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The Idea of God in Beowulf

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

William Whallon
William Whallon*
Affiliation:
Michigan State University, East Lansing
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Extract

In his rewarding and influential papers entitled “Die christlichen elemente im Beowulf,” Fr. Klaeber stressed the importance of Latin Scriptural and liturgical analogues to several Old English phrases, and no one would deny that the correspondence between the two groups of expressions is frequently exact. But recent studies into the structure of the verse itself show cause for regarding the religious elements as essentially Germanic.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 80 , Issue 1 , March 1965 , pp. 19 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1965

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References

1 Anglia, xxxv (1911), 111–136, 249–270, and 453–183, and xxxvi (1912), 169–199.

2 “Oral-Formulaic Character of Anglo-Saxon Narrative Poetry,” Speculum, xxviii (1953), 446–467.

3 “Homer, Hesiod and the Achaean Heritage of Oral Poetry,” Hesperia, xxix (1960), 177–197.

4 My numbering and abbreviations follow the Edda text of Gustav Neckel, 4th ed., revised by Hans Kuhn (Heidelberg, 1962). Thus Vsp. stands for Volospâ, Vm. for VafþÐúÐnismál, Grm, for Grímnismál, Skm. for For Scírnis, Hym. for HymisqviÐa, Ls. for Locasenna, Þrk. for ÞrymsqviÐa, Alv. for Alvíssmal, HH. for HelgaquiÐa Hundingsbana in fyrri, Sg. for SigurÐarqviÐa in scamma, Od. for Oddrúnargrátr, and Hdl. for HyndlolióÐ.

5 Heimskringla, ed. Finnur Jónsson (Copenhagen, 1893–1901), i, 124.

6 Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, ed. Finnur Jónsson (Reykjavik, 1907), p. 123.

7 See James Edward Routh, Jr., Two Studies on the Ballad Theory of the Beowulf (Baltimore, Md., 1905), p. 18.

8 Doctrine and Poetry (State Univ. of N. Y., 1959), p. 103.

9 The Singer of Tales (Cambridge, Mass., 1960), pp. 48–53.

10 Bibliotheca rerum Germanicarum, ed. Philip Jaffe, Vol. vi, Monumenta Alcuiniana (Berlin, 1873), p. 357: “Verba Dei legantur in sacerdotali convivio. Ibi decet lectorem audiri, non citharistam; sermones patrum, non carmina gentilium. Quid Hinieldus cum Christo? Angusta est domus; utrosque tenere non poterit. Non vult rex celestis cum paganis et perditis nominetenus regibus communionem habere; quia rex ille aeternus regnat in caelis, ille paganus perditus plangit in inferno. Voces legentium audire in domibus tuis, non ridentium turbam in plateis.”

11 Ritchie Girvan, Beowulf and the Seventh Century (London, 1935), p. 37.

12 William of Malmesbury, De gestis pontificum Anglorum, ed. N. E. S. A. Hamilton (London, 1870), p. 336: “Denique commemorat Elfredus, carmen triviale, quod adhuc vulgo cantitatur, Aldelmum fecisse; aditiens causam qua probet rationabiliter tantum virum his quæ videantur frivola institisse. Populum eo tempore semibarbarum, parum divinis sermonibus intentum, statim, cantatis missis, domos cursitare solitum. Ideo sanctum virum, super pontem qui rura et urbem cantinuat, abeuntibus se opposuisse obicem, quasi artem contitandi professum. Eo plusquam semel facto, plebis favorem et concursum emeritum. Hoc commento sensim inter ludicra verbis Scripturarum insertis, cives ad sanitatem reduxisse; qui si severe et cum excommunicatione agendum putasset, profecto profecisset nichil.”