Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T07:25:39.920Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Beowulf and the Varieties of Choice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Abstract

Much scholarship has explored the concept of wyrd ‘fate’ in Anglo-Saxon literature and thought; this essay examines the visions of human choice. Beowulf especially presents choice in a wide range of spheres, from what we might call the spiritual and moral to what we might distinguish as the military and political. Indeed, Beowulf synthesizes traditions of choice in Anglo-Saxon culture to present a unique perspective, tracing inner resolve to its causes and consequences in the social world. And so the essay surveys ideas and expressions of choice in Anglo-Saxon homiletic poetry and prose, heroic verse, and chronicles, examining the powers and paradoxes of each to outline a central yet little-studied aspect of Anglo-Saxon literature and culture.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 105 , Issue 2 , March 1990 , pp. 197 - 208
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Amos, Ashley Crandell. Linguistic Means of Determining the Dates of Old English Literary Texts. Cambridge: Medieval Acad, of Amer., 1980.Google Scholar
Amos, Ashley Crandell, and diPaolo Healey, Antonette. “The Dictionary of Old English: The Letter ‘D.‘Problems of Old English Lexicography: Studies in Memory of Angus Cameron. Ed. Bammesberger, Alfred. Eichstätter Beiträge 15: Abteilung Sprach und Literatur. Regensburg: Pustet, 1985. 1338.Google Scholar
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Ed. Thorpe, Benjamin. 2 vols. Rolls Series 23. London: Longman, 1861.Google Scholar
The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records. Ed. George P. Krapp and EUiott Dobbie. 6 vols. New York: Columbia UP, 1931–42.Google Scholar
Berger, Harry Jr., and Marshall Leicester, H. Jr. “Social Structure as Doom: The Limits of Heroism in Beowulf.” Old English Studies in Honour of John C. Pope. Ed. Robert, B. Burlin and Edward B. Irving, Jr. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1974. 3779.Google Scholar
Bloomfield, Morton W.Beowulf, Byrhtnoth, and the Judgment of God: Trial by Combat in Anglo-Saxon England.” Speculum 44 (1969): 545–59.Google Scholar
Boon, Amand, ed. Pachomiana latina. Bibliothèque de la revue d'histoire ecclésiastique 7. Louvain: Bureaux de la Revue, 1932.Google Scholar
Bourke, Vernon J.Will in Western Thought: An Historico-Critical Survey. New York: Sheed, 1964.Google Scholar
Brotanek, Rudolf, ed. Texte und Untersuchungen zur altenglischen Literatur und Kirchengeschichte. Halle: Niemayer, 1913.Google Scholar
Burlin, Robert B.The Ruthwell Cross, The Dream of the Rood and the Vita Contemplativa.” Studies in Philology 65 (1968): 2343.Google Scholar
Cameron, Angus, Kingsmill, Allison, and Amos, Ashley Crandell. Old English Word Studies: A Preliminary Author and Word Index. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1983.Google Scholar
Capelle, Catherine. Le voeu d'obéissance des origines au XIIe siècle: Etude juridique. Bibliothèque d'histoire du droit et droit romain 2. Paris: Librairie Générale de Droit et de Jurisprudence, 1959.Google Scholar
Chadwick, H. Munro. Studies on Anglo-Saxon Institutions. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1905. New York: Russell, 1963.Google Scholar
Chambers, R.W. Beowulf: An Introduction to the Study of the Poem. 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1959.Google Scholar
Constable, Giles. “Liberty and Free Choice in Monastic Thought and Life, Especially in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries.” La notion de liberté au Moyen Age: Islam, Byzance, Occident. Ed. Makdisi, George, Sourdel, Dominique, and Dourdel-Thomine, Janine. Penn-Paris-Dumbarton Oaks Colloquia 4. Paris: Belles Lettres, 1985. 99–118. Rpt. in Giles Constable. Monks, Hermits and Crusaders in Medieval Europe. London: Variorum, 1988. Article 4, orig. pag.Google Scholar
Ernout, A., and Meillet, A. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine. 4th ed. Paris: Klincksieck, 1959.Google Scholar
Fehr, Bernard. “Augustins Lehrsatz über die Willensfreiheit bei Ælfric.” Anglia Beiblatt 34 (1923): 89.Google Scholar
Fehr, Bernard, ed. Die Hirtenbriefe Ælfrics. Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Prosa 9. Hamburg: Grand, 1914. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1966.Google Scholar
Fleming, John. “The Dream of the Rood and Anglo-Saxon Monasticism.” Traditio 22 (1966): 4372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
of Worcester, Florence. Chronicon ex chronicis ab adventu Hengesti et Horsi in Britanniam usque ad annum MCXVII ... London: Eng. Hist. Soc, 1843.Google Scholar
Förster, Max, ed. Die Vercelli-Homilien. Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Prosa 12. Hamburg: Grand, 1932. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1964.Google Scholar
Garmonsway, G.N., and Simpson, Jacqueline, trans. Beowulf and Its Analogues. New York: Dutton, 1971.Google Scholar
Georgianna, Linda. “King Hrethel's Sorrow and the Limits of Heroic Action in Beowulf.” Speculum 62 (1987): 829–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godden, M.R. “Ælfric and Anglo-Saxon Kingship.”English Historical Review 102 (1987): 911–15.Google Scholar
Godden, M.R., ed. Ælfric's Catholic Homilies: The Second Series. London: EETS, 1979.Google Scholar
Godden, M.R., ed. “Anglo-Saxons on the Mind.” Lapidge and Gneuss 271–98.Google Scholar
Godefroy, Frederic, ed. Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française, et de tous ses dialectes du ixe au xve siècle. 10 vols. Paris, 1891–1902. Geneva: Slatkine, 1982.Google Scholar
Greenfield, Stanley B.“Beowulf and the Judgement of the Righteous.” Lapidge and Gneuss 393407.Google Scholar
Greenfield, Stanley B.“Min, Sylf and ‘Dramatic Voices in The Wanderer and The Seafarer.‘” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 68 (1969): 212–20.Google Scholar
Greenfield, Stanley B.“Sylf, Seasons, Structure and Genre in The Seafarer.” Anglo-Saxon England 9 (1981): 199211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grimm, Jacob, Grimm, Wilhelm, et al., eds. Deutsches Wörterbuch. 16 vols. Leipzig: Hirzel, 18541971.Google Scholar
Healey, Antonette diPaolo, and Venezky, Richard L., eds. A Microfiche Concordance to Old English. Toronto: Pontifical Inst, of Mediaeval Studies, 1980.Google Scholar
Howard, Donald R.The Idea of 'The Canterbury Tales. Berkeley: U of California P, 1976.Google Scholar
Irving, Edward B. Jr. “The Heroic Style in The Battle of Maldon.” Studies in Philology 58 (1961): 457–67.Google Scholar
Jolliffe, J.E.A.Constitutional History of Medieval England, from the English Settlement to 1485. London: Black, 1967.Google Scholar
Kasik, Jon C.The Use of the Term Wyrd in Beowulf and the Conversion of the Anglo-Saxons.” Neophilologus 63 (1979): 128–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klaeber, Friedrich, ed. Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg. 3rd ed. Lexington: Heath, 1950.Google Scholar
Klaeber, Friedrich, ed. “Die christliche Elemente im Beowulf.” Anglia 35 (1911): 111–36, 249–70, 453–82; 36 (1912): 169–99.Google Scholar
Kurath, Hans, and Kuhn, Sherman M., eds. Middle English Dictionary. 11 vols, to date, plus fascicles. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1956–2.Google Scholar
Lapidge, Michael, and Gneuss, Helmut, eds. Learning and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England- Studies Presented to Peter Clemoes on the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1985.Google Scholar
Leyerle, John. “Beowulf the Hero and the King.” Medium Ævum 34 (1965): 89102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niles, John D. Beowulf: The Poem and Its Tradition. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1983.Google Scholar
Oleson, Tryggvi J.The Witenagemot in the Reign of Edward the Confessor: A Study in the Constitutional History of Eleventh-Century England. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1955.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oxford Latin Dictionary. Ed. Glare, P.G.W. Oxford: Clarendon, 1982.Google Scholar
Pope, John C., ed. Homilies of Ælfric: A Supplementary Collection. 2 vols. Early English Text Society 260. London: Oxford UP, 1968.Google Scholar
Regan, Brian T., ed. Dictionary of the Biblical Gothic Language. Phoenix: Wellspring, 1974.Google Scholar
Robinson, Fred C. Beowulf and the Appositive Style. Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 1985.Google Scholar
Sancti Benedicti Régula Monachorum. Ed. Butler, Cuthbert. Freiburg: Herder, 1912.Google Scholar
Schücking, L.L.Heldenstolz und Würde im Angelsächsischen, mit einem Anhang: Zur Charakterisierungstecknik im Beowulfepos.” Abhandlungen der Philologische-historischen Klasse der sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 42 (1933): 143.Google Scholar
Stanley, E.G.The Search for Anglo-Saxon Paganism. Cambridge: Brewer, 1975.Google Scholar
Thorpe, Benjamin, ed. The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church: The Homilies of Ælfric, in the Original Anglo-Saxon with an English Version. 2 vols. London: Ælfric Soc, 1844–46.Google Scholar
Tietjen, Mary C. Wilson. “God, Fate, and the Hero of Beowulf.” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 74 (1975): 159–71.Google Scholar
Timmer, B.J.Wyrd and Providence in Anglo-Saxon Prose and Poetry.” Neophilologus 26 (1940–41): 2433, 213–28.10.1007/BF01515124CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tolkien, J.R.R.Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.” Proceedings of the British Academy 22 (1936): 245–95.Google Scholar
Weber, Robert. Biblia sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem. 3rd ed. 2 vols. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1983.Google Scholar
Whitelock, Dorothy. The Audience of Beowulf. Oxford: Clarendon, 1951.Google Scholar
Whitelock, Dorothy. “The Interpretation of The Seafarer.” The Early Cultures of North-west Europe. Ed. Cyril, Fox and Dickens, Bruce. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1950. 261–72.Google Scholar
Williams, David. Cain anrf Beowulf: 4 Study in Secular Allegory. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1982.Google Scholar
Yeo, Richard. The Structure and Content of Monastic Profession. Studia Anselmiana 83. Rome: S. Anselmo, 1982.Google Scholar