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The nature of Christianity in Beowulf

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Edward B. Irving Jr
Edward B. Irving Jr
Affiliation:
The University of Pennsylvania
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Extract

Readers of Beowulf are now in apparent agreement that the frequent Christian references in the poem fit easily and naturally into their contexts and give every sign of being simply an unconscious part of the normal language and thought of the poet. We must make the customary proviso, to be sure, that by ‘poet’ we have in mind the final reteller of some older pre-Christian story or stories now beyond recovery. The old Monkish Interpolator who used to be hauled out and execrated by scholars for smearing his despicable Christian Colouring like graffiti over a noble pagan monument has vanished like the ghost he always was. He has, however, now been replaced by equally busy Monkish Extrapolators working tirelessly to insert large sections of the Patrologia Latina somewhere between the lines of Beowulf. In doing so, they take advantage of the undeniable fact that the early Middle Ages provided an ample supply of patristic material, to argue (I think indefensibly) that it must have been put to use – that no vernacular poet could have fought off the urge to wrap any plain tale he had to tell in rich folds of typology, allegory and deeper meanings.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 13 , December 1984 , pp. 7 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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References

1 Most general essays and books on Beowulf of course deal with this subject; there is space here only to mention a few special studies. A useful brief summary of the ‘pagan/Christian’ debate is Donahue, Charles J., ‘Social Function and Literary Value in Beowulf’, The Epic in Medieval Society: Aesthetic and Moral Values, ed. Scholler, Harald (Tübingen, 1977), pp. 382–90.Google Scholar Also of interest are Goldsmith, Margaret E., The Mode and Meaning of ‘Beowulf’ (London, 1970),Google Scholar for an extreme Christian-allegorical view; Halverson, John, ‘The World of Beowulf’, ELH 36 (1969), 593–608;CrossRefGoogle ScholarMoorman, Charles, ‘The Essential Paganism of Beowulf’, Mod. Lang. Quarterly 28 (1967), 3–18;CrossRefGoogle ScholarTietjen, Mary C. Wilson, ‘God, Fate, and the Hero of Beowulf’, JEGP 74 (1975), 159–71;Google Scholar and Andersson, Theodore M., ‘Tradition and Design in Beowulf’, Old English Literature in Context: Ten Essays, ed. Niles, John D. (Cambridge, 1980), pp. 90–106.Google Scholar A classic older study is Klaeber, Fr., ‘Die christlichen Elemente im Beowulf’, Anglia 35 (1911), 111–36, 249–70 and 453–82,Google Scholar and 36(1912), 169–99.

2 Lines 853–915.

3 Lines 1700–84.

4 Lines 175–88.

5 Lines 86–114.

6 Lines 1687–93.

7 No hie fasder cunnon, hwæþer him ænig wæs ær acenned dyrnra gasta. (1355 b–7a) Quotations from Beowulfare taken from Beowulf and Judith, ed. Dobbie, E. V. K., The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 4 (New York, 1953).Google Scholar

8 ðy he pone feond ofercwom, gehnægde helle gast. þa he hean gewat,… mancynnes feond… (1273b–63)

9 See his accounts in lines 957–79 and 2072b–100.

10 Cain and Beowulf: a Study in Secular Allegory (Toronto, 1982).Google Scholar The long scholarly discussion of the legend of Cain in Beowulf was opened by Emerson, Oliver P., ‘Legends of Cain, Especially in Old and Middle English’, PMLA 21 (1906), 831–929;CrossRefGoogle Scholar see Williams's book for an up to date bibliography on the subject.

11 þeah ðu þinum broðrum to banan wurde, heafodmægum; þæs þu in helle scealt werhdðo dreogan, þeah þin ωit duge. (587–9)

12 Cain and Beowulf, p. 53.

13 Ibid. pp. 57–8.

14 wer (105a and 135 2a: on weres wastmum, ‘in the shape ofaman’), healðegn (142a), rinc(720b)and guma (973a and 1682a).

15 Idese onlicnæs (135 2a) and Wif unhyre (2120b).

16 Secan deofla gedræg (756a). Grendel is called eoten in line 761a.

17 ‘He was betrayed away among the eotens, into the power of devils, quickly sent to his death’(9O2b–4a).

18 ‘on feonda geweald feor siðian’ (808).

19 Of Grendel in line 133a, of the rich man in line 1747b.

20 If that is indeed the meaning of maga mane fah (978a) and fyrendadum fag (1001a).

21 See, e.g., Du Bois, Arthur E., ‘The Unity of Beowulf’, PMLA 49 (1934), 374–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22 If we assume that æfter deoflabryre, ‘after the fall of devils’ (1680a), must refer to Grendel and his mother. …þæer se snotera bad, hwæþer him alwalda aefre wille æfter weaspelle wyrpe gefremman.28

23 Lines 691–709.

24 Lines 12–17.

25 Lines 232715–313. The contrast between Hrothgar and old Beowulf is discussed in more detail in my forthcoming article, ‘What to Do with Old Kings’.

26 Lines 1769–81.

27 ‘God eaþe mæg / þonc dolsceaðan dæda getwæfan’ (478b–9). Taking the sentence as spoken in a grumbling tone is only one possible way to read it.

28 ‘… where the wise one waited (to learn) whether the All-Ruler might ever wish to carry out some change after that evil news’ (1313b–15).

29 See lines 1162b-231.

30 See lines 440b–1 and 685 b–7.

31 Lines 1652–76.

32 Lines 587–9.

33 Lines 972b–9.

34 ‘For ðam me witan ne ðearf waldend fira / morðorbealo maga, þonne min sceaceð/lif of lice’ (2741–3a).

35 Lines 2874b–6.

36 Lines 3108–9.

37 That þeoden occurs as often as thirty-nine times in the secular sense of‘lord’ may suggest a deliberate decision by the poet to restrict it to that sense.

38 See Wright, Herbert G., ‘Good and Evil; Light and Darkness; Joy and Sorrow in Beowulf’, RES n.s. 8 (1957), I–II.Google Scholar

39 Lines 569b–72a.

40 Lines 1570–2a.

41 ‘Fate often saves a man who is not already doomed, when his courage is good enough’ (572b–3).

42 See McNamee, M. B., ‘Beowulf – an Allegory of Salvation?’, JEGP 59 (1960), 190–207.Google Scholar

43 ‘Fate immeasurably near’ (2420b).

44 ‘There were many such age-old treasures in that earth-house, as in long-ago days some man of noble race had meditatively hidden those great legacies there, those precious riches. Death had carried off all those people long before, and still that one person of the nation's leaders who roamed longest, a guardian sick for the loss of his friends, expected the same for himself, that he too would be allowed to use the long-piled wealth only a little time' (2231b–41a).

45 A claim made by Goldsmith, Margaret E., ‘The Christian Perspective in Beowulf’, Comparative Lit. 14 (1962), 71–90,CrossRefGoogle Scholar and by others since.

46 Pride and avarice have been nominated by Margaret Goldsmith in her book, The Mode and Meaning of ‘Beowulf;’ see also Leyerle, John, ‘Beowulf the Hero and the King’, MÆ 34 (1965), 89–102.Google Scholar

47 Wei bið þam þe him are seceð, / frofre to fæder on heofonum, þær us eal sea fæstnung stondeð, ‘It will be well for the one who seeks mercy for himself, comfort from the Father in heaven, where for us that great fortress stands’ (The Wanderer 114b–15).