In the Exeter MS, folios 956-98a, there is a group of Anglo-Saxon poems: the Panther, the Whale, a line or two of a poem on a bird, and, after a break in the MS, a religious application that is generally taken to be part of a poem on a bird. The whole is now generally known as the Anglo-Saxon Physiologus. Two problems exist in regard to the group: (1) Does it constitute a small cycle complete in itself, or is it only the remnant of a longer series? (2) What is the bird of the fragment? ... The writer regrets that the study must at present be left incomplete, since no bird that satisfies all the conditions imposed by the fragments and the small-cycle theory can be suggested. Until such a bird can be found it is impossible to show beyond question that the three Anglo-Saxon poems form a small Physiologus complete in itself. It may be affirmed, however, that the group has not yet been proved a part of a greater cycle. Based as they have been hitherto entirely on order, the arguments for such a conclusion are not convincing. - [Author]

Language: English