The Politics of Babbling in Mum and the Sothsegger

Abstract

This article contends that the alliterative long-line poem Mum and the Sothsegger redefines and develops the meanings of the Middle English verb babelen (to babble). I argue that the Mum-poet shifted the meaning of the word from denoting idle prattle and nonsensical, infantile vocalizations into a simple and transparent form of communication that was ideal for telling truths. Those who babble are directly opposed to those who keep mum or communicate in a subtle and complex manner, obscuring and manipulating the truth through their confusing rhetoric and glosses. The Mum-poet pits simplicity against complexity in his political commentary, advocating for the most straightforward, utilitarian manner of speech in statecraft.