Chapter 17 - Some Linguistic Details

Summary

GIVEN THAT THE core of the Beowulf tradition is clearly essentially Scandinavian, it might be expected that the Old English of the poem would contain traces of an earlier Scandinavian linguistic form. As this question goes beyond my own academic area of expertise, however, I will confine myself here to a few general reflections based on others’ observations.

Arthur Brodeur has noted that no fewer than 115 “base-words” in Beowulf form a larger number of compounds there than in the entire body of other Old English poetry put together, while 143 base-words form more compounds in other poems than in the epic. He also observes that a disproportionately large number of compounds are peculiar to Beowulf, one example being compound nouns with gūð- (“war, battle”) as their first element. In these respects, the poem differs markedly from other Old English literature.

Embracing as he does the conventional view that Beowulf was composed by an Old English poet, Brodeur concludes that the author himself coined numerous words, particularly compounds, in order to accentuate the special function and subject of the poem (Brodeur 1959, 9ff., 28–29, 254–71). To me it seems more reasonable to consider whether a good number of these words do not in fact reflect an original, Proto-Norse usage.

Gregor Sarrazin, in his day, noted a series of words and expressions which he believed to have been adopted from an original Scandinavian poem, referring to them as “Norroenicismen” (Sarrazin 1888, 68):

Þengel (ON þengill), þyle (ON þulr), þyrs (ON þurs), sess (ON sess), eodor (ON jaðarr), brimlad (ON brimleið), adfaru (jfr ON bálfǫr), swanrad (jfr ON svana braut), feorhlegu (ON fjǫrlag), facenstafas (ON feiknstafir), heaðolac, beadolac (cf. ON hildileikr), beadoleoma (cf. ON gunnlogi), werþeod (ON verþjóð), heafodmagas (cf. ON hǫfudniðjar), sæcyning (ON sækonungr), þeodcyning (ON þjóðkonungr), beaga brytta (cf. ON baugbroti), gamol (ON gamall), atol (ON atall), meagol (OHG megle, magle), feorhsēoc (ON fjǫrsjukr), missan (ON missa), rædan (ON ráða), byrgian (ON bergja), hlēotan (ON hljóta), gewegan (ON vega), þing gehegan (ON þing heyja), healdan heafodwearde (ON hálda hǫfuðvǫrð).

Sarrazin also referred to a number of phrases and constructions that are otherwise unknown in Old English. The verb forlēosan appears several times in the poem with a dative object, a phenomenon not otherwise found in Old English, but entirely in keeping with Old Norse constructions with týna. The wording mǣl is mē tō fēranSarrazin compares with Old Norse expressions such as mál er mér at ríða (Helgakviða Hundingsbana II, 49).