Latest news with #SebFalk
Telegraph
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
A 900-year-old typo may solve Chaucer mystery
A mystery surrounding a lost poem or story referenced by Geoffrey Chaucer may have been solved after scientists corrected a 900-year-old typo. The Tale of Wade, referred to by the 'Father of English Poetry' in two of his works, was popular in the medieval period but has been almost entirely lost. Chaucer inserted references from the Wade story into tales of romance in his own work, including passages of Troilus and Cressida and The Canterbury Tales, but nobody knew why. The one surviving fragment of the tale was discovered by scholars in 1896, but this only added to the confusion with the story seemingly dealing with the subject of 'elves'. But now Cambridge experts claim to have solved the mystery by correcting a typo made by a medieval scribe. It has been revealed the word 'elves' in the Wade fragment was an error, and should have read 'wolves'. The alteration has changed the scholarly view of the Wade story, which now appears to have been a straightforward romantic tale, and therefore more fitting for Chaucer to have referenced in his own work. The breakthrough, detailed today in The Review of English Studies, was made by Dr James Wade and Dr Seb Falk at the University of Cambridge 's Girton College. Dr Falk said: 'Changing elves to wolves makes a massive difference. It shifts this legend away from monsters and giants into the human battles of chivalric rivals.' Dr Wade added: 'It wasn't clear why Chaucer mentioned Wade in the context of courtly intrigue. Our discovery makes much more sense of this.' The breakthrough was made by looking again at the fragment found in a Cambridge library in the 19th century. This scrap of material, which dates back to the the 12th century, was a sermon that appeared to quote a line from the tale, saying: 'Some are elves and some are adders; some are sprites that dwell by waters: there is no man, but Hildebrand only.' Dr Wade and Dr Falk found that certain letters were poorly written by a medieval scribe, who confused a runic letter that was still found in Middle English, and pronounced 'w' with the letter 'y'. That, they said, turned 'wlves' into 'ylves.' By correcting the medieval spelling, they arrived at a new version, which read: 'Some are wolves and some are adders; some are sea-snakes that dwell by the water. There is no man at all but Hildebrand.' The tale appears to be a more down-to-earth medieval romance about human characters rather than supernatural ones. Its inclusion in a sermon may also have been intended to reach as wide an audience as possible. Dr Falk added: 'Here we have a late-12th-century sermon deploying a meme from the hit romantic story of the day. 'This is very early evidence of a preacher weaving pop culture into a sermon to keep his audience hooked.'
Gizmodo
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
Researchers Solve 130-Year-Old Literary Mystery Involving Elves, Wolves, and a Medieval Meme
In 1896, Cambridge scholar and author M. R. James found English verses within a 12th-century Latin sermon in a Peterhouse Cambridge collection. James and another colleague identified the verses as excerpts of a lost romantic poem, dubbing it The Song of Wade. Little did they know that the discovery would trigger almost 130 years of fierce debate over the meaning of the excerpts—a debate that two modern Cambridge scholars may have finally put to rest. In a study forthcoming in Oxford University Press, Seb Falk and James Wade (whose last name is a funny coincidence) argue that the English excerpt has been misread for decades. Instead of: Some are elves and some are adders; some are sprites that dwell by waters: there is no man, but Hildebrand only. It should be: Thus they can say, with Wade: 'Some are wolves and some are adders; some are sea-snakes that dwell by the water. There is no man at all but Hildebrand. The Song of Wade was a popular story in the Middle Ages whose main character rubbed elbows with the likes of Lancelot and Gawain. Even Geoffrey Chaucer referenced Wade in the late 1300s. One of the features of The Song of Wade excerpts in the Humiliamini sermon that most confused scholars was the mention of 'elves,' which made the poem seem more epic and folktale-ish than chivalric and romantic. This unexpected theme didn't make much sense in Chaucer's text, either. 'Changing elves to wolves makes a massive difference. It shifts this legend away from monsters and giants into the human battles of chivalric rivals,' Falk explained in a University of Cambridge statement. 'It wasn't clear why Chaucer mentioned Wade in the context of courtly intrigue,' Wade (the researcher) added. 'Our discovery makes much more sense of this.' In Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, for example, a character named Pandarus tells Criseyde the 'tale of Wade' after dinner. Falk and Wade, who argue that Pandarus wants to evoke Criseyde's passions, explain that a chivalric romance makes more sense within this context. As for the Humiliamini sermon, this new reading makes it all the more interesting. 'Here we have a late-12th-century sermon deploying a meme from the hit romantic story of the day,' Falk explained. 'This is very early evidence of a preacher weaving pop culture into a sermon to keep his audience hooked.' Falk described it as a 'creative experiment at a critical moment when preachers were trying to make their sermons more accessible and captivating.' The researchers suggest that the author of the Humiliamini sermon was most likely the English late-medieval writer Alexander Neckam, who lived from 1157 to 1217. More broadly, the sermon speaks of humility in an unusual fashion, comparing powerful, plundering men to wolves and deceitful people to snakes. According to Wade, it delivers a timeless warning: that humans are a greater threat than monsters.
Daily Mail
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Chaucerian mystery is SOLVED after 800 years: Scientists decode lost English legend to find it was a romance, not a monster-filled epic
A medieval literary puzzle which has confounded scholars for 130 years has finally been solved. Cambridge University experts now believe the Song of Wade - a long-lost work which dates back to 12th Century England - was a chivalric romance, rather than a monster-filled epic. They say the discovery finally solves the most famous mystery in Geoffrey Chaucer's writings, and also provides 'rare evidence' of a medieval preacher referencing 'pop culture' in a sermon. The breakthrough, described in the journal The Review of English Studies, involved working out that the manuscript refers to 'wolves' rather than 'elves' - as experts previously assumed. Dr James Wade and Dr Seb Falk, both of Girton College, Cambridge, argue that the only surviving fragment of the Song of Wade - first discovered by scholar and ghost story writer M.R. James in Cambridge in 1896 - has been 'radically misunderstood' for the last 130 years. Dr Falk, a scholar of medieval history and history of science, said: 'Changing elves to wolves makes a massive difference. 'It shifts this legend away from monsters and giants into the human battles of chivalric rivals.' Dr Wade, an expert on English literature from the Middle Ages, said: 'It wasn't clear why Chaucer mentioned Wade in the context of courtly intrigue. 'Our discovery makes much more sense of this.' Dr Falk added: 'Here we have a late-12th Century sermon deploying a meme from the hit romantic story of the day. 'This is very early evidence of a preacher weaving pop culture into a sermon to keep his audience hooked.' Dr Wade said: 'Many church leaders worried about the themes of chivalric romances - adultery, bloodshed, and other scandalous topics - so it's surprising to see a preacher dropping such 'adult content' into a sermon.' In 1896, M.R. James was looking through Latin sermons from Peterhouse's library in Cambridge when he was surprised to find passages written in English. He consulted another Cambridge scholar, Israel Gollancz, and together they announced that they were verses from a lost 12th-century romantic poem which they called the Song of Wade. James promised further comment, but that never came. More than 120 years passed with no new evidence coming to light. Dr Wade said: 'Lots of very smart people have torn their hair out over the spelling, punctuation, literal translation, meaning, and context of a few lines of text.' The present day Cambridge team argue that three words have been misread by scholars, because of misleading errors made by a scribe who transcribed the sermon. They say the letters 'y' and 'w' became muddled. Correcting those and other errors transforms the translated text. It was previously thought to read: 'Some are elves and some are adders; some are sprites that dwell by waters: there is no man, but Hildebrand only.' The new version goes: 'Thus they can say, with Wade: "Some are wolves and some are adders; some are sea-snakes that dwell by the water. There is no man at all but Hildebrand."' The Cambridge team explained that Hildebrand was Wade's supposed father. While some folk-legends and epics refer to Hildebrand as a giant, if the Wade legend was a chivalric romance, as the study argues, Hildebrand was probably understood to be a normal man. Wade was a major romance hero throughout the Middle Ages, alongside other famous knights such as Lancelot and Gawain. Chaucer twice evoked Wade in the late 1300s, but those references have baffled generations of Chaucer scholars. At a crucial moment in Chaucer's epic poem Troilus and Criseyde, Pandarus tells the 'tale of Wade' to Criseyde after supper. The new study argues that the Wade legend served Pandarus because he not only needed to keep Criseyde around late, but also to stir her passions. The Cambridge team say that by showing that Wade was a chivalric romance, Chaucer's reference makes much more sense. Chaucer's main character in The Merchant's Tale, a 60-year-old knight called January, refers to Wade's boat when arguing that it is better to marry young women than old. The Cambridge researchers say the fact that his audience would have understood the reference in the context of chivalric romance, rather than folk tales or epics, is 'significant'. Dr Wade said: 'This reveals a characteristically Chaucerian irony at the heart of his allusion to Wade's boat.' Dr Falk added: 'The sermon itself is really interesting. 'It's a creative experiment at a critical moment when preachers were trying to make their sermons more accessible and captivating. 'I once went to a wedding where the vicar, hoping to appeal to an audience who he figured didn't often go to church, quoted the Black Eyed Peas' song 'Where is the Love?' in an obvious attempt to seem cool. 'Our medieval preacher was trying something similar to grab attention and sound relevant.' Dr Wade added: 'This sermon still resonates today. 'It warns that it's us, humans, who pose the biggest threat, not monsters.' The researchers also identified late-medieval writer Alexander Neckam for the first time as the most likely author of the Humiliamini sermon. The 800-year-old document is part of MS 255, a Peterhouse Cambridge collection of medieval sermons. The researchers noticed 'multiple similarities' in the arguments and writing style of Alexander Neckam, leading them to believe that he probably wrote the sermon. Dr Falk added: 'This sermon demonstrates new scholarship, rhetorical sophistication, and inventiveness, and it has strategic aims. 'It's the ideal vehicle for the Wade quotation which served an important purpose.'
New York Times
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
A 900-Year-Old Typo May Unravel a Chaucer Mystery
In the 14th century, you would have known exactly what he meant. Geoffrey Chaucer, often regarded as the first great poet in English, drops references at two points in his works to an older poem or story, the Tale of Wade, that seems to have needed no explanation in his own time but has since all but disappeared. The one surviving fragment — a few lines of verse quoted in a 12th-century sermon and rediscovered in the 1890s — only left scholars more puzzled. Now, two Cambridge University academics, James Wade (whose family name is coincidentally shared with the tale) and Seb Falk, believe they may have unlocked the riddle by correcting a mishap that remains familiar to publishers almost a millennium later. Call it a medieval typo. The fragment seemed to refer to a man alone among elves and other eerie creatures — something from the story of a mythological giant, or of a heroic character like Beowulf who battled supernatural monsters. That would make it a surprising tale for a romantic go-between to read to a maiden, as happens in Chaucer's 'Troilus and Criseyde,' or to appear as an allusion in one of his 'Canterbury Tales' about a wealthy man marrying a younger woman. The new research, published on Wednesday in Britain in 'The Review of English Studies,' suggests that the 'elves' sprang from a linguistic error by a scribe, who miscopied a word that should have meant 'wolves,' and that Wade in fact belonged to a chivalric world of knights and courtly love — much more relevant to Chaucerian verse. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
