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Interlace structure in the BlicklingHomiliesPrentice A. Meador Jr. aa Assistant Professor of Speech , University of California ,Los AngelesPublished online: 05 Jun 2009.

To cite this article: Prentice A. Meador Jr. (1971) Interlace structure in the BlicklingHomilies , Quarterly Journal of Speech, 57:2, 181-192, DOI: 10.1080/00335637109383059

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INTERLACE STRUCTURE IN THEBLICKLING HOMILIES

Prentice A. Meador, Jr.

1

GAPLAN defines the homily as "aninformal discourse, a 'conversation'

(in Latin, tractatus popularis), a doc-trinal interpretation of Scripture in afamiliar way, without formal introduc-tion or divisions."1 Clearly within thescope of this definition, the BlicklingHomilies, the manuscripts of which arefound in the library of Blickling Hall,Norfolk, England, constitute a work ofart consistent with the artistic culture itreflects and from which it comes, Anglo-Saxon England. Woven with severalstrands, each homily has a lacertine in-terlace, a complex structure used morefor effect than for clarity. The details arerich, but the pattern does not representa linear structure so characteristic oflater English sermons, a structure close-ly associated with the universities.2 A

Mr. Meador is Assistant Professor of Speech atthe University of California, Los Angeles. Aspecial indebtedness is due Professor John Ley-erle, Director, Centre for Medieval Studies, Uni-versity of Toronto, for his suggestion to under-take a study of this type. His "The InterlaceStructure of Beowulf," University of TorontoQuarterly, XXXVII (October 1967), 1-17, is es-pecially useful in understanding literary inter-lace.

1 Harry Caplan, "A Late Medieval Tractateon Preaching," in Studies in Rhetoric and Pub-lic Speaking in Honor of James Albert Winans(Ithaca, N. Y., 1925), p. 63.

2 The "modern" sermon with linear struc-ture consists of six parts: (1) the theme, (2) theprotheme, (3) the introduction of the theme,(4) the division, (5) the subdivision, and (6)the discussion. For a brief explanation of eachof these parts, see Middle English Sermons, ed.Woodburn O. Ross (London, 1940), pp. xliii-lv.The manuals of instruction to preachers con-tain elaborate descriptions of each of theseparts. See Harry Caplan, "Classical Rhetoricand the Mediaeval Theory of Preaching," Clas-

lack of linear structure has led to theconclusion that the Blickling Homilies"are distinguished by their formlessness,or, more strictly, by the absence of anyform of organization peculiar to ser-mons."3 This paper will attempt to showthat the structure of the Blickling Homi-lies is a rhetorical analogue of the inter-lace designs common in Anglo-Saxon artof the seventh and eighth centuries.When they are read in this artistic con-text with an interlace structure, theBlickling Homilies can be recognized asa rhetorical work parallel to the carpetpages of the Lindisfarne Gospels, havingexcellence in design and execution thatmakes them the rhetorical equivalent ofthat artistic masterpiece.

The Blickling Homilies, the earliestextant English sermons, are consideredto be "not a homogeneous work, but amotley collection of sermons of variousage and quality" which, generally speak-ing, "represent the preaching of thetimes before Aelfric."4 These early Eng-

sical Philology, XXVIII (April 1933), 73-96;"Rhetorical Invention in Some Mediaeval Trac-tates on Preaching," Speculum, II (July 1927),284-295; " 'Henry of Hesse' On The Art ofPreaching," PMLA, XLVIII (June 1933), 340-361; "The Four Senses of Scriptural Interpreta-tion and the Mediaeval Theory of Preaching,"Speculum, IV (July 1929), 282-290; and Th. M.Charland, Artes Praedicandi (Ottawa and Paris,1936), pp. 111-226. No matter how many parts,subdivisions, and dilations are discussed in themanuals for linear structure, Otto A. Dietersuggests that three subdivisions and nine dila-tions are all that could be conveniently shownon the Arbor Picta. See his "Arbor Picta: TheMedieval Tree of Preaching," QJS, LI (April1965), 123-144.

3 Ross, p. xliii.4 John Earle, Anglo-Saxon Literature (Lon-

don, 1884), pp. 213-214; see also Cambridge His-tory of English Literature, ed. A. W. Ward and

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182 THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF SPEECH

lish sermons represent a period consider-ably earlier than the date of the manu-script (971) in which they are preserved.Both in vocabulary and syntactical struc-ture, Aelfric's homilies (991-996) are dis-tinctly more modern. In the BlicklingHomilies, there is an archaic vocabularyagreeing with the old English ofBeowulf; the sentences are complex,though loosely connected by conjunc-tions that express the relation of sub-ordination somewhat indefinitely. Poeti-cal passages in the homilies so resemblepassages in Beowulf that they have beenused to amend several of Beowulf's morepuzzling passages. The homilies are com-posed in England, when interlace motifsreach a complexity of design and skillin execution never equalled since and,indeed, hardly ever approached. In-terlace designs go back to prehistoricMesopotamia; in one form or anotherthey are characteristic of the art of allpeople.5

Of the various ornaments and motifsfrom the eighth and ninth centuries,"the most obvious of them is that wheredesign is completely formal, consistingof plaitwork, a geometrical interlace."6

This type of pattern may be characterised as asurface decoration composed of one or moreribbons or straps of uniform size, which are

A. R. Waller (New York, 1907), I, 126ff. TheBlickling Homilies are ed. and trans, by R.Morris for the Early English Text Society (Lon-don, 1880), Nos. 58, 63, and 73.

5 Charles Rufus Morey, however, presents acontrary view in that he claims that the inter-lace pattern "seems to have no more remoteancestry than the interlaces on the Roman mo-saic pavements in Britain." See his MedievalArt (New York, 1942), p. 184. For an accountof the origin of interlace, see Nils Aberg, TheOccident and the Orient in the Seventh Cen-tury, Part I, The British Isles, Kungl. VitterhetsHistorie och Antikvitets Akademiens Handlin-gar, Del. 56:1 (Stockholm, 1943). See also R. L. S.Bruce-Mitford, Codex Lindisfarnensis, ed. T. D.Kendrick et al. (Oltun and Lausanne, 1956-1960),Vol. II, Book I, Part IV, Chs. 7-10, pp. 197-260.

6 D. Talbot Rice, English Art 871-1100 inThe Oxford History of English Art, ed. T. S. R.Boase (Oxford, 1952), p. 122.

twisted, plaited, knotted, or otherwise inter-woven so as to cover the field with a symmetri-cally disposed design. It occurs in a variety offorms, from the plain twist, or guilloche, tothe elaborate chain composed of knots of tor-turing intricacy and of varied construction,being laid in squares, circles, oblongs, triangles,hexagons, octagons, etc. The more intricateforms are predominant; and, by variety of de-sign and the unerring precision with which theribbons are interwoven so as to cross over andtinder alternately and finally be joined up toeach other, testify to the astonishing capacityof the draughtsman.?

Interlace is made when the ribbons areturned back on themselves to form knotsor breaks that interrupt, so to speak, thelinear flow of the ribbons. For example,the south face of the Bewcastle Crossfrom Cumberland, dated before 710, hasthree panels of knotwork. The lowerpanel (Figure 1) has two distinct knotsformed by two ribbons and connectedtogether, a pattern identical to that onfolio 2 of the Lindisfarne Gospels (Fig-ure 2).8 There are about a thousandseparate pieces of stone surviving frompre-Norman Northumbrian crosses. Oneneed only leaf through W. G. Colling-wood's Northumbrian Crosses of thePre-Norman Age (London, 1927) or G.Baldwin Brown's The Arts in Early Eng-land (London and New York, 1903-1937)to be impressed by the appearance ofone interlace design after another inpreaching crosses, despite their difficultyof execution in stone.

In its purest form interlace consistsof a series of ribbons plaited together;

7 J. A. Brunn, An Enquiry into the Art ofthe 'illuminated MSS. of the Middle Ages(Stockholm, 1897), as quoted in The Book ofKells, ed. Edward Sullivan (London, 1914), p.28.

8 The Bewcastle stands where it was erectedbefore 710 in the churchyard of St. Cuthbertat Bewcastle in Cumberland. The top is brokenaway leaving a truncated shaft 14 feet and 6inches high. This view is taken from southwestangle of the cross. For a comprehensive discus-sion of the cross, see G. Baldwin Brown, TheArts in Early England, Volume V (London,1921), Plate XII.

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INTERLACE STRUCTURE IN THE BLICKLING HOMILIES 183

Figure i

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•'1,1

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when the ribbons are cut, the free endsare often elaborated into zoomorphicheads. In more complex designs thestylized heads take on pronouncedzoomorphic characteristics, often derivedfrom eagles or wolves; the bodies ofthese creatures extend into curvilinearribbon trails that form the interlace de-sign. The heads often bite into thestrands or back on a free end, as on theseventh-century Windsor dagger pommelthat has an open design with clear sepa-ration between the strands of gold (Fig-ure 3).9 Usually, this interlace pattern,

La-Figure 3

Figure 2

which by mid-tenth century began tooverpower the animal patterns, is builtaround a spirited animal not unlike alion, with its tail twisted beneath it; itis usually known as the Great Beast.When the strands are drawn togethermore tightly, the interlace pattern be-comes harder to follow. For instance, thegreat gold buckle (Figure 4) and thegold shoulder clasps (Figure 5) from theSutton Hoo burial ship, both from theseventh century, display nonsymmetricalinterlace pattern. The weave is tighterand the zoomorphic heads are less promi-nent than on the Windsor daggerpommel.10

9 The Windsor dagger pommel, now in theAshmolean Museum, is a fine piece of Anglo-Saxon gold work. It is shown here greatly en-larged, but is only 1.7 inches wide. See Brown,Volume III (New York, 1915), Plate LVI.

10 The great gold buckle from Sutton Hoo is5.5 inches long and weighs nearly 15 ounces;

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184 THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF SPEECH

they have no wings and have canineheads. The abundant appearance of suchserpentines in early Anglo-Saxon artmay well have reinforced belief in theexistence of dragons. An example of suchlacertines may be seen on Folio O ofthe Maeseych Gospels, possibly of York;the zoomorphics play a significant role(Figure 6).12

Figure 4

In Britain, from the tenth century,the interlace style of beast ornamentgives place to a new manner of inter-lace distinguished by the employment ofa characteristic leaf ornament or oflanky beasts or birds in place of thelion-like animals of the earlier style. Theleaf ornament is made up of scrolls orparts of them, treated as interlacings, orof very thin, long leaves, ultimately de-rived from the acanthus; the beasts areof serpentine form and long-necked birdsare also sometimes present. "The man-ner is better suited to manuscript-illum-ination or metalwork than to sculp-ture."11 The serpentine bodies with theirlimbs have a coiled and woven appear-ance and look like dragons even when

its value as good bullion exceeds that of anyobject yet dug up in England. The gold should-er clasps from Sutton Hoo have garnet andenamel cloisonne decoration. For a comprehen-sive discussion of these treasures, see R. L. S.Bruce-Mitford, The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial(London, 1968), Plate B and Plate D.

11 Rice, p. 127.

mm* 7 \ vV1

Figure 6

Designs over an entire folio are calledcarpet pages after their resemblance towoven tapestries. "The draftsman's con-stant aim," Grabor and Nordenfalkwrite, "is to get the maximum of move-ment into the smallest possible space.The decorated surface is changed downto its tiniest cell, with a dynamism whosetensions make the whole compositionseem to be in a state of perpetual mo-tion."13 Perhaps the finest carpet pagesare found in the Lindisfarne Gospels of

12 The Maeseych Gospel Book is in the St.Catherine's Church, Maeseych. The leaves mea-sure about 6.3 by 4.5 inches. This is from FolioO, in color

13 Andre Grabor and Carl Nordenfalk, EarlyMedieval Painting (Skira, 1957), p. 113.

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INTERLACE STRUCTURE IN THE BUCKLING HOMILIES 185

about the eighth century (Figure 2).14

Indeed it is no surprise that in the laterAnglo-Saxon period, these works arethought to be from the hands of angelssince no human could execute such com-plex designs so faultlessly. The Lindis-farne Gospels display a knotwork ofonly two ribbons. The generally circularpattern is elaborated with intricateweaving, but the circular knots are tiedwith long straight bands that bind theseknots together in the total pattern of thepage. With a steady eye and patienceone can follow a band through the entireknotwork design on this page. Graborand Nordenfalk say that "the style orornament we find in books made in themonasteries of the British Isles may bedescribed as a last flowering of prehis-toric art. An artificer skilled in decorat-ing shields with spirals, interlaces andanimal figures was allowed to adorn inmuch the same manner a chalice, a re-liquary or the corner of a GospelBook."15

From the early Anglo-Saxon periodthere are thousands of interlace designssurviving in metalwork, jewelry, in carv-ing on bone, ivory, and stone, and in il-luminations of manuscripts. JohnLeyerle observes that "they are so pro-lific that the seventh and eighth centuriesmight justly be known as the interlaceperiod."16 In one artifact after another,the complexity and precision of designare as impressive as the craftsmanship.Recognition of this high level of artisticachievement is important for it dispelsthe widely held view that early Anglo-Saxon art is vigorous, but primitive andwild. As the interlace motif shows, there

14 This carpet page of the Lindisfarne Gospels(British Museum MS. Cotton Nero D. IV, folio2v) measures about 10.8 by 9.2 inches, in color.

15 Grabor and Nordenfalk, p. 109.16 Leyerle, 3. Similar evidence is cited by E.

Carrigan, "Structure and Thematic Develop-ment in Beowulf," Proceedings of the RoyalIrish Academy, Vol. LXVI, Sect. C, No. 1 (No-vember 1967), pp. 1-51.

is vigor to be sure, but it is controlledwith geometric precision and executedwith technical competence of a very highorder.

The pervasive influence of the inter-lace motif in early Anglo-Saxon art es-tablishes the historical probability of ananalogue in the literary and rhetoricalarts of the same culture. The historicalprobability for the analogue can be es-tablished from the seventh- and eighth-century Latin writers in England, espe-cially Alcuin (735-804). Leyerle showsthat there is ample evidence that inter-lace design has literary parallels in bothstyle and structure in Beowulf.17

Structural interlace characterises theworks of both Aldhelm (656-709) andAlcuin. They intertwine classical cita-tions with direct statements to produceverbal braids in which the classical ref-erences cross and recross with the presentsubject.18 For instance, in his Rhetoric,Alcuin weaves a texture of excerpts fromCicero's De Inventione and Julius Vic-tor's Ars Rhetorica with his own state-ments regarding rhetoric.19 Alcuin's de-vice is self-conscious and writers describehis method as fingere serta or texereserta, "to fashion, to weave, to interlace."Serta (related to Sanskrit sarat, "thread"and to Greek a-eipa, "rope") is from thepast participle of severe, "to weave,braid, interlace," is textus, or "text." Theconnection is obvious, but not oftenclearly indicated: a rhetorical text is astructural interlacing of language toform, in effect, a verbal carpet.

At a structural level, rhetorical inter-

17 Pp. 4-14.18 For further explanation, see Peter Dale

Scott, "Alcuin as a Poet: Rhetoric and Belief inhis Latin Verse," University of Toronto Quar-terly, XXXIII (April 1964), 233-257.

19 The Rhetoric of Alcuin and Charlemagne,ed. Wilbur Samuel Howell (Princeton, N. J.,1941), p. 22.

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lace has a counterpart in tapestrieswhere positional ordering of threads es-tablishes the shape and design of thefabric, whether the medium is thread ina tapestry or language in a homily. Un-fortunately cloth perishes easily and onlya few fragments of Anglo-Saxon tapestrysurvive although the early English werefamous on the continent for their nee-dlework. Since tapestry examples arelost, decorative interlace must serve hereas a graphic presentation of the princi-ple of structural interlace, a concept dif-ficult to explain or grasp without such avisual analogue.

Regarding the disposition of a speech,rhetoricians of the classical and earlymedieval periods distinguish betweennatural and artificial order; they empha-size the former for clarity and the latterfor effect in oral presentation.20 For in-stance, Hermagoras (second centuryB.C.) discusses economy of structure(oLKovo/j.ia) and divides it into judgment,division, style, and order; the latter be-ing either natural or artificial.21 A Latinrhetorician, Sulpitius Victor, in his In-stitutiones Oratoriae 14, indicates thatnatural order involves developing one'sideas chronologically or in priorities;artificial order is when one does not be-gin from the beginning of a speech, butfrom the subdivisions of the middle. Theorator, as Cicero in Pro Milo, antici-pates that certain arguments from thenarration should be developed immedi-ately, while others may come later.22

Other Latin rhetoricians such as For-tunatianus point out that "there aretwo general modes of structure; thenatural and the artificial"; the under-

20 Richard Volkmann, Die Rhetorik derGriechen und Römer (Leipzig, 1885), p. 365.

21 Dieter Matthes, "Hermagoras von Teranos1904-1955," Lustrum, III (1958), 203ff. Cf. GeorgThiele, Hermagoras: ein Beitrag zur Geschichteder Rhetorik (Strassburg, 1893).

22 For the Latin text, see C. Halm, RhetoresLatini Minores (Leipzig, 1863), p. 320. My trans-lation.

standing of each is essentially that ofSulpitius Victor.23 Alcuin's Disputatiode Rhetorica indicates that natural orderachieves greater clarity than artificial:"Clarity in the narration is achieved ifwhat happened first is explained first,and if the order of episodes in the storyis determined by the order of real eventsand times, and if the story is told in suchfashion that the events appear to be realor probable."24 Artificial order for Al-cuin results from an effort to structure aspeech in terms of its effect: "Every de-tail of a speech should be disposed andarranged, not only in respect to itsproper order, but also in respect to itssignificance and its authority; and theprocess of arrangement is conducted asimmediate estimates of usefulness, de-corum, and necessity may have re-quired."25 Alcuin's two lives of St. Wil-librord provide instructive examples ofnatural and artificial order. The proseversion begins with an account of Wil-librord's parents and gives a chronologi-cal account of the Saint's life, death, andthe subsequent miracles at his tomb.The poem, on the other hand, plungesinto the middle of his life with an ac-count of Willibrord's visit to Pippin; thedetails of the Saint's early life are placedat the end. The poem is in simple arti-ficial order, and in the Preface, Alcuinstates that it is for private study but thatthe prose version is for public reading.26

In the Scholia Vindobonensia, aneighth-century commentary on the ArsPoetica of Horace, there is a passage onartificial order of great interest to thesubject of interlace structure in Anglo-

23 For the Latin text of Artis Rhetoricae, iii.I, see Halm, p. 120. My translation.

24 Howell, p. 101.25 Ibid., p. 131.20 De Vita Sancti Willibrordi Archiepiscopi,

cd. B. Krvsch and W. Levison, MGH, ScriptoresRerum Merov (Hanover and Leipzig, 1919),VII, 113-141; this is the prose version. De VitaWillibrordi Episcopi, ed. E. Dümmler, MGH,Poetarum Latinorum Medii Aevi (Berlin, 1881),I, 207-220.

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INTERLACE STRUCTURE IN THE BUCKLING HOMILIES 187

Saxon homilies. The authorship of theScholia is unknown, but its editor at-tributes it to Alcuin or one of his school.The passage is a comment on four lines(42-45) of the Ars Poetica:

Ordinis haec virtus erit et venus, aut ego tailor,Ut iam nunc dicat iam nunc debentia did,Pleraque differat ct praesens in tempus omittat;Hoc amet, hoc spernat promissi carminis

auctor.27

The commentator is particularly inter-ested in the last line, which he regardsas having the force of an independenthortatory subjunctive; he takes hoc . . .hoc in the strong sense of "on the onehand . . . on the other" which wouldhave been expressed by hoc . . . Me inclassical Latin:Hoc, that is, he should say now what ought tohave been said before according to natural or-der; amet auctor promissi carminis, that is,should love artificial order. Hoc, that is, theopposite of artificial order, that is, spernat auc-tor promissi carminis natural order; Horacesays this briefly. For the meaning is as follows:whoever undertakes to make a good poem hav-ing clear order should love artificial order andscorn natural order. Every order is either nat-ural or artificial; artificial order is when onedoes not begin from the beginning of an ex-ploit but from the middle, as does Vergil inthe Aeneid when he anticipates some thingswhich should have been told later and puts offuntil later some things which should have beentold in the present.28

This comment extends the source intoa doctrine on the suitability of artificialorder and takes the Aeneid as an ex-ample. What I have called interlacestructure is, in more general terms, com-plex artificial order. Interlace design isa dominant aspect of eighth-centuryAnglo-Saxon visual art and the Scholia

27 "Of order, this will be the excellence andcharm, unless I am mistaken, that the authoro£ the long-promised poem shall say at themoment what ought to be said at the momentand shall pu t off and omit many things for thepresent, loving this and scorning that."

28 Scholia Vindobonensia ad Horatti ArtemPoeticam, ed. Josephus Zechmeister (Vienna,1877), p . iii.

Vindobonensia present convincing evi-dence that the same design principle isapplied to verbal art. On the basis of thisevidence, an argument is made that theBlickli72g Homilies have a complex arti-ficial order not conducive to clarity inoral delivery, but conducive to effect.

Before I turn to the homilies, a briefsummary of my argument thus far mayhelp. In Anglo-Saxon art of the seventhand eighth centuries, interlace designsappear so regularly that it is the domi-nant characteristic of this art. There isclear evidence that a parallel techniqueof structure-weaving is discussed in bothclassical and early medieval rhetorics.Finally, there is specific statement oftheorists of the early medieval periodthat artificial order, while not preferredfor clarity, was used for effect. Such arti-ficial order I have called interlace struc-ture because the term has historicalprobability and critical usefulness inreading the Blickling Homilies as wellas other works of this period.

For convenience, the nineteen Blick-ling Homilies may be divided intotwo classes: homilies for Sundays andhomilies for festive occasions. Withinthe former class, the homily for "ShroveSunday" has already been analyzed in-to traditional outline form based onlinear structure.29 In contrast to a tra-ditional outline form, an attempt ismade here to show its interlace structureby isolating the ruling motifs, themes, orideas in each unit (exempla and senten-tiae), and to see how they are changed ordeveloped within it. The homilies' the-matic structure, while being far morecomplex than Mosher's theory suggests,is unified and well realized; apparently,

29 For a traditional outline of the homily for"Shrove Sunday," see Joseph A. Mosher, TheExemplum in the Early Religious and Didacticof England (New York, 1966), pp. 25-26.

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188 THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF SPEECH

the speakers reconciled through theirspacious and intricate design the variousconflicting attitudes suggested by theirwidely spread action and materials.30

The symmetry of this homily is strik-ing (Table 1). Examples of rhetoricalthreads (sententiae), intersected by othermaterial (exempla), are easy to perceivein this homily once the structural prin-ciple is understood. The preacher begins

structure of the thirteen sections of thishomily effects an important progressionin its meaning, so that the homily gropestoward, but does not explicitly indicatewhat the practice of repentance in hu-mans will mean to mankind.

The preacher begins with the ex-emplum of Jesus' ride to Jericho whereHe cures the blind man (A^ 1-27). Thisnarrative is interrupted by the allusion

TABLE 1

Homily II

QUINQUAGESIMA OR SHROVE SUNDAY31

C (sententia)(88-99)

C (exemplum) j1 (72-87) /

B (exemplum) 1(57-71) /

B̂^ (exemplum) 1(44-56) /

A2 (sententia) 1(28-43) /

A (exemplum) 1(1-27) /

/ VDi (exemplum)(100-113)

D (sententia)\ (114-126)

\ E (exemplum)\ 1 (127-148)

\ E2 (sententia)\ (149-160)

\ F (exemplum)\ (161-180)

\ Vn (sententia)•V " (181-198)

G (exemplum)(199-217)

at point A1 and eventually returns tothis point by concluding the homilywith an exemplum at point Gv the re-turn of the interlace design to its start.He interlaces the various exemplaacross the sententiae to achieve juxtapo-sitions impossible in a linear structure.The sectional division at once empha-sizes its symmetry and pinpoints thecentral theme, by bisecting the homily atits turning point: "Let us hear, now,that human nature is ever going on,and the divine might standeth everfirm" (C2, lines 88-90a). The interlace

30 Mosher considers the homilies "disjointedin style," due to their "early composition andeclectic borrowings from the Latin." See Mosh-er, p. 26.

31 The Blickling Homilies, pp. 14-25.

to a divine mystery regarding the rela-tionship of God to man (A2, 28-43). Butthe mystery or "knot" can be unraveled.The blind man represents needy man-kind (Bj, 44-56). Jesus' ride to Jerichorepresents Christ's coming into theworld (B2, 57-71). The blind man be-tokens all mankind in sin after the Fall(Cj, 72-87). These three exempla con-tribute to the central theme of the homi-ly that divine might is available to needyhumans (C2, 88-90a). The two centralsections (C2 and Blt 100-113), whichspan the "watershed" of the homily, de-velop one from the other. Divine mightis available to needy humans (C2) andthe blind man sought it to give himsight (Dj). This treatment emphasizes

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INTERLACE STRUCTURE IN THE BUCKLING HOMILIES 189

God's predilection for needy mankind.This main thread is constantly inter-sected by exempla that present God'sconcern from different perspectives. Thefinal sections of the homily show thesocial and spiritual bankruptcy forneedy mankind when it rejects divinemight. These sections begin with thethread that divine light is available (D2,114-126), but spiritual blindness meansthe light is not seen (E1( 127-148).Again, man's meaning and happiness de-pends on his acceptance of divine might(E2, 149-160), and this thread is inter-sected by the allusion to Jesus' accep-tance of divine might (Fj, 161-180). Oncethe probability of parallel design is rec-ognized, the function of some sectionsbecomes clearer. For instance, that man'sworks prove his response to divinemight (F2, 181-198) is clearly pictured atjudgment (G1( 199-217). The homilyconcludes, as it had begun, with anexemplum, the return to its origin.

Of particular interest to this subjectis the way in which the exempla (shortnarratives used to illustrate a generalstatement) in the homily for Shrove Sun-day makes a contribution to the maintheme of the availability of divine mightto needy mankind. The exempla, likeall the elements in the homily, have posi-tional significance: unravel the threadsand the whole fabric falls apart. An ex-emplum, such as the blind man, may notbe taken out of context—recall again theetymology of the word—without impair-ing the interlace design. This design re-veals the meaning of coincidence, therecurrence of human behavior, and thecircularity of time, partly through coin-cidence, recurrence, and the circularityof the medium itself—the interlace struc-ture. It allows for the intersection ofnarrative events without regard for theirdistance in time and shows the interre-lated significance of the exempla with-out the need for any explicit comment

by the preacher. The significance of theinterconnections is left for the audienceto work out for itself. Consequently, thefinal exemplum, which pictures thejudgment day, has meaning becauseJesus cured the blind man, the firstexemplum.

The specific contribution the exemplamake lies in the richness of their possi-bilities: they possess at once the concrete-ness of actual figures and situations, anda clear thematic relevance to their con-text. Their actuality places the exemplaamong the passages of greatest intensityin the homily, giving them an echoingquality that links them with other epi-sodes, and finally with the central actionof the homily. They possess the clarityof image and symbol. Thus, when thethemes prefigured in the exempla cometo dominate the central action of thehomily, they possess a quality of fitting-ness and inevitability, which comes fromhaving lain in the homily's "uncon-scious" since the earlier exempla. Thefunction of the exempla as symbolicstatements of the ideas later to becomeexplicit and central is important. Thedramatic objectivity they possess is usedby the preacher to modulate and trans-form the themes he has "personally" de-livered in a cumulative manner throughexplicit statement. The exempla serve ascatalysts, marking the points where newdevelopments become dominant and en-ter into the progression of the homily'sthemes. The progression is a continuousone, not disjointed.

The structure of the Blickling Homi-lies in no way depends on subtle hints:the relevance of each exemplum andsententia is clear in its context and de-pends primarily on a progression of at-mosphere which is gradual but assimi-lated to the overall rhetorical symmetryof the homily. Three interlace structuresemerge in the sermons for Sunday. (SeeTables 2-4.)

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190 THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF SPEECH

TABLE 2

Sunday Homilies

Homily I. THE ANNUNCIATION OF SAINT MARY pp. 2-13

VI. PALM SUNDAY pp. 64-83

VIII. SOUL'S NEED pp. 96-103

IX. CHRIST THE GOLDEN-BLOSSOM pp. 104-107

B (exemplum) ^ \ B2 (sententia)

A (sententia) / \ C (exemplum)

A (exemplum) / \ Co (sententia)

TABLE 3

Sunday Homilies

Homily IV. THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT pp. 38-53

V. THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT pp. 54-65

VII. EASTER DAY pp. 82-97

X. THE END OF THIS WORLD IS NEAR pp. 106-115

B (exemplum) A \ C (exemplum)

B (sententia) I \ C (exemplum)

A (exemplum) I \ D (exemplum)

A (sententia) I ^ D (sententia)

TABLE 4

Sunday Homilies

Homily III. THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT pp. 26-39

XII. WHIT-SUNDAY pp. 130-137

XIV. THE BIRTH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST pp. 160-169

B2 (exemplum) A \ Ci (sententia)

B j (sententia) I \ C2 isentent'a)

Ao (sententia) I \ D i (exemP^um)

A (exemplum) I s( D (sententia)

The festival sermons of the Blickling lurid tone and in many cases lackingHomilies indicate a very simple inter- Biblical authority, are given as factslace structure, which allows for consid- with absolute assurance and no qualifi-erable narrative. (See Tables 5 and 6). cation. Indeed, it is quite likely that

This group of homilies consists al- Aelfric had the festival sermons of themost wholly of narratives dealing with Blickling Homilies in mind when hethe lives of the Virgin and the apostles, wrote in the preface to his SermonesThe exempla, often of an extremely Catholici, "Then it occurred to my mind

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INTERLACE STRUCTURE IN THE BUCKLING HOMILIES

TABLE 5

Festival Homilies

Homily XVII. DEDICATION OF ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH pp. 196-211

XI. HOLY THURSDAY pp. 114-131

XIII. ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY pp. 136-159

A, (exemplum) B (sententia)

A (sententia) B (exemplum)

11)1

TABLE 6

Festival Homilies

Homily XV. THE STORY OF PETER AND PAUL pp. 170-193

XVIII. FESTIVAL OF ST. MARTIN pp. 210-227

XIX. ST. ANDREW pp. 228-249

Aj (sententia) (A2 (exemplum)

. . . that I would turn this book from theLatin language into the English tongue;not from confidence of great learning,but because I have seen and heard ofmuch error in many English books,which unlearned men, through theirsimplicity, have esteemed as great wis-dom."32 In the sermon of Peter and Paulappears a very long exemplum of an in-teresting contest between Peter and thesorcerer Simon, which for startlingfeatures rivals a similar strife betweenFriar Bacon and Friar Bungay.33 TheDedication of St. Michael's Church con-tains, among other marvelous things, anexemplum of how one Garganus triedto shoot an unruly bull but was himselfkilled by the arrow the wind turnedback, and another one of the mysteriousfootprints before the church door.34 TheFestival of St. Martin recounts resuscita-tions by that saint.35 The exemplum inthe Festival of St. Andrew relates the

32 Aelfric, Homilies of the Anglo-SaxonChurch, ed. Benjamin Thorpe for the AelfricSociety (London, 1843), I, 3. Cf. Mosher, pp.29ff.

33 The Blickling Homilies, pp. 170-193.34 Ibid., pp. 196-211.35 Ibid., pp. 210-227.

appearance of the cross on St. Andrew'sface, his flesh and hair turning into afruit-bearing tree, a stone image sendingout a stream of brine from its mouth athis bidding.36 In short, the festival homi-lies with their simple interlace structureindicates the vogue of fantastic incidentsbased on the lives of saints; it also dis-plays the lack of restraint on the part ofthe preachers and the marvelous cre-dulity of the early Anglo-Saxon audi-ences.

These various themes are some of thethreads that form the interlace struc-ture of the Blickling Homilies. Thethemes in the Sunday homilies make acomplex, tightly knotted lacertine inter-lace that cannot be untied without losingthe design and form of the whole. Thetension and force of the homilies arisefrom the way the themes cross and juxta-pose. (This is less true of the festivalhomilies.) Apparently, few comments areneeded from the preacher because thesignificance comes from the intersectionsand conjunctions of the design. Thesymmetrical grouping of sections is so

36 Ibid., pp. 228-249.

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192 THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF SPEECH

closely tied to the homily's thematic pro-gression that it can hardly be explainedas coincidence. To the authors of theBlickling Homilies, the relations be-tween events are more significant thantheir temporal sequence, and they usea structure that gives them great freedomto manipulate time and concentrate on

the complex interconnections of events.Although the Blickling Homilies give uptheir secrets slowly, the principle of itsinterlace structure as dominant in Anglo-Saxon culture helps to reveal the inter-woven coherence of the exempla as wellas the total design of the homily. Seeingthe whole fabric provides the vital clues.

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