Aldhelm and Beozvulf 337 



asked. Aldhelm mentions Homer three times by name, but gives 

 no evidence in this way of any first-hand knowledge of the poet. 

 Twice, however — once in verse and once in prose — he employs the 

 simile of a wild boar surrounded by attacking dogs to describe a 

 theological or philosophical disputant in the act of routing a band 

 of adversaries. In one of these the disputant is St. Jerome {De 

 Virg. 1649-52I) : 



Namque canes crebro stipant latratibus aprum, 

 Undique vallantes densa cingente corona, 

 Ast ille infestos dispergit dente^ molosos, 

 Et voti compos saltu regnabit in alto. 



^^'hich may be thus translated : 'Thus dogs often surround a wild 

 boar with their barking, encompassing him on every side with a 

 dense ring; but he scatters the worrying hounds with his tusk, 

 thenceforward to hold sway in the high woodland at his own 

 pleasure.' 



In the other, the champion is Theodore of Tarsus (Epist. ad 

 Eahfr}) : 'Etiamsi Theodoras, . . . Hibernensium globo dis- 

 cipulorum, ceu aper truculentus molosorum catasta [caterva?] 

 ringente vallatus, stipetur, limato perniciter grammatico dente, 

 . . . rebelles f alanges discutit.' This would be in English : 

 'Although Theodore is ringed in by a crowd of Irish students, 

 like a fierce wild boar besieged by a snarling pack of hounds, 

 when, all of a sudden, he whets the tusk of scholarship, he puts to 

 flight those rebellious hordes.' Ovid, though he is rather fond of 

 introducing the wild boar into his verse,* has no close parallel to 

 these ; nor has Virgil, except in Aen. 10. 707 fT.^ : 



^ Giles, p. 180; Ehwald, p. 421. 



^ Cf . Gn. Ex. 19-20: 'Eofor sceal on holte toSmaegenes (/. toSmaegene) 

 trum.' 



'Giles, p. 94; Ehwald, p. 493. 



*Thus Met. I. 305; 8. 338 ff. ; 10. 713 ff. ; Ep. 4. 104; F. 2. 231-2; A. A. 

 2. 373-4; but cf. G. 3. 255, 411-2; Aen. 9. 551, etc. 



° 'And like a wild boar driven from the high hills by biting hounds, . . . 

 when he is among the toils, he stands at bay, and rages fiercely, and raises 

 his bristles on his back ; not a man has the courage to show anger or 

 approach nearer, but they attack with darts thrown from afar, and shouts 

 in which there is no risk, whilst the undaunted beast turns deliberately on 

 every side, gnashing with his teeth, and shaking the spears from his back.' 

 (Tr. Lonsdale and Lee.) Cf. 13. 471-5; 18. 583-6 (of a mountain-lion). 



