Class Conflict and Linguistic Division in Norman England

Norman Rule and Saxon Degradation

The Irony of Daily Life in Norman England

The whole scene sets up a degradation of the daily life of a Saxon in Norman England, full of ironic humor.

Property, Forests, and the Ranger's Authority

On line 22, Gurth mentions the figure of the Ranger of the Forest. For the Normans, land property was much more important than for the Saxons. When they arrived in England, they reinforced the idea of property by identifying people in relation to their land, which can be appreciated in the names of the nobility (e.g., Simon of Montfort, etc.).

They reinforced private property, and forests were no longer common ground, as they used to be during the Saxon period, but were placed under the administration of Royalty and nobility.

There were severe restrictions as well as penalties if the laws were transgressed. Forests could not be used for:

• Cutting wood
• Hunting
• Collecting resources
• Feeding animals

In the story, the Ranger of the Forest appears to have punished Gurth’s dog for violating these laws, because Gurth says the Ranger “cuts the foreclaws off our dogs, and makes them unfit,” and on line 17 the dog is described as “limping.”

Linguistic Class Division: Swine vs. Pork

Gurth asks Wamba for help, but Wamba does not want to move. He tells Gurth that, if he leaves the pigs free, they will be “converted into Normans before morning” (lines 32 and 33).

As Wamba explains, he is referring to the words used to designate the animal. Just like swine becomes pork or ox becomes beef, Saxon words are used to describe the living animal because it is the Saxons who work and take care of them, while the French (Norman) word is used for the prepared food because that is what the Normans enjoy and talk about.

This language division is therefore a clear indicator of the class division. As Gurth reflects, the Saxons are being exploited and humiliated, only left alive so they can work for the Normans on the tasks no noble would want to take care of:

...little is left to us but the air we breathe (...) to endure the tasks they lay upon our shoulders.

Discontent and Exploitation Under Norman Masters

The discontent of the servants for the Norman masters is inferable from the words they pick. Gurth curses the Ranger of the Forest and later negatively refers to the Normans as “foreign masters” (line 59).

Wamba, when associating the pig to the French word pork, underlines that the dead animal, already with a French name, is “hung up by the heels, like a traitor” (line 40).