In “The Ruin,” an Anglo-Saxon poem preserved in the tenth-century Exeter Book, the speaker surveys the crumbling Roman city of Bath, marvelling at walls that survived kingdom after kingdom only to succumb, finally, to time. The speaker is so far removed from the Romans — and the secrets of their stone construction — that the buildings seem to be the work of…
André Babyn
André Babyn studies medieval literature at the University of Toronto. His debut novel, Evie of the Deepthorn, comes out next year.