Widsith

Widsith is a figure and a poem from Old English literature. The name Widsith means "far-traveler" and is often interpreted as a scop, a professional poet and musician in Anglo-Saxon society, who journeyed widely. The poem attributed to him, also called Widsith, is a heroic lay found in the late 10th-century Exeter Book. This poem is not autobiography but rather a fictionalized account of the scop's travels and the various courts he visited.

The poem presents Widsith as a teller of tales who has witnessed the grandeur of many rulers and warriors, both historical and legendary, across different Germanic tribes and even beyond. He recounts his experiences visiting such figures as Eormanric, the king of the Ostrogoths, and Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, whom he famously served. Widsith's narrative is a catalog of Germanic heroic traditions, referencing many figures and events that are also found in other Old English poems like Beowulf, as well as in sources like the Norse sagas and the Gothic historian Jordanes.

The poem offers a valuable glimpse into the values and worldview of the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy. It emphasizes themes of loyalty, generosity, the importance of reputation, and the power of poetry to preserve memory and honor. While the historicity of Widsith himself is debated, the poem serves as a significant repository of Germanic oral tradition and offers rich material for understanding the cultural landscape of the early medieval period. The poem's structure, as a first-person narrative, imbues it with a sense of personal experience, even though it is widely considered to be a literary construct rather than a factual account.