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The narrative structure of Hengest's revenge in Beowulf

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

John F. Vickrey
John F. Vickrey
Affiliation:
Lehigh University, Pennsylvania
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Extract

Although Beowulf scholars have now generally accepted Frederick Klaeber's emendation … Finne / [ea]l unblitme (1128b–9a), the meaning of unblitme has remained in some doubt. Professors Dobbie and Rosier have held that unblitme means literally ‘without casting of lots’ and by extension ‘without choice”, Dobbie explaining that Hengest, ‘having no choice, was forced to remain with Finn’ and Rosier affirming that he did so ‘entirely with lack of choice’. Their view of unblitme has for some time gone unchallenged. But lately Professor Fry has dissented, contending briefly that ‘“without casting of lots” should produce just the opposite of “having no choice”. Casting lots throws the result up to chance, and so un-blitme should logically mean “not by chance”, that is “voluntarily”.’ There can be little question, I think, that Fry is right in rejecting the older view of unblitme. To take unblitme to mean ‘having no choice’ is to equivocate on the word ‘choice’. Any hlitm, ‘casting of lots’, would imply ‘choice’ in the sense ‘decision pursuant to lots and not to one's desires’. But the translation ‘having no choice’ means much more than this; it means ‘unwillingly‘free choice, choice pursuant to one's desires‘.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 6 , December 1977 , pp. 91 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

page 91 note 1 Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, ed. Klaeber, F., Ist ed. (Boston, 1922), p. 43. The manuscript reading is finnel unblitme.Google Scholar

page 91 note 2 Beowulf and Judith, ed. Elliott Van Kirk, Dobbie, The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 4 (New York, 1953), 177Google Scholar; and Rosier, James. L., ‘The Unhlitm of Finn and Hengest’, RES 17 (1966), 173. Citations for Old English poems are to the ASPR edition, unless otherwise noted.Google Scholar

page 91 note 3 Finnsburb: Fragment and Episode, ed. Fry, Donald. K. (London, 1974), p. 22.Google Scholar

page 92 note 1 Beowulf and Judith, p. 277. In ‘The Unblitm of Finn and Hengest’ (p. 172) Rosier cites on blytme (3126a), but only as evidence for the form blitm / blytm.Google Scholar

page 92 note 2 Concerning the Germanic sortilege see Hanns, Bächtold-Stäubli, Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens (Berlin, 1927–1942) v, s.v. Los, losen; esp. cols. 1353 and 1358–67Google Scholar; Derolez, R., ‘La Divination chez les Germains’, La Divination: études recueillies par André Caquot et Marcel Leibovici (Paris, 1968) 1, 257–302, esp. 292–4Google Scholar; and Richard, Jente, Die mythologischen Ausdrücke im altenglischen Wortschatz, Anglistische Forschungen 56 (Heidelberg, 1921), pars. 141–2, 146–7 and 156–7.Google Scholar

page 92 note 3 See Jente, , Die mytbologiscben Ausdrücke, par. 146.Google Scholar

page 92 note 4 Of the terminology of the sortilege among the Germanic people Derolez (‘La Divination’, p. 293), observes that ‘certaines locutions verbales rappellent la description de Tacite (Germania, x): les baguettes sont “jetées”, elles “tombent” d'une certaine façon et expriment ainsi la volonté des dieux’.

page note 5For sors see Ernout, A. and Meillet, A., Dictionnaire étymologiquc de la langue latine, 4th ed. (Paris, 1960) 11,Google Scholar s.v. sors. For the *bluto- / blauti- / bleut- forms in Old English and the other dialects see Jente, Die mytbologiscben Ausdrücke, par. 156.

page 93 note 1 Die gotische Bibel, ed. Wilhelm, Streitberg, 3rd ed. (Heidelberg, 1950), pp. 85 and 331.Google Scholar

page 93 note 2 Egils Saga Skalla-Grímssonar, ed. Sigurður, Nordal, Íslenzk, Fornrit 2 (Reykjavik, 1933), p. 183.Google Scholar

page 93 note 3 Whereupon Gunnar asks, ‘Mun nokkut minn bani hér af hljótask?’ See Brennu-Njdáls Saga, ed. Sveinsson, Einar Ól., Íslenzk, Fornrit 12 (Reykjavik, 1954), p. 149Google Scholar; and Richard, Cleasby and Gudbrand, Vigfusson, An Icelandic-English Dictionary, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1957), s.v. hljóta.Google Scholar

page 93 note 4 Heliand und Genesis, ed. Otto, Behaghel, 7th ed. (Tübingen, 1958).Google Scholar

page 93 note 5 For Middle and Modern English see the OED s.v. lot 2d ‘that which is given to a person by fate or divine providence; esp. one's destiny, fortune, or “portion” in this life; condition (good or bad) in life’; and Middle English Dictionary, pt L.6, ed. Kuhn, Sherman. M. (Ann Arbor, 1973),Google Scholars.v. lot I(c) ‘what falls to one's lot, fortune, destiny…’. Their earliest citations are from the Cursor Mundi (OED) and the Midland Prose Psalter (MED).

page 93 note 6 For Luke 1.9 see The West-Saxon Gospels, ed. Grünberg, M. (Amsterdam, 1967), p. 167.Google Scholar With Andreas 6b cf. Andreas 14b and Fates of the Apostles 9b. On taking hlyt in these verses as ‘lot’ in a literal sense see Brooks, Kenneth. R., Andreas and The Fates of the Apostles (Oxford, 1961), p. 61, n. to 6b hlyt.Google Scholar

page 94 note 1 Der Lambeth-Psalter: I, ed. Lindelöf, U., Acta Societatis Scientiarum Fennicæ 35.1 (Helsinki, 1909), 46Google Scholar; and The Vitellius Psalter, ed. Rosier, James. L., Cornell Studies in English 42 (Ithaca, 1962), 68.Google Scholar Some psalters read tempora mea instead of sortes meae. Note too the several compounded forms, cited in Bosworth, J. and Toller, T. N., An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (Oxford, 1898)Google Scholar and Supplement, in which -blyt- translates -sors in a derived sense ‘condition, in a certain condition’: efenblytta, geblyta, ‘consors’; orblyte, ‘exsors’; togeblytto, ‘consortio’; geblytto, midhlyt and midgeblytto, ‘consortium’, the last being cited in Alistair, Campbell, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary: Enlarged Addenda and Corrigenda (Oxford, 1972).Google Scholar

page 94 note 2 Cf. Andreas 480b, Elene 820b, Gutblac 972b and 1041b. Cf. also the passage from Vercelli Homily xiv cited by Max, Förster, ‘Der Vercelli-Codex CXVII’, Festschrift für Lorenz Morsbach, Studien zur englischen Philologie 50 (Halle, 1913), 167.Google Scholar The text is corrupt, but reads, with Förster's emendations, as follows: ‘swa we þanne nu þurh missenlico god 7 þurh mænigfeald gastlic gewin Dryhten [lies Dryhtne ?] fultumendum we [zu streichen] sculon tilian, þæt we to þam ecan gefean becuman moton, þæt [lies þær] bið ælc man to his yldrum hlytmeð[lies hlytmed ?]’. For blot forms in the sense ‘necessity’ see finally BT Suppl. s.v. hlit III ‘the share assigned to a person’ and IV ‘lot, fate, fortune’ and hlot v ‘lot, fate, fortune’. These entries are about the closest the dictionaries come to indicating the wide scope in Old English of hlot / (ge-)hleotan forms in the sense ‘condition imposed by necessity, to obtain through necessity’.

page 94 note 3 Finnsburh: Fragment and Episode, pp. 20–2. The translation above is my own.

page 95 note 1 Ibid. p. 21.

page 95 note 2 Pope, John. C., ‘Dramatic Voices in The Wanderer and The Seafarer’, Franciplegius: Medieval and Linguistic Studies in Honor of Francis Peabody Magoun, Jr, ed. Bessinger, Jess. B. Jr and Creed, Robert. P. (New York, 1965), p. 182.Google Scholar

page 95 note 3 On taking bamas ond beaburb with the following wunode instead of the preceding geseon (1126b) see Fry, Donald. K., ‘The Location of Finnsburh: Beowulf 1125–29a’, ELN 8 (1970), 1–3Google Scholar; and Finnsburh: Fragment and Episode, p. 43.

page 96 note 1 Stanley, E. G., ‘Old English Poetic Diction and the Interpretation of The Wanderer, The Seafarer and The Penitent's Prayer’, Anglia 73 (1956), 439.Google Scholar

page 96 note 2 Irving, Edward. B. Jr, A Reading of Beowulf (New Haven, 1968), p. 172.Google Scholar

page 97 note 1 Finnsburh: Fragment and Episode, pp. 23 and 44.

page 97 note 2 ‘Old English Poetic Diction’, pp. 440–1. Stanley says only that it is ‘perhaps permissible’ to explain isig as an example of symbolic description. His hesitancy possibly stems from Willy Krogmann's view (‘AE. ísig.’, Anglia 56 (1932), 438–9)Google Scholar, that Beowulf 33a ísig derives from an Indo-European root *eis-, ‘heftig bewegen’, and therefore means ‘antreibend, eifrig, vorwärts drängend’. But this etymology has recently been strongly criticized. See Dieter, Bähr, ‘Altenglisch ísig (Beowulf, Zeile 33)’, ZAA 19 (1972), 409–12Google Scholar who concludes that literally, at least, ísig does indeed mean ‘eisig, vereist’.

That ceald and winter bore like literal meaning suggests that they may have borne like symbolic meaning. It is therefore pertinent to weigh the comment by Vivian Salmon that ‘cald had associations for Old English poets in several contexts which we no longer perceive today – implications of “hostility” “treachery” or “ill-omen”’ (‘Some Connotations of “Cold” in Old and Middle English’, MLN 74 (1959), 321)Google Scholar. If winter too bore such implications, it seems possible that the collocation of-fag and winter in 1128a wæslfagne winter would suggest that -fag here means ‘hostile’ and that the wæl- is the slaughter Hengest intends rather than that he had recently witnessed.

page 98 note 1 ‘Old English Poetic Diction’, p. 454.

page 98 note 2 These are the translations in Kennedy, Charles. W., Beowulf: The Oldest English Epic (New York, London and Toronto, 1940), p. 37Google Scholar; and Donaldson, E. Talbot, Beowulf (New York, 1966), p. 20.Google Scholar

page 98 note 3 The validity of this conclusion is never questioned in the editions. Yet the consensus that sele (1135b) means ‘time, season’ is based on very little debate. Sievers, E., without translating, scanned the word as séle in his ‘Zur Rhythmik des germanischen Alliterationsverses: I. Vorbemerkungen: Die Metrik des Beowulf’, Beiträge 10 (1885), 230.Google ScholarSophus, Bugge, in ‘Studien Über das Beowulfepos’, Beiträge 12 (1887), 30–1Google Scholar, tried to read sele as ‘hall’ but could do so only by suggesting that line 1135 really belonged after line 1141. The point was, he argued, that ‘Hengest denkt, während er sich bei den Friesen aufhält, immer an rache. Allein er sieht, dass es ihm schwierig sein wird diese rache zu vollziehen, weil die mannen Finns den königssaal unaufhörlich bewachen’. Cosijn, P. J. responded that Bugge's argument was precluded by the present tense of bewitiað and that Sievers's reading sélé should be adopted, to be translated ‘tijd’ (Aanteekeningen op den Beowulf (Leiden, 1891–1892), pp. 19–20).Google Scholar And there the matter has rested.

page 99 note 1 Smithers, G. V., ‘Destiny and the Heroic Warrior in Beowulf’, Philological Essays: Studies in Old and Middle English Language and Literature in Honour of Herbert Dean Meritt, ed. Rosier, James. L. (The Hague, 1970), p. 70.Google Scholar

page 99 note 2 For sæl, ‘good fortune’, see BT s.v. sæl IV. For bewitian, ‘to watch over’ but by litotes ‘to bring about’, cf. Beowulf 1428–9a ‘ða on undernrmel oft bewitigað / sorhfulne sið. See Kemp, Malone, ‘Grendel and His Abode’, Studia Philologica et Litteraria in Honorem L. Spitzer, ed. Hatcher, A. G. and Selig, K. L. (Bern, 1958), pp. 303–4.Google Scholar

page 100 note 1 William Witherle Lawrence translates fundode here as ‘“he hastened” (i.e., actually went)’, though observing that fundian ‘obviously oscillates in meaning between desire and performance, in other instances of its use’. See ‘Beowulf and the Tragedy of Finnsburg’, PMLA 30 (1915), 421Google Scholar, n. 16. Fry would translate fundian here as ‘“desire, aspire, yearn” to depart’ (Finnsburh: Fragment and Episode, p. 44).

page 100 note 2 Klaeber noted the parallel between lines 1129b-–30 and 1138b–4O, but did not draw the inference. See ‘Zur Texterklärung des Beowulf’, Beiblatt zur Anglia 22 (1911), 373–4Google Scholar; and Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, 3rd ed. with 1st and 2nd supplements (Boston, 1950), p. 175.Google Scholar

page 101 note 1 Bruce, Mitchell, ‘Two Syntactical Notes on Beowulf’, Neopbilologus 52 (1968) 296.Google Scholar

page 101 note 2 Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, p. 175. On taking eoten (1141a) as ‘giant’ see Kaske, R. E.,‘The Eotenas in Beowulf’, Old English Poetry: Fifteen Essays, ed. Creed, Robert. P. (Providence, R.I., 1967), pp. 285–310.Google Scholar

page 102 note 1 Kaske, R. E., ‘The Sigemund-Heremod and Hama-Hygelac Passages in Beowulf, PMLA 74 (1959), 493.CrossRefGoogle Scholar That the first ending describes the events of Hengest's revenge so largely in terms of his feelings suggests that fundode (1137b), even if literally just ‘he desired (to go)”, really means that he actually went.

page 102 note 2 Finnsburh: Fragment and Episode, p. 22.

page 102 note 3 ‘Destiny and the Heroic Warrior in Beowulf’, p. 78.

page 102 note 4 Lines 1127–41, set out according to the foregoing arguments, and a fairly literal translation of them, are as follows:

‘Hengest still, for a slaughter-stained winter, kept with Finn quite willingly the houses and the chief-fortress; he bore the place in mind, (1130) although he was able to drive on the sea the ring-prowed ship. The ocean surged with storm, contended with the wind; winter locked the waves with an ice-bond, until another year came into the dwelling, as it now does still, (1135) those which always watch over good fortune, glory-resplendent weathers. Then winter was shaken, fair the bosom of earth. The hero was eager to depart, the guest from the dwelling. He thought more about revenge than about a sea-journey, (1140) if he might effect an anger-meeting, so that he might remember the giants' sons within.’