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Beowulf and Christian Allegory: An Interpretation of Unferth
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2017
Extract
In the discussion of the Christian elements in Beowulf, it seems to have escaped the notice of scholars that the character of Unferth may provide an example of Christian allegory consciously employed by the poet. If the name Unferth means mar-peace or strife, an important clue to his significance in the poem is being ignored. I wish to suggest that the author of Beowulf is employing, or at least thinking of, Unferth as an abstract personification in the manner of Prudentius, Martianus Capella or Sedulius, and that the poem has even closer connections with the Christian tradition than has hitherto been perceived. If we can accept Unferth as, say, Discordia, we shall find how well this interpretation fits in with the suggestion Schücking made some years ago that the character of Beowulf has been molded, to some extent at least, by the Christian ideal of the perfect ruler, the rex justus, as set forth by St. Augustine, Gregory the Great and others, and that the ethical ideal set up by the epic is that of ordinata concordia or mensura.
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References
1 “Das Königsideal im Beowulf,’ Englische Studien 67 (1932–33) 1–14. See also Otto, E., Typische Schilderungen von Lebewesen, Gegenständlichem u. Vorgängen im weltlichen Epos der Angelsachsen (Inaugural-Dissertation, Berlin 1901) and Pirkhofer, A., Figurengestaltung im Beowulf-Epos (Anglistische Forschungen 87; Heidelberg 1940) for somewhat similar approaches to the poem.Google Scholar
2 See Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie 3 (1871) 414. It should also be noted that the use of h before i and u is especially common among late Latin and Celtic scribes merely to indicate the vowel quality of these letters, for i and u could also be consonants (j and v). Anglo-Saxon palaeography is much indebted to Celtic scribal habits.Google Scholar
3 Hunfrid, and variants, was a fairly common Anglo-Saxon and early Middle English name. See Forssner, T., Continental-Germanic Personal Names in England, in Old and Middle English Times (Uppsala 1916) 158–9.Google Scholar
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5 See Forssner, , op. cit. 158–9 and Bruckner, , op. cit. 314.Google Scholar
6 See Woolf, H. B., The Old Germanic Principles of Name-Giving (Dissertation submitted to The Johns Hopkins University Baltimore 1939) 263–4.Google Scholar
7 Its ON. form would be See Björkmann, E., Studien über die Eigennamen im Beowulf (Studien zur Englischen Philologie, ed. Morsbach, L. 58; Halle a. S. 1920) 112–3.Google Scholar
8 See Bruckner, , op. cit. 269. The ending -us here is, of course, from the Latin documentary source.Google Scholar
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10 PMLA 42 (1927) 300ff. Google Scholar
11 See Olrik, A., The Heroic Legends of Denmark, trans. Hollander, Lee M. (Scandinavian Monographs 4; New York 1919) 58. Olrik seems to be somewhat confused in his discussion of Unferth. He appears to be saying that he was and was not invented by the Beowulf-poet. It is possible that he is making a distinction between Unferth's name and role. It is clear, however, that Olrik believes that he belongs originally to the Scylding rather than the Beowulf episodes. ‘Therefore the figure of Unferth cannot have been created for the purposes of a Beowulf epic but is a necessity in the economy of the Scylding story’; ibid. 58.Google Scholar
12 Ibid. 60.Google Scholar
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14 As Olrik, , op. cit. suggests. See also Munro Chadwick, H., The Heroic Age (Cambridge 1912) 159–60.Google Scholar
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17 Ibid. 79–80 and 70.Google Scholar
18 Beowulf and the Seventh Century, Language and Content (London 1935) 67–8.Google Scholar
19 Girvan's examples of ‘Germanic’ allegory are simply not to the point.Google Scholar
20 Line 2971.Google Scholar
21 See “König Ongentheows Fall,’ Englische Studien 39 (1908) 36.Google Scholar
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