In the 14th century, you would have known exactly what he meant.
Geoffrey Chaucer, often regarded as the first great poet in English, drops references at two points in his works to an older poem or story, the Tale of Wade, that seems to have needed no explanation in his own time but has since all but disappeared.
The one surviving fragment — a few lines of verse quoted in a 12th-century sermon and rediscovered in the 1890s — only left scholars more puzzled.
Now, two Cambridge University academics, James Wade (whose family name is coincidentally shared with the tale) and Seb Falk, believe they may have unlocked the riddle by correcting a mishap that remains familiar to publishers almost a millennium later.
Call it a medieval typo.
The fragment seemed to refer to a man alone among elves and other eerie creatures — something from the story of a mythological giant, or of a heroic character like Beowulf who battled supernatural monsters.
That would make it a surprising tale for a romantic go-between to read to a maiden, as happens in Chaucer’s “Troilus and Criseyde,” or to appear as an allusion in one of his “Canterbury Tales” about a wealthy man marrying a younger woman.
The new research, published on Wednesday in Britain in “The Review of English Studies,” suggests that the “elves” sprang from a linguistic error by a scribe, who miscopied a word that should have meant “wolves,” and that Wade in fact belonged to a chivalric world of knights and courtly love — much more relevant to Chaucerian verse.
“This Chaucer mystery has been plaguing and puzzling scholars for centuries,” said Dr. Falk, a fellow of Girton College, Cambridge. Editors raised the question of Wade as early as 1598, he said.
Dr. Wade, also a fellow of Girton, said the findings resolved what one scholar described in 1936 as the best known Chaucerian “crux,” or textual problem.
“If the puzzle is why Chaucer was quoting this figure from Teutonic myth in these crucial moments,” Dr. Wade said, “the answer is: He wasn’t.”
Richard North, a professor of English language and literature at University College London, said the authors’ analysis of the 12th-century verse made a good case about the nature of Wade. “I think they are right that he must be a knight from a lost romance rather than a giant from English folklore,” he said.
Others were more circumspect about the implications of the study. Stephanie Trigg, a professor of English literature at the University of Melbourne, Australia, said she was “persuaded by the reading of wolves (not elves)” and said the analysis contained “lots and lots of fascinating details and contexts,” but said: “I’d be cautious about claiming this is a revolutionary way of understanding Chaucer.”
“They really thicken the net of allusions and references that sit behind these tantalizing fragments,” she added. “Am I convinced that our reading of either Chaucerian text is going to change dramatically? Not really.”
The verses at the center of the mystery were discovered by another notable writer: Montague Rhodes James, a medievalist scholar now better known for his ghost stories.
In 1896, while reading 12th-century Latin sermons in the library of another Cambridge college, Peterhouse, he came across a striking passage in English. Working alongside another scholar, Israel Gollancz, he concluded it came from a poem they called the Song of Wade, translating it as:
Some are elves and some are adders; some are sprites that dwell by waters: there is no man, but Hildebrand only.
The new study concludes that the sermon’s scribe confused a runic letter that was still found in Middle English, and pronounced ‘w,’ with the letter ‘y.’ That, it says, turned “wlves” into “ylves.” The scholars also argue that the word formerly translated as sprites, “nikeres,” refers to sea snakes. Drawing on the Latin text around it, they suggest the passage concerns beastly human behavior, translating it as follows:
Some are wolves and some are adders; some are sea snakes that dwell by the water. There is no man at all but Hildebrand.
“Here were three lines apparently talking about elves and sea monsters which exactly puts you in this world of Beowulf and other Teutonic legends,” said Dr. Wade. “What we realized is that there are no elves in this passage, there are no sea monsters and, in the study of the handwriting, everyone has gotten it wrong until now.”
The research took three years, he said, adding that he believed the error occurred because the scribe was chosen for familiarity with Latin.
“One’s suspicion, although we can’t prove this, is that the reason he messes up the Middle English is because he’s never written English before,” said Dr. Wade.
The mentions of Wade, the two academics argue, show both the sermon’s author and Chaucer deploying contemporary popular culture to appeal to a wider audience in the way that politicians, artists or preachers still do today.
“The way the poem is quoted in the sermon as a meme — something which was widely understood — tells us something about how ubiquitous it was,” said Dr. Falk.
Stephen Castle is a London correspondent of The Times, writing widely about Britain, its politics and the country’s relationship with Europe.
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