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On Some Survivals of Pagan Belief in Anglo-Saxon England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

Francis Peabody Magoun Jr.
Francis Peabody Magoun Jr.
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

Thanks to the considerable surviving corpus of Old-Norse literature much is known about Old North-Germanic religious practices and beliefs; by comparison, our knowledge of corresponding matters in the West-Germanic area is meager. For England, historically and sociologically an offshoot of, and by the time of the earliest written records long separated from, the north-west German homeland, our best source of information is a rather miscellaneous collection of charms. Next probably come the epic poem Béowulf and the historian Bede, who especially in his Historia ecclesiastica passim furnishes some additional information. Otherwise one is dependent upon scattered materials, ranging from single words to such cult objects as the cenotaph ship excavated in 1939 at Sutton Hoo in Norfolk. In the face of this relative paucity of knowledge any little additional information may be welcome.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , January 1947 , pp. 33 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1947

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References

1 E.g., cp. from a purely quantitative point of view the section on magic in Jan de Vries, Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte, I (“Religion der Südgermanen,” Berlin, 1935), 315–317, with Vol. II (“Religion der Nordgermanen,” Berlin, 1937), pp. 32–74; see also idem, I, 244–250 (“Die Angelsachsen”).

2 Grendon, Felix, ed., “Anglo-Saxon Charms,” Journ. of Amer. Folklore, XXII (1909), 105–237CrossRefGoogle Scholar, anastatically reprinted by G. Stechert, New York, 1930; an English translation faces Grendon's OE text.

3 Klaeber, Fr., ed., Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg (3d ed. with Supplement, Boston: Heath, 1941), pp. xlviii–xlixGoogle Scholar, clxxvi (esp. “L. IX, 8”).

4 Cp. de Vries, op. cit., I, 171, 201–202.

5 Discussed by Richard Jente, Die mythologischen Ausdrücke im altenglischen Wortschatz (“Anglistische Forschungen,” Vol. 56), Heidelberg, 1921; for cult reflexes in place- and nature-names see further E. A. Philippson, Germanische Heidentum bei den Angelsachsen (“Kölner Anglistische Arbeiten,” Vol. 4), Leipzig, 1929, also Dickins, Bruce, “English Names and Old-English Heathenism,” Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association, XIX (1934), 148–160Google Scholar, and Ekwall, Eilert, “Some Notes on English Place-Names Containing Names of Heathen Deities,” Englische Studien, LXIX (1936), 55–59.Google Scholar

6 Antiquity, XIV (1940), 1–87.

7 For definition and quotations see New English Dictionary; Supplement (Oxford, 1933), s.v., and for general statements on mana see R. R. Marett's articles in Jas. Hastings, ed., Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, VIII (N. Y., 1916), 375–380, and in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (14th ed., 1929), XIV, 770–771; Pettrazzoni, R., Enciclopedia italiana, XXII (1934), 75–76Google Scholar; Enciclopedia universal ilustrada Europeo-Americana, XXXII (Madrid, 192–), 659–663, where literature is cited.

Even if not verbalized, I am not at all sure that the concept of personal mana does not survive in the present-day civilized world. One thinks of the self-assured, successful person, convinced of his almost predestined good luck. He is surely a modern gæfumaðr with a hamingja or fylgja; in terms of Old English is he éadig or spédig in this occult or semi-occult sense. On OE éadig “blessed with good luck, mana,” see pp. 40–41, below.

8 I would here call attention to the discussion of the workings or effects of mana (rather than of mana itself) by the distinguished Danish historian of religions Vilhelm Grønbech in The Culture of the Teutons (transl. by Wm. Worster, London–Copenhagen, 1931), 1, 127–174 (ch. IV on “Luck,” ch. V on “Luck is the Life of the Clan”), in, 14–17 (excursus on “Anglo-Saxon Spéd, Luck”). The later German version of this work (Kultur und Religion der Germanen, 2d ed., Hamburg, 1939) does not differ substantially from the English text. Finally I would call attention to the excellent brief statement in Falk, Haakon Shetelig-Hjalmar, Gordon, E. V., transl., Scandinavian Archaeology (Oxford, 1937) pp. 411–412.Google Scholar

8a See Mogk, art. “Fyljen,” Joh. Hoops, ed., Reallexikon d. germanischen Altertumskunde, II, 108–109.

9 For an OE verbal parallel see p. 39, below.

10 Cited by letter, number and line according to Grendon's edition, cited above.

11 In the Christian poem Andreas, 1. 142, it is said of the “Mermedonians” that they believed in the power of evil spirits (híe unlœdra eaveðum gelýfdon); the OE poet may here well have had something on the order of ásmegin in mind.

12 Despite its formal similarity to ON jarðar megin, the eorþmœgen of The Riming Poem, 1. 69, seems merely to mean “worldly, earthly strength”: eorðmœgen ealdaþ “worldly strength grows old,” i.e., diminishes with age.

13 See further the most recent editor of this charm, Dobbie, E. V. K., The Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1942), pp. cxxxiii–ivGoogle Scholar, 209, notes ad loc. In connection with the word or name una, it is hard not to think of the Lat. fem. adj. una “one” “number one,” even “the one par excellence.” My friend Dr. Sven Liljeblad asks whether the obscure words una and stiðe, evidently of some quite special potency, may not be tabu names.

14 Lest it be thought that these forms of the verb magan merely mean “be good for” “have therapeutic value” in a straight medical sense, I would note that the ordinary OE verb used to express such an idea is dugan, e.g., þœt déah wið tóþwœrc “that is good for toothache.”

15 On the curious and dubious word sidsa, see Dag Strömbäck, Sejd: Textstudier i nordisk religionshistoria (“Nordiska Texter och Undersökningar,” Vol. 5, Sthlm., 1935). p. 121, note.

Doubtful is the phrase dýre cræft of the Exeter Book Riddle No. 82(83), 1. 13. Is the mana of metal intended or does this merely refer to the corrupting power of gold? Cp. pp. 41–42, below.

16 For readers for whom OE is not a comfortable medium yet who may well wish to consider the passages cited in fuller context the following faithful prose translations of the poem are recommended: by Baugh in McClelland, G. W. and Baugb, A. C., Century Types of English Literature Chronologically Arranged (New York, 1925), pp. 4–43Google Scholar, based on Klaeber's first edition (1922) and controlled by the editor; by Whiting, B. J. in The College Survey of English Literature, I (New York; Harcourt Brace, 1942), pp. 20–50Google Scholar, based on Klaeber's third ed. with Supplement (1939).

17 His strength is similarly referred to in ll. 418, 789, 1219 (mid cræfte “vigorously” “in masterful fashion” or the like?), 1844, 2360, 2540, 2678, 2684. On the strength of his grip see note 19, below.

18 See Klaeber, cit. supra, 3d ed., p. xiii and note.

19 The strength of his grip is further mentioned or alluded to in ll. 438, 753, 965, 1533–34, 2507. In l. 1335 we read of hearde clammas, meaning either “strong grips” or perhaps, rather, “powerful (bear-like) hugs.”

20 On this in general see Klaeber, 3d ed., pp. xlviii–li.

21 For which the words ést, m.f., hyldu, f. “favor,” ár, I. “honor” “favor,” and probably most often giefu, f. “gift,” are used in vernacular theological writings of later date. For a list of words for “grace” in OE. Christian poems and the OE Bede, also references to the same, see Hamilton, M. P., “The Religious Principle in “Beowulf,” Publ. Mod. Lang. Ass'n of America, LXI (1946), 312–313Google Scholar, n. 21. Miss Hamilton, I may note, is dealing with quite different passages and is concerned with altogether different matter than those under consideration here.

22 Cp. Grønbech, op. cit., III, 14: “The Old English poets struggle to graft the spiritual lessons of Christianity on the ancient psychology, and this conflict between form and content … is profoundly interesting in showing us the force and stubborn vitality of Teutonic culture.”

23 Béowulfstudien (“Anglistische Forschungen,” Vol. 74, Heidelberg, 1932), pp. 76–78 (§ 15. “Zum Genus von ae. cræft”); see also Klaeber, 3d ed., p. 207, note ad loc.

24 Hoops (p. 77) sees clearly the parallelism between this passage and that of ll. 1270–73; his difficulty in finding a sensible meaning for gifu (l. 2182) in terms of the older interpretation is, however, unnecessary: regardless of cræft, however construed, it could refer to Heavenly grace.

25 For éadig and other words, notably spéd, bearing the general sense of “good luck” see Grønbech, op. cit., I, 126–154, and esp. the excursus in III, 14–19.

26 See de Vries, op. cit., II, 34, § 38, on the royal hamingja, and cp. Grønbech, I, 131–138.

27 One wonders if Heremód's implied loss of mana was due to the violation of a tabu, mana's negative aspect; some notion of this sort is certainly latent in ll. 2329–31, where Béowulf fears he may have angered the Lord.

It seems improbable that Heremód's mœgen here refers to power in any sense of “dominion” or “sway,” for which the words used are wealdan (vb.) “to hold sway” or geweald (sb.) “sway” “dominion” as in ll. 30, 442, 465, 1057, 1079–80, 1727 (of God), 1959, 2211 (of the dragon), 2732; also but less commonly, forms of (ge) healdan “hold sway, power” in ll. 161, 911, 2208, 2373. In 2389–90 healdan and gewealdan vary one another. The vb. ríxian, the common OE verb meaning “to rule” is used only in l. 144.

28 In 1886–87 the poet says that old age (yldo) deprived Hróþgár of mægenes wynne (pl.), but nothing is said of a divine origin, and I am inclined to regard this as on the order of the eorþmægen discussed in n. 12, above, and not a reference to royal mana.

29 It is not inherently unlikely that all or nearly all instances of superhuman strength, whether in Béowulf or in the folktales, look back ultimately to mana, rationalized in one way or another. But this is another matter and need not detain us here.

30 Klaeber, 3d ed., pp. xlviii, 229–230.

31 I.e., if conceived in size as anything like the great tumuli dating from this very period (late sixth century) at Gamla Uppsala, Sweden. For photographs and scales see Sune Lindquist, Gamla Uppsala — Fomminnen (Sthlm., 1929), esp. p. 11.

32 So more or less Knut Stjerna, J. R. Clark Hall, transl., Essays on Questions Connected with the Old English Poem of Beowulf (Coventry, 1912), pp. 204–205. In this same connection Stjerna refers to þjóðólfr of Hvin's Ynglingatal, stz. 24–25 (35–36), in which we are told of the slaying of Ingvarr at the hands of the Esthonian army: ok austmarr / jófri sænskum / Gymis ljóð / at gammi kveðr (“and the Baltic sings a song of the sea to delight the Swedish warrior”). As Stjerna observes, such expression is vs. Béowulf highly romantic, but more to the point is the fact that there is really no parallel at all between the burials of Ingvarr and Béowulf. Ingvarr is slain by his foes by chance by the sea; his burial site, if one is to understand the passage thus, is consequently not of his own choosing, and he certainly was not buried where he was by his enemies with any view of his spirit protecting anybody or anything. He was just plain buried. In a word there can be no question in Ynglingatal of a faded or romantic rationalization of the kind of burial we have in Béowulf.

33 Ásmundarson, V., ed., Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda, II (Rvik, 1886), 116Google Scholar; near Beli was later entombed Þorsteinn bóndi, father of Friþðjófr (ibid.). It is of passing interest to note that this feature of the saga has been carried over by Esaias Tegnér in his versified paraphrase, Fritjofs saga, canto III, ad init.

34 I have not been able to trace this story to its source, but in view of de Vries' confusion of Vortigern with Vortimer (n. 35) one wonders if he perhaps had in mind Oedipus' last resting place at or under Kolonos Hippios, 2 km. from Athens. In Sophocles' Oedipus Coloneus, ll. 1524–25 (cp. ll. 1764–1765), Oedipus promises Theseus that his grave will prove a permanent defense, if the site is kept secret.

35 Not, as de Vries has it, the latter's father Vortigern, legendary king of Kent at the time of the adventus Saxonum.

36 Translation according to Ellis, T. P. and Lloyd, John, The Mabinogion: A New Translation, I (Oxford, 1929), 67Google Scholar (“Branwen uerch Lyr”). For a faithful French translation and notes see Loth, Joseph, Les Mabinogion du Livre Rouge de Hergest, I (2d rev. ed., Paris, 1913), 144–145Google Scholar. Both these translations supersede Lady Charlotte Guest's long standard rendering of the Welsh classic. For the Welsh text see Williams, Ifor, ed., Pedeir Keinc y Mabinogi (Cardiff, 1930), pp. 44–45Google Scholar. The London locality Gwynfryn, lit. “White or Blessed Hill,” was identified by Lady Guest as the site of the Tower; Ifor Williams (note ad loc, p. 214) suggests the hill upon which St. Paul's stands (cp. the street-name “Ludgate Hill”).

37 Text according to Edmond Faral, La légende arthurienne, III (Paris, 1929), 33; for an English translation see A. W. Wade-Evans, Nennius's “History of the Britons,” etc. (London, 1938), p. 67.

38 Ed. Faral, op. cit., III, 182; English translation in Giles, op. cit., p. 189. For another current edition of Geoffrey, see Griscom, Acton. The Historia Regum Britanniae of Geoffrey of Monmouth, etc. (London-N. Y., 1929), pp. 374–375, with a translation of the corresponding Welsh adaptation at foot of pages.Google Scholar

39 If the Trinovantes ever really had anything approaching a capital city (urbs), this would presumably have been Camulódunum (Colchester, Ess.); Geoffrey, however, clearly intends London (see Faral, III, 92, ll. 5–14). In an intermediate fashion popular etymology has here been at work, with Tri- for Troia and -nova- for Nova!

40 If the latter, it would seem to be unknown to the commentator Faral, op. cit., II, 226–227.

41 Here bustum certainly means “tomb” or the like and refers specifically to the pyramid, not in its original and etymological sense of “crematory.” The Welsh adaptor of Geoffrey has with his phrase “ordered them to burn his body” (ed. Griscom, p. 375) obviously misunderstood viso busto, taking busto as a verb form, the ppl. of (com) buro.

42 In rather reduced form Geoffrey's tale of Vortimer continues in his Epigoni, the Norman Wace and the Englishman Lawman. See Arnold, Ivor, ed., Le Roman de Brut de Wace (Soc. des anciens textes franç,.), I (Paris, 1938), 380–381Google Scholar, ll. 7174–86 (Vortimer is said to be buried in London); Sir Fred. Madden, ed., Lajamon's Brut, II (London, 1847), 205–206, ll. 15028–73 (Vortimer is said to be buried in London, more specifically by Billingsgate: A-text, Bælӡes ӡate; B-text, Bellinges ӡate).

43 On this see de Vries, op. cit., I, 313, also p. 271 (at top) for other Anglo-Saxon perambulations expressed by the verb begán and the sb. begang. On the literal enclosing of sacred places see idem, I, 267 and II, 107–108 (illustrative inter alia of met hærgtrafum of l. 175).