The Saxon Lyre: History,

Construction, and Playing

Techniques

by Dofinn-Hallr Morrisson and Thóra Sharptooth

 Copyright (c) 1992, 1995 Greg Priest-Dorman and Carolyn Priest-Dorman.
This document is provided as is without any express or implied warranties.
While every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information
contained, the authors assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for
damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this document
for non-commercial purposes provided the copyright notice and this permission
notice are preserved on all copies.

This is an expansion and correction of a class pamphlet Dof has used at var-
ious East Kingdom University sessions.

The authoritative version of this document exists at http://www.cs.vassar.edu

/ priestdo/lyre.html.

$Id: lyre.html,v 1.3 1995/12/27 12:26:45 priestdo Exp $

The lyre, a particular type of stringed instrument, has proved enduringly popular
in many parts of the world. In northern Europe the Germanic tribes played a
type of lyre called in Old English the hearpa. Mentioned in Beowulf, the lyre
may have been the istrument to accompany the performance of Anglo-Saxon po-
ems and stories such as Beowulf. The remains of several such "Germanic lyres"
and their bridges have been found in Saxon and Frankish graves in Germany and
England; they range in date from the fifth through the tenth century (Crane, 10).
The most famous is no doubt the one from the Sutton Hoo excavation, currently
dated to the early seventh century. Sufficient information exists about the Saxon
lyre to permit reasonable reconstruction and play of the instrument, and that is
the subject of this article.

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Contents
Playing the Lyre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Selecting Strings for Your Lyre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Building Your Saxon Lyre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Option 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Tools Required: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Materials Required: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Construction of Option 1 Lyre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Option 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Tools Required: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Materials Required: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Construction of Option 2 Lyre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Options 1 and 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Stringing and Tuning the Lyre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Playing the Lyre

From the earliest times, depictions of lyres fall into two categories: those with
seven or fewer strings and those with eight or more strings. Consistent across
3,000 years of depictions of people playing lyres are two playing styles. Those
lyres having seven or fewer strings are depicted being played in a fashion I will
describe later that I call "block and strum." Those with eight or more strings
are depicted with each hand separately plucking the strings, much as harps are
played to this day.
Several early medieval illuminations depict people playing lyres with seven or
fewer strings. Eliminating those depictions that post-date the time when the lyre
seems to have been common (that is, depictions from after the eleventh century)
on the assumption that the artist had never seen someone actually playing the
instrument, and focusing on those illustrations actually contemporary in age with
the finds, one can see that there is great consistency in the way the instrument is
held and the way the hands are placed on the instrument. The lyre is usually held
upright resting on one or the other leg; the left hand is behind the instrument
with the fingers spread, apparently against the strings. The right hand may hold
some kind of plectrum. In those cases where there is no plectrum, the right hand
appears to be strumming the strings backhanded, which would result in striking
3
with the fingernails. Typical of these is the illumination of King David from the
Vespasian Psalter (circa early 8th century); see Figure 1 for a redrawing of this
illumination.
While the individual musician could have done any number of things possible
on the instrument, the most likely way to play seems to me to be "block and
strum." By this I mean strumming across the strings, either with the back of
the hand or with a pick held in the front (usually right) hand, while at the same
time blocking selected strings from behind with the back (usually left) hand so
the strings you are touching with the back hand do not sound. This is very
comfortable to do and produces pleasing results. It matches the arm, hand, and
wrist positions in the illuminations and allows for comfortable support of the
instrument.
Additionally, of the finds that have openings in the back of discernible size,
the openings are longer than one half the string length. This would allow the
left hand to produce half-length harmonics for occasional highlights. To do these
you would pluck the individual string, which is the way I think plucking would
be used occasionally.
We do have a statement contemporary with the instrument's use mention-
ing how it was tuned, and an example of at least one piece of music for it.
Hucbald's De Harmonica Institutione (ca. 880) contains discussion and an il-
lustration of lyre tablature for the common 6-string lyre along with tuning in-
formation. Hucbald is explaining the work of Boethius, and gives his audience
an example of how Boethius' musical system would describe their lyres. Thus
Hucbald's examples are descriptive rather than prescriptive of the tuning found
in his day. He notes that intervals between the strings of the lyre are tone-tone-
semitone-tone-tone (Hucbald, 22-23). In modern notation, that tuning maps to
C-D-E-F-G-a, or D-E-F#-G-a-b, these being the first six notes of a major scale
or, looked at another way, the last three and first three notes of a major scale,
or the last note followed by the first five notes of a Dorian scale.

Selecting Strings for Your Lyre

The following recommendations for strings are based on standard guitar strings,
which are readily available in music shops. Steel strings are louder than nylon;
however, steel puts the instrument under greater pressure than nylon. Use steel
strings if you choose to build Option 1, and nylon if you choose to build Option
2. Option 1, having a plywood belly and back, benefits from the louder steel
strings. Option 2, having a single-grained belly and the routed-out back, has a
louder box and can make use of the nylon strings that sound closer to the sound
of gut strings. If you find a cheap source for "gut," use those.
The following specifications are based on a measurement of 20" from tuning
pin to bridge and approximately 30" overall instrument length. If the distance
between your tuning pins and bridge is longer than 20", use slightly lower tunings;
if the distance is shorter than 20", use slightly higher tunings.
4
 To buy steel strings, ask for one each of strings 024, 020, 017, 015, 013, 011.
These numbers refer to gauge. On your lyre, tune the lowest string to C or D.
To buy nylon strings, ask for two each of strings G, b, and e. On your lyre,
tune the lowest string (a G string) up to b, resulting in a tuning of b-flat-c-d-e-
flat-f-g.

Building Your Saxon Lyre

It is not the goal of this section to describe how to build a reproduction of
an actual historical lyre. The best two authors to go to for information if you
wish to build a reproduction of a historical lyre are Crane and Bruce-Mitford.
This section tell how to make a hybrid lyre using modern tools and construction
methods for the sake of getting one into your hands so you can learn how to
play it. I would love to see people constructing their lyres in the way we believe
medieval lyremakers to have constructed theirs, but that is another article.
I suggest you build your first lyre one of two ways:
1. Using power tools and a simple design not exactly like the period examples;
or
2. Using power tools and a design representing a combination of the finds.
Figure 2 shows the nomenclature and component parts of this type of lyre. Fig-
ures 3 and 4 and their associated tables summarize the known physical evidence
for extant lyres of this type. Look over the evidence and the other illustrations,
read over the two methods, and then pick Option 2 if you have some skill with
a router, Option 1 if you don't. A high estimate of the cost of materials cost is
under $50 (1995 wood prices, USA).

Option 1
Tools Required:
This lyre is made of a strong hardwood internal framework (the body) glued
between two layers of thinner wood (the back and belly). It has a large hole
through it across which the strings are strung (the handhole). See Figure 5.
• Jigsaw or sabre saw and wood blade (If you are using a sabre saw instead
of a jigsaw you will also need a small coping saw for cutting out the bridge
and tailpiece.)
• Drill; bit for starter holes for saw, bit for tuning pins (usually 3/16" works
for zither pins), bit for peg at bottom of lyre, small drill bit for holes for
violin strap, tiny bit for string holes in tail piece
• Sanding device(s) of your choosing
• Clamps, clamps, clamps (or at least some bricks and boards)
5
Materials Required:
• Hardwood, oak or maple, for the body (see chart for size). (This can be a
piece of joined wood. I have used maple shelves, available at many home
centers.)

• Small piece of hardwood about 1/4" thick for the bridge and tailpiece

• Hardwood dowel for end peg--38" diameter is good, about 2" long

• Cheap 1/4" 3-ply paneling for the belly and back (Make sure there is a
clear area between any decorative grooving in the paneling as wide as your
lyre is going to be to get what you want.)

• Metal tuning pins (get a few extra for testing hole size); you can use zither
pins or piano pins.

• Violin end peg strap

• About 100 small brass brads or round headed tacks, nails, etc.

• Wood glue

• Boiled linseed oil, a small clean glass jar, and rags for finishing

• Tuning key to fit the pins you got (they are not all the same!)/

Construction of Option 1 Lyre

1. Using the information in the figures and tables, and the wood available to
you, make a pattern for your body, including the hand hole and sound box.
Transfer the pattern to your piece of hardwood.

2. Cut out the body of the lyre. Then cut out the hand hole and the sound
box from the body. The resulting piece is the supporting framework for
your lyre.

3. Check your lyre framework against your pattern. If it differs, trace the
framework onto another piece of paper and do all subsequent steps using
this new pattern.

4. Mark and cut a back and belly out of paneling. Do not cut out the handhole
yet.

5. Sand the entire framework. Be careful not to round the two surfaces to
which the back and belly will be glued. Put a mark in the dead center of
the outside of the bottom edgefor the end peg. This will also help you tell
where the handhole is to go later.
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 6. Using wood glue, glue the back and belly to the body. Clamp it well and
let the glue dry completely (usually overnight).

7. Cut out the hand hole in the paneling. If you have forgotten which end is
the hand hole end, look for the mark for the end peg.

8. Continue as outlined below in "Options 1 and 2." Include all the instructions
listed in parentheses.

Option 2
The differences between making this lyre and the one above are

1. using a router to make the sound box so there is no bottom board

2. using a better quality (not ply) wood for the top board

3. using extra pieces of wood with the grain running in a different direction
to reinforce the area around the tuning pins See Figure 6 for an indication
of how the insides of this lyre differ from the one in Figure 5.

Tools Required:
• Router and bit (I recommend a 3/16" or 1/4" cut diameter straight bit.)

• Jigsaw or sabre saw and wood blade (If you are using a sabre saw instead
of a jigsaw you will also need a small coping saw for cutting out the bridge
and tailpiece.)

• Drill; bit for starter holes for saw, bit for tuning pins (usually 3/16" works
for zither pins), bit for peg at bottom of lyre, small drill bit for holes for
violin strap, tiny bit for string holes in tail piece

• Sanding device(s) of your choosing

• Clamps, clamps, clamps (or at least some bricks and boards)

Materials Required:
• 1/4" hardwood panel for belly, tuning area supports, bridge and tail piece

• 4/4 hardwood (see chart for size) for body

• Hardwood dowel for end peg--3/8" diameter is good, about 2" long

• Metal tuning pins (get a few extra for testing hole size); you can use zither
pins or piano pins.
7
 • Violin end peg strap

• About 50 small brass brads or round headed tacks, nails, etc.

• Wood glue

• Boiled linseed oil, a small clean glass jar, and rags for finishing

• Tuning key to fit the pins you got (they are not all the same!)

Construction of Option 2 Lyre

1. Using the information in the figures and tables, and the wood available to
you, make a pattern for your body and a pattern for your reinforcing pieces.

2. Cut out the body of the lyre from the 4/4 hardwood.

3. Rout out the sound box from the body to a depth of /4". You may have
to do that in steps depending on how strong your router is and how good
you are at using it. It's better to take it down 1/4" at a time than to go
through the side accidentally.

4. Leave a wide enough section of unrouted wood down the center of the cavity
to support the plate of your router while you do the rest of the routing.
Then take a 3/4" thick block of wood and screw it to the bottom of your
router plate; this will allow you to remove that center section of wood while
only one edge of your router plate is supported on the edge of the lyre. If
your lyre is more than twice the width of your router plate, you will have
to leave two sections of unrouted wood in the body of the lyre.

5. You can inset the back tuning reinforcement rather than simply attaching
it to the back. If you wish to do that, use your router and do it now. Only
do this on the back of the lyre! To do this, turn your lyre over and rout
out a section the depth of your panel and the height of your reinforcement
piece.

6. Cut out the hand hole from the body.

7. Cut the belly piece out of the panel to match the body, not including the
tuning pin area (see Figure 6). Leave the hand hole area solid for now.

8. Cut two pieces from the panel with their grain running as shown in Figure
6. These are the reinforcements for the tuning pin area.

9. Sand the entire body. Be careful not to round the surfaces to which the
belly and reinforcing pieces will be glued.

10. Glue the belly to the body, clamp, and let dry completely.
8
 11. Glue the tuning area supports to the body, one to the back and one to the
front. Clamp and let dry completely.

12. Cut out the hand hole section from the belly.

13. Continue below, under "Options 1 and 2." Do not include the instructions
listed in parentheses.3

Options 1 and 2
1. Using a scrap of the wood from which you cut out the body, drill a hole
slightly smaller than a tuning pin. Hammer a spare tuning pin in with a
few strokes to test the hole size. Use a small piece of scrap hardwood as
a buffer between the hammer and the pn. If the hole is the wrong size,
experiment until you find the right size drill bit.

2. When you have found the correct size drill bit, lay out the holes for the
tuning pins in the lyre. Spread them out across the top as evenly as possible:
see Figure 2. Mark and drill the holes straight down--at right angles--into
the surface. You can use a drill press for this step if you have one, but it is
not necessary.

3. As with the tuning pins, test the drill bit size for the end peg in a piece of
scrap hardwood before drilling the hole for the end peg in the lyre. You
want a snug fit. Put a mark in the dead center of the outside of the bottom
edge for the end peg. Drill the hole for the end peg approximately 3/4" to
1" deep. This hole should also be at a right angle to the surface.

4. Using your choice of the two patterns in Figure 4, cut out, shape, and sand
the bridge. Gently round and smooth the surface where the strings will
rest on the wood. Do not worry about cutting grooves for the strings; the
strings will most likely seat themselves in the appropriate places when the
instrument is strung.

5. Using the pattern in Figure 7, cut out, shape, and sand the tail piece.

6. Using the small drill bit, drill the two holes for the violin peg strap in the
tail piece. Note that these two holes are drilled at an angle; see the cutaway
view in Figure 7. If you wish, you may countersink the two holes on the
top side of the tail piece in order to allow the metal ends of the violin strap
to seat more firmly.

7. Using the tiny drill bit, drill the holes in the tail piece for the strings.

8. Sand, sand, and sand everything some more; it's not documentable, but it
sure feels nice. This is your last chance to clean up all the edges around
the instrument.
9
 9. Glue in the end peg.

10. Using boiled linseed oil and a lint-free rag, oil all the wood, including the
bridge and tail piece. If you can slightly warm the linseed oil, it will pene-
trate much better. Warming a small jar of oil in hot water works well. It's
a pain to get to the area under the strings once the lyre has been strung, so
repeat until the (cheap back and) belly wood have soaked up a few coats
of oil. Please read carefully all instructions about working with linseed oil
and disposing of your rag.

11. Nail down the belly and either the back, for Option 1, or the back tuning
pin reinforcement, for Option 2, to the lyre with the brads, spacing them
evenly around the entire perimeter of the lyre at approximately 2" apart
and approximately 1/4" from the edge. Nail around the hand hole also.
(Be careful to offset the brads on the belly and back sides slightly so you
don't try to hammer a brad into another brad from the other side.)

12. Again using a small piece of scrap hardwood as a buffer between the ham-
mer and the pin, hammer the tuning pins into the lyre with a few strokes.
Hammer until the hole in the pin is between 1/4" and 3/8" above the body
of the lyre.

Stringing and Tuning the Lyre

1. Put the violin strap on the tail piece. Unscrew one of the two metal ends
of the violin strap. Thread the strap through the two holes for it at the
end of the tail piece. If you countersunk those two holes, the metal ends
should fit into them neatly. Scre the metal end back on, making sure the
two metal ends are on the upper side of the tail piece.

2. Put your strings in the tail piece. If your strings have little lumps attached
at one end, then you will need to string each one through the tail piece such
that the little lump is on the underside of the tail piece. If your strings have
no attachments, then you will need to string each one through the tail piece
and then tie each end in a knot (see Figure 7) on the upper side of the tail
piece. The lowest (thickest) string should be at the dexter side of the lyre;
the strings work toward the highest (thinnest) string at the sinister side of
the lyre.

3. For this next step, if you don't already know how to string a musical instru-
ment, call in a friend who does to help you. Place the violin strap around
the end peg of the lyre. Straighten out the tail piece and bring the free
end of the dextermost string up to the dextermost tuning pin. Put the end
through the hole in the pin. You want to end up with two or three wraps
of wire around the pin when you are done. Do not fully tighten the strings
yet; after all, the bridge isn't even in place. Wind the pins clockwise.
10
 4. Once all the strings are on the lyre, slip the bridge into place under the
strings. If the strings are too tight to let you do this, loosen them up a
bit. Place the bridge approximately halfway between the bottom of the
handhole and the bottom of the lyre. See Figure 2.
5. Now carefully tune the lyre. If you are tuning it for the very first time,
and you are using steel strings, you will need to tune the instrument down
about one full step from the tunings recommended above. The reason for
this is that the wood needs to adjust to the unfamiliar pressure of its new
life. With both steel and nylon strings you must be patient: the strings
will not keep in tune for long when they are new. Once the strings stretch
in, they will keep in tune. Until then, expect the lyre to go out of tune
rapidly.
Watch the bridge as you tune the lyre for the first time; it may try to pull
forward or back a bit as you tune. Just gently straighten it out with your
fingers.

Now play! The lyre may buzz for the first few days. If it continues to buzz after
it has been strung for several days, first check the area around the tuning pins
and make sure that none of the string ends are touching any other strings. You
can trim any excess string ends down to about 1/2" if you like. If the bridge is
the source of the buzzing, see if one of your strings is hitting the bridge in more
than one place. If so, you will have to loosen the stringing on the instrument,
remove the bridge, and carefully remove some wood from the bridge so that the
string only hits the bridge at one point. Make very sure the surface of the bridge
is smooth before you replace it under the strings.

Sources
• Babb, Warren, trans. Hucbald, Guido, and John on Music: Three Medieval
Treatises, ed. and introd. Claude V. Palisca. Music Theory Translation
Series, 3. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1978.
• Bruce-Mitford, Rupert and Myrtle. "The Sutton Hoo Lyre, Beowulf, and
the Origins of the Frame Harp." Antiquity, XLIV (1970), pp. 7-13, Plates
I-VIII.
• Crane, Frederick. Extant Medieval Musical Instruments: A Provisional
Catalogue by Types. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1972.
• Diagram Group. Musical Intruments of the World: An Illustrated Ency-
clopedia. New York: Facts on File Publications, 1976.
• Hall, Richard. The Viking Dig: The Excavations at York. London: The
Bodley Head, 1984.
• Hucbald, of Saint Amand. De Harmonia Institutione, trans. Babb.
11
 • Montagu, Jeremy. The World of Medieval and Renaissance Musical Instru-
ments. Newton Abbot, England: David & Charles, 1976.

• Page, Christopher. "Instruments and Instrumental Music before 1300,"

pp. 445-484 in The Early Middle Ages to 1300, ed. Richard Crocker and
David Hiley. New Oxford History of Music, II. Oxford/New York: Oxford
University Press, 1990.

• Panum, Hortense. The Stringed Instruments of the Middle Ages: Their

Evolution and Development, rev. ed. Jeffrey Pulver. Norbury, England:
The New Temple Press, 1939; reprinted 1971 by Da Capo Press.

About the Authors: Greg and Carolyn Priest-Dorman, priestdo@cs.vassar.edu

(No Soliciting!), http://www.cs.vassar.edu/ priestdo/) both work at Vassar Col-
lege, where they are allowed to use the library. Dofinn-Hallr Morrisson and Thóra
Sharptooth live on astead outside the teeming metropolis of Jorvík, tending the
land and making things out of things.
12
Figures

Figure 1, David playing the lyre

13
Figure 2, Anatomy of the lyre

14
Figures 3 & 4 and Tables 1 & 2, Summary of the Finds

15
Figure 5, Illustration for construction option 1

16
Figure 6, Illustration for construction option 2

17
Figure 7, Illustration for construction of the Tail Peice