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Old English Beot and Old Icelandic Heitstrenging

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Stefán Einarsson
Stefán Einarsson*
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University
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Extract

In his “Introduction” to Beowulf (p. lvii) Klaeber makes the following remark:

That some of the speeches follow conventional lines of heroic tradition need not be doubted. This applies to the type of the gylpcwide before the combat (675 ff., 1392 ff., 2510 ff.), the ‘comitatus’ speech or exhortation of the retainers (2633 ff., cp. Bjarkamál [Par. §7: Saxo ii.59 ff.,] Maldon 212 ff., 246 ff., Finnsb. 37 ff.).

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 49 , Issue 4 , December 1934 , pp. 975 - 993
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1934

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References

1 Cp. Wilh. Pfändler, “Die Vergnügungen der Angelsachsen,” Anglia, xxix, 463, and F. B. Gummere, Founders of England, 2d ed. by F. P. Magoun (1930), p. 76. Klaeber, Beowulf, p. 143, comments: “A kind of gylpcwide … cp. 2633 ff.; Iliad xx, 83 ff.”

2 On the potency of the drink and its mystic quality see V. Grönbech, Vor Folkeæt i Oldtiden, iv, 17 ff.

3 For further comparison see A. Olrik, Danmarks Heltedigtning, i, 47–48, and his interesting reconstruction of Bjarkamál.

4 Gummere, Pfändler, and Budde make no allusion to the Old Norse custom.

5 He came back to the subject in another article: “Norske Forhold i det 13. Arhundrede efter en samtidig fransk Kilde,” in Aarböger for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie, ii. Række 22, 1–18. Of equal interest is the penetrating, if not so detailed study of heitstrenging and cognate forms in V. Gr⊘nbech, Vor Folkeæt i Oldtiden, iii, 143 and especially 159 with the notes on pp. 186 and 191; cf. also iv, 69 with notes p. 126 on the Old Engl. gilp.

6 Heimskringla, Morris-Magnússon, i, 271–273 (cf. F. Jónsson's ed., 1911, pp. 129–130, Codex Frisianus, pp. 119–120, and Jómsvíkinga saga, ed. C. Petersen, pp. 92–98).

7 Belga kviÐa HjϱrvarÐssonar, Prose iv, Hollanders translation, p. 206.

8 On braga(r)full see M. Cahen, Études sur le vocabulaire religieux du vieux-scandinaves La libation (Paris, 1921), p. 174.

9 For other parallels see Gr⊘nbech, Vor Folkeæt, iii, 159 with notes on p. 191.

10 Oaths sworn by a stone are mentioned in Belga kviÐa Hundingsbana ii, 31, GuÐrúnar kviÐa iii, 3, and AtlakviÐa 30.

11 For that custom see the classical example in Heimskringla, Morris-Magnússon, iii, 279–283; cf. also i, 210–211; ii, 296; iii, 186, and Eyrbyggja, Morris-Magnússon, p. 95 ff.

12 The Russian custom is also discussed briefly by O. B. Briem, “Germanische und Russische Heldendichtung,” Germ.-Rom. Monatschrift xvii, 346 ff., where Beowulf is also compared (the HunferÐ episode).

Note: Pertinent literature partly coming to my notice after this article was written:

Sofus Larsen, “Jómsborg,” Aarböger f. nord. Oldk. III Række 17: 1–138; 18: 1–128; 21: 1–106; see esp. 17:54.

B. S. Phillspotts, “The Battle of Maldon, ”Mod. Lang. Review, xxiv 172–190.

Marie Ashdown, English and Norse Documents relating to the reign of Ethelred the Unready (Cambridge 1930).

John R. Reinhard, “Some Illustrations of the Mediaeval gab,” Essays and Studies in Engl. Comparative Literature, Univ. of Michigan (Ann Arbor, 1933), pp. 27–57.

Levin L. Schücking, Heldenstoltz und Würde im Angelsächsischen. Leipzig, L. Hirzel, 1933. (=Abhandl. der phil.-hist. Kl. der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften xlii, No. v.) Contains a most important study of beot.