priest asked the abbot if he could inspect some scraps of parchment he’d seen in a drawer in the library the night before. The scraps were folio margins - all that remained of parchments that were cut square for cleaning and re-use during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s - and the abbot, although happy to oblige his visitor, was perplexed: there was nothing clearly legible on them.

      But the priest was unperturbed. He gathered all the scraps from one drawer and set about fitting them together like a jigsaw puzzle. This took him several hours. When the abbot, who was up late, went to check on him, the scraps were on the main library table, arranged into rectangles like the pages of a huge book from which the text in the middle had been surgically removed.

      The priest then pointed out to the abbot half-words like -pharsalama and Sennac-, and infrequent whole words like Bacchidem, in the scraps that formed one particular rectangle. From this he concluded that that the missing main text had been Chapter Seven of 1 Maccabees. The abbot was stunned. But the Irishman had even more to say.

      The Maccabees scribe had a peculiar, round style of lettering, and tended to slow his quill at the top of his upstrokes, leaving just a fraction too much ink on them.

      Some of the scraps indicated that he wrote very straight, taking care to space his words and lines with even gaps. But he was a terrible speller, especially of proper nouns: he had left the h out of Bacchidem just here … The priest said that this style was particular to the monk who transcribed Byrhtferth of Ramsey’s Life of St Oswald. How did he know that? Apparently the priest had recently worked with the manuscript in the Cotton Nero collection in the British Library, and had been impressed with its idiosyncrasies. The visiting priest thought that the monk wrote sometime between 1150 and 1175. And there was something else. The slightly less-evolved calligraphy suggested that the monk had probably written this document at the start of his career as a transcriber. Judging from the distinctive risers on the letters d and b, the transcriber had probably created the document in Worcester, which was popularising that style at the time. This meant that although the parchment scraps had been found in Ampleforth, they more properly belonged to Worcester, and the Ampleforth monks would have to keep it quiet if they didn’t want their rivals coming round and claiming this and other manuscripts that had belonged to them in the past. The abbot could only gasp at this remarkable display of scholarship.

      * * *

      When I gave the transcript and my notes to Nielsen, he started reading with alacrity. I looked at my watch again. Eight forty-five. Two hours on the first five sheets, probably under an hour and a half for a thorough translation of the remaining three, especially since they were in a larger, easier to read script. I reached for a fresh sheet of paper, and began.

      5

       To Ohthere, honoured and beloved friend; Bishop Ecgwulf, servant of the people of God, sends greetings in the Lord of Lords.

       Ohthere, I have received your letter regarding the circumstances surrounding your departure from Barking. The news of your safe arrival in Frisia was joyfully received. It is well that you, a faithful servant of God’s Church, have been preserved from misfortune. I give thanks to the merciful Lord for your deliverance.

       You have asked for my help in communicating the news of your arrival in Frisia to Abbess Eulalia of Barking. I feel I must say, my mighty young brother in Christ, that I have agreed to your request, but have done so reluctantly.

       Let me first say that I know you both well enough to trust that you have not committed the sin of betraying your vows. But, at thirty years old, mature as you are, you and Eulalia are still young enough to harbour a love for one another that is perhaps more powerful than I at first suspected. It was my mistake to grant you permission to enter the monastery in the first place.

       You will ask: why did I do so, Ohthere? I did so because I knew the transition from your distinguished earthly life to the contemplative would be difficult, and that you might draw comfort from the nearness of a familiar face. Who better, I thought at the time, than Ohthere’s dear childhood friend Eulalia to stand by him? I am ashamed of my naivete. Your current situation may be blamed on my foolish decision to put you together.

       This is not to say that you, or Eulalia, for that matter, have found it easy to refrain from acting on your natural impulses, and are therefore blameless yourselves. I know your young minds well enough in this respect.

       First hand, I have witnessed her affection for you. Even as a child, Eulalia was conspicuously devoted to you, the strong, vital little guest in her uncle’s court. As I told her of your safe arrival in Frisia, and passed your message on to her, she fairly cried with joy, and eagerly entreated me for further news of you. Yesterday she was even so giddy and foolish as to request permission for a pilgrimage to Rome by way of Dorestad. This I flatly denied. I have been a fool. Everything is so obvious to me now.

       Do you not remember your good father’s wish to see you become a man of the cloth? He was a wealthy, powerful man, and a brave warrior. Despite his Viking blood, he was devoted to his patron king, and he won his reputation with mighty deeds. I know that he was deeply honoured to fight beside his sons, especially once you had all proved yourselves so formidable. But where is he now, Ohthere? His body fell in battle, and is but dust, like those of your three brothers. He realised, too late for him, I fear, that only faith in God endures.

       Your father is with the shining cohorts of the angels now, Ohthere, and he is proud of you for manfully renouncing the glories of this world. You must continue to serve him as you did when he lived. Serve him by remembering your oaths.

       Eulalia is in much the same position. She entered the abbey, as you remember, to avoid the marriage her father had planned for her. She made her choice, and took her vows. They may not be broken.

       And so, my friend, it is with the saddest heart that I deny you permission to return to England. I command you, as your lord bishop, to stay on the continent indefinitely. You are banished from this country. I do not trust your love for Eulalia, nor hers for you. Do not forget that your king and I are currently pressing for favours from our

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