JNDERSTANDING BEOFULF AS AN INDO-EUROPEAN EPIC
A Study in Comparative Mythology
Earl R. Anderson With a Foreword by
Mary P. Richards
The Edwin Mellen Press Lewiston•Queenston•Lampeter
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Anderson, Earl R., 1943Understanding Beowulf as an Indo-European epic : a study in comparative mythology / Earl R. Anderson ; with a foreword by Mary P. Richards. P. CM. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-7734-3755-5 1SBN-10: 0-7734-3755-X 1. Beowulf. 2. Epic poetry, English (Old)--History and criticism. 3. Mythology in literature. 4. Mythology, Indo-European—Comparative studies. 5. Literature, Comparative—Themes, motives. I. Title. PR1587.M9A53 2010 811.008'09757—dc22 2010004364
hors serie. A CEP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Front cover photo: Iron Age burial mounds on Solleron Island, Lake Silja, Sweden Photo credit: Jen Anderson and Daniel M. Anderson, July 2009
Copyright CO 2010 Earl R. Anderson All rights reserved. For information contact The Edwin Mellen Press Box 450 Lewiston, New York USA 14092-0450
The Edwin Mellen Press Box 67 Queenston, Ontario CANADA LOS ILO
The Edwin Mellen Press, Ltd. Lampeter, Ceredigion, Wales UNITED KINGDOM SA48 8LT Printed in the United States of America
For Louis T. Milic, in memoriam
Table of Contents Foreword by Mary P. Richards Acknowledgments
Ill
Introduction
1
Chapter I. Scyld, Beow, and the Problem of Hygelac
7
Heroic life in bono Heroic life in malo Scyld as a model of kingship Typescene analysis Beow as a model of kingship The problem of Hygelac Chapter 2. Mythopoeia
Hreoel's mailcoat Grendel's gig/ Four discourse modalities Grendel as a disease-spirit Conclusion Chapter 3. Grendel and his Mother
Epithets for Grendel and his mother Grendel and thematic oppositions Grendel's descent from Cain Grendel's name Ironic scop songs about Grendel's feud Grendel and his mother as demons Grendel's immunity from weapons Grendel and the gifstol Conclusion
9 16 20 26 35 46 55
59 66 68 77 87 89
89 92 94 96 98 102 112
118 126
Chapter 4. Grendel's Mere Grendel's home as an underwater court Grendel's mere as hell Mythopoeic epistemology Mythopoeic cosmology Unfero, and Beowulf's maritime transgression Horizontal cosmology as a submerged theme Chapter 5. Aschere's Death and the Problem of Hrobgar "Choosing the avenger" typescene Retrospective allusions to the Grendel-fight Proleptic deixis Collective and individual behaviors The lament for )Eschere and consolatio mortis Lament and panegyric Invective and digression Revenge as consolation Admonition forbidding mourning Consolation precepts Funeral rites as consolation Chapter 6. Symbolic Politics Negotiating demonstrative behavior Beowulf's reception in Heorot Epic antithesis The Ecgbeow digression Gift-giving as demonstrative behavior Unfero's loan of Hrunting Hroogar's adoption of Beowulf Chapter 7. Family Charisma Charismatic affection HreOel's sorrow and the Father's Lament
129 130 135 140 151 156 160 165 167 171 172 174 176 180 185 186 189 192 194 199 201 204 209 212 214 222 225 239 243 247
Chapter 8. Rhetoric in an Open Text
255
Equivalent and superlative similes The perfect simile Wealhbeow's torque The logic of epic superlative
256 260 263 265
Absolute and conditional superlatives The amazon-warrior simile Merismus: pleonasm and signification Smiths and tapestry-makers in Heorot Chapter 9. Allusion: the Semiotics of Digression
Aetiology and deixis Allusion in the scop's song of Creation The Danes' worship of idols Comparative and contrastive collocation: Sigemund and Heremod The Dano-Hea6obeard feud Ingeld episode Finn episode Tragic court flytings in other texts Chapter 10. Battlefield Typescenes
"Three mighty blows" Beowulf s combative handshake Single combat: Beowulf's victory-song Hygelac's expedition in Frisia Beowulf's single combat with Dwghrefn Weapons failing in battle Warning the hero against an adventure Profiles of the hero and his retainers Companions await the hero's adventure Companions leave the hero for dead Retreat to the woods Companion fetches water for the hero Chapter 11. Wyrd, ellen, ge/yld, and the Heroic Moment
Heroism and radical risk Radical risk in The Battle of Maldon Radical risk and wyrd Competing definitions of wyrd Wyrd in Beowulf The heroic moment and ellen The heroic moment and gejiyld The problem of Hondscioh Gepyld and the dragon-fight GeJiyld in malo
271 275 285 293 299
301 303 307 311 316 318 328 340 345
347 349 353 359 367 371 373 379 383 384 386 389 391
391 398 406 409 415 425 428 432 437 439
Chapter 12. The Dragon's Treasure Arguments in favor of treasure reburial Arguments for keeping the treasure The collectivity of the dragon's hoard The curse on the treasure Treasure-regality as a legal principle Treasure trove and the Seven Sleepers Treasure trove in Hrolfs saga Kraki Treasure trove in Cynewulf s Elene Treasure-regality in Beowulf The problem of Wiglaf The dragon-fight and Indo-European cattle-raids Theft versus combat Tracking the dragon to his remote cave Cattle-raid and dragon-fight as rite de passage Cattle and treasure as community property Conclusion
443 443 449 452 459 466 469 472 472 474 478 482 487 490 493 494 496
Appendix I. Aornos and Grendel's Mere (Beowulf 1368-72) 499 Appendix II. Epic Antithesis in Beowulf and Finnsburh
517
Bibliography
527
Index
583
List of Figures Figure 1 Ontology of universals in four discourse modalities
71
Figure 2 Epistemology of universals in four discourse modalities
88
Figure 3 Distribution of passages focused on iEschere, the monsters, and narrative segments in Beowulf 1251-1421
166
Foreword In his thought-provoking reconsideration of Beowulf; Earl Anderson invites us to put aside the views of received criticism of the poem and to explore the broader contexts of Indo-European myth and cultural traditions as they open up the meaning of the poem. Anderson draws upon a wide range, both in date and geography, of myths and epics that contribute to what he calls a "Romano-CeltoGermanic Kulturbund." He works through the poem using analogies from these materials to identify themes and type-scenes that open up many aspects of the poem to new interpretations. Whether or not they know Beowulf in Old English, readers will approach this book with their own perspective on Hroogar, for example, as well as their own understanding of Wealhbeow's solicitousness regarding her sons' future. What they will learn is that HroOgar's speeches and behavior are not necessarily those of a weak, older foil to Beowulf but rather the proper actions of an epic king. To expand our understanding of the elderly king of the Danes, Anderson invokes the "choosing the avenger" type scene, whereby the king's duty is to appoint the best possible avenger to undertake his feud. Anderson further observes that far from an effort to save face, Hroogar's reminder about EcgPeow's exile at his court serves to emphasize that Beowulf has a legal duty to repay the protection given his father. The exchanges between the king and younger warrior over the death of iEschere can be viewed as a consolation mortis, a classical topos, rather than a clash between weakness and strength. In short, Anderson demonstrates that the thematic polarities long accepted as underpinning the poem are inadequate to capture its complexity, especially when viewed against its heritage from Indo-European myth and epic.
Anderson asks us to reconsider traditional assumptions, such as we may have about the role of Weallikeow, Hroogar's queen. Here he invokes the theme of adoption in light of the relationship between the old king and his chosen avenger. In this case, he draws attention to Beowulf s potential as a threat to the royal sons, one greater than that posited for their cousin Hropull Anderson suggests that if we take literally what the queen says about her nephew, that he will not try to undermine her elder son's rights of succession, the threat she fears may come from the much stronger position held by Beowulf. As HroOgar's adopted son, he has already been promoted to his avenger in feuds where one would have expected family members to take the lead. The king has provided Beowulf with royal gifts and weapons, and even lauded his ability to lead a kingdom. But Anderson also sees Hroogar as a figure of the wise old man, whose monitory sermon hails from Biblical tradition. Despite his kinship as an adoptive father, the Danish king understands that Beowulf's first allegiance is to his own king, Hygelac. These previews from the book are but a taste of its challenges to our reading of Beowulf. Besides expanding our understanding of the poem itself, Anderson offers insights into the ways earlier interpretations may have limited our consideration of the poem. Readers of this book may well lack his facility with an impressive range of epic and mythic materials, but we are guaranteed to reconsider the ones we do know, such as the Chanson de Roland and the Niebelungenlied, and we may be piqued to seek out the others. We can thank Earl Anderson for his industry, interpretive abilities, and good humor in offering this stimulating addition to the canon of Beowulf criticism. Mary P. Richards University of Delaware
Acknowledgments The front cover depicts Iron Age burial mounds in a pasture on a farm on SoIleron island, Lake Silja, a few miles southeast of Mora, Sweden. It was selected from a group of family photographs taken in July 2009 by Jen Anderson and Daniel M. Anderson. I am indebted to my cousin, Ingemar Eriksson Bixo, for bringing us to this "Viking" place far off the beaten track. Although the route seems indirect, this book could not have been written without the benefit of earlier studies in comparative epic tradition, published in the Journal of Indo-European Studies and the Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies. In those studies I received advice and support from John Colarusso (McMaster University), Nicholas J. Allen (Oxford), John Greppin (Cleveland State University), and Edward R. Haymes (Cleveland State University). In methodology, content, and moral support, the benefit of their good counsel is evident at many points in the present work. As a professor emeritus, I am pleased to acknowledge Cleveland State University for its policy of allowing retired faculty continued use of library and departmental facilities, services, and access to students in a Beowulf seminar who helped to inspire this book. I am grateful to Gregory M. Sadlek, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, for lending support to the publication of this book. Portions of Chapter 4 were presented in a paper read at the Ohio Medieval Colloquium at Kent State University (2008), hosted by Professor Susanna Fein. I am grateful to fellow medievalists at the colloquium for comments and support. Portions of Chapter 1 appeared in my article, "Beow the Boy-Wonder: Beowulf 12-25)," in English Studies 89 (2008): 630-42, © Swets & Zeitlinger, repeated with permission from the publisher. Not long after this article appeared
iv
in print, officers of The Edwin Mellen Press contacted me and encouraged me to prepare a monograph on Beowulf. I am grateful to them, and to Dr. Herbert Richardson in particular, for his confidence, enthusiasm, and moral and material support. Special thanks to my wife, Hazel M. Anderson, for technical support in preparing the manuscript, and for her patience and long endurance in copy-editing the manuscript. To adapt a popular phrase from Armenian epic, "The trees in the forest can be counted, but the errors in my manuscript could not be counted." My presentation is much improved by her editing services. Of course I alone am responsible for errors left uncorrected. Let us hope that the trees of the forest outnumber them!
Introduction Sooner or later, any Anglo-Saxonist who continues to practice his or her profession and lives long enough will feel compelled to write a book about Beowulf. "We are always trying to help the Beowulf poet. aren't we?"—So Professor Arthur Turner, the late Miltonist of Oberlin College, remarked long ago in response to my study of legal themes relating to treasure trove in the poem (1977). Not that the poet needs our help, but for an epic of such majesty and complexity, we the readers need help from each other. Beowulf is, after all, a "maximal" narrative. Just as the novel is the maximal narrative form in modem times, and romance was in the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries, so epic was the maximal form in ancient and early medieval times. Like most maximal narratives, it is an "open work," an opera aperta as Umberto Eco might call it, a text that allows diverse interpretations. The critical literature quite rightly offers many books about it, some by the geogode and others by the dugude, without whose assistance I could not have written this one. I am grateful to have encountered so many books (and articles); my footnotes record these encounters to my best recollection. I make no apology for adding yet another to the voluminous criticism of Beowulf. Even so, in the composition of this book I have resisted three contemporary critical trends: postmodemism, anthropological criticism, and nativism. By "postmodernism" I mean a desire to view the epic as a protonominalist narrative that reduces conflict to word-play, imagines the poem caught in a crisis of orality and literacy, and poses for the poem an Anglo-Saxon identity as a nation-building construct. By "anthropological criticism" I mean analogy to "archaic" societies, in the Fiji Islands, New Guinea, and elsewhere, as the basis for analyses of gift-giving, feuds, kingship, retainership, and kinship obligations.
2
Archaism is the new primitivism, now that we no longer speak of Primitive Man and his Primitive Mind. By "nativism" I mean criticism that limits the range of probative analogues to insular, Germanic, and biblical sources. Seldom do I attempt systematic arguments against these trends, but in their place I substitute three critical tendencies of my own, which, as I argue, are based upon three attributes of the epic: a mythopoeic voice, a Romano-Celto-Germanic Kulturbund, and the use of migratory typescenes. By "mythopoeia" I mean a narrative voice that presupposes an ontology of universals that are animated by supernatural forces, and an epistemology that constructs an Ideal Knower of universals (HroOgar or Beowulf in bono, and the devil in malo). Within this ontology, multiple identities are possible: the Grendelkin as monsters, perverse humans, and demons; Grendel's mere as a monster's backwater, a sea, and a preternatural lake of fire; Grendel's abode as an "anti-hall," hell, and a dry submarine court. The mythopoeic vision extends to metaphor, too, for example in the imagery of Grendel as a disease spirit and Beowulf as a healing physician. In a mythopoeic context, biblical figures like Cain and antediluvian giants are at home with monsters and dragons, such that the Christian-pagan polarity, so influential in twentieth-century criticism, is obviated. The world of Beowulf is neither archaic nor Germanically pure, but belongs to a Romano-Celto-Germanic Kulturbund whose constituent parts include migratory themes and mythic narratives. Christian and pagan themes merge as strands across cultures. The three-tiered Indo-European cosmology merges with the Christian one of heaven, earth, and hell, but co-exists with a horizontal cosmology of Mesopotamian origin, for example in the "theory of the ocean" which diffused from Mediterranean culture to the west European Kulturbund. Ideas about death and consolation, symbolic politics, adoption and family charisma, amazon-warriors, battlefield typescenes and dragon-fights are narrative strands that are variously Indo-European, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, or
Germanic in origin, but woven into the Kulturbund; woven so tightly, sometimes, that deconstructive analysis seems almost impossible. Many episodes in Beowulf are migratory typescenes or themes. Some, like the dragon-fight, "the hero and the king," and vertical cosmology are IndoEuropean. Some, like rituals for "choosing an avenger," are specifically Germanic; others, like aornos, descent into the underworld, and horizontal cosmology are earliest seen in Mesopotamian epics. Migratory typescenes and themes lend themselves to probative comparison with counterparts across epic traditions. I interpret traditional typescenes and themes not as the necessary constituents of oral composition, but as narrative strands that contribute meaning to a text by virtue of their cross-cultural intertextualities. The narrator's voice in Beowulf then, is mythopoeic rather than protonominalist. The poet imagines a Germanic world at an ancient time before monsters and dragons had been driven from habitable lands and tossed into the primordial seas, but the poet and his poem belong to the Romano-Celto-Germanic Kulturbund. Some of its traditional episodes and themes may be insular, AngloNorse, or Germanic, but others are migratory typescenes that require an analysis that reaches deep into Indo-European and Middle Eastern epic narratives. My approach is cross-cultural rather than nativist, cosmopolitan rather than insular, and often leads to interpretations of characters and events that diverge widely from mainstream critical views, yet these gain support from close analysis of the text. For example, my conjecture that Beowulf swam to Frisia carrying thirty mailcoats was inspired by three Armenian analogues, but is based on the widespread epic theme of "heroic retreat at a body of water." On such occasions, swimming is an honorable alternative to death by slaughter or drowning. My conjecture that Beowulf defeats Grendel with a combative handshake, not a wrestling hold, is based mainly on comparison to counterpart scenes in Firdausi's Sheihneitna and the Armenian Sasna Uer, although this view gains support from cognates in the Nibelungenlied and in Irish folktales. Hondscioh's death was not a
4
tactical sacrifice, but an unintended consequence of Beowulf's gekyld, "biding his time" until Grendel approached him in a position suitable for a combative handshake. Gekyld and ellen (fighting courage inspired by survival-instinct) are the companion attributes of a Germanic hero. These come together at times when the hero risks a radical change in the status quo, and alters the course of wyrd. This risk-based approach to the "heroic moment" contrasts the fatalistic one illustrated in "Achilles' tragic choice," a heroic scenario that is specific to the South Indo-European Kulturbund as illustrated in Greek, Armenian, Iranian, and Indic narratives. The poet devotes a half-dozen lines, and critics even less, to Beowulf s career as Hygelac's champion in many military expeditions, but this theme places Beowulf in the company of Achilles, the biblical David, Rostam, Amir Hamza, Roland, Rodrigo Diaz, Siegfried, and other heroes who fought their kings' battles for them. When Beowulf is read as a traditional epic, its principal characters tend to appear in bono rather than in malo. Hygelac, like Scyld, is an ideal warriorking, not only at Ravenswood but also in Frisia; the poet's juxtaposition of his first and last battles suggests this. His campaign in Frisia was not reckless piracy, but pre-emptive defense against an imperial power; it was not a failure, but a success, although it cost him dearly. Beow, the boy-prince who recruited his own comitatus, represents an alternative, peaceful ideal of kingship, seen also in Beowulf. Hrobgar is not a weak, effeminate king but a strong one. After kschere's death, he and Beowulf co-construct a consolatio mortis that reflects both epic and Greco-Roman Stoic tradition; their discourse does not contrast Beowulf's heroic "code" with the elegiac passivity of a rex inutilus. It is simultaneously a consolatio and a charging ceremony for "choosing the avenger." Hro6gar's adoption of Beowulf is a major theme, not a marginal one, an exercise in symbolic politics typical of the west European Kulturbund, but felt sincerely by the king and reciprocated by the hero. Adoption draws both characters into the problematic Indo-European theme of "charismatic affection,"
5
seen also in the otherwise inexplicable relationships between Beowulf and Hygelac, Hreael and Herebeald, and the Bereaved Father and his son in the Father's Lament. Lack of charismatic affection is evident in Hretel's attenuated relationship with Hwocyn, and Beowulf's with Wiglaf. Beowulf appears in bond in his acquisition of the dragon's treasure, too. His legal right to the hoard was two-fold: he won it in combat, and in any case treasure trove belonged to the king, who was obligated to keep it in circulation by rewarding faithful retainers. The theft of a single cup by a servant, in contrast to the hero's dragon-fight, is an Anglo-Saxon manifestation of an Indo-European theme, theft versus combat, which was the symbolic center of the primal cattleraid: theft typifies the dark indigenous dasa, whilst combat typifies the Aryan hero. As in Beowulf so in other Indo-European narratives, dragon-fights usually are variant forms of the primal cattle-raid. Having won the hoard in combat, Beowulf bequeathed it to the Geats as a national treasure. After his death, Wiglaf undermined him by causing it to be buried with his ashes in Biowulfes biorh. He was motivated by an immoderate desire to punish the cowardly retainers and, by extension, all the Geats. If anyone behaves wrongly in the end it is Wiglaf, not Beowulf. As these random details illustrate, my mythopoeic, typescene-based approach to Beowulf leads to interpretations that diverge widely from canonical ones found in the critical literature. Like Byrhtnob or Judith, I have undertaken a radical departure from the status quo in the domain of criticism. This could be a Maldon-like disaster, or it could change the course of wyrd. Notwithstanding my use of analogues as sources of inspiration, everything depends upon patient analysis of the Beowulf text. To pursue the allegory further, arguments based upon analogues are like ellen, whilst text-based analysis is like geky/d. It remains for the reader to decide if I have struck the right balance.
7
Chapter 1 Scyld, Beow, and the Problem of Hygelac In the religious and historical literature of Anglo-Saxons and Franks, heroic life is contextualized as the substance of traditional Germanic poems, in bono and in malo. Is heroic life esteemed, or not, in Beowulf? If we admire Hygelac's warrior-kingship, we are apt to view heroic life in bono, as most early twentieth-century critics did.1 If we fault him for recklessness, we view heroic life in malo, as many critics have done since the 1960s.2 Critics are ambivalent about Beowulf s role in the dragon-fight, too: "Beowulf is greedy or generous, foolhardy or prudent, proud or selfless," but as Colin Chase remarks, "These points of view are not logically compatible. Man or society cannot be both perfect and imperfect in respect to the same attitude, decision, or action."3 Often this contrast is represented as a pagan-Christian polarity, but the devil is in details. Biblical epics and saints' lives are Christian, while heroic poems often (though not always) tell stories about pagan heroes. Does this mean that the epics themselves were "pagan," or viewed with suspicion by anyone other than conservative clerics like Paulinus of Nola or Alcuin? The pagan-Christian polarity is misleading when used as a standard in Beowulf criticism. Modem historians face a similar contradiction in malo and in bono when it comes to Scandinavian piracy in the eighth century and beyond. From sagas we know that the same men who went on viking raids also engaged in trade. Viking routes were also trade routes. Men who raped virgins sometimes married them 1
Garmonsway (1965) is representative, in a discussion focused on "heroic life."
2 Critical studies that turned the tide toward heroism in mob ) include Leyerle 1965, Irving 1968 (with frequent emphasis on irony), Halverson 1969, Goldsmith 1970, Berger and Leicester 1974. 3
Chase 198Ia: 161.
8 and raised families. They inflicted unspeakable cruelties on local populations, but they also established kingdoms, in the Hebrides, Ireland, England, Normandy, Sicily, and Russia. Eventually they blended in with the nations they conquered, adopting their language and culture. Once it was thought that the vikings were motivated by a crisis of overpopulation and famine, until historical and archeological research disclosed that ninth-century Scandinavian peasants were more prosperous than their later medieval counterparts, peaceful fishermen and farmers weighed down by the burden of serfdom.4 If not widespread poverty, what was their motivation? Possibly it was the availability of sailing ships, and the knowledge that piracy in settlements abroad would be feasible and profitable.5 That was motive enough for viking commanders, those exiled royals and younger sons of wealthy landholders, who had no expectation of inheriting the family estate. Younger sons especially: the tools of empire. But what motivated the peasants who followed them into danger? Rimbert, in Vita Anskarii, reports that Anound, a Swedish king exiled in Denmark, managed to recruit men for twenty-one ships for an expedition against Birka (just west of Stockholm). These supplemented a force of eleven ships already under his command. With a large enough force, the expedition must have seemed feasible. Anound promised the men rewards in goods and money, their share of the loot, but the expedition never reached Birka. Anound was persuaded to turn his expedition toward Slavic lands instead.6 If easy money were their only motivation, why would the peasant-vikings tolerate this change of plan? Why not mutiny? In addition to feasibility and profitability, Anound and his men shared another motivation: the call to adventure. Wulfgar calls this wlenco (Beowulf 333a: proud courage), characterizing Beowulf. The poet calls it wlenco (1206a), too, applied to Hygelac's expedition in Frisia. Critics have applauded Beowulf's 4
Moberg 2005, 1:59-72, "Peasant Seafarers of the Ninth Century."
5
Sawyer 1962: 202-3, and 1982.
Rimbert, Vita Anskarii 19, cited in Sawyer 1982: 4-5. Andersson (1986) studies Rimbert's narrative in connection with the Danes' idolatry in Beowulf. 6
9 wlenco, but condemned Hygelac's. This seems unfair, a double standard, what I am calling "the problem of Hygelac." Heroic life in bona The ninth-century Welsh priest Asser, in his biography of King Alfred, reports that Alfred's mother, Osburga, challenged her children to memorize poems from an English book and recite them, in a contest for which the book itself was the prize. Although Alfred was the youngest of five sons and a daughter, he completed the task first and won the prize for his recitation. For the rest of his life, he took pleasure in memorizing poems.7 Alfred represents ellen and crceft as heroic virtues in Boethius, reflecting the influence of heroic poetry in his writing.8 It is pleasant to imagine that Osburga's book included poems about Anglo-Saxon conquerors in Britain, since she was said to be a noblewoman of Jutish and Gothic blood. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Osburga's Jutish ancestors, Stuf and Wihtgar, sailed with three warships from Germany to a place called Cerdicesara and routed a Welsh army there in A.D. 514. The story links her family with heroic traditions of Cerdic and his son Cynric, who in 495 had landed at the same place with three warships, and established a principality in Wessex. Sometime after 530, when Cerdic and Cynric conquered the Isle of Wight, they awarded it to Stuf and his son Wihtgar, their nefan,9 very likely as a reward for military service. Whatever the contents of Osburga's book may have been, Alfred, too, required his children to memorize poems, along with psalms and passages from English books.1° Asser, Life of King Alfred, chap. 23 and 76, 1983: 75 and 239, n. 29. 8
Clemoes 1992.
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. Plummer 1892-99, I: 15-17. Chadwick (1907: 19), notes that nefa ("nephew" and "grandson") implies that Stuf and Wihtgar were father and son. Garmonsway (1953: 16) accepts this interpretation. 9
I° Asser, ch. 75, 1983: 91.
10 When Bede reported how the brothers Hengest and Horsa led a contingent of Saxons, Angles and Jutes to Britain, and how Horsa later was killed by Britons in battle,11 he must have known that these were themes of heroic poetry, even though his immediate source was an archival document from Canterbury.12 His primary source for the end of Roman Britain was Gildas, who in De excidio Britanniae says nothing of Hengest and Horsa. In an earlier account of the fall of Britain in De Teraporum ratione, Bede tells the story of Vertigernus (Vortigern), who during the third consulship of Aetius (A.D. 446) invited an Anglian host to Britain as allies against marauding Scots and Picts. Later, the Angli betrayed their British allies, on the pretext that the land that Vertigernus had given them was insufficient compensation for military service.° In this story Bede follows Gildas, and makes no mention of Hengest and Horsa. Their stories were Bede's later additions, whose veracity, he thought, was confirmed by a monument bearing Horsa's name, still standing in eastern Kent, just as the Beowulf poet imagines Beowulf's monument still standing by the sea at Hronesness (2802-8).14 Bede praises Cmdmon for sticking to religious topics,I5 but does not hesitate to integrate heroic tradition into his history. Indeed his path there went further. Hengest and Horsa, he adds, "were the sons of Wihtgisl, son of Witta, son of Wecta, son of Woden, from whose stock the royal families of many kingdoms claimed their descent."I6 A parallel instance: Moses Khorenats`i, the "father" of Armenian history and Bede's eighth-century contemporary, complained often about his ancestors' preoccupation with heroic poetry, and their concomitant neglect of literacy and history, but in History of the Armenians, he incorporates " Bede, Historia ecclesiastica 1.15, 1969: 48-53. 12
Chadwick (1907: 35) doubts that Bede had direct knowledge of this "oral tradition."
13
Bede, De temporum ratione 66, sub anno 483, 1977: 516-17.
14
The edition of Beowulf consulted most often is Dobbie 1953.
15 Bede, Historia ecclesiastica 2.24, 1969: 416-19. Helsinger (2007: 156) proposes that Abbess Hild helped Cxdmon cultivate his talent for religious poetry to provide the monks of Whitby with a spiritual substitute for their customary secular poetic entertainments. 16
Bede 1.15, 1969: 50-51, discussed by Sisam (1953).
11
anecdotes gleaned from indigenous oral sources, and invokes oral traditions to confirm the truth of other anecdotes derived from Greek and Syriac sources. Three signature details mark Hengest and Horsa as mythic twins: their eponymous association with horses," their role as founding-twins of a nation or city,18 and their relationship to each other as "unequal twins": Horsa the aggressive warrior, Hengest the peace-maker. In Dumezilean terms, they are avatars of the warrior and farmer-herdsman classes, respectively. Horsa's youthful death in battle associates him with the warrior class; in the Finn episode in Beowulf, Hengest's problematic peace-oath with Finn marks him as a thirdfunction figure.19 Identification of Bede's Jutish Hengest with that twinless, Danish one is problematic, but in the evolution of myths, often where there are two, originally there was one. Chadwick thought that the Jutish and Danish Hengests were two versions of the same historical personage,2° but in AngloSaxon stories about them, mythic attributes come to the fore. Richard North (1990) has attempted to reconstruct a unified Finn-Hengest story by reconciling these contradictory Hengests, but there is no need to do so. Mythic tradition is a large tent that can accommodate any number of Hengests.
17 Their names invite comparison to well-known dioscuri such as Kastor and Polydeukes, Romulus and Remus, and the Agvins of Vedic hymns (Vedic agviniirt, "horsemen" [nom. dual]). This is also true of the Armenian twin-founders of Sassoun, Sanasar and Baldasar; cf. Anderson 2005: 10-12. 18 Ward (1968), groups them with other Germanic duos like the Lombards Ibor and Aio and the Vandals Ambri and Assi, in a chapter on "Germanic Dual Kingship," because he regards the oral tradition of founding-twins as integral to Germanic culture but marginal in other IndoEuropean cultures. However, founding-twins have a broader Indo-European distribution. In addition to Sanasar and Baldasar, other examples unknown to Ward include Mamik and Konak, two noble Chinese brothers in exile who founded the Mamikonian clan in early medieval Armenia, according to Sebtos's History, and the Celtic myth of Nemed ("Holy") and his wife Macha, who led their people to a new home in Emain Macha, the plain around Tara, the seat of the high king at the center of Ireland according to the Irish Lebor Gobala (Book of Invasions). "Emain Macha," meaning "Twin Macha," implies an earlier, submerged myth of "Macha and his Twin" as founding-rulers. See Anderson 2005 (as above). 19
Joseph 1982-83.
20 Chadwick 1907: 33-50 and 100-1. Competing views of Hengest's ethnicity are discussed in Aurner 1918: 78-88.
12 The aetiological myth of Hengest and Horsa circulated in two versions, rather like the two competing stories of Beowulf's maritime adventure with Breca (Beowulf 506-81a). In the version known to Bede, Vortigern invited the brothers
to Britain, as military allies who later betrayed him. "Invitation to conquest" is a recurring fiction in ancient and medieval history. In the first century B.C, the German prince Ariovistus seized one-third of the arable lands of the Aedui in Gaul, and meant to take another third until Julius Caesar checked him. Ariovistus claimed that he had crossed the Rhine "not of his own accord but in response to the invitation of the Gauls," who promised rich rewards as an incentive to leave his homeland.21 Another example marks the beginning of the Crusades: the Fatimids in Egypt feared the growing power of the Saljuq Turks, who had conquered Syria. The Fatimids supposedly invited the Franks to invade Syria, to form a buffer state between themselves and the Saljuqs.22 When an invitation to conquest really does occur, it is likely to be a fraud, perpetrated by a subordinate. The Alamannic laws require that23 If any man invites a foreign nation into the province, so that it is plundered in a hostile manner or houses are burned, and he is convicted of this, let him either lose his life or go into exile where the duke sends him, and let his property be confiscated by the state. Nennius, in his ninth-century version of the Anglo-Saxon story, reports that Hengest and Horsa came to Britain as exiles, in three warships. Vortigern received them, and granted them the isle of Thanet in exchange for their military services. They betrayed Vortigern when, alarmed by their growing numbers, he asked them to leave. Nennius's account is a complex narrative of betrayal laced with ingenious deceptions, incest, ambush, and murder. Some scholars attribute this to the author's vivid imagination, comparable to that of Geoffrey of 21
Julius Caesar, De bello Gallico 2.2, 1951: 67.
22 lbn
al-Athir 2006-8, 1: 13-14; earlier, Gabrieli 1989: 4.
Pactus legis Alamannorum 24, in Rivers 1977: 74.
13 Monmouth three centuries later, but virtually every detail has counterparts in medieval sagas and heroic poems, beginning with the brothers' arrival in three ships. Bede's and Nennius's stories imply that a heroic cycle about Hengest and Horsa circulated in oral tradition during the seventh through the ninth centuries. One of its typescenes would have been the profile of heroes who traveled to a foreign land in exile and established a principality there by means of military might. Beside Horsa's monument in Kent we may set down a heroic statue of the Ostrogothic ruler Theodoric (Dietrich von Bern), which Charlemagne transported from Ravenna to his own palace in Aachen. This has been cited as evidence of an eighth- and ninth-century interest in Gothic heritage, first among Franks, then Anglo-Saxons.24 But Charlemagne also brought mosaics and marble columns from the palace in Ravenna, and other materials from Rome for his new cathedral in Aachen. To do this he needed permission from Pope Hadrian 1.25 Theodoric had a double meaning in the Middle Ages, in bono and in malo. To Boethius he was one of a symbolic triumvirate of evil kings, along with Nero and Tarquin. Their prototype was the first world-king, the giant Nimrod.25 In bono he was the hero in the Germanic Dietrich-cycle, and a symbol of imperium. Even his name suggests this: Gothic piuda (people), Piudans (king) + reiks (ruler).27 Like King Alfred whose favorite book was Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, Charlemagne had his favorite, Augustine's City of God, but both kings enjoyed heroic poetry, too. In Charlemagne's case this interest was more than occasional. At mealtimes he arranged to be edified by public readings from books, just like Benedictine monks in the refectory, and by poetic recitations of the gestes of ancient heroes. Later in life, he commanded "that the age-old 24
Niles 1999: 187; Davis 2006: 122.
25 Einhard, Vita Caroli 2.26, 1969: 79 and 185-86, n. 62, citing Codex Carolinus, letteer 67, in Mbnumenta Germaniae, Epistolae Merowingici et Karolini Aevi 1: 614. 26
Alfred, Boethius 1899: 34, II. 14-30, discussed in Anlezark 2006: 131-38.
27
Lehmann 1986: 361 and 286.
14 narrative poems, barbarous enough, it is true, in which were celebrated the warlike deeds of the kings of ancient times, should be written out and so preserved."28 During the tenth century and beyond, there is ample evidence for clerical approval of "heroic" life, and for clerical interest in chansons de geste. The legend of Guillaume d'Orange (ca. 755-812) was cultivated in the Benedictine abbey of Gellone in Languedoc; the legend of the ninth-century warlord Girart de Rousillon, in the abbey of Vezelay in Burgundy; the legend of Isembart, in the abbey of St. Riquier.29 Odo of Cluny, in his Life of Si'. Gerald of Aurillac (ca. 930), praised Gerald as a chaste, pious knight who practiced chivalry "not for personal gain but in order to achieve peace for his society."3° The military spirit and deeds of Bishop Turpin in Roland and Bishop Jerome in Poema de Mio Cid represent not an innovative "Crusade ideology," but the continuation of an aristocratic warrior-bishop tradition that can be traced to Carolingian times or earlier.3I Charlemagne, Alfred, and Odo would have agreed that heroic poems serve an educational role in society, preserving the memory of "a great number of kings, heroes, and tribes that figured in the storied past of the people of the North."32 As a connoisseur of sacred relics whose taste for cultural preservation extended to Germanic poems, why would Charlemagne not want to grace Aachen with Theodoric's statue? This might have been an imitation of Phidias's radiant Apollo, a sculpture stolen from Athens and set up in Constantinople, where it was said to represent Constantine. Or it might have been an equestrian sculpture in the Roman manner. If the latter, it has early modern counterparts in Giovanni Bernini's equestrian Constantine (1670), imitated in Agostino Comacchini's Charlemagne (1725), companion statues in St. Peter's Basilica, symbolizing the 28
Einhard, Vita Caroli 3.24 and 3.29, 1969: 78.
29
Keller 1977: 157-62.
30
Frank 1982: 62, rpt. 2002: 108.
31
Anderson 1990.
32
Niles [1998] 2002: 121.
15 idea of kings as defenders of the Church, a notion that syncretizes heroic life to Christian faith. A twentieth-century example with quite a different meaning is Yervand Kochar's brass sculpture of David of Sassoun riding his wonder-horse Jelaly and brandishing his meteoric Lightning Sword, installed at Yerevan's Railway Station Square in 1959. Unlike David of Sassoun's statue, which symbolizes traditional Armenian resistance to world-kingship as evil,33 Theodoric's was a symbol of imperium. Its migration from Rome to Aachen signified translatio imperii,34 the transfer of power from Goths to Franks. This mode of symbolic politics goes back to the dawn of civilization as we know it. Gilgamesh kept a statue of Lugalbanda in his bedroom, as a sign of kingship and of his deified father's role as his personal god.35 The Sumerian epics of Enmerkar, Lugalbanda's father, describe conflicts between the kings of Unug (Uruk) and Aratta over which one is fit to be Inana's consort, a fitness made manifest by possession of her statue in the temple precinct near the royal palace.36 Often after one city-state was conquered by another, its principal god accompanied the victors on their homeward journey. A Babylonian example is Marduk (twice), whose statue was restored to Apsu, the temple precinct, by the Kassite ruler Agum Kakrime (16th cent. B.C.) after years in captivity, and again by Nebuchadnezzar I (1125-04 B.c.) after another captivity.37 In traditional laments for a fallen city, this theme is expressed metaphorically. In the Sumerian Lament for Sumer and Urim, the god Enki "cast his eyes on a 33 For world-kingship in the Armenian "David of Sassoun" epic, Sasunc'i Davit', and in medieval Armenian tradition, see Anderson 2007: 137-42. 34 For the significance of regnal images, Bullough 1975: 223-25, and Cramp 1982: 9-10. For translatio imperil, Goez 1958; cf. Anderson 1983: 121-24. 35
Gilgamesh 6.165-66, ed. George 2003, I: 629. The idea of a personal god, evident in Sumerian, Akkadian, and Hebrew mythological and religious texts, is discussed by Kramer (1979: 279). 36 Enmerkar and Ensuhgirana and Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, in Vanstiphout 2003: 23-96; for a translation of the former, Black et al. 2004: 3-11. 37 Dailey 1989: 229. The composition of the Babylonian Epic of Creation might have been motivated by one of these restorations of Marduk, but the matter is speculative.
16 foreign land," and departed Eridug after sharing with Enlil and Ninhursaga the decision to destroy the city.38 In the Sumerian Cursing of Agade, Inana departed Kish and occupied a new shrine in Agade during the reign of Sargon, but as soon as she learned that Ellil disapproved of Sargon's hegemony, she attacked Agade herself.39 The Philistines, after a victory over the Hebrews on the Ebenezer plain, seized the Ark of the Covenant, the =iconic Hebrew equivalent of a statue. For seven months it wrought havoc among them, so they returned it to the prophet Samuel (1 Sam. 4-7). Heroic life in malo "Quid Hinieldus cum Christo?" Alcuin wrote to Bishop Unuuona of Leicester in A.D. 797,40 in protest to recitations of "heathen" lays in the ecclesiastical court; possibly in protest, too, to the Mercian bishop's participation in, or sanction of, genealogical research that attributed heroic ancestors to King Offa's pedigree,4I among them Woden and early kings of Angeln: Wermund (Garmund, in Beowulf 1962a), Offa (1943-62), and Geomar (Earner, 1960b),42 although, it is true, Ingeld does not appear in Mercian king-lists. No doubt he had heard heroic lays in Charlemagne's court, unless the king substituted Augustine for poetry whenever his Latin magister was invited to dinner, in deference to his opinion that "the house [of salvation] is [too] narrow" to contain both the King of Heaven and heathen heroes, who groan in the torments of he11.43 His rhetoric
38
Lament for Sumer and Urim 3-11 and 243-50, in Black et al. 2004: 127-42.
39
Cursing of Agade 1-9 and 40-82, in Black et al. 2004: 116-25.
40
Alcu •in, Ep i•stolae 124, 1895: 183. The letter is addressed to "Speratus," a by-name that Phillip Jaffe, in the mid nineteenth century, etymologized as Hygebald, abbot and bishop of Lindisfarne. Donald A. Bullough (1993: 109-15) argues persuasively that "Speratus" was really Unuuna of Leicester, in Mercia. Bullough translates Alcuin's letter in tow at pp. 122-25. 41 Garrison 42
2005.
Chambers [1959] 1967: 195-200.
43 Garmonsway and Simpson 1968: 242, translating "Angusta est domus: utrusque tenere non potefit."
17 signifies familiarity with forbidden lays. Could he have chosen better than Ingeld as a metonymy for Germanic lays known in England?` Alcuin's rhetorical question reflects his Latin learning. It echoes St. Paul's prohibition of pagan-Christian marriages, "for what fellowship bath righteousness with unrighteousness?... And what concord hath Christ with Belial... And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" (2 Cor. 6: 1 4-1 6).48 The formula quid x cum y 46 provided the framework for the early Church Fathers' proscription of pagan philosophy and poetry. Tertullian, asserting that pagan philosophy misleads weak-minded Christians into heresy, in De praescriptione haereticorum declaimed, "Quid ergo Athenis et Hierosolymis? quid academiae et ecclesiae?"47 Refraining the question in literary terms, St. Jerome alluded to Roman lyric, epic, and rhetoric: "Quid facit cum psalterio Horatius? cum evangelis Maro? cum apostolo Cicero?" (What has Horace to do with the Psalter, or Maro with the Gospels, or Cicero with the Apostle?)48 Unlike Tertullian, Jerome was not so stern in his rejection of Roman literary heritage. Elsewhere he compared the classics to a pagan woman, whom an Israelite could marry after she had been purified (Deut. 21 10-13). He quotes from Titus 1:15, "All things are clean to the clean."49 Alcuin was not so liberal-minded. In one of his poems, he urges a young monk to learn the Song of Songs by heart, and shun the songs of "mendacious Virgil," the font of "worthless lies."80 Robinson, citing previously unnoticed examples of this topos, concludes that exhortations to Christians to reject their pagan past is not an 44
The point is made by Newton (1993: 19), and Garrison (2005: 241-45).
46 The biblical and patristic background of Alcuin's letter was noted by Dammler in his edition, and cited in Beowulf criticism, e.g., in Stanley 1963: 150, rpt. 1987: 206-7, Robinson 1985: 8-9, and Garrison 2005: 245-50. 46
Garrison 2005: 245.
Tertullian, De praescriptione haereticorum 7.9. For discussion, Fredouille 1972, and Gonzalez 1974. 47
48
Jerome, Epistula 22.29.7.
49 Jerome, Epistula 21.13.1-9, to Pope Damasus, A.D. 383, and Epistula 70.2-5, to Magnus, A.D. 397. For discussion, Colish 1985, 2: 70-72.
5° Alcuin,
Carmen 78.5, cited in Malone [1948] 1963: 141.
18 "aberration," but "a serious Christian belief grafted deeply into Anglo-Saxon thought."5I Early Frankish historians might have shared Alcuin's disdain for heroic life. Walter Goffart notes an anti-heroic bias in the histories of Gregory of Tours (ca. 590) and Fredegar (ca. 660), in the Liber historiae Francorum (completed in 727), and in Einhard's Vita Caroli (ca. 830): these sources cite anecdotes of unheroic conduct in military settings. Under the influence of Christianity, he argues, these historians participated in a "devaluation of the heroic," a cultural movement that spread to Anglo-Saxon England, too. Even so, Goffart detects in Liber historiae Francorum a "modest re-introduction of heroism." In his view, "martial heroism hibernated" from the late sixth through the eighth centuries, but rebounded during the eighth century.52 If that is so, the "return" of heroic idealism in historical literature perhaps reflected the importance of "warrior-kingship" as a political necessity throughout the early Middle Ages. In Felix's Vita sancti Guthlaci, heroic life appears in malo as the influence that led young Guthlac to take up the life of a warlord on the British frontier. He had been a dutiful, studious child, but at age fifteen he conceived a desire for command (dominandi amor). Remembering "the valiant deeds of heroes of old,"53 he recruited a comitatus, beat down all enemies, and established himself as their prince. Nine years later, at age twenty-four, Guthlac again remembered the kings of heroic tradition. This time he contemplated the "wretched deaths and the shameful ends of the ancient kings of his race in the course of the past ages,"54 and the mutability of worldly riches and glory. These thoughts were accompanied
51 Robinson 1985: 9. His cognates include a letter by Pope Zacharias to St. Boniface, an eighth-century life of St. Eligius, and Honorius of Autun's Gemma animae (ca. 1100). 52
Goffart 1995, citing Wormald 1978 for this aspect of Christian influence on historians.
53 Felix, Vita sancti Guthlaci 12-18, 1956: 79-83, quotation at 16, pp. 80-81: "tunc valida pristinorum heroum facta reminiscens." 54 Felix, Vita sancti Guthlaci 18, 1956: 82-83, "Nam cum antiquorum regum stirpis suae per transacta retro saecula miserabiles exitus flagitioso vitae termino contemplaretur."
19 by a spiritual flame that pierced his breast and burned in his heart.55 Felix describes Guthlac's spiritual transformation as compunctio cordis, a burning pain in the heart, at first inspired by fear of death and damnation, then by love of God, the lower and higher forms, compunctio paenitentiae and compunctio amoris, the twin foundations of Benedictine spirituality. Cynewulf used the same imagery to describe Elene's spiritual zeal for the recovery of the Cross in Jerusalem (Elene 1062b-84),56 a zeal that complemented Constantine's military heroism in bono. Just so Guthlac, driven by compunction, summoned his comites, announced his intention to enter God's service as a monk, and bade them elect another leader for their military expeditions.57 Renouncing his companions and the privileges of royal blood, he submitted himself to monastic rule at St. David's, Repton, as a cleric and disciple of Abbess lElfthryth.58 Two years later, he took up the life of an anchorite in the wilderness at Crowland, after reading about "the solitary life of monks of former days,"59 thereby exchanging the oral-poetic model of heroes for the literary one of solitary saints. Felix's image of heroic life has been interpreted by some scholars as an unqualified condemnation.6° Even so, his portrayal of heroic life is less condemnatory than Alcuin's, in three respects. First, while heroic poetry inspired Guthlac to become a warlord. it also provided the images of tragedy that prompted his spiritual transformation. Second, when Guthlac gave his farewell address to his comites, he did not condenm their military careers. His choice was personal. None of his comites followed him to Repton. Third, as an anchorite at Crowland, Guthlac became the spiritual advisor to prince zEthelbald of Mercia, 55 Felix, Vita sancti Guthlaci 18. 1956: 80-81, "extimplu velut perculsus pectore, spiritalis flamma omnia praecordia supra memorati viri incendere coepit." 56
Anderson 1983: 163-79.
5' Felix, Vita sancti Guthlaci 19, 1956: 82-83. 58
Felix, ibid. 20, 1956: 84-85.
59
Felix, ibid. 24, 1956: 86-87, "Cum enim priscorum monachorum solitariam vbitam
legebat."
6° Stanley 1963: 139-41, rpt. 1987: 195-96.
20 and often gave him shelter during the reign of Coelred (709-716), a dissolute, evil king. As a potential heir to the throne, IEthelbald was in danger of assassination attempts from Ceolred, and had to live in exile. Once at a critical moment, Guthlac urged /Ethelba1d to be patient in exile, and prophesied that he would succeed Ceolred in due course without bloodshed. But he also assured the prince that "your sword shall overcome your foes."6' "Patiens esto," he said to IEthelbald, "ne declines in consilium quod non potest stabiliri," "be patient, lest you turn to a purpose which you cannot perform." By patientia, Felix means the same thing that the Beowulf poet means by gepyld, not passive longsuffering but "biding one's time" until the right heroic moment. This brings us to the heart of the hero: gePyld during the risky course of wyrd, not only in Beowulf but in Judith, too. Felix portrays heroic life in malo, but his story of Guthlac discloses that secular heroes have virtues, exemplified in the exiled prince lEthelbald. Scyld as a model of kingship Scyld resembles Guthlac during his nine years as a warlord. Both men grew up as exiles: Guthlac among Britons,62 Scyld among Danes. Guthlac "devastated the towns and residences of his foes, their villages and fortresses with fire and sword."63 Just so, Oft Scyld Scefing sceabena 13reatum, monegum mwgilum, meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorlas. (Beowulf' 4-6a: Often Scyld Scefing, with troops of warriors, seized mead-seats in many nations, terrified earls.)
61 Felix, 62
Vita sancti Guthlaci 49, 1956: 150-51, "gladius tuos vincet adversarios tuos."
Felix, ibid. 34, 1956: 108-11.
63 Felix, ibid. 17, 1956: 80-81, "adversantiurn sibi urbes et villas, vicos et castella igne ferroque vastaret."
Guthlac, too, amassed treasure through foreign conquest, but like a gift-giving king, he returned one-third of them to his conquered subjects.64 This detail might signify a heroic ideal, or it might presage Guthlac's future sanctity, on analogy to St. Basil. During the persecution of Christians in Cappadocia, Emperor Julian confiscated all its citizens' property, but their bishop, Basil, through prayer sent the ghost of Mercurius the martyr as a champion against him; Mercurius slew Julian with a javelin. The Cappadocians, grateful to be rid of the emperor, acknowledged Basil's right to their property, but Basil compelled them to take one-third of it back.65 By overpowering his enemies, Guthlac established himself as a prince, and governed in peace. Just so, Scyld weox under wolcnum, weoromyndum pah, oopwt him wghwylc Para ymbsittendra over hronrade hyran scolde, gomban gyldan. (Beowulf 8-1 la: grew [in power] under the skies, prospered in honors, so that all the neighbors over the whale-road had to obey him [and] pay him tribute.)
Interpreted in malo, Scyld's profile has been painted varying shades of evil. Kaske: as ideal heroic kings, Scyld and Beowulf belong to the Earthly City, doomed to damnation. Dahlberg: Scyld's rule "by force and terror" exemplifies pagan kingship, such that the poet's summary half-line, "1:Ixt wws god cyning" (1 lb), is ironic. Schrader: Scyld's reign of terror brought only transient glory. King: although Scyld is not as evil as Heremod, his "aggression towards human enemies" contrasts Beowulf's peaceful kingship, which represents the true ideal.66 We need not speculate about what Augustine would have said about Scyld. In De civitate Dei he wrote: "To make war on one's neighbors, and then go on to 6$
Felix, ibid. 17-18, 1956: 80-81.
66
Kaske 1984: 21; Dahlberg 1988: 43; Schrader [1991] 2007: 22; King [2003] 2007:
lElfric, "Depositio sancti Basili episcope" 279-88, in Lives of Saints, 1881-1900, 1:66. 238-41.
22 destroy and subdue peoples without being provoked and from the mere desire for rule, what should this be called other than large-scale brigandage?"67 Even so, the poet's praise of Scyld, "pwt wxs god cyning," should be taken at face value, not as irony. Interpreted in bono, the Scyld prologue develops a submerged metaphor: the "mead-seats" of many tribes (5b) are a metonymy for halls and kingdoms that Scyld subjected to his rule, even those of overseas "neighbors," ymbsittendra (9b), a pun that reinforces the image of mead-benches. Imagery specific to a hall signifies the fate of nations. The same metonymy is applied to Scyld's son Beow, "geong in geardum" (13a: young in the courtyards), and -on fwder [bea]rme" (21: in his father's bosom)--we imagine him sitting there.68 These images prefigure Hroogar's building of a real hall. Heorot, at the height of his power (64-85).69 The connection signifies stability, and continuity of rule through five kings in four generations: Scyld, Beow, Healfdene, and Healfdene's two older sons, Heorogar and Hroogar. Two attributes of "Guthlac the warlord" have counterparts in Beow and in Hro6gar. Guthlac was only fifteen when he recruited a comitatus and embarked on his conquests. Beow was young, too, still living in his father's house, when he formed his own comitatus, possibly as the sign and substance of dynastic continuity. Guthlac's military reputation was known so widely that he attracted retainers "from various races and from all directions."7° Hro6gar's military exploits were so widely known that he attracted winemagas, a magodriht micel (65b, 67a) that included, among others, Beowulf s father Ecgpeow, and Unfero, very likely an exile in Denmark, for he had slain some of his kinsmen (587-88a). Scyld's military conquests distinguish him from Sceaf, his prototype as the mythical foundling-child washed up on a Scandinavian shore. According to 67 Augustine,
De civitate Dei 5.16, translation in King [2003] 2007: 241.
" I cannot follow Earl (1994: 9), who construes "on fwder bearm" as Scyld's corpse on the bier, loaded with treasures. 69
Anderson 1972.
7° Felix,
Vita sancti Guthlaci 17, 1956: 80-81, "undique diversarum gentium sociis."
23 koeiwe d's Chronicle, Sceaf was elected king, in regem eligunt, and according to William of Malmesbury, he "simply reaches manhood and rules," as Daniel Anlezark observes.71 Perhaps the Beowulf poet, inheriting a version of the foundling-myth that had been transferred from Sceaf to Scyld, wanted to provide Scyld with a typescene that matched his name. "Part wxs god cyning" (1 lb), the poet says of Scyld. Some critics think otherwise. Dahlberg argues that Scyld's rule by force and terror exemplifies "pagan" kingship damned by ironic praise. Huppe concedes that Scyld is a model of heroic kingship, but argues that the poet rejects the heroic ideal because it is "pagan." Even though Scyld was not evil like Heremod or Grendel, Judy King reasons, as an empire-builder he was a "negative exemplum," beside which the kingships of Hroogar and Beowulf are improvements.72 This would imply that the Danes oppressed by Grendel were better off than their great grandparents, ruled by Scyld. These interpretations are based upon irony, such that the text is purported to mean something contrary to what it actually says, even when the poet speaks plainly. Just before death, both Guthlac and Scyld gave instructions for their funerals." Here the resemblance ends, for Scyld appointed himself a ship-burial like the one that the sixth-century saint Gildas prescribed for himself, according to a Latin biography composed by a monk at Ruys, in Brittany.74 "Providebit autem Dominus sepulturae mihi locum," Gildas assured his disciples. "The Lord will provide a place of burial for me."75 Just so the poet says of Scyld's funeral ship, Anlezark 2006: 263; cf. Orchard 2003: 102-3. 72
Dahlberg 1988: 43 and 50-52; Huppe 1984: 21; King 2003.
33
Felix, Vita sancti Guthlaci 50, 1956: 150-60, at pp. 154-59; for Scyld, Beowulf28-29.
74 Cameron 1969. The biography was copied in a manuscript of the ninth century or later (now lost), in the Benedictine monastery of Fleury. It is printed in Williams's edition of Gildas's De excidio Britanniae, Gildas 1899: 322-89. Some critics have ignored the Gildas parallel, but others have noted it, e.g. Meaney 1989: 35 (citing the Gildas anecdote as a source for the Scyld episode), and King [2003] 2007: 244. 75
Gildas 1899: 366, 368; cf. Cameron 1969: 243.
24
Men ne cunnon secgan to sale, selerxdende hwleo under heofenum, hwa pwin hlxste onfeng. (Beowulf 50b-52: Men cannot say for a truth, hall-counselors, warriors under the heavens, who received that cargo.) Guthlac received a conventional Christian burial and wrought miracles from his tomb, but Scyld's ship-burial is more properly called an antiquarian coloring, not a "pagan" one,76 in light of its analogue in a saint's life. The mystery of Scyld's destination comports with the cosmological one of the Moon's occultation in Exeter Riddle 29: "Nmnig sibban / wera gewiste [mere vvihte sio" (13b-14: afterwards no one among men knew the creature's journey).77 And it comports with the eschatological mystery expressed in Exeter Book Maxims I: "Meotud ana wat / hwxr se cwealm cymeb, pe heonan of cybbe gewiteb" (29b-30: the Creator alone knows whence death comes, who departs thence from the knowable [world]).78 Again: "Deop dead wmg dyrne bib lengest" (Maxims I 78: the deep path of the dead is the longest [kept] mystery). The contrast between Guthlac and Scyld does not quite fit the Christianpagan polarity, which is, after all, a foreshortened bed. More than one critic has played the part of Procrustes.79 Irving, omitting the Scyld-Gildas parallel from his survey of "Christian and Pagan Elements" in Beowulf; includes Scyld's shipburial along with Hnxf's and Beowulf's cremations in his inventory of "pagan 76 Benson 1967: 193-94; cf. Chadwick 1912: 52-53; Stanley 1964: 326-31. Alternatively, Ellis Davidson (1964: 136) and Newton (1993: 137-38) suggest that the myth of Scyld's funeral was invented as an aetiology for a royal ship-burial practice in England. Boenig (2002) attempts an allegorical approach, arguing that Scyld's burial took place on land, like Sutton Hoo, and that his funeral-ship was launched in a symbolic sea. He pursues this thesis without regard to the literal sense of the text, or to Scandinavian and Celtic parallels. 77 Williamson 1977: 85 (Exeter Riddle 27; no. 29 in ASPR 3: 195. Williamson (1982: 27) translates more freely: "Afterwards no one / In the world knew where the wanderer had gone." 78 ASPR 3: 156-63, and p. 305n. for other translations and interpretations. Williams (1914: 132) translates cwealm as "disease" rather than "death," which is possible. 79
See Christine Fell (1995) for a spirited defense of this point.
25 funeral rites, of a kind known to be frequently condemned by Christian authorities." (True of cremations, but not of ship-burials like the one at Sutton Hoo.) Parenthetically, Irving remarks that Scyld's funeral is "odd since the funeral ship is not buried in a mound but pushed out to sea."80 Not odd, really, but Scandinavian and Celtic, as Axel Olrik observed a century ago, when he compared Scyld's ship-burial to those of Haki (Ynglinga saga 27), Siguror Hringr (SkjOunga saga 27), Elaine of Escalot, the legend of St. Maturnus of Cologne, and other Continental examples.8' Other exiles established principalities in foreign lands by means of military might. In the Poema de Mio Cid, Rodrigo Diaz's campaigns against Moorish villages and fortresses in Spain, culminating in his conquest of Valencia, resemble Guthlac's conquest of British villages and fortresses, the basis of his own principality. Other such exiles are Sanasar and Baldasar, and Mamik and Konak, founders of the Mamikonian dynasty in Armenian oral tradition. Closer to home are Hengest and Horsa, who, in Nennius's version of their story, came to Britain as exiles. These were followed by a succession of father-son dual kings who (according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle) conquered British lands: Hengest and /Esc (after Horsa's death); !Elle and Cissa in Sussex; Cedric and Cynric, followed by Cynric and his son Ceawlin, in Wessex; Cuowin and Cawlin in Durham, and others. Some names are historical, others fictitious, like Port who landed at PortesnmPa (A.D. 501). Perhaps the Anglo-Saxons praised these conquerors in panegyrics and narratives, as they must have done with Hengest and Horsa.
" Irving 1997: 178. Scyld's funeral ship might be construed as pagan if it had been set on fire, as Whitbread (1968: 65-66) thinks it was, but this is possible only if "aldor of earde" (56a) is rewritten (not to say emended) as "aldor ofer ade," "the lord [Scyld] above the pyre." 81 Olrik [1910] 1919: 409-11; Cameron 1969: 241-42. Olrik regarded the ship-burials of Haki and Siguror Hringr as influences of the Scyld legend on Norse saga literature, but Chadwick (1906: 268-69) disputes this.
26 The profile of Scyld, Guthlac, Hengest and Horsa, Rodigro Diaz, Sanasar and Baldasar, and Mamik and Konak, is matched in The Husband's Message,82 whose "message" is conveyed to a prince's daughter from her exiled husband. He has established himself in a foreign land, as a warlord with his own hall, a comitatus, and treasure to bestow on loyal retainers.83 "Hine fzehpo adraf / sigepeode" (19b-20a: a feud drove him from the victorious people), the message relates, but now, he "[geon]d elPeode epel healde" (37: rules a principality among a foreign people). If the woman will join him in his new land, God will grant [lixt git] xtsomne sibPan motan secgum ond gesiPum s[inc brytnian], neegled beagas. (Husband's Message 33-35a: that you two together then will be able to distribute treasure, studded rings, to [a comitatus of] men and companions.) "Secgum ond gesiPum," (34a), a hendiadys, refers to a comitatus, like the one that supported Guthlac's rule over a British principality. These resemblant forms reflect a typescene, one of several possible "founding myths" of a kingdom. Typescene analysis Typescene analysis is viewed with suspicion by some critics. John Hill, citing Crowne's discovery of the "hero on the beach" typescene and my own analysis of "tragic court flyting" in the Finn and Ingeld episodes, while omitting contributions by Donald Fry,84 complains that typescene analysis fails to "rise to the level of drama inherent in a scene unfolding in its own terms, given the expectations, worries and interactions of its characters and creatures, with
82
Husband's Message, in Leslie 1961: 49-50.
83
Anderson 1975.
84
Crowne 1960; Anderson 1980; Fry 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, and 1972.
27 outcomes that can be surprising."85 A generation earlier, critics said the same thing about oral-formulaic analysis, that it presupposed a mechanical form of composition and ignored the poet's aesthetic and thematic creativity. After more than forty years, I still treasure Bonjour's spirited defense of the "aesthetic approach" for his shrewd insights about Beowulf, but he says nothing to invalidate oral-formulaic analysis.86 The conflict over "mechanism and aesthetics," studied and resolved (I had thought) by Olsen and Foley,87 seems to have migrated to typescenes. Hill, following Andersson, allows an inventory of ten "scene types" that are worked and reworked in Beowulf and in heroic lays and sagas, viz., outdoor battles, hall-battles, festive hall scenes, quest-journeys, sentinel, welcoming, and messenger scenes, meetings of the hero with kings or queens, flytings, and farewell scenes.88 These are permitted critical notice, but only as "gross level" substructures, yellowish like the plaster below the vivid surface of istoria and color in a medieval fresco. Typescenes are neither convenient nor necessary aids to poetic composition, certainly not in Beowulf. As narrative units they embed meaning by virtue of formal resemblance to past and future texts. Traditional typescenes have the same role in Beowulf as biblical quotations and literary borrowings do in Anglo-Latin and Anglo-Saxon saints' lives. They are signifiers in the Lacanian sense: signs that point to other signs, in an open-ended chain of signs within and outside the text.89 They are agents of intertextuality, just like literary allusions. Put another way, it changes the meaning of Scyld to know that his name appears as a dynastic founder in Danish and Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies, especially in houses like Alfred's in Wessex, where Anglo-Danish relations were 85
John Hill 2008: 97, n. 2.
86
Bonjour 1967.
87
Olsen 1986 and 1988; Foley 1988: 51-91 and 103-22; cf. Foley 1991: 3-5.
John Hill 2008: 98, n. 2, following Andersson 1980, who in turn was influenced by Buchloh 1966. 88
28 fostered.90 It changes his meaning to know that his childhood adventure as a foundling set adrift in a boat or a box, a story applied earlier to Sceaf, has analogues as old as the Sumerian myth of Sargon (ca. 2334-2279 B.c.), the founder of the Agade dynasty.9I Moses, of course, and Cyrus, the founder of the Achaemenian dynasty that displaced the Medes in Persia,92 are examples. In Sheihnama, Ferdowsi applies the mythic pattern to Darab, the illegitimate son of princess Homy by her father, shah Bahman. Mal) was raised in obscurity by a fuller but eventually was recognized, became king himself, warred against Filqus (= Philip of Macedon), married Filqus's daughter Nahid, and by her fathered Sekandar (= Alexander the Great). Later, by a second wife, Darab fathered Dard (= Darius), who was the object of Sekandar's military campaign against Persia.93 According to a popular tale in the Gesta Romanorum and in Hartmann von Aue's Gregorius, Gregory the Great, a child of incest like Darab, was set to sea in a casket, fostered by fishermen, then sent to a monastery where he was educated as a priest." Otto Rank called these stories psychological archetypes; Joseph Campbell called them mythic.95 Milan Kundera, in The Unbearable Lightness of Being: "How many ancient myths begin with the rescue of an abandoned child! If
89 For the application of Lacanian semiotics to the criticism of medieval literature, see Anderson 2003b.
9° Davis 2006. 91 Sargon and Ur-Zababa, in Black et al. 2004: 40-44; the relevant episode is missing from the fragmented text, but the story can be reconstructed from Akkadian sources. The best survey of Sargon-analogues is Lewis 1980. See further Harris 2004: 9-13. 92
Moses: Exodus 2. Cyrus: Herodotus 1.108-30.
93
Ferdowsi, Shahnameh 2006: 441-55.
Gesta Romanorum 81, trans. Swan 1924: 141-54; Hartmann von Aue, Gregoria 11824, 1966: 20-123. Like Guthlac, Gregory preferred the life of a knight. By his exploits, he won the hand of a queen, who turned out to be his mother. This discovery led to long penance, after which he returned to the priesthood and eventually was elected Pope. 94
321-22.
98
Rank [1922] 2004: 14-15, adds a similar story about Judas Iscariot. Campbell 1949:
29 Polybus hadn't taken in the young Oedipus, Sophocles wouldn't have written his most beautiful tragedy!"96 Robert Folk (1989) takes a different view. He proposes that the maritimefoundling story has a cognate in Bergelmir's story, in the poetic VafProdnismal (stanzas 29 and 35), partially repeated in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda. Both foundling-heroes, Sceaf Scyld and Bergelmir, derived from a Germanic fertility myth. Bergelmir's story is as follows: When the giant Ymir was slain, the blood flowed from his body in a flood that drowned all the frost-giants, except for Bergelmir and his wife, who took refuge in a floating hior, a flour-bin. Fulk equates Bergelmir etymologically with the Karelian barley-god Pekko, and with Beow, and proposes that the story originally belonged to Beow, not to Sceaf or Scyld. He is right about the etymology, but to me, Bergelmir seems more like a Flood-survivor, whose analogues include Sumerian Ziudsura
Ziusudra,
Akkadian Atrahasis or Utnapishtim, and the biblical Noah, arguably a different story. Scyld's story is neither a universal archetype nor a literary borrowing from any one specific source. It is, rather, a migratory typescene portending future kingship. It changes the meaning of Scyld to know, too, that Guthlac, Rodrigo Diaz, Hengest and Horsa, and the husband in The Husband's Message, are exiles who became princes by means of military might. Like the maritime foundling-child, this typescene has potential as the founding myth of a kingdom. Typescenes are invested with meaning by virtue of their literary or mythic associations. The goal of typescene analysis is not to discover the poet's compositional methods. He had creative freedom to choose one typescene or another, or none. Nor is it to discover the intention of the poet, which is unrecoverable. Nor is it even to reconstruct the probable reception of an episode by the poet's audience, for he might have had several audiences, some more learned than others, as has been said often enough. We aim to discover the "intention of the text," which Eco 96
Kundera 1984: 11.
30 equates with the Ideal Author, the fictive persona or narrator whom we call, routinely, the "Beowulf poet." Not to be confused with the empirical author, the Beowulf poet is an aesthetic creation within the text. Like the poem itself, the Ideal Author is malleable, subject to change, depending upon our evolving knowledge of the text, the Anglo-Saxons, and heroic tradition.97 I have borrowed terminology from Umberto Eco's studies in criticism, because I believe that Beowulf is what Eco calls an "open work" (opera aperta).98 That is not my thesis in this book. It is more a predisposition, a critical spirit that makes allowance for the legitimacy of rival interpretations of an episode, or of the epic as a whole—but within limits. An open work is a literary text whose interpretation depends upon active participation by the reader, such that meaning is negotiated between the Ideal Author and the reader. A closed text, in contrast, is one that prescribes its meaning, like an exemplum in a sermon, a fable that ends with a moralizing proverb, a cautionary tale, or an allegory like Everyman or John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress whose characters have names that label the themes they represent. The terms "open" and "closed" suggest a polarity, like Karl Popper's distinction between open and closed societies in The Open Society and its Enemies (1945), but in practice, literary texts may be arranged on a spectrum, with some more "open" or "closed" compared to others. Wulf and Eadwacer is an extreme example of an open text. So are most Exeter Book riddles, especially ambiguous ones whose clues sponsor more than one meaning, and those that explicitly challenge the reader to solve a word-1311771e The riddles of Aldhelm, in contrast, are closed because the text provides its own solution in a title. This is true of other medieval riddle-collections, too: those of Tatwine, Symphosius, Boniface, and Eusebius. Among the most fascinating examples of open texts in 97 This is just a metaphorical way of saying what Niles says more literally (1983: 236), "While ultimately an author's intentions may be irrecoverable, the text is not lost, and one can tell what it says." 98 Particularly helpful studies by Eco: The Open Work ([1962] 1989), The Role of the Reader (1979), Postscript to The Name of the Rose (1984), The Limits of Interpretation (1990), Interpretation and Overinterpretation (1992), and Six Walks in the Fictional Woods (1994).
31 ON English are Exeter Book "elegies," particularly The Wife's Lament, The Husband's Message, The Wanderer, and The Seafarer. In these dramatic monologues, the speaker alludes to a specific narrative situation, alluding to a "life story," something that happened to her or him, but the narrative is never disclosed fully. The reader must supply the missing narrative by reading creatively. Three attributes of Eco's theory of literary interpretation have special appeal to me: simplicity, temperance, economy. He avoids technical jargon. He seeks a happy medium between ideological extemes. Like most critics he eschews attempts to establish the intention of the empirical author, or, put another way, the expectation of his or her contemporaneous audience, which is really just the "intentional fallacy" by other means. At the opposite extreme, he resists reader-response theory, according to which the truth of any interpretation is valid to the reader who formulates it, though not necessarily to anyone else. Readerresponse theory holds that because the empirical author's intention is unknowable, and would be irrelevant even if it could be known, there is no "intention." There are only meanings attributed to a text by readers. Eco counters that there is, after all, an "intention of the text," which opposes the "intention of the reader" by setting limits on interpretation, but which also interacts with the reader to co-create an "ideal reader," who in turn is free to make conjectures about the meaning of the text. But the reader must be willing to engage and respect the "intention of the text." The American formalist way of expressing this was "humility before the object of art." Economy. Of course I am aware that Eco's is only one of many rival theories of criticism in a lively debate that still continues. Relativism, for example, is not invalidated by reductio ad absurdum.99 It will not exit stage left without an argument. The best relativist thinker in modern times, John Rawls "| am thinking of Eco's "Jack the Ripper" argument (1992: 24-25). Suppose Jack the Ripper said that his crimes were motivated by "his interpretation of the Gospel of Saint Luke." Even "reader-oriented critics" would say that "he read Saint Luke in a preposterous way."
32 (1971), solved the problem of idiosyncratic "truths relative to individuals," when, returning to the topic of Plato's Republic, he formulated a theory of "overlapping consensus" as the criterion for validity. Every person and culture has notions about the attributes that constitute justice, and these vary widely, but they also overlap and share common ground. In the case of "justice," the common ground is "fairness." Justice is fairness. So far as I am aware, reader-response theorists, as "naive" relativists, have not applied "overlapping consensus" to literary criticism. It could be done, but not without difficulty. Louis T. Milic, the first critic to apply computerized methods to stylistic analysis, used to speak of an "MLA Bibliography Test" as an objective measure of canonicity: the canonical rank of a literary work is determined by the number of bibliographical entries devoted to it. This is truth by overlapping consensus, but it says nothing about the meaning of a work. As a philosophical position, reader-response relativism has the potential to achieve validity, but not economy. A reader is free to choose his or her own epistemology: essentialist, formalist, nominalist, positivist, or relativist. That is the reader's prerogative, even when it diverges from the epistemology implied by the "intention of the text." With each choice comes a notion of universals. Are they absolute essences? Forms? Artificial constructs? Tricky abstractions? Whatever you want them to be? In the history of thought, these approaches have always been contemporaneous and equal in philosophical dignity. Mythopoeia is possible, too: an epistemology that views universals as supernatural agents. The only approach that is off limits is skepticism. One cannot write criticism if one believes that all generalizations lack validity. In practice, few critics consciously choose an epistemology or ontology of universals. Instead, they fall into a more or less consistent way of writing, a "mode of discourse" that discloses its underlying epistemology and ontology in due course. I discuss discourse analysis in Chapter 2, where discourse modes are pertinent to the mythopoeic voice of the Beowulf poet. Suffice it to say for the
33 present that a writer's ontology of universals is not a philosophical choice, but a by-product of his or her habitual mode of discourse. Substitute "typescene" as an example, and we will have reframed the question about universals in terms that pertain to this chapter. What is a typescene? Is it a mythic archetype? Is it an essence that exists (P)ato) or subsists (Bertrand Russell) in a "world of universals" that are imitated, imperfectly, by their real-world specimens? Is it a transcendent form that exists in and through its specimens? Is it an artificial construct, a collectivity of texts upon which we confer a conventional name, based upon superficial resemblances that we happen to notice? Or is "typescene" just a tricky abstraction that fools us into thinking it is real? These are, respectively, mythopoeic, essentialist, formalist, nominalist, and positivist ways of describing a typescene.m° When I first read John Hill's remarks about typescenes (quoted above), I thought he was writing as a positivist, until I got to the part about ten "scene types," which is formalism in the manner of Aristotle. There is nothing wrong with switching modes. The nature of language requires that we do so, for in language, economy is essential and logical consistency is an unaffordable luxury. That is why it is better to think of universals as the phenomena of discourse modes, rather than the outcome of metaphysical thought. This leads me to wonder, what is my own ontological notion about typescenes? I have written about them before, most recently in an analysis of "father-son combats" in Indo-European and Arabic narratives, but I never gave much thought to their ontology. On reflection, it turns out that I have written about them, habitually, as if they were transcendent forms that exist in and through their specimens. I even refer to texts as "specimens."1°1 That makes me a
1°° I have done with the naive relativism or reader response theory, which leads nowhere. I acknowledge the validity of rationalized relativism, but its complexity, its dependence upon "overlapping consensus," eludes my grasp. I don't know how a "rationalized relativist" would describe a typescene. 1°1 Anderson and Norouzalibeik 2008.
34 formalist, quite against my will, for the modern writer whose thinking I most admire is Michel Foucault, the nominalist. Typescenes are migratory narrative patterns that exist in and through the texts in which they appear. They might include "scene types," such as battles, messenger scenes, or flytings, but resemblance at this level of generality is uninteresting, and will not concern us here. Typescenes are interesting when they share details across texts (and cultures) that are specific enough to make us wonder why they resemble each other. In medieval narratives, typescenes often are present because they migrated across cultures as an exigency of oral composition, although literary borrowing is equally possible. The oral-literary polarity is irrelevant to my study. Typescenes have two attributes that contribute to my conception of Beowulf as an "open work." First, implicature. Typescenes have "meanings" that are independent of any explicit expression of a theme. This is due to their conventional associations in other texts. The poet's allusion to Scyld as a maritime-foundling, for example, portends future kingship and the foundation of a dynasty—an interpretation of the typescene that is confirmed later in the prologue. Implicature in typescenes, as in language, is flexible, not stable or constant. A typescene derives its meaning in part from its cross-cultural associations, in part from its immediate cultural and textual contexts. I illustrated this already, with the equestrian sculpture of a hero. For Charlemagne it implied imperium; for Renaissance popes, the king as minister Dei and defender of the Church; for medieval and modern Armenians in Erevan, resistance to imperium as an evil. Second, a typescene is a signifier, a sign that points to others in an openended chain of signs. It does not matter that the empirical author of Beowulf knew nothing of Sargon or Cyrus. The image of Scyld as a maritime-foundling is a sign that points to them, indirectly, as founders of royal dynasties, and it points to
35 others: the biblical story of Moses, popular tales of Judas Iscariot and Gregory the Great, and (in malo) the Arthurian legend of Mordred. Beow as a model of kingship Beowulf king of the Danes is described in the prologue as the second ruler in Scylding dynasty. He was followed by his son Healfdene, whose two oldest sons. Heorogar and Hro5gar, ruled Denmark in turn. Twice in the text he is mentioned by name: "Beowulf
\VMS
breme" (18a), "Beowulf Scyldinga" (53b).
Almost all scholars acknowledge that the name should be "Beow," but scholarly editors have refrained from correcting these verses, as Chickering does in his student edition.1°2 "Beow" avoids confusion with Beowulf the Geat, an error made by Humphrey Wanley when, in the first library catalogue-description of the poem in 1705, he described its hero as a Danish king who went to war against Swedes.1°3 "Beow" is consistent with genealogical analogues, too. Scef (var. Sceafa), Scyld (Sceldwa), and Beow (Beo, Beaw) are named as Danish ancestors in the West Saxon royal family line in three West Saxon sources, viz., the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle entry for
A.D.
855 (sc. 857), Asser's Latin Life of King Alfred
(ca. 892), and kthelweard's Latin Chronicon, also in an entry for 855.104 fEthelweard's Chronicon, a late tenth-century text based mainly on the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle, probably reflects the earliest extant form of this genealogical tradition, notwithstanding its late date.1C5 One or more of these three "Danish" ancestors, and others besides, among them Heremod and Geat, appear in Anglo-Saxon genealogies. They are the focus of lively discussion in contemporary Beowulf criticism, owing to the realization 102
Chickering 1977: 48-51 and 278.
103
Frantzen 1990: 131 and 193.
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: Plummer 1892-99, I: 66 and Smith 1935: 22-23. Asser, Life of King Alfred, 1959: 3 (chap.1). faelweard, Chronicle, 1962: 25. For discussion, Chambers 1°4
1967: 68-97, 195-204, and 291-322, and Sisam, 287-348. For relevant texts in translation: Garmonsway and Simpson 1968: 118-19. 1°5
koelweard, Chronicle, 1962: 32, and Anlezark 2002: 19-21.
36 that while these genealogies say nothing factual about Germanic prehistory, they give expression, however obliquely, to the political and social motivations of the eighth-century Anglians and ninth-century West Saxons who cultivated them. According to critics who have unlocked their secrets, the court historians of this period managed the genealogical data, and made some of it up, in order to dignify their royal dynasties, enhance national pride, and promote a (possibly fictional) sense of national unity in repeated 'nation-building' exercises, which we think of now as sociolinguistic constructs, influenced as we are by the nominalism of Michel Foucault.1°6 Scef and Beow were English inventions. The Danes never heard of them as kings. Clemoes attributed their admission to Anglo-Saxon king-lists, along with Scyld(wa) and Heremod, to an "enthusiastic genealogist" in King Alfred's court.107 Byggvir, Beow's phonological Norse counterpart, was known only as Freyr's servant in Lokasenna. An apparent exception, the twelfth-century Icelandic Langfedatal, includes "Beaf' and "Seskef vel Sescef," repeated by Snorri Sturluson in the prologue to his Edda (ca. 1220),108 but these are obviously borrowed from an English text; the former miscopies "Beaw," an easy mistake to make. Anglo-Saxon Wynn resembles "f." "Seskef" incorporates English demonstrative se into the base. Both are copy-errors of a scribe unfamiliar with the English language. Of course the Danes knew of Scyld, as Skjold, Odin's son (not Scef s) and the founding king of Denmark according to Saxo Grammaticus; his story was told in a Norse Skjoldynga saga, still extant in the late sixteenth century when an Icelander, Amgrim Jonsson, prepared a Latin abstract of it.109 According to the prologue in Beowulf, Scyld Scefing was a childfoundling of unknown origin, who washed ashore in the land of the Danes in a 1°6 Influential studies include Dumville 1977: 72-104; Murray 1981: 101-12; Frank 1982: 53-65; Meaney 1989: 7-40; Howe 1991; Davis1992: 23-36; Davis 2006: 111-29. 1°7 Clemoes
1995: 53-54.
1°8 Garmonsway
and Simpson 1968: 119-20 and 122.
109 Chambers 1967: 6-7 and 69.
37 boat, was fostered by them and became a warrior-king who unified them under his dynasty. The Beowulf poet has no such colorful stories to tell about Beow, probably because Anglo-Saxon oral tradition offered none. He might have been an agricultural god too, "Barley" personified, the meaning of OE beau, beow and ON bygg (<*beggw-; Swedish bjugg), although the dominant word for "barley" in Old English is here, not beow. Anglo-Saxonists no longer wish to emphasize north Germanic *beggw- as the source for pekko, a loanword in Finnish, used as the common noun for "barley" and also personified as Pekko, a good-luck god of the fields who as late as the twentieth century in Estonia was represented as an effigy of a three-year-old boy, kept near the crops to encourage good harvests.u° The superstitions of our ancestors are embarrassments, best kept closeted. Still, Pekko's role in Estonia resembles that of St. Joseph in contemporary American culture, where, if you put a house up for sale and have trouble selling it, business-minded realtors will advise you to purchase an effigy of the saint from a religious artifact-store, and bury it upside-down in the corner of the lot, ceremoniously, with prayer, in an appeal for divine intervention in real estate transactions. Not that Beow was a Germanic fertility god. Beow and Pekko are related by diffusion in a northwest European or pan-Baltic Kulturbund, but what brings them together is barley, not divinity; agricultural technology, not mythological belief. Still, there is little linguistic difference between the creation of a personification-god and the symbolic use of names, as the Beowulf prologue does with "Scyld," the provider of military defense, and "Sceaf' and "Beow," providers of agrarian prosperity. The people need both in order to regard their king as joke to frofre (14a: as a comfort to the folk). So Beow is described. Scyld
132-34.
10 Olrik 1910, 2: 254-55; Chambers [1921] 1959: 87-88 and 299-301; Dumezil 1973:
38 and Hygelac exemplify warrior-kingship; Beow and Beowulf exemplify rulers whose strength brought peace and prosperity." The poet emphasizes prosperity at line 18b: Beow wars breme (blaed wide sprang), Scyldes eafera Scedelandum in. (Beowulf 18-19: Beow, Scyld's heir in Scandinavia, was famous [agricultural prosperity increased abundantly].) 112 Scholars seldom agree about what is or is not a parenthesis in Old English. Following Dobbie's grammatical interpretation and punctuation, I13 I construe verse 18b as a parenthesis rather than as some sort of appositive. Biwa (with a long vowel) in the abstract means "prosperity," possibly something like "lifeforce," maybe even "glory of life" as Klaeber construes lt, I14 but also "agricultural abundance, fruits of harvest." The word is related to blced (with a short vowel), meaning "leaf," a blade of grass or grain. Most translators and critics render blced as "fame, renown," identical in meaning, if not in grammar, to adjective breme "famous, renowned," and in their translations they select near-synonyms, as in Garmonsway: "This Beowulf, offspring of Scyld, was of high renown, and his fame spread far and wide through the Danish realrn."I15 Others construe blced as "name," a metonymy for "fame," which is not so much a translation of Beowulf as it is the fabrication of another poem by the same title. Chickering: "[Beow] was famed—his name spread far—`Scyld's son', through all the Northern lands"; Niles: "Beow[ulf] was famous, his name rang widely, / Scyld's son, in the lands of the North"; Seamus Heaney: "Shield had fathered a famous son: / Beow's III Chadwick (1912: 373) cited Scyld as an exemplar of warrior-kingship; the ideal is discussed by Clemoes (1995: 4-10 et seq.) in relation to Beowulf. 112
Mitchell 1985, 2: 943, § 3854.
113
Dobbie, ASPR 3: 114, note to Beowulf 18b-19.
114
Klaeber 1950: 308.
115
Garmonsway and Simpson 1968: 3.
39 name was known through the north."116 Glossed as "prosperity," bleed plays on the meaning of "Beow" as "Barley" in an ambiguous verse (18b) that could refer either to Beow's personal standing among the Danes, or to widespread prosperity among them during his reign. This interpretation is not a revival of Pekkoworship; it is an example of the well-known Anglo-Saxon practice of using symbolic names, or names symbolically, in poetry and prose.'" The collocation Be©w and bleed at line 18 is the only place in the prologue where Beow's name is treated symbolically, for the poet has other themes to pursue quite apart from an agrarian pun. In particular he stresses Beow's youth, his status as the prince of his own comitatus even during Scyld's reign, and the continuity of the kingship, which he inherited after Scyld's death.118 Ritchie Girvan has stressed that a personal retinue is a Germanic commonplace; in Tacitus's time, "the Germani fought in family groups."1I9 Beow's comitatus signifies a return to normal stability, after years of chaos when the Danes suffered the dire distress of lordlessness. Niles characterizes lines 12-19 as a "selfcontained verse paragraph," an example of "ring composition" framed by repetition of eafera ("heir") in its first and last lines. Following Tonsfeldt, he calls this sort of thing "ring composition" in preference to "envelope pattern," the term used by Bartlett in her pioneering study of 1935, and he asserts that Bartlett had missed this particular example in Beowulf.12° Verbal repetition or "verbal echoes" often mark secondary structural units in Old English poetry, but not in this case, where the poet's description of Beow continues through to line 25.
116
Chickering 1967: 49; Niles 1983: 152-53; Heaney 2000: 3.
117
For symbolic names on Old English: Robinson 1968.
119
Thomas Hill (1986) argues that regnal continuity is a major theme in the prologue.
119
Girvan [1935] 1971: 43-44.
129 Niles 1983: 152-53; cf. Tonsfeldt 1977: 443-52; Bartlett 1935: cf. Hieatt 1975. Dane (1993) provides a useful critique of the limits of "ring composition" in literary analysis, and notes that this rhetorical trope is unrelated to oral-compositional technique.
40 Dmm eafera was after cenned geong in geardum, bone god sende folce to frofre; fyrenbearfe ongeat be hie mr dragon aldor[le]ase lange hwile. Him bats liffrea, wuldres wealdend, woroldare forgeaf. Beow wxs breme (bleed wide sprang), Scyldes eafera Scedelandum in. Swa sceal [geong g]uma gode gewyrcean, fromum feohgiftum on feeder [bea]rme, 1:ixt hine on ylde eft gewunigen wilgesibas, bonne wig cume, leode gelzesten. Lofdwdum sceal in mmglia gehwwre man gepeon. (Beowulf 12-25: To him [Scyld] afterward was born an heir young in the court, whom God sent as a comfort to the people; He perceived that they, lordless, had suffered for a long time. Because of this, the Lord of Life, the Ruler of Glory, granted him worldly honor. Beow, Scyld's heir in Scandinavia, was famous [agricultural prosperity increased abundantly]. So must a young man do good works, [giving] splendid treasure-gifts [while he still sits] in his father's bosom, so that later on, during his majority, willing retainers will remain with him when war comes, tribesmen [will] stand by him. A man prospers by means of praiseworthy deeds, in many nations [sc. 'whatever nation he lives in'].) The repetition of eafera at 19a, Scyldes eafera, an epithet for Beow, has the rhetorical effect not of closure, but of anaphoric prosecutio, which propels the poet onward to an expression of gnomic wisdom through which he informs us that during Scyld's reign, prince Beow organized his own comitatus and established himself as a ring-giver to loyal retainers. Thayer sees the maxim "Swa sceal geong guma" (20-24a) as a riddle: "Why is the prince doing this gift-giving and not the king?" he asks. "To whom is he giving the gifts? To retainers, or to the king for distribution to his retainers? How do we reconcile the seemingly straightforward economy of gifts for loyalty with the term 'praise-deeds' for gift-giving?"12 ' But Beow is portrayed not as a 121 Thayer
2002: 12.
41 usurper, but as a guarantor of regnal continui , n recompense for years of lordlessness prior to Scyld's rule. Beow's youth is mentioned thrice: in the epithet geong guma (20a) referring ambiguously to youth in general and to him personally; in the image of him seated on feeder [beakne (21b); and in the assertion that he was not yet on ylde (22a) when he established his comitatus. The expression on ylde lends itself to comparison to Middle English ful age or plein age, referring ambiguously, or at least inconsistently, to ages twenty-one (legal majority), fifteen (minimum age for knighthood and bearing arms), and fourteen (minimum age to hold land).122 This is what is meant by yldra (2378b) when the poet says that Beowulf served as regent in Geatland until Heardred came "of age." In an alternative interpretation, Rothauser construes on feeder bearm as modifying feohgyium (treasures, possessions) and ylde as "old age," and translates lines 20-24a: "So shall a young man bring about by generosity, splendid fee-gifts, in the possession of (his) father, so that dear companions remain in turn (with) him in old age when war comes."123 To paraphrase: "A young prince should be generous with his father's treasures, so that when he gets to be an elderly king, his warriors will remain loyal to him in wartime." This interpretation envisions the passage as a truism that has only a vague connection with Beow's story. /24 It envisions the passage, too, as a thematic contrast of youth and old age as extremes on either side of vigorous manhood. Possibly, but it seems to me that lines 4-58 present, rather, two interlaced, miniature biographies, those of Scyld and Beow, with due attention to robust kingship in each case, and that is what ylde refers to in the case of Beow. The Scyld prologue follows with two more cases of a "bosom": after Scyld's death, his retainers deposited his body on bearm scipes (35b) and placed his funereal treasures "him on bearme" (40b: at his bosom). These repetitions, like Kurath and Kuhn, Middle English Dictionary, s.v . age 2a. 123
Rothauser 2007: 103-20, at p. 110.
124
So Deskis 1996: 105-9.
42 those of eafera, are not ring structures that enclose and retard expression, but anaphoric propulsion, for the poet has an urgent tale to tell, as do I, about Beow the boy-wonder. As the boy-founder of a comitatus, Beow had a Slavic counterpart in Volkh Vseslavyevich, the hero in a Russian bylina who, at age twelve, began to establish a druzhina (retinue) in preparation for the defense of Kiev against a hostile Tsar:125 And when Volkh was twelve years old, He started gathering himself a druzhina, He gathered a druzhina for three years, He collected a druzhina of seven thousand. Volkh himself was fifteen years old. A great rumor then reached The capital city of Kiev, The Indian Tsar was preparing himself, He was bragging and boasting, He wanted to plunder the city of Kiev And to send God's churches up in smoke And to ravage the venerable monasteries. But at that time Volkh was shrewd, With all his brave druzhina He set out a campaign To the famous Indian Kingdom. Volkh was not a ring-giver like Beow, but he provided for his comitatus by transforming himself into a wolf by night and chasing down wild game for food and clothing: elk, wolf, bear, sables, snow leopards, hares, and foxes. At other times he transformed himself into a falcon and hunted geese, swans, and ducks, thus providing his retainers with "varied and tasty dishes."I26 These details reflect a migratory theme of the "boy-hunter who feeds his people," exemplified by the Armenian hero Medz Mher who, from age seven to fifteen, fed the people of Sassoun by means of his hunting, and again in the Kazakh epic of Qambar, whose 125
"Volkh Vseslavyevich," 11. 50-66, in Bailey and Ivanova, 1998: 3-11, at p. 7.
126
Ibid., II. 66-85, in Bailey and Ivanova 1998: 7-8.
43 eponymous hero, at age fourteen, fed his clan, the Auk, by hunting onagers, gazelles, and wild goats.127 A boy-hunter is not a gold-giver; this is a different tradition. But Volkh's role as the boy-founder of a druzhina overlaps with the theme of Beow as leader of wilgesifias. Volkh's role as a shape-shifter and sorcerer has led Roman Jakobson to believe that Volkh Vseslavyevich is one of the most archaic of Russian byliny.128 The conventional number of warriors in a druzhina was thirty. Volkh's 7,000-man druzhina was hyperbolic, consistent with his portrait as a prodigious child, or wonder-boy who, swaddled in steel armor, carried a mace weighing "three hundred poods,"129 spoke in a stentorian voice like thunder, and at age ten started a three-year course in magical arts, rather like Cu Chulainn in Scathach's court at age six,I3° or a Jedi warrior in "Star Wars." Closer to epic convention, and closer to home, the child Horn was nine years old when, banished from Suddene, he went into exile accompanied by twelve retainers. Two of these were differentiated in the Middle English King Horn: the loyal Akulf, and Fikenhild the traitor,I31 reflections of John the Beloved and Judas Iscariot in a description that integrates biblical allusion with the oral-traditional portrait of a boy-hero. Another example is Hakon in Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla: the bastard son of King Harald of Norway and foster-son of rEaelstan. Hakon was only fifteen when he sailed to Trondheim, collected a following of local strongmen, and expelled his older half-brother Eirik from the throne. Fagrskinna tells a different story: Hakon was twenty when he traveled to Norway, quietly made 127 Anderson 2007: 127. For Sasna Cier ("Reckless Ones of Sassoun"): Orbeli, Sasunc'i Davit' 2.1.8; Shalian 1964: 120; Feydit 1964: 181-82. For Qambar: Shooldbraid 1975: 86, and Reichl 1992: 148-49. 128
Jakobson 1949: 13-86.
129 4,914 13°
kg., or 5 tons and 833 lbs.
Min B6 Cuailnge, trans. Carson 2007: 35-36.
131 King Horn, II. 19-28 and 95-98, ed. Allen 1984: 259-60, note to lines 16 and following. Two manuscripts represent Horn as fifteen at this time, as printed in Sands 1966: 1554, at pp. 17-18 (lines 17-18).
44 friends there, and bode his time while his unpopular, Heremod-like half-brother was driven from the kingship by his own people. Neither story is likely to be true,132 but Snorri's profile of Hakon captures the elements of a prince as boywonder in rationalized form. The story of Magnus Olafsson, in Morkinskinna, is similar and probably influenced by Hakon's story in Heimskringla. Magrnis was raised in Russia as the foster-son of King Yaroslav (1015-1054), at the insistence of his queen, Ingigero the Swede, who was partial to King Olaf of Norway because, as she said, "it is the less distinguished man who fosters the other's child." (The rivalry between Yaroslav and Olaf, foster-father and natural father, mirrors that of /Eoelstan and Harald in Heimskringla.) As a prodigious child in Yaroslav's court, Magnus used to show off by walking in handstands on the tables. One day when he was doing this, a jealous courtier pushed him and caused him to lose his balance. In an enfant terrible episode later at the evening beer-drinking, Magmas gave this man his death-blow with a small axe. In the commotion that followed, Yaroslov took Magnus's side and paid the dead man's kinsmen a wergild in compensation for his death. Magniis was eleven when he learned that King Olaf was betrayed by the Norwegians and killed. He set out for Norway with a ship and troops, secured the kingship without a battle, and won the loyalty of farmers and nobles through magnaminity and justice.'33 In the Norse Gautreks saga the warrior-poet Starkad Storvirksson was twelve years old when he joined his foster-brother Vikar in recruiting twelve retainers, all "warriors and duellers," who defeated a contingent of seventy champions defending the hall of King Herbjof. This example is ambiguous, for in one of his verses, Starkad credits his warrior-companion Vikar for recruiting their comitatus.I34 Horn and Starkad lack other details of the boy-wonder, such as
132
Fjalldal 2005: 36.
133
Morkinskinna 1 and 3, trans. Andersson and Gade 2000: 89-100 and 102-4.
134
Gautreks saga 4, in Paisson and Edwards 1968: 34 and 54, no. 4.
45 prodigious growth and strength, but these were known in north Germanic oral tradition, as is apparent from Saxo's account of young Scioldus, who at age fifteen "was of unusual body size, and displayed mortal strength in perfection." As a child he killed a bear with his cummerbund, and defeated many champions in single combat, typical boy-hero adventures in many epic traditions, although in Persian, Armenian, Byzantine Greek and Arabic epics the wild beast usually was a lion rather than a bear.135 Beowulf s youthful combats with sea-monsters and giants (415-24), and his swimming adventure with Breca (506-81a), are examples of the traditional hero as a boy-wonder. This contrasts with the equally conventional theme of Beowulf s "inglorious youth" (2183b-89); exemplified by well-known Norse counterparts, Grettir Asnundarson and Om Storolfsson, who were unpromising boys prior to becoming heroes. /36 Another was Starkad Storvirksson, who up to age twelve "was an exceptionally big man, but he was a layabout and slept among the ashes by the fire" as a captive in King Hetof s hall. Only after Vikar roused him from lethargy did his heroic exploits begin.137 Another example in Gautreks saga was the Norwegian farmer's son Ref Rennisson, a kitchen-oaf who was "the laughing stock of all his sturdy kinsmen" until he joined Vikar's comitatus and became a great viking.13g Then too Ilya Mdromets, the greatest hero in Russian byliny, slept in a bunk above the kitchen stove, immobile, until three pilgrims came by his cottage and cured him with rejuvenating "water of life," propelling him to his career as the defender of Kiev against brigands and infidels. /39 "Male Cinderellas " in Norwegian and Russian folktale, too, like Askeladden and
135 Saxo Grammaticus, Danish History 1.11-12, in Garmonsway and Simpson 1968: 12021. For other epic traditions: Anderson 2007: 127-29 and Heath 1996: 249-53. 135
Klaeber 1950: xiv, n. 3 and xxiii, n. 6; Bonjour 1950: 24.
137
Gautreks saga 4, Palsson and Edwards 1968: 34.
138
Gautreks saga 6, ibid., 37-38.
139
Bailey and 1vanova 1998: 25-26, on "The Cure of Ilya Milromets."
46 Ivanu§ka the Fool, sat by the stove or in kitchen ashes as a symptom of lethargy and a symbol of low status.140 Beowulf did not sit in kitchen ashes, but for him the chronology of events must have been similar: a period of lethargy, followed by a heroic awakening after which he slew sea-monsters and giants, and recreated himself in a swimming adventure with Breca. There is no reason to attribute a motive to Beowulf's inglorious youth, as Malone did when he proposed that the boy-hero wanted to conceal his divinely ordained strength,141 or Kuhn when he proposed that the boy was acting out a childhood hatred of his uncle, King Hxocyn.142 Chronological sequence and motive were determined by oral-compositional typescene tradition. To summarize: when the Beowulf poet referred to Beow's initiative in establishing his own comitatus as a youth, very likely he did not have access to a particular story about Beow. Instead, the poet created a generalized portrait of Beow with reference to a migratory typescene that sometimes was used as part of the profile of a boy-wonder or prodigious child-hero. Parallel examples are King Horn, Volkh Vseslavyevich, Hakon Haraldsson, Magnus Olafsson, and possibly Starkad Storvirksson. The poet used the same technique in reporting Beowulf's youthful exploits against sea-monsters and a race of giants, and in his allusion to Beowulf's "inglorious youth," but in the case of the hero's swimming adventure with Breca, he did have a traditional story to tell. The problem of Hygelac In the critical tradition established in 1950 by Adrien Bonjour, I turn now to the larger thematic relevance of the Beow-digression to Beowulf as a whole. My conjecture is that in the prologue, the poet juxtaposes two models of kingship that are re-instantiated later in the portraits of Hygelac and Beowulf. Scyld was an
140
Meletinskij 1975: 235-57, at pp. 241-44.
"I Malone 1937: 21-22. 142
Kuhn 1969: 243-64, at p. 245.
47 exemplary warrior-king, as a dynastic founder must be, whilst his son Beow was an exemplary treasure-giving king who provided for national defense by establishing a strong comitatus, but whose most notable contribution to the kingdom was peace and prosperity. Scyld and Beow represent two ideals of kingship that are easier to integrate in theory than in practice, as Hroogar's reign illustrates: at first he was a warrior-king to whom heresped, wiges weoromund (64b, 65a: success in battle) was given. Retainers flocked to him because of his military success (65b-67a). Hroogar the warrior-king built Heorot as the hallmark of his success, and distributed treasures to retainers there as Beow would have done, but his integration of warrior-kingship with ring-giving did not last long, for on the very night of Heorot's inauguration, Grendel began to deconstruct its comitatus by carrying off thirty retainers at a time (120b-23a). Twelve years later when Beowulf came to Denmark, he found Heorot in a weakened condition, not because it was ruled by a king enfeebled by old age—for Hroogar was in his prime, and anything but feeble, when Grendel began his nocturnal raids—but because each night the comitatus was decimated by a supernatural evil force. If we are looking for the cause of Heorot's decline, Hroogar's old age is not the right diagnosis, even though, it is true, he had aged when Beowulf came to his rescue. The king who most closely resembled Scyld was Hygelac, whose first and last acts as king were those of a warrior-king. His raid in Frisia, where he was killed (1202-14; 2354b-68), has given rise to a chorus of critics who, condemning him for his reckless feuding with neighbors far and wide, blame him for the ultimate destruction of the Geats more than fifty years later. Rogers (1955), citing the poet's first mention of Hygelac's death in the "Brosing torque simile" (11971207a), contrasts Hygelac's "undue pride" with the Brosing torque's last known owner, Hama, who "geceas eacne raid" (1201b: chose eternal counsel), meaning
48 either that he entered a monastery, or died and went to heaven.' According to Kaske's influential formulation, Hygelac was endowed with fortitude but lacked sapientia.144 This harsh judgment would be more persuasive were it not contradicted by Beow-ulf s unwavering loyalty and love of his king, during his lifetime and fifty years after his death. Writing in the humanist tradition of Beowulf criticism established by W. W. Lawrence, Arthur Brodeur argued that Beowulf s love of Hygelac was the quality that lifted him above the level of a folk-tale monster-slayer, humanizing his character while making Hygelac a unifying figure in the epic." An alternative possibility might be that Hygelac is like Alfonso in the Poema de Mio Cid: the more we learn about him, the more we realize how unworthy he was as a king, notwithstanding Rodrigo's unwavering loyalty to him, such that the Spanish poem discloses a progressively widening gap between the hero's and the poet's appraisal of the king. The Spanish poet articulates this theme in an exclamation, "'Dios, que buen vassalo! iSi oviesse buen sefior!"146 The Beowulf poet, in contrast, confirms the hero's positive view of Hygelac, even to the point of defining Beowulf in terms of their relationship, as Higelaces Pegn (194b, 1574b, 2977b), nueg Hygelaces (758b, 813b, 914a). Hygelac's first act as king was his rescue of the Geatish army from destruction by Ongenbeow during the battle of Ravenswood. Hygelac was the youngest of King Hre6el's sons, but after the second son, HeeOcyn, killed his older brother Herebeald in a hunting accident, HreOel died of a broken heart, and Hwocyn succeeded him as king. HwOcyn led his Geatish army in an attack on the Swedish king Ongenbeow, but after an initial success when they captured OngenPeow's queen, the fighting went badly for them. Helcyn was killed and his 143 Rogers [1955] 1963: 254-55, construing byrhtan byrig (1199a: bright city) as a reference to heaven. 144
Kaske 1957; so too Payne, 1974: 28-29.
145
Lawrence 1928: 87-96; Brodeur 1959: 80-87.
146
Poema de Mio Cid, line 20; Pidal 1976: 98. "God, what a good vassal! If only he had a
good lord!"
49 retainers were trapped, lordless and wounded, at Ravenswood, where they spent a night in the woods listening to Ongenkeow's boasts about how he would slay most of them the next morning, and hang the others. Hygelac changed their fate. He arrived at Ravenswood at dawn with trumpets blaring, heralding his own comitatus, who rescued the Geatish army, defeated the Swedes, and slew Ongenbeow. The poet presents this narrative non-chronologically, in four discontinuous passages, the first spoken by the poet (2349b-99a), the second by Beowulf in his sometimes nostalgic "boast before battle" with the dragon (24252515), the third by the poet when he recounted the history of Wiglaf s sword (2609-30), the fourth by Wiglaf s messenger who brought news of Beowulf s death and its political implications (2910b-3000). There are many critical issues associated with these passages.I47 Two of them are pertinent to the Beow-digression and its larger thematic implications. One is that the first, second, and fourth passages, in narrative collocation, juxtapose the battle of Ravenswood with Hygelac's fall in Frisia, Hygelac's first and last acts as king. The other is that Hygelac's role at Ravenswood is not disclosed in detail until the end of the poem, by VViglaf s messenger. Think about what this means. After hundreds of lines during which Beowulf refers to his beloved Hygelac and the poem presents tantalizing details about events in Hygelac's career, only at the end do we understand why Beowulf and the poet revered him. It was because he had rescued the Geatish army from certain destruction in narrow straits at Ravenswood. His very first action as king established his fame as an exemplar of warrior-kingship, not least through his epithet, bonan Ongenbeoes (1968a: slayer of Ongenloeow).148 No matter what else he did after that, his reputation was secure. As long ago as 1826, John J. Conybeare complained that the speech of the Geatish messenger was too obscure 147
Thought-provoking studies include Greenfield 1963, Carnicelli 1975, and Kim 2005.
The actual slayers were Wulf and Eofor, of course, but responsibility for the feud fell to Hygelac and his heirs. It is incorrect to say that the epithet is "not literally accurate" but is just an allusion to later events in Geatish history (Howe (1989: 157). 148
50 and compromised the structural integrity of the epic,149 but if we follow the treatment of Hygelac through to the end of the poem, it becomes evident that the poet knew what he was doing. The problem of Hygelac, then. Was he an ideal warrior-king, or unworthy due to military recklessness? Robert Kaske (1958) defined his role in terms of sapientia et fortitudo, an epic concept that appears in Isidore's Etymologiae, such that Hygelac, like Grendel, had .fortitudo but no sapientia, whereas Hroogar has sapientia but no fortitudo, and Beowulf s standing as a hero was based upon his integration of these two virtues. Contrasting attitudes to Hygelac extend even to etymology. Some critics think that his name means Thoughtlessness, Mindlessness, or Frivolity,'" in contrast to his wife Hygd whose name means Thought, but Hygelac could just as well mean Psychomachia or Spiritual Battle, the opposite of frivolity. Ever since Kaske, often under his influence, critics in one generation after another have perpetuated two companion scandals pertaining to kingship: the Swiftboating of Hygelac, and the feminizing of Hroogar. I discuss the problem of Hroogar in Chapter 6. My present concern is Hygelac, but the two problems are related. Like John Hill (2008), I reject sapientia et fortitudo as a Procrustean bed (my metaphor), and I applaud his substitution of another doublet, gravitas and celeritas, as contrasting virtues in a king. Hill borrows this doublet from Marshall Sahlins's anthropological analysis of kingship among the Fiji islanders. (Sahlins, in turn, got the doublet from Georges Dumezil.)I51 But to my mind the problem is more aesthetic than anthropological, like that of gravitas and leggerezza, "lightness" and by extension "quickness," used by Italo Calvino (1985-86) to contrast Dante's poetic tendencies with those of Lucretius, Ovid, Cavalcanti, and
49
Conybeare 1826: 65 and 76.
15° Weise 1986. 151
John Hill 2008: 44, citing Sahlins 1985: 90-91.
51 Boccaccio.I52 Hroogar is a man weighed down, in his case by the double burden of kingship and Grendel's attacks. His counterpart in part II of the epic is King Hreoel, weighed down by grief for his eldest son, Herebeald, who was slain by his second son, Hwacyn (2435-64a). Unlike Hro6gar, Hreoel was unable to bear his burden of misery, and died of a broken heart. Quite the opposite of a king weighed down by oppression, Hygelac is light in being and quick in action, but his is a thoughtful leggerezza, like that of Guido Cavalcanti as a fictional character in Boccaccio's Decameron, when he was taunted in a cemetery by a party of jesting gentlemen on horseback. "[V]ol. mi potete dire a casa vostra ciO the vi piace" (you may say anything you wish to me in your own home), he said to them, glancing at a tomb, and resting one hand on that tomb, he vaulted over it and escaped, leggerissimo, being superlatively nimble. Cavalcanti's comment alludes to his Averroist belief in a World-Soul that encompasses all souls, such that through philosophical contemplation an individual can overcome death, but the anecdote is made comic, and meaningful, but the delightful image of the philosopher-poet's quick escape.153 Hygelac did not escape the armies of Frisians, Franks, Hetware and Hugas in Frisia, but his military adventures there and at Ravenswood are recounted with alacrity whenever they are mentioned. Haste is evident, too, in the welcome reception and generous gifts that he extends to Beowulf on the occasion of the hero's homecoming. An unnamed Geatish coastguard (hydweard, 1914b) set the pace: as soon as he saw Beowulf's ship, he quickly (hrabe, 1914a) prepared to receive the hero. Messengers informed Hygelac of Beowulf's safe return quickly (snude, 1971b). As soon as the king heard this, the hall was quickly cleared ("Hrabe wars gerymed," 1975a) to make room for the fedegestum (1976a), the visitors who marched from the harbor to Hygelac's hall. Hygelac was quick with questions, too, for "hyne fyrwet brxe" (1985b: burning curiosity burst forth on 152
Calvino 1988: 3-54.
155
Calvino 1988: 11-12; cf. Boccaccio, Decameron 6.9, 1930: 319-20.
52 him). What happened during Beowulf's sojourn in Denmark? Was he able to provide a cure for Hroogar's sorrow? Beowulf responds with an account of what happened in Denmark (1999-2162), and gives Hygelac and Hygd virtually all the treasures that Hroogar had given him (2152-76). Hygelac's response was immediate and astonishing. He lay Hreael's sword in Beowulf's lap, and conferred on him an estate of 7000 hides complete with a hall and a bregostol (throne, 2196a).154 The only potentially negative remark that the poet makes about Hygelac appears as part of the "Brosing torque simile" (1197-1214a), where his death is reported: "he for wlenco wean ahsode, / flic3e to Frysum" (1206-7a: on account of 'pride', he asked for trouble, [pursued] a feud with the Frisians). Critics who interpret Hygelac's Frisian adventure in malo naturally seize on for wlenco as the Christian vice of pride, superbia, the opposite of humility,I55 but in heroic contexts the opposite of pride is cowardice. Garmonsway was right to translate for wlenco as "by his proud courage,"156 a virtue, not a vice. When the poet calls Wulfgar a wlonc heeled (331b), he means that this man was proud to be one of Hroogar's trusted retainers, and that he was not craven. Addressing the Geats in Heorot, Wulfgar could see for himself that "ge for wlenco, nalles for lArrxccsi8um, / ac for hyge prymmum" (338-39a: you [came here] on account of proud courage, not at all through the misfortunes of exile, but for boldness of heart). Hyge prymmum is synonymous with wlence, a variation; for wroccsioum is its opposite. Of course for wlenco can be used in malo too, as UnferO does when he accuses Beowulf and Breca for undertaking a risky swimming adventure for wience (508a) and for dolgilpe (509a: in fulfillment of a foolish boast). The phrase for wlenco, inherently ambiguous, partakes of the double meaning of heroic life in bono and in malo.
154
Redwine (1982) discusses haste as a sign of sincerity on formal occasions in Beowulf.
155
Stanley 1963: 137-38, rpt. 1987: 193.
156
Garmonsway and Simpson 1968: 33.
53 The reader is free to judge Hygelac's Frisian raid in malo because its outcome was tragic, but what if it had been successful, like his daring rescue at Ravenswood? Would critics then praise his valor? Perhaps it would be better not to be judgmental. If we must judge, we must consider lines 2940-2500, where the poet tells us that after his return from Denmark, Beowulf enjoyed a career as Hygelac's champion on military expeditions, like Hildebrand the champion of Dietrich von Bern (Theodoric of Verona), like Rostam, champion of Kay Kdvus in Firdausi's Shiihneima, and like David when he was King Saul's champion.
During this period of his life, Beowulf played the same role in relation to Hygelac as iEschere did in relation to Hroogar during their younger years as warriors. So there were many expeditions: successful ones. Only the last ended badly, and even then (as I argue in Chapter 10) Hygelac accomplished his mission. If we fault Hygelac for reckless militarism, I don't see how we can avoid faulting Beowulf, too. Still, Beowulf s kingship differs from Hygelac's. He reigned as a wise, peaceful king for fifty years: "he geheold tela / fiftig wintra (\vacs as frod cyning, eald epelweard)" (2208b-10a). After he was mortally wounded by the fire-dragon, he described the nature of his kingship: Ic oas leode heold fiftig wintra; noes se folccyning, ymbesittendra xnig tiara, pe mec gudwinum gretan dorste, egesan aeon. Ic on earde bad mwlgesceafta, heold min tela, ne sohte searonioas, ne me swor fela aoa on unriht. (Beowulf 2732b-39a: I have ruled this people for fifty winters. There was no king among any of the neighboring peoples who dared attack me with allies [gudwinum] [or] threaten terror. In my own land I accepted my destiny, guarded well what was mine, did not pursue malicious conflicts, and swore no oaths unjustly.)
54 Despite his mortal wound, Beowulf is thankful that God cannot accuse him of murdering kinsmen (2739b-43a). If Hygelac's reign was warlike, Beowulf enjoyed a peaceful reign due to his fame as a monster-slayer and Hygelac's champion; Beow reigned in peace because his comitatus was loyal and strong. According to the standard of warrior-kingship, Hygelac was a better king than Beowulf, just as Scyld was better than Beow. Hro8gar, too, during his first discourse with Beowulf, in a moment of candid humility said of his older brother Heorogar, "se wxs betera oonne ic" (469b: he was [a] better [king] than me). Beowulf never said this about Hygelac, but he must have thought it often enough. It explains his lifelong affection and admiration for his maternal uncle and sometime king.
55
Chapter 2 Mythopoeia When I write about the "voice" of the Beowulf poet, I make no claim to privileged knowledge of the identity, date, social circumstances, or intentions of the person who composed England's greatest epic. I agree with Nicholas Howe (1977) that the date is unknown, and that critical problems associated with the epic would still be problems, even if it were known. Of course I have opinions about him. He was a Christian, living in a Christian society. He may or may not have been a monk) Whatever his profession, lie came to it from a knightly class,2 for he idealized noble speech and customs, and attributed them to the principal characters in his epic. Even so, his interest in courtly life was muted compared to that of the fourteenth-century poet of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, whose details of chivalric equipage equals Chaucer's, and whose knowledge of gentlemen's terms of hunting rivals the mythical knowledge of Tristan. If he knew Boethian concepts of providence, destiny, fortune, and chance, his was a generalized understanding like that of the Pearl Poet, not a hierarchy of cosmic powers like Chaucer's. He composed Beowulf with the easy artistry of an experienced poet, like Chaucer in his later works, or Shakespeare in King Lear. No doubt he composed other poems, but we know nothing about them. They may have been religious, or even theological, like Pearl and Purity, or they may have been secular lays. He was a mensch: humane, generous, courteous, kind, forgiving, slow to anger, his ambition an artistic one, to create an epic that was worthy of the hero. Many critics believe that the poet must have been a cleric, with access to writing materials and to learning; among them Wormald 1978, Schrader 1980, Dumville 1981, Lapidge 1982, discussed in Bjork and Obermeier 1997: 28-29. Wormald thinks that the poet was an eighthcentury cleric. 2
On this I agree with Klaeber 1950: cxix, and Kendall 1991: 2-4.
56
During his lifetime, the Beowulf poet probably knew more about Germanic heroic tradition than anyone else in England. He forgot more than we can hope to reconstruct of that tradition through comparative study. I do not accept the gradualist view of composition that Magoun used to explain the poem's narrative inconsistencies and formulaic style, and that Stevick used to explain its Christian "coloring."3 Of course the poet appropriated already existing stories of a dragon-fight and a two-troll tradition of Grendel and his mother, but I think that he knew more than he said about Heremod, and Hygelac's career as a warriorking, Finn and Hildeburh, and Froda and Ingeld. I cannot imagine him as a "final redactor" who would have been shamed into silence if a member of his audience asked to know more about Sigemund's adventures with Fitela, or Hengest's after his return to Denmark. It's not true what critics say, that knowledge of an "empirical author" doesn't matter. Ethos is prerequisite to good discourse, as Aristotle claimed. If we knew the identity of the author of Beowulf, critics would not ignore it. But we don't. All we really know is that he was an Anglo-Saxon who lived sometime during the eighth, ninth, or tenth centuries. Even so, the "intention of the poet" was a recurring theme in twentiethcentury criticism of Beowulf. Tolkien, it is true, confined this theme to a footnote, reminding his readers of what they already knew, that the poet's opinions about events in the poem are not the same as those of his characters.4 Some critics thought that authorial intention could be deduced from genre. Schiicking (1929) argued that Beowulf is a Furstenspiegel, a "mirror of princes" whose theme is ideal kingship. Gang (1952) proposed that the poem is "an attempt at a sort of secular Saint's Life" whose argument was that virtuous pagans, like Dante's Virgil, could achieve monotheism and sound ethics just like Christians could. Several allegorizing critics have taken this path. Most influential was Goldsmith, 3
Magoun 1953, 1958, and 1963; Stevick 1963.
4 Tolkien [1936] 1968: 26-27, n. 20, "It must be observed that there is a difference between the comments of the author and the things said in reported speech by his characters."
57
who argued, in The Mode and Meaning of Beowulf (1970), that the mode is allegory and the meaning is that the noblest of pagans, again like Dante's Virgil, cannot overcome the human failings of cupiditas without the benefit of grace and the guidance of Christian faith.5 Rogers argued that the author's intention can be deduced from a progressive pattern in Beowulf s "three great fights." Each one is progressively more difficult "in inverse proportion to the extent of his use of weapons and armour, his acquisition of treasure, and his need of help from companions." This progression points to a "moral idea: that a man should not trust in the things of this world, for they will fail him." If other details in the poem point to some other theme, Rogers asserts, these must be ignored, for "it is not permissible to assume that everything in it has a purpose or an ulterior significance."6 We can trust the general pattern to reflect the author's intention. Details that seem inconsistent with it are pagan residua that escaped the author's artistic mastery. By this means, Rogers proposes that we ignore the "intention of the text" in preference for the author's "intention." as deduced from structure. Baum was the first critic to argue that potentially competing "intentions" can be deduced from the epic. Besides kingship and monotheism, these might include political warnings against warfare and feuds, and a cautionary tale about how a society can destroy itself with internal strife, even after it has been rescued from external threats by the likes of Grendel, his mother, and the dragon. These are valid conjectures, Baum observes, but even so, "the poet has left these inferences to our ingenious interpretation. He was too much the artist to certify 'a palpable design'."7 This is another way of saying that Beowulf, as an "open
5
Goldsmith 1970; earlier, Goldsmith 1960 and 1962.
6 Rogers [1955] 1963: 235-36 and 237. Orchard (1995: 168) agrees with this analysis, although not with Rogers's focus on authorial intention. Instead, he argues that the pattern is conventional, shared by the Old Norse Grettis saga. 7
Baum [1960]; 1963: 356.
58
work," invites conjectures about its meaning, within limits, without explicitly confirming any of them. A milestone study of "intention" in Beowulf was Greenfield's analysis of its "authenticating voice." Greenfield assembles all the poet's comments about events and characters, and organizes them in a taxonomy of four categories, viz., (1) those that historify, emphasizing the distance between Beowulf s world and that of his audience; (2) those that contemporize, "suggesting a continuity between the past and the present"; (3) those that moralize; and (4) those that emphasize "the limits of human knowledge." His analysis was preceded by Ringbom's identification of a "commenting voice" in a similar, less systematic study of voice.8 The "authenticating" voice is an attribute of the Ideal Author (my term, not Greenfield's, borrowed from Eco). Greenfield stopped short of claiming an authorial persona: "I do not think we can talk about a persona in Beowulf as we can in reference to later medieval literature." He also argued that formulaic verse makes it impossible to "talk about the 'poet' in the poem, since the heavy use of formulas, even in such phrases as ic gefrcegn and ic hyrde, has the effect of depersonalizing the T."9 For this reason, he preferred "voice," although in practice he referred to the "Beowulf poet," as linguistic convention requires. I agree with Greenfield on the first point. We cannot delineate the Beowulf poet as a persona like Chaucer the Pilgrim in the Canterbury Tales, or the selfdeprecating narrator in the House of Fame and Troilus and Criseyde, or the grieving father in Pearl. Still, we can discern other attributes of the poet besides authentication. One of them, discussed in Chapter 3, pertains to irony. There is situational irony in Beowulf, but the poet never makes sarcastic or ironic remarks about his human characters, nor do Beowulf, Hroogar, or Hygelac. When irony or sarcasm is called for, the poet attributes it to the voices of minor characters.
8
Ringbom 1968: 46-48.
9
Greenfield [1976] 1989: 45.
59
The poet is humane, non-judgmental. He accepts his characters for who they are. In this he resembles Beowulf. Who can fail to notice that Beowulf never once rebukes his "cowardly retainers" after they fled from the dragon-fight? Wiglaf had invective enough to heap on their heads, but the poet, like Beowulf, refrains from invective, not knowing what he would have done in the presence of a fire-spewing dragon. In his silence, he wants us to reflect on our humanity, our weaknesses as well as our strengths. Hreoel's mailcoat Another attribute of the poet is his mythopoeic voice. When I write about mythopoeia, I do not mean a narrative infused by myths, like Hesiod's Theogony, although that is one of its forms. Mythopoeia is a mode of discourse that speaks of universals as daimonized, animated, or supernatural agents. Mythopoeia is closely related to essentialism, which speaks of universals as essences that exist separately from their material specimens. Essentialism is rationalized mythopoeia. Mythopoeia is animated essentialism. As species of intensional-collective discourse, mythopoeia and essentialism share an epistemology, too, based upon the concept of an Ideal Knower of absolute truth, except that the mythic Knower is divinely inspired, while the essentialist Knower is an ideal philosopher, and ultimately a sujet suppose savoir, one who is supposed (by others) to know, but who does not know the truth about universals. Mythopoeia: a species of intensional-collective discourse. To explain what this means, I must situate it in the framework of other discourse modes. The philosophical journey is arduous, and not for everyone. I begin with a mythopoeic-based explication of texts that depict Beowulf wearing Hreoel's mailcoat. Perhaps my analysis will seem useful. If not, the reader might want to skip my analysis of universals and turn to Chapter 3, on Grendel. Beowulf arrives in Denmark wearing Hreoel's mailcoat. The poet mentions it in his introduction to the hero's salutation to Hroogar:
60
Beowulf maoelode (on him byrne scan, searonet seowed smikes orkancurn): Wws ku, Hrodgar, hal!' (Beowulf 405-7a: Beowulf spoke (on him [his] mailcoat shone, a net cunningly linked by the originary thought of the smith): 'Be you, Ffroogar, hale!') Hreoel's mailcoat is mentioned by Beowulf at the end of his salutation, too. He allows for the possibility that he, like Danish warriors before him, might be carried off and devoured by Grendel. Should that happen, he says, Onsend Higelace, gif mec hild nime, vet mine breost werea, beaduscruda betst, hrwgla selest; past is Hrzedlan laf, Welandes geweorc. Get a wyrd swa hio scel. (Beowulf 452-55: If battle seizes me, send Hygelac the best of battlegarments that I wear on my breast, the finest of [war-]coats. That is Hreoel's heirloom, the work of Weland. Wyrd always goes as it must.) Beowulf's salutation is formatted as an envelope pattern, beginning and ending with interdependent allusions to Hreoel's mailcoat. Interdependent because the first is in the poet's voice, the second in Beowulf s. The "voices" of Beowulf and the poet often agree. Interdependent, too, because the poet tells us that this mailcoat is something special, without telling us why. Beowulf tells Hroogar why. It was Hreoef s, and fashioned by Weland. Like Achilles whose armor was forged by Hephaistos (Iliad 18.368-617), Beowulf wears a mailcoat fashioned by the archetypal smith. In these two "framing" passages, the poet mentions the mailcoat six times without verbal repetition, a tour de force of lexical diversity that drives its semantic progression from heroic present to historical, then mythic past. It is a shining byrnie (405b), a web woven intricately by the archetypal thought of a smith (406), the best of battle-garments (453a), the finest of war-coats (454a), twice superlative. It is Hrebel's heirloom, the work of Weland (455a).' With allusions to Hreoel and Weland, the temporal frame of reference moves to
6!
historical and mythic past. The verb tense, in contrast, shifts from past (in the poet's voice) to present subjunctive ("gif mec hild nime." 452b), to present: "tvet is Hr&dlan laf, / Welandes geweorc" (454b-55a). The clash between temporal allusion and verb tense suggests that the historical and mythical past is present in the mailcoat. As a signifier, the rnailcoat transcends temporal boundaries. There is magic in the mailcoat, because it was fashioned by Weland. A supernatural force lurks in its background as an animating, protective force. The same mythopoeic logic applies to the Geats' helmets, gilded with boar-images (303b-6a), and to Beowulf s. white helmet,I° ornamented with boar-images by the ancient weapons-smith (1448-53a), "Pxt syoban no / brond ne beadomecas bitan ne meahton" (1453b-54: such. that afterwards no blade or battle-swords could pierce it). Tacitus refers to the boar-emblem, the signature device of Aestii warriors, as a symbol of matrem deum, the mother of gods (Germania 45.3). Tacitus's modern editor, J. C. G. Anderson, notes that the boar was sacred to Frey and Freyja in Sweden." Supernatural protection comes not from the boar-image per se, but from an animating force that the image represents and re-instantiates. I2 The same logic underlies the poet's description of the Geats' shields, "side scyldas, / rondas regnhearde" (325b-26a: wide shields, divinely hard bosses). Regnhearde could mean "very hard," taking regn as an intensifier,I3 but its literal sense is "hardened by the decree of the gods."14 I would not go so far as Kabell (1974), who proposes that the protective rim of Beowulf s helmet (walu, 103 lb) is an etymological allusion to Weland, but the rim or "wall," as a metonymy for a helmet and by extension for a warrior, implies that an armed warrior is a microcosm of a fortress. Of course such descriptions outlive their mythic nuances. Hwite helm 1448a, usually translated as "bright helmet," but white helmets appear in the Bayeux Tapestry.
o unknown.
Tacitus 1938: 210. Whether the Aestii are Germanic. Baltic, or Estonian (Eesti) is
12
Hatto 1957; Mastrelli 1979; Glosecki 1989; Newton 1993: 37-43.
13
Brodeur 1959: 24.
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Under helme (Beowulf 342a, 404a, 2539a) occurs as late as William Dunbar's Timor mortis conturbat me: "an army undir helme and scheild" (21). These details add up to a topos, splendor armorum, a commonplace in classical and medieval epic and romance.I5 The weapons of heroes are shiny, splendid in craftsmanship, and successful in battle. They glitter in sunlight and moonlight. They are heirlooms handed down from ancestral heroes, who got them from an archetypal smith or from some god or goddess who animates them with military force. "Splendor of arms" is a mythopoeic topos. The mailcoat has narrative importance, too. It saves Beowulf s life when Grendel's mother attacks him with a knife (1545-56), L6 just as Walter of Aquitaine's mailcoat, the "work of Weland with hardened rings" in Waltharius, saved Walter's life when he was attacked by Randolf, one of Gunther's men.I7 Beowulf's mailcoat signifies that during HreOel's lifetime, the hero was esteemed in the Geatish royal court and received gifts there, notwithstanding the poet's remark, later, that as an unpromising boy he was ignored in gift-giving ceremonies, until his homecoming from Denmark, when Hygelac gave him Hreoel's sword and virtually half the kingdom (1290-96a). Hreoel's mailcoat signifies promise; his sword, fulfillment. Upon receiving the sword, Beowulf became Hygelac's champion, Rostam-like, in many military expeditions (249099a), a period in his career that later, as an old king, he looks back on with pride. Another grammatical element in the salutation "frame" is Beowulf s use of imperative verbs, "Wxs pu, Hroogar, hal!" at the beginning, and "Onsend Hygelac" at the end, the only imperatives that Beowulf employs in a speech that otherwise takes the form of a petition. "Was... hal!" has a triple meaning, as courtly etiquette, mythological allusion, and medical metaphor. As a conventional 14 15
D. H. Green 1998, 13-14. Ostheeren 1971: 44-47; Anderson 2003: 154-57.
16
Naoko Shirai (1993: 30) asserts that Hreoel's mailcoat "has magic power to protect Beowulf from attack," but the poet does not attribute magical power to the mailcoat. 17
Waltharius 962-66, in Krantz 1984.
63
greeting, it is a sign of noble speaking. The mythopoeic meaning of hal is "good fortune, good luck" (from the gods). A propos of Grendel, when addressed to a king, hal means "good luck in battle."18 Hal ("hale, healthy") as a medical term echoes the medical metaphor that Beowulf used when he told Coastguard that he came to Denmark to bring counsel (rced, 278b) about how to overpower the enemy, if this is possible, and if "bot eft cuman, / ond pa cearwylmas colran wuroab" (281-82: a cure ensues, and surges of sorrow become cooler). In the terms of this metaphor, Grendel is a disease-spirit who infects Heorot, and Beowulf comes as a knowledgeable physician who can provide a cure that will cool down the fever that afflicts the hall, and Hro6gar, with sorrow. By implication, two mythic concepts converge in Beow-ulf s salutation: Grendel as a disease-spirit, and Hreoers mailcoat, made by Weland. I discuss the medical metaphor in the last section of this chapter. For the present, there is more to say about the mailcoat. This mailcoat is generally thought to be a defensive weapon of superlative workmanship whose splendor is expressed by means of intensifying descriptors. Caroline Brady writes that the poet "uses careful selection of terminology and above all of variation to emphasize its splendour, its ingenious—almost magical—smithing, its superiority, its renowned origin."I9 Critics have sought realistic explanations for the mythological origins attributed to fine weapons. Rosemary Cramp writes that weapons like Wiglaf s ealdsiveord etonisc (2616a) were attributed to giants "because the best pattern-welded swords were imports— the products of inherited trade secrets."20 Brady argues that "giants and dwarves—Weland and Reginn and their kin—were the master smiths of Germanic mythology and legend.... It was only natural that Germanic belief should attribute all fine weapons that had survived through generations to the
15
D. H. Green 1998: 16-20.
19
Brady 1979: 116. Again, Newton 1993: 33.
2° Cramp 1957: 65.
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craftsmanship, dexterity and ingenuity of supernatural smiths."2 ' Possibly. But the sword that Beowulf found in Grendel's mere, a giganta geweorc (1562b) whose golden hilt was an enta oergeweorc (1679a) and wundorsmiPa geweorc (1681b), in the sequence giganta... enta... wundorsmiPa, disclose a progression back in time, from historical to mythic past—the same technique used in the description of Hreoel's mailcoat. The realist impulse is apparent in modern translations of the poet's description of BeowulPs mailcoat as "searonet seowed smipes orPancum" (406), which I take to mean "a mailcoat linked by the originary thought of the smith" (referring to Weland). Clark Hall: "the armour cunningly linked by the skill of the smith," Gordon: "the shirt of mail sewn by the art of the smith," Kennedy: "warnet woven by cunning of smith," Garmonsway: "a web cunningly linked by the smith's skilful craft," Greenfield: "his corselet linked by the smith's skilled craft," Seamus Heaney: "webbed links that the smith had woven."22 These translations ignore two connotations of orbancum that point in a different semantic direction.
Or- ord-, means "primeval, archetypal, originary, having to do with the origin or genesis of things." Panc (verb kencan "think, meditate, understand") means "thought, understanding" but also "artifice or design." OrPanc is a common noun meaning "mind, thought, understanding" and also "contrivance, design, artifice." When applied to a fabricated object or building, the underlying sense is that the artisan begins with a concept, which he makes manifest by applying his skill to materials at his disposal. In the context of arts and architecture, orPanc means something like "planned artisanship." The collocation of orPancum and smip is repeated in a simile in The Phoenix, where the eye of the phoenix is compared to a precious stone "bonne in goldfate / smipa orponcum biseted weorpeo" (303b-4:
21
Brady 1979: 121.
Hall 1911: 41; Gordon 1926: 10; Kennedy 1940: 15; Garmonsway and Simpson 1968: 13; Greenfield 1982: 51; Heaney 2000: 12. 22
65
"when it [the gemstone]
in a gold eye-surround by the planned artifice of
smiths")." Orbonc is collocated with cersceafi ("ancient structure") in a damaged passage in The Ruin (16),24 followed by an allusion to the two-step process of building a city. First, an architectural concept is necessary: "Mod mo[nade] myne swiftne gebraegd" (The Ruin 18: The mind instigated a swift purpose). Second, the concept must be executed by fashioning raw materials into the desired object: hwmtred in hringas, hygerof gebond weallwalan wirum wundrum togmdre. (The Ruin 19-20: a resolute [builder] skilled in rings bound the foundation together wondrously with wires.) The process is evident in the building of Heorot: first, it came into Hroogar's mind to build a great hall (Beowulf 67b-70); then, at his command, workmen gathered materials and built the hall (74-79). In CFedmon's Hymn, too, we are exhorted to praise the Creator's modgePanc (2b), his "thought" or idea of the world, when he established the origin (ord, 4b) of all wondrous things in it.25 Creation is reenacted in the conception and building of Bath (in The Ruin) and in Hrobgar's building of Heorot, such that city and hall relate to it as microcosm to macrocosm. The same can be said of Weland's fashioning of Beowulf s mailcoat, implied in the phrase smikes orkancum. This micro-macro relationship is an attribute of universals in the intensional-collective discourse modality. Ontologically, Hreoel's mailcoat is a superlative specimen of the absolute idea of a mailcoat. (The intensionalist modalities of mythopoeia, essentialism, and formalism allow for good, better, and bad examples of material specimens.) Its 23 The Phoenix, ed. Blake 1964. For fcei as an "eye-surround," a sculptural setting for a gem in animal art, see Anderson 1998: 223.
77-79.
24
The Ruin, ed. Leslie 1966. For architectural concepts in The Ruin, see Anderson 1991:
25
Smith 1968: 38-41.
66
maker was Weland, the consummate maker of mailcoats and the transcendent Knower of the truth about mailcoats. There couldn't be greater semantic distance between the Beowulf poet and us when it comes to mailcoats. Mythopoeia is intensional-collective discourse; contemporary logic favors extensionaldistributive thought and discourse.
Grendel's glof (Beowulf 2085b-88) Orbanc can mean "archetypal conception" in bono or in malo. Hreoel's mailcoat, in bono. Grendel's glof, in malo. hi his report to Hygelac about his adventures in Denmark, Beowulf describes Grendel's glof, the game-bag that the monster used to transport the bodies of human victims: Glof hangode sid ond syllic, searobendum fast; sio wars ordoncum eall gegyrwed deofles crwftum ond dracan fellum. (Beowulf 2085b-88: a broad and strange glove hung [there, held] fast with intricate bands; the whole thing was fashioned by the archetypal conception, the artifice of the devil, and the hides of dragons.) Even in the natural world, gloves were the product of skilled workmanship. According to the twelfth-century Liber Eliensis, one of Byrhtnoo's gifts to the church in Ely was "binis... cyrothecis artificiose compositisa" (a pair of gloves, skillfully made).26 The sequence ordoncum, deofles crceflum, dracan fellum, and gegyrwed suggests process: archetypal conception, artistic execution, material specimen. Hreoel's mailcoat was contemplated and fashioned by Weland. Grendel's glof, a work of "primeval cunning,"27 was contemplated and fashioned by the devil, the transcendent Knower of the truth about evil. A cognate in Chanson de Roland: the gem-encrusted shield of Abisme was a gift from the devil 26
Liber Eliensis 2.62, in E. 0. Blake 1962; cf. Alan Kennedy 1991: 65 and 68.
27
Taylor 1984: 6.
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("li dunat uns diables," 1502) in Val Metas, an imaginary Saracen land. Abisme's slayer at Rencesval, appropriately, is Archbishop Turpin. Although marginalized by Niles as a "truncated motif' with "no narrative consequences,"28 Grendel's glof has mythic, linguistic, and naturalistic significance. As a mythic signifier it points to the devil, and also to the giant Skrymir's knapsack or glofi (an Old Norse word borrowed from English), and to the story of Thor's escape from it (Gylfaginning 44 and Lokasenna 60 and 62); perhaps even to an Indo-European myth of a sacrificial feast.29 Glof is a pun on Hondscioh's name, the metaphor of iEschere as a helping "hand," and reciprocal violence in a feud.30 Postmodern critics have deconstructed this chain of linguistic signifiers. According to Lerer, it demystifies the Grendelfight by reducing Grendel's terror to word-play in a "verbal game."31 From this starting-point, Kim and Near deduce that the glof is symbolic of literacy, conceived as "alienation of the sign as thing" from "the sign as meaning," and by extension as any sort of alienation, monstrosity, destabilization or de-centering.32 I don't quite see how the glof signifies literacy, but in Grendel's use of it, it resembles a falconer's game-bag. After the falconer has released his falcon to slaughter a pheasant (or other small game), he quickly seizes the pheasant, hides it in his game-bag, and rewards the falcon with a morsel of meat. The falcon must be rewarded, and it must not be allowed to see its stolen prey; otherwise it will fly off. The significance of the parallel is just this: Grendel is like a falconer, for
28
Niles 1983: 172; cf. Shippey 1997: 171. Niles discusses "truncated motifs" as characteristic of folktale and of "barbarian" epic style. 29
Laborde 1923; Klaeber 1950: 205n.; Lerer 1994 and 1997: 326. Viewed with skepticism in Niles 1997: 221. Puhvel (1979: 88) cites an analogue in modem Irish folktale. Davis (1996: 137-38) speculates that the poet was aware of a folktale-like story in which Grendel carried Hondscioh off in the glof and Beowulf rescued him. 30
Rosier 1963; Carens 1976; Anne Harris 1982 (with emphasis on name-etymology).
31 Lerer 32
1991: 190-93, rpt. in Joy and Ramsey 2006: 609-12.
Near 1993: 321-26; Kim [2005] 2006: 638-41.
68
whom the Danes are small game, easy prey.33 Elsewhere in Beowulf, the Elegy of the Last Survivor alludes to falconry: "ne god hafoc / geond sal swinged" (2263b-64a: the good falcon no [longer] flies through the hall). Allusion to falconry enhances Grendel's terror. It supports Wade Parks's (1993) sociobiological argument that Grendel treats his victims as prey that belong to a different species, rather like a monster in a modern horror movie. Coincidentally, the implied metaphor of Grendel as a falconer has a Sumerian antecedent in a hymn invoking Nergal, war-god of the Underworld, as a patron deity of King second king in the Isin dynasty (ruled ca. 1984-1975 B.c.). The hymn to Nergal reads in part, "Nergal, catch his [ti-ilu§u's] malefactors for him like small birds!"" Four discourse modalities
It is time to explain what I mean by intensional-collective versus extensional-distributive approaches to mailcoats and gloves. To do this, I must discuss four ways of thinlcing about universals, based upon the familiar distinction between intensional and extensional approaches, and a somewhat less familiar distinction between collective and distributive ones. The postmodern analysis presented here was developed in a study using the concept of a literary "canon" as a test case. Gianfrancesco Zanetti, who approaches the "four modalities" as a problem in logic, pursues this theme further in an analysis of perfectionism and liberalism as rival conceptions of political friendship and the good life.35 Here I approach the four modalities as a problem in discourse analysis, as a way of understanding the "voice" of the Beowulf poet. What is postmodern about this analyses is the realization that the four modalities of logic (and discourse) are 33 A more distant analogue to Grendel's glof is the Roman method of executing a parricide, by bundling him into a sack and drowning him in the sea or in a river (Anderson 1982). The parallel to falconry perhaps had a better chance of occurring to Anglo-Saxons. 34
Black et al. 2004: 158-61, at p. 160.
95
Anderson and Zanetti 2000: 348-56; Zanetti 2002.
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equal in validity and philosophical dignity. Because all four modalities emanate from semantic attributes of language, they are contemporaneous, even though at one time or another, in turns, one modality is favored above others in the history of philosophical systems. Essentialism is currently out of favor, but no less valid in logic or discourse than formalism, nominalism, relativism, or positivism. The problem of universals originated from reflection on such values as beauty and justice by Socrates, whose influence continues to be felt in this domain. When Bertrand Russell, in The Problems of Philosophy, tried to explain the "world of universals," his starting point was the concept of justice:36 If we ask ourselves what justice is, it is natural to proceed by considering this, that, and the other just act, with a view to discovering what they have in common. They must all, in some sense, partake of a common nature, which will be found in whatever is just and in nothing else. This common nature, in virtue of which they are all just, will be justice itself, the pure essence, the admixture of which with facts of ordinary life produces the multiplicity of just acts.... The 'idea' of justice is not identical with anything that is just; it is something other than particular things, which particular things partake of. Plato's idea of justice, as a universal category, aims at its "pure essence": the justice of just acts. Plato develops an intensional concept of universals: the meaning of a universal lies not in the "objects to which the term may be applied," but rather in the "properties shared by all and only these objects." The reference is here is to the distinction between intension and extension. Aristotle's "form," like Plato's "idea," is intensional. It aims at the specific virtue or quality, the vis that determines and controls the bodies to which it refers. Unlike Plato's "idea," Aristotle's "form" cannot exist separately from the body to which it belongs. Aristotle criticized Plato for this separation of ideas. The Platonic "idea," existing separately from the bodies it governs, is unique and accounts for those bodies collectively. It is a universal ante rem, so that the 36
Russell [1912] 1957: 108-9.
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unique idea of a circle, for example, accounts for the collectivity of all circles as a whole. This does not apply to Aristotle's form, which acts each time, distributively determining the different circles: it is a universal in re. Just as universals can be contrasted as extensional or intensional, they can be contrasted as collective or distributive. Mainstream logic favors distributive terms, so that when we say that "mailcoats have rings," what we mean is that "for every X, if X is a mailcoat, then X has rings." On the other hand, our everyday use of language discloses another modality, a collective one that allows for a continuum of entities. Thus, when we speak of gold, in the chemical sense Au, we do not think of it as a set of ingots, coins, golden plate, chalices, and so on. Generally in English, countable nouns are distributive, whilst non-countable nouns are collective. In ordinary speech, we think of mailcoats distributively, but we think of gold collectively. By juxtaposing these contraposed modalities, a quadrant of discourse modalities emerges, illustrated in Figure 1.37 In the history of philosophy, the thought of different philosophers can be traced to one of these four modalities. Thus, relativism, positivism, and skepticism can be traced to the extensionaldistributive modality; Scholastic nominalism to the extensional-collective modality, Aristotle's formalism to the intensional-distributive modality, and Plato's essentialism to the intensional-collective modality. Mythopoeia and essentialism share space in the intensional-collective modality: universals are essences that exist (or subsist) separately from their material specimens, either in a hypothetical "world of universals," or in a supernatural domain such as the Mind of God. In the mythopoeic mode, universals are created and/or animated by some supernatural force. This idea finds expression in theogonies and creation epics like the Babylonian Epic of Creation 37 I use modality in a double sense, (I) to refer to general semantic properties: intensional, extensional, collective, distributive, and (2) to refer to the four possible combinations of these properties: intensional-collective, intensional-distributive, extensional-collective, extensionaldistributive. I use mode to refer to familiar discourse modes within one or another modality, viz. mythopoeia, essentialism, and others discussed below.
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and Hesiod's Theogony, and in aetiologies like those found in Atrahasis, the biblical books of Genesis and Judges, and the Kalevala. The epistemological model is myth: the truth of universals is known by means of divine insight, inspiration, or revelation. Mythopoeic knowledge presupposes a transcendent Ideal Knower, typically a god, a prophet, or a divinely inspired poet. The voice of the Beowulf poet is mythopoeic when he credits an archetypal smith for fabricating Hreoel's mailcoat, and the devil for fabricating Grendel's glof.
Figure 1 The ontology of universals in four discourse modalities
Intensional modalities Universals defined in terms of attributes Material examples are "copies" of an essence of form.
Collective modalities Resemblances define a group of specimens as a universal category Mythopoeia, Essentialism
Distributive modalities Resemblances are individual to each specimen in a group
Universals, as essences, exist separately from material specimens.
Universals, as forms, exist in and through material specimens.
Mvthopoeia: MAILCOAT is an archetype whose first, perfect copy was fashioned by a divine agent. Animation by that agent ensures its effectiveness, Essentialism: MAILCOAT is an essence whose material specimens appear in varying degrees of perfection.
Extensional modalities
Nominalism
Universals defined as an aggregate of specimens
MAILCOAT denotes the collective plurality of all mailcoats, and is the name applied to each example of a mailcoat.
Formalism
MAILCOAT is the form (or combination of attributes) imposed on each of its material examples. The form MAILCOAT does not exist separately from its specimens, but is inherent in them.
Relativism Positivism Skepticism MAILCOAT is a category or set that includes each thing that is a mailcoat and excludes notmailcoats.
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In the essentialist mode, universals are absolute ideas; their meanings are constant regardless of circumstances. In the Neoplatonic thought of Augustine, for example, amor is "love of God"; any other form of love is misdirected toward a "partial" good. In the domain of epistemology, essentialism may be either "naïve" or "rationalized." In naïve essentialism, the epistemological model is theology. Logical reasoning takes place within a mythic frame; thus, in Christian Neoplatonism, the ontological "home" of universals is the Mind of God. In the rationalized essentialism of Socrates, the epistemological model is mathematics (especially geometry). The ontological home of universals is a "world of universals" that cannot be known, because universals are transcendent. In rationalized essentialism, the Ideal Knower is really a sujet suppose savoir. The intensional-distributive modality finds expression in the formalism of Aristotle. Form is the universal in re that imposes itself on its material specimens and determines their physical attributes; however, form does not exist separately from its instances. The epistemological model is medicine. Formalist knowledge is validated by a community of qualified knowers who have common perceptual and psychological experiences. The store of knowledge is never perfect, but each generation of qualified knowers contributes improvements to it. The extensional-collective modality assumes the type of universal that Scholastics termed post rem. In absolute terms, there is no difference between a name denoting a single being and a name denoting the plurality. In the nominalist conception, a universal is just a name. MAILCOAT is a collective device for whatever is conventionally called a mailcoat. Knowledge of universals, within this modality, is the result of common consent, which establishes names as a conventional way of categorizing resemblant forms. The logic of relativism, positivism, and skepticism emerges from the extensional-distributive modality. In this modality, MAILCOAT is a category or set of all mailcoats. The set excludes all objects that are not mailcoats, but it does not differentiate between good, better and bad mailcoats. One cannot speak with
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logical consistency of Hreoel's mailcoat as beaduscruda betst or hrcegla selest, the best of all possible mailcoats. MAILCOAT as a universal cannot exist autonomously, separate from its specimens. In the relativist mode. MAILCOAT is a mental image, based upon the cognitive processing of material mailcoats that a person has seen or used. In "naïve relativism," truth is relative to individuals, such that each person's mental image of MAILCOAT is valid to himself or herself. In "rationalized relativism," the truth about MAILCOAT is validated by overlapping consensus with other people who have seen or used mailcoats. Validation by overlapping consensus might seem trivial for concrete objects like mailcoats, but not for abstract universals like justice or beauty. In the history of philosophy, Protagoras maintained that "truth is relative to individuals." Socrates's opposition to this view was the starting point for his essentialist theory of universals, known to us through Plato's dialogues. In the positivist mode, a universal is a "tricky abstraction," based upon resemblances that we happen to notice. Universals use language to fool the mind into thinking that they exist. Reason is reliable only in the form of symbolic logic, which avoids the use of abstractions. In the severe epistemology of positivism, knowledge-validity extends only to things that we ourselves have experienced. In the skeptic mode, neither reason nor sensory perception can be trusted. Knowledge-validity is unattainable. At this point the circuit of modes circles back to mythopoeia. Skepticism and mythopoeia both distrust reason, but mythopoeia substitutes revelation as a source of knowledge, and posits an umempirical world of supernatural beings. When we apply this analysis of discourse modes to Chaucer, our focus is on the contrast between Platonism and nominalism. It is natural to think of Chaucer as a Platonist. Be composed a prose translation of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, the most influential Neoplatonic text in the Middle Ages, and he incorporated passages from Boethius into Troilus and Criseyde and
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the Knight's Tale. During the past generation, scholars have been interested in the possibility that Chaucer was aware of William of Ockham's nominalism. Chaucer tells the love story of Troilus and Criseyde through the fictive voice of a naïve narrator who claims to know nothing about love because he has never been in love. By implication, love can be known only through direct experience. This is an extensionalist proposition, incompatible with essentialism and formalism. In Troilus and in Canterbury Tales, Chaucer the naive narrator projects a similarly skeptical attitude about other abstractions, especially the logical contradiction between free will and destiny. When faced with abstractions in the Franklin's Tale and the Knight 's Tale, Chaucer the naive narrator says that he has no knowledge of such things, and advises the reader to consult books by "clerks" to find out more. Traditionally, these remarks have been interpreted as an amusing irony, based on a contrast between the real Chaucer, a well-read scholar, and the fictive Chaucer, who pretends to a half-digested knowledge of philosophy. But Rodney Delasanta proposes a very different polarity. He argues that the fictive "naive" Chaucer is a nominalist, giving expression to William of Ockham's idea that universals are just conventional names that are applied to resemblant forms. Only individual things exist; abstractions are just words. Delesanta attributes Chaucer's innovative artistry, in the characterization of pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales as unique individuals, to this nominalist perspective.38 Of course we cannot know for sure whether Chaucer the "empirical author" was a Platonist or a nominalist. Certainly he knew the difference between them. The naive voice of Chaucer's persona often sounds nominalist, especially when contrasted to Boethian passages on the weighty themes of providence, destiny, fortune, and chance. In Thinking About Beowulf (1994), James Earl offers the intriguing proposition that the Beowulf poet is a nominalist writing a half-millenium earlier than William of Ockham—a protonominalist, in some respects a protomodern 38
Delasanta 1992, 1996, and 1997.
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thinker, like William of Baskerville in Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. Professor Earl argues his case on two general points about Beowulf First, the poem through its language occupies itself with real-world "things" rather than with abstract ideas or universals. The Beowulf poet appears to have little explicit interest in abstract philosophical ideas, not even in the general concepts of Christianity. Second, the poem resists allegory. Beowulf's combats with monsters are not allegories of Christian redemption. Beowulf often contrasts good and evil, without implying a specific theological doctrine. I agree with Professor Earl on these two points, but I think of the poet as a covert Platonist rather than a protonominalist. Like Plato's Socrates, whose voice is sometimes essentialist, sometimes mythopoeic, the Beowulf speaks in an intensional-collective discourse mode that presupposes a world of universals that exist separately from their real-world specimens. Not that the poet had a formal acquaintance with Neoplatonic thought. That is possible, since the dominant discourse mode in early medieval philosophy was essentialism. Put another way, the ontology and epistemology of Hreoef s mailcoat and Grendel's glof might have come to the poet top-down, from the logic of Neoplatonism. But a grassroots origin is more likely. The poet's discourse mode was mythopoeic. Essentialist ontology and epistemology are latent in that mode, and disclose themselves through key words like orfianc, and through metaphors that have mythic attributes, like Grendel as a disease-spirit. My approach to the problem differs from Professor Earl's in two respects. First, I argue not from general characteristics of Beowulf, but from close analysis of select passages: those pertaining to weapons and Grendel's glof (discussed earlier), and those in which Grendel is presented metaphorically as a diseasespirit, and Beowulf as a healing physician. I select these passages because we can gain some guidance about how to interpret them from Michel Foucault's Birth of the Clinic. Foucault is a nominalist; his ontological treatment of disease, in the extensional-collective mode, does not admit the metaphors used in Beowulf.
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Second, in place of the traditional nominalist-essentialist (or idealist-realist) polarity, I approach the problem on the basis of four discourse modes as discussed earlier. As for William of Baskerville in The Name of the Rose: I suspect that the empirical philosopher-author of this novel, Umberto Eco, is a positivist, not a nominalist as Professor Earl suggests. I am certain that he was influenced by the Polish logician Stanislaw Lesniewski, the first writer to clarify the distinction between collective and distributive modalities. But in the novel, the detectiveFranciscan friar William is a student and follower of Roger Bacon, a thirteenthcentury proponent of Platonism in the Scholastic debate about universals. In the novel, William says that he is a friend of William of Ockham, who is the same age and whose nominalist arguments have stirred up doubts in his mind, but William of Baskerville is in fact a Platonist. He accepts Roger Bacon's argument that there will be, sometime in the future, magnetic instruments used to navigate ships, and flying machines: these individual things do not yet exist in November 1327, the fictive date of the novel, but the "ideas" of these things do exist in the mind of God, as universals.39 The "idea" of an airplane, in the context of The Name of the Rose, exists independently of actual examples of airplanes; the idea also exists independently of an abstract word for "airplanes." It is interesting to note that according to Eco's remarks in Postscript to The Name of the Rose, in early compositional stages of the novel William of Baskerville was, in fact, William of Ockham, but then, in the course of research, Eco realized that the historical William of Ockham was a rather unpleasant person, and kicked him out of the novel, substituting the fictional "William of Baskerville" in his stead, an allusion to Arthur Conan Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles.4° The truth might be more complex, for in November 1327, the real William of Ockham was in
39 Eco 40
1983: 17-18, dismissed by the mystic Ubertino as raving madness (p. 63).
Eco 1984: 26-27.
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Avignon, imprisoned by Pope John XXII, so he could hardly be traveling in the villages and monasteries of northern Italy at that time. Grendel as a disease-spirit Intensional-collective thought has a distinctive ontology and epistemology. Ontologically, universals exist independently of their specimens. Thus for Roger Bacon, the idea of a flying machine already exists in the mind of God in the thirteenth century, in the absence of specimens. This ontology underlies the metaphor of Grendel as a disease-spirit, which implies that the disease exists separately from its symptoms. According to nominalism, in contrast, a disease exists as the name of a collectivity of symptoms. Epistemologically, the validity of knowledge is based on the concept of an ideal, perfect Knower, such as one finds in the allegory of the cave in Plato's Republic. This epistemology underlies the metaphor of Beowulf as a healing physician, an Ideal Knower who is able to give Hroogar advice on how to combat the disease that is afflicting Heorot. In nominalism, validity consists in what is conventionally agreed on by qualified knowers. The notion of an ideal, perfect Knower is not possible in the other discourse modes. The intensional-collective modality finds expression in Beowulf's address to the Coastguard, when he alludes to Grendel as a disease-spirit, and to himself as a physician who can advise Hroogar as to a remedy: 13u wast (gif hit is swa we soblice secgan hyrdon) pmt mid Scyldingum sceabona ic nat hwylc, deogol dxdhata, deorcum nihtum eaweo lmrh egsan uncubne nio, hynou ond hrafyl. Ic bars Hroagar mg lourh rumne sefan rd gelmran, hu he frod and god feond oferswy8ek, gyf him edwendan zefre scolde bealuwa bisigu, bot eft cuman, ond pa cearwylmas colran wur6a13;
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oboe a sybOan earfoolnage, kreanyd pola8, benden parr wuna6 on heahstede husa selest. (Beowulf 272b-85: You know [if it is true, as we have heard tell] that among the Scyldings, I know not which of attackers, a mysterious persecutor, on dark nights makes terror manifest through strange malice, humiliation and slaughter. From an expansive mind I am able to give counsel about this, how he, wise and good, can overpower the enemy, if change ever will [come] in regard to this baleful affliction, [if] a remedy afterwards will come and the whelms of sorrow [ever will] grow cooler; or else [he must] always suffer a time of misery, dire hardship, as long as the best of houses remains there on the high place.) The last three lines (283-85) allude to a folk-belief that once a demon haunts a house, one must either slay the demon or destroy the house, but the metaphor of Grendel as a disease-spirit has received little attention in Beowulf criticism. Seamus Heaney, suppressing the metaphor in his translation, renders bot (281b: remedy) as "respite," and "Oa cearwylmas colran wuroar (282: the whelms of sorrow will become cooler) as "I can calm the turmoil and terror of mind." In my analysis of this passage, and others that evoke the same metaphor, I will elaborate three statements: (1) The disease exists as an entity apart from its symptoms. This is particular to the intensional-collective epistemology. The metaphor of Grendel as a disease-spirit is logically possible only in the intensional-collective epistemology. (2) The disease takes up residence in the body, such that the symptoms are its "seat." This is consistent with the notion that the disease exists as an entity that is separate from its symptoms. (3) The physician is a transcendent Knower who has the knowledge required to combat the disease. The disease exists as an entity apart from its symptoms. The symptoms are described as cearwylmas (282a: whelms of sorrow), which, like a fever, require a bot (281b: remedy) prescribed by a physician if they are to cool down (colran wuroaP, 282b). The disease, lexicalized separately from its symptoms, is "scea6ona is nat hwylc" (274a: I know not which of attackers), deogol dcedhata
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(275a: mysterious persecutor, one whose hatred is manifest through his deeds). These are Beowulf's first epithets for Grendel. The metaphor of Grendel as a disease-spirit is possible only in the intensional-collective mode, which implies a mythic way of knowing. We can demonstrate this by comparison with the ways that a disease is known in the other three modalities. The formalist mode of Aristotle gives rise to the "botanical model" of disease, according to which a disease is a species, just like a plant or animal species. The "order of disease," in this mode, "is simply a 'carbon copy' of the world of life; the same structures govern each, the same forms of division, the same ordering."'" In the extensional-collective mode of nominalism, a disease is a name given to a particular group of symptoms; no differentiation is made between the disease and its symptoms. Hippocrates asserts that "diseases arise either from things inside the body, bile and phlegm, or from things outside it: from exertions and wounds, and from heat that makes it too hot, and cold that makes it too cold." Hippocrates entertains no notion of a disease-spirit. According to his nominalist position, the name of the disease has a double meaning, applied both to an individual case and universally to other, resemblant cases of the disease, such that "the form of composition of the being of the disease is of a linguistic type." To ask about the nature of a disease is like "asking what is the nature of the essence of a word."42 (I hasten to add that contemporary physicians do not regard a disease as a collectivity of symptoms, even though Foucault associates this way of thinking with the "birth of the clinic.") In the extensional-distributive modality, a particular disease is a "set" that includes all its empirical examples and excludes non-examples. In the context of four discourse-modalities, this approach is most distant from the intensionalcollective notion of a disease-spirit. 41
Foucault [1973] 1994: 7.
42 /bid. 119.
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Put another way, in the intensional-distributive modality of Aristotle, a particular disease is the form (or the combination of attributes) that is imposed in re upon each and every one of its material cases; the disease form, or species, is inherent in its material cases, but does not have an existence separate from them. In the extensional-collective mode of Foucault, a "disease" is a name applied post rem to the collective plurality of all diseases of a certain type, and also is the name of each individual case or example; "disease" is just a collective device for naming anything that is conventionally labeled as a disease. In the extensionaldistributive mode of positivism, a disease is a set that includes each individual case (or group of symptoms that constitute the disease), and excludes any case that is not the disease. Only in the intensional-collective mode is a disease thought of as an essence that exists separately from its symptoms. The intensional-collective modality in Beowulf is concordant with the animist medical environment of Old English charms. As Nigel Barley observes, "Anglo-Saxons regarded sickness primarily as an invasion of the body by wyrmas, evil spirits, or flying venoms," which must be treated in part by expelling the invasive force.43 In Wid Fcerstice (Against a Sudden Stitch), the symptoms are described as sharp pains caused by little spears shot into the body, and the shooters are hcegtessan (witches) or other disease-spirits. Just as in Beowulf, in Wid Fcerstice the disease exists as an entity separate from its material manifestations. The charm begins with the approach of witches, who ride as if to battle:44 Hlude wmran hy, la, hlude, (3a hy ofer Pone hlxw ridan, wwran anmode, Oa hy ofer land ridan. Scyld au ae nu, pu aysne nib genesan mote. Ut, lytel spere, gif her irate sie! Stod under linde, under leohtum scylde, lowr aa mihtigan wif hyra mwgen berwddon 43 Barley 1972: 70. So also Clarke (1975: 46-49) on the exorcism of elves to alleviate mental disorders. 44
"For a Sudden Stitch," ASPR 6: 122-23.
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and by gyllende garas swndan; is him ooeme eft wille sEndan, fleogende flane forane togeanes. (Wid Fcerstice 3-10: Loud were they, lo! loud when they rode over the
barrow; they were resolute, when they rode over the land. Shield yourself now: you can survive this onslaught. Out, little spear, if it be here within! I stood under linden, under a bright shield, where those mighty women consulted their power, and they, screaming, sent spears. I will send them back another one, a flying dart full in the face of them.) The healer attends simultaneously to symptoms and to disease-spirits. To the symptoms, the sudden, painful stitches, the healer applies "feferuige and seo reade netele... and wegbade" (1-2b: feverfew and red nettle... and plantain) boiled in butter. At the same time, the healer diagnoses the symptoms as the work of witches, mihtigan wif (8a: mighty women), hcegtessen (19a: harm-doing hags), and offers an incantation that will protect the patient from these disease-spirits. Ut, spere, nws in, spere! Gif her inne sy isemes hngtessen geweorc, hit sceal gemyltan. Gif ótiwxre on fell scoten oaoe ware on these scoten oo6e wa=re on blod scoten, 000e wa=re on lib scoten, nmfre ne sy chin lif atmsed. Fcerstice 17-22: Out, spear, by no means in, spear! If there be within here a piece of iron, the work of a harmful hag [a witch], it shall melt away. If you were shot in the skin, or were shot in the flesh, or were shot in the blood, or were shot in a limb, never shall your life be endangered.)
The charm names the symptoms as fcerstic (sudden stitch) and gescot (shot), but does not particularize them in terms of a specific disorder such as rheumatism or lumbago.45 The stitch could be anywhere in the body. The charm combats
1978.
45
Storms (1948: 142) asserts that WO Fcerstice is a charm against rheumatism; cf. Hauer
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symptoms and disease-spirits, aspects of a disease that are distinct and lexicalized separately. The hcegtessen are classified with other cognate beings: Gif hit were esa gescot oboe hit were ylfa gescot obbe hit were hegtessan gescot, nu ic wille din helpan. Isis be to bote esa gescotes, ois be to bote ylfa gescotes, Ois be to bote heegtessen gescotes; ic bin wille helpan. (IVic) Fcersiice 23-26: If it were of esir's shot, or it were of elves' shot, or it were of witch's shot, now I will help you. This is a cure for you for esir's shot, this is a cure for you for elves' shot, this is a cure for you for witch's shot; I will help you.) Esa gescot, ylfa gescot, hcegtessen gescot: diseases are named for the agents who cause the symptoms. The witches who cause fcerstic are classified with esir and elves, just like Grendel is classified with the monstrous descendents of Cain, "eotenas ond ylfe and orcneas, / swylce gi[ga]ntas" (Beowulf 112-13a: ogres and elves and the walking dead, also giants). Just as Grendel can be metaphorized as a disease-spirit, so fcerstic-witches can be described metaphorically as valkyries rushing to battle. These metaphors are possible in mythic and essentialist epistemologies, because a disease is thought to exist separately from its specimens, whether as a spirit or an essence. The disease takes up residence in the body, such that the symptoms are its "seat." Grendel is portrayed not only as a disease-spirit, but also as a rebellious thane and pretender who has taken up residence in Heorot by night: Swa rixode ond wio rihte wan ana wio eallum, (Abet idel stod husa selest. (Beowulf 144-46a: So [Grendel] reigned and contended against all, contrary to what was right, until the best of houses stood empty.)
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The concept of a disease "reigning" over a country is exemplified in the Irish Annals of Clonrnacnoise entry for AD 675, "There Raigned a kind of great Leprosie in Ireland this yeare called the pox, in Irish bolgagh," probably referring to a smallpox epidemic.46 The first two lines of the Old English "Wen Charm," a charm against skin boils, illustrate the concept of a personified disease taking up residence in a victim's body47 Wenne, wenne, Wenchichenne, her ne scealt j7u timbrien, ne nenne tun habben. (Wen Charm 1-2: Wen, wen, Wenchichenne, here you must not build your house, nor have a courtyard.) The word-extension -chichenne, applied to wenne to give Wenchichenne, is diminutive in the vocative address, "Wenne, Wenne, Wenchichenne," by word magic intended to cause it to decrease and disappear. Wen and bolgagh are personified as disease-spirits. Personification is possible because the disease is thought of as an essence separate from its symptoms. The same logic, in reverse, underlies the metaphor of Grendel as a disease-spirit. The physician is a transcendent Knower who has the knowledge required to combat the disease. The terror of Grendel is a two-fold mystery. Its source is "sceabona is nat hwylc" (274b: I know not which of attackers), Beowulf says. Its motivation is unknown, an uncudne nid (276b: an unknown hostility). Even so, Beowulf asserts that he has a rumne sefan (278b: expansive mind) capable of providing counsel (reed gelceran) that will help Hrobgar to overcome the fiend, such that "bot eft cuman" (281b: afterward a remedy will come). Rced gelceran might be construed as litotes for fighting the battle himself, but the speech as a whole concentrates on epistemology. Beowulf contrasts himself with the powerful
46
47
Bonser 1963: 83.
"Against a Wen," ASPR 6: 128.
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Danish counselors who had earlier advised Hroogar about the problem of Grendel: Monig oft gesxt rice to rune, rxd eahtedon, hwoet swioferhoum selest waere wio fwrgryrum to gefremmarme. (Beowulf 171b-74: Many a powerful [lord] often sat in council, proffered
advice as to what was best for the bold defenders to do against the sudden attacks.)
Their best advice was to make sacrifice at pagan shrines, trusting in the devil to come to their aid (175-83a). The poet makes it clear that the counsel of the "many" was ineffectual because it was based upon ignorance. By means of this contrast, the poet suggests that Beowulf is an Ideal Knower, a notion that is particular to the intensional-collective modality. Intensional-collective epistemologies presuppose an Ideal Knower, a "transcendent Spectator whose genius and patience might be approached to a greater or lesser degree by real observers."'" This is illustrated in Plato's allegory of the cave (Republic 8.514-17), where Socrates imagines a cave in which human beings are kept prisoner, chained with their backs to the entrance, such that they can see only the wall of the cave. Above and behind them a fire is blazing, and between them and the fire is an elevated pathway. Built along the pathway is a low wall "like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets." Men pass along the wall carrying vessels, statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and other materials. The prisoners can see only their shadows on the back wall of the cave, and the shadows of the vessels and statues and figures in the marionette show. When they converse with each other, they give names to these shadows. Truth, in this prison-cave of language, is composed of the shadows of images, two removes from reality. 48
Foucault [1973] 1994: 102.
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Such is the common knowledge of humanity, but Socrates imagines one of the prisoners, only one, the philosopher as transcendent Spectator, "liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light," gradually learning that what he saw before was an illusion, now that his eye is turned toward reality. Then suppose that the ideal Observer is forced to climb his way out of the cave into the upper world (Republic 7.516): He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven; and he will see the sky and the stars by night better than the sun or the light of the sun by day.... Last of all he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of it in the water, but he will see it in its own proper place, and not in another; and he will contemplate it as it is. Socrates's Ideal Knower is particular to intensional-collective epistemologies, In the formalist mode, knowledge consists in the collective observations of qualified observers, no one of whom is a consummate Knower and no one of whom is free from the possibility of error. For Aristotle, the consensus of qualified knowers is the basis of truth-validity:49 The investigation of truth is in one way hard, in another easy. An indication of this is found in the fact that no one is able to attain the truth adequately, while, on the other hand, we do not collectively fail, but every one says something true about the nature of things, and while individually we contribute little or nothing to the truth, by the union of all a considerable amount is amassed. Knowledge is the result of the contribution of many thinkers over several generations:5°
49
Aristotle 1908-52, vol. 8, Afetaphysica a I, 993030-99365.
5°
Aristotle 1908-52, vol. 1, De sophisticis elenchis 34, 183617-32.
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In the case of all discoveries the results of previous labours that have been handed down from others have been advanced bit by bit by those who have carried them on, whereas the original discoveries generally make an advance that is small at first though much more useful than the development which later springs from them.... When this is once discovered, it is easier to add and develop the remainder in connection with it. This is in fact what has happened with regard to rhetorical speeches and to practically all the other arts: for those who discovered the beginnings of them advanced them in all only a little way, whereas the celebrities of today are the heirs (so to speak) of a long succession of men who have advanced them bit by bit, and so have developed them in their present form. Continuity in knowledge is an epistemological principle in the medical scholarship of Hippocrates of Cos, who writes in the extensional-collective modality. In Ancient Medicine, Hippocrates asserts that the medical art is a body of knowledge that has accumulated over many years as the result of contributions made by physicians. There is no concept of a transcendent physician who is an Ideal Knower of medicine; rather,51 Some practitioners are poor, others very excellent; this would not be the case if an art of medicine did not exist at all, and had not been the subject of any research and discovery, but all would be equally inexperienced and unlearned therein, and the treatment of the sick would be in all respects haphazard. In medical science, anyone who pretends to be an Ideal Knower, putting forward some vain new hypothesis, is a deceiver and a victim of self-deception, for52 medicine has long had all its means to hand, and has discovered both a principle and a method, through which the discoveries made during a long period are many and excellent, while full discovery will be made, if the inquirer be competent, conduct his researches with knowledge of the discoveries already made, and make them his starting-point. 51
Hippocrates, Ancient Medicine 1.
52
Ibid., 2.
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Henry Goodman demonstrates that the transcendent Knower is conceptually impossible within the extensional-distributive mode. Arguing that our knowledge of the world must always be partial, Goodman writes: 53 Knowing all about a language would include knowing the truth-value of every statement in it; but no one knows any language that way. As a matter of fact, knowing all about any one thing would amount to knowing all about everything; to know all about the fallen sparrow in Brooklyn is to know it fell just so many years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds after a certain Chinese mandarin drank his ninety-second cup of tea in Soochow. Goodman is thinking of language extensionally and distributively, as the set of all sentences that have been or could or will be uttered in it. Because the number of such sentences is infinite, there can be no transcendent Knower who is able to know and evaluate them all. Conclusion The voice of the Beowulf poet is mythopoeic in ontology and epistemology. This observation guides our understanding of three symbolic details discussed in this chapter: Hreoel's mailcoat (and other heirloom weapons), Grendel's glof, and the metaphor of Grendel as a disease-spirit and Beowulf as a healing physician. Mythopoeic ontology presupposes the existence of supernatural forces that animate universals, and, by extension, things in the world that are manifestations of those universals. Mythopoeic epistemology presupposes a transcendent Knower who has access to otherwise hidden knowledge about the essence of things. The Ideal Knower
in bond
may be figured as God the Creator,
or Weland the archetypal smith, or Hroogar as the creative mind who conceives Heorot, or Beowulf the (metaphorical) physician who knows that reed can
53
Goodman 1984: 95.
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overcome the supernatural evil of Grendel and his mother. The transcendent Knower in mai° is the Devil, who crafted Grendel's glof, his signature heirloom. Figure 2 Epistemology of universals in four discourse modalities
Intensional modalities Universal defined in terms of attributes Material specimens can be evaluated as good, better, or bad examples of an essence of form. Extensional modalities Universal defined as an aggregate of specimens Specimens cannot be evaluated as good, better, or bad; all are equally members of a conventional category or set.
Collective modalities Resemblances define a group of specimens as a universal category Mythopoeia: universals as archetypes are known to a transcendent Knower through divine insight or inspiration. The epistemological model is myth. Essentialism: universals as essences are known through logic by an Ideal Knower. The epistemological model is mathematics. In rationalized form, universals are unknowable; the Ideal Knower is really a sujet
suppose savoir. Nominalism
Common consent among qualified knowers establishes universals as the conventional names of resemblant specimens. Epistemological models are medicine (Hippocrates) and politics (Hobbes).
Distributive modalities Resemblances are individual to each specimen in a group Formalism: knowledge of "forms" is transmitted from one generation to another of qualified knowers. The epistemological model is medicine, an accumulative body of knowledge about disease and physiology. The store of knowledge is never perfect, but each generation of qualified knowers contributes improvements to it.
Relativism: universals are mental images based on cognitive processing of resemblances between specimens. Each person's knowledge is valid to himself. In rationalized relativism, overlapping consensus is the basis of knowledge-validity. Positivism: universals, as tricky abstractions, that fool us into thinking that they exist. Sensory perception is the only reliable source of knowledge. Skepticism: neither reason nor the senses are reliable sources of knowledge.
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Chapter 3 Grendel and his Mother It would be senseless for the author to try to convince the reader that his characters once actually lived. —Milan Kundera (1984: 39) Grendel's profile as a disease-spirit is a metaphor. Grendel is only like a disease-spirit, just as, in another metaphor, he is like a rebellious hall-thane (142a). In this chapter, I turn to his actual identity. He has a triple ontology. As a descendant of Cain, he is both a monster and a perverse form of humanity. He is a demon, and Grendel's mere is both a forbidding place and hell. Grendel's mother, too, is a progeny of Cain, a monster, and a demon. This of course violates the logic of non-contradiction: "A cannot be non-A." Not in Plato, not in Aristotle, and not in the extensional modalities. Contradictory identities are possible only in mythopoeic discourse. My goal in this chapter is to show how mythopoeia opens the text to more than one reading. Epithets for Grendel and his mother According to the late seventh- or early eighth-century Liber monstrorwn
de diversis generibus,' monsters fall into three categories: misshapen forms of humanity, including human-beast hybrids (book 1), strange or terrifying animals (book 2), and serpentine monsters on land and in water (book 3). Among humanoid monsters, the most provocative is "King Hygelac, who ruled the Geats and was killed by the Franks, whom no horse could carry from the age of twelve. His bones are preserved on an island in the river Rhine, where it breaks into the
Bologna 1977; Orchard 1995: 254-317 (text and translation), and 86-115 (discussion). Lapidge (1982: 164-65) estimates the date of composition ca. 650-750; Friedman (1986: 321) suggests the 740s.
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Ocean, and they are shown as a wonder to travelers from afar."2 Grendel and his mother belong to the humanoid group, the fire-dragon to the serpentine group, but apart from general taxonomy, their portraits do not appear in Liber monstrorum, Notwithstanding scholarly efforts to trace details in Beowulf to Liber monstrorwn as a literary source,3 the two works are unrelated,4 except as independent witnesses to a medieval view of monsters as hostile creatures living at the edge of human habitation. Can we imagine a north Germanic cycle in which Hygelac was depicted as a boy-wonder? Multiple epithets for Grendel and his mother collectively signify that Beowulf is an open text. The monsters may be interpreted as the water-trolls of folklore, perverse forms of humanity, incorrigible exiles, formidable enemies, draugar ("walking dead," or "undead"),5 and demons from hell. Like the ogres in Old Norse sagas, Grendel is a Pyrs (426a: ogre), an eoten (761a: giant). He belongs to the fifelcyn (104b: race of monsters), a unique compound that hints of his connection with remote marchlands and perilous waters;6 his mother, too, is called a wceteregesan (1260a: water-monster). As a perverse human form he is untydre (111a), a unique word meaning an "evil progeny" of Cain or perhaps "impotent progeny," unable to propagate. As an exile he is called a mcere mearcstapa (103a: notorious march-stalker), a compound unique to Beowulf, applied to both Grendel and his mother at 1648a). He is a wonsceli wer (105a: an evil-cursed man) whose only happiness is wrongdoing (woh), implacable in his pursuit of an unlawful feud against the Danes. By semantic extension, he is an 2
Liber monstrorum 1.2, Bologna 1977: 38; Orchard 1995: 259.
3
Whitbread 1974; Friedman 1986: 321-22
4
Knock 1979: 261; Orchard 1995: 110.
5
Lapidge [1993] 2002: 136-37.
6 Fifeldor (monster-door) is the name given in Whisk) 43a for the Eider river, the boundary between Holstein and Schleswig; the sea, foamy with waves tossed up by sea-monsters, is called fifelstream famigbordon in Meters of Boethius (26.26: sea-monster's stream with foamy banks), and fifelwceg famig in Cynewulf s Elene (237: foamy wave inhabited by sea-monsters); Weland's son Widia is said to have escaped a land infested by monsters in Waldere (fela geweald, Waldere B, 10a).
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enemy of all mankind (feond mancynnes, 159b), a felon (synscaka, 707a; manscaoa, 727b), a murderous visitor (cwealmcuma, 792a), a guardian of crimes (6.7rena hyrde, 750b). As a formidable enemy, Grendel is an ceglczca (159a, 433b) or atol aglceca (592a, 722a: awesome or formidable combatant).7 As a demon, he is an ellengcest (86a: savagely bold spirit, another unique compound), or grimma gcest (102a: grim spirit), werig gast (133a: accursed spirit, in genitive singular as wergan gastes), wcelgcest (1331a, 1995a: slaughtering spirit), an enemy from hell ("feond on helle," 101b),8 someone who knows hell's secrets (heirunan, 163a). The gold-adorned sword-hilt that Beowulf found in the mere, the poet said, passed into Hroogar's possession "wfter deofla hryre" (1680a: after the demise of devils), referring to Grendel and his mother. Without commenting on lexical diversity, Lawrence notes that Grendel's identity as "half-human" and demonic is the basis of terror in the epic.9 Brodeur linked this theme to the poet's narrative technique, calling it a "design for terror."I° Focusing on lexical diversity, Tolkien emphasized their monstrous materiality and played down their role as demons.11 Nora Chadwick agreed, suggesting that the monsters' epithets link them to Scandinavian counterparts in courtly sagas, rather than to a Christian hell or to Anglo-Saxon folklore; helrunan, for example, could refer to misshapen witches, whose underworld associations suggest a barrow.I2 Mellinkoff agrees with Tolkien that the Grendelkin are "devillike" and "incorporate a spirit of evil," but because of their physicality they
For the philological debate about aglceca teglceca, see Orchard 1995: 33 and notes. Christopher Ball's argument (1971), that the feond on helle is Satan rather than Grendel, has not attracted adherents. 8
9
Lawrence 1928: 161-62.
18
Brodeur 1959: 88-106. Tolkien [1936] 1968: 41-44, Appendix A, "Grendel's Titles." Cf. Lee 1972: 183-85.
12
Nora Chadwick 1959: 171-78, at pp. 174-75 for helrunan.
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cannot be "evil spirits."I3 Orchard interprets Grendel as a monster with human traits and demonic associations. He stops short of calling the Grendelkin demons, but concedes "the poet's constant identification of Grendel with demonic forces."I4 Like Lawrence, he sees this confusion of attributes as a source of terror. Following up on Greenfield's suggestion that Beowulf has "a touch of the monstrous," Orchard explores the possibility that while Grendel is a monster with human attributes, Beowulf is a human with monstrous ones.15 Through four rhetorical strategies, the poet "opens" the text to interpretation of the Grendelkin as monsters, humans, and demons; these are (1) a diversity of epithets, discussed above; (2) an open-ended pattern of thematic oppositions in connection with Grendel; (3) irony; (4) the monsters' descent from Cain, which allows for semantic associations within and beyond the text. Grendel and thematic oppositions
We first hear of Grendel as an ellengcust (86a: savagely bold spirit), in a verse paragraph16 that begins (86-89a) and ends (100b-14) with allusions to him in the context of the scop's Creation-song (88-100a). Thematic oppositions unfold from the start, contrasting the hellish miseries of Grendel with the Danish retainers' hall-joys, one of which is the Creation-song," sung by a stop to celebrate Heorot, which was fresh and new like the branches and leaves of trees on the day of vernal equinox when the world was born. Grendel's first epithet names him as a demonic spirit in contrast to humankind, whose creation was recounted in song, frumsceaf firs (91a: the first creation of men). If the word was 13 Mellinkoff 1979: 151. Malcolm Andrew (1981: 401-2 points out several translations of Beowulf that reflect Tolkien's view of Grendel as "devilish" or "hellish," and traces the notion to Sophus Bugge (1887). Several critics also deny that Grendel is a demon; e.g. Feldman 1986. 14 Orchard 1995: 29-41; pp. 39-41 for demonic associations. Other critics have thought that Beowulf shares a "touch of the monstrous" with Grendel—Dragland 1977; Greenfield 1982. 15
Greenfield 1982; Orchard 1995: 32-33.
16
So punctuated by Klaeber (1950), and Wrenn (1953), although not by Dobbie (1953).
17
For the poetic theme of "joy in the hall," see Opland 1976: 445-53.
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supposed to be ellorgcest (another epithet for Grendel, at 1617a), as some have suggested," then he is first called an "alien spirit," emphasizing his archetypal otherness. This creature dwelt in darkness ("in kystrum bad," 87b), avoiding the wlitebeorhtne wang (83a: radiantly bright field) of God's creation. Grendel is an ellengcest, a spirit savagely bold in combat, but God is sigehrepig (94a: famous in victory), se celmihtiga (92a). Grendel suffered for a long time (/rage gebolode, 87a), daily (dogora gehwam, 88a), oppressed by daylight and by the sounds of merry-making in the hall (dream, 88b and 99b). He suffered earfodlice (86b: miserably) while hall-thanes enjoyed themselves eadiglice (100a: blessedly). To him, merry making, the harp's music, and the sweet song of the scop ("hearpan sweg, / swutol sang scopes," 89b-90a) were hludne (89a: loud), a source of distress. The poet contrasts Grendel's misery with a normal person's positive reaction to sounds of merry-making and music (86-90a). The pattern of thematic opposites is open-ended. It extends to virtually every attribute of Grendel. He is a solipsistic criminal in hell ("an ongan / fyrene fre[m]man feond on helle," 100b-1: [a solitary] one began to perform crime, an enemy in hell); an angengea (165a: solitary stalker; again, angenga, 449a) who shuns the collective joys of retainers and attacks them at night, when they are in bed (on rceste, 122b). While the retainers slept after the feast ("swefan after symble," 121a), Grendel gorged himself in a grisly feast of his own (wce16,11e, 125a: slaughter-fill; by semantic extension, slaughter-feast). For all the attributes of goodness in civilization and in God's creation, their opposites converge in Grendel: light versus darkness, joy versus misery, music versus noise, companionship versus slaughter, sleep versus night-stalking, feasting versus cannibalism, community versus solipsism. The polarities are universal, the pattern open-ended. Critics are free to discourse about them in medieval or modern contexts without violating the "intention of the text," however this may differ
18 Dobbie 1953, ASPR 3: 120n, citing Grein 1857, Rieger 1871: 383, Trautmann 1904, Holthausen 1905-6, and Sedgefield 1910.
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from the (unknowable) intention of its empirical author. Theologically, Grendel is not an allegory of evil, but evil manifest in numinous form. I9 The scop's praise of the Creator contrasts the pagan worship of idols, to which the Danish elders are driven as a result of Grendel's raids (175-88). In mythic terms, cosmic and social order is challenged by a demonic profanation of sacred space. Anthropologically, the reciprocal dynamic of gift-giving, and even lawful feuds and wergilds, contrast the criminality of random serial killing. Psychologically, the integration of "self' in community contrasts the psychotic individualism of Grendel. Neohistorically, Grendel is the archetypal Other, that which is to be excluded from human society. Grendel's descent from Cain The monsters' descent from Cain lifts the problem of Grendel above the folktale-level of a water-troll. Despite the structural role of the two-troll tradition, the poet isn't much interested in Grendel's identity as a troll. I doubt that his epithet kyrs (426a) connotes comic disesteem, as /curs does in thirteenth-century Scandinavian sagas.2° The poet directs his theme elsewhere, citing two attributes of Cain that contribute to our understanding of Grendel. The first is biblical. When Cain slew his brother Abel, he started a feud with God, for which he and his descendants were exiled from human civilization: Done cwealm gewrmc ece drihten, lows Ile he Abel slog; ne gefeah he pare fwhoe, ac he hine feor forwrwc, metod for by mane, mancynne fram. (Beowulf 107b-10: the Eternal Lord avenged the killing, because he slew Abel; nor did he [Cain] profit from the feud, but He exiled him far from mankind, the Creator, on account of his crime.)
19
Schmitz 1977: 50-51.
20
Suggested in Olsen 1984; see, in contrast, Nora Chadwick 1959.
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Grendel's feud with the Danes parallels and reinstantiates Cain's feud with God. The feud is evidence of his humanity, but it is a perverse humanity because his feud is unlawful and implacable. One thinks of St. Augustine's discussion, in De civitas Dei, of the monstrous races in Pliny and in popular Roman tradition: he doubts their existence, but cannot deny the existence of grotesque deformities in individuals: a man born with misshapen hands, for example, or a hermaphrodite. If monstrous races exist, Augustine says, they are descendants of Adam and have a place in God's plan for the cosmos.21 The second attribute of Cain is his monstrous progeny: banon untydras ealle onwocon, eotenas ond ylfe ond orcneas, swylce gi[ga]ntas pa wick gode wunnon lange brage; he him 6ws lean forgeald. (Beowulf 111-14: From him [Cain] sprang all [of the] most unwholesome progenies, giants and elves and the walking dead; likewise the giants who fought against God for a long time; he paid them requital for that.) James Cross notes that this brief catalogue reflects the direct or indirect influence of the eighth- or ninth-century Latin Irish Reference Bible, which mentions the intercourse of Seth's daughters and Cain's sons "nati sunt gigantes crudel[e]s, inorm[es], raptores reliqua."22 Kaske and Mellinkoff had proposed that the Grendelkin were cannibalistic giants whose literary source was the apocryphal Book of Enoch (I Enoch), or else an ancient Jewish "Noah book," or Noachic tradition,23 but Cross demonstrates that the details of Cain's monstrous progeny in the Irish Reference Bible have credible counterparts in Beowulf.24 21 Augustine, De civitas Dei 16.8, discussed in connection with Grendel in Friedman 1981: 87-107, chapter 5, "Cain's Kin." 22
Cross 1986: 82-83 and 100.
23
Kaske 1971; Mellinkoff 1979 and 1980.
24 James E. Cross 1986: 82-83 and 92-101 (for the Latin text). Also: Orchard 1995: 5885, chapter 3, "The Kin of Cain."
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In the passage quoted above, the collective term untydras derives from tydran, "to propagate, be fruitful or prolific." Adjective tydre
tydre, perhaps
applied originally to fragile seedlings, by semantic extension means "weak, infirm, unhealthy," and ontydre means "very weak, unwholesome," with undertones of sexual perversion.25 The prefix in untydre could be either the negator un- or the intensifier on-. My translation assumes the latter: "most unwholesome progenies." The poet could not have chosen a better classifier, because of the association that tydran has with propagation and nurturing. The verb onwocon, too, is associated with genealogies, echoing the birth of Healfdene, son of Beow Scyldinga: "him eft onwoc / heah Healfdene" (56b-57a: to him afterward was born Halfdane the Tall), whose epithet, heah, signifies the opposite of ontydre. Among these untydras, the Grendelkin are eotenas (761a), a different group from giganta cyn (1690b) who in ancient times made war against God and were destroyed in the Flood (Genesis 6-9).26 Grendel's name As a personal name, Grendel is unique to Beowulf, but it is a topographical commonplace. It appears in eighth- and tenth-century Anglo-Saxon charters, variously citing grendeles pytt, Grendles mere, and grendles gatan (a neck of land? a channel connecting two meres?). Continental analogues include Grandels ?nor in a Saxon settlement in Transylvania, and Grindelbach in Luxemburg, possibly haunted by a marsh demon." Very likely the poet appropriated the name of a folklore creature that happened to have an elusive etymology with multiple semantic associations. According to Jordanes in Getica, nomadic Goths in the treeless steppes north of the Pontus were called Greutungi (Sand-dwellers), in contrast to Tervingi (Tree-dwellers), Goths who maintained farms in the wooded 25 Karin Olsen (2005: 132-36) notes that Cain and his progeny were cursed with infertility according to Genesis A (1013b-21). 26
Emerson 1906: 889; Mellinkoff 1979: 156.
27
Chambers [1921] 1967: 304-8.
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steppes. Rooth compared Grendel to Low German grand (coarse sand) and Icelandic grandi (sand bank), suggesting "the Sandman."28 Weinhold derived it from OE grindan because the monster's raids were so oppressive; Skeat, because Grendel "grinds" the bones of his victims as he devours them.29 Pogatscher derived the name from Germanic *grandilaz, "hostile pursuer."3° His name also suggests grund, "bottom," because Grendel lives in the meregrund (1449a, 2100b), or grundwong (1496a), and Grendel's mother is called a grundwyrgen (1518b), a "Bottom-Feeder," like Modern English grindle, grundel and German grundel, a fish that "haunts" the bottom of a lake or pool. Other possible cognates: ON grindill (violent storm, from grenja, "howl," proposed by Sarrazin), and Middle English gryndel (angry, proposed by Arnold).31 Perhaps Craig Davis is right: whatever its etymology, Grendel's name suggests "intimacy with the forces of both cosmic and social chaos."32 Whether we think of Grendel as the Crusher, the Grinder, Jack Frost, Bottom-Feeder, or Sandman, his name rings in our ears in multiple repetitions, until we overhear HroOgar telling Beowulf that this isn't his name after all. Consistent with his folktale origin, he was called that by countryfolk, rather like Sasquatch or Bigfoot: lone in geardagum Grendel nemdon / foldbuende" (135455a: countryfolk in earlier days named him Grendel). He has his East Anglian counterpart in a spectral hound called Shuck (OE scucca, 939a), in some accounts a shapeless monster, in others a dog.33 If there is anything to this, one of Grendel's literary descendents would be the Hound of the Baskervilles. There has
28
Rooth 1917; for Jordanes, see D. L. Green 1998: 168-69.
29 Weinhold 1858: 255; Skeat 1886: 123. Compare OE grindel (grindstone), attested as gryndelston in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 2202).
3° Pogatscher 1925: 151. 31
Chambers 1959: 309.
32
Davis 1996: 105-6.
33
Newton 1993: 142-45.
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been some critical commotion over the fact that Grendel's mother has no name,34 but strictly speaking, neither does Grendel. Ironic scop songs about Grendel's feud (Beowulf126-63) The metaphor of Grendel as a rebellious thane is a well-known example of verbal irony in Beowulf. The metaphor derives from Grendel's status as a descendent of Cain, the archetypal exile.35 Its presentation is marked by repeated litotes, and framed by two allusions to "songs" of sorrow and terror. The first, micel morgensweg (129a: great morning-song), is a metaphor for the wop (128b: lamentation, outcry of weeping) that filled the hall after Grendel's first attack, and contrasts the hearpan sweg (89b: harp's music) of the previous day, the scop's song of Creation: "Da wws after wiste wop up ahafen, / micel morgensweg" (12829a: then an outcry of weeping was raised up after the feast, a great morningsong). Wist refers, ambiguously, to the Danes' feast on the previous day and Grendel's nocturnal, cannibalistic one. Other attacks followed, night after night, expressed by litotes: Nws hit lengra fyrst, ac ymb ane niht eft gefremede morobeala mare and no mearn fore. (Beowulf 134b-36: the time was not long, but the very next night [Grendel] did more murders, and felt no remorse.)
34 Page's and Cassidy's conjecture (1969: 103-5), that Grendel's mother's "pagan" name is "Hel," Scandinavian goddess of the Underworld, is unlikely to attract adherents. It is based on the proposition that hel at line 892b means the goddess Hel, rather than "hell." Green (1985) equates namelessness in female characters with powerlessness, but as Alexandra Olsen (1997: 321) points out, several active male characters, notably the Coastguard and the Geatish messenger, are also unnamed in the epic. Homer ([2001] 2006: 482-83) argues the opposite, that Grendel's mother is all the more threatening and terrible for not having a name. Homer's argument is deductive: to name someone or something is to exert control and diffuse anxiety (citing Lerer 1991: 192); Grendel's mother is unnamed; therefore, Grendel's mother is all the more terrifying. 35 Greenfield 1955: 205, rpt. 1989: 130; Baird 1966. Greenfield (1955) was the first critic to call attention to "spiritual exile" as a theme in Old English poetry.
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Ne Ts of Grendel's attacks was spread abroad by scops' songs: Foroam secgum wearo, ylda bearnum, undyme cuo. gyddum geomore. (Beowulf 149b-50a: Indeed it became known openly to men, to the sons of men, through sorrowful songs.) In Germanic lands, oral tradition was often credited for spreading news of military defeats and victories far and wide. After Julius Caesar's defeat of the Ariovistus, news of his victory spread throughout Germanic lands. The Ubii asked Caesar for a military alliance, reasoning that other Germanic tribes would leave them alone, once they heard of their alliance with Rome.36 Tacitus reports that the warrior-king Arminius was celebrated in poems in Germanic lands, although his valor was ignored by Greek historians and undervalued by the Romans.37 Paul the Deacon reports of the Langobard warrior-king Alboin that after his rout of Gepidae and Heruli. his name "was spread abroad far and wide," such that "the good fortune of his wars and his courage are celebrated, not only among the Bavarians and Saxons, but also among other men of the same tongue in their songs.1,38 The Beowulf text allows contrasting interpretations. One is that the poet, through irony, disparages Hrooaar and the Danes for their inability to resist Grendel; the scops' songs add insult to injury. Another is that the poet, loath to disparage the Danes in his own voice, through indirect discourse transfers the ironic mode to fictive scops. It is unclear where the poet's voice ends and the scops' songs begin, but their signature features are litotes and the metaphor of
36
Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico 4.2, 1951: 116.
37
Tacitus, Annales 2.88.
38
Paul the Deacon, History of the Lombards 1.27, [1907] 1974: 52.
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Grendel as a rebellious thane (healdegnes hete, 142a: hostility of a hall-thane).39 The target of irony is Hroogar, not Grendel. To my ear, the poet expresses dismay in his own voice when he remarks, "wars past gewin to strang, / lao ond longsum"
(1336-34: that conflict was too intense, hostile, and long-lasting), and when he says that Grendel was too intent on hostility, "wes to fast on pam" (137b). The collective voice of other scops is heard in lines 138-63: 1--)a wtes eaOfynde Pe him elles hwxr gerumlicor rxste sohte, bed wfter burum. (Beowulf 138-39a: then it was easy to find someone who sought his rest elsewhere, a bed in [distant] chambers.)
Here, litotes hits three targets simultaneously. First, the Danish retainers. The subject (Pe) and verb (sohte) are singular,4° but eadfynde implies that the comment applies collectively to Danish retainers, who avoided spending the night in the hall if they could.41 Second, Heorot. The living quarters on the settlement's perimeter (after burum) now seem roomier (gerumlicor) than the greatest hall ever built, hmkerna incest (78a). Third, HroOgar, who lost control of his hall at night. Grendel's attacks are called "fxhoe ond fyrene" (137a: feud and crime), "fyrene ond fwhoe" (153a: crime and feud), a transposable binomial, semantically 39 Clark Hall [1911] 1950: 184, note to lines 154-58, notes "grim irony" in the passage as a whole. Hoops (1932b, note to line 142) compares the "grim humor" of healdegn to selegyst (1545a), an epithet for Beowulf in Grendel's mere. Sedgefield (1910) emended line 144a to heldegnes hete, "hatred of a hell-thane." Marquardt (1938: 193) kept the ms reading, but construed healdegnes as an objective genitive, "hatred directed against hall-thane[s]," an interpretation supported by Eliason (1953: 438-40). Klaeber regards healdegn as a nonce-compound (1950: 133, note to line 142). The irony in the metaphor was noted by Rosier (1963: 8-9) and others, e.g. Chance 1980.
4° Sohte, not in the manuscript, is supplied by most editors. Heold Nine (142b), later in the sentence, makes it clear that sohte must be singular. 41 Clark Hall ([1911] 1950: 184) emphasizes that "all discipline and respect broke down, and men sought refuge in the private rooms or dwellings of the aristocracy instead of remaining in the hall as was proper."
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a hendiadys that means both "unlawful feud" and "feud-like crime"—feud-like because it continued for twelve years. Usurping the rightful king, Grendel ruled the hall (rixode, 144a), and wrongfully attacked, one against all others, until the best of houses stood useless ("ookxt idel stod / husa selest," 145b-46). HroOgar ruled by day, lamenting lost retainers, while Grendel ruled by night. Normally a powerful, rebellious thane could be brought into a peace settlement, but Grendel was relentless. His implacability is expressed metaphorically in litotes: sibbe ne wolde wi6 manna hwone rnegenes Deniga, feorhbealo feorran, feabingian, ne par nxnig witena wenan porfte beorhtre bote to banan folmum. (Beowulf154b-58: He did not wish for peace with any man of the Danish retinue, [nor] to end the deadly conflict, [nor] to pay a wergild. nor did any of the councilors have need to expect a brighter compensation from the slayer's hands.) Grendel's submarine home was loaded with treasures (1612-13). He could have paid a wergild if he wanted to. Litotes is followed by merismus. Grendel the dark death-shadow hovered and ambushed "dugulpe and geogobe" (160b: veterans and young warriors), meaning that he attacked everyone, indiscriminately. No one was safe in the hall at night. Irony signals "openness" in a text because it presupposes more than one meaning. First, literal denotation: as a humanoid creature, Grendel can be called a rebellious thane. Second, implicature: Grendel isn't really a thane, but comparing him to one shows how solipsistic and felonious he is, and how ineffective the Danes were in dealing with him. Because implicature depends upon the active, imaginative response of a reader or hearer, irony opens the text to an indefinite chain of associations. If the text encourages us to compare Grendel to Cain as a rebellious thane, why not compare both to their mythic archetype, Lucifer? Why not declare that "rationalized" interactions in Beowulf are reinstantiations of
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mythic or cosmic events? Or, turning our thoughts in another direction, why not imagine a better world in which Grendel paid a wergild from his submarine treasures and was rehabilitated as a loyal thane after all? What if the "rebellious thane" metaphor illustrates the nature of wyrd, which took a tragic turn, but could have taken a better one if Grendel had made a better decision? The Beowulf poet, as fictive narrator, often uses litotes, a limited form of irony, but extended verbal irony is rarely or never an attribute of his "voice." The "rebellious thane" metaphor is not his, but is part of the story that he heard in sorrowful lays about Grendel and the Danes. Using indirect discourse, the fictive narrator reports the contents of those lays, sung by "voices" other than his own, whose irony may or may not reflect his own attitude. Quite apart from irony, the sorrowful lays about Grendel's "rebellion" have a narrative function, too. Grendel's attacks were undyrne cud (150b: openly known) through these lays. Through them Beowulf, at home in Geatland (tram ham, 194a), heard about Grendel's attacks ("gefrwgn Higelaces kegn / god mid Geatum, Grendles dada" (194-95: Hygelac's thane, good among the Geats, learned of Grendel's deeds). Often in monster-stories around the world, the hero first learns about a monster or dragon during a quest for some other object (usually a bridewinning adventure). In contrast, Grendel is the object of Beowulf's quest from the beginning. Grendel and his mother as demons As a descendent of Cain, Grendel is an incorrigible felon and exile, a perverse form of humanity, and a cannibalistic giant. He is also a demon. In Felix's Vita sancti Guthlaci, the saint addresses the devils who had taunted and tortured him: "Vae vobis, filii tenebrarum, semen Cain" (Felix, Guthlac 31: Woe unto you, you sons of darkness, seed of Cain."42 The Beowulf poet, too, adds
42 Felix, Life of Saint Guthlac, 1956: 106. Cited by Klaeber (1911b: 262, and Hamilton [1946] 1963: 116-17, who interprets the "demonic" link as a sign that Grendel is a reprobate.
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geosceaftgast (1266a), a triple compound meaning "anciently-predestined spirit," to his previous inventory of Cain's progeny (111-14): Panon woc fela geosceaftgasta; wws 13,wre Grendel sum, heorowearh hetelic. (Beowulf 1265b-67a: From him [Cain] were begotten many anciently predestined spirits; Grendel was one of them, the hateful, savage outcast.) These passages allow for the possibility that demons were among Cain's progeny. The epithet applied most often to Grendel and/or his mother is gast gcest, as a simplex43 and in compounds: ellengcest (86a), ellorgast (807b, 1349a, 1617a, 1621b), hellegast (1274a), wcelgcest (1331a), geosceaftgast (1266a). Does gast mean "spirit," or, more broadly, "creature," as Tolkien proposed? If it means "spirit," hence "demon" when characterized as evil, should it be taken literally, or metaphorically as "devil-like," as Mellinkoff proposed? In earlier Old English, gast meant "terrifying creature," but under Christian influence the word came to be roughly synonymous with sawol. Both words, gas, and scrwol, referred to "the immaterial part of a person," but their use was restricted to religious contexts. In Germanic, the dominant term for "the immaterial part of a person" was *hugi-, which survived in Old English as a poetic word, hyge, but in west Germanic dialects, including Old English, *hugi- was superseded by mod as the dominant term, whilst gas/ and smvo/ were restricted terms, as they still are in modern English.44 Gast — gcest in Beowulf thus could mean "creature," a neutral term that was applicable to either human souls or demons, depending on context. In Guthlac A, gcest refers to devils (116b, 437b). but also to Guthlac's soul (226b). Gcest could be used metaphorically, as in the Finnsburh episode, where gcesta
43
Lines 102a, 133a, 1357a, 1800b, 1893a, and 2073b.
44
Anderson 2003: 333-42.
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gifrost (1123a: greediest of spirits) is a kenning for the fire of Hnxf s funeral pyre. If healdegn (142a) is metaphorical, other epithets for Grendel might be, too, including, possibly, all the epithets with gast gcest. Even so, in at least one instance gast refers to the devil. This happens in the "Christian" conclusion of Hro6gar's sermon (1735-84). The king warns Beowulf that when he comes into his future kingship, he must take care that his mod, the guardian of his soul (sawele hyrde, 1742a), does not fall asleep and leave him exposed to the slings and arrows of temptation. If that happens, he will find himself entangled in the wiles of the devil, the wergan gastes (1747b: cursed spirit). Hroogar offers his own experience as an exemplum of edwenden, the unexpected change that can undo even a powerful king: HwEet, me pats on Ole edwenden cwom, gym xfter gomene, seoboan Grendel wearo, ealdgewinna, ingenga min. (Beowulf 1774-76: Lo, change came to me in my own home, misery after mirth, after Grendel, an ancient enemy, became a stalker [against] me.) Hroogar's self-doubt, motivated by edwenden, is religious in context, as is Beowulf's self-doubt after the dragon had destroyed his hall (2327b-32), another example of edwenden (2188b). The devil and Grendel are parallel in HroOgar's exemplum. Both are cursed spirits, wergan gastas, who instigate edwenden. Hroogar's final epithet for Grendel, ealdgewinna, properly belongs to the devil. This is an ontological problem. Does the Beowulf poet imagine a mythic world in which Grendel is a devil, and a manifestation of the Devil? Irving asserted that "the answer was not very important" to the empirical author of Beowulf.45 Robinson proposed an epistemological irony: the characters in the poem, as pagans, see Grendel and his mother as monsters, whilst the Christian
45
Irving 1984: 12.
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audience sees them as demons.46 Some critics who identify Grendel as a demon also read Beowulf as an allegory. Walsh: "Grendel is the Devil; Beowulf offering himself for others is Christ redeeming man by self-sacrifice." Hamilton resisted: "Satanic epithets for the Scandinavian water-monsters need not be taken too literally."47 I think that Grendel is simultaneously demonic, human, and monstrous. Grendel's mother shares these identities.48 As Elsa Liibing said to Smilla Jaspersen, "The Devil assumes many forms."49 It was Elsa, the lone mythopoeic voice in Smilla's Sense of Snow, who, rather like a sibyl serving freshly baked cookies, directed Smilla to the clues she needed to make her journey to an Arctic hell and back, and to lock up the gates of hell, thereby confining the "Arctic worm," a modern Danish kenning for the devil. This, in an imagined world otherwise populated by empiricists and nominalists. Other epithets and descriptors support a mythic interpretation of the Grendelkin as demons.5° Grendel is a "feond in belle" (101b), helle hcefton (788a: hell's captive), like the devil in Juliana who is called helle hceftling (246a). That devil, too, wanders on earth in search of human prey. He is punished severely if he returns unsuccessful. Grendel is helle gast (1274a), godes onsaca (786a: God's enemy), like the arch-enemy, Lucifer. He and his gedrceg (host) are helrunan (163a: creatures who know hell's secrets); they are scuccan and scinnan (939a: demons and evil spirits, in dative plural, "scuccum and scinnum"). Mortally wounded, Grendel bounded homeward from Heorot to seek deofla gedrceg (756a: a host of devils). When Beowulf presented Hroogar with the sword-hilt from
46
Robinson 1985: 31-32.
47 Walsh 1942: 45-46; Hamilton [1946] 1963: 123. Other critics are able to see Grendel as a devil without jumping to the conclusion that Beowulf is a religious allegory—Malmberg 1977; Andrew 1981. 48 I would not go so far as Sayers (2007), who argues that Grendel's mother corresponds to a "sovereignty goddess" in Celtic myth. 4° Peter 5° For
Hoeg, Smilla's Sense of Snow, 1993: 69.
demonic epithets: Whitelock 1951: 10-11; Malone 1958: 298-99.
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Grendel's mere, it passed into the king's keeping "eefter deofla hryre" (1680a: after the demise of the devils), referring to Grendel and his mother. Grendel's locomotion is more demonic than pedestrian. He glides in circles, hwyrftum scriPad (163b), like hell's captives in Christ and Satan (629), in the useless wandering of impious creatures.51 A deorc deaPscua, he "seomade ond syrede" (160a, 161a: dark death-shadow... hovered and ambushed). At nightfall, he and other spirits approached as "scaduhelma gesceapu scri6an... wan under wolcnum" (650-51a: cloud-shrouded shapes, gliding... dark under clouds). Just so in Felix's Vita sancti Guthlaci, the devils traveled under "gloomy mists and black clouds"52 before they gathered as one, seized Guthlac, and transported him to the gate of hell. On his last approach to Heorot, Grendel "Corn on wanre niht / scriOan sceadugenga" (702b-3a: Came in a darker night, a gliding shadowstalker), "under sceadu bregdan" (707b: weaved his way under the shadows), barely indistinguishable from misty night-c)ouds. This was no oafish ogre stomping a path to Heorot, but a stealthy, gliding stalker. The metaphor that best suits him is scead (shadow); the verb that best describes his movement is scridan (g)ide). He moved like an evil spirit because that's what he was. Grendel's motivation: Grendel's willful delight in evil is another demonic attribute. He approached his predatory tasks modes myrde (810a), "with a wicked mind" as Clark Hall suggests.53 He had diverse motives for attacking Heorot, to be sure: cannibalism; gratuitous malice (146-61); a grudge against noisy neighbors at a feast—just like the feast of Bjorn in Grettis saga 74, which provoked a bear to attack Thorkel and his neighbors, until Grettir slew him.54 Apsu, too, was discomfited by noise of gods at play in the Babylonian Epic of 51 Thomas D. Hill (1971) argues that the poet refers specifically to Psalm 11: 9 and exegetical commentary by Augustine and Gregory the Great. 52
Felix, Vita sancti Guthlaci 31, 1956: 104-5, "plaga fitscis atrarum nubiutn."
Clark Hall [1911] 1950: 187, note to line 810 citing mord — myrde, word — myrde as morphological parallels. 53
54
Wachsler 1985: 386.
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Creation, and the noise of overpopulated "black-headed people" motivated Enlil to attempt their destruction by means of disease, drought, and flood in Atrahasis. Waterhouse is right in her psychoanalytical diagnosis: the problem of Grendel has its roots in the archetypal opposition of Self and Other.55 According to the Akkadian dialogue-poem Erra and Ishum, the sky-god Anu gave Erra, the wargod, control of the Sebitti, the seven cosmic warriors, who had license to wreak destruction "Whenever the hubbub of settled people becomes unbearable to you." Erra's weapons, personified, are imagined appealing to the god in collective discourse, "Do a favor for the Anunnaki [the senior gods] who love silence! / Sleep no longer pours over the Anunnaki because of the people's noise."56 Grendel's psychological profile is consistent with Augustine's analysis of evil and its origin in Confessiones (7.3-16). There, Augustine rejects the Manichean doctrine that the world is governed by two supernatural forces, one good, one evil. Instead, he argues that God created the world and everything in it as good. Evil is not substance, but absence: the absence of good. This absence has its origin in a perversion of the will, whose archetype was Lucifer's warfare against God.57 "Absence of good" is signified by Grendel's reaction to the scop's song of Creation, which made him miserable (brage gePolode, 87a: [he] suffered for a long time), while the Danes in Heorot were joyful. Grendel dwelt alone in darkness—in the absence of community in light. He was dreamuni bedceled (721a, 1275a: bereft of joys), like Satan in Christ and Satan (dreamum bedelde, 68a), and like the devils in Gudlac A, (dreame bidrorene, 626a, 901).58 Adjectival compounds in -leas applied to Grendel (tirleas, 843a: victory-less), to his abode (wynleas, 821a and 1414a: joyless), and to Danes under Heremod's rule (dreamleas, 1720b), usually denote intense emotion, as Storms (1963) has shown. 35
Waterhouse 1992.
36
Erra and Ishum, in Dailey 1989: 286 and 288.
"Augustine, Confessiones 7.3-13, 1948, 1:93-103. 58 Discussed by Gummere 1909: 25, and Hamilton [1946] 1963: 121, as a sign of eternal damnation, but not in the context of evil as the absence of good.
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Deprivation-adjectives, and contrasts of good and evil, light and darkness, and joy and sorrow, are based on semantic polarities.59 Willful perversion is signified by the metaphor of Grendel as a rebellious thane (126-63), and by epithets that allude to his relentless warfare, feond mancynnes and godes andsaca (164b, 786a). Willful perversion is dramatized in his last raid in Heorot. There, when he saw a group of Geatish thanes asleep, Pa his mod ahlog; rnvnte pwt he gedwide, xrpon dwg cwome, atol aglwca, aura gehwylces lif wio lice, pa him alumpe wars wistfylle wen. (Beowulf 730b-34a: Then his spirit laughed; the terrible combatant intended that he would separate life from the body of each one of them before day came, now that he happened upon the expectation [or hope] of a plentiful feast.) Grendel's laughter signifies delight in nocturnal murders and festive cannibalism. This scene is rightly praised for its situational irony. Grendel expects a feast of human prey, but instead receives combat from Beowulf, which the poet describes as a "wild party in Heorot" (767-70, 782b-88a), an ealuscerwen (769a: alesharing), a rambunctious feast during which the building was damaged and Grendel, mortally wounded, provided the evening's entertainment with a sigeleasne sang (787a: victory-less song), another deprivation-adjective.° The "wild party," a feast gone wrong, accords with Grendel's image as a perverse 59
Wright 1957, and Mandel 1971.
Irving 1966. Irving's interpretation of the Grendel-fight as a "wild party" is based in part on his (and others') interpretation of ealuscerwen as "ale-sharing." An alternative meaning is "ale-deprivation." Heinemann (1983) asserts a darker irony, "ale-dispensing" from a "cup of death," as a metaphor for terror and distress; so too Orchard 2003: 83. Bammesberger (2002a) argues that this compound really means "granting of good luck," a fortunate turning-point for the Danes. Bammesberger concedes, however, that this compound was the Andreas poet's inspiration for meoduscerwen (Andreas 1526b). If the Andreas poet understood ealuscenven this way, that is a possible meaning in Beowulf. The word is ambiguous, such that the "intention of the text" allows both meanings. 60
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hall-thane. Feasts in Old Norse sagas were always dangerous; in Judith, too. In Grendel's case the feast turned combat, or combat-as-feast, has a mythic meaning that pertains to the aetiology of evil. In his continuous conflict with Hroogar over possession of Heorot, Grendel resembles the devils in Gut lac A. After GOlac made his home in the wilderness on beorhge (140a: on a mound), and built his hermitage there (146b49), the devils approached and tried to drive him away, claiming the place as their own. Notwithstanding efforts by some critics to interpret the beorg as a burial mound,6I GAlac's home is a hermitage on a hill.62 In this respect, GOlac's home more closely resembles Heorot than the dragon's barrow. In Felix's Vita sancti Guthlaci, the devils also attack Guthlac. Felix is probably the source for this episode in Gudlac A,63 but in the Latin source, the devils contend for possession of Guthlac's spiritual allegiance, not for his home. The Gu6lac A poet gives this conflict a focus that is more territorial, like Grendel's unlawful possession of Heorot. Grendel's physical attributes, crafted by the poet as "oblique and
allusive,"64 are simultaneously monstrous and demonic. He was a giant with a head so huge and heavy that it required four men to hoist it from the mere and convey it to Heorot (1637b-42a). His face was forbidding, "egeslic for eorlum and pare idese mid, / wliteseon wrwtlic" (1649-50a: terrible to thanes and to the lady [Weallikeow], a monstrous spectacle), so much so that the men couldn't take their eyes off it ("weras on sawon," 1650b). In this respect he is a literary antecedent of the Green Knight, whose unexpected appearance in Arthur's court startled the Round Table knights, especially when his disembodied head rolled across the
6I
Shook 1960; Wentersdorf 1978.
62
Roberts 1979:21 and 132, note to line 140.
63
Felix, Vita sancti Guthlaci 28-33, 1956: 92-110; for discussion, Roberts 1979: 19-29.
64
Lapidge [1993] 2002: 135-36.
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floor, a spectacle that Morgan le Fey had contrived as a plot to scare Gwenevere to death.65 Grendel was dark (deorc 160a, wan 651a), an ugly terror (atol, 165a, 592a, 732a). His burning eyes glowed in the night: "him of eagum stod / ligge gelicost leoht unfwger" (726-27: from his eyes flared an unseemly light, most like fire). He was a bona blodigtoo (2082a: bloody-toothed killer), with a mouth big enough to swallow a man in seconds, in large chunks. So he devoured Hondscioh (739-45a). The only other part of his anatomy that men could see clearly was his monstrous right arm, after Beowulf tore it off. From this they deduced that his hide was as tough as a mailcoat, such that no iron sword, however good an heirloom, could cut through it (987b-90). This detail, a physiological nuance of Grendel's spell against weapons (798-805a), has cognates in Old Norse sagas, which refer often to mailcoats that are impervious to swords. Grendel's fingers were fronted with claws as sharp and strong as steel: "Foran wghwylc wxs / stiora nxgla gehwylc, style gelicost" (984b-85: at the front of each [finger], each of the sharp-stout claws was most like steel). Even in death his blood was so hot that it melted the giant-wrought sword when Beowulf decapitated his corpse (1605b-
17).66
A composite portrait, to be sure, but many of the details appear in IElfric's "Passio Iuliani et sponse eius Basilisse," in an anecdote about a man who barely escaped damnation because St. Julian raised him from the dead. Following the Visio Pauli tradition, the sinner describes his encounter with devils, as a warning to others about the dangers of hell:67 Ja cwxli se geeadcucoda . me coman to sil-hearwan . atelices hiwes swa heage swa entes. 65
Gawain and the Green Knight 130-443 and 2456-60, ed. Gollancz 1940.
66 There are no extant Germanic parallels for this detail, but Puhvel (1969) cites medieval and modem Irish examples. CO Chulainn's blood, for example, heated in battle rage, melted the snow for thirty feet around him. 67
1Elfric, Lives of Saints 1: 106-7 (Skeat's translation).
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mid byrnendum eagum . and egeslicum tooum Heora earmes wxron swylce ormxte beames heora clawa scearpe . and hi sylfa un-mild-heorta Pas pyllice me tugon to pa=re sweartan helle Passio sancti Iuliani 285-90: Then said the revived man—`There came to me Ethiopians / of terrible appearance, as tall as giants / with burning eyes and horrible teeth. / Their arms were like immense beams, / their claws sharp, and themselves merciless. / These, such as they were, were drawing me to the dark hell'.) Every preternatural detail matches Grendel: dark, ugly, a giant, with burning eyes, horrid teeth, monstrous arms, sharp claws, and a cruel manner.68 The image of him carrying off men in his glof, as he tried to do with Beowulf (2085b-92), is suggestive of devils carrying sinners off to hell. In Vita sancti Guthlaci, a troop of devils carried Guthlac to the gate of hell, too, but Felix describes the devils differently. They are terrible in aspect and shape, with oversized heads ("aspectu truces, forma terribiles, capitibus magnis"), like Grendel, but when Felix enumerates their monstrous attributes, he means to convey what Guthlac saw and heard when he was attacked by a multitude of diversely formed devils: "long necks, thin faces, yellow complexions, filthy beards, shaggy ears, wild foreheads, fierce eyes, foul mouths, horses' teeth, throats vomiting flames, twisted jaws, thick lips, strident voices, singed hair, fat cheeks, pigeon breasts, scabby thighs, knotty knees, crooked legs, swollen ankles, splay feet, spreading mouths, ravenous cries."69 The monstrous attributes of Felix's devils, shared in part by Grendel and by devils in iElfric's saints' lives, illustrate a thesis developed by Louis Jordan: Anglo-Saxon depictions anticipated and influenced the Romanesque tradition of grotesque devils. In most Carolingian and early medieval Italian art, devils were 68 Hamilton ([1946] 1963: 118) interprets these details naturalistically, comparing Grendel's giantism, burning eyes, and cannibalism to Saracens in French chansons de geste, citing Comfort 1940 and C. M. Jones 1942. 69
Felix, Vita sancti Guthlaci 31, 1956: 102-3.
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portrayed as small human forms, whose only distinguishing feature was dark skin. In the history of demonic iconography, grotesque and sinister features are evident by the eighth century and later in Byzantine art, in Byzantine-influenced Irish and Carolingian art, and independently in Anglo-Saxon literature and manuscript illustrations." From the perspective of iconographic history, Grendel's grotesque features support his identification as a devil. Grendel's immunity from weapons (Beowulf433-41, 671-87, 794b-805a, and 984b-90)
Grendel's immunity from weapons has a dual ontology, mythic and naturalistic. Grendel had cast a spell against weapons. We learn this during Beowulf's struggle with Grendel, when the Geatish retainers drew swords against the monster to no avail. In this passage, the disjointed syntax mirrors the Geats' confusion and frustration as they attempt to help their leader in battle, without success. This is syntactic iconicity: Hie Pwt ne wiston, Pa hie gewin drugon, heordhicgende hildemecgas, and on healfa gehwone heawan pohton, sawle secan, Pone synsca6an wnig ofer eorPan irenna cyst, guabilla nan, gretan nolde, ac he sigewmpnum forsworen hefde ecga gehwylcre. (Beowulf 798-805a: they [the Geats], battle-warriors resolute in thought,
did not know, when they engaged conflict [and] on every side purposed to strike, [that] no battle-sword on earth, not the best of iron [weapons], would be able to injure [gretan] or reach [secan] the felonious attacker [synscadan] to the quick [lit. "in the soul"], for he [Grendel] had cast a spell against the edges of [all] victory-weapons.)
7° Jordan 1986: 283-90 and bibliographic notes.
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The mythic theme extends to Grendel's mother. At first when Beowulf fought her without success, he did not know "bmt se beadoleoma bitan nolde" (1523: that the battle-gleaming [sword, Hrunting] would not [be able to] penetrate), because Grendel's mother could not be injured by any weapon other than her own. Spellcasting is a demonic art. iElfric condemns this form of wiccecrceft, along with idolatry (lizeoengild) and sortilege as deofles craft in his sermon on "Auguries."71 These lines illustrate the quality of irony when it is used by the poet in his voice as narrator. It is irony in the Aristotelian sense, based upon contrasting levels of knowledge. The poet knows that Grendel enjoys supernatural immunity from weapons, but the Geats do not. The same irony appears prior to the Grendelfight, when Beowulf boasts that he could kill Grendel with a sword if he wanted to: "ic hine sweorde swebban nelle, / aldre beneotan, beah ic eal mange" (679-80: I do not wish to slay him with a sword, deprive [him] of life [in this way], although I am entirely able [to do so]). At this point in the poem, neither Beowulf nor we the readers know that the hero is mistaken. Only the poet knows—until lines 798805a when he shares this knowledge with us. When we read the poem a second time, Beowulf's boast has a different, ironic meaning, for we know, on second reading, that Beowulf was wrong. In neither instance does irony reflect pejoratively upon Beowulf or the Geats, who cannot reasonably be expected to know about Grendel's spell-casting.72 There is no evidence in the text that the Geats or Danes ever do find out about that. The poet's voice may be mythopoeic, but he expects us to think rationally. Grendel's and his mother's supernatural immunity from weapons, presented as irony, casts the human characters in a positive light. Far from scorning the Geats and Danes iElfric, "Sermo in Laetania majiore [de auguriis]," Lives of Saints 1.17, ed. Skeat 188185, 1: 364-83, at pp. 366-73. 72 As Baird (1967) argues, Beowulf's ignorance of Grendel's immunity to weapons increases our admiration for his courage; cf. Chickering [1977] 1989: 305. The irony would be lost if we accepted an interpretation proposed by Rogers (1984), who translates forsworen (8046) as "renounced" rather than "cursed," and argues that it was Beowulf, not Grendel, who renounced weapons. According to Rogers' view, Grendel's immunity from weapons was purely naturalistic: he had a tough hide. But his interpretation severs lines 804-5a from their narrative context.
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for their inability to fight Grendel, we realize that no one could fight him. Instead of scorning the Danes and Geats, we admire Beowulf for his ability to overcome Grendel's supernatural strength. As far as the Danes are concerned, Grendel's immunity from weapons was naturalistic. They reached this conclusion empirically, on the evidence of their senses, when they examined Grendel's severed arm hanging from the roof, just outside the entrance to Heorot. The poet conveys this through a "collectivity" of indirect discourse: iEghwylc gecw past him heardra nan hrinan wolde iren wrgod, pat oxs ahlxcan blodge beadufolme onberan wolde. (Beowulf987b-90: each [one] said that no hardy warrior's iron, [however proven] good from before, could have touched [him such] that [it] would have cut off the combatant's bloody battle-hand.) A medieval Irish analogue in Ta Bo Cziailnge is Fer Diad, Ca Chulainn's fosterbrother, whom the Irish recruited against his will to fight Cu Chulainn. They reasoned (wrongly) that only Fer Diad was capable of surviving a fight against Cu Chulainn because his horny skin made his body impervious to weapons.73 While the Danes gaze in wonder at Grendel's bloody arm, it is for us to wonder at the poet's artistry in the four passages that pertain to Grendel's immunity from weapons. It just gets better and better. I refer to this passage as a "collectivity" of indirect discourse. It is not really "collective discourse." There is a lot of chatter. Everyone speaks at once, but individually, not in unison as if in a chorus. Even so, they all reach the same conclusion. No sword could have cut off that arm. Some critics think that the poet is inconsistent about the cause of Grendel's immunity from weapons. Is it naturalistic, a thick hide? A demonic spell? An artistic flaw due to the residual impact of the Bear's Son folktale? In 73
Carson 2007: 123.
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fact the poet is scrupulously consistent. The Grendelkin have complex ontology, mythic and naturalistic. The poet extends this ontology to Grendel's immunity from weapons. This theme is linked to Beowulf s decision to fight Grendel unarmed. He announces his decision near the end of his salutation to Hro8gar (433-41). He has heard that Grendel "for his wonhydum wmpnum ne recceo" (434: on account of his recklessness, cares nothing for weapons). To better earn Hygelac's favor, he says, he will fight Grendel unarmed. Later that evening, after HroOgar left him in charge of the hall, Beowulf prepares for battle by stripping off his wargear, which he consigns to the keeping of a steward (ombihrPegne, 673b). This miniature episode, "disarming the hero," inverts the conventional epic "arming the hero" in which, normally, the hero is assisted by stewards or companions in donning his armor in preparation for battle. To highlight this inversion, the poet mentions the ombihtPegn, possibly a Dane who closets Beowulf s wargear in the armory./4 Grendel scorns weapons; Beowulf scorns Grendel for his lack of chivalry: "Nat he bara goda, 1)mt he me ongean slea, / rand geheawe" (681-82b: he knows not those good [arts, such] that he might parry at me, strike [against my] shield). He alludes to Grendel ironically, as a warrior who knows not the use a sword,75 undermining the metaphor of Grendel as a rebellious thane. Grendel is unworthy of a warrior's death. Surely the poet wants us to appreciate the contradiction. Grendel fights unarmed in malo because he is wonhydig and ignorant. Beowulf fights unarmed in bono because he is chivalrous, and loyal to Hygelac. The narrative combination in Beowulf is rare: a hero fights unarmed against a monster who had cast a spell against weapons. No critic has cited a cognate.76 Even so, in his immunity from weapons, Grendel has a Sumerian
74
Alternatively, the ombihtPegn might be one of Beowulf's Geatish retainers.
75
Irving 1968: 16. Slea and gehemve are subjunctive present verbs, contrary to fact.
Stitt (1992: 100) notes a partial analogue in Porsteins saga Vikingssonar: the giant Faxi is "as large as a troll, and iron does not bite him," but the idea of a spell is not explicit there. Monette (2008: 118-20) notes a partial analogue in Firdausi's Shothnatna, where White Dev, 6
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antecedent in the mountain-dwelling monster Asag. The gods and nature call upon the war-god Ninurta to prevent Asag from world domination. In Ninurta's Exploits, the god's cosmic mace,far-tir, personified, addresses Ninurta: Asag's "strength is massive; no weapon has been able to overturn it. Ninurta, neither the axe nor the all-powerful spear can penetrate its flesh, no warrior like it has ever been created against you."77 A closer analogue appears in the first cycle of the Armenian Sasna Ci=er, in Sanasar's and Baldasar's combat against the dragon of Green City (Kano" [city] Galag [green]),78 a town ravaged by drought because the dragon had taken up residence on a nearby hill from whose spring the villagers got their water. Green City is ironically so called, because all plant life has dried up there. Once a week, the dragon allows women from the village to fetch water in jugs, in exchange for a sacrificial maiden. By slaying the dragon, the twins rescue a maiden and free the waters. This is an Indo-European typescene, well known from its Sanskrit form in which Indra fights the dragon or asura (demonic god) Vrtra, who had hoarded all the waters in the world and kept the land arid.79 Vrtra corresponds to the dragon, Indra to Sanasarbaldasar,89 and the arid world to Green City. Comparison of Beowulf's Grendel-fight with this story will accomplish two goals. First, it will show that the narrative details in Beowulf come together in an Indo-European cognate. Second, it will illustrate the superior artistry of the Beowulf poet, who handles these collocated themes, spellcasting and fighting unarmed, with greater finesse than Armenian bards.
Rostam's monstrous opponent in his "seventh labor," is a sorcerer, but Rostam does not fight White Dev unarmed. 77
Black et al. 2004: 165.
78
In western Armenian, Gana" Kaiak, transcribed by Shalian (1964: 91) as Ganatch
Kaghalc.
79 The Proto-Indo-European origin of the dragon-fight in Sasna Cier is studied in detail by Harutyunian (1981, and 2000: 92-196). 80
This archaic dvandva compound, Sanasarbaldasar, appears occasionally in Sasna
O'er, although only once in the standardized form of the epic, Sasunc`i Davit'.
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In Sasunc`i Davit', the standardized form of the epic, the theme of a dragon casting a spell against weapons does not appear. I begin with this version because it is the best known form of the story. As a bridewinning test. Sanasar's prospective father, the king of Katcher, sends him to Green City to take whatever adventure he finds there. His brother, Baldasar, who had traveled from Sassoun to Katcher to aid him in a previous adventure, accompanies him to Green City. A motherly woman there, a mamik.81 provides them hospitality, but because of the dragon, she cannot give them water. Neither the king nor his army could fight the dragon, but they appeal to Sanasar and Baldasar to make the attempt. When the twins protest that they have no weapons, the king replies, "You know what to do." They appropriate two millstones. Using their rounded holes as leverage, they use them as weapons against the dragon. As part of the humor in the story, the twins are ignorant of the value and use of millstones, but they do know how to use them as ad hoc weapons.82 In a non-standard, variant form of this Sasna Ci^er episode, the Caliph of Baghdad, the twins' evil stepfather, sends Sanasar and Baldasar to Green City to take the adventure there. As in Sasunc `i Davit', they do not know that the adventure is to be a dragon-fight, which the Caliph hopes will result in their deaths. The episode takes place considerably earlier than Sanasar's bridewinning adventures in Katcher, and is one of several plots by the Caliph to have the twins killed. When they arrive at Green City, the mamik befriends them and tells them about the dragon. She warns them that because of a magic spell, they cannot use weapons against the dragon. So warned, the twins take two millstones from an olive press, and use them as weapons. In both versions of the story, the twins engage in a (comical) quarrel with villagers about their unlawful appropriation of
81
In western Armenian, mamig.
82
Sasunc7 Davit' 1.1.8-9, ed. Orbelli 1961; Shalian 1964: 21-28; Feydit 1964: 70-76.
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millstones, but after they have slain the dragon, they are careful to set the stones back into place.83 The hero fights without weapons against a monster who had cast a spell against weapons. The Armenian bard and the Beowulf poet use this typescene to exploit a contrast between chivalric combat and a brutish brawl. For the Armenian bard, the contrast is comic. In Beowulf the contrast emphasizes the hero's courage and the Danes' wonderment. The Beowulf poet develops the typescene with greater finesse. He distributes its component parts among four separate episodes. He exploits the possibility of irony, such that the reader knows more about it than the characters in the poem. Only after Beowulf's salutation and his boast does the poet disclose the secret of Grendel's spell-casting, during the thick of battle between Geats and the monster. For the monster's immunity from weapons he provides a dual ontology, mythic and naturalistic, in diverse scenes, such that all the characters who are present—Beowulf, Hroogar, the Geats, the Danes—participate in diverse ways in the disclosure. This dual ontology is matched with a dual epistemology: for the characters in the poem, Grendel's immunity from weapons is naturalistic, but the poet shares with us the mythic explanation, that Grendel's body was protected by a spell. Grendel and the gifstol (Beowulf 168-69) Grendel's triple ontology bears on the gifstol crux (168-69). This must be studied in context, as Jane Roberts notes, taking lines 164-74 as a verse paragraph that precedes the poet's account of the Danes' idol-worship (175-88): Swa fela fyrena feond mancynnes, atol angengea, oft gefremede, heardra hynoa. Heorot eardode, sincfage sel sweartum nihtum. No he bone gifstol gretan moste, mahoum for metode, ne his myne wisse. Surmelian 1964: 47-51.
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bad wads wraec micel wine Scyldinga, modes brecoa. Monig oft gesmt rice to rune, red eahtedon hwwt swioferhOum selest ware wick fwrgryrum to gefremmanne. (Beowulf 164-74: Thus the enemy of mankind, the terrible solitary stalker, often perpetrated many crimes, [inflicted] grievous injuries. [He] occupied Heorot, the treasure-adorned dwelling, on dark nights. He was not allowed to approach [or touch, or attack] the gift-throne, the treasures, on account of the Creator, nor [did he] know His regard [or affection]. That was great anxiety for the friend of the Scyldings, [many] heartbreaks. Many [thanes] of high rank sat in council, deliberated what counsel was best for resolute [men] to do against sudden attacks.) The gifstol crux sometimes is approached deconstructively, by isolating eight or nine ambiguous words, like a jigsaw puzzle whose parts can be assembled in various configurations, except that one or two pieces never quite fit.84 Considered holistically, the crux presents one primary question: Does he (168a) refer to Grendel, or Hroogar? Other questions are secondary: Is the gifstol Hroogar's throne, or God's? Or does the gifstol refer directly to Heorot itself, Hroogar's sedes?85 Is it an abstract allusion to regnal generosity, or divine grace?" Does gretan mean "approach," "touch," or "attack"? Is makown a variation for gifstol, or a reference to treasures dispensed from it? Does he refer to Grendel, or Hroogar? The author's intention is unknowable. Whether or not the author intended ambiguity is unknowable, too. The "intention of the text" authorizes both readings. He is an ambiguous sign, with contradictory referents, Grendel and Hroogar. I begin with Hroogar as the
84 Bolton (1973: 103-4), in his revised edition of Wrenn's edition of Beowulf (1953), enumerates the ambiguous words in the gifstol crux; again, Bolton 1978: 122-23. 85 McGillivray (2008) argues persuasively that gifstol, in the sense of "hall," refers to Heorot, much as Latin sedes and English seat can refer to an estate, mansion, capitol, etc. Of course, he is unable to disprove the obvious, that the basic meaning of gifstol is "throne." 86
Du Bois 1954.
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subject. This has long been the "minority report" in Beowulf criticism, but recently has gained support from savvy critics. What are the semiotic consequences, if he refers to Hroogar? Critics who take this view confront a grammatical problem. In the preceding lines (164-67), the subject is Grendel, who would seem to be the logical referent of he in 168a. Holtzmann understood the gifstol passage to mean that because of Grendel's attacks, Hroogar was unable to approach the throne (at night), and did not know God's favor ("ne his myne wisse"), because he was a pagan.87 According to this view, Grendel's attacks are divinely ordained punishment for the Danes' idolatry. Holtzmann did not address an obvious grammatical difficulty, namely, that Hrobgar had not been mentioned in the text since line 152a. Trautmann, noting this, supported Holtzmann's interpretation and addressed the grammatical problem by proposing that one or more lines were missing from the text.88 Tolkien asserted that lines 168-69 are "probably a clumsily intruded couplet" that interrupts "the natural connexion between 165-67 and 170. 89 Clark Hall, Wrenn, and Bolton argued that lines 168-69 are misplaced, and should be repositioned between lines 110 and 111, in a passage that describes God's banishment of Cain. The gifstol passage then would mean, "He (Cain) could not draw near to God's throne... that precious thing... in the Creator's presence, nor did he feel His love."90 Klaeber, noting the grammatical difficulty, concluded that he must refer to Grendel, not Hroogar.91 Brodeur, reviving the Holtzmann-Trautmann reading, defended he as a proleptic reference to Hroogar, citing other examples of prolepsis in the poem.92 No one has 87
Holtzmann 1863: 489-90.
88
Trautmann 1899: 135. Tolkien [1936] 1968: 48, n. 34.
9° Clark
and 103-4.
Hall [1911] 1950: 184n.; Wrenn 1953: 188-89; Wrenn and Bolton 1973: 63-65
91 Klaeber 1950: 134, "The possibility of identifying he with the king is too remote to be seriously considered." So too Bammesberger 1992: 245.
92
Brodeur 1959: 203; arguing in support of Brodeur: Riley 1983.
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improved on Brodeur's "argument from prolepsis." As Roberts concedes, "The 'he' of line 168 is the only subject pronoun in these lines [164-74], and its use may signal a switch [in reference] from Grendel [to Hroogar]."93 I construe may in her sentence as a concession that the grammatical problem cannot be resolved fully. Greenfield, supporting Brodeur's gramrnatical analysis, interprets the gifstol passage to mean that because of Grendel's attacks, Hro8gar could not approach his gift-throne at night, and thus could not "distribute treasure properly, as a good king should."94 This view is echoed by Cramp, who asserts that "Grendel does not allow the gifstol to be used for treasure giving and other ceremonies which bind together lord and retainer."95 In response to this view, others have noted that gift-giving ceremonies in Beowulf take place in daylight, and the Danes were accustomed to leaving the hall at night96 —but they did so to avoid Grendel! As Roberts rightly observes, this argument is irrelevant to the gifstol crux, because the real problem in Heorot is that Grendel slaughtered Danes "with impunity," such that Hroogar was unable to fulfill his regnal duties as giftgiver (Greenfield) and protector of the Danes (Roberts). Taking Hro6gar as the referent of he, then, the gifstol passage clarifies the nature of "Hro6gar's humiliation," as Roberts puts it in her magnificent defense of this reading. Put another way, the gifstol passage implies an argument a forteriori: Grendel's miht was so great that Hro6gar could not approach his gifstol by night; how much more so is it the case that he could not protect the Danes from Grendel? Unfero presents a similar a forteriori argument in malo when he taunts Beowulf: If you couldn't even best Breca in a swimming contest, then it is all the less likely that you will be able to defeat Grendel in combat (523b-28). Nowadays argument a forteriori is 93
Roberts 2007: 358-59.
94 Greenfield [1974] 1989: 36-37. Clipsham (1974) developed a similar interpretation, independently of Greenfield. 95
Cramp 1982: 14.
96
Scowcroft 1999: 54 and n. 108.
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held in disesteem as a false analogy, but in classical and medieval literature
a
respectable mode of persuasion. Plato and Augustine use it often. If Grendel is the subject in the gifstol crux, he is antithetical to metode (169a: the Creator). This opposition has inspired four thematic interpretations in the critical literature, pertaining, diversely, to Christian allegory, sacral kingship, retainership, and the limits of demonic power. In the allegorical mode, Bolton argues that gifstol refers to the throne of God's grace, which Grendel cannot approach, and alludes obliquely to the throne of God's judgment, where Grendel will be judged later. His support for this interpretation: God's two thrones, mentioned in Alcuin's writings.97 Kaske sees in the crux an antithesis between Heorot and heaven, such that gifstol refers to the heavenly throne. He translates: "Heorot he held, the treasure-adorned hall... in dark nights; but never could he have approached that other gift-throne, that treasure before God—nor did God even know him."98 This is similar to Eliason: "He [Grendel] might not approach the throne (of God) nor (receive) treasure before the Lord, nor did he know his (God's) purpose."99 Possibly. But elsewhere in the poem, gifstol Geata (2327a) and bregostol (2370a) refer to an earthly throne, symbolic of the king's office as treasure-giver, and pars pro toto to earthly kingship as an ideal. Cox equates the gifstol with the Ark of the Covenant, alluding to a biblical hermeneutic that is not confirmed elsewhere in Beowulf 10° Osborne, taking stock of Grendel's identity as a demon, finds an implied simile in the passage: just as Grendel dwells in Heorot at night but "cannot approach the gifstol," so "the Devil cannot approach the altar."1°1 It is difficult to imagine the
97 98
Bolton 1978: 122-23. Kaske 1985: 147.
" Eliason 1953: 441. Similarly, Golden (1976) argues that Heorot is "type" of heaven and the gifstol of God's throne. 1°° Cox 1971: 56-79, critiqued by Parker 1987: 95. 101 Osborne 1978: 976, rpt. 1995: 116.
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gifstol as an altar, or as the Ark of the Covenant. Even so, Grendel stands in
opposition to the Creator, and to Hroogar. Perhaps the most important attribute of the gifstol is its status sui generis in Heorot, where all the men sit on benches while WealhPeow and Freawaru walk about. Only Hroogar sits in a chair. Beowulf too had a gifStol, possibly the only chair in Geatland. In Swedish royal courts as late as the seventeenth century, the king and queen sat in chairs at dinner, while everyone else sat on benches; the point is illustrated in historical reconstructions at Kalmar Castle. In rural parts of Scandinavia as late as the nineteenth century, chairs were unusual, and often symbolic of authority and high status.102 Most people sat on benches or stools. Beowulf presupposes a similar situation in "heroic age" Denmark and Geatland.
Sacral kingship, another potential context for the gifstol passage, was proposed by Estrich, who translates, "he [Grendel] could not approach [or attack] the throne, the treasure, because of God: he did not know God's love."103 According to this view, the gifstol symbolizes sacrosanct royalty. In the wake of Hofler's (1956) study of Germanic "sacral kingship," Chaney argued that this (supposedly) indigenous Germanic ideal continued on into Christian times, and found expression in Anglo-Saxon and Danish royal genealogies that included Woden and other gods as ancestors. Several critics attribute the idea of sacral kingship to Beowulf,1°4 but historians have argued that Anglo-Saxon "sacrosanct" kingship, such as it was, resulted from Christian innovations, not from the survival of indigenous Germanic customs.105 Bede, following the lead of Pope Gregory the Great, promulgated an ideology of kingship as a ministerium Dei and 102 The rarity of chairs in early Scandinavian houses, except as symbols of authority and status, is emphasized in the permanent exhibit of folk-furniture in Nordiska museet, DjurgArden, Stockholm. Royal table settings at Kalmar slottet provide chairs for the king and queen and benches for other diners. 103
Estrich 1944: 384-85.
Chaney 1962 and 1970: 156-73; Kasik 1979: 129; Swanton 1982; Bauschatz 1982; Thomas Hill 1986; Rollason 1989; Taylor 1994 and 1997. 104
105 Ewig 1956; Wallace-Hadrill 1965; Ullmann 1969; Leyser 1979: 75-107; Leyser 1982: 241-67; Wormald 1986: 162-64.
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envisioned an international family of Christian kings founded by Constantine and guided by the Church. To some extent Cynewulf, in Elene, portrays this ideal of Christian kingship in Constantine.I06 During King Alfred's reign, too, the idea of kingship was framed in part by biblical and Christian models and sanctified by church ceremony.1°7 In Beowulf the ideal was a "warrior-king," a secular model of the personal leadership required to meet the kingdom's needs for security, internal stability, and prosperity.'" Neither kings nor kingship are sacrosanct. The gifstol passage might be an extension of the metaphor of Grendel as a rebellious thane. Morgan: "No coming openly to the throne or its gifts / Or feeling its favour, forbidden by God." Morgan's translation, while deviating syntactically from its Old English source, makes the gifstol passage parallel to the "rebellious thane" metaphor: "His deadliness was unshakeable: no settling with money." I°9 Kock took an ironic approach: Grendel "could not partake in the festivities of the day, nor step, like the others, before the precious throne to salute the Monarch (and receive his gifts); for he was prevented by the Creator, a stranger to Him."' I° Klaeber regards this view as "strange,"111 but Howren endorses it, citing the )12 famous minne wisse passage in The Wanderer (26-29a) as a parallel. Irving emphasizes irony, within limits: the gifstol passage shows that Grendel's "authority" in Heorot, as a rebellious thane turned pretender-king, has limits set by God (metod).113 Another ironic alternative: Baird construes for metode as an allusion to Hroogar, such that Grendel is depicted as an outlawed thane, neither
1°6
Anderson 1983: 126-33, "Constantine and the Christian Ordo."
1°7 Wallace-Hadrill 1971: 150-51. 108
Clemoes 1995: 3-67, chapter I, "Kingship in Beowulf and Kingship in Practice."
1°9
Edwin Morgan [1952] 1967: 5, lines 168-69 and 156.
11° Kock 1904: 225-26. Hamilton ([1955] 1963: 122-23), too, interpreted the gifstol as the site of gift-giving ceremonies form which Grendel was excluded. III
Klaeber 1950: 135. Howren 1956, citing neither Kock nor Klaeber.
113 Irving
1968: 18 and 110-11.
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willing nor able to approach the king with treasures to compose his feud.114 Setting aside the notion of Grendel attacking the throne, Robinson detects a different shade of irony: "He [Grendel] did not have to pay homage" at the throne."5 "Ne his my-ne wisse" emphasizes Grendel's solipsism.'16 The rebellious thane metaphor first appeared in the gyddum geomore (151a: mournful lays) bitterly ironic scop songs. In the gifstol passage, the poet asserts that there are limits to Grendel's rebellious power. Taking into account Grendel's identity as a demon, lines 168-69 could mean that "he (Grendel) was not allowed to attack (or approach) the gift-throne, (that) treasure, on account of the Creator, nor [did Grendel] know His regard (or affection, or friendship," meaning that God proscribed Grendel's power, a theme conventionally applied to demons. Crawford, citing Satan's banishment from heaven as alluded to in the Old English translation of Gregory's Dialogues, translates lines 168-69 as "He [Grendel] was not permitted to approach the precious throne, because he was prevented by the Lord, nor to work his will upon it.""7 Anglo-Saxon literature offers analogues, in accounts of the temptations and torments that devils are allowed to inflict on human beings. In Felix's Vita sancti Guthlaci, the devils torment Guthlac and carry him to the gate of hell, but there they are confounded by St. Bartholomew, who commands them to return him to his hermitage "sine ulle offensionis molesta" (without molesting him with injuries)."8 In Gudlac A, the devils were permitted to tempt GuMac in his wilderness retreat and vex him with visions and threats, but within limits: Ne mostun hy Gulaces gmst scebban, ne purh sarslege sawle gedmlan 114
Baird 1968.
115
Robinson 1992: 259.
16
North 1991: 33-38, citing Dunning and Bliss 1969: 61-65 and 109-10.
117
Crawford 1928.
lig
Felix, Vita sancti Guthlaci 33, 1956: 106-7.
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wio lichoman. (Gudlac A 226-28a: They were not able to injure GOlac's spirit, nor through dire homicide to separate [his] soul from [his] body.) The biblical model is Job 1: 12, where God permits Satan to take "all that he hath... only upon himself put not forth thine hand." Then in Job 2: 5-6, God permits Satan to afflict Job's body with disease, "but save his life." In my opinion, the Beowulf text authorizes most of these interpretations, without confirming any of them. Lines 168-69, in particular, are ambiguous. Because the setting is Heorot, the gifstol must mean Hroogar's throne, but the subject could be either HroOgar or Grendel, and for metode could mean either "because of the Creator" or "before the king [HroOgar]." Each interpretation is compatible with one or another of Grendel's ontologies as monster, demon, and rebellious thane. Conclusion What does it matter that Grendel has a triple ontology? Just this: if Grendel is an evil supernatural force, how can Hroogar and his thanes be expected to defeat him? It is unfair to disparage the Danes as cowardly, and Hroogar as weak, when they fail in this regard. Who but God can save them? Friedman recognized this point in his discussion of humanoid monsters in Wonders of the East. One of these is Donestre, depicted as a naked, hairy, beast-headed humanoid, devouring a man in western clothing. In the miniature of Donestre, the monster's left foot steps into the border, a sign that his savage strength cannot be contained. Friedman: "Such scenes indicate by implication Western weakness or defenseless in contacts with these monstrous races."119 The minute Beowulf arrived in Denmark, Hroogar recognized him as a godsend. In the company of his Danish councilors, he told Wulfgar:
119
Friedman 1986: 334 (illustration, g. 330, plate 12 [folio 831).
177
Hine halig god for arfastum us onsende, to Westdenum, 6ws ic wen hwbbe, wio Grendles gryre. (Beowulf 381b-84a: Holy God sent him [Beowulf] to us as a mercy, to the West Danes, against the terror of Grendel, of this I have hope [or expectation].) This is the first of Hro6gar's many allusions to God in the poem. It invites a double reading, simultaneously naturalistic and mythic. The phrase "bws ic wen hxbbe" could be just an idiomatic expression, "as I expect," but wen can also mean "hope," the opposite of despair. With despair comes damnation. The Danish elders, in despair of relief from Grendel, worshipped idols, a course that leads to hell (172b-88), but Hroogar hoped for salvation from God. Beowulf's arrival gave him reason to hope. This mythopoeic reading provides Hrobgar's wen with a Christian context: the doctrinal contrast between despair and hope, the signs of damnation and salvation. For some readers, this contrast opens the text to the possibility of allegory, and Christian redemption. For me, it invites on to reconsider the meaning of monotheism in the poem. Because the fictive world of Beowulf is preChristian, Hroogar is not a Christian, but he is not a pagan either. Pagans worship idols. Hroogar finds hope in God, and Beowulf s arrival confirms his belief. Hroogar is a monotheist. His monotheism, much more than an unnuanced belief in One God, is replete with recognizably Christian doctrines. One of these is the contrast between despair and hope, which allows for the possibility of salvation.
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Chapter 4 Grendel's Mere Like its eponymous denizens, Grendel's mere has a mythopoeic ontology. It defies the logic of non-contradiction in details large and small, such that "factually the scenery could hardly exist,"I evoking "an eerie atmosphere of strangeness and horror."2 (1) It is a forbidding place on the edge of human habitation, like Utnapishtim's home at the edge of the world in Gilgamesh, but it lies not far from Heorot. HroOgar: "Nis pmt feor heonon / milgemearces" (1361a62b: it is not far hence, measured in miles). (2) It is a dygel land (1357b: hidden or mysterious land), yet a contingent of Danes make their way there easily on the morning after Grendel's death (837-52), possibly with Beowulf and the Geats in tow, although the text does not mention this. On the morning after iEschere's death, Hroogar rides there on horseback, leading Beowulf and a contingent of Danes and Geats (1399-1441a). (3) The mere conflates images of an inland lake and the sea.3 It is simultaneously an Avemian lake, and the primordial sea from which no sailor or swimmer returns. OE mere means both an inland lake and a sea-inlet.4 (4) The mere is dark, in Jiystrum (87b), but eerie firelight rises from its waters at night. Hroogar: "13wr mzeg nihta gehwxm, niovaindor seon, / fyr on flode" (1365-66a: there every night a dreadful marvel can be seen, fire in the water). After Grendel's mother dragged him to her underwater abode, Beowulf saw "fyrleoht... / blacne leoman beorhte scinan" (1515b-16: saw firelight, a brilliant, bright gleans shining). Later, this firelight illuminated the submarine setting, like daylight (1570-72a). Submarine fire plays a part in the narrative. Stanley 1956: 441, rpt. 1987: 259. Gradon (1971: 170-72) calls the description "purely evocative"; cf. Lee 1972: 204n., "naturalistic details impossible to visualize." 2
Mackie 1937: 455.
3
Butts 1987: 115-16.
4
Frank (1986) argues that the Beowulf poet's use of mere is deliberately ambiguous.
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Grendel's mere, combining "realistic appearance and uncanny nature,"5 signifies terror, "the collective terror of men in the face of the unknown," according to a psychological interpretation of setting.° I agree, but my analysis of setting takes a different direction, exploring its complex ontology. My ontological approach complements the psychological one. Grendel's home as an underwater court (Beowulf1512b-90) A primitive fire in an ogre's cave is conventional in two-troll sagas, but Grendel's home is a court under water, yet dry. The poet presents this contradiction through Beowulf's perception of it: Da se eorl ongeat, [vt he in niOsele nathwylcum wars, pea him nwnig wester wihte ne scebede, ne him for hrofsele hrinan ne mehte fxrgripe flodes. (Beowulf 1512b-16: then the warrior [Beowulf] perceived that he was in some unfamiliar, hostile hall, where no water hindered him at all, nor could a sudden current of water touch him, because of the hall's roof.) As the modifier nathwylcum emphasizes, this was no ordinary hall, for it was under water, yet dry. In it was a weapons cache (on seanvum, 1557a), an armory. There, on the wall, Beowulf saw the giants' sword and used it to decapitate Grendel's mother, and Grendel. It has been argued Grendel's underwater court was a mutated version of a troll-setting—a cave behind a waterfall—for while waterfalls are common in Scandinavia, they are rare in England. The AngloSaxons' unfamiliarity with them could have led to a change in the setting. 5
Niles 1983: 441.
Butts 1987. The psychological approach was anticipated by Hulbert (1929), who argued that this and other descriptive passages were intended not to visualize a setting, but to evoke a "mood." So, too, Mackie 1937; Ringbom 1968: 35; and later, Lapidge [1993] 2002: 144-50, discussing words for terror, viz. broga, egesa, and pyre, in psychological terms, with particular reference to nightmares. 6
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However so, Beowulf's adventure in Grendel's abode has elements of a typescene: a hero obtains talismanic instruments of power in an underwater court.7 Underwater courts or palaces are found in myths and folktales around the world, often as the homes of gods or goddesses who have maritime or serpentine associations.t These places are not always hostile, but the Morrigain, Celtic watergoddess(es) who appear solo or trio, dwell in underwater palaces, whence they emerge to seduce sailors and fishermen and drown them in a river or sea.9 More pertinent to Beowulf are adventures in which the hero descends into a sea or lake, is surprised to find himself walking on dry land, and comes to a court or palace where he obtains talismanic instruments of power. This is a milestone event in the first cycle of Sasna O'er, where Sanasar enters Blue Lake (Lake Van), and finds himself walking "as if he was on dry land." He approaches a garden, a palace, and a pavilion where he obtains his meteoric Lightning Sword, his wonder-horse Jelaly, and a Battle Cross emblazoned on his right arm. He emerges from Blue Lake to find his twin brother, Baldasar, weeping on the shore. Just so, Beowulf emerged from the mere to find his Geatish retainers sick at heart (modes seoce, 1603a) because they thought that their leader had been killed under water (1602b-5a). The Virgin Mary, the "goddess" in the Armenian version, appears to Sanasar in a dream and discloses the location of talismans, which pass from father to son for four generations.'° In an Arabic analogue, Sayf ben Dhi Yazan rode a two-headed marine horse into a pool, where, suddenly on dry land, he encountered a wise man who had waited for him for 300 years, seated on a leather couch. At the man's direction, Sayf obtained a magic ring and a tap that produces enough water for an
7
Anderson 2005: 27-30.
8 Thompson 1955-58, F 725 "Submarine world," and subsections on "Submarine cities" (F 725.2), "Submarine castle (palace)" (F 725.3), "Castle under lake" (F 725.3.3), "World at bottom of pond" (F 725.8). Lyons 1995, 2: 418 cites other examples. 9
Loomis 1956: 124-25. Sastinc'i Davit' 1.1.15 (Orbeli 1961); Shalian 1964: 45-46; Feydit 1964: 92-97.
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y In one of the Circassian sagas, the Nart Pizighash descended to an underwater court below the waters of the Azov sea, where he won a bride while his brother Pija waited for him on the shore.'2 The Ossetes have a saga, too, about Uryzmmg (= Circassian Warzameg), the most heroic of the Narts. While he was absent on a quest, his wife Satana gave birth to his only legitimate son. She sent him to an underwater kingdom, to be fostered by the sea-god Don Bettyr. As Uryzmmg journeyed homeward, a gigantic vulture seized him and deposited him on a rock at sea. He sat there in sorrow and shame, until the three daughters of Don Bettyr approached him and invited him to their underwater court, where a lamb was slaughtered and a feast was prepared in his honor. Unbeknownst to Uryzmzeg, his unnamed son, a delightful boy, was present in the court. The hero skewered a piece of mutton on his spear and offered it to the boy, who jumped about in delight and by misadventure fell into the spear, such that it pierced his heart and he died.13 A submarine palace or country is met with often enough in modern Irish folklore," and very likely is a Celtic theme in the thirteenth-century French Prose Lancelot. During Lancelot's infancy, King Claudas of the Waste Land, pursuing a feudal dispute, attacked Lancelot's father, King Ban of Benoic, laying siege to his castle, Trebe (Treves). Ban, his wife Helene, their infant son, and a squire secretly departed Trebe, intending to appeal to King Arthur. for military aid. During the " Sa}f be Dhi Yazan 69, in Lyons 1995, 3: 622. This episode is omitted from Iayyusi's translation (1996). In Sayf ben Dhi Yazan, the epic as a whole is structured around the eponymous hero's multiple bridewinning adventures, combined with quests for various instruments of power, such as the sword of Solomon's vizier Asaf, the pick of Japeth, the magic stone of Kush, and others; most importantly, the Book of the Nile. In Sasunc'i Davit', the hero's acquisition of talismans is compressed into one episode. 12
Colarusso 2002: 12-17, Saga 2, "The Tale of How Warzameg and Yimis Came to Be."
13 Dumezil 1930: 32-34, and 1965: 44-47. This story is discussed in Bowra 1952: 399 and Miller 1996: 111. Miller nominates it as a primary source for "canonical" inventory of Proto-IndoEuropean "father-son combat" typescenes, but this is disputed by Anderson and Norouzalibeik (2008). 14 Carney 1950: 97-98, 188, and 220-21; Puhvel 1979: 73-81, chap. 8, "Beowulf and Irish Underwater Adventure."
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king's absence, his disloyal seneschal surrendered the castle to Claudas. Unaware of this treachery, Ban and his family retired to the shore of a lake, and Ban, climbing a nearby hill, saw Trebe go up in flames, and died of a broken heart. Seeing Ban's horse return to the lake without its rider, the squire and the queen went to the hill, leaving the infant Lancelot alone on the shore. As the queen returned to the shore, she saw Niniene, the Lady of the Lake, cradling her son in her arms. Niniene jumped into the lake, taking Lancelot with her. Fostered by Niniene in a kingdom beneath the lake, Lancelot learned the arts of archery, falconry, horsemanship, hunting, and courtly conduct. At age eighteen, Lancelot took leave of Niniene to seek knighthood as a bel inconnu in King Arthur's court. In preparation for his departure, Niniene gave Lancelot a white "marine" horse, sword, armor, and other accoutrements of knighthood. I5 Thus Lancelot, like Sanasar, obtained the accoutrements of knighthood in a submarine court. In Beowulf's case, the giants' sword is necessary to his success against Grendel's mother, for Unfer5's sword failed to penetrate her body. The status of Grendel's home as an underwater court clarifies its thematic role as an ironic "anti-hall," as Kathryn Hume calls it, citing its epithets: hof (1507b), nidsele (1513a), hrofsele (1515a), reced (1572b). She compares it to hell, a windiga sele or windsele in Christ and Satan (135b, 384a) and a hall without treasure-giving in Juliana (683-88a), and to Holofemes's grave, a wyrmsele in Judith (119a), and argues that conventional anti-halls "gain poetic resonance from their affinities with the grave."I6 Even so, Beowulf sees domestic amenities, not chthonic symbols: a roof that keeps the water out (hrofsele, 1515a), firelight shining brightly, perhaps from a hearth ("fyrleoht... beorhte scinan," 1516a, 1517b), a floor (Jiet, 1540b, 1568b), an armory with a cache of weapons, on seanvum, 1557a), a wall in the armory, upon which the giants' sword is mounted (weall, 1573b), a bed where Grendel's body lay ("on rste... licgan," 1585b,
Heorot."
15
Mich 1979-83, 1: 1-148; cf. Corley 1989: 3-60.
16
Hume 1974: 68; earlier, Rosier 1963: 12, and Lee 1972: 203, "a grotesque parody of
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1586b), and a treasury (1612-15a). This is no ogre's cave. In his report to Hygelac, Beowulf recalls that he fought Grendel's mother "in Oam sele" (2139a), a defective verse emended to "in oam guosele" on analogy to "in barn guosele" (443a), an epithet for Heorot. Gudsele is ambiguous. It could mean either "a fortress" or "a dwelling where battle takes place." Both meanings apply. The poet's theme is not chthonic irony, but wonder at Beowulf's amazing adventure in an underwater court where he fights Grendel's mother. Critics have debated how long Beowulf was submerged in the mere. Thrice the poet alludes to time, but is never interested in just how long the hero held his breath under water. Before dawn (cerdceg, 1311b), HroOgar summoned Beowulf to Heorot in the confused aftermath of iEschere's death. When Beowulf approached the bottom of the mere it was hwil dceges (1495b). This could mean that it took him all day, or a good part of the day;" it could mean "daytime."18 Chambers: "we may render the phrase either 'a large part of the day' or 'the space of a day', as we
[U]nreason like this is possible in Beowulf, even though
one wonders how so far-fetched an idea ever occurred to anybody."19 Robinson 20 /
translates as "daytime," wanting to portray Beowulf in a naturalistic light.
agree. Beowulf could see bottom because it was daylight. At two later points, he explains that Beowulf was able to see Grendel's submarine hall (1512b-17), and Grendel's body (1570-84a), because of firelight. The common thread is the poet's explanation why Beowulf was able to see deep under water. These parallels have not been cited in the critical debate about hwil dceges. Our third temporal reference: "Da com non dwges" (1600a: then it was nones), mid-afternoon, when the Danes departed the mere, leaving Beowulf for 17 Klaeber 1950: 186, note to line 1495; Greenfield [1982] 1989: 67-70; Falk 2007, with special attention to grundwong (1496a), which I think just means "bottom" [of the mere]. 18
Robinson [1974] 1993: 22-26; cf. Huppe 1987: 131.
79
Chambers [1921] 1967: 465.
Robinson 1974. Bammesberger (1995) concurs, interpreting "Oa was hwil &ages" as a parenthetical phrase. 20
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dead. Allegorists equate non with the "ninth hour," the time of Christ's death.21 A symbolic alternative might be that non dceges signifies the Danes' despair,22 but a naturalistic interpretation is possible. This was Beowulf's second full day in Denmark. He spent most of it in the mere, in Grendel's dry, underwater hall. Chambers's exasperation was unnecessary. The marvel in this episode is Grendel's underwater court, not the hero's ability to hold his breath for a preternaturally long time. Grendel's mere as hell The topographical features of Grendel's mere include, among other naturalistic details, wolf-cliffs, fen-paths, deep-rooted, hoar-frosted tree-groves, and fire in the water, (1357-66a: "dygel lond... wulfhleolm, / fengelad,... nwssa genipu... hrinde bearwas, / wudu wyrtum
niOwundor... fyr on flode";
j)rgenstream, 1228b). Some of these details appear in other texts that describe forbidding places. Beowulf scholars have proposed four rival traditions as possible sources for Grendel's mere: (1) the two-troll tradition, represented by Grettis saga; (2) the description of hell in the fourth-century Visio Pauli, quoted in Buickling Homily 16, or, alternatively, other homilies influenced by the Visio Pauli tradition; (3) dystopias in classical Latin poetry; and (4) the early medieval ntirabilia tradition, specifically the Old English Letter of Alexander to Aristotle. All four claims have merit, although each one accounts for a limited spectrum of details, while none account for Grendel's abode as an underwater court. I think that the poet's "source" was a typescene (defined more broadly than Fry's "cliff of death," discussed below). Even so, the suggestions of a typescene might have been supplemented by literary and homiletic sources. Early scholars, beginning with Vigffisson, compared Grendel's abode to the giant's cave in Grettis saga, with its cliffs, overhanging rock, waterfall, and 21
Cabannis [1955] 1963: 225.
22
Pigg 1990: 605.
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fire in a cave.23 Some scholars argued that Grettis saga was influenced by Beowulf,24 others that both works were influenced by a Germanic folktale.2' Scandinavian analogues aside, Fry revived the possibility of an indigenous Germanic tradition: the mere exemplifies a typescene called "the cliff of death," which brings together four details: cliffs, serpents, darkness, and deprivation, to which wind and wolves are sometimes added. Fry found this combination of details in descriptions of hell in Christ and Satan (24-32, 89-105, and 132-36) and in the damnation of Holofernes in Judith (111-21). As Orchard noted, these details come together in Blickling Homily 16, and are not specific to poetry.26 Two years after Vigfasson, Morris pointed out that Grendel's mere shares details with St. Paul's vision of hell in Blickling Homily 16,27 whose Latin source was the fourth-century Visio sancti Pauli. Malone and Collins regarded Blickling Homily 16 as a source for Grendel's mere, although Carleton Brown argued the reverse, that Beowulf influenced the homily.28 On the basis of shared details and alliterative doublets, Klaeber, Hoops, and Charles Wright argued that Grendel's mere and Blickling Homily 16 both were indebted to the Old English prose
23 Vigftisson 1878, 1: xlix; Vigfasson and Powell 1883, 2: 501-3, cited in Chambers [1921] 1967: 50, and Andersson 1997: 129-30. See Garmonsway and Simpson 1968: 312-16 for translation of relevant passages. 24
1997: 130.
Vigfusson, ibid.; Olrik 1903, 1: 248; Lawrence 1909: 238 and 1928: 182; Andersson
2S Gering 1880: 87; Lawrence 1912 (wavering between two positions); Lawrence 1928: 178-821; Chambers 1929; Chambers [1921] 1967: 50-53, 179-82, and 451-83. As Andersson observes, this was part of a much larger debate about the "Bear's Son" as a folktale source for Beowulf a hypothesis introduced by Panzer (1910). For a critique of proposed links between Beowulf and Grettis saga: Fjalldal 1998. 26
Fry 1987; Orchard 1995: 41.
Morris [1874-80] 1967: 209-11; Morris [1874-80] 1967: vi-vii; text, pp. 209-11. Morris numbered this Homily 17, because he assigned number 16 to a misplaced homily fragment that has since been identified as belonging to Homily 4. In modem reckoning, Morris's linmilies 17-19 are now numbered 16-18. 27
28
Malone 1958; Collins 1984; Carleton Brown 1938.
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translation of Visio Pauli.29 Clemoes thought that the link to Visio Pauli was indirect, transmitted through an oral homiletic tradition.3° Among classical Roman sources, the most promising analogue is Virgil's description of the forbidding woods, cave, and dark waters of Lake Avernus, the entrance to the Underworld in Aeneid 6.131-39 and 236-42. This was discussed by Haber and others, although Renoir argued that stylistic differences between the mere and Avernus outweigh superficial similarities.31 Casting a wider net, Schrader proposed Lucan's description of a dark, snake-infested grove at Masilia, where neither birds nor wild animals would enter (Pharsalia 3.399-429), and other possible sources, too: Claudian's lake at Aponus (Carmen 26), and the mountainous woods at !Etna, where no Cyclops dares pasture his sheep (De raptu Proserpinae 3.332-56). Grendel's mere, viewed in relation to these texts, was meant to suggest a sacred grove dedicated to devil-worship.32 My analysis leads to a different conclusion. The Anglo-Saxons had scant knowledge of these Roman authors,33 but Lucan and Claudian bear witness to the vitality of aornos as a compositional theme, seen also in Virgil's Aeneid.34 Grendel's mere was inspired in part, Orchard argues, by the Old English prose translation of Alexander's Letter to Aristotle (chapters 12 and 15-18). Alexander comes to a towering forest, and below a cliff, a brackish river infested by nicra mengeo. These sea-monsters drag some of his men to the bottom. They come to a mere overgrown by trees, infested with serpents and reptiles. Other details, such as trumpet-sounds and an attack by a monster lurking in the fens, 29 Klaeber 1911: 185-87 and 1950: 183; Hoops 1932b: 164; Charles Wright 1993: 13336; Orchard 1995: 39-42; Orchard 2003: 21-22, 30-33, and 157-58. For the OE Visio Pauii: Healey 1978. For Grendel's mere as hell, or at least hellish, cf. Lawrence 1939; Whallon 1962-63: 90; Andrew 1981.
3° Clemoes
1981: 181.
31 Haber 1931: 2-96. Earlier, Cornelius 1927. Subsequent studies: Page and Cassidy 1969: 105-6; Andersson 1976: 145-59; Magennis 1996: 132-43; Anlezark 2007. Renoir 1974. 32
Schrader 1983: 81.
33
As Orchard (1995: 44-45) notes.
34
I discuss the comas theme in Appendix I.
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link Grendel's mere to Alexander's Letter, which has a claim to privileged analysis by virtue of its appearance in Cotton Vitellius A.xv. Even so, Orchard does not rule out the influence of the Vita Pauli tradition, alongside mirabilia, as sources for Grendel's mere.35 The possibility of homiletic influence, reflecting images of hell in Visio Pauli, encourages the belief that Grendel's mere is hell, for so his home is called. The poet first portrays Grendel as "se ellengwst... se Pe in kystrum bad" (86a, 87b: the savagely bold spirit who dwelt in darkness), like the darkness that God divided from light at the time of Creation, "leoht fram oarn oystrum" (Gen. 1:4).36 In the same portrait, Grendel is called a "feond on helle" (101b) who as inearestapa (103a) stalks the regions just beyond the habitable earth. Grendel is a helruna (166a), helle hcefton (788a: hell's captive). One of the mere's preternatural attributes is "fyr on flode" (1366a), a confusion of opposed elements, like the apocalyptic "lake of fire," a commonplace in early medieval visions of hell 37 In the Visio Pauli, a river of fire leads to the burning pit of hell.38 Thirteen illustrations in the Harley Psalter depict hell as a pit of fire.39 In two of these, the fiery pit is personified as Hades's head,4° an Anglo-Saxon contribution to the depiction of hell in medieval art. The fiery pit is illustrated in an Anglo-
35
Orchard 1995: 45-47.
30
Heptaieuch, ed. Crawford 1922: 81.
37 Revelations 19: 20 and 21: 8; Klaeber 1912: 186 and 1950: 183-84, citing Becker 1899: 37. Cabaniss ([1955] 1963: 224) asserts that "fyr on flode" alludes directly to Revelations, but the image is well known from other sources. 38
Visio Pauli 10- 11, in Gardiner: 1989 36-46.
39 Ohlgren 1992: 151, 162, 171, 173, 175, 176, 180, 194, 198, 205, 220, 232. These are Ohlgren's plates 2.5 (folio 3', Ps. 5: 11), 2.16 (9 Ps. 17 [18]: 5-6), 2.25 (14", Ps. 25 [26]: 12), 2.27 (15', Ps. 27 [28]: 2-5, 2.29 (16', Ps. 29 [30]: 2-4), 2.30 (17', Ps. 30 [31]: 18), 2.34 (19', Ps. 33 [34]: 17), 2.36 (20', Ps. 35 [36]: 12), 2.48 (28', Ps. 48 [49]: 15), 2.52 (30', Ps. 54 [55]: 16 and 24), 2.59 (33', Ps. 62 [63]: 10), 2.74 (57", Ps. 111 [112]: 10), and 2.86 (65", Ps. 123 [124]: 3 and 5). 40
Ohlgren 1992: 162 and 171, plates 2.16 and 2.25, folios 9" and 14Y.
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Saxon manuscript of Prudentius's Psychomachia.41 The burning seas of apocalypse recur as a theme in religious poems and homilies 42 Some topographic details suggest hell, others a forbidden marshland. Grendel rules the moors (moras, 103b), "fen and fasten" (104a: fen and dry land), a merismus for "all the moors," like the monster-infested ones described in Alexander 's Letter, where a wild beast "of bwm fenne > of 6zem fwstene" attacked Alexander's thanes.43 If we wonder why Grendel is not in hell, but wanders on earth, Juliana asked the devil the same question: Saga, earmsceapen, uncleene gxst, hu bee gebyde, bystra stihtend, on clwnra gemong? (Cynewulf, Juliana 418-20a: Tell me, miserably misshapen, unclean spirit, how did you, the ruler of darkness, infiltrate the company of purer [folk]?) Faustas asked Mephistophilis, "Where are you damned?" He replied, "In hell." Faustus" "How comes it then that thou art out of hell?" Mephistophilis: "Why this is hell, nor am I out of it."44 If Grendel's mere is hell, does this contradict the poet's account of his death and damnation? When. Beowulf with a party of Geats and Danes first approach the mere, they see it welling with blood, the evidence of Grendel's death: Da=r wars on blode brim weallende, atol y6e geswing eal gemenged haton heolfre, heorodreore weol. 41
Cotton Cleopatra C.viii, in Ohlgren 1992: 509, plate 15.37 (25'), illustrating
42
Orchard 1995: 42-44.
Psychomachia 486 -89.
43 Orchard (1995: 47) points out that this doubled is found in these two sources only. For text and translation: pp. 204-53. 44
Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus 3.73-76.
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Deaofxge deog, si66an dreama leas in fentre000 feorh alegde, hzefiene sawle; 1:)xr him hel onfeng. (Beowulf 847-92: There the water was welling with blood. A horrid whirlpool of waves, all mingled with hot gore, welled with battle-gore. Fated for death, [he] suffered, when deprived of joys he lay down his life, his heathen soul, in the fen-retreat. There hell received him.) Marlowe faced the same contradiction. In a later scene in Doctor Faustus, still not believing this mystery, Faustus questioned Mephistophilis about hell again. The devil explained that hell is Within the bowels of these elements, Where we are tortured and remain for ever. Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed In one self place; for where we are is hell, And where hell is, there must we ever be. (Marlowe, Doctor Faustus 5.118-22) Only at the moment of his damnation did Faustus come to believe the ontological mystery of hell. Mythopoeic epistemology
The ontology of Grendel's mere, a swamp-monster's backwater and hell, elevates Beowulf to the circle of heroes and heroines whose adventures include a descent and return from the Underworld. An epic equivalent would be the hero's journey to the edge of the world and back, as Gilgamesh does, traveling to Utnapishtim's home where he obtains the "plant of heart-beat,"45 and Heraldes, traveling to Hera's garden in the Hesperides, where he obtains the golden apples of immortality. The Beowulf poet has it both ways, for Grendel's mere is both the Underworld and a forbidding place at the edge of human habitation. In the Odyssey, the same is true of Hades, which is simultaneously the Underworld and 45
George 2003, 1: 723.
141
a land at the edge of the world, near the stream of Okeanos.46 Gilgamesh and Herakles lost their talismanic trophies, for the gods reserved immortality for themselves, but any return from the Underworld is a victory over death, however temporary that may be for mortals. Any mortal can descend to the Underworld. Coming back is the hard part47—one reason why Beowulf s fight with Grendel's mother is unexpectedly difficult. His survival depends on a talisman, the ancient giants' sword ("eald sweord eotenisc," 1558a), which he saw at a critical moment and used to decapitate his female foe (1563-69). She could be slain only by her own sword. Christ used the Cross as his talismanic weapon against the Devil and the forces of death in the Gospel of Nicodemus. In the Maya Popol Vuh, the twins Xbalanque and Hunahpu defeated the lords of Xibalba (the Underworld) in a ritual ballgame, a displaced form of combat, by this means reducing the power of the deathlords and making earth fit for human habitation.48 Of course, combat is not the only means by which a hero (or heroine) might return from the Underworld. "Death of a substitute" is another. In Sumerian epic, Inana escapes by providing her husband Dumuzi(d) as a substitute, although this pastoral god of fertility is allowed to return to earth each New Year, at the time of vernal equinox.49 The same myth appears in the Akkadian Descent of Ishtar.5° Gilgamesh alludes to it.51 Another method: take a prophylactic talisman with you. In the Akkadian epic of Nergal and Ereshkigal, Nergal, following the advice of Ea (= Sumerian Enki), took a talismanic chair with him when he descended to visit Ereshkigal, Ishtar's
46
Odyssey 10.508-15.
So the Cumaean Sibyl warned Aeneas: the door of Pluto's abode is wide, but only a few heroes managed to retrace their steps (Aeneid 6.124-31): Pollux. Orpheus. Theseus, Herakles, 47
4g
Popol Vuh, part 3, Tedlock 1985: 105-60.
49
Black et al. 2004: 63-99.
5° Dailey 51
1989: 152-62.
Gilgamesh 6.42-47, in George 2003, 1: 621.
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evil sister, the queen of the Underworld.52 Aeneas, following the instructions of the Cumaean Sibyl, took with him a golden bough, sacred to the queen of Hades.53 Instead of a talismanic object, Circe advised Odysseus to make a prophylactic libation, and to promise sacrificial rituals, to summon the spirits of the dead and ensure his safe return from Hades.54 Another: during your visit there, observe a host of taboos. Do not sit in a throne when invited, do not partake of food, drink, or any other form of hospitality. Nergal followed these rules, triumphed over Ereshkigal, married her, became king of the Underworld, and returned to earth as Erra, the god of plague and destruction in warfare.55 Just as Ea advised Nergal, so Gilgamesh advised Enkidu to accept no hospitality in the Underworld, and to go there unwashed, unkempt, in filthy clothing. Enkidu, all too civilized, ignored these taboos and was compelled to remain in the land of the dead.56 This Akkadian theme signifies a theological doctrine, that existence in the Underworld is marked by deprivation of all mes, all the benefits of civilization that the gods conferred on human society. In the case of Enkidu, the Gilgamesh poet combines this theme with the "death of a substitute," both in tablet 12, where Enkidu descended to fetch Gilgamesh's talismanic ball and mallet (pu-u[k-ku] and ini-ik-ke),57 and in tablets 6-7, where the gods condemned Enkidu, rather than Gilgamesh, to die of disease as punishment for insulting Ishtar and slaying the Bull of Heaven.58 Epic tradition provides a diversity of means whereby a hero might return from the Underworld, but the common theme is that the return itself is a wondrous feat. A journey to the Underworld and back can be seen in malo, 52
Nergesh and Ereshkigal 2, in Dailey 1989: 165-81, at p. 167.
53
Virgil, Aeneid 6.135-55.
54
Odyssey 10.514-637.
55
Nergal and Ereshkigal 3, in Dailey 1989: 169-71; cf. Erra and Ishum, ibid., pp. 282-
315. 56
Gilgamesh 12, in George 2003, 1: 729-35.
57
Gilgamesh 12.1-5, in George 2003, 1: 728-29.
58 George 2003, 1: 616-47. In an earlier form of the myth, almost certainly, the gods prescribed "death of a substitute" (Enkidu) to punish Gilgamesh for slaying the giant Humbaba.
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too, as the mark of a sorcerer, like Siglorel, "Pencantetir ki ja fut en enfer" (Roland 1390: a sorcerer who had been to hell before), conducted there and back by Jupiter, but slain, appropriately, by Archbishop Turpin.59 Mythic epistemology often accompanies the hero's return from the Underworld. The hero returns with mythic knowledge that is essential to the welfare of the commonwealth, or the world. Odysseus brought back the prophecy of Tiresias, necessary to his return to Ithaca, and knowledge of the fates of ancestors, heroes, and heroines after death (Odyssey 10.490-95; 11.1-630). From Achilles he learned that it would be better to serve as a slave on another man's land than lord it over spirits of the dead (11.488-91). Aeneas brought back knowledge of the fates of ancient heroes (like Odysseus), of Rome's imperial future, and the secrets of cosmology (Aeneid 6. 295-892), for the most part borrowed from Lucretius's De rerum naturae. In Silius Italicus's Punica (13.400895), Aeneas was the model for Scipio Africanus's descent, when he brought back knowledge of Hades's secrets, and a prophecy of his future victory over Hannibal at Zama (202 B.c.). From the harrowing of hell, Jesus brought (to heaven) the patriarchs and prophets, the collective personification of the Old Testament.6° Gilgamesh brought back antediluvian knowledge: "He saw the secret and uncovered the hidden, / he brought back a message from the antediluvian age" (Gilgamesh 1.7-8). Based upon this knowledge, Gilgamesh "restored the cult-centres that the Deluge destroyed, / and established the proper rites for the human race" (Gilgamesh 1.43-44).61 The poet hints at epistemology even as Beowulf makes his descent into the mere. According to Hroogar, no one is wise enough to know its depth (1366b-67), 59
Chanson de Roland, laisse 108, ed. Whitehead 1965: 41.
Alvin A. Lee (1972: 207-9) rightly compares Beowulf's descent into Grendel's mere to Christ's harrowing of hell in the Exeter Book Descent into Hell (ASPR 3: 219-23), a view seconded by Schichler (1993: 19-20), but I prefer the "archetypal" emphasis of Helterman (1968: 16-17) and Page and Cassidy (1969: 109-10). The significance of the parallels is mythopoeic, not allegorical as supposed by Delasanta and Slevin 1968: 414. 60
61
George 2003, 1: 539-41.
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but while Beowulf arms himself, the poet says that he "he meregrundas mengan scolde" (1449: must stir up the depths of the mere). As soon as he dives into the mere, he is able to see the grundwong (1496). The grund of the mere could be penetrated after all, but only by the hero. Beowulf's return from Grendel's mere has epistemological significance. The story of the Flood (Gen. 6-9), was inscribed in runes on the sword-hilt that Beowulf brought to Heorot. In a court scene, HroOgar examined the hilt, interpreted the runes, and used the story as the "text" for his "sermon." It was a biblical truth disclosed to Danes and Geats, not from the Bible, but from an ancient inscription: Hroogar mahelode, hilt sceawode, ealde lafe, on ozem wxs or writen fyrngewinnes, syohan flod ofsloh, gifen geotende, giganta cyn; frecne geferdon; hxt wars fremde heod ecean dryhtne; him bars endelean hurh wwteres wylm waldend sealde. (Beowulf 1687-93: Hroogar spoke, examined the hilt, the ancient heirloom, on which was written the origin of an ancient conflict, when the flood, the gushing ocean, drowned a race of giants; they suffered terribly; that was a people estranged from eternal God; for this, the Ruler awarded them final payment through the surging of water.) As an archeological artifact, the hilt confirms the truth of Scripture. This is an old story: the recovery of antediluvian writings, or of ancient writings about the Flood. In the Akkadian dialogue-poem Erra and Ishum, Marduk alludes to the special status of "Sippar, the eternal city, which the Lord of Lands [DIM did not allow the Flood to overwhelm,"62 and although no reference to Sippar appears in Atrahasis or in the Sumerian Ziusudra fragments, in Berossus's summary, Kronos commanded Xisuthros to gather the cuneiform tablets at Sippar and bury them in
62
Erra and Ishum
4, in Dailey 1989: 285-315, at p. 305.
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order to protect them from the Flood-waters. Later, after Xisuthros's occultation, he appears to the other Flood survivors as a disembodied voice that commands them to rescue the writings buried at Sippar.63 Perhaps Berossus knew of a scribal school in Babylon that claimed to possess antediluvian wisdom, contained in its collection of tablets supposedly rescued from Sippar. In medieval Armenian epic tradition, this story was known as "Xisud`ra's Voyage to Armenia." One local version culminates in the founding of Tarawn province. Moses Khorenats'i summarizes the story, citing a supposed Greek author named Olympiodorus, who claimed that there is "a book about Xisut'ra and his sons that now can nowhere be found," but whose story is known through "unwritten tales that have come down to us by tradition and that many villagers retell to this day."64 Is the Flood story (1687-93) told by the poet, or by Hroogar in indirect discourse? Critics debate this. Chickering: "As Hrothgar regards the hilt in 1687 ff., the poet looks away from the present action of the poem to the biblical fate of the race of Cain. slain by the Flood."65 Irving: Hroogar looks at the runic inscription but cannot read it, and "makes no comment on it."66 Lerer: HroOgar stared at the hilt, dumbstruck and uncomprehending, as happens in Beowulf anytime a character gazes on a marvelous object.67 Some critics attempt a middle way. Lee: Hroogar's examination of the hilt reminds him of the Flood story, which he already knew.68 Orchard: Hroogar's sermon was inspired by engravings on the hilt that depicted "overweening ambition laid low."69 Schrader: the runstafas were Hebrew letters, reflecting Enoch's legendary prophecy of the Flood; "Hrothgar does not understand the message on the hilt," but he 63
Lambert and Millard 1969: 135-36.
64
Moses Khorenats`i 1.6, 1978: 79-80.
66
66
Chickering 1977: 342; Osbom [1978] 1995: 118-21. Irving 1984: 10; Robinson 1985: 33-34.
67
Lerer 1991: 161-62; rpt. 2006: 590-91.
68
Lee 1972: 187.
69
Orchard 1995: 67.
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understands the message of the hilt, namely, the mutability of all earthly things:1° Schrader attributes significance to the fact that the sword-hilt provides a unique "textual" moment in an otherwise oral poem; hence Hroogar's inability to read the inscription. Was the Flood story (1687-93) told by HroOgar in indirect discourse? Let us debate the question sic et non. If non prevails, by default the Flood story is assigned to the narrator's voice. What text-based arguments lead to the conclusion that Hrafgar did not tell the Flood story? So far as I can tell there are four: First, argument from maoelian (1689a). This verb almost always introduces direct discourse, 71 which does not begin until line 1700. Be that as it may, direct discourse is then suspended for twelve lines while the poet digresses on the hilt, its runes or engravings, and the Flood. This is unusual. Normally a speech begins within six lines after madelode. Either way, the poet takes license with ma6elode. Argument from this verb is inconclusive. Second, argument from nominalization, a grammatical signal of indirect discourse. The grammatical target of nominalization is the hilt "on 6wm wan or writen / fymgewinnes" (1688b-89a). It could be construed that the poet, not Hroogar, paraphrases the hilt's runic message. Even so, its ambiguity matches that in The Husband's Message, where it is not clear whether the "message" is spoken by the messenger, or by the personified runic stave that he carries. Third, argument from giganta cyn (1690b). Gigantas elsewhere are mentioned by the poet (113a, 1562a), but not by characters in the poem. But the poet calls the sword in Grendel's mere both giganta geweorc (1562b) and ealdsweord eotenisc (1558a), thus equating gigantas with eotenas, whose existence is known to characters in the poem (cf. 421a, 883b). Fourth, argument from wriien (1687b). Germanic writan meant "tear, cut, scratch," and thus could refer to a pictorial engraving, rather than a literary one, as 7° Schrader 71 Cook
1993: 142.
1926.
147
Orchard proposed. In west and north Germanic dialects, however, writan (ON rista) refers specifically to runes. In Old English, the sense of writan extended to any sort of writing.72 These text-based arguments are inconclusive. Even so, suppose we imagine, for a moment, that Hroogar, befuddled by runes, examines them closely to no purpose, pretends to comprehend them, and gives a speech about something else to an awestruck audience (swigedon ealle, 1699b: all fell silent). In Oz-like irony the reader and the poet look down on a demystified HroOgar, while the Danes and Geats look up to him, mystified. If we interpret Hro8gar's conduct in this way, an analogue is found in the Sumerian Enmerkar and the LOrd ofAratta, a riddle-contest in which a messenger transmits riddling challenges between the kings of Unug and Aratta Enmerkar confounded his opponent by inventing cuneiform and sending his message on a clay tablet. When the messenger delivered the tablet,73 The lord of Aratta took from the messenger The tablet (and held it) next to a brazier. The lord of Aratta inspected the tablet. The spoken words were mere wedges—his brow darkened. The lord of Aratta kept looking at the tablet (in the light of) the brazier. The "intrusion of literacy" creates an impasse in the riddle-contest, but the goddess Inana intervenes by inventing commerce to replace tribute-collection as a method for obtaining material resources from a foreign land. Can we imagine Hro6gar looking at the runstafas on the sword hilt in this way, confounded by the intrusion of literacy? Postmodern critics have regarded the sword-hilt episode as a "textual moment,"74 but it is a mistake to think that
73
D. H. Green 1998: 257.
73
Enmerkar and the Lord ofAratta 537-41, in Vanstiphout 2003: 87.
Other examples besides Schrader 1993 are Frantzen 1990: 184-90, rpt. 2006: 107-13; Overing 1990: 33-67, rpt. 2006: 547-86; Near 1993; Lerer 1991: 158-94, rpt. 2006: 587-628. 74
148
literacy is opposed to oral tradition. In oral narratives, exchanges of letters, misdirected letters, and other "textual moments" are commonplace typescenes. In the first cycle of Sasna O'er, Sanasar's bridewinning quest was instigated by a love-letter from Dettzoum Dzam (Forty Braids). Her dove-maidens mistakenly left the letter in the chamber of Sanasar's twin brother Baldasar. This led to a fight between the twins and Sanasar's departure for Katcher.' Every detail in the story, including the misdirected letter, is a migratory theme, with analogues in narratives in the Middle East and beyond." Sic et non: I have played out the arguments against Hroogar as the narrator of the Flood story. Five arguments in his favor merit equal attention. First, argument from madelode (again). There are two points to be made. First, madelian connotes a certain formality, introducing relatively longer speeches. At 1687a, madelode introduces Hroogar's "sermon" as a whole, which in this case begins with indirect discourse (the Flood story), and passes into direct discourse in which the king praises Beowulf s fortunate birth (1700-5a), anticipates the triumphs and perils of his future kingship (1705b-78a), and ends with a benediction (1778b-84). When madelode is paired with another verb, or followed by an adverb or independent clause, the syntax suggests simultaneity, someone speaking while seated on a horse, like the Coastguard ("Weard mapelode, Oxr on wicge swt," 286), or standing like Adam in Genesis A ("Adam madelode lowr he on eorOan stod," 522), or gazing at the white hall of the Egyptians like Abraham ("Abraham maoelode, geseah Egypta / hornsele hwite," 1820-21a). The two examples that most closely resemble Beowulf 1687 are in The Battle of Maldon, "Byrhtnoo maPelode, bord hafenode" (42 and 309: Byrhtnoo spoke, raised his shield). Greenfield may have had these parallels in mind when he translated lines 1687-89a:77
75
Sasunc'i Davit' 1.2.2-5; Shalian 1964: 65-79; Feydit 1964: 109-23.
76
Anderson 2005: 36-40.
7 Greenfield
1982: 94; for a similar approach, Frantzen 1990: 184-89, rpt. 2006: 107-13.
149
Hrothgar spoke, viewing the heirloom hilt, on which the origin of ancient strife was written. Second, argument from sceawode (1687b). Sceawian generally means "look closely, examine," often with the connotation "look with understanding." When the Geatish elders learned of Beowulf's intention to take the adventure of Grendel in Denmark, they "had sceawedon" (204b: consulted omens), literally "examined omens with understanding," "interpreted omens." When collocated with books, sceawian means "read," or "discern (something) by reading." An example in the OE Orosius:78 Eneas mid his firde for of Pwm Troianiscan gefeohte in Italiam. beet trizeg mon eac on bocum sceawigean, hu monegu gewin > hu monega gefeoht he 6wr dreogende was. (Orosius 1.11: Aeneas traveled with his army from the Trojan war to Italy. Anyone may also read that in books, how great a conflict and how great a war he had endured there.) rElfric almost always writes rcedan but occasionally uses sceawian, for example in Libellus de veteri testamento et novo. Concerning the biblical book of Joshua, he writes:79 Dis is awende eac on Englisc hwilon ./Ebelwerde ealdormen; on Pam man mmg sceawian Godes mocclan wundra mid wearcum gefremode. (I also translated this book into English for APelweard the alderman; in it, anyone may read of God's great wonders performed through [historical] works. William L'isle's translation [1623]: This booke also I turned into English for Prince Ethelwerd, wherein a man may behold the great wonders of God really fulfilled.)
78 79
Bately 1980: 32.9-12. Crawford 1922: 32.405-9.
150
In Beowulf 1687b, the object of sceawode is the hilt upon which "wxs or writen" (1688b: the origin was written). The context is literary, as are my examples from Orosius and IE1fric. Third, Hroogar's ability to read and interpret runes suits the "antiquarian coloring" of Beowulf. iEschere had been Hrobgar's runwita (1325a: rune-master), but HroOgar can read runes, too. Fourth, argument from structural parallelism. The Flood story, if related by Hroogar, participates in a network of structural parallels between Hroogar's sermon and his speech on stapole the morning after the Grendel-fight (925-56). In his earlier speech, Hroogar thanks God for delivery from the feud with Grendel (928-42a); he praises the mother who gave birth to Beowulf (942b-46a), adopts Beowulf as his son (946b-55a), and ends with a benediction (955b-56). In the second, Hroogar relates the giants' feud with God, which ended in the Flood (1687-93, in indirect discourse); he praises Beowulf's fortunate birth (1700-5a), offers paternal advice in anticipation of his future kingship (1705b-78a), and ends with a benediction (1778b-84). These speeches differ in content and length but are similar in structure. The paired themes are (1) the Grendel-feud and the giants' feud with God, (2) Beowulf's fortunate birth, (3) the adoption theme, and (4) benediction. Both speeches are given in the presence of a bodily sign of Beowulf's most recent victory: Grendel's arm hung from the roof of Heorot, and Grendel's severed head. Fifth, argument from the theme of the Ideal Knower. When praising Beowulf's birth (1700-9a), Hroogar refers to himself as the eald epelweard (1702a: old guardian of his homeland) who "feor eal gemon" (1701b: remembers all in the ancient past; Greenfield: "recalling all far past"), which now includes antediluvian knowledge. As an Ideal Knower who can read runes that disclose antediluvian history, Hroogar performs the same role as litnapishtim, who
151
discloses to Gilgamesh his first-hand knowledge of times before the Flood." Utnapishtim and Gilgamesh, like Hroogar and Beowulf, present the profile of an old Ideal Knower transmitting knowledge to a young hero. Mythopoeic cosmology Vertical and horizontal cosmologies intersect in Grendel's mere. As the Underworld, the mere signifies the vertical cosmology of heaven, earth, and hell. This Christian cosmology is also a round-the-world norm, integral to shamanism in many cultures.81 In Proto-Indo-European cosmology, heaven was the domain of birds, tree-branches, and antlered stags; earth was the domain of heroes and horses; the lower regions were the domain of tree-roots, waters, and serpents.82 Such is the tableau of Grendel's mere. The mere also signifies a horizontal cosmology. The world is envisioned as a mountain rising above primordial waters. This cosmology finds expression in the Babylonian Epic of Creation, where Apsu is simultaneously a personified supernatural force, an embodiment of the masculine principle in the cosmos, and the primordial fresh waters. Tiamat, too, is simultaneously the cosmic dragon, an embodiment of the feminine principle in the cosmos, and the salt waters of the sea. In that epic, the cosmological model is Babylon, built by the gods at Marduk's command. In the temple precinct called Apsu, they build a ziggurat and name the city Bab-ili, Gateway of the God.83 In Gilgamesh, the Flood-hero Utnapishtim directs the hero to a place at the edge of the earth, where he finds the youth-giving "plant of heart-beat" in waters so deep that he must tie heavy stones to his feet in order to reach bottom. The setting is a place where earth ends and the 8° Howe (1989: 155-56; rpt. 2006: 58-59) asserts that Hroogar's best gift to Beowulf was knowledge of Danish history, represented mainly in digressions. In my view, Hroogar's status as Ideal Knower is based upon his interpretation of runstafas from the "Underworld," which disclose antediluvian knowledge. 81 Eliade
1964: 259-87.
82
Gamlo-elidze and lvanov 1995, 1: 408-524, and Anderson 2003: 437-52.
83
Babylonian Epic of Creation 6, in Dailey 1989: 262-63.
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waters of Apsu begin.84 In anticipation of this adventure, Sin-laqi-unnirmi begins his epic prologue:85 [He who saw the Deep, the] foundation of the country, [who knew...,] was wise in everything! [Gilgameg, who] saw the Deep, the foundation of the country, [who] knew [...,] was wise in everything! For Sin-laqi-tuutinni, Gilgamesh's status as Ideal Knower is linked with his journey to the edge of the world, where he penetrated the depths of Apsu. Reflexes of this cosmology, and myths associated with it, are found in epic tradition, often as submerged themes or indirect allusions. One example, in Sasna
Cier, is the account of how David slew Msrah Melik during an "exchange of blows" combat, while Melik was hiding in a pit covered by forty buffalo hides and forty millstones. With a single blow of Lightning Sword, David "struck [Melik's] green tent like a thunderbolt shot out of Mount Ararat,"86 and His sword cut through forty millstones, Cut through forty buffalo hides, Cleaved the monster Msrah Melik from head to foot, Cut through the earth seven kaz deep And reached the black waters. If an angel had not set his wings against them, The black waters would have risen and drowned the earth. At one level of reading, this is epic hyperbole: David stuck so fiercely that he would have caused a second Flood of Noah, but for divine intervention. But there are deeper layers of meaning. David's sundering of Melik is a cosmic sacrifice, 84 Gilgamesh 11278-96, in George 2003, 1: 721-23. In his commentary, George interprets the waters as Apsu (p. 523).
as Gilgamesh 1.1-4, in George 2003, 1: 539. For Sin-leqi-unninni's role as scribe and possibly as author, see George, pp. 28-33. as Surmelian 1964: 201. This important allusion to the Flood story is omitted from Saszinc'i Davit' 3.5.17, and consequently from the translations of Shalian (1964: 283) and Feydit (1964: 317). The verses quoted above are from Shalian.
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like Marduk's sundering of Tiamat. Just as Marduk created the world from sundered parts of Tiamat, David renewed the hopes of Armenia by sundering Melik. Because of his superhuman strength, David at this moment represents a threat to the cosmos, just as Medz Mher did when his feet sank into the ground while he hunted wild animals in the mountains.87 These moments of cosmic peril anticipate Pokr Mher's earth-shaking footsteps, when his strength grew so great that he had to be confined to a cave in Raven's Rock to prevent the destruction of the earth. More significant still: David's sword cut a swath that reached the "black waters." Feydit speculates that "Eau Noire" alludes to the underground river of hell in Armenian folklore, perhaps even a source of petroleum!88 More likely the reference is to primordial waters, which the Babylonians called Apsu. Melik's green tent signifies earth, as well as Islam. This Oriental idea, horizontal cosmology, reached the Greeks early enough for Homer to represent Ocean as begetter of the gods (Iliad 14.201-6), just as Apsu and Tiamat, the Fresh and Salt Waters, begot the gods in the Babylonian Epic of Creation. In the Iliad, Okeanos is a river that circles round the rim of Achilles's shield (18.606), in contrast to Hesiod, who cites Okeanos as the progenitor of river-gods and other water-divinities (Theogony 336-70).89 According to early nineteenth-century scholars, the ancient Greeks thought earth was flat, a solid plane surmounted and bounded by heaven, which was a solid vault or hemisphere." Prime Minister William Gladstone was the first classicist to recognize that Homeric cosmology was essentially the same as that of the Alckadians, who compared earth to a boat in a vast ocean.91 87
Sasunc'i Davit' 2.1.4, Shalian 1964: 78, and Feydit 1964: 157.
88
Feydit 1964: 317, n. 1.
For diffusion of cultural concepts from the Middle East to Greece, see Walter Burkert, in The Orientalizing Revolution (1992) and Babylon, Memphis, Persepholis (2004). 89
9° Vblcker 1830: 50; Buchholz 1871. The notion that ancient and medieval people thought that the earth is flat was a bit of nineteenth-century academic folklore, critiqued by Eco 1998: 4-7. 91
Gladstone 1876: 221-36.
154
To be sure, the Greeks supplemented Mesopotamian cosmology with new ideas in their own "theory of the ocean," a network of four concepts that diffused from Greece to imperial Rome, and thence to medieval European cultures. First, basic to horizontal cosmology is the belief that the ocean surrounds orb is terrarum, the known world. This belief finds expression in the Old English Orosius:92 Ure ieldran ealne Aisne ymbhwyrft Pises middangeardes, cwxp Orosius, swa swa Oceanus utan ymbligep, Pone [mon] garswcg hate6, on Preo todx1don > hie Pa Prie daelas on Pre° tonemdon: Asiam > Europem > Affricam, peah be sume men swden past par nwre buton twege dwlas: Asia > Pw[t] ober Europe. (Orosius 1.1.11-13: Orosius said [that] our ancestors divided the whole disc of this world, which the Ocean surrounds from without, which one calls garsecg, [divided it] into three parts, and they [differentiated] the three parts by three names: Asia and Europe and Africa, although some men said that there are only two parts: Asia, and the second, Europe.) Garsecg means the ocean, see the navigable waters (Weldelsce, Reade See). Garsecg in Genesis 117b refers to the waters that encircle the earth. In Beowulf, garsecg and geofon mean "ocean" and allude to primordial waters, as happens when Scyld's funeral-ship sets sail "geofon on garsecg" (Beowulf 50a). This is a metaphor for death,93 but refers literally to primordial waters. Some classical and Christian cosmologies distinguish between two "oceans," the navigable seas and the primordial waters, the latter being thought of as a great "river of Ocean" that encompasses earth, but OE garsecg and geofon refer to both oceans indiscriminately." In most poetic epithets for the sea, the semantic focus is narrowed to navigable waters, sometimes by overlapping means: allusion to
92
Bately 1980: 8.
93
Newton 1993: 50, "crossing the boundary between worlds."
94 Wright 1993: 175-215, chap. 4, "Apocryphal Cosmology and Celtic Myth in 'The Devil's Account of the Next World'," at p. 187.
155
sailing routes, in -rad and -street compounds,95 allusion to currents in -stream compounds,96 allusion to birds or fish (ganotes bad 1861b, hronrad 10a),97 and metonymy (streamas 212b: currents, on ydum, 210b: on the waves), wceg. wcegholm (217a),famig- (foamy [surf], 218a).98 As a second principle in the "theory of the ocean," navigation into primordial waters is a transgression for which the penalty is shipwreck and drowning at sea. For Greek poets, the first navigation, a species of original sin, marked the end of the Golden Age of human harmony with gods and nature, for the gods had created land and sea as separate domains. Shipwrecks sometimes were attributed to this maritime transgression. Germanicus blamed himself for the disastrous wreckage of his military triremes in the stormy seas north of Germany." Third, even though the "Pillars of Hercules" by tradition symbolized the gateway to primordial waters, the "high sea" or "open ocean" was not marked so clearly. Rather, the navigable high seas gave way at indefinable points to primordial waters. Thus Germanicus, on the open ocean, was trapped with his sailors between hostile coasts and an expanse of water "so vast and deep that it is thought to be the remotest shoreless sea."16° Fourth, sea-monsters and other monstrous prodigies indicate that a ship has transgressed into primordial waters. It is a mistake to imagine the seamonsters in Beowulf as Celtic or Scandinavian influences;161 they are part of the 95 Lagustrcet 239a, merestrcet 514a, hronrad, 10a; in other texts, brimrad, seglrad, swanrad, bcedweg, flodweg, flotweg, hohnweg. 96 Brimstreamas 1919a, eagorsmeam 513a, egstream 577a, lagustream 297a, 1910a. In other texts: merestream, scestreant. 97
In other texts: fisces bred, swanrad, hwcelweg.
vs
Svec (1989) attempts to relate terms for the sea to their immediate contexts in Beowulf. This is often difficult, but I think the poet's maritime terminology relates in a general way to the ancient and medieval "theory of the ocean." " Tacitus, Annales 2.23-24. lea
Tacitus, Annales 2.24.
101 As
does Puhvel 1979: 61-72, chap. 7, "Beowulf's Fights with Water-Monsters."
156
"theory of the ocean" in a horizontal cosmology that diffused from Mediterranean lands. Even so, Adomnan's Vita Colunthae offers a probative analogue. Adomnan describes Cormac's third sea voyage, north for fourteen days and nights until he sailed "beyond the range of human exploration, and one from which there could be no return." There the ship was attacked by hoards of small, stinging seacreatures who began to penetrate the boat's skin-covering. Only divine intervention saved them. Cormac prayed to God in tears and terror. Columba, too, at home in Iona, saw Cormac's danger by means of spiritual insight, and summoned the monks of Iona to intercede with prayer. In response, God sent a north wind that drove the ship back to land. As Scully shows in his magnificent exegesis, the third voyage of Cormac incorporates elements of the Greco-Roman and medieval theory of the ocean.'w UnferO, and Beowulf's maritime transgression (Beowulf499-606) This theory finds expression in Beowulf, most obviously in Unfero's and Beowulf's rival stories about the hero's maritime adventure with Breca (506-81a). When UnferO accuses the two of setting out for wlence and for dolgilpe, risking their lives "on deop wwter" (508-10a: for spirited courage, for foolish boasting), he means that their offense was the ultimate maritime transgression, swimming or sailing "on deop waster," to a place where the sea gives way to primordial waters. Unfero continues: bwr git eagorstream earmum pehton, mnton merestneta, mundum brugdon, glidon over garsecg; geofon Aram weol, wintrys wylmum. (Beowulf 513-16a: there you two thatched the sea-currents with your arms, took the measure of sea-routes, propelled [there] with your hands, glided over the garsecg. The ocean welled with waves, with winter's surges.) 102
Scully 2007; earlier: Puhvel 1979: 68-70.
157
The progression from eagorstream and merestrcet to garsecg and geofon signifies Breca's and Beowulf's transition from navigable waters to the open sea that gives way to primordial waters.1°3 It matters not whether they swam or rowed a boat. Either way, their transgression was the same. Early critics assumed that Breca and Beowulf went swimming at sea,104 until Robinson proposed an alternative: Unfer5 says that the boys were swimming, but Beowulf, in response, implies that they had a raft or a boat. Endorsing this view, Roberta Frank suggests that Unfero used the word sund ("swimming, sea") ambiguously, in a deliberate attempt to mislead.1°5 Greenfield defended the earlier view.106 On the basis of Scandinavian parallels, Wentersdorf, Earl, and others argued that Breca's and Beowulf's maritime adventure was a rowing contest:" Scandinavian analogues provide evidence for swimming matches, too. Martin Puhvel defended the notion of a swimming adventure on the basis of an Irish analogue;108 Jorgensen and Orchard cited Old Norse analogues.109 Whether one's frame of reference is Huckleberry Finn or an Eton College wet-bob, in my opinion the introduction of a raft or a boat into the Breca episode is a nuisance. It requires us to imagine a scene in which a sea-monster drags Beowulf out of his raft or boat, or breaks it apart like a man-eating crocodile in Lake Placid. Even so, ambiguous sund authorizes these modern fantasies.
103 Siewers ([2003] 2006: 226-29), in contrast, interprets the sea in Christian terms as an image of mortality and baptism, and the seascape as an "embodiment" of exile. He contrasts Old English and Irish monster-stories, asserting that the Irish ones are not "so charged with evil associations [or] moral concerns related to the fate of human society" (pp. 230-31). 1 don't know what he means by that. Beowulf and Vita Columbae share a mythopoeic view of the ocean.
1°'
Bonjour 1950: 17-22.
1°5 Robinson
1974; Frank 1986.
106
Greenfield 1982b.
107
Wentersdorf 1975, Earl 1979, Nelles 1999, Full: 2005.
1°8 Puhvel 109
1971 and 1979: 55-60.
Jorgensen 1978; Orchard 2003: 123-29.
158
Beowulf s version of the story confirms the truth of Unfero's accusation. The adventure was a sorhfullne sid (512a),II° He and Breca had risked their lives: "wit on garsecg ut / aldnun ne8don" (536b-37a: we two risked our lives out on the ocean). His only defense: they were cnihtwesende (535b: boys [such as boys will] be). Even so, he and Breca experienced separate outcomes. For five nights, hronfixas (540b: whales) attacked them, and meref►xa (549a). Then a northern wind separated them. Breca was driven to Heaporcemes land in southern Norway (518b-23a): Beowulf does not dispute this part of Unfer6's version. In contrast to Breca, Beowulf found himself in primordial waters, where he was dragged to grunde (553b: to the bottom) by a mihtig meredeor (558a: a mighty sea-beast). Niceras (575a) attacked him, too, but he slew nine of them, and at dawn made his way to the Finna land (580b).111 He attributes his survival to wyrd (573b-74) and "beorht beacen Godes" (570a: God's bright beacon). Beowulf's story is marked by a zoological shift from hronfixas (540b) and merefixa (549a), two species of fish, to meredeor (558a) and niceras (578a), seamonsters. This shift marks his transition from the navigable sea to primordial waters. To be sure, this was not Beowulf's last foray into forbidden waters. In his salutation to HroOgar, he notes that once he "on yOum slog / niceras nihtes" (421b-22a: slew sea-monsters by night in the waves). His maritime transgressions, like Cormac's, signify heroic spirit, not wrongdoing.' His survival, like Cormac's, signifies divine favor. By anaphoric collocation, for wlence and for dolgilpe (508a, 509a), Unfero characterizes Beowulf's wlenco, heroic spirit, in malo as foolishness, not without reason as I have shown, but Beowulf interprets his maritime adventure in 11°The Unfero-Beowulf exchange is a flyting, but it does not follow that everything Unfero says is wrong, or refuted, as argued by Eliason (1963) who asserts that there is nothing to Unfero's story because he was a "scurrilous jester." Rosier (1962) and Robinson (1974: 127), too, assert that Unfero's character invalidates anything that he has to say about the hero's adventure with Breca; so too, more recently, Puhvel 2005: 14-22. III Osborne (1989) argues that the Jima land was either Finheden in Sweden or Finmerken in Norway, not so far to go as Finland, but in the Finnas, dative plural Finnan), refer to Lapps and Finns in OE Orosius (Bately 1980: 14-15), and in Widsid 76a.
159
bono as evidence of his ability to fight Grendel. An aerial counterpart, in the Egyptian-Greek Alexander Romance, was Alexander the Great's flight into the sky, carried in a basket yoked to two birds. Admonished by Providence in the form of a flying human-like creature, he returned to earth, but not before he had a chance to look down on the cosmos. It looked like "a great snake curled up, and in the middle of the snake a tiny circle like a threshing-floor." His providential companion told him, "Point your spear at the threshing-floor, for that is the world. The snake is the sea that surrounds the world."112 In the earliest surviving exemplar of this story of bird-flight to heaven, the Akkadian Etana (based on a lost Sumerian source), an eagle carries King Etana to heaven out of friendship-loyalty."3 The nineteenth-century Urdu Hamza-cycle preserves another version of this aerial adventure in bona: the Simurgh transported Amir Harnza to the heavens, and when he looked down "he saw that the earth was the size of a small jewel. For as far as he could see there was only water to behold," the Seven Magical Seas."4 Firdausi tells the story in main in Shahniima: the foolish shah Kay Kavus, easily deceived by the demon Eblis, flew to heaven on a throne carried by four eagles, hoping to learn the secrets of the cosmos. When the eagles grew tired and hungry, they dropped him in a remote mountain region. Rostam had to rescue him from a thicket.I 15 In medieval western versions of the Alexander Romance, Alexander's flight in malo is a cautionary exemplum of pride, but in Romanesque sculptures the scene of Alexander in flight, positioned between two eagles, sometimes is paired with Daniel standing between two lions in a Den. In the tenth-century Alexander Flag, a wall-hanging made in south Germany, now in MainfranIcisches Museum, Wtirzburg, I16 the front IS
Alexander Romance 2.41, in Stoneman 1991: 123. For earth as a threshing-floor: Michael 1974: 13-14 and Wright 1993: 182. 113
Etana, tablet 3, in Dailey 1989: 196-200.
'14
Adventures ofAmir Hamza, book 3, Lakhnavi and Bilgrami 2007: 617.
115
Firdausi, Shedmaima, 2006: 184-85.
116
Schuette and Milner-Christensen 1964: 299 and figures.
160
profile of Alexander between two eagles, as a trompe d'oeuil, forms the heraldic emblem of an imperial three-headed eagle, signifying majesty. Victor M. Schmidt has argued that Alexander in flight, in Romanesque and earlier art, is a scene of wonder or adventure in bono, not a warning against pride)17 Coatsworth agrees, comparing this scene with Anglo-Danish images of Weland in flight, which sometimes appear on Christian crosses)" If Alexander in flight can be viewed both in malo and in bono, so can Beowulf's venture into forbidden waters. That is the point of the two stories of Breca. Horizontal cosmology as a submerged theme As an intersection of vertical and horizontal cosmologies, Grendel's mere has analogues in Odysseus's voyage to Hades, and in the Old Norse myth of Urb's well and Miogarosomr, the cosmic serpent. Uro's well is located by a sacred spring at the roots of a cosmic tree, whose branches tower to heaven and stretch over the earth—a vertical cosmology.119 Miogathsomr, "the serpent of middle-earth," lives in primordial waters where its body loops around the earth.12° ON midgard and OE middangeard, kennings for earth, the "middle yard," originally presupposed a horizontal cosmology, earth as an island surrounded by primordial waters; so too ON landgardr (land-enclosure), a kenning for the Sea.121 In an innovative simile in Meters of Boethius 20, the cosmos is likened to an egg, whose foundation is the shell. Earth is the "gioleca on middan" (170a: the yolk in the middle), surrounded by the sky and stars above, and "streamas ymbutan, /
117
Schmidt 1995: 9-39, 207-8, and plate.
118
Coatsworth 2007: 195-96, citing Lang 1976.
119
Simek 1993: 342-43.
120
Simek 1993: 214-15.
121 Cleasby and Vigfusson 1957: 371, s.v. landgarJr, cite an occurrence in Fornmanna sagur 7. The kenning also occurs in Morkinskinna 58, stanza 216, trans. Andersson and Gade
2000: 309.
161
laguflode gelac" (171b-72a: surrounding waters, the sea in play).122 Alfred, in Boethius, interpolated another horizontal metaphor for earth: "rondbeag on scelde," the round boss in a shield.123 In this metaphor, the rond is earth, and the bord is the primordial sea. This cosmology is implied whenever rond is used as a metonymy for "shield." Vv-ealhkeow imagined a horizontal cosmos when she praised Beowulf by foretelling his universal praise among men: Hafast ku gefered 'met be feor ond neah ealne wideferhk weras ehtigab, efne swa side swa s bebugeb, windgeard, weallas. (Beowulf 1221-24a: you have accomplished [so much] that far and near, all through long ages, men [will] praise you, even as far as the sea, the wind-yard, surrounds the cliffs.) Ealne wideferhji projects Beowulf's praise into the future. The binomial "feor ond neah," a merismus, means "everywhere." The kenning windgeard refers to primordial waters. Wealhkeow envisions the world girdled by sea-cliffs, weallas, which the sea encompasses, bebuged. Coming back from the mere earlier, the Danes praised Beowulf s universal fame: Dr was Beowulfes mmroo maned; monig oft gecwxo kzette sub ne norb be smm tweonum 122 Meters of Boethius 20.166-75, ASPR 5: 177-85, at p. 182. The editor, G. P. Krapp (1932) notes that this was one of few places where the poet added substantive content to his Latin source. Cf. Stanley 1956: 416-17, rpt. 1987: 236-37. The yolk-simile is reminiscent of FennoUgrian "cosmic egg" creation songs, which represent the world bursting forth from an egg awash in primordial waters (Puhvel 1971b), and the "cosmic egg" creation myth in Kalevala (Magoun 1969: 3-7; cf. Ervast 1999: 36-44). The resemblance is coincidental, for, as Puhvel observes, "cosmic egg" theories of creation evolved independently in several places around the world. 123
Alfred 1899: 41.25-26.
162
ofer eormengrund oiler naanig under swegles begong selra nacre rondhxbbendra, rices wyrora. (Beowulf 856b-61: there Beowulf's glory was mentioned; many [Danes] often said that [neither] south nor north between two seas over the wide ground, under the bright course of heaven, no one was better among shield-bearers, worthier of kingship.) Howe, analyzing this passage as "geographical hyperbole," asserted that fame resonates in space but not in time in Beowulf's world.'24 I don't know what he meant by that, since Wealhbeow projected Beowulf s fame into future time, but the Danes allude to vertical cosmology in "ofer eormengrund" and "under swegles begong," parallel phrases. They refer to horizontal cosmology in the tmesis "be stem tweonum" (between the seas). "What are these seas?" Howe wondered: "if they are taken as the North [Sea] and the Baltic, 'be swm tweonum' means 'east and west' and completes `suo ne noro'."'25 But here and in other places where the idiom is used,'26 "be sxm tweonum" does not mean "in Denmark"; it means "everywhere." Beowulf does not represent earth as an insignificant, tiny spot or pin-prick compared to the primordial ocean. This theme is found in apocryphal and Irish texts, including Visio Pauli. It is explicit in "The Devil's Account of the Next World," and in a Vercelli homily:127 eall bes middaneard mare be mare dryges landes ofer bone micclan garsecg be man wnne prican aprycce on anum brede, > nis ises middaneard swilce se seofooa dx1 ofer bone micclan garsecg, se mid micclum ormaetnyssum ealle bees eoroan utan ymbligea. > lytel dwl is under heofonum dryges landes bast hit ne sy mid garsecge oferurnen.
124
Howe 1989: 151, rpt. 2006: 55-56.
125
Howe 1989: 151; rpt. 2006: 56.
126
Beowulf 858b, 1297b, 1685b, I956b.
127
Scram 1992: 174, quoted and translated in Wright 1993: 179 (Wright's translation).
163
(All this earth would be no more of dry land beside the great Ocean than a point pricked on a tablet, and this earth is not but as the seventh part over the great Ocean which with great immensity encircles all this earth on the outside. And there is little portion of dry land under heaven that is not covered over with the Ocean.) This theme, found in Troilus's postmortem vision of "This litel spot of erthe that with the se / Embraced is,"128 naturally leads to contemptus mundi, the rejection of earthly fame and glory. In Beowulf we find the opposite: the expansiveness of earth is emphasized, and Beowulf s fame is praised in ban°. My final allusion to horizontal cosmology: the poet's account of the Geats shoving the dragon's body off a cliff into the sea: Dracan ec scufun wyrm ofer weallcliff, leton weg niman flod fwomian frmtwa hyrde. (Beowulf 3131b-33: [they] also shoved the dragon, the worm, over the cliff, let the wave [seize] it, the flood embrace the guardian of treasures.) Dragon-disposal is contrasted with the ceremonious treatment of Beowulf s body, which the Geats transport to Hronesnms on a wain, along with the dragon's treasure. The metaphorflodftedmian has often been noted. Sea-waves, like arms, reach out to embrace the dragon as it splashes into the water. A momentary image signifies permanent possession. Just so in covert allusion, arms of fire consume the hall in liges fceam (781b: fire's embrace) in one of the poet's premonitions of Heorot's conflagration. In similar images, Wealhj)eow's torque fell into the Franks' embrace (Francna fceom, 1210a) after Hygelac's death in Frisia, and during the dragon-fight, flames from the dragon's mouth advanced in waves to consume Beowulf s shield ("lig youm for," 2672b: fire came in waves).129 Water and fire share atomic features.
subject.
128
Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde 5.1814-15.
129
Dobbie's interpretation of ligydum as a compound leaves the verb for without a
164 Quite apart from these artistic touches, the dragon's fall into the sea resonates with Liber monstrorum in a shared cosmology. There, in the prologue to part 1, the Anglo-Latin author describes the diminishing number of monsters in a world where human populations have edged them out—an environmental theory about monsters as endangered species:I3° In most of the corners of the world they [monsters] have been utterly eradicated and overthrown by them [people], and now, cast out from the shores, they are thrown down to the waves, and that by the churning from the steep summit of the pole they turn from the edge of the entire circle and from every place on earth towards this vast abyss of the flood. Liber monstrorum was not a direct source for Beowulf, but the two works share a cosmology: the world is a circular mountain girdled by cliffs, and below them, the "vast abyss of the flood," the primordial sea into which the species of monsters have gradually fallen. The demise of eotenas, sea-monsters, Grendel, his mother, and the fire-dragon illustrates this process. Their presence in the poem is an antiquarian coloring. Like Liber monstrorum, the poem depicts an ancient world in which most of the monsters had not yet fallen into the primordial sea. Cosmology and heroic action are inextricably linked.
110
Liber Monstrorum 1, Prologue, in Orchard 1995: 257; cf. Bologna 1977: 36-39.
165
Chapter 5 iEschere's Death and the Problem of Hroogar iEschere was the thane in Hroogar's court who was seized by Grendel's dam on Beowulf s second night in Denmark, when she raided Heorot to avenge Grendel's death. After the uproar in Heorot, Hroogar summoned Beowulf, who arrived with his retainers at dawn, asked if the night had passed peacefully, and was told that lEschere was dead. Hroogar lamented kschere (1322-44), told how country people often saw Grendel and his dam wandering the moors (1345-57a), described Grendel's mere (1347b-76a), and asked Beowulf to prosecute the feud against Grendel's dam in consideration of a reward (1376b-82). Beowulf agreed, for, as he said, it is better to avenge a friend than to mourn overlong (1384-96). Hroogar leaped for joy, thanked God, and on horseback led a troop of Geats and Danes to Grendel's mere (1397-1417a). On the bank they found kschere's head, a sight that brought sorrow to the Danes (1417b-21). Hroogar's lament for kschere often is characterized as a symptom of weakness and dependence, in contrast with Beowulf, a model of heroism, who admonished the king to cease mourning and seek revenge. But Beowulf's remarks can be read as a rebuke only if we overlook the fact that the hero is telling Hrobgar to do what he is already doing. Hroogar is not a rex inutilis. His discourse, and Beowulf s, co-construct a consolatio mortis, a cross-cultural epic theme and a Greco-Roman literary convention. In this chapter. I aim to situate their discourse in two complementary contexts, as part of the narrative of Grendel's dam, and as consolatio mortis, a constituent genre in epic. "iEschere's death" and "monsters" are interlaced themes. Figure 3 represents their overlap with narrative segments. Interlace, a structural attribute of Beowulf,' is relevant to Hro6gar's lament (1321-44) with its mini-digression on Leyerle 1967; Irving 1989: 80-94.
166
Grendel (1337b-43a), a mise-en-abime that mirrors the technique of interlace in the epic as a whole. The forty-line distance between HroOgar's lament and Beowulf's reply does not support the notion that elegiac and heroic attitudes are juxtaposed starkly. Figure 3 Distribution of passages focused on Aschere, the monsters, and narrative segments in Beowulf 1251-1421 Narrative segments Nightfall in Heorot: 1251-78
I Aschere
Combined
1251-52
Monsters 1253-78 1279-87
Grendel's dam attacks: 1279-99a 1288-95
(Eschere seized, 1288-91) 1296-99a Beowulf summoned: 1299b-1320
1302-09
Hroogar's speech: 1321-82
1321-29
(Lament for /Eschere, 1321-44) Beowulf's reply: 1383-96
1333b-43a
1343b-44
1345-82
1383-89
1390-96
HroOgar leads way to the mere, 1397-1421 (iEschere's head, 1417b-21)
1330-33a
1397-1417a 1417b-21
The poet and Hroogar allude often to events of the preceding night, giving the impression that the fight with Grendel's dam is an extension of the Grendelfight.2 Perhaps the poet, having failed to mention Grendel's mother until line 1258b, compensates for this omission by implying that she was there all along as an extension of Grendel. Jane Chance argues the contrary, that the sudden appearance of Grendel's mother introduces feminist themes that dominate the epic
2
Irving 1968: 112.
167
at midpoint.3 An alternative view is that Grendel's dam,"coming out of nowhere in the poem," illustrates the nature of wyrd.4 Robert Creed once theorized that Beowulf was composed as a series of three separate lays (Grendel, his dam, the dragon), in three sittings, by a scop whose task was to make a poem that related all he knew about the hero.5 If so, the belated appearance of Grendel's dam was a consequence of oral composition, and multiple allusions to the Grendel-fight were the poet's effort to patch up a transition. Creed's theory runs into trouble when we compare part I of Beowulf to the two-troll tradition in Scandinavian sagas: a hero kills two giants or monsters in a cave, usually male and female, as happens in Grettis saga and in fifteen other sagas studied by Jorgensen and Stitt.6 By virtue of the two-troll tradition, Grendel's dam lurked in the poet's mind from the beginning, even if she did not make her appearance in the poem until later. "Choosing the avenger" typescene Cruel and sudden, the attack by Grendel's dam illustrates a characteristic of feuds. Sometimes they come back unexpectedly, just when one or both parties thought they were settled. So Hroogar describes Grendel's dam's attack, "Heo pa
fa hie WIMC" (1333b: she avenged the feud) because Beowulf had slain Grendel. He repeats the thought: "mihtig manscaoa wolde hyre meg wrecan" (1339: the mighty, felonious scather wished to avenge her kinsman), fcelide gestceled (1340b: [she] avenged the feud). Hroogar's discourse is simultaneously a lament and a "provocation toward vengeance," intended to spur Beowulf to action.7 One of Beowulf's motives in the Grendel-fight was to repay EcgInow's debt to Hroogar
3
Chance 1980.
4
Payne 1974: 24.
5
Creed 1966.
6
Jorgensen 1975, 1979, and 1986; Stitt 1992; Andersson 1997: 134.
7
Rothauser 2007: 115.
168 (459-72).8 With Grendel's death, Beowulf and Hroogar were even. That is one reason why Hroogar offered Beowulf a reward to pursue the feud against Grendel's mother. HroOgar is the grievant in a feud. His duty is to appoint an avenger. Normally the duty of revenge would fall on an able-bodied kinsman. In this case the choice must be Yrmenlaf, for lEschere was "Yrmenlafes yldra brobor" (1324). Critics have marginalized Yrmenlaf as a gratuitous distraction,9 at best symbolic of kinship ties,10 unrelated to narrative development. On the contrary, he plays a role in the process of "choosing an avenger" in a feud. On analogy to Icelandic family sagas, the problem is complicated. Kinship was one consideration. Likelihood of success was another." In /Eschere's case, the man most likely to succeed was Beowulf. Hroogar: "Nu is se nod gelang / eft mt pe anum" (1376b77a: Now is counsel dependent again on you alone). Rced is a metaphor for combat. Yrmenlaf had a legal obligation to avenge iEschere, but Beowulf was an 12 honorable choice, too, due to his adoptive kinship to Hroogar. A four-part parallelism links gift-giving and combat in Beowulf's fights with Grendel and his dam: (1) promise of gifts prior to combat (660b-1; 1380-82); (2) Beowulf's successful combat; (3) another promise of gifts (946b-50; 1706b-7a and 1783b-4); (4) a gift-giving scene (1020-49; 1866-67).13 These parallels, 8 This view of the "Ecgbeow digression," first articulated by Johannes Hoops in Beowulfstudien (1932: 98) and Konunentar van Beowulf (1932: 72), was seconded by Bonjour (1950: 15-17) and accepted by most critics; for examples Greenfield 1974: 108-9, and Niles 1983: 217. In contrast, Delasanta and Slevin (1968: 413), assume that Beowulf's decision to combat Grendel was gratuitous, as an allegory of Christ's redemptive grace. 9 Shippey (1978: 24) calls Yrmenlaf "the poem's most redundant character." Again, Shippey 1987: 46-47. 10
Biggs 2003: 639.
11
William Miller 1983: 191.
12 1 do not agree with critics who say that Beowulf, by avenging lEschere, took on a role that should have been Hroagar's (e.g. Payne 1974: 24). Coincidentally, Hroogar's appeal to Beowulf alone has a Sumerian antecedant in the appeal of gar-ur, Ninurta's personified war-mace, to Ninurta alone for aid against the monster Asag: The gods call upon you, gar-ur says, "saying, Nunurta, that not a single warrior counts except for you" (Black et al. 2004: 165).
13
Greenfield 1974: 109.
169
Greenfield thought, signify that Beowulf was motivated by desire for treasure in both fights, but Beowulf never articulates this desire in part I of the epic. I doubt that he gave such things much thought. With access to a ship, war-gear, a comitatus, he had all he needed to follow his call to adventure. Just because Hroogar offered gifts and Beowulf accepted them (as custom required) does not mean that his motivation was treasure. Narrative parallels need not imply that Beowulf s motive was the same in both fights. I disagree with the view that Beowulf labored under a continuing obligation to pursue the Grendel-feud, or that kschere's death made it "necessary for Beowulf to seek her out and, as Hroogar says, feo leaniga (1380b), "earn payment."I4 An alternative reading is that Hroogar offered Beowulf a reward to take up a feud that properly belonged to iEschere's kin. Later, in his report to Hygelac. Beowulf confirms this interpretation, in part: "he me mede gehet" (2134a: he [Hro6gar] promised me a reward). The "choosing the avenger" typescene concludes with the discovery of iEschere's head on the trail above Grendel's mere (1417b-21). This is not grim humor, /5 but a displaced "charging ceremony," in which kschere's head is the requisite blood-token. In Scandinavian sagas, the blood-token normally is an object that pertains to the victim, such as bloody clothes or weapons, or body parts such as a head or hand. Alternatively, a grievant might demand vengeance in the presence of the victim's corpse. Hnxf s sword was a blood-token in the Finn episode, when Hunlafing placed it in Hengest's lap during a court scene in Finnsburh (1142-45). There, in a charging ceremony, Hneef was the victim. Hunlafing, the grievant, selected Hengest as limes avenger against Finn. /6
14
John Hill 1995: 118.
15
As argued by Thomas Gardner 1973: 118.
16
William Miller 1983: 195-99, citing Anderson 1980 for the identification of the sword
as Hnmf's.
170
In the Ingeld episode, Beowulf imagines a court scene in which an old Heabobeardic warrior (eald tescwiga, 2042a), the grievant, egging on a young colleague, points out his father's sword (mece, 2047b) and other war-gear, now worn by his father's slayer, Freawaru's Danish attendant. The old man's discourse is a charging ceremony; the blood-token is Wioergild's mece. Wioergild's son is obliged to avenge his father by slaying the Danish courtier. Another blood-token is Wiglaf s sword, traditionally called Eanmundes laf (261 ib: Eanmund's heirloom). Wiglaf inherited it from his father Weohstan, along with Eanmund's other war-gear. During the Swedish dynastic wars, Weohstan slew Ohtere's son Eanmund, and gave his weapons to Eanmund's uncle, Onela (2612b-16a). Later, in a court scene, Onela gave Eanmund's sword and war-gear to Weohstan, and "no ymbe Oa fwhoe sprwc, / Deah Se he his broOor beam abredwade" (2618b-19: he didn't speak of the feud at all, even though [Weohstan] had killed his brother's son). Ordinarily, Onela's regifting would have been an insult, in effect a refusal of Weohstan's gift, but in this case it signifies that Onela declined to seek vengeance for Eanmund's death, which served his own political interest. As Miller interprets the scene, Onela transformed the charging ceremony into a ritual of pardon." Weohstan was allowed to go in peace. In due course he bequeathed Eanmund's sword to Wiglaf, who used it in the dragon-fight (2697-2702a). "Choosing the avenger": the poet uses the typescene flexibly, adapting it to artistic needs. Miller discusses the Finn episode and the digression on Wiglaf s sword. To these I add the episodes of Ingeld and ./Eschere. Hroogar, bypassing Yrmenlaf, appeals to Beowulf to avenge /Eschere's death in consideration of a reward (1376b-82). Beowulf responds positively, ending his consolatio with a call to action (1384-96. Hroogar, sharing responsibility for vengeance, leads a party of Danes and Geats to Grendel's mere (1399-1417a). On the trail, they find
17
William Miller 1983: 199-203.
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kschere's head (1417b-21), the blood-token that justifies revenge." Only then does Beowulf arm himself (144 lb-72) and state his intention to fight Grendel's mother (1473-91). In this speech, Beowulf alludes to his new role as Hroogar's adopted son. Should he be slain during this combat, he says to Hroogar, he trusts "13xt ou me a wnre / forogewitenum on fader stmle" (1478b-79: that you would always be to me, departed, in the place of a [substitute] father). He envisions Hroogar as a prospective ring-giver and guardian to his men. "On fader stale" calls attention to his adoption and its first legal consequence. Hrobgar can, with honor, appoint Beowulf as iEschere's avenger because of their adoptive kinship, and Beowulf can count on HroOgar's paternal care should he be killed in the effort. Retrospective allusions to the Grendel-fight
Other allusions to the Grendel-fight are more explicit. Grendel's mother was a descendant of Cain (1261b-63a), like Grendel (106-8), evidently through maternal lineage since his father was unknown (1355b-57a). This maternal lineage recalls the "daughters of Cain" in early Judeo-Christian biblical exegesis, an interpretation of "daughters of men" (Gen. 6: 2) whose evil progeny by "sons of God" motivated the destruction of the world in a Flood.° Grendel's unlawful haunting of Heorot is recalled (1253-55a), and Beowulf's combat with him (1266b-76a). The terror and strength of Grendel's dam is less than that of Grendel, as the narrator says in the amazon-warrior simile (1282b-87), and as Hro8gar says in his report about Sasquatch-like sightings of the monsters by country people who live near the moors (1345-53). When the Beowulf poet repeats a theme, he never fails to add new information or insight about it. Even so, we get the impression that we must revert to events of the previous day, and 18 In contrast, Fajardo-Acosta (1995: 13-14) proposes that iEschere's head was staged, put on display by Grendel's mother as a symbol of "the continuation and vitality of evil," and served as bait to lure Beowulf to the mere (1989: 76). 19
Mellinkoff, 1979: 146-49.
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immerse ourselves in the recollection of them, before the action is allowed to advance. "Corn ka to Heorote" (1279a), the verse that announces the arrival of Grendel's mother, recalls the rhetoric of anaphora in Grendel's approach to Heorot the night before: "Corn on wanre niht" (702b), "Da corn of more" (710a), "Corn ka to recede" (720a). There, main verbs begin sentences that achieve cinematographic refocusing in a complex blend of terror, suspense, shifting perspectives, and irony in the defeat of Grendel's expectations.2° Repetition of corn links the two scenes. The poet uses anaphoric corn again in his account of Beowulf s and the Geats' triumphant return to Heorot (1623a, 1644a).21 Proleptic deixis Another element of complexity in the episode is the poet's use of proleptic deixis to identify IEschere. By "prolepsis" I mean the use of pronouns or descriptors to specify a referent that has not yet been named in the text. Grendel is named proleptically, first as ellengmst (86a: the savage fighting spirit) who dwelt in darkness, and sixteen lines later, "Wms se grimma gzest Grendel haten" (102: the grim spirit was called Grendel). The poet first alludes to IEschere by the indefinite pronoun sum, "Sum sare angeald / mfenrmste" (1251b-52a: One paid dearly for [his] evening rest). Later he is described as "Hrokgare hwleka leofest" (1296: the warrior most beloved by Hroogar), but is not named until Hroogar's announcement: "Dead is iEschere" (1323b). The poet also uses prolepsis in naming Beowulf, alluding to him first as "Higelaces kegn" (194b), "se goda Geata leoda / cempan" (205-6a: the good warrior of the Geats' tribe), "se yldesta... 20 In critical analyses of Grendel's approach to Heorot, Bonjour (1940), Moorman (1954), and Ringbom (1968: 28-29) emphasize the poet's manipulation of anticipation and suspense; Lumiansky (1952) emphasizes suspense achieved vicariously through internal "audiences" of Geats and Danes; Brodeur (1959: 88-106) emphasizes terror; Renoir (1962) emphasizes terror, suspense, and shifting perspectives; Greenfield (1967) and O'Keeffe (1981) emphasize the artful use of syntax; Ringler (1966) and Kober! (2002: 162) emphasize irony. Irving (1968) synthesizes many of these approaches. 2t
Noted by Rosier (1963: 12).
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werodes wisa" (258a, 259a: the eldest, wise [leader] of the retinue), son of Ecg]]eow (262-63), until the hero at last tells Wulfgar, "Beowulf is min nama" (343b). The progression signals kinship, retainership, tribal identity, and leadership of a comitatus. His name is only one attribute of his linguistic "identity."22 Proleptic deixis overarches the episode of Beowulf s arrival in Denmark. It also overarches the episode of Grendel's dam. The poet achieves maximal prolepsis in the naming of Hondscioh. He is an anonymous slczpendne rinc (741a: sleeping warrior) whom Grendel devoured in huge morsels (739-45a), and for whom Hroagar paid a wergild (1053b-57a). For 1,335 lines he remains anonymous, until Beowulf names him in his report to Hygelac, "Deer w es Hondscid hild onsmge" (2076: there, battle was fatal to Hondscioh), in an obituary given in the Geatish court, among friends who knew him. It has been argued that this delay signifies that Hondscioh was a person of no importance to the Geats,23 but his obituary is diplomatic. When Beowulf reports Hondscioh killed in action, he does not think it necessary to mention that Grendel had caught him sleeping. Hondscioh and yEschere are paired symbolically as special cases of a lost "hand," one (2076a) by means of a pun that appears in proximity to Beowulf s allusion to Grendel's glof (2085b), the other by means of metonymy when Hroogar alludes to )Eschere as a hand that lies low ("nu seo hand ligeo," 1343b). The poet used this metonymy earlier, describing the uproar in Heorot when Grendel's dam made off with iEschere, a cube folme (1303a).24 Everyone knows the parallel in Chanson de Roland, where the hero is described as "le destre braz del cors" (Roland 597 and 1195: the right arm of [Charlemagne's] body). 22 Clark (1992: 456-62), in a survey of west Germanic onomastics, emphasizes the close association of personal names with kinship, which is true, but tribal identity, status, and standing are also important. 23
Biggs 2003: 635.
24 James Anderson 1983, and Bammesberger 2005. Cupe folme is ambiguous, and might refer to Grendel's arm, which Grendel's mother found hanging from the roof of Heorot.
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Charlemagne, Ganelon, Marsilie, Blancandrin, and others use their right hands or gloves in diplomatic ceremonies and self-defense. When Roland's death is avenged on Marsilie, the loss of Marsilie's right hand in battle (2574) discloses the talionic symbolism of hands. Some critics look to anthropology for help in understanding the symbolism of hands in Beowulf. One approach is to contrast kschere, whose death was lamented, with Hondscioh, whose death did not require a formal lament. Does this contrast signify a deficiency in kinship-loyalty among the Geats?25 The explanation given most often is that kschere, Hondscioh, and Grendel's arm are objects of exchange in a system of reciprocity, a primitive form of bead-counting applied to revenge among enemies and gift-giving among friends. Reciprocity is a social norm, which Beowulf respects but transcends in his kindness and generosity.26 Collective and individual behaviors
In times of crisis, the poet represents Danes or Geats alternating between collective and individual behaviors. When Grendel's dam first seized kschere, the Danes in the hall joined in an outcry: "Hream wearo in Heorote" (1302a). When kschere's head was found on the bank of the mere, Denum eallum wxs winum Scyldinga, weorce on mode to gebolianne eiegne monegum, oncyo eorla gehwwm, syokan iEscheres on Pzem hoLmclife hafelan metton. (Beowulf 1417b-21: To all the Danes, friends of the Scyldings, uncanny honor [oncyO] was an adversity [to be endured] painfully in the heart Anderson's and Bammesberger's conjecture is preferable, because the action occurs inside Heorot, not outside, where Grendel's arm is hanging. 25
Biggs 2003.
26 John Hill 1982: 177; 1995: 25-37 (feuds) and 85-107 (gift-giving); John Hill 1997; Niles 1983: 217-18; Day 1999.
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[weorce on mode] in many a thane, each of earls, when on the sea-cliff they happened upon iEschere's head.) Three syntactic strategies conspire as delay tactics to simulate suspense as to what uncanny discovery the Danes made: (1) fourfold variation of the indirect object (Denum), (2) adverbial and gerundive enhancements of the subject (oncyd),27 and the shift of the topic (iEschere's head) to a subordinate clause at the end. This clause is structured iconically to simulate shock, with the disembodied head (hafelan) syntactically removed from its owner (rEscheres).28 This form of syntactic iconicity is repeated in Beowulf's report to Hygelac, where the definite article and modifier (sio swidre) are separated from their referent (hond) to signify the detachment of Grendel's arm from his body: He on weg losade, lytle hwile lifwynna bre[a]c; hw.mtire him sio swiore swaoe weardade hand on Hiorte. (Beowulf2096b-99a: He [Grendel] escaped on the path, for a short while [he] partook of the joys of life; however his right [arm] remained on the track, [his] hand in Heorot.) As with multiple postponements elsewhere in the epic, the Beowulf poet is patient, not in the Roman sense of "longsuffering," but in the Anglo-Saxon sense of "biding his time" by means of proleptic deixis and syntactic dislocation. The collective Danish response to uncanny disclosure, together with their earlier outcry (hream, 1 302a) in Heorot, provide a frame for Hrotgar's lament for rEschere, such that in this lament he speaks for all Danes.
v Binns 1965: 125-29. 28 Iconicity in this passage has been discussed by Rosier (1968: 140), Moore (1974-75), Clark (1990: 96-97), Watkins (1995: 155-56), and Biggs (2003: 639). Syntactic dislocation as a strategy for iconicity is discussed in Anderson 1998: 293-302.
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The lament for Aschere and consolatio mortis Modern criticism of this episode has not been kind to Hroogar, whose "elegiac" lament for iEschere is contrasted with Beowulf's "heroic" voice. Some critics defend HroOgar's prudence in avoiding combat with Grendel so as not to leave his people lordless,29 but others emphasize an elegiac-heroic contrast, first applied to the episode by Greenfield in his Critical History of Old English Literature.3° This gave rise to polarities unfavorable to Hroogar, whose negative attributes include weakness, passivity, dependence, femininity, and old age. Beowulf, a young, aggressive, masculine hero, was the champion that Denmark required. Hroogar's lament has been linked with four other passages that seem to depict him as a rex inutilis. (1) For a long time, Hrobgar brooded (sead, 190a) over Grendel's nightly attacks. (2) On the evening of Beowulf's first day in Denmark, he committed Heorot to Beowulf to "hafa... ond geheald" (658a), the only time he ever consigned its guardianship to an outsider. (3) Hroogar embraced Beowulf and wept during his farewell speech, on the day of the hero's departure for Geatland (1866-87). (4) Beowulf reported to Hygelac that during moments of "gidd and gleo" in the hall, Hrobgar sang songs: sometimes a "gyd... sob ond sarlic" (2108b-9a), perhaps an elegy, sometimes a syllic spell (2109b: a wondrous story), perhaps a heroic lay. Elegiac and heroic moments converge when he laments the lost battle-strength of his youth: Hwilurn eft ongan, eldo gebunden, gomel guowiga giogete cwi5an, hildestrengo. Hreoer [in]ne weoll tionne he wintrum frod worn gemunde.
29
Leyerle 1965; Canitz 1986.
3° Greenfield 1965: 89, repeated in Greenfield and Calder 1986: 143; cf. Derolez 1987.
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(Beowulf 2111-14: Sometimes afterward, circumscribed by age, the old warrior proceeded to lament his youth[ful] battle-strength.31 His breast welled within when he, old in winters, remembered many things.) All four passages can be interpreted in bono or in malo. Some critics defend Hrobgar, arguing that the poet's heroic epithets for the king and the Danes should be read at face value, not ironically.32 In his brooding, Hrobgar was not singular, but gave expression to the helplessness of the Danes collectively, who failed him in council (171b-74) and resorted to the worship of idols (175-80a) in vain efforts to free Heorot from attacks by a supernatural evil force. Critics have seen irony in the passage where Hrobgar entrusts the hall to Beowulf, especially when the poet says that Hrobgar departed Heorot knowing that Pcem ahlcecan (646b) would come destined for combat (meaning Grendel), but Jane Roberts argues persuasively that ahlcecan refers to Beowulf, not Grendel: "He [Hroogar] knew that high battle was assigned to this awesome combatant [Beowulf]."33 In the fourth passage, where we first learn that Hrobgar was a poet, we can imagine him singing a heroic lay and digressing into a senile monologue about how his own heroic days were over. Alternatively, we can imagine him performing elegies and lays that artfully incorporate personal sod, as happens with the poetic personae of The Wanderer, The Seafarer, and Dear. On these occasions his "breast welled within" because he was a good poet, capable of dramatizing the emotion required by his poems. Did he sink into depths of self-pity, or did he exhibit mastery of his poetic art? Was he a wise king or a weak one? Commanding or cowering? Each critic gets the Hrobgar he or she deserves. It may be that the king's vulnerable moments, if that is what they are, contribute depth to the poet's portrayal of a character who is far more nuanced 31 I construe "giogube... hildestrengo" (youth, battle-strength) as a hendiadys, "youthful battle-strength." 32
Campbell 1975; Tripp 1977. Tripp (1992) later interprets Hro6gar's conduct in malo.
Roberts 2003: 242-45. Lee (1972: 201): Hrooear "confidently turns over to the hero the custody of the building." 33
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than the gender-typed caricature that some critics have seen. Irving asserts that Hroogar's grief for ,Eschere was "excessive 'feminine' emotionalism,"34 indicative of "weakness in a heroic context" that betrays "a terrible dependence" upon Beowulf.35 Tripp and Dockray-Miller regard Hroogar as feminized because he slept in the brydbure (921a: women's chamber), suggesting a Middle English pun, "bird's nest," through "avian humor" adding insult to injury: Hroogar is an Anglo-Saxon Chaunticleer, "a figure of exaggerated, pompous masculinity... a ridiculous, randy old Man."36 When Hroogar tells Beowulf, "nu seo hand ligeo / se Ipe eow welhwylcra wilna dohte" (1343b-34: now the hand lies low, which availed you in each of your desires), Greenfield argues that hand, a metonymy for iEschere,37 also alludes to Hroogar's own hand and symbolizes "his renewed sense of impotence" brought on by the attack of Grendel's dam. Only when Beowulf answered Hroogar's "despairing cry with the gnomic advice 'Better is it for each man that he avenge his friend than overly mourn for him' (11. 1384-5), [did] the king [find] a renewed sense of life."38 Even that didn't last long. Irving adds: he jumps on his horse and leads the way to Grendel's mere, but all too soon he "lapses back into his habitual passive role and into the business of handing out advice that at all times has been thought most suitable for senior citizens."39 Niles describes Hroogar as "only the shell of a good king," who never acts "in a manner that commands respect." When the poet seems to praise him, his words "ring slightly hollow as the facts of the plot belie them."49 John Hill describes 34 Irving 1989: 52-53; for a similar view, Cramer 1977. McFadden (2000: 641), like Irving, describes Hroogar as "feminized." 35
Irving 1987: 263-64.
36 Tripp 1992: 61; quotation from Docluay-Miller [1998] 2006: 450-51; a departure from Tripp 1977. 37 Whitbread 1949: 340 suggests that iEschere's "hand" by association of ideas alludes to Grendel's claw and signifies the continuing assaults of Heorot by the Grendel family. 33
Greenfield 1989: 59.
39
Irving 1993: 356.
4° Niles 1983: 110 and 108.
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Hroogar's rule as a "shell of a kingship" sustained only by gifl-giving and custom.41 DeGregorio regards Hroogar as an ironic figure, set up for that role by the poet's praise of his military reputation early in his kingship (64-67a).42 Olsen characterizes Hroogar's lament as "goading," a woman's call to action.43 Carruthers and Rothauser (separately) acknowledge that Hroogar is weakened physically by old age, but argue that he still is effective as a king, for example when he recruits Beowulf to Heorot's defense. Even so, Hroogar's lament for tEschere is a negative, signifying "emotional attachment to the past" in contrast to Beowulf who "lives in the present and immediate future. He does not want to remember the dead, as Hrothgar does, but rather wishes to go hrake (89; quickly) and face his new challenge."44 If these accounts of Hroogar are problematic, Niles clarifies the nature of the problem when he describes Beowulf's advice to the king—cease mourning, seek revenge (1384-91)—as an expression of the "heroic code" in "quintessential form."45 Following Niles, Gardiner-Staellert calls Beowulf s response "the creed of heroic life."46 George Clark calls it the "standard of heroic behavioC;47 Robinson calls it "the heroic code of the North... a vigorous articulation of the heroic principle."48 Ernest Hemingway might have agreed, but not even Robert Jordan was able to convince himself that it was "possible to live as full a life in seventy hours as in seventy years."49 Beowulf s remarks are not heroic code, but
41
John Hill 1997: 257 and 263.
43
Alexandra Olsen 1997: 323.
DeGregorio 1999.
44
Carruthers 1994: 26; Rothauser 2007: 117-18 (quoting Carruthers).
45
Niles 1983: 109.
46
Gardiner-Stallaert 1988: 150.
47
Clark 1990: 105-6.
48
Robinson 1993: 59-60.
49
Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls, 1940: 166.
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consolatio mortis, a topos found in epics across cultures, and in Hellenistic Greek and Roman consolationes. The five consolatio topics are as follows. First, HroOgar's lament for iEschere (1321-29) is combined with praise for the deceased, a commonplace in epic tradition and in classical consolationes. Second, Hroogar's invective against Grendel (1330-44) gives way to a digression on the monsters and their home in the moor (1345-72). Third is HroOgar's call for revenge (1373-82), rare in classical consolationes but common in epic laments. Fourth, Beowulf's counsel of patience in adversity (1383-96) is a Stoic commonplace. The fifth segment comes later, in Beowulf's report to Hygelac, where the hero states that the pain of iBschere's death was exacerbated by the Danes' inability to honor him with a funeral pyre (2115-28). "Funeral as consolation" was a Stoic commonplace. This chapter concludes with an analysis of these consolatio topics. Lament and panegyric (Beowulf 1322-29) "Lament" is a round-the-world genre in archaic poetry. In examples studied by Bowra in Primitive Song, laments are songs sung by women mourning the death of a husband or child. In them, the mourner evokes disparate details as objective correlatives to signify an intense feeling of personal loss. The unifying principle is a sorrowful "mood."5° African dirges are similar.51 Alexiou, in her study of ritual Greek laments, notes a gender-differentiation: women lament while men praise the dead in elegoi.52 The Greeks classified women's laments into three groups. One category, goos, the spontaneous weeping of kinswomen, is universal, although formalized to a high degree in Andromache's and Hekabe's laments for Hektor (Iliad 24.72346 and 747-60). Another category, kommos, is an extravagant lament 5° Bowra, 1962: 93-97, 108-9, and 143-45. Bowra did not use the term "objective correlative," which I have borrowed from T. S. Eliot. 51
Okpewho 1992: 156-62.
52 Alexiou
1974: 11-13; cf. Vermeule 1979: 15.
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accompanied by wild gestures. Alexiou traces its origin to ancient Greek tragedy, but its source is earlier, in Sumerian and Akkadian women's ritual laments for Dumuzi
Tammuz.53 A comparable case of cross-cultural diffusion is the
Byzantine Greek lament for a fallen city. Alexiou traces its source to Greek tragedy, too, citing relevant passages in rEschylus's Persians and Euripides's Trojan lVomen,54 but this genre was well established in Sumerian and Akkadian poetry.55 A western Semitic example is the biblical book of Lamentations. The third category, threnos, a formal dirge performed by professional women mourners, corresponds to the geomorgyd by a [Ge]at[iscl meowle (3150b: Geatish maiden) at Beowulf s funeral, and by a noble lady (ides) who "gnornode, / geomode giddum" (1117b-18a': mourned, lamented in songs" at Hnxf's funeral. The ides in the Finn episode could be either Hildeburh, who took charge of the funeral (1114-17a), or a professional mourner like the Geatish meowle. Greek threnos has its Roman counterpart in nenia, a funeral song by a praeficia, the chief female mourner in a funeral procession.56 In heroic narratives across cultures, a warrior or king laments the death of a companion or ruler by means of panegyric, as twelve Geatish warriors did in Beowulf s ten-day funeral, when they rode around his barrow on horseback and "eahtodan eorlscipe ond his ellenweorc / duguoum demdon" (3173-74a: praised his manliness and recited his courageous career to the veterans), not to the young men as transmission of knowledge, but to the veterans (dugudum) as consolation, rehearsing events that the mourners already knew. Tacitus's proverb about Germanic funerals, "Feminis lugere honestum est, viris meminisse" (De Germania 27: let women mourn; men remember) applies to Beowulf's funeral. Professional women mourners are cross-cultural phenomena, 57 as are warriors' 53
Frazer 1951: 378-80.
54
Alexiou 1974: 83-101, "The Historical Lament for the Fall or Destruction of a City."
55
For Sumerian, see Black et al. 2004: 127-41
56
Thomas Hill 2007: 328, citing Arce 1990: 46 and 174.
57
Mustanoja 1967, disputed by Bennett (1992) but accepted by most critics.
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panegyrics, but the formalized division of genre—women's funeral laments and men's panegyrics—was early Indo-European custom. Even so, gender-differentiation is confined to the formal limits of dirge and panegyric. There was nothing "feminine" about sorrowing in response to Beowulf's death or at his funeral. When a Geatish host at Eagles' Ness gazed at the wondrous dragon, they did so through tear-swollen eyes (wollenteare, 3032a). At Beowulf's funeral the men, hxleo hiofende (3142a: sorrowing warriors) mourned too. Everyone mourned: "Swa begnornodon Geata leode" (3178). In ritual mourning, the only relevant polarity is piety versus impiety. In Heroic Poetry, Bowra begins his analysis of heroic laments by citing David's elegy for Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel 1: 17-27), one of the oldest extant Hebrew poems, which the author-editor of 2 Samuel quotes from the Book of Jashar. David praised Saul and Jonathan as warriors: "the bow of Jonathan turned not back, / and the sword of Saul returned not empty" (v. 22). They were loyal to each other: "In life and in death they were not divided" (v. 23). "They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions" (v. 24). These were poetic conventions, like David's refrain, "How have the mighty fallen!" (vv. 19, 27). David calls upon women to mourn for Saul, and gives reasons: "Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, / who clothed you in scarlet, / who put ornaments of gold upon your apparel" (v. 24), whilst David mourns Jonathan: "I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; / your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women" (v. 26). If he had wanted to, Bowra could have cited Gilgamesh's lament for Enkidu. After extended bathos ("May the high [peaks] of hills and mountains mourn for you.... May the pastures lament you like your mother"), Gilgamesh assigns the praise-epithets of animals to Enkidu ("0 my friend, a mule on the run, donkey of the uplands, panther of the wild") as David did for Saul and Jonathan, and recalls their mutual adventures when they "seized the Bull of Heaven and
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[killed it,] /destroyed Humbaba, who [dwelt in the Cedar] Forest."58 I cannot improve on Bowra's analysis of heroic lament, which, he says, "reflects the spirit of a heroic society not with dramatic objectivity but with personal intimacy. It shows what men feel when their lives are touched by loss."59 Citing examples from European and central Asian epics, he illustrates the round-the-world diffusion of heroic lament as a constituent genre in epic. Lamentatio and laudatio are companion themes in Roman consolationes, for example in epistles of Pliny and Seneca, where laudatio is a commonplace.69 Tacitus's Agricola, an extended panegyric for the author's father-in-law, takes the form of a laudatio funebris, representing a convergence of two recognized literary genres.61 Polybius, in his Roman History (6.53.54), asserted that funeral orations should begin with praise of the deceased for his virtues, deeds, and glorious death. Jerome gave similar advice in one of his Epistles (60.8). Quintilian (2.3.7) and Cicero in De Oratore (2.11 and 2.84-85) recommend praise of the wealth, power, beauty, talent, and accomplishments of the deceased as topics for funeral orations. Lament and praise are combined in Consolatio ad Liviam de morte Drusi, once ascribed to Ovid, where, following Menander's model, the poet achieves epideictic economy by juxtaposing heroic achievements of the immediate past with those of "the more remote past."62 Independently of Menander, the Beowulf poet contrasts the magnificence of treasures laid in Scyld's burial-ship with his poverty when he washed ashore in Denmark as a foundling (36b-46, a tour de force of litotes), and again in the Geatish messenger's recollection of Hygelac's obituary, which juxtaposes his last and first acts of kingship, in Frisia (2913b-21) and at Ravenswood (2922-3007a). Hro6gar's praise of lEschere juxtaposes the 59 Gilgamesh 8.7-49, at 11. 11-13 for bathos, and 11. 50-54 for praise, in George 2003, 1: 650-55. 1 use bathos as a descriptive rhetorical term, not pejoratively.
Bowra 1952: 9-10. I have expanded on Bowra's quotations from 2 Samuel 1. 6° Fern 1941: 25-52. 61
Gudeman 1900: viii-xix, "The Literary Character of the Agricola"'; Fern 1941: 170-78.
62
Schoonhoven 1995: 12-14, citing Soffel 1974: 167-71.
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immediate past when he was "min runwita and min rxdbora" (1325: my runemaster63 and my counselor) with the remote past when he was his eaxlgestealla, donne we on orlege hafelan weredon, konne hniton fepan, eoferas cnysedan. (Beowulf 1326-28a: shoulder-companion, when we in battle defended our lives [lit. heads], when foot-troops clashed, struck boar[-helmets]). Irving criticized Hroogar's praise of EEschere for directionless parataxis, with "no special hierarchy of precedence or necessary sequence among its constituent variational parts,"64 but this is not so. Its constituent parts conform to the formal conventions of consolatory panegyric, by juxtaposing recent events with those of a distant past. In consolationes to Maria on the death of her son, and to Polybius on the death of a younger brother, Seneca praises the bereaved as well as the deceased, as he does, too, in Ad Helviam matrem on the occasion of his exile to Corsica.65 There is "praise for the bereaved" in Beowulf's epithet for Hroogar, snotor guma (1384a: wise man), and again when he counsels patience in adversity, "swa is pe wene to" (1396b: as I believe you will). Beowulf's response to Hrobgar's lament is not a rebuke, but a "gentler remedy" (leniore medicina), as Roman Stoics called it, appropriate for a mourner during the initial shock of bereavement.66 Some critics claim to hear inflections of disesteem in Beowulf's voice,67 but insincere
63 Rumvita usually is translated as "confidant" or "privy counselor," a gloss that is incompatible with its use in Guthlac I095a; cf. John Hill 1995: 82. If Queen Elizabeth could have John Dee as her court astrologer, HroOgar should be allowed a rune-consultant. 64
Irving 1989: 17.
Seneca Ad Marciam de consolatio 2: 1 -97; Ad Polybium 2: 356-415; Ad Helviam matrem 2: 4 I 6-89. 65
66
Seneca, Consolatio ad Iviarciam 1.8.
67
Gardiner-Stallaert 1988: 150.
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speech and indecorous affect are incompatible with noble eloquence, which is one of Beowulf's courtly virtues. Invective and digression (Beowulf 1330-44 and 1345-82) Invective against an enemy is another theme that heroic laments have in common with consolationes. In his lament for Saul and Jonathan, David's invective alludes to women's satirical songs about defeated enemy warriors, an ancient and medieval Middle Eastern genre (2 Sam. 1:20): Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised exult. Invective often gives way to digression, as when Achilles, after mentioning "Hektor, who killed [Patroklos, who] stripped away that gigantic armor, a wonder to look on," digresses about Hektor's role as Troy's champion, and his own quarrel with Agamemnon (Iliad 18.82-84 and 101-19). Invective in consolationes often is digressive or includes a digression. Tacitus, in Agricola (39-42), inveighs against Emperor Domitian, the probable author of Agricola's untimely death. This invective would be incomplete without a digression on Civica (42), whose murder he attributes to Domitian. Seneca's Consolatio ad Marciam (22.4-7) includes a digressive invective against Sejanus, whose unjust dealings with Marcia's father, Cordus Cremutius, exemplify the vicissitudes of fortune from which death, for him, was a release. Seneca's Ad Helviam matrem includes a digressive invective against Gaius Caesar (Caligula) for wrongfully banishing Marcellus (9.4-11). He offers Polybius an invective against Fate (fata, in Ad Polybium 2.2.3-5), and another against Gaius Caesar on account of his undignified behavior after the death of his sister Drusilla (17.3-6). His ethopoeic invective against fata was a model for Boethius's invective against Lady Fortune in Consolatio philosphiae. In Consolatio ad Liviam de morte Drusi,
186
the poet interrupts his invective against the Germans (271-90) with a digression on the temple of the Dioscuri (283-88). This digression, cited by some as a scribal dislocation or a defect of style,68 most likely is "affected negligence," a "disruption of logical structure" intended to dramatize "a highly pathetic mood," as Schoonhoven argues, noting similar digressions in Gregory of Nyssa's funeral oration for Empress Placilla and Libanius's monody for Emperor Julian.69 Is Hroogar's 27-line digression on the monsters and the mere a "studied distraction"? The poet's application of learned rhetoric? I think not, for classical dislocations of this sort are always briefer. More probative are analogues from Tacitus and Seneca, where invective gives way to digression. Revenge as consolation (Beowulf 1373-85) Ending his lament with a call for revenge, Hrodgar offers to reward Beowulf if he accepts this mission (1373-82). Achilles's themes in his lament for Patroldos were love for his companion, invective against Hektor, and desire for revenge (Iliad 18.22-126). Evander, after the death of his son Pallas in battle, appealed to
Aeneas to avenge his son on Turnus (Aeneid 11.175-81). Beowulf's response is "revenge as consolation" in gnomic form: Ne sorga, snotor guma; selre bio mghwwm past he his freond wrece, bonne he fela murne. (Beowulf 1384-85: Do not sorrow, wise man; it is better for every man that he avenge his friend, than that he mourn much.)
68 Haupt, "Epicedion Drusi," 1875-76, 1: 315-57, at pp. 332-33; Richmond 1981: 2771 and 2774-75. 69 Schoonhoven 1995: 16, citing Soffel 1974: 82, and A. F. Norman's note on one of Libanius's Juhanic orations, in Libanius 1969-77, I: 265.
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Critics interpret ne sorga as doubly pejorative: as a rebuke," and as an ironic role reversal in which the "wise man" is "on the receiving end of a brief exhortativephilosophical lecture by a young man, ending with an almost severe-sounding admonition to exercise patience."71 But Beowulf's remarks are a consolatio topos.72 As a noble speaker, he says no more than what he would be expected to say on the occasion. His call for revenge echoes HroOgar's. Their discourse is not a debate but a meeting of minds. I hear neither rebuke nor irony. There are four formal funeral laments in Virgil's Aeneid. None of them had a direct influence on Beowulf.73 Haber's proposal that Evander was a model for Hro6gar is unconvincing.74 Even so, we can learn something about heroic lament from Evander, after Tumus had slain his son Pallas in battle with a spear (Aeneid 10.474-500). Evander's eulogy begins with a lamentatio (11.148-66) in which the old king emphasizes the tragedy of outliving his son, whilst refraining from blaming his death on the Trojans. Just so, iEschere's death was revenge for the Grendel-fight (Beowulf 1333b-34), but Hrobgar did not blame Beowulf for his death. Virgil and the Beowulf poet both signal the possibility of recrimination by a grieving king, but neither Evander nor HroOgar blame the hero for their loss. However so, Evander proceeds from larnentatio to laudatio (Aeneid 11.166-75), praising Pallas for slaying his thousands, whose corpses and armor will be trophies on his pyre. Then Evander calls for action: "Sed infelix Teucros quid demoror armis?" (11.175-81: But why let my sorrow detain the Trojan from arms?)—not that Aeneas needed prompting, for Pallas's death had already " Taylor 1985: 62-63 and 68; DeGregorio [1999] 2007: 169-70. According to Thayer (2003: 7-8), Beowulf "defines the [heroic] code" by negative examples. 71
Puhvel 2005: 35.
Sarah Smith (1979: 199-201) compares this passage to classical Stoic topoi, which, however, do not include revenge as consolation—a theme in classical epic. 72
73
Anchises's prophetic eulogy for Marcellus, nephew of the future Caesar Augustus
(Aeneid 6.860-87); lament for Euryalus by his mother (9.473-502); Mezentius's lament for his son
Lausus, slain by Aeneas (10.846-69); Evander's lament for his son Pallas, slain by Tumus (11.148-81). 74
Haber 1931: 115-17.
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spurred him to fight ferociously (10.510-601).75 Evander's and Pallas's counterparts in book 10 are the renegade Etruscan king Mezentius and his son Lausus, who was slain in battle by Aeneas (10.749-832). Mezentius delivers his eulogy in two parts. In the first, addressed to Lausus's corpse, he blames himself for his son's death (844-55). In the second, addressed to his horse Rhaebus, he vows to fight to the death to avenge Lausus (855-69). In Statius's Thebiad, too, more than any other Roman epic, this sequence of death, lament, and a call for revenge recurs, so often that it "controls the last three books in the poem."76 Sorrow, praise, and revenge converge in Roland's lament, an apostrophe to the corpses of his barons at Rencevals. He weeps for them as a noble knight should ("il les pluret cum chevalier gentill," 1853). All France shares his grief: Li empereres tant mare vos nurrit! Tere de France, mult estes pulz pals, Oi desertet a tant ruboste exill! (Roland 1860-62: The emperor raised you [sc. elevated your positions] for this sad hour! Land of France, how sweet a country you are, made desolate with such cruel misery!) Roland praises the barons for their loyalty, courage, and military success (185759), and vows to Oliver that he will renew the fight: "Sire compainz, alum i referir" (1868: lord companion, let us go and strike again). It is unclear whether Roland blames himself for the barons' deaths, or, alternatively, affirms their loyalty to the "ideal of men dying with their lord" when he says, "Barons franceis, pur mei vos vei murir" (1863: Frankish barons, because of me [or, on my behalf] I see you die).77 In either case, he accepts the burden of mourning, praise, and
75
Conway 1931: 28-29, and Quinn 1969: 223-25.
76
Fantham 1999: 229.
Tacitus, Germania 14, describes this warrior-ideal, whose relevance to Roland's lament is implicated, at least by implication, in the debate between Renoir, "Roland's Lament," who interprets "por mei" as acknowledgment of guilt, and Jones, who interprets the phrase as acknowledgment of feudal loyalty, without citing Tacitus on warriors dying with their lord on the 77
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revenge, which is their due, just as Evander did for Pallas, and Hrobgar for €schere. Apostrophe, a rhetorical strategy in Roman and French laments, has an Anglo-Saxon parallel in the Elegy of the Last Survivor: "Heald ku nu hruse, nu hwleo ne moston, /eorla mhte" (Beowulf 2247-48a: Hold now, thou Earth, now that warriors cannot, these possessions of men). Vocative hruse, the barrow where the national treasures of a deceased people are buried, simultaneously represents the earth, signifying the mutability of all earthly things. Admonition forbidding mourning (Beowulf 1384a)
Some critics, interpreting Ne sorga as a rebuke, have pressed the phrase into service as a fulcrum text upon which the poet shifts the ethos of the scene from "elegiac" to "heroic," thereby devaluing Hroogar's unheroic kingship in comparison to Beowulf's courage and strength. In other epics and in consolationes, however, admonitions to cease mourning never imply that the mourner is weak or unworthy. Thetis the river goddess admonished Achilles against mourning Patroklos, because his death had been willed by Zeus, the god who had answered all his prayers (Iliad 18.72-77). Even so, Achilles mourned, kept vigil over Patrokios's body, and even lay in its arms, so Thetis had to admonish him a second time (19.1-39). Gilgamesh kept vigil over Enkidu's body for seven days and nights, until a maggot dropped from its nostril; then he wandered to the ends of the earth, mourning and searching for the secret of immortality, until he reached the tavern of S' iduri the ale-goddess, who, in the Old Babylonian Version, admonished him to go home and live a normal life:78 O Gilgamesh, where are you wandering? You cannot find the life that you seek: when the gods created mankind, battlefield. Woolf (1976: 81), doubting the historicity of this ideal and its application The Battle of Maldon, denies that the debate is relevant to Roland, although quite obviously it does. For the warrior's planctus in French chansons de geste more generally, see Zumthor 1959 and 1963. 78
Gilgantesh, OB V Sippar column 3.1-13, in George 2003, 1: 279.
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for mankind they established death, life they kept for themselves. You, Gilgamesh, let your belly be full, keep enjoying yourself, day and night! Every day make merry, dance and play day and night! Let your clothes be clean! Let your head be washed, may you be bathed in water! Gaze on the little one who holds your hand! Let a wife enjoy your repeated embrace! Setting aside Abusch's thesis that iduri here rejects a marriage proposal, A. R. George compares her admonition to Ecclesiastes 9: 7-11, a non-hedonistic carpe diem where the Preacher admonishes a man to enjoy the benefits of life in the inevitable expectation of death: "Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart.... Let your garments be always white; let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life which he has given you under the sun.... Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going."79 Abusch based his interpretation in part on a supposed analogy with Odysseus and Calypso, but the trio of mourner, deceased, and consoler—Gilgamesh, Enkidu, Siduri—has a more compelling parallel in Achilles, Patroldos, and Thetis. Augustine in Confessiones berated himself for his grief in the moments and days after the death of his mother Monica. With difficulty he fought back puerile tears, in contrast to his bastard son Adeodatus who sobbed but was restrained from weeping by Evodius and others who were present at the scene." Adeodatus,
79 George 2003, 1: 275. At pp. 273-74, nn. 137 and 138, George refutes Abusch's interpretation (Abusch 1993 a, b, c) that in these lines, §iduri rejects a marriage proposal from Gilgamesh. 8° Augustine, Confessiones
9.12.29; trans. Oates 1948: 142-45.
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a young man at the time,81 expressed the grief felt by others but had to be silenced, whilst Augustine repressed his grief so convincingly that others thought him "sinu sensu dolores" (9.12.31: devoid of any sense of sorrow). Even so, for weeks afterward Augustine experienced internalized paroxysms of sorrow and hoped to be forgiven by others who thought him sinful for weeping. He thought that an outward show of grief was childish and sinful; internalized sorrow, too, though he never characterized it as feminine. He resembled the Wanderer, the eardstapa weighed down by loss, who following noble custom (indryhten /maw)
kept his thoughts and feelings locked up in his breast (Wanderer 11b-14), even though the loss of king and kin was a constant source of sadness.82 "Sed toto die grauiteria occulto maestos eram," Augustine says, "I was most grievously sad in secret all the day."83 He went to the bath, hoping to relieve his mind, but it made no difference. When he slept, on awaking he found his grief unmitigated. In time, contemplation on the greatness of God as creator of the world brought relief. For the Wanderer, too, "sorg and sleep" were companions (39). While he slept he dreamt that he was reunited with his dead lord, but "bonne onwwcne6 eft wineleas gum" (45: when the joyless man awoke afterward), all he saw before him were fallow waves, seabirds, and snow mingled with hail (46-48). The Wanderer, like Augustine, experienced a double sorrow: "alio dolore dolebam dolorem meum et duplicitristia macerabar" (9.12.31: with a new sorrow I sorrowed for my sorrow),84 for "Donne heal by hefigran heortan benne, sare rafter swwsne" (Wanderer 49: then the wound in my heart is so much the heavier, sore on
account of the beloved one).
21 In Confessiones 9.6.14, trans. Oates 1948: 135), Augustine notes that he composed De Magistro, an autobiographically-based dialogue between himself and his son, when Adeodatus
was sixteen. 82
Dunning and Bliss 1969.
n Augustine, Confessiones 9.12.32: trans. Oates 1948: 144. Augustine, Confessiones 9.12.31, trans Oates 1948: 143: "dolore dolebam dolorem," a rhetoricalftgura etymologica, iconizes Augustine's "double sorrow." 84
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Augustine knew that his position forbidding mourning was severe, even to other Christians. Certainly it would have seemed extreme to the Stoics, who recognized that an outburst of grief was a natural response to the initial shock of bereavement, and that a period of mourning afterward is to be expected, though not too loud and not too long. Only when grief is prolonged or excessive should a mourner be admonished, as Seneca scolded Marcia after she had mourned her son for three years (Consolatio ad Marciam 2), and as he later admonished his mother Helvia (Ad Helviam matrem 16.1) and Marullus (Ep. 99.16). Cicero, drawing on his earlier (lost) Consolatio,85 articulates the same thought in Tusculan Disputations (3.28), although later in the same work (4.63), he advises the consoler to nip grief in the bud, lest it become rooted too deeply in the mourner's heart. Plutarch would not have approved of the scolding that Adeodatus was given at the time of his grandmother's death, for, as he wrote to Apollonius, "Consolation is untimely if given to someone who is still suffering from affliction" (Ad Apollonium, 1). The more humane, Stoic approach underlies Paul's admonition to Christians to comfort "those who are in any affliction," lest they become "overwhelmed by excessive sorrow" (2 Cor. 1: 4 and 2: 7). Consolation precepts Beowulf s admonition forbidding mourning is followed by four precepts (1384b-89, 1395-96) interlacing a call to action and a vow of vengeance (139094). The precepts vary in their cultural identities: the first is more heroic than philosophical, the second a universal truism, the third distinctively Germanic, and so is the fourth, in its own way. All are truisms, obvious to HroOgar long before Beowulf uttered them. The consoler's duty is not to impart new knowledge, but to articulate sentiments that the mourner already knows. Hearing them from a friendly voice is what consoles.
85 Buresch (1886: 95-96) argued that in books 1 and 3 of Tusculan Disputations, Cicero drew on his earlier Consolatio.
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The first precept, that it is better to avenge a friend that to mourn overmuch (1384b-85), is rare in consolationes and proverbs,86 but common in heroic laments. Second, death is universal and inevitable: "lire wghwylc sceal ende gebidan / worolde lifes" (1386-87a: Each of us must endure the end of life in the a commonplace found in Ad Liviam de morte Drusi (357-67), in
world)
Seneca's Ad Marciam (17.1) and Ad Polybium (11), in Ovid's Fasti (1.489), in Virgil's Georgics (3.67), in Propertius's elegy for Marcellus (3.18.21-26) and elsewhere. The truism is universal.87 Third, a man should perform glorious deeds while he lives, so others will remember him later (1387b-89). I know of no Roman counterpart, but the theme finds expression in The Seafarer (72-80a) and in II-diurnal (76-77).88 It is a Germanic sentiment. Fourth, Beowulf counsels Hroogar to have gePyld in times of sorrow: Dis dogor bu gebyld hafa / weana gehwylces , swa ic be wene to" (1395-96: This day have gepyld in each adversity, as I expect you will). Three times in the Paris Psalter, Latin patiens is translated as gePyldig, an adjective applied to God,89 but as a noun gePyld translates praestolatio "readiness, alertness," and expectatio :'expectation, anticipation."96 Looking again at Beowulf's precept, the adverbial phrase "is dogor" should alert us that gejiyld does not mean "longsuffering." In Roman tradition, it is true, patientia et constantia was a common topos on sepulchral inscriptions.91 In Roman consolationes this theme was developed by means of exempla. In Ad Marciam (12.4-16.7), Seneca enumerates noble Roman men and women who lost a child as Marcia had done—Sulla, Caesar Augustus, Tiberius, Cornelia mother of the Gracchi, Cornelia mother of Livius Drusus, Deskis (1996: 124-26) notes the paucity of medieval proverbs that call for revenge. Deskis (1996: 77-88) cites Latin and Germanic examples. 88
analogues. 89
Sisam 1913. Ida L. Gordon 1960: 43n. Deskis (1996: 94-100) cites several Germanic
Paris Psalter 85:14, 102:8, and 144:8 in ASPR 5.
90 Ibid. 61:5 and 70:5. At Ps. 91:13, mid gekyld has no corresponding Latin term. 91
Tolman 1910: 76: Fern 1941: 179-80.
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among others: all bore their adversity with patience and persevered in their public duties with constancy. These Stoic virtues, patientia et constantia, are paired in the Old English Gifts of Men: "Sum gebyld hafao, / fmstgongel fer8" (79b-80a: One [man] has patience, a steadfast mind). They are linked in Chaucer's Clerk's Tale, where Constaunce, allegorizing them, endured the supposed death of her children at the hand of Walter, and persevered in her duties as his duchess and wife, without complaining, faithful to the vow of obedience that she had taken. Latin patientia means "longsuffering." Old English gePyld means "biding one's time," not the resignation of a victim, but the strategic reserve of heroes who wait until the right moment to change their fate, as Weland did in Dear and as Judith did in Holofemes's camp. Funeral rites as consolation Of all the adversities that beset King Hro8gar, most grievous was his inability to provide iEschere with a funeral: "Dxt wws Hroogar[e] hreowa tornost" (2129). Herbert Wright once proposed that old age exacerbated Hragar's grief,92 but it was the absence of a funeral that did so. Beowulf: Nooer by hine ne moston, syoban mergen cwom, deaowerigne, Denia leode, bronde forbwman, ne on bx1 hladan leofne mannan; hio pat lic wtbxr feondes fzeo[mum un]der firgenstream. (Beowulf 2124-29: When morning came, the Danish people were not able to burn him, the death-weary one, in the blaze, nor lay the beloved man out on a pyre; she [Grendel's mother] had carried the body in [her] hostile embrace, [to her home] under the waterfall.) More than a rehearsal of past events in Denmark, in Beowulf's report to Hygelac the poet provides fresh details. This time he adds a waterfall to the setting of
92
Herbert Wright [1957] 1963: 264.
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Grendel's mere, contrasted with fire. Instead of a pyre, €schere got a firgenstream. Had he wanted to, the poet could have expressed his thought in a simile: just as fire is qualitatively different from water, by so much is a funeral different from the fate of iEschere's corpse. /Eschere's head on the remote forest trail, its familiar features defamiliarized, signifies unburied dead warriors everywhere.93 The Wanderer takes a panoramic approach, linking the horror of unburied warriors with the theme of the beasts of battle: Sume wig fornom, ferede in forowege: sumne fugel obbeer ofer heanne holm; sumne se hara wulf dea6e gedwlde; sumne dreorighleor in eoroserxfe eorl gehydde. (Wanderer 80b-84: war seized some, carried [them] on the way forth: the bird carried one over the high sea; the gray wolf dismembered [or disarticulated] one to death; a warrior with tear-stained cheeks hid one in the grave.) In this catalogue, sume is collective in relation to the distributive sumne clauses that follow, which enumerate "what may befall the body of the slain hero."94 Among the three sumne clauses, the first two portray warriors whose bodies cannot be buried. Only the third offers the consolation of a funeral. Other Germanic analogues appear in law-codes. The consolation of a funeral is presupposed in an Alammanic law that requires anyone who "buries a corpse in
Beowzdf.
93
Owen-Crocker (2002) emphasizes the horror associated with "unburied dead" in
94 Bright 1898: 352-53; for similar views, Leslie 1966a: 83 and Dunning and Bliss 1969: 119-20. Dunning and Bliss construe verse 83a as "handed over to death." This is possible, but the implied personification of "death" seems problematic to me. I prefer something like "dismembered [or disarticulated] in death," an interpretation that, as Dunning and Bliss concede, is more consistent with the beasts of battle typescene.
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foreign ground" to "pay twelve solidi, or swear with twelve men that he did not do so with malice."95 A Bavarian law requires that96 If anyone kills a freeman in a secret manner and throws him into a river or throws him into such a place that the corpse cannot be recovered, which the Bavarians call murdrida, in the first place let him compensate with forty solidi, since he cannot recover the corpse for a worthy burial. To better imagine the grief, readers of Tacitus should follow him to the swampy saints Teutoburgiensis, a land of treacherous passes and fens so mysterious that it still can't be found, where the Roman legate Publius Quinctilius Varus led his legions (A.D. 9). The Cherusci prince Arminius ambushed them there and slaughtered them. Spoils were taken; Varus slain also, either by Arminius or by his own hand. Arminius could boast of Roman shields hung in forest trees as an offering to Germanic gods. In pursuit of Arminius six years later, Caecina97 led his Roman army to the saltus and happened upon Varus's encampment, strewn with weapon-fragments and bones, altars where tribunes and centurians were burnt at the stake, and soldiers' skulls nailed to tree-trunks. Sorrowful and angry, the Romans buried what remains they could find, not knowing which relics were kinsmen.98 All this and more was memorialized by Romans in their histories,99 and by Germans in heroic poetry,10° either in an Arminiuslied1°1 or in encomiastic lays1°2 diffused throughout Germania. vs
Pactus legis Alamannorum 31.1, in Rivers 1977: 55.
96
Bavarian Laws 19.2, in Rivers 1977: 167.
97
Caecina: Germanicus's second in command.
98
Tacitus, Annales 1.55, 57, and 59-62.
99 Among Roman historians, the one closest to the event was the retired cavalry officer Gaius Velleius Paterculus, Historiae Romae 2.118. A contemporaneous but derivative source is Strabo 7.14. Derivative sources of less interest are Lucius Annaeus Florus (a.k.a. Julius Florus), Epitomae de Tito Livio 2.30 and Dio Cassius (ca. A.D. 120-235), Historiae Romae 61.19-67. Tacitus (ca. A.D. 55-117), Annales 1.55-69, 4.45 and 2.88, was more detailed than Velleius and had access to other sources that are unknown to us. E. A. Thompson's profile of the Cherusci (1965: 72-88) is based on a synthesis of extant Roman sources, with emphasis given to Velleius and Tacitus.
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Here I want to concentrate on Beowulf s superlative adjective, tornost (2129b). Comparison to funerals in Roman consolationes clarifies why the lack of a funeral for iEschere was Hro8gar's greatest adversity. In Greek epicedia and Roman consolationes, a funeral rite is itself a consolation.1°3 When a bereaved person is unable to attend the funeral of a loved one, he/she suffers a double sorrow—the topic of Catullus's lament, when he visited his brother's grave in distant Troad to administer a belated libation and an offering of eggs, lentils, and sub. /°4 Ovid, in his verse epistle to Maximus on the death of Celsus, offers a traditional lament and laudatio, but his deepest regret was that he could not attend the funeral, although he is consoled in the knowledge that Maximus conducted Celsus's last rites.1°5 But the bitterest sorrow (hreowa tornost) comes to mourners who have no body to bum or bury. This is the theme of Aeneas's lament for Palinurus, when he fell overboard the ship and (Aeneas thought) drowned at sea (Aeneid 5.870-71); the theme of the mournful unburied dead who gathered at the bank of the Styx, unable to cross for a hundred years (6.326-30); the theme, again, of Palinurus's spirit when he complained about the savagery of Italic tribesmen, who killed him as fair game by right of salvage and left his body unburied, until the Sibyl assured him that a neighboring tribe, warned by omens in the sky, would see to his burial (6.337-83).1°6 This is the theme in Propertius's lament for Paetus, when waterfowl perched and fish fed on his corpse after he drowned in the Carpathian sea. /°7 It explains why the Achaeans fought furiously to prevent 1O°
Tacitus, Annales 2.88.
1°1 Heusler 1°2
1923: 128.
Norman 1969: 5-6.
1°3 Evaristus
Drusi 460.
1917: 82; Tolman 1910: 91; Fern 1941: 123; Cansolatio ad Liviam de inorte
1°4 Catullus 101. 103 Ovid, EX Ponta 1.9.
iEschere.
IOU Haber 1931: 119, cites the story of Palinurus as an analogue and possible source for
1°7 Propertius 3.7, discussed in Fern 1941: 197-99.
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Patroklos's body from falling into the hands of the Trojans, and illuminates the quality of Achilles's mercy when he restored Hektor's body to Priam. It magnifies Beowulf s self-effacing irony when, just arrived in Heorot, he assured Hro5gar that the Danes need not provide for his funeral if Grendel made off with his body (445b-51).
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Chapter 6 Symbolic Politics What does it mean when, after Beowulf's consolatio, Hroogar lept for joy and thanked God? Most readers see a spontaneous outburst: Beowulf's call for heroic action lifted his spirits. No doubt he was sincere, but his gesture was a political communication, too, a message of gratitude to an ally. This gesture was followed by another: Hro6gar, leading a party of Danes and Geats to Grendel's mere, rode on horseback (1399-1401a), while others went on foot (1401b-2a). Was this just a face-saving gesture, or did it signify that Hroogar shared responsibility for the feud against Grendel's dam? The Coastguard, while guiding the Geats to Heorot, rode on horseback while others walked (303b-15), signifying that he did not relinquish command, even in the company of Geatish allies. "Eorl sceal on eos boge" (Maxims I, 62a: a nobleman must [ride] on horseback).1 My topic in this chapter is political communication by means of gesture or ritual, what historians call "demonstrative behavior." The topic is well known to historians of the Carolingian empire and its successor states in western Europe during the ninth through the twelfth centuries. Working from the vantage point of Frankish historical studies, Julia Barrow adduces evidence for demonstrative behavior in Anglo-Saxon hagiographies and historical documents, although the picture is less detailed compared to Frankish counterparts. In a content analysis of etiquette in Old English literature, Mtiller-Oberhauser states that these sources are strong on speech but weak on gesture. Barrow concurs; hence her focus on historical narratives.2 But Beowulf merits a closer look. Some types of demonstrative behavior are obvious: gift-giving, beer-serving by royal ladies, Exeter Book Maxims I, ASPR 3: 156-63. M011er-Oberhauser 1996: 38. Barrow 2007: 129; see pp. 127-30 for references to studies of Carolingian and Ottonian sources. 2
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funeral customs; others are less obvious, like the charging ceremony used to choose an avenger in a feud. Demonstrative behavior is a subtype of "symbolic politics," a collective term used by social scientists to denote any combination of gesture, ritual, pictorial imagery, musical refrain, or other symbolism combined with a verbal message that garners public support for a political party or policy. Examples in contemporary American politics include brass flag-pins worn on the lapels of political candidates, televised images of immigrants wading across a river or scaling a fence, or images of Saddam Hussein's statue pulled down from its pedestal in a square in Baghdad. Images range from sublime to tawdry, from the Statue of Liberty to Monica Lewinsky's dress. Some are genuine, like photographs of Nazi crematoria; others staged, like photo-ops of political candidates in bowling alleys or neighborhood taverns. Some are misrepresented, like the aerial reconnaissance photograph of a commercial airport under construction in Grenada in 1983, which President Reagan displayed at a press conference and identified as a Soviet-built air force base.3 "Symbolic politics" is a problematic term when applied to medieval texts, for two reasons. First, the term often presupposes "mass communication." Murray Edelman coined it in reference to the manipulation of political symbols on television and in other forms of mass technology.4 Second, when political scientists speak of "symbolic politics" they usually mean communication that is Machiavellian,5 even sinister: a "politics of substitution"6 in which a symbol is used to attack an unpopular minority group.? In contrast, demonstrative behaviors in Beowulf rarely have pejorative meanings.
3
Cahn 1995: 23.
4
Edelman 1964: 1971.
$
Cahn 1995: 20.
6
Jenkins 1992: 10-11.
7
Horowitz 1996.
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Recent social scientists have studied symbolic politics more objectively. Edelman assumed that symbolic politics works because most people are illinformed about civic events and driven by emotion rather than reason, but David Sears and his associates proposed a non-pejorative psychological explanation that lends itself to empirical testing. People are exposed from childhood to cultural and political symbols, such as a flag, a national anthem, historical sites and persons, and so on. Through conditioning they acquire stable affective responses to these symbols. In adults, these affective responses are nuanced, flexible, and transferable to diverse situations, but symbols are always capable of evoking and mobilizing human emotions.8 Mass communication and Machiavellian manipulation are accidental attributes of symbolic politics. Symbolic politics: the general category to which demonstrative behavior belongs. Demonstrative behavior has four attributes. (1) Often it is preceded by private negotiation or planning, to ensure its acceptance as a political communication. (2) It is public, witnessed by an audience, such that the contrast between demonstrative behavior and private encounters is culturally important. (3) Its gestures and symbols are conventional, with recognized meanings that often have regional variations. (4) Usually it is accompanied by discourse that explicates its meaning. Literary accounts of demonstrative behavior rarely mention all four attributes. Beowulf is interesting for its allusions to prior negotiation, an attribute encountered seldom in other sources. Negotiating demonstrative behavior Demonstrative behaviors often are negotiated or planned in advance, especially in political contexts. According to Asser, King Alfred's Danelawsettlement with GulDrum (ca.
A.D.
878) was ratified by a ceremony in which
Alfred served as adoptive father at Gui)rum's baptism, and acknowledged his new godson as King of the East Angles. King Oswald of Northumbria (d. 642) set the g
Sears, Huddy, and Schaffer 1986; Sears 1993.
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precedent some 250 years earlier, when he served as godfather to King Cynegisl of the West Saxons at his baptism, after his conversion by Birinus, a missionary sent by Pope Honorius. Later the two kings confirmed a bisceopstol on Birinus, at Dorchester-on-Thames.9 Alfred's and Gufrum's baptism-adoption-coronation ceremony, calculated to satisfy ecclesiastical and temporal lords on both sides of the English-Danish border, would have required negotiation and planning. Important as a political event, Gujrum's baptism and adoption by Alfred might have stimulated the genealogical "research" that led scholars in the West Saxon court to discover Alfred's Scylding ancestry, as Craig Davis proposed. i° In retrospect, if not at the moment, the ceremony was justified by the medieval ecclesiastical ideology of an imagined international "family" of Christian kings, under the guidance of the Holy Father in Rome. Another Anglo-Saxon example, with European counterparts: the contrast between "general" and "public" penitential rituals associated with Ash Wednesday." iElfric describes the general ashing ceremony, still familiar in Catholic churches and some Protestant ones, in a sermon on Ash Wednesday and in his Letter to the Monks of Eynsham, and the Regularis Concordia prescribes it for monks.I2 Ashing, an annual ceremony that applies to all Christians, is demonstrative behavior, but it is not symbolic politics. In contrast to ashing, a "public penance" ceremony was reserved for heafodleahtras, mortal sins: idolatry, augury, fornication, theft, and perjury. During the Ash Wednesday ritual, "high" sinners were expelled from the church, exiled like Adam and Eve from Eden, and later, after Lenten penance, were readmitted on the Thursday before 9 Bede, Historia ecclesiastica 3.7; and /filfric, "Natale sancti Oswaldi regis et martyr," in Lives of Saints 1881-1900, 2: 132-34,11. 119-39. For the same, Needham 1966: 34-35.
1° Davis 2006: 117-20. n 1 am indebted to Frantzen (1983), De Jong (1997), Bedingfield (2002), and Hamilton (2005) for this paragraph, although none of these scholars discuss the contrast between ashing and public penance in the context of symbolic politics. 12 klfric, Lives of Saints 1.12, "In caput ieiunii,"16-26, 1881-1900, 1: 262; ,Elfric, Letter to the Monks of Eynsham 29, 1998: 120-23; Regularis Concordia, ed. Symons 1953: 32.
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Easter. Public penance is described as early as the Dialogue of Egbert (ca. 750760), and alluded to in the Rule of Chrodegang,13 but Wulfstan. in his sermon for Ash Wednesday, complains that most English bishops, lax in their duty, neglected to enforce this requirement for mortal sins." Indeed, in his History of Penance, Watkins wrote that "nowhere in the church of the English did the continental system of public penance and of public reconciliation by the bishop find actual observance at any time,"" an assertion disproved by Bedington and Hamilton after closer examination of Anglo-Saxon sources. It is easy to imagine circumstances where parishioners might resist the humiliation of public dismissal from the church on Ash Wednesday, and why a bishop might forget. Bishops who enforced it must have negotiated it beforehand, or at least discussed it. Certainly Wulfstan gave his congregants fair warning. In contrast to ashing, public penance is a species of symbolic politics. Symbolic politics looms large in the Northumbrian aetiology of archepiscopal status for the see of York. Bede's story of King Edwin's conversion (A.D. 627) exemplifies demonstrative behavior and the negotiations that preceded it. For several years after escaping an assassination attempt, Edwin studied the Christian faith with Bishop Paulinus, pondered a letter that he received from Pope Boniface V, took counsel with his Christian wife laelburh (who also had a letter from the pope), considered the significance of a dream that he had, and debated the relative merits of Christianity and paganism with his thanes and priests in council. When at last, during the eleventh year of his reign, he decided to change his faith, his high priest, Coifi, advised the king in council to bum the shrines and idols. Edwin asked Coifi which of their number should be first to desecrate idols, and he volunteered to do it "ad exemplum omnium" (as an example to all). He asked Edwin's leave to arm himself. He rode the king's stallion to the principal 13 For the Pseudo-Egbert penitential: Hadden and Stubbs 1869-78, 3: 410; Gamer and McNeill 1938: 239-40; and Frantzen 1983. Rule ofChrodegang, ed. Napier 1916: 36-37. 14
Wulfstan, Homilies, 1957: 234-35.
15
Watkins 1920, 2: 643.
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shrine and cast a lance into it. Then he ordered his fellow priests to set it on fire. When Coifi rode in armed combat against idols, the commoners thought he had gone mad, for the pagan cult forbade priests to bear arms or ride except on a mare.16 Coifi 's behavior allegorizes two theological doctrines: the Pauline admonition to Christians to put on the "armor of God" (Ephesians 6: 11-17), and Pope Boniface's teaching, in his letter to Edwin, that pagan gods are really devils." The following Easter, this act of symbolic politics was followed by another, which must have required negotiation and planning: Edwin and his thanes, and many commoners, were baptized in a ceremony at St. Peter's, York, a church that was built for this purpose. At that ceremony, Edwin established an episcopal see for Bishop Paulinus. Beowulf's reception in Heorot (Beowulf 320-404) Demonstrative behaviors were staged in public settings, but the negotiations that preceded them took place in council, or in private meetings. An example is Wulfgar's advice to Hroagar, when he counsels the king to grant an audience to the Geats, and gives reasons why he should do so: Her syndon geferede, feorran cumene ofer geofenes begang Geata leode; hone yldestan oretmecgas Beowulf nemnao. Hy benan synt pmt hie,Deoden min, wio he moton wordum wrixlan. No Ou him wearne geteoh oinra gegncwida, glwdman Hroogar. Hy on wiggetawum wyroe binceao eorla gewhtlan; hum se aldor deah, se limm heaoorincum hider wisade. (Beowulf 361-70: Men of the Geats have traveled here, come from afar over the expanse of the sea. The warriors call their leader Beowulf. They are petitioners, my lord, [requesting] that they might exchange words 16
Bede, Historia ecclesiastica 2.13, 1969: 184-87.
17
Bede, Historia ecclesiastica 2.10, 1969: 168-69.
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with you. Do not give them a refusal in your answer, noble Hrabgar. They in their war-gear seem worthy of men's esteem. Indeed, the[ir] leader is accomplished, he who led the warriors here.) Interpretations vary. Peter Baker sees the episode as the second in a sequence of four flytings (the Coastguard, Wulfgar, Hroogar, and Unfero), building up to the Unfero flyting, in which Beowulf's opponent in "eloquence" is the equivalent of Grendel in combat.18 I think the opposite, that linfero's unpleasant discourse came as an abrupt shock after the progressively more diplomatic reception that Beowulf received in Heorot. Regarding diplomacy, "all is pure protocol," Ogilvy and Donald Baker wrote. "Its only possible use in the story is to build up gradually to the fight with Grendel and perhaps, by showing the discipline and morale of the Danes, to make the might of one who could ignore it [Grendel] more impressive. But the protocol itself had an interest for the audience. One can imagine them nodding their heads and murmuring, 'Soo it is. Swa sceal mon don'."I° Alternatively, following Brodeur's observation that a well-told story requires a proper setting, Eliason proposed that the Wulfgar scene establishes a suitably dignified setting, and Wulfgar as a model of noble spealcing.2° Of course this is true. He is rather like Montjoy, the herald of Charles IV in Shakespeare's Henry V. The hero's courteous reception is an epic commonplace.2I Wulfgar's advice is straightforward, but rich in implicature, addressed not only to HroOgar, but also to his eorla gedriht (357b: his retinue of earls) who sit with him in council. When he speaks, he stands facing the king for eaxlum (358b:
ig Peter Baker 1988. 1° Ogilvy and Donald Baker 1983: 47. Earlier, Lee (1972: 200) refers to Wulfgar's "due
ritualistic courtesies."
2° Brodeur 1959: 125; Eliason 1969. 21 Chapman (1931) argued that Beowulf's reception in Heorot has parallels with Apollonius's arrival in King Arcestrates's court in the OE prose Apo!lonius of Tyre. He proposed that the Beowulf poet was influenced by a Latin version of Apollonius, but Ogilvy (1969: 74) notes that the elements of Beowulf's reception are conventional.
206
before his shoulders), perhaps meaning that Wulfgar "stood at attention,"22 for "cube he dugube peaw" (359b: he understood the protocol of the veterans). His abrupt use of a negative imperative verb, "No 6u him wearne geteoh" (366b) falls within the domain ofPeaw, perhaps as a prerogative of the king's "ar and ombiht" (336a: herald and officer), for this is Wulfgar's office. Even so, imperative "no... geteoh" is couched between deferential vocatives, beoden min (365a) and glcedman Hrodgar (367b). Wulfgar identifies the visitors as Geats led by a man named Beowulf, and petitioners (benan, 364b), notwithstanding his earlier reference to Beowulf, in conference, as a singular bena (352b). He counsels Hroogar to admit all the Geats into court, not just Beowulf. Finally there is Wulfgar's descriptive verb for Beowulf, deah, the present indicative form of dugan (avail, benefit, succeed on someone's behalf). I translated deah as "accomplished," as if it were preterite, but the verb is oriented toward the future and means something like "having the capability to accomplish success on your behalf." The relevance of deah to the problem of Grendel must have been obvious to the Danes in council. Hroogar assents. He could not refuse Beowulf an audience. That would be scurrilous. But he could have received Beowulf alone while his retainers waited in the courtyard. That would have sent an unwelcoming message, for his retainers were an elite military corps, personally selected by Beowulf (205-8a), arguably his first comitatus. When Beowulf consulted Hygelac about taking the adventure in Denmark, he also requested a comitatus, for "him wees manna pearf" (201b: to him [HroOgar] was need of men). The genitive plural, manna, alludes to his proposed comitatus. Geatish counselors, snotere ceorlas (202b: wiser men) urged this in council. Hygelac consented, reluctantly (1992b-97a). Whilst Hroogar's comitatus was a permanent war-band, like the one described by Tacitus (De Germania 13-14), Beowulf s first comitatus, and his last in the dragon-fight, were organized for specific occasions, like the one described by Julius Caesar (De Bello 22
Eliason 1969: 238, suggesting "ceremonial significance."
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Gallic° 6.23). It may be that an ad hoc comitatus was a more primitive form, while a standing comitatus evolved later as an adjunct to kingship.23 The comparison might suggest that the Danish kingdom is more advanced, the Geatish one more primitive, but the two forms of comitatus are not incompatible. In any event, Beowulf's grant of a comitatus, in the dialect of symbolic politics, ratified his status as an cePeling. Hroogar agreed to receive the prince and his comitatus in court, so that he and Beowulf could discourse on equal terms. There was no need to complain about Heorot that "man gruezet sunderlingen di ki1ninge and it man,"24 as Hagen said about Etzel's court when it was under the Kriemhild's baleful influence. Wulfgar had promised Beowulf a prompt decision: "Ic... wille... pe ba ondsware wdre gecyoan" (350b, 351b, and 354: I will quickly disclose [Hroogar's] answer to you). Hroogar not only made this possible; he insisted on it:25 'Beo 611 on ofeste, hat in gan seon sibbegedriht samod zetguedere; gesaga him eac wordum past sint wilcuman.' [Wedera] leodum word inne abead. (Beowulf 386-89a: "Be in haste, bid them all together to come in to see [me], also say to them in your speech that [they] are welcome." [Wulfgar] from inside [the hall] announced the words to the people of the Weders [sc. the Geats]). A long delay would have marred the reception with hints of distrust, disesteem, or debate in the Danish council. Haste signifies welcome.26 23
As argued in Thomson 1965: 50 and endorsed in D. H. Green 1998: 106-7.
De Boor, ed., Nibelungenlied 28 aventiure, 1738: trans. Hatto 1965: 216: They have separate greetings here for kings and their vassal. 24
25 For 389b-90, I follow Bammesberger (2006), emending Deniga to Wedera to provide alliteration with 3906. Klaeber (1950) assumes a manuscript gap between "Deniga leodum" and "word inne abead," and provides two verses of his own composition. Dobbie (1953) keeps "Deniga leodum" and indicates a gap in the manuscript. 26
Redwine 1982: haste on formal occasions signifies sincerity in Beowulf.
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Hroogar accepted Wulfgar's counsel, but not without "outdoing" him in his reply, for he had already known Beowulf as a boy (cnihtwesendne, 372b), when his father Ecgpeow, King Hre6el's son-in-law, took refuge in Denmark as an exile (373-76). When seafarers (scelibende) spoke of a Geat whose hand-grip equaled that of thirty men, Hro8gar knew that they meant Beowulf (377-81a), who came to Denmark to fight Grendel (381b-84a). Sailors, like poets, were conveyers of international news. That is why, when Beowulf gave instructions for his funeral, he commanded that the Geats build his burial mound at Hronesnxs, where sailors would see and rename it Biowulfes biorh (2801-8). By that means they would spread his fame to many lands. Of course, sailors were not always reliable. Hadubrand heard from seafarers (seolidante) that his father was dead, and on that basis he rejected Hildebrand's peace-offering.27 However so, Wulfgar and Hroogar had diplomatic knowledge of nations and kings, like Hildebrand (boasting to Hadubrand): ibu du mi enan sages, ik mi de odre uuet, chind, in chunincriche: thud ist mir al irmindeot. (Hildebrandslied 12-13: If you, young warrior, tell me the name of one man in [your] kingdom, I shall know the others myself; for the whole race of men is known to me.) Hroogar's diplomatic knowledge was more detailed than Wulfgar's, and based upon personal experience. In keeping with protocol, Wulfgar instructs the Geats to leave their shields and spears outside during their meeting in Heorot (397-98). They do so, leaving some of their men as guards (400b-1). This theme has cognates in the Nibelungenlied, Heimskringla, Fagrskinna, Suite du Merlin, and Malory's Tale of Balin (discussed in Chapter 9). Unlike Hagen and Balin who insisted on bearing arms in the hall contrary to custom, and unlike Hakon's Norwegian attendants
27
Hildebrandslied 42-44, in Dickins 1915: 82.
209
who concealed weapons under their cloaks at King iaelstan's feast, Beowulf and the Geats followed protocol. Wulfgar had no need to return to the courtyard to supervise their disarmament. From inside Heorot (inne), he called out his welcome to them: "word inne abead" (390b). On their honor, the Geats disarmed themselves. Beowulf s discourse with Wulfgar (331b-54) is the second of three reception interviews; the first was with the Coastguard (229-319), the third with Hro6gar (405-90). Comic elements in the Coastguard scene28 have led critics to see comic irony in all three scenes, collectively as a sort of "bureaucratic processing,"29 but the episodes convey a more elevated epic theme. There are three possible reasons why Beowulf might have come to Denmark. The Coastguard contemplates one of them: maybe the Geats came as leasscearvveras (253a: deceitful spies), an advance party of vikings intent on raids. Wulfgar contemplates a second: maybe they came for wrcecsidum (338b). Nobler than the Coastguard, he understates the thought: "Wen is 1)xt ge for wlenco, nalles for wrwcsiown" (338: I think that you [came] on account of heroic spirit, not at all as exiles).30 Hrobgar, noblest of speakers, knows right away that Beowulf came for arstafum, to aid the Danes against Grendel (382b-84a). These two themes link the three "reception" scenes: positive, comparative, and superlative degrees of noble speaking, and seafarers who might have come as pirates, as exiles, or as heroes. Epic antithesis A typescene governs the reception scenes: a review of possible reasons for a "crux" event such as the arrival of a stranger or calling a council. This is epic
28
Pepperdene 1966; Eliason 1969; Smith 1976.
29
Brennan 1985.
3° Clark Hall ([1911] 1950: 185), asserts that Wulfgar, as Vandal prince (348b) "had probably come into Hrothgar's service through banishment." Bryan (1929: 125n.) takes a different view, viz., that Wulfgar was a prince from Vendland, in Jutland, hence, a West-Dane (cf. 383a).
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antithesis.31 The typescene appears in the Odyssey, when Telemachos calls for a council of Ithacan lords to press his complaint against the suitors who have taken over his estate. Aegyptius, the elder, opens the council by asking why it was called, and suggests two possible reasons:32 Do listen, Ithacans, to what I say. This is our first assembly since the day when hollow ships bore bright Odysseus away. But who is he who summons us? Who needed so to see us gather here— a younger man or one well on in years? Did he hear word of an approaching force and wants to share that first alert with us? Or did he need to rally this assembly for other public matters to discuss? In any case, he seems to me courageous, blessed by the gods: may Zeus be generous— and let this man fulfill what his heart wills. Telemachos, echoing Aegyptius's words, reviews them antithetically before disclosing his reason for calling a council:33 Old man, as you yourself are soon to hear, . the one who called this council is at hand. I am the man who wanted us to meet, the man who—more than any here—must grieve. I have no news of an invading fleet, no urgent warning I must now repeat to every Ithacan—nor would I speak of other public things. All that I plead is my own sorry case: A double curse has fallen on my house. For I have lost a most courageous father, he who once ruled you who gather here—a man most gentle. And still another evil threatens me: 31
I discuss epic antithesis in Appendix II.
32
Odyssey
33
Odysseus
2.24-36, trans. Cook 1967. 2.37-53.
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the ruin of my house will be complete; all that we own will be consumed. The suitors— dear sons of those who are the noblest here— against her will, besiege my mother now. Telemachos comes to the council as a supplicant, and presents his complaint as a grievance personal to his family, but the real theme is lordlessness (the absence of Odysseus) and the lawlessness of the suitors, aristocratic scions who ought to be models of social order. Epic antithesis appears again in the Odyssey, in conjunction with the "initial reception of a hero-stranger in court," when Telemachos sails from Ithaca to Pylos with his crew of retainers, intending to travel overland thence to Sparta. King Nestor entertains them at a feast, then inquires of Telemachos:34 Now is the best time to inquire, and to ask Strangers who they are, after they have enjoyed food. Strangers, who are you? Whence have you sailed the watery ways? For some sort of gain, or do you wander at hazard The way pirates do who wander over the sea, Risking their lives, bearing evil to foreigners? Nestor's reception of Telemachos combines two themes: noble speaking, and an antithetical review of a stranger's possible motives for arriving in the court. The Beowulf poet adds a third person to the typescene (Wulfgar), and a third theme, "outdoing." In an interaction of three, each man outdoes the other for courtesy as the episode progresses.35
34
Odysseus 3.66-73.
Thus Wulfgar and HroOgar define Beowulf's reception in a typescene. Perhaps there is a distant echo of an alternative typescene later, in Unfero's challenging remarks and Wealhpeow's welcoming ones. Smits (1986) argues for the existence of a "reception" typescene in which the king's mixed feelings about the stranger-hero are represented by an insulting courtier and a welcoming queen—seen also in the Nibelungenlied and Parzival. I would want a broader range of examples before concurring that this is a typescene. 35
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The Eegpeow digression (Beowulf458-72) In his welcoming speech, Hroagar discloses the political and legal context of Beowulf's mission. Beowulf came for arfastum (458a: for honor). The term has a double meaning: (1) honor obtained through heroic accomplishment, and (2) avoidance of dishonor that comes as the result of violating an oath or neglecting an obligation. Beowulf also came for gewyrhtum (457a: for [past] deeds done). The manuscript at line 457 lacks alliteration: "fere .b,htum Pu wine min Beowulf," with diverse alternatives debated. The most viable reading seems to be for gewyrhium, anticipating Hroogar's comments about EcgPeow.36 The emendation provides the two verses with anaphoric parallelism, such that the first phrase, for gewyrhtum, refers to Ecgbeow's interactions with Hroogar in the past, while for arfastum refers to Beowulf's interactions with Hroagar in the present. Following this orderly introduction, HroOgar presents a summary of EcgPeow's feud and exile: Gesloh in fader fxhoe mxste; wearp he Heapolafe to handbonan mid Wilfingum; aa hine Wedera cyn for herebrogan habban ne mihte. Panon he gesohte Suodena folc ofer yoa gewealc, Arscyldinga. (Beowulf 459-69: your father, fighting, brought about the greatest feyness; to the Wilfings, he became Heapolafs hand-slayer. Then the Weder-[Geatish] people, for fear of warfare, could not abide him [sc. banished him]. Thence he sought the South-Danish people over the rolling waver, the Glory-Scyldings.) Line 459 could be rendered "your father fought the greatest fight," "fought out the greatest feud," or "brought about by fighting the greatest feud,"37 but these translations ignore Hroogar's main point, which is that even though Ecgpeow did 36 Klaeber 1950: 145n.; Lehmann 1969: 224-26. Even without this and other manuscript emendations, the legal and political themes in Hroagar's remarks are clear. 37
Alternatives mentioned by Klaeber 1950: 145-46.
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not personally slay Heakolaf, he started the quarrel that resulted in Heapolaf s death. For good reason, then, the Wilfings held him culpable as Healpolaf s bana. The verb wearji (460a) rather than wars points to this meaning. So, too, does fiehOe (459b), accusative singular offeehdo (< *firgik5), "feyness," proposed by Lehmann,38 meaning "the legal status of being responsible for a feud, or for its tragic result." Hroogar attaches ethical importance to the legal distinction that he is making. This is no ham-fisted story about an exiled murderer.39 Even so, Ecgbeow was responsible for starting a quarrel that got out of hand, and after Heabolaf s death, he found himself entangled in a web of events that left him legally responsible for the death of a prince. Hroogar sheltered him as an exile, and paid a wergild to compose the feud (470-72a). Ecgkeow, in exchange, "me alms swor" (472b: swore oaths to me). The content of these oaths,4° unknown to us, must have been known to Beowulf, who inherited his father's obligation to Hroogar. The standard view of the "welcoming" scene, initially articulated by Hoops and seconded by Bonjour, is that Hroogar saves face, and preserves Danish pride by recalling a time when he had helped EcgPeow.4 ' Viewed as symbolic politics, Ecgkeow's story, articulated with courtesy as it must be, signifies a legal obligation on Beowulf s part, not face-saving for HroOgar. Beowulf's obligation to Hroagar is as real as the problem of Grendel. Two narrative strands come together as one.
38 Lehmann 1969: 225-26. Most editors assume that fah& should be construed as genitive plural fcelida, cf. K]aeber 1950: 145-46. 39 I disagree with Davis (1996: 110) when he characterizes Ecgiaeow as a murderer because his name means "Sword-slave." His name could be borne with honor by any Germanic warrior.
4° Klaeber's suggestion, that Ecgleeow swore an oath to behave himself and keep the peace (1950: 146) is based upon the assumption that Ecgkeow murdered Healoolaf. 4I
Hoops 1932a: 98 and 19326: 72; Bonjour 1950: 15-17.
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Gift-giving as demonstrative behavior During the dialogue of Wulfgar and HroOgar in Danish council, the king began to plan his next act of symbolic politics: gift-giving. "Ic Pcem sceal," he says, "for his modbrxce madmas beodan" (384b-85: I must give him treasures for his resolute courage). Gift-giving appears in seven episodes: First, during the feast after Grendel's demise, Hroogar gave Beowulf four military treasures: Healfdene's sword,' a battle standard, helmet, mailcoat, and another sword. In a separate presentation, he gave Beowulf eight bridled horses, one of them with his personal war-saddle (1020-49).4' The saddled horse was important because of its personal connection to Hroogar; it is the only gift that Beowulf kept for himself when he returned to Geatland. Hroogar also presented each of the thirteen surviving Geatish warriors with a valuable treasure, an heirloom (yrfelafe, 1053a), and paid a wergild in gold for Hondscioh (1053b-55a). Second, at the same feast, after the stop's performance of a heroic lay about Finn and Hengest, Wealhkeow presented Beowulf with an armlet, a mailcoat and rings, and a torque that the poet compares to the "Brosinga mene" in an elaborate simile (1193-1224a). Roberta Frank remarks that "women's ceremonies come second and receive less notice,"44 but that is true only if we regard Wealhkeow's gifts as supplemental to Hroogar's, and her motives as patent. I discuss this problem below. For the present, it is enough to say that Wealhpeow's torque was the most valuable gift that Beowulf received in Denmark. 42 Brand Healfdenes I020b, defended as "Healfdane's sword" by Mitchell (1988-89), in preference to emending to bearn Healfdenes "son of Healfdane," referring to Hroogar. 43 There is confusion in the manuscript at 1020b, brand healfendes. Most editors emend to bearn Healfdenes, "the son of Healfdane," an epithet for HroOgar, thus providing the sentence with an (otherwise missing) subject. Shirai (1993: 31-32), maintaining the ms reading, interprets "Healfdane's sword" as one of Hrodgar's gifts, and identifies it as the same weapon that belonged to Heoroweard for a long time, which Hroogar gave to Beowulf as one of his farewell gifts (215562). This is possible, but it conflicts with the poet's reference to four treasures (fewer madmas, 1027b) given to Beowulf at this time. 44
Frank 1995: 16.
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Third, when Beowulf returns from Grendel's mere, he presents Hroogar with Grendel's head "tires to tacne" (1654a: a sign of victory), and also the giantlike sword-hilt whose runic inscription serves as the text upon which Hroogar bases his "sermon" (1677-98a). Grendel's head signifies equity in the revenge obtained for .€schere's head.45 Wealhkeow's presence in this scene is an unexpected detail: Da was be feaxe on flet Boren Grendles heafod, parr guman druncon, egeslic for eorlum ond bwre idese mid, wliteseon wrwtlic; iveras on sawon. (Beowulf 1647-50: then Grendel's head was carried by the hair, into the hall where men drank, a terror for the men and the lady with them, a wondrous spectacle. Men gazed on [it].) Although some critics have seen Wealhbeow's role here as passive, subordinate, and marginal,46 the syntax in line 1649 is inclusive: "for eorlum ond pare idese mid." The scene is remarkable because Wealhkeow is the only woman present. While it is true that Wealhbeow is not included in the last verse, "weras on sawon," the poet's point seems to be that while the Danish retainers examined Grendel's head, Hroagar examined the rune-inscribed sword-hilt, a much more edifying artifact, signifying his status as Ideal Knower. The passage as a whole reminds me of the opening scene in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, where Gwenevere was the only lady mentioned when the Green Knight's head rolled across the floor in Camelot. We learn later in Gawain that Gwenevere's presence was significant, for Bertilak tells Gawain that Morgan le Fay had sent him, shapeshifted as a green giant with a beheading game, with the intention of scaring
45 So noted by Owen-Crocker (2002b: 93-94). The decapitation of Grendel was not gratuitous. The text does not encourage a belief that Beowulf decapitated Grendel to ensure that he would not return to haunt Heorot, as might be the case in a Scandinavian saga. 46
Homer [2001] 2006: 480-81.
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Gwenevere to death.47 Wealhkeow, like Gwenevere, can hold her own in an otherwise all-male environment. Fourth, on the occasion of Beowulf's departure from Denmark, HroOgar gave him twelve treasures (1866-69), in fulfillment of his earlier promise to reward the hero for fighting Grendel's mother (1380-82). The twelve gifts are unspecified at the time, but later, when Beowulf regifts them to Hygelac, he identifies two of them: the late king Heorogar's sword and his mailcoat, which he had declined to give to own son Heoroweard, for reasons unknown (2155-62). Perhaps the fate of Heorogar's wargear signifies horizontal succession, for the kingship passed from him to his younger brother Hroogar, rather than to his son Heoroweard, as would be the case in a vertical succession." Fifth, en route to his ship, Beowulf gave the Coastguard a gold-adorned sword, one of the treasures that he had received during the gift-giving ceremonies in Heorot: He peem batwearde bunden golde swurd gesealde, kwt he syokan wws on meodubence makme 1:ty weorkra, yrfelafe. (Beowulf 1900-3a: He gave a gold-bound sword to the boat-guard, so that afterwards he was held in greater honor on the mead-bench, [carrying that] heirloom.) Unlike other gift-giving episodes, this one seems spontaneous. It happened while the Geats were loading Hroogar's gifts onto the ship (1896-99). Observing this, Beowulf selected a sword for the Coastguard. Generosity came naturally to him. The gift was asymmetrical. Usually gifts are given and received by members of the aristocracy. Beowulf could have given the Coastguard a coin or two in recompense for guarding his boat. Instead he gave a sword, which brought honor 44
Gawain and the Green Knight 417-43 and 2440-60.
48
Suggested by Chambers 1967: 428; repeated by Morey 2007: 38.
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to the Coastguard and prestige among his peers, first because treasure and honor are "almost interchangeable":49 second because it is a sword, a gift from one warrior to another. Just as Wealhbeow's torque, which the poet compares to the brosinga mene (1199a), "raises Beowulf to the level of esteem" of Hama,5° so Beowulf s gift elevates the Coastguard's esteem among his military colleagues. Through four parallels in narrative structure, the Coastguard scenes resemble encounters between Beowulf and Unfera. First there are scenes of "verbal challenge and reply." The Coastguard challenges the Geats for landing their ship on the Danish shore without prior permission (ieafnenvord, 245b), in a speech that alternates between bluntness and courtesy (229-57); he is satisfied with Beowulf's reply (258-300), and assigns some of his men to guard the ship (293-300). During the initial feast in Heorot, 'infer() challenges Beowulf about his maritime adventure with Breca (499-528). Beowulf's reply (529-606) satisfies Hroogar because of its spirited resolve (607-10). Second there are parallel scenes of "helpfulness." The Coastguard accompanies the Geats to Heorot as their guide (301-19). Unfero loans Beowulf his sword Hrunting (1455-72) as the hero arms himself for combat in the mere (1441b-72), a conventional scene framed by repetition of gyrede (144 lb and 14726, arrayed). Third, Beowulf's gift of a sword to the Coastguard (1888-1903a) is matched by a scene in which Beowulf returns Hrunting to Unfero (1807-12), praising its battle-worthiness while maintaining diplomatic silence about its ineffectiveness against Grendel's mother: "nales wordum log / meces ecge" (1811b-12a: not at all [did he] in words blame the edge of the sword). Apart from three scenes with Beowulf, Unfero makes a separate appearance as a spectator who, along with other Danes, witnesses Grendel's arm hung from the roof of Heorot. At that time "wxs swigra secg, sunu Eclafes, / on gylpsprxce guogeweorca" (980-81a: the son of Ecglaf was a quieter man in his boasting speech about war-deeds). The comparative adjective swigra, a litotes, Cherniss 1972: 94. 5° Cherniss 1972: 95.
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has a double meaning: (1) he was quieter than he had been when he challenged Beowulf about Breca, and (2) he was quieter than other Danes who gazed at the spectacle of Grendel's arm: zEghwylc gecwwo 1-iwt him heardra nan hrinan wolde iren wrgod. (Beowulf 987b-89a: Each one said that no hardy [warrior's] iron [sword], however good from before [sc. tested in battle] could have reached [sc. injured] him.) Unfero's silence on this occasion corresponds with the Coastguard's newfound respect for the Geats, when, still on horseback, he bids them bon voyage: no he mid hearme of hlioes nosan gces[tas] grette, ac he togeanes rad, tweed fret wilcuman Wedera leodum scaPan scirhame to scipe foron. (Beowulf 1892-95: he did not greet the guests with insult from the cliff's ness, but he rode toward them, declared that the warriors, [as they] made their way to the ship, [would be] welcome to the people of the Wederas.) The Coastguard's new sword is a sign of Beowulf s generosity, and of the honor that gifts confer upon their recipients. Besides this it plays a structural role in the narrative, such that Beowulf s encounters with the Coastguard are paralleled by those with Hafer& Sixth: on Beowulf s return to Geatland, he and Hygelac exchange gifts in a homecoming reception. Beowulf gave Hygelac the four military treasures that Hroagar had given him, and four of the bridled horses (2152-54 and 2163-66a). To Hygd he gave three bridled horses, and Weallibeow's torque (2172-76). In the same scene, Hygelac gave Beowulf 7,000 hides of land, a hall and throne, and
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Hre6el's sword, which he laid in Beowulf s lap ("he on Biowulfes bearm alegde," 2194). Among these gifts, the land-grant had the greatest commercial value. Perhaps it was Beowulf s patrimony, which neither Hee6cyn nor Hygelac had confirmed on him after Ecgkeow's death.51 But HreOel's sword was the most important gift. Just so in the first gift-giving ceremony in Heorot, Wealhkeow's torque had greater commercial value, but Hroogar's war-saddle was more important, due to its political symbolism. Hreoel's sword signifies closure, an honorable reward for a deed well done,' but also marks the start of Beowulfs career as Hygelac's champion.53 In the Finn episode, Hunlafing laid Hnwfs sword in Hengest's lap (114245) in a "charging ceremony." Hygelac's ritual is similar, but differently nuanced. When Hygelac places Hreoel's sword in Beowulf s lap, he appoints Beowulf as his champion, and signifies that Beowulf has an interest in the Geatish dynastic succession. This ritual gesture authorizes and anticipates his future roles as Hygelac's champion, Heardred's regent, and king. Praiseworthy as Hroogar's gifts were in value and quantity, Hygelac's singular gift overshadows them in political significance.54 Seventh: mortally wounded by the dragon, Beowulf gave his war-gear and torque to Wiglaf, his only living relative (2729-51 and 2813-16). His gift-giving frames the episode in which Wiglaf fetches the dragon's hoard for him to see, and constitutes the first and third of his three "death-speeches." In the second (27942808), he bequeaths the hoard to his people. This gift-giving episode is private, because the other Geatish retainers, who should have been present as witnesses, fled to the woods during the dragon-fight. Joseph Harris proposed that Beowulf's 51
John [1973-74] 1995: 67.
52
Shirai 1993: 28-29.
Palmer (1976: 10-11) might be right that this gift-giving scene anticipates Beowulfs future kingship as well. 53
54 I would not go so far as Stephanie Hollis (1983), who asserts that the gift of a king's armor always designates an heir to the throne. Royal succession is one possible "meaning" of such a gift, but not the only one.
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three speeches exemplify the "Norse-English death-song," a genre particular to the Anglo-Norse Kulturbund.55 Except for Beowulf, other examples appear in Old Norse texts. Whatever the case, "words before dying" are conventional across cultures, in epics, sagas, and saints' lives. Inheritance and funeral arrangements are recurring themes. Beowulf s gifts to Wiglaf and to the Geats belong to that context. The poet alludes to other gift-givings. "Ring-giver" and "gold-giver" recur as epithets for kings. Beowulf is unique among epics in dedicating so much attention to gift-giving. Critics attribute diverse nuances to gifts, ranging from benign indicators of courtesy to conflicted images of competitive giving, or gifts intended to recruit the recipient into a feud or dynastic struggle.56 At the benign end of the spectrum, Magennis associates gift-giving with feasts as positive "images of community." He allows for ironic images of feasting, but for him, irony does not extend to gifts.57 Many Anglo-Saxonists accept this view: giftgiving symbolizes friendship, communal hall-joy,58 loyalty between a king and his thanes, and social stability.59 Donahue idealized gift-giving as a Germanic form of potlatch, a secular practice of giving and counter-giving that (he thought) provided a cultural bridge to Christian caritas, but a devil is in the details, for HroOgar's first gifts to Beowulf can be "counter-gifts" only if Beowulf's defeat of Grendel is viewed metaphorically as a "gift.7,60 At the "conflicted" end of the critical spectrum, some critics compare giftgiving in Beowulf with gift-exchange in the archaic societies studied by anthropologists, who emphasize, as driving themes, competitiveness and 55
Harris 1992.
56
Some of the criticism on gift-giving is summarized by John Hill ()997: 259-61).
57
Magennis 1996: 60-81.
58
Irving 1968: 131; Halverson 1969.
Leisi 1952-53: 271-73; Cherniss 1968: 475-76; Greenfield 1974, 'pt. in Greenfield 1989: 33-42; Hume 1974: 64-65. 6° Donahue 1975: 26.
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reciprocity. Bergin and Leicester cited gift-giving, revenge-inspired feuds, futile diplomatic marriages, and trouble-making boasts as competitive behaviors that ultimately doom a "heroic" society:5 ' John Niles and John Hill refined this approach. They proposed an ethos of reciprocity as the conceptual framework for gift-giving and feuds.62 Just as an injury must be repaid by another of equal or greater force, so a gift must be repaid by another of equal or higher value, such that gift-exchanges and feuds are two sides of the same coin. According to this view, the context for gift-giving is not the feast, or social stability, but reciprocity. Any gift is suspect. The greater its value, the more likely it will entangle its recipient into a web of feuds or dynastic rivalries. According to this view, Wealhbeow was competing with Hroogar, not supporting him or supplementing his gifts, when she gave Beowulf her golden torque. Her goal was to obtain the hero's future support for her sons in the royal succession, whatever Hro6gar's wishes might have been. This is possible. If Beowulf were an Icelandic saga, one might say it was certain, although it is difficult to see how Wealhbeow's torque, despite its greater material value, could compete with Hro6gar's war-saddle, which had a personal, military connection with the king. We should take the poet at his word when he says that in recompense for combat (heakorceses geald, 1047b), Hroogar gave horses and treasures "swa by nefre man lyho" (1048b: such that no man would ever find fault with them); the adverb ncefre implies that Hroogar's gift-giving measured up to any ancient, present, or future standard.° Even so, analogy to gifts in Old Norse sagas suggests common themes, competitiveness and 61
Bergin and Leicester 1974.
62 John M. Hill 1982: 187-93, and Niles 1983: 213-23, "Reciprocity." Independent of anthropology, Emile Benveniste ([1969] 1973: 53-70) argued on philological grounds that giftgiving and hospitality are nuanced by reciprocity in early Indo-European languages and cultures. PIE *ghosti- means, variously, "host" and "guest" in early IE languages. PIE *do- is the source of the verb for "give" in Latin and in other IE languages, but it means "take" in Hittite, which uses another root, *pai-, for "give." The equivalency of host and guest, and of give and take, implies reciprocity. 63
Clemoes 1995: 123.
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reciprocity, such that supposedly generous gifts are given with the intent of insulting the recipient, picking a fight, or drawing him into a feud against his wi11.64 When gifts are given in sagas, their hostile intent is apparent to both recipient and donor, but the "dialects" of demonstrative behavior vary in place and time. The meaning of gifts in Beowulf most likely overlaps with Norse sagas in some details and differs in others. Unfera's loan of Hrunting (Beowulf 1455-72) Unfero's loan of his sword to Beowulf is a problem in symbolic politics. The poet tells us that Hrunting "was an foran ealdgestreona" (1458: was the foremost of old [inherited] treasures)," and that Unfero lent Beowulf the sword because "selfa ne dorste / under Oa gewin aldre geneban" (1468b-69: he himself dared not risk his life under the clash of waves). On account of that, UnferO lost
out on fame (1470b: "b= he dome forleas"), in contrast to Pam odrum (1471b: the other), Beowulf, who earned it. Earlier we learned that Unfer6, ambitious for glory, was unwilling to grant that any man was more famous for heroic deeds than himself (503-5). That was his motive for flyting Beowulf. Now, at the moment of truth, UnferO relinquishes dom, not daring to dive into the mere. Is his loan of Hrunting a plot to arm Beowulf with a weapon that will fail? Or is it a mea culpa, a concession that Beowulf is the better man? If Unfero's gesture is a concession, we might think of it as a nonverbal form of parrhesia, the public disclosure of some truth, or admission of weakness, at grave risk to one's safety or reputation. The forms of parrhesia are diverse. They range from speaking "truth to power" as Antigone does with Creon, to disarming confessions of imperfection, as Paul does, the chief of sinners, confessing his fault to Romans (Rom. 7: 14-25); to Galatians confessing his role as a persecutor of Christians (Ga1.1: 13-24). Parrhesia might also be a hostile challenge, as when Hagen boasts to Kriemhild that he had murdered Siegfried, in 64
Gronbech 1989: 47-59; Miller 1986; Andersson and Miller 1989: 51-55.
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the hearing of eavesdropping Huns.65 Michel Foucault, in an analysis of Plato's dialogues, identifies a "Socratic" form of parrhesia that draws interlocutors toward self-reflection and "the care of the self," but even so he concedes that ordinary parrhesia, in the conventional sense of "frank confession," coexists with Socratic parrhesia in Plato.66 At the end of Laches, a dialogue on courage, the veteran generals Laches and Nicias concede that Socrates is a better teacher.° Just so, Unfero concedes that Beowulf is a better champion against Grendel's mother. If this is what Unfero's gesture means, he is only conceding what his Danish and Geatish spectators already know. Is this public gesture of dornlessness a further humiliation, or is it parrhesiastic courage, like that of Laches and Nicias? Does Unfero save face by a disarming gesture of self-effacement? This is possible, but comparison of the Hrunting episode with a distant analogue discloses another possible meaning. In the fifth-century Armenian History of P`awstos Buzand, the author describes a battle near Mount Npat, between the Armenian king Pap (A.D. 367-374) and Shah Shapuh of Iran. Pap's defense of Armenia was made possible by Emperor Valens of Byzantium (A.D. 364-378), who sent a large army. To better ensure victory, Pap sought the Armenian religious patriarch, Archbishop Nerses, who had retired from the court, and prevailed upon him to accompany his troops and bless them with prayer. Prior to the battle, Pap's reputation was attenuated, not by kin-slaying (like Unfero), but by sodomy. Even so, Pap managed to resist Iranian expansion into Armenia. He wanted to arm himself and fight in the battle, but the Byzantine general, Terent, would not allow this, because Emperor Valens had charged him with Pap's personal safety. Pap distrusted the loyalty of his Armenian general, Mushel, who he feared might switch sides during the battle. He wanted Mushel restrained from battle,
65
Nibelungenlied 29, str. 1790-91, De Boor 522.
66
Foucault [1983].
67
Plato, Laches 200, 1892, 1: 76.
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just as he was. Terent and Nerses struck a compromise. In a court scene, Mushel prostrated himself before Pap, and Nerses administered an oath of loyalty to Mushel. After this court ceremony, Pap ordered his own horse and spear sent to Mushel, but the commander refused them, saying, "I will use my own, king... Whatever you give, I am on your side." The Armenians won a decisive victory at Mount Npat, but Pap nursed a grudge against Mushel, because during the fighting, the commander spared the life of Urhnayr, king of Albania [Georgia]. Compared to Mushel, Pap was cruel. In a previous battle, Mushel freed Persian ladies, including the queen, thereby gaining Shapuh's respect and Pap's contempt. After the battle of Mount Npat, Pap was receptive to slanders against Mushel. This is a common fate of successful military commanders, in epic and in history, as illustrated by President George W. Bush's shabby treatment of Colin Powell. Mushel's undiplomatic refusal of the loan of Pap's horse and spear could not have helped matters." Pap, like Unfero, desired military glory, notwithstanding his tarnished reputation. Glory requires combat. One must take the adventure. Neither Pap nor Unfero is able to take the adventure of combat. Both offer to loan a weapon to a hero who does join combat. Is the loan an admission of failure? Or is it a compensatory substitution, a desire to gain fame for his weapon, if not for himself? Mushel agreed to prostration and oath-taking, but refused to borrow Pap's horse and spear. This bit of symbolic politics had not been negotiated earlier. It was not part of the deal. Was he keeping his distance from Pap, refusing to allow him a share in the glory of battle? Beowulf was generous by contrast. Even so, because Hrunting failed in the combat with Grendel's mother, Unfelt, gained no glory on that account. There is no reason why parallel episodes in Beowulf and in P'awstos Buzand's History should have the same meaning, but I am inclined to believe that Unfer6 and Pap offered to loan their weapons in hopes of obtaining some small share in a glorious battle. 68
Pawstos Buzand, History of the Armenians 5.1.4.214-15.
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iiroOgar's adoption of Beowulf Like gift-giving, Hroogar's adoption of Beowulf as his son is symbolic politics. If there was a formal adoption ceremony, like Alfred's at the baptism of Gubrum, the poet doesn't describe it, but this adoption must have been negotiated as part of a diplomatic treaty, just like the Peace of Wedmore. No doubt Hrobgar and Beowulf met privately, "behind the scene" of the text, to discuss terms. A private meeting is alluded to twice. When Beowulf was preparing to descend into Grendel's mere, he reminded Hroogar of "hwwt wit geo sprzecon" (1476b: what we two earlier spoke about). Later, in his sermon, Hroogar alludes to it: "Ic sceal mine gelmstan / freode, swa wit furoum sprmcon" (1706b-7a: I shall fulfill my [vow of] friendship, just69 as we two discussed). A third allusion to private negotiation: When Hroogar, in his lament for ,Eschere, told Beowulf that "nu seo hand lige& / se be eow welhwylcra wilna dohte" (1343b-44: now the hand lies [dead], he who availed you well in all things), perhaps Hroogar refers to jEschere's advocacy for the king's adoption plan, discussed
in camera.
This is not hyperbolic indulgence, but an exact
description of lEschere's role as HroOgar's chief counselor. The allusion is obscure, but I know of no alternative explanation, other than to dismiss it as an inexplicable outburst. The poet develops the adoption theme in eight passages, some explicit, some not. I discuss them in chronological order. First, in his report to Hygelac, Beowulf says that during his first day in Denmark, as soon as Hroogar learned of his intention to fight Grendel, he seated the hero with his son at the feast: Ic ór furoum cwom to oam hringsele HroOgar gretan; sona me se mwra mago Healfdenes, syooan he modsefan mine cuoe, wi5 his sylfes sunu set' getxhte. 69
Furdum, "just," as glossed in Klaeber 1950: 336.
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(Beowulf 2009b-13: I first came to the ring-hall to greet Hroogar; after the famous kinsman of Healfdene knew of my resolute intention, immediately he showed me a seat opposite [or facing] his own son [HreOric].) The other Geats were seated on a bench that had been cleared for them in the hall (491-94a). Political symbolism is emphasized in Beowulf s allusion to one son, Hreoric, the eldest." (On his second day in Denmark, he is seated between both sons.)7I I know of no other Germanic text that sheds light on the accommodation of noble boys at a feast, but Tacitus describes the Roman custom in his account of how Nero poisoned Britannicus, his fourteen-year-old kinsman. It was customary, Tacitus wrote, "for the imperial princes to sit during their meals with other nobles of the same age, in the sight of their kinsfolk, at a table of their own, frugally furnished."72 The custom in Beowulf need not be identical, but we might expect similarities within the Romano-Celto-Germanic cultural area. Some critics think that lines 2009b-13 present a narrative inconsistency, in conflict with Beowulf's assigned seating between Hreoric and Hroomund on the Geats' second day in Denmark (1190b-91), but the text implies that Hroogar had thoughts about adopting Beowulf from the moment of his arrival. Consider this theme from the perspective of narrative strategy. If the poet had said, at lines 49194, that the Geats were seated on a bench while Beowulf was seated across the table from Hreoric, we would have assumed that this was symbolic deference to Beowulf as their leader, nothing more. The initial seating of Beowulf has greater symbolic impact because we learn about it later, after HroOgar's intentions are clarified and carried out. When we learn about it, at 1190b-91, we cannot help but 7° Klaeber 1950: 403, s.v. sunu, marks this word as possibly accusative plural ("ap.?") only because of earlier references to two sons; however, Beowulf's offer of fosterage was made only to Hreoric. Other critics follow Klaeber; e.g. Schrader [1991] 2007: 28. 71 Waugh 1995: 210 translates sylfes sunu as "his own sons" (plural), but Beowulf's allusion to HreOric pertains to royal succession. 72 Tacitus, Annales 13.6, 1952: 129. In Hrolfs saga Kraki 15, the king assigns seating in the hall (Byock 1998: 32).
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think: So that's what that shrewd old king was up to all along! The poet found a way to give adoption a dramatic impact again, long after we thought that this theme had run its course. Second. In his public address on stapole (926a: at a supporting pillar) near the door of Heorot,73 viewing Grendel's arm hanging from the steep roof, Hro6gar announces his desire to adopt Beowulf as his son, because Beowulf had won everlasting fame: Nu ic, Beowulf, Pec, secg betsta, me for sunu wylle freogan on ferhPe. Heald for tela niwe sibbe. Ne bi6 pe nmnigra gad worolde wilna, pe ic geweald luebbe. (Beowulf 946b-50: Now, Beowulf, best of men, I desire to cherish you as my son for life. Henceforth keep [sc. be loyal to] this new kinship. You will not lack for anything that you desire in this world that I have power over.) Dockray-Miller interprets Hrobgar's speech as an "attempted" adoption, to which Beowulf is unresponsive: "Beowulf... rejected Hrothgar's offer of kinship by asserting his ties to Hygelac."74 His kinship with Hygelac is, indeed, the stronger bond, but at lines 1474-88 (the fifth passage in my inventory), Beowulf responds positively to the adoption theme. In any case Beowulf cannot accept Hrobgar's gifts without also accepting his offer of adoptive kinship. Beowulf refers to Hroogar's generosity later, in his report to Hygelac, remarking that HroOgar gave gifts "on [min]ne sylfes dom" (2147b: according to my own judgment). Hroogar's next comment, although addressed to Beowulf, is aimed at the Danes: Ful oft ic for lxssan lean teohhode, 73 I
follow Bammesberger 2002b for the sense of on stapole (926a).
Dockray-Miller [1998] 2006: 451 and 453.
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hordweorkunge finahran rince, sxmran sxcce. (Beowulf 951-53a: very often I have given a reward for less, honored meaner warriors with treasure, [men] weaker in battle.) This is apologia. Hroogar defends his generosity from unspoken criticism by Danes. Very likely he repeats a theme that came up during a court assembly in camera where the adoption of Beowulf was debated. His topic is treasure; his theme, adoption. What Hroagar articulates as desire is a fait accompli, as his exhortation, "Heald ford tela / niwe sibbe," implies. Among Hroogar's gifts were Heorogar's sword and mailcoat (2155-62). Beowulf thought it remarkable that Heorogar declined to bequeath these to his own son: No oy a r suna sinum syllan wolde, hwatum Heorowearde, keah he him hold ware. (Beowulf 2160-61: he did not wish to give them to his own son, bold Heoroweard, although he [the son] had been loyal to him.) No doubt this wargear was held in esteem, for HroOgar said of his older brother, "se wzes betera donne ic" (469b: he was better than me). Hroogar, for his part, did not reserve the sword and mailcoat as avuncular treasures for Hreoric. Beowulf includes them in his many gifts to Hygelac, but takes particular note of them. Adoption notwithstanding, Beowulf's first loyalty is to Hygelac. Third. Wealhbeow, at the feast celebrating Grendel's demise, refers to adoption: "Me man swgde, bat ku Ole for sunu wolde / hererinc habban" (117576a: someone told me that you wish to have the warrior as your son). Heorot is safe now (1176b-77a), she reminds him. He should share mead there while he can (1177b-78a), and bequeath the kingdom to his own kinsmen after his death (1178b-80a, "kinum magi= Ixf," 1178b: bequeath to your [own] kinsmen). Hrokulf is loyal, she says, and can be counted on to protect their sons (pa
229
geogode, 1181b) honorably, if he remembers that he had been treated honorably as a child, umborwesendum (1187a). Is this a reprimand? Does it undermine Hroogar's authority?75 Did Wealhbeow interpret the adoption as "Hrothgar's rash promise of his kingdom to Beowulf'?7° Was she threatening to promote Hrobulf as Hroogar's successor, in the hope of ensuring the eventual succession of her own sons?77 She is wrong about one thing. Heorot is not safe yet, as the night's events will disclose. Perhaps Hrobulf s loyalty is suspect, too. She has misgivings about the adoption. What does it mean? Obviously she was not present at the private meeting when adoption was decided. She says now what she would have said then, had she been invited.78 Wealhlieow's admonition79 to Hrobgar, "Bruc penden bu mote / manigra medo" (1177b-78a: share mead with many while you can) is not carpe diem, but metonymy: "Carry on with your governance, now that life in Heorot has returned to normal." Bruc... medo, signifies another symbolic ritual. Prior to battle, the king shares beer or wine with his retainers, who are assembled in the hall as a comitatus.80 In this episode, the retainers in Heorot are nobles, the political and military elite of Denmark. In this pre-battle ritual, the warriors, each one in turn, drink and boast about how they will fight in battle." During the terror of Grendel. Danish warriors made such boasts: "Ful oft gebeotedon beore druncne / ofer ealowmg oretmecgas" (480-81: very often, warriors, having drunk [Hroogar's] 96
Proposed by Irving 1989: 61, and Homer [2001] 2006: 478-79.
76
Homer [2001] 2006: 481.
" Damico 1984: 127-32; Homer [2001] 2006: 478-79. The point is made by Momma (2005: 177-78). 79 Wealhlmow's use of imperative verbs, signifying her desire to intervene, is noted by Damico 1984: 8; Overing 1990: 95-97; Homer [2002] 2006: 468.
8° Beer was cheaper and. more readily available than wine, as Magennis indicates (1996: 45-46), citing a letter by Alcuin (Epistle 8. 28-31, in Epistolae 4: 33) and a passage in IElfric's Colloquy (line 301). However so, in an analysis of beer, ale, wine, and mead in Beowulf, Whallon (1983) demonstrates that the beverage mentioned is determined by alliteration, not social hierarchy, as Magennis notes, too. Si
Robinson 1985: 74-75.
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beer, boasted over the ale-flagon), boasted that they would fight Grendel, but the same night, they were devoured, or carried off to the moors. As Russom points out, the ceremonial flagon is a "whetting cup" in bona, and in malo a poculum mortis.82 Now that Grendel is dead, Wealhpeow implies, the Danes can boast over beer (or wine) with honor, as Beowulf did when he drank his first mead-flagon and uttered his first beot in Heorot (611-38). Sharing a flagon signifies loyalty to the king, WealhPeow's principle theme. Royal ladies play their role as ceremonial greeters and servers. If Heorot were Uruk, we would want to compare Wealhpeow to Siduri, the ale-goddess. Fourth, Wealhpeow turns to Beowulf, who is seated between Hreoric and Hroomund. Syntactic tmesis, "be pwm gebroorum twxm" (1191b), iconizes the tableau. She gives him the golden torque, which the poet compares to the Brosing torque (1192-1214a). Suddenly the hall is silent ("Heal swege onfeng," 1214b), as everyone strains to hear her words, just as they do when Hroogar gives a formal address. Enjoy this torque, she says; enjoy your universal fame, but "Beo pu sona minum / dxdum gedefe" (1226b-27a: be gracious in deeds to my sons). In this hall, she says, each eorl is loyal; the people will do as I ask (1228-30). She does not mention adoption, but accepts it as the new status quo. In this context she appeals to Beowulf to protect her sons. Most critics believe that Wealhpeow speaks contrary to fact, in dramatic irony. She does not trust HroPulf, Hroogar's probable heir. She knows that Hropulf has allies in the court, the Pyle Unfero among them. Even as she speaks, Unfero "mt fotum seat frean Scyldinga" (1166a: sat at the feet of the lord of the Scyldings), a foreigner who betrayed his own kinsmen in the past (1167b-68a), and was likely to betray her sons in the future. By means of narrative collocation, the juxtaposition of this scene with the Finn episode implies that Wealhpeow can expect the same fate as Hildeburh.83 The seating arrangement, a tableau of 82
Russom 1988; earlier, Brown 1940.
83 Malone 1927: 268-69; Lawrence 1928: 126-27; Whitelock 1951: 35-36; Brodeur 1959: 119-31 and 141; Rosier 1962; Brodeur 1959: 141; Shippey 1972: 21-22; Newton 1993: 90-91.
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loyalty, in reality signifies conspiracy and future betrayal. Emboldened by Beowulf s adoption, Wealhkeow appeals to her sons' adoptive brother for aid in a future dynastic conflict. Her affirmation of Hrokulf s loyalty is really just a frail hope. All the more hopeless if as some have argued based on name-etymology, Weallikeow is just a foreign slave,84 but the poet suggests otherwise, identifying her as ides Helminga (620b). Malone, citing Widsid 29b, "Helm Wulfingum" (Helm [ruled] the Wylfings), identifies her as a Wylfing, with a family connection to Ecgkeow.85 Wealhkeow is not without friends in the world, unlike Kriemhild, who feared she had become friendless in Etzel's court. Possibly. But what if Wealhkeow means what she says? What if the threat is Beowulf, who, as Hroogar's adopted son, has a dynastic claim?86 Often enough in Roman history, that was the meaning when an emperor adopted a favorite "son." Wealhkeow appeals to Beowulf to honor her sons, by respecting Hrokulf s loyalty. Ogilvy argues that critics wrongly framed Unfer6 as a traitor, and Hrobulf too, based upon circumstantial evidence and biased readings of the text—a species of prosecutorial misconduct in literary criticism." Irving lets Unfero off the hook, but not Hrokulf.88 Morey thinks that Wealhkeow suspects both Hrokulf and Beowulf.89 (I think this is likely.) Magennis proposes irony unfavorable to Wealhkeow. Blind to signs of trouble ahead, she "perceives only loyalty among the Danes and looks forward in sanguine fashion to Hrothulf s protection of her own children if he should outlive Hrothgar."9° At the opposite extreme, Stratyner 84 So Thomas Hill (1990), arguing from Wealhbeow's name meaning "foreign slave." However, Beowulf refers to Hreoric as peodnes beam (1837a: son of a king) without reservation. 85
Malone [1940b] 1959: 113.
86
Argued, for example, by John Hill (1982).
87
Ogilvy 1964.
88 Irving 1989: 42-43 and 147. John Hill (1995: 100-3) and William Cooke (2007) also assert that Wealhkeow suspects Hrobulf. This is possible. 89
Morey 2007: 41-43.
9° Magennis 1996: 78. Crepin (1979: 51-52) stressed Wealhbeow's role as supportive of Hro6gar.
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regards Wealhpeow's words as a veiled threat: "that if Beowulf doesn't choose to honor her request to behave graciously, she will have the obedience of Hrothgar's thanes behind her in her defense of [her sons]."9 Craig Davis thinks that HroOgar's adoption of Beowulf poses a threat to WealhPeow's sons.' Sisam, Morgan, and Niles argue that there was neither treachery nor irony, except in the minds of critics.93 Critics have bandied arguments, based upon rival interpretations of text. An exception is Jackson, who in The Hero and the King proposes that adoption in Beowulf follows an epic pattern. A stranger comes to the court of an established but weak king, saves him and his court from a powerful enemy, but subsequently endangers the stability of the court by his continued presence there. The interactions between a dynamic stranger-hero and a dependent king bring tension and conflict. In some epics, this conflict dominates the narrative. Jackson finds the pattern in Achilles's quarrel with Agamemnon in the Iliad, in the tumultuous interactions between King Alfonso and Rodrigo in the Poema de Mio Cid, and in Walter's successive conflicts with Attila and the Burgundian king Gunther in Waltharius. In the second half of Virgil's Aeneid, Aeneas's interactions with King Latinus lead to warfare with Turnus. In the Nibelungenlied, Gunther's appalling dependence upon Siegfried leads to the hero's murder by Hagen, instigated by Brunhild.94 There are problems, to be sure, because Jackson treats "the hero and the king" as a monomythic template. His attempts to apply it to the Odyssey, the Chanson de Roland, and Beowulf are unpersuasive— especially when he portrays Grendel as an intruder-hero. Even so "the hero and the king" has a future in comparative epic analysis, if we regard it as a migratory Indo-European typescene, whose appearance in epic sometimes is episodic. In
91
Stratyner 1993: 43.
92
Davis 1996: 126-29.
93
Sisam 1965: 80-82; Morgan 1972; Niles 1983: 174-75.
94
Jackson 1982.
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Ferdowsi's Shiihnama, Kay Kalvus is the incompetent king, whose champion is Rostam, the stzanger-hero with whom he comes into conflict. In the Persian Harnza-cycle, Naushervan is the incompetent king, who depends upon Amir Harnza as his champion, but constantly plots his death. In western medieval romance tradition, the relationships of King Arthur and Lancelot, and King Mark and Tristan, follow this pattern. Outside the Indo-European cultural area, so does the relationship of King Saul and David.95 As for Hroogar's adoption of Beowulf, we can see at once the potential relevance of this typescene. Hroogar, the established king, depends upon Beowulf as his champion, and signifies his dependence through the ancient and medieval custom of adoption. Wealhlieow has misgivings. Only his second day in Denmark, his presence there is causing tension in the court. Jackson speculates that it "would clearly have been in the interest of Heorot if Beowulf had taken over."96 Typescene analysis suggests just the opposite. If Beowulf had stayed in Denmark, his presence would have fomented tension and rebellion. We return to the question: Why did Wealhkeow express misgivings about Hroogar's adoption of Beowulf, why did she appeal to Beowulf to show kindness to her sons? My view is noncommittal. The "intention of the text" leaves the question open—but the answer doesn't matter. Neither Hrobulf nor Beowulf posed a threat to her sons. The real threat was IngeId, king of the Hea6obeards, as Hro6gar very well knew. Be had pledged his daughter Freawaru to be Ingeld's bride, in an attempt to compose a feud that probably never could be settled, because earlier in battle, Hroogar slew Froda, Ingeld's father (2020-3 1).97 Perhaps Hroogar adopted Beowulf because he hoped for a strong ally, just in case the 95 "The hero and the king" has some attributes in common with the "terrible stranger" in Japanese narratives, explored by Mizuno (1989), but in these, the hero is inherently felonious (as Mizuno makes Beowulf out to be). The Indo-European typescene of "the hero and the king" is a different tradition from the "terrible stranger" theme. 96
Jackson 1982: 32.
97
The Beowulf text does not say this. I infer it from the Ingeld episode and Scandinavian
analogues.
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diplomatic marriage of Freawaru and Ingeld failed. Perhaps Hroogar's motivation was more general: in a dangerous world, it is always good policy to have strong allies. Fifth. After the attack by Grendel's mother, Hroogar, as grievant, recruits Beowulf as kschere's avenger, in a "charging ceremony" that begins with his offer of a reward (1376-82), and ends with discovery of iEschere's head, a bloodtoken, on the trail above the mere (1417b-21). The feud properly belongs to Ynnenlaf, IEschere's younger brother, but HroOgar can appoint Beowulf as the avenger, with honor, because of their adoptive kinship. Sixth (Beowulf 1474-88). After Beowulf armed himself in preparation for combat with Grendel's mother, he appointed Hroogar as his executor, should he perish in the mere. HroOgar is to act "on fader stale" (1479b: in place of a father), "in [your] office as my [adoptive] father." In the event of his death, he requires Hroogar to protect his Geatish retainers, and send his war-gear home to Hygelac, in accord with "hwxt wit geo sprxcon" (1476b: what we two before discussed), referring to a private meeting when they negotiated their adoptive kinship. This is the only time that Beowulf speaks of his adoption, but it is clear that he accepts it as a reciprocal relationship. Seventh. HroOgar, in his courtly sermon (1687-1784), reaffirms his loyalty to their adoptive kinship: "Ic pe sceal mine gelmstan / freode, swa wit furoum sprxcon" (1706b-7a: I shall carry out my [oath of] friendship, as we two earlier discussed)—the poem's second explicit reference to private negotiation. In this discourse, as Gradon says, Hrobgar is represented in the third of his "three significant postures; the grief-stricken king, the generous rewarder of heroism, and the old man, warning his beloved son of future sorrow."98 Hansen, pursuing this theme, argues that the sermon was meant "to be recognized as the conventional admonitory address of a wise king and father to a young prince, a
98
Gradon 1971: 170-72.
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'set piece' of wisdom literature."99 Hroogar is "an archetypal wise man," what I have called the Ideal Knower. He is "identified as Beowulf's surrogate father." in passages that I have related to adoption. The rhetoric of Hroogar's speech, with its admonitions, gnomes, and exempla, are consistent with the conventions of wisdom literature. Its biblical model, if there was one, would be Proverbs 1-7, a collection of wise sayings by a fictional father, addressed to one or more sons.100 The influences on Hroogar's sermon might have been homiletic, too. Whatever the source, one of his paternal duties was to give admonitory advice to his adopted son. Eighth (Beowulf 1851-82a). When Beowulf takes leave of Hrobgar, he rehearses the terms of their friendship-treaty. Hroogar kisses Beowulf, embraces his neck, and weeps (1870-73a), signs of paternal affection.101 Beowulf expresses the content, and Hroogar the gesture, of their friendship-treaty. Beowulf promises to return with an army of a thousand men if an enemy attacks Denmark (182635), Hroogar praises Beowulf for making this treaty possible, promises to continue the relationship by exchanging gifts (1855-65), and marks this promise symbolically, with a gift of twelve treasures, each one a "lac and luftacen" (1864a: gift and love-token), a hendiadys meaning "a gift symbolic of friendship." Beowulf, for his part, offered to foster Hreoric: Gif him bonne Hrebric to hofum Geata gebingeb beodnes beam, he inn bper fela freonda findan. Feorcyboe beoo selran gesohte bwm be him selfa deah.
99
Hansen 1982: 61.
1°° Hansen
(1982) does not discuss this possibility.
101 Chickering
(1977: 347-48) interprets Hroogar's behavior psychologically as paternal affection; so, too, Puhvel (2005: 67-68). This is possible. No doubt Hroogar is sincere, but his behavior is politically "demonstrative," too. Thomas Wright's suggestion (1967) that both Beowulf and Hroogar weep in shared sorrow at their parting, has not attracted adherents.
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(Beowulf 1836-39): If Hrebric, the king's son, then decides to come to the house of the Geats, he will find many friends there. Distant lands are better sought by one who [aims to] improve himself.) Beowulf's offer of fosterage is diplomatic.102 His maxim reads like a slogan for "study abroad," but really is a diplomatic offer of safety. Shippey and Thayer assert that HroOgar failed to perceive Beowulf's meaning.1°3 I think that unlikely, for the adoption theme, which contextualizes Beowulf's maxim, makes its meaning clear. So does the adverb donne: If Hrebric finds himself in danger because of an enemy attack, he is welcome at the Geatish court, where he will find many allies. In any attack or court intrigue in Denmark, Hreoric would be a high-value target. This, indeed, was the principle reason for fosterage among aristocratic families in ancient and medieval times, not only in Europe but in the Middle East, too. The only way a noble family could hope to protect their offspring, and the legal claim of their bloodline to feudal estates, was by fostering them with trusted friends in distant lands. Adoption has two forms in Beowulf: as a symbol of political alliance between royal persons, and as fosterage. Beowulf himself had been fostered by Hrebel at age seven (2428-34). In Anglo-Norse relations, fosterage is seen in bono and in malo, at least in sagas. According to an anecdote in Heimskringla 38, repeated in Fagrskinna with minor changes, King Harald of Norway sent Hakon, his bastard son by Dora, a slave, to King Ai elstan's court, accompanied by thirty retainers, who concealed weapons under their cloaks while the king entertained them at a feast. Their leader placed Hakon on Melstan's knee, and delivered a message that Harald had sent him his slave's son to foster. Melstan wanted to slay the child, but the Norwegian leader reminded him that Harald has other sons—a veiled threat of a feud. Abelstan agreed to foster Hakon. This was 1°2 Newton (1993: 97) asserts that Beowulf's offer to foster Hrebric indicates that Wealhkeow's effort to recruit him as an ally met with success. Possibly, but Beowulf's offer implies acknowledgement of his adoptive kinship to Hro6gar. 1°3 Shippey
1977: 31-33; Thayer 2003: 15-16.
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fosterage in malo: Harald was pleased with the outcome, for "a man who fosters another man's son is the less noble of the two." It was also fosterage in bono, for Hakon Malsteinlóstri, as he came to be known, grew up to be a Christian, an eloquent and courageous warrior, and the future king of Norway. The feast-scene is fictional, a typescene,1" but Abelstan's fosterage of Hakon was probably historical .1 °5
74.
1°4
Fjalldal 2005: 34-35. For examples of adoption in skaldic poetry, see Poole 2005: 272-
1°5 Stenton
1943: 344-45; Loyn 1977: 74; Fjalldal 2005: 135, n. 3.
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Chapter 7 Family Charisma When the time came for Beowulf's departure from Denmark, Hroogar's response was emotional—scandalously so, according to critics who portray him as a weak, effeminate king. He clung to Beowulf's neck and wept. Let us try to understand this episode, as symbolic politics and as an Indo-European theme: Gecyste ba cyning wbelum god, beoden Scyldinga oegn betstan and be healse genam; hruron him tearas blondenfeaxum. Him wxs bega wen ealdum infrodum, ogres swi6or, limt hie seoo6a[n no] geseon moston, modige on meble. [W]ces him se man to bon leof, bast he bone breostwylm forberan ne mehte; ac him on hrebre hygebendum frost zefter deorum men dyrne langa6 beorn wio blode. (Beowulf 1870-80a: then the good king of noble blood, lord of the Scyldings, kissed the best thane and clung to his neck; tears ran down his gray beard. He, old and wise, expected two possibilities, one stronger than the other, that never after that [moment] they would ever see each other again, as [they did] in this [last] meeting. The man was so dear to him that he could not forbear the surging of his breast; but in his heart, [held] fast in heartstrings, [there] burned in his blood a mysterious longing for the dear man.) In the dialect of symbolic politics, Hroagar's embrace and tears, like their adoptive kinship, signify a military alliance. Even so, Hro6gar is sincere. Critics who look askance, embarrassed by his apparent lack of self-control, miss out on two attributes of his outburst that the poet meant for us to notice. First, it signifies nobility. At this moment, Hroogar is "cyning mbelum god" (1870b: a good king of noble ancestry), a Scylding. Second, his outburst is dyrne (1879b: mysterious).
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Nobility and mystery. What do these attributes mean? Why are they linked with the theme of adoption? Lees (1994) and Dockray-Miller (1998) offer Lacanian analyses. Hroogar acts the role of king, but the heroic figure is Beowulf, who (in Lacanian terms) has the "phallus," or patriarchal authority, at least during his time in Denmark. This is always the case in the "hero and the king" typescene, which is why the hero's presence in court threatens its internal stability. The magnetic attraction of the phallus is signified in HroOgar's desire for adoptive kinship. Beowulf does not reject adoptive kinship as Dockray-Miller claims; this was, after all, more than a personal relationship. It was also a form of diplomatic expression. If Hreoric had accepted Beowulf's invitation and traveled to Geatland, the relationship of king and hero as adoptive kinsmen would have continued on a personal level. Still, as Dockray-Miller observes, Beowulf's first allegiance is to Hygelac, not Hroogar. Even so, Hroogar's affection for Beowulf defies logic. In his analysis of philia in Nichornachean Ethics, Aristotle differentiated "natural" from "voluntary" friendship. Natural friendship is the love of a parent for children, or love shared by kin, or spouses. Voluntary friendship is love shared by virtuous men who are social equals, and noble in character, such that they are willing to share in each other's fortune and property, even though they are not kinsmen. For Aristotle, voluntary friendship is the highest form of philia, superior to "love of kind." The adoption theme in Beowulf obliterates the boundary between voluntary and natural love, and finds expression in otherwise inexplicable behaviors, such as Hroogar's tears, and his gift to Beowulf of Heorogar's sword and mailcoat (2155-62), royal heirlooms that he might have reserved, instead, for his oldest son HreOric. A mythic interpretation is possible. HroOgar's tears, noble and mysterious, signify the mystique of family charisma, which is particular to persons of noble birth. Family charisma, an Indo-European theme, assumes diverse forms in ancient Greek and medieval Persian, Armenian, Irish, Old High German, and
241
Norwegian narratives. Perhaps it appears elsewhere, too, but these are the cultures in which I have found examples. The underlying concept is that luck and divine favor in a family is transmitted genetically from one generation to another. Charisma is the inheritance of aristocratic families. Marriages were arranged to ensure the continued vitality and aristocratic status of the family. Sexual liaisons, too, were restricted to prevent "charisma" from passing into the bloodlines of enemies. Family charisma is both a genetic essence and a quality of character. Gentilesse in medieval French and English romance means both "noble birth" and "virtuous character." In Pindar's Odes and in the Iliad, eugeneia was signified by athletic and military victories, supplemented by other markers: noble demeanor at court, rhetorical ability, and courtly accomplishments.' Eugeneia has its Persian counterpart in farr, a noble refulgence in the countenance of a successful shah or military champion. Farr was transmitted genetically from a hero to his descendents, but was dependent upon divine favor, and could be lost as punishment for wrongdoing, as happened to Jamshid when he boasted that he rather than God was the font of social order and prosperity.2 In Sheihneima, part of the mystique of family charisma was an innate ability of noble kinfolk to recognize each other as family. When Queen Hom5y was reunited with her son Dar5b, who had been fostered by a fuller after Homay had sent her infant son adrift on the Euphrates river in a wooden casket, "her
maternal breasts flowed with milk" and she suspected that this might be her son.3 Drab, in contrast, disclosed to the fuller that "There's something I've kept hidden. I don't feel any instinctive love for you."4 But the most telling example is the test of the polo-game, organized by Shah Ardeshir when he was first united Anderson 1996: 98-99; cf. Anderson 1979. Firdausi, Shahnaina, trans. Warner 1905-25, 1: 132-35, and Davis 2006: 6-8. The story is mentioned in the Georgian Visramiani 301 and 375 (chapters 53 and 60), trans. Waldrop 1914: 269 and 330. 3
Firdausi, Shahnouna, trans. Davis 2006: 446.
242
with his seven-year-old son Shapur, who had been raised secretly by his vizier. As a test to verify their kinship, Ardeshir arranged for Shapur to play polo with ninety-nine other seven-year-old boys, all dressed alike and similar in stature and build. "We'll see if my soul responds at the sight of my own boy," he told his vizier. "My heart will bear witness to the truth of what you've said, and acquaint me with my son," and his vizier replied, "Your heart will tell you which is your son." This happened.5 The same theme appears in the tale of Culhwch and Olwen in the Welsh Mabinogian, when King Arthur's cousin, Culhwch, visited his court and Arthur felt a premonition of kinship. "My heart grows tender towards thee," Arthur said to him; "I know thou art sprung from my blood."6 Sohrab, too, experienced this intuitive premonition of kinship. Despite his public display of contempt for Rostam's old age, after their first combat he confided in a fellow Turanian warrior, Human, that "he felt himself drawn" to his opponent, and suspected that he was Rostam.7 In Sasunc'i Davit', the bard implies that it is unnatural for a father and son to fail to recognize each other. Khantout had been alerted to the combat of David and Pokr Mher, when their battle-blows propelled David's handkerchief to her door in Sassoun. At once she "recognized its scent" as David's. Her ability to do so contrasts with David's and Pokr Mher's failure to recognize each other when they ignored her effort to stop the fight.8 The early Indo-European "father-son combat" typescene illustrated in these Persian and Armenian episodes (though not the Proto-Indo-European one) was based upon the scandalous failure of two noble kinsmen to recognize each other intuitively. This failure was the basis of tragedy in Hildebrand's combat with Hadubrand in the OHG Hildebrandslied, and in Cu Chulainn's combat with 4 Ibid. 445. This episode is repeated in the Persian Darab Mune, chapter 2; cf. Hanaway 1970: 291.
5
Ibid. 558-59.
6
Culhwch and Olwen, in Mabinogion, trans. Jones 1906: 95-136, at p. 100. Firdausi, Shahnama, trans. Davis 2006: 207.
8
Sasunc`i Davit' 3.7.3, in Shalian 1964: 331-32; Feydit 1964: 359-62.
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Connla in Aided Oenfir Affe.9 In the twelfth-century Norwegian Thidreks saga, it is the basis of comedy in the combat of Hildebrand and Alibrand.I° Charismatic affection Charismatic affection is an excessive or obsessive familial love on the part of one person for a kinsman, typically a father for his son, which manifests itself in self-sacrifice or in inexplicable conduct during a time of crisis. In IndoEuropean narrative tradition, it is an attribute of family charisma, the belief that luck or divine favor in a noble family is transmitted genetically from one generation to another as a mythic essence. Charismatic affection is noble and mysterious, the qualities that the Beowulf poet used to describe Hroogar's weeping during Beowulf's farewell from Denmark. If Hro6gar's adoption of Beowulf was the substance of charismatic affection, his weeping was a public demonstration of it. Charismatic affection is expressed in diverse forms across narratives. In one of its forms, kinsmen (and women) feel drawn toward each other intuitively, and recognize their kinship, even though they are otherwise unknown to each other. King Arthur's immediate affection for Culhwch, and Queen Homay's for Darab, illustrate this form. So too do Rostam and Sohr5b, although Firdausi manages to have it both ways: father and son both suppress their affections and continue their combat. Sometimes a man expresses love for a kinsman in behavior that seems inexplicable. This is exemplified thrice in Beowulf. Beowulf's love of Hygelac leads him to decline royal power in favor of Heardred, Hygelac's son, whom he serves as regent. Hrebel's love of Herebeald leads him to will his own death, after Hee6cyn slew him in a hunting accident. The bereaved father in the Father's Lament declines to engender a new heir to replace his son, who had been hanged for some wrongdoing.
9
Aided Oenfir A ife (The Death of Aife's only Son), in Kinsela 1970.
1° Thidreks saga 406-9, trans. Haymes 1988: 248-50.
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One manifestation of charismatic affection is Beowulf's steadfast loyalty and love of Hygelac, his maternal uncle and foster-brother. Brodeur (1959) regarded Beowulf's affection for Hygelac as a unifying theme in the epic. Beowulf articulates his loyalty and love in his report to Hygelac, after his return from Denmark. He praises Hroogar for his generous gifts, given "on (min)ne sylfes dom" (2147b: according to my own judgment), clearly an allusion to the first "adoption" episode (946b-56). Then he continues: Gen iseallatiie lissa gelong; is lyt hafo heafodmaga, nefne, Hygelac, bee. (Beowulf 2149b-51: yet all my welfare is dependent on you; I have no close kinsman, Hygelac, except you.) He makes no mention of his adoptive kinship with Hroogar. This is never spoken of again, for Beowulf's future is in Geatland, not in Denmark. After Hygelac's death, Beowulf transferred his loyalty to Hygelac's son, Heardred. He declined the kingship when Hygd offered it, and served instead as Heardred's regent (2369-79a), contrary to Realpolitik. I can think of three possible reasons for Beowulf's decision (I prefer the third). The first is sacral kingship. Taylor argues that Beowulf deferred to Heardred out of reverence for his ar, interpreted as "sacred luck."11 There are two problems with this approach. One is that the interpretation as a whole presupposes early Germanic belief in sacral kingship, a notion that historians abandoned long ago. The other is that the verse "estum mid are" (2378a: in good will with honor), in variation with freondlarum (2377b: in friendly counsels), are specified by the poet as attributes of Beowulf's regency, not Heardred's reign. These lines mean that Beowulf conducted his regency in ways that were favorable to Heardred, until the prince came of age. Not all regents did.
II
Taylor 1994: 133.
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A second possibility is that Beowulf preferred the life of a champion to that of a king, as Siegfried did when given a choice on the occasion of a knighting ceremony in Xanten, when his father, King Sigmunt, conferred knighthood on him and four hundred of his closest friends. Siegfried fought so well in the bohort that the barons wanted to acclaim him as king at once, but he declined, preferring to defend his country through chivalric exploits.'2 A third possibility: charismatic affection for Hygelac drove him to protect Heardred's interest (2368a).'3 Just so, Hre8el's heart was drawn to Herebeald, his oldest son, such that he could not be consoled after his second son, Hmocyn, slew him in a hunting accident (2435-43). So great was Hreoel's sorrow that he died of a broken heart (2468-71). Klaeber: "The king's morbid surrender to his grief is significant,"I4 but why? At the "referential" level, this sorrow had a legal cause. Revenge was not available to Hreoel as a form of consolation, as it was to Hro6gar after 'Eschere's death, for it was not lawful to pursue a feud to avenge manslaughter within the family (2462b-67).15 A feud would not have assuaged Hreoel's sorrow, but it would have given him a reason to live. At the level of "signification," the cause of Hre6el's death was profound paternal sorrow, driven by charismatic affection. As a signifier, Hreoel's mortal sorrow opens the Father's Lament to comparison with stories of family charisma elsewhere in the text, and beyond. Just so Elaine of Ascolat, rejected by Lancelot, willed her own death by starvation while her family and priest watched in horror. Like the bereaved father in the Father's Lament, she was offered a second choice, for Lancelot offered her "a thousand pottnde yerely, to you and to youre ayres" as a dowry, so she could 12
Nibelungenlied, d ventiure 2, str. 41-43, in De Boor 14.
I take the poet's account of these events literally, unlike Westphalen (1967) who equates Hygd with the Gentisc meowle at Beowulf's funeral and asserts that Beowulf married Hygd. This interpretation was refuted by Bennett (1992). Joyce Hill ([1990] 2002: 157-58) effectively discusses Hygd's active role in the succession, in the context of political roles often played by queens and other great ladies in Anglo-Saxon history. Cf. Rosalind Hill (1979) on the influence and power of Anglo-Saxon queens. 13
14
Klaeber 1950, 213n.
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select some other man as a husband. This she refused, demanding only a "massepeny" for her funera1.16 Like Hreoel's and like the bereaved father's, her love surpassed rational understanding. The point of analogy is just this: charismatic affection between kinsmen is just as intense as the romantic love that a noble woman might have for a man. Beowulf, wounded by the dragon, spent his last hour in an intimate scene with Wiglaf, his only living kinsman. His only regret was that he had no son to inherit his wargear: Nu is suna minum syllan wolde guogewndu, pair ne gifeoe swa xnig yrfeweard after wurde lice gelenge. (Beowulf 2729-32a: Now I would wish to give my mailcoat to my son, if it had been granted me that any heir, born from my body, would remain after me.) Failing that, Beowulf bequeaths his torque and armor to Wiglaf, and appoints him executor and heir, but Wiglaf is his second choice, just as, earlier, Hx8cyn was Hredel's second choice. This is the "problem of Wiglaf," or one of the problems. Critics have regarded Wiglaf's role in the epic as a compositional problem. Sisam thought that he was an ad hoc character that the poet invented "to set the example of heroic devotion in the Dragon Fight," and to serve as Beowulf's interlocutor. Hence he was not integrated fully into the story.17 Eliason thought that the poet was torn by conflicting requirements of plot and theme. The "story" required a filial-like relationship, ideally that of maternal uncle and nephew, but the "poem" required greater distance between them, in order to emphasize Wiglaf's gloom and the Geats' lordlessness. His solution was to make
15
Whitelock 1939.
16
Malory, Marie Darthur 18.19, 1967, 2: 1089 and 1096.
17
Sisam 1965: 53.
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Wiglaf a kinsman, but not a close one. He left the question of Geatish kingship open." Taylor, too, notes that "Wiglaf is like a son" as Beowulf's heir, but the messenger's prophecy of doom, and Wiglaf s burial of the treasure, signify the Geats's lordlessness.19 I concur with Sisam, Eliason, and Taylor that Wiglaf s role in Beowulf is fraught with aesthetic tension, but the reason is more straightforward. Wiglaf is Beowulf s second choice for an heir. They are dutybound to each other, but their relationship is not blessed with charismatic affection. Hreoel's sorrow and the Father's Lament (Beowulf-2441-71) Beowulf offers a fifth example of charismatic affection in the Father's Lament (2444-62a), which takes the form of a simile in Beowulf s voice, in a passage where the hero reminisces about Hreoel's death. It begins and ends with grammatical markers, ma._ swa, typical of a simile. Just as Hreoel's sorrow for Herebeald causes his own death, even so a fictive gomelum ceorl (2444b: an old man. dat. sg. ceorle), "a common man among elders," witnessing his own son's execution by hanging, might very well isolate himself and die of a broken heart. Si va... swa delimits the meaning of the Father's Lament by focusing on a legal comparison. First, Hreoel's legal situation: Pzet wars feohleas gefeoht, fyrenum gesyngad, hreore hygeme6e; sceolde hwxore swa peah aeoeling unwrecen ealdres finnan. (Beowulf2441-43: that was a "fee-less fight" [a conflict that could not be settled by means of wergild-compensation], a felonious wrongdoing, wearing down the spirit in [Hreoel's] inner being; even so the prince [Herebeald] had to lose his life unavenged.)
12
Eliason 1978: 102-5.
19
Taylor 1994: 140-41.
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Beowulf compares this to the legal situation of a Bereaved Father?' After the Father's Lament, Beowulf attributes Hreoel's death to the legal circumstances of Herebeald's death: Swa Wedra helm after Herebealde heortan sorge weallende wxg. Wihte ne meahte on Oam feorhbonan fxghbe gebetan; no by zer he pone heaOorinc hatian ne meahte laOum da dum, peak him leof ne wxs. He Oa mid pare sorhge, Pe him swa sar belamp, gumdream ofgeaf, godes leoht geceas; swa deb eadig mon, eaferum lond and leodbyrig, In he of life gewat. (Beowulf 2462b-71: Just so the protector of the Wederas bore surging
sorrow in his heart because of Herebeald. Not at all could he remedy the feud on the slayer [by receiving a wergild, or by means of punishment]; nor could he oppress the warrior [Hzeocyn] with hostile deeds, although he [Hwocyn] was not dear to him. Amid this sorrow that befell him so sorely, he then renounced the human joys, chose God's light. [He] left his land and fortress to his heirs, as [any] prosperous man does, when he departed from [this] life.) Consistent with this legal theme of unavengeable deaths, Herebeald's and that of the felonious son of a churl, critics diagnose the cause of Hreoel's mortal sorrow as shame, "profound loss of face," and an obsession with "mind-wearying injustice."21 This diagnosis, correct as far as it goes, captures the symptoms but not the spirit of Hreoel's sorrow. Legal customs pertaining to feuds and felonies are proximate causes, catalysts, or external circumstances. Naturally they run their 2' In contrast, North (1991: 60-62) argues that "Hredel's exemplum" is an unsuccessful attempt by the king to console himself by composing an elegy. 2 Chickering 1977: 366. On the basis of fyrenum gesyngad (2441b), Goldsmith (1970: 251) and Georgianna (1987: 842) suspect that Hmacyn slew Herebeald deliberately. Taking this line of thought further, Mizuko (1989) asserts that Beowulf had a part in the killing. In my judgment, the text does not justify these views. Cherniss (1972: 76) extends this theme of "unavengeable death" to HroOgar's payment of a wergild for Hondscioh's death, asserting that Hro6gar had no obligation to pay, but did so to prevent Hondscioh's family from grieving an uncompensated death.
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course. Hreoel bequeaths land and hall to his heirs, "swa deo eadig mon" (2470b), as a prosperous man should, following custom and legal duty—surely a reminder of Wealhkeow's admonition to Hroogar to bequeath his kingdom to his kinsmen (1178-80a). Another interpretation of the simile: De Looze (1984) proposes that through it, Beowulf contemplates whether to fight the dragon or let it alone. For him, the Father's Lament exemplified the "passive alternative," which leads to a tragic result. Unlike Hreoel and the Bereaved Father, Beowulf chooses the heroic alternative: to fight the dragon. Georgianna (1987) argues that the Father's Lament is an exemplum on the "limits of heroic action." Harris argues that it is a mise-en-abime, mirroring in miniature the larger story of the death of a sonless hero, Beowulf.22 Still, what is the cause of Hreoel's mortal sorrow? What else but charismatic affection for Herebeald,'-3 animated by the mystique of family charisma? The "legal" diagnosis is nominalist; the "elegiac" one is mythopoeic. One indicator of this is the problem of "seconds." Following legal custom, Flreael refrained from violence against his new heir, Hzeocyn, "keah him leof ne wms" (2466b), although he did not love him. Just so in the Father's Lament, the fictive father, daily brooding on his son's death, declined to engender another son, a new heir: Symble bid gemyndgad morna gehwylce eoforan ellorsio; oores ne gymeo to gebidanne burgum in innan yrfeweardas, konne se an hafao kurh deaoes nyd dada gefondad. (Beowulf 2450-54: always, every morning, he is mindful of his son's journey elsewhere; [he does] not desire to wait for a second son [to be
22
Harris 1994 and 2000: 164-65.
23 In contrast, Mizuno (1989 25) argues that Hreael's grief was due to his despair about finding an heir equal to Herebeald.
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born] in the homestead, now that the [first] one has found [the end of his] deeds through the constraint of death.) As Harris rightly points out, the Father has a Norse parallel in Egil SkallaGrimsson's elegy for his dead sons, Gunnar and Bodvar, in Sonatorrek ("The Son's Wreck," stanza 17), where Egil rejects the maxim that "no one may get recompense for his son unless he himself begets yet another descendent who will be for the other a man born in place of his brother."24 The parallels go further. After the death of Bodvar in a shipwreck, Egil locked himself in his bedchamber for days, like the Bereaved Father. Like Herebeald and the Bereaved Father's son, Bodvar's death was unavengeable, for how could Egil pursue a feud against ,Egir the sea-god, and Ran ("Moon"), the windy troubler of waves? (Sonatorrek, stanzas 7-9). Prior to Bodvar's death, "Egil loved him very much, and Bodvar was very attached to his father." Bodvar, "a young man of great promise, handsome in looks, tall and strong," reminded Egil of his own youth, and of Thorolf, his favorite daughter, when she was young. After Bodvar's funeral, Egil lived in seclusion. He did not visit Norway again, and pursued no lawsuits or feuds. He did not like his younger son, Thorstein, and Thorstein did not care much for him. The son was close to his mother Asgerd, and this caused quarrels between Egil and his wife. Prior to his death, Egil sunk two chests of English silver into some stream or swamp, so Thorstein wouldn't inherit them.25 Egil's behavior seems inexplicable, yet is explained by his charismatic affection for Bodvar, beside whom Thorstein is an unwanted "second choice." Just so, HwOcyn was HreOel's second choice for an heir; Wiglaf was Beowulf's. Hreoric would have been Hro6gar's second choice, but for the destruction of Heorot, wrought by Ingeld in the Dano-Heaoobardic feud. Charismatic affection
24
Harris 1994 and 2000: 165; see further Harris 2006. Gunnar had died earlier, of fever.
25 Egils saga 78-79 and 85, in Fell 1975: 144-56, 168-70, and 196-98 (for Fell's prose translation of Sonatorrek).
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drives men to inexplicable acts: H oogar's emotional outburst at Beowulf's departure from Denmark; Beowulf's refusal of kingship after Hygelac's death; Hreoel's self-willed, Ascolat-like death of a broken heart; the Bereaved Father's refusal to engender a second son as an heir for his homestead; Egil's reclusiveness and disdain for Thorstein. The conceptual sequence traced here, from legal to "charismatic" motivations in the Father's Lament simile, is replicated internally in that Lament. It begins with a tableau that symbolizes the legal theme: the condemned son hangs on the gallows while the father watches, horrified and helpless: Swa bib geomorlic gomelum ceorle to gebidanne, bmt his byre ride giong on galgan. Donne he gyd wrece, sarigne sang, bonne his sunu hangar hrefne to hroore, ond he him helpe ne 1112;g, eald ond infrod, onige gefremman. (Beowulf 2444-49: just so [sc. "just as in Hreoef s case"], it is sorrowful to an old man to endure, when his young son rides on the gallows. Then he [the father] may utter a lay, a sorrowful song, while his son hangs as a joy to the raven, and he, old and wise, cannot do anything to help him.) The father's sorrow, undeserved, is made all the more hurtful by dysphemism, based upon an inversion of heroic images. The son "rides" the gallows, not a horse. His body is a joy to feasting ravens, but the other "beasts of battle" are absent, for his was no honorable death in battle, but a legal execution. Dysphemism marks the felonious son for disesteem, but its unintended target is the innocent father. Gallows humor like this accompanies a felon to his execution in the Exeter Book Fates of Men, too:26 Sum sceal on holte of hean beame fiberleas feallan; bib on flihte sebeah, 26 ASPR 3: 154-56, titled "The Fortunes of Men" by Krapp and Dobbie (1936). In a different context, I note that this passage is based upon the vertical cosmology of the Upper, Middle, and Lower Worlds (Anderson 2003: 440).
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laced on lyfte, obbwt lengre ne bib western wudubeames. Donne he on v,ryrtrurnan sigeo sworcenferO, sawle bireafod, fealleb on foldan, feoro bib on sibe. (Fates of Men 21-26: One must, in the woods, fall featherless from a high tree; he will be in flight, however, [and] sport in the air, until he no longer is the forest tree's fruit. Then, dark in mind, he will fall into the roots; bereft of soul he will fall to earth, [for his spirit] is [off] on a journey.) Beowulf imagines the father visiting his son's chamber,27 acting as his son's executor according to legal custom, but contrary to the law of nature, for it is unnatural for a father to survive his son. At this point, dysphemism gives way to elegy, with its conventional contrast of present adversity and past prosperity and joy: Gesyo sorhcearig on his suna bure winsele wesure, windge reste reote berofene. Ridend swefab, ha=led in hooman; nis ba=r hearpan sweg, gomen in geardum, swylce oxr iu wzeron. Gewiteo bonne on sealman, sorhleoo gx1e6 an wfter anum; buhte him eall to rum, wongas ond wicstede. (Beowulf 2455-63a: Full of sorrowful cares, [he] gazes on his son's chamber in the empty wine-hall, [his] wind-swept bed, bereft of cheer. Horsemen are sleeping, men in [their] graves; there is no sound of the harp, [no] men in the courtyard, as there were before. Then he goes to his bed alone, sings a sad song for the other; [he] thought [that] all was too spacious for him, the fields and the home.) The father's nocturnal solitude is a reminder that he declined to engender another son as heir to his estate. "Wongas ond wicstede" is merismus, referring to "all his estate." All his life he had built it up, an estate to pass on to his son, but now he
27
Schrader (1984) proposes that this is a Latin topos, with cognates in classical poetry.
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finds it too roomy, and empty like a conventional elegiac ruin.28 This is litotes, and indirect allusion to the grave, a narrower house, which he would prefer. Beowulf's identification of the Bereaved Father as a ceorl signifies a legal point: Hreoel is not above the law, anymore than a ceorl would be. The poet made this point earlier, when he described Hro8gar's rule over Danes "geongum and ealdum" (72a: young and old), a merismus meaning "all the Danes," except for common land and the lives of men ("buton folcscare and feorum gumena," 73). Heremod ruled outside the law. He assassinated thanes and withheld gifts and grants that were their due (901-13a, 1709b-24a). For this he was exiled, isolated, and killed.29 Dryo, too, unlawfully organized false accusations or assassinations for thanes who displeased her in her native court, until she journeyed to Angell). married King Offa, and moderated her conduct as a good queen should (1931b62). The bereaved father's status as a ceorl problematizes the theme of charismatic affection, for family charisma is associated with aristocracy. Beowulf imagines the father as a wealthy man, but not as a nobleman. Why does he liken the king's sorrow, born of charismatic affection, with that of a churl? In fact we find something similar in the story of Rostam and Sohrab, when Firdausi criticizes Rostam for failing to recognize his son. "How strange the world's ways are!" he writes. "All beasts will recognize their young—the fish in the sea, the wild asses on the plain—but suffering and pride will make a man unable to distinguish his son from his enemy."3° Is charismatic affection unique to nobility, or is it found in commoners. too, and in animals? Beowulf's simile, like Firdausi's analogy, implies that charismatic affection accords with the law of nature, but the affections of kings
28 Fry (1979: 204. n. 4), compares the setting to Bede's simile of the sparrow in the hall in King Edwin's council scene; cf. Schuster 1957. Wehlau (1998) compares the setting to elegiac ruins in The Wanderer and Egils saga. 29
Bonjour 1950: 46-53.
3°
Firdausi, Shahnanza, trans. Davis 2006: 204.
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and princes put the fates of nations at stake. The Bereaved Father's farm is a microcosm of the Geatish nation, whose greatest peril was lordlessness. Similes often open a text to multiple domains of semantic association. The Father's Lament refers to legal practices pertaining to fratricides, feuds, felonies, inheritance, and the limits of royal power. By semantic extension it suggests that execution by hanging is a grotesque inversion of heroic death in battle, and also is a darkly comic journey, shaman-like, through a three-tiered, vertical cosmos. In its submerged analysis of charismatic affection, a famous king is compared to an anonymous, hypothetical ceorl; an infamous prince, to a young felon. A farmer's estate is a microcosm of a kingdom. Through the problem of "second choices," the father's mortal sorrow clarifies HreOers tragedy, Hroogar's, and Beowulrs. For the Ideal Reader, these semantic associations are not restricted to the Beowulf text. We understand them better by comparing them to The Fates of Men, and to Hildebrand, Rostam, and Egil Skalla-Grimsson. In a sense, Beowulf is an epic about tragic family charisma. The poem presents four examples of charismatic affection: Hroagar's love for Beowulf, Beowulf s for Hygelac, HreOers for Herebeald, and the love that Beowulf would have felt for his own son, had wyrd granted him one. Tragic, because in none of these relationships is charisma passed down to an heir and thence to future generations. Notwithstanding these tragic outcomes, charismatic affection is a mark of noble birth and character. In bono it links natural or adoptive kinsmen in a bond of loyalty and trust. In malo it spells disaster.
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Chapter 8 Rhetoric in an Open Text In this chapter I discuss rhetorical tropes in Beowulf, using simile, epic superlatives, and merismus as examples. My thesis is that rhetorical tropes "open" a text to critical diversity. To illustrate this point I could have chosen other tropes, such as compounds, kennings, variation, alliterative collocation, verbal echoes, or metonymy, but these have received close analysis in the critical literature. Simile and epic superlatives have received scant attention; merismus, none. Hence my choices. My analysis is selective and suggestive, not comprehensive. Referentiality and signification intersect in rhetorical tropes, such that a trope has the potential to be both a sign and a signifier. These are co-existing, opposing semantic forces. Referentiality is centripetal. It tends toward closure in a semantic loop. Signification is centrifugal. It opens a text to creative interpretation. The Father's Lament, for example, "refers" to the legal situation of "feeless feuds," or unavengeable homicides, by comparing the poem's only examples, Herebeald's death by a brother's hand, and the hanging of the bereaved father's son for a crime. The Father's Lament also "signifies" family charisma, an Indo-European theme that recurs in diverse forms in Beowulf. If he had wanted to, the poet could have assigned the Father's Lament to the narrator. Instead he assigns this poignant elegy to Beowtilf. This is significant. Beowulf was a spectator of Hreoel's tragedy, but a participant in other stories of family charisma, as the object of HroOgar's paternal affection, and the subject in his affection for Hygelac. He is the sole participant in his unrequited desire for a son. From a structural point of view, as narrator of HreOel's tragedy and as poet of the Father's Lament, Beowulf is a central figure in all five examples of charismatic affection, either as participant or narrator. Beowulf is better qualified
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than anyone to tell Hreoel's story, because for him, charismatic affection has been a double sorrow, due to Hygelac's fall in Frisia and his lack of a son. Equivalent and superlative similes The Father's Lament is an extended simile based upon equivalent parallelism: Hreoel's grief is no more or less than that of the Bereaved Father. Their situations are viewed as parallel in sundry ways. Another example of equivalence is the rodores candel simile. When Beowulf descended into Grendel's mere, he could see what he was doing because of j5.'rleoht from the hearth (1516b-17) in the monsters' submarine hall: Lixte se leoma, leoht inne stod, efne swa of hefene hadre scineo rodores candel. (Beowulf 1570-72a: the light gleamed, light shown forth from within, even as heaven's candle shines brightly.) This simile demystifies the "preternatural light" of the mere, and reinforces the typology of the hero who, submerged under water, unexpectedly finds himself on dry land in a submarine court. The underwater setting is inexplicably dry, and illuminated as in daylight. Even so, the simile presents a closed semantic system in which two species of light are compared: the natural light of the sun, and the artificial light of a candle—both referring to the firelight shining from Grendel's hearth. The artificial light of the hearth is bright like the sun, named in a kenning, "heaven's candle." The semantic sequence is circular, moving from fiirleoht to natural sunlight, and back to the artificial light of a candle.' Even so, Goldsmith argues that the candle-simile reflects the influence of the Vita Antonii, and Roberts (2007: 365) suggests that rodores candel is not simile, but a comparison, citing Mitchell 1085, 2: 653-54, § 3276, on comparative clauses beginning eine / emne swa. The differences between us are semantic. I prefer to think of "simile" more broadly, as a rhetorical strategy that includes parallels, comparatives, and superlatives. Most comparatives and superlatives are not similes, of course, but simile can take any of these forms.
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interprets it allegorically, as the heavenly beam that illuminated St. Anthony after he successfully resisted temptation in the form of attacks by devils in his sepulchral home in the desert.2 Had he wanted to, the poet could have referred to the sun as the light of God's creation. He could have written line 1572 as something like *godes candel. He after guosele wlat *dryhtnes candel. He wfter dreorsele wlat. That would have opened the simile to thoughts of God as the Creator of sun and moon, as in the scop's Creation song (94b). The referential meaning of the simile would be the same, but *godes candel or *dryhtnes candel, as signifiers, would point to God as Creator of the heavens, and by contrast to the Danes' idolworship. But the poet's theme is Beowulf s revenge on the monsters. The rodores candel simile, in a closed semantic loop, supports this focus. Similes may be based upon comparative and superlative grammatical structures, too. One such simile compares different species of leoht. When Grendel broke into the hall on his last night in Heorot, his eyes glowed like fire: eode yrremod; him of eagum stod ligge gelicost leoht unfwger. (Beowulf 726-27: [he] advanced enraged in spirit; from his eyes there reflected unnatural light, most like fire.) The focal word is leoht, readily associated with fire or gleaming eyes. This was an unfieger, unnatural light, like the firelight in Grendel's hall. The unnatural light in Grendel's eyes is the first in a sequence of "lights" that form a four-part referential chain, such that each "sign" either anticipates or reflects the others. 2 Goldsmith 1970: 257-68. Schichler (1993: 19) interprets rodores candel as "an obvious analogue to the penetrating light of the Christian descensus," Christ's harrowing of hell.
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To summarize: the four passages about leoht unfceger present signs that point to each other in a referential loop. These are (1) Grendel's eyes, ligge gelicost (726-27) and (2) "fyr on flod" in the mere at night (1365-66a), which tuns out to be (3)fiirleoht in Grendel's underwater hall (1516b-17), (4) compared to sunlight in the rodores candel simile ()570-72a). Each light-form looks like a signifier, pointing beyond itself, but in fact they point to each other in a closed semantic loop. This closed-text phenomenon is seen in miniature in the candlesimile, where artificial and natural forms of light reflect each other in a referential loop.3 Superlative similes sometimes are semantically centripetal, such that their comparisons are variously terrifying or beautiful, but the poet's real interest is the eccentricity of words, especially their capacity for ambiguity. One example is the simile comparing Grendel's claws to steel nails: "foran xghwylc
/ stiOra
nxgla gehwylc, style gelicost" (984b-85: at the tip of each [finger], [his] claws were hard, most like steel). The linguistic basis of this simile is the double meaning of ncegl as "animal claw or human nail" and "a carpenter's nail." Ncegl is ambiguous, but semantically centripetal, confined to the referential orbit of the simile. Another superlative simile: when Beowulf and his comitatus sail from Geatland to Denmark, their ship is describedGewat ofer wmgholm winde gefysed flota famiheals fugle gelicost. (Beowulf 217-18: the foamy-necked boat sailed over the sea driven by wind, most like a bird.) The nounflota, derived from floten, past participle of fleotan (float), means "ship, boat, or sailor" but by virtue of etymology could easily apply to other things that
3 Puhvel (1972, and 1979: 24-38) compares Germanic and Celtic examples of preternaturally luminescent weapons.
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float, like floater in Modem English. If the poet had written scip or bat, the simile would have lost much of its centripetal force. Heals means both "the prow of a ship," and the "neck" of an animal or person, such that fami(g)heaIs modifies both flora and.fugle, ambiguously. Both can be seen in the farnig surf, driven by wind. The rhetorical focal point, famiheals, "anchors" this simile in compact referentiality. The Andreas poet, too, fascinated with the unique compound famigheals, incorporated this simile into a speech in which Andreas praises his mysterious ship-captain (Christ) for his smooth navigation over rough seas:4 Is Pes bat ful scrid, fwreb famigheals, fugole gelicost glidea on geofone (ic geome wat past ic efre ne geseah ofer yolade sacleodan syllicran crxft). (Andreas 496b-500: the boat is very swift, foamy-necked [it] fares on; most like a bird [it] glides on the ocean. I know well that I have never seen better seafarer's skill on the sea.) When the Andreas poet substituted bat for flora, the simile lost its centripetal force. In its new, diffuse context, famigheals, a brilliant actor on stage, performs a dull drama with a less than stellar cast. To be fair to this poet, his work on the filgole gelicost simile led him to try his hand at another, a hyperbolic one, better suited to his talent. The mysterious captain was so skilled at pilotage that sailing in his ship was like standing on dry land, even though the ship sped quickly through stormy seas: is 1)on gelicost, swa he on lan[d]sceare stille stande, parr hine storm ne mmg, wind awecgan, ne wxterflodas brecan brondstmfne, hwwaere on brim snoweo snel under segle.
4
Andreas, ed. Brooks 1961.
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(Andreas 501-5a: it is most like [someone] standing still on the land, where neither storm nor wind can shake [the foundation], nor flood waters break the high-prowed [ship], yet it speeds its way [sn(e)owed], under sail on the sea.) This is hyperbole, but no more far-fetched than Beowulf's experience in Grendel's mere, where he finds himself under water but on dry land. Andreas's mysterious pilot is Christ, but Andreas doesn't know that yet. In context, the simile has a double meaning. At one level, Andreas expresses wonderment at his pilot's navigational skill; at another, the poet gives the reader a clue about the pilot's identity, in a simile that represents the sea voyage as a miracle, even as Christ stilled the waters on the sea of Galilee (Luke 8: 22-25). This simile works artistically, because it presents a signifier, a clue to Christ as the pilot's true identity. The Andreas poet's fugole gelicost simile doesn't work because, lacking a linguistic center, it is diffuse rather than compact. Closed-text similes, to succeed artistically, depend upon a poet whose genius includes sensitivity to the eccentricity of words. The perfect simile (hildegicelum, Beowulf 1605-11)
In the art of similes, perfection is the equilibrium of two semantic forces: the centripetal, referential force of a sign, and the centrifugal force of a signifier. The Beowulf poet achieves this perfection in the "icicles" simile, describing the giants' sword in Grendel's mere, which melts into icicle-like fragments from the heat of Grendel's blood when Beowulf decapitates him: 13a. [met sweord ongan xfter heaposwate hildegicelum, wigbil wanian. 13xt was wundra sum, 1:Ixt hit eal gemealt ise gelicost, bonne forstes bend feeder onlzeteo, onwindeo wwlrapas, se geweald hafao swla and meela. 13xt is sob metod.
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(Beowulf 1605b-11: Then, following [the trail of Grendel's] blood shed in battle, the sword, the war-blade, began to melt into battle-icicles. That was unique among marvels, that the whole [blade] melted, most like ice [does] when the Father loosens the bond of frost, unwinds [fated] slaughter-ropes [or alternatively, frees the waters from their fetters], [He] who has control of soda and mcela. That is the true Creator.) "Seel ond marl," here and at 10086, defies translation. Neither the individual words nor the binomial as a whole have exact modern counterparts. "In times and seasons" will do as a substitute for translation at 1611b, though not for the poet's earlier use of the binomial. Perhaps "in good times and [other] times" captures part of the meaning. Mcd, originally a "mark" or "marker," as a temporal word denotes a specific point in time: a moment, an hour, mealtime, bedtime, a season. Scel, originally "good fortune," is related to adjectives sel, selra, selest, and means "a period of time" in nonspecific contexts, or "an opportune, fitting time."5 Both are Germanic words, but only in Old English does scel have a temporal meaning. "Season" is a covert semantic category in Old English, its existence known from indigenous season-names sumer and winter. Perhaps the binomial "sla ond mmla" is the poet's periphrastic way of conveying this unlexicalized concept, "seasons." Whatever the precise meaning, the merismus "swla ond mmla" has a headword, wcelrapas, an ambiguous metaphor.6 The ambiguity of wcelrapas has led to rival interpretations of the simile. Like most editors, Klaeber marks the vowel in wcel- as long, meaning "a deep pool, water,"7 but in over thirty other instances, wcel as a simplex or in compounds (with a lax vowel) means "slaughter," such that "slaughter-ropes" recalls the fceges rapas, the fetters of fate, in Solomon and Saturn II (333-35). Thomas Hill and Chickering interpret the simile in light of patristic associations of ice with sin, and of heat with the Holy Spirit, whose "springtime" wind melts 5
Jankowsky 1988; cf. Tupper 1895.
6 Orchard (2003: 201) discusses other rhetorical features of the passage: envelope pattern, end-rhyme, and patterned repetition. 7
Klaeber 1950: 419; cf. Wyatt 1922: 269.
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the ice.8 Viswanathan emphasizes the ambiguity of wcelrapas, suggesting both springtime waters and "God's control and release of his subjects through the bondage of `wyrd'." As a sign, wcelrapas refers to the waters of spring; as a signifier, it "points" to the Flood as God's instrument, whereby he destroyed the race of giants.9 I am inclined to read wcelrapas as "waters," a metonymy for sumer (springtime), an apt headword for the merismus "smla and mzela." The melting sword-blade has a counterpart in Sigemund's combat with a dragon that melts in his own heat ("wyrm hat gemealt," 897b).19 Puhvel cites medieval and modern Irish examples of a warrior's battle-heat that melts snow or starts a fire.1 ' Notwithstanding these analogues, the sword-melting episode is unique and sensational. Beowulf mentions it in his report to Hroogar (1666b-70); he must explain why he brought the hilt but not the blade. Hildegicelunz, a nonce-compound, is the semantic center of gravity in the simile. Nominative singular hildegicel (battle-icicle) is logically possible as a kenning for a sword, any sword, but in dative plural, hildegicelum, a hapax legomenon, applies to the giants' sword in Grendel's hall, for no other swordblade ever melted into many icicles, a wonder of wonders (wundra sum, 1607b). The poet fashioned this unique compound just for this one sword-blade, in an artistic act of morphological iconicity. The blade was ise gelicost, more like ice than any other object in the world could be, because no other sword-blade ever melted into a multiplicity of icicle-like strands. The simile's referentiality is bound to the kenning hildegicelum. Preternatural fire and icicles are apt images of hell, as in Judgment Day II (ASPR 6: 58-67): Dxr synt to sorge mtsomne gemenged se Prosma lig and se prece gicela, 8
Thomas D. Hill 1969; Chickering 1977: 341-42.
9
Viswanathan 1979: 362; cf. Irving 1968: 125.
I° Klaeber II
1950: 188, note to lines 1605 ff.
Puhvel 1969; again, 1979: 39-44, chap. 4, "The Melting of the Giant-Wrought Sword."
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swine hat and ceald belle tomiddes. (Judgment Day II 191-93: there, for sorrow, fire of torments and icicles of misery are mingled together, very hot and cold, in the midst of hell.) Ise gelicost: ice is perforce a signifier. What causes ice to melt, and when?
When else but in springtime, when the Father-Creator releases the waters, even as Indra released the waters when he slew the cosmic dragon Vrtra, in a Sanskrit form of the "dragon-slayer" myth that persists across Indo-European cultures? The parallel is exact. IncIra slew the she-dragon Vrtra and freed the waters. Beowulf slew the she-monster with her own sword, whose blade melted into icicles like the waters freed in spring. The simile opens the text to a world of dragon-slaying myths. Returning to Beowu/f, allusion to springtime relates the simile to the myth of Creation, sung by the scup in Heorot. When God created "sunnan ond monan" (94b), He created the times and seasons. He created earth, and decorated its regions with branches and trees ("gefrwtwade foldan sceatas / leoman ond leafurn," 96b-97a), indirectly alluding to vernal equinox (March 22), the New Year, the moment of Creation in ancient Mesopotamian and in Judeo-Christian tradition. Time and space are inseparable in the myth of Creation. Wealhbeow's torque (Beowulf 1192-1220a) The poet describes Wealhbeow's torque as "healsbeaga mxst / Para be ic on foldan gefrzegn hxbbe" (1195b-96: the greatest of neck-rings of those that I ever heard of in the world). Mcest is superlative. What follows is superlative simile by comparison: Nxnigne ic under swegle selran hyrde hordmaooum ha leba, syboan Hama zetwwg to ba=re byrhtan byrig Brosinga mene, sigle ond sincfwt, searonioas fleah Eormenrices, geceas ecne reed.
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(Beowulf 1197-1201: I never heard of a better hoard-treasure for warriors under heaven, since Hama carried off the Brosings' torque to the bright city, gleaming and treasure-adorned, [where] he fled the treacherous hostility of Eormenric [and] chose eternal counsel.) Wealhkeow's torque is first and foremost an award given for valor in battle. Since the first century A.D. or earlier, neck-chains were given as awards for bravery in battle in the Romano-Celto-Germanic cultural area. One dimension of the Brosinga mene simileD is contrast: the Brosing torque was stolen; Wealhkeow's torque was given openly as a military award. Through simile, Wealhkeow's torque is both a sign and a signifier. In its narrative context (giftgiving at a feast), it is a sign of Wealhkeow's esteem for Beowulf, and of her own wealth, influence, and generosity. It is an ambiguous sign, too, of her misgivings concerning Hroogar's adoption of Beowulf, or, alternatively, of a hoped-for alliance with him to guarantee the dynastic security of her sons. Apart from these referents, Wealhkeow's torque is a signifier, pointing to its own future in the "heroic age." Like "robes of honor" in the Middle East, torques were bestowed upon meritorious nobles and warriors by Roman and Germanic rulers. The custom had wide distribution in the Romano-CeltoGermanic cultural area, and it was long-lived. When the crusader-prince Richard Earl of Cornwall returned to England after his adventures and a successful diplomatic mission in France (Oct. 28, 1247), his brother, King Henry III, in a homecoming ceremony, presented him with "a very handsome collar, wider than a man's hand and ornamented with the most precious jewels, the like of which was not to be found among the king's treasures."" This torque was superlative, as each one was wont to be at the time of its ceremonial presentation. 12 Cf. Tacitus, Annales 2.9 and 3.21. Alternative awards for military valor included crowns, swords, and other weapons. 13 Some critics read Brosinga mene (1199b) as an epithet for WealhPeow's torque (e.g. Butts 1987: 120), but two torques are compared in a simile. 14
Paris 1993: 41 (Chronicle for 1247).
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As for the history of Wealhl)eow's torque, Beowulf gave it to Hygd. She gave it to Hygelac, who wore it on his last raid in Frisia. There, after his death, it fell into the possession of the Franks, never to be seen again. By virtue of the Brosinga mene simile, Wealhbeow's torque is a signifier, too. of Hama's flight from Eormenric's court, I5 an event comparable to Walter's escape from Attila's court where he had been hostage. (Walter, too, took stolen treasure with him into exile.) By means of this simile, collocated with the first digression on Hygelac in Frisia (1202-14a), Wealhbeow's torque signifies the "heroic age," beginning with the Ostrogothic king Eormenric in the fourth century, and ending with Hygelac in the sixth, telescoped into one courtly moment when Wealhbeow presents it to Beowulf and urges him to wear it in good health: "Bruc hisses beages, Beowulf leofa, I hyse, mid hmle" (1216b-17a: Enjoy this ring, dear Beowulf, young [warrior], in health [and success]), I6 Like the kenning hildegicelum, Weal1-Meow's torque will never be seen again. Lost to history, it is a unique signifier, pointing to the heroic age as a ho/on. Torques were meant to be given, not stolen. Hama's theft of the Brosinga mene implies a contrast between heroic action and thievery. Just so Loki the trickster-god stole Freja's torque and gave it to Minn." By means of the Brosinga mene simile, Wealhbeow's torque signifies an ethical polarity between heroic conflict and theft. This ancient Indo-European theme is manifest, too, in the story of the dragon's treasure. The logic of epic superlative
Wealhbeow's torque and the Brosinga mene are both said to be the one greatest torque in the world. What does this mean? The simile asserts that Weall-Theow's torque is the best one in the world since Hama stole the Brosing 15
For the story of Reimer (Hama) and Ermanric in Piedriks saga: Haymes 1988.
The torque as an image of the Heroic Age is suggested in Harming 1974: 94-95. In military contexts, had means "success in battle." 16
17
Damico 1983.
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torque from Eonnenric. How can he also say that WealhPeow's torque is the best treasure that he had ever heard of in the world? This is epic superlative. But epic superlative is not the same thing as hyperbole, or sloppy logic. The poet means to say that the Brosing torque was the best treasure in the world, until Hama made off with it and disappeared, either into a monastery or a grave, depending on the meaning of the last verse, "geceas ecne read."18 In the absence of the Brosing torque, known only to heroic tradition, Wealhpeow's torque is the best treasure in the world. The Brosinga mene simile invites comparison to the epithet ciristos Akhaion (best of the Achaeans) in the Iliad. Who is the best of the Achaeans? In the Iliad, Achilles is called this, by the poet and by himself, but after Achilles's death, in the Odyssey, Odysseus is called aristos Akhaion.19 Another parallel: What I am calling "epic superlative" appears twice with gronstr, "greenest," in the Norwegian Rune Poem, as a modifier for both bjarkan and Pr, birch and yew. How can both trees be greenest?2° XIII [bjarkan] er lautgronstr lima; Loki barficeroa tima.... XVI [Yr] er vetrgronstr vita; Vanter, er brennr, at svioa. (Norwegian Rune Poem 25-26 and 31-32: birch is the greenest-leaved of branches; Loki was lucky in his deception.... Yew is the greenest of trees in winter; when it bums, it sputters.)
18 Robinson (1985: 51-52) proposes that Hama "left the joys of men and sought the realm of a god," or Valhalla, the heroes' Underworld, which in Volupsa 64.2 and in sagas is described as a bright hall. 19
Nagy 1979: 26-41.
20
Halsall 1981: 182 (Halsall's translation). Cf. Dickins 1915: 26-27.
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Birch is uniquely the greenest of trees, just as Loki was luckier than anyone else when practicing deception. But the yew is vetrgronstr, greenest in winter, when birch trees are bare. Birch is like Achilles; the yew, like Odysseus. The logic of epic superlative applies to royal halls: Hroagar's, and Beowulf's. Heorot was "healaem mxst" (78a: the greatest of halls), until it was destroyed in the Dano-Heaoobeard feud. After that, Beowulf's was the best hall in the world, until the dragon burned it down. This caused Beowulf the greatest sorrow he had ever experienced: ws Biowulfe brogan gecy-Oed snude to sooe, part his sylfes ham, bolda selest, byrnewylmum mealt, gifstol Geata. lt dam godan wars hreow on hreore, hygesorga mxst. (Beowulf 2324-28: then the [dragon's] terror was quickly disclosed to
Beowulf as a truth, that his own home, the best of buildings, melted away in burning surges, the gift-throne of the Geats. To the good [man] that was distress in [his] spirit, the greatest of sorrows in his inner being.) Epic superlative is always bracketed by limits set forth by the course of events. Although Beowulf s grief was the worst ever experienced by him, it was not absolute sorrow. Certainly it does not compare with Hreoel's, or the Bereaved Father's in the Father's Lament. His hall was the best in the world while it lasted, just as Heorot had been, in its day. Another epic superlative (twice). The poet writes of Beowulf: Se wan moncynnes mwgenes strengest on km dg bysses lifes, Fetiele ond eacen. (Beowulf 196-98a: he was the strongest of mankind in [human] strength during the time [se. day] of this [his] life, noble and mammoth.)
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Eacen reminds me of "elephant-bodied," a modifier that Firdausi uses to describe Rostam. The Hamza-cycle homologizes Amir Hamza to Rostam by applying to same epithet to its hero. Again, during the Grendel-fight: Heold hine fmste se Pe manna wxs nregene strengest on pain dxge Pysses lifes. (Beowulf 788b-90: [Beowulf] held him [Grendel] fast, he who was the strongest in [human] strength among men during the day [time] of this [his] life.) Robert Frank interprets hisses lifes, with its stressed demonstrative pronoun, as a reference to a pagan time in the past, in contrast to the Christian present?' Building on this Christian-pagan polarity, Robinson argues that mcegen means "physical strength" in the pagan world of Beowulf, but "virtue" in the Christian world of the Anglo-Saxon audience. This interpretation, Robinson asserts, rescues mcegenes strengest (strongest in strength) from tautology, by substituting a contrast, "strongest in virtue." Other apparent tautologies are rehabilitated, too, by this Christian-pagan polarity: mcegenes crceft (418a), mcegenes strang (1844a), mcegensirengo (2678b). Caught up in the Christian-pagan polarity, some passages lend themselves to ironic readings. Beowulf prevailed in the Grendel-fight because "he gemunde mxgnes strenge, / giinfmst gife Oe him god sealde" (127071: he remembered the strength of his strength, the most generous gift that God have him). Robinson: "a god gave him physical strength," but God's real gift (to Christians) is grace. Wiglaf, during the dragon-fight: "Nu is se dxg rumen / ]part ure mandryhten mwgenes behofao" (2646-47: now is the day come when our lord needs strength). According to Robinson, the Christian audience would hear
21
Frank 1982: 54.
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"'Now is the day when our lord is in need of [God's] grace' .... Wiglaf says more than he realizes."22 I accept neither these interpretations nor the Christian-pagan polarity that supports them. For nicegen, the relevant conceptual contrast is not "physical strength" versus "Christian virtue." It is mcegen versus miht, "human strength" as opposed to superhuman, non-human might.23 Miht appears in bono in an epithet for God, mihtig God (761a, 1398a, 1716a, 1725a), and in a reference to drihtnes miht (940a). Miht is the strength of a sea-monster in male, a mihtig meredeor (558a), and of Grendel's mother, a merewif mihtig (1519a). This epithet, in particular, contrasts her miht with Beowulf's human strength: Ongeat pa se goda grundwyrgenne, merewif mihtig; mwgenrms forgeaf hildebille. (Beowulf 1518-20a: the good [man, Beowulf] perceived the accursed monster of the deep, the mighty sea-woman; [he] gave [her] a strong blow with his battle-sword.) Mcegen versus miht, then. Human strength overcomes the superhuman power of an evil force. That was God's gift to Beowulf, not the attractive nuisance of a heroic strength that ultimately leads to damnation. As for the adverbial of time, "on Imam dmg kysses lifes," this articulates the limit of epic superlative. Beowulf was the strongest man in the world, while he was living. After the Grendel-fight, the Danes praised Beowulf in epic superlative terms, too. They said that "selra mere / rondhxbbendra, rices wyrara" (860b-61: [there] was no better shield-bearer, worthier of kingship). This is ambiguous. Do the Danes imagine that Beowulf could be their future king, in light of his adoptive kinship with Hroogar? Their words are disambiguated by the next two lines:
22
Robinson 1985: 54-55.
23
Clemoes 1995: 72-73.
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Ne hie huru winedribten wiht ne logon, glxdne Hroogar, ac part wars god cyning. (Beowulf 862-63: indeed they did not at all disparage the[ir] friendly lord, gracious HroOgar, but [they said that] he was a good king ) If Beowulf were a king, he would be the worthiest king, but he is not a king, whereas HroOgar was in fact a king, and a good one. Their superlative praise of Beowulf is hypothetical, and delimited by the fact of Hroogar's good kingship. Epic superlative finds its tour de force in the epic's final sentence: Swa begnornodon Geata leode hlafordes [hr]yre, heorOgeneatas, cwmdon past he wwre wyruldcyninga manna mildust ond mon[ow]eerust, leodum lioost ond lofgeornost. (Beowulf 3178-82: so the Geatish people, hearth-companions, mourned the demise of [their] lord, said that he had been, among earthly kings, the mildest of men and the most humane, gentlest to [his] people, and most eager for praise.) Some critics interpret these lines literally, in bono.24 Others, reading ironically, have seized upon lofgeornost as evidence of mortal sin. Praise and glory, lof and dom, like all transitory, worldly benefits, are evil. Compared to the summum bonum, which is God, lof and dom are partial goods, in a theology in which evil is the absence of good. To desire lof and dom is cupiditas, in contrast to caritas, desire for God. Beowulf, then, caught in the Christian-pagan polarity, is damned by a Neoplatonic syllogism. Boethius, in his Consolation of Philosophy (II, pr. 7), condemns all fame in this way, as a partial good, but King Alfred, in his translation, limits this condemnation to false, unearned fame, and to excessive attempt to earn fame.25 Let us hope that Beowulf, like Gilgamesh, is a judge of souls in the Underworld. 24
Richards 1973.
25
Alfred, Boethius 1899: 41.8-11, 42.10-12, and 46.3; discussed in Dicenza 2005: 98.
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Beowulf s desire for praise was mentioned earlier in the epic. It was an attribute of his "charismatic affection" for Hygelac. He vowed to fight Grendel unarmed, to better please Hygelac (433-41). It was in his nature to consider others before himself. This led him to the dragon-fight, where he gave up his life for his people. If this was mortal sin, who shall escape whipping? The problem with judgment by Christian-pagan polarity is that it is asymmetrical. Lofgeornost is fourth in a series of superlatives, and cannot, without bias, be singled out for deconstructive analysis in isolation from the others. Absolute and conditional superlatives
Absolute superlatives typically apply to theological concepts and cosmic forces. So far as I am aware, Beowulf has none of these. Comparison with poems that do discloses an attribute of the Beowulf poet's "voice," by differentiating it from other possible voices. Among theological concepts modified by superlatives: the Cross, beama beorhtost in Dream of the Rood (6a: brightest of trees) mcerost beame in Cynewulfs Elene (1224b: most glorious of trees), cejielust beama in Menologium (84b: noblest of trees). In Exeter Riddle 9, the soul is horda deorast (9b: dearest of treasures), to be raised up on Doomsday; one should be mindful of this, and drink in moderation, when lifting a cup of wine in a feast.26 Good and evil counsel are maximal polarities in Maxims I: "Rmd bi nyttost, / yfel unnyttost, kmt unlmd nitneo" (118b-19: [good] counsel is most helpful, evil [counsel] most unhelpful, that a wretched [man could] take [in a time of crisis]). In Genesis B, Eve is 'iv° fceroste (457a: the fairest woman), "idesa scenost, / wifa wlitegost" (626b-27a, 821b-22a: most radiant... brightest of women); again, wife wlitegost (704b), because God created her directly, as His handiwork. But in Menologium, the Virgin Mary is fcegerust mcegda (148b: fairest of maidens), cwena selost (168b: best of women). In the Advent Lyrics, Mary is fcemne freolicast (Christ 72a). 26
Williamson 1977: 73-74 and 165-66n. This is Riddle 11 in Krapp and Dobbie, ASPR 3.
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The poet of Genesis B, exploiting a tendency in his Old Saxon source, explores the semiotics of theological superlatives, and through them gets to the aetiology of original sin. God is "hehsta heofenes wealdend" (300a: Ruler in the highest heaven); He reigns "on pam hehstan heofnarice" (512: in the highest realm of the heavens). In Eden, the tree of life is "moste on ecnisse... on worulde" (469a and 470a: most fruitful in the world). When the devil tempted Adam there, he claimed to see "ealra folca mwst, wereda wynsumast" (670b71a: the greatest of all hosts, most winsome of armies). Satan's expulsion from heaven and his damnation was "ealra morora mast" (297a: greatest of all punishments); its absolute essence is reinstantiated in Adam's and Eve's expulsion from Eden, the hearma mceste (802a: greatest of injuries). The devil who tempted them was mcest sceadena (549b: greatest of enemies), boda bitresta (763a: bitterest messenger). Hell is landa sweartost (787: darkest of lands). Not all theological superlatives are absolutes. Before his expulsion from heaven, Satan had been "engla scynost, / hwitost on heofne" (338b-39a: brightest of angels, whitest in heaven). His ofermod (338a) and consequent fall changed the cosmic order, such that Satan no longer is the best of angels. In the Advent Lyrics, Christ as earendel (co-eternal beam) is engla beorhtast (Christ 104). A parallel case in Exodus: the Hebrew people under Moses are folca selest (446b), because at that time they were the populus Dei. The poet of Daniel asserts that the Hebrews were God's chosen people as long as they clung to truth, but when they succumbed to cupidity, they lost their status as the populus Dei and were conquered by the Chaldeans.27 Another class of absolute superlatives: creatures and things in the "book of God's world" that symbolize theological concepts. In the Prose Solomon and Saturn,28 the lilige is the betst and selust wyrt (18: best plant), and the wintreow is "ealra treowa betst" (40: the grapevine is the best of all trees), as symbols of 27
Daniel 1-51, discussed in Anderson 1987; for the populus Dei in Cynewulf Elene, cf
Anderson 1983: 126-33. 28
Cross and Hill 1982: 25-34.
2 73
Christ. The Culfre is selust fugle (29: the dove is the best bird), as a symbol of the Holy Ghost. "Iordanen seo ea ys selest" of watera (31: the Jordan river is the best of waters), because "crist was on hyre gefullod" (Christ was baptized in it). In Exodus, the same logic elevates Solomon as the best of earthly kings: eor6cyninga se wisesta on woruldrice, heahst and haligost, hmleaurn gefrmgost, mrest and mwrost. (Exodus 392b-95a: of earthly kings the wisest in the world's domain, highest and holiest, fairest among warriors, greatest and most glorious.) Cosmological absolutes: "Wind by6 on lyfte swiftest, / bunar by6 bragum hludast" (Maxims II 3b-4a: wind is swiftest in the sky, thunder is loudest among sounds). The storm that drowned the Egyptians in the Red Sea was hereii'opa niwst (Exodus 461b: greatest of war-cries), a kenning for thunder.29 In Exeter Riddle 1, thunder during a storm is swega mast and gebreca hludast (69b and 70b: greatest of sounds, loudest of noises [or crashes]).3° In Menologium, the sun in June is hyhst, torhtust, and fcegerust leohta (109b-15a: the highest, brightest, and fairest of lights). Saturnus presents a series of four absolutes in human experience: Nieht bio wedera oiestrost, ned bi6 wyrda heardost, sorg bib swarost byroen, slap bib dea6e gelicost. (Solomon and Saturn II 312-13: night is the darkest of 'weathers', necessity is the hardest of fates, sorrow is the heaviest burden, sleep is most like death.)
29 Bosworth and Toiler 1898: 533, s.v. here-wop, translate "[t]he shout raised by an army," citing ON here-op, "war-cry." 3° Williamson 1977: 67-70, at p. 69. Krapp and Dobbie, following most editors, present the Storm Riddle as three riddles. Lines 69-70 in Williamson's edition correspond to Krapp and Dobbie Riddle 3, 39-40, in ASPR 3: 180-83, at p. 182.
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In Exodus, when the Hebrews prepare to cross the Red Sea, the tribe of Judah is called drihtfolca nicest; the lion on their battle-standard deora cenost (322: greatest of noble tribes, bravest of beasts).3' Cotton Maxims II presents, tour de force, eleven superlatives in sequence. The first eight are cosmic absolutes; the last three are attenuated by the human condition. Wind byo on lyfte swiftust, bunar byo bragum hludast. Prynunas syndan Cristes myccle, wyrd by6 swioost. Winter by6 cealdost, lencten hrimigost (he by6 lengest ceald), sumor sunwlitegost (swegel byO hatost), haerfest hreoeadegost, hxleoum bringeo geres wwstmas, Oa be him god sendeo. Soo bid swicolost, sinc by6 deorost, gold gumena gehwam, and gomol snoterost, fymgearum frod, se be er feala gebideo. (Maxims II 3b-12: wind is swiftest in the sky, thunder is loudest in [its] season. The glories of Christ are great; wyrd is most powerful. Winter is coldest, Lent most frosty (it is longest cold), summer most brightened by the sun (the sun is hottest), harvest [is] most glorious, to men it brings the fruits of summer, which God sends them. Truth is trickiest [or, most elusive], treasure is dearest, gold to every man, and an old [man], wise in years, is wisest, one who has experienced many things.) Wind and thunder, cosmic forces, have a special connection to the Creator, for God made the heavens. So too does wyrd, the instrument by which God controls events and seasons: winter, Lent, summer, harvest. Four seasons, according to the learned Roman tradition, but also two seasons, the native Germanic ones, because lenten, when frost is longest, is really an extension of winter, and hcerfest is part of summer (ger), the season when the sun is hottest.32 These referents have attributes that are marked by absolute superlatives—a mode of expression that is quite distinct from Beowulf. 3' Charles Wright (1994) discusses the Exodus poet's probable source for this detail. 32
Anderson 1997.
275
In contrast to these cosmic forces, attributes of the human condition are modified by attenuated superlatives. Truth is swicolost, trickiest, or most elusive;33 treasure is deorost, what every man most desires. These are not really attributes of truth and treasure, but of every man, whose desire for treasure obscures his vision of truth. It is difficult for a wealthy man to discern the difference between right and wrong, especially when money is involved. Only when a man is old, experienced in many things, is he snoterost, wisest. Experienced in what? What else, if not unhappy events that pertain to the conflict between truth and treasure? Snoterost, then, is relative. During his lifetime, a man typically desires treasure and ignores truth. When he grows old he is wiser. What of that, after a life of greed and vanity? Either you lived a virtuous life or you didn't. The amazon-warrior simile (Beowulf 1 282b-87) In another extended simile, the poet compares Grendel's mother to an amazon-warrior (1282b-87): Wass se gryre Imssa efne swa micle swa bib mmgba craft, wiggryre wifes, be wwpnedmen ponne heoru bunden, hamere geburen, sweord swate fah swin ofer helme ecgum dyhttig andweard scireo. (Beowulf 1282b-87: Her terror was less by as much as is the craft of
maidens, the war-terror of a woman, compared to armed men34 when a bound, hammer-forged blade, a sword stained with blood, doughty in edges, shears off an opposing boar-[image] atop a helmet.)
33 Robinson (1982) thus defends the manuscript reading in preference to the editorial emendation swito/ost, "clearest." 34 Although Stanley (1994: 116) notes that wapnedman usually connotes "the stronger sex" rather than "the sex that bears arms," I translate as "armed men" in view of the simile's military context.
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The simile is preceded by the poet's reference to Grendel's mother as ides, aglcecwif (1259a, lady, woman combatant), a unique foiniulaic variant of atol ceglceca (592a, 8I6a: dreadful combatant), an epithet for Grendel. The simile is followed by references to her as seo brimwylf (1506a: seawolt) and merewif mihtig (1519a: mighty sea-woman), a formulaic variant of mihtig meredeor (558a: mighty sea-beast), one of Grendel's epithets. These epithets combine amazonian qualities with submarine, monstrous ones, just when she seizes Beowulf and forcibly drags him down to her underwater home. Mihtig, miht suggests the superhuman strength of Grendel and his mother, unlike magen which suggests human strength. Brimwylf, amazonian in its umlauted feminine form, has given rise to distracting conjectures. Gregor Sarrazin, who thought that Beowulf was an English translation of a Danish poem, compared the brimwylf to Bjarki's antagonist in the ON Bjarkarimur (4.58), a she-wolf, though not a sea-wolf.35 Klaeber compared her to the devil, who often assumes the shape of a wolf,36 although neither as sea- nor she-wolf. Rosier proposed that brimwylf was just a play on words, a verbal echo of Beowulf's name,37 which would be possible if the name appeared in proximity, but its nearest mention is "Beowulf mabelode" (1473a), 36 lines earlier. Brimwylf and merewif mihtig, epithets for Grendel's mother, call to mind the amazon-simile and affirm its relevance in the story of role reversal, in which Beowulf's female opponent is his most formidable.38 The epithets are unique, aesthetically exciting like the amazon-simile itself, and like aglcecwif. The amazon-simile preserves the only explicit allusion in Old English poetry39 to a migratory theme whose geographic range stretches from Germanic and Celtic narratives in the northwest to Persian and Arabic ones in the southeast. 35
Sarrazin 1910: 21.
36
Klaeber 191 Ib: 253.
" Rosier 1963: 12-13. 38
Role reversal in this scene is noted often in Beowulf criticism; cf. Schrader 1983: 41.
39
In OE prose, "Amazanas" are described in Orosius 1.10, in Bately 1980: 29-30.
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Usually amazon-warriors are credited with a Greek mythic origin, but it is possible that this theme already was diffused widely when it appeared the Iliad.4° Amazon-warriors are prominent in Russian byliny and in Persian, Armenian, Arabic, and Serbo-Croatian epic narratives.'" Two Scottish amazon-warriors in the Irish Tochmarc Emire ("The Wooing of Emer") were Saathach, who trained Ca Chulainn and his foster-brother Fer Diad in elite military arts, and Seathach's enemy, Alfe, the world's most powerful amazon-warrior, who became mother of Cu Chulainn's only son, Connla,42 whom he slew in combat according to Aided Oenfir Affe ("The Death of Aife's Only Son"), one of a select group of canonical texts representing the Indo-European "father-son combat" typescene.43 Besides these there was Queen Medb, who in Thin Bó Ct'lailnge boasted to her husband King Mill that she outmatched her five older sisters in military arts. She led onethird of her army against the Ulstermen in an attack during which Cu Chulainn killed many of her warriors in single combat." Germanic examples include Brunhild in the Nibelungenlied, and, in Scandinavian poems and sagas, an indefinite number of valkyries, "Odin's shieldmaidens" who egg warriors on into battle, fight with swords themselves, and by sorcery resurrect slain warriors from the dead, freely crossing the porous boundaries between mythic and heroic literature. Among woman-warriors in heroic stories, Bowra names Gudrun in Altamal 47, Hervor daughter of Angantyr, who called herself Hjdrvard and fought in male disguise in Hervarar saga ok
4° Iliad 3.184-90 and 6.186. There are many other classical allusions, among them Aeschylus, Eumenides 685-90, Herodotus 4.110-17, Pausanias 1.21.1, 1.41.7, 2.32.9 and 7.2.7-8, Virairs Aeneid 1.693-97. 41 For
Russian examples: Arant 1970. For Persian examples: Hanaway 1970, and
Dick Davis 2007. For Arabic folk-epics: Lyons 1995, 1: 110-18, and Kruk 1994, 1997, 1998. For Serbo-Croatian examples: Francela Clark 1995: 128-49. 42
Rees and Rees 1961. For translations: Kinsella 1970, Carson 2007.
43
For discussion: Anderson and Norouzalibeik 2008.
44
Carson 2007: 3-4 and 85-100.
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Heioreks; and, in the same saga, another Hervor, daughter of Heidrek.45 None of these are known in Old English poetry, but Bowra mentions Hildegund, too, the Burgundian princess betrothed to Walter of Aquitaine, who like him was sent to Attila's court as a hostage. After they escaped with a considerable treasure, Hildegund helped Walter fend off an opportunistic attack by Gunther's and Hagena's band of eleven knights. She stood by him when he defeated Gunther in single combat. Ekkehard of St. Gall's Waltharius depicts her sharing "willingly and actively in the risks and adventures of the man she loves."46 Among the Old English Waldere fragments are 31 lines of Hildegyo egging Waldere on in his combat with Guethere as a male warrior-companion would do, in a speech much longer than Wiglaf's when he egged Beowulf on against the fire-dragon (Beowulf 2661-68).47 Extended direct discourse, rare in short heroic lays, makes it seem likely that Waldere was a fully developed epic.48 A pleasant thought indeed, that the Anglo-Saxons had an epic about the adventures of Hildegyo and Waldere, warrior-companions and lovers! But alas, as Frederick Norman pointed out, neither Hildegund in Waltharius nor Hildegyo in Waldere is portrayed as a "Germanic shield-maiden,"49 unless by that we mean a woman who stands by her man on the battlefield without taking up arms herself. Tacitus describes female camp-followers who encouraged soldiers to battle by baring their breasts and warning them of the consequences of defeat and captivity,50 but cross-culturally, whenever an amazon-warrior bared her breasts in battle, it was to disclose to her opponent that he was fighting a woman, thereby ending the fight. E. G. Stanley proposed a two-part taxonomy, differentiating 45
Bowra 1952: 490-92.
46
Bowra 1952: 490.
Stanley (1998: 87) compares Hildegya and Wiglaf. The doubts that Norman raised about attribution of this speech to HildegyO, in "Old English Waldere and Some Problems," have not troubled other critics. 47
48
Norman 1968: 32; subsequently Andersson 1992.
49
Waldere 19, ed. Norman 1949.
5° Tacitus, Germania 8.
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between courageous but unarmed "shield-maidens" like Hildegy6, and true women-warriors like princess Lathgetha whom King Ragnar Lothbrok won as his bride (Saxo Grammaticus 9.4), and like the armed women who joined their men in support of Siwaldus when he avenged the slaying of his father Sigarus (Saxo 10.4).51 Jacob Grimm's and R. C. Boer's obsolete portraits of HildegundHildegyo as an amazon-warrior were based upon analogy to the story of Hild, the valkyrie-daughter of Hagena (Hogni), who eloped with Heoden (He6inn).52 Hagena tracked the lovers to an island in the Orkneys, rejected offers of payment for peace, and led his army into a battle in which many men were slain. Each night, Hild went to the battlefield and revived the dead by means of sorcery. The battle resumed each day, as it will until Doomsday. We no longer imagine Hildegund and Hild as the same heroine, nor derive their stories from a common source, even though Hagena was a villainous pursuer in both. Even so, as Grimm first pointed out, Hild's feuding father and his would-be son-in-law are mentioned together as rulers of distant lands in Widsid 21: "Hagena Holmrygum and Heoden Glommum" (Hagena [ruled] the Holmrygir [in southern Norway] and Heoden the Glommas), evidence that Hild's story was known to some Anglo-Saxons, though not to the Exeter Book scribe who Wrote henden for Heoden in verse 21b. The closest we come to a woman warrior in Old English poetry. then, is Hildegyo. She may have been an amazon-warrior in earlier tradition, but is no longer so in Waldere. Stanley was probably right to propose shield-maidens and amazonwarriors as two separate categories of women on the battlefield. Historical counterparts known to Tacitus: Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus and granddaughter of Caesar Augustus, a Hildegyb-like "woman of heroic spirit," and the British princess Boudicea, a true amazon-warrior. During the wars against the German prince Anninius, Agrippina took charge of Roman 51
Stanley 1998: 89-91.
52
Grimm 1842; Boer 1908: 44-47.
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legions that were in danger of being stranded on the German side of the Rhine. She set up camp at the Rhine bridge, prevented its destruction, encouraged the soldiers, provided for their material and medical wants, and quelled a mutiny among them when they grew disgruntled because of the corruption of their generals.53 Boudicea took up arms herself and led the Brigantes in an attack on the Roman settlement in north Britain, storming the forts and sacking the colony, until her rebellion was put down by Paullinus, a distinguished Roman genera1.54 In his narrative of a later, wider rebellion put down by Agricola, Tacitus represents the rebel leader, Galgacus, encouraging the Britons to valor by citing the Brigantes' success, when "under a woman's leadership" they stormed a Roman camp and burned a colony. The Brigantes would have been successful, too, Galgacus said, if they had persevered in warfare.55 Thus by indirection, in an ethopoeic tour de fOrce, Tacitus compares the success of Paullinus, who quelled a tribal rebellion led by an amazon, with the greater success of Agricola, who quelled a national rebellion led by the British commander Galgacus. This is the amazon-simile writ large. As a theme in epics across cultures, an amazon-warrior is the object of a bridewinning quest, a virgin whom a hero wins as his bride by defeating her in combat, or in athletic contests as happened to Brunhild, supposedly bested by Gunther but actually by Siegfried in the Nibelungenlied. The simile in Beowulf, which cites integka melt, the warrior-craft of maidens, alludes to this tradition. The simile acquires immediacy in the poet's description of Grendel's dam when she seized A3schere: Heo wxs on ofste, wolde ut banon, feore beorgan, ka heo onfunden wws
53
Tacitus, Anna/es 1.69, citing Caius Plinius's History of the German Wars. Tacitus, Agricola 16.
55
Tacitus, Agricola 29-32.
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(Beowulf 1292-93: She was in haste, wished [to depart] thence, to save her life, when she was discovered), so she seized an atheling and escaped to the fen (1294-95). Later, when Beowulf found himself in her grip, he was willing to fight to the death, not caring for his life. This is the way of the warrior, the poet proclaims: Swa steal man don, bonne he art gu5e gegan bence6 longsumne lof, na ymb his lif cearao. (Beowulf 1534b-36: So a man must do, when he intends to achieve longlasting renown in battle, not caring for his life.) Desire for long-lasting fame, and concomitant recklessness in battle, differentiates the male hero from an amazon-warrior. An Anglo-Saxon audience must have found the amazon-warrior simile quite exciting, and so should we. Holofernes, by implied analogy rather than explicit simile, unbeknownst to himself was an unsuccessful suitor in a mortal contest for possession of Judith, a mcegd (Judith 35a, 43a, et seq.) in an extended scene in Holofemes's pavilion. She is described as ides celfscinu (14a), a lady of bewitching radiance, like Sarah in Genesis B (Genesis 1827a, 2731a),56 and ides ellenrof (146a: a lady with the courage of a warrior fighting for survival). By contrast, the biblical Judith was a widow. As a maiden, Judith is homologized to the amazon-warrior of Germanic tradition. When it counted, she wielded a sword and slew her enemy:57 Sloh Oa wundenlocc bone feondsceaoan fagum mece heteboncolne, 'vet heo healfne forcearf bone sweoran him, hart he on swiman keg druncen and dolhwund. Nms 6a, dead ba gyt, ealles orsawle. Sloh aa. eornoste 56
ASPR 1: 3-87.
57
For Judith as a valkyrie-like amazon-warrior, see Orlandi 1995: 86-89.
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ides ellenrof edre side bone ha Henan hund, poet him pa t heofod wand fora on Oa flore. (Judith 103b-1 la: Then the [maiden] with braided locks struck the enemy warrior, the one whose intentions were evil, with a gleaming sword, so that she severed his neck half way, so that he lay in a swoon, drunk and grievously wounded. He was not dead yet, completely lifeless. Then the noble, courageous lady earnestly struck the heathen hound a second time, so that his head rolled forward along the floor.) In contrast, Beowulf required only one blow, heorosweng heardne (Beowulf 1590a: a hardy battle-blow), to sever Grendel's head. If the amazon-simile (1282b-87) had been removed from Beowulf and applied instead to Judith, just after line 108a, it would have earned critical acclaim as an apt description of the heroine. Some critics have thought that Judith's symbolic role, representing spiritual wisdom, overwhelms the poem and obscures the beheading scene.58 I hold to a different view. The recurring allusions to Judith's gleaw (wisdom) provide a contextual background for the beheading scene, which is foregrounded as one of two milestone heroic events in the poem. (The other is the Hebrew warriors' rush to battle against the Assyrians.) Seen in that light, allusions to Judith's wisdom are comparable to Beowulf s offer of counsel (rced) when he tells the Coastguard, lc lows Hroogar mwg lourh rumne sefan reed gelwran, hu he frod and god feond oferswyoelo. (Beowulf 277b-79: I am able to give Hroogar open-minded counsel about this [sc. Grendel's attacks], how he, old and good, [will] overpower the enemy.)
Sa
Schrader 1983: 23.
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"Giving counsel" is a euphemism for fighting the battle himself On analogy to Beowulf s ned, Judith's gleaw marks her as the Ideal Knower, and provides an apt context for her decapitation of Holofernes. In Judith and in its biblical source, Holofernes lies on his couch when the heroine beheads him. According to Hrabanus Maurus in Expositio in librum
Judith, this detail allegorizes him as a figure of thoughtless wickedness, in contrast to Judith's alert piety. He lies on "a couch of impious security ('in lecto nefandae securitatis'), trusting that he can sin with impunity ('se impune peccare posse'), and heading blindly toward perdition: 'ad perditionem perpetuam improvidus',"59 as Astell observes in her brilliant exposition of the poem.° Anglo-Saxons in possession of MS Cotton Vitellius A.xv might have noticed a fascinating link to Beowulf, for Grendel, too, was lying in his bed, on rceste (1585b), "sleeping" in death, when Beowulf beheaded him.6I In the episode of Holofernes's decapitation, the homology of Judith to an amazon-warrior adds a colorful heroic dimension to the "literal" sense of the story which at the same time strengthens its allegory, for Hrabanus Maurus and jElfric interpreted Judith as an allegory of the Church. As Astell argues, in Judith's "prayer before battle," she "speaks as ecclesia, professing `soone geleafan" (89a).62 In her role as an amazon-warrior, she is the Church Militant. Grendel's and Holofemes's decapitations on rceste provide the scholar a bloody trail that leads initially to three Old Norse sagas, Hrolfs saga
Gautrekswonar, Vatrisdcelasaga, and Hjalmfies saga I, where giants recline on couches when the hero slays them.63 Soon enough this trail leads beyond Scandinavian troll-combats, for all three sagas homologize the giants to Hrabanus Maurus, Expositio in librum Judith, PL 109, col. 572. 60
Astell 1989: 125.
61 Sigmorini (1995: 38) asserted that Grendel was still alive when Beowulf beheaded him, but the poet says he was aldorleasne (1587a: dead).
6
Astell 1989: 126.
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Polyphemos, whose instantiations, in folktales across cultures, often are slain or blinded while sleeping or reclining." As a manifestation of Polyphemos, biblical Holofernes in his Middle Eastern habitat leads us close to his original, non-IndoEuropean home in the Caucasus. Cynewulf s Juliana is another example of an amazon-warrior in her (metaphorical) combat with a devil. The military context is established when the devil, boasting of his conquests, compares temptation to the siege of a fortress (Juliana 382-409a), a conventional allegory seen also in Vainglory (36b-39) and in Hroogar's sermon (Beowulf 17391:1-55a).65 Whenever he strives with a warrior of Christ who is strong enough to resist temptation with the shield of faith (haligne scyld, Juliana 386b), the devil says, he must seek out a weaker warrior under the battle-standard ("ellenlmssran / under cumbolhagan," 394b-95). When he finds such a one, he attacks that person's ingehygd (399b: innermost spirit), like a besieged castle (401b-17a). Juliana ignores the devil's boasts, and demands to know why he is out of hell (417b-28). The devil, in reply, asks Juliana to disclose hu bu gedyrstig purh deop gehygd wurde bus wigbrist ofer eall wifa cyn, beet bu mec pus fwste fetrum gebunde, wghwws orwigne. (Juliana 431-34a: how you, bold, through deep intelligence, became so strong in war-craft, beyond all womankind, such that you bound me so fast, entirely helpless, with fetters?)
63
Panzer 1910: 131-32, 150-53, and 288-89; Stitt 1992: 200-1, and pp. 84-91 for
64
!Ulrich 1962, comparing German folk-tales to classical Greek sources.
65
Doubleday 1970.
Hjalm,bes saga.
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"Wigkist ofer eal wifa cyn" has a double meaning. First, Juliana is a type of the Virgin Mary, who alone surpasses all women in any sort of excellence. Second, like Judith, Juliana is assimilated to the amazon-warrior.66 The amazon-warrior, then: a traditional epic character, who never appears in extant Old English literature, but is known figuratively. She appears in bono in metaphors applied to Judith and Juliana; in mato in the simile applied to Grendel's mother. Merismus: pleonasm and signification
Merismus, or "polar expression," is another rhetorical trope that opens a text to creative interpretation, and sometimes closes it. So far as I am aware, the rhetoric of merismus has not received attention in Beowulf criticism, although the passages where it appears are discussed often, because this trope always appears in concert with others: verse formulas, alliterative collocations, variation, envelope patterns, and so on. Merismus is common in Vedic, ancient Greek, and Old Norse poetry, and has long been recognized as a trope in Proto-IndoEuropean poetic tradition.67 The trope is common in Mesopotamian and biblical poetry, too. Jan Gonda first recognized merismus, or "complementary word groups" as he called them, as an Indo-European trope, often presented as an alliterative doublet. It reflects a human "tendency to express ourselves by means of contrasts or 'extremes'," rather than by "pronouns or abstract formulations." Thus, "young and old is a popular and analytical 'everybody', including those who are neither old nor young in the proper meaning of the words."68 Gonda situates his analysis in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century theories about the evolution of 66 Claude Schneider (1978) argues that Cynewulf "devalues" heroic tradition in Juliana, but just the opposite, I believe that Juliana's spiritual strength is disclosed primarily through military metaphors. 67 For Vedic poetry, Gonda 1959: 337-50. Campanile 1977: 98-104. Watkins 1995: 4447. West 2007: 104. 68
Gonda 1959: 337.
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human thought from a "Savage Mind" that was concretist and collectivist, hence incapable of abstract thought or self-reflection.69 Merismus in early IndoEuropean literatures "essentially was `primitive'.... [I]t was the difficulties in abstracting and analysing, the—comparatively speaking—easy accessibility to sensorial and emotional impression, the lack of freedom from the hic-et-nunc reality and the events and phenomena of daily life, which time and again affect the literary expression of Vedic man." This applies to other early Indo-European literatures, too.7° Old English merismus often brings two opposites together as a holon that stands in variation to a collective headword. (This obviates Gonda's claim for primitivism.) An example is "beagas and brad gold" (3105a: rings and broad [plated] gold), a merismus for the dragon's treasure, which is preceded in the text by searoginuna gekrcec (3102b: a heap of finely crafted gems) and wundur (3103a). As opposites, beagas suggests twisted rings, while brad suggests plated gold. Geographical opposites are brought together when, after the Grendel-fight, the Danes praise Beowulf as the world's worthiest warrior. The Danes said bxtte suo ne norb be stem tweonum ofer eormengrund over nanig under swegles begong selre nacre rondhxbbendra, rices wyrora. (Beowulf 858-61: that neither south between the seas, over the expanse of earth, no other shield-bearer under the course of heaven was worthier of kingship.) Merismus is the source of aesthetic tension of two kinds. First, inherent in the trope itself, two opposites, sud and nord, are brought together in a collectivity meaning "everywhere." Second, the merismus in context is caught in a conflict between referentiality and signification, sign versus signifier. A collective head69 This portrait of the Savage Mind goes back to Bastian (1860, 2: 55-58), but Gonda's source for these ideas was probably Jung (1921).
70
Gonda 1959: 349.
287
word, eormengrund, delimits "sub ne noro" by repeating its referential meaning. To borrow a metaphor from physics, eormengrund, the gravitational center of a miniature black hole, compresses the semantic space available to "sub ne noro," such that this binomial is a sign whose referent is "everywhere." The sign is trapped in pleonasm. Even so, sud and noro, as cardinal directions, are cosmic terms, potential signifiers. In subsequent verses, the poet undermines the "referential containment" of this binomial, by two procedures: differentiation, and paronomasia. Differentiation: sud in the merismus is privileged, for swegles begong, a kenning for "heaven," refers to the course of the sun, whose direction is southerly, as in "sigel su6an fus" (1966: the southerly-hastening jewel), a kenning for the sun, and "sunne sweglwered suban scineb" (606: the heaven-bright sun shone in the south). Paronomasia: rondhoebbend (861a: shield-bearer) is a kenning for "warrior"; rand, a metonymy for "shield," evokes a cosmic metaphor. The shield is the cosmos; its rand is earth, an island-mountain floating in the midst of the bord, the primordial waters. Aesthetic tension—I cited two forms: (1) the tension inherent in merismus, which brings opposites together in a collective holon. and (2) semantic tension between referentiality (reduced to pleonasm) and signification. To these is added, in the merismus "sub ne noro," a syntactic tension, for the syntax of Beowulf s praise is a negative grammatical construction, at odds with affirmative praise. "No one could think of a worthier warrior, south nor north," challenges us to try to think of one, if we can. From these examples I infer three principles in the rhetoric of Old English merismus. (These do not always apply to merismus in other poetic traditions.) First: in merismus, the doublet tends toward referentiality, and usually is collocated with a "collective head-word" that captures its meaning and traps it in a pleonasm. The collective head-word is like the gravitational center of a black
288
hole. Put another way, a merismus (in Old English poetics) is part of a rhetorical network that is governed by one or more collective head-words. In Old English poetry, the doublet seldom is isolated from the head-word. Old English merismus is a special case of variation. Of course there are exceptions. Twice, the doublet "dugul3 ond geogop," "veterans and young retainers," meaning "all the retainers," appears without a collective head-word (160b, 621a), although in its third appearance, "duguoe ond iogope" is preceded by "kinra leoda" (1673b-74a: your people, the veterans and the young retainers). The merismus "sxla ond mwla" (1611a), a constituent in the hildegicelum-simile discussed earlier, has no collective head-word. Its unexpressed head-word is cosmogonic "time," an abstract concept that modern physicists relate to the time-space continuum. "Time" in this sense is a covert category in Old English. The Anglo-Saxons had no word for cosmogonic time, but the concept was there, exerting influence on language. Second: merismus usually is followed by verses (and images) that "open" its meaning as a signifier. Differentiation, paronomasia, and ambiguity are strategies used to "open" the text. Like magical runes that unlock the fetters of referentiality, these procedures allow the merismus, as a signifier, to point to signs beyond itself. Third, merismus generates aesthetic tension, which begins in the black hole of pleonasm and reverberates outward, as if in an escaping spiral. At the referential level, merismus collocates opposites in a holon, an inherent source of tension. Just beyond the black hole are "particles" of semantic tension, the conflict of sign and signifier, as the merismus breaks free from the fetters of referentiality. Beyond that, a third form of aesthetic tension is possible, in the larger context of the episode in which merismus appears. Three levels of aesthetic tension, then: (1) the pleonasm of opposites (a logical contradiction); (2) the intersection of referentiality and signification, or sign and signifier; (3) contextual
289
ambiguity, for example in the form of covert allusion to a compositional typescene or theme. These are hypotheses to be tested. I turn to other examples. Where better TO
begin than with the first merismus in Beowulf?—actually a double-merismus,
applied to the treasures that the Danes loaded onto Scyld's burial-ship: 13xr wxs madma fela of feorwegum frxtwa gelxded. Ne hyrde is cymlicor ceol gegyrwan hildemepnum and heaaomedum, billum and byrnum; him on bearme laeg madma mmnigo, pa him mid scoldon on flodes wht feor gewitan. (Beowulf 36b-42: 36b-42: there a great [quantity] of treasures, of ornamented objects, [was collected] from far places [and] loaded. I [never] heard of a keel more handsomely decked out with battle-weapons and wargarments, with swords and bymies; many treasures were laid in his bosom [or, alternatively, in the bosom of the ship], when they, with him, were compelled to travel far away into the possession of the sea.) The double merismus exemplifies variation: "hildewxpnum ond hm6ewxdum," "billum ond bymum," offensive and defensive wargear, hence opposites. This double merismus is preceded by collective head-words in two-fold variation: madma fela and frcetwa. It is followed by madma mcenigo, such that the repeated head-words enclose the whole in a verbal envelope. A pleonastic loop, indeed, marked by alliteration and multiple homoeoleuton. But a treasure-hoard has attributes that cannot be locked up in pleonasm. Its specimens must be collected of feonvegum, "from distant places," perhaps even "from distant routes," by land and by sea, an adverbial phrase that signifies Scyld's power and prosperity. Then, too, a treasure-hoard must have an owner: if not Scyld, then the sea. On bearme signifies the owner, but this is ambiguous, referring, possibly, (1) to Scyld's bosom, (2) to the ship's hold, or (3) to the ship as a whole, whose metonymy is bearm. Once the ship is at sea, the treasure-hoard
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passes into j7odes mine, "the possession of the sea," but this does not clear up the mystery of its ownership, for Men ne cunnon secgan to sore, selermdende, heeleo under heofenum, hwa Dxm hlwste onfeng. (Beowulf 50b-52: men cannot say for a truth, hall counselors, warriors under the skies, who received that cargo.) This brings us to aesthetic tension in context. Scyld's funeral treasures belong to a compositional typescene: treasures are collected into a hoard, used by their owners for a time, then hidden with the possibility that they might be found again. As a signifier, the treasure-hoard in Scyld's funeral ship points to the dragon's treasure. This is covert allusion by typescene. The second merismus, "billum ond bymum," a formulaic verse, is repeated in the digression on Wiglaf's sword (2602-25a). Wiglaf's father, Weohstan, kept this sword (hidden, as it were) for many years, but the sword is not an isolated object. It is part of a miniature treasure-hoard. Weohstan's wargear is seen collectively as a holon: He frxtwe geheold fela missera, bill ond byrnan, oelOwt his byre mihte eorlscipe efnan swa his wrfxder. (Beowulf 2620-22: he [Weohstan] kept the treasure-hoard for many seasons, sword and byrnie, until his young son [was old enough to] be able to inherit his noble rank, as his [Weohstan's] father did [before him].) As in the Scyld episode, in this passage filxtwe is a collective head-word, whose meaning is repeated in the merismus "bill ond byrnan." In this case, referential pleonasm quickly gives way to signification, when ficetwe is displaced by a rival head-word, eorlscip. Weohstan's military fiyetwe is the symbol and substance of family eorlscip. The binomial "bill ond byrnan" links the head-words. Armed
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with this wargear, Wiglaf joins the dragon-fight out of loyalty to Beowulf, because when Weohstan died, Beowulf, as king, had confirmed on him his father's rank and estate, "folcrihta gehwylc, swa his fwder ahte" (2608: each of his legal rights, which his father [had] possessed). This was no more than justice, but a greedy king like Heremod might have confiscated Weohstan's property. From this merismus, "bill ond byman," multiple aesthetic tensions spiral outward. Sometimes it really is true, what Jacques Derrida said, that a bit of text is the center of a literary work at the time when we are reading it. Signification makes this possible. Wiglaf's wargear signifies his loyalty in contrast to the Geats who fled to the woods. It signifies his secondary kinship with Beowulf: Wiglaf is Beowulf's kinsman, but not his son. It signifies Weohstan's part in the Swedish dynastic feud, into which the Geats intruded, imprudently, at great cost, for "bill ond byman" more properly are called Eanrnundes laf (1611b: Eanmund's heirlooms). Weohstan slew Eanmund, Ohthere's son, during the Swedish dynastic conflict. He presented Eanmund's wargear to Ohttere's brother, King Onela, who gave it back to Weohstan, and on that occasion made no mention of the customary blood-feud that should have ensued. The wargear signified Onela's intention to look past Weohstan's status as Eanmund's bana (2613b), for, to be blunt, Eanmund had been a rebellious hall-thane, whose death came as a relief to the king. As I discussed in Chapter 6, adopting William Miller's interpretation (1983), Onela conferred Eanmund's wargear on Weohstan in a gift-giving ceremony that doubled as an inverted "charging ceremony." Customarily, Onela would have conferred Eanmund's heirlooms upon a warrior whom he had selected to avenge Eanmund's death. Instead, he conferred them upon Eanmund's bana.7 ' Another merismus: "fen ond fxsten," referring to the wet and dry parts of the moor. Grendel "Pe moras heold / fen ond fxsten" (103b-4a: guarded or ruled Kaske (1960), in contrast, regards Weohstan's sword as a symbol of the Germanic ideal of loyal retainership. This interpretation is problematized by the sword's former deixis as Ea»mundes laf, and its role in an inverted "charging ceremony."
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the moors, fen and fastness). The collective head-word is rnoras, to which the doublet refers. Wetness and dryness are the opposites brought together in this holon. The only other Old English example of "fen ond fasten" describes a marshland of monsters in Alexander's Letter to Aristotle, as Andy Orchard noted.72 In Old English literature, where alliterative collocation is important in poetry and in prose, it comes as no surprise to find topographical terms paired as doublets, whether they refer to forbidding places or to real estate, for example in land charters. The verb heold (guarded, ruled) suggests both, and anticipates Grendel's territoriality, when he extends his rule from the moors to Heorot, where he rixode (144a) by night. By means of ambiguity, the merismus, as a signifier, points to the metaphor of Grendel as a rebellious thane. Covert merismus is possible. It appears in the poet's account of how Grendel devoured Hondscioh: slxpendne rinc, slat unweamum, bat banlocan, blod edrum dranc, synsneedum swealh; sona hmfde unlyfingendes eal gefeormod, fet ond folma. (Beowulf 741-45a: [Grendel] easily tore apart the sleeping warrior, bit the bone-structure, drank blood in streams [or: from his veins], swallowed [him] in huge morsels. In a moment, he had devoured the dead [man] whole, feet and hands.) "Ban ond blod," "blod ond ban," a transposable binomial in early English,73 appears often in Middle English poems in praise of feminine beauty. In the Harley Lyrics, the Fair Maid of Ribbesdale is "feyrest... of blod ant bon," and the beloved lady of "Blow, Northerne Wynd" is "a burde of blod ant bon."74 In the 72
Orchard 1995: 47.
73 Ban and blod, Guthlac A, 380a; ban ne blod, Judgment Day 1 40a; blod ne ban, Exeter Riddle 39, I 8a; banlocan blod, Judgment Day 1476. 74 "The Fair Maid of Ribbesdale," lines 4-5, and "Blow, Northerne Wynd," line 10, in Harley Lyrics, ed. Brook 1964: 37-38 and 48-50, at pp. 37 and 49.
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alliterative collocation banlocan blod (742), the collective head-word is rinc, "warrior," to which the covert merismus refers. The referential loop, rinc — ban — blod, perhaps includes synsncedum. Even so blod, differentiated from its merismus-partners, signifies the biblical and homiletic injunction against consuming blood, an interpretation proposed by Robinson and accepted by most critics.75 In this chain of signifiers, Grendel's act of drinking blood points to Cain's slaying of Abel, whose blood was swallowed by the earth (Maxims 1, 192200), as Orchard points out.76 The shift of blod from a referential sign to a signifier is similar to that of suO in the merismus "sue) ne norb" (858a), discussed earlier. In both passages, differentiation releases the signifier from its pleonastic loop. The explicit merismus "fet ond folma" (747a) is governed by unlyfingendes eal, the collective head-word to which the doublet refers. Differentiation releases folma from a pleonastic loop. As a signifier, folma points to recurring examples of word-play in the contexts of hands, feasts, and exchanges of body-parts, reciprocal rewards in a feud.77 Smiths and tapestry-makers in Heorot (Beowulf991-99a) I conclude my discussion of merismus with the poet's account of how the Danes repaired and redecorated Heorot after the damage inflicted on it in the Grendel-fight: Da wms haten hree Heort innanweard folmum gefrwtwod. Fela peera wees, wera ond wifa, pe pmt winreced, gestsele gyredon. Goldfag scinon web after wagum, wundorsiona fela secga gehwylcum Para pe on swylc starab. Wees pwt beorhte bold tobrocen swioe, 75
Robinson 1970: 99-100; cf. Lendinara 1973; Clayton 2002.
76
Orchard 1995: 62-65.
77
Rosier 1963; Greenfield 1979.
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eal inneweard irenbendum fist, heorras tohlidene. (Beowulf 991-99a: then, swiftly, a command was given that Heorot should be redecorated inside. Many were there, men and women, who prepared the guest-hall. Gold-adorned tapestries illuminated the walls [with] many scenes, wonderful [to see] by all the men who gaze on such things. The bright building was badly shattered, the whole interior, [though] fastened by iron bard; the hinges were cracked.) Earlier the poet wrote of Heorot, forger foldbold ...fmste wars innan ond utan irenbendum searofoncum besmilvd. (Beowulf 773b-75a: the fair building was bound fast by iron bands, inside and outside, wrought by the craft of talented smiths.) The merismus "innan ond utan" refers to foldbold, the collective head-word that governs it. The repair and redecoration of Heorot, however, focuses on innan. This is what I am calling differentiation. Time is telescoped. In real life, Heorot could not have been repaired and decorated in a day. In a study of a (possibly eighth-century) brocaded silk cloak or veil-like garment in the care of St. Catherine's, Maaseik, in Limburg, Belgium,78 Helen Stevens estimates that the embroidery required many months of work by professional craftswomen (or men).79 In Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain's urysoun (OF hourson), a silken band covering his helmet and attached to his chain-mailed auentayle (OF esventeil, designed to protect his neck),8° was embroidered with parrots and periwinkles, turtle-doves and true-love knots, so many and so intricate that it required the work of "mony burde beraboute had ben
78 Described 79
in Budny and Tweddle 1984.
Helen Stevens 1990.
8° Following
the interpretation of Andrew and Waldron 1978: 230n.
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seuen wynter / In tonne" (613-14: many a maiden thereabouts had taken seven winters, in town [sc. at a workshop in the town]). The repair work was done by "many" (Fela, 992b), the collective headword for the binomial "wera and wifa" (993a). On first reading, this is merismus meaning "many Danes," but in subsequent verses, the poet differentiates. Both men and women worked inside the hall, but the men did the smithing while the women prepared tapestries. These gold-embroidered tapestries illuminated the hall, and depicted many wondrous scenes, wundorsiona fela (995b),81 most likely heroic scenes, like those in the Bayeux Tapestry, or in the Byrhtnoo Tapestry commissioned by klffleed, Byrhtnoo's widow, commemorating a military victory, and donated by her, sometime after 991, to the monks of Ely, according to Libel. Eliensis 2.63.82 The "wundur on wealle" in the dragon's barrow (2759a: wonders [suspended] on the wall) very likely are tapestries, too. In the medieval Germanic world, finely crafted tapestries were hung on the wall for special occasions, like the celebration of Beowulf s victory over Grendel. In Gunther's castle at Worms, tapestries were hung on the walls in preparation for Brunhild's arrival:83 Der palais unt die wende daz Ober al gezieret gegen den gesten. der Guntheres sal der wart vil wol bezimbert durch manegen vremden man. (Nibelungenlied str. 565, 11. 1-3: the palace and its walls were hung all over with tapestries to greet the guests, and Gunther's great hall was filled with tables and benches to accommodate the crowd of strangers.)
51 Verse 995b is ambiguous, and has been translated in two ways. It could mean that the decor as a whole as "wondrous to behold," as in Gordon (1926: 20), "wondrous sights," in Garmonsway [and Simpson] (1968), "much that was wonderful to see," and in Greenfield (1982: 70), "wonderful sights." Or it could refer to tapestry scenes, as in Chickering (1977: 105), "marvelous pictures," or Heaney (2002: 26), "woven scenes." 52
Liber Eliensis (ca. 117), ed. Blake 1962; for discussion, Budny 1991.
83
Nibelungenlied, ay. 9, st. 565, in De Boor 166; translation, Hatto 1965: 79-80.
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In rural Scandinavia, the practice of hanging tapestries for special occasions persisted into the twentieth century. A family celebration such as a wedding would be a time for hanging tapestries." Because Christmas was another such occasion, many extant homemade tapestries display Nativity scenes.85 Gender differentiation continues: men gazed on these tapestries, just as, at other times, they listened intently to heroic lays of a scop. The tapestry scenes were wondrous "secga gehwylcum Para ke on swylc stara6" (996: to each of those men who gazed on them). Line 996 finds an unexpected analogue in late tenth- or eleventh-century "Cloth of St. Ewald" (Hewald) from St. Kunibert's, Cologne, where it once graced the shrine of two Anglo-Saxon martyrs, the Black and White Hewalds, missionaries from Northumbria, murdered, torn asunder, and thrown into the Rhine by Saxons in ca. 695. After their bodies were miraculously recovered, Bede notes, they were "buried with much splendour in the church of the city of Cologne, on the Rhine."86 The Cloth of St. Ewald post-dates Bede, but is consistent with the magnificence of the saints' funeral. It was prepared for (or at least dedicated to) the saints' translation to St. Kunibert's, where their relics were placed on either side of Kunibert's tomb. The Cloth depicts God's creation of the world, with symbols of heavenly bodies, zodiacal signs, four seasons, four elements, Oceanus and Terra personified, and Alpha and Omega. Its borders bear an inscription, in which each letter is decorated with plant, animal, and interlace designs. The embroidered inscription reads: "Populus qui conspicit omnis arte laboratum" (all people who look on the world made by skill) People look, ambiguously, both at Creation and the embroidered tapestry." People in St. Kunibert's, Cologne, gaze in wonder at the tapestry, just as they did in Heorot.
84
The Smalands museet in Vaxjo displays a nineteenth-century wedding tapestry.
The Nordiska museet in Djurgarden, Stockholm, displays examples of modern Christmas tapestries. 86
86 Bede, Ecclesiastical History 5.10, 1969: 480-85: "condidit cum multa gloria in ecclesia Coloniae ciuitatis iuxta Hrenum" (p. 484).
87
Coatsworth 2007: 202.
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In the art of tapestry, early medieval evidence for women's roles is sparse.88 Most scholars refer to a "Norman Master" as the creator of the Bayeux Tapestry, a vast, complex work of artistry that must have been executed in workshops, very likely the province of craftsmen.89 But evidence is not wholly absent for women as weavers, embroiderers, and connoisseurs. Einhard, in Vita Caroli, asserts that Constantine was attentive to the education of sons and daughters alike. Idleness was permitted to none. "He made his daughters learn to spin and weave wool, use the distaff and spindle, and acquire every womanly accomplishment, rather than fritter away their time in sheer idleness."9° According to the late ninth-century Vita sanctarum Harlindis et Relindis, the cofoundresses of the monastery at Aldeneik (in 1571 removed to Maaseik) created the Maaseik embroideries.91 Their design and craftsmanship in fact are AngloSaxon, not Flemish, but even so, the monastic tradition presupposes that embroiderers would be women. Elizabeth Coatsworth calls attention to three ninth- or early tenth-century textile artifacts whose inscriptions associate them with women of royal rank. One of these is a cushion found in St. Remigius's coffin, crafted in 852 for the translation of his relics to the cathedral in Reims, when Hincmar was bishop there. The inscription reads in part, "The famous bishop Hincmar ordered this little work to be donated and put together thus by Alpheide. He ordered it, but she carried it out in so joyful a manner, that she created the work just as you see." Alpheide (Alpaid) was a half-sister of Charles the Bald.92 The second is a girdle woven in silk and gold, possibly a cingulum, worn by Bishop Witgar of 55 Fell (1984: 39-48) discusses women's roles as cloth-makers, weavers, and embroiderers, but mentions nothing so grand as tapestries. Staniland (1991: 7-8) points out that there is no evidence for male embroiderers until the thirteenth century. 59
Digby 1965: 43-44; Gameson 1997; Owen-Crocker 2002a: 259; Berlin 2003: 191-93.
9° Einhard, Vita Caroli 3.18, 1969: 74. 91
Budny and Tweddle 1984: 91-93.
Coatsworth 2007: 189-90; earlier, Volbach 1969: 106, 112, and plate 68. For the inscription, transcribed in 1647: Starensier 1982, 2: 606-8. 92
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Augsburg. Its inscription reads, "To .Witgar, filled with the Holy Spirh,
r,ost
holy and radiant Hemma gives this girdle." Hemma was the wife of Louis the German, king of the East Franks (817-876).93 The third: a sable and a maniple which lElffhed, the second wife of King Edward the Elder, presented to Frioestan, bishop of Winchester (909-931). Her inscription: "IElflmd fieri precepit... pro episcopo frioestan" (iElflwd had this made... for the pious bishop Frioestan).94 These donor-inscriptions imply that fine embroidery work (and, a forteriori, tapestries) were luxuries that belonged to the privileged environment of secular and ecclesiastical courts, and monasteries. They also imply that "embroidery and textiles were seen as an area of female expertise, in which [women] could be recognized as connoisseurs."95 Reparation in Heorot takes a three-part structure: first, conception: "Da w2es haten hr*" (991a: then was commanded quickly)—orders were given, presumably by an officer on HroOgar's behalf. Second, construction: ironsmithing by the men. Third, decoration: weaving and embroidering tapestries, by the women. The same three-part sequence is realized in the building of Heorot (67b-76a), and partially so in the song of Creation, where the scop sings first of the making of heavenly bodies and earth (90b-95), how earth was gefrcetwade (96a: decorated) with branches and leaves. A sequence of "making" and "decorating" is implied in the Cloth of St. Ewald, too, with its field of heavenly bodies, seasons, and Oceanus and Terra personified, and its border decorated with plants, animals, and letters.
93
Coatsworth 2007: 189-90; presented in von Wilckens 1991: 82-83.
94
Ibid., 190-91.
95
Ibid., 206.
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Chapter 9 Allusion: the Semiotics of Digression "Digression" is the name given in Beowulf criticism to episodes and discourse that do not pertain directly to the four-part narrative sequence in the epic: the hero's three great fights, and his death and funeral. Recently some critics have declared there are no digressions in Beowulf because all details are thematically relevant. Their relevance was demonstrated long ago by Bonjour, in The Digressions in Beowulf' (1950), without rhetorical posturing. Digressiondenial is either a gratuitous refusal to accept a nominalist convention, or a deconstructive claim that Beowulf lacks a main plot. In a post-structuralist environment, either position is likely to attract adherents, but not many, and not for long. I begin this chapter by stipulating that Beowulf has digressions: episodic departures from the main plot. The ones discussed here are the stop's song of Creation, the Danes' worship of idols, the Sigemund and Heremod digressions, and the Ingeld and Finn episodes. Allusion is the semantic force that makes a digression relevant to the epic as a whole. An allusion is a narrative or thematic detail that directs the reader's attention to a target that lies beyond the boundaries of its immediate context. When the poet describes Grendel as an exile "in Caines cynne" (107a), Cain (ms. cam), points beyond the text to the biblical figure of Cain, and within the text to the poet's description of Grendel's mother, compelled to live in cold waters because her ancestor, Cain [ms. camp], had slain his own brother ("silpoan Cain wearo / to ecgbanan angan brekr" (1261b-62).1 As a sign, Cain denotes the Grendelkin's ancestor. As a signifier, Cain belongs to a complex Judeo-Christian
The A-scribe's naming of Cain (and possibly the poet's) is contextualized by the limits of biblical knowledge, as set forth by John [1973-74] 1995: 57.
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tradition of literature and art, and "points" to other examples of exiles and kinslayers within and beyond the Beowulf text. Allusions come under two categories: overt, and covert. Overt allusions, like Conies cynn, are signs and signifiers, simultaneously. Their attributes include referentiality and signification. They have direct denotation (in this case, Cain's story in Genesis). Beyond referentiality, they signify other felonious exiles (Grendel, Grendel's dam, Heremod), kin-slayers (Unfero, Haeocyn), felons (the executed son in the Father's Lament), and relentless pursuers of feuds (Grendel, Finn, Ingeld, the giants who fought against God). Some characters are explicitly excluded from this signifying chain: Hroogar, who warns Beowulf not to be like Heremod (1707b-11), and Beowulf, who takes comfort in the fact that God cannot accuse him of pursuing malicious feuds or slaying kinsmen (2736b-42a). Covert allusions are pure signifiers. Lacking denotation, they point to other signs by means of proximity or resemblance (or both). In Beowulf criticism, allusion by proximity is called "narrative collocation." The juxtaposition of the Finn episode with Wealhbeow's gift-giving in Heorot is a narrative collocation that signifies resemblances between two peace-weaving queens, Wealhbeow and Hildeburh, a traditional theme in Beowulf criticism. The collocation of Sigemund and Heremod, in the Danes' praise of Beowulf, signifies contrast between a heroic dragon-slayer and an evil king, another traditional theme in criticism, but this case is problematized by Sigemund's flawed character in north Germanic legend. As Robinson observes, narrative collocation is similar to variation, only at the "macro" level of episodes.' Allusion by resemblance is obvious in recurring narrative scenes: oaths and beats, fights with monsters and dragons, gift-giving ceremonies, feuds, hallburnings, funerals. Within each category, any one specimen points to others within and beyond the text, and to all specimens collectively, as an open-ended chain of signifiers. A well-known example: Beowulf begins and ends with a 2
Robinson 1985; endorsed by Orchard 2003: 57-97.
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funeral, a framing device for a poem about endings and beginnings, juxtaposed. A typescene is another resemblant form of allusion. Two typescenes converge in Scyld's profile as a foundling-king (like Sargon and Cyrus) and an exile (like Guthlac) who won a kingdom by military means. Beow's profile as a youthful prince with a comitatus (like Horn Child) is another typescene. Another, the "charging ceremony," appears four times in Beowulf; and converges with "tragic court flyting" twice, in the Finn and Ingeld episodes. I discuss these and other examples here and in the following chapter on battlefield ty, pescenes. Aetiology and deixis Aetiology, a form of overt allusion, always combines denotation and signification. Cain was the father of all untydras (111a: misshapen progenies): eotenas, ylfe, orcneas, gigantas, and fela geosceaftgasta (112-13a and 1266a: ogres, elves, walking dead, giants, and many fated spirits), all species of fifelcyn (104b: the phylum of monsters). Beowulf fought some of these, an eotana cyn (421a: a family of ogres) in a youthful adventure that he reports to Hroogar. Aetiology is important in the human world, too. Scyld's story is the aetiology of the Scylding dynasty, signified by the poet's epithet for Danes, Scyldinga (53b), sometimes modified in compounds: Arscyldingas (464b, 1710b), Sigescyldinga (597b), Peodscyldingas (1019a), Herescyldinga (1107b). This is the deixis of proper names: maximal referentiality. Scyldingas and its compounds are ambiguous, of course. Sometimes they refer to the Danes, sometimes to the royal family. Early on, the poet subverts their identity as Scyldings, by announcing that soon, "ne wags hit lenge 13a gen" (83b: it was by no means longer),3 Heorot would be burnt in the Dano-Heaoobard feud. With the passing of their dynasty, the Danes would no longer be Scyldingas. Referentiality, however maximal, depends upon the course of wyrd.
Klaeber 1950: 130n.
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Only once are the Geats called Hredlingas (2960a), by the Geatish messenger when he recounts the battle of Ravenswood, when Hygelac rescued them, his first act of kingship, just after Hm5cyn's death. The regnal succession was Hrebel, his second son Hxocyn, his third son Hygelac, and Hygelac's son Herebeald, whose death marked the end of the dynasty. After that, the Geats were no longer Hreolings. Deixis is not always so frail. The Danes are named in a simplex (Dene, plural),4 and in compounds that signify their geographical range: Westdene (383a, 1578b), Eastdene (392a, 616a, 828b), Suodene (463b, 1996a), NorOdene (783b). Their prosperity and cohesion are signified by Hringdene (116b, 1279b, 1769a), their military success by Beorhtdene (427a, 609a), an epithet alluding to the splendor of arms, and Gardene, "Spear-Danes" four times, including their first and last mention in the poem (la, 601a, 1856b, 2494b. These epithets signify success under the Scylding dynasty, while it lasted. Contemporaneous with the "empirical author," these epithets also signify the Danes' importance as a world power.5 Deixis is maximal referentiality, a linguistic conspiracy to confine the meaning of a word to one unique referent, but proper names almost always escape this semantic loop. By virtue of etymology or puns, proper names become signifiers. This is pervasive in Old English literature, and the Anglo-Saxons were conscious of it.6 Proper names open the text to creative interpretation, such that Beowulf critics express diverse opinions about the meaning of Unfero, Hygelac, Hygd, Pryo or Modkryo, and even Beowulf. Place-names, too. Heorot, "hart": in bono a totemic sign of the branchy Upper World; Grendel's nocturnal hunting ground 4
in malo. Ravenswood
(Hrefnawudu, 2925b;
Beowulf 155b, 498b, 657a, 2035a.
5 Bryan (1929) argues that compound epithets for the Danes are used either as praise or irony, depending on context, in Beowulf. Magoun (1949) argues that the epithets are selected for alliterative convenience. Storms (1957: 12-13) and Newton (1993: 114-15) argue that the epithets have geographic significance. 6
For other general studies of etymological meaning: Taylor 1989.
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Hrefnesholt, 2935a) has a double meaning, in nialo and in bono, signifying Ongenipeow's threat to hang Geatish survivors as a joy to ravens, and the "beasts of battle" theme, for Ravenswood was the site of Hygelac's first military success. Hronesnces (28056, 3136b), "Whale's bluff," signifies a place where whales could be seen from land, but Beowulf wanted his tumulus built there, so sailors would see it from the sea, and rename the place Biowulfes biorh (2807a). This name signifies that sailors purvey international news, and fame• Grendel's fame in malo (411a), and Beowulf's fame in bono for superhuman strength (377-81a). Beyond the boundaries of the text, Biowulfes biorh points to the companion roles of sailors and poets as oral sources of international news and fame. Allusion in the scop's song of Creation (Beowulf89b-98) Overt and covert allusions overlap in the scop's song in Heorot. The scop "refers" to God's creation of the sun and moon (94b), and indirectly to His creation and rule of the seasons, sumer and winter. Later, the poet "refers" directly to God's rule of the seasons, in the "icicles" simile (1605b-11). Beowulf refers to God's rule of seasons indirectly, in his story of Breca, when he recalls the sun at dawn, "beorh beaten godes" (570a: God's bright beacon). The sun is literally a "sign" of the Creator.7 The scop refers directly to branches and leaves whith which God decorated earth ("gefrwtwade... leomum and leofum," 96-97), and indirectly to vernal equinox, the moment of Creation in Judeo-Christian doctrine. His indirect allusion unlocks a signifying chain. Bede in Hexaemeron, and the Old English Menologium (44a-47), relate vernal equinox to the learned Christian system of four seasons, and interpret it as a prefiguration of Easter and the "building" of the Church.8 Heorot has a three-fold association with the Creation song, (1) as its setting in a housewarming feast, (2) by narrative collocation with the building of ' Diller 1984. 8
Helder 1987: 245-50.
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Heorot, and (3) by resemblance in a three-part typescene: conception, construction, and decoration.' Conception: it came to Hroogar's mind to build a great hall (67a-69). Construction: workers gathered, built the hall (74-75), and decorated it (folcstede if.cetwan. 76a). Subsequent repairs in Heorot follow this pattern: commands were given (991a), and men and women, simultaneously, repaired the iron supports (997-99a) and prepared decorative tapestries (994a-96). In Genesis A, God took counsel with Himself to create the world after the expulsion of Satan and his rebel angels from heaven (92-102), "constructed" it, as yet "ungreen" without grass ("Folde wan Pa gyta / grxs ungrene," I 16b-17a), then decorated it with weorca wlite and wcestma bleed (207: glorious works and the fruit of harvest). In the scop's song of Creation, God made the earth ("eoroan worh[te]," 92b), then decorated it with branches and leaves (96-97). The first typescene-element, conception, is implied in the scop's assertion of God's purpose: the sun and moon were set in place to give light to land-dwellers (landbuendum, 95b). These are defined broadly as "cynna gehwylcum Para Se cwice hwyrfar (98: each of those species that move about, alive), in other words, all animal life. The scop's cosmological conception surpasses the limits of language, referring to animal life first in a kenning, then periphrastically, for "animal" is a non-lexicalized, covert semantic category in Old English.10 By means of parallels and proximity, then, Heorot alludes to Creation, and Creation to Heorot. Round-the-world counterparts are known from Mircea Eliade's
9 Bessinger (1974: 98-102) identified this as a two-part typescene, construction and decoration, applied to the building of Heorot, the scop's song of Creation, and the creation of the world in Genesis A 112-17a, and 206-15a, but as my analysis shows, this is a three-part typescene, found in other places, too. Bolton (1978: 103) notes the sequence of construction and decoration in the building of the cathedral at York, in Alcuin's Carmen 1.1506-13.
I° Anderson 2003: 405-52, chapter 11, "Animal Life-forms." At first reading, landbuendum might seem to refer to humankind, as asserted by Cassidy 1971: 29, and Helder 1987: 249, but the last line of the song expands its meaning.
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explication of them in The Sacred and the Profane.' Heorot signifies cosmic and social order; the monsters, chaoQ.I2 Within the Christian-pagan polarity, critics interpret Heorot in malo as Babel, Sodom, the city of cupiditas, opposed to the City of God." Osborn goes further, proposing that the Creation song itself has two meanings. For Danes in the poem it is pagan, like Iopas's song (Aeneid 1.742-46), free of biblical resonance. The Anglo-Saxons' "Christian" reading, in contrast, construes lines 99-101 as a continuation of the scop's song, alluding to Adam and Eve, such that the song as a whole summarizes Genesis 1-6 (not just Genesis 1):14 Swa ãa drihtguman dream= lifdon, eadiglice, 000wt an ongan fyrene frem[m]an, feond on belle. (Beowulf 99-101: So the noble beings dwelt in joy, happily, until a certain one began to do wicked deeds, a fiend from Hell.) The next line, "Ws se grimman gxst Grendel haten" (102) disambiguates an and feond, proleptic references to Grendel—not to the serpent in Eden. I have two objections to this ingenious reading. Drihtgiunan is masculine, Hro6gar's comitatus, unlikely to be mistaken for Adam and Eve in an archetypal garden. The ambiguity of proleptic an and feond are resolved one line later, allowing no time for biblical musing. Analysis of lopas's song in Aeneid points out (indirectly, by contrast) how similar the "Christian" voice of the Beowulf poet is to the scop's "monotheistic" voice. What stands out in Virgil is difference. lopas is a poet with an aetiological
11
Eliade 1959: 20-67, chapter 2, "Sacred Space and Making the World Sacred."
12 Taylor 1966; Irving 1968: 91. Taylor's and Irving's arguments include a parallel between Heorot and Asgard, but the "Masterbuilder" tale in Snorri's Gylfaginning (Prose Edda 42) is quite different from the building of Heorot: see Harris 1976 and 2004: 5-9.
43
Hume 1974.
14
Osborn [1978] 1995: 115, adopting an interpretation proposed by Ball 1971.
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imagination. His song alludes to a dozen folktales about the origins of natural phenomena (Aeneid 1.742-46): He sang the wandering moon, the toiling sun; whence came mankind and beast, whence rain and fire, Arcturus, the rain-stars, and the twin Triones, why the sun hurries to dip below the seas in winter, and why the nights must limp and lag. lopas lacks the holistic, sublime cosmic vision of Anchises, when, in Hades, he discloses the nature of things to Aeneas (6.722-51). Unlike Virgil's philosophical cosmology, Iopas's view of the cosmos is more like the Akkadian poet of Atrahasis, or the aetiological vision in Kalevala, in Popo? Vuh, or Judges. Folkaetiology and cosmology clash in Aeneid, but in Beowulf, the poet's Christianity differs little from his characters' monotheism. The noisy housewarming in Heorot, the scop's Creation song especially, aroused Grendel's ire and touched off his nocturnal attacks (99-104a). Italo Signorini, commenting on this from a mythological viewpoint, notes that the bear in Grettis saga (chapter 21) was roused from his lair by the noise of merrymaking. Signorini relates these monster-arousals to an anthropological theory: noise-making (at funerals, for instance) opens up channels of communication with supernatural powers. In particular he comments that "The northern variant of the call of sound would seem to be the irritation that the noise of merry-making arouses in monsters living on the borders of human space."I5 Still, this theme has a counterpart in the Babylonian Epic of Creation, where the noisy merry-making of the Igigi (the younger generation of gods) irritated Apsu so much that he wanted to destroy them. This led to his quarrel with his wife Tiamat, and their quarrel soon expanded into a "combat myth of creation."I6 The theme is repeated in Atrahasis, where overpopulation makes the world "as noisy as a bellowing
15
Signorini 1995: 33, citing Huntington and Metcalf 1979.
16
Babylonian Epic of Creation, tablet 1, in Dailey 1989: 233-36.
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bull," motivating Ellil's three attempts to destroy humankind, by disease, drought, and flood.I7 In Akkadian myth it was mankind's lot to replace the Igigi, as ditchdigging laborers, and merry-makers whose noise brings down divine wrath, just as, in Heorot, it brought on the wrath of Grendel. The Danes' worship of idols (Beowulf 175-88) Due to the terror of Grendel (99-171a), the scop's song of Creation (89b98) gave way to the Danes' worship of idols and the poet's "Christian excursus" on idolatry (175-88). This is narrative collocation, although the Creation song is separated from Danish idolatry by almost 80 lines. The scop's song exemplifies pre-Christian monotheism, but when the poet says of Danish councilors that "Hwilum hie geheton at hxrgtrafum / wigweorpunga" (175-76a: Sometimes they ordained ritual sacrifice at pagan shrines), the adverb hwilum recalls recurring episodes in Bede's History, when Anglo-Saxon kings and councilors wavered between paganism and Christianity. The poet's condemnation of idolatry is absolute: Swylc was peaw hyra, hxPenra hyht; helle gemundon in modsefan, metod hie ne cuPon, dxda demend, ne wiston hie drihten god, ne hie huru heofena helm herian ne cupon, wuldres waldend. (Beowulf 178b-83a: Such was their custom, the hope of heathens; they were minded toward hell in their breasts, did not know the Creator, the Judge of deeds, nor knew they the Lord God, nor indeed did they know how to worship the Protector of the heavens, the Ruler of glory.) Were these lines interpolated by meddling monk.s?I8 Do they undermine the portrait of Hroogar as a pious monotheist?'9 Did the poet mean to say of all Danes, as Bede did of King Penda and the Mercians, that "they were given over to 17
Atrahasis, tablets 1 (Dailey 1989: 18), and 2 (p. 20).
18
Tolkien [1936] 1968: 53-56.
19
Stanley 1963; Goldsmith 1970: 170-76.
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idols and ignorant of the name of Christ"?20 Or can these lines be construed in some nuanced way, such that only some Danes are condemned?2I The text is ambiguous, and open to diverse interpretations. Even so, a specific theological doctrine, familiar to Anglo-Saxons, emerges from the collocation of Creation song and the poet's excursus on idolatry. It is that while the pagan gods are really devils, God created the heavens. The stop praises God's creation of "swum and monan" (94b), but idolworshippers knew not the Creator (metod, 180b), the heofena helm (182a: Guardian of heavens), and appealed to the gastbona (177a: soul-slayer) for relief from Grendel. Gastbona is an epithet for the Devil. The notion that pagan gods are devils belongs to a three-part ontology of the gods, well established in early medieval Christian doctrine. Its other parts are that the gods are just sculptures of wood, stone, or metal, and the euhemerist teaching that they were ancient heroes or giants, whom the ancestors worshipped as gods after their deaths. The doctrine that pagan gods are devils was well established by the third century, when Tertullian promulgated it. Pope Gregory transmitted this teaching to the Anglo-Saxon church. In a letter to Abbot Mellitus, archbishop of Canterbury (A.D. 601), Gregory instructed that idols should be destroyed, but their shrines, if built well, could be sprinkled with holy water and thereby "changed from the worship of devils to the service of the true God."22 Subsequent papal letters promulgated the doctrine. Pope Boniface V (A.D. 619-625), in a letter to the Northumbrian king Edwin (A.D. 625),23 supported the mission of Bishop Paulinus by urging the king to free himself from the Devil's fetters (diabolicae captiuitatis) by hating idols and their cults (abominates idolis eorumque cul1u). Boniface then summarized the orthodox, two-fold doctrine about pagan gods. First, quoting the "Bede, Historia ecclesiastica 2.20, 1969: 202-3. 2! Wentersdorf 1981; Niles 1983: 297, n. 11; Greenfield 1985. 22 Bede, Historia ecclesiastica 1.30, 1969, 106-7, "ut a cutto daemonum in obsequio ueri Dei debeant commutari." 23
Kirby 1963.
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psalmist, "All the gods of the nations are devils; but the Lord made the heavens."24 Second, idols are man-made statues, insensible, stationary, lifeless, and useless, unlike the sign of the holy Cross (signo sanctae crucis), the agent of redemption.25 In a companion letter to Edwin's wife, Queen koelburh, Boniface states that God's plan of salvation through Christ provides for freedom from "the bonds of enslavement to the devil" (uinculis diabolicae captiuitatis) if we acknowledge Him as Creator and shun the worship of idols.26 Bede alludes to this doctrine elsewhere. St. Alban was dragged before images of devils (ad simulacra daemonum), tortured, and executed for his "blasphemy in despising the gods" (contemtor diuzun... blasferniae), but Alban condemned them as sacrifices to devils, not gods: "he who offered sacrifices to these images will receive eternal punishment in hell as his reward."27 After the death of King Sxberht, God punished his three pagan sons and their East Saxon army for devil-worship (daemonicis cultibus), by ensuring their destruction in a raid on the West Saxons.28 Rxdwald, the East Anglian king who learned about Christianity in Kent, was persuaded by his wife and counselors to set up altars to Christ and the gods in one temple. The pagan altar, Bede writes, was used to sacrifice victims to devils (ad uictimas daemoniorum).29 Cuobert, during his time as bishop of Lindisfarne (685-687), made it his business to correct the foolish customs of lay people in the neighborhood, when during a plague they turned to the false remedy of idols (ad erratica idolatriae medicamina), and to incantations, amulets, and other demonic arts.3° The rivalry of Christian faith and pagan 24 Bede, Historia ecclesiastica 2.10, 1969: 168-69, "Omnis dii gentium daemonia, Dominus autem caeles fecit" (Ps. 95 [96]: 5). 25
Bede, ibid. 2.10, 1969: 168-71 (citing Psalm 113 [1151: 5-8).
20
Bede, ibid. 2.11, 1969: 172-73.
Bede, ibid. 1.7, 1969: 30-31, "Quin immo quicumque his sacrificia simulacris obtulerit, aeternas infemi poenas pro mercede recipiet." 27
28
Bede, ibid. 2.5, 1969: 152-55.
29
Bede, ibid. 2.15, 1969: 190-91.
30 Bede, ibid. 4.27, 1969: 432-33.
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idolatry is a principal theme in Historia ecciesiastica. The doctrine that pagan gods are really devils looms large in Bede's history. This idea is repeated often in saints' lives, especially in episodes where pagan persecutors threaten and torture a saint in efforts to convert her or him to idolatry. The heroine of Cynewulf s Juliana spurns Eleusius and his gods because she already has a mundbora (213a: guardian), the true God, who "ne findeo pwr / dugupe mid deoflum" (221b-22a: does not find merit there among devils).31 In /Elfric's Lives of Saints, Eugenia of Alexandria, although learned in Greek philosophy and Latin rhetoric, was impelled to seek out Christians after reading the letters of St. Paul, and was converted after she happened upon a group of Christians singing a traditional hymn:32 Omnes dii gentium demonia . dominus autem cwlos fecit: Ealle pare hmoenra godas syndon deofla and dryhten soolice heofones geworhte. (jElfric, Natale sancte Eugenie uirginis 38-40: All the gods of the heathens are devils, and the Lord truly created heaven.) This formulation oversimplifies medieval Christian views about the origin of idolatry. As early as the sixth century, Martin bishop of Braga, in Cicilia (d. 579), in a sermon De correctione rusticorum, set forth the history of idolatry from its spontaneous inception among the seventy-two tribes of mankind after their linguistic confusion at Babel. Following their dispersal from Babel, the Devil deceived them into worshipping the sun, moon, stars, and the elements of fire, water, and earth. At first the gods were few, but the heathens made them more, by deifying "mislice entas and men him to godum" (diverse giants and men as their gods), as jElfric wrote in "De falsis diis," a sermon derived mainly from De correctione rusticorum. Jove, Saturn, Juno, Mars, Mercury, Minerva, and Venus, all noted for wicked vices, were mortals, deified after death thanks to the Devil's 31
Juliana, in ASPR 3: 113-33.
32
zElfric, "Natale sancte Eugenie uirginis" 35-39, in Lives of Saints 1881-1900, 1:26-27.
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deception. In an exercise of interpretatio rotnana, iElfric takes note of their Danish counterparts: Dor (Jove), boon (Mercury), and Fric[g] (Venus), and notes the grip of this heresy on language, for days of the week still are named for the sun, moon, and euhemerized gods. Pagan worship, then, began with the primitive worship of natural phenomena, elaborated later by euhemerism, according to Martin of Braga, whose analysis was repeated by jElfric, and again by Wulfstan in his own version of "De falsis diis" (following iElfric).33 Comparative and contrastive collocation: Sigemund and Heremod Narrative collocation may be either transitional or abrupt. When it is transitional (introduced as a scop's song, a genealogy, a simile), its significance is based upon comparison. Creation in the scop's song is like Hrodgar's building of Heorot. Cain is like Grendel. Hildeburh's tragic situation in the scop's song of Finnsburh is a model for Wealhi)eow's plight, should events take a tragic turn in Heorot. The Brosing torque is peerless, like the torque that Wealhkeow gave Beowulf. In the Father's Lament, the bereaved father is like Hreoel; the felonious son, like Haeocyn. The battle of Ravenswood, and Hygelac's expedition in Frisia, his first and last acts of kingship, exemplify warrior-kingship. When narrative collocation is abrupt, its significance is contrastive. Soon enough the newly-build hall, Heorot, will perish in flames (83b-85). Beowulf's inglorious youth (2183b-89) contrasts his heroic standing later. Dryo, the homicidal princess (193 1 b-43), is unlike Hyld, Hygelac's courtly queen (192531a). In this instance, Clark Hall notes that "abruptness by the Poet may be accounted for by the assumption of a missing passage introducing Thryth which has been lost between 1931a and 1931b,"34 but abruptness is an attribute of contrastive digressions.
33 tElfric, "De falsis diis" 73-180, in Catholic Homilies series 1, 1967-68, 2: 667-724, at pp. 682-87; Wulfstan, "De falsis diis," in Homilies, 1957: 221-24. 34
Clark Hall [1911] 1950: 191.
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The Sigemund digression is juxtaposed abruptly to the first Heremod digression. Both are framed in an envelope pattern, by references to the Danes racing their horses back from the mere (864-66a and 916-17a). "Horse-racing during a mission," a typescene, appears in Chanson de Roland: Marsilie's retainers race though the countryside while looking for signs of the Frankish rearguard:35 Puis si chevalchent par mult grant cuntecun La terre certaine e les vials e les munz. (Roland 855-56: then they rode, in great zeal to outdo each other, on level ground and in valleys and mountains.) The occasion was festive for Saracens in Roland, and for Danes in Beowulf. Some digressions are problematic. Sigemund's fame as a dragon-slayer (884b-93) is like Beowulf s fame after the Grendel-fight. Both are unlike the infamy of Heremod, who was forced into exile among Eotenas (Jutes or giants) by his own people (898-913a). The Beowulf-Heremod contrast is unproblematic, but the Beowulf-Sigemund comparison is not. The poet's allusion to Sigemund's wide sidas (877b: far-flung adventures) and "fzehoe and fyrena" (879a), a doublet applied twice to Grendel's attacks (137a, 153a), alludes to Sigemund's story of incest, betrayal of kinsmen, robbery, and revenge. Perhaps the poet knew what Sigemund did not know, that Fitela (ON Sinfiolti), who accompanied him on many adventures, was also his son by incestuous union with Signy.36 For some critics, ignoring Sigemund's felonies, the comparison is unambiguous praise," but there are ethical problems. Thomas Hill argues that Beowulf, in his dying words on his kingship (2732b-43a), distances himself from recklessness (ofrkapp) 35 Chanson de Roland, laisse 68. in Whitehead 1965: 26; cf. Whitehead's gloss for par mull grant cuntecun, "each striving to outdo his fellow," and verb cuntencer, "strive, exert oneself."
Klaeber 1950: 159-61, note to 1. 875-900. Bonjour 1950: 46-47; Eliason 1952: 178; Kaske 1959: 490; Gillam 1961: 67; Creed 1966: 133; Opland 1980: 32-33; Andersson 1980: 99; Joseph Harris 1991: 239. 37
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and kinship-betrayal, recurring themes in Volsunga saga.38 Griffith calls attention to verbal clues like "fxhae and fyrene" that problematize the Sigemund digression.39 Some critics argue that poetry allows for narrative collocation, but not "allusion by resemblance" if resemblant passages are distant from each other in the text. Cherniss, for example, agrees that the Sigemund digression is relevant to the Danes' praise of Beowulf in contrast to Heremod, but not to Beowulf's dragon-fight later, even though the Sigemund episode, referring first to his slaying a race of giants (883b), then to his dragon-slaying (884b-89), corresponds sequentially to Beowulf s fights against Grendelkin and the dragon. Cherniss rejects Bonjour's interpretation of the Sigemund digression as anticipatory praise of Beowulf s dragon-fight. He argues, further, that the two Heremod digressions (901-15 and 1709b-24a) have nothing to do with each other, even though the second one, about the exiled king's murder of retainers and his failure as a ringgiver, clarifies the reason for his exile.40 Cherniss's argument is a syllogism, based upon a major premise: "immediate rhetorical effect" is a criterion for relevance. Some forms of interpretation are excluded, namely, those that compare or contrast episodes that are textually distant from each other. The syllogism fails two tests in logic, reduction ad absurdum, and sorites. First, reduction ad absurdum. The two Heremod digressions cannot be related to each other because they are distant from each other in the text; but if this is so, a forteriori the poet's allusions to Creation, Cain, and the race of giants killed in the Flood cannot be related to Genesis, because that biblical source is a different text altogether. The "common sense" test exposes the tyranny of deduction.
38
Thomas Hill 1982.
Griffith 1995; endorsed by Orchard 1995: 105-14. Griffith does not cite Thomas Hill's earlier work on Sigemund. 39
4° Cherniss
1970: 220-24; cf. Bonjour 1950: 46-48.
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Second, sorites. The explicit Heremod digressions are 784 lines apart. Two direct allusions to Cain (106-10 and 1261-65b) are 1151 lines apart. Arguing from "immediate rhetorical effect," these two allusions are even less related to each other than the two Heremod digressions. Hroogar's lament for kschere (1321-44) is separated from the Danes' discovery of his head (1417b-21) by only 73 lines, but Beowulf recalls these events 999 lines later (2120b-28). Comparison of Scyld's and Beowulf's funerals (25-52 and 3120-82) is a commonplace in Beowulf criticism, but they are 3068 lines apart. Hnxf s funeral (1107-24) comes 1055 lines after Scyld's, and 1996 lines before Beowulf's. Wealhbeow's torque is mentioned three times in the epic: when she gives it to Beowulf (1192-1220), when he gives it to Hygd (2772-74a), and when Beowulf slays Dmghrefn (25034). The first and second mentions are 1052 lines apart; the second and third, 329 lines. In these random examples, the textual distance between resemblant episodes ranges from 73 to 3068 lines. The question is just this. How many lines constitute too much distance, such that resemblances are no longer probative? The distance between Hroogar's lament for kschere and the discovery of his head is 73 lines. If these episodes were separated by 74 lines, would that be too many? Would 75 lines be too many, or 76 lines? What if the poet had transferred the Danes' discovery of rEschere's head to Beowulf's report in Hygelac's court (2120b-28)? Would 776 lines of textual distance be too many to allow for comparison? Would 784 lines be too many? 885 lines? This is the sorites problem outlined by Cicero in Academica 93:41 No faculty of knowing absolute limits has been bestowed upon us by the nature of things to enable us to fix exactly how far to go in any matter; and this is so not only in the case of a heap [sorites] of wheat from which the name is derived, but in no matter whatsoever—if we are asked by gradual stages, is such and such a person a rich man or a poor man, famous or undistinguished, are yonder objects many or few, great or 41
Cicero, Academica 93, 1951: 586.
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small, long or short, broad or narrow, we do not know at what point n the addition of subtraction to give a definite answer. At what point are resemblant episodes too far apart in the text to be compared as allusions? No one can say. The argument from textual distance is demonstrably illogical. Many critics dismiss this as sophistry, but it is impossible to say just where sorites goes wrong. As Max Black writes: "We may as well begin our examination of the sorites argument by conceding its validity. For the pattern of reasoning is the familiar and unimpeachable one known as 'mathematical induction' ."42 The problem of sorites extends to resemblant typescenes across texts, too. No one doubts the relevance of Genesis to the scop's Creation song, Grendel's descent from Cain, or the giants' destruction in the Flood. No one doubts the relevance of Finnsburh to the Firm episode, or the sequence of Beowulf s two fights in Denmark with the Norse two-troll tradition. Here and in subsequent chapters, I compare scenes of conflict in Beowulf with resemblant typescenes in Germanic and other Indo-European epics and histories. At the end of Chapter 12, I argue that Beowulf s dragon-fight is a variant form of the Indo-European myth of a primal cattle-raid, based upon comparison with Indic, Iranian, Italic, Greek, and Armenian cognates. Are resemblant themes and typescenes relevant only if they are Germanic or biblical? Are Indo-European typescenes probative? If dragon-fights and cattle-raids are variant forms of a common myth in Indic, Armenian, and Greek narratives, does Beowulf's dragon-fight belong to this group? In the Eurasian cultural area, where a typescene could be either a genetic heirloom or a theme diffused across cultures, resemblant forms cannot be excluded as non-probative coincidences.
42
Black 1970: 4.
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The Dano-Heaoobeard feud Overt and covert allusions overlap in the Dano-Heabobeard feud. First, overt allusion to the burning of Heorot: Sele hlifade heah and homgeap; heaoowylma bad, Wan liges; ne wws hit lenge Pa gen, pa=t se ecghete abumsweoran after wmlnioe wmcnan scolde. (Beowulf 81b-85): the hall towered high and gabled with arches; [it] awaited the hostile surges of flame in battle; it was not as yet long until [the time] that battle-hatred between father- and son-in-law, due to hostility caused by a homicide, must awaken [again].) The sele is Heorot. In the dvandva compound (84b),43 the ajnon is Hroogar, but IngeId, the referent of sweoran, is not named in the text until line 2064b. After wcelnio alludes (indirectly) to the slaying of Froda, Ingeld's father (2025b), most likely by Hroogar, during a conflict that occurred prior to the building of Heorot.44 As "tragic anticipation,"45 this is maximum narrative prolepsis, as well as indirect allusion. Line 84 presents another difficulty. The manuscript reads p se secg hete akum swerian Most editors emend the line conservatively: bast se ecghete akumsweoran (Klaeber) bast se ecghete abumsweorum (Dobbie) kwt se ecg-hete abum-swerian (Wrenn)46 43 The manuscript reading akum swearian was construed as the dvandva aPurnsweoran by Sophus Bugge (1868-69: 44 ff.), as noted in Klaeber 1950: 130 and Dobbie 1953: 120.
44 Malone 1929. Ebenhauer (1976) argues that the Beowulf poet avoids identifying Froda's bana because he was aware of two rival traditions, both in Saxo Grammaticus, viz. that the slayer was Halfdan, or Halfdan's sons. Alternatively, Beowulf avoids naming Hroogar as Froda's bana because there is no need for a noble speaker to mention it. 45
Wrenn 1953: 187.
46
Wrenn construes the manuscript form as masculine plural.
317
Prokosch noted that se secghete is an auditory error for se ecghete, caused by elision when one vowel precedes another:" Even so, in a bold textual analysis, Eliason argues that the "burning of Heorot" (81b-85) never happened, and that the passage alludes not to Ingeld but to Grendel's forswearing the use of weapons. He emends hue 84: wt se [pe] secghete [o]swerian [dorste] and translates 83b-85: "It was by no means a long time until one who dared to abjure sword-hostility was to rouse the murderous onslaught."48 He argues from what Cherniss calls "immediate rhetorical effect": there is too much distance between this passage and the Ingeld episode later (almost 2000 lines). Still, grammatical, deictic, and narrative prolepsis are aesthetic characteristics of Beowulf. Eliason's other arguments are cumulative and tendentious. He equates secghete (hostility among men) with *siveordhete, "fighting with a sword," in order to cause line 84 to refer to Grendel's abjuration of weapons.49 He asserts that aPuntsweoran is too rare a word for Beowulf—strange to say in light of Brodeur's (1959) exposition of diversity and creativity in the poet's diction, and the dvandva compound suhtergefcederan (nephew and paternal uncle) at line 1164a and in Widsid 46b, another place where a dvandva compound refers to the Dano-Hea6obeard feud. He objects to the emendation of secg hete to ecghete, but substitutes more intrusive ones: De] secghete, [oP-] for akurn, and unauthorized [dorste]. Following Klaeber he translates "ne wies hit lenge ka gen" (83b) as "it was by no means a long time," "it was not long until."50 This, he argues, cannot refer to a time after Grendel's twelve-year terror, so it must refer to Grendel'sfirst attack. Be that as it may, line 83b is ambiguous: it could mark time either from the 47 Prokosch (1929: 200) compares 6686, "eotenweard[e] abead"; Dobbie notes 338a, and 442a, "Wen[e] ic...."
4° Eliason 49
1980: 80.
Eliason 1980: 81.
5° Klaeber
1950: 130; Eliason 1980: 77.
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building of Heorot, or from the narrative moment when the poet tells the story. I think it marks the latter. The poet implies that Heorot will be destroyed shortly after Beowulf's departure from Denmark. The poet alludes to the Dano-Heaoobeardic feud a second time, in his account of the Grendel-fight, which damaged the hall. Until then, the Scyldings never thought that the hall could be damaged, "nymke liges fmkm / swulge on swakule" (781b-82a: unless the embrace of fire should swallow [it] in flame).5' The verb swulge implies that Heorot, in danger of being "swallowed" by fire, is in a peril similar to Hondscioh's, when he was swallowed in huge morsels by Grendel (synsncedum swealh, 743a). This collocation, Grendel's swallowing of Hondscioh and flames swallowing Heorot in a feud, recurs in Beowulf's report to Hygelac, where Beowulf mentions Hondscioh's death (2069b-85a) immediately after the Ingeld episode. IngeId episode (Beowulf2020-96a)
Beowulf alludes overtly to the Dano-Heaoobeard feud in his report to Hygelac. He discloses Hrobgar's plan to settle the feud by means of diplomatic marriage, or "peace-weaving": Sio gehaten [is], geong, goldhroden, gladum suna Frodan. [H]afao pass geworden wine Scyldinga, rices hyrde, ondlmet rwd talao, past he mid cry wife wx1fxhaa dael, smcca gesette. (Beowulf 2024b-29a: she [Freawaru] is promised, young, gold-adorned, to Froda's gracious son. The friend of the Scyldings, the guardian of the kingdom, has brought this about, and accounts it [good] counsel, that with the woman he will settle [past] slayings in a feud, and battles.)
51 Klaeber 1950: 156, note to line 781, notes the parallel. Eliason (1980) does not discuss this passage.
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Suna Frodan (2025b), a proleptic epithet for Ingeld (not named until verse 2064b), alludes, obliquely, to the fact that someone in the Danish royal house, probably Hroogar, slew Froda during a conflict. Frodan bana: the poet never uses the phrase, but everyone knows that bana, a heroic epithet in bona, brings with it in malo the burden of a feud. For this reason, Beowulf does not approve HroOgar's diplomacy as good counsel. He says so in a proverb-like expression that avoids naming names: Oft seldan hwxr wfter leodhryre lytle hwile bongar buge6, Peah seo bryd duge. (Beowulf 2029b-31: often seldom anywhere, after the fall of a prince, the deadly spear turns away, even though the bride is good.) "After the fall of a prince, the spear rests for but a short while, even though the bride is good." This looks like a proverb, but is not.52 Why frame it as one? A proverb avoids deictic reference, instead citing a generalized situation. Beowulf stumbles over four adverbs before getting to his topic. I do not agree with Deskis that the poet "added elements of spatial and temporal generalization in order to increase the perceived authority of his statement."53 On the contrary, the ambiguous sequence of adverbs in Beowulf's speech signals his reluctance to get to the point. What is the object of Beowulf s skepticism? Does he distrust diplomatic marriage? Historically, "peace-weaving" was common among royal families. Usually it succeeded, when accompanied by comprehensive agreements. Beowulf s distrust was aimed at Ingeld in particular, not because Ingeld was evil, but because Hroogar was Froda's bana. As a dutiful son, Ingeld was bound to look for a chance to wreak vengeance by destroying Heorot. Hroogar's desire for a diplomatic marriage provided a promising opportunity for revenge. 52
Deskis 1996: 133-35.
53
Deskis 1996: 134.
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I agree with Wrenn and Bolton that the occasion is Freawaru's wedding feast.54 The setting is Heorot, not Ingeld's hall as Wrenn and Bolton thought.55 Three arguments support Heorot as the setting. First, two previous allusions to the burning of Heorot (81b-85 and 781b-82a) find fulfillment in the Ingeld episode. Second, the young Heaoobeard warrior, after slaying Freawaru's attendant, escaped: "se oaer konan / losaa [Ii]figende, con him land geare" (2061 b-62: the other one thence escapes with his life, [he] knows the land well enough).56 Some have argued that the setting must be Heaoobeardland, where a native son would know the land well enough to escape, but why remark on the unremarkable? It would be more noteworthy for a young Heaoobeard to know his way around Denmark well enough to escape after committing a homicide. Third, Heorot was a more likely setting for Freawaru's wedding. Epic tradition is inconclusive, but favors Heorot. In the Nibelungenlied, Kriemhild's wedding to Siegfried takes place in her home in Worms, and Rudiger's daughter's wedding to Giselher takes place in Rftdiger's castle. Apparently Brunhild married Gunther at her home in Isenstein, but the poet is evasive, possibly because the marriage was not consummated until they reached Worms, and even then, appallingly, not without Siegfried's assistance. Kriemhild's wedding to Etzel took place in FIungary, but she was a queen and a widow then, wise in the ways of the world. Hroogar would have insisted that the wedding of Freawaru, an innocent girl, take place in the safety of her own home. Still, the text is ambiguous. Beowulf imagines the Ingeld episode as a disrupted wedding feast. The bride emerges as the poem's most poignant example of an innocent victim in a feud. During three days in Denmark, Beowulf caught glimpses of her apprenticeship as a future queen:
54
Wrenn and Bolton 1973: 71-72, and 172, note to lines 2032-35.
Wrenn and Bolton (1973: 72), refer to "Ingeld's renewed war with the Danes who are his guests at the marriage feast." 55
56
Huppe 1939, opposed by Malone 1933 and 1940.
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Hwilum for [d]uguOe dohtor Hroogares eorlum on ende ealuwxge ker. Pa is Freaware fletsittende nemnan hyrde, 13xr hio [nw]gled sine hzeleoum sealde. (Beowulf 2020-24a: sometimes before the veterans, Hroogar's daughter
carried ale-flagons to men lined up [on the benches]. Then I heard [men] sitting in the hall call [her] Freawaru, when she gave the gem-adorned [cup] to warriors.) Freawaru, a sincere princess, emulates Wealhbeow. Danish veterans salute her by name, affectionately approving her maidenly service in court. Younger, unmarried men are silent in the presence of another man's bride, and Beowulf keeps his distance. Retrospectively, enlightened by Beowulf's disclosure of her future tragedy, we understand that Freawaru is an object of situational irony, and pathos. Our first, sentimental impressions give way to the tragic picture that Beowulf portrays. Freawaru's tragedy will come quickly, lytle hivile (2030b), "ne wars hit lenge ba gen" (83b), perhaps within weeks after Beowulf's return to Geatland. The hero envisions a wedding feast in Heorot, when Ingeld and other visiting Heaoobeards will be displeased to notice one of Freawaru's Danish attendants foolishly sporting ancestral Heaoobeardic war-gear: Mxg liws bonne ofbyncan Oeodne Heaoobeardna ond pegna gehwam tiara leoda, bonne he mid fiemnan on flett gueo, dryhtbearn Dena, duguoa biwenede; on him gladiab gomelra lafe, heard ond hringmx1 Heababeardna gestreon benden hie Oam wxpnum wealdan moston, 000xt hie forlxddan to oam lindplegan swlese gesioas ond hyra sylfra feorh. (Beowulf 2032-40: the ruler of the Heabobeards will have a pretext to take offense [or alternatively, "might be displeased"], and each of the thanes among his people, when, escorting the bride, a dryhtbearn of the Danes makes his procession into the hall, attended by [a ceremonial
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retinue of] veterans; on him [the wedding attendant] will glitter the heirlooms of ancestors, sturdy and ring-adorned, [formerly] Heaaobeardic treasure while they were able to wield those weapons, until they [Heabobeardic ancestors] led their dear companions, and their own lives, into [destruction in] shield-play [in an earlier, disastrous Heabobeardic raid against Denmark].) According to Beowulf's imagined scenario, Freawaru's wedding attendants will include a young nobleman (dryhtbearn, 2035a; fcemnan Pegn 2059a) and a host of veterans (duguO) who accompany her in procession (biwenede, 2035b). As an epithet for Freawaru's attendant, dryhtbearn Dena is significant, for in early Germanic dialects, truht (OE dryht) in compounds can refer to a "bride's male attendant," a paranymphus, who in a wedding procession conducts the bride to her new kindred.57 Femnan pegn (maiden's thane), in variation with dryhtbearn Dena, means paranymphus, "bridal attendant."58 Male attendants accompany the bride twice in the Nibelungenlied, in Kriemhild's marriage to Siegfried, and in the marriage of Rudiger's (unnamed) daughter to Giselher, Gunther's younger brother.59 In both ceremonies, the warrior-attendants line up in a circle around the wedding couple. After some licensed merriment, they ask the "blushing" bride if she will choose the bridegroom for her husband. The bride responds, not without prompting by her father or another male relative, as illustrated in Prince Giselher's marriage to the daughter of Rtidiger, a German vassal of King Etze1:60
57 Roeder 1899: 25, 83-84, 110, and 116; D. H. Green 1965: 406-7; von Olberg 1991: 129-30; D. H. Green 1998: 111-12 (note 44 for further references). 58 Malone ([1940d] 1959: 74) interprets feemnan pegn as a "maiden thane," meaning either "a young man who had no experience in battle," or a "suitor," rival to Ingeld. Either way, Malone thinks that Freawaru's thane's conduct is "disloyal and deliberately provocative," intended to disrupt the peace-weaving plan. These interpretations are based upon unpersuasive parallels between the Ingeld episode and the story of Hagbard and Signe in Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Danorum 7.3. 59
Nibelungenlied, ay. 10 and 27 respectively.
Nibelungenlied, ay. 27, ed. De Boor 490-92; trans. Hatto 1965: 209. Hatto translates I687a: "she found the question embarrassing," and reverses the syntax with 1687b. For the 60
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Do heiz man si beide sten an einen rinc nach gewonheite. vil manic jungelinc in vrcelichem muote ir zegegene stuont. si gedahten in ir sinnen so noch die tumben gerne wont. DO man begonde vralgen die minnechlichen meit, ob si den recken wolde, ein teil was ez ir leit, unt dahte doch ze nemene den wwtlichen man. si schamte sich der vrage so manic maget hat getan. ' Ir net ir vater Riieduger daz si spraeche ja unt daz si in gerne nwme. vil schiere do was cid mit sinen wizen handen, der si umbesloz, Giselher der edele, swie lUtzel si sin doch genoz. (Nibelungenlied stanzas 1683-85: then the two were told to stand in the
ring [of warriors] according to custom. Numbers of young men stood opposite her in the highest of spirits and they indulged in the same idle fancies as young men do today. When they asked the lovely girl whether she would have the warrior she was somewhat averse, though she meant to take the handsome fellow! She blushed at such a question, like many another young woman. Rtidiger urged her to say 'yes' and to accept him willingly—and at once noble Giselher was there to take her with his white hands and kiss her—small joy though she was to have of him.)
Freawaru's wedding includes a ring-ceremony, too. When Beowulf refers to an old Heaoobeard who recognizes the Danish attendant's HeaCiobeardic weapons, he says, "Donne cwio at beore se Oe beah gesyh6" (2041: then, at beer, one [of the men who] witnesses the ring speaks). Beah is ambiguous. It could be a metonymy, referring proleptically to the niece (2047b: sword) mentioned five lines later, as Klaeber proposes in a rather cumbersome argument.6I It could be metonymy for the attendant's Heaobeardic mailcoat, although the plural form beagas would be better. Or beah could correspond to MI-IG rinc in wedding of Siegfried and Kriemhild: ay. 10, stanza 614, in De Boor 180. In this ring-creremony, the prompting is done by Gunther, who urges his sister to honor a vow he had made to Siegfried. 61 Klaeber 1950: 204, note to line 2041. Following this view, Chickering (1977: 169) translates "ring-hilt." Clemoes (1995: 194) translates "ring" without discussing its referent.
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Nibelungenlied, referring to a ring-ceremony. Greenfield translates, "At the beerfeast an old spear-fighter, seeing that display."62 Beah cannot mean "display" or "spectacle," but it can refer to "a ceremonial ring of warriors." Consistent with this ceremony, warrior-attendants are prominent in Freawaru's wedding, as in those of Kriemhild and Rildiger's daughter. The ring-ceremony in Rildiger's castle ends on an elegiac note because the very next day, Giselher and the other Burgundians must resume their journey to Etzel's castle, where all were destined to die. Giselher and Riidiger's daughter never consummate their marriage. "Meg pars i)onne ofbyncan" (2032a), Beowulf's introductory verse, is ambiguous. Usually the verse is taken to mean that Ingeld and his retainers "might be offended," but I think the sense is more sinister. At the moment when Freawaru's Danish attendant appeared in the procession wearing Heaoobeardic armor, Ingeld and his retainers found a pretext to renew the feud. Perhaps this was Ingeld's purpose at the outset when he negotiated the marriage and attended the wedding. He might have predicted the outcome: a royal wedding was a formal occasion, when Danish and Heabobeardic retainers would wear their military best, abridging the usual custom of leaving their weapons outside the hall. During Freawaru's procession into the hall, everyone's gaze was fixed on her and her young Danish escort, whose Heaobeardic war-gear was recognized instantly. Ingeld took offense, and so did his men (2032-37). Why did he wait to exact revenge? One can imagine him exchanging knowing looks with his men, waiting for the right moment. Ingeld practices gekyld, "biding his time," knowing that an opportune moment for revenge will come. Pivotal to conflict is the generation gap between elders and youth, experience and ignorance. The previous fight, a Heaoobeardic raid in Denmark when Hroogar slew Froda, took place a generation earlier, before the birth of the youths who now, as attendants or guests at Freawaru's wedding, are about to reignite a feud whose origin and tragic potential are unknown to them. Freawaru's 62
Greenfield 1982: 105.
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youthful attendant, whether ignorant, vainglorious, or both, imprudently wore Heabobeardic war-gear that he had inherited from his father. An older, wiser Dane, one who had actually fought in the feud, would have refrained from sporting Hea5obeardic war-trophies on this one occasion, so as not to interrupt the wedding by means of insulting symbolism. On the Heatiobeardic side, the irony of the scene is apparent to an "eald xscwiga, se be eall ge[m]a[n]" (2042b: old spear-warrior, who remembered everything [about the feud]). As he knows, the offending war-gear belonged to Wi6ergild, whose son, geong[um] cempan (2044b) is one of Ingeld's retainers. Another theme in this episode is the double connotation of bana, in bono and in male. Freawaru's attendant's father was Wioergild's bana, a glorious epithet that the youth inherited, but along with the glory, the son inherited the burden of a feud. Beowulf s reference to him as byre nathwylces (2053b: the son of who knows whom) perhaps implies, too, the son's unworthiness to wear Heabobeard war-gear, for who had heard of his exploits? Still, Wibergild's son hesitates, unable to make the identification himself, for he is just as ignorant of the feud as his Danish counterpart. The nuptial beerfest continues. The old Heabobeard warrior Mane, swa and myndgab mwla gehwylce sanun wordum, oobxt sal cymeb 1)mt se fwmnan begn fore fader dwdum after billes bite blodfag swefea, ealdres scyldig. (Beowulf 2057-61a: thus [he] admonishes and reminds [him] constantly [sc. unrelentingly, "every minute"] with doleful words, until the moment comes when the maiden's attendant, on account of his father's deeds, sleeps blood-stained after a sword-bite, [his] life forfeit.) On the basis of nice/ and sail, some critics imagine that the old Heabbeard's egging continued for several days, "000wt sx1 cymeb" (2058b), but these are indefinite temporal references. Chickering translates "until a day comes,"63 a 63
Chickering 1977: 169; so too Clemoes 1995: 194-95.
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mistranslation of seal that dissipates the concentrated energy of the scene: a wedding feast, disrupted by a homicide that comes at a critical moment and renews an old feud. The notion of prolonged egging over several days is inconsistent with the reference to the fcemnan kepi, who was there for the wedding, but after the ceremony, his continued attendance upon Freawaru would not have been welcome to a newlywed husband. Unlike the Geats who complied when Wulfgar asked them to leave their shields and spears outside Heorot (395-98), the Heabobeards and Danes are decked out in their best military gear, as befits a royal wedding. Just so in the Nibelungenlied, when Gunther and his three companions arrived in Isenstein, the chamberlain (kamercere) asked for their swords and mailcoats. Hagen refused, and was about to make a scene, but Siegfried intervened, explaining the custom of the castle:64 Man pfliget in dirre barge, daz wil ich iu sagen, daz neheine geste hie wafen sulen tragen. nu lat so tragem hinnen, dez ist wol getan. (Nibelungenlied, st. 407: in this castle, let me tell you, it is the custom that no guest shall wear his armor. Now let them take yours away, that would be the right thing to do.) Siegfried, like Beowulf, speaks and acts nobly, marks of royal status, in contrast to Hagen and Unfera, whose words and behavior signify relatively lower rank. The typescene recurs in aventiure 28 when Kriemhild, usurping the chamberlain's role, informs her Burgundian guests that "man sol deheiniu wafen tragem in den sal" (strophe 1745: it is forbidden for anyone to carry weapons in the hall) and demands them for safekeeping. This time, Hagen resists and keeps his arms, for it would be unchivalrous of him to allow Kriemhild to play a servant's role in regard to his war-gear.65 Hagen outwitted Kriemhild, although he could not 64
Nibelungenlied, ay. 7, in De Boor 120; trans. Hatto 1965 61-62.
65
Nibelungenlied, ay. 28, in De Boor 510.
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outrank her. In the Nibelungenlied as in the Ingeld episode, the presence of armed guests in the hall contributes to its tragic downfall. This is a typescene convention.66 The IngeId episode builds up to a "charging ceremony." Wioergild, the slain father, is the object of the feud; an old Hea6obeardic warrior, as grievant, articulates his desire for revenge. Wi6ergild's son is the chosen avenger. The wargear worn by Freawaru's Danish attendant, and his mece in particular, is the blood-token, or feud-signifier. All four elements of the typescene are present in the scene. We saw the same fourfold combination earlier, after Grendel's mother carried off pEschere: his death was the object of the feud; Beowulf was the chosen avenger; Hroogar, as grievant, articulated his desire for revenge; on the trail to the mere, iEschere's head was the blood-token. In the climax of the Finn episode, too: Hneer s death was the object of the feud; Hengest was the chosen avenger; Hnwr s sword served as the blood-token, when Hunlafing placed it in Hengest's lap67 while GuOlaf and Oslaf uttered words of complaint. Hunlafing, Guolaf, and Oslaf collectively play the grievant's role. These charging ceremonies relate to each other in covert allusion. Collectively they illustrate that the slaying of a leader, especially a king like Hnzef or Froda, leads to violence until vengeance is satisfied. The slaying of Wi6ergild, and subsequent revenge by his son, is made significant by its parallel to Froda's death and Ingeld's subsequent revenge. To put the matter in a simile, just as Hreoel's sorrow over Herebeald's death resembles the Bereaved Father's mortal sorrow, on Ingeld's duty-bound compulsion to avenge Froda's death is like that of Wioergild's son to avenge his father."
66
I repeat details from an earlier study (Anderson 1980), but the context is much revised.
67
Cf. Bruce Moore (1976: 321): the presentation of the sword symbolizes revenge-
obligation.
68 Other aesthetic parallels between the Ingeld episode and the Father's Lament, as examples of symbolic narrative, are set forth in Clemoes 1995: 193-97.
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Finn episode (Beowulf 1063-1159a) The Ingeld episode simultaneously presents a wedding, a charging ceremony, and a tragic court flyting. The wedding implies a procession, a ringceremony, and a feast. The charging ceremony signifies continuation of the DanoHeabobeard feud, with a new generation of victims. The tragic court flyting, by covert allusion to the Finn episode, signifies the destruction of Heorot, as happened to Finnsburh in earlier Danish history. Tragic court flyting consists of four elements. (1) Two ethnic groups, who share a past history of violence, come together under one roof, nominally protected by a peace-oath or at least by the conventions of hospitality. (2) During a feast, the peace-oath or hospitality (or both) are violated by an exchange of hostile words, and by (3) the appearance of a provocative weapon, or weapons, contrary to the usual custom that warriors do not carry weapons into the king's hall. (4) In renewed fighting, the hall is destroyed. This typescene governs the narrative in the climax of the Finn episode. One cannot write about the climax of this episode without first discussing its beginning. For this we have clues in the text and in the Finnsburh Fragment, an earlier, independent witness of a "Hengest cycle" that narrates the beginning of a siege that resulted in Hrimf s death. The hostile ethnic groups are Danes (Dene, 1090b; Healfdene, Scyldingas, 1069) versus Frisians and Jutes (Eotan, gen. pl. Eotena).69 Scyldingas and Healfdene are anachronistic epithets, since the events at Finnsburh transpired at a time prior to the Scylding dynasty. The Danish stop's use of them signifies ownership of remote ancestors, and of a past that is always present in the collective imagination of a people. The strong masculine form for Jutes would be Eote; eoten means "giant." If Eote was folk-etymologized to a weak noun, its pejorative connotation does not erase its ethnographic denotation. ss Eotan, a weak form of Eote, gives rise to gen. pl. Eotena, 10726, 1088a, etc., and dat.
pl. Eotenum: Klaeber 1950: 434 s.v. Eotan.
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Even so, some critics have argued that eotena is a metaphor for "enemies," meaning the Frisians, such that the Jutes are not involved at all." Other critics, conceding that the Jutes were a tribe subordinate to the Frisians, argue that the poet refers to Frisians and Jutes indiscriminately;71 others, that there were Jutes on both sides, which is possible if Hengest is a Jute, as he is in Bede's story of Hengest and Horsa.72 Others argue that the Jutes were allies of the Danes.73 I agree with Alan Bliss that the story makes sense only if Hengest is a Dane, and Finn is the king of both Frisians and Jutes.74 Finn is a bretwalda who rules both Frisians and Jutes." He is married to Hildeburh, sister of Hnxf.76 Their father, the Danish king Hoc, had arranged a diplomatic marriage, either to settle a feud or to secure an alliance with Finn's father, Folcwalda (1089b). If etymology is a clue, Folcwalda was an aggressive bretwalda, like Scyld and like the Merovingian king, whose hegemonies extended to other tribes. Whatever political dynamics came into play at Finnsburh, they derived from the relationship between Folcwalda and Hoc in the preceding generation. My guess is that Hoc gave his daughter in marriage to Folcwalda's son to shield Danish independence from the expanding power of Frisians.77 If this is so, Hoc's diplomacy succeeded in the near term, for Finn and Hildeburh raised 70
Kaske 1967; Fry 1974: 62, s.v. coten, and 81, s.v. Eotan.
71
Klaeber 1915: 544-45; Ayers 1917: 286; Lawrence 1929: 110-11.
72 Tolkien 1983: 56-63 and North 1990: 18-19. In contrast, Van Hamel (1929) persuasively argued that in Germanic legend, Hengest the Danish thane was centuries earlier than Hengest the Jutish invader of Kent. 73
Girvan 1940: 352-53.
74
Bliss, The Nationality of Hengest," in Tolkien 1983: 168-80.
Chambers [1921] 1959: 209. In my earlier study (Anderson 1980: 295, n. 5), 1 assumed that the Frisians and Jutes were allies, but now, based on the etymology of Folcwalda and analogy to Scyld and the Merovingian king, 1 think that Finn was a bretwalda. 73
Hildeburh is Hoces dohtor (Beowulf 1076b); according to Widsid, Hnwf ruled the Hocingurn (29a). 76
77 A folktale-like alternative, that Finn carried off Hildeburh, and Hmef and Hengest (represented as brothers) pursued them twenty years later, was narrated by Moller (1883: 46-99) in his strophic recreation of the "original" Beowulf, but refuted by Schilling (1886 and 1887), and Chambers [1921] 1959: 254-57; cf. Fry 1974: 6-7.
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a son to military age (cf bearnum, 1074a, dative plural with singular meaning),78 during a peace that must have lasted twenty years. During those years, the poet says of Hildeburh that "bmr heo a r meste heold / worolde wynne" (1079b-80a: there [in Finnsburh] she had the greatest joy in the world). It is not quite true that Hildeburh was "an unhappy woman married to [a] foreign king."79 Since we never hear of Danes coming under Frisian rule, Hoc's diplomacy succeeded in the long term, too. He achieved his primary objective. Even so, there was a price to pay. Diplomatic arrangements never are permanent. When the poet says ironically that "Ne huru Hildeburh herian 1)orfle / Eotena treowe" (1071-72a: indeed Hildeburh had no reason to praise the good faith of Jutes), he seems to suggest that the Jutes were a devious third party who caused trouble between Frisians and Danes. After twenty years of peace, Hnwf must have thought it good policy to pay a state visit to Hildeburh. Perhaps he was curious to meet his nephew, who by now was an cePeling in Finn's retinue. Hnwf s situation resembled that of Gunther in the Nibelungenlied, when Kriemhild and Etzel sent two heraldic minstrels to invite him and his retinue to visit Hungary for a midsummer festival, on the pretext of proving to Etzel's retainers that Kriemhild was not destitute of friends in the world. Upon learning that Kriemhild was happy in her new life, with a newborn son (Ortlieb), and recalling that she had renounced her feud over Siegfried's murder, the Burgundians approved the plan, all but Hagen, Siegfried's bana, who suspected that Kriemhild intended revenge. In partial deference to Hagen's fears, the Burgundians armed themselves heavily for the journey, which indeed turned into a military conflict.80 Hnxf and his retinue of sixty men carried war-gear with them to Frisia, too, although perhaps no more than was customary.
78
As argued persuasively by Dobbie 1953: 171-72, note to line 1074.
78
Lawrence 1915: 384.
"Nibelungenlied, ay. 23-24, in De Boor 404-39.
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The Finnsburh Fragment opens at night. The Danes are alone in Finn's hall, guarding the doors against an enemy attack. Four of the five Danes named in the Episode correspond to Danes in the Fragment: Hnxf (Beowulf 1069b; Finnsburh 40a), Hengest (Beowulf 1083a; Finnsburh 17a), and Gublaf and Oslaf (Beowulf 1148b = "Ordlaf and Gublaf," Finnsburh 16b). Hunlafing in Beowulf 1143a has no counterpart in Finnsburh, but according to Arngrim Jonsson's Latin abstract of the ON Skjoldunga saga (chap. 4), Guolaf, Ordlaf, and Hunlaf were brothers." Hunlafing was Hunlaf s son, and Guolars and Oslaf's nephew. The Finnsburh poet seems relatively more interested in naming Danes. He also gives Sigefero and Eaha, and Garulf (Gublaf s son) and Gutiere (15a, 18), and reports that Garulf was first to die in the fighting (31-34a). The Beowulf poet agrees that the fight began at night, for "sykoan morgen corn" (1078b), Hildeburh learned of Hnxf s and her son's deaths. In Finnsburh the fight lasted five days (41a); in the Episode, one night. The Fragment ends there. For the rest of the story, we depend on the Beowulf poet, who tells us that both sides lost many men and that Finn's thanes had no prospect of dislodging the Danes from the fortress (10806-85a). Finn and the Danes' new leader, Hengest, came to terms. Their peace treaty is described in two segments: first, a private negotiation between Finn and Hengest; second, a public oath. This conforms to the pattern of symbolic politics—private negotiation followed by a public demonstration: ac hig him gePingo budon, kwt hie him ooer flet eal gerymdon, healle ond heahsetl, bast hie healfre geweald wió Eotena beam agan moston, ond t feohgyftum Folcwaldan sunu dogra gehwylce Dene weorbode, Hengestes heap hringum wenede efne swa swine sincgestreonum fwttan goldes, swa he Fresena cyn on beorsele byldan wolde.
81
Chambers [1921] 1959: 252-54.
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(Beowulf 1085b-94: but they negotiated terms among themselves, such that they would clear the second hall for themselves, a hall and a high seat, half of which they would be able to control with the sons of the Jutes, and every day at gift-givings, Folcwa]da's son would honor the Danes [and would] present Hengest's retinue with rings, even as much of golden treasure, as he wished to bestow on the Frisian people.) Oder flet (1086a) is ambiguous. It could mean "a second hall," or "half the hall" (Finnsburh), as argued by Fry, who interprets oder flet as "the lower side" and healle as "hall-space."s2 Whether there were two halls, like Tyntagil and Terrabyl in Arthurian tradition, or one hall, Finn's gift-giving occurred in a court setting with both his men and Hengest's presents' "Hig him gebingo budon" (1085b): the pronouns do not disclose whether Finn or Hengest first offered concessions. Some critics argue that Finn dictated terms.84 Even so, they seem favorable to Hengest. The pronouns are plural, not dual, because Finn's counselors were present in this meeting (cf. weotena dome, 1098b: according to the judgment of his councilors). Finn's and Hengest's "demonstrative behavior" in a public oath follows: Da hie getruwedon on twa healfa fwste frioduwwre. Fin Hengeste elne unflitme alum benemde be he Pa wealafe weotena dome arum heolde, past deer zenig mon wordum ne worcum wwre ne breece, ne burh inwitsearo wfre gemmnden deah hie hira beaggyfan banan folgedon deodenlease, Pa him swa gePearfod Gyf bonne Frysna hwylc frecnan sprmce bars morborhetes myndgied were, ponne hit sweordes ecg sedan scolde.
82
Fry 1974: 39-40.
83 Malory, Marie Dar:lair 1.1, 1967, 1: 7; the earliest source is Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain 8.19, where the castles are Tintagel and Dimilioc. 84
North 1990: 14-15 and 27.
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(Beowulf 1095-1106: then on both sides they firmly pledged a peace-
oath. Without debate [in council], Finn swore in oaths before Hengest, in accordance with the judgment of his counselors, that he would maintain the woeful [Danish] survivors in honor, such that no man should ever, by word or deed, break [the truce], nor through malicious conspiracy [should anyone] ever mention that they, [now] lordless, followed the slayer of their [former] ring-giver, driven by necessity. If any Frisian should call to mind the deadly feud by [his] arrogant speech, then the sword's edge should settle the matter.)
Weotena dome (1098b) alludes to the role that Finn's counselors played in the
private negotiation that preceded this public oath. So too does the adverbial phrase ealne unflitnie (1097a), "without debate," "without gainsay [by his council]."85 While Finn and Hengest were busy about their peace treaty and oathtaking, Hildeburh was occupied with preparations for the double funeral of her brother and her son. This too is symbolic politics. Wood must be cut and gathered, gold treasures drawn from the treasury, war-gear selected from the armory, the pyre prepared with these things, and customary organized for the cremation ceremony. Just as Hengest's men and Finn's were to share a hall and treasure under Finn's proscribed rule, so Hnzef and his nephew, warriors who fought on opposite sides until war seized its dead on both sides ("gu6 fomam / bega folces" (1123b-24a), now would share a pyre under Hildeburh's governance: t Hnxfes ade Het 6a Hildeburh hire selfre sunu sweoloie befxsten, banfatu bwrnan ond on bwl don eame on eaxle. (Beowulf 1114-17a: then Hildeburh commanded that her own son be
committed to the flame, to burn his body and in the pyre place [him] at his uncle's shoulder.)
85 I see no sufficient reason to emend unflitme to un[h]litme as proposed by Rosier 1966 and Vickrey 1988.
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At the correct moment, she mourned publicly: "Ides geomode, / geomrode giddum" (1117b-18a: the woman mourned, sorrowed in dirges). Then Death disclosed its true horror, in the form of a body sitting up as muscles contract in the flames." Heads melt, wounds burst open as blood boils over, the fire consumes everything: Guorinc astah. Wand to wolcnum wxlfyra mast, hlynode for hlawe. Hafelan multon, bengeato burston, oonne blod actspranc, lacbite lices. Lig ealle forswealg, gesta gifrost, Para be pier guo fornam bega folces. Wass Kira bleed scacen. (Beowulf 11186-24: the warrior [corpse] sat up. The greatest of fimeralfires spiraled to the heavens, resounded before the mound. Heads melted, wounds burst open, then blood spurted out of the body's war-wounds. Fire, the greediest of spirits, swallowed all of those whom war seized from both peoples. Their glory was gone.) Some critics, appointing Hildeburh the exemplary "woman as victim" in Beowulf, compare her to Freawaru, but the likeness is limited. Can you imagine an adolescent girl with the fortitude and maturity to preside over this doleful ceremony? All eyes were on Hildeburh, even the brawniest warrior taking his cue about how to act in the presence of sorrow and horror. After the funeral, Finn's Frisian soldiers went home (1125-27a). No doubt they had harvest to gather, before the approach of winter. Their destination, "hamas and heahburh" (1127a: homesteads and main city), implies that some were farmers, others craftsmen.87 As prescribed in the peace-oath, Finn spent the winter in the "second" hall with his elite corps, evidently comprised of Jutes (Eotena beam, 1141a). It was good policy for a bretwalda to maintain a palace " Horrors of the pyre: Klaeber 1915: 547; Farrell 1982b: 190-91. 87 Malone (1959), in contrast, reviving a nineteenth-century theory of the story (cf. Schilling 1886: 91), says that it was the Danes who went home, leaving only Hengest behind; according to his construction of the story, the Danes returned with reinforcements in the spring.
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guard of foreign recruits, who were unlikely to participate in court intrigues. The Battle of Maldon observes a similar distinction between Byrhtnoo's heordwerod and his j)rd of farmers and craftsmen who were recruited temporarily to fight in a battle.88 Firm and his heordwerod had to hold their tongues and share the hall with Hengest and his heap, but the story of their long winter is told from Hengest's point of view. During his exile in Frisia, the imagery of winter serves as an objective correlative for Hengest's hiraeth, his longing for home:89 Hengest 6a gyt wwlfagne winter wunode mid Finne eal unhlitme. Eard gemunde, peah pe he ne meahte on mere drifan hringedstefnan; holm storme weol, won wio winde, winter ye beleac isgebinde, oPooet ober corn gear in geardas, swa nu gyt deo, ba Oe syngales sele bewitiao, wuldortorhtan weder. (Beowulf 1128b-36a: still, Hengest, slaughter-stained, dwelt the winter with Finn, without any sortilege. He reminisced about home, but he was not able to steer his ring-prowed ship; the sea welled with storm, strove against the wind, winter locked the wave in icy bonds, until another spring came in the courtyards, as it still does, when the glorious, bright weather, as always, observes its [appointed] time.) I translate eal unhlitme (1129a) as an adverbial meaning "without any sortilege," "entirely without lot-drawing," ignoring recent deductive arguments as to whether it means "willingly" or "without choice." My conjecture is that eal unhlitme, an idiom, implies that the choice was so obvious that lot-drawing was unnecessary. Unhlitme has a Latin counterpart, extra sortenz, as in Livy (28.40.1): "Cum African novam provinciam extra sortem P. Scipioni destinari homines fama 88
Maldon 17-24; discussed cautiously by Scragg (1981: 20-23), who believes that the
fi,rd might be a standing army, at least in part. However, Sawyer (1971: 123) argues that a.6,rd is a
small band of local men, while a here is a standing army.
89 Welsh hiraeth lexicalizes this form of longing more precisely than any word in English. For winter as what T. S. Eliot called "objective correlative": Malone 1926: 166;
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ferrent" (while it was commonly reported that without casting lots Africa was to be assigned to Publius Scipio as a new province). In the context of the Second Punic War, extra sortem implies that Scipio was the obvious choice as cogovernor of the newly conquered territory, although, in Roman practice, lots would be cast to select another consul as his co-ruler. Eal unhlitme makes sense as the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of Roman extra sortem. Some critics say that Hengest did wrong to pledge peace with Finn.90 I don't know what they mean by that, since the feud-system is universally condemned as evil. By making peace with Finn, Hengest saved the lives of his men, whose eventual return to Denmark, alive, was proof of his success. Only when spring comes is Hengest's hiraeth mingled with thoughts of revenge: Da wars winter scacen, fwger foldan bearm. Fundode wrecca, gist of geardum; he to gyrnwrwce swioor bohte bonne to sallade, gif he torngemot burhteon mihte bast he Eotena beam inne gemunde. (Beowulf 1136b-41: then winter vvas past, the bosom of earth [was] fair. The exile, the stranger, was anxious to leave the courtyard, [yet] even more he thought about revenge than sea-travel, how might instigate a quarrel, in which he would be mindful of the sons of the Jutes.)9I Hengest often is portrayed as torn by contradictory obligations, bound by a peaceoath, but also by a retainer's duty to avenge the death of his king. Like Hamlet he is a procrastinator, slow to make a decision.92 These lines disclose no such conflict. Hengest knows he must avenge Hnzef, but waits until spring so he can sail back to Denmark afterward. His peace-oath with Finn is no barrier to revenge. 9° Ayres 1917: 287, "The arrangement made by Hengest on behalf of his Danes was particularly disgraceful." Again, Malone 1933: 314. 91 My
translation of line 1141 is influenced by Mitchell 1968b.
92 Hamlet-like Hengest: Ayres 1917: 288; Chambers [1921] 1959: 266-67; Malone 1923: 22-23 and 1926: 171; opposed by Brodeur (I 943b), Fry 1974: 9, and Irving 1989: 25-27. Brodeur (1943a) provides a technical critique of grammatical elements in Malone's argument.
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If someone else starts a quarrel, that would be enough to negate the peace.93 Hengest practices gepyld, biding his time until the "heroic moment" comes. That happens in a "charging ceremony," when Hunlafing94 places Hues sword in Hengest's lap, while Guolaf and Oslaf speak out in discontent: Swa he ne forwymde woroldrwdenne Donne him Hunlafing hildeleoman, billa selest, on bearm dyde, Dias wxron mid Eotenum ecge cube. Swylce ferh6frecan Fin eft begeat sweordbealo slioen xt his selfes ham, siboan grimne gripe Guolaf and Oslaf refter sxsibe sorge mEendon, wtwiton weana dwl; ne meahte wufre mod forhabben in hrejre. (Beowulf1142-51a: so he did not disdain what the world would counsel, when Hunlafing placed the bright battle-sword, the best of blades, on his lap, [a sword] whose edges were well known to the Jutes. So in time, death by a battle-blow came to valiant Finn in his own home, when Guolaf and Oslaf complained about [their] sorrow and the fierce attack after the sea-voyage,95 made accusation concerning a host of misfortunes; nor might a vengeful spirit be restrained in the breast.) Woroldrwdenne trumps weotena dome (1098b: the judgment of councilors). The duty to avenge the slaughter of a king obviates Finn's and Hengest's peace-oath. There are three reasons for supposing that the provocative weapon of lines 1143-45 is Hrixf's sword. First, Hnaers mailcoat and helmet were destroyed with his body on the pyre (1107-17), leaving the sword as the only material reminder 93 Peace-oath broken by subordinates: Nicholson 1975; Orchard 2003: 185. North (1990: 32-33), equating Hengest with the Jutish Hengest in Nennius's story, asserts that Hengest in the Finn episode is inherently a dishonorable oath-breaker. 94 Hunlafing was recognized as a patronymic by Boer (1904: 139), and as the son of Hunlaf, the older brother of Guolaf and Oslaf by Chadwick (1907: 52, n. 1) and Tolkien (1983: 31-33 and 76-79); cf. North 1990: 30-31. Malone's argument (1926: 167, 1928, and 1959), that Hunlafing is the name of Hnxf's sword, was opposed by Brodeur (1943a: 330-55) and has attracted few adherents. 95 "Eller sceside (1149) refers to events just after 1-Inf's and the Danes' diplomatic journey to Frisia, when they were attacked by Finn's men.
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of him. Second, the sword's significance is apparent both to Hengest, who acknowledges his duty to avenge Hnwf, and to the Jutes. Third, reference to the edges of the sword (ecge curie, 1145b), rather than to its hilt or jeweled pommel, indicates that the sword was unsheathed at this critical moment. In a cognate episode in the Nibelungenlied (discussed below), Hagen carries Siegfried's sword with him in Etzel's court, and shows it to her twice, first sheathed, later unsheathed across his lap. The first time, she fails to recognize it, but the second time, unsheathed, she recognizes it as Siegfried's, as a blood-token and a call for revenge. The conduct of Hunlafing's uncles, Gualaf, and Oslaf, is ambiguous. It looks like a spontaneous outburst, but in fact is a coordinated "charging ceremony," in which the Danes "choose" Hengest as Hnwr s avenger.96 It need not have been planned in advance. Meaningful glances would have been enough. As for its placement in Hengest's lap, Lawrence notes only that it is a "trenchant," battle-worthy sword.97 Tolkien speculates that by giving the sword, Hunlafing swore fealty to Hengest as Hnwf s successor. He also speculates that Guolaf s and Oslaf s "egging" took the form of a fealty oath.98 North speculates that Guolaf and Oslaf sang a subversive song about "their earlier adventures in the sea... [to] surreptitiously rouse their own men" into taunting the Frisians.99 An alternative view: they participate in a charging ceremony, in which Hengest is chosen as the avenger and Hnxfs sword is the requisite blood-token. Why else would it be "mid Eotenum ecge cube" (1145: a blade well known to the Jutes)? They knew a charging ritual when they saw one. In tragic denouement, the Danes slew all the Jutes in the hall: 96 Lawrence (1915: 422) and Ayres (1917: 293-94) thought that Guolaf and Oslaf reproached Hengest. Chambers ([1921] 1959: 267), like most critics, thought that Finn was the object of their discontent. The "charging ceremony" settles the matter in favor of Chambers's view. 97
Lawrence 1915: 420-23. Tolkien 1983: 124 and 134-34.
99 North 1990: 15.
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Da wms heal roden feonda feorum, swilce Fin slwgen, cyning on corbre, ond sea cwen numen. (Beowulf 1151b-53a: then the hall was reddened with the life [blood] of enemies, Finn slain also, the king with his retinue, and the queen detained.) The Danes sailed home, taking with them Finn's treasure, and Hildeburh (1153b59a). Some critics regard Hildeburh's return to Denmark as an extension of her tragedy: like Finn's treasure, she is a battle-trophy.'°° What would they say, I wonder, if the Danes had left her in Frisia? No doubt they would compare her to the deserted wife in The Wife's Lament, an exile living at the mercy of unfriendly former relatives-in-law. It seems to me that Hildeburh emerges from the Finn episode as a heroic survivor. In Denmark, she can resume her status as a queen, perhaps even serve the royal house further by finding another king to wed. The Finn episode, as part of Anglo-Saxon narrative tradition, might be thought of as "the matter of Denmark," which is represented in Finnsburh, too. When the Beowulf poet appropriates the Finnsburh cycle, he reshapes it in two major ways. First, he fashions a climax that corresponds simultaneously to "charging ceremony" and "tragic court flyting" typescenes, by covert allusion linking it to the Ingeld episode.1°1 Through typescene analysis, we understand that the climax is a single, action-packed scene, rather than a diffuse sequence of allusions to two or three episodes.1°2 Second, the poet "frames" the episode with images of Hildeburh, as a grieving mother and sister at the beginning, and as a surviving widow at the end. As the episode's unifying figure, she presides at the 100 Hildeburh as victim, tragic sufferer, and baffle-trophy: Lawrence 1915: 376-88 (emphasizing her role in freokuwebbe, peace-weaving); Williams 1924: 33; Malone 1926: 168-70; Moore 1976; Tolkien 1983: 37-38; Irving 1989: 25; North 1990: 13; Magennis 1996: 109-10. 1°1 Finn and Ingeld episodes linked thematically: Lawrence 1915: 379-84 amd 1929: 11415; Malone [1940c] 1959: 200; Whitelock 1951: 34-38; Bonjour 1950: 56-63; Irving 1968: 16978; Shippey 1972: 31-32 and 1978: 32-33; Liggins 1973: 193-99; Moore 1976; Orchard 2003: 183-84.
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double funeral of her brother and son, its central, most dramatic event.103 The Finnsburh cycle becomes Hildeburh's story. Tragic court flytings in other texts Parallels between the Finnsburh cycle and the Nibelungenlied are an old theme in Beowulf criticism, with attention focused on characters in narrative context. Hnwf's death was accomplished by treachery, like Siegfried's. Hildeburh, like Kriemhild, was the object of a diplomatic marriage, torn apart by the renewal of a feud. King Hnxf and his Danish retinue came to Frisia as guests, most likely invited, like Gunther and his Burgundian retinue in Hungary. The Danes, like the Burgundians, traveled across a difficult body of water (the sea, the Danube) to reach their respective destinations, such that their return would be equally difficult. Finn, like Attila, was a tragic king in a hall doomed to be looted and burnt. Anyone could see the parallels, and some suspected a historical connection. Pressing the case to an extreme, R. A. Williams (1924) argued that the Finn cycle was based upon the Nibelung cycle. He used details from the Nibelungenlied to fill in "gaps" in the surviving Finn cycle. In doing so, he inadvertently called attention to the weakness of the historical argument.104 The parallels that link the Nibelungenlied and the Finn and Ingeld episodes are due not to source-relationships, but to the presence of migratory typescenes in all three texts. In the Nibelungenlied, the Huns and Burgundians do not have a past history of enmity, but Kriemhild has a longstanding quarrel with her brothers and with Hagen, who had murdered Siegfried and confiscated the Nibelung treasure. Kriemhild, it is true, forswore revenge for Siegfried's murder, but she was coerced. Her oath was no barrier to revenge when circumstances were 102
Climax dissipated into two or three scenes: Lawrence 1915: 428-29; Malone 1926.
"Frame structure is discussed in Malone 1926: 160-70, Tonsfeldt 1977: 448-52, Homer [2001] 2006: 472, Orchard 2003: 177-78, and elsewhere. 104 Williams (1924); his assimilation of the Finn cycle to the Nibelungenlied is criticized by Blackman (1925), Sedgefield (1925), Lawrence (1929: 123 and 157), and Tolkien (1983: 51).
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more favorable. Hence the first attribute of "tragic court flyting": a past feud endangers the Burgundians on their state visit in Hungary. The second and third attributes, a hostile exchange of words and the display of a provocative weapon, appear in separate episodes in aventiuren 28 and 29. The episodes are linked by parallelism. Each episode starts with a "window scene" in which Kriemhild observes the Burgundians from an upstairs window, then descends to participate in the action and impact its course.t05 In the first episode, Kriemhild greets her brothers coldly, kissing only Giselher, and ignoring Hagen, who remarks that in Etzel's court they have separate greetings for kings and for their vassa1.1°6 In reply, Kriemhild implies that she begrudges Hagen on account of the Nibelung treasure. She does not mention Siegfried's murder: durch iuwer selbes friuntschaft grueze ich inch niht. saget waz it mir bringet von Wormez iiber RI, dar umb it mir grOze soldet willekomen sin. (Av. 28, str. 1739: I shall not greet you for any love between us. Tell me what you bring me from Worms beyond the Rhine, that you should be so welcome to me.) Hagen tells Kriemhild that her treasure is sunk in the Rhine. His only gifts for her are his shield, mailcoat, and helmet;107 "daz swert an miner hende, des enbringe ich iu nieht" (str. 1744: as for this sword in my hand, I bring it not for you). The sword is Siegfried's, still sheathed, not yet recognized by Kriemhild. In aventiure 29, Hagen and Volker insult Kriemhild by remaining seated as she enters the hall (str. 1780-82). Hagen lays Siegfried's sword across his lap: Der iibermiiete Hagene leit' Ober siniu bein din vil liehtez wafen, Liz des knopfe schein ein vil liehter jaspes, grtienter dame ein gras. 1°5 Nibelungenlied, ay. 27, str. 1716 and ay. 29, str. 1762 in De Boor 500 and 514. For "window scenes," see Becker 1971: 18-21.
we Nibelungenlied, ay. 107
28, str. 1737-38, in De Boor 506-8.
Nibelungenlied, ay. 28, str. 1741-48 and 1744, in De Boor 508.
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wol erkandez Kriemhilt, dez ez Sifrides was. (Av. 29, str. 1783: With that Hagen arrogantly laid across his knees a gleaming sword, from whose pommel there shone a gleaming jasper, greener than grass. Kriemhild recognized it, that it was Siegfried's.) Once unsheathed, the sword provokes Kriemhild to renewed grief and vengeful desire, just like Wioergild's mete in the Ingeld episode, and Hnmf's sword in the Finn episode. It provokes eavesdropping Huns, too, by confirming to them the justice of her cause, for in the strophes that follow, Hagen boasts that he had murdered Siegfried. Fighting in Etzel's hall is delayed until aventiure 33, and the burning of the hall does not occur until aventiure 36, but it is clear from the flyting in aventiure 29 that open hostility between Huns and Burgundians is inevitable. In this flyting, Siegfried's sword is a blood-token that calls for revenge, just as at his funeral seven years earlier, Siegfried's wounds called for revenge when they broke open and bled in Hagen's presence (ay. 17). The flyting scene displays elements of a charging ritual in ironically inverted ways: Kriemhild should be the grievant, but Hagen, the bana, plays this role by displaying Siegfried's sword and boasting about his felony. By implicit symbolism and explicit words, he charges Kriemhild to be Siegfried's avenger. He thinks that he does this privately, but in fact it is public, witnessed by eavesdropping Huns. There is no hint of tragic court flyting in the cognate story of Sigurd, Gudrun, Hogni, and Atli in the Poetic Edda, nor in the parallel story of Sigmund, Signy, and Volsung in Volsunga saga.' 08 Even so, this typescene does appear, in part or in whole, in two Scandinavian sources, and in thirteenth and fifteenthcentury Arthurian fiction. The typescene appears in part in Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla 38 (repeated in Fagrskinna): thirty retainers of King Harald of Norway, waiting upon his bastard son Hakon, attended a banquet in the court of King koelstan with ma
Discussed in Lawrence 1915: 382-84.
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weapons concealed under their cloaks. tEbelstan's fosterage of Hakon is historica1,109 but the banquet episode is fictional, for, as Magnus Fjalldal observed, it is unlikely that 1E6elstan "would have entertained thirty armed Norwegians at a royal banquet."° At the banquet, koelstan received Hakon as a foster-son, under circumstances that compromised his own dignity, at least in the eyes of King Harald: when the child Hakon was presented, he had with him a note from the Norwegian king, bragging that he had tricked his English counterpart into fostering the son of a slave, for the boy's mother was Dora, one of Harald's slaves. .16elstan's first impulse was to slay Hakon with his sword, but the leader of the Norwegian delegation restrained him, by reminding him that Harald had other sons who were beyond his reach. Looking past Harald's insult, which must have seemed silly even to Snorri, rEoelstan received Helm into his court. Had he refused, a disastrous fight would have erupted in the court. At this critical moment, the story could have turned either tragic or comic. Its tragic turn would have exemplified a "tragic court flyting" typescene. In its comic alternative, the story was reduced to a game of "out-doing" in which scurrilous Harald did not get the last laugh after all, for Hakon was destined to become Norway's king, rather than Herald's oldest, legitimate son, Eirik Blood-axe. "Tragic court flyting" appears in full form in the story of Balin and the "dolorous stroke" that caused the Waste Land in the thirteenth-century French Suite du Merlin and in Malory's Morte Darthur (11.14-16).111 When Balin arrived at King Pellam's castle, he came looking for trouble, knowing that his enemy, the invisible knight Garlon, was Pellam's brother. Balin's only retainer was a gentleman whose son had been grievously wounded by Garlon (11.14, 1967: 82), and a damsel intent on revenge, for Garlon had slain her lover, Sir Harleus le Berbeus, with a spear, leaving a truncheon behind in his body. It is important to Malbjarnson 1941, 1, islenzl: fornit 26: 145-46, n. 2; Stenton 1943: 344-45; Binn 1963: 19; Loyn 1977: 74; Ciklamini 1978: 76. 11°
Fjalldal 2005: 35.
III
Malory, ed. Vinaver 1967: 82-86; for discussion, Vinaver 1957.
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my analysis to remember that "ever the damesell bare the truncheon of the spere with hir that sir Harleus le Berbeus was slayne withall" (II.12), for this truncheon, a blood-token, becomes a "provocative weapon" in the typescene. Pellam's feast was intended as courtly entertainment, not as an occasion for conflict or combat. It was proclaimed that "no knyght may come there but he brynge hys wyff with hym othir hys paramoure" (11.14, 1967: 82-83). At first the host was unwilling to admit Balin, because he came without a lady, but he relented, relaxing the rules of the feast. In the robing-chamber, Balin was asked to "leve his swerde behynde hym." He refused, saying that "hit ys the custom of my countrey a knyght allweyes to kepe hys wepyn with hym," so the rules of the feast were relaxed again and "they gaf hym leve with his swerde." In the banquet hall, an unnamed knight told Bolin that a mysterious knight with a black face was GarIon, who "destroyeth many good knyghtes, for he goth invisible." So Balin, armed contrary to custom, observed GarIon, until Garton "aspyed that Balyn vysaged hym, so he corn and slapped hym on the face with the backe of hys honde and seyde, `Knyght, why beholdist thou me so? For shame, ete thy mete and do that thou corn fore'." Balin, in flyting, threw Garlon's words back at him: "`thys ys nat the firste spite that thou haste done me. And therefore I woll do that I come fore'. And rose hym up fersely and clave his hede to the sholdirs." Then Balin asked Sir Harleus's damsel for the truncheon, drove it into Garlon's body, and announced, "With that troncheon thou slewyste a good knyght, and now hit stykith in thy body" (11.14, 1967: 83-84). In the uproar that followed, all the knights, King Pellam also, chased Balin (now unarmed) from chamber to chamber until he wounded PeIlam with a "mervaylous spere" in the Grail-chamber. This was the "dolorouse stroke" that brought down the castle and ruined three countries.
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Chapter 10 Battlefield Typescenes Realism is rarely an attribute of battlefield narratives in epic tradition. If it were, the prevailing narrative theme would be the "fog of war." Carl von Clausewitz compared confusion in warfare to a complex operation performed in fog or moonlight, when the appearance of shapes is distorted. He wrote from the perspective of a general, not a foot-soldier. For him, the "fog of war" meant the unreliability of data needed to control a military campaign. He meant that armchair command, or theorizing about the art of war on paper, is doomed when it fails to allow for the probability that in any tactical maneuver, whatever can go wrong will go wrong. Even so, confusion at the level of strategic command inevitably translates into the confusion experienced by soldiers on the ground. That is what "fog of war" means in popular usage. As monstrous distortions of nature, Grendel, his mother, and the fire-dragon are excellent symbols of the fog of war experienced by soldiers on the ground. As von Clausewitz observed, a person who has never experienced warfare has no idea what to expect or how it feels. Judgmental attitudes toward cowering Danes and fugitive Geats come quickly to armchair critics who have never been menaced by Grendel or burnt by a dragon, although such criticism never comes from Beowulf. Epic battles resolve themselves into typescenes that serve as metonymies or metaphors for war.2 Some of these are scenic: single combats, "exchange of blows" contests, wrestling, "combative handshakes," and "lift and toss" contests. Single combats are universal in Eurasian epics. "Exchange of blows" contests are common, too, especially in the Middle East. One "scenic" typescene, particular to Von Clausewitz, On War 1.7 and 2.2.24, 1976: 119-21 and 140. 2 For other analyses of battlefield typescenes, see Baugh 1959 (Middle English); Ramsey 1965 (Old English), Hitze 1965, Rychner 1968, and Duggan 1973 (chansons de geste), and Ritzke-Rutherford 1981 (Alliterative Morte Darthure).
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ancient Mesopotamia, homologizes battle to a hunt in a storm: (1) the hero, assisted by powerful winds that immobilize his opponent, traps his enemy in a hunting net. (2) The opponent, trapped in a net (or immobilized), appeals for mercy through flattery and bribes. (3) The hero, rejecting these appeals, slays his opponent with one or more mighty blows. This three-part sequence informs Marduk's combat with Tiamat in the Babylonian Epic of Creation, Ninurta's combat with the Anzu-bird in Anzu, and Gilgamesh's and Enkidu's combat with Humbaba in the Babylonian Gilgamesh.3 The scenario, specific to Akkadian epics, does not appear in Gilgamesh's and Enkidu's attack on Huwawa in the Sumerian Gilgamesh and Huwaiva.4 Another "scenic" typescene: a hero fights a stronger enemy in a narrow place.5 In Chanson de Roland, the Frankish rearguard fights an enormous Saracen army in a mountain pass at Rencesvals. In The Battle of Maldon, Byrhtnoo's retainers fight vikings at a causeway, until Byrhtnoo cedes his tactical advantage. In Finnsburh, Hnxf and his Danish retainers defend themselves from a nocturnal attack by Frisians at the doors of Finn's hall. In Waltharius, Walter defends himself from Gunther and eleven retainers in a mountain pass above the Vosges valley. Asymmetrical fights at night, like Grendel's raids, and battles in Finnsburh, the Nibelungenlied, Norse sagas and poems, and Tacitus's Annales, are commonplace in the Romano-Celto-Germanic cultural area.6 Other typescenes are panoramic: the siege of a city or fortress, the hero's single-handed slaughter of an enemy army; its self-destruction in "friendly fire"; its flight caused by the sudden appearance of a portentous sign, a god, goddess, or saint; its destruction in a rout. The siege of a walled city or fortress is panoramic, 3 Babylonian Epic of Creation, tablet 4, in Dailey 1989: 251-55; Ansu, tablet 2, in Dailey 1989: 212-17; Gilgamesh 5. 137-69, in George 2003, 1: 609-13. 4
Gilgamesh and Huwawa 121-80, in Black et al. 2004: 3 46-48.
Ker (1897: 5-6) argued that "defense of a narrow place against great odds" differentiates epic from the quest-scenario of romance. E. V. Gordon [1927] 1957: xxxii: "a good resistance against overpowering odds." 5
6
Andersson 1974.
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and glimpsed in two deft verses in The Wanderer: "dugub eat gecrong / wlonc be wealle" (79b-80a: the whole veteran troop fell dead, valiant by the wall). As a child (cnihtwesende), Offa of Angeln defeated the Myrgingas ane sweorde (with a single sword), alluding to his single-handed defeat of an army in battle; Widsid (35-44) alludes to a typescene that depicts Offa as a boy-hero. In the Nibelungenlied, Siegfried won the Nibelung treasure after slaying, single-handed, the contentious brothers Schilburg and Nibelung, their twelve giant-champions, and an army of seven hundred warriors.' Routs occur in Brunanburh, in the Hebrews' pursuit of Assyrians in Judith (289b-311a), and Constantine's pursuit of the barbarian army in Cynewulcs Elene (130b-41a). All three episodes end with the conventional remark that few warriors in the enemy army returned home as survivors. Here, too, the "beasts of battle" are omens of victory prior to battle, and corpse-scavengers afterward, a Romano-Celto-Germanic topos.8 "Three mighty blows" Because battles and weapons are prominent in Beowulf, Eric John imagines the poet as a military man,' like Sir Thomas Malory. His weaponsvocabulary is rich and diverse. Even so, Beowulf relates combat in typescenes, as is normal for epic. One of these is "three mighty blows," a metonymy for battle. This appears in %RoBu/de of Maldon and in the Geatish messenger's account of Ongenpeow's death. In Maldon, first, Byrhtnob dealt a death-blow to a young viking who had wounded him (130-48); second, the hero was dealt a great blow by another viking (149-58). While he fought yet another assailant, a fourth one struck a "third" great blow, which disabled his fighting-arm (159-71). Just so in 7
Nibelungenlied 3, strophes 83-98, in De Boor 26-30.
8 The earliest critical literature on the "beasts of battle" was focused on oral-formulaic convention (Magoun 1955; Bonjour 1957; Fry 1968, 1969, and 1972), and sometimes was explicitly nativist (Griffith 1993). Anderson (2003: 432-37) studies the "beasts of battle" as a residual theme of the Indo-European "animals of the gods." For Latin examples of battlefield birds and beasts: George H. Brown 1978: 36. For Scandinavian and Carolingian examples: Frank 1987 and Joseph Harris 2007. For Celtic examples, Hall 1990; Klausner 1993.
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Beowulf, Ongenkeow was slain at Ravenswood in a sequence of three mighty blows: first, Wulf struck Ongenkeow (2964a-67a); Ongenbeow delivered a grievous wound to Wulf in his blow (2967b-76); Eofor slew Ongenlaeow in a third blow (2977-82). These battle scenes, "constructed on a common model... take the form of an elderly hero succumbing to more than one assailant in three phases of a blow or blows received, returned and received again.'" Beowulf slew the dragon in three forays that the poet enumerates (cerest 2556b, ()ore sioe 2670b, priddan side 2688b). In the first (2575b-80a), Beowulf was burned by the dragon's breath. In the second (2677b-87), he broke his sword, Ngling, on the dragon's skull. In the third, a double blow: Wiglaf s with Weohstan's sword, and Beowulf s with his wcelseax (2697-2705). These three forays assimilate the dragon-fight to military combat. The hero need not be elderly. In the Nibelungenlied, Siegfried in single combat disabled his opponent, King Liudegast of Denmark, "mit drien starken wunden" (strophe 188: with three great wounds)." In the final battle in Waltharius, three mighty blows result in three great mutilations. Walter severs Gunther's leg at the thigh (1360-80). Hagan cuts off Walter's right hand, and Walter cuts out Hagen's right eye, lips, and six teeth (1381-96). The poet surveys the battle remnants: "Here lay King Gunther's foot, there Walter's hand, and here the still quivering eye of Hagen. In just such a way they divided the Avars' bracelets" (1403-5). The pun on Avares, avaritia calls attention to Walter's earthly reward for his theft of Attila's treasure, and Gunther's attempt at armed robbery. The mutilations of hand, foot, and eye allude to Jesus's warning, "if your hand causes you to sin, cut if off; it is better for you to enter eternal life maimed than with two hands go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes 9
John [1973-74] 1995: 73.
I° Clemoes 1995: 118-19. The typescene resemblance between Byrknoo's and
Ongenbeow's deaths was first noted by D. G. Scragg in his edition of Maldon (1981: 54-55, n. 166). II Nibelungenlied, ay. 4, in De Boor 56.
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you to sin, cut if off; it is better for you to enter eternal life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9: 4248).12 The covert biblical allusion is framed in two typescenes: "three mighty blows," and the polarity of theft and combat, an attribute of Beowulf s dragon-fight, too.13 Another commonplace is "facial mutilation," encountered most often in Middle Eastern epics. Beowulf's combative handshake (Beowull750-66, 809-18a) Early Beowulf critics interpreted the fight in Heorot as a generalized description of Grendel's attempt to escape Beowulf s grasp." Alternatively, they imagined Beowulf s combat as a bear-hug, consistent with his name, "bee-wolf," a kenning for "bear."15 In Grettis saga, Grettir defeats Glam's ghost in hyrggsenning, a bear-hug. Peters cites this analogue in support of the bear-hug as a Nordic wrestling technique.16 Calvin Brown and Donald Fry argue that Beowulf's upward motion, and Grendel's circular turn, suggest an arm-lock or hammerlock. Eyler argues for a Greco-Roman style of wrestling.17 My analysis leads to a different conclusion: Beowulf's method of fighting was a "combative handshake," suggested by the poet's emphasis on Beowulf s hand-grip and Grendel's broken fingers: Sona Pxt onfunde fyrena hyrde
pxt he ne mette middangeardes,
eorPan sceata, on elran men 12
Kratz (1977: 135) cites this passage, Matt 5: 30 and 18-9, and Deut. 19: 21.
13
Discussed in Chapter 12.
14
Wrenn and Bolton 1973: 125-26.
15
Chambers 1959: 365-69.
16
Peters 1989.
P
Calvin Brown 1940; Fry 1979; Eyler 2004.
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mundgripe maran. He on mode wears forht on ferhoe; no by a r fram meahte. Gemunde 1)a se goda, mwg Higelaces, mfensprxce, uplang astod ond him fwste wiofeng. Fingras burston. Eoten wars utweard; eorl furbur stop. Mynte se mmra, [h]mr he meahte swa, widre gewindan ond on weg anon fleon on fenhopu; wiste his fingra geweald on grames grapum. (Beowulf 750-54 and 758-65a: Soon the herdsman of felonies found that never on earth, among men anywhere in the regions of earth, had he encountered a greater hand-grip. In his spirit he grew fearful in heart; nor was he able to [escape].... Then the good man, Hygelac's kinsman, remembered his evening boast, stood upright and gripped him fast. Fingers burst. The giant [moved] outward; the warrior stepped ahead. The infamous one meant, if he might, to circle more widely and flee thence on the path to the fens; [he] felt the power of his fingers in the grip of a fierce [enemy].) The epithet hirde hyrde, applied to God and to kings, in bono means "guardian, protector." Applied in malo to Grendel, hyrde suggests his role as Heorot's rebellious, nocturnal "ruler," and also his status as a churlish villain who knows not the use of weapons.I8 "One can hardly help wondering" with Puhvel "why Beowulf grips the monster's arm instead of using more directly lethal tactics, such as going for the throat—which in a fight in the open spaces of Heorot would seem to be a far more natural modus operandi."I9 Citing parallels from Irish folktales, Puhvel argues that the hero holds Grendel in a firm, passive grip, such that Grendel defeats himself by twisting and turning until his arm comes off. This folktale theme is a variant form of combative handshake. Unable to free himself from it, Grendel sacrifices his arm to get away (809-23a). Indeed he had no alternative, for "hine se modega mmg Hygelaces / hwfde be honda" (81318 Compounds with —hirde denoting lower-class status include cuhirde, hriderhirde, neathirde (cowherd), gathirde (goat-herd), horshirde (groom), sceaphirde, and swinhirde. 19
Puhvel 1979: 89.
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14a: the valiant kinsman of Hygelac held him by the hands). Handa (genitive plural) is ambiguous; I think it means that Beowulf used both hands to hold Grendel's right hand in his grip. When Hroagar first hears of Beowulf s arrival in Denmark, he remarks that according to sailors, the hero has the strength of thirty men in his niundgripe (379a-81)
a metonymy for his physical strength, but also meant literally. After
the G-rendel-fight, Beowulf confirms that "combative handshake" was his chosen method of fighting: Ic hine hrxdlice heardan clammum on wwlbedde wripan kohte, bast he for mundgripe minum scolde licgean lifbysig, butan his lic swice. (Beowulf 963-66: I had intended quickly to twist him on [his] death-bed by means of a hard grip, so that he on account of my hand-grip would lie mortally distressed, unless his body escape.) Grendel escaped, but his wound was fatal. His right arm, mounted on the roof of Heorot as a war-trophy, was a sign of Beowulf s mundgrip, too. "Combative handshake," a migratory typescene, appears in Firdausi's Sheihnãma and in the Armenian Sasna O'er. The typescene appears four times in Shahnama; first when the Persian warrior Farhat traveled to Mdzandaran to deliver a letter from Kay Kdvus, demanding fealty from the demon-king Korai-war. Mazandardn, a land haunted by divs and sorcerers, is the Persian counterpart of the Armenian land of Katcher ("Sorcerers, Spirits"), a dangerous country infested by hostile spirits. When Farhad arrived at Koldhvar's court, some of his retainers treated him rudely, and one of his men, shaking his hand, squeezed it so hard that he mangled its muscles and bones. Farhad endured the pain stoically. Soon afterward Rostam, disguised as a retainer, traveled to Mdzandaran with a second letter from Kavus. During an elaborate exchange of greetings at the city gate, one of Koldhvar's men shook Rostam's hand (not knowing who he was) and gripped it fiercely, intent on harm. Rostam smiled
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while others marveled at his hand-strength. Then he seized the retainer's hand, causing him to faint and fall from his horse. This typescene is repeated when Rostam, still in disguise, greeted King Kaahvar, who bruised his hand with a combative handshake that failed to discomfit the hero. Rostam, in turn, squeezed Kolahvar's hand so hard that his fingernails fell off "like leaves from a tree." His hand hung "useless at his side."2° Much later, the ambitious prince Esfandyar, who traveled to Zavolestan intending to bring Rostam back to Shah Goshtasp's palace in chains, gripped Rostam's hand fiercely while praising his strength in hypocritical hyperbole. Rostam smiled at the prince's effort, then gripped his hand fiercely while praising him for his illustrious parentage. As he spoke, his grip tightened and "Esfandyar's cheeks turned crimson; bloody liquid spurted from beneath his nails, and the pain showed in his face."21 In the second cycle of Sasna Crer, Medz Mher, at age seven, traveled to Bitlis to ask his kinsman, Prince Korkig, to give him a horse for hunting. When Mher first entered the court, Korkig embarrassed him in front of the elders by ignoring his salutation, so:22 Miter went to him, seized his arm, Lifted him and stood him on his feet— Giving a mild twist to his arm. Korkig felt as if his arm was broken in seven places. Fearing the boy's strength, Korkig feigned friendship and provided him with access to the stable. In the first cycle of Sasna O'er, Sanasar completed a series of heroic bridewinning feats, and approached Deltzoun Dzam's castle to claim her as his bride, but found the gate guarded by Krol, the supernatural angel of death. At Krol's request, Sanasar extended his hand through the bars of the gate. Krol squeezed as hard as he could, but to no ill effect. Sanasar then took Krol's hand Firdausi, Shahnama, trans. Warner 1905-25, 2: 64 and 66-67; Davis 2006: 165-67. 21
Ibid., trans. Warner 1905-25, 5:208-9; Davis 2006: 393.
22
Sasunc 'i Davit' 2.1.5, trans. Shalian 1964: 116; Feydit 1964: 158-59.
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and squeezed the blood out of it. Krol fled in fright while Sanasar entered the castle and claimed his bride.23 There is no direct historical link between Beowulf and Middle Eastern "handshake" episodes, but this is a folktale theme that found its way into epic tradition, often in comic form. In the bedroom scene in the Nibelungenlied, when Siegfried, invisible, wrestles Brunhild and forces her to submit to sexual intercourse with Gunther, Brunhild's vigorous resistance takes the form of a combative handshake:24 si druht' im sine hende, dez fiz den nageln spranc daz bluot im von it krefte; dez was dem helde leit. (Nibelungenlied, str. 675, 11. 2-3: she [Brunhild] gripped his [Siegfried's] hands so powerfully that the blood spurted from his nails and he was in agony.) Combative handshake in a variant form appears in Tacitus's Annales. While collecting tribute in Gaul, Germanicus visited Roman legions on the German frontier to investigate a mutiny. Among the causes of mutiny: unjustly prolonged tours of duty and the physical neglect and abuse of soldiers. "Some men," he wrote about Germanicus, "seizing his hand under pretense of kissing it, thrust his fingers into their mouths, that he might touch their toothless gums."25
Single combat: Beowulf's victory-song (Beowulf 1999-2009a) Single combat is the battlefield typescene used most often in Eurasian epics. The story of David and Goliath illustrates its antiquity; this is followed in 2 Samuel by reports of single combats between four of David's commanders and four giants of Gath, one of whom, also called Goliath, like his namesake carried a
23
Ibid. 1.2.10, trans. Shalian 1964: 98-100; Feydit 1964: 140-45.
24
Nibelungenlied, ay. 9, in De Boor 198; trans. Hatto 1965: 92.
25
Tacitus, Annales 1.34.
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spear the size of a weaver's beam.26 Paul the Deacon relates a Langobard legend of an unnamed slave who won his freedom by defeating in single combat a champion of the Assipitti (Tacitus's Usipetes), thereby securing passage across the river Elbe, whence the Langobards migrated east to Mauringa.27 Holmganga (island-walk), the most common Scandinavian form of single combat, usually is fought on an island, like the combat of Tristan and Marhaut in Arthurian tradition. In northwest Germanic oral tradition, though not in Beowulf, it may be that Hygelac was killed in a holmganga, for Liber monstrorum reports that his giantlike bones can be viewed on an island in the Rhine, presumably where he was slain by Franks?' The clash of armies in the Iliad, in Virgil's Aeneid, in Chanson de Roland and in
B6 Cfiailgne typically is presented as if it were a multitude
of single combats. Until the twentieth century, single combat was a logical metonymy for war. Von Clausewitz: "combat in war is not a contest between individuals [but] is a whole made up of many parts." Even so, von Clausewitz defined war as "a duel on a larger scale. Countless duels go to make up a war."" Sometimes single combat is represented as a mercy to soldiers who otherwise would perish in a melee. According to IElfric in "Exaltatio sancte Crucis," when the son of the Persian emperor, Cosdrue, challenged the Roman emperor Eraclius (Heraclius) for possession of his kingdom, the combatants agreed to fight on a bridge such that "se Se sige gewunne weolde bts rites / butan, bwra manna lyre be him mid comon" (he who should get the victory should wield the kingdom, / without the loss of the men who had come with them).3° In 26 2 Sam. 21: 15-22; v. 19 for Goliath, cf. 1 Sam. 17: 7; again, 2 Chron. 20: 4-8. These are variant versions of a single oral-traditional myth. 27
Paul the Deacon, History of the Lombards 1.11-12, [1907] 1974: 19-21.
Hohnganga: Jones 1933, Ciklamini 1963, Bo 1969, Radford 1989. Tristan and Marhaut—Marhalt: Malory 8.5-6, 1967: 379-81. Liber monstrorum 1.2, in Bologna 1977: 38 and Orchard 1995: 259. 29
Von Clausewitz, On War 1.2 and 1.1.2, 1984: 95 and 75.
3° /Elfric, "Exaltatio sancte Crucis" 54-55, in Lives of Saints 1890-1900, 1: 144-59, at p.
146; Skeat's translation.
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Christian contexts, single combat lends itself to comparison to judicial combat, iudicium Dei as a legal process, like the combat of Pinabel and Thierry at Ganelon's trial (Roland 3648-3872),31 or Rodrigo's combat with the ifantes de Carrion in Poema de Mio Cid (3383-3697).32 Bloomfield interprets the fights in Beowulf and Maldon allegorically, as judicial combats.33 Most often, single combats are just a scenic way of representing a battle.34 At the beginning of his report to Hygelac, Beowulf homologizes the Grendel-fight to single combat on a battlefield, "on dam wange" (2003a). Later, he clarifies that the fight took place in the hall (sad, 2069b-75). Why this discrepancy in the setting?—Because Beowulf's first nineteen verses (2000-9a) are a victory-song, marked by traditional battlefield elements. The genre is represented in two Anglo-Saxon Chronicle poems, The Battle of Brunanburh and The Capture of the Five Boroughs.35 Victory-songs are common in epic. After slaying Hektor, Achilles commanded youthful Achaian warriors to return to their ships chanting a victory-song, carrying Hektor's armor with them (Iliad 22.39195). I present Beowulf's victory-song for analysis here: 13xt is undyrne, dryhten Hige[lac], [micel] gemeting, monegum fira, hwylc [orleg]hwil uncer Grendles wear6 on dam wange, Par he worna fela Sigescyldingum sorge gefremede, yrmbe to aldre. Ic 6xt eall gewrwc, swa begylpan ne bead Grendeles maga [w]n[ig] ofer eoraan uhthlem Pone, se de lengest leofao laban cynnes, f[acne] bifongen.
31
Roland, laisses 271-87. in Whitehead 1966: 107-13.
32
Pidal 1976: 408-35.
33
Bloomfield 1959.
Ritzke-Rutherford (1981: 84-93) notes this point in connection with the Alliterative Monte Dardire, but it is common in Indo-European epic traditions. 34
35
Ed. Dobbie (1942), ASPR 6: 16-21.
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(Beowulf2000-9a: That is openly known to many men, lord Hygelac, the great meeting, such a time of war between me and Grendel took place in the field, where he so many times had inflicted so much sorrow on the Victory-Scyldings, [such] continuous misery. I avenged all that, such that Grendel's kinsmen had no need to boast at all, anywhere on earth, about the clash [of battle] during the dark just before dawn, he of the hateful kin who lives longest, entrapped in terror.)36 Beowulf assimilates the Grendel-fight to a duel on the battlefield, "on dam wange" (2002a), the place where Grendel committed his felonies (2003b-4a). Clark Hall translates as "field,"37 but most editors and translators construe wang wong as "place,"38 or something like "that very spot, that very place."39 Some even translate as "hall,"" but in the scop's Creation song, wlitebeorhtne wang (93a) is the "bright expanse of earth"; at 225a, on lvang means "on [dry] land"; at 1413b, wong means the land near Grendel's mere. In the Father's Lament, the Bereaved Father's estate is called "wongas and wicstede" (2462a: fields and homestead). The battlefield at Ravenswood is called a freodowong (2959a). Six times, wong refers to the land around the dragon's barrow, the setting for the dragon-fight.'" Meodowongas (1643b) refers to farmlands around Heorot. Other details fall into place, once we realize that Beowulf s victory-song assimilates the Grendel-fight to a battlefield duel. The hero's epithet for the Danes, Sigescyldingas (2004a: Victory-Scyldings), is not irony, but an exact description: Beowulf was their designated champion when he defeated Grendel. Beowulf's three epithets for the fight, in particular, are verbal echoes of the scop's ironic songs about Grendel's raids, reported earlier (126-63). The first of these:
36
Text and translation in 2009a are influenced by J. R. Hall 2007.
37
Clark Hall [1911] 1950: 122.
Klaeber 1950: 427-28, s.v. wong; Wrenn [1953] 1973: 288, s.v. wong; Gordon 1926: 401; Garmonsway and Simpson 1968: 54. 38
39
Greenfield 1982: 104; Heaney 2002: 51.
Kennedy 1940: 65; Chickering 1977: 165, reads "Beowulf and I set dancing in hall," substituting a metaphor of his own creation. 40
41
Beowulf 2242a, 2409a, 2242a, 3039a, 3073b; wongstede, 2786a.
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"undyrne... gemeting monegum fira" (2000-1: a meeting openly known to many men) echoes "Grendles guocrxft gumum undyrne" (127: Grende)'s war-craft, openly known to men). Undyrne cud (150b: an openly known fact), alludes to Grendel's (metaphorical) rebellion. The second: lorleg]hwil uncer Grendles" (2003a: a battle between [me and] Grendel) echoes Invii (146b, 152a), the "time" of Grendel's terror. Uncer Grendles, an elliptic dual, is an archaic poetic 42 expression. The dual pronoun calls attention to the fight as a duel between designated champions. The third epithet: uhthlem Pone (2007b: the clash during the darkness just before dawn) echoes the poet's introduction to earlier, ironic scop songs: "Da wees on uhtan mid zerdxge" (126: then was in the darkness just before daytime). Uhthlern Pone, with the definite article following the noun, is archaic, too, appearing only in the B-scribe and only with masculine accusative singluar pone, a distinctly poetic expression, although it appears elsewhere in the work of the Bscribe. By means of verbal echoes. Beowulf's victory-song outdoes the mice/ morgensweg (129a: great morning music) raised up after Grendel's attacks, made known to men gyddion geomore (151a: in mournful songs). The judicial combat in Poema de Mio Cid takes place in early morning, too, not in the dark before dawn as in Beowulf, but just as the sun rises (3465-66). Another verbal echo: litotes based on the construction ne purfan, applied to survivors or kinsmen. According to the ironic scops' songs, the Danish counselors had no need to expect a wergild from Grendel: "ne pxr neenig witena wenan porfte / beorhtre bote to banan folmum" (157-58: none of the counselors had any need to expect a brighter compensation at the hands of the slayer). In Beowulf's victory-song, Grendel's kinsmen had no need to boast about the battle: "swa begylpan ne Pearf Grendles maga / [2e]ii[ig] ofer eoroan uhthlem Pone" (2006-7). This is neither narrative inconsistency nor spooky speculation that there might be other Grendels lurking about. It is a victory-song convention, with
42
Klaeber 1950: 201n.
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counterparts in The Battle of Brunanburh. Constantine, king of Scotland, bereft of kinsmen, had no need to boast of that battle: "hreman ne 1)orfte / nveca gemanan" (39b-40a: had no need to boast of the meeting of maces). "Gelpan ne porfle / beorn blandenfeax bilgeslehtes" (44b-45: [he] needn't boast, the gray-haired warrior, about sword strokes). He and his ally Anlaf had no cause to laugh about the victory that they had expected, when the tattered remnants of their army fled in retreat: "hlehhan nel)orfton" (47b). These details in Beowulf s victory-song (2000-9a), taken together as verbal echoes of the scopes ironic songs about Grendel (126-63), exemplify the theme of "outdoing," an epic commonplace. Having bested Grendel by a combative handshake in Heorot, the hero outdoes ironic scops in his victory-song in Geatland. As a concluding theme, Beowulf imagines Grendel's death mourned by a hypothetical "last survivor" of his kin. The "last survivor" is a recurring theme. Beowulf was the last survivor of the Geatish expeditionary force in Frisia (2354b70a). After the dragon-fight, Wiglaf was the last survivor in Beowulf's family, the Wxgrnundings (2813-14a). The Elegy of the Last Survivor (2247-66) is an ethopoeic monologue attributed to the lone survivor of an ancient tribe that formerly owned the dragon's treasure (2236b-46 and 2267-70a). The "last survivor," a commonplace across cultures, is well known from its formulaic appearance in Job, when four servants in succession came to Job with news about the destruction of his oxen, asses, and servants, his sheep, his camels, and his children, each time ending with the expression, "I alone escaped to tell you." Often in epic battles, one enemy warrior is allowed to return home to bring news of his army's shameful defeat. In the Nibelungenlied, after defeating King Liudegast in single combat, Siegfried was attacked by thirty Danish retainers, and slew them, all but one, whom he allowed to escape, wearing his bloody helmet as proof of defeat.'" In one of the Circassian Nart sagas, a mysterious horseman 43
Nibelungenlied, st. 190-91, ay. 4, in De Boor 56.
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(Shebatin) slaughtered an army of Chintas who had invaded Nartland; Shebatin spared one Chinta warrior, branded him, and sent him home to report his army's defeat. So conventional was this topos that writers could use it ironically. The fifth-century Armenian writer P`awstos Buzandac`i, for example, presents an epic-like history intended to glorify the noble Mamikonian family in contrast to their treacherous Arcruni rivals. In particular, P`awstos reports several escapades of Meruzhan Arcruni, who collaborated with Shapuh, the shah of Iran, during a series of battles when the Mamikonian general, Vasak, defended Armenia from Persian invasions. On one occasion, the Iranians invaded Armenia with 900,000 troops, but Vasak attacked the royal brigade, killed the Persian general (Ghumand Shapuh), and exterminated all the enemy warriors except for Meruzhan Arcruni, who fled back to Iran on horseback. Another time, Shah Shapuh sent 4,000,000 invaders, with Meruzhan Arcruni as their guide. He alone survived and fled. P'awstos repeats this theme no less than seventeen times, noting each time that Meruzhan was the lone survivor (twice, one of a small number of survivors) who fled back to Iran as a fugitive.45 Hygelac's expedition in Frisia Beowulf's battlefield duel with Grendel is a metaphor in a victory-song. His combat with DEeghrefn is a formal duel between designated champions. To get to that duel, I must first discuss the Frisian expedition, which is fraught with critical controversy. I summarize my interpretation of its events in chronological order, in nine segments: First, after Beowulf's return to Denmark, Hygelac gave him Hreoel's sword, an estate, and a hall (2190-99). Beowulf, in return, served as Hygelac's
44
Colarusso 2002: 56-66, at p. 58 (Saga 10, "The Childhood of Shabatinuquo").
45
P'awstos Buzand, History of the Armenians 3.24-49.
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champion in many military expeditions (2490-99a). Wiglaf alludes to this period in Beowulf's life when he announces his death: pone 6e oft gebad isernscure, Ponne strxla storm strengum gebzeded scot ofer scildweall, sceft nytte heold, feOergearwurn fus flane fulleode. (Beowulf 3116-19: [he] who often withstood the iron showers, when a storm of arrows, guided by bow-strings, sped over the shield-wall, [when] the eager shaft, prepared with feathers, followed the arrowhead in service.) This role, the hero as the king's champion, is traditional in epic. It homologizes Beowulf to Hildebrand, Siegfried, Rostam, Amir Hamza, and David when he was King Saul's champion. Hygelac had no need to recruit lesser, mercenary champions from among the Gif8as, Spear-Danes, or Swedes. Second. Hygelac's raid in Frisia was the last of these expeditions, and the most dangerous one: a conflict with the powerful Merovingian king, who ruled Franks, Frisians, Hugas, and Hetware (2910b-21)—"a common pattern of medieval government, that of a single realm composed of distinct regna with corresponding gentes," Hygelac "led the Geats in attacking a power whose greatness was expressed in part by the multiplicity of regna and gentes subject to its dynasty."46 Third, Hygelac's expedition in Frisia was a military response to a demand for tribute. Hygelac was slain in battle, but "nalles frmtwe geaf / ealdor dugooe" (2919b-20a: the leader of the veterans did not give any treasure at all). His motive was not piracy as most critics assume.47 The poet says that he wean ahsode (1206b: asked for trouble), but also that he "sinc ealgode / wx1reaf werede" (1204b-5a: defended treasure, protected war-booty). Like Byrhtnoo in Maldon, Hygelac prevailed in his refusal to pay tribute. 46
Goffart 1981: 89 and 90.
47
Kaske [1958] 1963: 290; Bonjour 1962 and 1967; Payne 1974: 28-29.
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Fourth: Hygelac wore Wealhkeow's torque on the Frisian expedition (1202-9). She had given this torque to Beowulf (1192-96), who gave it to Hygd (2172-76), who in turn gave it to Hygelac, possibly on the eve of the dangerous mission in Frisia." Some critics say he was foolish to wear such a valuable treasure to Frisia. This might be so if Beowulf were an eighteenth-century novel, its characters preoccupied with the cost of things. To my mind the torque signifies Hygd's blessing, and support for a mission that must have seemed dangerous and necessary. Fifth. When Hygelac and his army, with Beowulf as their champion, sailed to Frisia, they were attacked by a much larger army of Hetware. Hygelac was slain (2354b-59a and 2913b-20a). He died honorably in battle. There is no reason to attribute his death to a curse on his torque, or to a "fated" mailcoat.49 His slayers were unknown, as often happens in the fog of war: "mon Hygelac sloh" (2355b: someone slew Hygelac). There is no reason to identify Hygelac's bang as Dxghrefn, as some have done.5° Sixth, while Hygelac's corpse lay on the battlefield, a weaker warrior (wyrsan wigfrecan, 1212a) stole his mailcoat and torque. After this theft, the Franks acquired the torque: Gewearf Pa in Francna fxkm feorh cyninges, breostgewxdu, ond se beah somod; wyrsan wigfrecan wad reafedon after guosceare. Geata leode hreawic heoldon.
48 Klaeber (1950: 179, note to 2172-76), thought that Hygelac's possession of the torque in a narrative inconsistency, but there is no reason to think so. 49
Thus Mizuno 1999.
50 Klaeber 1950: 215; Whallon 1962-63: 93. Cavill (1983), whose interpretation of Beowulf's combat with Dwghrefil resembles mine in some details, argues that Hygelac was still alive at the time of their combat. But Beowulf's allusion to Wealhkeow's torque (2503a and 2504a) implies that Hroogar was slain prior to the single combat. Cavill asserts that this was some other torque, not Weallipeow's, but the poet makes it clear (1210-14a) that Hygelac wore Wealhkeow's torque when he died in Frisia.
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(Beowulf 1210-14a: the king's life, [his] breast-coat, and the torque together fell into the possession of the Franks; a lesser warrior looted the corpse after the battle. The Geatish people ruled a place of corpses.) The last two verses are ambiguous. Chickering: "Dead Geats filled the field"; Greenfield: "The Geats' corpses strewed the field."51 This is possible, since Beowulf was the only survivor. But heoldon means "ruled," or more neutrally, "occupied." It cannot mean "filled" or "strewed." Is heoldon ironic? Or does the poet mean that the Geats won a Cadmean victory, like Roland and Turpin at Rencesvals? Some say that Beowulf slew Deghrefn in defense of Hygelac's looted corpse,52 but these lines have nothing to do with Dwghrefn. Stripping a corpse on the battlefield is heroic when performed by a victor; otherwise, not. Eofor and Weohstan with honor strip armor from the corpses of their defeated combatants, Ongenbeow and Eanmund. In contrast, vulture-like beasts of battle strip flesh from corpses at Ravenswood (3024b-27). Looters often come to grief. In the Old Norse Karlamagntis saga (part 4, King Agtdandus), after a victory over Saracens near Pamphilonia, some Frankish warriors crept back to the battlefield at night to plunder corpses. The Saracen leaders, Ebraus and Altamont, laid in wait and slew thousands of Franks "because of [their] foolishness and greed."53 A tragic example in Silius Italicus's Punica: after a skirmish between Romans and Carthaginians near Cannae, a Roman named Satricus, a war-captive who served the Carthaginians as a translator, wanted to visit his father's home in Cannae. Under cover of night, Satricus crept out of the Carthaginian camp, unarmed to avoid detection. Feeling exposed to danger because he was unarmed, he surveyed corpses on the battlefield and stripped armor from a young Roman warrior. This turned out to be Mancinus, his oldest son, who had been slain in battle that day. At that moment Solimus, Satricus's second son, took his place as watchman at the city gate. On guard duty, Solimus 51 Chickering 52 For
1977 [1989]: 119; Greenfield 1982: 78.
example, William Miller 1983: 170.
53 Karlamagnzis
saga 4.23.12, in Hieatt 1975a, 2: 133-34.
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saw a stranger wearing Mancinus's armor, threw a javelin at him, and wounded him fatally in the back. The episode ends in a scene of tragic recognition: Satricus, dying, warned Solimus that an infantry attack on Hannibal would be disastrous for the Romans. This was one of several bad omens that the Romans received, and ignored, prior to their defeat at Cannae (in 216 B.c.).54 The typescene appears in Chanson de Roland (laisses 169-74) too. As Roland lay dying on the field at Rencesvals, an unworthy Saracen warrior, daubed with blood and feigning death, tried to filch Durendal, his sword. Roland beat the Saracen to death with his olifant. To prevent Durendal from falling into Saracen hands, Roland tried to break the sword-blade on a marble stone, but when could not, he died covering Durendal and the olifant with his body.55 This typescene appears as comic relief in the penultimate scene of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part I, where Falstaff, seeing Hotspur dead on the field after his single combat with Hal, stabs the body with his sword, picks it up and carries it to Lancaster and Hal, claiming to have slain Hotspur himself.56 Seventh. Beowulf slew Dxgluefn, the standard-bearer and champion of the Hugas, bare-handed in single combat. Had Dxghrefn lived, he would have presented Wealhl)eow's torque (now Hygelac's) to the Frisian king, but this did not happen. In single combat, Beowulf won Dwghrefn's sword, which he used later to fight the dragon (2499b-2509). Only then do we learn that the sword was named Nxgling (2680b), when Beowulf broke it on the dragon's head. Eighth, most or all the Hetware were killed in the fighting in Frisia. To describe this situation, the poet uses the ne purfan trope associated with victorysongs: Nealles Hetware hremge korf[tion 54
Silius Italicus, Punica 9.66-177.
55
Roland 2271-2365, ed. Whitehead 1965: 67-69.
56 Shakespeare, I Henry IV, V.4.74-162. Falstaff carrying Hotspur's body recalls the scene of a devil carrying a sinner off to hell at the end of mystery plays, a theme that Shakespeare merges with that of the unworthy warrior looting a champion's body on the battlefield.
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febewiges, be him foran ongean linde ba=ron; lyt eft becwom fram Jam hildfrecan hames niosan. (Beowulf 2363-66: the Hetware had no need at all for boasting about the war, when they carried shields against him [Beowulf]; after [encountering] that warrior, few returned to seek [their own] homes.) "Lyt eft becwom" (2365b), as litotes, could mean that no Hetware survived the battle; Beowulf was the only survivor. Were the Geats defeated in Frisia? Certainly they accomplished their mission, which was to check the expansion of Merovingian power into Scandinavia. In addition to the
ne put:fan
trope cited above, two other passages
support this view. First, the poet's ambiguous verses, "Geata leode / hreawic heoldon" (1213b-14a: the Geatish people controlled the 'home' of corpses). As litotes, hreawic heoldon could mean that all the Geats were killed. Interpreted literally, the verses mean that although all the Geats except Beowulf were killed, they controlled the battlefield through him. Just so Roland and Turpin, the last Franks standing in the rearguard at Rencesvals, proclaimed victory when the surviving Paynims fled back to Spain. "Cist camp est vostre, merci Deu, et mien," Turpin says to Roland (2183: this field is yours, thanks to God, and mine."57 Second, the Geatish messenger implies that Beowulf kept the Merovingians at bay for fifty years (2910b-21). Ninth. As the last survivor, Beowulf returned to Frisia alone, carrying thirty mailcoats with him (2359b-68)—unless XXX (2361b, Prittig) is just a misplaced fitt-number inserted in the middle of fitt XXXIII.58 Although some critics imagine that Beowulf won these mailcoats in combat,59 more likely he salvaged them from the bodies of Geatish comrades. Insult is added to injury when ancestral war-gear is seen in the possession of enemies, as the Ingeld 57
Roland, laisse 161, ed. Whitehead 1965: 64.
58
Robinson 1965.
59
Howe [1989] 2006: 65.
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episode reveals. Prior to the Grendel-fight, Beowulf asked Hroogar to return his mailcoat to Hygelac, should he be killed in combat (452-55a). Thirty mailcoats signify Beowulf's regard for the honor of Geatish families whose fathers and sons fell in Frisia. Did Beowulf swim from Frisia, or did he row or sail in a boat? Our only clues are that Beowulf sundnytte dreah (2360b) and oferswam (2367a), "traversed" the sea according to Robinson, Earl, and Wentersdorf. The text seems to say that Beowulf swam across the sea with thirty mailcoats, but Robinson translates "From there [i.e. from the battle] came Beowulf by means of his own physical strength—undertook a journey on the sea. He had held battle-gear on his arm when he moved toward the sea.... Then, alone and wretched, the son of Ecgtheow crossed the expanse of ocean, returning to his own people."6° Special pleading to the contrary, oferswam means "swam over."61 In similar cases, an army in dire straits after battle, faced with a body of water, perforce must sink or swim. In CynewulFs Elene, many Huns who fought against Constantine fell in battle, some escaped to cliffs along the Danube, and "sume drenc fornam / on lagostreame lifes tt ende" (136b-37: drowning seized some [warriors], at the end of life in the water's current). The setting for this typescene normally is a river. Achilles, in rage rather than flight, escaped drowning in the river Xanthos when Athena and Poseidon saved him (Iliad 21.284-86). After Julius Caesar defeated the German prince Ariovistus, few of his warriors were able to escape by swimming the Rhine.62 After the Cherusci under Arminius and Inguiomerus suffered defeat by Germanicus's legions, some of them tried to swim across the Visurgis river but "were overwhelmed under a storm of missiles or by
60 Robinson 1974: 126. Other critics who subscribe to this "naturalistic" view include Wentersdorf 1971 and 1975, Earl 1979, and Fulk 2005 (translating sand as "floating," a semantic category that would include both swimming and boating. 6 Chickering (1977: 191) translates overswam as "swam" rather than "crossed" or "traversed." 62
Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico 2.2, 1951: 72.
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the force of the current."63 The Saracen army in Chanson de Roland, trapped in Val Tenebrus (aptly named), at the Sebre (Ebro river), found no barge or boat ("Il nen i ad barge ne drodmund ne caland" [2467: none of them had a barge or boat or galley]). Their prayers to Tergavant went unheeded, so they jumped into "l'ewe de Sebre" (2465: the water of the Ebro), some in full armor. The Ebro "mult est parfunde, merveill[us]e e curant" (2466: is very deep, wondrous, and swift). All the Saracens drowned (2467-76).64 Paul the Deacon reports a remarkable variant of this typescene: when the Heruli under King Rodolf were routed by Langobards, they came in flight to a flax field, and "thought it was water fit for swimming, and while they stretched out their arms as if to swim, they were cruelly smitten by the swords of the enemy."65 Swimming is the heroic alternative to drowning. The Armenian ruler Trdat (Tiridates), who persecuted Christians until ca. A.D. 300, when St. Gregory the Illuminator converted king and country to Christianity,66 is credited by two early historians with an exploit that resembles Beowulf's retreat from Frisia. According to Agathangelos (ca. A.D. 460), Trdat fought barbarian Tachiks beyond the Euphrates. Once when "he was leaving combat on horseback gravely wounded, he picked up the horse and his armor and his own armor, and fastening them on his back he swam across the Euphrates river."67 Moses Khorenats`i (8°' century) reports a variant version of the same story. During the 280s, Trdat fought on the side of Romans (= Byzantine Greeks) against Persia. In one battle beyond the Euphrates, many "Romans" and their leaders were killed. Trdat's horse was wounded, preventing his escape on horseback, so he "picked up his arms and [its] accoutrements and swam across the wide and deep Euphrates to his own army, 63
Tacitus, Annales 1.17.
64
Chanson de Roland, laisse 180, ed. Whitehead 1965: 72-73.
65
Paul the Deacon, History of the Lombards 1.20, [1907] 1974: 37.
Christianity was established in Armenia long before Trdat IV, of course, and the date of his conversion is disputed. See Redgate 1998: 107-26 for a summary of historical issues. 66
67
Agathangelos, History of the Armenians 1976: 209.
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where Licinius was."6g When I published these analogues more than three decades ago, I was unaware of a third example, in History of Taron, an Armenian medieval prose epic of uncertain date. Vahan Mamikonian, the fictional hero of Taron, traveled with troops toward the plain of Matravank to fight Iranians. When they came to the Arcani river, Vahan "tied [his] horse on his back together with his weapon, and crossed to the other side."69 Over the years, some have grumbled that Armenian analogues are irrelevant to Beowulf but they also have asserted that Beowulf could not possibly have swum from Frisia to Geatland with thirty mailcoats, because no one could imagine such a thing. Returning to this problem now, I make a somewhat stronger claim for Beowulf s swimming to Geatland with mailcoats: namely, that the anecdotes about Beowulf in Frisia, the Huns at the Danube, the Saracens at the Ebro, Trdat at the Euphrates, and Vahan Mamikonian at the Varcani, exemplify a migratory typescene, "retreat at a river or sea," or "swimming in retreat." Beowulf's single combat with Dwghrefn (Beowulf2490-2509) Dwghrefn's death took place at Beowulf s hands shortly after Hygelac's death, under debated circumstances. Bonjour thought Beowulf s combat with Dwghrefn posed an ethical problem. Beowulf fought selflessly against giants, seamonsters, the Grendelkin, and the fire-dragon; Dueghrefn was his only human opponent, slain during Hygelac's pursuit for booty during a pirate raid.7° Was Beowulf's moral standing as an altruistic champion attenuated by his participation in a viking raid? But if Hygelac's Frisian expedition was a pre-emptive strike against Merovingian aggression, Beowulf s combat with Dwghrefn was a noble exploit, after all. 68
Moses Khorenats'i, History of the Armenians 2.79, 1978: 226-27.
Mamikonian 1889, Patmul'hvn Taronoy 5.61. The supposed author, Hovhan Mamikonian, is a pseudonym. 69
90 Bonjour 1952. In fact, during Beowulf's career as Hygelac's champion, he would have had many human opponents, although Dxghrefn is the only one who is named.
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Beowulf alludes to his duel with Dxghrefn by way of explaining how he obtained possession of Nwgling, a sword that served him well. He plans to use it against the dragon. Sweord, repeated at 2499b and 2509a, forms an envelope pattern that frames the Dxghrefn episode. The references are proleptic, for the sword's name is not given until line 2680b. I am aware of two biblical examples of single combat in which the victor appropriated the sword of a defeated warrior. In the first, David took Goliath's sword and armor to his tent after beheading him (1 Sam. 17: 54). Later, when David was a fugitive from Saul's court and needed a weapon, he went to a shrine at Nob, where the priest Ahimelech gave him Goliath's sword.7' A second example: Judah the Hasmonite, who slew the Seleucid general Apollonius in single combat, afterward used Apollonius's sword in battle (1 Maccabees 3: 12). In the passage below, I boldface sweord and other words and phrases that are consistent with single combat: Symle ic him on feoan beforan wolde, ana on orde, ond swa to aldre sceall sxcce fremman, benden pis sweord bola, 'ant mec a r ond sia oft gelxste, syoaan ic for dugeoum Dwglirefn wearo to handbonan, Huga cempan;
nalles he Oa frxtwe Frescyninge, breostweorounge, bringan moste, ac in compe gecrong tumbles hyrde, mlieling on elne; ne wars ecg bona, ac him hildegrap heortan wylmas, banhus gebrxe. Nu sceall billes ecg, hond and heard sweord, ymb hord wigan. (Beowulf 2497-2509: always I [fought] before him [Hygelac] in the infantry, alone in the vanguard, and just so [I] must perform in battle to the death, while this sword lasts, which has served me well early and late, ever since I, in the presence of the veterans, was Dxghrefn's handslayer, the champion of the Hugas. Not at all was he able to bring the treasure, the breast-ornament [Wealhbeow's torque] to the Frisian king, 71 1 Sam. 21: 1-9. Isser (2003: 34-37) speculates that 1 Samuel refers to two separate traditions about Goliath's sword.
369
but the guardian of the standard fell in the field, a prince in valor. Nor was the [sword] edge [his] slayer, but [my] hand-grip [stopped] the beating of his heart, broke [his] body, Now [this] blade's edge, hand and hard sword, must fight over the treasure.) Beowulf refers to Dwghrefn by three epithets that pertain to his role as the champion of the Hugas: Huga cemp, cun2bles hyrd (standard-guardian), and cePeling (nobleman or prince). Cenzp means "warrior,"72 but in collocation with cumbles hyrd identifies Dxghrefn as a champion: Beowulf's counterpart on the Merovingian side. A standard-bearer was less like a herald, and more a trusted officer, in imperial Roman armies, and in Germanic ones, too, no doubt a Roman influence.73 Beowulf and Dxghrefn fought for dugeOum (2501a: before the veterans), in dative plural, suggesting two corps of veterans, Geats and Hugas, serving as spectators on opposite sides of a field, in carve (2505a). The biblical account of David and Goliath presupposes this formal setting, for after David beheaded the giant, the Philistines fled, and the Hebrew warriors pursued them (1 Sam. 17: 5253). Often in epic tradition, a single combat between champions is described as a great spectacle, negotiated in advance, and witnessed by spectators on both sides, who watch closely and make comments on the fight and its historical significance. These attributes of Rostam's combat with Sohrab, in Sheihniima, are presented in exaggerated form in Lakhnavi's and Bilgrami's Urdu version of the Hamza-cycle, where Haniza engages in single combat with a mysterious "Prince of Greece," while spectators on both Hamza's and Naushervan's side compare the combatants to Rostam and Solarab, and speculate that the mysterious "Prince of Greece" might be Hamza's son Amur, as indeed he was. During the combat, Shah Naushervan's vizier Bakhtak remarked to the shah, "Let us watch this bout, for it 72 Cemp, a "heroic" term in secular poetry, often is applied in homilies to "soldiers" of Christ, milites Christi. 1 do not understand why Morrison (1979) and J. Hill (1983) find these secular and religious meanings of cemp incompatible. 73 Tacitus, in Annales 1.48, for example, reports that the Roman general in Germany, Aulus Caecina, entrusted his standard-bearers to carry out a confidential mission at an appointed hour, to slaughter dangerous mutineers in their own army.
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will be a historic one like the battle fought between Rustam and Sohrab," and the shah replied, "It would be little wonder if the prince turned out to be Hamza's son; we are witnessing a truly momentous event."74 Beowulf fought unarmed, but his fighting method is unclear. A handbona could be any sort of slayer, with or without weapons.75 Beowulf's hildegrap (2507b: grappling in battle) could suggest wrestling, a bear-hug, or seizure of Dxghrefn's body, just as Grendel's mother seized Beowulf in a hildegrap when he plunged into the mere (1446). He did not use a combative handshake, nor was his method a displaced love-embrace.76 In single combats in Middle Eastern epics, opponents often discard their weapons and substitute a wrestling match (especially common in Arabic epics). Alternatively, in Persian epic tradition (repeatedly in the Hamza-cycle), combatants take turns in "lift and toss" contests, as happened when Hamza lifted the "Prince of Greece" in the air by the cummerbund, and was about to toss him to the ground with fatal force, when an angel intervened and told Hamza to spare his son Amar.77 In a court scene in Hrolfs saga Kraki, Bodvar treats one of King Hrolf s bullying berserkir in like manner, "seizing him and then heaving him up in the air in his full armour."78 A range of bare-handed fighting methods appears in the Irish Min Bó Cfiailnge, where Ca Chulainn fought unarmed against Urine mac Nois, who is armed. First,
ca
Chulainn knocked his opponent's weapons from his hands, then
"grabbed him and shook him and squeezed him till the shit ran out of him,
74 Lakhnavi and Bilgrami 2007: 791. This combat ended in mutual recognition and reconciliation, as is typical of "secondary" instances of the Indo-European "father-son combat" typescene, and also in examples in Arabic epic tradition. 75
Handbona with weapons, 460b; without weapons, 13306.
76
Irving (1989: 108-9) proposes this.
Intervention by an angel also ends the fighting of David of Sassoun and his son Pokr Miter in the standardized form of this father-son combat, in Sasunc'i Davit' 3.7.3, Shalian 1964: 329-33; Feydit 1964: 359-62. Intervention by an angel to end a father-son combat was a medieval and early modem migratory typescene in the Middle East. 77
78
Hrolfs saga Kraki 24, in Byock 1998: 53-55, at p. 54.
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polluting the ford and stinking up the air all around." Then Cu Chulainn threw Lairine into his brother Lugaid's arms. Lairine survived, as a semi-invalid.79 Dwghrefn's shattered bones are consistent with any of these forms of fighting: Beowulf banhus gebreec (2508b). Of course he might have used a folkloristic bear-hug,8° although his brute strength does not mark him as a berserkr (like Bhima), as against a chivalrous knight (like Arjuna), as John Simpson proposed in a Dumezilian analysis of the episode.81 The formality of single combat suggests a duel between chivalrous champions. Bones might be shattered in armed combat, too. When Roland slew Aelroth, he shattered his briset les os"82 in battle-fury, not in a bear-hug.
bones,
Weapons failing in battle
Three times in Beowulf, a sword failed the hero in battle. First, Hrunting failed against Grendel's mother (1518-28) because she could not be wounded by weapons other than her own (1523-24a, 1557-69). Frustrated, the hero cast Hrunting to the ground and trusted his own strength: Wearp 6a wundenmwl wrwttum gebunden yrre oretta, 1)wt hit on eoroan stio and stylecg; strenge getruwode mundgripe mwgenes. (Beowulf 1531-34a: the angry warrior cast the coil-patterned, ornamented sword, so that it lay on the ground, strong and steel-edged; he trusted in the strength of his own hand-grip.) In the dragon-fight, Nxgling failed Beowulf twice: in his first foray, when it could not penetrate the dragon's scaly hide (2583b-86a); in the second foray, 79
Puhvel 1979: 82-85, and Carson 2007: 91.
80 Hulbert 1951. Bonjour (1952: 359), citing the mainstream critical view, refers to Beowulf's "typical Herculean grip." 81
Simpson 1975: 245, citing Dumezil 1970.
82
Chanson de Roland 1198-1205, at line 1200, in Whitehead 1965: 36, laisse 93.
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when it shattered against the dragon's skull (2677b-82a). In the third foray, Beowulf dealt the dragon a mortal blow with his seax. Through alliterative collocation, Wiglaf s messenger contrasts the failing sword ("sweorde ne meahte," 2904b) with the successful performance of the seax, noting that the dragon was sexbennum seoc (2904a: disabled with knife-wounds). The Akkadian Anzu-epic presents the mythic exemplar for weapons failing in battle. The warrior-god Ninurta's bow and arrow failed because the Anzu-bird, in unlawful possession of the Tablet of Destiny, cast spells that caused his weapons to revert to their original condition in nature. The bow-frame returned to its copse, the bow-string to ram's gut, the arrow-feathers to birds.83 In Waltharius, Walter shattered his sword on Hagen's helmet, then cast its hilt to the ground (1360-80), just as Beowulf cast aside Hrunting. By covert allusion, the Waltharius poet compares Walter to Wrath (Ira) in Prudentius's Psychomachia (132-44), when her sword was shattered in battle; and to Turnus, when he brandished Metiscus's sword (thinking it was his own) until it broke into ice-like fragments against armor crafted by Vulcan (Virgil, Aeneid 12.739-41). But Beowulf s failing swords need not be interpreted in malo. When his swords failed, he fought to survive in a display of ellen. Even so, Nxgling's failure against the dragon portends his own death. As a formulaic theme in Chanson de Roland, broken lances, helmets, hauberks, and shields signify defeat of enemy warriors, as when Roland slays Aelroth, Turpin slays Corsablis, Gerin slays Malprimis of Brigal, Gerer slays the Amurafle (emir), and in other individual combats." On the Frankish side, Walter's lance, shield, and hauberk are broken, and he is wounded (2046-53) when he advances to battle for the last time; the formula is repeated with Turpin (2076-82).85 Sometimes the defeat of a warrior is expressed metonymically as the 83
Anzac, tablet 2, in Dailey 1989: 214.
84 Chanson de Roland 1198-1205 (laisse 93), 1243-50 (laisse 95), 1261-69 (laisse 96), and 1269-73 (laisse 97), in Whitehead 1965: 36-38. 85
Chanson de Roland, laisses 152-155, ed. Whitehead 1965: 60-62.
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failure of his shield in battle; thus, Malprimes of Brigal, slain by GerM, "Sis bons escuz on dener ni li valt" (1262: finds his good shield now not worth a denier), and the gem-encrusted shield of Abisme, too, was not worth a dener when Archbishop Turpin slew him (1505).86 Even so, swords remain intact in Roland. When Oliver fights with a broken lance against Malsarun, Roland tells him to draw his sword Halteclere instead, and Oliver jokes that he was too busy to draw his sword (1351-66).87 At the moment of his death, Roland tried without success to break his sword Durendal by banging it against a marble stone, to prevent it from falling into Saracen hands (2297-2354).88 Warning the hero against an adventure
This epic theme appears five times in Beowulf. First, in Unfero's account of Beowulf's maritime adventure with Breca, Unfero says: Ne inc xnig mon, ne leaf ne lab, belean mihte sorhfullne siO, pa git on sund reon. (Beowulf 510b-12: nor could any man, neither friend nor foe, dissuade you two from the perilous adventure, when you two rowed [or swam?] out to sea.) Beowulf neither affirms nor denies that other Geats tried to dissuade them. Had they succeeded, UnferO would have scorned him for making a boast that he failed to fulfill. A venomous heart always finds something to criticize. Second, at Beowulf s homecoming, Hygelac recalls that he had tried to dissuade him from undertaking the adventure of Grendel: lc Oxs modceare sorhwylmum sea& sine ne truwode 86
Chanson de Roland, laisses 96 and 117, ed.Whitehead 1965: 37 and 44.
87
Chanson de Roland, laisse 106, ed. Whitehead 1965: 40.
88
Chanson de Roland, laisses 171-73, ed. Whitehead 1965: 68-69.
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leofes mannes. Ic 6e lange bard past u pone ww1gmst wihte ne grette, lete Suodene sylfe geweoroan guoe wio Grendel. (Beowulf 1992b-97: On account of this [adventure], I suffered anxiety in surges of sorrow, did not trust the adventure of a man [so] dear [to me]. For a long time, I pleaded with you not to attack the marauding spirit, [but] let the South-Danes deal with [their] conflict with Grendel for themselves.) As an artistic strategy, the poet places Hygelac's warning just before Beowulf's victory-song, thereby collocating Beowulf's triumph with Hygelac's (earlier) fear of disaster. Evidently the Geats reacted differently when Beowulf announced his intention to take the adventure in Denmark: Done sir f2et him snotere ceorlas lythwon logon, beah he him leof wwre; hwetton hige[r]ofne, hxle sceawedon. (Beowulf 202-4: [only] somewhat did the wise men discourage him from the adventure, even though he was dear to them; they encouraged his courageous spirit, consulted omens.) Lythwon logon is ambiguous. It means that "they discouraged him somewhat,"
but as litotes it means "they did not at all discourage him or begrudge him the adventure." Usually the line is construed as litotes. Perhaps the Geatish counselors at first disapproved, but when they saw that the youth was resolute, they changed their minds and urged him on. This, then, is a third example of the theme, and the first one to appear in the poem. In his salutation to Hroogar, Beowulf looks past Hygelac's warning, recalling only that the Geatish counselors urged him on: "Da me part gelxrdon leode mine / pa selestan, snotere ceorlas" (415-16: then my people, the best, wise men counseled me). The fourth example: after Beowulf s death, Wiglaf laments that he and other Geats could not dissuade Beowulf from the dragon-fight:
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Oft sceall eon' monig anes wrwc adreogan, swa us geworden is. Ne meahton we gelxran leofne Peoden, rites hyrde, raid cenigne, p mt he ne grette goldweard Pone, lete hyne licgean per he longe was, wicum wunian ob. woruldende heold on heahgesceap. (Beowulf 3077-84a: Often many a man by the wil[fulness] of one must suffer adversity, as has happened to us. We could not teach any [good] counsel to our dear lord, the guardian of the kingdom, such that he would not approach [or attack] the gold-guardian, let him lie where he long was, dwell in his abode to the world's end. He held to his high destiny.) Tolkien: "There could be no more pungent criticism in a few words of 'chivalry' in one of responsibility." Leyerle argued that it was appropriate for Beowulf, as a young hero, to fight Grendel, but when he was king he should have delegated dragon-fighting to younger men. His job was to rule the kingdom.89 But in many epics, a truly heroic king serves as his own champion, while a weak one finds another warrior to fight his battles. Simpson argues this point, citing Ammianus Marcellinus's portrait of Chonodomaric as a warrior-king who fought in battle alongside his men.9° Warrior-kingship, the ideal of the king as his own champion, is a recurring theme in Firdausi's Shiihniinia and in all four cycles of Sasna Cter, and it is implied in the Nibelungenlied, where our poor opinion of Gunther is based mainly on his dependence upon Siegfried. The fifth example: just before the dragon-fight, Beowulf tells his eleven retainers to wait on the barrow and observe the combat (2529-32a). "Nis pa t eower sib," he says, "ne gemet mantles, nefne min anes" (2532b-33: this is not your adventure, nor within the measure of a man, except for me alone).
Tolkien 1953: 8; Leyerle 1965. 9° Simpson 1975: 245-47, citing Ammianus Marcellinus 16.
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"Warning a champion against battle" is an ancient Mesopotamian typescene. In the Sumerian Gilgamesh and Huwawa, Enkidu twice warns Gilgamesh that Huwawa is a terrible opponent whose "pugnacious mouth is a dragon's maw, his face is a lion's grimace," and urges him to retreat from Cedar Mountain.9I In the Sumerian song of Ninurta's Exploits,ar-ur, the warrior-god's personified battle-mace, praises Ninurta for victories over eleven cosmic foes, but warns him not to fight the monster Asag: "Lord, do not venture again to a battle as terrible as that." Again, when their combat raises a storm, S ar-ur warns Ninurta, "Do not on any account meddle with the hurricane of the Mountain." Even so, ar-ur aids Ninurta in the fight against Asag, just as Enkidu aids Gilgamesh against Huwawa.92 In the Sumerian Lugalbanda-cycle, when Unug's siege against Aratta is bogged down and King Enmerkar needs a messenger to return to Unug to appeal to Inana for divine aid, Lugalbanda volunteers, but his seven companions, in collective discourse, warn him against taking this dangerous journey.93 In the Standard Babylonian Gilgamesh, Enkidu warns Gilgamesh against going to Cedar Forest to fight Humbaba, because "his voice is the Deluge, his speech is fire, his breath is death," and because Enlil had appointed Humbaba as guardian of Cedar Forest.94 At Enkidu's prompting, the elders of Uruk. give Gilgamesh the same warning, in collective discourse.95 In Middle Eastern narratives, "warning the hero" sometimes is combined with another typescene, the "king's two councils." In the Sumerian Gilgamesh and Agga, the king of Kish sent a message demanding tribute from Uruk. Gilgamesh summoned his council of abbauru (elders), who advised him to avoid 91
Gilgamesh and Huwawa 98-106 and 117-19, in Black et al. 2004: 346-48.
92
Ninurta's Exploits 135-50, in Black et al. 2004: 163-80, at p. 167.
Lugalbanda and the Anzud-bird 329-36, in Vanstiphout 2003: 132-65, at p. 153. Vanstiphout calls this text "The Return of Lugalbanda." For a prose translation, see Black et al. 2004: 22-31, at p. 29. 93
94 Gilgamesh 2.216-29, in George 2003, 1: 567. George attributes this speech to a single councilor, but it is clear from the context that all the elders speak in collective discourse.
Gilgamesh 2.272-99 and 3.1-12, in George 2003, 1: 569-57.
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war by paying tribute. Dissatisfied with this advice, Gilgamesh called another council, the gurus (men), who joined the king in declaring war on Agga. It is not clear who the gurus were. They may have been members of the royal family, assembled as an ad hoc body to give advice, or they may have been young military leaders. The typescene appears again in the biblical account of the partition of Israel into two kingdoms shortly after the death of Solomon (1 Kings 12:1-16). Tribal leaders assembled at Shechem for the coronation of Solomon's son Rehoboam. Among them was Jeroboam, the leader of the northern tribes of Israel. He had returned from exile in Egypt shortly after Solomon's death. Speaking for the northern tribes, Jeroboam appealed to Rehoboam to reduce the tribute that Solomon had exacted on them, in exchange for a pledge of loyal service. Rehoboam met with a council of elders (zegenim), who advised him to give a favorable response to the northern tribes. Displeased with this counsel, Rehoboam called a council of young men (fladim) who had grown up with him, who advised him to increase the tribute. The civil war that ensued resulted in the partition of the land into the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah. A third example appears in the third cycle of Sasna O'er. Msrah Melik summons a council of elders in Msr (Egypt) and asks them to support a military campaign against Sassoun, but many of them advise against this: "Melik, what harm has David done to you? / He has kept peace and has remained in his domain.... You are the one who has not kept the peace." Msrah Melik, in anger, dismisses the elders and organizes a new council of "hawks," who support him in his desire to invade Armenia. The invasion ends in a disaster for the army of Msr, which is destroyed.96 So far as I am aware, the "king's two councils" is specific to Middle Eastern literature, but its integration with "warning the hero against an adventure" in Gilgamesh and Agga and Sasna Cier confirms the status of both as epic typescenes. 96 Sasunei Davit' 3.4.10, in Shalian 1964: 250-52. The "king's two councils" typescene is previously undocumented, probably because scholars of ancient Mesopotamian literature were unaware of the Armenian example.
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"Warning the hero" is conventional even in works that purport to be historical. A well-known example in Gesta Francorum: prior to the Saracens' unsuccessful siege against the Franks at Antioch (June 1098), the Saracen general, Karbogha, is represented in dialogue with his mother, a wise woman who knew the books of Moses and the prophets. On the basis of biblical prophecy, she appealed to her son to refrain from attacking the Christians, but Karbogha, whose pride and rage is emphasized, did not modify his battle-plan, and subsequently was defeated.97 This dialogue appears in variant forms in subsequent Crusade narratives by Robert the Monk, Guibert of Nogent, and Petrus Tudebodus,98 and in the epic Chanson d'Antioche, where Kerbogha's mother, named Calebre, is said to be 140 years old and a more powerful sorceress than Morgan le Fey.99 The most prominent warnings against adventure in Beowulf are the ones reported by Hygelac (1992b-97) and Wiglaf (3077-83). We do not learn about them until after the Grendel- and dragon-fights. Noting the chronological reversal, Malone asserts that "warning the hero" reflects negatively on those who gave warnings. Hygelac's was tainted by "the narrowness of his nationalism": let the Danes tend to their own problem. Just so according to Haruko Momma, Hygelac warned Beowulf against the Danish adventure because it was altruistic and "not likely to advance his social standing."10° Irving and Waugh suggest that Hygelac's motivation was jealousy.101 According to Kaske, Hygelac's fault was to underestimate Beowulf1°2 (a common theme in folktale and epic). Malone faults Wiglaf s and the Geats' warning against the dragon-fight because it fails to take into account the dragon's relentlessness, which matched Gesta Francontm, ed. R. H. Hill 1962: 53-56. Robert the Monk, Historia Iherosolimitana 3.12; Guibert of Nogent, Gesta Dei per Froncos 1966: 212-16; Petrus Tudebodus, Historia de Hierosolymitano itinere, 1974: 93-96. 98
99 Chanson d'Antioche, ed. Nelson 2003: 5252-68 (characterization of Calebre); 5377-95 and 6837-6959 (two dialogues with Karbogha).
1°° Momma 1°1 Irving 102
2005: 172.
1982: 139; Waugh 1995: 214.
Kaske [1958] 1963: 290.
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Grendel's: "No Oar aht cwices / lao lyftfloga tartan wolde" (2314b-15: the hostile sky-flyer would not spare any living thing),I°3 In Wigle s defense, he concedes in the end that Beowulf held to his high destiny ("heold on heahgesceap," 3084a), which ordained that he fight the dragon. After his death, it was no longer appropriate to debate his heroic choice. "Warnings" across cultures are motivated by sincere concern. They enhance the sense of danger, and the hero's achievement. Profiles of the hero and his retainers In epic traditions across cultures, four possible profiles define the hero. In Middle Eastern epics, the prevailing profile is the solitary hero: Marduk against Tiamat; Ninurta against Anzu; Rostam in Shahniima; Medz Mher, David, and Pokr Mher in Armenian epic; virtually all heroes in Arabic folk-epics. Herakles, originally a Levantine hero, is solitary in most of his adventures. Biblical examples include Samson against the Philistines, and Judith against Holofernes. Beyond the Middle East, examples include Indra, Odysseus, Aeneas, Rodrigo, and Cu Chulainn. Even when the hero commands a crew of sailors or an army, he (or she) is a solitary figure. In Old English religious epic, Judith, Elene, and Andreas stand out as solitary heroes. Hygelac, as warrior-king, is a solitary figure too. He was never dependent on Beowulf, even when Beowulf served as his champion. The hero and his companion is another heroic profile. The oldest extant exemplar is the Babylonian pair, Gilgamesh and Enkidu. The Sumerian Gilgamesh, in contrast, is a solitary hero; Enkidu is his servant. But the Old and Standard Babylonian versions portray them as friends and equals, consistent with the notion that friendship is possible only among equals. Other well-known examples are David and Jonathan, Achilles and Patroklos, Theseus and Perithous, Roland and Oliver. In the Norwegian Thidreks saga, Hildebrand and his foster103
Malone 1972: 142-44.
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son Thidrek are idealized as companions who "loved each other more than any valiant men have since King David and Jonathan."1°4 In Chanson de Roland, warriors on both the Frankish and Saracen sides are paired in this way: on the Frankish side, Richard and his nephew Henri, Tebald of Rein (Thibaut of Reims) and his cousin Milan, the warrior-companions Gerer and Gerin, Berenger and Otun, AnseIs and Sansun; on the Saracan side, Basan and Basilies, Esturganz and Estramariz.1°5 The Finnsburh Fragment follows this pattern, too, pairing Sigefero and Eaha (15a) and Ordlaf and Gul)laf (16b) while marking Hengest as a solitary hero ("and Hengest self," 17a). The Finn episode pairs "Guolaf and Oslar (Beowulf 1148b). In The Battle of Maldon, fElfere and Maccus1°6 were a dynamic duo (modige twegen, 80) who defended the causeway, whilst several other warriors are identified as kinship-pairs. These include father-son pairs Ceola and Wulfstan who also defended the causeway (75-76), and !Elfric and jElfwine (2091I, 231), and brothers Oswald and Eadwold (304-5), and God[w]ine and Godwig (192a), sons of Odda, who, following the example of Godric (187a), broke ranks and fled from battle. In Fates of the Apostles, where Cynewuif assimilates the apostles to a comitatus, the catalogue of martyred apostles begins and ends with pairs: Peter and Paul in Rome (11b-15) and Simon and Thaddeus in Persia (7584), while the other eight apostles were solitary missionaries. Divine twins are mythological variants of "the hero and his companion":
the Agvinau, Kastor and Pollux, Romulus and Remus, Sanasar and Baldasar, Mamik and Konak (founders of the Mamikonian clan), Hengest and Horsa, Cerdic and Cynric (Germanic conquerors of the Isle of Wright), and, in Maya epic, Hunahpu and Xbalanque. Dynamic duos appear in rationalized form as IG4
Thidreks saga 15, in Haymes 1988: 16-17.
Chanson de Roland 171-74, 1261-74, and 2186-89 (Franks); 208 and 940-41 (Saracens); laisses 12, 96-97, 162, 14, and 76, in Whitehead 1965: 5-6, 37-38, 64, and 27. 1°5
106 FElfere is a late OE form of klfhere. Marcus, identified by Gordon (1937: 85) and Scragg (1981: 24) as Celtic or Irish, was analyzed by Fellows-Jenson (1968: 193) as Latin magnus "great," originally a by-name, reflecting, as a Scandinavian linguistic influence on late Old English, the practice of using by-names, a view endorsed by Locherbie-Cameron (1991: 239).
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brothers, father-son, and uncle-nephew pairs. Wulf and Eofor, the slayers of Ongenkeow at Ravenswood (Beowu/f2961-98), are sons of Wonred. Their names are probably allegorical, and "traditional" only in the sense that they conform to the rationalized pattern of "divine twins." Sigemund and Fitela, uncle and nephew, conform to this pattern in their far-flung adventures, which include combat with a race of giants (Beowulf 875-84a). Still, Sigemund was a solitary hero in his dragon-fight (884b-97). Their counterparts in Volsunga saga, Sigmund and Sinfjotli, were companion-outlaws and werewolves, but it was Sigmund's nephew-and-son Sinolti, not the uncle-father, who slew a dragon.1°7 The hero with his band of retainers, the fourth heroic profile, is applied to Beowulf in his Danish adventures, where he travels as one of fifteen (d/tyna sum, 207a), and in the dragon-fight, where he is one of twelve (twelfa sum, 2401b). Byrhtnoo fits this profile, taking his place in battle with his heordwerod (Maldon 24a), his heordgeneatas (204a: hearth-companions), those dearest to him (loofas/, 23b) and loyal (holdost 24b). The poet differentiates these men from the beornas, the folc. or.n)rd (18b, 21a, 221a), an army of countrymen recruited for the battle. This distinction seems to have a historical basis, but even so is a poetic convention.'" Beow-ulf s retainer-bands were selected for specific adventures, although Byrhtno5's heorageneatas seem to have been a standing comitatus, like Charlemagne's Twelve Peers in Chanson de Roland. The hero with seven companions is the earliest extant example of the "hero with his band." Its mythic archetype is the Akkadian war-god Erra, accompanied by the Sebitti, seven cosmic warriors, who are under Erra's command according to a destiny decreed by the sky-god Anu.1°9 In the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh and Huwawa, the sun-god Utu appointed seven supernatural
1°7 Klaeber 1950: 159-60. I " Scragg 1981: 20-23; Abels 1988: 137-40 and 159-61; Abels 1991: 146. 1°9 Erra and lshum, tablets 1 and 4, in Dailey 1989: 286, 289, and 309.
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warriors to accompany him on his journey to Cedar Mountain.110 In the Sumerian Lugalbanda, the epic centers on the hero's relationship with his seven companioncommanders, his elder "brothers." During their march toward Aratta, Lugalbanda became ill, and his seven companions left him in a mountain cave, ambiguously both a shelter and a tomb. Utu restored his health, and the Anzud-bird granted him supernatural strength in running, enabling him to serve as a cosmic courier for his father Enmerkar. To the astonishment of his seven companions, he ran from Aratta to Unug and back in one day, conveying an oracle from manna that enabled the Sumerians to achieve military victory."' In the Ugaritic Ba '1 Epic, the west Semitic storm-god Bal is accompanied by seven youths and eight protective boars."2 The profile of the hero as one of eight commandos is a recurring theme in Shiihntima. Rostam selected seven warriors to accompany him on a dangerous mission against Afrasayab in Turkestan, disguised as merchants.113 Ardeshir took seven warriors with him to Armenia, disguised as a caravan of merchants, to fight a worm that had grown to the size of a dragon."4 After slaying two lions by means of archery during a hunt, Shah Bahran Gur told a group of shepherds that they "were killed by a brave warrior... [who] rode away with seven companions."5 In Dastan-e Amir Hamza, another Persian example, the hero's son Amar bin Hamza took seven champions with him on a quest against infidels in Kashmir, but his mission turned out badly. He was drugged and killed in his sleep by a woman whose advances he had rejected."6
10
Gilgamesh and Huwawa 34-47, in Black et al. 2004: 344-45.
III Vanstiphout 2003: 97-131 (Lugalbanda in the Wilderness), and 132-65 (The Return of Lugalbanda). 112
De Moor 1987: 77.
113
Firdausi, Shahnoma trans. Warner 1905-25, 3: 334, and Davis 2006: 331.
114 Ad/Ma= C.1389, 115
trans. Warner 1905-25, 6: 242; Davis 2006: 551.
Shiihntima C.1522, trans. Warner 1905-25, 7: 56; Davis 2006: 635.
16 Lalchnavi
and Bilgrami 2007: 747-80.
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Two Armenian examples reflect either Persian influence or (more likely) a migratory typescene. In Sebeos's History, the sixth-century Armenian nobleman , atuni is described as one of eight companions who were arrested by Smbat Bagr Byzantium's wily emperor Maurice; he put Smbat on trial and condemned him to be destroyed by wild beasts in the Circus. After he slew a bear, a wild bull, and a lion, Maurice acknowledged his courage and commuted his sentence to exile.117 In the third cycle of Scalia O'er, David of Sassoun swore brotherhood with seven herdsmen, just before his cattle-raid adventures at White Rock.I18 In Beowulf Wiglaf is accompanied by seven companions, the king's best retainers, when they enter the dragon's barrow to fetch treasure for his funeral wain (3120-25). Is this coincidence, or a Germanic example of a migratory typescene? The theme appears again in the twelfth-century Liber Eliensis. Byrhtnoth is said to have marched with his army to fend off a Danish invasion at Maldon. When he came to the abbey at Ramsey and asked for hospitality and food from Abbot Wulfsige, the abbot replied that the abbey was too small to accommodate an army. As a compromise, Wulfsige offered to host Byrhtnoth and seven of his men. Byrhtnoth replied: "The lord abbot knows that I will not dine alone without the men, as I do not seek to fight alone without them."119 The story is retold in the Ramsey Chronicle, but the theme of the "hero with seven companions" disappears, for there Abbot Wulfsige offers to host Byrhtnoth together with "as much as six or eight companions," and in a variant version, "as much as six or seven." Companions await the hero's adventure In Beowulf Danes and Geats kept watch on the bank of the mere while Beowulf was submerged there. At the ninth hour (non dceges, 1600), the Danes
117
Sebeos, History 10.53-54, trans. Bedrosian 1985: 56-58.
118
Sasunc'i Davit' 3.2.10, trans. Shahan 1964: 203, and Feydit 1964: 239-40.
118
Liber Eliensis 2.62, in E. 0. Blake 1962; Kennedy 1991: 64, 65 and 67.
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departed, thinking that Beowulf has been killed, while the Geats waited, sorrowing on the shore (1602-5a). Both themes have cognates in folktale and epic tradition. In Armenian epic, Baldasar sat sorrowing on the shore during Sanasar's descent into the submarine court below the waters of Blue Lake. I2° Just so in the Circassian Nart saga, when Pizighash descended to an underwater court in the Azov sea, his older brother Pija waited on the shore, fretful that his brother had drowned.12I Companions leave the hero for dead Twice during combat, Beowulf was deserted by companions. While he was fighting Grendel's mother, the Danes went home, leaving him for dead (Beowulf 1600-5a). After his first foray with the fire-dragon, all but one of his
eleven retainers fled to the woods (2596-2601). The Danes' "desertion" of Beowulf is said to reflect a folktale theme in "Bear's Son" stories' 22 and in "John Bear" folktales collected in northern Mexico. I23 Grettis saga offers an analogue: during Grettir's troll-combat in the stream, the priest Stein deserts his post, believing that Grettir has been killed. I2a The Sumerian epic of Lugalbanda preserves the oldest example of the hero left for dead, deserted by companions. On the mountainous route toward Aratta for a military campaign, Lugalbanda fell ill. His seven companions moved him to a mountain cave, and left him there, expecting that he would die.I25 Instead, he recovered, encountered the Anzud-bird who gave him the gift of superhuman speed, and rejoined the army of Unug during the siege of Aratta. 120
Sasunc'i Davit' 1.1.15; Shalian 1964: 48-49; Feydit 1964: 96-97.
121
Colarusso 2002: 12-17, at p. 15 (Saga 2, "How Warzameg and Yimis Came to Be").
122
Panzer; Chambers; Puhvel 1979: 99-100.
123 Rosenbert 1970: 53.
25.
128
Puhvel 1979: 100-1.
125
Lugalbanda in the Wilderness 135-40, in Vanstiphout 2003: 113; Black et al. 2004:
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Was the Beowulf poet influenced by an ancient "ideal of men dying with their lord" when he crafted the flight of Geatish retainers and Wiglaf s subsequent rebuke of them for betraying their obligation as a comitatus? The same theme appears in Maldon, where, after ByrhtnoO's death and the flight of Odda's sons (and other warriors), one loyal warrior after another makes a battle-boast and steps into the field. Tacitus, in Germania, attributes this ideal to Germanic warriors: "to survive the leader and retreat from the battlefield is a lifelong disgrace and infamy."126 But as Rosemary Woolf (1976) noted, Julius Caesar attributed the same ideal to Aquitanian warriors, Sallust to Celtic warriors in Spain, and Ammianus Marcellinus to Chonodomaric's retainers in fourth-century Gaul. Woolf argues that the "ideal of men dying with their lord" was an innovation in Maldon, but Wiglaf invokes this ideal, "death before dishonor," in his condemnation of Geatish retainers: "Deao bió sella / eorla gehwylcum bonne edwitlif' (2890b-91: death is better to every nobleman than a life of shame). Whatever the status of this "ideal of men dying with their lord," Gennanicus had a different opinion of Germanic warriors. In a rousing pre-battle speech to Roman legions, he described them as poorly armed, with primitive weapons and painted wooden shields, and "though their frames are terrible to the eye and formidable in a brief onset, they have no capacity of enduring wounds; without any shame at the disgrace, without any regard to their leaders, they quit the field and flee; they quail under disaster, just as in success they forget alike divine and human laws."127 Five centuries later, at Tricamarum (twenty miles from Carthage), a contingent of Vandal soldiers, supplemented by an allied troop of Vandals from Sardinia, were under attack by a Roman army led by Justinian's commander, Belisarius. The Vandal king, Gelimer, ordered his soldiers to position their wives, children, and possessions in the stockade at Tricamarum, not for protection (the place was not a fort), but as security against desertion during 126 Tacitus, Germania 14: "lam vero infame in omnen vitam ac probrosum superstitem principi suo ex acie recessisse." 127
Tacitus, Anna/es 2.14.
386
combat. In a lecture to his troops, Gelimer warned them that they would lose all they held dear if they fled or were defeated in battle. Next day the Romans routed the Vandals. Tzazon of Sardinia, Gelimer's brother, was slain. Among the survivors, Gelimer himself was first in flight. Others fled too, while their wives and children bewailed their future enslavement.'28 This episode exemplifies Belisarius's (and Procopius's) opinion of Vandals, and of Goths, too. Whatever else we may say about the military qualities of Germanic warriors, discipline was not one of their attributes. Retreat to the woods Things did not go well for Beowulf during his first foray against the dragon, whose bellowing and fiery hissing shook the earth. Nwgling, the sword that Beowulf had won from Dxghrefn in earlier years, broke when he struck the dragon's bony skull. Notwithstanding the metal shield that he had prepared for the occasion, Beowulf was injured by the dragon's fiery breath (2559-95). At that moment, all but one of Beowulf's retainers retreated to the woods ("on holt bugon, I ealdre burgan," 2598b-99a: turned to the wood, to save their lives). Just so in Maldon, Go[djwine and Godwig gube ne gymdon, ac wendon fram Pam wige and pone wudu sohton flugon onl3wt fasten and hyra feore burgon and manna ma bonne hit aenig mmo wwre. (Battle of Maldon 191-94: Godwine and Godwig cared not for war, but turned from the battle and sought the wood, flew to the fastness and saved their lives, and many more than was in any way fitting.) The forest has symbolic meaning in biblical epic, too. It appears in mak, and in bono in Genesis B. After eating forbidden fruit in Eden, Adam says to Eve,
128
Procopius 42-3.
387 Ac wit Pus baru ne magon bu tu utsomne wesan to wihte. Uton gan on Aisne weald innan, on kisses holtes hleo. (Genesis B 838-40a: but we two thus naked cannot both together be [seen] at all. Let us go into this wold, into the shelter of this wood.) The woods in malo signify original sin; in bona, the aetiology of conscience. Whether cowardice or treason was the motive, flight to the woods was held in disesteem in the Romano-Celto-Germanic cultural area. When Genuanicus led a successful Roman campaign against the Cherusci, some of the Germans in "ignominious flight climbed the tops of trees, and as they were hiding themselves in the boughs, [Roman] archers were brought up and they were shot for sport. Others were dashed to the ground by the felling of the trees."'" The forest is differently nuanced in the Geatish messenger's account of the battle at Ravenswood, where, after the death of Hxocyn, Ongenkeow surrounded the surviving Geatish warriors with a large army, trapped them in the woods, and taunted them all night, threatening them with slaughter or hanging (2928-42a). The Geats' situation resembles that of Arminius and the Cherusci during Caecina's campaign against them (A.D. 14-15), when the Cherusci were trapped in the woods by a large Roman army, who kept there overnight, long enough to give themselves time to take a new position in a field that stood between the woods and the hills.'30 In Norse sagas, the forest might be a staging ground for a viking raid, but sometimes the woods is just the woods, as when King Magruis visited Prandr's farm and waited in some woods before greeting him (Morkinskinna 18).131 Forests were prominent in early Germanic military history. Along with rivers they served as barriers that separated Germanic villages from the Roman army. By the first century A.D., to judge from Tacitus's Annales, the Germans had 129
Tacitus, Annales 2.17.
139
Tacitus, Annales 1.64.
131
Andersson and Gade 2000: 160-61.
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learned to use the forest for tactical advantage, for example by luring Roman armies into swampy woodlands or forested hills, places "unfamiliar to the legions but well known to themselves." The Germans "were helped by woods, swamps, short summers, and early winters." I32 The exemplary episode of a forest ambush was Arminius's destruction of three Roman legions that Quintilius Varus led into the wooded hills of the Saltus Teutoburgiensis, or Teutoburgerwald. There the Cherusci slew most of the legionnaires, and sacrificed the others to their gods in dreadful carnage.I33 Another example: during Aulus Caecina's campaign against the Cherusci and Chatti (A.D. 15), the Romans had to advance through a swampy woodland. Arminius was free to attack them, but waited until their equipmentwagons got stuck in the mud. Then he ordered a German attack, exclaiming over and again, "Behold a Varus and legions once more entangled in Varus's fate!"I34 Tacitus cites three additional episodes in which historical persons explicitly refer to the woods as a place of shame. Caecina, during his campaign against the Cherusci, assembled his commanders and urged them to remain steadfast in their field trenches, because "if they fled [from the battlefield], more forests, deeper swamps, and a savage foe awaited them; but if they were victorious, glorious renown would be theirs."I35 The next morning, the Romans taunted the Germans "that here were no woods or swamps, but... they were on equal ground, with equal chances."I36 This was a Germanic theme, too. During Arminius's dispute with the Longobard king Marboduus, the Cherusci "called [Maroboduus] a fugitive, who had no experience of battles, who had sheltered himself in the recesses of the Hercynian forest and then with presents and embassies sued for a treaty" (with Rome), I37 132
Tacitus, Anna/es 2.5.
133
Tacitus, Agricola; Annales 1.55.
134
Tacitus, Annales 1.65.
135
Ibid. 1.67.
136
Ibid. 1.68.
137
Ibid. 2.45.
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Companion fetches water for the hero After the dragon-fight, Wiglaf tried to relieve the pain of Beowulf's burns and revive him with water, thrice. First, he bathed the hero with water and undid his helmet (2720-23). After fetching treasures from the barrow, he doused Beowulf with water again (2790b-92a). This revived him, and enabled him to make his last, dying speech. The third time, while the other Geats looked on, scamiende (2850a: shamefaced): He gewergad set, feoecempa, frean eaxlum neah, wehte hyne wwtre; him wiht ne speow. (Beowulf 2852b-54: he [Wiglaf], a weary foot-soldier, sat at his lord's shoulders, tried to revive him with water;138 he did not succeed at all.) The impression of ritual in these "water" episodes, suggested by triple repetition, is confirmed by comparison to other epics where a faithful retainer fetches water for a wounded hero. In the Chanson de Roland, Archbishop Turpin, seeing Roland collapsed in a faint on the battlefield, tried to fetch water for him from the stream of Rencesvals. The archbishop was so weak that he collapsed, too, and preceded Roland in death (2222-45).139 In the Secret History of the Mongols, during a battle between the Mongols and the Tayiji`ud clan, Chinggis Qahan was wounded in the neck and could not staunch the bleeding. In the evening, his retainer Jelme stopped the bleeding by sucking the wound. When the Qahan grew thirsty, Jelme fetched water and curds for him by a daring ruse. He crept into the Tayiji`ud camp, stripped to his breeches as a disguise, and returned with water and curds. Later, at his formal coronation ceremony in A.D. 1206, Chinggis Qahan rewarded Jelme by appointing him as one of his top four commanders, nicknamed his "four
138
Klaeber (1905-6: 261; 1950: 221n.), tentatively supported by Dobbie (1953: 261n.).
139
Roland, laisses 165-66, in Whitehead 1965: 65-66.
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dogs."14° Similar to Chinggis Qahan is the story of King David, near death, laid up in a fort near Bethlehem where the Philistines had a garrison. David longed for a drink of water from the well of Bethlehem, so three of his commanders, all noted giant-slayers, risked their lives by fighting their way through enemy lines to fetch water. Learning of their exploit, David refrained from drinking, and instead poured the water as a libation before God, because his commanders had risked their lives for it (2 Sam. 23:14-23). David, like Chinggis Qahan, rewarded his retainers with military appointments. The resemblances suggest a migratory typescene.
14° Secret History of the Mongols 4.145 and 8.202, and 9.209, in Cleaves 1982: 71-72, 141, and 151.
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Chapter 11 Wyrd, ellen, geibyld, and the Heroic Moment My thesis in this chapter is that wyrd, ellen, and gepyld are integral to the Anglo-Saxon concept of heroism as manifest in Beomdf. This thesis is not without difficulties. Wyrd, ellen, and gePyld all lack modern English equivalents. Wyrd is translated sometimes as "fate" or "destiny," other times as "the course of events," reflecting disagreement or uncertainty about its meaning. Ellen is translated as "courage," but means something more intense: "savage courage." GePyld is translated as "patience" or "Iongsuffering," a Christian virtue, but in secular contexts means "the capacity to bide one's time." "Heroism" and "hero" are covert semantic categories in Old English. No words for them exist in that language. Even so, the idea of heroism is central to the characterization of Beowulf, and of other Anglo-Saxon fictional heroes, most obviously Judith and Byrhtnoo. Heroism and radical risk Heroism may be defined extensionally in terms of specimens, or intensionally in terms of attributes. The extensional approach begins by reviewing canonical epic heroes: Achilles, Odysseus, Gilgamesh, Aeneas, Rostam, Beowulf, Siegfried, Roland, Rodrigo Diaz. Most of these are action figures whose combats brought glory to themselves, and benefit to their people, by securing the social order. This empirical approach seems objective, like set theory, but in the logic of extensional-distributive discourse, all epic heroes must be included, equally and alike, without differentiating between good, better, or bad examples. A different set of heroes appears in Azat Yeghiazaryan's study of the Armenian epic Sasna O'er (2008): the twins Sanasar and Baldasar, Medz Mher, David, and Pokr Mher, whose strength was so great that he threatened the stability of the cosmos. The
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ghosts of his parents confined him in a cave in Raven's Rock, on the shore of Lake Van, together with his wonder-horse Korkik` Jelali. Pokr Mher is a hero who threatens the cosmos rather than rejuvenating it. Yeghiazaryan's analysis of epic genre is as insightful as any Eurocentric one, but the heroes used for comparison are Ilya Muromets, Manas, Marko Kraljevio, Vahan Mamikonian, Rostam, and Roland: surely a different constellation, in a neighboring part of the epic sky. With Roland and Rodrigo Diaz in the picture, we cannot exclude the heroes of other historical epics: Scipio and Hannibal, Chinggis Qahan, and a dozen heroes from Africa, beginning with Son-Jara and Askia Mohammed. What then of mythic heroes: Marduk, Ninurta, Inana or Ishtar, Indra, Rama, Gesar of Ling, Vainamoinen, and the divine twins Xbalanque and Hunahpu? What of shamanist heroes whose "combats" are wit-contests, like Enmerkar? And heroes whose physical achievements are brought about by magic, like Lugalbanda? What of trickster-heroes like Enki or Loki, and heroes whose accomplishments are due to the efforts of others, like Atrahasis or Jason with his Argonauts? In the final analysis, the empirical approach is found to produce an open-ended list of heroes about whom few generalizations can be made. As an essentialist alternative, Joseph Campbell (1949) defined the hero as a mythic archetype with a symbolic life-cycle. As a young man he sets out on adventures, including a descent to the underworld and combats with monsters, dragons, or lions. He undertakes a dangerous quest which, when achieved, saves his society from destruction or provides for its revitalization. During the twentieth century, the archetypal approach had many adherents, but by the twenty-first century, most critics lost faith in universal archetypes, whether these archetypes were derived from innate psychology or common human experience. Heroism is universal in epic, but its constituent attributes are culture-specific. Presupposing cultural specificity, Curtius identified fortitudo et sapientia as conventional attributes of the epic hero in Homer, Virgil, Statius, and
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Carolingian epics.' Isidore of Seville made the topos explicit: "men are called 'heroes' as if to say that they are 'aerial' (aerii), and worthy of heaven on account of wisdom and fortitude."2 Robert Kaske, reviving this idea, argued that sapientia et fortitudo was the "controlling theme" in Beowulf. Oddly, he thought that the passage in Etymologiae might have been a literary source for Beowttlf,3 as if the poet's idea for a controlling theme came to him after reading Isidore's definition of a hero. In fact the theme appears often in Greek and Roman histories, quite apart from epic narratives. Curtius and Kaske could have found more examples in Livy than in all their medieval sources put together. Fortitudo and sapientia are commonplace military virtues, ideally kept in balance. They are not specific to epic heroes. E. V. Gordon offers an alternative definition of heroism, based mainly on Old Norse sagas. To make a start, he adopts W. P. Ker's formulation, heroic "defense of a narrow place against great odds." Sagas are replete with feuds and fights not because saga-writers relished them, but because they feared them as society's greatest evil, and admired men who had the strength to "turn evil into good." To do so required uncompromising resolve, a determination to pay any price, even death, to achieve a duty-bound outcome, such as vengeance for a homicide. Most sagas end in tragedy "because a good death was the greatest triumph of heroic character, and only in defeat and death was all the hero's power of resistance called into play."4 Gordon believed that Norse sagas best preserved the old Germanic idea of a hero, but the only English examples he can name are Byrhtnoo, Beowulf, and Satan in Paradise Lost (repeating a persistent Romantic
Curtius 1953: 170-76. Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae 1.39.9: "heroes appellantur viri quasi aerii et caelo digni propter sapientiam et fortitudem," cited in Curtius 1953: 175. 2
3 Kaske [1958] 1963: 270. Under Kaske's influence, sapientia et fortitudo has been applied to the criticism of many medieval heroic poems. Fichte (1981) interprets Sir Gawain in the Alliterative Alone Arthure as a "figure" of sapientia et fortitudo.
E. V. Gordon [1927] 1957: xxxi.
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notion that Satan was the true hero in that epic).5 Heroes may be uncompromising, and solipsistic in other ways, too, but does stubbornness capture the essence of heroism? What, then, defines a hero? What distinguishes him from the ordinary people around him? My conjecture is that it is a moment of decision that precedes heroic action. The action itself is sine qua non, but what makes it heroic is the decision that comes just before. I call it the "heroic moment." Indo-European tradition offers two distinct species of "heroic moment": Achilles-like tragic choice, and risk that comes with a radical change in the status quo. The first is fatalistic, and limited to the South Indo-European region of Greek, Armenian, Iranian, and Indic culture. The second, focused on risk, is widely distributed throughout Indo-European narratives. The heroic moment may take other forms, too. The hero might refuse an opponent's bribe or flattery (Marduk, Ninurta, Gilgamesh and Enkidu), or defer to a villain's arrogant demand for combat, only to reveal his superiority in the end (Xbalanque and Hunahpu against the lords of Xibalba). But my present interest is the contrast between fatalism and risk. Achilles was told by his goddess-mother Thetis that a double fate awaited him. He could live long and prosper in Phthia, or remain at the siege of Troy and achieve imperishable fame in an untimely death (Iliad 9.413-16). Socrates rightly identified the Iliad's heroic moment: not Achilles's combat with Hektor, but his decision to fight. Accused of impiety at his trial, Socrates declined to appeal to the jury for mercy on account of his wife and children. Instead he confounded his accusers, Meletus and Anytus, with deductive arguments in a withering interrogation, knowing that this tactic would result in his conviction and execution. Socrates compared himself to Achilles, who, to avenge the death of Patroklos, was determined to fight Hektor, even though Thetis had warned him that "it is decreed that your death must come soon after Hektor's" (Iliad 18.96). Achilles, "receiving this warning," Socrates says, "utterly despised danger and 5 E.
V. Gordon [1927] 1957: xxxii-xxxiii.
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death, and instead of fearing them, feared rather to live in dishonour, and not to avenge his friend."6 Socrates himself disavows any thought of returning home to his own symbolic Phthia. Instead he embraces glory and death in Athens. Plato's analogy is not a comparison of philosophy with heroic combat; rather, two moments of decision are compared, those of Achilles and Socrates. As I noted, this is a South Indo-European heroic theme. Another Greek analogue is the prophet-hero Arnphiaraos, who joined Polyneikes's army as one of "Seven against Thebes," knowing that except for Adrastos, all who engaged in this siege would be killed there. An analogue in Maheibheirata is Kama, the longlost elder brother of the Pandavas, who fought on the side of the Kauravas in a dynastic war between these clans, even though he foresaw his own death in that conflict. An Iranian analogue is Rostam, during his confrontation with the impetuous young prince Esfandydr. Shah Goshtdsp, his father, had challenged him to track down the Sistani hero and bring him back to court in chains. (Goshtdsp's real object was Esfandydr's death.) The Anzu-like Simorgh-bird, who had fostered Rostam's father al, warned Rostam that whoever slays Esfandydr is fated to die in sorrow, and soon. The parallel in Iliad 18.96 is almost exact. Rostam tried to pacify Esfandydr, but in vain, for fate offered him two choices: return to Goshtd.'sp's court in chains as Esfandydr's prisoner, or slay the prince in combat and afterwards suffer a "bad death." An Armenian analogue is the story of Medz Mher and Armalan, who decide to conceive an heir (David), contrary to a vow that Armalan had made, knowing that they would die shortly after their son's birth, because of her oath.7 These Achilles-like choices often are linked to the formulaic verse kleos ciphthiton and its Vedic cognate, jrava(s)... a6scitam.8 Imperishable fame is part of the South Indo-European heroic moment, to be sure,
6
Plato, Apology 28.
7
Anderson 2007: 142-43.
8 First identified as Indo-European idiom by Kuhn 1853, and as a metrical verse by Meillet 1923; see Watkins 1982: 104-5 and Watkins 1995: 173-78.
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but the signature detail of tragic choice is the hero's foreknowledge of certain death as a direct result of this choice. The orientation is fatalistic. Risk, not fatalism, is the conceptual basis for heroism in most epic narratives in Indo-European languages. I do not agree with Franz Cumont's idealization of "Indo-European men of strongest heart," that they "have always been, like Frederick the Great, born stoics who, standing upright like the devout Vergil have recognized a merciless fate."9 Against overwhelming odds, the hero risks his life in combat with a powerful foe, and obtains fame by trying to change his fate, not succumbing to it. Like Beowulf s three great fights, Rostam's and Medz Mher's against White Dev exemplify risky combat with monstrous opponents. Sometimes risk is exacerbated by a radical change in the status quo, often initiated by the hero. Roland, under attack by Saracens at Rencesvales, refuses to sound his oliphant to summon reinforcements from Charlemagne. He wanted to win fame for himself, and France, by fighting a vast army of Saracens with the small Frankish rearguard. Lancelot offers to fight Mellyagaunt with one arm tied behind his back. The Germanic "matter of Burgundy" discloses two examples of radical risk. In the Nibelungenlied (ay. 24-25), Gunther, Gemot, Geselher and Hagen accepted Etzel's invitation to visit Hungary for a midsummer festival, notwithstanding adverse omens and warnings. They take a thousand warriors with them, not enough to save them from Kriemhild's revenge for the murder of Siegfried. In the Old Norse Atlakvida, Atli invited Gunnar to visit his court, promising to give him a vast treasure. His queen, Gudrun, Gunnar's sister, sent along a wolf's hair as a warning of Atli's treachery. Gunnar correctly interpreted the wolf's hair, but nevertheless traveled to Hungary with Hogni and a small retinue. When he arrived, Gudrun complained that he brought too few warriors with him. Even so, Gunnar was willing to take the adventure, and perished in
9
Cumont 1956: 93.
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Hungary, together with his men.1° In the Alliterative Morte Arthure, King Arthur, too, in his final battle with Mordred at Cornwall, was vastly outnumbered, but marched on to battle, ignoring a warning from Sir Wichere. In Mon Artu he ignored three warnings, by Sir Wichere, Gawain, and an archbishop.11 Old English examples appear in Beowulf, The Battle of Alaldon, and
Judith. Beowulf fights Grendel unarmed. He fights Grendel's mother under water, in her own element. He fights the dragon alone. Byrhtnoo foregoes the tactical advantage that the causeway affords him at Maldon, allowing the viking army to cross it and fight in compact battle-array on the mainland. Judith, in the Old English epic and its biblical source, foregoes relative safety behind the walls of Bethulia and walks into the Assyrian camp, accompanied only by a maid, to face Holofernes. In .ZElfric's Life of St. Oswald, after the British king Cxdwalla had slain Oswald's kinsman Edwin, Oswald attacked him "mid lytlum werode" (24: with a little host) at Heofonfeld, vastly outnumbered, but triumphed because of his Christian faith (lines 13-15). After this narrative summary, ./Elfric represents Oswald's moment of decision, his "heroic moment," in a dramatic reprise (17-29). Prideful Cmdwalla, with his immense army, thought that no one could defeat him (28-29), but Oswald set up a cross, gathered his little band of Englishmen, "we few," and prayed for victory, because God knew that their cause was just (19For Roland, Lancelot, Gunnar, Arthur, Beowu)f, Byrhtnoo, and Judith, risk is exacerbated by a contingency that gives the opponent an added advantage. Of course, fighting in single combat, in the formal context of a duel, always involves risk that is exacerbated by a change in the status quo. Opponents agree to forego the relative safety that their troops offer, and fight each other one-on-one. I° Altakvida, in Dronke 1969, 1: 3-74; discussed in Blake 1979: 124-25. II Fries 1981: 39.
'2 "Natale sancti Oswaldi regis et martyris," in Lives of Saints 1881-1900, 2: 126; cf. Needham 1966: 28-29. iElfric follows Bede (Historia ecclesiastica 3.1-2) for both the narrative summary and its dramatic reprise.
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Single combat is universal in Eurasian epic traditions, but other forms of "radical risk" seem to be particular to the northwest European region. Radical risk in The Battle of Maldon (62-105) Radical risk and tragic choice, then: contrasting versions of the heroic moment, respectively in northwest Europe and in the South Indo-European region. These imply contrasting attitudes to fate. Tragic choice is fatalistic. Its path leads to untimely death. Radical risk implies that one's fate can be altered by changing the status quo, but the outcome could be either triumph or disaster. The risks taken by Lancelot, Judith, Oswald, and Beowulf (twice) end in glory. Those taken by Gunther, Gunnar, Byrhtnoo, and Beowulf in the dragon-fight, bring disaster. If the hero always triumphed, his or her "radical risk" would be unconvincing. The causeway episode in Maldon stands out as the Germanic exemplar of radical risk. My analysis of Byrhtnoo will serve as a prolegomenon to heroic moments in Beowulf. While Danish pirates landed on Northey Island, Byrhtnoo massed his English defensive forces on the mainland, near the river Panta (modem Blackwater).13 The two armies could not reach each other, except when low tide exposed a causeway that linked the island with the mainland. The English had the advantage at the causeway, where Wulfstan, IElfhere, and Maccus fended off Danes. For their part the Danes "ongunnon lytegian" (Maldon 86a: began to practice deception), and asked for leave to cross to the mainland for a proper battle. Byrhtnoo agreed, "for his ofermode" (89b: on account of his pride), and "ongan... alyfan landes to fela lakere geode" (89a, 90: began to give too much land to the hateful people). After the Danes were allowed to cross the causeway, they defeated the English in a conventional battle. The "causeway" episode in
13 The river-name Panta is probably based on an extinct adjective meaning "sluggish." Jordanes, in Getica etymologizes the Gothic tribal name Gepidae as *ga-panta (sluggish). This will not do as an etymology for Gepidae, but *panta makes sense as a river-name.
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Alaldon lends itself to comparison with war stories elsewhere in military history. For the most part, comparison is unfavorable to Byrhtnoo. An example from the first century A.D. is Tacitus's haunting story of a battle between Roman legions under Cwcina (Gennanicus's second in command) and Geinians under Arminius and Inguiomerus in the Forest of Teutobergitun, near the marshland where, six years earlier (after A.D. 7), Arminius had slaughtered Roman legions under the command of Quintilian Varus. During their march through the forest, Cxcina's men happened upon unburied corpses, skulls nailed to trees, and Roman standards hung in groves as offerings to Germanic gods. After these spectacles, the bloody ghost of Varus rose from the swamp and appeared to Cmcina in a dream, beckoning him toward the morass. The next day, Arminius attacked Cwcina's baggage detail when some of the wagons got stuck in mud. Most of the Romans regrouped on the plain, surrounded by marshy forests. There they hastily dug trenches and raised earthworks for a makeshift fortification. With great effort, Cxcina persuaded his men to remain in the camp, when their impulse was to attempt an escape in the forest. The Germans had two alternatives. They could attack the Romans in their earthworks on the plain, or wait for them to resume their march through the forest, and attack them in a swamp. The German commanders argued about this. Arminius wanted to withdraw to a distance, allow the Romans to resume their march, and ambush them in the swamplands where the ground was treacherous. Inguiomerus wanted to attack the Romans at once, in their fortification, in order to maximize the capture of booty and prisoners. Inguiomerus's counsel prevailed, mainly because of the "gung ho" attitude of the German soldiers and their greed for booty. When the Germans attacked, the sounds of trumpets summoned the Romans into battle formation, and Roman heralds taunted the Germans with the challenge that "here were no woods or swamps, but... they were on equal ground with equal chances." The Germans expected easy prey and were surprised by the
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ferocity of the Romans, who routed them and spent the day slaughtering great numbers of German warriors. It was total defeat for the Germans. I4 In Tacitus's story, the Germans and Romans are parallel to the English and Danes at Maldon. ByrhtnoO, like Inguiomerus, wanted to fight the enemy in a conventional battle on dry land. The Danes, like Cmcinus, wanted this, too. This change in status quo was risky for the Germans, because the Romans generally were better disciplined and more effective fighters in compact battle array, while the Germans knew better how to fight in dispersed groups in the forest. The Maldon poet, who criticized Byrhtnoo for his ofermod, has his counterpart in Arminius, who wanted to exploit the Germans' natural advantage by ambushing the Romans in a swamp. Inguiomerus risked a conventional battle and lost, just like Byrhthoo at Maldon. An anecdote from the First Crusade provides another historical parallel. On the fifth day after Baldwin of Boulogne, Raymond of St. Gilles and his brother Count Godfrey of Edessa had captured Antioch (July 1098), the Franks exited the city gate in groups of five or six, intending to regroup outside city wall. The Moslems, observing this, appealed to their commander, Qiwam al-Dawla Karbugha, to "stand at the gate and kill all that come out, because now, when they are scattered, it is easy to deal with them." Karbugha refused: "Leave them alone until they have all come out and then we can kill them." After the Frankish warriors had passed through the gate, they formed a battle-line. Most of the Saracens fled. Karbugha fled with them. The Franks feared that the Saracen flight was a feint, and did not pursue them, but they slaughtered thousands of mujadin, auxiliary volunteers, who remained at the wall, outnumbered. The Franks captured their camp provisions and horses as booty.I5 Karbugha had hoped for a glorious slaughter near the wall of Antioch, but he failed to allow for the possibility that his own troops might flee when the 14
Tacitus, Annales 1.61-62 and 64-68. Ibn al-AthYr 2006-8, 1: 17 (A.H. 491 = A.D. 1097/98).
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Franks massed in compact battle array. His soldiers resented him for this error. According to Ibn al-Amir, the great historian of Mosul, their flight was motivated by resentment. For him and for them, Karbugha's decision was not a heroic moment. It was an error in military judgment. A third example, from epic tradition: When Sanasar undertook his bridewinning quest in the Land of Katcher, one of the tasks that his future fatherin-law gave him was to defeat sixty of his strongest pahlevans in combat. Instead of fighting them in duels, Sanasar insisted on fighting them all at once, showing off for his prospective bride, Deltzotun Dzam, who watched from her chamber window. As the battle progressed, Sanasar could not fend off a cohort of sixty champions. Fortunately for him, before he departed for Katcher, he and his twin brother Baldasar had exchanged rings. During the fight, Sanasar's ring blackened, a warning to Baldasar that his brother was in trouble. Baldasar rushed to Katcher to rescue Sanasar, who otherwise would have perished in the fight.16 In Sasna O'er, a hero may, with honor, fight his enemies one by one. Sanasar's grandson, David of Sassoun, did so at the conclusion of a cattle-raid near the village of Dashtou Padrial. He tracked forty cattle-thieving devs to a cave in the mountains, blocked the entrance, and roared stentoriously. As the devs exited the cave one by one, David grabbed each one, twisted off his head at the neck, and threw his body outside the cave.17 This is not radical risk but its opposite. Of course the scene is comic, with forty repetitions of the same necktwisting. Byrhtnoo is a controversial hero. Some critics fault his ofermod and mistake in generalship.18 Others try to save his reputation with impossible glosses of ofermod as "great courage" or "magnanimity."19 Still others, sidestepping the
18
Sasunc'i Dcrvie 1.2.7-8, in Shalian 1964: 83-91; Feydit 1964: 127-34..
17
Ibid. 3.2.13, in Shalian 1964: 208; Feydit 1964: 244-45.
18
Tolkien 1953; Mills 1966.
18
Gneuss 1976: review of scholarship and defense of ofermod as "pride." .
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problem, allegorize Maldon as the story of a battle between saintly and demonic forces 20 Most often when Maldon is discussed as a heroic poem, the focus is not on Byrhtnoo, but on his loyal retainers, in whom he inspires comitatus-like loyalty,21 or, alternatively, the loyalty of a round-the-world warrior code under which men are willing to die with (and for) their lord.22 Certainly the text allows for this approach, which, even so, seems to take the causeway episode for granted as a given. But the causeway episode problematizes Byrhtnoo's character. The text presents three strikes against him (so it seems): his ofermod, the Danes' deception (ongunnon lytegian), and Byrhtnoo's tactic of giving up "landes to fela." Notwithstanding these problems, Byrhtno6 emerges a hero, whose heroic moment is the causeway episode. We may as well concede at once that ofermod means "pride" and Byrhtno6 is faulted for it. The twelfth-century Liber Eliensis (2.62) attributes nimia animositas (excessive boldness) to Byrhtno6 because he fought the Danes with an army that was too small to beat them.23 This is reminiscent of Gubrun's complaint to Gunnar in Atlakvida. One critical stance might be to accept negative criticism in due proportion. Donald Scragg exhorts us "not to criticise him more severely than the poet does." Once the tactical damage is done and "appropriate criticism... leveled, his character is reasserted by the bravery and skill with which he defends himself," and by the loyalty he inspires in his warriors.24 The text allows this approach, which, however, places the heroic moment elsewhere, perhaps at the time of Byrhtnoo's death. Another option: maybe the narrator's perspective is narrower than the poet's. If Byrhtno6's decision changed the course of wyrd, we should wait for the outcome before judging him. His death in battle is not the final outcome. In any 20
Blake 1965; Cross 1965.
21
George Clark 1968.
22
Roberta Frank 1991.
23
Alan Kennedy 1991: 64, 67, and 74.
24
Scragg 1981: 39.
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case ByrhtnoO's ofermod, like Roland's demesure, implies quantity, perhaps a virtue in excess, rather than a quality of absolute evi1.25 "Landes to fela" has a fourfold meaning. In the broadest sense, land might be a synecdoche for England, and the phrase might imply that all England was lost. But was it? In the domain of poetic diction, the phrase seems to contradict the heroic ideal articulated by Edward the Tall, "beet he nolde fleogan fotinx1 landes" (215: that he would not flee [or retreat] one foot of land). Leofsunu, too, boasted that he would not "fleon fotes trym" (247a: retreat the length of a foot). Byrhmoo gave up the causeway, but except in phalanx-formation, it may be too literal-minded to say that the warrior ethic forbids even one step backward. Most readers understand "landes to fela" as an idiomatic way of saying that Byrhtnoo gave up his tactical advantage. This is true, but why? Did he have in mind a strategy that explains the tactic? Finally, rather than negative criticism, "landes to fela" could be just the narrator's way of indicating that he knows the outcome of the battle, and he wants us to know that he knows. Omniscient narrators are common in Old English texts. Byrhtnoo had a strategy that went beyond the tactical exigencies at Maldon. He articulated this in his flyting speech to the viking messenger (42-61). Speaking for is folc (45b), alluding, ambiguously, to "this army" and to all England, Byrhtnoo's objective was to answer the vikings' demand for tribute with a military response. As he knew, one payment of tribute would lead to an endless sequence of payments. In his flyting speech, Byrhtnoo picks up some key words used by the viking messenger, and throws them back at him, gores for garrces and gafol for gafol, ignoring the Danes' false promise of frid and grid. Verbal repetition iconizes the idea of military engagement.26 In this speech, Byrhtnoa describes himself as an unforcud eorl (51: a nobleman of untainted reputation). In context this means that he is a leader who will not accede to Danish demands for 25
Whitehead 1960.
26 For verbal echoes in flyting episodes: Anderson 1970; Blake 1976; Robinson 1976 and 1986; Parks 1986 and 1990.
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gafol (tribute). By all other eleventh- and twelfth-century accounts of the battle, whatever else happened at Maldon it did not include tribute-payment. After A.D. 991, it is true, the English government began to pay tribute to Danes, but when they did it was bishops who advocated this policy,' not military men like Byrhtnoo. Considered from this point of view, Byrhtnoo accomplished his mission at Maldon. It is not his fault that his policy of military action was undermined later by churchmen. Under similar circumstances in A.D. 869, King Edmund of the East Angles took a risky stand against the viking leader Hingwar, rebuking a bishop who had counseled him to accede to the vikings' demand for "binra yldrena gestreon" (your ancestors' treasure) because `Thu nwfst bone fultum past bu feohtan mwge" (you do not have sufficient force such that you are able to fight). It would be less shameful, he said, "fret is on feohte feolle . wio loam be min folc / moste heora eardes brucan" (that I fall in fight against him who would possess my people's inheritance). Like Byrhtno6, he did fal1.28 Lytegian means something like "practice deception." R. W. V. Elliott (1962) tried to flesh out the idea, suggesting that the Danes taunted Byrhtnoo with cowardice. A. D. Mills (1966) proposed that the Danes played upon his heroic nature, flattering him into conventional warfare. If that is so, there are ancient Akkadian analogues, coincidental of course, in which Tiamat flatters Marduk, and Humbaba flatters Gilgamesh, hoping to gain some advantage after initial reversals in combat. Marduk rejected Tiamat's blandishments, but Gilgamesh would have made peace with Humbaba, had not Enkidu intervened and urged him to combat. As Scragg reminds us, all we can know is "that the vikings acted treacherously,"29 but that taints neither Danes nor Byrhtnoo on moral grounds. Ancient and 27 The Parker Manuscript for the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle attributes the policy of gafol to Archbishop Sigeric of Canterbury and Bishop ,Elfheah of Winchester. Other versions attribute the policy to Sigeric alone. 28 /Elfric, "Passio sancti Eadmundi regis," Lives of Saints 1881-1900, 2: 316-20,11. 43-82, at lines 53, 69, and 66-67; again in Needham 1966: 47-49. 29
Scragg 1981:73 and 37.
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medieval military history is replete with ruses and deceptions. Most common are fake retreats, in which soldiers pretend to be routed and then turn around and strike back at their pursuers. Another ruse: soldiers don the captured wargear of their enemies, come upon them in disguise, catch them off guard, and attack. These tricks and others are rarely or never described as examples of moral turpitude. N. F. Blake says, rather too fastidiously, that guile is particular to villains,30 although, it is true, Malory says quite plainly of Lancelot that he could be defeated only by the sorcery of witches or the treachery of villains. The Danes are at fault for mounting an unjust war, but it is a commander's responsibility to make allowance for deception on the part of the enemy. Very likely Byrhtnoo saw through the Danes' deception, but had his own reasons for allowing them to cross the causeway. It seems unfair to judge Byrhtnoo without taking into account the final outcome of the battle. The poem is silent about this, because the ending is lost. Two near-contemporary sources provide contradictory outcomes. According to the Parker Manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, many men on both sides were slain at Maldon, but the Danes "wcelstowe geweald ahtan" (won control of the battlefield).31 This version is not without problems, for the other Chronicle manuscripts omit these details, and the Parker Manuscript entry, for 993 not 991, seems to conflate material from two separate entries in an earlier source.32 Alternatively, Byrhtfero of Ramsey, in Vita Oswaldi (ca. 997-1005), writes that many Englishmen were slain, including Byrhtnoth, "but Danes too were severely wounded: they were scarcely able to man their ships."33 It has been said that Byrhtfero "was so confused about recent military campaigns that he found it hard 30 N. F. Blake 1979: 125. 31
Plummer and Earle [1899] 1952, 1: 126-27.
32
Bately 1991.
Vita Oswaldi, in Raine 1879-94, 1: 456; Lapidge 1991: 51-55. For Byrhtfero's authorship, Lapidge 1975: 90-95, endorsed by Woolf 1976: 78n and Gatch 1976: 237; cited earlier in Hart 1973: 128-19. 33
406
to distinguish between a battle won and a battle lost,"34 but that is the nature of Cadmean victories. If we don't like the Byrhmoo we've got, consider two alternatives. What would the Danes have done if the English had continued to guard the causeway? It takes money and effort to recruit vikings and organize a fleet of ships for piracy. There is no way that the Danes could return empty-handed. They would have found other targets along the English coast. Something like this happened in the market town of Birka, where Anound, the viking leader, finding the city well guarded, changed course and sailed eastward toward Slavic lands, there to pursue the piracy that he had promised his men. Another alternative: what would critics say about Byrhtnoo if the English had routed the Danes at Maldon? No doubt they would praise his courage, and his tactical genius for allowing the Danes to cross the causeway. The Danes might then be faulted for their tactical error in giving up ready access to their ships. The causeway episode was just as risky for the Danes as it was for the English. Resultoriented criticism is fickle, and deaf to the nuances of the heroic moment. Radical risk and wyrd The Maldon poet never once mentions wyrd, but during the causeway episode, Byrhtnoo alludes to the concept when he calls out to the Danes:35 Nu eow is gerymed: gao ricene to us guman to guile. God ana wat hwa Imre wwlstowe wealdan mote. (Battle of Maldon 93-95: Now is a path opened for you: come quickly against us, men at war. God alone knows who will control the battlefield.)
34
Alan Kennedy 1991: 74.
75
Scragg 1991: 23 for the translation.
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His tactical decision altered the course of wyrd. Even so, only God knew the outcome. Byrhtnoo does not say that God will determine the outcome, only that God knows the outcome. God and wyrd are not synonymous, for wyrd is impersonal, and cannot "know" anything. Experiencing wyrd is like coursing a boat down an unfamiliar river, the "course of events" collectively. We know where we've been, but we can only guess what lies ahead, based on what we've seen before. We know, for example, that the slaying of a kinsman leads to a feud, but we don't know what the outcome of that feud will be. At critical moments, the course of wyrd can be altered by changing the status quo, just as the path of a stream can be altered by diverting its water. In that respect, wyrd is not synonymous with Roman fatum, or the Christian idea of God, or modern English fortune, fate, or destiny. Even when the course of wyrd is changed, its destination is unknown, except to God. During the gift-giving ceremony in Heorot, Hroogar (in indirect discourse) declares that Grendel would have killed more men, "nefne him witig god wyrd forstod / ond Ems marines mod" (1056-57a: had not wise God stood against wyrd, and the man's [Beowulf's] spirit). The object-verb formulation wyrd forstod (resembling wyrde widstondan, Wanderer 15b36), by zeugma linking two subjects, witig god and inannes mod, allows for the possibility that God, and a hero, can alter the course of events. Witig (1056a) is a reminder that God knows the outcome of wyrd. In place of mannes mod, the poet could have written *mannes mcegen if he had wanted to, thereby emphasizing Beowulf s physical strength in the Grendel-fight. Instead he wrote mod (spirit, inner being, the immaterial part of a person), emphasizing not the fight itself, but Beowulf s decision to fight. By fighting Grendel (a radical risk), Beowulf changed the fate of the Danes. Hroogar continues his speech with a philosophical meditation on isyrd, the only extended comment about it in the poem:
36
So noted by Dunning and Bliss 1969: 73.
408
Metod eallum weold gumena cynnes, swa he nu git deb. Forban bib andgit xghwwr selest, ferhOes forebanc. Fela sceal gebidan leofes and Noes se be longe her on oyssum windagum worolde bruceo. (Beowulf 1057b-62: the Creator ruled all the race of men, as He still does now. Therefore discernment is always best, the spirit's forethought. He must abide many [things] from friend and foe, [he] who intends to thrive in the world during these days of conflict.) Wyrd is not an extension of God. Quite the opposite, wyrd is independent of God, but at critical moments, God and man sometimes can stand against it, and alter its course. The key verb, gebidan (1060b), which I translate above as "abide," means "endure," "experience," or "wait for." Put another way, the heroic moment is a time when the hero, by changing the status quo, undertakes radical risk, changes wyrd, and exercises free will when he does so.37 That is why Hroogar emphasizes andgit and forePonc. Forethought is not prescience, but intuitive insight about how the redirected course of events might turn out, in light of past experience. This is not to say that wyrd can be altered at any time. Heroic intervention is possible only at critical moments. In The Wanderer, the eardstapa (exile) alludes to the demise of king, comitatus, and court in a battle. In his situation, Ne meg werig mod wyrde wi6stondan, ne se hreo hyge helpe gefremman. (Wanderer 15-16: the weary spirit cannot stand against wyrd, the heroic spirit cannot provide any help.) This attribute of wyrd applies to the eardstapa's situation in The Wanderer, but is not universally the case.
37 E. V. Gordon [1927] 1957: xxx, emphasizes free will as an attribute of Old Norse sagaheroes: "The hero was in truth a champion of the free will of man against fate, which had power only over material things."
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Competing definitions of wyrd The critical literature on Beowulf offers no consensus about the meaning of wyrd or its importance in the epic. Some scholars relegate wyrd to the background as a fossilized expression, part of the "pagan" coloring in Beowulf.38 Others push it into the foreground as the prim= mobile of epic tragedy.39 Its possible meanings can be arranged on a spectrum from pagan to Christian, from mythic to theological. None of these correspond to the meaning implied by Hrobgar, but some come closer to others. Wyrd as mythological personification: At the mythic extreme, wyrd has been construed as the Germanic goddess of Fate, or (in the plural) as the three Norns, based upon a glossary entry, "Parcae, v*Trde." This in reality is just an English rendering of Latin fata personified, but some Old English instances, such as wyrda gesceaft (Daniel 132a and Wanderer 107a: decree of fates) have been construed as allusions to the Norns.40 In her edition of Maxims II, "Drymmas syndan Cristes myccle, / wyrd byo swioost" (4b-5a: great are the glories of Christ, wyrd is strongest), Blanche Williams, following Alois Brandi, detects pagan and Christian layers of composition and interprets wyrd as the goddess of Fate, Old Norse Ur6.41 She was the principal Nom who, together with Veroandi and Skuld, are the maidens of destiny named by Snorri Sturluson in Gylfaginning 14. Unlike the Greek Moirai and Roman Parcae, Scandinavian mythology does not provide the Norns with implements of spinning or weaving, but it situates them in a tableau whose details are found in Gylfaginning 14-15, Voluspci 19, Hcivamal 111, and Grimnismal 35 and 44. The Norns live near a sacred spring called Urdar brunnr ("Uro's well"), one of three springs according to Snorri, located at the base of the cosmic tree, an ash-tree called Yggdrasill (Voluspa 19 and 47; 38
Goldsmith 1960: 83; Irving 1991: 179.
39
Greenfield 1962; Payne 1974.
40 Wright 1968, 2: 116.9. Kauffmann 1926: 368 and 394; Neckel 1932: 26-28; Wardale 1935: 30, n. 1; Ellis Davidson 1988: 163-66. 41
Brandi 1908: 960; Williams 1914: 42. 52 and 58.
410
GrimnismOl 35 and 44). Snorri calls the other two springs Mimir's well and Hvergelmir (Bubbling Cauldron?). Originally there was only one spring, and one cosmic tree. According to Snorri, Yggdrasill's three roots reach out to embrace the three parts of the world: the domains of men, the ksir, and the "dark world" of Hel, called Niflheim (Grimnismcil 31).42 Wyrd as pagan abstraction: Some scholars interpret wyrd as a pagan abstraction, a residual pagan concept.43 Tolkien thought that wyrd and metod referred to the Germanic concept of Fate. In his view, the poet "re-paganized" the poem with allusions to wyrd.44 Finding it difficult to part with the colorful tableau of Uro's well, the world-tree, and the cosmic serpent, some scholars attribute semantic connotations to wyrd that link it to Scandinavian mythology. Wyrd is inexorable, and oriented toward the past rather than the future. Wyrd is the "course of events" in the present, the inevitable result of prior events. The Roman idea of Fate, in contrast, implies a divine intelligence that determines future events. The focus of wyrd on the past is consistent with Germanic grammar, which lacks a future tense and makes no grammatical differentiation between present and future time. Just so Snorri Sturluson's names for the maidens of Destiny, Ur6 (became), Veroandi (becoming), and Skuld (necessity), as grammatical allegories, are links to the mythological tableau.45 Others argue that wyrd has nothing in common with Old Norse myth apart from an etymology shared with Ur6.46 Syncretic wyrd: Rosteutscher and Timmer thought that wyrd was a pagan
concept (or a goddess of destiny) which in Christian times was syncretized to Fate
42
Weber 1969: 14-54.
Most recently, Augustyn 2002 and Winterboum 2004 (in a philosophical rather than a philological analysis). 43
44
Tolkien [1936] 1963: 96-100; cf. Hoops 1932b: 71.
45
Bauschatz 1982; Davis 1996: 135-57, chap. 7, "Wyrd and the World-Serpent."
46
Pizzo 1916; Wolf 1919; Weber 1969.
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as an expression of Providential Will.47 Jon Kasik revived this syncretist theory, arguing that wyrd provided pagan Anglo-Saxons with a conceptual bridge to Christianity." Whether wyrd is personified or abstract, two overlapping points should be made about "fate" in Germanic cultures. First, there is no reason to believe that the Germanic nations maintained a culturally unified concept of "inexorable fate" after centuries of migration and linguistic and cultural differentiation. Indeed there is no reason to believe that the "primitive" Germanic concept was "inexorable fate." Second, the Germanic concepts of fate were expressed in four different word-woups,49 represented in Old English by wyrd, metod, the verb scyppan gesceap, and stxf (stave), by metonymy alluding to runic inscriptions in compounds like arstafas, endestafas, inwitstcef, wyrdstafas: prosperity-runes, death-runes, malice-runes, wyrd-runes, metaphors for their abstract counterparts. Lexical diversity implies conceptual diversity. Metod was equated with God in Old English and Old Saxon; sqppend with God in Old English. Metod and scyppend were destinal forces in bono, wyrd (usually) in malo. Stafas, recalling pagan sortilege, suggested the possibility that destiny could be foreseen, at least in some cases. If destiny could be foreseen by sortilege, perhaps it could be foreseen by other means, too, for example in the words of a wise man who had suffered in the world long enough to know the ways of wyrd. Minimalist wyrd: As a semantic minimum, wyrd means "the course of events," whatever they might be. Wyrd is "what happens." Chickering claims that for pagan Anglo-Saxons, wyrd meant "what happened," or a person's "lot" in life, and what happens is death in a world where all things are icene (transitory). Chickering asserts, as others have done, that the "early Anglo-Saxons' fatalistic
47
Rosteutscher 1938: 4-6; Timmer 1941: 226-28.
Kasik 1979. Notwithstanding his title, "A Christianized wyrd: Syncretism in Beowulf," Major (1995) does not discuss nyrd. 48
49
Discussed in D. H. Green 1998: 381-91.
412
outlook and sense of mortality made them exceptionally ready for Christianity."5° Minimalist wyrd presupposes that pagan Germanic people practiced a "cult," that is to say, ritual devoid of belief or intellectual content. This is compatible with nineteenth- and early twentieth-century notions of Primitive Mind as concretist and collectivist, hence incapable of abstract thought, self-awareness, and selfreflection.51 Compatible, too, with Ernst Cassirer's notion that ritual precedes myth as its narrative explication, and myth precedes abstract thought.52 But it is not compatible with the results of research in modem anthropology, which show that earlier notions of Primitive Mind are unempirical. Other definitions of wyrd are consistent with Christian notions of fate: Wyrd as synonymous with God. Blackburn thought that references to wyrd, which he equated to God in Beowzdf, were part of the poem's "Christian" coloring.53 Timmer asserts that wyrd could mean "God" in at least some passages in Beowulf.54 Wyrd as Death. Mittner and Phillpotts equated wyrd with Death. Wyrd is a cosmic "body-snatcher."55 Roper endorsed this view: wyrd is Death, both as humankind's collective fate and as the personal experience of each person distributively. Wyrd is the destinal force that "sweeps men away."56 Six times in the Old Saxon Helfand, wurd (and plural wurdi) means "death."57 Brodeur's (1959) view was similar: wyrd is what happens when God's mercy and protection no longer intervenes. Wyrd and God are set in opposition to each other.
5° Chickering [1977] 1989: 269-73, at p. 269.
Bastian [1860] 1966, 2: 55-58; Lubbock 1865: 564 and elsewhere; Spenser 1876-96, I: 77-91; Levy-Bruhl 1910, Jung 1921. 51
52
Cassirer 1955.
53
Blackburn [1897] 1963: 13 and 21; again, Charles Kennedy 1943: 87-88.
54
Timmer 1941: 225-26.
ss Mittner 1939; Phillpotts 1928: 21; discussed in Timmer 1941: 224-25. 56
Roper 1962.
37
Augustyn 2002: 63-72.
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Wyrd as co-regent with God: Ehrismann argued that wyrd and God were equivalents, but with moral differences.58 Reviving this view, Tietjen argues that in Beowulf wyrd is co-regent with God, such that wyrd, "inexorable fate," is indifferent to ethical values, while God provides grace and spiritual guidance.59 Boethian versions of wyrd: In Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius sets
forth a three-tiered hierarchy of cosmic powers. Providence, or Divine Intelligence, governs the cosmic order. Fate, the agent of Divine Intelligence, is the executive force that carries out the will of Providence. Lady Fortune governs the vicissitudes of human affairs, unwittingly executing the requirements of Fate. King Alfred, in his Boethius, translates Providence or divinae intelligentia as "Godes forePonc > his foresceawung" (God's prior intention and his foreknowing).69 Predestination and foreknowledge are two sides of the same coin, so to speak, as complementary attributes of intelligentia, a Latin word which, lacking an Old English equivalent, must be explained periphrastically. Once God's predestined plan is carried out, "what happens" is called wyrd. Instead of a three-tiered hierarchy of cosmic powers, for Alfred there is only God and %syrd. He conflates fatunt and fortuna as wyrd, allowing no lexical differentiation between destiny and chance. Alfred illustrates this holistic approach to the fates of men, intertwined as they are, in his simile of the "wheel of wyrd" and its axis. The best of men are located close to the wheel's axis, close to God's will, where they find security. Men who situate themselves outward on the wheel, further from God's will, are subject to adversity.6I F. Anne Payne attributes a Boethian definition of wyrd to the Beowulf poet. Wyrd is the dark face of God, "the force that eventually destroys the lives of the violators of unknowable universal order in the world of Beowulf It is the
Ehrismann 1909: 237. 59
Tietjen 1975.
6c
Alfred, Boethius 1898: 128.
61
Alfred, Boethius 1898: 129; discussed in Timmer 1941: 30; Payne 1974.
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opponent of man in the strange area of the most intense perception and consciousness." When a man transgresses the universal order, God intervenes as wyrd, the "force [that] balances his errors, punishes him, at best tolerates him."62 Beowulf's transgressions were twofold. First, he imposed a fifty-year reign of peace on the Geats, whereas wyrd requires human society to be mired in perpetual warfare, in order to give the warrior class something to do. Second, he engaged in a battle that he could not win. Because he should have known better, he is punished with death. This is result-centered criticism: Beowulf is praised for success against Grendel and Grendel's mother, but faulted for fighting the dragon, because that time he was killed. Sometimes, literary criticism is a fair-weather friend. Bolton argues that Beowulf's tragedy was a moral flaw: by fighting the dragon and desiring its treasure, he committed himself to the domain of Fortune,63 just like Troilus in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde and Arcite in the Knight's Tale. The poet, he thinks, knew the Boethian distinction between Fortune and Providence. So, too, Payne and Ogilvy, who equate Providence with eternal laws of nature, such as the course of the seasons, and wyrd with fate in human affairs, which is made more complex due to the influence of free will.64 A simpler approach, independent of Boethian philosophy, would be to define wyrd as God's destinal agent. Charles Kennedy: "God and Wyrd are brought into juxtaposition in such a manner as to imply control of Fate by the superior power of Christian divinity."65 Hamilton was less certain about the precise meaning of wyrd. Was it inexorable, blind Fate? Or was it an old pagan concept altered to conform to the Christian idea of Providence? In the final
62
Payne 1974: 15-16.
63
Bolton 1979.
64
Payne 1968: 78-80; Ogilvy 1979: 60-62.
65 Charles Kennedy 1943: 88. Kennedy's formulation is quoted or cited often, for example in Hamilton [1946] 1963: 127, and McNamee [1960] 1963: 332, n. 6.
415
analysis, she concludes that wyrd is "subordinate to the Divine will."66 This view presupposes a two-tiered hierarchy of cosmic powers, without the distraction of complex semantic distinctions such as one finds in Boethius, or in Chaucer. Wyrd in Beowulf This brings me back to Hroogar's exposition of wyrd as the course of events known only to God, powerful but not inexorable, for heroic intervention can alter its course at critical moments (1055b-62). If wyrd meant "inexorable destiny," there would be scant call to mention it, except as the cause of fatalistic despair. In fact, just the opposite, sometimes wyrd is mentioned in Beowulf because it is not inexorable. Wyrd appears twelve times in Beowulf four times prospectively, prior to a fated event; eight times retrospectively (as in lines 1055b-62), after an event has disclosed its power. I differentiate these categories in my inventory below. Prospective wyrd Beowulf 433-55: Beowulf vows that he will fight Grendel unarmed. Whichever one death takes must be resigned to the judgment of God (cItyhtnes dome, 441a). Morton Bloomfield (1959) argued that this epithet alludes to the Grendel-fight as an iudicium Dei, but its collocation with wyrd discloses quite another meaning: that God's will is made manifest through wyrd. Beowulf remarks on the possibility of his own demise, and says, "Geeo a wyrd swa hio scel" (455b: wyrd always goes where it must). Beowulf's "radical" risk, exacerbated by fighting unarmed, is linked with the poem's first explicit comment about wyrd. Beowulf 2419b-23a: Prior to the dragon-fight, the narrator states that "wyrd ungemete neah" (2420b: wyrd was immeasurably near), ready to seek out
66
Hamilton [1946] 1963: 124-30.
416
Beowulf's soul and separate his life from his body. This time, wyrd will take its course without divine intervention. Beowulf 2524b-27a: Prior to the dragon-fight, Beowulf vows that he will not retreat one foot in combat, "ac unc flit-bur sceal / weothan art wealle, swa unc wyrd geteo6" (2525b-26: but [here] by the wall it must happen between us two, as wyrd determines between us two). This beot is part of his address to his eleven retainers, when he tells them to stay out of the dragon-fight (2516-37). The dual pronoun unc, reiterated, calls attention to Beowulf's decision to fight the dragon alone, another exacerbation of risk. Beowulf 1232b-37a: On one occasion wyrd is focused on the fate of ordinary men, whose death might come during the course of routine activities. On the day after Grendel's demise, while the Danes drank wine in Heorot, the narrator comments that they were unaware of their grim, foreordained doom: "Wyrd ne cubon, / geosceaft grimme" (1233b-34a). Again, in anticipation of Grendel's mother's attack on yEschere, the narrator foretells that "Beorscealca sum / fus and forge fletreste gebeag" (1240b-41: one of the beer-drinkers turned to his bed in the hall, fated and doomed). On this occasion, the poet as omniscient narrator has foreknowledge of wyrd, and shares this knowledge with us, such that we perceive Grendel's mother's attack from a Godlike perspective that is never available to characters in the epic. Retrospective wyrd Beowulf 572b-73: Chronologically, the earliest instance of wyrd occurs when Beowulf recounts his survival during his maritime adventure with Breca. "Wyrd oft nereo / unfxgne eorl, bonne his ellen deah" (572b-73: often wyrd spares an undoomed man, when his courage avails him). Often (not always) a man can survive an adverse course of events if his courage and survival instinct are sufficient. Beowulf's and Breca's radical risk was their maritime transgression into cosmic waters, for which a likely punishment was death by sea-monster.
417
Wyrd is collocated with Beowulf, but not with Breca, who was spared an encounter with fate by a sea-current that swept him to the land of the Heaboramas (519). Beowulf, attacked in the ocean by a meredeor, came into contact with wyrd and survived. Beowulf 476b-79 and 734b-36a: Two companion allusions to wyrd come before and after the Grendel-fight. In his welcoming address to Beowulf, Hroogar says that his retinue is diminished: "hie wyrd forsweop / on Grendles gryre" (477b-78a: wyrd swept them off in the horror of Grendel). After Grendel's demise, Beowulf says that wyrd no longer allowed him to feast on men (734b36a). Thematically these passages relate to each other like fugitive fragments of a discourse between the king and the hero. In his remarks on the loss of his men, HroOgar articulates the Beowulf poet's presuppositions about the relationship between wyrd and God: Is min fletwerod, wigheap gewanod; hie wyrd forsweop on Grendles gryre. God eabe mg Done dolsceaoan dada getwwfan. (Beowulf 476b-79: my hall-comitatus, my war-host, is diminished: wyrd swept them off in the horror of Grendel. God easily may restrain the mad ravager from his deeds.) What does Hroogar mean to say about God and wyrd? Jon Kasik gives expression to a widespread understanding. If God was able, why did He not prevent the horrors of Grendel earlier? Kasik differentiates "pagan" and "Christian" answers to this question. The pagan view: "he [God] did not because he could not. He too was subject to the dictates of wyrd." The Christian view: "it is impossible for men to understand the workings of God." Put another way, there is evil in the world even though God is omnipotent and good, and the explanation for this
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contradiction is that God is inscrutable, just as pagan wyrd was inscrutable.° This line of thought presupposes a Christian-pagan polarity. But we need not concern ourselves with a theological problem that eluded the wisest Church Fathers, for there is only one wyrd, neither pagan nor Christian. Its relation to God is just this: If a hero can intervene to change the course of wyrd, how much more so, a forteriori, can God! Sometimes the hero is God's champion, sent to change wyrd. That is how Hro6gar interprets Beowulf s arrival in Denmark (381b-84a). God does not exercise direct control of wyrd any more than a hero does, but He has the power to alter its course by checking the horrors of Grendel. That is what HroOgar means to say. Even then, wyrd in its new course includes the attack by Grendel's mother, which wouldn't have happened if Grendel were alive. Only God could have foreseen that. The difference between a hero and God is part qualitative, part quantitative. Qualitatively, only God knows the outcome of wyrd. Quantitatively, God's power to change wyrd is stronger than a hero's. God may send a hero as His champion, or intervene at some critical moment to assist the hero, but neither God nor heroes exercise direct control over the collective course of events. The Maya creation epic, Popol Vuh, offers an analogy. Xbalanque and Hunahpu defeat the lords of Xibalba (the underworld) in a ritual ball-game. The divine twins do not destroy the death-lords altogether. Rather, they humiliate them by prohibiting their future participation in the ritual game. By this means they reduce the power of death, and make the world fit for human habitation. The divine twins never exercise direct control over the death-lords. Theirs is a onetime intervention, the ball-game in Xibalba, which alters the course of fate by limiting the reach of mortality. Just as in Popol Vuh the world was overwhelmed by the power of the death-lords, so in Beowulf, the Danes were overwhelmed by the power of Grendel. When Beowulf, God's champion, arrived on the scene, he did not take control of the collective course of events in Denmark. His was a one67
Kasik 1979: 131.
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time intervention, the Grendel-fight, although, it is true, a second fight was necessary to get rid of Grendel's mother. After three days, he returned to Geatland. God's interventions are like this: not omnipotent control of wyrd, but one-time interventions that change its course. The import of wyrd would be different if the poet had given Beowulf a folktale ending, one in which the hero remained in Denmark, married Freawaru, and ruled as Hroeigar's successor. That might have implied the hero's direct control over the course of events in Denmark. Beow-alf 12056-14a: In a digression about Weallibeow's torque, the poet says that wyrd seized Hygelac while he was wearing it, after he had asked for trouble by undertaking an expedition in Frisia: hyne wyrd fornam syboan he for wlenco wean ahsode, fwhoe to Frysum. (Beowulf 1205b-7a: wyrd seized him [Hygelac], after he, on account of proud courage, asked for trouble in a feud with the Frisians.) Like single combat, a military adventure across the sea is always risky. Hygelac's expedition in Frisia was radically risky, because he warred against a king who ruled several nations (Franks, Frisians, Hugas, Hetware). The verse wean ahsode calls attention to Hygelac's radical risk; it need not imply moral condemnation. Hygelac undertook this risk for wlenco, for proud courage, just like Beowulf when he sailed to Denmark for wlenco. The adverb sybdan means "after," not "when" or "because." The sentence does not mean "wyrd seized Hygelac because he, in his pride, asked for trouble by leading a viking raid in Frisia." Rather, syPoan marks the critical moment in time when Hygelac came into contact with wyrd. He changed its course by means of a risky expedition in Frisia. At the time when he did this, Merovingian expansion marked the course of wyrd: their neighbors were reduced to the status of tributary states. Hygelac's raid in Frisia altered the course of wyrd by securing safety for the Geats for fifty years or more.
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Looked at from the perspective of Merovingian expansion, Hygelac accomplished his mission in Frisia, even though wyrd carried him off. Beowulf 2570b-75: During the first foray in the dragon-fight, Beowulf s metal shield gave him less protection than expected from the dragon's flames. He did his best on that final day of his life, "swa him wyrd ne gescraf / hreo a t hilde" (2574b-75a: when wyrd did not ordain glory in battle for him). This time, wyrd took its course without divine intervention. Beowulf 2813-16: In his dying discourse with Wiglaf, Beowulf reflects on his death and the fact that Wiglaf will be the last of the Wwgrnundings. "Ealle wyrd forsweop / mine magas," he says (2814b-15a: wyrd has swept away all my kinsmen); "ic him after sceal" (2816b: I must follow them). Such is the destiny of humankind, to follow the ancestors, but when and how are disclosed only in the course of events. In this respect, Beowulf s death in the dragon-fight is an exemplum of wyrd. This does not mean that the dragon is an allegorical symbol of wyrd. Both the dragon and Beowulf are swept away in its course. Beowulf 3028-30a: The speech of Wiglaf s messenger consists of seven parts: (1) Narrator's introduction, 2892-99 (8 lines) (2) Beowulf's death, and the dragon's, 2900-10a (10.5 lines) (3) Hygelac's raid in Frisia, 2910b-21 (10.5 lines) (4) Hygelac's rescue of the Geatish army at Ravenswood, 2922-3007a (85.5 lines) (5) Funeral arrangements for Beowulf, 3007b-15a (8 lines) (6) Future adversities of the Geats, 3015b-27 (11.5 lines) (7) Narrator's epilogue, 3028-30a (2.5 lines) The messenger brings news of wonders (wundur, 3032b), but devotes only 18.5 lines to them. He devotes 107.5 lines to Hygelac's expeditions at Ravenswood and in Frisia, and their future consequences. Notwithstanding this asymmetrical distribution of discourse, "fela / wyrda ne worda" applies to both themes: Swa se secg hwata secggende mizes
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Wiz-a spella; he ne leag fela 1,vyrda ne worda. (Beowulf 3028-30a: just so the valiant man announced the shocking news; he didn't lie about the many fateful events or words [spoken].) Some critics disparage the messenger as one of the ten "cowards."68 Certainly he was mistaken when he said that the dragon's treasure would be burnt on Beowulf's pyre (3010b-21a). Still, the messenger neither minimized nor exaggerated (no leag, 3029b). At his command, the Geats hastened to Eagles' Ness and witnessed the wonders for themselves: Beowuirs body, the treasure, the enormous dragon (3030b-57). The spectacle confirms the truth of his words about wundur. To be sure he goes beyond the scope of his mission, which was to report Beowulf's death by the dragon, but his words are not prophecy. Rather, the messenger, transcending his mission, explicates the dragon-fight as an exemplum of wyrd. The narrator's epithet for the messenger, se hwata secg (3028a: the valiant man), is puzzling. The adjective inwet was used ironically by Wiglaf, when he referred to the unheroic retainers as hwate helmberend (2642a: valiant he)metwearers), but Beowulf used the formula without irony (2517a) when he told them to stay out of the dragon-fight. The poet refers to the Danes as hwate Scyldingas (1601a) when they departed Grendel's mere at the ninth hour, but he takes pains to explain that they did not flee from fear. They departed in sorrow because they thought that Beowulf was dead. No irony taints hwcet elsewhere (2051b-52, 3005b). I doubt that "se secg hwata" is ironic. In The Ruin, the poet refers to the architect of a once-great city (Bath?) as "hwxtred in ringas" and hygerof (19: valiantly schooled in rings; resolute in spirit), adapting warrior-epithets to the talents of a mason. Perhaps hwcet was semantically malleable, implying "valiant" in some contexts and "sharp" or "wise" in others. I think "se secg hwata" refers to
Carnicelli 1975; Taylor 1997: 232-33 and 238.
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a veteran, even though Clark Hall translates as "the brave youth."69 The poet tells us little about the Geats who followed him to the dragon's barrow, except that Wiglaf, the youngest, was on his first military mission (2625b-27). The group could have included some veterans. The messenger is old and experienced enough to recall Ravenswood and Frisia in detail, and wise enough to discourse on the future significance of these historical events. When he does so, he ranges beyond the scope of his mission, which was to bring news of Beowulf s death (2892-99). Wiglaf would have lacked the experience required to give such a speech, or to imagine someone else giving it. Timmer and Kasik believe that wyrd in plural form, "fela / wyrda," indicates that the word's earlier "pagan" semantic force has weakened. "In this instance," Kasik writes, referring to the narrator's epilogue (3028-30a), "the term wyrd is weaker and more objectified than in other cases in the poem."7° However, OE wyrd wyrde 1 wyrda has a parallel in Old Saxon wurd wurdi. In both singular and plural forms in Heliand, this word means "foreordained death"; the plural form does not weaken the word's association with fate.7i OE wyrd means "the course of events, viewed collectively," but it also can mean "one particular strand of interrelated events," applied to the fate of a country or a person. That is why wyrd can sometimes be translated as "lot." Wyrd is always collective; it does not denote one single deed, viewed distributively. Hence fela wyrda cannot be rendered "many fated deeds." My alternative rendering, "many fateful events," doesn't capture the full meaning either, but by "fateful" I mean to suggest the confluence of event-strands that portend adversity for the Geats. Plural wyrde refers to "two or more particular stiands of events." Fela wyrda alludes to three separate strands: the Geatish-Swedish wars, Hygelac's conflict with the Merovingians, and the dragon-fight. 69
Clark Hall [1911] 1950: 171. Secg, of course, means "man," not "youth."
7° Timmer
1940-41: 216-18; Kasik 1979: 131.
Augustyn 2002: 63-72.
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These event-strands merge as a force that propels the Geats toward an adverse future: warriors doomed to death in battle or exile, maidens enslaved in foreign lands, hall and home ruined (3015b-27). The siege of a city, always an iliad of sorrows, is an ancient topos, famously illustrated in Aeneas's tale of the fall of Troy (Aeneid, book 2). Justinian's general, Belisarius, at the siege of Naples in A.D. 535, summarized this topos succinctly, by way of urging the Neapolitans, then ruled by Goths, to surrender rather than take the dangers of a siege:72 Many times have I witnessed the capture of cities and I am well acquainted with what takes place at such a time. For they slay all the men of every age, and as for the women, though they beg to die, they are not granted the boon of death, but are carried off for outrage and are made to suffer treatment that is abominable and most pitiable. And the children, who are thus deprived of their proper maintenance and education, are forced to be slaves, and that, too, of the men who are the most odious of all—those on whose hands they see the blood of their fathers. And this is not all, my dear Stephanus, for I make no mention of the conflagration which destroys all the property and blots out the beauty of the city. When I see, as in the mirror of the cities which have been captured in times past, this city of Naples falling victim to such a fate, I am moved to pity both it and you its inhabitants. Of course this is ethopoeia, a rhetorical device used in historical writing since the time of Thucydides. Procopius attributes to Belisarius a familiar panoramic topos, "the siege of a city," which, sadly, was grounded in historical experience. Although the ambassador from Naples, Stephanus, believed Belisarius, the Neapolitans did not. They continued the fight and were doomed, as Belisarius said they would be. Just so Wiglaf s messenger looks in the mirror of wyrd, as it were, and foresees the Geats' fate: in essence "the siege of a city," dressed in Germanic garb with allusions to exile and the beasts of battle.
72
Procopius 5.9.27-30.
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Summary Wyrd can be translated as "fate" on occasions that require a one-word rendition, as in literary translations. Both words refer to the predetermination of events. Even so, the two words are differently nuanced, in five ways. (1) Fate, like Fortune, lends itself readily to personification, a rhetorical figure that implies the existence of an intelligent force such as Providence or God (or gods) that controls the course of events. Wyrd, in contrast, is never personified, and rarely appears in contexts that can be construed as personification. (2) Fate is oriented toward future events, ordained by Providence or God. Wyrd is oriented toward the past and the present. Wyrd means that a certain course of events is inevitable due to the pressure of previous events, as when the slaying of a king or a kinsman causes a feud. The present comes into the picture at two critical moments: when the outcome of wyrd is disclosed by death or destruction, and when the hero alters its course by changing the status quo. This is always risky, because wyrd is still wyrd; the hero can alter the course of events, but he can neither know nor control the outcome. (3) Fate is inexorable. Wyrd is inexorable, too, except when it isn't—when divine or heroic intervention changes its course. (4) Fate is the determination of events by an omnipotent Providence or God. The relationship of wyrd and God is more complex. Only God foreknows wyrd, but God does not exercise direct control of wyrd. Sometimes God intervenes to alter the course of wyrd, either as a mercy or a punishment, but even then, wyrd is still wyrd. In this respect, divine intervention is qualitatively the same as heroic intervention; the only difference is that God is stronger than heroes. Put another way, God is not "omnipotent," if that word implies "direct control of events, with destinal force." (5) Fate, in the Christian sense, implies that "free will" and "evil" are philosophical problems. If God is omnipotent and good, how can there be evil in the world, and how can "free will" be anything other than an illusion? In contrast, wyrd is independent of God, except when He intervenes, sometimes to mitigate the destructive force of wyrd-generated evil. When a hero chooses to alter the
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course of wyrd by changing the status quo, his decision exemplifies free will par excellence. The notion of "changing fate," so oxymoronic for Boethius, is not unique to Germanic tradition. It is common, too, in ancient Mesopotamia, especially in Akkadian epic, where its signature image is the Tablet of Destiny, which determines the future of the cosmos. In the Babylonian Epic of Creation, Tiamat committed sacrilege when she gave the Tablet of Destiny to Qingu, her vizierlover, an unworthy subordinate. In this epic, possession of the Tablet is associated with "kinaship in heaven." Marduk agreed to serve as the gods' champion against Tiamat, on condition that they elect him as king of heaven and award him the Tablet. Only then, in battle, did he wrest the Tablet from Qingu's arms and sunder Tiamat, using her body-parts to create the world's topography. In the Akkadian Anzu-epic, the wicked Anzu-bird stole the Tablet of Destiny from Enlil while he was caught off guard, bathing. The gods in assembly, electing Ninurta as their champion, commissioned him to hunt Anzu in the mountains, slay him, and retrieve the Tablet. By that means, Ninurta changed the fate of the cosmos by saving it from disintegration. Stricken by a fatal disease in Gilgamesh, Enkidu uttered a curse against Shamhat, the temple harlot who had introduced him to the benefits of civilization. After the sun-god Shamesh rebuked him for ingratitude, Enkidu offered to "change the fate" of Shamhat, by rewording his curse to serve instead as a blessing.73 The heroic moment and ellen Germanic heroism consists of two parts, decision and action. The hero acts upon a decision to risk a radical change in the status quo, at a critical moment, in an effort to mitigate the destructive force of wyrd by diverting its course. The hero neither knows nor controls the outcome, but he does know that the status quo is unbearable, not to be endured if heroic intervention can change it. What, then, are
73
Gilgamesh 7.90-161, in George 2003, 1: 639-43.
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the attributes of a hero? Chivalry and kindness, surely, and desire for fame, virtues that the Geats attribute to Beowulf at his funeral (3180-82). More essential than these, the hero must have two attributes that improve his chance of success during times of radical risk. These are ellen and gePyld. In a general way, they correspond to Isidore's formulation, fortitudo et sapientia, but ellen is more intense than "courage," and gePyld is more specific than "wisdom." GePyld relates to the moment of decision, ellen to action in combat. Ellen means "fighting courage" motivated by a primal instinct to survive. Its importance in Beowulf is clear from the poet's first words, which proclaim that "we have heard" how "wbelingas ellen fremedon" (3: noble men accomplished [deeds of] fighting courage). Peter Clemoes (1995) demonstrated its thematic importance. I cannot improve on his excellent analysis, except to add that battlefrenzy is common in Indo-European heroic narratives. "Savage fury" is a possible gloss, when ellen-endowed warriors fight like wild beasts, as Eofor and Wulf did in an exchange of blows with Ongenbeow at Ravenswood (2961-88). In IndoEuropean narratives, warriors in savage combat are compared to wild beasts, usually in similes or epithets.' Beowulf conveys this theme through symbolic names: Boar and Wolf slaughter the Swedish king in the Ravens' forest. Later, in a chivalrous court scene, in his second act of kingship, Hygelac rewarded the brothers with 100,000 units of land and with treasures, and Eofor married his daughter (2889-98). Hygelac assumed Ongenbeowes bana as his epithet, a glory and a burden. Battle-frenzy is a recurring theme in Old Norse and Irish sagas. Some critics have cited the fury of berserkir,' and of champions like Cu Chulainn, as evidence of Scandinavian and Celtic influences on Beowulf.76 Casting a wider net, 74 The theme is evident, too, in Sumerian hymns to Ninurta, champion of the gods, and Nergal, an Underworld war-god, both compared to storms and lions in their battle-fury (Black et al. 2004: 158-86). 75
Cleasby and Vigfusson 1957: 61, s.v. ber-serkr; Blaney 1972; Simek 1993: 35.
76
Puhvel 1979: 45-54, chap. 5, "Beowulf and Irish Battle Rage."
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Bruce Lincoln shows that Germanic wut and Celtic ferg, battle-frenzy, have semantic cognates in the lyssa (wolfish rage) attributed to Hektor and Achilles in the Iliad, and in boar-like cesma attributed to the war-demon VereOrayna, condemned by Zarathustra. These cognates suggest that warrior frenzy, likening the warrior to a savage beast, is an Indo-European theme, as Georges Dwnezil proposed earlier.77 Even so, the theme is universa1.78 Another formulation: the paradox of life-saving recklessness on the part of a hero who "takes no care for his life." As Beowulf armed himself before descending into Grendel's mere, he "nalles for ealdre meam" (1442b: was not at all anxious for his life). The poet interrupts the fight with Grendel's mother to comment that this is what a warrior must do if he hopes to win glory in battle, "na ymb his lif cearao" (1534b-36, at 1536b: he [must] not be anxious about his life). Hroogar, in his eulogy for iEschere, recalls that during their younger days, as warrior-companions, they "hafelon weredon" (I337a: risked [their] lives). This theme should be taken at face value, not as a rhetorical flourish. The hero fights furiously, not to save his life, but to achieve his objective: to alter the course of wyrd. He might lose his life, as Hygelac did in Frisia and as Beowulf did in the dragon-fight, and still achieve his objective. Another formulation: at critical moments in combat, the hero remembers his physical strength, and relies on that, rather than on weapons or help from others. When Hrunting failed him in the fight with Grendel's mother, Beowulf "strenge getruwode" (I 533b: trusted in [his] strength) and wrestled ferociously. Prior to the dragon-fight, the poet says that Beowulf "strengo getruwode / anes mannes" (2540b-41: trusted in the strength of one man), for he intended to fight the dragon alone.
71 Lincoln [1975] 1991: 131-37, citing Iliad 9.239 and 305 for Hektor, and 21.542 for Achilles; Durnezil 1942: 11-26.
'8 Lincoln [1975] 1991: 133, citing Boas 1966: 271-77 and the Malay concept of "running amok."
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Above all the hero is "enraged" with battle-fury. In Beowulf s three great fights, the hero's fury matches that of his opponents. Grendel was yrremod (726a), but in the Grendel-fight, "Yrre wwron begen, / rel)e renweardas" (769b70a: both were enraged, fierce, wondrous hall-guards); "wws gehwwber oorum / lifigende lab" (814b-15a: to each [it] was hateful that the other [was] living). Beowulf was yrre oretta (1532a: an angry warrior) against Grendel's mother, gebolgen (1539b: frenzied). "He gebolgen wars" (2550b) against the dragon, whose own rage increased during the dragon-fight. Beowulf's and his opponents' battle-frenzy were expressions of ellen, a primal survival instinct. As the battle-rage of Grendel, Grendel's mother, and the dragon suggest, ellen occurs in malo and in bono. I do not agree with Kaske's formulation, that Beowulf s opponents display. fortitudo without sapientia. If I may be permitted a macaronic coinage, the hero's opponents are motivated by ellen in malo. Beowulf s combative spirit is ellen in bono, because he is fighting to mitigate the destructive force of wyrd. The heroic moment and gePyld (Beowulf 1395-96 and 17056-6a)
GePyld appears twice in Beowulf, but the concept is implied in narrative situations in which the key word does not appear. Gebyld is simultaneously an attribute of character and a discipline. Both senses are implied in Beowulf s words to Hroogar after iEschere's death: Dis dogor lou gebyld hafa weana gehwylces, swa ic be wene to. (Beowulf 1395-96: this day have gePyld in each of woes, as I expect that you will.) By means of the imperative verb hafa, Beowulf exhorts Hroogar to exercise gePyld, a discipline, but through the idiom "swa ic wene to," he acknowledges that Hroogar already possesses gePyld as a virtue. In its immediate context as a consolatio precept, gePyld could mean "patience, longsuffering" (as in most
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translations), but in the context of vengeance, gePyld cannot possibly mean "longsuffering." In his sermon, Hrabgar attributes gePyld to Beowulf: "Eal Pu hit gePyldum healdest mxgen mid modes snyttrum" (1705b-6a). Six linguistic differences conspire to make this sentence untranslatable into modern English: (1) The pronoun hit refers to mcegen proleptically, a syntactic oddity in modern English. (2) Dative-instrumental plurals geibyldum and snyttrum, singular in meaning but marked for intensity (or, alternatively, as semi-adverbs), are impossible in modern English. (3) Magen "strength," specific to humans, implies "human strength," unlike the superhuman miht of Grendel's mother, the merewif mihtig (1519a).79 Just so in the Old English translations of Gregory's Dialogues and Bede's Historia ecclesiastica, though less often in King Alfred's Boethius, Latin virtus is translated as mcegen; Alfred usually translates as crcelt, but these texts almost never use nitht for virtus.8° (4) Mod, like the poetic word hyge, "the immaterial or invisible part of a person," encompasses intelligence, thought, feelings, passions, and courage, the totality of Beowulf's inner being—a non-lexicalized concept in modern English.8l (5) Modern English has no noun that corresponds to gePyld, although the idea can be expressed periphrastically as something like "the strategic capability of biding one's time under adverse circumstances." (6) The verb healdest implies present and future time simultaneously, such that Hroogar describes an attribute of Beowulf's character "now" and as it will be in part II of the epic. In lieu of translation, here is a paraphrase: "You always maintain strategic control of your fighting power with all the shrewdness of your inner being, biding your time." Most modern translations of Beowulf place thematic emphasis on the hero's mcegen (the direct object of healdest), rather than gepyldum and modes Clemoes 1995: 73. 80 Discenza 2005: 110 and 193 n. 94. 81 Anderson 2003a: 333-51. Low (2005) considers diverse meanings of mod without relating the word to a folk-taxonomic semantic system.
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snyttrum. I disagree, because Beowulf s mcegen is a "given," taken for granted, while gyPyldum and modes snyttrum are remarkable. No one seems to think that gyPyld, here, means "patience," but they render gePyldum with impossible translations, like "calmness," "watchfulness." Clark Hall: "Thou dost carry all this might of thine with calmness and discreetness of spirit." Morgan: "You hold it all in watchfulness, / Your strength with wariness of mind." Donaldson: "All of it, all your strength, you govern steadily in the wisdom of your heart."82 An explicit exposition of gekyld appears in The Wanderer (65b-72), where the eardstapa defines gePyld in terms of what it is not and what it is. First, what gePyld is not: Wita sceal gebyldig: ne sceal no to hatheort, ne to hraedwyrde, ne to wac wiga, ne to wanhydig, ne to forht, ne to fgen, ne to feohgifre, ne nwfre gielpes to geom mr he geare cunne. (Wanderer 65b-69: A wise man must be gejiyldig: [he] must not be too angry, nor too hasty of speech, nor too irresolute a warrior, nor too reckless, nor too fearful, nor too servile, nor too greedy for treasure, nor ever to eager in his boast before [he] understands clearly.) "Wita sceal gekyldig" means something like "A wise man must bide his time." Roy Leslie interprets the passage as "a wise man's code of moderation."" If The Wanderer were a Roman consolatio, I would agree, but Bruce Mitchell, recognizing the repetition of adverbial to as meiosis," or, better yet, as an absolute negative intensifier85 (seen also in the Exeter Book Precepts 90-93a), points out that wrath, hasty speech, irresolution, recklessness, cowardice, servility, avarice, and vainglory are absolute pejoratives, not qualities that could 82
Clark Hall [1911] 1952: 107; Edwin Morgan [1952] 1967: 47; Donaldson [1975] 2002:
83
Leslie 1966a: 13.
29.
84 Mitchell 1968a: 191-98, seconded by Dunning and Bliss 1969: 117; cf. Precepts in Krapp and Dobbie, ed., Exeter Book, ASPR 3: 140-43, at p. 143.
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be practiced in moderation. In contrast to these negatives, gebyld is exemplified in the positive when Beom sceal gebidan, pone he beot sprice6 oPPwt collenfer6 cunne geanve hwider hrePra gehygd hweorfan wille. (Wanderer 70-72: A warrior must wait, when he speaks his boast, until, resolute, he knows clearly the thought of his breast wishes to turn.) The Wanderer foregrounds two negative qualities as the "opposite" of geibyld: hasty or foolish speech, and uncontrolled wrath or rage; so again in "Sermo de memoria sanctorum," in the first series of his Lives of Saints. In a conventional discussion of the constancy and patience of Job, his anrced and gePyld (reflecting the Roman Stoic linkage of constantia and patientia), /Elfric emphasizes that during his time of adversity, Job refrained from uttering foolish words:86 ac se anrxda Drib nolde nwfre abugan fram godes lufe ne for ehtnysse . ne for untrumnysse ne for his bwrna lyre . ne nan dyslic word ongean god ne cww6, ac mid micclum gePylde he &mode xfre gode . and mid inn[e]werdre heortan his drihten wfre herode . (But constant Job would never turn from God's love, neither because of persecution, nor sickness, nor the loss of his children, nor did he speak any foolish word against God, but with great gebyld he ever thanked God, and from his inner heart he ever praised his Lord.) Job used gepyld as a weapon to overcome the devil. God requited him with healing, and paid him his twice over for the loss of his possessions (11. 52-54). In a formal exposition on patientia in the same sermon, iElfric pairs gePyld with
85
Mitchell 1985, 1: 484-85, citing Downs 1939.
ZElfric, "Sermo de memoria sanctorum" 47-51, in Lives of Saints, 1881-1900, 1: 33663, at pp. 340-41.
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Polmodnys ("longsuffering") and contrasts both with wrath and with foolish haste:87 Seo feorb miht is patientia . Pwt is gekld and bolmodnys gecwxden kw/ is fret se mann beo gekldig and bol(o)mod for gode . and late mfre his gewitt gewyldre Ponne his yrre foroan se hmlend cww6 bus on his godspelle . In patientia uestra possidebitis animas uestras . Pet us on engliscre sprmce . On eowrum geklde ge habbabt eowre sawla soolice gehealdene . Se heofonlica wis-dom cwxo . fret 'yet yrre hard wununge on ones dysegan bosme fret is 'bonne he bib to hrwd-mod . and se ealwealdenda dema demo mfre mid smyltnysse and we sceolan mid geOylde oferswyOan fret yrre . (The fourth virtue is patientia, that is called gePyld and longsuffering, which is, that a man be gePyldig and longsuffering before God," and ever let his reason be more powerful than his anger, because the Savior says thus in His gospel, In patientia vestra possidebitis animas vestras, that is in English speech, 'In your gePyld you have, verily, the security of your souls'. The heavenly Wisdom says that anger has its dwelling in the bosom of the fool, that is, when he is too hasty, and the all-ruling Judge always judges with mercy, and we must overcome anger with gepyld.) For IElfric, patientia has two aspects, gePyld (biding one's time) and Polmodnys (longsuffering). These terms are complementary, not synonymous. The problem of Hondscioh (Beowulf 728-45a)
GePyld: not the longsuffering of Fate's victim, but the strategic selfcontrol of a wise warrior who waits until the right moment to impact the course of events, as Beowulf did, waiting and watching (7366-38) while Grendel devoured Hondscioh (739-54a). Earlier scholars have explained Beowulf's conduct at this moment as an incongruous detail from folktale sources, inconsistent with his
iElfric, ibid. 334-44, in Lives of Saints 1881-1900, I: 360-61. 88
Skeat translates, "for [the love of] God," p. 361, line 335.
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character.89 Chambers notes that when a hero and his companions encounter a monster or giant in folktales, "the companions and the hero await the foe singly, in succession: the turn of the hero comes last, after all his companions have been put to shame."9° Another explanation: Hondscioh is sacrificed as monster-fodder because common soldiers are expendable.9I Another is that Beowulf was to blame: "Beowulf erroneously thinks he could kill Grendel with a weapon," Martin Puhvel writes, "and thus in refraining from using one in effect sacrifices his retainer in his quest for greater glory."92 Remarking on these rival explanations of Beowulf's "inaction," Biggs notes that while the poet does not condemn him for it, he does not praise him, either.93 Hondscioh's death presents a two-part problem. First, why did he and the other Geats fall asleep in Heorot, knowing that they were in grave danger because of Grendel? Second, why did Beowulf wait until after Hondscioh's death to take action against Grendel? The hero's sleepy companions might be a folktale theme, integrated into the epic. Panzer proposed the "Bear's Son" tale as the source; Chambers proposed "The Hand and the Child"; Von Sydow proposed Irish sources.94 Chambers considers it an unconvincing attempt by the poet to explain why Grendel devoured Hondscioh so quickly.95 Holthausen thought that the Geats's sleep, in nialo, alludes to the disciples' sleep in the Garden of Gethsemane, after Jesus had commanded them to 89 Lawrence 1928: 175-76; Klaeber 1950: 155, note to lines 736b-38; Chambers 1956: 63-64; Puhvel 1979: 98-99.
9° Chambers 1956: 64. 91
A. Moore 1953; Pearce 1966.
92
Puhvel 1995: 72.1 must confess that I cannot follow his logic.
93
Biggs 2003: 644.
"Bear's Son": Panzer 1910: 96-99 and 267; Hoops 1932b: 90; Klaeber 1950: 154. "The Hand and the Child: Chambers [1921] 1967: 478-84; Puhvel 1979: 94-96. Irish sources: Von Sydow 1923. Cf. Desmond 1992: 265. 94
95
Chambers [1921] 1967: 63.
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watch and pray (Matt. 26: 3646).96 In Christian symbology, sleep signifies spiritual torpor. In Arthurian tradition, Lancelot was captured by sorceresses because he fell asleep under a tree in the woods. He failed in the Grail Quest because he slept while the Grail appeared to disclose its mysteries. In The Dream of the Rood, the sleeping reordberend contrast the wakeful Dreamer, who is rewarded for watchfulness by a vision of the Rood. Hamilton thought that their sleep, in bono, signifies God's protection from the power of demons, in the spiritual if not in the physical realm.97 Deskis thought that their sleep was a sign of passive dependence on God. If the outcome of the Grendel-fight was dependent upon God's will, the Geats "might as well sleep, as any action on their part would be either superfluous in light of God's more effective protection, or futile in the absence of his assistance."98 This might be interpreted in bono if the Geats were saints, or in malo because they are warriors, charged with guarding Heorot from a night-stalker. Even so this approach presupposes a Roman conception of Fate, and a fatalism that is incompatible with wyrd. There may be a naturalistic explanation. Grendel's attacks came not at nightfall, or midnight, but in the dark just before dawn, uhthlem (2007b). The Geats fell asleep because they couldn't stay awake all night. One could argue that Beowulf took the night-watch; there was no need for his retainers to suffer sleep deprivation. The sleep of the Geats reflects on Grendel in malo, because he caught Hondscioh in his sleep and devoured him. I know of no early medieval cognates, but in Middle English romance, it is explicitly unchivalrous for a knight to attack a sleeping opponent. In Richard Coer de Lion, a Saracen who owes ransom to 96 Davis (1996: 265) calls this a "throw-away" allusion, not to be taken seriously. For other supposed typological allusions to Gethsemane, Klaeber 1912: 192-93, and Helder 1977: 318-19. 97
Hamilton [1946] 1963: 130-31.
98
Deskis 1996: 31.
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Richard offers to pay off his debt by telling the king how to capture Saladin's treasure. He proposes that Richard sneak up on the treasure-guard "and slay him al faste slepende." Richard replies:99 Fy, a debles! quod the king, God geve the now an evyl endyng! I am no traytour, tak thou keep, To sloo men, whyl they slepe. In The Four Sons of Aymon, Richard happened upon Charles, sleeping, and intended to slay him, but Naymes and Ogier prevented him, "For it were not well doon for to kylle a man that slepeth." In Huon of Burdeux, at a time when Huon's cousin Sebylle was held captive by a giant, she advised him to slay the giant while he slept. "God wyll it shall neuer be layde to my reproche," Huon replied, "that I shulde stryke any man with out defyaunce." In the same romance, the maiden Esclarmonde wanted to bring Huon to the place where her father, his enemy, slept, so that together they could slay him. Huon rejected this ignominious plan. In these examples, the potential victim is never faulted for sleeping. On the contrary, the point is that a knight should refrain from attacking an opponent in his sleep. More controversial than the Geats's slumber is Beowulf's watchful inaction while Grendel devours Hondscioh: Dryóswyö beheold mg Higelaces, hu se manscaaa under fwrgripum gefaran wolde. Ne net se aglwca yldran bohte; ac he gefeng hraoe forman site sltependne rinc. (Beowulf 736b-41a: Hygelac's kinsman observed the mighty [opponent], how the criminal ravager would move during [his] sudden attack. The
99
1947: 161.
Richard Coer de Lion 6381-84. This and the following examples are discussed in Gist
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combatant did not think to delay, but he [Grendel] quickly seized a sleeping warrior on his first foray.) Some critics regard Beowulf s inaction as an exigency of composition, a folktale theme in which one or more of the hero's companions are killed before he goes into action against the monster or giant.m° This, indeed, has been viewed as the "influence of some underlying tradition poorly integrated into the poem."1°1 Alternatively, some critics argue that the Hondscioh episode adds aesthetic value. It allows the poet to portray Grendel's cannibalism in a dramatic, scenic way.102 Hondscioh's death as an easy victim contrasts Beowulf s heroic achievement later. Some critics fault Beowulf for watching while Grendel killed Hondscioh. As their military leader, he was responsible for his warrior's safety, but was derelict in duty in the Hondscioh episode. Martin Puhvel (1995) articulated this position in considerable detail, although later (2005), taking a different position, he exonerated Beowulf. In 1995, Puhvel imagined the Anglo-Saxon concept of heroism as the willingness and stamina to engage in dangerous, demanding combat, motivated by desire for lasting glory (dom). He believed that this concept was the cultural residue of a Woden-cult, still explicit in the Old Norse Elder Edda, Snorri Sturluson's Younger Edda, and several sagas, according to which heroic warriors are "chosen" by Valkyries for an afterlife with (Minn in Valholl, the "Hall of the Slain." The Anglo-Saxon hero is fundamentally egocentric, but serves the interests of kin and community through his combat. Even so, his intense desire for glory easily leads to ofermod ("arrogance or overweening pride"), and hence to avoidable catastrophe for his followers. As such he holds Beowulf responsible for Hondscioh's death, and Byrhtnoo for the deaths of his English jj)rd. m° Klaeber
1950: 155 n.
Puhvel 1979: 46. 102
Von Sydow 1923: 23, disputed by Puhvel 1979: 97-98.
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Stanley Greenfield exonerates Beowulf by means of textual interpretation. He takes agkeca (739a) as a reference to Beowulf, not Grendel: "Nor did the champion [Beowulf] think to delay. But he [Grendel] quickly seized a sleeping warrior." In this view of events, Grendel's sudden movement caught Beowulf off guard. Hondscioh was seized in an unguarded moment. Others exonerate Beowulf for inaction because he needed to study Grendel's method of fighting.103 Bately: "It is his [Beowulf's] decision to allow one of his men to be eaten by Grendel, so that he can better plan his own attack."I°4 Puhvel: Beowulf's "seemingly callous passivity" is motivated by the need to study the ogre's fighting methods.1°5 In fact, the text does not say that Beowulf observed Grendel's fighting methods. I hold Beowulf blameless, too, and note in passing that Hroogar, not the hero, paid a wergild for Hondscioh (1053b-55a). Beowulf s inaction is better called a tactical "delay." He needed to observe Grendel—not the monster's fighting method, but his mode of locomotion, how he positioned his body in motion. Beowulf "beheold... hu [Grendel]... gefaran wolde," 736b-38). He had already planned his tactic. He intended to slay Grendel by means of a combative handshake. In contrast to Grendel's impulsive quickness, Beowulf kept his position on his bed, until Grendel approached and extended his hands (745b-77a). Then he seized Grendel's right hand, quickly, and twisted his arm off. Viewed in this way, Hondscioh's death was not a sacrifice, but the unintended consequence of a necessary fighting tactic on Beowulf's part. In the alternative, had Beowulf lept to Hondscioh's defense, he would have given up both his position and his tactic. He might have saved Hondscioh's body, but not his life, or he might have been killed as a result of attacking impulsively, in the absence of a tactical plan. Viewed this way, the Hondscioh 1°3 Moore 1°4
1953; Pearce 1966.
Bately 2003: 278.
1°5 Puhvel
2005: 26.
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episode is an exemplum of gebyld. Beowulf bode his time until Grendel was in the correct position for the hero's planned mode of attack. GePyld in the dragon-fight (Beowulf 2538-62a) While his Geatish retainers watched on the barrow, Beowulf advanced toward the dragon's cave. A stream flowed from the barrow, passing through a rocky arch. The water was hot: "Wees pare burnan wwlm / heaoofyrum hat" (2546b-47a: the welling of the stream was hot with deadly flames), a reminder of the convergence of water and fire in Grendel's mere. Had Beowulf entered the cave, he wouldn't have been able endure the dragon's flames (2547b-49). Beowulf did not enter the cave. He did not find out for himself that the heat there was unbearable. Instead he stood at the entrance and uttered a stentorious roar (2550-56a). Enraged to hear a human voice, the dragon stirred, exited the cave, and went on the attack. By the time that the poet says, "nms .5mr mara fyrst / freode to friclan" (2555b-56a: there was no more time to sue for peace), eighteen lines were expended. Why the delay in the fight? Two reasons, I think: the influence of a typescene, and the thematic role of gePyld. The hero's stentorious roar at the mouth of his opponent's cave is an IndoEuropean typescene. More accurately, two typescenes converge: (1) the hero roars stentoriously to challenge his opponent to combat, and (2) the hero tracks a monstrous opponent to his remote cave and kills him at the site. Achilles, Rostam, and David of Sassoun are examples of Indo-European heroes who, like Beowulf, at some point challenge opponents to battle by means of a stentorious roar. Herakles, Rostam, Medz Mher, and David of Sassoun are examples of heroes who, like Beowulf, track a monstrous opponent to his cave and slay him there. These are folktale themes, too, evidence of wide diffusion for these migratory typescenes. They converge in Beowulf, as they do in the third cycle of Sasna O'er, in the cattle-raid near the village of Dashtou Padrial. David of Sassoun tracked forty cattle-thieving devs to their remote cave in the mountains. At the
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mouth of the cave, he uttered a stentorious roar, which roused the brigands, who had fallen asleep after feasting on stew made of stolen beef. As the brigands emerged from the cave, he twisted their heads off, one by one. As in the Hondscioh episode, so in the dragon-fight. Beowulf does not rush into battle impulsively. He had a plan. At his command, his smiths prepared a wigbord wrcellic (2339a: skillfully crafted war-shield), eallirenne (2338a: made completely of iron), as defense against the dragon's flames. Be had considered fighting the dragon unarmed, but decided against that because of the flames (25I8b-24a). He insisted on fighting alone, trusting in his own strength (2529-37). Even so he did not rush impulsively into the dragon's cave. Some critics say that this was a sign of his chivalry: he refrained from aggression. I think it illustrates gePyld. As in the Grendel-fight. Beowulf took his planned tactical position and bode his time, waiting for the dragon to come to him.
Gepyld malo GePyld can be viewed in malo, too. Grendel was outraged by the noise of the feast in Heorot, even more so by the scop's song of Creation, but he did not attack Heorot impulsively. Instead he bode his time, Prage gepolode (87a: suffered for a long time), waiting for his opportunity to attack in the darkness of night. In Germanic tradition, gePyld in malo is seen most often in feuds. The grievant bides his time, or hers, enduring the burden of a feud, until the time is ripe for revenge. The exemplum par excellence is Kriemhild. Stunned by Hagen's murder of Siegfried, and Gunther's collusion in this crime, she married Etzel, bore his children, and waited for an opportune time to invite the Burgundians to Hungary on pretext of a midsummer festival. When the time was ripe, she took a fearful revenge, destroying Etzel's court as well as the Burgundian royals and nobles. The Dano-Heabobeard feud is marked by Ingeld's gePyld. This feud takes its impetus from Hroogar's status as Froda's bana, either because he killed Froda
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himself, or inherited this epithet from his brother Heorogar. At the time when Heorot was built, the poet says: ne wws hit lenge ka gen, bat se ecghete akumsweoran wfter wxlnioe wmcnan scolde. (Beowulf 83b-85: the time was not long yet, when the murderous hatred of son-in-law and father-in-law must arise, after the violent slaying [of Froda]). The problematic adverbial "lenga ka gen" has conflicting implications: the time had not yet come; the time would come soon enough. Either way it alludes to Ingeld biding his time for revenge. That time came with Freawaru's marriage to Ingeld. Indeed, he took vengeance at the wedding feast itself (2024b-69a). Although Hroogar hoped to compose the feud with a diplomatic marriage, Beowulf was skeptical, because feuds don't go away when the death of a king is the cause. In the Ingeld episode, the poet says nothing about Ingeld's intentions during the marriage negotiation, but ecghete (84a) tells us all we need to know. The parallel to Kriemhild goes further. Before departing Burgundy, Kriemhild took an oath to abjure her feud, yet pursued it. Ingeld would have taken an oath, too, as his part in the marriage agreement, but violated it at the first opportunity for revenge. Hengest presents another example of gekyld in malo. He took a peace-oath with Finn, and bode his time in Finnsburh through a wcelfagne winter (1128a: a slaughter-stained winter), until a quarrel in the hall presented him with the opportunity to avenge the death of King Hneef. In all three cases, notwithstanding a peace-oath, the feud was only dormant, while Kriemhild, Ingeld, and Hengest bode their time. In all three cases, at Etzel's castle, Heorot, and Finnsburh, the grievant's desire or duty for vengeance transcended peace-oaths taken under duress or (in Ingeld's case) as a diplomatic maneuver. In all three cases, the poet
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takes particular notice of the passage of time between the beginning of the feud and its vengeful fruition.
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Chapter 12 The Dragon's Treasure The dragon's treasure is a three-part problem. Was Beowulf worthy of blame or praise when he learned of the hoard and desired to possess it? Was the curse on the hoard the cause of Beowulf s death, and the reason for its reburial, or does it signify that Beowulf alone has a right to the treasure? Was Wiglaf right or wrong in his decision to bury the treasure in Beowulf s barrow, after Beowulf had bequeathed it to the Geats? To these questions there are almost as many conjectures as there are critics who have responded. I summarize many of them here, and present my own view that Beowulf had a right to the treasure, and that it belonged to the Geats after Beowulf bequeathed it to them. I support my position in five separate arguments, concerning (1) the collectivity of the dragon's hoard, (2) the curse on the treasure, (3) treasure-regality as a legal principle, (4) the problem of Wiglaf, and (5) the genealogy of the dragon-fight as a variant form of the Indo-European cattle-raid. Arguments in favor of treasure reburial Arguments in favor of treasure reburial come under three headings: theological, allegorical, and secular-heroic.
Theological argument assumes a Christian-pagan polarity. Beowulf is a Christian poem with a pre-Christian hero who, lacking Christ's redemption, cannot experience salvation, notwithstanding his superlative heroic virtues. Had he been a flawed hero in a Christian setting, he would have been saved, but even the best of pre-Christian heroes are doomed. It was a fitting memorial that the dragon's hoard was buried with him as a symbol of his damnation, a fate that he
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shared with all the Geats. This was Stanley's view, and Robinson's, who emphasized the poet's regret for Beowulf s theological tragedy.' Allegory—the hero in malo, treasure in mak. Goldsmith contrasts Beowulf with St. Anthony of Egypt and other desert saints who fled in horror from the sight or vision of treasure, which always signifies cupiditas.2 Beowulf was blameless during his youthful adventures in Denmark, but during the dragonfight, desiring the treasure, he fell into the mortal sin of cupiditas. Bolton supplements this brief with another. Desirous of treasure and glory, Beowulf subjected himself to Fortune's Whee1,3 as Troilus did when he cast his affection on Criseyde rather than God. This argument is based on the Augustinian contrast of caritas and cupiditas, and the Boethian one of Providence and Fortune. Allegory
the hero in bono. Cabannis, McNamee, and Donahue argued
that the poem is an "allegory of salvation." Beowulf was a Christ-figure who sacrificed his life for the safety of his people. During the 1950s and 60s, Christfigures abounded in literary criticism, if not in literature. Beowulf s three great fights typify Christ's combat with the Devil at the time of the Crucifixion. The dragon's treasure signifies caritas, because Beowulf desired it for the Geats, not for himself.4 Alternatively, Helder argued that the dragon's treasure signifies "redeemed believers" who are "stolen" or "plundered" from the Devil's hoard by a Christ-like hero. Even so, the treasure remains gold, "an element of the earth." Through reburial, the hoard is "reserved" for "final destruction in the flames of judgment day."5 This view is based upon a shift in the symbolic meaning of the hoard at the time of its reburial. Secular arguments—heroic ethos in ntalo. According to this view, the poet rejects the heroic ethos, its destructiveness in feuds and dynastic conflicts: Stanley 1963a, disputed in Greenfield 1985. Robinson 1985. 2
Goldsmith 1970: 86, 94-96, 226.
3
Bolton 1978: 149-50 and 166-67.
4
Cabannis 1955; McNamee 1960a and 1960b: 190; Donahue 1965: 107-8 and 113.
5
Helder 1977: 324.
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Grendel's feud against Heorot, Ingeld's against Hroogar, Hengest's against Finn, Hygelac's against the Merovingians, the Geatish-Swedish wars, and the dragon's feud with the Geats. Men who fight in such conflicts should not be rewarded with treasure.6 Even after the Grendel-fight, the poet implies disapproval by comparing Beowulf with Sigemund, a dragon-slayer of dark repute.7 Alternatively, according to some critics, the heroic ethos and its signifier, treasure, are esteemed in part I of Beowulf, but not in part II, when the poet discloses the destabilizing impact of feuds on the social order. Feuds are fueled by heroic action; heroic action is rewarded by treasure. By burying the treasure, the poet signifies a desire to end the cycle of violence.8 A variant form of this approach: Beowulf is an ideal hero in part I, but in part II, his proper role as king was to provide for national stability, not to fight as a hero. It was poor kingship to fight the dragon. Because of his death, the security of the Geats is threatened.9 As a commonsense response to this approach, Niles noted that those who criticize Beowulf for dying seem to assume that he was going to live forever.10 In epic tradition, often enough a king is protected by a hero during a time of crisis, but a king who serves as his own champion is held in higher esteem.
Secular argument—heroic ethos in bono: Beowulf s tomb was honored with treasure because he earned high status through heroic deeds. Treasure is a sign of heroic ethos. The dragon's treasures are Beowulf's war-trophies, properly buried with him." If our only guides were Julius Caesar and Tacitus, we would expect a less elaborate funeral. Unlike ancient Gauls who honored their dead with
6
Berger and Leicester 1974.
8
Quirk [1963] 1968: 14-19; Moore 1976: 325-26; Silber 1977.
Crook 1974. 9 Leyerle 1965. Benson (1970: 31-33) presents a variant form of this theory: the Grendelfight was Beowulf's moment of triumph, and subsequent events were a downward slide, ending in utter defeat in the dragon-fight.
1° Niles II
1983: 245.
Leisi 1953; Cherniss 1968: 478-79 and 1972: 79-101; Carnicelli 1975: 246-57.
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"splendid and costly" funerals, burning many possessions on the pyre,12 the Germans kept their funerals simple. For a first-century Germanic prince (as for Arcite in Chaucer's Knight's Tale, 2919-24), the cremation was elaborate; wood for the pyre was selected with care, for not all species were suitable for cremation. Tribesmen built an earthen tumulus, as the Geats did for Beowulf, but Tacitus knows nothing about a timbered superstructure that took ten days to build and was tall enough to serve as a pilotage-landmark (3156-62): "monuments with their elaborate splendor they reject as oppressive to the dead." The early Germans would carry their prince to the pyre together with his personal weapons and sometimes his horse.13 Just so in Egils saga, when Kveld-Ulf Skalla-Grim died, Egil built in a mound on a ness overlooking the Digranes fjord (modern Borgarfjoour), and interred his body together with his horse, weapons, and smith's tools. When Egil's oldest son Bodvar was drowned in a shipwreck, Egil interred him in the barrow next to Kveld-Ulf. Egil himself was buried in a mound in Tjaldanes, together with his clothes and weapons. I4 Just so in the funerals in Beowulf, the corpses of Scyld, Hnaef, and Beowulf were honored with war-gear (38-40, 1110-12a, 3137-40a)—but at Scyld's funeral, and Hnwf s, additional treasures were fetched from the hoard (36b-37, 1107-8a), and at Beowulf's funeral, the dragon-treasure was buried in the barrow (3163-68). The funerals of Kveld-Ulf, Bodvar, Egil, and early Germanic princes were humble compared to the glittering ones of Scyld, Hrixf, and Beowulf. Germanic analogues cut both ways. A century after the death of Attila the Hun (in A.D. 453), Jordanes, in his History of the Goths (ca. A.D. 551), reports that secretly by night (noctuque secreto), men interred gold, silver, and iron objects beside his corpse in the sepulcher. Iron signified conquest; silver signified booty;
12
Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallic° 1.1, 1951: 35.
13
Tacitus, De Germania 27.
14
Egils saga 58, 78, and 85, in Fell 1975: 102, 144-45, and 170.
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gold signified tribute from subject states.[ ' In Snorri's Ynglinga saga, Odin explicates a pagan doctrine of funeral-treasure. If a warrior buries his wealth prior to death, or if it is burned with him on the pyre, he will possess it again in Valhalla.16 Argument fr©m anthropology. Wade Tarzia develops an argument for treasure burial based on analogy to Janet Levy's interpretation of Bronze Age hoards in Scandinavia. As in "traditional" Bronze Age societies, so in the Iron Age culture of Beowulf, "ancient chiefs make arrangements for a hoard to be left undisturbed," proscribed by ancient law (ealde riht, 2330a), and by the threat of supernatural retribution. Why would the Bronze Age power elite collect and bury conspicuous wealth?—To mitigate resentment on the part of peasants, while preserving their status and power. "Look, but don't touch," the tradition says. This is why, in the mere, Beowulf does not take Grendel's treasure-hoard, except for the sword-hilt (1612-16a). In part II of the poem, Beowulf s desire to possess the hoard represents a pragmatic post-Iron-Age ethos, whilst Wiglaf s reburial of it represents an earlier Bronze Age ethos." Pragmatism or Bronze Age superstition? Surber-Meyer proposes a similar polarity in another anthropological analysis, based upon research in gift-giving and reciprocity practices undertaken during the 1970s and 80s.18 She posits a contrast between "symbolic capital" (treasure as a sign of military valor) and utilitarian "economic capital." Over his long life, Beowulf earned symbolic capital, but "he himself thinks of the concrete treasure only as economic benefit 15 Jordanes, Getica 49, 1882: 258, "noctuque secreto cadaver terra recondirum copercula primum auro, secundum argento, tertium ferri rigore communiunt, significantes tali argumento potentissimo regi amnia convenisse: ferrum, quod gentes edomuit, aurum et argentum, quod omatum rei publicae utriusque acceperit. (At night in secret, by the corpse [of Attila] they add gold, silver, and iron, thus signifying that these things belonged to this powerful king: iron, by which he conquered peoples, gold and silver, by which he received riches and the commonwealth [of tributary states].) Cf. Jordanes 1960, English translation. 16
Ynglinga saga, chap. 8, cited in Taylor 1986: 199.
17
Tarzia 1989: 108-9, citing Levy 1979 and 1982.
18
In particular, she cites research in Papua New Guinea by C. A. Gregory 1980 and 1981.
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for his people." Due to confusion in his thinking, Beowulf was far too generous to his retainers, and created too much "symbolic" distance between himself and them. His long, peaceful reign is faulted, too: in the absence of warfare, there was no "need for strategic alliances, exogamic marriages (of the peace-weaving kind), fosterage, acquisition of slaves and the like." According to this view, when the Geats reburied the hoard, they rectified the imbalance between treasuresymbolism and treasure-utility, by using the treasure symbolically as a funeralhoard, rather than "economically" as Beowulf had wanted. I9 I am reminded of Payne's argument that Beowulf was killed in the dragonfight as punishment for his long reign of peace, a violation of wyrd, for it was mankind's lot always to be at war. Pace Surber-Meyer and Payne, I think the poet approved Beowulf's fifty-year reign because it was peaceful. His reign was proof that heroic society was not fated for constant warfare. Here I must register my objection to "anthropological" interpretations of Beowulf that are based upon analogy to "archaic" societies. In anthropological criticism, "archaism" is the new "primitivism," an artificial construct, just like the Savage Mind imagined by Bastian, Lubbock, Spenser, Levy-Bruhl, and Jung. In treasure-hoards and giftgiving ceremonies, the most remarkable treasures are battle-standards and torques, both examples of Roman cultural influence. From the second century B.C. onward, Gothic and West Germanic tribal contacts with the Roman Empire were constant and increasingly intimate. By the first century A.D., it was possible to think of Gaul and northern Italy as a Romano-Celto-Germanic cultural area, a Kulturbund that gradually extended to Spain, north Africa, the Netherlands, Britain, and Germany. The notion of Germanic cultural purity, preserved in primitive form in the ethos of Beowulf, is an unhistorical construct that ignores the realities of Germanic, Celtic, and Roman languages and cultures in contact for seven centuries or more in western Europe.
19
Surber-Meyer 1994: 184-85.
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Arguments for keeping the treasure With regard to Beowulf s acquisition of treasure, some arguments are less persuasive than others. One of these is an argument from psychological allegory: the dragon's treasure allegorizes Beowulf s "buried consciousness." it is a -creative power capable of releasing light where there is darkness and restoring
harmony and peace where there is suicidal strife."2° After fifty years of peace in Geatland, I don't know what "strife" means in this context. Another approach, from sacral kingship: Beowulf's kingship was marred by his failure to give gifts, because the kingdom was impoverished. By means of this failure, he violated ealde riht (2330a), the "ancient law-" of kingship. His acquisition of the dragon's treasure allowed him to rectify this shortfall in one last act of gift-giving. Taylor maintains this view even though Wiglaf reminded the ten retainers of mead, war-gear, and treasures that they received in the past (263346a). Taylor's argument: Beowulf never gave them aught, so they deserted him in the dragon-fight.21 One wonders why Wiglaf reasserts the truth of Beowulf s giftgiving after the retainers return to the scene (2865-72), and why the poet refers to Beowulf as "Pone Pe him hringas geaf / xrran mwlum" (3034b-35a: the one who gave them rings on former occasions). Most critics understand ealde riht as "natural law," a Judeo-Christian concept,22 or "the eternal law of God."23 Either sense is compatible the Geats' and Danes' profile as righteous pre-Christians. By comparison, "the ancient law of sacral kingship" is too specific, a by-product of special pleading. Treasure as a symbol of heroic worth. Some critics emphasize treasure received, or won in combat, as the sign of personal glory for warriors, in Homer
20
Nagler 1980: 153.
21
Taylor 1997.
22
Donahue 1949-51; Bloomfield 1962: 39-41.
23
Hardy 1979: 437; Niles 1983: 303, n. 8.
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and in Beowulf 24 This is true, but the significance of treasure goes beyond personal glory. Coming back from the mere in the aftermath of Grendel's death, a Danish scop praises Sigemund for slaying a dragon, a hoard-guardian (hordes hyrde (887a); by that means he won dom unlytel (885b: no small praise). No question here about Sigemund's right to the dragon's hoard, notwithstanding his bad reputation in Norse tradition. In the Norwegian Thidreks saga, Thidrek of Bern and his foster-father Hildebrand took treasure from a mountain cave after slaying its berserkir guardians, Grim and his wife Hild, a formidable male combatant followed by an even stronger female, just like Grendel and his dam. Hildebrand and Thidrek are like Beowulf and Wiglaf, especially when Hildebrand is caught in Hild's monstrous grip and Thidrek comes to his aid. Thidrek gained fame in many lands because of his acquisition of Grim's treasure.25 In the Nibelungenlied, Siegfried retrieved the Nibelung treasure from a cave after slaying its contentious owners, the brothers Shilbung and Nibelung, and the giants and army that guarded them. He overcame their trickster-dwarf Alberiche, too, and became "des hordes herre" (lord of the treasure).26 In the Nibelungenlied, the villain is not Siegfried, but Hagen, who murdered the hero and sank the Nibelung treasure in the Rhine, to prevent Kriemhild from inheriting it. Treasure and social cohesion. In gift-giving ceremonies, the king acts as an agent of social cohesion.27 Twice in Beowulf Heremod is cited as a failed king because of two companion defects: miserliness and tyranny (898-915 and 1709b22a). Gift-giving signifies "the very highest ideals of fidelity and sacrifice,"28 even "divinely sanctioned human activity,"29 such that treasure is "celebrated, 24 For Homer: Finley [19561 1965: 131-43. For Beowulf: Leisi 1953, and Cheney 1968 and 1972, chapter 4, "Treasure: The Material Symbol of Human Worth." 28
Thidreks saga 17, in Haymes 1988: 18-19.
26
Nibelungenlied 3, strophes 83-98, in De Boor 26-30.
27 Greenfield 1972: 10-11 and 115-17, 1974, and 1985; John Hill 1982: 187-93 and 1997: 259-65; Niles 1983: 213-33. 28
Irving 1968: 208.
29
Lee 1972: 221.
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even gloried in."3° Gregory of Tours, in his History of the Ft-clks. (ca. 594) represents Fredegund (d. 597), queen of Chilperic I of Neustria (reigned 561-584), criticizing the Merovingian kings' practice of excessive taxation, which fills cellars with wine, granaries with grain, and treasuries with gold, silver, gems, torques, and imperial ornaments, when these things should be used to promote general prosperity in the kingdom.3I Wine, grain, and treasure are not meant to be separated from their rightful owners, or hoarded by kings. Fredegund's criticism implies a covert Germanic circulation-theory of treasure as the basis of reciprocal exchange. Just so, Hrodgar gave Beowulf treasures and horses. On his return to Geatland, Beowulf gave them to Hygelac and Hygd, keeping back only one bridled horse (2152-76). An eighteenth-century parallel is the circulation-flow theory of money developed by Richard Cantillon (1755) and Francois Quesnay (1758): prosperity in all three classes of society is dependent upon the unimpeded circulation of wealth, facilitated by the circulation of money, its symbol. These French pioneers of Economics had English antecedents, in the nominalist philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, the economic tracts of Sir William Petty,32 and William Harvey's discovery (1616) of the circular flow of blood in the body.33 Quesnay argued that kings should not coin money 30
McGalliard 1978: 251.
31 Gregory of Tours, Historia Francoruni 5.34. "Thesaurizamus nescientes, cui congregemus ea. Ecce thesauri remanent a possessione vacui, rapinis ac maledictionibus pleni! Numquid non exundabant prumptuaria vino? Numquid non horrea replebantur frumento? Numquid non errant thesauri referti auro, argento, lapidibus praeciosis, monilibus vel reliquis imperialibus ornamentis?" (We hoard treasure not knowing for whom we gather [these things]. Lo, treasure remains deprived of owners, but full of plunder and curses! Are our cellars not abundant with wine? Are our granaries not filled with grain? Are our treasuries not filled with gold, silver, precious gems, torques, or other imperial ornaments?). 32 Petty, in Ouantulzancunque (1627), anticipates Hobbes's nominalist political thought, regarding the "whole Nation" as "many particular Men united" (Question 24, in Petty 1964-64, 2: 446. 33 William Harvey (1578-1657) announced his discovery of pulmonary circulation in 1616, and published the results of his studies in 1628. Harvey was the third physician to demonstrate the unity of the blood-circulation system, in contrast to Galenic medical theory, which held that the arterial and capillary systems are separate. His predecessors were Ibn al-Nafis of Cairo (1213-1288), whose work was unknown in the West, and the Spanish theologianphysician Michael Servetus (1511-53), who described the pulmonary system in an otherwise
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disproportionate to the nation's wealth, nor should they remove money from circulation by hoarding it. Either extreme reduces a nation to poverty.34 Of course there are differences between Germanic reciprocity and Enlightenment economics. The French economists, as nominalists, were alert to the difference between wealth and money. It is difficult for people to discern the difference, Quesnay asserts, especially when their own money is involved. Analogy to the circulation of blood is telling, for treasure is the Life-blood of heroic society in epic, like money in Enlightenment theory. The parallel gives credence to Greenfield's evocation of the "body politic," a submerged theme in the Beowulf poet's allusions to head, hearts, hands, and feet.35 The collectivity of the dragon's hoard
In critical discussions of the dragon's cup, some critics focus on the cup as a symbol, in bono as a "whetting cup" or a sign of convivial prosperity,36 in malo as an allegorical "cup of death."37 Others focus on theft versus combat,38 an IndoEuropean polarity.39 Another polarity is the contrast of distributive and collective contexts. The dragon's cup relates to the hoard in two ways: distributively as "one of many," and collectively as "part to whole." A thousand years earlier, the dragon's treasure belonged to an unknown people whose Last Survivor hid it in a barrow (224113-46a). A dragon settled there, and hoarded the treasure for three centuries (2278-80a). Beowulf won it
theological treatise, Christianismi restitutio (1553). Most copies of this work were burned, along the Servetus himself, by John Calvin in Geneva. 34
Quesnay [1758] 1766: 16, 70. 138, and 145-46.
35
Greenfield 1979. Magennis 1996: 62-73, at p. 70; Frank 2005.
37
Carleton Brown 1940; Magennis 1985: 522-26; Russom 1988.
38
Tripp 1983: 44-46; Andersson 1984; Lockett 2005: 371-72.
39
I discuss this below, as part of the Indo-European myth of the primal cattle-raid.
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from the dragon in combat, and bequeathed it to the Geats. For this he thanked God for the treasure
ks oe ic moste minum leodtun er swyltdge swyic gestrynan. (Beowulf2797-98: with which I am enabled to increase such [prosperity] in my people, before the day of my death).
Another translation: "that I might get such for my people before my death-day."4°
Gestrynan (beget, engender) implies an organic metaphor.41 "Increase" is the best I can do to convey the submerged metaphor of propagation and growth. In syntactic collocation with fiyetwa (2794a), gestrynan suggests gestreon (treasure), its nominal derivative; hence my translation, "increase [prosperity]." National treasure signifies life; buried treasure, death. The distributive-collective polarity is thematic, but has a linguistic foundation. Most concrete nouns are grammatically distributive "count" nouns. The catalogue of war-gear deposited in Scyld's funeral-ship includes (in dative plural) "hildeweepnum ond heat
/ billum ond byrnum" (39-40a: battle-
weapons and battle-weeds, swords and byrnies), paired sets of offensive and defensive armor, count-nouns that are distributive in their semantic orientation. The poet sums these up as madma mcenigo (41a: many treasures), and ceht (possession): Scyld's treasures passed into the possession of the sea, "on flodes wht" (42a). If we were asked to define these words, we would say that maddum is a treasure given as a gift or offering, and ceht is any sort of possession, including treasure. The same is true of fiyetwe (finely crafted treasure), lac (gift, offering, war-booty), and Peodgestreon (treasure of the people, public treasure, a national treasure): "Nalws hi hine lxssan lacum teodan, / Peodgestreonum" (43-44a: they 40 Donaldson [1975] 2002: 47. This is probably as close as anyone can come to a literal translation from the point of view of grammar, but at the sacrifice of semantic nuance. Donaldson's translation does not convey what the passage means. 41 Taylor (1986, and 1997: 230-31 and 236-37) discusses organic metaphors in words for treasure; so, too, Surher-Meyer 1994: 19-43 and 86-87, and Vickrey 1995.
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gave him no meaner gifts, public treasure). We would not define these words by enumerating torques, bracelets, cups, brooches, harps, mailcoats, swords, and so on, because they are inherently "collective" terms. Only when individual items are given, received, and put to use by individuals do we enumerate them. Prior to Scyld's death, the weapons, war-weeds, sword-blades and byrnies were used by individuals; hence they were identified distributively. When the Danes gathered them as an offering for Scyld's funeral-ship, they became a collectivity: maddum, frcetwe, lac, and peodgestreon. The distributive catalogue (39-40a) is framed by collective terms, introduced as madrna .fela and fi-cetwa (36b, 37b), later called niadma mcenigo, lacum, peodgestreonum (41a, 42a, 43b, 44a). The gilded battlestandard, segen ge[lJdenne (47b), an exception, stands above the collective mass of treasure until it, too, fades from view as part of the hlceste (52b: cargo) whose maritime destination is unknown. As a recurring pattern in Beowulf hoarded treasures are imagined as a collectivity, but when treasures are free from a hoard and put into circulation as useful items or gifts, they are individuated, and referred to distributively. In Grendel's cave, Beowulf saw madmcehta... monige (1613); the mass of treasures is undifferentiated, except for the sword-hilt that the hero took back to Heorot. Finn's treasures are mentioned twice: first, icge gold was "ahzefen of horde" (1107b-8a icge gold [was] removed from the hoard) for Hnwf's pyre;42 second, after Finn's death, the Danes seized eal ingesteald (1155a: all [his] domestic property) as war-booty, and returned with it to Denmark—everything they could find in the house, sigla, searogimma (1158a: jewels, gems). Finn's treasure, when kept in the treasury (hord, 1108a) or burnt on Hnwis pyre, is an undifferentiated mass of gold (1107b), ingesteald (1155a), but when the Danes seize it for transport, it is specified by synecdoche as sigla and searogimma (1157a). The semantic perspective shifts from collective to distributive. 42 lege seems to be an adjective, but its meaning is unknown. Rival translations, such as "splendid," "heaped up," "hoarded," "native," or "his own," are based on narrative context.
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The collective-distributive polarity governs the poet's first description of the dragon's treasure, in the Elegy of the Last Survivor. In a fourfold sequence of collective terms (the first three spoken by the poet, the fourth by the Last Survivor), the treasure is designated as an undifferentiated mass: eorla gestreona,
hordwyrOne clad, fcettan goldes, eoria cehte (2244b-48a: treasures of noblemen, a hoard-worthy assembly, finely crafted gold, the possessions of noblemen). In his vocative address to the hruse (2247a), the Last Survivor says of the eorla cehte (2248a), "hyt wr on & gode begeaton" (2248b-49a: good men of old obtained it from you). This has a double meaning. First, it means that his tribe had obtained it intact as treasure trove:43 Second, it means that a millennium earlier, a race of giants extracted gold and gems from the earth and fabricated precious objects. For this reason. Wiglaf calls the hoard "eald enta geweorc" (2774a: the ancient work of giants). Although cehte is plural, singular pronoun hit refers to the hord as an indivisible whole. Collective epithets define a hoard, but when the Survivor recalls its former use by individuals in a vibrant society, his semantic orientation is distributive: [lc] nah hwa sweord wege 000e fe[ormie] fxted wwg, dryncfeet deore.
(Beowulf 2252b-54a: I have no one who can bear the sword or polish the treasure-adorned cup, the precious drinking vessel).
The Survivor continues in the distributive mode. Action verbs, and hints of personification, suggest the potential vitality of treasure. The last item in the catalogue, the swift horse, recalls that nzearh is collocated with madazon in a formulaic verse used to designate gifts given by a king in his role as ring-giver (1048a, 2166a): Sceal se hearda helm [hyr]sted golde 43
Greenfield 1982: 138, n. 108.
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fxturn befeallen; feormynd swefaO, pa Se beadogriman bywan sceoldon, ge swylce seo herepad, sio hilde gebad ofer borda gebrmc bite irena, brosnaO xfter beorne. Ne mmg byrnan hring wfter wigfrturian wide feran, hwleOum be healfe. Ns hearpan wyn, gomen gleobeames, ne god hafoc geond seal swinges, ne se swifta mearh burhstede beateo. (Beowulf 2255-65a: the sturdy helmet adorned with gold must lose its
plates; the polishers sleep [in death], those who were required to polish the war-mask [= helmet visor]; just so the war-coat, which formerly endured the bite of iron [swords] over shields clashing, decays with the warrior [who once used it]. Nor can the byrnie's ring travel widely with [its] warlord, by the warriors' sides. [Here] is no joy of the harp, music of the glee-wood; no good falcon swings through the hall, no swift horse stamps [his feet] in the courtyard.) The Survivor regrets the loss of joys derived from using the treasure. Transcending his voice, the poet evokes future possibilities. A double fate awaits it. The Geats could share a national treasure, or rebury it as a funeral-hoard. Distributive and collective modes signify contrasting fates. Wiglaf s messenger, too, refers to the hoard as a collective mass when he announces that it will be burnt on Beowulf s pyre: Ne scel anes hwmt meltan mid Pam modigan, ac peer is mahma hord, gold unrime grimme gescea[po]d, and nu xt sioestan sylfes feore sceall brond fretan, beagas [geboh]te. led Peccean. (Beowulf 3010b-15a: nor shall only a portion melt with the brave [man],
but there is a hoard of treasures, countless gold grimly purchased, and now at the end, rings bought with his own life. These the [fire-]brand must consume, the flame [must] embrace [it].)
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Beagas is inherently distributive, but other treasure-words (bold-faced in my quotation) are collective. The messenger asserts the hoard's collectivity: "Ne sceal anes hwxt," not a small remnant, but all. Gold unrime is doubly collective.
Gold is inherently so, even more so in modern English where it is a "non-count" noun. Unrime is ambiguous: it means that the treasure is immense; it also means that gold cannot be counted. Golden objects can be counted, but not gold. In distributive contrast, the messenger cites alternative uses of treasure: nalles eon wegan ma6eum to gemyndum, ne mwgo scyne habban on healse hringweorounge, ac sceal geomormod, golde bereafod, oft nalles 2ene elland tredan.... Nalles hearpan sweg wigend weccean.
(Beowulf 3015b-19b and 3023b-24a: not at all [shall] a nobleman [be
allowed] to carry off treasures as souvenirs, nor [shall] a beautiful maiden wear a glorious ring around her neck, but, bereft of gold, often, more than once [must] wander elsewhere.... Not at all shall the harp's music awaken warriors.)
By synecdoche, the torque and harp denote the hoard, just as merismus-like allusion to maidens and warriors denotes all the Geats. The passage as a whole alludes to the Elegy of the Last Survivor, implying a cyclical view of history. A liminal moment for the hoard comes when Wiglaf ransacks it (2743b82). Beowulf examines it and thanks God for allowing him to win it in combat (2783-2801). In his ultimate act as a ring-giver, Beowulf bequeaths it to the Geats as their national treasure. The passage begins and ends with a "collective" frame:
hord, sinc, goldceht, and madoumwelan (2744-49a)44 at the beginning; inadnzum, gold, frcetwa, madma hord (2788-99a) at the end. In between, when Wiglaf examines the treasure, its utilitarian possibilities come to the fore. Treasures on
44 An exception: swegle searogimmas (2749a: bright, artistically cut gems), which Beowulf anticipates seeing as part of the treasure.
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the floor, and tapestries on the wall ("wundur on wealle," 2759a), capture his gaze, and ours: gems (madoumsigla fealo), cups (orcas), bowls (fatu), and many helmets (helm monig) and arm-rings (earmbeaga fela), perhaps a synecdoche for mailcoats (2756-64a). Then his attention shifts to a gilded battle-standard, the brightest in the world (beaca beorhtost, 277a), a "segn eallgylden / heah ofer horde" (2767b-68a: a standard all gilded, high above the hoard), just as on Scyld's funeral-ship, a segen geNdenne was set "heah ofer heofod" (47b-48a: gilded standard, high over [Scyld's] head). Between Wiglaf s downward and upward gaze comes the poet's comment about gold in the ground: Sinc ease mmg, gold on grund[e], gumcynnes gehwone oferhigian, hyde se de wylle. (Beowulf 2764b-66: Treasure easily may, gold in the ground, overwhelm any man's senses, hide it who will.) This is ambiguous. Most critics take it as a cautionary gnome. If it warns against temptation to riches, the last verse might mean "heed it who will," but "gold on grund[e]," an explicit allusion to treasure trove, supports "hide," a verb often collocated with treasure.45 It might mean that treasure has a mysterious power to resurface as trove, no matter who buries it. Bemal Diaz cites a Spanish proverb a propos of a quarrel among conquistadors over gold ingots stolen from Montezuma's treasury: "Gold and love affairs are hard to hide."46 The dragon had "unrihte inne gehydde" (3059: wrongly hid [it] within), but now it has come back. Niles: "Treasure, gold in the ground, can easily outsmart [oferhigian] anyone, no matter who hides it!"47 If oferhigian is cognate with ON hfirr and OE (un-)hriore, both derived from Gmc hiwa
hiwa (peace), the verb might mean "cause
45
Klaeber 1950: 220n.; Greenfield 1982: 130.
46
Diaz , Conquest of New Spain 32.2, 1956: 294.
47
Niles 1983: 299, n. 6, endorsed by Greenfield [1985] 1989: 79-80.
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someone to break the peace," and the gnome might mean that "treasure, buried gold, may well lead anyone into a position of an outlaw, conceal it who will."48 If the passage is an interpolation by a meddling monk,49 it might not matter what it means. My conjecture: the passage is not a cautionary gnome. Instead, it explains why Wiglaf spent more time than he should have done gazing on the hoard, while Beowulf sat outside the barrow, mortally wounded (2715b-17a). Oferhigian, connected not with *hriore but with hyge: overwhelm the mind and the senses, astonish, dazzle. "Treasure trove may easily dazzle any man's consciousness, no matter who hides it." As a collectivity, the hoard has this power. Later, recovered from astonishment, Wiglaf hastily carried objects to Beowulf: "AT was on ofoste" (2783a: the messenger was in haste). Wiglaf s epithet, ar, signifies his role as Beowulf's obedient servant, a role that he abandons after Beowulf's death. The curse on the treasure (Beowulf 3051-75) The treasure was one of three "wonders" that the messenger promised the Geats, along with the body of their ring-giver (3033-37), and the dragon's body, fifty feet long (3038-46): "bunan ond orcas, / discas lagon ond dyre swyrd" (3047U-48: cups and bowls, dishes lay [there, by the dragon], and precious swords). These individuated objects give way to the collectivity of yrfe, gold, and hord in the first citation of an ancient curse on the treasure: Donne wars [met yrfe eacencneftig, iumonna gold galdre bewunden, dam hringsele hrinan ne moste gumena xnig, nefne god sylfa, sigora soocyning sealde 1)am de he wolde 48 Lehmann 1969: 233-34. Dazzled by Germanic gems, I endorsed Lehmann's view earlier (Anderson 1977: 156-57 and I63n.), but present a different interpretation here. 49 Greenfield (1974: 114-15) observes that if lines 2764b-67a were omitted, 2767b would continue the alliterative pattern already present in 2764a; hence interpolation is possible. Alternatively, as I proposed earlier (Anderson 1977: 156) the passage serves as a rhetorical marker between Wiglaf's looking down at the treasure, and looking up at the battle-standard.
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(he is manna gehyld) herd openian, efne swa hwylcum manna, swa him gemet ouhte. (Beowulf 3051-56: Then [a millennium earlier] that exceedingly wellcrafted heritage, the gold of ancient men, was encircled by a curse, such that no man might touch it in the ring-chamber, unless God Himself, the true King of victories—He is the Protector of men—granted that he could open the hoard, even such a man as He thought worthy.) "Galdre bewunden" (encircled by a curse): traditionally a spell-binder draws a circle around the scene of the incantation ritual, signifying a magic boundary that proscribes the object of the curse. The danger of cursed treasure is a Germanic convention. According to Gregory of Tours, Fredegund objected to the Merovingians' practice of hoarding treasure because by that means they separated it from its lawful owners and burdened it with plundering and curses ("rapinis ac maledictionibus pleni").5° In the "Waking of Angantyr" verses in Hervarasaga, Hervor, desiring to avenge her father's slaying, recovered Tyrfing (an heirloom sword) from his grave, but suffered grievous horrors, among them the death of her son, because of a curse placed upon it.51 In the Eddic "Lay of Fafnir," Sigurd won the Rhinegold in combat with a dragon, but suffered from its curse.52 In Orvar-Oddsaga, "the hero Odd digs up a Lapp funeral treasure, only to return it to its place to escape the magic it lets loose, once disturbed."53 The curse on the treasure, invoked twice in the poem, often is cited as a reason for interring it in Beowulf's barrow. That might be a reason, but not a justification. It is said by some critics, though not by the poet, that the curse caused the dragon's death, and Beowulf S.54 If that is so, why did it take 300 years "Gregory 51 Gordon 52
of Tours, Historia Francorum 5.34.
[1927] 1957: xxxiv; Taylor 1987: 200.
Taylor 1986: 200; Tarzia 1989: 112-13.
53 Orvar
Oddsaga, chap. 5, cited in Taylor 1986: 200.
54 Ursula Dronke (1969), citing Scandinavian parallels, suggests that the curse was expiated once it brought about the deaths it prophesied.
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for the curse to do its work on the dragon? Why was Beowulf mortally wounded bejbre he saw the treasure? The curse is ambiguous, in malo and in bono.55 In its first seven verses, it portends dire consequences for anyone who touches the hoard. In its last seven verses, it exempts anyone whom God allows to open it. By narrative collocation with the Geatish spectacle of three wonders (Beowulf s body, the dragon's, and the hoard), the Geats' fear of it may have been their motive for reburying the hoard, although Wiglaf had another motive: to deprive them of treasure he thought they didn't deserve. A curse may protect a treasure in bona, as illustrated by a poetic inscription of Eduwen's brooch, found at Sutton in the Isle of Ely:56 iEduwen me ag. Age hyo Drihten. Drihten nine awerie de ne hire wtferie, Buton hyo me selle hire agenes willes. (iEduwen owns me. May the Lord keep her. May the Lord curse him who would take me from her, unless she were to give me according to her own will.) Grants of land, rights, and privileges often end with maledictions threatening damnation to anyone who fraudulently alters or removes the granting document, unless that person makes amends before his death.57 Alfred, in Boethius, represents buried treasure in nialo as "dangerous" (frecnan), and in bono as a gift of God. In malo, he attributes its discovery to the greed of a miser (gitsere), in a passage where Wisdom contrasts the felicity of the Golden Age with the luxury, strife, and greed of later times, and asks:
55 Lawrence (1928: 213-20) and Brodeur (1959: 128-29) argue that the curse is a vehicle for irony, because it causes Beowulf's death even though he thanks God for the hoard. In my view the curse is ambiguous, not ironic. 56
Stanley 1987: 402.
57
Surber-Meyer 1994: 33-34.
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hwxt se forma gitsere wa=re, be wrest ba eorban ongan delfan efter golde, and after gimmu, and lm frecnan deowyrOnesse funde be wr behyd was and behelod mid Satre eorban? (Alfred, Boethius 1899: 34.10-13: Alas, who was that earliest miser, who first began to dig the earth after gold, and after gems, and found the perilous treasure that before was hidden and covered by the earth?) But elsewhere in the same book, Wisdom, citing Aristotle's Physics, attributes the acquisition of treasure trove to God, explaining the relationship between chance and necessity: Men cwwdon gio bonne him hwzet unwenunga geb[irede], p p were weas gebyred; swylc[e hwa] nu delfe eoroan, and finde Mr bonne goldhord, and secge done p p sie weas gebered. Ic wat peah gif se delfere Pa. eorOan n[o] ne delfe, ne non mon wr b gold bwr ne hydde, bonne ne funde he hit no. ForOy hit nms na weas funden; ac sio godcunde foretiohhung hued bone be he wolde p he gold hydde, eft and oone be he wolde p hit funde. (Alfred, Boethius 1899: 140.10-17: Men said before him [Aristotle], when anything happened to them unexpectedly, that it happened by chance: as if anyone should dig in the earth, and find there a hoard of gold, and then say, that it happened by chance. I know, however, that if the digger had not dug the earth, or a man had not before hid the gold there, then he would not have had it. Therefore it was not found by chance. But the divine predestination instructed when He would that he should hide the gold, and afterwards whom he would, that he should find it.) Aristotle does not allude to treasure trove in his discussion of luck, chance, and necessity in Physics, but in Nichomachean Ethics and Rhetoric he associates treasure trove with the problem of chance and necessity." Yrfe (3051a: inheritance, legacy), a legal term (Latin legatum), in bono implies that the hoard was meant to be recovered. The curse does not apply to a man ordained by God to open the hoard. This provision need not be seen as a Christian reversal of a pagan curse. According to Snorri's Ynglinga saga, Odin 58
Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics 3.5.1112'27, and Rhetoric 1.5.1362'9.
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had the power to retrieve buried treasure,59 Beowulf was not the first epic to present a spell ambiguously as both curse and blessing. In Gilgarnesh, Enkidu blames Shamhat for his mortal illness, his role as victim in a "death of the substitute" scenario. After Sharnash rebuked him for ingratitude (for Shamhat had bestowed on him the benefits of civilization), Enkidu repeated his curse, but reformulated it as a blessing.° A second allusion to the curse reiterates ambiguity in nzalo and in bow: Swa hit oó domes dg, diope benemdon peodnas mwre, pa owt per dydon, pt se secg were synnum scildig, hergum geheaberod, hellbendum fwst, wommum gewitnad, se bonne wong strude. Ns he goldhwxte; gearwor hwfde agendes est xr gesceawod. (Beowulf 3069-75: So until Doomsday, the famous princes deeply cursed it [the treasure], so that whoever did that there, that man would be guilty of crimes, imprisoned with idols [— pagan gods, = devils], fast in the bonds of hell, grievously tormented, whoever rifled the place. He [Beowulf] was not [guilty of, scildig] gold-greed; earlier, [he] had more earnestly sought the Owner's [God's] favor.) Lines 3074-75 are rightly compared to the gifstol passage (168-69), equally ambiguous in its allusion to the preternatural protection of Hrobgar's throne. Scholars have proposed many solutions to the goldhwcete puzzle, often resorting to textual emendation.61 I cannot promise success where others are confounded, but my object is to understand the curse on the treasure, so I must make the attempt.
59
Taylor 1986: 200, citing Ynglinga saga 7.
Gilgarnesh 7.90-162, in George 2003, 1:638-43. Summarized in Dobbie 1953, ASPR 4: 272-74, Wetzel 1993: 162-65, and Tanke 2002: 357-58, n. 8. 61
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Lines 3074-75 form a paratactic, adversative sentence62 in which a negative clause (3074a) precedes a positive one (3074b-75): he was not one thing, but was something else. Any viable solution ought to be expressed with the same syntactic simplicity. He refers to both secg (3071a) and Beowulf. The secg is any hypothetical man who would be guilty of crimes if he rifled the treasure, unless he did so with God's favor. Beowulf is such a man.63 Agend is an epithet for God. Hwcet, in the unique compound goldhwcete, is an adjective meaning "valiant" or "eager"; just so in the compound fi)rdhivat, twice (1641a and 2476a), and seven times when hwcet is a simplex:64 Grammatically, the adjectival form should be goldhwcet, but by functional shift, an adjective used as a noun might be marked for dative or accusative singular as goldhwcete -hwate. In Exodus 124, "nymoe he modhwate Moyses hyrde" (unless they, with resolute courage, obeyed Moses), modhwate is marked as dative singular. Another possible analogue, in The Phoenix: "briwa asceeceo / fekre flyhtwate" (144b-45a). Flyhthwate is grammatically ambiguous. It could be an adjective (thrice he shakes his flightready plumage), or a dative singular noun (thrice he shakes his plumage in eagerness for flight).65 Goldhwcete could mean "in eagerness for gold" in bono, or "in greediness for gold, subject to gold-greed" in malo. Greenfield, translating "in gold-fever," implies that goldhwcete is dative singular. His understanding of the passage differs from mine (he accepts Klaeber's emendation of Nces he to ncelne66), but I agree that "in gold-fever" is possible.67 62
On paratactic adversatives: Mitchell 1985, 1: 694, §1685.
63 Many critics claim that he refers to either the secg or Beowulf, but there is no reason why the pronoun cannot refer to both. 64
BeowulfI601a, 20526, 2161a, 25I7a, 2642a, and 3028a.
Functional shift does not seem to appear when adj. hwcct is a simplex. Other nominalized forms of —hwcet in compounds include a reference to the Three Children in Daniel as daylhwatan (337b: the ones courageous in deeds). In the Phoenix, flyhthwates (gen. sg.) denotes the Phoenix,frcenveflyhtinvates (335a: plumage of the one eager in flight). 65
66 Klaeber 1950: 115 and 227n. Mitchell (1985, 2: 837, §3654) tentatively agrees. Klaeber's translation: "unless God's grace (or, kindness) had before (or, first) more readily (or, thoroughly) favored those (or, the one) eager for gold," construing goldhwcete as accusative singular.
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Alternatively, -hwcet- could be hwatu
hwatung "augury, divination,"
perhaps even "incantation." Rendering goldhwtete as "gold-luck" (acc. sg.), Tanke bends the sense of hwat too far, dodges the copulative simplicity of 3074a, and translates in a sentence that is too complex: "He [Beowulf] had by no means more readily foreseen good luck with the gold, the Owner's favor."68 Fulk does better, translating goldhwcet as "curse on the gold, gold-curse" but concedes that
hwatu actually means "augury" or "divination." His interpretation requires the special pleading of metaphor, dodges the copulative simplicity of 3074a, and is too complex syntactically: "He [Beowulf] by no means had sought out (or contemplated?) a curse on gold, rather the owner's (God's) favour," meaning that he had not expected that the dragon's treasure would be cursed.69 I paraphrase 3074-75 as follows: Beowulf was not [guilty] of greed for the gold, [but] earlier [before opening the hoard], he had earnestly sought the Lord's favor. Hence he was not guilty of crimes (synnum scildig, 3071b), nor subject to damnation as provided in the curse. It has been said often by critics, though not by the poet, that the curse caused Beowulf' s death, because it prescribed death for any intruder who opened the treasure. This is not so. In its first iteration, the curse provides that no one would be able to find or reach the hoard-chamber, unless God permits it. In its second iteration, the curse prescribes damnation and torment in hell for anyone who molests the treasure. Beowulf escaped damnation because he first sought God's favor. This was not the first time that Beowulf escaped the evil consequences of a spell. Grendel's body was protected by a spell, such that no sword could penetrate his hide, but Beowulf fought him unarmed. Grendel's dam was charmed such that she could be slain only by her own weapon, but he slew her with the giants' sword.
67 Greenfield 1982: 139.
Tanke 2002. '9 Falk 2005: 359-63.
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The curse denotes treasure by collective terms: yrfe, gold, hord. This implies that the hoard was meant to be indivisible. The theft of a single cup from the hoard was a violation, but Beowulf s acquisition of the hoard as a whole was permitted. Perhaps this is why the dragon reacted with such ferocity to the theft of a bejeweled cup (sincfcet, 2231a). The cup relates to the hoard distributively as "one among many" (fela... mrgestreona, 2231b: many ancient treasures), and collectively as "part to whole" (eorrnenlafe, 2234a: immense legacy). The collective-distributive relation is expressed in variation: "Da wes hord rasod, / onboren beaga hord" (2283b-84a: then the hoard was ransacked, the hoard of rings diminished)—the hoard as a holon was violated when one of its parts was taken. The dragon circled round the barrow, agitated because "hmfde gumena sum goldes gefandod, / heahgestreona" (2301-2a: someone had violated the gold, the noble treasures). When he sought revenge for a single drincfcet (2306a), he was motivated not by obsessive greed, but by the injury done to the hoard's integrity. Treasure-regality as a legal principle
In his dying words to Wiglaf, Beowulf bequeathed the dragon's treasure to the Geatish people (2792b-98). It was his to give. He had a right to it, for two reasons. First, he won it in combat. Second, Germanic legal tradition provided that treasure trove belongs to the king. Roman law, in contrast, provided that thesaurus inventus (earlier thensaurus) belongs to its finder, unless it was found in a public or religious place, in which case the finder must share it with the fiscus (the public treasury of Rome in republican times; later, the emperor's privy purse). According to the Laws of Justinian, the finder kept all treasure found on his own land; if accidentally discovered on another's land, he divided it with the property owner, although the finder had no claim if he had intentionally searched another's land without permission. Emperor Theodoric introduced a Germanic custom when he claimed all treasure trove for the fiscus, on grounds that "a finder suffers no loss when he loses his find, since he loses what did not belong to him."
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The principle of treasure-regality is attested in France from Carolingian times, in Scandinavia from the early eleventh century, and in the English Leges Henrici (ca. 1114-1118), an unofficial compilation in which the king's right to treasure trove is affirmed." Its ubiquity in western Europe troubled later medieval 7t canonists, who noted that treasure-regality conflicted with Roman law. Treasure-regality is attested in Anglo-Saxon charters in which a king is represented as granting rights of treasure trove to a monastery. A well-known "Anglo-Saxon" charter, dated 971, represents King Edgar (957-975) granting to Glastonbury "socam and sacam on stronde and on streame, on wade and on felde; on griobrice, on burhbrice; hundred setena; moroas, aoas" and ordeals; "ealle hordas bufan eoraan and beneoroan."72 If this charter were genuine, it would be conclusive evidence of Anglo-Saxon treasure-regality. The document belongs to Norman times. Even so, the privileges are expressed in English legal formulas, in an otherwise Latin document. They hark back to Anglo-Saxon times.73 In a charter dated 716, tEthilbald of Mercia (716-757) is represented as granting to the Benedictines all things "tam subter terrain, quam supra" on their lands at Crowland,74 the equivalent of English "bufan eoraan and beneorban." Similar phrases, such as "bufan eoroan and binnan eoroan" or "binnan mcere," appear in documents from Norman times. The West Frisian Bodeleid uses the same formula in an oath in which a court official swears that he has not concealed or held back from the treasury various sources of revenue, including treasure found "binitha titer erthe, ne buppa ther erthe."75 In modern law, treasure found on 711 For Roman law, Blanchet and Grueber 1902, superseded by George Hill 1933, and 1936: 1-47. For conflicts between Roman and Germanic law, Hill 1936: 52 and 173-84.
71
Baldwin 1970, 1: 244-47.
72 Kemble 1839-48, 3, no. 567: "rights and privileges on the strand and in the water, in forest and field; in [cases of] breaking the peace and burglary; a hundred [units] of cultivated land; [authority in cases of] homicides, oath-takings, and ordeals; all hoards above the earth and beneath the earth." 73
So argued by Kemble 1839-48, 1: xliii-l.
75
Steller 1928: 115.
Kemble 1839-48, 1, no. 66.
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the surface of the earth is not trove, but there was disagreement about this as late as the nineteenth century in England. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Richard son of Nigel (Dialogue on the Exchequer, ca. 1179) and Bracton (De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae, ca. 1250-58) define trove as treasures found above the earth as well as below it.76 This is consistent with the legal formula in English, Anglo-Latin, and West Frisian documents cited above. The Crowland charters are forgeries, betrayed by irregularities in their dates and witness lists, and by their preoccupation with edifying stories about St. Guthlac. 1E3elbald of Mercia lived in exile among the Britons during the reign of Ceolred (709-16), and during that time sought spiritual comfort and counsel from Guthlac. It is natural to imagine that he confirmed the Benedictines in their privileges at Crowland when he became king in 716. Even so, the forged Norman texts embody authentic charter material, including the formulaic phrase "tam subter terram, quam supra." The reference to treasure subter terram in Crowland is consistent with Felix's account that Guthlac lived in a barrow-chamber that had been opened by treasure hunters.77 The wooded fens of Crowland had a reputation for buried treasure, rather like the Atlantic and Caribbean haunts of pirates in North America. The phenomenon of buried treasure is evident elsewhere, too. An Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry (A.D. 418) reports that the Romans, departing Britain, "collected all the treasures which were in Britain and hid some in the earth so that no one afterwards could find them, and some they took with them into Gaul."78 Among the Scandinavians, Gurevich speculates, "silver and gold in the ground remained at the perpetual posthumous disposal of their owner and kin," and were also "transcendent treasure, a blessing of an immaterial character."79 In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, English personal names 76 7
George Hill 1936: 205-8. Felix, Vita Guthlaci 28. Garmonsway 1953: 10-11.
9
examples.
Gurevich 1968: 133. Foote and Wilson (1970: 263) cite eighth- and ninth-century
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(Ancelyn atte Goldhorde, Ric. Del Goldhord, Rob. Ate Goldhorde, Thorn. De la Goldhord, Joh. Ate Goldhorde) refer to places where treasure had been found.8° The twelfth-century De Gestis Herwardi Saxonis reports, for the Isle of Ely, "auro et argento sitabundi quod in insula non partun putabatur abscondurn" (gold and silver which was thought to be hidden in plenty in the Isle).81 In Hereward's adventure at Ely, William the Conqueror orders his men to build a makeshift causeway across the swampy river at Alrehede, using trees and sheepskins. He promises them that the first to cross and attack the Saxon rebels may ask him for any riches found in Ely. William's men, motivated by Ely's reputation for buried treasure, rush onto the causeway with such force that it collapses under their feet, Many are drowned. This is a conventional story: a makeshift bridge collapses under the feet of oppressors. It appears in Jerome's account, in Ecclesiastical History, of Constantine's victory over Maxentius, repeated by rElfric in his second series of Catholic Homilies.82 Even so, the author of De Gestis protests the truth of the story, claiming that even in his own time, corpses in rotten armor are drawn from the swamp. Like Ely, Crowland had a reputation for buried treasure. The Benedictines saw to it that the phrase "tam subter teram, quam supra" got into their charter. Treasure trove and the Seven Sleepers Treasure-regality is a theme in the Old English De septent dormientibus, a prose saints' life that follows its Latin source fairly closely.83 This text presents a 8° Lofuenberg 1942: 79.
174-76.
°
De Gestis Herwardi Saxonis 21, in Miller and Sweeting 1895: 44.
82
tElfric, "lnuentio sanctae Crucis" 1-37, in Catholic Homilies, Second Series 1979, 1:
" Printed in jElfric, Lives of Saints 1881-1900, 1: 488-541. This work is not by klfric; see Clemoes 1959b: 219. The Latin source is printed in Huber 1902-5, 1:39-78. The Latin version is a translation of a Greek source, printed in Huber 1902-5, 2: 25-54. An unpublished scholarly edition of the Old English text was prepared by Alexander (1973). Magennis (1985) notes that the Anglo-Saxon author is faithful to his Latin source but expands details in order to emphasize human interest in the interactions between Malchus and authorities in Ephesus.
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specific legal context for the Seven Sleepers' treasure. The Sleepers, after 372 years asleep in their cave, send one of their members, Malchus, to Ephesus to buy bread (II. 454-77). Malchus, disguised as a beggar, is challenged in the marketplace on account of his coin (560). The homilist explains that there were four mintings under Decius; in each, the silver was progressively more adulterated with base metal. The two and sixty pence carried by Malchus was from the first minting (477-83). Adulteration of coin with copper or bronze was a continuing practice in the Roman Empire from the third century onward.84 It is of parenthetical interest that the Theodosian Constitution (A.D. 380) requires that "Neither the quality of the metal, nor the quantity of the find, shall subject [the finder of treasure] to the danger of torture." The quality of the metal in Malchus's coin serves to fix the date of the Seven Sleepers (483-85). It also arouses the merchants' suspicion. They pass a coin among themselves (563-68) and conclude '^6mr kws uncuka geonga cniht swioe ealdne goldhord wel gefym funde . and hine nu manega gear dearnunga behydde" (569-71: that this unknown young man hath found very long ago a very old gold-treasure, and hath hid it secretly now for many years). The merchants, wrongly supposing Malchus's coin to be part of a trove, accuse him of concealing treasure. During most periods from Nero to Theodoric, Malchus would have nothing to fear, for under Roman law, one was not required to surrender found treasure to the fiscus, or even to report it, unless it was found in a public or religious place. Under Theodoric and later (except for periodic returns to the old law), treasure trove belonged to the fiscus; anyone who concealed it was regarded as a thief, subject to torture. In twelfth-century England, too, concealment of trove was considered theft, and treason, punishable by death or dismemberment. A person suspected of this crime was subject to ordeal. The legal frame of reference in the Greek, Latin, and Old English Seven Sleepers texts is Germanic, reflecting the long-teiin influence of Theodoric when he introduced treasure-regality into Roman law.
84
Whitelock (1961) studies points of numismatic interest in the Old English version.
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The Ephesian merchants at first conspire to share in Malchus's alleged crime, hoping to divide the treasure among themselves (585-92). Malchus, perceiving their drift, complains, "nu me is min agen tvviten swilce ic hit hwbbe forstolen . and man mid vvitum ofgan willao xt me .
ic mid rihtan bingon
begyten hmfde" (598-601: now I am accused about my own as if I had stolen it, and they will require of me by tortures that which I had obtained by right means). The phrase -swilce ic hit hzebbe forstolen" recalls the practice of treating a concealer of treasure trove as a thief. The merchants respond with accusation: "se goldhord
lou gemettest and hine lange bedyrndest . he ne mxg beon forholen .
nu hit swa upp is aboren" (603-4: as for the goldhoard which thou hast found and buo/no long concealed, it cannot be hidden now it is thus discovered). Malchus is seized, publicly accused of concealing treasure trove, and brought to judgment before the portgereA and Bishop Marinus, who judge him not oath-worthy since he has no known kin in Ephesus (677-7)3). His judges threaten him with scourging according to the law (713-17). In the end. Malchus extricates himself from his legal situation by disclosing the miracle of the Sleepers on Celian Hill. The legal point in Malchus's favor is that his coin is not treasure trove, but belongs to the Seven Sleepers by reason of their former ownership of it. This story presupposes in the audience a knowledge of four basic legal points: that the finder of treasure trove was not entitled to keep it; that concealment was a crime which subjected the finder to torture; that the responsible officials in treasure trove cases were the portgerefa and the bishop (in the twelfth century: the sheriff and the coroner); and that oath-helping kinsmen were needed to protect a suspect from ordeal. There is no attempt to explain that "in those days it was unlawful to conceal treasure trove," and no hint that the legal customs in the story were alien to the Anglo-Saxons. The homilist develops the legal theme not to clarify unfamiliar practices, but to dramatize Malchus's precarious plight. The author exploits Malchus's dilemma to artistic advantage.
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Treasure trove in Hrolfs saga Kraki In Hrolfs saga Kraki, concealment comes into the picture of Helgi's revenge against Queen Olof of Saxland. Disguised as a beggar, Helgi conveyed two treasure-chests into some woods near her castle. There he met one of her slaves and prevailed on him to persuade Olof to come to the woods alone to claim treasure trove. "Good fortune must not be turned into bad, so I will not now hide this wealth," Helgi says, alluding to the prohibition of concealment. "The queen can decide on my share as she wishes." Of course this was a ruse. Helgi's real object was to force sexual intercourse on her, in revenge for her former mistreatment of him. He rightly surmised that Olof's greed for treasure would prompt her to enter the forest alone. The episode seems to presuppose treasure regal ity.85 Treasure trove in Cynewulrs Elene Judas, in his "epic prayer" in Cynewulf's Elene (723b-801), represents the Cross of Christ, buried under ground in Jerusalem, as a goldhord (790a). In this prayer, Judas reviews the major events of salvation history—Creation, the fall of prideful angels and their damnation, the Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection—evoking, indirectly, the liturgical year, just as Dona Jimena does in her "epic prayer" on the eve of Rodrigo Diaz's departure for exile in Poenia de Mio Cid.86 Then Judas makes his petition to God (783-801): Just as You, God of powers, answered Moses's prayer in the noble season of Passover ("on Pa woele tid," 7866) to reveal the bones of Joseph, buried under beorhhlide (7876: under a mountain slope), so, now (nu, 793b) grant my request
L Hrolfs saga Kraki 15, in Byock 1998: 32. 86 Poema de Alio Cid, laisse 18, 327-65, Pidal 1976: 128-33, discussed in P. E. Russell 1978: 113-58. Prior to a battle in French chansons de geste, heroes often utter epic prayers with biblical allusions. Charlemagne's prayer, in Chanson de Roland (laisse 226 [228], 11. 3096-3109), ed. Whitehead 1965: 91) is more narrowly focused on Old Testament figures who parallel his situation in some way.
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geopenie pact yldum wxs lange behyded. (Cynewulf, Elene 790-92a: that the Creator of spirits disclose to me the gold-hoard, which for ages was long hidden). Like the dragon's treasure, the Cross is a goldhord long hidden in the earth. The typological parallel, based on Talmudic legend," brings Judas and the Cross into correspondence with Moses and Joseph's relics, and Passover with Easter, such that the promise implied in Old Testament events is fulfilled in the inventio Crucis. Cynewulf amplifies the prayer found in his Latin source, and preserves the metaphor of the Cross, occultum thesaurum 88 which he renders in language specific to treasure trove, "goldhord... lange behyded." Just as the Geats in Beowulf compel the "thief' to reveal the location of the dragon's barrow, so Elene, tormenting Judas by confining him for three days and nights in a pit, compels Judas to reveal the location of Calvary. The number of days allegorizes the holy season from Good Friday to Easter, but Judas's confinement is consistent with treasure-regality, which provides that a malefactor who conceals treasure trove is subject to torture. The Cross, as treasure trove, properly belongs to Constantine, the paterfamilias of Christian kings. An alternative interpretation: goldhord is a biblical symbol of wisdom, which righteous men value more than gold (Proverbs 8: 19 and elsewhere). That may be so, but goldhord in the context of "opening" a long-hidden treasure suggests treasure trove, and treasure-regality. Constantine, through the agency of his mother Elene, used this treasure to benefit the populus Dei. He built a church on the site, and sent bishop Eusebius from Rome to consecrate Judas as its bishop, renamed Cyriacus. His new name is etymologized as ce hcelendes (1062: the law of the Savior), the New Law of salvation through grace. Constantine, like Beowulf, wanted the goldhord as a benefit for his people. 37
Emerson 1899.
33
Cynewulf, ed. Kent 1891: 47.
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Treasure-regality in Beowulf The dragon's hoard in Beowulf qualifies as treasure trove. It consists of moveable objects long hidden in the earth, whose former owner, gumena nathwylc (2233b), cannot be identified. Some critics might object that the treasure in question was abandoned, not hidden with intent to future recovery, and therefore not trove. This line of reasoning was used in modern legal cases like Sutton Hoo (1939): "grave goods," treasures buried in cemeteries, are abandoned, not treasure trove. In contrast, thesaurus inventus in the "Laws of Edward the Confessor" includes hoards found "in ecclesia vel in cimiterio." Abandonment was not a legal consideration in medieval times.89 Nor can it be objected that the treasure is not trove because it already has an owner: the dragon. He possessed the treasure not by legal right, but by biological instinct. It is natural for a dragon to seek a hoard and guard it, even though it profits him nothing (2275b-77). In losing the cup, the dragon suffers no more legal wrong than a wolf, eagle, or raven deprived of battlefield corpses. The poet has the last word about this. He writes that the dragon "unrihte inne gehydde / wnete under wealle" (3059-60a: wrongfully hid the ornaments within, under the wall [of the barrow]). The poet describes the servant who found the hoard, and stole a cup, in terms that have legal resonance: Nealles mid gewealduin wyrmhord abrwc sylfes willum, se 6e him sare gesceod, ac for breanedlan b... nathwylces ha le8a bearna heteswengeas fleah, wal[es] bearfa, and Barr inne feal[h], secg synbysig; sona onfunde x 6am gyste [gry]rebroga stod. ba=t [Jr] (Beowulf2221-27: not at all of his own accord [or] by his own choice did he break into the dragon's hoard, he who bitterly injured him [the
89
George Hill 1936: 221-24.
475
dragon], but on account of dire necessity a fieow [servant]90 of who knows which warrior fled from a hateful flogging, and needing [shelter], found his way in there, a man distressed on account of his wrongdoing; suddenly found that a great horror terrified the intruder.) Here the intruder is said to be guilty of the unspecified wrong for which he was flogged, but blameless with regard to the hoard, because he did not find it sylfes willum (2222a: by his own will). He did not enter the barrow in deliberate search
of treasure, but found it accidentally while seeking shelter. The wording reflects a legal tradition prohibiting deliberate search, for example in Bracton's comment that "[t]reasure is believed to be the gift of fortune, and no one ought to seek for treasure with the help of serfs, or dig the earth for treasure, but if he was then working for some other object, and fortune gave him the other, [then he is blameless],"91 although he is still required to surrender his find to the king. Lines 2221-26a, nuanced by a legal tradition forbidding deliberate search, may be read as an explanation that the intruder was blameless because the dragon's hoard was found by accident. While it is clear from Beowulf 2221-26 that the intruder was blameless in the way he acquired the cup, still he was guilty of concealing treasure. The legal repercussion of concealment is implied in two passages: mandryhtne bwr fxted wwge, friobow2ere bd hlaford sinne. Da wars hord rasod, onboren beaga hord, bene getiOad feasceaftwn men. Frea sceawode fira fyrnegeweorc forman sioe. (Beowulf 2281b-86: [he, the "thief'] carried the ornamented cup to his
lord, asked for a pledge of peace from his lord. Then was the hoard ransacked, the hoard of rings violated, [and] his petition granted, to the
9° Dobbie, like most editors, prints peon? for /"... at line 2223b. I agree, but the emendation merits analysis. 91
Hill 1936: 192-93.
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unfortunate man. The lord examined the ancient work of men for the first time.) Hnfde be gefrunen hwanan sio fzeho aras, bealonio biorna; him to bearme cwom maOhumfmt mare hurh dais meldan bond. Se wxs on dam oreate hreotteoaa secg, se ems orleges or onstealde, haft hygegiomor, sceolde hean oonon wong wisian. He ofer willan giong to dais cue he eorOsele anne wisse, hleaw under hrusan holmwylme neh, yogewinne; se wars innan full wrwtta and wira. (Beowulf 2403-13a: he [Beowulf] then learned whence the feud arose, a grievous affliction to men; to his bosom came the famous treasure [the cup], through the hand of the informer [or accuser]. He was the thirteenth man in the host, the one who was responsible for the beginning of the conflict, a sorrowful captive, and wretched, [he] was compelled to show the way thence to the place. Against his will he went to [the place] where he knew that there was an earth-dwelling, a barrow under ground near the surging of the sea, the clash of waves; within, [the barrow] was full of ornaments and rings.) Klaeber's view of these passages is widely accepted: "A slave [beow, 2223b], a fugitive from justice, stole a costly vessel from the dragon's hoard, and upon presenting it to his master—one of Beowulf's men—obtained his pardon, 2281f The vessel was then sent to Beowulf himself (2404f.). In the meantime the dragon had commenced his reign of terror."92 Lawrence preferred pegn nathwylces at 2223b, a thane forced to flee the court on account of a feud.93 Cherniss supported pegn and reconstructed a different story: 94 The thief, an exile (hence wrcecsid 2292) from an unnamed tribe which may or may not be Geatish, stole the cup and took it to Beowulf, who accepted it as a token of the man's loyalty and became the man's hinford 92
Klaeber 1950: 208, note to line 2003.
93
Lawrence 1918: 551.
94
Chemiss 1972: 89.
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(or, re-received him into the comitatus). When he discovered the source of the gift, however, Beowulf realized that the giver had not come by it honorably and, having been attacked by its rightful owner, the dragon, he made the thief a captive and forced him to lead the way to the barrow. The poet could have written
Beowulfes" if that was his meaning. Chemiss
thinks that the hiaford or frea who receives the cup (2281 b-86) is Beowulf. That cannot be so, because in lines 2403-5 it is clear that Beowulf received the cup after the dragon began his raids. Melda (2405b), a legal term meaning "accuser,
informer," refers to the intruder's master. Taking into account the legal nuances of treasure-regality and prohibition of deliberate search, I would interpret the events that led to the dragon's attacks as follows. The servant (Peaty) of an unnamed warrior was flogged for some wrongdoing, and fled to the ness. Looking for shelter there, he accidentally discovered the dragon's lair, the sleeping dragon, and the treasure. Notwithstanding his fright, he took a cup from the hoard, returned with it to his master, and gave it in exchange for a pardon. The cup, if found as a single object, would not be considered thesaurus inventus. Legally, a single object was considered to be lost accidentally, and rightfully claimed by the finder.95 Still, when the intruder presented his master with the cup, he did not mention the trove, and therefore was guilty of concealment. The dragon's fire-raids force the issue. Only then does Beowulf learn whence the feud arose, when he receives the cup "burh oxs meldan hond." The story is nuanced by two legal points. First, why should Beowulf receive the cup at all?—As a single object, he should not, but as part of a hoard, it belongs to him by reason of treasure-regality. Second, why should the poet call the informer a melda? Though occasionally used in the neutral sense of "messenger," this word
usually has legal associations and means "accuser" or "informer of a crime." Melda makes sense if it refers to the master, who accuses his servant (the
intruder-finder) of concealment. The servant already has a reputation for 93
Hill 1936: 221-22.
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wrongdoing. The reference to him as hceft hygegiomor (2408a: mournful captive), forced against his will to reveal the location of the dragon's barrow, develops the legal theme further. Hoeft could mean a "war-captive,"96 but in its immediate context, the word implies that the intruder was arrested for concealing a trove, and forced to disclose its location. That he does so ofer willan (2409b) echoes his first visit to the barrow, "Nealles... sylfes willum" (2221-22a). The problem of Wiglaf Wiglaf is in many ways a promising heroic prince. His youth is emphasized (geongan cempan, 2626a). Very likely he was the youngest of eleven retainers who followed Beowulf to the dragon-fight. He was an cedeling of noble birth, a Wmgmunding (2607b), like Beowulf. His father, Weohstan, was a famous hero. His sword, Eanmundes laf (2612b: Eanmund's heirloom), had passed from Eanmund to his slayer Weohstan, then to Eanmund's uncle, the Swedish king Onela, then back to Weohstan, who gave it to Wiglaf when he came of age (261125a). After Weohstan's death, Beowulf confirmed Wiglaf in his father's estate (2623-25a), as a good king should. When the retainers fled from the dragon-fight, Wiglaf stood firm and admonished the others (2631-62). Notwithstanding his youth, he alone maintained comitatus-loyalty, against a majority of all others. During the dragon-fight, Wiglaf assisted Beowulf in the fight, brought water to relieve his pain, and stayed to hear the hero's dying words. Beowulf gave him his torque, helmet, and war-gear, signs of succession (2809-12). Later, he carried out Beowulf s instructions for his funeral (2802-8). Still, there are problems. Five, in my analysis: First, his father was Eanmund's bana. King Onela looked past this when he conferred his nephew's sword on Weohstan in a reverse "charging" ceremony, but the slaying of a prince never fails to demand revenge. In later years, Eadgils
ea
Klaeber 1950: 208, note to 2223.
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or his kinsmen might remember the feud, or use it as a pretext for making trouble. Along with Eanmund's sword, Wiglaf inherited a feud. Second is the problem of "second choices." Beowulf gave his torque and war-gear to Wiglaf, signs of succession, but his first choice would have been to grant these things to his son, if God had given him one (2729-32a). His first choice was the son he didn't have. Beowulf loves Wiglaf as a good kinsman should, but not with the charismatic affection that he had felt toward Hygelac, or that Hroogar had felt for him. Third, Wiglaf inherited a doomed kingdom. The Geatish messenger made this clear (3021b-28). Wyrd was such that the "beasts of battle" would have the last word about the Geatish nation. For fifty years, the Swedes and Merovingians bode their time. When they hear of Beowulf s death they will know that their time has come. The fourth and fifth problems are of Wiglaf s own making: Fourth, his condemnation of the Geatish retainers. Rebuke was appropriate in his comitatus speech (2631-60), when he admonished the Geats to remain at the barrow and assist their king in the dragon-fight. Instead, they fled to the woods. After Beowulf s death, when the Geats returned "scamiende scyldas bran" (2850: shamefaced, carrying [their] shields), he co:
ied to scold them for their
failure (2864-83). What Wiglaf says next is ambiguous: Nu sceal sincbego ond swyrdgifu, eall eoelwyn eowrum cynne, lufen alicgean. Londrihtes mot Ire mxgburge manna zeghwylc idel hweorfan, syoban xaelingas feon-an gefricgean fleam eowerne, domleasan dmd. Deg) bib sella eorla gehwylcum bonne edwitlif. (Beowulf 2884-91: now treasure-giving and gifts of swords, all the benefit of [feudal] estate in your family, [and] comfort must cease. Each one of you [manna] may wander [in exile], deprived of [your] feudal rights to land and castle [londrihtes pcere mcegburge], after the nobles
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everywhere hear of your flight, your inglorious deed. For every nobleman, death is better than a life of dishonor.) My translation is nuanced to convey a legal theme. A more common view is that Wiglaf foretells an adverse future for the retainers. Clark Hall:97 Now shall the receiving of treasure and gifts of swords, all joy of ownership, and comfort be wanting to your race; each man of your family will have to wander, shorn of his landed possessions, as soon as nobles far and wide hear of your flight, your despicable act! Better is death to every one of noble birth than an inglorious life. Readers may judge for themselves. I think that these lines convey Wiglafs first act of kingship. He announces a two-part legal process. First, as to the dragon's treasure (2884), he will not reward the retainers with treasure and weapons in a gift-giving ceremony. Such a ceremony would be the norm, after the acquisition of treasure in battle. Second, Wiglaf announces his intention to summon all the Geatish nobles (cedelingas feorran) in assembly, to recommend that the retainers and their families be deprived of their feudal estates and rights, reduced to the status of exiles, as punishment for their flight from the dragon-fight. What a woeful way to begin a reign! Wiglaf had law on his side, to be sure. He planned to act in concert with the cedelingas in the judicial matter of the retainers' feudal estates. Wiglaf modeled the comitatus-loyalty that he expected from others, but lacked Beowulf's generosity. What would Beowulf had done, if he has survived the dragon-fight? He would have remembered that he himself had instructed the retainers to stay out of the fight, which, as he said, was his alone. Of course they did wrong to run to the woods. They were supposed to keep watch on the barrow. Even so, mortally wounded, Beowulf exchanged many words with Wiglaf, but never condemned the retainers. Fifth, Wiglaf s disposition of the dragon's treasure. In words spoken to Wiglaf, Beowulf said that he won this treasure in combat (2793b-51). He thanked
97
Clark Hall [1911] 1950: 164.
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God for it. In his last act of kingship, he bequeathed it to the Geats. He gave Wiglaf a direct order to use it to benefit leoda fiearfe (2801a: for the people's need). Wiglaf s second act of kingship was to deprive the Geats of this treasure. He hints at this when he rebukes the retainers (2884). His messenger tells the Geats that the treasure must be burned on Beowulf s pyre (3007b-21a). This does not happen, but at the funeral, Wiglaf caused the treasure to be interred in the barrow, along with Beowulf s ashes (3156-68). When Wiglaf led the Geats to the barrow to view the treasure, he told them that Beowulf had said many things, among them, instructions for his funeral (3076-3109). He doesn't tell a lie, but by omission he gives the impression that Beowulf had wanted to take the treasure with him to the grave. Wiglaf is conscious of his deception, and justifies it to himself: the old man said many things, but did so in mortal distress: "worn eall gesprc / gomol on gehoo" (3094b-95a). Thus he assumes control of the treasure. Wiglaf did wrong, for Beowulf bequeathed it to the Geats, not to him. His desire to punish the retainers was so strong that he went against the king's wishes. Germanic analogues are unfavorable to Wiglaf. In the Nibelungenlied, Hagen's hatred of Kriemhild was so great that he seized the Nibelung treasure, which belonged to Siegfried, and sank it in the Rhine so Kriemhild couldn't inherit it. Saxo Grammaticus tells the story of how Handwan loaded the national treasure in ships, and sank the ships to keep the treasure from enemies:98 Handuvanus cum patriae res perditas eversasque conspiceret, regias opes navibus impositas, ut unda potius quam hostem ditaret, in altum demersit; quamquam satius fuerat adversariorum favorem pecuniae largitionibus occupare, quam ejus commodum mortalitatis usibus invidere. (Saxo Grammaticus 12b: Andvan, seeing that things were looking dreadful, put the royal treasures in ships, and sank them in high waters, so that the waves, rather than the enemies, were made rich, although it 9a
Sax() Grammaticus, Saxonis Gest(' Danorum (1931-57), trans. Fisher 1979.
482
would have been preferable to win favour of the enemies with money rather than to grudge these treasures to the rest of the mortals.) Two characters in Egils saga, father and son, sink chests of silver in order to prevent heirs from inheriting them. Prior to his death, Kveld-Ulf Skalla-Grim, Egil's father, was rumored to have dropped one or two chests of silver into the Krumskelda swamp and laid a flat rock over it (chap. 58). Can you imagine treasure-hunters wading the swamp, overturning any flat rock whose weight they can manage? Egil himself had received two chests of silver from King fEoelstan. As an octogenarian he wanted to bring the chests to Law Rock, scatter the silver, and watch the councilors scramble for it, ignominiously. His nieces, Grim and Thordis, prevented him. Instead, with the help of two slaves, Egil threw the chests somewhere in the vicinity of Mosfell, either in some rapids, or in a fen, or in the hot springs (chap. 85). The dragon-fight and Indo-European cattle-raids Epic tradition allows a hero to win treasure in combat for the benefit of his people. The archetypal exemplar is the cattle-raid, a two-part typescene in its canonical Indo-European form. First, a villain steals cattle, often at night, and drives them to a remote location, such as a cave in the mountains. Second, a hero defeats the villain in armed combat, retrieves the cattle, and returns them to their rightful owner. Sometimes the rightful owner is a god, or a king (or queen), or the hero, but in the canonical archetype, the owner is the community as a whole. Bruce Lincoln proposed that the cattle-raid was a Proto-Indo-European myth of sacrifice, in which the three functional estates, collectively the Aryans, overcome an intrusion by indigenous natives, called *dasa, in order to restore themselves into proper order with the gods. According to this myth, the cattle belong to all the Aryans, but are under the care of herdsmen, members of the third social function, symbolic of fertility and prosperity. The *dasa, social outsiders, steal cattle. The storm-god, a designated champion emblematic of the second
483
social function (the warrior class), defeats the *dasa (represented by monsters, or villains) in combat. The champion retrieves the cattle, and presents them to the priests (first function: sovereignty), for sacrifice to the gods.99 Cattle-raids take diverse forms in Indic, Iranian, Armenian, Greek, Roman, and Irish literature. In some versions of the story, the object of combat is a woman rather than cattle. In others, the reward of combat is treasure, but in pastoral societies, wealth is quantified in terms of cattle. In dragon fights and cattle-raids, cattle, women, water, and treasure are interchangeable symbols of wealth. Literary cattle-raids in five Indo-European cultures do not support "sacrifice" as its theme, nor is the plot moved forward by the interaction of three estates. The PIE cattle-raid may have been a myth of sacrifice, but in epic retellings it is a heroic typescene, with four signature themes: (1) The villain's theft is contrasted with the armed combat of the hero. (2) The hero tracks a monster or villain to his cave in a remote location, usually in the mountains. (3) A cattle-raid sometimes is a hero's first combat, a rite de passage. (4) The hero wins the cattle (or treasure) for the benefit of his people. Beowulf's dragon-fight is not a cattle-raid, but in the genealogy of Indo-European typescenes, the cattle-raid is its ancestor, however distant. Its signature themes will be apparent in my analysis. A detailed exposition of Indo-European cattle-raids would be too digressive, even for me, but three canonical Indic, Iranian, and Greek tales—Trita Aptya's combat with the three-headed monster Vi§ardpa, Thraetona Atwya's with the dev Ai Dandka, and Herakles' with three-headed Geryon—recur as topics in comparative scholarship, along with the cattle-raid at CUlaigne and other Irish cognates.m By "canonical" I mean tales that are in a position to serve as primary witnesses of Indo-European tradition. Taking these for granted, I begin with a discussion of two neglected cattle-raids: Hercules's fight with Cacus, wrongly 99 Lincoln 1976; summarized with tentative approval in Mallory 1989: 137-38, and with approval in Anthony 2007: 134-35.
For examples, Benveniste and Renou 1934; Wikander 1938; Lincoln 1976 and 1981; Walcot 1979.
484
rejected as derivative from the Greek myth of Geryon, and David of Sassoun's fight with cattle-thieving devs, excluded because it was unknown to IndoEuropeanists. The story of Hercules and Cacus, (Aeneid 8.190-270)101 is influenced by the 102 Greek myth of Herakles and Geryon as told in Hesiod's Theogony (287-94), but unlike the Greek story, the Roman version has the same basic narrative structure as its Indic and Iranian cognates: first, a monster or giant steals cattle (or women) from the hero or someone close to him; subsequently, the hero tracks down the thieving monster, slays him, and recovers the cattle (or women). Cacus, the fire-spitting, gigantic son of Vulcan, originally was an Italic fire-god with chthonic associations. I '3ter, in Greco-Roman myth, he became one of many would-be thieves who attempted to steal the Erythean cattle from Hercules Herakles as he drove them from Erythea through Iberia and Italy and other lands on his way to Mycenae. Propertius (4.9.9-10) adds Geryon-like details: Cacus was a tricephalic aborigine: Cacus was an incola ("aborigine"), a robber from a dreaded cave Who uttered sounds through three separate mouths. At the future site of Rome, Hercules took shelter on the Palatine hill with Evander, and while he was sleeping, Cacus stole eight cattle and concealed them in his cave on the Aventine hill. To emphasize the element of stealth: Cacus made the cows walk backward to his cave, to better conceal his hiding place. After circling that hill three times in search of the cattle, and beating the stony door of Cacus's cave without result, Hercules decided to give up the search and resume his journey, but as he prepared to depart, he heard a cow lowing in the cave. From 101 Other sources include Diodorus Siculus, Biblioteca 4.17.1-4.18.5 and 4.21; Livy, Ab urbe condita 1.7.3ff., Ovid, Fasti 1.543-78, Apollodorus, Biblioteca 2.5.10, and Propertius 4.9.120. 102 Fontenrose 1959: 334-46, argues that although Cacus is a "doublet" of Geryon, his story is an old Italic myth, given a new hero (Hercules) under the influence of the Greek story and re-situated into the framework of the "twelve labors" of Hercules — Herakles. Lincoln 1976: 4546 and 54-55, regards the Cacus story as a secondary source derived from the Greek myth.
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the top of the hill, Hercules opened the cave by throwing a sharp rock at its entrance. He fought Cacus with sticks and stones while the monster howled and spat fire and smoke. An Armenian example from Sasaa Civr: David of Sassoun's combat with forty devs in the mountains near Dashtou Padrial. After the young hero had failed in his efforts to serve as a shepherd and herdsman in Sassoun, his uncle Toros took him to Dashtou Padrial, where the villagers hired him as one of eight herdsmen to tend cattle at the nearby spring of Sibdag Kar (White Rock). David swore brotherhood with the seven herdsmen, and herded cattle through the summer. Toward the end of summer, two interlaced episodes brought his pastoral career to an end: his disruption of an Assumption Day feast in Dashtou Padrial, and his cattle-raid adventure against forty devs in the mountains. On Assumption Day, David went to the village to fetch a portion of festival harissa (lamb stew) for his seven brother-herdsmen. All the villagers were in church, except for an old woman who tended the harissa while it cooked in a cauldron. She refused to give David a portion because the priest hadn't blessed it yet, so David walked off with the cauldron and seven spoons. When he returned to White Rock, the herdsmen told him that forty devs had rustled forty steers. They had no appetite for harissa. David tracked the devs to their mountain cave, where they were cooking the slaughtered steers in a large cauldron. He pushed a boulder in front of the mouth of the cave, leaving a small opening. Then, Beowulf-like, he uttered a stentorious roar. As the devs exited the cave, he twisted their heads off, one by one. In the cave, he found a vast hoard of treasure, which the brigand devs had stolen from the people of Sassoun. David returned to the village with a cauldron full of steerhides and hooves, and a saddlebag full of gold to recompense the villagers for their lost cattle. When David returned to Sassoun with news of his adventure, his uncles were skeptical, but he satisfied their doubts by leading them to the cave, where they loaded thirty-nine pack-mules with treasure. The national treasury was
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made whole. For the first time, the people of Sassoun acknowledged him as a hero.1°3 The differences between David's cattle-raid and Beowulf's dragon-fight are obvious. In Beoivulf, the conflict started when an unknown servant stole a cup from the dragon's lair. The dragon never stole anything, but attacked the Geats because of the theft. Still, there are resemblances: (1) Contrastive theme: a two-part story of theft and combat. (2) Conflict initiation: a villain (devs / servant) steals cattle / treasure (a cup). (3) Setting: the hero tracks the villain (devs / dragon) to a remote cave in the mountains / headlands. (4) Battle-roar: the hero utters a stentorious roar at the mouth of the cave. (5) Combat: the hero slays the villain (devs / dragon) in combat outside the cave's entrance. (6) Rite de passage: this is the hero's first adventure (David's; Wiglaf's). (7) Wealth in the cave: the hero recovers cattle / treasure in the cave. (8) Benefit to the community: the hero returns the cattle and/or shares the treasure with the community, its rightful owner. Superficially, Beowulf's dragon-fight might be better compared to Indra's combat with Vrtra, the cosmic serpent who had hoarded all the waters of the earth. IndoEuropeanists believe that the combat of Trita and Vi§vartipa was the model for the later story of Indra's combat with Vrtra, which results in Indra's freeing the waters that bring fertility to earth:" Cattle, treasure, women, and waters are interchangeable symbols of wealth. Brigand devs, monsters, dragons, and cosmic serpents are interchangeable villains.
103
Sasunts'i Davit' 3.2.10-15 and 3.3.1, in Shalian 1964: 201-14; Feydit 1964: 239-50.
104
Benveniste and Renou 1934: 93-94; Lincoln 1976: 46.
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Theft ersus combat The Indo-European cattle-raid requires two events because the story is built around an ethical and legal polarity: theft or stealth versus recovery by means of heroic combat. The polarity, theft versus combat, is nuanced by ethnic and class prejudices. Theft is the appropriation of someone else's property by means of stealth, the sort of thing a *dasa would do, while the acquisition (or reclamation) of property in combat befits a noble *aryan. That is why the "thief" in Beowulf the intruder who took the dragon's cup, is identified as an otherwise unknown servant. He took the cup peojes crcefte (2219a: with the craft of a thief), dyrnan crafte (2290a: with stealthy craft, stealthily), and he is identified as the natwylces / hwleoa beam heteswengeas fleah" (2223b-24: the
of some
warrior or other, [who] fled a hateful flogging). The myth requires a *dasa to initiate the conflict. The "thief' in Beowulf suits this role. The contrast between stealth and combat, implied in Beowulf, is explicit in Germanic legal tradition, especially in Scandinavia, as Theodore Andersson has shown,1°5 but this is an Indo-European theme, whose exemplary typescene is the cattle-raid. An Old English analogue of the theft-combat polarity: in The Battle of Maldon, Gothic the son of Odda leaps on Byrhtnoo's horse and flees from the battle, while his brothers, Godwine and Godwig, follow him on foot. The poet remarks about Godric's theft that the horse "ahte his hlaford" (189b: belonged to his lord [Byrhtnoo]) and "hit riht ne was" (190b: it was not right). In historical context, Godric's theft is a "relatively venial sin" compared to his treason, as Scragg observes,106 but in a mythic context, theft is what one expects from a 1°5 Andersson 1984. I do not agree with Surber-Meyer (1994: 34n.) when she states that Andersson should have used Anglo-Saxon laws concerning theft, instead of Scandinavian sagas, to explicate the "thief' in Beowulf. Laws concerning theft clarify its scope and punishment, as her analysis shows (pp. 37-43), but the theft-combat polarity is disclosed only in narratives. The limitations of a legal approach are illustrated in Leisi 1952-53: 271; he asserts that a thief who steals another man's treasure steals his honor, and moves about wearing stolen ornaments that misrepresent his own worth, rather like a modern academic plagiarist wearing borrowed robes. This is a true but insufficient account of the nature of theft in early Indo-European societies. 1°'
Scragg 1981: 37.
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traitor. Notwithstanding their English names (Godric, Godwine, Godwig), it could be that Odda, their father, was a Dane (Oddr). Anglo-Danish heritage could have been a motive for treachery, in fugitive brothers who are reminiscent of triform Geryon, tricephalic Cacus, and other avatars of *dasa. In ancient Greek literature, two cattle-raid fragments, when taken together, illustrate this polarity of theft and combat. The infant god Hermes's nocturnal theft of Apollo's herd on Mount Olympus, in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, illustrates cattle-raid by stealth. Like Cacus, Hermes made the cattle walk backwards toward their hiding-place in a barn on Mount Kyllene in Arcadia, so that Apollo would not be able to track them. Then, after sacrificing two of them, he crept back to his cave, and snuggled into his cradle as if nothing had happened.1°7 Herakles's seizure of Geryon's cattle in Hesiod's Theogony is cattleraid by combat. On the island of Erythea at the western edge of the world, a tricephalic (or triformi°8) giant named Geryon kept a herd of red cattle, guarded by his herdsman Eurytion and his dog Orthos. Geryon is a chthonic figure, like Hades, who also kept a herd of cattle that was tended by a herdsman (Menoites) and a multicephalic dog named Cerberus, the brother of Orthos; Cerberus had fifty heads according to Hesiod (Theogony 310-12), and two or three heads according to other sources. Herakles slew Geryon, Eurytion and Orthos, and drove the Erythean cattle across the ocean to Tiryns (a fortress on the plain of Argos). Although Hesiod presents Herakles's raid as a single event, I09 other versions split this into two events: first, Herakles slays Eurytion and Orthos; later, 107
8.204-14.
Hymn to Hermes 17-53, in Athanassakis 1976: 31-47. For Cacus: Virgil, Aeneid
108 Pausanias (5.19.1) describes an engraving of Herakles and Geryon in combat on the fourth panel of a chest in the temple precinct at Elis; there, Geryon is "represented as three men joined to one another." 109 Lincoln (1976) tries to homologize Hesiod's story to the two-part sequence of events seen in the Indic and Iranian cognates. He posits an original cattle-raid in which the tricephalic monster Geryon slew Eurytion and Orthos, followed by a second cattle-raid in which Herakles slew Geryon. Lincoln ignores the fact that Orthos is the name of Geryon's dog (Theogony 309), just as Eurytion is the name of Geryon's cowherd. When Hesiod writes that "he also slew Orthos and the oxherd Eurytion" (293), the subject of the sentence must be Herakles, not Geryon.
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Hades's herdsman Menoites reports the cattle-theft to Geryon, who follows in pursuit, catches up with Herakles, and is killed by him.110 Taken as a companion pair of primal myths, Herrnes's and Herakles's cattle-raids constitute a primary reflex of the Proto-Indo-European myth, which presents the seizure of cattle as a theft in the first instance, and combat in the second. The two forms of cattle-raiding, theft and combat, coalesce in the mad revenge of Aias ("Ajax") as portrayed by Sophocles in Adas.111 After the fall of Troy, when the Greeks were busy dividing the spoils from the city, they held a contest to decide which of their number should inherit Achilles's arms. The winner was Odysseus. The runner-up, Aias, thought that he had been cheated as the result of a plot by Agamemnon and Menelaus. That night, he roamed the encampment intending to kill these two leaders, but Athena drove him mad, causing him to redirect his battle-rage in a cattle-raid, such that, like Don Quixote jousting against windmills, Aias slaughtered cattle and herdsmen, thinking that he was slaying Greek champions. Some steers were left alive, and Aias drove them, and flocks of sheep, to his tent, where he tethered the steers and tortured them, thinking he was abusing Odysseus and other rival commanders. Aias's cattle-raid was a nocturnal theft, and the morning after, Odysseus and other Greeks find him out by following hoof-tracks to his tent. The archaic thief's triformity is instantiated in a triple-pun on Aias's name, when his reason returns and he realizes what he has done: Aiai! Who ever would have thought my name Would harmonize so aptly with my woes? For now well may I wail that sound out twice, Yea thrice; such woeful destinies are mine. (Sophocles, Ajar 428-31)
Fontenrose 1959: 335-36. 111
Sophocles, Aias (Ajax), in Oates and O'Neill 1938, I: 315-60.
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Aias, in his madness, thought that he was engaged in open combat against rival Greek warriors, like Herakles against Geryon, in retaliation for a wrong done to him. Tracking the dragon to his remote cave (Beowulf1399-1421) In Indo-European cattle-raid adventures, the hero must track the villain to his remote lair, usually a cave in the mountains. In Beowulf the thief, a haft hygegiomor (2408a: a captive sorrowful in spirit), was compelled to guide Beowulf and eleven retainers to the remote barrow in the headlands (2401-12a). Just as Grendel was a night-stalker, the dragon was a night-flyer (2273b). Both returned before dawn to their lairs (2320b), where they hoarded treasures. Here as in cattle-raid narratives, the cave or barrow has four symbolic associations, (1) as an occasion for third-function participation, (2) as a place of concealment, signifying theft or stealth, (3) as the home of an aboriginal Other, and (4) as a chthonic setting. Third-function participation. In cattle-raids and dragon-fights, the warrior is the principal actor, and the king plays a secondary role (if he is present at all). In the hunt for Grendel's dam, Beowulf's second-function role is primary, and Hroogar's first-function role is secondary. As a warrior-king, Beowulf plays both roles in the dragon-fight, although Wiglaf emerges as a second-function figure. However that may be, third-function herdsmen, and by extension the people as a whole, play a role too. At first their role is marginal, until the denouement, when the narrator discloses that they are the beneficiaries of cattle or treasure after the warrior-hero has slain the monster or dragon. Initially in Beowulf country-folk seem to know more about Grendel, his dam, and the dragon. Hroogar: "bone on geardagum Grendel nemdon / foldbuendum" (1354-55a: from ancient times, he was called Grendel by country-folk). Hroogar had first-hand knowledge of Grendel because of his attacks on Heorot, but all he knew about Grendel's darn was that londbuend (1345a: country-folk) had sighted her on the moors at night.
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The poet says of the dragon, "hyne foldbuend / [swioe ondr)cia[o]" (2274b-75: the country-folk sorely dread him).112 Country-folk often know of some wonder before it comes to the attention of the court. In iElfric's Life of St. Edmund (d. A.D. 869), after the viking leader Hingmar had tortured and beheaded the king, he
caused the head to be hidden in some woods to prevent its burial. English landfolc (134) recovered Edmund's body, but could not find his head. A wolf guarded it in the woods (145-57). Then, following the landleoda (164), the wolf carried the head into the town, where the country-folk interred it in a church that they built as a memorial (158-67)."3 The cave or barrow is a place of concealment. Concealment of cattle (or
treasure) in a cave signifies a desire to hide the theft and evade combat. Neleus hid the Erytheian cattle in a cave after he had stolen them from Herakles. Aias drove stolen cattle and sheep to his tent at night. The next morning, after a difficult search, Odysseus and other Greeks followed their tracks to the tent, In real life, a tent full of tethered, abused bulls would be discovered quickly, but a cattle-raid requires a difficult search. In the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, a cave on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia is the home of the trickster-god Hermes, "a shrewd and coaxing schemer, / a cattle-rustling robber." On the day of his birth, Hermes stole Apollo's cattle from Pieria and drove them home to his cave under the cover of night.114 Virgil emphasizes Cacus's trickery when he carried off eight of Hercules's cattle (Aeneid 8.209-12): So that their hoofs should not leave telltale tracks, He turned them around and dragged them by the tail Into his lightless cavern, and hid them there: No signs would lead the searcher to his cave. 112 An alternate view, equally plausible: "no one in Geatland has seen or heard of the dragon earlier except for the poet himself' (Taylor 1997: 229). "3 "Passio sancti Eadmundi Regis," in Lives of Saints 1881-1900, 2: 314-35; references in my text are to Skeet's line numbers. For a modem edition, Needham 1966: 50-53. 114 Hymn lo Hermes, in Athanassakis 1976: 31-47, at p. 31. Cf. Apollodorus 3.10.2, and Pausanias 7.20.4, citing a (lost) poem by Alcaeus.
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Propertius (4.9.12-14): This one, in order that there would not be any sure clues giving signs of the robbery, Dragged the cattle backward by the tail into his cave. But not without witness by the god: the young oxen betrayed the thief by their sounds. The cave or barrow is an aboriginal dwelling, the home of a non-Aryan 'Vasa who lives outside the established social order. Propertius calls him an incola (aborigine). Virgil describes him as semifer, half-human, covered with bristles like a boar. Other Caliban-like features mark the cattle-thieving cavedweller as an aboriginal "other," too: his dreadful visage or appearance, his tricephalic form, his incomprehensible speech. The cave or barrow is a chthonic setting, a type of the underworld, the domain of death.'" So Virgil describes Cacus's cave (Aeneas 8.193-97): There was a cave here, vast and deep recessed, Where Cacus lived—a dread, half-human shape. No sunlight entered; the floor was ever warm With new-shed blood, and at the tall, cold doors hung dead men's faces blotched with ugly gore. Like a grave, the entrance to Cacus's cave is blocked by a boulder (225-27), which Hercules pushed aside with some difficulty, and then (Aeneid 8.247-48) The sudden light caught Cacus unprepared; Trapped in his hiding-place, he howled in panic. In Sophocles's Aias, a tent is a special case of a chthonic cave. Aias slew many cattle. Others he "drove... to his tents, / As though his spoil were men, not homed
115 Fontenrose 1959: 406-33 (chapter 14, "The Corycian Cave") interprets all caves in myth as instantiations of the underworld.
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cattle" (63-64). Odysseus's sailors use a cave as their haunt when they seize some cattle that belonged to the sun-god Helios. Marooned on Thrinacria island, the sailors dragged their ship into a hollow cave. There they conspired to steal the best cattle in Helios's herd and slaughter them for a feast to allay their hunger (Odyssey 12.315-55). A cattle-raid requires a cave.
Cattle-raid and dragon-fight as rite de passage (Beowulf 2625b-30) The dragon-fight, Beowulf s last battle, is Wiglaf s first, his introduction into the warrior-culture: ha wus forma sib geongan cempan, Pmt he guoe rats mid his freodryhtne fremman sceolde. (Beowulf 2625b-27: that was the first time for the young warrior [Wiglafj, that he had to perform a rush into battle with his dear lord.) Sometimes a cattle-raid is a youth's rite de passage. In the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, the god undertook his cattle-raid on the day of his birth. After David of Sassoun's cattle-raid, his uncles recognized him as a hero for the first time.116 In the Iliad (book 11), Nestor tells the story of two cattle-raid sequences of theft and recovery. In the first, Nelius, king of Pylos, rustled Herakles's Erytheian cattle and hid them in a cave. Pausanias saw in the town of Pylos a cave "in which it is said that the cattle belonging to Nestor and to Neleus before him were kept."'" The Iliad mentions no such cave, but there the focus is Herakles's cattle-recovery, when he attacked Pylos and slew eleven of Neleus's twelve sons. Only Nestor. the youngest, survived (Iliad 11.690-93). This was his first battle, his introduction into the warrior culture. Later, when Nestor was still a youth in Neleus's court, the Eleans perpetrated cattle-thefts in Pylos. In retaliation, Nestor led a cattle-raid
116
Sasunts'i Davit' 3.3.1, in Shalian 1964: 214; Feydit 1964: 250.
117
Pausanias 4.36.2.
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against Elis during which he killed Itymonous and retrieved immense herds of cattle and other livestock (Iliad 11.672-705). Two themes emerge from Nestor's account: (1) the repeated pattern of theft and retaliation, a potentially endless cycle, is a defining feature of "heroic age" border-warfare, and (2) a cattle-raid as a youth's first heroic adventure, a warrior's rite de passage.'" Cattle and treasure as community property
When a stolen herd of cattle is immense, that is a sign that it belongs to the community as a whole. After Nestor's cattle-raid in Elis, when he drove immense herds back to Pylos, the men of the polis were invited to claim the cattle and other livestock that belonged to them. The cattle that Hermes stole from Apollo belonged to all the gods; Hermes sacrificed two of them as a feast for them. The cattle stolen by Aias in his singular cattle-raid were Trojan war-booty that belonged to the Achaian warriors collectively. In the first cycle of Sasna some brigands rustled cattle that belonged to the villagers in Mantzkert, but Sanasar and Baldasar tracked them down, slew them, and drove the cattle back to the city. As a result of this adventure, the king of Mantzkert recognized the twins' heroic status for the first time—another example of a cattle-raid as rite de passage. 119 Sanasar's grandson, David, later tracked down forty brigand devs who had stolen cattle that belonged to the village of Dashtou Padrial. The devs had slaughtered the cattle, so David gave the villagers one-fourtieth of the devs' treasure as compensation for their loss. The rest of the treasure he gave to the Sassoun treasury. "Community property" is a theme in dragon-fights, too. Indra combats the cosmic serpent Vrtra to free the hoarded waters, which properly belong to the whole world. Sanasar and Baldasar slay a dragon on a hill in Green
118
Rite de passage is emphasized in Walcott 1979 and Kershaw 2000.
119
Sasunts'i Davit' 1.1.12, in Shalian 1964: 35; Feydit 1964: 83.
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City, because the dragon had seized control of the village spring and demanded the weekly sacrifice of a maiden in exchange for water.12° In Beowulf, treasure belongs to the king in his capacity as ring-giver, but "rings" (a metonymy) represent national treasure. They are not his to hoard. A king has the power to hoard them, but not for long. That is what distinguishes a king from a gitsere, a miser. Still, gitsung is the peril of old age. At the end of a long, prosperous reign, an old king sometimes succumbs to demonic temptation, as Hroogar cautions in his sermon: "kince6 him to lytel kwt he lange heold, / gytsao gromhydig" (1748-49a: it seems to him too little, what he long held; greedy, he hoards [it]), neglecting his duty as a ring-giver, until Hit on endestmf eft gelimpe8 beet se lichoma lane gedreoseo, fwge gefealleo; feho oiler to, se 13,e urunurnlice madmas codes wrgestreon, egesan ne gymeo. (Beowulf 1753-57: afterward it happens in the end that his fleeting, fated body decays and falls; another [man] receives [it], one who ungrudgingly distributes treasures, the man's ancient treasure, is not afraid [to give it away].) No matter how old the king, his treasure is older: cergestreon, like yife (inheritance), suggests that it belongs to the community. The king has custody of it, as long as he gives of it freely to forge social bonds. That is the message of Hroogar's sermon. The dragon's hoard is defined in this way in the Elegy of the Last Survivor: "eormenlafe wbelan cynes" (2234: the immense legacy of a noble race). As in cattle-raids, its enormity is a sign of communal ownership. A dragon might hoard it, but "ne byo him wihte oy sel" (2277b: he is not at all better off for it). Quite the opposite of the dragon, Beowulf thanks God that he was able to win the treasure in combat minuet leodunt (2797b: for my people).
12° Ibid.
1.2.9, in Shalian 1964: 92-97; Feydit 1964: 134-40.
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Conclusion The Geats did not inherit the hoard as Beowulf had wanted, but seven of them accompanied Wiglaf into the barrow to view it and load it onto his funeral wain (3120-25). One of them carried a torch (celedleoman, 3125a), a detail that emphasizes the treasure as a spectacle, a wonder to behold. The poet uses litotes, twice, to emphasize their eagerness: "Nxs Oa on hlytme hwa part hord strude" (3126: there was no lot-drawing [to determine] who would rifle the hoard). They all pitched in, and "lyt wnig mearn" (3129b: little did anyone mourn) to load the treasure. Their innocent zeal is poignant, juxtaposed to Wiglaf s murky plan for it. The poet contemplates four alternative futures for the treasure: lots could be drawn for it; it could be burnt on Beowulf s pyre, as the Geatish messenger said it would; it could be used to revitalize Geatish society, as Beowulf intended; or it could be buried with Beowulf s ashes in his barrow, as Wiglaf purposed. Two nations in the past had used the treasure to their benefit: the race of the Last Survivor more than a millennium earlier, and earlier still, a race of giants who had fabricated the treasure. The dragon's treasure is the epic's most complex symbol. Critics have proposed diverse theories to explain it. My own view is that Beowulf had a twofold right to the hoard: he won it in combat, and it was his by virtue of treasureregality. He lawfully bequeathed it to his people to serve as their national treasure, but Wiglaf undermined him, unlawfully, by causing the Geats to bury it in the barrow, motivated as he was by an immoderate desire to punish ten cowardly retainers. According to my analysis, five overlapping arguments affirm Beowulf s right to the dragon's hoard. First is its semantic status, simultaneously collective and distributive. It was wrong of the thief to separate one cup from the hoard whilst concealing the location of the remainder. To do so violated the integrity of the hoard as a holon. The theft of the cup was a "distributive" extreme. It was just as wrong for the dragon to hoard the treasure, thereby preventing its circulation in
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human society. "Gold in the ground" is a collectivist extreme, repeated by Wiglaf. Between these adverse extremes, a national treasure, circulated in society by a generous king, is simultaneously collective and distributive. Second, the curse on the treasure, as a malediction, kept it from graverobbers, but in bona preserved the integrity of the hoard until it was won in combat by a hero ordained by God. Beowulf was that hero. Third, the legal principle of treasure-regality affituis Beowurs right to the hoard, quite apart from the fact that he won it in combat. Fourth, the "problem of Wiglaf' discloses an ethical contrast between him and Beowulf. Wiglaf was a loyal retainer in combat, outspoken in his condemnation of cowardly retainers, but immoderate in his desire to punish them by stripping them of their estates and status. His desire to punish extended to all Geats, when he caused them to bury the treasure in Beowulf's barrow. This, too, was a collective extreme, "collective guilt." In contrast, Beowulf never once condemned the ten retainers. All he wanted was prosperity for his people. Fifth, Beowulf's dragon-fight, as a variant form of the Indo-European cattle-raid, preserves the ancient polarity of theft versus combat. The combative hero has a right to the dragon's hoard, not for himself but for his people, its rightful owner, as Beowulf knew.
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Appendix I Aornos and Grendel's Mere (Beowulf 1368-72) Hroogar describes Grendel's mere as a backwater so infested by monsters that a hunted stag would sooner give up his life than seek refuge there: oeah pe hnostapa hundum geswenced, heorot hornum trum, holtw-udu sece, feorran geflymed, wr he feorh seleO, aldor on ofre, wr he in wille hafelan hydan. Nis pat heoru stow! (Beowulf 1368-72: though the heath-stepper, the hart strong in antlers, might seek the woods [when] harassed by hounds, chased from afar, [even so] he would give up [his] life, [his] life-force on the bank [of the mere], before he would hide his head in [there]. That is not a pleasant place!) The "hunting" exemplum is a propos, as preparation for the Geats' and Danes' expedition to the mere which takes them up mountain paths that are ever more narrow, their progress marked by the sound of hunting-horns (1400b-17a, 1423b25a). They are on the trail of a humanoid monster, but their expedition is homologized to a hunt. A mixed terrain of hills, woodlands, and marshlands typically comprised a medieval hunting forest, as R. W. V. Elliott points out in his survey of topographical terms in the "Gawain country." Still, what is the point of the exemplum? Perhaps the heorot signifies the Upper World in Indo-European vertical cosmology, in contrast to the Lower world of tree roots, waters, and serpents.2 Eponymously, the hart signifies Heorot. Wrenn interprets it as a symbol of warrior-kingship, evident, too, in the stag-
Elliott 1984: 112-17. 2 Taylor (1966, n. 23), notes that the hart "derives from sacred associations," without speculating about what they were.
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antlers on the Sutton Hoo battle-standard.} Helterman speculates that "Heorot" signifies that the hall was built on a site where a hart had been seen, an omen of successful kingship.4 Nicholson proposes that both Heorot and the hart-exemplum allude to the cult of a "pagan stag god."5 Higley compares the hart to the Danes as non-liminal, unable to cross the boundaries between the mere and the world of men, in contrast to Beowulf and Grendel who are "liminal."6 Irving sees irony in Hroogar's allusion to the "totem animal of the Danish dynasty and very symbol of its hall."7 D. W. Robertson's allegorical interpretation, equating the hart with the cervus of Psalm 42.1 who "seeks his Lord in the Living Waters" and shuns the false garden of cupiditas,8 resonates as biblical exegesis but seems unrelated to the narrative context of the hart-exemplum in Beowulf. Alternatively, as a secular exemplum, the Beowulf poet's digression about the hart tests the limits of ellen, a word that often is translated as "courage," but which Clemoes construes as something like "fighting spirit," since both heroes and monsters have ellen.9 I propose something more primal: a "survival instinct" that impels Beowulf, Grendel, and Grendel's mother to fight recklessly and savagely. Even so there are limits to ellen. Grendel's mere is a place so dreadful that an antler-proud hart would rather give up his life than take refuge there. Some fates are worse than death. Nothing quite like these details appears in Scandinavian troll-stories, nor in Visio Pauli. Even so, Hroogar's description of the mere is a set piece. It is so
marked by his exclamation, "Nis be heoru stow!" which signifies the opposite of 3
Wrenn 1959: 518; so too Lee 1972: 180-81.
4
Helterman 1968: 12.
3
Nicholson (1986) cites many literary allusions to a "cult of the hart," but none pertain to
Beowulf. 6
Higley 1986.
7
Irving 1968: 117; cf. Butts 1987: 117, and Fajardo-Acosta 1995: 14.
8 Robertson [1951] 1963: 183-87; so too Lee 1972: 180-81, and Bolton 1978: 127, who adds an allusion to the hart as the sign of Nephtali in Genesis 49: 21. 9
Clemoes 1995, 68-72.
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a plaisance or locus attioenus, one of the commonest commonplaces in classical and medieval Latin literature.10 Neorxnawang (Paradise) in The Phoenix, the most prominent Old English example of a plaisance, is translated from a Latin source." Grendel's mere is the opposite of this. It has analogues in classical Latin poetry, as I noted in Chapter 4. Virgil describes Lake Avernus as a forbidding place where no bird enters (Aeneid 6.131-395), as Haber noted.'2 Lucan describes a sacred grove at Masilia where neither birds nor wild beasts enter (Pharsalia 3.339-429), and Claudian describes the slopes of Mount iEtna where the Cyclops dares not graze his sheep (De raptu Proserpinae 3.339-429. These analogues were noted by Schrader." Daniel Anlezark (2007) discovered other analogues, and proposed that Grendel's mere reflects the influence of a Roman topos, a place so poisonous that no bird nor beast will enter. Among additional analogues: Lucretius's De rerum naturae (6.737-66), Strabo (5.244), Livy (24.12), and Medusa's home in Libya, described by Lucan in Pharsalia (9.621-58), and by Dracontius in De laudibus Dei (3.296-321). Isidore recognized the topos, too, in Etymologiae (13.19.8). No doubt other relevant Latin passages escaped notice. In Silius Italicus's Punica, for example, one of the "wonders of Italy" visited by Hannibal, after his victory at Cannae, was Lake Avernus, formidatus uolueri (12.120-25, at line 123). Two Old English analogues may or may not reflect classical Roman influence. Probably they do not. One of these, discovered by Orchard, appears in a description of a sacred grove in the Alexander's Letter to Aristotle:14 I° Curtius 1953: 195-200; Frey 1977. Cf. Marcos 1981: 63-66 for this theme in the Alliterative Marta Arthure. 11 The Phoenix 1-290, ed. Blake 1964; at pp. 13-16, Blake discusses Neorxnawang in terms of conventional descriptions of paradise, but does not mention Curtius's discussion of locus anwenus. 12
Haber 1931: 92-96.
13
Schrader 1983: 77-78.
14 Orchard 1995: 45 (Orchard's translation); for the larger context, pp. 248 (text), and 249 (translation).
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pxr mr.fre in pxm londum regnes dropa ne cwome ne fugel ne wildeor,
ne nwnig xtem wyrm pact her dorste gesecean Oa halgan gemmro sunnan > monan. (Alexander's Letter 36: no drop of rain ever came in that land, nor bird, nor wild beast, nor did any poisonous snake dare to seek out the holy precincts of the Sun and the Moon.) The second analogue, studied by Anlezark, appears in the passage about Wulf, the friend of Nimrod, in Solomon and Saturn II (198b-215). Saturn alludes to a noble sailor, "surging Wulf," Nimrod's warrior-companion ("Se mwre weallende Wulf... freond Nebrondes," 212-14b) who slew twenty-five dragons on the plain of Sennar. One thinks at once of Beowulf, a noble merelioende (Beowulf 255a) who sailed to Denmark, and as King HroOgar's friend, slew the monster Grendel. Wulf did not survive his dragon-fight, but died on Sanere feld (210a) because it was a poisoned place:'5 hine Oa deao offeoll forOan oa foldan ne mmg fira mnig, bone mercstede, mon gesecan, fugol gefleogan, ne bon ma foldan n[ea]t. Danon atercynn wrest gewurdon wide oni,vwcned, Oa be nu weallende ourh attres oroo ingang rymao. (Solomon and Saturn II, 216b-22: Death felled him there, because no man may seek out that land, [no] man [may seek out] that frontier country, no bird [may] fly [there], no more than [any] beast of the field. From there the first species of poison first arose, widely dispersed, those [dragons] that now clear a wide path [for their dispersal, by] surging with poisonous breath.) Anlezark translates the last phrase: "those which surging now through poisonous breath make spacious the entrance," which he understands to mean the entrance to "a pool infested with poisonous serpents." This, he asserts, is implied in the text 15
Ed. Dobbie 1942.
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and cognate with Grendel's mere.I6 Wulf as a friend or warrior-companion of Nimrod is otherwise unknown. In the absence of evidence for a biblically-based Nimrod-cycle, it is possible that Wulf was just a symbolic name made up by the poet. Anglo-Saxon writers often used names symbolically. There are other Germanic examples, in German and Old Norse. In the Nibelungenlied, while Gunther and his retainers prepare for their fatal journey to Hungary, the Burgundian queen mother, Uote, warns them to stay home on account of a dream that she had, "wie allez geftigele in disem lande wire tot" (that all the birds in this land were dead), I7 Birdlessness, in Uote's dream, is a sign of fatality and death. In the ON Karlamagnzis saga, a regiment of Frankish warriors is said to ride "in such close formation that no sparrow-hawk could fly between their weapons."18 A. G. Rigg discovered a twelfth-century English analogue: Alexander Neckham's description, in De laudibus divinae sapientiae, of a lake that prophesies the future in a roar so terrifying that not even a hunted beast will approach its waters.19 Anlezark discounts this analogue in favor of classical Latin sources that are more specific in describing poisoned places, shunned by birds and animals.2° Even so, Grendel's mere is not described explicitly as "poisoned," although it is described as a forbidding place that is avoided by wild animals. I believe that the analogue from Neckham is an indicator that aornos was a productive compositional theme in the twelfth century. The locus classicus for the Latin "Avemian" tradition is Virgil. He describes a deep cave (the entrance to the Underworld), a dark lake and gloomy wood, over which no birds (uolantes) can fly. For this reason, "unde locum Grai 16
Anlezark 2007: 122.
17
Nibelungenlied ay. 25, str. 4, ed. De Boor 440, trans. Hatto 1965: 190.
18
Karlcunagnas saga 4A.109, in Hieatt 1975, 2: 395.
19 Rigg 1982; Neckham 1863, recte V.781-84; noted by Butts 1987: 118, n. 8; discussed by Orchard 1995: 45. 20
Anlezark 2007: 113 n. 51.
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dixerunt nomine Aornon" (Aeneid 6.242: therefore the Greeks called this place by the name Aomos [Birdies*. What would we find if, taking our cue from Virgil, we look back to the Greeks for descriptions of Aomos? In the Odyssey, Circe warns Odysseus about the dangerous cliffs of Amphitrite, where "not even winged creatures can pass" (Odyssey 12.55-65). Apollonius of Rhodes describes an Ausonian sea so treacherous that "no bird spreading its light wings can cross that water" (Argonautica 4.592-93). Alexander the Great's most heroic feat in India (326 B.c.) was his conquest of a fortress on the Indus river at the Rock of Aornos (Sanskrit avarna), which was so inaccessible and well-guarded that not even Herakles could conquer it. Alternatively, Flavius Philostratus reports a tradition that Aornos was birdless "not because it rises 9,000 feet, for the sacred birds fly higher than that, but because on the summit of the rock there is... a cleft which draws into itself the birds which fly over it."2i By conquering this forbidden, "birdless" place, Alexander surpassed the greatest of mythological heroes. In an inspirational speech to his armies, Alexander is represented as saying, "we have taken the rock of Aomos which Herakles himself could not take" (Arrian 5.27). Here we find a classic example of "outdoing," a hyperbolic form of comparison that Curtius associates with medieval Latin panegyrics.22 If Virgil was the first ancient writer to identify aornos as a poetic convention, the first modern critic to do so was Henri Gregoire, who in 1949 noted its presence in the Tixonravov manuscript of the Russian version of Digenes Akrites. Basil Digenes, pursuing his desire to marry one of Strategos's daughters, enters his courtyard and calls out a challenge to him and his sons. Strategos doubts that this could be so, for his courtyard is so well defended that "not even a bird dare come near there in flight." Gregoire compares this detail with a Russian ballad of Digenes in which a Saracen boasts that he has guarded the Euphrates river for forty years, so that "not a single bird has flown over it, nor 21
Philostratus, Life of Apollonius 2.10, 1912: 139-41; for Alexander, Arrian 4.23-30.
22
Curtius 1953: 162-65.
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has any man crossed it."23 Albert B. Lord subsequently adduced Turkish, Bulgarian, and Serbo-Croatian examples of the same theme. In the Turkish prose romance of Sajjid Battal (14th or 15th century), the hero commissions two of his generals to fortify the mountain passes during a military campaign; "so strong were their fortifications that not even a bird could pass"—the detail appears twice in Squid Battal.24 A Bulgarian version of the song of "Marko ICraljevia and Musa Kesedlija" says that Musa blocked all the roads to the coast, so that "not even a bird could pass through."2 A Croatian epic of Go! Alija relates that when the hero took refuge in a cave at Mount Goleg, he guarded the mountain so well that "No bird even dared to fly across it; how then would any human being dare to pass through?"—a theme repeated twice in the epic.26 Lord assumed that this oral-compositional theme originated in Greek poetry and spread thence to south Slavic, Turkish, and Latin oral and literary traditions. Following Virgil's example, he called it aornos. A much earlier example appears in the Sumerian Lugalbanda, where the home of the Anzud-bird is described as a tree standing alone above the tree-line on a mountain "Where no snake slithers, no scorpion scurries.... In terror of him buffaloes scatter into the foothills; / Stags flee into their mountains."27 Another Sumerian example appears in Ninurta's Exploits, an epic about the warrior-god Ninurta's combat with the Grendel-like monster Asag, who attacked in the mountains carrying the eight winds as his weapons (a traditional Mesopotamian theme): "The birds there tried to lift their heads to fly away, but their wings trailed on the ground. The storm flooded out the fish there in the subterranean waters, their mouths snapped at the air. It reduced the animals of the open country to firewood, roasting them like
124-25.
23
Gregoire 1949: 142.
24
Lord 1991, 186-87, citing Ethe 1871, 135.
26
Lord 1991: 187.
26
Lord 1991: 187-88, citing Parry 1953: 107, 109, and 150, and Parry 1954: 122 and
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locusts. It was a deluge rising and disastrously ruining the Mountains."28 In this case, aornos supports the hyperbole of Asag's winds as a mountain-destroying flood. I have not found other "birdless" places in the ancient Middle East, but medieval and early modem specimens in Persian, Armenian, and Urdu sources, as well as Russian and Czech ones, suggest that aornos originated in Mesopotamia and diffused thence to neighboring regions. Where traditional story-telling themes are concerned, the boundaries between cultures are porous and allow for the formation of oral-compositional and literary Kulturblinde within a geographical area. Just as in a Sprachbund, grammatical forms are capable of drifting across languages within a geographical area, even when those languages are genetically unrelated, so in a Kulturbund, themes, typescenes, and rhetorical strategies are capable of diffusion across cultures.29 Sometimes a dragon-infested land is birdless, like the Sanere feld in Solomon and Saturn II. In the third of Rostam's seven trials in Shahnama, on the plain of Mazandardn, Rostam encountered a dragon who was surprised to see him, for "eagles don't dare fly over this land, and even the stars don't look down on it."3° In the "Alexander Romance" portion of the same epic, when Sekandar slew a dragon in its mountainside lair, the poisonous vapor of his breath rose to the moon and sickened any birds that ventured there.3I Sometimes a birdless land is controlled by monster, dev, or giant. In the Armenian tale of "Jan-Polad," the Steel Monster's castle was located in a remote land where no bird could fly and no snake could craw1.32 In the Urdu Dastan-e Amir Hamza ("Story of Emir 27 Vanstiphout 2003: 139, II. 37 and 48-49; cf. Black et al. 2004: 23. The "solitary tree" is recognized as a Mesopotamian convention (Vanstiphout 1999). 28
Black et al. 2004: 166.
29
Anderson 1998: 89-93, and 2003: 102-20.
30
Firdausi, trans. Warner 1905-25, 2: 49 and 55; trans. Davis 2006: 155 and 158.
3i
Firdausi, trans. Davis 2006: 507.
32
Surmelian 1968: 107.
507
Harnza"), the hero, in the company of the prophet Khizr, visited a ruined city that had been attacked by his jealous wife, Aasman Peri, a supernatural being who held him captive for eighteen years in Qat: "A deathly quiet prevailed there," the narrator says; "not even a bird was to be seen."33 In Shahnama, a ferryman on the Tigris river, refusing passage to Feraydun, told him that the demon-king Zahhak had ordered him "not to let so much as a mosquito cross this river without a permit sealed in the correct manner."34 The setting for the last and most important of Rostam's seven trials, the cave of White Dev, was located in a mountain valley, a place so horrific that even the auspicious homa-bird wouldn't fly over it.35 In the second cycle of the Armenian
Sasna Cier, aornos was used to describe the remote mountain cave where Sibdag Dev (White Dev) held Armalan captive. When Medz Mher first arrived at the cave, Armalan exclaimed:36 0 brave lad, The bird on its wings, the snake on its belly Cannot find its way to this cave. How did you [find your way]? The refrain is repeated by Sibdag Dev:37 —Hey, earth-born, roared Sibdag Dev, The bird on its wings, the snake on its belly Cannot make their way to this cave, How did you dare to come here? Leon Sunnelian, in his prose version of the epic based upon his own independent selections of episodes from Sasna O'er, translates Armalan's remark thus: "Hey, 33
Lakhnavi and Bilgrami 2007: 638.
34 Firdausi, trans. Davis 2006: 22. This detail is absent from the corresponding passage in Warner 1905-25, 1: 160.
169.
35
Firdausi, trans. Warner 1905-25, 2: 49 and 55; Davis 2006: 155 and 158.
36
Sasunc'i Davit', ed. Orbelli 1961, 2.1.12; trans. Shalian 1964: 128; cf. Feydit 1964,
508
you fearless man, the wild-fowl with its wings, the snake on its belly, can never come here, how did you come?" Later, White Dev asked Mher, "Hey, earthborn, the wildfowl with its wings, the snake on its belly, can never come here, how dare you?"38 Medz Mher's slaying of Sibdag Dev is one of several episodes that is modeled on the Persian Rostam-cycle and reflects the influence of Firdausi, filtered through the medium of oral-compositional tradition.39 The Underworld is birdless in the Circassian Nart saga of "How Warzameg Won Damsel Psatina."4° After Warzameg and his brother Yimis (Sanskrit Yama, Avestan Yinza) served as "lords of the dance and feast" at Psatina's wedding, she was abducted by Arkhon Arkhozh, a scaly giant whose name, "old, venerable; ugly, evil," suggests that he is the ruler of the Underworld. The abduction of Psatina, whose name means "Life-Giving Mother," allegorizes "the loss of the life force to the world of death."4I Warzameg set out to rescue her, and was ferried across a wide river to this realm by a "little old man," a traditional Charon-figure. "An evil scaly giant lives on the other side of this river," the old man told him. "He kills everybody. He will not allow even a bird to fly about in his domain,"42 Warzameg persisted. After some preliminary adventures in this land, he beheaded the giant, rescued Psatina, and married her himself. As for aornos in the Underworld, a symbolic association that this Nart saga shares with Lake Avernus, John Colarusso remarked, "Mostly birds take you upwards. If you have no birds, then you go down."43 Warzameg's underworld adventures include a story that goes back to the Sumerian Lugalbanda, the site of our earliest extant aornos passage. Wandering 37
Saszinei Davit' 2.1.13; Shalian 1964: 130; cf. Feydit 1964: 172.
38
Surmelian 1964: 87-88.
39
Anderson 2007: 129-32.
40
Colarusso 2002: 17-34.
41
Colarusso 2002: 33n.
42
Colarusso 2002: 23.
43
Colarusso, private correspondence.
509
deep in a forest, Warzameg happened upon two eaglets in a nest in the crown of a tree, and slew a serpent as it wound its way up the tree to devour them. Warzameg passed out from the serpent's poisonous fumes, but when the mother eagle returned and learned how he has saved them, she fetched water for him, then carried him and his horse over a sea, thereby bringing him closer to his quest.44 The ultimate source of this story is Lugalbanda's kindness toward the Anzudchicks, for which the Anzud-bird rewarded him with the gift of supernatural speed in running, thereby transforming him into a cosmic courier.45 Its Circassian form differs from the Sumerian story but is almost identical to one in the Urdu Dastane Amir Hatnza: the hero came upon Simurgh-chicks in the crown of a tree, saved them from a dragon, fell asleep, was praised by the chicks to their parent-bird, and was rewarded by the Simurgh, who transported Hamza across seven perilous seas to the castle of Sufaid Boom, the site of his quest.46 If the Anzud-bird and the Simorgh can migrate across texts and cultures, why not aornos? Sometimes aornos describes a well-guarded castle or country. This is epic hyperbole, but it supports an a forteriori argument: if a place is so well guarded that birds and snakes, or even mosquitoes, cannot pass its boundaries, hostile intruders are even less able to trespass there! In Shahnama, Shah Shapur Aktaf secretly mobilized his soldiers for a military campaign against Ram, and told his retainers, "When our priests have gathered an army so dense that not a mosquito can pass through the ranks... we shall... rid our garden of these noxious weeds."47 In the Russian bylina of "Ilya MUromets and Nightingale the Robber," the city of Chernigov was so well guarded that "No bird, no black raven flew past,
Colarusso 2002: 27-28. Lubalbanda and the Anzu-bird 36-202, in Vanstiphout 2003: 138-47 and Black et al. 2004: 23-27. 45
46
Lakhnavi and Bilgrami 2007: 615-19.
47 Davis 2006: 590. Warner 1905-25, 6: 346, has a variant image, of soldiers so numerous that they "will bar the road to ants and gnats."
510
/ No gray animal scoured past."48 In the Czech bridewinning tale of "Long, Broad, and Sharp Eyes," the Black Knight of Iron Castle guarded his land so well that neither birds nor snakes can enter.49 In Dastan-e Aniir Hamza the hero's betrothed, Mehr-Nigar, traveled with a pavilion guarded by 12,000 Nubian and Turkish slaves, "making it well-nigh impossible for even a bird to fly into the princess's camp."5° In the same romance-epic, when Amir Hamza and his retinue camped near the castle of Tanje-e Maghreb (Tangier), they found its battlements so well guarded that "not even a bird could fly over the fortress without being trapped, and even the Simorgh risked capture in such an undertaking."51 The Simorgh adds a touch of hyperbole. Midway through the first cycle of Sasna C,er, Sanasar's and Baldasar's enlightened rule of Sassoun is emphasized by noting that these pahlevan twins did not exact taxes or tribute, and they did not allow brigands to plunder the people's possessions there.52 Midway through the second cycle, Mher's enlightened rule is emphasized in a conventional hyperbole: Mher kept the borders of Armenia inviolate, such that birds could not fly over it and snakes could not crawl under it:" Time passed. Mher governed Sassoun so well That no one dared to violate its borders; The bird on its wings could not fly over Sassoun, The snake on its belly could not crawl into Sassoun. Sassoun flourished under Mher.
48
Bailey and Ivanova 1998: 280.
49
Strickland 1896: 11-19.
5° Lakhnavi
and Bilgrami 2007: 275.
51
Ibid., p. 686.
52
Sasunc7 Davir 1.1.18; Shalian 1964: 61.
53
Ibid. 2.2.4, trans. Shalian 1964: 137; cf. Feydit 1964: 178.
511
Surmelian translates the same passage: "Meherr took such good care of Sassoun that no enemy dared come near it. The wildfowl on its wings could not fly over Sassoun, the snake on its belly could not crawl into Sassoun."54 Hovhannes Toumanian appropriated this passage for the first quatrain of his modern heroic poem, David of Sassoon:55 Great Lion Mher, with his noble pride, For forty long years ruled Sassoon far and wide, His rule was so awesome that in his day, Across Sassoon's peaks even birds feared to stray. Sometimes a birdless place is a closely guarded garden or orchard, or a courtyard as in the Russian version of Digines Antes. In Shahnania, Feraydun's three sons traveled to Yemen to court the three daughters of King Sarv. The king conducted them to a rose garden and cast a spell to raise a freezing wind, which made the garden "so cold that even the crows did not dare fly there."56 In Karapet Sitars Hazaran blbul ("The Nightingale of a Thousand Songs," 1943), a prose poem based upon an Armenian folktale, the hero entered a secret garden by opening an iron gate that "a snake cannot slither under, nor a bird on the wing fly over."57 The refrain appears again in the third cycle of Sasna O'er, when Khandout Khanoum first learned that David had come to court her. In a comic parody of the courtly "garden scene," David fell asleep there while Kourkig Jelaly trampled the roses and grazed on the plants. Bride-seeking heroes fall asleep in gardens often enough in Middle Eastern epics, but Kourkig Jelaly was the only horse that ever trampled roses and munched on herbs as a prelude to courtship. "David must get up and go away," Khandout said:58 54
Surmelian 1964: 91-92.
55
Toumanian [1903] 1997.
Davis 2006: 32. The corresponding passage in Warner 1905-25, 1: 184 reads: "it froze so sharply that the crows grew numb," without the aornos theme. 56
57
Sital 2000: 27. Sasunc7 Davit 3.6.5; Shalian 1964, 306; Feydit 1964, 337
512
Who gave him permission to come to the garden And let his horse loose To graze on basil plants and roses and trample them: Is this his father's pasture land? The snake on its belly, the bird on its wings Have not been able to get into this garden, What kind of head has he, to enter here And let his horse loose to graze? He must get up and go away. This is one of a series of courtship-parodies in David's bridewinning quest; the others are a window-scene, a porter-scene, a banquet-scene, a stable-scene, and a chamber-scene: a private meeting in Khandout's bedchamber. The other Sassoun heroes, Sanasar and Baldssar, Medz Mher, and Pokr Mher, achieve elaborate bridewinning quests, but only David's is treated comically. The six courtshipparodies seem to be the contribution of an oral Comic Bard whose modus operandi was to turn the tables in stock episodes that normally were somewhat sentimental. Because aornos is a well-known garden-convention in bridewinning quests, it adds to the comedy. Royal gardens must be guarded closely to prevent intruding horses like Kourkig Jelaly from trampling the roses! Among these specimens of aornos, the Byzantine Greek, Slavic, Turkish, Circassian, and Armenian ones trace their derivation to oral-compositional diffusion. Firdausi's Shalmanta and Dastan-e Amir Hamza are literary compositions that had both oral and literary sources, and illustrate the complex interactions that are possible between literary and oral-compositional versions of an epic cycle. Evidence for the diffusion of a Rostam-cycle dates back as early as the sixth century in Sogdian frescoes, and in eighth-century Armenia, Moses Khorenats`i mentions Rostam in his History of the Armenians, long before Firdausi and any of his written sources. Oral-compositional performances of the Rostam-cycle are evident in modem Armenia and Kurdistan, as well as in Iranian
513
coffee-houses.59 They are influenced by Shahnama in many details, but in others are quite independent of this literary source. Like the Rostam-cycle, the Hamza-cycle was developed and diffused through complex interactions of oral and literary forms, such that it is impossible to reconstruct its compositional history with confidence. According to a Persian legend, Oessa-e Hamza, its earliest literary form, was composed at the command of the Sistani brigand Hamza ibn Azerak Shari, also known as Hainza ibn Azerak Kharehi, "the Kharijite" (d. A.H. 213, A.D. 828/29), supposedly a historical model for the hero.6° Although Safa (1948) and Hanaway (1970) accepted this early ninth-century date, Rostam-cycle influences on Hamza, through the media of literary and oral versions, require a date sometime after Firdausi's Shah/lama (ca. A.D. 1010). The Persian qessa must have reached Georgia, in written or oral form,
prior to Mose Khoneli's prose romance-epic Aniiran-Darejaniani (late 12th century), which derived the names of its principle characters and some of its episodes from the Hamza-cycle.61 A Hindustani writer, Khalil 'Ali Khan, under the pen-name Ashk, assigned it an early eleventh-century date, during the reign of Sultan Mahn-if-id Badshah of Ghazna, in his Dastan-e Amir Hamzah (1801), a 500page edition prepared for use in Urdu-language instruction of colonial officers at FortWilliam College, Calcutta.62 The Hamza-cycle represents its hero as Hamza bin Abdul Muttalib (d. A.D. 625), the paternal uncle of the prophet Muhammed. This conferred prestige, which contributed to its longevity, its diffusion across Islamic cultures, and its ability to attract other stories into its orbit during the process of oral and literary diffusion. The qessa in its earliest form, as a fairly straightforward heroic narrative, was the source of the Arabic Sirat Hamza,63 although there are many " Maharnedi
1982; Russell 2004.
6° Shear 1968-69, 1: Preface. 61
Mose Khoneli 1958.
63
Van Ronkel 1895: 41-90; Weil 1905.
Ashk 1801: 2; Pritchett 1991: 11.
514
differences due to the exigencies of oral transmission. As time went by, the Hamza-cycle was expanded with the addition of popular 'ayyar-tales (trickstertales) and tales of tilism (magic). The Hamza-cycle became much longer, diverse and flexible in its contents from one edition to another, and more fantasy-romance than epic, often called Romilz-e Hamza (Subleties of Hamza). Its diffusional range extended to an Ottoman Turkish Hamzevi (ca. 1400), a 24-volume collection of tales,64 Persian illustrated manuscripts prepared in India under the patronage of the Mogul emperors Humdyfin (reigned 1530-1556) and Akbar (1556-1605),65 sixteenth-century Malay and Javanese versions; a Balinese translation of the Javanese version; and a Sudanese version.66 Qissah-e jang-e amir Hamzah (1784), a Dakhani translation of a Persian source, was the foundation for Ashk's Fort William College version, Dastan-e Amir Hamzah (1801). This in turn was one of Ghalib Lakhnavi's sources for his Urdu text of Dastan-e Amir Hamza (1855), subsequently enlarged by Abdullah Bilgrami (1871), which brings us at last to the source used for this study of aornos. This concludes my presentation of non-Avernian aornos passages across cultures. My conclusions are as follows. The aornos theme applies to a place that is dangerous, inaccessible, or closely guarded, such that not even birds, snakes, or animals can enter. In two sources, Virgil's Aeneid and the Circassian Nart saga of Warzameg's bride-rescue of Psatina, aornos is associated with the Underworld. The earliest citations of aornos, in the Sumerian Lugalbanda-cycle and in an epic about Ninurta and the monster Asag, suggest that the theme originated in ancient Mesopotamia, and diffused thence to neighboring regions as a theme in oral and literary composition. Examples can be found in Firdausi's Shahnama, the Armenian Sasna O'er, the Persian and Urdu Hamza-cycle, Circassian Nart sagas, Turkish, south Slavic, and Russian epics, a Czech folktale, and in Greek and Latin
64
Lang and Meredith-Owens 1959: 472-80.
65
Faridany-Akhavan 1989.
66
Van Ronkel 1895; Pritchett 1991: 6-8.
515
literature. Aornos diffused in both oral and literary narrative traditions. The Roman "Avernus tradition" was one of its manifestations. Because aornos was flexible in form and diverse in applications, it could have come into Old English poetry either as a Latin influence or as part of Germanic poetic tradition. If the source was Germanic, its witnesses are Beowulf, Solomon and Saturn II, and the Nibelungenlied. If the source was Latin, this is attested in Alexander's Letter to Aristotle. So far as I am aware, there are no Anglo-Latin sources until the twelfth century. The thematic relevance of this study to Grendel's mere (and to the Sanere feld in Solomon and Saturn II) is just this: in heroic contexts, aornos signifies the hero's superhuman capacity and willingness to fight a formidable foe in a forbidding place. As an epic convention, aornos in Beowulf homologizes Beowulf to other traditional heroes of the first magnitude: Lugalbanda, Ninurta, Alexander the Great, Rostam, Medz Mher, Amir Hamza, Ilya Mitromets, Jason, Odysseus, Basil Digenes, and even Herakles (although, it is true, Herakles was on the receiving end of Alexander's hyperbolic "outdoing"). Except for Alexander and Herakles, the Anglo-Saxons knew nothing of these heroes, but their poets knew the language of poetry, which never fails to provide a text with meanings that go quite beyond anything intended by the poet.
517
Appendix II Epic Antithesis in Beowulf and Finnsburh Beowulf s reception in Denmark (229-490) is influenced by a typescene that I call "epic antithesis," a review of possible reasons why he might have come, which ends with the correct one. The Coastguard wonders if the Geats came as leasscearweras (253a: deceitful spies). Wulfgar rejects the thought that the hero came for wrcecsiduni (338b: in exile); surely he came for wlenco (338a: for proud courage). Hroogar knows that God sent him to Denmark for arstafum (382a: for ordained assistance), to fight Grendel. As I discuss in Chapter 6, this typescene appears in two Telemachos episodes in the Odyssey, in the Ithacan council scene (2.24-36), and in Nestor's reception of Odysseus's son in Sparta (3.66-85). Another Old English example is Finnsburh. The fragment begins with the last words of a question put by a Danish warrior to his companions in the Frisian hall: "...nas byrnao?" The missing discourse: "I see a light. Is it dawn breaking in the east, or a dragon flying toward us, or are the hall's gables burning?" Hnxf, the Danish king, replied:' Ne ois ne dagao eastan, ne her draca ne fleogeo, ne her oisse healle hornas ne byrnao. Ac her for]) berao; fugelas singao, gylleo grxghama, guowudu hlynneo, scyld scefte oncwyo. (Finnsburh 3-7a: This is no dawning in the east, no dragon flies here, nor are this hall's gables burning. Rather, men bear [arms] here, birds [of battle] sing, the gray-coat [wolf] howls, battle-wood [lance] resounds, the shield answers the shaft [of the lance].)
'Battle. of Finnsburh, ASPR 6: 3-4.
518
Hnzef correctly interpreted the distant glimmer of light as the moonlit glint on wargear and weapons carried by Frisian enemies, who had ambushed them at Finnsburh. As early as 1915, Lawrence identified the "watchman" theme in Finnsburh: "A gleam of light is mistaken for a moment for a fire in the gable of the hall, or for the breaking dawn, or the passing of a dragon, but only for a moment; it is the moonlight shining on the accoutrements of advancing warriors. Moonlight reflected on burnished weapons and armor is apparently a part of the poetical 'machinery' of a secret attack by night, just as the raven and the wolf were the common adornments of a place of combat."2 Lawrence cites nocturnal hall-attacks in Volundar kvika and the Nibelungenlied as Norse and German witnesses to the same poetic convention. What Lawrence calls "machinery" we now call themes and typescenes. The opening lines of Finnsburh are, indeed, replete with themes, compressed in a few lines. Among these are (1) misfortune realized at dawn,3 (2) a hall set ablaze by a fire-dragon,4 (3) the ominous raven, eagle, and wolf as "beasts of battle" who accompany the victors to the battlefield, and remain there later to feast on the corpses of dead warriors, (4) combat imagined as a discourse among personified weapons,5 and (5) splendor armorum:6 As attributes of splendor, a weapon is praised for its durability and reliability in battle, its antiquity as a family heirloom, and most of all for its radiance as it gleams in the sunlight, or moonlight, especially when a warrior first approaches a hall or a battlefield. In early oral-formulaic criticism, this glimmer of light was interpreted as evidence of (6) a typescene called "the hero on the
2
Lawrence 1915: 409.
3
Stanley 1956:434-35, rpt. 1987: 252-53.
The fire-dragon burned down Beowulf s hall: Beowulf 2324-27a, Beowulf 81b-85 alludes to the burning of Heorot. Destruction of a great hall by fire is prominent in the Old Norse Njalsaga and the Old Irish Togail Bruidne Da Derga ("Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel"). 5
For hints of personification at Beowulf 1520-24b, see Brady] 979: 101.
6 Ostheeren 1971, and Anderson 2003: 154-59.
519
beach," or his "approach to a hall."7 Hneef s epithet, hearogeong cyning (2b: a king young in warfare), a hapax legomenon, usually is emended to heaPogeong, an unattested compound with the same meaning.8 Both modifiers confirm (7) the political ideal of warrior-kingship, while suggesting Hnxf s military inexperience. As an inexperienced youth, Hnwf is like Heeocyn when he was slain in battle at Ravenswood (Beowulf 2922-35). These themes are compressed into the framework of the "watchman theme," which, considered as a rhetorical strategy, might better be called "epic antithesis." Citing parallels in Irish sagas and Welsh poems, Henry and Sims-Williams refer to epic antithesis as a device of "alternative explanations" for "some unusual phenomenon followed by the true interpretation."9 Henry notes that in Finnsburh and Togail Bruidne Da Derga, epic antithesis is associated with a traditional "watcher-reporter" theme, an observation that could be applied to some Slavic analogues, too. H. M. Chadwick and Bowra, referring to the device as "negative comparison,"I° note its use in Slavic heroic narratives, among them the Russian epic of _Igor 's Campaign and south Slavic epics about Marko ICraljevi6. Foley and Reichl call it "negative comparison," too, and associate it with Serbo-Croatian epics and Russian byliny.I I The device appears so often in south Slavic epics that some scholars call it "Slavic antithesis" or even "the Slavic antithesis."I2 Epic antithesis can appear in compressed or metonymic forms. Varro quotes Ermius's Ajax: "Ermi Aiax `Lumen—iu barne?—in caelo cemo" (De lingua Latina 6.6, "I see a light in the sky—can it be dawn?"),I3 A laconic example in American popular culture: "It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!" In 7
Crowne 1960; Fry 1966 and 1967; Foley 1988: 69-73.
9
Henry 1962, and 1966: 221; Sims-Williams 1976-78.
Fry 1974: 31, n. 2. i° H. II
Munro Chadwick and Nora K. Chadwick 1932-40), 2: 72-73; 1952: 269-72.
Foley 1991: 75-83 and 111-15; Reichl 2000: 89-97.
12
Krakcov 1985: 266, cited in Reich! 2000: 96.
13
Varro 1977.
520
Firdausi's Shahnoma, Bahman, Esfandyar's son, stood on a mountain height and looked down on Rostam while he was busy roasting an onager during a hunt in the forest. He said to himself: "This is either Rostam, or the sun itself. No one has ever seen such a man in all the world, or heard of his like among the ancient heroes.-I4 Bahman tried to kill Rostam by rolling a boulder down the mountain slope, but Rostam kicked it aside without interrupting his barbecue. Later in the same epic, the Persian commander Reshnavad discovered the foundling-hero Darn, the future father of Dara and Sekandar (the half-brothers Darius and Alexander the Great), sleeping outdoors during a thunderstorm, in the shelter of a ruined archway. At first he heard a roaring sound coming from the archway, and thought to himself, "Is that the noise of thunder, or is it the howling wind?" When he heard the roaring sound again, it seemed to say, I5 0 arch, keep wisdom's eyes awake, take care. King Ardeshir's young son lies sleeping there. When the roar came a third time, Reshnavad discovered that it was Darab, sleeping in the archway. In the third cycle of the Armenian Sasna 0=er, epic antithesis appears thrice, in prosimetric passages, most likely the contribution of a "Prosimetric Bard" who transformed much of cycle III, and part of IV, into rhythmic prose combined with songs and chants. Cycle III is about David of Sassoun, the son of Medz Mher, and his conflicts with his half-brother Msrah Melik ("king of Egypt"), Mher's bastard son. At the beginning of this cycle, David was orphaned and refused to nurse from any woman in Armenia, so his uncles dispatched him to Medz Mher's mistress, Ismil Khatoun, to be raised along with Msrah Melik. David was transported to Msr on the back of the Sassoun heroes' wonder-horse, Kourkig Jelaly ("Noble Colt"). When horse and infant arrived in Msr, Ismil saw 14
Firdausi, Sheihnorna, trans. Davis 2006: 380.
15
Firdausi, Shiihneitna, trans. Davis 2006: 447.
521
"sparks shooting from the earth, / And a cloud of dust gathering over the fields." Msrah Melik told her,16 —That is not a thunder-cloud. Those sparks are flying from Kourkig Jelaly's hoofs. Two epic conventions converge in this scene: a dialogue about "light seen from afar," and sparks flying from the hoofs—a signature detail of the wonder-horse. In the same episode, Msrah Melik tried to confine Kourkig Jelaly to the Egyptian stable, but the horse escaped. On his return to Sassoun, David's paternal uncle, Tzenov Hovan, asked the wonder-horse,17 Over what mountain did you drop David? Over what rock, in which thicket did you drop him? Which wolf, which beast did devour him, My tarlan [falcon-like] David? Kourkig said: —I did not drop him over a mountain or into a dale, Neither a wolf nor a beast devoured him. I took him to Msr, delivered him to Ismil Khatoun. But I barely escaped. Another example of epic antithesis appears toward the end of the story of David's bridewinning quest, when he won the amazon-warrior, Khandout nano= of Tabriz, as his bride. David's rivals enlisted the aid of the king of Aleppo to recruit allies to fight David at castle Blue Rock ("Kapoyt Kol") in Tabriz. Back in Sassoun, Uncle Hovan was taken in by Aleppo's deception and sent his nephew, Vergo's son Astlik, to join the siege. Astlik rode a flying wonder-horse and brandished a Havlouny-sword, an heirloom that had belonged to Trdat IV, Armenia's first Christian king. It was a meteoric sword that scattered sparks wherever he brandished it. After the first day of battle, David told 16
Sasunc'i Davit 3.1.4, in Shalian 1964: 156, cf. Feydit 1964: 197. Surmelian 1964:
17
Sasunc'i Davit' 3.1.6, in Shahan 1964: 158-59, cf. Feydit 1964: 197. Surmelian 1964
105-6, omits the dialogue. omits this episode.
522
Khandout that he would not join in battle the next morning, because one of the enemy commanders, Astlik, was his cousin. Khandout said that she would fight in his stead. To prevent this, David said that he would indeed fight, if Khandout would promise not to open a door or window of their fortress during the battle. So David fought Astlik, and while they were fighting, "Clashing swords sent flashes of light / Through the windows." The flashes of light made Khandout forget her promise:I8 Khandout Khanoum suddenly saw A flash of light in her room, —What is this? she said. I do not know. No clouds in the sky; it isn't raining. It isn't night time. There is no lightning. She became impatient, Opened the window and looked around. She saw a man on a fiery horse Moving around David, Brandishing a Havlouny sword, And showering fire on his head. Astlik struck blows. David did not return them until he saw that Khandout had broken her promise. Then, in anger, he aimed an arrow at Astlik's horse, hoping to avoid killing its rider, but the arrow passed through the horse's belly and came out through Astlik's head. In a variant version of this episode, combat with Astlik is transferred from David to his son Pokr Mher in cycle IV. Astlik fought Pokr Mher airborne on his winged horse, with a meteoric sword that showered sparks and flames. Its "thunderflashes" shook the castle. "Why all this thunder and lightning?" his wife Gohar asked. She opened the window and saw "a blazing whirlwind of horses and swords and maces crashing, and missiles shattered to fiery fragments over Mher's shield as he cowered under it." "So this is the reason why Mher did not want to fight this morning," she said. At the open window, Gohar intervened in the IS Sasunc'i Davit' 3.6.11, in Shalian 1964: 319, cf. Feydit 1964: 349-50. Astlik, a deity of Mesopotamian origin (Ishtar), was the pre-Christian Armenian goddess of fertility and prosperity.
523
combat by baring her breasts to distract Astlik. Pokr Mher shot a poisoned arrow at Astlik's winged horse, but accidentally slew his kinsman, too.19 Epic antithesis portrays Gohar's perceptions and thoughts during the combat. Epic antithesis appears in the Secret History of the Mongols, in an episode during the childhood of Chinggis Qahan (who as a child was called Temiijin). Temiijin's father Yegiisei had been murdered by enemy Tatars, and his widow, Mother Ho`elun, lived in poverty with her family at the Bilrgi Escarpment on the Keliiren river. One morning at dawn, they were threatened in an attack by an enemy clan, the TayieTud, but an old servant woman awoke and cried out, "Mother, Mother! Rise up quickly! The earth quaketh! A rumbling is heard!" and she asks a question (reflecting the dialogue format of this theme), "Are the frightful Tayiei'ud drawing nigh? Mother! Rise up quickly!" The family members gathered their horses and fled from their home.2° Togail Bruidne Da Derga offers an Irish example, in the bard's account of how the three brigand foster-brothers of King Conaire, accompanied by an army of reavers whom they had recruited in Britain, arrive on the shore in 150 ships, prepared to attack Da Derga's hostel. The bard interrupts the narrative with two paired dialogue-scenes, one focalized on the brigand champion Ingcel as he stands on the shore and observes the hostel, the second on King Conaire in the hostel, watching the brigands on the shore. In the first dialogue, Ingcel heard the spark when Mac Cecht lit the fire in Da Derga's hostel, and likened it to "Luchdonn the satirist in Emain Macha, who makes his hand-smiting when his food is taken from him perforce: or the scream of Suchdonn in Tara Luachra: or Mac Cecht's striking a spark, when he kindles a fire before a king of Erin where he sleeps."21 As is typical in epic antithesis, only the last interpretation is the right one, but the others are evocative parallels. 19
106.
Surmelian 1964: 271-73.
20
Secret History of the Mongols 98-99, in Cleves 1982: 34.
21
Cross and Slover [1936] 1969: 93-126, "The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel," at p.
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In the second dialogue, King Conaire heard the noise that "thrice fifty vessels made in running ashore." This shook the hostel "so that no spear nor shield remained on its rack... but the weapons uttered a cry and fell all on the floor of the house." "I know nothing like it," Conaire said, "unless it be the earth that has broken, or the Leviathan that surrounds the globe and strikes with its tail to overturn the world, or the ships of the sons of Donn Desa [the three brigand foster-brothers] that have reached the shore."22 Ingcel's simile, comparing the fire in King Conaire's hearth to the volatile temperament of a satirical poet, confines its allusions to retainers' interaction at a feast. In contrast, Conaire's simile is cosmic, and centrifugal. He compares the landing of Donn Desa's hostile sons with the apocalyptic attack of Leviathan, and alludes to ancient cosmology (the world as an island surrounded by vast primordial waters, personified as a cosmic serpent), and to the destruction of the world at Ragnarok. Leviathan represents the collectivity of Conaire's three foster-brothers and their army of British brigands; he also represents the cosmic serpent whose Norse counterpart, Miogarosomr, fought with Thor until they killed each other during Ragnarok, the final battle between gods and forces of chaos, which brought about the end of the world. (The future is foretold in "vatic preterite" tense.) Togail Bruidne Da Derga is an apocalyptic narrative in which Da Derga's hostel represents earth and Conaire represents Thor, but the only explicit indication of this symbolism is Conaire's epic antithesis.23 What are the aesthetic properties of epic antithesis? Bowra observes that it "enables the poet to hint at a state of mind and then to make it clear, and in so doing to give a fuller significance to what he describes by creating expectation and surprise."24 In Serbo-Croatian poems, Foley observes, the questions and 22
Cross and Slover [1936] 1969: 106.
So far as I am aware, the destruction of Da Derga's hostel has not been studied as an example of the Indo-European myth of the "final battle"; cf. Steven O'Brien 1976 and Ahyan 1998 and 2000. 23
24
Bowra 1952: 270.
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answers of "negative comparison" allude, metonymically, to parallel situations in epic tradition, thereby creating a wide field of "referentiality."25 Epic antithesis is a sophisticated simile that contributes to thematic development by evoking narrative parallels. As a rhetorical device, epic antithesis bridges panoramic and scenic modes of narration. Something seen or heard in panoramic perspective, such as a spark or light on the horizon, suddenly becomes the focal point of a dialogue, representing a shift from narration to dramatic representation. Epic antithesis often marks the tuming-point in a plot, or a new development in the course of events.
25
Foley 1991: 76.
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Index Achilles 4, 60, 153, 185, 189-90, 197, 232, 266-67, 355, 365, 379, 393-95, 424, 437 Adomnan, Vita Columbae 156 adoption 4, 171, 224-37, 269 Advent Lyrics 272 rElfric 21, 110, 111, 112, 149-50, 202-3, 310-11, 354, 396, 431-33, 467, 487 Aeneas 141n, 142-42, 149, 150, 186-87, 197, 232, 391, 421 schere 4, 165-97, 225, 234, 245, 281, 314, 327, 415, 426 iEschylus 180-81 aetiology 11, 71, 203-4, 301, 305-6 Alammanic law 12 Alcuin 7, 16-18, 19 Alexander Romance 159-60, 502 Alexander the Great 500, 511, 516; see Sekander Alexander's Letter to Aristotle 135, 139, 292, 497-99, 511 Alfred 9, 13, 27, 201-2, 224; Boethius 161, 270-71, 412, 427-28, 459-60 allegory 56-57, 75, 135, 409, 440, 445, 40, 496; in Battle of Maldon 401; in Cynewulf s Elene 470; in Judith 283-84 Alliterative Morte Arthure 396 allusion 299-301, 303, 312-16, 320, 328, 340 Altamal 278 amazon-warrior 171, 275-85 ambiguity 30, 38, 40-41, 44, 52, 98, 119, 126, 134, 136, 157, 173n, 25859, 261-62, 264, 269, 288, 292, 301, 305, 308, 312, 317-20, 323-24, 332, 338, 361, 363, 374, 381, 402, 45556, 459-62, 476 Ammianus Marcellinus 375, 384 anaphora 40-41, 42, 158, 171-72, 212 Andreas 259-60, 379
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 9, 25, 35, 355,
404, 466 anthropological criticism 1-2, 50, 94, 174, 445-4 AMU, Anzu(d)-bird 346, 371, 378, 381, 384, 394, 423-24, 501, 505 aornos 137, 495-511 Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 500 Apsu 15, 151-53 Ariovistus 12, 99, 365 Aristotle 69-70, 72, 79, 85, 89, 240, 460 Arminius 365, 386-88, 398-99 Arrian, Life of Alexander 500 Arthur, King 233, 242, 243, 396-97 Asag (Sumerian monster) 115-16, 5012, 510 Asser 9, 35, 201 Athelward, Chronicon 35 Atlakvida 396 Atrahasis 29, 106, 144, 306-7 Attila, Etzel 207, 231, 320-24, 330-31, 338, 341-42, 348, 396, 438-39, 444, 445n Avernus, Lake 129, 137, 497, 499, 504, 510-11 Augustine 13, 16, 21, 94-95, 107, 121, 190-92 Babel 305, 310 Babylonian Epic of Creation 70-71, 106, 151, 306, 346, 423 Baldasar 25-26, 116-17, 383, 391, 400, 491 Basil of Cappadocia 21 Basil Digenes 500-1 Battle of Maldon 148, 335, 346-47, 355, 356, 360, 379, 382, 384-8, 396, 397406 Bayeux Tapestry 61n, 297 beasts of battle (theme) 194-95, 251, 302-3, 347, 361, 422, 476, 514 Bede 9-11, 13, 201-3, 296-97, 303, 30710, 329, 427
584 Belisarius 385, 421-23 Beow 4, 22, 35-46, 47, 54, 96 Beowulf 7, 58-59, 104, 126-27, 165-79, 186, 189, 192-97, 255, 391, 393, 395, 397, 413, 418, 427-29; strength 207-8, 268; reception in Denmark 204-9, 415-17, 513; and Ecgheow 211-13; as healing physician 63, 7784; and Breca 156-60, 217, 373, 415; Grendel-fight 286-87, 349-53, 396, 406, 414, 431, 433-36, 463, 498; in Grendel's mere 129-35, 139-41, 14344, 256-58, 396, 425-26, 463; adoption by Hroogar 224-36, 239-40, 243; homecoming 218-19, 373-74, 398; inglorious youth 45-46, 62; and Hygelac 243-45, 476; Hygelac's champion 54, 219, 359; expedition in Frisia 359-71; kingship 443, 447-48; dragon-fight and treasure 219, 396, 397, 414-15, 418-20, 425, 436-37, 441-93; funeral 181-82, 270, 419, 424, 443-46, 454, 475-76, 478, 492; barrow 208, 303, 441, 444, 458, 478, 487, 492-93 Beowulf poet 55-59; intention 56-59; voice 59-87 Berossus 144-45 Bible 16, 17, 71, 138, 143, 149-50, 171, 182, 184-85, 190, 192, 204, 222, 260, 299-300, 306, 313-14, 348-49, 353, 367-69, 389, 432, 469-70, 496; see Enoch; Harley Psalter, Irish Reference Bible, Nicodemus Blickling Homilies 135-36 blood-token 169-70, 234 boast 208, 217, 220, 222, 229-30 Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy 13, 73-74, 185 270, 412, 414, 423, 427; see Alfred, Meters of Boethius Boniface V, Pope 203, 306-7 boy-hero 42-46, 347 Bracton, De Legibus 465 Breca 156-60, 415 Brosing torque, Brosinga mene 47, 52, 214, 216-17, 264-66 Brunanburh 347, 355-56 Brunhild 295-96, 323, 353
Byrhtfero of Ramsey 405 Byrhtnoo 346-47, 360, 380-84, 391, 396-407, 484 Cmdmon 10, 65 Cain 89-90, 92, 94-96, 98, 101-3, 120, 171, 293, 299-300, 313-315 Capture of the Five Boroughs 355 cattle-raid (typescene) 5, 382, 479-93 Catullus 196 Chanson d'Antioche 377-78 Chanson de Roland 14, 66, 143, 173, 188, 312, 346, 354, 362, 365, 372, 379,381,388 charging ceremony (typescene) 169-70, 234, 301, 327-28, 337-40, 342 Charlemagne 13-14, 16, 34, 173, 381 charms 80-83 Chaucer, Geoffrey 55, 58, 73-74, 162, 193, 413-14, 443-44 choosing the avenger (typescene) 16771,234,301,327-28,339, 343 Christ and Satan 105, 133, 136 Christian-pagan polarity 7, 24, 271, 40814, 416, 420-21, 441-42 Cicero 183, 191-92, 314-15 Claudian, De raptu Proserpinae 137, 397 cliff of death (typescene) 135, 136 Coastguard 148, 205, 209, 216-18, 513 collective modality 59, 65, 68-72, 75-80, 83-85, 88, 90, 93, 95, 100, 107, 114, 130, 143, 174-75, 177, 195, 200, 209, 286-95, 300, 328-29, 376, 406, 411, 417, 421, 450-55, 463, 479, 490, 493 collocation 49, 300, 303, 307-8, 311, 313, 318, 373, 45.1, 458-59 combative handshake (typescene) 34953, 370 comitatus 18, 22, 26, 39-42, 45-47, 49, 51, 206-7, 209, 380-81, 385, 401, 407, 416, 473, 475-78 companion fetches water for hero (typescene) 388-89 companions await hero's adventure (typescene) 383 companions leave hero for dead (typescene) 383-85
585 Consolatio ad Liviam 183, 185, 192 consolalio mortis 4, 165, 175-97
Constantine 14, 297, 347, 365, 467, 470 cosmic dragon or serpent 151, 160, 520 cosmology 2, 143, 151-56, 160-64, 287, 306 Creation-song 92-93, 98, 107, 257, 262, 295, 303-11, 313, 355-56 cremation, pyre 24-25, 180, 187, 194, 334, 338, 443-45, 452, 454, 478, 492 Crowland 19, 465-67 Crusades 12, 395, 399-400 C6 Chulainn 43, 114, 242-43, 277-78, 425 Culhwch and Olwen 242 curse 90, 91, 104, 210, 424; curse on the dragon's treasure 441, 457-64, 493 Cursing of Agade 16 Cynewulf, Elene 271, 273, 347, 469-70; Fates of the Apostles 380; Juliana 105, 139, 284-85, 310, 347, 365, 379 Cyrus 28, 33 Dxghrefn 359, 361, 363, 367-70 Danes 209n, 345, 359, 447; epithets 301-2, 329, 356; and Scyldings 20, 23, 35-37, 39, 447; in Heorot 107, 115, 117-18, 121, 144, 147, 162, 174, 180, 197, 205-6, 217, 227-28, 230-31, 253, 286, 293-95, 307; beset by Grendel 67, 90, 94, 98-99, 101-2, 113-14, 126, 209, 269, 373, 378; idol-worship 8n, 118-19, 257, 299, 305-09; at Grendel's mere 29, 129, 134-35, 139, 15, 161-62, 165, 170, 174-75, 199, 300, 312-14, 383, 49596; in Finn Episode 329-32, 336-38, 452; in Finnsburh Fragment 512; in Ingeld episode 322, 325-26; in Battle of Maldon 397-406, 485 Danelaw 201-2 Daniel 272 David (biblical) 53, 182, 184-85, 233, 353, 359, 367, 369, 379, 389 David of Sassoun 15, 152, 242, 377, 382, 400, 437, 481-83, 489-91, 5088, 516-18 death of the substitute (typescene) 142 De Gestis Her4'ardi 466-67
deixis 172-75, 301-2, 317, 319 Deor 177, 193 Descent of Ishtar 141-42 De Septem dormientibus 467-69 devil, devils 308-11; Grendel as devil 102-11 Diaz, Bernal 456 Dietrich von Bern: see Theodoric the Goth Digenes Akrites 500-1, 507 digression 184-86, 299, 311-14 distributive modality 65, 68-71, 75, 7880, 86, 88, 174, 195, 391, 411, 421, 450-55, 463, 493 Doctor Faustus 139-40 Dracontius, De laudilms Dei 497 dragon 163-64, 267, 447, 513-15; dragon's barrow 109, 450, 457, 463, 470-78, 487, 492; dragon's cup 450, 453, 463, 471-74, 483-84, 493; treasure 5, 219, 247, 419, 441-93; dragon-fight 3, 7, 116-17, 246, 263, 312-13, 420, 436-37, 441-42, 479-93 Dream of the Rood 271, 432 Dumezil, Georges 11, 50, 370, 425 dysphemism 251-52 Eanmund 170, 291-92, 362, 475 Ecgpeow 22, 167, 207, 211-13 Eco, Umberto 1, 30-32, 58, 75, 76-77 Edmund 487 Edward the Confessor, Laws 471 Egils saga 249-50, 442, 479 Einhard, Vita Caroli 18, 297 Elaine of Ascolat 25, 245-46 elegy, elegiac 166, 175-77, 182, 188, 189, 192, 249, 252 Elegy of the Last Survivor 188, 358, 450, 452-55, 492 ellen 4, 9, 370, 391, 415, 424-26, 496 Enkidu 142, 182, 189-90, 346, 375-76, 379, 423-24, 460 Enmerkar 15, 375, 381 Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta 147 Enoch, Book of 95, 145 Eofor 347-48, 362, 380, 424-25 epic antithesis 209-11, 513-21 epic prayer (typescene) 469-70 Erra and Ishum 106, 142, 381
586 essentialism 32-33, 59, 65, 69-76, 82, 83 Etana 159 Etzel: see Attila Euripides 180-81 Evander 186-88 Exeter Riddles 271, 273 exile 8, 12, 13, 20, 22, 25, 26, 29, 43, 52, 90, 94, 98, 102, 202, 207, 209, 212-13, 299-301, 312-13, 335, 337, 339, 407, 421-22, 424 Exodus 273, 462 extensional modality 65, 68-73, 75, 79, 85-86, 88, 89, 391 Fagrskinna 43-447 208, 236-37 falconry 67-67 Fates of Men 251-52 Father's Lament 4-5, 247-54, 255-56, 267, 328, 356 feast 67, 93, 98, 106, 108, 132, 208, 211, 214, 217, 220-21, 225-26, 228, 236-37 Felix: see Guthlac feud 47, 57, 67, 90, 94, 98, 100, 124, 165, 167-70, 199, 212-13, 220-21, 233-34, 236, 245, 248, 250, 253, 300-1, 316-21, 324-28, 330-31, 333, 336, 340-41 Finn 11, 169-70, 214, 329-39 Finnsburh Fragment 315, 329, 331-32, 340, 346, 513-15 Finn episode 299-301, 311, 315, 327, 328-40, 341, 379, 439 Firdausi: see Shahniima Flavius Philostratus, Life of Apollonius 500 Flood 96, 144-51, 171 Folcwalda 330, 332 formalism 32-33, 71, 72, 74, 88 fortitudo 48, 50, 392-93, 426 fosterage 235-37 Foucault, Michel 75, 79, 222-23 Four Sons of Aymon 433 Franks 7, 13, 15,18, 89, 199, 298, 354, 364, 379, 448-49; in Beowulf 51; 163, 265, 360-61, 418; in Chanson de Roland 188, 312, 346, 362, 379, 395; in Crusades 12, 377, 399-400; in Karlarnagnris saga 499
Freawaru 169, 233, 318, 320-27, 335, 417, 438 Fredegar 18 Fredegund 448-49 465; Hygelac's Frisia, Frisians expedition 4, 8, 47, 49, 51-53, 163, 183, 311, 358-67, 368, 418-20, 425; in Finn episode 329-33, 335, 339-40, 346 Froda 233, 316, 318-19, 325, 327-28, 438 funeral 180-83, 186-87, 194-97, 299300, 306, 314, 333-35, 340, 342 Gautreks saga 44-45 Geatish messenger 183, 301-2, 347, 364, 371, 375, 386, 419-22, 454-57, 474, 476, 478, 492 Geats 41, 51, 89, 102, 122-23, 149, 172, 219, 244, 253, 291, 321, 373-74, 413, 418, 421, 447; in Denmark 52, 61-62, 108, 112-13, 118, 129, 131, 144, 147, 150, 165, 170, 172-74, 176, 199, 204-7, 208, 214, 216-18, 223, 226, 234-36, 240, 258, 326, 383, 431-33; at Ravenswood 48-49, 301-2, 419; in Frisia 358, 360-61, 363-65, 369; at the dragon fight 219, 290, 374, 378, 384, 389, 420, 436, 470, 476-78; after Beowulf's death 47, 163, 181-2, 208-9, 212, 246-47, 270, 419, 421-22, 424, 441-44, 446, 450, 454-55, 457, 459, 464, 476, 478, 492 Genesis A 96n, 148, 154, 304 Genesis B 271-72, 386 genre 56-57 Gennanicus 155, 353, 365, 384, 386, 398 Gesta Romanorum 28, 377 gehrld 3-4, 20, 193, 325, 391, 427-39 giants' sword 130, 133, 141, 260-63 gifstol 118-26
gift-giving 97, 120-25, 168-69, 170, 174, 178, 213-21, 445-48, 477 Gifts of Men 193 Gildas 10, 23-24
587
Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh 15, 129, 140-43, 151, 152, 182, 189-90, 346, 375-76, 379, 381, 423-24, 460 Gilgamesh and Agga 376-77 Gilgamesh and Huwawa 346, 375, 381 Goliath 353, 367-69 Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum 18, 40-51, 458 Gregory the Great 34, 308-9; Dialogues 125, 427 Grendel 2, 307; as disease-spirit 62-63, 77-84; glof 66-68, 111, 173; epithets 89-92; themes 92-94; descent from Cain 94-96, 299-300, 311; name 96; as rebellious thane 98-102, 124-25, 292; as demon 102-5; locomotion 105-6; motivation 106-9; physical attributes 109-11, 258; fight with Beowulf 318, 351-61; immunity from weapons, 112-18, 317, 463; abode 130-35, 171-75; severed head 214-15,282-84 Grendel's mere 2, 96-97, 129-45, 194, 256-58, 463; moors 292; aornos theme 495-513 Grendel's mother 89-127, 165-67, 17175,299-300, 327; see amazon-warrior Grettis saga 106, 135-36, 167, 306, 349, 383 Grimnismal 408-9 Gunther 232, 278, 281, 295-96, 346, 348, 353, 375, 395-96, 397, 398 Guthlac 18-26, 29, 465; Vita sancti Guthlaci 8-24, 102-6, 109, 111, 125 Gudlac A 103, 107, 109, 125 Gylfaginning 67, 408 Hwocyn 46, 48-49, 218, 243, 300, 302, 311, 515 Hagen 207-8, 222, 232, 278, 326-27, 331, 338, 341, 348, 371, 448, 478 Hama 265-66 Hamza, Amir 4, 159, 233, 267, 359, 369-70, 382, 503, 505-6, 508-11 Harley Psalter 138 Hartmann von Aue, Gregorius 28 Hcivanuil 193, 408 Healfdene, Healfdane 22, 96; sword 214 Heardred 41, 219, 243, 244
Headobeards 169, 233, 267, 316-28, 438 Heatiolaf 212 Heimskringla 236-37 hell: see Underworld hendiadys 26, 100 Hengest 9-13, 29, 169, 214, 327-29, 331-39, 439 Heorogar 22, 35, 216, 228, 240, 438 Heorot 92, 100, 105-9, 114, 118-19, 121-22, 124, 126, 163, 171-77, 179, 197, 204-9; 300-6, 311, 316-21, 326, 328, 495-96; repairs 293-98 Heoroweard 216, 228 Herakles, Hercules 140-41, 480-81, 48587, 490-91 Herebeald 4, 48, 243, 245, 248-50, 254 Heremod 21, 23, 35, 36, 44, 107, 299300, 311-14, 448 Hereward the Wake 466-67 Hermes 487-88, 488-90 hero, heroism 7, 9-20, 21, 23, 52, 53, 378-83, 391-407, 424-39 hero and the king (typescene) 2, 232-33, 240 hero on the beach (typescene) 514-16 Hervarasaga 278, 458 Hesiod, Theogony 59, 71, 153, 481, 48586 Hetware 360, 363, 421 Hildebrand 208, 242-43, 254, 359, 379, 448 Hildebrandslied 208, 242-43 Hildeburh 181, 300, 311, 330-35, 33940 Hippocrates of Cos 86-87 Hnzef 169, 181, 331, 327-29, 338-39, 346, 439, 444, 452, 514-15 Hoc 330 Holofernes 281-84, 378 Hondscioh 3, 67, 173-74, 292-93, 318, 431-36 Horsa 9-13, 29, 329 Hrabanus Maurus 283 HreOel 4, 51, 207, 243, 247-50, 254, 255-56, 267, 328; mailcoat 59-66; sword 218-19, 243 HreOric 226, 240 Hrolfs saga Kraki 472
588 Hroogar 2, 4, 199, 262, 307, 437; kingship 22-23, 35, 47, 49-54, 63, 91, 105, 165, 175-78, 205, 270; builder of Heorot 22, 65, 87, 267, 304-5, 311, 496; beset by Grendel 62-63, 77-78, 83, 97, 99, 100, 104, 109, 115, 118, 119-27, 129, 134, 143, 283, 406-7, 414, 416-17, 487, 495-497; reception of Beowulf 20413, 301, 350, 374, 513; adoption of Beowulf 168, 171, 224-37, 239-40, 244, 248, 250, 253-54, 255, 264, 364, 476; lament for iEschere 16597, 245, 314, 327, 425-27; giftgiving 169, 213-21, 244, 449; sermon 103-4, 144-51, 284, 300, 492; Heabobeard feud 267, 316, 31821, 325, 438, 442 Hrobmund 226 Hrobulf 231, 233 Hrunting 217, 222-24, 371 Hugas 360, 363, 366-67, 419 Husband's Message 26, 29, 31, 146 Hygd 244, 302, 314, 360, 449 Hygelac 46, 56, 58, 424-25; kingship 7, 37-38, 47,48, 50-51, 53; and Beowulf 60, 62, 66, 102, 115, 134, 169, 173, 175-76, 180, 194, 206, 216, 218-19, 225, 227-28, 234, 240, 243-45, 250, 254, 255, 271, 314, 318, 372-74, 449, 476; at Ravenswood 48-49, 183, 301-3, 311; in Frisia 8, 47, 49-53, 163, 183, 265, 311, 359-72, 418-21, 425, 442; in Liber monstrorum 89-90, 354 Ideal Knower 59, 71-72, 77, 84-87, 88 idol-worship 118, 177, 203-4, 257, 299, 305-8 Iliad 60, 153, 180, 185, 189, 241,
266, 354-55, 365, 393-94, 425, 490 Ilya Mdromets 45, 505-6 Indo-European typescenes, themes, tropes 2, 315; animals of the gods 347n; battle-frenzy 425-26; cattleraid 313, 441, 479-92; dragonfight 263, 315, 441, 479-92;
family charisma 239-43; fatherson combat 242; genderdifferentiated mourning 181-82; hero and the king 232-33; hero's tragic choice 393-95; merismus 286; theft-combat polarity 349, 484-87; tri-functionalism 11, 480; vertical cosmology 2, 151, 160, 162, 495 Indra 116, 263, 483, 488, 491 Ingeld, -episode 16, 169-70, 233, 299300, 316, 318-28, 339-40, 342, 43637 Inguiomerus 365, 398-99 invective 179, 184-86 intensional modality 59, 65, 68-72, 7680, 83-84, 88, 391
Irish Reference Bible 95 irony 7n, 22-23, 58, 98-102, 113, 118, 124, 172, 177, 187, 197, 302n, 320, 321, 325, 330, 342, 420 Isidore of Seville, Eolnologiae 392-93, 497 Jerome 17, 183; Ecclesiastical History
467 Jordanes, Getica 96, 444
Judgment Day 11262-63 Judith 108, 133, 136, 193, 281-84, 347, 378-79, 391, 396-97 Julius Caesar 12, 99, 204, 365, 384, 443 Justinian, Laws 464 Jutes 9, 11, 329-32, 335, 337-39 Kalevala 306 Karbogha, Karbugh5 365, 399-400 Karlamagnas saga 362, 499 King Horn 43, 46 king's two councils (typescene) 376-77 kingship 7, 20-26, 35, 44-54, 56, 57, 123-23, 178-79, 183, 189, 220, 26970, 374-75, 443, 449, 477-78, 49596, 515 Kriemhild 207, 222, 396, 438-39, 448, 478 lament 165-67, 174-8, 186-88, 192, 19697 Lament for Sumer and Urim 15-16 Lancelot, French romance 132-33
589 Lancelot 233, 245-46, 395, 432 Langfaatal 36 last survivor (typescene) 68, 358-59; see Elegy of the Last Survivor Leges Henrici 464 Liber Eliensis 66, 295, 382 Liber monstrorum 89-90, 163-64, 354 litotes 98-102, 206, 217, 236, 357, 363, 364, 374 Livy 334, 393, 497 locus amoenus 496-97 Lokasenna 36, 67 Lucan, Pharsalia 137, 497 Lucretius, De rerun: naturae 143, 497 Lugalbanda cycle, Lugalbanda 15, 37577, 381n, 383-85, 501, 505, 510-11 Mabinogion 242
Mahabharata 394
Malory, Sir Thomas 208, 245-46, 343, 347, 354n Mamik and Konak, Mamikonians 25-26, 358, 366-67, 380 Marduk 15, 151, 153, 346, 378, 393, 403-5, 423 Marko Kraljevie 501, 515 Marlowe, Christopher 139-40 Maxims /24, 199, 271, 293 Maxims 11273-75, 408-14 Medz Mher 352, 378, 391, 395, 503-4, 506-08, 512, 516 Menander 183 Menologium 273, 301 merismus 101, 252, 253, 285-95 Merovingians 360, 363-64, 367, 369, 418, 421, 442, 448-49, 458, 476 messenger: see Geatish messenger Meters of Boethius 161 microcosm 253, 254 mise-en-abinze 165-66, 249 Mieigarosomr 160, 520 Morkinskinna 44, 387 Mort Artu 396 Mose Khoneli, Amiram-Darejaniani 509 Moses 28, 34, 462, 469-70 Moses Khorenats`i 10, 145, 366, 508 mythopoeia 2-3, 32-33, 59, 61, 62, 65, 70, 71, 73, 87, 88
Nxgling 348, 363, 367, 371-72, 385 Nart sagas 132, 383, 504-5, 510 Neckham, Alexander 497 Nennius 12-13 Neoplatonism 72, 74-75 Nergal 68, 141-42 Nergal and Ereshkigal 141-42 Nestor 211, 490, 513 Nibelungenlied 207, 222, 232, 245, 277, 281, 295, 320-27, 330, 338, 340-42, 346-48, 353, 358, 375, 395-96, 448, 478, 499, 514 Nicodemus, Gospel 141 Nimrod 13, 498-500 Ninurta 346, 371, 375, 378, 423 Ninurta's Exploits 115-16, 375, 501-2 nominalism 1, 3, 32-33, 70, 71, 73-74, 77, 79, 88, 299, 449-50 Oda of Cluny 14 Odysseus 142-43, 160, 211, 266-67, 486-88, 489, 500, 511, 513 Odyssey 140-41, 143, 209-11, 232, 266, 489, 500, 513 Offa 16, 346-47 Ohthere, Ohtere 170, 291 Onela 170, 291, 475 Ongenpeow 48-49, 302-3, 347-48, 362, 380, 386, 424-25 Orosius 149, 150, 154, I58n Orvar-Oddsaga 458 Oswald 396-97 outdoing (typescene) 208, 211, 343, 357-58, 500, 511 Ovid 196-97; Fasti 192 panegyric 25, 180-84, 500 paronomasia 287-88 parrhesia 222-23 Paul the Deacon 99, 353, 365-66 Pausanias 485n, 490 P`awstos Buzandaei 223-24, 358-59 Pearl 55, 58 Pekko 29, 37, 39 Phoenix 64, 462, 497 plaisance 496-97 Plato 69-70, 73-77, 84, 89, 121, 222-23, 394 Pliny 94, 183 Plutarch 192
590 Poema de Mio Cid 14, 25, 48, 232, 469 Polybius 183-84 Polyphemos 284 Popol Vuh 141, 306, 380, 417 positivism 32-33, 69-73, 80, 88 Procopius 385, 421-22 prolepsis 172-74, 316-17, 322; proleptic deixis 172-75, 303, 317 Propertius 192, 197, 481, 489 Prudentius, Psychomachia 139, 371-72 Qambar (Kazakh epic) 43 Quintilian 183 Ravenswood 4, 48, 49, 51, 53, 183, 3013, 311, 347, 356, 362, 380, 386, 41920, 424 reciprocity 220-21, 234, 445, 449 Regularis Concordia 202 relativism 69-73 retreat at a river or sea (typescene) 36566 revenge 165, 168, 170, 174, 179-80, 186-89, 192, 214-15, 245 Richard Coer de Lion 433 Richard son of Nigel, Dialogue on the Exchequer 465 Rimbert 8 risk and heroism 391-425 rite de passage 489-91 Rodrigo Diaz 4, 25, 29, 48, 232, 469 Roland 4, 14, 173, 188, 361-62, 364, 370, 372, 379, 389, 391-92, 395, 397, 402 Rostam 4, 62, 232, 242, 243, 253, 254, 268, 351-52, 359, 369, 378, 381, 394-95, 437, 502-4, 508-10 Ruin 65, 420 Rule of Chrodegang 202 runes 144, 146-47, 150, 183, 214, 410; Norwegian Rune Poem 266-67 Saliid Battal (Turkish epic) 501 Sanasar 25-26, 116-17, 131, 133, 148, 352, 383, 391, 400, 490-91 Sargon 16, 26, 33 sapientia 48, 50, 392-93, 426 Sczsna Crer 3, 116-17, 131, 148, 152-53, 351-53, 382, 503-4, 506-7, 510, 51619 Sasunc'i Davit' 116-17, 383n
Saxo Grammaticus 36, 279, 478 Sceaf 22, 23, 28, 29, 35, 37 Sayf ben Dhi Yazan 131-32 Scyld Scefing 4, 20-26, 27, 29, 34-41, 47, 54, 183, 289-90, 444, 451-52, 456 sea, cosmic waters 129, 131, 139, 151, 154-64, 415 Seafarer 177, 193 sea-voyage 256-58 Sebeos, History 382 Secret History of the Mongols 389, 519 seige of a city (typescene) 346, 375, 377, 384, 421-22 Sekandar 28, 500, 514 Seneca 183-86, 189-91 seven companions (typescene) 381-83 Seven Sleepers 467-69 Shahnama 3, 28, 53, 159, 232, 241-42, 253, 349-50, 367, 373, 376, 379, 500-1, 503, 505-8, 514 Shakespeare, William 361 ship-burial 24-25, 183, 289-90, 449-50 Siegfried 4, 222, 232, 245, 281, 347-49, 352-53, 363, 375, 448, 478 Sigemund 299, 300, 311-13, 443, 44749 Silius Italicus, Punica 143, 362, 497 simile 256-85 Simorgh 394, 505-6 single combat (typescene) 353-59, 36770 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 55, 109, 215, 294-95 Sital, Karapet 507 skepticism 70-73, 88 Skjoldynga saga 36 Skjounga saga 25 Snoni Sturluson 29, 36, 408-9, 435, 444-45, 460 Socrates 68-69, 71, 73, 75, 84, 394-95 Solomon and Saturn 261, 498-99, 502, 511 Sophocles, Aias 486-87, 490 splendor armorum 62 Stoics 4, 180, 184, 186n, 191-93, 429-30 Strabo 497
591 stripping a corpse on the battlefield (typescene) 361-63 Suite du Merlin 208 Sutton Hoo 473, 495-96 superlatives 255, 256-58, 263, 265, 26675 swimming 129, 156-57, 364-67 symbolic politics 4, 15, 199-237 Tacitus 39, 61, 99 155, 181, 183, 18586, 195, 188n, 206, 226, 280-81, 346, 353, 384, 387-88, 398-99, 44344 Thin Bó Cdailgne 354 Talmud 470 tapestry 291-96 Taron, History of366-67, 480 Tertuilian 17, 306 Theodoric the Goth 13-15, 53, 464, 468 Theodosian Constitution 467 Thidreks saga 243, 448 thief, theft 450, 463, 468, 470, 472-73, 480, 483-88, 490, 493 Dryo 253, 302 tragic court flyting (typescene) 301, 328, 340-44 three mighty blows (typescene) 347-49 Togail Bruidne Da Derga (Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel) 515, 519-20 Toumanian, Hovhannes 507 Trdat, Tiridates IV 366-67, 517 treasure trove, treasure-regality 452, 454, 456-57, 459-60, 464, 467-74, 493 tri-functionalism 11, 480 Turpin 14, 66, 143, 361, 364, 372, 389 two-troll tradition 130, 135, 167, 313, 446 typescene 3-4, 26-35, 300-1, 303-4, 312, 315, 327-28, 340-41, 343-44 Underworld, hell 68, 133, 135-44, 499, 504-7, 510 Unfero 22, 53, 156, 158, 205, 217-18, 222-24, 230-31, 300, 302, 327 Uro's well 408-9 Utnapishtim 29, 129, 140, 150-51 Vaffirodsmal 29 Vainglory 284 V arra, De lingua Latina 515
Vercelli Homilies 162-63 victory-song 185, 353-59, 363 viking 7-8, 45, 209, 347, 387, 418 Virgil, Aeneid 17, 137, 142, 186-88, 197, 277n, 305-6, 354, 372, 421, 481-82, 485n, 489-90, 497, 499-500, 501, 510; Georgics 192 Visio Pauli 135-38, 162, 496 Vita Anskarii 8 Vita Antonii 256-57 Vita Caroli 14 Vita Oswaldi 405 Vita sanctoxum Harlindis et Relindis 297 Volkh Vseslavyevich` 42-43 Volsunga saga 380 Volundar kvifia 514 Vortigern 10-12 Wwgmundings 418-19, 475 Waldere 278-79 Waltharius 62, 232, 265, 278,348, 348, 371 Wanderer 177, 191, 194-95, 346, 406-8, 428-29 warning a hero against an adventure (typescene) 373-78 watchman (typescene) 514 Wealhkeow 109, 161, 214, 221, 228-33, 300, 302, 311, 321; - torque 163, 214, 216-19, 263-66, 314, 360-61, 363, 368, 418 Weland 60-66, 87, 160, 193 weapon fails in battle (typescene) 37172 Wen Charm 82-83 Weohstan 170, 290-92, 348, 362, 475 Widsid 279-80, 348-49 Wiglaf 5, 63, 170, 219, 246-47, 250, 348, 358-59, 371, 374, 378, 382, 384, 388; sword 290-92, 418-19, 422, 445, 447, 453, 455-57, 464, 475-79, 483, 489, 492-93 Wilfings 212 William of Malmesbury 23 Wiaergild 325, 327-28, 342 Wid Fcerstlice 80-8 wlenco 8, 52-53, 209, 513
592
Woden, Oc3inn, Won, Odin 10, 16, 311, 435-37, 444-65, 460 Wonders of the East 126 woods 385-89 wrestling 345, 349, 369-70 Wulf 347-48, 380, 424 Wulfgar 8, 52, 59, 126, 172, 204-9, 211, 213, 513 Wulfstan 202-3, 311 wyrd 4, 20, 166, 254, 393, 400-26, 432, 446, 476 Xbalanqu6 and Hunahpu 141, 380, 393, 417 Xibalba 141, 306, 393, 417 Xisuthros, Xisud`ra 142-43 Ynglinga saga 35, 444-45, 460 Yrrnenlaf 168, 170, 234 Ziusudra 144
Earl R. Anderson Dr. Earl R. Anderson is Professor Emeritus of English at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Anderson received his Ph.D. in English from the University of Oregon.
