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Design for Treachery: The Unferth Intrigue

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2021

James L. Rosier
James L. Rosier*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
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Extract

Of the characters with whom Beowulf has an explicit association in speech and action, Unferth is without question the most difficult to assess, and his function in the Danish court would appear to be just as enigmatic. Other characters who play an active part in the events, such as Hrothgar, Wealhtheow, and Wiglaf, are depicted with clarity and consistency, but with Unferth the poet has proceeded deliberately by means of allusion and equivocation, or at least so it seems to the modern reader who is separated from the Anglo-Saxon audience for which some of our mysteries may not have existed at all. From one of the earliest comments on Unferth's role in the poem to the most recent, four primary assumptions about him have been reiterated, viz., 1) he has an important position in the Danish court, 2) he is trusted by the king and his followers, 3) he is later (after Beowulf's return to Geatland) involved in a conspiracy to overthrow Hrothgar's rule, and 4) he is at first estranged from and then reconciled with Beowulf. Relevant to the first two premises a query has persistently been raised: why is Unferth allowed to attack Beowulf with impunity and what motivates his abuse? The bases of these assumptions are not all of one kind: for one and two, students have relied on that vaguely understood epithet, ϸyle, and one comment by the poet (1166-67); for three, on specific allusions by the poet about Unferth's relation with Hrothulf (1164-68); for four, Unferth's gift of Hrunting and Beowulf's response to the gift. What I propose to do here is to reexamine these premises and the query in terms of the conception of ϸyle in Old English and Old Norse, the graphic representation of Unferth, and the problem of the sword-giving.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 77 , Issue 1 , 1962 , pp. 1 - 7
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1962

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References

Notes

1 W. W. Lawrence, Beowulf and Epic Tradition (Cambridge, Mass., 1928), pp. 76-77,153-154.

2 A. G. Brodeur, The Art of Beowulf (Berkeley, Calif., 1960), pp. 142-157.

3 See R. W. Chambers, Beowulf (Cambridge, England, 1959), pp. 28-29; Brodeur, p. 156.

4 For a proposed etymology, see W. H. Vogt, Stilgeschichte der Eddischen Wissensdichtung: Der Kultredner (ulr) (Breslau, 1927), p. 27. Vogt's etymology is derivative, in part, of M. van Blankenstein, “Etymologien,” Indogermanische Forschungen, 23(1908/9), 134.

5 Anglo-Saxon and Old English Vocabularies, eds. T. Wright and R. Wülcker (London, 1884), 458.16; hereafter cited as WW.

6 Old English Glosses, ed. A. Napier (Oxford, England, 1900), 2.154; hereafter cited as OEG.

7 WW 385.3.

8 Vogt, pp. 111-112.

9 B. T. Williams, in Gnomic Poetry in Anglo-Saxon (New York, 1914), p. 78), and Vogt (p. 112) tentatively suggested a correspondence between Unferth and yle. scurra.

10 OEG 39.2.

11 Fact and Lore About Old English Words (Stanford, Calif., 1954), 4,B,5. Meritt compares fœelas to the rendering of histriones from the same context in the OE version of Gregory, yfle gliigmen.

12 For citations, see A. E. Schönbach, “Studien zur Geschichte der altdeutschen Predigt,” in Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 142,7 (1900), 70-71, 81; cf. Meritt, p. 148.

13 See the Bosworth-Toller Dictionary, hereafter referred to as BTD.

14 Corpus Glossariorum Latinorum, ed. G. Goetz (Leipzig, 1888-1923), IV.390.3; hereafter referred to as CGL. Cf. Saxo Grammaticus, ed. Holder, p. 195: “se scurre uel parasisti.”

15 CGL IV.390.4.

16 CGL IV.423.1.

17 CGL IV.390.2.

18 Die althochdeutschen Glossen, eds. E. Sievers and E. Steinmeyer (Berlin, 1879-98; 1922), III.308.68; hereafter referred to as OHGG. Cf. Grep's vicious attack on Eric Mal-spaki in Saxo, ed. Holder, p. 133: “Aduersum scurram causam producere non est, / Qui uacua uocis mobilitate uiget.” Pertinent to the gloss cited above, oratores. ylœs, it is interesting that in Old High German histrio is once glossed sprechert herolt (Glossarium Latino-Germanicum, ed. L. Diefenbach, Frankfurt, 1857), and heruldus, a derivative of herolt, renders bolinus. leccator multa garrolans (ibid.); elsewhere sprecher glosses orator (see Althochdeutscher Sprachschatz, ed. E. G. Graff, Berlin, 1834-42, IV.386, 390). Cf. also F. Tupper's discussion of Riddle 25 (‘Scurra‘) in The Riddles of the Exeter Book (Boston, 1910), pp. 121-122.

19 OHGG IV.317.55.

20 Ibid.

21 OHGG IV.121.34.

22 OHGG II.60.47.

23 Fact and Lore, p. 148.

24 OHGG I.414.27, 417.38, 424.27.

25 Alcvini sive Albini Epistolae in Epistolae Karolini Aevi, ed. E. L. Dümmler (Berlin, 1895), ii, 183 and 439.

26 Ibid., p. 290. For a full survey of the opinions of patristic writers about histrio and scurra, see E. Reich, Der Mimus (Berlin, 1903), Ch. ix, and cf. P. S. Allen, “The Mediaeval Mimus,” MP, vii (1909), viii (1910).

27 Die Lieder der Edda, hrsg. B. Sijmons (Halle a. S., 1906), p. 47.

28 Cf. Vogt, p. 141, and W. Ranisch, Eddalieder (Leipzig, 1906), p. 11.

29 Stilgeschichte, p. 30.

30 Sijmons, pp. 319-333; all citations are from this edition.

31 The sword's name is Gram; for the account of Reginn's smithcraft, see Regensml, in Sijmons, p. 312.

32 H. Gering, Vollständiges Wörterbuch zu den Liedern der Edda (Halle a. S., 1903), p. 1229. For this meaning, cf. the use of the verb ylja, a derivative of ulr, in Hvaml 17:

Kóper afglape, es til kynnes k⊘mr,

bylsk hann umb epa brumer;

alt es senn, ef hann sylg of getr,

uppe es á ge guma.

(‘When a fool comes [to visit] kin he gapes and mumbles or sits dumb; if he gets a drink it is soon apparent what kind of mind he has.‘)

33 Stilgeschichte, p. 72.

34 It is true, of course, that Hel (‘underworld,’ ‘realm of the dead’) in Old Norse does not have the Christian sense implied in Beowulf's words werho drēogan.

35 Hrotti presumably belonged originally to Reginn's father, Hreithmar, whom Fafnir had murdered (Regensml; Sijmons, p. 311).

36 On the relationship between Hrotti and Hrunting, see H. Falk, Altnordische Waffenkunde (Kristiania, 1914), p. 52, and Kemp Malone, “Hrungnir,” in Studies in Heroic Legend ... (Copenhagen, 1959), pp. 202-203.

37 Wealhtheow's movements, like Grendel's in ll. 710-720, are adeptly depicted by repetition: Ēode W. for (612) . . . Ymbēode ā (620) . . . Ēode . . . sittan (640-641), and her functions as queen, gift-giver, and peace-bearer are described in order: cwēn Hrōgāres (613) . . . bēaghroden cwēn (623) . . . freolicu folccwēn (641).

38 The boundaries of the scene are almost identical with those in the first: the king arrives to partake of the feast (1008-10), then at its conclusion he retires to sleep (1236-37).

89 Wealhtheow associates Beowulf with her boys by first addressing him as hyse, ‘young man.‘

40 In l. 480 bēore druncne refers to the ‘loyal thanes’ who would offer combat to Grendel; Beowulf refers to Unferth as bēore druncen in 531; in 1467 the poet refers to Unferth as wine druncen; and druncne in 2179 alludes to Heremod.

41 Kemp Malone was the first to comment on the graphic qualities of this scene, about which he exclaims: “What a pretty picture, and what irony!” (“Hreric,” PMLA, xlii, 1927, 269; see also pp. 271, 302, and 304).

42 The Art of Beowulf, p. 150. Actually, this statement seems out of keeping with a statement on the following page (151): “The poet. . . maintains his dislike of Unferth stubbornly; whenever he expresses his opinion of the man, he does so with marked acerbity.”

43 It might be conjectured that an Anglo-Saxon audience, more familiar with Unferth's role, may have been aware that Hrunting was the sword with which he slew his kin, or that this sword later played a part in the Unferth-Hrothulf complicity. If the latter were true, the old warrior's whetting of the young Heatho-Bard over a sword and the sword which goaded Hengist would give these stories excellent point by comparison. Also, the use of the word yle at this point in the narrative may have been intended to foreshadow Hrunting's failure.

44 Brodeur, p. 150.

45 E. Kock, “Interpretations and Emendations of Early English Texts. IX,” Anglia, xlvi (1922), 90.

46 Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, 3rd ed. (New York, 1950), p. 468.

47 See BTD, and J. Hoops, Kommentar zum Beowulf (Heidelberg, 1932), p. 196. Moreover, there is some evidence which suggests that the meanings of lean and lœn overlapped, so that even if lēan in this context were not emended, the word may have had the sense of lœn. E.g., lēan glosses emolomentum (BTD), emolumentum is equivalent to lucrum (CGL iv.231.49), which is glossed by lœn (BTD); OHG lon (the cognate of lēan) glosses stipendium (Graff, ii.219), an equivalent of lucrum (CGL iv.567.45), which is glossed by lœn (BTD); Lat. faenus is glossed by lœn (BTD) and OHG lon (=lean; Graff, ii.219) alike.

48 The Art of Beowulf, p. 153.

49 It also strikes me as improbable that the poet should represent his hero accepting the friendship of a man whom he himself denounces.

50 Cf. the (curious?) statement at 11. 862-863.

51 Cf. the two gyf clauses in Wealhtheow's indirect appeal to Hrothulf, ll. 1180b-87.

52 So Brodeur, p. 152: “We cannot escape the conclusion that every appearance of Unferth, every direct or indirect revelation of his character, had significance in the poet's design.”

53 The death of Æschere is emphasized by Hrothgar's long lament (1322-44) primarily because that loss further isolates the king against the false counsel of Unferth and Hrothulf.

54 Cf. Brodeur, p. 144.

55 Morton Bloomfield, in “Beowulf and Christian Allegory: an Interpretation of Unferth,” Traditio, vii (1949-51), takes Unferth “as an abstract personification in the manner of Prudentius, Martianus Capella or Sedulius . . .” (p. 410), viz., Unferth is seen as Discordia. While his article agrees in general with the conclusions presented here, the appeal to allegory seems to me entirely unnecessary, if not unjust to the more literal but dramatic design of the poet.