Widsith

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An Old English poem preserved in the Exeter Book that lists peoples and kings across Europe ; the legendary bard who recounts his travels and the rulers he has served
2. A early medieval English verse catalogue of tribes and rulers ; the fictional minstrel who narrates it while describing his journeys among courts
3. The anonymous Anglo-Saxon poem of wide-ranging geographical lists ; the storytelling wanderer, a travelling poet, who serves as its speaker

Etymology: Widsith is the Old English poem that opens with its speaker's name, and the name itself is the key to the whole work. "Wīdsīþ" combines "wīd", meaning wide or far, with "sīþ", meaning journey or traveller, so it can be read as "far-traveller." The poem is a catalogue of kings and peoples the speaker claims to have visited, and the title is a label for the wandering minstrel who recites it. The name was not used as a common noun for a traveller in general. It is a coined, descriptive title, and it survives only because the poem preserved it. Its Old English form is the one the source records, and the modern word is simply that name carried over into English.