Pharaoh (Old English poem)

"Pharaoh" is the editorial name given to a fragmentary, eight-line Old English poem on folio 122r of the later tenth-century anthology known as the Exeter Book.

## Genre

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Critical discussion has focused on the genre of the poem.[1] It is preserved in a collection which also contains the Exeter Book Riddles, but is not technically a riddle in form, but rather a dialogic question about arcane wisdom, and is not traditionally counted among the riddles themselves.[2] Other question-and-answer texts in Old English include the much longer Solomon and Saturn.

> The poem bears a certain affinity to one version of the Ioca monachorum, in which the question is posed how many the Egyptians were who pursued the Israelites, and the answer (1,800) depends on one knowing that there were 600 chariots (Ex. 14.7) and three men in each (according to the canticles in the Roman Psalter). One of the two damaged places in the text, Trahern suggests, may actually have provided the reader with the ability to divine the correct answer by referring to three-man chariots.[3]

## Text

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As edited in the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records series, the poem reads:[4]

"Saga me hwæt þær weorudes wære ealles
on Farones fyrde, þa hy folc godes
þurh feondscipe fylgan ongunn...."
"Nat ic hit be wihte, butan ic wene þus,
þæt þær screoda wære gescyred rime
siex hun... ...a searohæbbendra;
þæt eal fornam yþ...
wraþe wyrde in woruldrice."

As translated by Patrick J. Murphy, this reads:

> "Tell me how many troops in Pharaoh's army there were in all, when they in enmity began to pursue God's people.' 'I do not know anything about it, except that I think there was the number of six hundred armed chariots, which the tumult of the waves swept away; it fiercely destroyed it in the kingdom of the earth."[5]

## References

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1. ^ Principally Joseph B. Trahern, 'The Ioca Monachorum and the Old English Paraoh’, English Language Notes, 7 (1970-71), 165-68.
2. ^ Patrick J. Murphy, Unriddling the Exeter Riddles (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011), pp. 34-36.
3. ^ Robert D. Fulk, Christopher M. Cain (eds), A History of Old English Literature, 2nd edn (Chichester: Wiley, 2013), citing Joseph B. Trahern, 'The Ioca Monachorum and the Old English Paraoh’, English Language Notes, 7 (1970-71), 165-68.
4. ^ Krapp, George Philip and Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie (eds), The Exeter Book, The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, 3 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936), p. 223; digitised at http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/ascp/a03_28.htm.
5. ^ Patrick J. Murphy, Unriddling the Exeter Riddles (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011), p. 34.

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Old English poetry

Poems|

| Nowell Codex|

* Beowulf
* Judith

|

Junius MS|

* Genesis A, B
* Exodus
* Daniel
* Christ and Satan

Vercelli Book|

* Andreas
* "The Fates of the Apostles"
* "Soul and Body I"
* Dream of the Rood
* Elene
* "Homiletic Fragment I"

Exeter Book|

* "Christ I"
* "Christ II"
* "Christ III"
* "Guthlac A, B"
* "Azarias"
* "The Phoenix"
* "Juliana"
* "The Wanderer"
* "The Gifts of Men"
* "Precepts"
* "The Seafarer"
* "Vainglory"
* "Widsith"
* "The Fortunes of Men"
* "Maxims I"
* "The Order of the World"
* "The Rhyming Poem"
* "The Panther"
* "The Whale"
* "The Partridge"
* "Soul and Body II"
* "Deor"
* "Wulf and Eadwacer"
* Riddles 1–59
* "The Wife's Lament"
* "The Judgment Day I"
* "Resignation"
* "The Descent into Hell"
* "Alms-Giving"
* "Pharaoh"
* "The Lord's Prayer I"
* "Homiletic Fragment II"
* Riddle 30b
* Riddle 60
* "The Husband's Message"
* "The Ruin"
* Riddles 61–95

Metrical charms|

* "Æcerbot"
* "Against a dwarf"
* "Against a Wen"
* "A Journey Charm"
* "For a Swarm of Bees"
* "For Loss or Theft of Cattle"
* "For Delayed Birth"
* "For Water-Elf Disease"
* "Nine Herbs Charm"
* "Wið færstice"

Chronicle poems|

* "Battle of Brunanburh"
* "Capture of the Five Boroughs"
* "The Coronation of Edgar"
* "The Death of King Edgar"
* "The Death of Alfred"
* "The Death of Edward"
* "The Rime of King William"

Other poems|

* "Metres of Boethius"
* "Paris Psalter" (BNF MS 8824)
* "Finnsburh Fragment"
* "Waldere A, B"
* "The Battle of Maldon"
* "Durham"
* "Rune poem"
* Solomon and Saturn
* "The Menologium"
* "Maxims II"
* "Proverb from Winfrid's time"
* "Judgment Day II"
* "An Exhortation to Christian Living"
* "A Summons to Prayer"
* "The Lord's Prayer II"
* "The Gloria I"
* "The Lord's Prayer III"
* "The Creed"
* "Old English Psalms" (fragments)
* "The Kentish Hymn"
* "Psalm 50"
* "The Gloria II"
* "A Prayer"
* "Thureth"
* "Aldhelm"
* "The Seasons for Fasting"
* Cædmon's "Hymn"
* "Bede's Death Song"
* "Leiden Riddle"
* "Latin-English Proverbs"
* Metrical Preface and Epilogue to Alfred's Hierdeboc
* Metrical Preface to Wærferth's translation of the Dialogues
* Metrical Epilogue to CCCC MS 41
* Brussels Cross
* Ruthwell Cross

Poets|

* Aldhelm
* Cædmon
* Cynewulf

Other|

* Alliterative verse
* Beasts of battle
* Kennings
* On Translating Beowulf
* Scop

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