Old English Metres of Boethius - How to Accept the Consolation of Philosophy in an Alliterating Form

Old English Metres of Boethius

  Boethius’ De Consolatione Philosophiae is one of the literary works most widely read and translated in medieval Europe. Translating great works of Latin into Anglo-Saxon in order to enlighten both the learned and the lay must have been an exacting but challenging task for Alfred, and we modern readers enjoy such expanded interpretations of the original context as he intended to teach the clergy first and then to let them further explain the meaning to the laymen of that period of time. Consolatione deals with such general themes as life, death, love, hate, anger, grief, comfort, happiness in the past, etc. that no wonder the work was globalised even in Wessex, a very corner of medieval Europe. In this paper, I try to examine the Metres of Boethius (hereafter the Metres) from various viewpoints, using the Metre 11 as a specimen, though the investigation has been done with all Metres.