The Ruined Burg

Introduction

The Ruined Burg is full of sentimental lamentation for a city that has come to ruins. It is not a Christian poem, but it is full of emotions that we do not find in any of Anglo-Saxons poems.

Summary and Analysis

The Ruined Burg is said to be a poem describing the sacking of Bath which took place in 577 after the battle of Deorhaam at the hands of Ceawlin. In the destroyed ruins, Colonnades, halls and for a grew wild vegetation, tall trees, and the ruins were hidden underneath the dense jungle as the city was abandoned by the Saxon who fled into the jungle. After more than a century and a half, monasteries were established in it and new centers of intellectual life buzzed once again.

Wondrous is this wall of stone;

Weirds have shattered it!

Broken on the burg-steads,

Crumbled down the giant’s work!

Fallen are roof-beans, ruined are the towers

All undone the door-pierced turrets;

Frozen dew is on their plaster.

Shorn away and sunken down,

Are the sheltering battlements,

Under – eaten of Old Age! Earth is holding in her clutch

These, the power – wielding workers;

All forworn and all for lorn in death are they.

The poem abounds in rich descriptions of the old buildings, deserted, roofless and tottering. Then the poet goes on to reflect that these buildings were once  richly adorned, full of proud warriors and gay with feasting__ until the day came when their defenders were annihilated. It is in these descriptions of the buildings, baths and their ruined conditions that sentimentality overwhelms the poet. But the poem is bereft of any Christian sentiment.