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Beowulf and Christian Tradition: A Reconsideration from a Celtic Stance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2017

Charles Donahue
Charles Donahue*
Affiliation:
Fordham University
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Extract

Since Beowulf was made available to scholars early in the last century it has been recognized as a poem deeply rooted in Germanic heroic tradition and dealing with ancient and pagan Scandinavian heroes. No pagan gods, however, are mentioned by name, and there are many references to the one true God who rules at all times over all. Further, there are unmistakable allusions to the story of Cain and Abel and to the giants who were destroyed by the flood. There are, however, no such allusions to any specifically Christian doctrines.

Type
Articles
Information
Traditio , Volume 21 , 1965 , pp. 55 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © 1965 New York, Fordham University Press 

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References

1 The editio princeps of Beowulf is Thorkelin's, G. J., De Danorum rebus gestis secul. III & IV. Poema Danicum dialecto Anglo-Saxonica (Copenhagen 1815). The modern edition usually cited in the United States is that of Klaeber, Fr., Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, 3rd ed. with supplements (New York 1951). Klaeber's text is the basis for the translations from the poem in this paper. The edition has a valuable introduction and notes. Wrenn's, C. L. Beowulf with the Finnesburg Fragment, 2nd ed. (London 1958), intended primarily for students, provides a conservative text often in stimulating contrast to that of Klaeber. Those interested in the Christianity of the poem will find much of value in the introduction. The standard general introduction to the considerable body of scholarship on the poem is R. W. Chambers’ monumental but eminently readable Beowulf, an Introduction, 3rd ed, with a supplement by Wrenn, C. L. (Cambridge 1959). Other editions are listed in Klaeber op. cit. cxxvii-cxxix, 445 and Chambers, op. cit. 557-560, 585, 599-600.Google Scholar

2 This point of view is evident in H. Bradley's article in Encyclopedia Britannica (1910) III, 758-61. See also H. M. Chadwick's influential chapter ‘Early National Poetry’ in The Cambridge History of English Literature I (Cambridge 1907). A typical American example is Blackburn, F. A., ‘The Christian Coloring in Beowulf,’ PMLA 12 (1898) 202-225.Google Scholar

3 ‘Die christlichen Elementen im Beowulf,’ Anglia 35 (1911) 111-36, 249-70, 453-82; 36 (1912) 169-99.Google Scholar

4 Klaeber, F., op. cit. (n. 1) xlviii.Google Scholar

5 Chambers, op. cit. (n. 1) 126-7.Google Scholar

6 Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics (London 1936).Google Scholar

7 Ibid., 14-18.Google Scholar

8 Ibid., 27.Google Scholar

9 Ibid., 28.Google Scholar

10 Ibid. 28.Google Scholar

11 Ibid. 24.Google Scholar

12 Ibid. 36.Google Scholar

13 A sign of a fusion such as I have in mind is the vigorous development of a vernacular Christian literature. Such a development took place in England. The conversion of the Franks seems to have produced no comparable result.Google Scholar

14 Crawford, S. J., Anglo-Saxon Influence on Western Christendom, 600-800 (Oxford 1933) and Levison, W., England and the Continent in the Eighth Century (Oxford 1946) may be consulted.Google Scholar

15 Chadwick's later views were first expressed in The Heroic Age (Cambridge 1912) and received final development in The Growth of Literature, I (Cambridge 1932) particularly pp. 554-61. The passage cited is on p. 560.Google Scholar

16 Ibid. 556. For ‘the doctrine of the Church’ Chadwick relies heavily on Alcuin's letter to Higbald, Bishop of Lindisfarne (MGH, Epist. Karol. Aevi, 2, 183). Alcuin protests against the practice at Lindisfarne of listening to poems about pagan heroes such as Ingeld at monastic meals. Ingeld, he says, ‘is lost and lamenting in Hell.’ Part of Ingeld's story forms an episode in Beowulf (2020–2069).Google Scholar

17 ‘Beowulf, Ireland, and the Natural Good,’ Traditio 7 (1949–51) 263-277. The passage quoted is on p. 271; the Irish material alluded to in this paragraph will be found, with documentation on pp. 266-74.Google Scholar

18 Ibid. 276. The case for Augustinian influence, particularly from The City of God is stated by Marie Padgett Hamilton, ‘The Religious Principle in “Beowulf”,’ PMLA 61 (1946) 309-330.Google Scholar

19 A statement that investigation during the past decade or so has greatly increased our understanding of pre-scholastic religious thinking is perhaps a truism that can be left undocumented. In my own studies I have found the work of Fathers J. Daniélou and H. de Lubac on patristic and medieval exegesis particularly helpful. Cf. ‘Patristic Exegesis in the Criticism of Medieval Literature: Summation,’ in Critical Approaches to Medieval Literature, ed. Dorothy Bethurum (New York 1960), particularly pp. 62-7 and 160, note 3.Google Scholar

20 I cite the familiar Pauline passages at length here because, as will appear presently, they are probably of importance for the interpretation of Beowulf. Google Scholar

21 See Stelzenberger, J., Die Beziehungen der frühchristlichen Sittenlehre zur Ethik der Stoa (Munich 1933) 115; Vernet, J., art. ‘Irénée’ in Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique (= DTC), VII, 2394–2533, especially 2490–91; and Daniélou, J., ‘Saint Irénée et les origines de la théologie de l'histoire,’ Recherches de science religieuse, 34 (1947) 227-31.Google Scholar

22 See de Lubac, H., Histoire et Esprit (Paris 1950), especially pp. 248–258.Google Scholar

23 Besides de Lubac, op. cit. (n. 22) see Daniélou, J., Origène (Paris, 1948) 137–198.Google Scholar

24 Daniélou, J., Sacramentum Futuri (Paris 1950) discusses a number of relevant passages from St. Paul and the Gospels. See his index of New Testament texts, pp. 260–61.Google Scholar

25 Augustine's final conclusion is that there can be no true virtue where there is no true religion (De civitate Dei, 19. 25). His position is complex and nuanced. We are concerned here only with the effect the book would be likely to have on minds far less complex and cultivated than that of Augustine.Google Scholar

26 For the canons of the Council with the introduction and concluding remarks of Caesarius, see Mansi Concilia, VIII, 712-19. There is a useful commentary by Fritz, G., art. ‘Orange,’ DTC, XI, 1087–1103. The canons are really quite moderate, many of them being based on the Augustinian Sententiae of Prosper of Aquitaine. Canon XIII is the one which probably accounts for the position of Alcuin and like-minded eighth-century thinkers on the salvation of unbaptized pagans. It reads: ‘Arbitrium voluntatis in primo homine infirmatum nisi per gratiam baptismi non potest reparari: quod amissum, nisi a quo potuit dari, non potest reddi.’ Prosper's sententia upon which this canon is based made no mention of baptism but simply said that a will not subservient to vices and sins — a truly free will — is a gift of God, a grace.Google Scholar

27 The latest voice, a weighty one, in support of Chadwick as opposed to Tolkien is that of Sisam, Kenneth, The Structure of Beowulf (Oxford 1965). Starting off with assumptions very different from mine about the cultural and religious background of the poet and his audience, Sisam concludes that ‘the poet was not very much concerned with Christianity and paganism’ (p. 78) and that ‘there is little in Beowulf that is distinctively Christian in the strict sense’ (p. 79). I am offering in this paper the grounds for my conviction that there is little in Beowulf, on the surface at least, that is distinctly Christian precisely because the poet was very much concerned with Christianity and pre-Christian forms of religion actual or postulated. The Structure of Beowulf is not primarily a book about religion in the poem. It raises questions about the intelligence and background of the audience and even about the nature of philological evidence which cannot be discussed here. My text was completed when the book came into my hands, and I have let it stand.Google Scholar

28 ‘Mode’ is deliberately chosen as a broad and slightly vague term. The peculiarities of organization and doctrine of some insular Christians have, perhaps, been overemphasized. Two Christian communities can be identical in organization and doctrine, and yet very different in the attitudes and values that find expression in literature. They differ, we can say, in ‘mode.’ Such I believe, were the principal differences between insular and continental Christianity in the late seventh and eighth centuries.Google Scholar

29 Perhaps the most useful general treatment of the formation of the Celtic mode of Christianity is still Kenney, J. F., Sources for the Early History of Ireland (New York 1929), particularly pp. 156-183. Louis Gougaud's Christianity in Celtic Lands (London 1932), particularly chapters II and III, is also valuable. A vigorous re-investigation of the British material is at present being undertaken by Nora Kershaw Chadwick and associated scholars in essays contained in Mrs. Chadwick's Studies in Early British History (Cambridge 1954, reprinted 1959), Studies in the Early British Church (Cambridge 1958), The Age of the Saints in the Early British Church (London 1961), and Celt and Saxon (Cambridge 1963).Google Scholar

30 An important recent treatment is Chadwick, N. K., ‘Intellectual Contacts between Britain and Gaul in the Fifth Century’ in Early British History 189–263.Google Scholar

31 See Kenney, op. cit. 163-4; Gougaud, op. cit. 23-6.Google Scholar

32 See Kenney, op. cit. 661–3; Plinval, G., ‘Vue d'ensemble sur la littérature pélagienne,’ Revue des études latines 29 (1952) 284-94; Souter, A., Pelagius’ Expositions of Thirteen Epistles of St. Paul, I Introduction (Cambridge 1922), II Text (Cambridge 1926).Google Scholar

33 Batchelor, C. C. in ‘The Style of Beowulf: A Study of the Composition of the Poem,’ Speculum 12 (1937) 330-41, actually suggested that Beowulf was a Pelagian poem and that the poet had learned his Pelagianism from Irish missionaries. The treatment was so a priori that the suggestion received little attention.Google Scholar

34 Op. cit. (n. 17 supra) 276.Google Scholar

35 For older investigation, see Kenney, op. cit. (n. 29) 142-3. The most recent work is N. K. Chadwick's ‘Intellectual Contacts’ particularly pp. 233-49.Google Scholar

36 Historia Ecclesiastica, 3.25 (ed. Plummer I, 188).Google Scholar

37 The point was Romans 5.15.Google Scholar

38 Although in the last century exaggerated claims of Eastern origins of Celtic Christianity were made (cf. Gougaud, op. cit. 162-3), Eastern influence through Gaul can now be regarded as an established fact for which evidence continues to accumulate. The apocryphal stories of the Assumption known in Ireland, for example, were of an Eastern type, closely related to a Syriac version. Cf. my Testament of Mary (New York 1942) particularly pp. 25-7. John Hennig, ‘The Literary tradition of Moses in Ireland,’ Traditio 7 (1949–51) 233-61 has shown Eastern influences on Irish liturgy. Margaret Schlauch, ‘On Conall Corc and the Relations of Old Ireland with the Orient,’ Journal of Celtic Studies 1 (1950) 152-66, has suggested that some secular folktale motifs may have come into the Celtic lands by the same channels. Most recently, Kenneth Jackson, The International Popular Tale in Early Wales (Cardiff 1961), in the course of a plea for a more methodical study of Celtic religious folklore, called attention to the number of Celtic apocryphal legends which are otherwise known almost exclusively in Eastern texts (p. 120).Google Scholar

39 See Hennig, J., op. cit. (n. 38 supra).Google Scholar

40 Whitley Stokes, Lives of the Saints from the Book of Lismore (Oxford 1890) 298-9.Google Scholar

41 According to Macalister, R.A.S., Lebor Gebála Érenn (Dublin 1938) I xxv–xxviii, the final form of this fabulous history was used in the Book of the Taking of Ireland where it comprises Sections II and VIII, Sections III to VII having been interpolated.Google Scholar

42 For orientation and bibliography of the Stowe Missal see Kenney, op. cit. 692-9; on the Tract on the Mass, ibid. 688. The best edition is George F. Warner, The Stowe Missal, Henry Bradshaw Society, 31 and 32 (London 1906–15). The Tract on the Mass is edited with translation by Stokes, W. and Strachan, J. in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus II (Cambridge 1903) 252–5. An expanded and modernized version of the Tract is found in the early fifteenth century Gaelic MS Leabhar Breac, published in facsimile (Dublin 1876). The Missal itself is now believed to be of the early ninth century. The Irish of the Tract is of about the same date. Cf. John Hennig, ‘Old Ireland and Her Liturgy,’ Old Ireland (New York 1965) 60-89.Google Scholar

43 ‘is figor recto aicnith insin inro-aithnuiged crist tria huili baullo ocus gnimo.” The word inro-aithnuiged is perplexing and probably corrupt. Stokes and Strachan took the form to be a perfect passive of athnuigid, ‘he renews,’ and translated ‘wherein Christ has been renewed through all his members and deeds.’ Apparently disturbed by the lack of theological sense in this rendering, the editors called attention to the Leabhar Breac reading, inro-athnuiged aichne crist tria runib, in which the knowledge of Christ is renewed through His mysteries. They suggested that the Stowe text be emended to inro-athnuiged aithgne crist, ‘in which the knowledge of Christ was renewed.’ The sense is not much better. Pre-Christian figurae of Christ could not renew a knowledge of Christ. He had not yet come and was not known except through the virtues and deeds of his figurae, who were His ‘members.’ (The suggestion that Old Testament figurae of Christ were members of the Mystical Body is worth noting.) As it stands the Stowe text could be read inro-aithniuged. One could then emend to -aithgniged, and translate ‘when Christ was known through His members.’ This would give perfect theological sense. -aithgniged would be preterit passive of Old Irish *aithgnigidir, an assumed denominative from aithgne, verbal noun of aith-gnin, ‘recognizes,’ ‘knows.’ The denominative in question is not elsewhere recorded in Old Irish but denominative verbs in -igidir were freely coined in Old Irish. In Middle Irish aithnigid, ‘he knows,’ ‘is acquainted with,’ the normal correspondent of Old Irish *aithgnigidir is common.Google Scholar

44 ‘is foraithmet rechta litre inrofiugrad crist acht nadfess cadacht cidrofiugrad and.’Google Scholar

45 ‘is foraithmet rechta fathe hitarchet crist cofollus acht nath naicces corogenir.’ Literally, the last clause could be translated ‘but it was not seen until He was born.’Google Scholar

46 ‘is foraithmet gene crist insin ocus a indocbale tre airde ocus firto.’Google Scholar

47 Cf. Hennig, J., op. cit. (n. 38 supra) 244.Google Scholar

48 Thurneysen, R., in Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie (= ZCP) 16 (1927) 186, dates the original preface to Senchas Mar early in the 8th century.Google Scholar

49 The text of Corus Bescna is printed with an unreliable translation in Ancient Laws of Ireland (Dublin 1865–1901) III 2-78. The following text is based on a comparison of Ancient Laws with the collotype facsimile of the oldest MS (14th century) published by the Irish Manuscripts Commission, Oldest Fragments of the Senchas Mar (Dublin 1931): ‘Arachta cach racht isa sund. Conarrachta in da recht. Recht aicnig robai la firu erind co tiachtain creitme i naimsir Laegaire mic Neil. Isan aimsir side tanic Patraic. Is iar credem do feraib erend do Patraicc con [leg. con airigthea?] in da recht racht naicnig ocus racht litre…. Ro raide mac ua Lugair in fili brethem fer nErend a racht aicnid ocus a racht faide aro fallnastar faidsine a racht aicnid i mbreithemnus indse hErend ocus ina filedaib toch-airrchechnatar faithi [MS: ‘toircechnatar didhu faide,’ emended as proposed by Thurneysen, ZCP 20 (1936) 204] leo do nicfa berla ban biaid .i. racht litre.’Google Scholar

50 For follnaither in the sense ‘fulfill,’ ‘bring to completion’ see Dictionary of the Irish Language, Fasciculus IV (Dublin 1957) s.v. folian, col. 271 51-5 and follnaither, col. 272 25-8. Or one may perhaps see here a somewhat extended sense of the better established meaning ‘govern.’ Prophecy, once it had come into existence, governed, was superior to, the law of nature.Google Scholar

51 ‘Ro bo coir racht aicnid uile acht cretem ocus a coir, ocus comuaim necalsa fri tuaith ocus dliged cechtar da lina ua raile,’Google Scholar

52 See Thurneysen, op. cit. (n. 49 supra) and ZCP 13 (1921) 298.Google Scholar

53 The best known of these is the prophecy of the druids of Laegaire son of Niall beginning ticfa tailcend, ‘adzehead will come.’ The Gaelic text is preserved in the Tripartite Life. See Mulchrone, K., Bethu Phatraic (Dublin 1939) I 21-2. The poem was known to Muirchu maccu Machtheni who gives a Latin translation of it in his late seventh-century life of Patrick. See Mulchrone, ibid. and also Stokes, W., The Tripartite Life of St. Patrick (London 1887) I 34-5 (Gaelic text with English translation) II, 273-4 (Muirchu's Latin). Muirchu's work is intimately related to the parts of Corus Bescna we have been considering. He was one of the Romanizers who attended the Council of Birr. Cf. n. 71, and 79 infra. Google Scholar

54 The author of Corus Bescna uses recht litre in a broad sense to cover both Mosaic Law and the New Testament, perhaps also canon law. At the time he wrote (late seventh or early eighth century) native Irish law, ‘the law of nature,’ was probably still mainly oral, carried in the memories of the filid. Ecclesiastical law was, however, written, the ‘law of the letter.’Google Scholar

55 On the distinction between Hellenic and Hebraic approaches to Biblical exegesis see my ‘Patristic Exegesis’ (n. 19 supra) 62-64.Google Scholar

56 Shortly after Aidan arrived as a missionary at the invitation of King Oswald, he took as students twelve English boys to be educated as the core of a future English clergy. The number twelve seems to indicate that these English boys were chosen as his special disciples, his ecclesiastical comitatus. See Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, 3.6 (ed. Plummer, I, 190).Google Scholar

57 Tolkien, op. cit. (n. 6 supra) 24.Google Scholar

58 Text in Wasserschleben, F. W. H., Die Bussordnungen der abendländischen Kirche (Graz 1959 [unaltered reprint of 1st ed. 1851]) 182-219; bibliography in Kenney, op. cit. 228-9. The work of one who calls himself a disciple of the Northumbrians (discipulus Umbrensium) and who is reporting the comments of Theodore of Canterbury on an Irish penitential, a libellus Scottorum which was in use in Northumbria, this document is obviously of great interest for the light it throws on English Christianity in the Insular Mode. The material, particularly the section on homicide, shows a certain realistic awareness of the moral problems of Christian laymen who are members of a northern military society. In this respect, it contrasts with some of the older Irish penitentials and, as I am suggesting elsewhere (‘Cuchulainn and the Monks,’ to appear in Annuale Medievale), may reflect an interest noticeable in Iona and related monasteries in developing a Christian way of life for members of the warrior class. Beowulf has seemed to many to reflect a similar interest.Google Scholar

59 Cook, A. S., ‘The Possible Begetter of Old English Beowulf and Widsith ,’ Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 25 (1922) 281–43.Google Scholar

60 Tolkien, op. cit. (n. 6 supra) 22.Google Scholar

61 See Whitelock, Dorothy, The Beginnings of English Society (Baltimore 1954) 29–38, for an excellent brief account of the bond between lord and warrior which is basic to the heroic ethos in Old English poetry.Google Scholar

62 In my analysis of the religious elements in the poem, I have tried to put my case in such a way that readers interested in the poem as evidence for a particular kind of Christian tradition and not expert in Old English may follow. A brief account of the fable may be of use. Hrothgar, a victorious Danish king of the Scylding dynasty, builds a great mead-hall, called Heorot. The hall is subjected to repeated attacks by a cannibalistic monster named Grendel. Beowulf, nephew and champion of the Geatish king Hygelac — the Geats lived in the south of what is now Sweden — comes to Hrothgar's aid, kills Grendel and Grendel's monstrous mother. He returns home where after a career as a warrior and a long reign as lawful king, he dies of a wound sustained while fighting a dragon who had attacked his people. The references are to lines in Klaeber's edition. The translations are my own and vary, according to the requirements of the context, from fairly free paraphrases to as literal a rendering as modern English will tolerate. In every case I have tried to use particular care with words and expressions relevant to the issues under discussion. The most useful translation for such readers as may be interested in this paper and are not prepared to deal with the original is J. Clark Hall and C. L. Wrenn, Beowulf (London 1950).Google Scholar

63 hiore is apparently cognate with hiwan, p1. ‘those who belong to the house.’ unhiore is used of the claws of Grendel (987), of Grendel's mother (2120), of the dragon (2413). Hiore is used negatively of Grendel's mere. It is not a hiore place (1372).Google Scholar

64 See infra at n. 95.Google Scholar

65 See infra at n. 77.Google Scholar

66 See infra at n. 72.Google Scholar

67 See infra at n. 114.Google Scholar

68 The poet actually says of the idolatrous Danes, ‘They did not know how to praise [herian, which could be translated ‘glorify’] the Lord of the heavens, the glorious Ruler’ (182-3).Google Scholar

69 The interest of the Scyld episode has been greatly enhanced by the discovery of the rema ns of a ship buried with a royal treasure, but apparently without a body, at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk. Merovingian coins found in the treasure suggest a date of ca. 670. Two silver spoons engraved Saulos and Paulos in Greek majuscules further suggest that the owner of the treasure was a Christian. The cenotaph implies that some kind of compromise was being attempted between pagan and Christian funeral customs. See the orientation and review of scholarship by C. L. Wrenn in his Supplement to R. W. Chambers, op. cit. 508-23.Google Scholar

70 My earlier article (n. 17 supra) contained only a small sampling. The material is not only extensive but made more complex by the fact that not all Irish Christian thinkers shared the favorable view of the native past which was current in Iona and other important monastic circles.Google Scholar

71 During the late-seventh and eighth centuries insular Christian circles in England began to have a considerable influence in the Romanizing movement which was going on in Ireland. The ninth abbot of Iona, Adamnan, visited Aldfrid the Learned (cf. supra at n. 59), perhaps a former pupil of his, at least twice and, apparently on the first of his visits (around 686), he discussed the Easter question with Ceolfrid, the Abbot of Wearmouth. See Bede, Hist. Eccl. 5.15 and 5.21 and Plummer's notes. Adamnan later played an important role in the Romanizing assembly at Birr where his law for the protection of non-combatants, the Lex Innocentium, was adopted. See Kenney op. cit. (n. 29) 245-6, supra n. 53 and infra n. 79.Google Scholar

72 See supra at n. 66.Google Scholar

73 Cf. infra at n. 101.Google Scholar

74 As, for example in The Exeter Book, ed. G. P. Krapp and E.V.K. Dobbie (New York 1936), 137-40.Google Scholar

75 Mentioned by Klaeber op. cit. in his note on 1759 (p. 192).Google Scholar

76 The identical expression is used, here also with the verb geceosan, at line 1201: geceas ecne raed, ‘he chose a plan valid for eternity.’ The statement is made concerning one Hama, a character known also to continental heroic saga. Here, in Beowulf, he is mentioned in an episodic allusion. There is not enough context to make it clear just what Hama's choice was in the version known to the poet. In a mid-thirteenth century Norwegian version based on German material Heimir (= Old English Hama) is said to have entered a monastery Cf. Klaeber, op. cit. 178-9. In the Old English Exodus (516) Moses’ teaching to the Israelites is called ece raedas, as well as ‘holy speech’ and a ‘deep message.’ In Daniel, the poet tells us that the Israelites held fast to divine wisdom only for a short time ‘until the desire of earthly hall-joys supplanted counsels valid for eternity,’ (oÐþaet hie langung beswac eorÐan dreamas eces raedes 29-30). For Exodus and Daniel the references are to G. P. Krapp's edition, The Junius Manuscript (New York 1931).Google Scholar

77 See supra at n. 65.Google Scholar

78 Ed. Neckel, G., Edda (Heidelberg 1927), 28.Google Scholar

79 Ed. Wasserschieben, H., Die irische Kanonensammlung (Giessen 1874). See also Kenney, op. cit. 247-50. The compilation was the work of Rubin of Dair Inis († 725), a Munster monk, and Cuchuimne of Iona († 747), a younger contemporary of Adamnan. The work is clearly connected with the Romanizing movement whose exponents had met at Birr (see n. 71 supra). Corus Bescna also has connections with that movement (see n. 53 supra).Google Scholar

80 The diptych is an admirable emblem of the structure of the poem as interpreted by Tolkien. I first heard it used some years ago by my colleague Grover Cronin. He tells me that to the best of his recollection it is original with him.Google Scholar

81 For a review of relevant investigation see Chambers, op. cit. 62-8, 451-85.Google Scholar

82 Cf. Klaeber, op. cit. xiv, n. 3.Google Scholar

83 The verb gewendan is used in the poem in the sense ‘to turn to God,’ ‘be converted’ at 186.Google Scholar

84 Lines 1255–67. The first passage is 100-14, where the poet introduces Grendel.Google Scholar

85 As A. G. Brodeur has already pointed out, The Art of Beowulf (Berkeley 1960) 194, the poet is clearly saying here that Beowulf trusted in the grace of God and Tolkien's remark that ‘where Beowulf's thoughts are revealed by the poet we can observe that his real trust was in his own might’ is not wholly just.Google Scholar

86 Romans, 4.11-22.Google Scholar

87 Cf. infra at n. 89.Google Scholar

88 The noun wyrd is derived from the same root as the verb weorÐan, ‘to become,’ and means, in the first place, ‘event,’ hence ‘chance,’ ‘fate,’ ‘fortune,’ ‘death.’ J. de Vries, Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte (Berlin 1935–7) I 250, rejects the prevalent nineteenth-century theory that there was a fate-goddess named ‘Wyrd’ in the Germanic pantheon. Use of the word is, therefore, by no means evidence that the speaker rejects a theist view of the universe. Nevertheless, if a character is represented as constantly attributing events to wyrd rather than to God's will, one can perhaps conclude that his grasp of the implications of theism is somewhat feeble.Google Scholar

89 Here Beowulf recognizes that events such as the death of human beings depend ultimately on God's disposition (dom). Cf. the poet's declaration infra, at n. 118, that the death both of Beowulf and the dragon was a result of God's dom. Beowulf's statement here, however, seems to me curt, almost irreverent. Cf. the very reverent tone he uses after the hour of grace when he leaves the disposal of the Grendel fight to God (685-7, translated supra at n. 87).Google Scholar

90 The last sentence might be more freely translated, ‘What will happen will happen.’Google Scholar

91 Old English faege has an Icelandic cognate feigr which means ‘doomed to death’ and a cognate in German, feige, which means ‘cowardly.’ The Old English word means ‘doomed’ but also ‘cowardly,’ ‘weak,’ ‘indisposed to combat.’ The other meanings may be derived from this last one. A warrior suffering from battle-fatigue and low morale was faege. In that state, he might be regarded as cowardly. He was also very likely to fall in battle. Hence the meaning, ‘doomed.’Google Scholar

92 When the poet speaking in his own peron uses the word hell, he uses it in the sense it had come to have for Christians. In view of what has clearly happened to the Christian expression ece raedas in Hrothgar's sermon, where the immediate context makes it perfectly evident that Hrothgar is not using the word as a Christian would use it, it may be worth considering, at least, whether some of the other Christian terms have not been reduced to pre-Christian meanings in the speeches of the characters. In short, I am applying experimentally in the broader context the Irish evidence affords Tolkien's ‘hypothesis, not in itself unlikely, that the poet tried to do so something definite and difficult which had some reason and thought behind it’ (op. cit. [n. 6 supra] 42). The alternative, that our poet, like good Homer, was nodding, is always open to those who prefer it.Google Scholar

93 See Mogk, E., ‘Hel,’ in Hoops, J., Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde (Strassburg 1911–19) II 487-8 and J. de Vries, op. cit. (n. 88 supra), 2.357-58, 399-400.Google Scholar

94 See von Schwerin, C., ‘Friedlosigkeit’ in J. Hoops, op. cit. II 97-9.Google Scholar

95 Cf. supra at n. 64.Google Scholar

96 Such views of the contrast between the Gospel and earlier laws are evident in the story of Dubthach maccu Lugir's judgment on Nuada Derg, son of Niall and brother of Laegaire. Cf. supra at n. 49. Nuada had slain St. Patrick's charioteer. The problem was whether, in view of the fact that the Gospel taught forgiveness of enemies, Nuada could be condemned to death. The incident is the basis of the later introduction to the Senchas Mar. The judgment itself, however, which is in poetic form, may be as early as the tenth century, and discussions of forgiveness as a specifically Christian virtue go back to the eighth century. The only available text and translation is, at present, that in Ancient Laws of Ireland (n. 49 supra) I 2-14. Ideally, Christians, in their private lives at least, were expected to forgive enemies and forego feuds. It is to be noted however, that both the penitential of Theodore and the one attributed to Bede mitigate considerably the penance prescribed for homicide committed pro vindicta fratris. See Wasserschieben, op. cit. (n. 58 supra) 188 (Theodore) and 225 (the so-called Bede).Google Scholar

97 In lines 970-9 Beowulf tells how Grendel escaped but lost his arm and predicts that he will not live long but will await (abidan), caught in the grip of pain, for the great judgment (miclan domes) of God. The passage is usually taken to refer to the Day of Judgment. Men in the time of the natural law knew nothing of the Day of Judgment. We must either assume the poet is nodding or consider whether the passage can be read in a pre-Christian sense. Cf. n. 92 supra. Both the poet and Beowulf use the word dom in the sense of a death viewed as an expression of the divine will or judgment. Cf. supra n. 89. Here, Beowulf may be saying only that Grendel will wait in pain for the divine decision that he is to die, the micia dom. Google Scholar

98 See. Mogk, E., ‘Berserker’ in Hoops, op. cit. I 260-1.Google Scholar

99 See at n. 105 infra. Google Scholar

100 The tradition is reported in the Ynglinga Saga of Snorri Sturluson, chapter 14, in Heimskringla, ed. F. Jonsson (Copenhagen 1911) 12.Google Scholar

101 Cf. supra at n. 73.Google Scholar

102 I now regard this explanation as more probable than my earlier suggestion, made in a paper read in 1962, that ealde ryht may have been the Augustinian lex aeterna. My present conclusion is substantially the same as the one expressed by Morton Bloomfield, ‘Patristics and Old English Literature,’ Comparative Literature 14 (1962) 39-41. I have given above some reasons for regarding the patristic influence as indirect and probably mediated by liturgy.Google Scholar

103 Cf. n. 91. supra. Google Scholar

104 See at n. 43, supra. Google Scholar

105 Cf. at n. 99, supra. Google Scholar

106 Perhaps the following literal translation may make some sense in the light of the paraphrase in the text: ‘That was a fight without compensation (feohleas gefeaht) brought about by sin and crime (fyrenum gesyngad, even more literally ‘criminally sinned’), a source of weariness to mind and heart (hreÐre hygemeÐe). Nevertheless, the prince had to lose his life unavenged.’ The use of the words fyren, ‘crime,’ and syngian, ‘to sin,’ in connection with this accidental occurrence is noteworthy. See C. von Schwerin, ‘Wille’ in Hoops, op. cit. IV 553-4.Google Scholar

107 See von Schwerin, C., ‘Wergeld’ in Hoops, op. cit. IV 510-1 and D. Whitelock, op. cit. (n. 61 supra) 40, where the Hrethel episode is discussed.Google Scholar

108 See Vinogradoff, P., ‘Ceorl’ in Hoops, op. cit. I 368-9; ‘Eorl,’ ibid. 614-5.Google Scholar

109 If one gives the perfective prefix ge- its, full force, geceas means ‘he elected,’ ‘opted decisively for,’ as in ece raedas geceosan. See n. 76. Or it can mean ‘to get by choosing.’ In that case, Godes leoht geceas means ‘he got God's light [heaven] by his choice.’ Since Beowulf nowhere else expresses any positive notions about beatitude after death, it is perhaps better to keep the more restricted meaning here. Hrethel chose to follow the divine light manifested in his conscience.Google Scholar

110 Metod is usually used in Old English poetry as an epithet for God. (I have been translating ‘God the Disposer.’) It is an agent noun derived from metan, ‘to measure’ and originally identical with Gothic mituþs, ‘a measure’ and Icelandic mjotuÐr, ‘that which measures’ ‘fate,’ ‘death.’ In compounds such as metodsceaft, ‘decree of fate,’ and metodwang, plain of death,’ ‘battlefield,’ the word has its original meaning in Old English. In Waldere, I 19 (see Klaeber, op. cit. 283) the word clearly means ‘death’ or ‘fate.’ Here Beowulf seems to equate metod with wyrd and is apparently saying that the vague force wyrd is the disposer of events.Google Scholar

111 Cf. at n. 128, infra. Google Scholar

112 The translation of this much discussed passage follows the latest suggestion of Klaeber, op. cit. 461, which was accepted as the best tentative solution by Wrenn, op. cit. 222-3. The linguistic dubieties do not affect the remark about wyrd. Google Scholar

113 At the outset of the poem, the poet declared that Scyld (see at n. 69 supra) departed ‘in the peace of the Lord’ (on Frean waere, 27).Google Scholar

114 The Old English for this sentence is: Nu ic on maÐma hord / mine bebohte // frode feorhlege. The key word is feorh-lege, a compound of feorh, ‘life’ and -legu, ‘a laying down,’ verbal noun connected with lecgan, ‘to lay.’ A similar compound of ealdor, ‘life’ (identical in meaning with feorh, at least in poetry) and -lega in the Old English Daniel, 1.139, ed. Krapp, Junius Manuscript, (n. 76 supra) clearly means ‘that which is laid down (in the future) of one's life,’ ‘future course of one's life.’ Klaebe r, op. cit., glossary, suggests for feorhlegu here in Beowulf, ‘(allotted) life.’ The sentence in question could then be translated: ‘I have sold the allotted span of my old life for a hoard of treasure,’ Such a rendering, however, obscures the probably close connection between the passage and the texts from John cited below (p. 108 infra). These suggest that the poet had in mind the phrase animam ponere. ealdorlegu occurs again in Old English Guthlac ed. Krapp and Dobbie, Exeter Book (n. 74 supra) where it means, as one would expect, ‘the laying down of one's life,’ aefter ealdorlege … minre, (1260–61) ‘after I have laid down my life.’ Surely, that is also the meaning of feorhlegu here. The sentence in question can then be translated literally, ‘Now I have given the laying down of my old life as a price for a hoard of treasure.’Google Scholar

115 In Hebrews 10.22-4, faith, hope, and charity are again mentioned in that order.Google Scholar

116 Perhaps the Vulgate account of the death of Abraham may also be relevant here, Genesis 25.8: Et deficiens mortuus est in senectute bona, provectaeque aetatis, et plenus dierum: congregatusque est ad populum suum.Google Scholar

117 See at n. 113, supra. Google Scholar

118 On this use of dom see n. 89.Google Scholar

119 The inter pretation presented here is generally accepted. It is stated with the grounds for it by Chambers, op. cit. 25-31, 424-30, 445-50. K. Sisam, however, op. cit. 80-2, believes that the interpretation, although ‘so deeply rooted in modern criticism’ as to seem ‘beyond question now’ is erroneous.Google Scholar

120 Cf. at n. 21, supra. Google Scholar

121 Op. cit. (n. 6) 28-9Google Scholar

122 Cf. at n. 23 and n. 55.Google Scholar

123 See Kenney, op. cit. 660-1; Stokes and Strachan, op. cit. (n. 42 supra) I xxi (introduction), 484-494. The passage cited in on p. 493.Google Scholar

124 See n. 114.Google Scholar

125 Op. cit. (n. 1) note on 11. 2419–23.Google Scholar

126 Ed. by Krapp, G. P., The Vercelli Book (New York 1932), 62, 11.39-41.Google Scholar

127 See n. 91.Google Scholar

128 Cf. at n. 111, supra. Google Scholar