Expositio problematis a rege propositi.
Dunstan's Prophecy Remembered
The author recalls how Saint Dunstan foretold a coming calamity yet also promised consolation, and proposes an allegorical explanation.
For my own part, I have a different mind when I consider that most holy man Dunstan, how he foretold the very calamity itself, and yet nevertheless promised consolation. It can therefore be explained in this way without any impropriety.
The Tree of the English Kingdom
The tree symbolizes the glorious English kingdom, rooted in the royal line anointed from Alfred through Saint Edward.
This tree signifies the kingdom of the English, glorious, fruitful with riches and delights, raised on high by the excellence of royal dignity. The root from which all that honor proceeded was the royal seed, which is said to have been anointed and consecrated as king by the supreme pontiff, passing down in a direct line of succession from Alfred — the first of the English to be so honored — all the way to Saint Edward.
The Cutting and Return of the Tree
The tree was severed when the kingdom passed from the royal line through three kings, but returned when Henry I married Matilda, reuniting Norman and English lines through their descendants.
The tree was cut away from its trunk when the kingdom was divided from the royal line and transferred to another stock. This separation took place over a space of three acres — because across the reigns of three kings there was no common ground between the new royal seed and the old. For Harold succeeded Edward, and William succeeded Harold, and William the younger succeeded his father William. It came back to the root of the tree when glorious King Henry, upon whom all the splendor of the kingdom had been poured, not compelled by any necessity and urged by no hope of gain, but moved by an inward feeling of love, took Matilda, Edward's great-granddaughter, as his wife, joining together the seed of the Norman and English kings and making the two one through the bond of marriage. The tree truly flourished when the empress Matilda descended from both lines.
The Fruit of Reunion
The tree bore fruit in the present Henry, who as cornerstone united both peoples, giving England native-born leaders from the merged lineage.
But it bore fruit at that time when our Henry, rising like the morning star from that same woman, as it were a cornerstone, joined both peoples together.1 England now certainly has a king of English descent, it has bishops and abbots from the same people, it also has princes and the finest soldiers, who were begotten from the union of both lines — an honor to some, a consolation to others.2
A Humble Defense and Return to Narrative
The author defends his interpretation against potential contradiction and signals a return to the main narrative.
If this explanation displeases anyone, let him either offer his own interpretation, or wait for another time in which these things may be fulfilled, lest a prophet be found contradicting a prophet; and let it not be believed that saint Edward denied what we know saint Dunstan promised.3 Having inserted these things perhaps not inappropriately, let us return to the order of the narrative.
Read the original Latin
Mihi sane alia mens est consideranti sanctissimum virum Dunstanum et ipsam calamitatem praedixisse, et consolationem nihilominus promisisse. Potest proinde sic non inconvenienter exponi. Arbor haec regnum Anglorum significat, decorum gloria, divitiis deliciisque fecundum, excellentia regiae dignitatis sublime. Radix ex qua totus honor iste processit regium semen fuit, quod ab Alfredo, qui primus Anglorum a summo pontifice unctus et consecratus in regem fertur, recta successionis linea usque ad sanctum Edwardum descendit. Abscisa est arbor a trunco, quando regnum a genere regali divisum, ad aliud semen translatum est: Ad spatium trium jugerum haec facta est separatio; quia in trium regum temporibus nulla fuit novis cum antiquo semine regali communio. Haraldus enim successit Edwardo, et Willielmus Haraldo, et Willielmus junior patri Willielmo. Accessit ad radicem arbor, quando gloriosus rex Henricus in quem totum regni decus transfusum est, nulla necessitate cogente, nulla spe lucri urgente, sed ex infuso ei amoris affectu abneptem Edwardi Mathildem duxit uxorem, semen regum Normannorum et Anglorum conjungens, et interveniente opere conjugali de duobus unum faciens. Floruit sane arbor, quando de utroque semine imperatrix Mathildis processit.
At tunc fructum fecit, quando de ipsa noster Henricus velut lucifer matutinus exoriens, quasi lapis angularis utrumque populum copulavit. Habet nunc certe de genere Anglorum Anglia regem, habet de eadem gente episcopos et abbates, habet et principes, milites etiam optimos, qui ex utriusque seminis conjunctione procreati aliis sunt honori, aliis consolationi. Si cui haec displicuerit expositio, aut aliter ipse exponat, aut aliud tempus quo haec expleantur exspectet, ne propheta prophetae inveniatur contrarius; nec credatur sanctum Edwardum negasse quod novimus sanctum Dunstanum promisisse. His forte non inconvenienter insertis, ad narrationis ordinem redeamus.
Notes
- 1 ↩The metaphor of Henry as a 'cornerstone' (lapis angularis) joining two peoples echoes Ephesians 2:20 and Isaiah 28:16; the 'morning star' image (lucifer matutinus) carries messianic resonance.
- 2 ↩semen (seed/line) rendered as 'lines' to convey dynastic descent rather than biological seed, fitting the genealogical context.
- 3 ↩The phrase 'ne propheta prophetae inveniatur contrarius' echoes a concern for prophetic consistency; the subjunctive chain (exponat, exspectet, inveniatur, credatur) is rendered as jussive requests.
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