Though glossed versions are readily available, I have appended the text of "Maiden in the Mor Lay."
If medieval English poetry had a hit parade, “Maiden in the mor lay” would be near the top. Since it was first published in 1907 this mysterious poem has enjoyed great popularity and has been frequently reprinted and anthologized. [1] It survived, as is often the case with such lyrics, by merest chance. The poem was recorded in a manuscript containing miscellaneous works on a single rectangular vellum page glued into the flyleaf of a codex, one of twelve poems or fragments called the Rawlinson lyrics. The exact number is uncertain because some verses are apparently first lines only, meant perhaps like a title to remind the reader of a song, or written in written in compressed style to save space. Among these poems, recorded most likely by whimsical chance, is one of the most well-known and controversial of medieval English lyrics “Maiden in the mor lay.” The poem’s obscurity, mentioned by virtually all commentators, has not limited its popularity; it is surely one of the most well-known lyrics of its time, and its interpretation has generated a considerable literature.
The diversity of critical opinion indicates the poem’s beguiling
underdetermination. Often with substantial
reason, the “maiden” has been identified with the Virgin Mary, with Mary
Magdalene, with a human lover, a deity or water spirit, and ultimately with the
Great Mother. [1] The more polemical researchers
claim an exclusive validity for a single interpretation, ignoring the
characteristically poetic quality of polysemy.
My own favorite among the range of learned speculations is Peter Dronke’s
which combines pre-Christian animism, the maiden a sort of “water-sprite,” and convincingly
suggests that the verses were accompanied by a performative routine involving
dance and mime.
My receptivity to Dronke’s reading is primarily determined by my impression
of the text and not by research, though it seems plausible. Though spirits of the type called “nixies”
were more common in Continental Germanic territories, pagan festivals were
known to be centered at the sites of English wells. [3] The poem itself, though, must be the most
persuasive evidence. The maiden is unquestionably
supernatural. Her enigmatic passivity
and ethereal diet indicate her otherworldly character -- her simple being is
represented as portentous. She need take
no action.
The question and answer form resembles a catechism as well as indicating
the popular origin of the poem. The
speaker is inquiring into a mystery the bottom which may never be seen. Yet it is unlikely to be the Christian myth
operating here. The Rawlinson lyrics
written on the same page seem all to have been secular and this particular one
was included in the Bishop of Ossory’s list of “lewd” songs whose lyrics he
proposed replacing with more pious Latin verses of his own invention. [4] Though images such as the rose and the lily
certainly have Christian associations, no definitely Christian references or
symbols appear in “Maiden in the mor lay.”
The mythic figure at the center of the poem is sufficiently
underdetermined, in fact, that further details of the situation are
unrecoverable. The maiden is not
described, as most romantic love-objects are, in terms of her beauty, nor is
she said to be perfect or immaculate as Mary often is. The reader is left with only a mystery, but
it is one many find beguiling. The
cryptic woman at the well carries simultaneous associations woth a number of
pre-Christian and Christian figures while never being wholly identified with
any. At the same time she represents far
broader semantic territory: the other, the female, the uncontrollable, the
marvelous. In fact, a significant amount
of the poem’s original appeal may have been its affording a visionary glimpse,
an amazing sight enjoyable because so extraordinary. If the experience is in part a theophany, it
is also akin to the pleasure of a 1950s filmgoer watching aliens in a science
fiction movie or a visitor to the curiosities of a carnival side-show.
In fact because of the minimal information the poem offers and its
continued questioning signaling that the scene is enigmatic even to its narrator,
the repetitions and the hypnotic rhymes make all the greater an
impression. The reader or listener is
placed in the position of an initiate only part way through the ritual, moved
more by wonder than understanding.
Information is lacking, just as it is in life.
While the complex of woman,
water, and welcome vegetation links these late medieval lines to the earth
mother goddesses of the Neolithic Age, [5] the passage of time does not merely
cause the initial significance to fade, instead, it becomes crowded with new and
ever-richer connotations. The field of
meaning grows complex indeed, and its silences and absences can influence
reception as much as its explicit content.
The scholarly intention to establish a unitary reading flows contrary to
the artistic construction of a web of partial insight in which suggestivity matters
more than any conclusion. If such a
problematic vision is then couched in melodious form, rhythmic and rhyming, and
performed by skilled professionals to delight an idle hour, it reflects what is
perhaps the deepest insight available to mortals. When presented in an artful and diverting
form, it accomplishes thereby the ends of art.
Exhaustive interpretation could only impoverish this song.
1.
Appearing first edited by Wilhelm Heuser in Anglia, the poem’s
exposure grew immensely when it was included in Kenneth Sisam’s 1921 anthology Fourteenth
Century Verse & Prose and in many anthologies and textbooks since.
2.
D. W. Robertson in “Historical
Criticism,” (English Institute Essays 1950, ed. A. S. Downer, 3-31) used
the poem as an example of the value of “patristic exegesis” which emphasizes
the importance of traditional Christian symbology in medieval literature. E. Talbot Donaldson (in Speaking of
Chaucer, 150-152) criticizes Robertson ‘s “patristic” reading, suggesting a
more naturalistic interpretation. E. M.
W. Tillyard preferred to see her as Mary Magdalene, or alternatively as Mary of
Egypt (The Secular Lyric in Middle English, 159) and Joseph C. Harris
seconded the view in “'Maiden in the mor lay' and the medieval Magdalene
tradition,” Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1 (1971):
59-87. Associations with pagan practices,
such as “sacred dances of the ancient nature tradition,” are emphasized by John
Speirs in Medieval English Poetry: The Non-Chaucerian Tradition (62-64)
and by Peter Dronke in The Medieval Lyric, 195-196 and R. A. Waldron, Simple
Forms: Essays on Medieval English Popular Literature, 226.
3. See, for instance, Charles Read Baskervill, “Dramatic Aspects of Medieval Folk
Festivals in England,” Studies in
Philology , Jan., 1920, Vol. 17, No. 1, 19-87. Baskervill cites a monastic fifteenth century
source that draws on earlier descriptions of celebrations for St. John's Eve at
which “it was customary to feast and drink, to engage in dancing and in base ludi
conducive to lechery, to build bonfires, to carry torches through the
fields, and to roll flaming wheels down the hill.” According to Baskervill “Well worship”
“played an important part in Anglo-Saxon worship.” He mentions as well church condemnation of quasi-pagan
gatherings held “on the moor” in Durham. (68-69)
4.
See Richard L. Greene, “’The Maid of the Moor' in the Red Book of
Ossory,” Speculum Vol. 27, No. 4 (Oct., 1952), 504-506.
5. The literature
includes the groundbreaking Mother Right (Mutterrecht) by Johann Jakob
Bachofen, the Jungian Erich Neumann’s Great Mother: An Analysis of the
Archetype (Die große Mutter. Der Archetyp des grossen Weiblichen)
and Marija Gimbutas’ works.
In the mor lay,
Sevenyst fulle
Sevenist fulle.
Maiden in the mor lay,
In the mor lay,
Sevenistes fulle ant a day.
Welle was hire mete:
Wat was hire mete?
The primerole ant the,
The primerole ant the,
Welle was hire mete:
Wat was hire mete?
The primerole ant the violet.
Welle was hire dryng:
Wat was hire dryng?
The chelde water of the,
The chelde water of the,
Welle was hire dryng:
What was hire dryng?
The chelde water of the welle spring.
Welle was hire bour:
Wat was hire bour?
The red rose an te,
The red rose an te,
Welle was hire bour:
Wat was hire bour?
The rede rose an te lilie flour.
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