«w BEOWULF CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS C. F. CLAY, Manager LONDON : FETTER LANE, E.C.4 NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN CO. BOMBAY \ CALCUTTA } MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd. MADRAS J TORONTO: THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TOKYO : MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISflA ALL BIGHTS KESERVED PLATE I BEOWULF AN INTRODUCTION^ TO THE STUDY OF THE POEM WITH A DISCUSSION OF THE STORIES OF OFFA AND FINN BY K. W. CHAMBEES Dey mout er bin two deloojes: en den agin dey moutent. Uncle Remus, The Story of the Deluge. CAMBRIDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1921 ^ lil^ 9-77- TO PROF. WILLIAM WITHERLE LAWRENCE Dear Prof. Lawrence, WheD, more than four years ago, I asked you to allow me to dedicate this volume to you, it was as a purely personal token of gratitude for the help I had received from what you have printed, and from what you have written to me privately. Since then much has happened: the debt is greater, and no longer purely personal. We in this country can never forget what we owe to your people. And the self-denial which led them voluntarily to stint themselves of food, that we in Europe might be fed, is one of many things about which it is not easy to speak. Our heart must indeed have been hardened if we had not considered the miracle of those loaves. But I fear that to refer to that great debt in the dedication to this little book may draw on me the ridicule incurred by the poor man who dedicated his book to the Universe. Nevertheless, as a fellow of that College which has just received from an American donor the greatest benefaction for medical research which has ever been made in this country of ours, I may rejoice that the co-operation between our -nations is being continued in that warfare against ignorance and disease which sojne day will become the only warfare waged among men. -£jt U * ^ - Sceal hring-naca ofer heafu bringan lac ond luf-t9,cen. Ic ])a leode wat ge wis feond ge wiS freond fseste geworhte, seghwses untsele ealde wisan. R. W. C, PREFACE I HAVE to ttank various colleagues who have read proofs of this book, in whole or in part: first and foremost my old teacher, W. P. Ker; also Robert Priebsch, J. H. G. Grattan, Ernest Classen and two old students. Miss E. V. Hitchcock and Mrs Blackman. I have also to thank Prof. W. W. Lawrence of Columbia; and though there are details where we do not agree, I think there is no difference upon any important issues. If in these details I am in the right, this is largely due to the helpful criticism of Prof. Lawrence, which has often led me to reconsider my conclusions, and to re-state them more cautiously, and, I hope, more correctly. If, on the other hand, I am in the wrong, then it is thanks to Prof. Lawrence that I am not still more in the wrong. From Axel Olrik, though my debt to him is heavy, I find myself differing on several questions. I had hoped that what I had to urge on some of these might have convinced him, or, better still, might have drawn from him a reply which would have convinced me. But the death of that great scholar has put an end to many hopes, and deprived many of us of a warm personal friend. It would be impossible to modify now these passages expressing dissent, for the early pages of this book were printed off some years ago. I can only repeat that it is just because of my intense respect for the work of Dr Olrik that, where I cannot agree with his conclusions, I feel bound to go into the matter at length. Names Hke those of Olrik, Bradley, Chadwick and Sievers carry rightly such authority as to make it the duty of those who differ, if only on minor details, to justify that difference if they can. From Dr Bradley especially I have had help in discussing various of these problems : also from Mr Wharton of the British Museum, Prof. ColUn of Christiania, Mr Ritchie Girvan of Glasgow, and Mr Teddy. To Prof. Brogger, the Norwegian state-antiquary, I am indebted for permission to reproduce photographs of the viii Preface Viking ships : to Prof. Finnur Jonsson for permission to quote from his most useful edition of the Hrolfs Saga and the BjarJca Rimur, and, above all, to Mr Sigf lis Blondal, of the Koyal Library of Copenhagen, for his labour in collating with the manuscript the passages quoted from the Grettis Saga. Finally, I have to thank the Syndics of the University Press for undertaking the pubKcation of the book, and the staff for the efficient way in which they have carried out the work, in spite of the long interruption caused by the war. K. W. C. April 6, 1921. CONTENTS PAOS GENEALOGICAL TABLES xii PART I CHAPTER I. THE HISTORICAL ELEMENTS Section I. The Problem 1 Section II. The Geatas — their Kings and their Wars . . 2 Section III. Heorot and the Danish Kings .... 13 Section IV. Leire and Heorot 16 Section V. The Heathobeardan 20 Section VT. HrothuK 26 Section Vn. King Offa 31 CHAPTER II. THE NON-HISTORICAL ELEMENTS Section I. The Grendel Fight 41 Section II. The Scandinavian Parallels — ^Grettir and Orm . . 48 Section III. Bothvar Bjarki 54 Section IV. Parallels from Folklore 62 Section V. Scef and Scyld .68 Section VI. Beow 87 Section VII. The house of Scyld and Danish parallels — Heremod- Lotherus and Beowulf-Frotho .... 89 ^- CHAPTER III. THEORIES AS TO THE ORIGIN, DATE AND STRUCTURE OF THE POEM r^ Section I. Is Beowulf translated from a Scandinavian ^ ., / original? 98 (jv^ Section II. The dialect, syntax and metre of Beowulf as ^ evidence of its literary history .... 104 Section IIL Theories as to the structure of Beowulf . , . 112 Section IV. Are the Christian elements incompatible with the rest of the poem? ....... 121 Contents PART II DOCUMENTS ILLUSTKATING THE STOEIES IN BEOWULF, AND THE OFFA-BAGA PAGE A. The early Kings of the Danes, according to Saxo Grammaticus: Dan, Humblus, Lotherus and Scioldus; Frotho's dragon fight; Haldanus, Roe and Helgo; Roluo (Rolf Kraki) and Biarco (Bjarki); the death of Rolf 129 B. Extract from Hrdlfs Saga Kraka, with translation (cap. 23) . 138 C. Extracts from Grettis Saga, with translation: (a) Glam episode (caps. 32-35); (6) Sandhaugar episode (caps. 64-66) . .146 D. Extracts from Bjarka Rimur, with translation . . .182 E. Extract from pdttr Orms Stordlfssonar, with translation . . 186 E. A Danish Dragon-slaying of the Beowulf- type, with translation 192 G. The Old EngUsh Genealogies. I. The Mercian Genealogy. II. The stages above Woden: Woden to Geat and Woden to Sceaf . 195 H. Extract from the Chronicle Roll 201 I. Extract from the Little Chronicle of the Kings of Leire . . 204 K. The Story of Offa in Saxo Grammaticus .... 206 L. Erom Skiold to Offa in Sweyn Aageson . . . .211 M. Note on the Danish Chronicles . . . . . .215 N. The Life of Offa 7, with extracts from the Life of Offa 11. Edited from two Mss in the Cottonian Collection . . . .217 O. Extract from Widsith, 11. 18, 24-49 243 Section I. Section II. Section III. Section IV. Section V. Section VI. Section VII. Section VIH. Section IX. PART III *^THE FIGHT AT FINNSBUKG The Finnshurg Fragment ..... 245 The Episode in Beowulf 248 MoUer's Theory 254 Bugge's Theory 257 Some Difficulties in Bugge's Theory . . . 260 Recent Elucidations. Prof. Ayres' Comments . 266 Problems stiU outstanding . . : . . 268 TheWeightof Proof: the Eotens. . . .272 Ethics of the Blood Feud 276 / Contents xi PAGE Section X. An Attempt at Reconstruction .... 283 Section XI. Gefwulf, Prince of the Jutes. .... 286 Section XII. Conclusion ....... 287 Note. Frisia in the heroic age .... 288 PART IV APPENDIX A. A Postscript on Mythology in Beowvlf. (1) Beowulf the Scylding and Beowulf son of Ecgtheow. (2) Beow . . . .291 B. Grendel . . 304 C. The Stages above Woden in the West-Saxon Genealogy . .311 / D. Grammatical and literary evidence for the 4ate of Beowvlf. The ^ relation of Beowulf to the Classical Epic ^-""^ . . . 322 E. The "Jute- question" reopened 333 F. Beowulf and the Archaeologists . . . . . . 345 ( G. Leire before Rolf Kraki 365 H. Bee-wolf and Bear's son 365 I. The date of the death of Hygelac ...... 381 BIBLIOGEAPHY OF BEOWULF AND FINNSBURG 383 INDEX 414 PLATES PLATE L Drida (Thryth) reproached for her Evil Deeds frontispiece II. Leire in the Seventeenth Century . . .to face 16 III. Ofifa, miraculously restored, vindicates his Right. At the side, Offa is represented in Prayer . „ „ 34 IV. Drida (Thryth) arrives in the land of King Offa, "in nauicula armamentis carente" . . • „ „ 36 V. Riganus (or Aliel) comes before King Warmundus to claim that he should be made King in place of the incompetent Offa . . . . . „ „ 218 VI. Drida (Thryth) entraps Albertus (^Ethelberht) of East Anglia, and causes him to be slain . . „ „ 242 VII. The Gokstad Ship. The Oseberg Ship . . „ „ 362 Vni. Southern Scandinavia in the Sixth Century. English Boar-Helmet and Ring-Swords . . » „ At end i Xll GENEALOGICAL TABLES The names of the corresponding characters in Scandinavian legend are added in italics; first the Icelandic forms, then the Latinized names as recorded by Saxo Grammaticus. (1) THE DANISH ROYAL FAMILY Scyld Scefing [SkjoldVy Skyoldi^s] Beowulf [not the hero of the poem] Healfdene [Halfdan, HaJdanus] s; Heorogar [no Scandinavian parallel] Heoroweard HretSric [Hjgrvard'r, Hiar- [Hraerekr, warns: bvt not Bjiricus : not recognized as he- recognized longing to this as a son of family] Hroarr] HroSgar {Hroarr^, Roe]y mar. Wealh}?eow Halga [Hdgi, Hdgo] a daughter iSigny] HrotSmund Freawaru mar. Ingeld HroSulf [Hrdlfr Kraki, Roliko] (2) THE GEAT ROYAL FAMILY HretSel W^gmund Herebeald HseScyn Hygelac, mar. Hygd a daughter, mar. Ecgjjcow Weohstan Beowulf Wiglaf a daughter, mxir. Eofor Heardred (3) THE SWEDISH ROYAL FAMILY Ongenheow Onela [An, not recognized as belonging to this family] Ohthere [6ttarr] Eanmund Eadgils [A&ils^, Athislus] 1 The exact equivalent to Hroffgar is found in O.N., in theioTmHroffgeirr. The by-form Hroarr, which is used of the famous Danish king, is due to a number of rather irregular changes, which can however be paralleled. The Primitive Germanic form of the name would have been *Hrdpugaisaz : for the loss of the g at the beginning of the second element we may compare A&ils with Eadgils (Noreen, Altisldndische Grammatik, 1903, § 223); for the loss of ff before w com- pare Hrdlfr with Hroffwulf (Noreen, § 222); for the absence of R- umlaut in the second syllable, combined with loss of the g, compare O.N, nafarr with O.E. nafugdr (Noreen, § 69). 2 Corresponding to O.N. A&ils we should expect O.E. Mffgils, jE&gisl. The form Eadgils may be due to confusion with the famous Eadgils, king of the Myrgingas, who is mentioned in Widsith. The name comes only once in Beowulf (1. 2392) and may owe its form there to a corruption of the scribe. That the O.E. form is corrupt seems more likely than that the O.N. Ad'ils, so well known and so frequently recorded, is a corruption of AuSgisl. PART I CHAPTER I THE HISTORICAL ELEMENTS Section I. The Problem. The unique ms of Beowulf may be, and if possible should be, seen by the student in the British Museum. It is a good specimen of the elegant script of Anglo-Saxon times : " a book got up with some care," as if intended for the library of a nobleman or of a monastery. Yet this ms is removed from the date when the poem was composed and from the events which it narrates (so far as these events are historic at all) by periods of time approximately equal to those which separate us frojii the time when Shakespeare's Henry V was written, and when the battle of Agincourt was fought. To try to penetrate the darkness of the five centuries which lie behind the extant ms by fitting together such fragments of illustrative information as can be obtained, and by using the imagination to bridge the gaps, has been the business of three generations of scholars distributed among the ten nations of Germanic speech. A whole hbrary has been written around our poem, and the result is that this book cannot be as simple as either writer or reader might have wished. The story which the MS tells us may be summarized thus: Beowulf, a prince of the Geatas, voyages to Heorot, the hall of Hrothgar, king of the Danes; there he destroys a monster Grendel, who for twelve years has haunted the hall by night and slain all he found therein. When Grendel's mother in revenge makes an attack on the hall, Beowulf seeks her out and kills her also in her home beneath the waters. He then C. B. 1 2 Tue Problem [CH. i returns to his land with honour and is rewarded by his king Hygelac. Ultimately he himself becomes king of the Geatas, and fifty years later slays a dragon and is slain by it. The poem closes with an account of the funeral rites. Fantastic as these stories are, they are depicted against a background of what appears to be fact. Incidentally, and in a number of digressions, we receive much information about the Geatas, Swedes and Danes : all which information has an appearance of historic accuracy, and in some cases can be proved, from external evidence, to be historically accurate. Section II. The Geatas — their Kings and their Wars. Beowulf's people have been, identified with many tribes : but there is strong evidence that the Geatas are the Gotar (O.N. Gautar), the inhabitants of what is now a portion of Southern Sweden, immediately to the south of the great lakes Wener and Wetter. The names Geatas and Gautar correspond exactly^, according to the rules of O.E. and O.N. phonetic development, and all we can ascertain of the Geatas and of the Gautar harmonizes well with the identification^. We know of one occasion only when the Geatas came into violent contact with the world outside Scandinavia. Putting together the accounts which we receive from Gregory of Tours and from two other (anonymous) writers, we learn that a piratical raid was made upon the country of the Atuarii (the O.E. netware) who dwelt between the lower Rhine and what is now the Zuyder Zee, by a king whose name is spelt in a variety of ways, all of which readily admit of identification with that of the Hygelac of our poem^. From the land of the Atuarii this king carried much spoil to his ships; but, remaining on shore, he was overwhelmed and slain by the army which the ^ It must be remembered that the sound changes of the Germanic dialects have been worked out so minutely that it is nearly always possible to decide quite definitely whether two names do or do not exactly correspond. Only occasionally is dispute possible [e.g. whether Hrothgar is or is not phonetically the exact equivalent of Hroarr]. 2 See below, pp. 8-10. * Chochilaicus, which appears to be the correct form, corresponds to Hygelac ' (in the primitive form Hugilaikaz) as Chlodovechus to Hludovicus. SECT.ii] Tlie Geatas — their Kings and their Wars 3 Frankish king Theodoric had sent under liis son to the rescue of these outlying provinces; the plunderers' fleet was routed and the booty restored to the country. The bones of this gigantic king of the "Getae" [presumably = Geatas] were long preserved, it was said, on an island near the mouth of the Rhine; Such is the story of the raid, so far as we can reconstruct it from monkish Latin sources. The precise date is not given, but it must have been between a.d. 512 and 520. Now this disastrous raid of Hygelac is referred to constantly in Beowulf: and the mention there of Hetware, Franks and the Merovingian king as the foes confirms an identification which would be satisfactory even without these additional data^. Our authorities are: (1) Gregory of Tours (d. §94): His ita gestis, Dani cum rege suo nomine Chlochilaico evectu nuvale per mare Gallias appetuni. Egressique ad' terras, pagum unum de regno Theudorici devastant atque captivant, oneratisque navibiis tam de captivis quam de reliquis spoliis, reverti ad patriam cupiunt ; sed rex eorum in litus resedebat donee naves alto mare conpraehenderent, ipse deinceps secuturus. Quod cum Theudorico nuntiatum fuisset, quod scilicet regio ejus fuerit ab extraneis devastata, Theudobertum, filium suum, in illis partibus cum valido exercitu et magno armorum apparatu direxit. Qui, interfecto rege, hostibu^ navali proelio superatis opprimit, omnemque rapinam terrae restituit. The name of the vanquished king is spelt in a variety of ways: Chlochilaichum, Chrochilaicho, Chlodilaichum, Hrodolaicum. See Gfegorii episcopi Turonensis Historia Francorum, p. 110, in Monumenta Oermaniae Historica {Scriptores rerum merovingicarum, I). (2) The Liber Historiae Francorum (commonly called the Gesta Francorum) : In illo tempore Dani cum rege suo nomine Chochilaico cum navale hoste per alto mare Gallias appetent, Theuderico paygo [i.e. pagum} Atioarios vel alios devastantes atque captivantes plenas naves de captivis alto mare intr antes rex eorum ad litus maris resedens. Quod cum Theuderico nuntiatum fuisset, Theudobertum filium suum cum magno exercitu in illis partibus dirigens. Qui consequens eos, pugnavit cum eis caede magna atque prostravit, regem eorum interficit, preda tullit, et in terra sua restituit. The Liber Historiae Francorum was written in 727, but although so much later than Gregory, it preserves features which are wanting ^ in the earlier historian, such as the mention of the Hetware (Attoarii). ■ Note too that the name of the invading king is given- in a form which 1 The passaj^es in JSeot^wZ/ referring to this expedition are: 1202 etc\ Frisians (adjoining the Hetware) and Franks mentioned as the oes. 2354 etc. Hetware mentioned. 2501 etc. Hugas (= Franks) and the Frisian king mentioned. 2914 etc. Franks, Frisians, Hugas, Hetware and "the Merovingian" mentioned. •^v 1—2 4 The Geatas— [ch. i approximates more closely to Hygelac than that of any of the mss of Gregory: variants are Chrochilaico, Chohilaico, Chochilago, etc. See Monumenta Germaniae Historica {Scriptores rerum merovingi- caruniy II, 274). (3) An anonymous work On monsters and strange beasts, appended to two MSS of Phaedrus. Et sunt {monstral mirae magnitudinis : ut rex Huiglaucus qui imperavit Oetis et a Francis occisus est. Quern equus a duodecimo anno portare non potuit. Cujus ossa in Reni fiuminis insula, uhi in Oceanum prorumpit, reservata sunt et de longinquo venientibus pro miraculo ostenduntur. This treatise was first printed (from a MS of the tenth century, in private possession) by J. Berger de Xivrey [Traditions teratologiques, Paris, 1836, p. 12). It was again published from a second MS at Wolfenbiittel by Haupt (see his Opuscula ii, 223, 1876). This MS is in some respects less accurate, reading Huncglacus for Huiglaucus,. and gentes for Oetis. The treatise is assigned by Berger de Xivrey to the sixth century, on grounds which are hardly conclusive (p. xxxiv). Haupt would date it not later than the eighth century (n, 220). The importance of this reference lies in its describing Hygelac as king of the Getae, and in its fixing the spot where his bones were preserved as near the mouth of the Rhine ^. (^ But if Beowulf is supported in this matter by what is almost contemporary evidence (for Gregory of Tours was born only some twenty years after the raid he narrates) we shall probably be right in arguing that the other stories from the history of the Geatas, their Danish friends, and their Swedish foes, told with what seems to be such historic sincerity in the different digressions of our poem, are equally based on fact. True, we have no evidence outside Beowulf for Hygelac's father, king Hrethel, nor for Hygelac's elder brothers, Herebeald and Haethcyn; and very Kttle for Hsethcyn's deadly, foe, the Swedish king Ongentheow^. And in the last case, at any rate, such evidence might ^ The identification of Chochilaicus with Hygelac is the most important discovery ever made in the study of Beoumlf, and the foimdation of our belief in the historic character of its episodes. It is sometimes attributed to Grundt- vig, sometimes to Outzen. It was first vaguely suggested by Grundtvig (Nyeste Skilderie af Kjtj^benhavn, 1815, col. 1030) : the importance of the identification was worked out by him fully, two years later {Danne-Virke, n, 285). In the meantime the passage from Gregory had been quoted by Outzen in his review of Thorkelin's Beovmlf (Kieler Blatter, m, 312). Outzen's reference was ob- viously made independently, but he failed to detect the real bearing of thv> passage upon Beoumlf. Credit for the find accordingly belongs solely to Grundtvig. 2 Ongentheow is mentioned in Widsith (1. 31) as a famous king of the Swedes. Many of the kings mentioned in the same list can be proved to be historical, and the reference in Widsith therefore supports Ongentheow's |iistoric character, but is far, in itself, from proving it. I SECT, ii] their Kings and their Wars 6 fairly have been expected. For there are extant a very early Norse poem, the Ynglinga tal, and a much later prose account, the Ynglinga saga, enumerating the kings of Sweden The Ynglinga tal traces back these kings of Sweden for some thirty reigns. Therefore, though it was not composed till some four centuries after the date to which we must assign Ongentheow, it should deal with events even earlier than the reign of that king: for, unless the rate of mortality among early Swedish kings was abnormally high, thirty reigns should occupy a period of more than 400 years. Nothing is, however, told us in the Ynglinga tal concerning the deeds of any king Angantyr — ^^ which is the name we might expect to correspond to Ongen- theow^. But on the other hand, the son and grandson of Ongentheow, as recorded in Beowulf, do meet us both in the Ynglinga tal and in the Ynglinga saga. According to Beowulf, Ongentheow had two sons, Onela and . . Ohthere: Onela became king of Sweden and is spoken of in terms of highest praise^. Yet to judge from the account given in Beowulf, the Geatas had little reason to love him. He had followed up the defeat of Hygelac by deaUng their nation a \ second deadly blow. For Onela's nephews, Eadgils and Ean- mund (the sons of Ohthere), had rebelled against him, and had / taken refuge at the court of the Geatas, where Heardred, son of V Hygelac, was now reigning, supported by Beowulf. Thither Onela pursued them, and slew the young king Heardred. ' Eanmund also was slain ^, then or later, but Eadgils escaped. '/ It is not clear from the poem what part Beowulf is supposed to have taken in this struggle, or why he failed to ward off disaster from his lord and his country. It is not even made clear whether or no he had to make formal submission to the hated Swede: but we are told that when Onela withdrew he succeeded to the vacant throne. In later days he took his revenge upon Onela. "He became a friend to Eadgils invhis distress; he supported the son of Ohthere across the broad water with men, with warriors and arms: he wreaked his ^ Strictly Anganpdr. See Heusler, Heldennamen in mehrfacher LautgeataU, Z.f.d.A. Lii, 101. 2 U. 2382-4. » U. 2612-9. 6 The Geatas— [CH. i vengeance in a chill journey fraught with woe : he deprived the king [Onela] of his life." This story bears in its general outline every impression of true history : the struggle for the throne between the nephew and the uncle, the support given to the unsuccessful candidate by a rival state, these are events which recur frequently in the wild history of the Germanic tribes during the dark ages, following inevitably from the looseness of the law of succession to the throne. Now the Ynglinga tal contains allusions to these events, and the Ynglinga saga a brief account of them, though dim and distorted^. We are told how Athils (= Eadgils) king of Sweden, son of Ottar (= Ohthere), made war upon Ali (= Onela). By the time the Ynglinga tal was written it had been forgotten that Ali was Athils' uncle, and that the war was a civil war. But the issue, as reported in the Ynglinga tal and Ynglinga saga, is the same as in Beowulf: "King Athils had great quarrels with the king called Ali of Upp- A land; he was from Norway. They had a battle on the ice of Lake ^ (/ Wener; there King Ali fell, and Athils had the victory. Concerning y this battle there is much said in the SJcjoldunga saga.'' From the Ynglinga saga we learn more concerning King Athils : not always to his credit. He was, as the Swedes had been from of old, a great horse-breeder. Authorities differed as to whether horses or drink were the death of him 2. Ac- cording to one account he brought on his end by celebrating, with immoderate drinking, the death of his enemy Rolf (the Hrothulf of Beowulf). According to another: "King Athils was at a sacrifice of the goddesses, and rode his horse through the hall of the goddesses: the horse tripped under him and fell and threw the king ; and his head smote a stone so that the skull broke and the brains lay on the stones, and that was his death. He died at Uppsala, and there was laid in mound, and the Swedes called him a mighty king." 1 Whether it be accuracy or accident, these names Ottar and Athils come just at that place in the list of the Ynglinga tal which, when we reckon back the generations, we find to correspond to the beginning of the sixth century. And this is the date when we know from Beoumlf that they should have been reigning. 2 But the accounts are quite inconsistent. Saxo (ed. Holder, pp. 66-7) implies a version in which Athils was deposed, if not slain, by Bothvar Bjarki, which is quite at variance with other information given by Saxo. SECT, ii] their Kings and their Wars 7 There can, then, hardly be a doubt that there actually was such a king as Eadgils : and some of the charred bones which still lie within the gigantic "King's mounds" at Old Uppsala may well be his^. And, though they are not quite so well ^ authenticated, there can also be little doubt as to the historici t existence of Onela, Ohthere, and even of Ongentheow. The. Swedish Kings. The account in the Ynglinga saga of the fight between Onela and Eadgils is as follows: AiHls konungr dtti deilur miklar viS^ konung JjanUy tr Ah hit inn uvplenzki : hann var 6r Noregi. peir dttu orrostu a Vaenis isi ; par fell An konungr en Acfils hafSi sigr ; fro, pessarri orrostu er langt sagt i Skjgldunga sqqu. {Ynglinga saga in Heimskringla, ed. J6nsson, Kj0benhavn, 1893, i, 56.) The Skjoldunga saga here mentioned is an account of the kings of Denmark. It is preserved only in a Latin abstract. Post haec ortis inter Adilsum ilium Sveciae regent et Alonem Op- plandorum regem in Norvegia, inimicitiis, praelium utrinque indicitur: loco pugnae statuto in stagno Waener, glade jam obducto. Ad illud igitur se virihus inferiorem agnoscens Eolphonis privigyii sui opem implorat, hoc proposito praemio, ut ipse Rolpho tres praeciosissimas res quascunque optaret ex universo regno Sveciae praemii loco auferret : duodecim autem pugilum ipsius quilibet 3 libras auri puri, quilibet reliquorum bellatorum tres marcas argenti defecati. Rolpho domi ipse reses pugilos suos duodecim Adilso in subsidium mittit, quorum etiam opera is alioqui vincendus, victoriam obtinuit. Illi sibi et regi proposiium praemium exposcunt, negat Adilsus, Rolphoni absenti ullum deberi praemium, quare et Dani pugiles sibi oblatum respuebant, cum regem suum eo frustrari intelligerent, reversique rem^ ut gesta est, exponunt. (See Skjoldungasaga i Arngrim Jonssons Udtog, udgiven af Axel Olrik, Kj0benbavn, 1894, p. 34 [116].) There is also a reference to thi9 battle on the ice in the Kdlfsvisa, a mnemonic list of famous heroes and their horses, it is noteworthy that in this list mention is made of Vestein, wlio is perhaps the Wihstan of our poem, and of Biar, who has been thought (very doubtfully) to correspond to the O.E. Beaw. Dagr reip Drgsle en Dvalenn Mdpne... Ale Hrafne es til iss ripo, enn annarr austr und Apilse grdr hvarfape geire undapr. Bjgrn reip Blakke en Biarr Kerte, Atle Glaume en Apils Slungne.., Lieder der Edda, ed. Symons and Gering, i, 221-2. "Ale was on Hrafn when they rode to the ice: but another horse, a grey one, with Athils on his back, fell eastward, wounded by the spear." This, as Olrik points out, appears to refer to a version of the story in which Athils had his fall from his horse, not at a ceremony at Uppsala, but after the battle with Ali. {HeUedigtning,!, 203-4.) ^ Unless they are among the fragments carried off to the Stockholm Museum. Little of interest was found in these moiuids when they were opened : everything had been too thoroughly burnt. 8 The Geatas — [CH. i For various theories as to the early history of the Swedish royal house, as recorded in Beowulf, see Weyhe, Konig Ongentheows Fall, in Engl. Stvd. xxxix, 14-39 :Schuck, Studier i Ynglingatal (1905-7): Stjerna, Vendel och Vendelkrdka, in A.f.n.F. xxi, 71, etc. The Geatas. The identification of Geatas and Gotar has been accepted by the great majority of scholars, although Kemble wished to locate the Geatas in Schleswig, Grundtvig in Gotland, and Haigh in England. Leo was the first to suggest the Jutes: but the "Jute-hypothesis" owes its currency to the arguments of Fahlbeck (Beovulfsgvddet sasom kdlla Jor nordisk fornhistoria in the Antigvarisk Tidskrift for Sverige, vm, 2, 1 ). Fahlbeck's very inconclusive reasons were contested at the time by Sarrazin (23 etc.) and ten Brink (194 etc.) and the argu- ments against them have lately been marshalled by H. Schiick {Folknamnet Geatas i den fornengelska dikten Beowulf, Upsala, 1907). It is indeed difficult to understand how Fahlbeck's theory came to receive the support it has had from several scholars (e.g. Bugge, P.B.B. XII, I etc. ; Weyhe, En^l. Stud, xxxix, 38 etc. ; Gering). For his con- clusions do not arise naturally from the O.E. data : his whole argument is a piece of learned pleading, undertaken to support his rather revo- lutionary speculations as to early Swedish history. These speculations would have been rendered less probable had the natural interpretation of Geatas as Gotar been accepted. The Jute-hypothesis has recently been revived, with the greatest skill and learning, by Gudmund Schiitte [Journal of English and Germanic Philology, xi, 574 etc.). /But here again I cannot help suspecting that the wish is father to the t/ thought, and that the fact that that eminent scholar is a Dane living ^ in Jutland, Jhas something to do with his attempt to locate the Geatas .^y^^- there. tNoamo^i^* of learnin^will eradicatepatriotismj / ^ The foIlowi&^'^nsidCTa^ions'"TTecd^^ ' (1) Geatas etymologically corresponds exactly with O.N. Gautar, the modern Gotar. The O.E. word corresponding to Jutes (the lutae of Bede) should be, not Geatas, but in the Anglian dialect Eote, lote, in the West Saxon lete, Yte. Now it is true that in one passage in the O.E. translation of Bede (i, 15) the word "lutarum" is rendered Geata: but in the other (IV, 16) "lutorum " is rendered Eota, Ytena. And this latter rendering is supported (a) by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (lotuin, lutna) and (6) by the fact that the current O.E. word for Jutes was Yte, Ytan, which survived till after the Norman conquest. For the name Ytena land was used for that portion of Hampshire which had been settled by the Jutes: William Rufus was slain, according to Florence of Worcester, in Ytene (which Florence explains as prouincia Jutarum). From the purely etymological point of view the Gotar-hypothesis, then, is unimpeachable: but the Jute-hypothesis'ls"urisatlSfactory, since it is based upon one passage in the O.E. Bede, where Jutarum is incorrectly rendered Geata, whilst it is invalidated by the other passage in the O.E. Bede, by the Chronicle and by Florence of Worcester, where Jutorum is correctly translated by Ytena, or its AngHan or Kentish equivalent Eota, lotna. J (2) It is obvious that the Geatas of Beoumlf were a strong and ) independent power — a match for the Swedes. Now we learn from ' Procopius that in the sixth century the Gotar were an independent SECT, ii] tlieir Kings and their Wars 9 and numerous nation. But we have no equal evidence for any similar preponderant Jutish power in the sixth century. The lutae are indeed a rather puzzling tribe, and scholars have not even been able to agree where they dwelt. The Gotar on the other hand are located among the great nations of Scandinavia both by Ptolemy {Geog. ti, 11, 16) in the secogd century and by Procogius '{Bell, upti, n, .15) in the §i^th. When we ^fiexiT^t clear ii3ormatioii (through the Christian missionaries) both Gotar and Swedes have been united under one king. But the Gotar retained their separate laws, traditions, and voice in the selection of the king, and they were constantly asserting themselves during the Middle Ages. The title of the king of Sweden, rex Sveorum Gothor- umque, commemorates the old distinction. From the historical point of view, then, the Gotar comply with what we are told in Beowulf of the power of the Geatas much better i;han do the Jutes. (3) Advocates of the Jute-hypothesis have claimed much support from the geographical argument that the Swedes and Geatas fight ofer sie (e.g. when BeowuK and Eadgils attack Onela, 2394). But the term see is just as appropriate to the great lakes Wener and Wetter, which separated the Swedes from the Gotar, as it is to the Cattegatt. And we have the evidence of Scandinavian sources that the battle between Eadgils and Onela actually did take place on the ice of lake Wener (see above, p. 6). Moreover the absence of any mention of ships in the fighting narrated in 11. 2922-2945 would be remarkable if the contending nations were Jutes and Swedes, but suits Gotar xind Swedes admirably: since they could attack each other by land as well as by water. (4) There is reason to think that the old land of the Gotar in- cluded a great deal of what is now the south-west coast of Sweden^ Hygelac's capital was probably not far from the modern Goteborg. The descriptions in Beowulf would suit the cliffs of southern Sweden well, but they are quite inapplicable to the sandy dunes of Jutland^ u - Vj Little weight can, however, be attached to this last argument, as ,s**^< the cliffs of the land of the Geatas are in any case probably drawn M from the poet's imagination. (5) If we accept the identification Beowulf = Bjarki (see below, pp. 60-1) a further argument for the equation of Geatas and Gotar will be found in the fact that Bjarki travels to Denmark from Gautland just as Beowulf from the land of the Geatas; Bjarki is the brother of the king of the Gautar, Beowulf the nephew of the king of the Geatas. (6) No argument as to -the meaning of Geatas can be drawn from ^ the fact that Gregory calls Chlochilaicus (Hygelac) a Dane. For it is clear from Beowulf that, whatever else they may have been, the Geatas were not Danes. Either, then, Gregory must be misinformed, or he must be using the word Dane vaguely, to cover any kind of Scandinavian pirate. (7) Probably what has weighed most heavily (often perhaps not consciously) in gaining converts to the "Jute-hypothesis" has been the conviction that "in ancient times each nation celebrated in song its own heroes alone." Hence one set of scholars, accepting the identification of the Geatas with the Scandinavian Gotar, have argued that Beowulf is therefore simply a translation from a Scandinavian Ootish original. Others, accepting Beowulf as an English poem, have ^ See Schiick, Folknamnet Geatas, 22 etc. 10 The Geatas — [CH. i argued that the Geatas who are celebrated in it must therefore be one of the tribes that settled in England, and have therefore favoured the "Jute theory." But the a priori assumption that each Germanic tribe celebrated in song its own national heroes only is demonstrably incorrect^. But in none of the accounts of the warfare of these Scandi- navian kings, whether written in Norse or monkish Latin, is there mention of any name corresponding to that of Beowulf, as king of the Geatas. Whether he is as historic as the other kings with whom in our poem he is brought into contact, we cannot say. It has been generally held that the Beowulf of our poem is compounded out of two elements : that an historic Beowulf, king of the Geatas, has been combined with a mythological figure Beowa^, a god of the ancient Angles : that the historical achievements against Frisians and Swedes belong to the king, the mythological adventures with giants and dragons to the god. But there is no conclusive evidence for either of these presumed component parts of our hero. To the god Beowa we shall have to return later: here it is enough to note that — the current assumption that there was a king Beowulf of the i Geatas lacks confirmation from Scandinavian sources. And one piece of evidence there is, which tends to show that Beowulf is not an historic king at all, but that his adventures have been violently inserted amid the historic names of the kings of the Geatas. Members of the families in Beowulf which we have reason to think historic bear names which alliterate the one with the other. The inference seems to be that it was customary, when a Scandinavian prince was named in the Sixth Century, to give him a name which had an initial letter similar to that of his father : care was thus taken that metrical difficulties should not prevent the names of father and son being linked together in song^. In the case of Beowulf himself, J^y however, this rule breaks down. Beowulf seems an intruder 1 See below, p. 98 and Appendix (E); The "Jute-Question." 2 See below, pp. 45 etc. 3 Olnk {Heltedigtnirg, J, 22 etc.). The Danish house — Healfdene, Heorogar,. Hrothgar, Halga, Heoroweard, Hrethric, Hrothmund, Hrothulf : the Swedish — Ongentheow, Onela, Ohthere, Eanmund, Eadgils: the Geatic — Hrethel, Here- beald, Hsetiicjm, Hygelac, Heardred. The same principle is strongly marked in the Old English pedigrees. SECT, ii] their Kings and their Wars 11 into the house of Hrethel. It may be answered that since he was only the offspring of a daughter of that house, and since that daughter had three brothers, there would have been no prospect of his becoming king, when he was named. But neither does his name fit in with that of the other great house with which he is supposed to be connected. Wiglaf, son of V Wihstan of the Wsegmundingas, was named according to the famihar rules : but Beowulf, son of Ecgtheow, seems an intruder in that family as well. This failure to fall in with the alliterative scheme, and the absence of confirmation from external evidence, are, of course, not in themselves enough to prove that the reign of Beowulf over the Geatas is a poetic figment. And indeed our poem may quite possibly be true to historic fact in representing him as the last of the great kings of the Geatas; after whose death •his people have nothing but national disaster to expect^. It would be strange that this last and most mighty and mag- nanimous of the kings of the Geatas should have been forgotten in Scandinavian lands : that outside Beowulf nothing should be known of his reign. But when we consider how Httle, outside Beowulf, we know of the Geatic kingdom at all, we cannot pronounce such oblivion impossible. What tells much more against Beowulf as a historic Geatic king is that there is always apt to be something extravagant and unreal about what the poem tells us of his deeds, con- trasting with the sober and- historic way in which other kings, like Hrothgar or Hygelac or Eadgils, are referred to. True, we must not disqualify Beowulf forthwith because he slew a dragon 2. Several unimpeachably historical persons have done this: so sober an authority as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle assures us that fiery dragons were flying in Northumbria as late as a.d. 7933. 1 11. 3018 etc. 2 As is done, e.g., by Schiick {Studier i Beoumlf-sagan, 27). ^ "Dragon fights are more frequent, not less frequent, the nearer we come to historic times" : Olrik, Heltedigtning, i, 313, The dragpn survived much later in Europe than has been generally recognized. He was flying from Mount. Pilatus in 1649. (See J. J, Scheuchzer, Itinera per Helvetiae Alpinas regiones, 1723, m, p. 385.) The same authority quotes accounts of dragons authenti- cated by priests, his own contemporaries, and supplies many bloodcurdling engravings of the same. 12 j The Geatas— [CH. i But (and this is the serious difficulty) even when Beowulf is depicted in quite historic circumstances, there is still some- thing unsubstantial about his actions. When, in the midst of the strictly historical account of Hygelac's overthrow, we are told that Beowulf swam home bearing thirty suits of armour, this is as fantastic as the account of his swimming home from Orendel's lair with Grendel's head and the magic swordhilt. We may well doubt whether there is any more kernel of historic fact in the one feat than in the other ^. Again, we are told how Beowulf defended the young prince Heardred, Hygelac's son. Where was he, then, when Heardred was defeated and slain? To protect and if necessary avenge his lord upon the battle- field was the essential duty of the Germanic retainer. Yet Beowulf has no part to play in the episode of the death of Heardred. He is simply ignored till it is over. True, we are told that in later days he did take vengeance, by sup- porting the claims of Eadgils, the pretender, against Onela, the slayer of Heardred. But here again diffiqpjties meet us: for the Scandinavian authorities, whilst they agree that Eadgils overthrew Onela by the use of foreign auxiUaries, represent these auxiliaries as Danish retainers, dispatched by the Danish king Hrothulf . The chief of these Danish retainers is Bothvar Bjarki, who, as we shall see later, has been thought to stand in some relation to Beowulf. But Bothvar is never regarded as king of the Geatas : and the fact remains that Beowulf is at variance with our other authorities in representing Eadgils as having been placed on the throne by a Geatic rather than by a Danish force. Yet this Geatic expedition against Onela is, ^ with the exception of the dragon episode, the only event which our poem has to narrate concerning Beowulf's long reign of fifty years. And in other respects the reign is shadowy. Beowulf, we are told, came to the throne at a time of utter national distress; he had a long and prosperous reign, and became so powerful that he was able to dethrone the mighty^ V Swedish king Onela, and place in his stead the miserable fugitive^ Eadgils. Yet, after this half century of success, the ^ Cf. on this point Klaeber in Anglia, xxxvi (1912) p. 190. 2 1. 2382. 3 1. 2393. SECT, ii] their Kings and their Wars fl^y kingdom is depicted upon Beowulf's death as being in the same tottering condition in which it stood at the time when he is represented as having come to the throne, after the fall of Heardred. The destruction one after the other of the descendants of Hrethel sounds historic : at any rate it possesses verisimihtude. But the picture of the chfldless Beowulf, dying, after a glorious reign, in extreme old age, having apparently made no previous arrangements for the succession, so that Wiglaf, a youth hitherto quite untried in war, steps at once into the place of command on account of his valour in slaying the dragon — thi& is a picture which lacks all historic probability. I cannot avoid a suspicion that the fifty years' reign of Beowulf over the Geatas may quite conceivably be a poetic fiction^; that the downfall of the Geatic kingdom and its absorption in Sweden were very possibly brought about by the destruction of Hygelac and all his warriors at the mouth of >- the Rhine. Such an event would have given the Swedes their op- portunity for vengeance : they may have swooped down, de- stroyed Heardred, and utterly crushed the independent kingdom of the Geatas before the younger generation had time to grow up into fighting men. To the fabulous achievements of Beowulf, his fight with Grendel, Grendel's dam, and the dragon, it will be necessary to return later. As to his other feats, all we can say is that the common assumption that they rest upon an historic founda- tion does not seem to be capable of proof. But that they have \i an historic background is indisputable. Section III. Heorot and the Danish Kings. a Of the Danish kings mentioned in Beowulf, we have first^\ Scyld Scefing, the foundling, an ancient and probably a mythi- cal figure, then Beowulf, son of Scyld, who seems an intruder among the Danish kings, since the Danish records know nothing ^ Of course, even if BeowuK's reign over the Geafas is not historic, this does not exclude the possibility of his having some historic foundation. 14 Heorot and the Danish Kings [CH. i of him, and since his name does not aUiterate with those of either his reputed father or his reputed son. Then comes the \/ "high" Healfdene, to whom four children were born : Heorogar, Hrothgar, Halga "the good," and a daughter who was wedded to the Swedish king. Since Hrothgar is represented as an elder contemporary of Hygelac, we must date^ Healfdene and his sons, y should they be historic characters, between a.d. 430 and 520. Now it is noteworthy that just after a.d. 500 the Danes first become widely known, and the name "Danes" first meets us in Latin and Greek authors. And this cannot be explained on the ground that the North has become more famihar to dwellers in the classical lands: on the contrary far less is known concerning the geography of the North Sea and the Baltic than had been the case four or five centuries before. Tacitus and Ptolemy knew of many tribes inhabiting what is now Denmark, but not of the Danes : the writers in Ravenna and Constantinople in the sixth century, though much less well informed on the geography of the North, know of the v/ Danes as amongst the most powerful nations there. Beowulf is, then, supported by the Latin and Greek records when it depicts these rulers of Denmark as a house of mighty kings, the fame of whose realm spread far and wide. We cannot tell to what extent this realm was made by the driving forth of alien nations from Denmark, to what extent by the coming together (under the common name of Danes) of many tribes which had hitherto been known by other distinct names. The pedigree of the house of Healfdene can be constructed from the references in Beowulf. Healfdene's three sons, y Heorogar, Hrothgar, Halga, are presumably enumerated in order of age, since Hrothgar mentions Heorogar, but not Halga, as his senior 2. Heorogar left a son Heoroweard^, but it is in accordance with Teutonic custom that HTOthgar should have succeeded to the throne if, as we may well suppose, Heoroweard was too young to be trusted with the kingship. 1 Attempts at working out the chronology of Beowulf have been made by Gering (in his translation) and by Heusler (Archiv, cxxiv, 9-14). On the whole the chronology of Beowulf is self -consistent, but there are one or two discrepancies which do not admit of solution. 2 1. 468. 3 1, 2161. SECT. Ill] Heorot and the Danish Kings 15 The younger brother Halga is never mentioned during Beowulf's visit to Heorot, and the presumption is that he is already dead. The Hrothulf who, both in Beowulf and Widsith, is linked • / with King Hrothgar, almost as his equal, is clearly the son of Halga : for he is Hrothgar's nephew^, and yet he is not the son of Heorogar^. The mention of how Hrothgar shielded this Hrothulf when he was a child confirms us in the belief that his father Halga had died early. Yet, though he thus belongs to the youngest branch of the family, Hrothulf is clearly older than Hrethric and Hrothmund, the two sons of Hrothgar, whose youth, in spite of the age of their father, is striking. The seat of honour occupied by Hrothulf^ is contrasted with the undistinguished place of his two young cousins, sitting ^ among the giogoth^. Nevertheless Hrothgar and his wife ex- pect their son, not their nephew, to succeed to the throne^. Very small acquaintance with the history of royal houses in^'^ these lawless Teutonic times is enough to show us that trouble is Hkely to be in store. So much can be made out from the English sources, Beowulf and Widsith. Turning now to the Scandinavian records, we find much confusion as to details, and as to the characters of the heroes: but the relationships are the same as in the Old English poem. Heorogar is, it is true, forgotten; and though a name Hiarwarus is found in Saxo corresponding to that of Heoroweard, the son of Heorogar, in Beowulf, this Hiarwarus is cut off from the family, now that his father is no longer remembered. Accordingly the Halfdan of Danish tradition (Haldanus in Saxo's Latin: = O.E. Healfdene) has only two sons, Hroar 1 Widsith, 1. 46. 2 Beoioulf, 1. 2160. Had Hrothulf been a son of Heorogar he could not have been passed over in silence here. Neither can Hrothulf be Hrothgar's sister's son: for since the sister married the Swedish king, Hrothulf would in that case be a Swedish prince, and presumably would be living at the Swedish court, and bearing a name connected by alliteration with those of the Swedish, not the Danish house. Besides, had he been a Swedish prince, he must have been heard of in connection with the dynastic quarrels of the Swedish house. » 11. 1163-5. « IL 1188-91. 5 IL 1180 etc. 16 Heorot and the Danish Kings [CH. i (Saxo's Koe, corresponding to O.E. Hrothgar) and Helgi (Saxo's Helgo: - O.E. Halga). Helgi is the father of Kolf ^ Kraki (Saxo's Roluo : = O.E. Hrothulf), the type of the noble (^ king, the Arthur of Denmark. And, just as Arthur holds court at Camelot, or Charlemagne is at home ad Ais, a sa capele, so the Scandinavian traditions ^/represent Rolf Kraki as keeping house at Leire {Lethra, Hlei(Sar garter). Accounts of all these kings, and above all of Rolf Kraki, meet us ' in a number of Scandinavian documents, of which three are par- ticularly important: (1) Saxo Grammaticus (the lettered), the earlier books of whose Historia Danica are a storehouse of Scandinavian tradition and poetry, clothed in a difficult and bombastic, but always amusing, Latin. How much later than the English these Scandinavian sources are, we can realize by remembering that when Saxo was putting the finishing touches to his history, King John was ruHng in England. There are also a number of other Danish-Latin histories and genealogies. (2) The Icelandic Saga of Rolf KraJci, a late document belonging to the end of the middle ages, but nevertheless containing valuable matter. (3) The Icelandic Skjoldunga saga, extant only in a Latin summary of the end of the sixteenth century. Section IV. Leire and Heorot. The village of Leire remains to the present day. It stands near the north coast of the island of Seeland, some five miles from Roskilde and three miles from the sea, in a gentle valley, through the midst of which flows a small stream. The village itself consists of a tiny cluster of cottages: the outstanding feature of the place is formed by the huge grave mounds scattered around in all directions. . The tourist, walking amid these cottages and mounds, may feel fairly confident that he is standing on the site of Heorot. There are two distinct stages in this identification : it must be proved (a) that the modern Leire occupies the site of the Leire (Lethra) where Rolf Kraki ruled, and (6) that the Leire of Rolf Kraki was built on the site of Heorot. {a) That the modern Leire occupies the site of the ancient Leire has indeed been disputed^, but seems hardly open to * Doubts are expressed, for example, in Trap's monumental topographical work (Kongeriket Danmark, ii, 328, 1898). PLATE II InLibrum II. HiSTORi.fl Danica- Saxonis Grammatics. ANTIQLHSSIM^ IN DANIA ARCIS ET OPPIDI LETHR/E TOPOGRAPHIA A. Scpulchriim Haraldi riyMetarL.. B. Sella Regular , 5)ronnin5/ltncn vulgo. C. Locus, iibi Regia olirn crat_^» D. S)r}lh<^f\) I foiTan ibi homagu Rcgibus praftita-. H. £)(iif«ilj/59 A Regis Olairepulchriira. 1. Por^s major, 5i)?'39l^* Whilst headlong lust urges thee, our troubled mind recalls the fashion of an earlier day, and admonishes us to grieve over many things. For we reckon otherwise than thou the crime of the foes, whom now thou boldest in honour ; wherefore the face of this age is a burden to me, who have known the old ways. By nought more would I desire to be blessed, if, Froda, I might see those^ guilty of thy murder paying the due penalty of such a crime*." Starkath came to be one of the best-known figures in Scandinavian legend, the type of the fierce, unrelenting warrior. Even in death his severed head bit the earth : or according to another version " the trunk fought on when the head was gone^." Nor did the Northern imagination leave him there. It loved to follow him below, and to indulge in conjectures as to his bearing in the pit of Hell^. Who the Heathobeardan were is uncertain. It is frequently argued that they are identical with the Longobardi; that the words Heatho-Bard and Long-Bard correspond, just as we get sometimes Gar-Dene, sometimes Hring-Dene. (So Heyne; Bremer in Pauls Ordr. (2) in, 949 etc.) The evidence for this is however unsatisfactory (see Chambers, Widsitli, 205). Since the year 186 a.d. onwards the Longobardi were dwelling far inland, and were certainly never in a position from which an attack upon the Danes would have been practicable. If, therefore, we accept the identification of Heatho- Bard and Long-Bard, we must suppose the Heathobeardan of Beowulf ,• to have been not the Longobardi of history, but a separate portion of the ^ ^^eople, which had been left behind on the shores of the Baltic, when the main body went south. But as we have no evidence for any such offshoot from the main tribe, it is misleading to speak of the Heatho- beardan as identical with the Longobardi : and although the similarity of one element in the name suggests some primitive relationship, that relationship may well have been exceedingly remote*. / » Saxo, Book vi (ed. Holder, 205, 212-13). The contrast between this Ijn'ical outburst, and the matter-of-fact speech in which the old warrior in Beowulf eggs on the younger man, is thoroughly characteristic of the difference between Old English and Old Scandinavian heroic poetry. This difference is very noticeable whenever we have occasion to compare a passage in Beowulf with any parallel passage in a Scandinavian /poem, and should be carefully pondered by those who still beheve that Beoumlf is, in its present form, a translation from the Scandinavian. =* Saxo, Book vin (ed. Holder, p. 274); Helga hvipa Hundingsbana-, ii, 19. See also Bugge, Helge-digtene, 157. 3 J)dttr porsteins Skelks in Flateyarhoh (ed. Vigfusson and Unger), i, 416. rf^ * Similarly, there is certainly a primitive connection between the names p of the Geatas (Gautar) and of the Goths : but they are quite distinct peoples : we should not be justified in speaking of the Geatas as identical with the Goths. 24 The Heathoheardan [CH. i It has further been proposed to identify the Heathoheardan with th^ HeruH^. The Heruli came from the Scandinavian district, overran Europe, and became famous for their valour, savagery, and value as light-armed troops. If the Heathobeardan are identical with the ^, Heruli, and if what we are told of the customs of the HeruU is true, Freawaru was certainly to be pitied. The Heruli were accustomed to put to death their sick and aged : and to compel widows to commit suicide. The supposed identity of the Heruli with the Heathobeardan is however very doubtful. It rests solely upon the statement of Jordanes ythat they had been driven from their homes by the Danes {Dani... Herulos propriis sedibus expulerunt). This is inconclusive, since the growth of the Danish power is likely enough to have led to colHsions with more than one tribe. In fact Beowulf tells us that Scyld "tore away the mead benches from many a people." On the other hand the dissimilarity of names is not conclusive evidence against the identification, for the word Heruli is pretty certainly the same as the Old English Eorlas, and is a complimentary nick-name appHed by the tribe to themselves, rather than their original racial designation. (/ v/ Nothing, then, is really known of the Heathobeardan, except that evidence points to their having dwelt somewhere on the Baltic^. The Scandinavian sources which have preserved the memory of this feud have transformed it in an extraordinary way. The Heatho- beardan came to be quite forgotten, although maybe some trace of their name remains in Hothbrodd, who is represented as the foe of Roe (Hrothgar) and Rolf (Hrothulf ). When the Heathobeardan were / forgotten, Froda and Ingeld were left without any subjects, and naturally came to be regarded, like Healfdene and the other kings with whom they were associated in story, as Danish kings. Ac- cordingly the tale developed in Scandinavian lands in two ways. , Some documents, and especially the Icelandic ones^, represent the / struggle as a feud between two branches of the Danish royal house. Even here there is no agreement who is the usurper and who the victim, so that sometimes it is Froda and sometimes Healfdene who is represented as the traitor and murderer. But another version* — the Danish — ^whilst making Froda and Ingeld into Danish kings, separates their story altogether from that of Healfdene and his house : in this version the quarrel is still thought .of as being between two nations, not as between the rightful heir to V the throne and a treacherous and relentless usurper. Accordingly the feud is such as may be, at any rate temporarily, laid aside: peace between the contending parties is not out of the question. This version therefore preserves much more of the original character of the story, for it remains the tale of a young prince who, willing to marry into the house of his ancestral foes and to forgive and forget the old feud, is stirred by his more uurelenting nenchman into taking vengeance for his father. But, owing to the prince having come to be represented as a Dane, patriotic reasons have suggested to the 1 MiiUenhoff {Beovulf, 29-32) followed by Much {P.B.B. xvir, 201) and Heinzel {A.f.d.A. xvi, 271). The best account of the Heruli is in Procopius {Bell Gott. n, 14, 15). 2 See also Olrik, Heltedigtning, i, 21, 22: Sarrazin in Ev^l. Stud. XLn, li: Bugge, Helgi-digtene, 151-63; 181: Chambers, Widsith, p. 82 (note), pp. 205-6. * Saga of Rolf KraTci : Skjoldungasaga. * Best represented in Saxo. SECT, v] The Heathoheardan i^i> Danish poets and historians a quite different conclusion to the story. Instead of being routed, Ingeld, in Saxo, is successful in his revenge. See Neckel, Studien iiber Froffi in Z.j.d.A. XLvm, 182 : Heusler, Zur SkioldungendicUung in Z.j.d.A. XLvnr, 57 : Olrik, Skjoldungasaga, 1894, 112 [30]; Okik, Heltedigtning, ii, 11 etc.: Okik, Sakses Oldhistorie, 222-6: Chambers, Widsith, pp. 79-81. Section VI. Hrothulf. \j Yet, although the Icelandic sources are wrong in repre- ^ senting Froda and Ingeld as Danes, they are not altogether wrong in representing the Danish royal house as divided •^ against itself. Only they fail to place the blame where it really lay. For none of the Scandinavian sources attribute y any act of injustice or usurpation to Rolf Kraki. He is the ideal king, and his title to the throne is not supposed to be doubtful. Yet we saw that, in Beowulf, the position of Hrothulf is - represented as an ambiguous one^, he is the king's too powerful y nephew, whose claims may prejudice those of his less dis- tinguished young cousins, the king's sons, and the speech of queen Wealhtheow is heavy with foreboding. "I know," she says, "that my gracious Hrothulf will support the young princes in honour, if thou, King of the Scyldings, shouldst leave the world sooner than he. I ween that he will requite our children, if he remembers all which we two have done for his pleasure and honour, being yet a child^." Whilst Hrethric and Hroth- mund, the sons of King Hrothgar, have to sit with the juniors, the giogoth^, Hrothulf is a man of tried valour, who sits side by side with the king: "where the two good ones sat, uncle and nephew: as yet was there peace between them, and each was true to the other*." Again we have mention of "Hrothgar and Hrothulf. Heorot was filled full of friends : at that time the mighty Scylding^ folk in no wise worked treachery^." Similarly in Widsith the mention of Hrothgar and Hrothulf together seems to stir the / poet to dark sayings. " For a very long time did JIiothgaT a.naA 7 Hrothulf, uncle and nephew, hold the peace together*." 1 See above, p. 15. ^ u. 1180-87. ^ U. 1188-91. « U. 1163-5. 6 11^ 1017-19. « U. 45-6. ^6 Hrothulf [CH. i The statement that "as_vet" or "for a very long time" or "at that time" there was peace within the family, neces- y sarily implies that, at last, the peace was broken, that Hrothulf quarrelled with Hrothgar, or strove to set aside his sons^. Further evidence is hardly needed; yet further evidence we have: by rather compHcated, but quite unforced, fitting . together of various Scandinavian authorities, we find that Hrothulf deposed and slew his cousin Hrethric. Saxo Grammaticus tells us how Eoluo (Rolf = O.N. Hrolfr, O.E. Hrothulf) slew a certain Rj^ricus (or Hrserek = O.E. Hrethric) and gave to his own followers all the plunder which he found in the city of R^ricus. Saxo is here translating an older authority, the Bjarkamdl (now lost), and he did not know who R^ricus was: he certainly did not regard him as a son or successor of Roe (Hrothgar) or as a cousin of Roluo (Hrothulf). "Roluo, who laid low R^ricus the son of the covetous B^kus'^ is Saxo's phrase (qui natum B^ki R^ricum stravit avari). This would be a translation of some such phrase in the Bjarkamdl as Hra3reks hani hn^ggvanbauga, "the slayer of Hraerek Hnoggvanbaugi^." But, when we turn to the genealogy of the Danish kings ^, we actually find a Hrmrekr Hnauggvanbaugi given as a king of Denmark about the time of Roluo. This R^ricus or Hrasrekr who was slain by Roluo was then, himself, a king of the Danes, and must, therefore, have preceded Roluo on the throne. But in that case R^ricus must be son of Roe, and identical with his namesake Hrethric, the son of Hrothgar, in Beowulf. For no one but a son of King Roe could have had such a claim to the throne as to rule between that king and his all powerful nephew Roluo^. It is difficult, perhaps, to state this argument in a way which will be convincing to those who are not acquainted with Saxo's method of working. To those who realize how he treats ^ For a contrary view see Clarke, Sidelights, 100. 2 Saxo has mistaken a title hn/jggvanbaugi for a father's name, (hins) hn^ggva Bangs "(son of the) covetous Baug." 3 LangfeSgatal in Langebek, r, 5. The succession given in LangfelTgatal is Halfdan, Helgi and Hroar, Rolf, Hraerek: it should, of course, run Halfdan, Helgi and Hroar, Hraerek, Rolf, Hraerek has been moved from his proper place in order to clear Rolf of any suspicion of usurpation. SECT, vi] Hrothtdf 27 his sources, it will be clear that R^ricus is the son of Roe, and is slain by Roluo. Translating the words into their Old^j^ English equivalents, Hrethric, son of Hrothgar, is slain by Hrothulf. The forebodings of Wealhtheow were justified. Hrethric is then almost certainly an actual historic prince who was thrust" from the throne by Hrothulf. Of Hrothmund^, his brother, Scandinavian authorities seem to know nothing. He is very likely a poetical fiction, a duplicate of Hrethric. For it is very natural that in story the princes whose lives are threatened by powerful usurpers should go in pairs. Hrethric and Hrothmund go together like Malcolm and Donalbain. Their helplessness is thus emphasized over against the one mighty figure, Rolf or Macbeth, threatening them^. Yet this does not prove Hrothmund unhistoric. On the contrary it may well happen that the facts of history will coincide with the demands of well-ordered narrative, as was the case when Richard of Gloucester murdered two young princes in the Tower. Two other characters, who meet us in Beowulf, seem to have some part to play in this tragedy. It was a maxim of the old Teutonic poetry, as it is of the British Constitution, that the king could do no wrong: the real fault lay with the adviser. If Ermanaric the Goth slew his wife and his son, or if Irminfrid the Thuringian unwisely challenged Theodoric the Frank to battle, this was never supposed to be due solely to the recklessness of the monarch himself — it was the work of an evil counsellor — a Bikki or an Iring. Now we have seen that there is mischief brewing in Heorot — and we are introduced to a counsellor Unferth, the i thyle or official spokesman and adviser of King Hrothgar. And Unferth is evil. His jealous temper is shown by the hostile and inhospitable reception which he gives to Beowulf. And Beowulf's reply gives us a hint of some darker stain : " though 1 1. 1189. ^ See Olrik, Episke Love in Daiiske Studier, 1908, p. 79. Compare the remark of Goethe in Wilhelm Meister, as to the necessity of there being both a Rosencrantz arid a Guildenstem {Apprenticeship^ Book V, chap. v). 28 Hrothidf [CH. i thou hast been the slayer of thine own brethren — thy flesh and blood : for that thou shalt suffer damnation in hell, good though thy wit may be^." One might perhaps think that Beowulf in these words was only giving the "countercheck quarrelsome," and indulging in mere reckless abuse, just as Sinfjotli (the Fitela of Beowulf) in the First Helgi Lay hurls at his foes all kinds of outrageous charges assuredly not meant to be taken literally. But, as we learn from the Helgi Lay itself, the uttering of such unfounded taunts was not considered good form ; whilst it seems pretty clear that the speech of Beowulf to Unferth is intended as an example of justifiable and spirited self-defence, not, like the speech of SinfjotH, as a storehouse of things which a well-mannered warrior should not say. Besides, the taunt of Beowulf is confirmed, although but darkly, by the poet himself, in the same passage in which he has recorded the fears of Wealhtheow lest perhaps Hrothulf should not be loyal to Hrothgar and his issue: "Likewise there Unferth the counsellor sat at the foot of the lord of the Scyldingas: each of them [i.e. both Hrothgar and Hrothulf] ^ ^ trusted to his spirit : that his courage was great, though he had not done his duty by his kinsmen at the sword-play ^.^^ But, granting that Unferth has really been the cause of the death of his kinsmen, some scholars have doubted whether we are to suppose that he literally slew them himself. For, had that been the case, they urge, he could not be occupying a place of trust with the almost ideal king Hrothgar. But the record of the historians makes it quite clear that murder of kin did happen, and that constantly^. Amid the tragic complexities of heroic life it often could not be avoided. The comitatus- system, by which a man was expected to give unflinching support to any chief whose service he had entered, must often / have resulted in slaughter between men united by very close bonds of kin or friendship. Turning from history to saga, we find some of the greatest heroes not free from the stain. Sigmund, 1 11. 587-9. 2 u^ 1165-8. ' Perhaps such murder of kin was more common among the aristocratic houses than among the bulk of the population (Chadwick, H.A. 348). In some great families it almost becomes the rule, producing a state of things similar to that in present day Afghanistan, where it has become a proverb that a man is "as great an enemy as a cousin" (Pennell, Afghan Frontier, 30). SECT, vi] Hrothidf ') 29 Gunnar, Hogni, Atli, Hrothulf, Heoroweard, Hnaef, Eadgils, Haethcyn, Ermanaric and Hildebrand were all marred with this taint, and indeed were, in many cases, rather to be pitied than blamed. I doubt, therefore, whether we need try and save Unferth's character by suggesting that the stern words of the poet mean only that he had indirectly caused the death of his brethren by failing them, in battle, at some critical moment^. I suspect that this, involving cowardice or incom- petence, would have been held the more unpardonable offence, and would have resulted in Unferth's disgrace. But a man might well have slain his kin under circumstances which, while leaving a blot on his record, did not necessitate his banishment from good society. All the same, the poet evi- dently thinks it a weakness on the part of Hrothgar and Hrothulf that, after what has happened, they still put their trust in Unferth. Here then is the situation. The king has a counsellor : I v that counsellor is evil. Both the king and his nephew trust v the evil counsellor. A bitter feud springs up between the king and his nephew. That the feud was due to the machinations of the evil adviser can hardly be doubted by those who have studied the ways of the old Germanic heroic story. But it is only an inference: positive proof we have none.^ Lastly, there is Heoroweard. Of him we are told in Beowulf very little. He is son of Heorogar (or Heregar), Hrothgar' s elder brother, who was apparently king before him, but died young^. It is quite natural, as we have seen, that, if Heoroweard was too young for the responsibility when his father died, he should not have succeeded to the throne. What is not so natural is that he does not inherit his father's arms, which one might reasonably have supposed Hrothgar would have preserved, to give to him when he came of age. Instead, Hrothgar gives them to Beowulf^. Does Hrothgar deliberately avoid doing honour to Heoroweard, because he fears that any distinction conferred upon him would strengthen a rival ^ This is proposed by Cosijn {Aanteekeningen, 21) and again independently by Lawrence in M.L.N, xxv, 167. 2 11. 467-9. 3 u. 2155-62. s ; , . y V , / . , ^ -I . . .ft 1 7 Y 30 Hrotkulf [CH. I whose claims to the throne might endanger those of his own sons? However this may be, in any future struggle for the throne Heoroweard may reasonably be expected to play some part. V Turning now to Saxo, and to the Saga of Rolf Kraki, we find that Rolf owed his death to the treachery of one whose ^name corresponds exactly to that of Heoroweard — Hiarwarus (Saxo), Hj^rvarthr {Saga). Neither Saxo nor the Saga thinks of Hiarwarus as the cousin of Rolf Kraki : they do not make it really clear what the cause of his enmity was. But they tell us that, after a banquet, he and his men treacherously rose upon Rolf and his warriors. The defence which Rolf and his men put up in their burning hall : the loyalty and defiance of Rolf's champions, invincible in death — these were amongst the most famous things of the North; they were told in the BjarJcamdl, now unfortunately extant in Saxo's paraphrase only. But the triumph of Hiarwarus was brief. Rolf's .men all ^fell around him, save the young Wiggo, who had previously, in the confidence of youth, boasted that, should Rolf fall, he would avenge him. Astonished at the loyalty of Rolf's cham- pions, Hiarwarus expressed regret that none had taken quarter, declaring that he would gladly accept the service of such men. Whereupon Wiggo came from the hiding-place where he had taken refuge, and offered to do homage to Hiarwarus, by placing his hand on the hilt of his new lord's sword: but in doing so he drove the point through Hiarwarus, and rejoiced as he received his death from the attendants of the foe he had slain. It shows how entirely the duty of vengeance w^as felt to outweigh all other considerations, that this treacherous act Joi Wiggo is always spoken of with the highest praise. For the story of the fall of Rolf and his men see Saxo, Book ii (ed. Holder, pp. 55-68) : Saga of Rolf Kraki, caps. 32-34: Skjoldunga Saga (ed. Okik, 1894, 36-7 [118-9]). How the feud between the different members of the Danish family forms the background to Beowulf was first explained in full detail 'by Ludvig Schr0der {Om Bjovulfs-drapen. Efter en raskke foredrag pa folke-hojskolen i Askov, kj0benhavn, 1875). Schr0der showed how the bad character of Unferth has its part to play: "It is a weakness in Hrothgar that he entrusts important office to such a man — a SEC\ viil Khig Ofa S3 weakness which will carry its punishment." Independently the domestic feud was demonstrated again by Sarrazin (Bolf Krake und sein vetter im Beowulf liede'. Engl. Stud, xxiv, 144-5). The story has been fully worked out by Olrik {Heltedigtning, 1903, i, 11-18 etc.). These views have been disputed by Miss Clarke (Sidelights, 102), who seems to regard as "hypotheses" of Olrik data which have been ascertained facts for more than a generation. Miss Clarke's contentions, however, appear to me to be based upon a misunderstanding of Olrik. Section VII. King Offa. 1 The poem, then, is mainly concerned with the deeds of J Geatic and Danish kings : only once is reference made to a king of Anglian stock — Offa. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us of several kings named y' Offa, but two only concern us here. Still remembered is the historic tyrant-king who reigned over Mercia during the latter half of the eighth century, and who was celebrated through the Middle Ages chiefly as the founder of the great abbey of '^ St Albans. This Ofla is sometimes referred to as Offa the Second, because he had a remote ancestor, Offa I, who, if the Mercian pedigree can be trusted, lived twelve generations earlier, and therefore presumably in the latter half of the fourth century. Offa I, then, must have ruled over the Angles >^ whilst they were still dwelling in Angel, their continental home, in or near the modern Schleswig. Now the Offa mentioned in Beowulf is spoken of as related ^ to Garmund and Eomer (ms geomor). This, apart from the abundant further evidence, is sufficient to identify him with Offa I, who was, according to the pedigree, the son of Waermund ^ and the grandfather of Eomer. This Offa I, king of Angel, is referred to in Widsiih. Widsith is a composite poem : the passage concerning Offa, though not the most obviously primitive portion of it, is, nevertheless, early: it may well be earUer than Beowulf. After a list of famous chieftains we are told: Offa ruled Angel, Alewih the Danes ; he was the boldest of all these men, yet did he not in his deeds of valour surpass Offa. But Offa gained, first of men, by arms the greatest of kingdoms whilst yet a boy ; no one of equal age ever did greater deeds of valour in battle with his single sword: he drew the boundary against the Myrgingas at Fifeldor. The boundaries were held afterwards by the Angles and the Swaefe as Offa struck it out. 30 Hrothulf [cji. i Mucli is obscure here: more particularly our ignorance as to the Myrgingas is to be regretted: but there is reason for thinking that they were a people dwelling to the south of the old continental home of the Angles. After the lapse of some five centuries, we get abundant further information concerning Offa. The legends about him, though carried to England by the Anglian conquerors, must also have survived in the neighbourhood of his old kingdom of \/ Angel : for as Angel was incorporated into the Danish kingdom, so these stories became part of the stock of Danish national legend. OfEa came to be regarded as a Danish king, and his >^ story is told at length by the two earliest historians of Denmark, Sweyn Aageson and Saxo Grammaticus. In Saxo the story runs thus: Wermund, king of Denmark, had a son Uifo [Offa], tall beyond the measure of his age, but dull and speechless. When Wermund grew blind, his southern neighbour, the king of Saxony, laid claim to Denmark on the ground that he was no longer fit to rule, and, relying upon Ufio's incapacity, suggested that the quarrel should be decided by their two sons in single combat. Wermund, in despair, offered himself to fight, in spite of his blindness : this offer the envoys of the Saxon king refused with insult, and the Danes knew not what to say. Thereupon Ufio, who happened to be present, suddenly asked leave to speak. Wermund could not believe that it was really his son who had spoken, but when they all assured him that it was, he gave the permission. "In vain," then said Ufio, "does the king of Saxony covet the land of Denmark, which trusts to its true king and its brave nobles: neither is a son wanting to the king nor a successor to the kingdom." And he offered to fight not only the Saxon prince, but any chosen champion the prince might bring with him. The Saxon envoys accepted the offer and departed. The blind king was at last convinced, by passing his hands over him, that the speaker had been in truth his son. But it was found difficult to arm him; for his broad chest split the rings of every coat of mail: the largest, his father's, had to be cleft down the side and fastened with a clasp. Likewise no sword SECT, vii] King Offa 33 was so well tempered that he did not shatter it by merely brandishing it, till the old king directed his men how they might find his ancient sword, Skrep (= ? stedfast) which he had buried, in despair, thinking his son unworthy of it. The sword, when found, was so frail from age that Uffo did not test it : for Wermund told him that, if he broke it, there was no other left strong enough for him. So Uffo and his two antagonists were taken to the place of combat, an island in the river Eider. Crowds lined either bank, and Wermund stood prepared to throw himself into the river should his son be slain. UfEo held back at first, till he had discovered which of his antagonists was the more dangerous, since he feared the sword would only be good for one blow. Then, having by his taunts induced the champion to come to close quarters, he clove him asunder with one stroke. Wermund cried out that he had heard the sound of his son's sword, and asked where the blow had fallen: his attendants assured him that it had pierced, not any particular part, but the man's whole structure. So Wermund drew back from the edge, desiring Hfe now as keenly as before he had longed for death. Finally Uffo smote his second antagonist through, thus opening a career which after such a beginning we may well believe to have been glorious. The story is told again by Sweyn Aageson in a slightly ^ varying form. Sweyn's story has some good traits of its own — as when it makes Uffo enter the Usts girt with two swords, intending to use his father's only in an emergency. The worthless sword breaks, and all the Danes quake for fear: whereupon Uffo draws the old sword and achieves the victory. But above all Sweyn Aageson tells us the reason of Uffo's dumbness and incapacity, which Saxo leaves obscure: it was the result of shame over the deeds of two Danes who had combined to avenge their father upon a single foe. What is the incident referred to we can gather from Saxo. Two Danes, Keto and Wigo, whose father Frowinus had been slain by a hostile king Athislus, attacked Athislus together, two to one, thus breaking the laws of the duel. Uifo had wedded the sister of O. B. 3 34 King Offa [CH. i Keto and Wigo, and it was in order to wipe out the stain left ^upon his family and his nation by their breach of duelUng etiquette that he insisted upon fighting single-handed against two opponents. That this incident was also known in England is rendered probable by the fact that Freawine and Wig, who correspond to Saxo's Frowinus and Wiggo, are found in the genealogy of English kings, and that an Eadgils, king of the Myrgingas, who is almost certainly the Athislus of Saxo^, also appears in Old English heroic poetry. It is probable then that the two tales were connected in Old Enghsh story : the two brethren shame- fully combine to avenge their father: in due time the family of the slain foe take up the feud: Ofia saves his country and his country's honour by voluntarily undertaking to fight one against two. About the same time that the Danish ecclesiastics were ^ at work, a monk of St Albans was committing to Latin the ^ English stories which were still current concerning OfEa. The object of the English writer was, however, local rather than national. He wrote the Vitae duorum Offarum to celebrate the historic Ofia, king of Mercia, the founder of his abbey, and /that founder's ancestor, Offa I : popular tradition had confused i/ the two, and much is told concerning the Mercian Offa that seems to belong more rightly to his forefather. The St Albans writer drew upon contemporary tradition, and it is evident that in certain cases, as when he gives two sets of names to some of the chief actors in the story, he is trying to harmonize two distinct versions : he makes at least one error which seems to point to a written source^. In one of the mss the story is illustrated by a series of very artistic drawings, which might possibly be from the pen of Matthew Paris himself^. These drawings depict a version of the story which in some respects differs from the Latin text which they accompany. I The story is located in England. Warmundus is repre- sented as a king of the Western Angles, ruling at Warwick. ^ See Widsith, ed. Chambers, pp. 92-4. 2 See Rickert, " The Old English Offa Saga" in Mod. Phil n, esp. p. 75. * The common ascription of the Lives of the Offas to Matthew Paris is erroneous: they are somewhat earlier. » ■» » « » * * » ^« • • • PLATE III H ffl O p:5 Ph C/i >^ s^ rn ^ |s rfj ^ Q i 52 The Scandinavian Parallels — [CH. ii or the alliterative line. Why then, contrary to all analogy, should we assume a literary borrowing in the case of the Beowulf-Grettir-atoTj ? The compiler of the Greltis saga could not possibly have drawn his material from a ms of Beowulp^ : he could not have made sense of a single passage. He con- ceivably might have drawn from traditions derived from the Old English epic. But it is difficult to see how. Long before his time these traditions had for the most part been forgotten in England itself. One of the longest lived of all, that of Offa, is heard of for the last time in England at the beginning of the thirteenth century. That a Scandinavian sagaman at the end of the century could have been in touch, in any way, with Anglo-Saxon epic tradition seems on the whole unlikely. The Scandinavian tradition of Offa, scholars are now agreed^, was not borrowed from England, and there is no reason why we should assume such borrowing in the case of Grettir. The probability is, then, considerable, that the Beowulf- story and the Grettir-atoij are independently derived from one common original. And this probability would be confirmed to a certainty if we should find that features which have been confused and half obliterated in the O.E. story become clear when we turn ' to the Icelandic. This argument has lately been brought forward by Dr Lawrence in his essay on "The Haunted Mere in Beowulpy Impressive as the account of this mere is, it does not convey any very clear picture. Grendel's home seems sometimes to be in the sea: and again it seems to be amid marshes, moors and fens, and again it is "where the mountain torrent goes down under the darkness of the cliffs — the water below the ground (i.e. beneath overhanging rocks)." This last account agrees admirably with the landscape depicted in the Grettis saga, and the gorge many fathoms deep through which the stream rushes, after it has fallen over the precipice; not so the other accounts. These descriptions are 1 Even assuming that a ms of Beotvulf had found its way to Iceland, it would have been unintelligible. This is shown by the absurd blunders made when Icelanders borrowed names from the O.E. genealogies. 2 Cf. Ob-ik, A. f. n. F., vm (N.F. iv), 368-75; and Chadwick, Origin, 125-6. 3 Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. xxvn, 208 etc. SECT, ii] Grettir and Orm 63 best harmonized if we imagine an original version in which the monsters live, as in the Grettis saga, in a hole under the waterfall. This story, natural enough in a Scandinavian country, would be less intelUgible as it travelled South. The '^ Angles and Saxons, both in their old home on the Continent and their new one in England, were accustomed to a somewhat flat country, and would be more inchned to place the dwelhng of outcast spirits in moor and fen than under waterfalls, of which they probably had only an elementary conception. "The giant must dwell in the fen, alone in the land^." Now it is in the highest degree improbable that, after the landscape had been blurred as it is in Beowulf, it could have been brought out again with the distinctness it has in the Grettis saga. To preserve the features so clearly the Grettir- X story can hardly be derived from Beowulf: it must have come down independently. But if so, it becomes at once of prime importance. For by a comparison of Beowulf and Grettir we must form an idea of what the original story was, from which both were derived Another parallel, though a less striking one, has been -found in the story of Orm Storolfsson, which is extant in a short saga about contemporary with that of Grettir, Ormspdttr Storolfssonar^, in two ballads from the Faroe Islands^ and two /( from Sweden*. It is generally asserted that the Orm-story affords a close parallel to the episodes of Grendel and his mother. I cannot find close resemblance, and I strongly suspect that the re- petition of the assertion is due to the fact that the Orm-story has not been very easily accessible, and has often been taken as read by the critics. But, in any case, it has been proved that the Orm-tale borrows largely from other sagas, and notably from the Grettis saga itself^. Before arguing, therefore, from any parallel, it must first be shown that the feature in which Orm resembles ^ Cotton. Gnomic Verses, 11. 42-3. ^ Farnmannaaqgur, in, 204-228. * Hammershaimb, Fseroiske Kvoeder, n, 1855, Nos. 11 and 12. * A. I. Arwidsson, Svenska Fornaanger, 1834-42, Nos. 8 and 9, 5 Boer, Beowulf, 177-180. 54 The Scandinavian Parallels — Grettir and Orm [CH. ii Beowulf is not derived at second hand from the Grettis saga. One such feature there is, namely Orm's piety, which he cer- tainly does not derive from Grettir. In this he with equal certainty resembles Beowulf. According to modem ideas, indeed, there is more of the Christian hero in Beowulf than in Orm. Now Orm owes his victory to the fact, among other things, that, at the critical moment, he vows to God and the holy apostle St Peter to make a pilgrimage to Rome should he be successful. In this a parallel is seen to the fact that Beowulf is saved, not only by his coat of mail, but also by the divine interposition^. But is this really a parallel? Beowulf is too much of a sportsman to buy victory by making a vow when in a tight place. G^d' a wyrd swd hio sceP is the exact antithesis of Orm's pledge. However, I have given in the Second Part the text of the Orm- episode, so that readers may judge for themselves the closeness or remoteness of the parallel. The parallel between Grettir and Beowulf was noted by the Icelander Gudbrand VigMsson upon his first reading Beowulf (see Prolegomena to Sturlunga saga^ 1878, p. xUx: Corpus Poeticum BorealCf n, 501: Icelandic Reader, 1879, 404). It was elaborately- worked out by Gering in Anglia, ni, 74-87, and it is of course noticed in almost every discussion of Beowulf. The parallel with Orm was first noted by Schiick {Svensk Literaturhistoria, Stockholm, 1886, etc., I, 62) and independently by Bugge {P.B.B. xn, 58-68). The best edition of the Grettis saga is the excellent one of Boer (Halle, 1900), but the opinions there expressed as to the relationship of the episodes to each other and to the Grendel story have not re- ceived the general support of scholars. Section III. Bothvar Bjarki. We have seen that there are in Beowulf two distinct elements, which never seem quite harmonized : firstly the historic back- ground of the Danish and Geatic courts, with their chieftains, Hrothgar and Hrothulf , or Hrethel and Hygelac : and secondly the old wives' fables of struggles with ogres and dragons. In the story of Grettir, the ogre fable appears — unmistakably connected with the similar story as given in Beowulf, but with 1 11. 1563-6. 2 1. 455_ Ii I SECT. Ill] Bothvar Bjarhi 66 no faintest trace of having ever possessed any Danish heroic setting. Turning back to the Saga of Rolf Kraki, we do find against that Danish setting a figure, that of the hero Bothvar Bjarki, bearing a very remarkable resemblance to Beowulf. Bjarki, bent on adventure, leaves the land of the Gautar (Gotar), where his brother is king, and reaches Leire, where Rolf, the king of the Danes, holds his court; [just as Beowulf, bent on adventure, leaves the land of the Geatas (Gotar) where his uncle is king, and reaches Heorot, where Hrothgar and Hrothulf (Rolf) hold court]. Arrived at Leire, Bjarki takes under his protection the despised coward Hott, whom Rolfs retainers have been wont to bully. The champions at the Danish court [in Beowulf one of them only — Unferth] prove quarrelsome, and they assail the hero during the feast, in the Saga by throwing bones at him, in Beowulf only by bitter words. The hero in each case replies, in kind, with such effect that the enemy is silenced. But despite the fame and splendour of the Danish court, it has long been subject to the attacks of a strange monster^ — a winged beast whom no iron will bite [just as Grendel is immune from swords ^J. Bjarki [Uke Beowulf 3] is scornful at the inabihty of the Danes to defend their own home : " if one beast can lay waste the kingdom and the cattle of the king." He goes out to fight with the monster by night, accompanied only by Hott. He tries to draw his sword, but the sword is fast in its sheath : he tugs, the sword comes out, and he slays the beast with it. This seems a most pointless incident: taken in connection with the supposed invulnerability of the foe, it looks like the survival of some episode in which the hero was unwilling [as in Beowulf's fight with Grendel*] or unable [as in Beowulf's fight with Grendel's mother^] to slay the foe ^ The attacks have taken place at Yule for two successive years, exactly as in the Qrettia saga. [In Beowlf it is, of course, "twelve winters" (1. 147).] Is this mere accident, or does the Orettis saga here preserve the original time limit, which has been exaggerated in Bemmlft If so, we have another point of resemblance between the Saga of Rolf Kraki and the earliest version of the Beoumlf&toTy, 2 Beovmlf, U. 801-6. 3 Cf. Beovmlf, 11. 690-606. < Beovmlf, 1. 679. » Beovmlf, U. 1608-9, 1524. 66 Bothvar BjarJd [CH. ii with his sword. Bjarki then compels the terrified coward Hott to drink the monster's blood. Hott forthwith becomes a vahant champion, second only to Bjarki himself. The beast is then propped up as if still alive : when it is seen next morning the king calls upon his retainers to play the man, and Bjarki tells Hott that now is the time to clear his reputation. Hott demands first the sword, Gullinhjalti, from Kolf, and with this he slays the dead beast a second time. King Rolf is not deceived by this trick ; yet he rejoices that Bjarki has not only himself slain the monster, but changed the cowardly Hott into a champion; he commands that Hott shall be called Hjalti, after the sword which has been given him. We are hardly justified in demanding logic in a wild tale like this, or one might ask how Rolf was convinced of Hott's valour by what he knew to be a piece of stage management on the part of Bjarki. But, however that may be, it is remarkable that in Beowulf also the monster Grendel, though proof against all ordinary weapons, is smitten when dead by a magic sword of which the golden hilt^ is specially mentioned. In addition to the undeniable similarity of the stories of these heroes, a certain similarity of name has been claimed. That Bjarki is not etymologically connected with Beowulf or Beow is clear: but if we are to accept the identification of Beowulf and Beow, remembering that the Scandinavian equi- valent of the latter is said to be Bjdr, the resemblance to Bjarki is\)bvious. Similarity of sound might have caused one name to be substituted for another^. This argument obviously depends upon the identification Beow = Bjdr, which is ex- tremely doubtful : it will be argued below that it is more likely that Beow = By ggvir^. But force remains in the argument that the name Bjarki (little bear) is very appropriate to a hero like the Beowulf of ^ It is only in this adventure that Rolf carries the sword Gullinhjalti. His usual sword, as well known as Arthur's ExcaHbur, was Skofnungr. For Oyldenhiltf whether descriptive, or proper noun, see Beovmlf, 1677. * Cf. Symons in Pauls Grdr. (2), m, 649 : Ziige aus dem anglischen Mythus von Beaw-Biar (Biarr oder Bjar?; s. Symons Lieder der Edda, i, 222) wurden auf den danischen Sagenhelden (BoSvarr) Bjarki durch Ahnlichkeit der Namen veranlasst, iibertragen. Cf. too, Heusler in A.f.d.A. xxx, 32. * See p. 87 and Appendix (A) below. I SECT. Ill] Bothvar BjarTci 57 our epic, who crushes or hugs his foe to death instead of using his sword ; even if we do not accept explanations which would . interpret the name "Beowulf" itself as a synonym for "Bear." ' It is scarcely to be wondered at, then, that most critics have seen in Bjarki a Scandinavian parallel to Beowulf. But serious difficulties remain. There is in the Scandinavian story a mass of detail quite unparallelled in Beowulf, which over- shadows the resemblances, Bjarki's friendship, for example, with the coward Hott or Hjalti has no counterpart in Beowulf. And Bjarki becomes a retainer of King Rolf and dies in his service, whilst Beowulf never comes into direct contact with Hrothulf at all ; the poet seems to avoid naming them together. Still, it is quite intelhgible that the story should have developed on different lines in Scandinavia from those which it followed in England, till the new growths overshadowed the original resemblance, without obliterating it. After nearly a thousand years of independent development discrepancies must be ex- pected. It would not be a reasonable objection to the identity of Gullinhjalti with Gyldenhilt, that the word hilt had grown to have a rather different meaning in Norse and in English; subsequent developments do not invalidate an original re- semblance if the points of contact are really there. But, allowing for this independent growth in Scandinavia, we should naturally expect that the further back we traced the story the greater the resemblance would become. This brings us to the second, serious difficulty : that, when y^e turn from the Saga of Rolf Kraki — belonging in its present form perhaps to the early fifteenth century — to the pages of Saxo * Orammaticus, who tells the same tale more than two centuries '^ earlier, the resemblance, instead of becoming stronger, almost vanishes. Nothing is said of Bjarki coming from Gautland, or indeed of his being a stranger at the Danish court : nothing is said of the monster having paid previous visits, visits repeated till king Rolf, hke Hrothgar, has to give up all attempt at resistance, and submit to its depredations. The monster, instead of being a troll, like Grendel, becomes a commonplace bear. All Saxo tells us is that "He [Biarco, i.e. Bjarki] met a, great bear in a thicket and slew it with a spear, and bade his 58 Bothvar Bjarhi [CH. ii comrade lalto [i.e. Hjalti] place his lips to the beast and drink its blood as it flowed, that he might become stronger." Hence the Danish scholar, Axel Olrik, in the best and most elaborate discussion of Bjarki and all about him, has roundly- denied any connection between his hero and Beowulf. He is astonished at the slenderness of the evidence upon which previous students have argued for relationship. "Neither Beowulf's wrestling match in the hall, nor in the fen, nor his struggle with the firedrake has any real identity, but when we take a little of them all we can get a kind of similarity with the latest and worst form of the Bjarki saga^." The develop- ment of Saxo's bear into a winged monster, "the worst of trolls," Olrik regards as simply in accordance with the usual heightening, in later Icelandic, of these early stories of struggles with beasts, and of this he gives a parallel instance. ^ Some Icelandic ballads on Bjarki (the BjarJca rimur), which were first printed in 1904, were claimed by Olrik as supporting his contention. These ballads belong to about the year 1400. Yet, though they are thus in date and dialect closely allied to the Saga of Rolf Kraki and remote from Saxo Grammaticus, they are so far from supporting the tradition of the Saga with regard to the monster slain, that they represent the foe first as a man-eating she- wolf, which is slain by Bjarki, then as a grey bear [as in Saxo], which is slain by Hjalti after he has been compelled to drink the blood of the she-wolf. We must there- fore give up the winged beast as mere later elaboration; for if the Bjarki ballads in a point like this support Saxo, as against the Saga which is so closely connected with them by its date and Icelandic tongue, we must admit Saxo's version here to represent, beyond dispute, the genuine tradition. Accordingly the attempt which has been made to connect Bjarki's winged monster with Beowulf's winged dragon goes overboard at once. But such an attempt ought never to have been made at all. The parallel is between Bjarki and the Beowulf-Grendel episode, not between Bjarki and the Beowulf- dragon episode, which ought to be left out of consideration. And the monstrous bear and the wolf of the Rimur are not so Heltedigtning, i, 1903, 135-6. I SECT. Ill] Bothvar Bjarhi 69 dissimilar from Grendel, with his bear-hke hug, and Grendel's mother, the * sea- wolf i.' The likeness between Beowulf and Bjarki lies, not in the , wingedness or otherwise of the monsters they overthrow, but 1 1 in the similarity of the position — in the situation which places the most famous court of the North, and its illustrious king, at the mercy of a ravaging foe, till a chance stranger from Gautland brings deliverance. And here the Rimur support, not Saxo, but the Saga, though in an outworn and faded way. In the Rimur Bjarki is a stranger come from abroad: the bear has made previous attacks upon the king's folds. Thus, whilst we grant the wings of the beast to be a later elaboration, it does not in the least follow that other features in which the Saga differs from Saxo — the advent of Bjarki from Gautland, for instance — are also later elaboration. And we must be careful not to attach too much weight to the account of Saxo merely because it is earlier in date than that of the Saga. The presumption is, of course, that the earlier form will be the more original : but just as a late manu- script will often preserve, amidst its corruptions, features which are lost in much earlier manuscripts, so will a tradition. Saxo's accounts are often imperfect^. And in this particular instance, there is a want of coherency and intelligibility in Saxo's account, which in itself affords a strong presumption that it is imperfect. What Saxo tells us is this: At which banquet, when the champions were rioting with every kind of wantonness, and flinging knuckle- bones at a certain lalto [Hjalti] from all sides, it happened that his messmate Biarco [Bjarki] through the bad aim of the thrower received a severe blow on the head. But Biarco, equally annoyed by the injury and the insult, sent the bone back to the thrower, so that he twisted the front of his head to the back and the back to the front, punishing the cross-grain of the man's temper by turning his face round about. But who were this "certain Hjalti" and Bjarki? There seems to be something missing in the story. The explanation [which Saxo does not give us, but the Saga does] that Bjarki has come from afar and taken the despised Hott-Hjalti under his 1 Beovmlf, 1618. 2 See Heusler in Z.f.d.A. XLVin, 62. 60 Bothvar BjarU [CH. ii protection, seems to be necessary. Why was Hjalti chosen as the victim, at whom missiles were to be discharged? Ob- viously [though Saxo does not tell us so], because he was the butt of the mess. And if Bjarki had been one of the mess for many hours, his messmates would have known him too well to throw knuckle-bones either at him or his friend. This is largely a matter of personal feeling, but Saxo's account seems to me pointless, till it is supplemented from the Saga^. And there is one further piece of evidence which seems to clinch the whole matter finally, though its importance has been curiously overlooked, by Panzer and Lawrence in their argu- ments for the identification, and by Olrik in his arguments to the contrary. We have seen above how Beowulf "became a friend" to Eadgils, helping him in his expedition against King Onela of Sweden, and avenging, in *' chill raids fraught with woe,'* cealdum cearsi^um, the wrongs which Onela had inflicted upon the Geatas. We saw, too, that this expedition was remembered in Scandinavian tradition. "They had a battle on the ice of Lake Wener; there King Ali fell, and Athils had the victory. Concerning this battle there is much said in the Skjoldunga sagay The Skjoldunga saga is lost, but the Latin extracts from it give some information about this battle^. Further, an account of it is preserved in the Bjarka rimur, probably derived from the lost Skjoldunga saga. And the Bjarka rimur expressly mention Bjarki as helping Athils in this battle against Ali on the ice of Lake Wener^. ' Olrik does not seem to allow for this at all, though of course aware of it. The other parallels between Bjarki and Beowulf he believes to be mere coincidence. But is this likely? To recapitulate: In old English tradition a hero comes from the land of the Geatas to the royal court of Denmark, where Hrothgar and Hrothulf hold sway. This hero is re- ceived in none too friendly wise by one of the retainers, but * Cf. on this Heusler, Z.f.d.A. XLVin, 64-5. * Cf. Skjoldunga saga, cap. xii; and see Olrik, Heltedigtning, i, 201-5 Bjarka rimur, vm. * Similarly Skdldskaparmdl, 41 (44). i I SECT. Ill] Bothvar Bjarhi 61 puts his foe to shame, is warmly welcomed by the king, and slays by night a monster which has been attacking the Danish capital and against which the warriors of that court have been helpless. The monster is proof against all swords, yet its dead body is mutilated by a sword with a golden hilt. Sub- sequently this same hero helps King Eadgils of Sweden to ^ overthrow Onela. We find precisely the same situation in Icelandic tradition some seven centuries later, except that not Hrothgar and Hrothulf, but Hrothulf (Rolf) alone is represented as ruling the sj Danes, and the sword with the golden hilt has become a sword named " Golden-hilt." It is conceivable for a situation to have been reconstructed in this way by mere accident, just as it is conceivable that one player may have the eight or nine best trumps dealt him. But it does not seem advisable to base one's calculations, as Olrik does, upon such an accident happening. The parallel of Bjarki and Beowulf seems to have been first noted by Gisli BrynjuKsson {Antiquarisk Tidsskrift, 1852-3, p. 130). It has been often discussed by Sarrazin [Beowulf Stvdien, 13 etc., 47 : Anglia, IX, 195 etc. Engl. Stud, xvi, 79 etc., xxni, 242 etc., xxxv, 19 etc.), Sarrazin' s over-elaborated parallels form a broad- target for doubters: it must be remembered that a case, though it may be discredited, is not invalidated by exaggeration. The problem is of course noted in the Beowulf studies of Miillenhoff (55), Bugge [P.B.B. xii, 55) and Boer [Die Beowulfsage, ii, in Arkiv f. nord. filol. xix, 44 etc.) and discussed at length and convincingly by Panzer (364-386) and Law- rence {Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. xxiv, 1909, 222 etc.). The usual view which accepts some relationship is endorsed by all these scholars, as it is by Finnur J6nsson in his edition of the Hrdlfs Saga Kraka og Bjarkarimur (K0benhavn, 1904, p. xxii). Ten Brink (185 etc.) denied any original connection, on the ground of the dissimilarity between Beowulf and the story given by Saxo. Any resemblances between Beowulf and the Hrdlfs Saga he attributed to the influence of the EngHsh Beowulf-stoTj upon the Saga. For Okik's emphatic denial of any connection at all, see Danmarks Heltedigtning, i, 134 etc. (This seems to have influenced Brandl, wha expresses some doubt in Pauls Grdr. (2) n. 1. 993.) For arguments to the contrary, see Heusler in A.f.d.A. xxx, 32, and especially Panzer and Lawrence as above. The parallel of Gullinhjalti and gyldenhilt was first noted tentatively by Kluge {En^l. Stud, xxn, 145). I 62 Parallels from FolUore [CH. ii Section IV. Parallels from Folklore. Hitherto we have been deahng with parallels to the Grendel story in written literature: but a further series of parallels, although much more remote, is to be found in that vast store of old wives' tales which no one till the nineteenth century took the trouble to write down systematically, but which certainly go back to a very ancient period. One particular tale, that of the Bear's Son^ (extant in many forms), has been instanced as showing a resemblance to the Beowulf -stoiy . In this tale the hero, a young man of extraordinary strength, (1) sets out on his adventures, associating with himself various companions ; (2) makes resistance in a house against a supernatural being, which his fellows have in vain striven to withstand, and succeeds in mishandUng or mutilating him. (3) By the blood-stained track of this creature, or guided by him in some other manner, the hero finds his way to a spring, or hole in the earth, (4) is lowered down by a cord and (5) overcomes in the underworld different supernatural foes, amongst whom is often included his former foe, or very rarely the mother of that foe : victory can often only be gained by the use of a magic sword which the hero finds below. (6) The hero is left treacherously in the lurch by his companions, whose duty it was to have drawn him up... Now it may be objected, with truth, that this is not like the Beowulf-stoiy, or even particularly like the Grettir-stoTj. But the question is not merely whether it resembles these stories as we possess them, but whether it resembles the story which must have been the common origin of both. And we have only to try to reconstruct from Beowulf and from the Grettis saga a tale which can have been the common original of both, to see that it must be something extraordinarily lik; the folk-tale outUned above. 1 Barensohn. Jean I'Ours. The name is given to the group because tb hero is frequently (though by no means always) represented as having been brought up in a bear's den. The story summarized above is a portion of Panzer's "Type A." See Appendix (H), below. I SECT, iv] Parallels from FolUore 63 For example, it is true that the departure of the Danes homeward because they beheve that Beowulf has met his death in the water below, bears only the remotest resemblance to the deliberate treachery which the companions in the folk- tale mete out to the hero. But when we compare the Grettir- story, we see there that a real breach of trust is involved, for there the priest Stein leaves the hero in the lurch, and abandons the rope by which he should have drawn Grettir up. This can hardly be an innovation on the part of the composer of the Grettis saga, for he is quite well disposed towards Stein, and has no motive for wantonly attributing treachery to him. The innovation presumably Hes in the Beowulf -stoiy, where Hrothgar and his court are depicted in such a friendly spirit that no dis- reputable act can be attributed to them, and consequently Hrothgar's departure home must not be allowed in any way to imperil or inconvenience the hero. A comparison of the Beowulf-stoxy with the Grettir-stoiy leads then to the con- clusion that in the oldest version those who remained above when the hero plunged below were guilty of some measure of disloyalty , in ceasing to watch for him. In other words wa^ see that the further we track the Beowulf-stoij back, the) more it comes to resemble the folk-tale. ^ And our belief that there is some connection between the A folk-tale and the original of Beowulf must be strengthened when we find that, by a comparison of the folk-tale, we are able to explain features in Beowulf which strike us as difficult and even absurd: precisely as when we turn to a study of Shakespeare's sources we often find the explanation of things , that puzzle us : we see that the poet is dealing with an un- manageable source, which he cannot make quite plausible. V For instance: when Grendel enters Heorot he kills and eats the first of Beowulf's retinue whom he finds: no one tries to prevent him. The only explanation which the poet has to offer is that the retinue are all asleep^ — strange somnolence on the part of men who are awaiting a hostile attack, which they expect will be fatal to them all 2. And Beowulf at any rate is not asleep. Yet he calmly watches whilst his henchman is 1 U. 704, 729. 2 U. 691-6. 64 Parallels from Folklore [CH. ii both killed and eaten: and apparently, but for the accident that the monster next tackles Beowulf himself, he would have allowed his whole bodyguard to be devoured one after another. But if we suppose the story to be derived from the folk-tale, we have an explanation. For in the folk-tale, the companions and the hero await the foe singly, in succession: the turn of the hero comes last, after all his companions have been put to shame. But Beowulf, who is represented as having specially voyaged to Heorot in order to purge it, cannot leave the defence of the hall for the first night to one of his comrades. Hence the discomfiture of the comrade and the single-handed success of the hero have to be represented as simultaneous. The result is incongruous : Beowulf has to look on whilst his comrade is killed. Again, both Beowulf and Grettir plunge in the water with a sword, and with the deliberate object of shedding the monster's blood. Why then should the watchers on the cliff above assume that the blood-stained water must necessarily signify the hero's death, and depart home? Why did it never occur to them that this deluge of blood might much more suitably proceed from the monster? But we can understand this unreason if we suppose that the story-teller had to start from the deHberate and treacherous departure of the companions, whilst at the same time it was not to his purpose to represent the companions as treacherous. In that case some excuse must be found for them: and the blood-stained water was the nearest at hand^. Again, quite independently of the folk-tale, many Beowulf scholars have come to the conclusion that in the original version of the story the hero did not wait for a second attack from the mother of the monster he had slain, but rather, from a natural and laudable desire to complete bis task, followed the monster's tracks to the mere, and finished him and his mother below. Many traits have survived which may conceivably point to an original version of the story in which Beowulf (or the figure corresponding to him) at once plunged down ^ In the Beoumlf it was even desirable, as explained above, to go further, and completely to exculpate the Danish watchers, t/ SECT, iv] Parallels from Folklore 65 in order to combat the foe corresponding to Grendel. There are unsatisfactory features in the story as it stands. For why, it might be urged, should the wrenching ofi of an arm have been fatal to so tough a monster? And why, it has often been asked, is the adversary under the water sometimes male, some- times female ? And why is it apparently the blood of Grendel, not of his mother, which discolours the water and burns up the sword, and the head of Grendel, not of his mother, which is brought home in triumph? These arguments may not carry much weight, but at any rate when we turn to the folk-tale we find that the adventure beneath the earth is the natural following up of the adventure in the house, not the result of any renewed attack. In addition, there are many striking coincidences between individual versions or groups of the folk-tale on the one hand and the Beowulf-Grettir story on the other: yet it is very difficult to know what value should be attached to these parallels, since there are many features of popular story which float around and attach themselves to this or that tale without any original connection, so that it is easy for the same trait to recur in Beowulf and in a group of folk-tales, without this proving that the stories as a whole are connected^. The hero of the Bear's son folk-tale is often in his youth unmanageable or lazy. This is also emphasized in the stories both of Grettir and of Orm: and though such a feature was uncongenial to the courtly tone of Beowulf, which sought to depict the hero as a model prince, yet it is there^, even though only alluded to incidentally, and elsewhere ignored or even denied^. Again, the hero of the folk-tale is very frequently (but not necessarily) either descended from a bear, nourished by a bear, or has some ursine characteristic. We see this recurring in certain traits of Beowulf such as his bear-like method of hugging ^ From the controversial point of view Panzer has no doubt weakened his case by drawing attention to so many of these, probably accidental, coincidences. It gives the critic material for attack (cf, Boer, Beowulf, 14) 2 U. 2183 etc. 3 U. 408-9. C. B. 5 66 Parallels from Folklore [CH. ii his adversary to death. Here again the courtly poet has not emphasized his hero's wildness^. Again, there are some extraordinary coincidences in names, between the Beowulf-Grettir story and the folk- tale. These are not found in Beowulf itself, but only in the stories of Grettir and Orm. Yet, as the Grettir-eipisodG is presumably derived from the same original as the Beowulf- eipisode, any original connection between it and the folk- tale involves such connection for Beowulf also. We have seen that in Grettis saga the priest Stein, as the unfaithful guardian of the rope which is to draw^ up the hero, seems to represent the faithless companions of the folktale. There is really no other way of accounting for him, for except on this supposition he is quite otiose and unnecessary to the Grettir-stoij : the saga-man has no use for him. And his name confirms this explanation, for in the folk- tale one of the three faithless companions of the hero is called the Stone-cleaver, Steinhauer, Stenhlj>ver, or even, in one Scandinavian version, simply Stein^. Again, the struggle in the Grettis saga is localized at Sand- haugar in Barthardal in Northern Iceland. Yet it is difficult to say why the saga-teller located the story there. The scenery, with the neighbouring river and mighty waterfall, is fully described : but students of Icelandic topography assert that the neighbourhood does not at all lend itself to this description^. When we turn to the story of Orm we find it locaUzed on the island Sandey. We are forced to the conclusion that the name belongs to the story, and that in some early version this was localized at a place called Sandhaug, perhaps at one of the numerous places in Norway of that name. Now turning to one of the Scandinavian versions of the folk-tale, we find that the descent into the earth and the consequent struggle is localized in en stor sandhaug^. ^ It comes out strongly in the Bjarki-story. 2 It can hardly be argued that Stein is mentioned because he was an historic character who in some way came into contact with the historic Grettir: for in this case his descent would have been given, according to the usual custom in the sagas. (Cf. note to Boer's edition of Grettis saga, p. 233.) ^ P. E. K. Kaalund, Bidrag til en historisk-topografisk Beskrivelse af Island, Kj^benhavn, 1877, n, 151. * The locaUzation in en stor sandhaug is found in a version of the story to which Panzer was unable to get access (see p. 7 of his Beoivulf, Note 2). A copy SECT, iv] Parallels from Folklore ^ Q7 On the other hand, it must be remembered that if a collection is made of some two hundred folk-tales, it is bound to contain, in addition to the essential kernel of common tradition, a vast amount of that floating material which tends to associate itself with this or that hero of story. Individual versions or groups of versions of the tale may contain features which occur also in the Grendel-stoiy, without that being any evidence for primitive connection. Thus we are told how Grendel forces open the door of Heorot. In a Sicilian version of the folk-tale the doors spring open of themselves as the foe appears. This has been claimed as a parallel. But, as a sceptic has observed, the extraordinary thing is that of so slight a similarity (if it is entitled to be called a similarity) we should find only one example out of two hundred, and have to go to Sicily for that^. The parallel between the Beonmlf-story and the "Bear's son'* folk-tale had been noted by Laistner (Das Rdtsel der Sphinx, Berlin, 1889, n, 22 etc.): but the prevalent behef that the Beoumlf-storj was a nature-myth seems to have prevented further investigation on these Unes till Panzer independently (p. 254) undertook his monumental work. Yet there are other features in the folk-tale which are entirely unrepresented in the Beowulf-Grettir story. The hero of the folk-tale rescues captive princesses in the underworld (it is because they wish to rob him of this prize that his com- panions leave him below); he is saved by some miraculous helper, and finally, after adopting a disguise, puts his treacherous comrades to shame and weds the youngest princess. None of these elements^ are to be found in the stories of Beowulf, Grettir, Orm or Bjarki, yet they are essential to the fairy tale^. is to be found in the University Library of Christiania, in a small book entitled Nor, en Billedbog for den norske Ungdom. Christiania, 1865. {Norske Folke- Evenly r...fortalte af P. C. Asbj0rnsen, pp. 65-128.) The sandhaug is an extraordinary coincidence, if it is a mere coincidence. It cannot have been imported into the modem folk-tale from the Orettia saga, for there is no superficial resemblance between the two tales. 1 Cf. Boer, Beowulf, 14. 2 Yet both Beowulf and Orm are saved by divine help. ^ Panzer exaggerates the case against his own theory when he quotes only six versions as omitting the princesses (p. 122). Such unanimity as this is hardly to be looked for in a collection of 202 khidred folk-tales. In addition to these six, the princesses are altogether missing, for example, in the versions which Panzer numbers 68, 69, 77 : they are only faintly represented in other versions (e.g. 76). Nevertheless the rescue of the princesses may be regarded as the most essential element in the tale. 6—2 68 Parallels from FolUore [CH. ii So that to speak of Beowulf as a version of the fairy tale is undoubtedly going too far. All we can say is that some early story-teller took, from folk-tale, those elements which suited his purpose, and that a tale, containing many leading features found in the "Bear's son" story, but omitting many of the leading motives of that story, came to be told of Beowulf and of Grettiri. Section V. Scef and Scyld. Our poem begins with an account of the might, and of the funeral, of Scyld Scefing, the ancestor of that Danish royal house which is to play so large a part in the story. After Scyld's death his retainers, following the command he had given them, placed their beloved prince in the bosom of a ship, surrounded by many treasures brought from distant lands, by weapons of battle and weeds of war, swords and byrnies. Also they placed a golden banner high over his head, and let the sea bear him away, with soul sorrowful and downcast. Men could not say for a truth, not the wisest of councillors, who received that burden. Now there is much in this that can be paralleled both from the literature and from the archaeological remains of the North. Abundant traces have been found, either of the burial or of the burning of a chief within a ship. And we are told by different authorities of two ancient Swedish kings who, sorely wounded, and unwilling to die in their beds, had themselves placed upon ships, surrounded by weapons and the bodies of the slain. The funeral pyre was then lighted on the vessel,, and the ship sent blazing out to sea. Similarly the dead body of Baldr was put upon his ship, and burnt. Haki konungr fekk sv^ stor sar, at hann si, at bans lifdagar mundu eigi langir verSa ; ])k let hann taka skeiS, er hann atti, ok let hlatJa dauSum mgnnum, ok vapnum, 16t ]>a flytja lit til hafs ok leggja styri ^ I cannot agree with Panzer when (p. 319) he suggests the possibility of the Beovmlf and the Grettir-story having been derived independently from the folk-tale. For the two stories have many features in common which do not belong to the folk-tale : apart from the absence of the princesses we have the hspft-mece and the strange conclusion drawn by the watchers from the blood- stained water. SECT, vj See/ and Scyld 69 i lag ok draga upp segl, en leggja eld i tyrviS ok gera bal k skipinu ; veSr st63 af landi ; Haki var ])6. at kominn dautJa eSa dauSr, er hann var lagiSr 4 bdlit; sigltJi skipit siSan loganda ut i haf, ok var t)etta allfrsegt lengi sfSan. (King Haki was so sore wounded that he saw that his days could not be long. Then he had a warship of his taken, and loaded with dead men and weapons, had it carried out to sea, the rudder shipped, the sail drawn up, the fir-tree wood set alight, and a bale-fire made on the ship. The wind blew from the land. Haki was dead or nearly dead, when he was placed on the pyre. Then the ship sailed blazing out to sea; and that was widely famous for a long time after.) Ynglinga Saga, Kap. 23, in Heimskringla, udg. af Finnur J6nsson, K0benhavn, 1893, vol. i, p. 43. The Skjoldunga Saga gives a story which is obviously connected with this. King Sigurd Ring in his old age asked in marriage the lady Alfsola; but her brothers scorned to give her to an aged man. War followed; and the brothers, knowing that they could not withstand the hosts of Sigm-d, poisoned their sister before marching against him. In the battle the brothers were slain, and Sigurd badly wounded. Qui, Alfsola funere allato, magnam navim mortuorum cadaveribus oneratam solus vivorum conscendit, seque et mortuam Alfsolam in puppi collocans navim pice, bitumine et sulphure incendi jubet: atque sublatis velis in altum, validis a continente impellentibus ventis, proram dirigit, simulque manus sibi violentas intuHt; sesc.more majorum suorum regali pompa Odinum regem (id est inferos) invisere malle, quam inertis senectutis infirmitatem perpeti Skjoldungasaga i Arngrim Jonssons udtog, udgiven af Axel Olrik, Kj0benhavn, 1894, Cap. xxvn, p. 50 [132]. So with the death of Baldr. En sesirnir toku lik Baldrs ok fluttu til sasvar. Hringhorni het skip Baldrs ; hann var allra skipa mestr, hann vildu gotSin framm setja ok gera I^ar a balfgr Baldrs... p4 var borit tit 4 skipit lik Baldrs,... OSinn lagSi 4 b41it gullhring ]?ann, er Draupnir heitir...hestr Baldrs var leiddr a b4Ut meS qIIu reiSi. (But the gods took the body of Baldr and carried it to the sea-shore. Baldr' s ship was named Hringhorni: it was the greatest of all ships and the gods sought to launch it, and to build the pyre of Baldr on it.... Then was the body of Baldr borne out on to the ship.... Odin laid on the pyre the gold ring named Draupnir... and Baldr's horse with all his trappings was placed on the pyre.) Snorra Edda : Oylfaginning, 48 ; udg. af Finnur J6nsson, K0ben- havn, 1900. We are justified in rendering setja skip f ram by "launch": Olrik (HeUedigfning, I, 250) regards Baldr's funeral as a case of the burning of a body in a ship on land. But it seems to me, as to Mr Chadwick (Origin, 287), that the natural meaning is that the ship was launched in the sea. But the case of Scyld is not exactly parallel to these. The ship which conveyed Scyld out to sea was not set alight. And the words of the poet, though dark, seem to imply that it was intended to come to land somewhere: "None could say who / received that freight." 70 8cef and Scyld [ch. ii Further, Scyld not merely departed over the waves — he had in the first instance come over them : " Not with less treasure did they adorn him," says the poet, speaking of the funeral rites, "than did those who at the beginning sent him forth alone over the waves, being yet a child." Scyld Scefing then, like Tennyson's Arthur, comes from the unknown and departs back to it. The story of the mysterious coming over the water was not confined to Scyld. It meets us in connection with King Scef, who was regarded, at any rate from the time of Alfred, and possibly much earlier, as the remotest ancestor of the Wessex \ kings. Ethelwerd, a member of the West Saxon royal house, who compiled a bombastic Latin chronicle towards the end of the tenth century, traces back the pedigree of the kings of Wessex to Scyld and his father Scef. " This Scef," he says, " came to land on a swift boat, surrounded by arms, in an island of the ocean called Scani, when a very young child. He was unknown to the people of that land, but was adopted by them as if of their kin, well cared for, and afterwards elected king^." Note here, firstly, that the story is told, not of Scyld Scefing, but of Scef, father of Scyld. Secondly, that although Ethelwerd is speaking of the ancestor of the West Saxon royal house, he makes him come to land and rule, not in the ancient homeland of continental Angeln, but in the "island of Scani," which signifies what is now the south of Sweden, and perhaps also the Danish islands^ — that same land of Scedenig which is men- tioned in Beowulf as the realm of Scyld. The tone of the ^narrative is, so far as we can judge from Ethelwerd's dry summary, entirely warHke : Scef is surrounded by weapons. In the twelfth century the story is again told by William of Malmesbury . " Sceldius was the son of Sceaf . He, they say, was carried as a small boy in a boat without any oarsman to a certain isle of Germany called Scandza, concerning which 1 Ipse Scef cum uno dromone advectus est in insula Oceani, quae dicitur Scani, armis circundatus, eratque valde recens puer, & ab mcolis illius terrae ignotus; attamen ab eis suscipitur, & ut familiarem diligenti animo eum custodierunt, & post in regem eligunt. Ethelwerdus, in, 3, in Savile's Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores post Bedarrif Francofurti, 1601, p. 842. a See Chadwick, Origin, 259-60 SECT, v] Scef and Scyld 71 Jordanes, the liistorian of the Goths, speaks. He was sleeping, and a handful of corn was placed at his head, from which he was called * Sheaf.' He was regarded as a wonder by the folk of that country and carefully nurtured; when grown up he ruled in a town then called Slaswic, and now Haithebi — that region is called ancient Angha^." William of Malmesbury was, of course, aware of Ethelwerd's account, and may have been influenced by it. Some of his variations may be his own invention. The substitution of the classical form Scandza for Ethelwerd's Scani is simply a change from popular to learned nomenclature, and enables the historian to show that he has read something of Jordanes. The altera- tion by which Malmesbury makes Sceaf, when grown up, rule at Schleswig in ancient Angel, may again be his own work — a variant added in order to make Sceaf look more at home in an Anglo-Saxon pedigree. But WilUam of Malmesbury was, as we shall see later, prone to incorporate current ballads into his history, and after allowing for what he may have derived from Ethelwerd, and what he may have invented, there can be no doubt that many of the additional details which he gives are genuine popular poetry. Indeed, whilst the story of Scyld's funeral is very impressive in Beowulf, it is in WilHam's narrative that the story of the child coming over the sea first becomes poetic. Now since even the English historians connected this tale with the Danish territory of Scani, Scandza, we should expect to find it again on turning to the records of the Danish royal house. And we do find there, generally at the head of the pedigree^, a hero — Skjold — whose name corresponds, and whose relationship to the later Danish kings shows him to be the same as the Scyld Scefing of Beowulf. But neither Saxo Gram- maticus, nor any other Danish historian, knows anything of ^ Sceldius [fuit films] Sceaf. Iste, ut ferunt, in quandam insulam Germaniae Scandzam, de qua Jordanes, historiographus Gothorum, loquitur, appulsua navi sine remige, puerulus, posito ad caput frumenti manipulo, dormiens, ideoque Sceaf nuncupatus, ab hominibus regionis illius pro miraculo exceptus et sedulo nutritus: adulta aetate regnavit in oppido quod tunc Slaswic, nunc vero Haithebi appellatur. Est autem regio ilia Anglia vetus dicta.... William of Malmesbury, De Oestis Regum Anglorum. Lib. ii, § 116, vol. i, p. 121, ed. Stubbs, 1887. 2 Although Saxo Grammaticus has provided some even earUer kings. 72 Scef and Scyld [ch. ii Skjold having come in his youth or returned in his death over the ocean. How are we to harmonize these accounts? Beowulf and Ethelwerd agree in representing the hero as " surrounded by arms " ; Wilham of Malmesbury mentions only the sheaf ; the difference is weighty, for presumably the spoils which the hero brings with him from the unknown, or takes back thither, are in harmony with his career. Beowulf and Ethelwerd seem to show the warrior king, William of Malmes- bury seems rather to be telling the story of a semi-divine foundhng, who introduces the tillage of the earth^. In Beowulf the child is Scyld Scefing, in Ethelwerd and William of Malmesbury he is Sceaf, father of Scyld. Beowulf, Ethelwerd and Wilham of Malmesbury agree in connecting the story with Scedenig, Scant or Scandza, yet the two historians and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle all make Sceaf the ancestor of the West Saxon house. Yet we have no evidence that the Enghsh were regarded as having come from Scandinavia. The last problem admits of easy solution. In heathen times the English traced the pedigree of most of their kings to Woden, and stopped there. For higher than that they could not go. But a Christian poet or genealogist, who had no belief in Woden as a god, would regard the All Father as a man — a mere man who, by magic powers, had made the heathen believe he was a god. To such a Christian pedigree- maker Woden would convey no idea of finality; he would feel no difficulty in giving this human Woden any number of ancestors. Wishing to glorify the pedigree of his king, he would add any other distinguished and authentic genealogies, and the obvious place for these would be at the end of the Hue, i.e., above Woden. Hence we have in some quite early (not West Saxon) pedigrees, five names given as ancestors of Woden. These five names end in Geat or Geata, who was apparently regarded as a god, and was possibly Woden under another name^. Somewhat later, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, under 1 Cf. MuUenhoff in Z.f.d.A. vii, 413. 2 In Orimnismdl, 54, Odin gives Oautr as one of his names. 4 SECT, v] Scef and Scyld 73 the year 855, we have a long version of the West Saxon pedigree with yet nine further names above Geat, ending in Sceaf. Sceaf is described as a son of Noah, and so the pedigree is carried back to Adam, 25 generations in all beyond Woden^. But it is rash to assume with Miillenhoff that, because Sceaf comes at the head^ of this English pedigree, Sceaf was therefore essentially an Enghsh hero. All these later stages above Woden look like the ornate additions of a later compiler. Some of the figures, Finn, Sceldwa, Heremod, Sceaf himself, we have reason to identify with the primitive heroes of other nations. The genealogist who finally made Sceaf into a son born to Noah in the ark, and then carried the pedigree nine stages further back through Noah to Adam, merely made the last of a series of accretions. It does not follow that, because he made them ancestors of the English king, this compiler regarded Noah, Enoch and Adam as Enghshmen. Neither need he have so regarded Sceaf or Scyld ^ or Beaw. In fact — and this has constantly been overlooked — the authority for Sceaf, Scyld and Beaw as Anglo-Saxon heroes is but little stronger than the authority for Noah and Adam in that capacity. No manuscript exists which stops at Scyld or Sceaf. There is no version which goes beyond Geat except that which goes up to Adam. Scyld, Beaw, Sceaf, Noah and Adam as heroes of English mythology are all aHke doubtful. We must be careful, however, to define what we mean when we regard these stages of the pedigree as doubtful. They are doubtful in ^o far as they are represented as standing above Woden in the Anglo-Saxon pedigree, because it is in- credible that, in primitive and heathen times, Woden was credited with a dozen or more forefathers. The position of these names in the pedigree is therefore doubtful. But it is only their connection with the West Saxon house that is un- authentic. It does not follow that the names are, fer se, unauthentic. On the contrary, it is because the genealogist had such implicit belief in the authenticity of the generations ^ See below. 2 Excluding, of course, the Hebrew names. * Scyld appears as Scyldwa, Sce{a)ldwa in the Chronicle. The forms correspond. 74 Scef and Scyld [ch. ii from Noali to Adam that he could not rest satisfied with his West Saxon pedigree till he had incorporated thfese names. They are not West Saxon, but they are part of a tradition much more ancient than any pedigree of the West Saxon kings. And the argument which applies to the layer of Hebrew names between Noah and Adam applies equally to the layer of Ger- manic names between Woden and Sceaf. From whatever branch of the Germanic race the genealogist may have taken them, the fact that he placed them where he did in the pedigree is a proof of his veneration for them. But we must not without evidence claim them as West Saxon or Anglo-Saxon : we must not be surprised if evidence points to some of them being con- nected with other nations — as Heremod, for example, with the Danes^. More difficult are the other problems. William of Malmes- bury tells the story of Sceaf, with the attributes of a culture- hero : Beowulf, four centuries earlier, tells it of Scyld, a warrior hero: Ethelwerd tells it of Sceaf, but gives him the warrior attributes of Scyld^ instead of the sheaf of corn. The earlier scholars mostly agreed^ in regarding Malmes- bury's attribution of the story to Sceaf as the original and correct version of the story, in spite of its late date. As a representative of these early scholars we may take Miillenhoff*. MiillenhofE's love of mythological interpretation found ample scope in the story of the child with the sheaf, which he, with considerable reason, regarded as a " culture-myth." Miillenhoff beUeved the carrying over of the attributes of a god to a line of his supposed descendants to be a common feature of myth — the descendants representing the god under another name. In accordance with this view, Scyld could be explained as an "hypostasis" of his father or forefather Sceaf, as a figure further explaining him and representing him, so that in the end the tale of the boat arrival came to be told, in Beowulf, of Scyld instead of Sceaf. ^ See Part II. ^ armis circundatus. ^ 3 For a list of the scholars who have dealt with the subject, see Widsith p. 119. * Beovulf, p. Q etc. * SECT, v] Seef and Scijld 7o Kecent years have seen a revolt against most of Miillenhoiffi's theories. The view that the story originally belonged to Sceaf has come to be regarded with a certain amount of impatience as "out of date." Even so fine a scholar as Dr Lawrence has expressed this impatience : "That the graceful story of the boy sailing in an open boat to the land of his future people was told originally of Sceaf. . .needs no detailed refutation at the present day. "The attachment of the motive to Sceaf must be, as an examination of the sources shows, a later development^." Accordingly the view of recent scholars has been this: That the story belongs essentially to Scyld. That, as the hero of the boat story is obviously of unknown parentage, we must interpret Scefing not as "son of Sceaf" but as "with the sheaf" (in itself a quite possible explanation). That this stage of the story is preserved in Beowulf. That subsequently Scyld Scefing, standing at the head of the pedigree, came to be mis- understood as "Scyld, son of Sceaf." That consequently the story, which must be told of the earlier ancestor, was thus transferred from Scyld to his supposed father Sceaf — the version which is found in Ethelwerd and William of Malmesbury. One apparent advantage of this theory is that the oldest version, that of Beowulf, is accepted as the correct and original one, and the much later versions of the historians Ethelwerd and William of Malmesbury are regarded as subsequent cor- ruptions. This on the surface seems eminently reasonable. But let us look closer. Scyld Scefing in Beowulf is to be in- terpreted ''Scyld with the Sheaf." But Beowulf nowhere mentions the sheaf as part of Scyld's equipment. On the contrary, we gather that the hero is connected rather with prowess in war. It is the same in Ethelwerd. It is not till WiUiam of Malmesbury that the sheaf comes into the story. So that the interpretation of Scefing as "with the sheaf" assumes the accuracy of William of Malmesbury's story even in a point where it receives no support from the Beowulf version. In other words this theory does the very thing to avoid doing which it was called into being^, ^ Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. xxiv, 259 etc. ^ This objection to the Scyld-theory has been excellently expressed by Olrik — at a time, too, when Olrik himself accepted the story as belonging to Scyld 76 See/ and Scyld [ch. ii Besides this, there are two fundamental objections to the theory that Sceaf is a late creation, a figure formed from the misunderstanding of the epithet Scefing applied to Scyld, One portion of the poem of Widsith consists of a catalogue of ancient kings, and among these occurs Sceaf a, ruling the Lango- bards. Now portions of Widsith are very ancient, and this catalogue in which Sceafa occurs is almost certainly appreciably older than Beowulf itself. Secondly, the story of the wonderful foundling who comes over the sea from the unknown and founds a royal line, must ex hypothesi be told of the first in the line, and we have seen that it is Sceaf, not Scyld, who comes at the head of the Teutonic names in the genealogy in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Now we can date this genealogy fairly exactly. It occurs under the year 855, and seems to have been drawn up at the court of King ^Ethelwulf . In any case it cannot be later than the latter part of Alfred's reign. This takes us back to a period when the old English epic was still widely popular. A genealogist at Alfred's court must have known much about Old English story . These facts are simply not consistent with the belief that Sceaf is a late creation, a figure formed from a misunderstanding of the epithet Scefing, applied to Scyld^. rather than Sceaf. "Binz," says Olrik, "rejects William of Malmesbury as a source for the Scyld story. But he has not noticed that in doing so he saws across the branch upon which he himself and the other investigators are sitting. For if William is not a reliable authority, and even a more reliable authority than the others, then 'Scyld with the sheaf is left in the air." Heltedigtning, I, 238-9, note. ^ The discussion of Skjold by Olrik {Danmarks Heltedigtning, i, 223-271) is perhaps the most helpful of any yet made, especially in emphasizing the necessity of differentiating the stages in the story. But it must be taken in connection with the very essential modifications made by Dr Olrik in his second volume (pp. 249-65, especially pp. 264-5). Dr Olrik's earlier interpretation made Scyld the original hero of the story : Scefing Olrik interpreted, not as "with the sheaf," but as "son of Scef." To the objection that any knowledge of Scyld' s parentage would be inconsistent with his unknown origin, Olrik replied by supposing that Scyld was a foundling whose origin, though unknown to the people of the land to which he came, was well known to the poet. The poet, Dr Olrik thought, regarded him as a son of the fcangobardic king, Sceafa, a connection which we are to attribute to the Anglo-Saxon love of framing genealogies. But this explanation of Scyld Scefing as a human foundling doei not seem to me to be borne out by the text of Beowulf. "The child is a pool foundling," says Dr Olrik, "Ae suffered distress from the time lohen he was firs found as a helpless child. Only as a grown man did he get compensation foi his childhood's adversity" (p. 228). But this is certainly not the meaning o: egsode eorl[as]. It is ''He inspired the earl[s] with awe." SECT, v] Scef and Scyld 77 To arrive at any definite conclusion is difficult. But the following may be hazarded. It may be taken as proved that the Scyld or Sceldwa of the genealogists is identical with the Scyld Scefing of Beowulf. For Sceldwa according to the genealogy is also ultimately a Sceafing, and is the father of Beow ; Scyld is Scefing and is father of Beowulf^. It is equally clear that the Scyld Scefing of Beowulf is identical with the Skjold of the Danish genealogists and historians. For Scyld and Skjold are both represented as the founder and head of the Danish royal house of Scyldingas or Skjoldungar, and as reigning in the same district. Here, however, the resemblance ceases. Beowulf tells us of Scyld's marvellous coming and departure. The only Danish authority who tells us much of Skjold is Saxo Grammaticus, who records how as a boy Skjold wrestled successfully with a bear and over- came champions, and how later he annulled unrighteous laws, and distinguished himself by generosity to his court. But the Danish and EngKsh accounts have nothing specifically in common, though the type they portray is the same — that of a king from his youth beloved by his retainers and feared by neighbouring peoples, whom he subdues and makes tributary. It looks rather as if the oldest traditions had had little to say about this hero beyond the typical things which might be said of any great king ; so that Danes and English had each supplied the deficiency in their own way. Now this is exactly what we should expect. For Scyld- I Skjold is hardly a personality: he is a figure evolved out of the name Scyldingas, Skjoldungar, which is an old epic title for the Danes. Of this we may be fairly certain : the Scyldingas did not get their name because they were really descended from Scyld, but Scyld was created in order to provide an eponymous father to the Scyldingas^. In just the same way ^ See below (App. C) for instances of ancestral names extant both in weak and strong forms, like Scyld, Sceldwa (the identity of which no one doubts) or Sceaf, Sceaja (the identity of which has been doubted). ^ "As for the name Scyldungas-Skjoldungar, we need not hesitate to believe that this originally meant 'the people' or 'Mnsmen of the shield.' Similar appellations are not uncommon, e.g., Rondingas, Helmingas, Brondingas... 78 Beef and Scyld [ch. ii tradition also evolved a hero Dan, from whom the Danes were supposed to have their name. Saxo Grammaticus has com- bined both pedigrees, making Skjold a descendant of Dan; but usually it was agreed that nothing came before Skjold, that he was the beginning of the Skjoldung line^. At first a mere name, we should expect that he would have no character- istic save that, like every respectable Germanic king, he took tribute from his foes and gave it to his friends. He differs therefore from those heroic figures like Hygelac or Guthhere (Gunnar) which, being derived from actual historic characters, have, from the beginning of their story, certain definite features attached to them. Scyld is, in the beginning, merely a name, the ancestor of the Scyldings. Tradition collects round him gradually. Hence it will be rash to attach much weight to any feature which is found in one account of him only. Anything we are V)ld of Scyld in English sources alone is not to be construed as evidence as to his original story, but only as to the form that story assumed in England. When, for example, Beoivulf tells us that Scyld is Scefing, or that he is father of Beowulf, it will be very rash of us to assume that these relationships existed in the Danish, but have been forgotten. This is, I think, univer- sally admitted^. Yet the very scholars who emphasize this, have assumed that the marvellous arrival as a child, in a boat, surrounded by weapons, is an essential feature of Scyld's story. Yet the evidence for this is no better and no worse than the evidence for his relationship to Sceaf or Beow — it rests solely on the English documents. Accordingly it only shows what was told about Scyld in England. Of course the boat arrival might be an original part of the story of Scyld-SJcjold, which has been forgotten in his native probably these names meant either 'the people of the shield, the helmet,' etc., or else the people who used shields, helmets, etc., in some special way. In the former case we may compare the Ancile of the Romans and the Palladion of the Greeks; in either case we may note that occasionally shields have been fomid in the North which can never have been used except for ceremonial] purposes." Chad wick, Origin, p. 284: cf. Olrik, Heltedigtning, i, 274. ^ Sweyn Aageson, Shiold Danis primum didici praefuisse, in Langebek, 8.B.D. I, 44. 2 Olrik, Heltedigtning, i, 246; Lawrence, Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc, xxiv, 254. SECT, v] Beef and Scyld 79 country, but remembered in England. But I cannot see that we have any right to assert this, without proof. What we can assert to have been the original feature of Scyld is this — that he was the eponymous hero king of the Danes. Both Beowulf and the Scandinavian authorities agree upon that. The fact that his name (in the form Sceldwa) appears in the genealogy of the kings of Wessex is not evidence against a Danish origin. The name appears in close connection with that of Heremod, another Danish king, and is merely evidence of a desire on the part of the genealogist of the Wessex kings to connect his royal house with the most distinguished family he knew : that of the Scyldingas, about whom so much is said in the prologue to Beowulf. Neither do the instances of place-names in England, such as Scyldes treow, Scildes well, prove Scyld to have been an English hero. They merely prove him to have been a hero I who was celebrated in England — which the Prologue to Beowulf alone is sufficient to show to have been the case. For place- names commemorating heroes of alien tribes are common enough^ on English ground. So much at least is gained. Whatever Miillenhoff^ and his followers constructed upon the assumption that Scyld was an essentially Anglo-Saxon hero goes overboard. Scyld is the ancestor king of the Danish house — more than this we can hardly with safety assert. Now let us turn to the figure of Sceaf. This was not necessarily connected with Scyld from the first. The story of Sceaf first meets us in its completeness in the pages of William of Malmesbury. And William of Malmesbury is a twelfth century authority; by his time the Old English courtly epics had died out — for they could not have long survived the Norman Conquest and the overthrow of Old Enghsh court life. But the popular tradition^ remained, and ^ It is odd that Binz, who has recorded so many of these, should have argued on the strength of these place-names that the Scyld story is not Danish, but an ancient possession of the tribes of the North Sea coast (p. 150). For Binz also records an immense number of names of heroes of alien stock — Danish, Gothic or Burgundian — as occurring in England {P.B.B. xx, 202 etc.). 2 Beovulf, p. 7. ' Chad wick. Origin, p. 278, 80 Scef and Scyld [CH. ii a good many of the old stories, banished from the hall, must have lingered on at the cross-roads — tales of Wade and Wey- land, of Offa and Sceaf. For songs, sung by minstrels at the cross roads, William of Malmesbury is good evidence, and he owns to having drawn information from similar popular sources^. William's story, then, is evidence that in his own day there was a tradition of a mythical king Sheaf who came as a child sleeping in a ship with a sheaf of corn at his head. How old this tradition may be, we cannot say. Ethelwerd knew the story, though he has nothing to say of the sheaf. But we have seen that when we get back to the ninth century, and the formation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, at a court where we may be sure the old English heroic stories were still popular, it is Sceaf and not Sceldwa who is regarded as the beginning of things — the king whose origin is so remote that he is the oldest Germanic ancestor one can get back to^ : " he was born in Noah's ark." Whether or no Noah's ark was chosen as Sceaf 's birthplace because legend represented him as coming in a boat over the water, we cannot tell. But the place he occupies, with only the Biblical names before him, as compared with Sceldwa the son of Heremod, clearly marks Sceaf rather than Sceldwa as the hero who comes from the unknown. Turning now to the catalogue of kings in Widsith, probably the oldest extant piece of Anglo-Saxon verse, some generations more ancient than Beowulf, we find a King Sceafa, who ruled over the Langobards. Finally, in Beowulf itself, although the story is told of Scyld, nevertheless this Scyld is characterized as Scefing. If this means " with the sheaf," then the Beowulf-stoiy stands convicted of imperfection, of needing explanation outside itself from the 1 The scandals about King Edgar {infamias quas post dicam magis resper- serunt cantilenae : see Gesta Regum Anglorum, n, § 148, ed. Stubbs, vol. i, p. 165) ; the story of Gimhilda, the daughter of Knut, who, married to a foreign King with great pomp and rejoicing, nostro seculo etiam in triviis cantitaia, was im- justly suspected of unchastity till her English page, in vindication of her honour, slew the giant whom her accusers had brought forward as their champion {Gesta., n, §188, ed. Stubbs, i, pp. 229, 230); the story of King Edward and the shepherdess, learnt from cantilenis per successiones temporum detritis {Gesta, II, § 138, ed. Stubbs, i, 155). Macaulay in the Lays of Ancient Borne has selected William as a typical example of the historian whb draws upon popular song. Cf. Freeman's Historical Essays. 2 Okik, Heltedigtning, i, 246. SECT, v] Scef and Scyld 81 account which William of Malmesbury wrote four centuries later. If it means " son of Sceaf," why should a father be given to Scyld, when the story demands that he should come from the unknown? Was it because, if the boat story was to be attributed to Scyld, it was felt that this could only be made plausible by giving him some relation to Sceaf? When we find an ancient king bearing the extraordinary name of "Sheaf," it is difficult not to connect this with the honour done to the sheaf of corn, survivals of which have been found in different parts of England. In Herrick's time, the sheaves of corn were still kissed as they were carried home on the Hock-cart, whilst Some, with great Devotion, stroke the home-borne wlieat. Professor Chadwick argues, on the analogy of Prussian and Bulgarian harvest customs, that the figure of the "Harvest Queen" in the English ceremony is derived from a corn figure made from the last sheaf, and that the sheaf was once regarded as a religious symbol^. But the evidence for this is surely even stronger than would be gathered from Professor Chadwick's very cautious statement. I suppose there is hardly a county in England from Kent to Cornwall and from Kent to North- umberland, where there is not evidence for honour paid to the last sheaf — an honour which cannot be accounted for as merely expressing the joy of the reapers at having got to the end of their task. In Kent "a figure composed of some of the best com" was made into a human shape: "this is afterwards curiously dressed by the women, and adorned with paper trimmings cut to resemble a cap, ruffles, handkerchief, etc., of the finest lace. It is brought home with the last load of corn^." In Northumberland and Durham a sheaf known as the "Kern baby" was made into the likeness of a human figure, decked out and brought home in triumph with dancing and singing^. But the most striking form of the sheaf ceremony is found in the honour done to the " Neck " in the West of England. 1 Origin, pp. 279-281. • » Brand, Popular Antiquities, 1813, i, 443. * Henderson, Folklore of the Northern Cimnties, 87-89. C. B. 6 82 Scef and Scyld [ch. ii ...After the wheat is all cut, on most farms in the north of Devon, the harvest people have a custom of "crying the neck." I beheve that this practice is seldom omitted on any large farm in that part of the country. It is done in this way. An old man, or someone else well acquainted with the ceremonies used on the occasion (when the labourers are reaping the last field of wheat), goes round to the shocks and sheaves, and picks out a little bundle of all the best ears he can find ; this bundle he ties up very neat and trim, and plats and arranges the straws very tastefully. This is called "the neck" of wheat, or wheaten-ears. After the field is cut out, and the pitcher once more circulated, the reapers, binders, and the women, stand round in a circle. The person with "the neck " stands in the centre, grasping it with both his hands. He first stoops and holds it near the ground, and all the men forming the ring take off their hats, stooping and holding them with both hands towards the ground. They then all begin at once in a very prolonged and harmonious tone to cry "the neck!" at the same time slowly raising themselves upright, and elevating their arms and . hats above their heads ; the person with "the neck" also raising it on high. This is done three times. They then change their cry to "wee yen ! " — "way yen !" — which they sound in the same prolonged and slow manner as before, with singular harmony and efi^ect, three times. This last cry is accompanied by the same movements of the body and arms as in crying "the neck. "... ...After having thus repeated "the neck" three times, and "wee yen" or "way yen" as often, they all burst out into a kind of loud and joyous laugh, flinging up their hats and caps into the air, capering about and perhaps kissing the girls. One of them then gets "the neck," and runs as hard as he can down to the farm-house, where the dairy-maid, or one of the young female domestics, stands at the door prepared with a pail of water. If he who holds "the neck" can manage to get into the house, in any way, unseen or openly, by any other way than the door at which the girl stands with the pail of water, then he may lawfully kiss her; but, if otherwise, he is regularly soused with the contents of the bucket. On a fine still autumn evening, the "crying of the neck" has a wonderful effect at a distance, far finer than that of the Turkish muezzin, which Lord Byron eulogizes so much, and which he says is preferable to all the bells in Christendom. I have once or twice heard upwards of twenty men cry it, and some- times joined by an equal number of female voices. About three years back, on some high grounds, where our people were harvesting, I heard six or seven "necks" cried in one night, although I know that some of them were four miles off^. The account given by Mrs Bray of the Devonshire custom, in her letters to Southey, is practically identical with this^. We have plenty of evidence for this ceremony of "Crying the Neck" in the South- Western counties — in Somersetshire 3, in Cornwall*, and in a mutilated form in Dorsetshire^. 4 1 Hone's Every Day Booh, 1827, p. 1170. 2 The Tamar and the Tavy, i, 330 (1836). 3 Raymond, Two men o' Mendip, 1899, 259. * Miss M. A. Courtney, Glossary of West Cornwall; T. Q. Couch, Glossary of East Cornwall, s.v. Neck {Eng. Dial. Soc. 1880) ; Jago, Ancient Language of Cornwall, 1882, s. v. Anek. ^ j^Qf^g ^^ Queries, 4th Ser. xii, 491 (l'873). SECT, v] Scef and Scyld 83 On the Welsh border the essence of the ceremony con- sisted in tying the last ears of corn — perhaps twenty — with ribbon, and severing this "neck" by throwing the sickle at it from some distance. The custom is recorded in Cheshire^, Shropshire^, and under a different name in Herefordshire^. The term "neck" seems to have been known as far afield as Yorkshire and the "little England beyond Wales " — the EngKsh- speaking colony of Pembrokeshire*. Whether we are to interpret the expression "the Neck," applied to the last sheaf, as descended from a time when "the com spirit is conceived in human form, and the last standing corn is a part of its body — its neck^ " or whether it is merely a survival of the Scandinavian word for sheaf — nek or neg^y we have here surely evidence of the worship of the sheaf. "In this way * Sheaf was greeted, before he passed over into a purely mythical being'." I do not think these "neck" customs can be traced back beyond the seventeenth century^. Though analogous usages are recorded in England (near Eton) as early as the sixteenth century^, it was not usual at that time to trouble to record such things. The earliest document bearing upon the veneration of the sheaf comes from a neighbouring district, and is contained in the Chronicle of the Monastery of Abingdon, which tells how in the time of King Edmund (941-946) a controversy arose as to the right of the monks of Abingdon to a certain portion of land adjoining the river. The monks appealed to a judgment of God to vindicate their claim, and this took the shape of * Holland's Glossary of Chester {Eng. Dial. Soc.), s.v. Cutting the Neck. 2 Bume, Shropshire Folk Lore, 1883, 371. 3 "to cry the Mare." Blount, Glossographia, 4th edit. 1674, a. v. mare. €f. Notes and Queries, 5th Ser. vi, 286 (1876). * Wright, Eng. Dial. Diet, s.v. neck. » Frazer, Spirits of the Corn, 1912, i, 268. The word was under- stood as = "neck" by the peasants, because "They'm taied up under the chin laike" {Notes and Queries, 5th Ser. x, 51). But this may be false etymology. * Wright, Eng. Dial. Diet. Cf. Notes and Queries, 5th Ser. x, 51. ' Heli'idigtning, u, 252. ^ The earliest record of the term "cutting the neck" seems to be found in Randle Holme's Store House of Armory, 1688 (n 73). It may be noted that Holme was a Cheshire man. » Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen, Strassburg, 1884, 326 etc. 6—2 84 Scef and Scyld [CH. ii placing a sheaf, with a taper on the top, upon a round shield, and letting it float down the river, the shield by its movements hither and thither indicating accurately the boundaries of the monastic domain. At last the shield came to the field in debate, which, thanks to the floods, it was able to circum- navigate^. Professor Chadwick, who first emphasized the importance of this strange ordeal 2, points out that although the extant Mss of the Chronicle date from the thirteenth century, the mention of a round shield carries the superstition back to a period before the Norman Conquest. Therefore this story seems to give us evidence for the use of the sheaf and shield together as a magic symbol in Anglo-Saxon times. "An ordeal by letting the sheaf sail down the river on a shield was only possible at a time when the sheaf was regarded as a kind of supernatural being which could find the way itself^." / But a still closer parallel to the story of the corn-figure coming over the water is found in Finnish mythology in the person of Sampsa Pellervoinen. Finnish mythology seems remote from our subject, but if the figure of Sampsa was borrowed from Germanic mythology, as seems to be thought*, we are justified in laying great weight upon the parallel. Keaders of the Kalewala will remember, near the beginning, the figure of Sampsa Pellervoinen, the god of Vegetation. He does not seem to do much. But there are other Finnish ^ Quod dum servi Dei propensius actitarent, inspiratum est eis salubre consilium et (ut pium est credere) divinitus provisum. Die etenim statute mane surgentes monaehi sumpserunt scutum rotundum, cui imponebant manipulum frumenti, et super manipulum cereum circumspectae quantitatis et grossitudinis. Quo accenso scutum cum manipulo et cereo, flu vie ecclesiam praetercurrenti committimt, paucis in navicula fratribus subsequentibus. Praecedebat itaque eos scutum et quasi digito demonstrans possessiones domui Abbendoniae de jure adjacentes nunc hue, nunc illuc divertens; nunc in dextra nunc in sinistra parte fiducialiter eos praeibat, usquedum veniret ad rivum prope pratum quod Beri vocatur, in quo cereus medium cursum Tamisiae miraculose deserens se declinavit et circumdedit pratum inter Tamisiam et Gifteleia, quod hieme et multociens aestate ex redundatione Tamisiae in modum insulae aqua circumdatur. Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon, ed. Stevenson, 1858, vol. i, p. 89. 2 Chadwick, Origin, 278. 3 Olrik, Heltedigtning, n, 251. * But is this so? "The word Sampsa (now sampsykka) 'small rush, scirpus silvaticus, forest rush,' is borrowed from the Germanic family (Engl, eemse; Germ, simse)." Olrik, 253. But the Engl, "semse" is difficult to track. See also note by A. Mieler in Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen, x, 43, 1910. SECT, v] 8cef and Scyld 85 poems in Lis honour, extant in varying versions^. It is difficult to get a collected idea from these fragmentary records, but it seems to be this : Ahti, the god of the sea, sends messengers to j summon Sampsa, so that he may bring fertility to the fields. 1 In one version, first the Winter and then the Summer are sent to arouse Sampsa, that he may make the crops and trees grow. Winter — Took a foal swift as the spring wind. Let the storm wind bear him forward, Blew the trees till they were leafless. Blew the grass till it was seedless. Bloodless likewise the young maidens. Sampsa refuses to come. Then the Summer is sent with better results. In another version Sampsa is fetched from an island beyond the sea: It is I who summoned Sampsa From an isle amid the ocean. From a skerry bare and treeless. In yet another variant we are told how the boy Sampsa Took six grains from ofiE the com heap. Slept all summer mid the corn heap. In the bosom of the corn boat. Now "It's a long, long way to" Ilomantsi in the east of Finland, where this last variant was discovered. But at least we have evidence that, within the region influenced by Germanic mythology, the spirit of vegetation was thought of as a boy - coming over the sea, or sleeping in a boat with corn^. To sum up: Sceafa, when the Catalogue of Kings in Widsith was drawn up — before Beowulf was composed, at any rate in its present form — was regarded as an ancient king. When the West Saxon pedigree was drawn up, certainly not much more than a century and a half after the composition of Beowulf, and perhaps much less, Sceaf was regarded as the primitive figure in the pedigree, before whom no one lived save the Hebrew patriarchs. That he was originally thought of as a child, ^ Kaarle Krohn, "Sampsa Pellervoinen" in Finniach-Ugrische Forschungen IV, 231 etc., 1904. 2 Cf. Oh-ik, HeltedigtJiing, ii, 252 etc.. 86 Beef and Scyld [CH. ii coming across the water, with the sheaf of corn, is, in view of the Finnish parallel, exceedingly probable, and acquires some confirpation from the Chronicler's placing him in Noah's ark. But the definite evidence for this is late. Scyld, on the other hand, is in the first place probably a mere eponym of the power of the Scylding kings of Denmark. He may, at a very early date, have been provided with a ship funeral, since later two Swedish kings, both apparently of Danish origin, have this ship funeral accorded to them, and in one case it is expressly said to be "according to the custom of his ancestors." But it seems exceedingly improbable that his 9riginal story represented him as coming over the sea in a boat. For, if so, it remains to be explained why this motive has entirely disappeared among his own people in Scandinavia, and has been preserved only in England^ Would the Danes have been likely to forget utterly so striking a story, concerning the king from whom their line derived its name? Further, in England, Beowulf alone attributes this story to Scyld, whilst later historians attribute it to Sceaf. In view of the way in which the story of William of Malmesbury is supported by folk- lore, to regard that story as merely the result of error or invention seems perilous indeed. On the other hand, all becomes straightforward if we allow that Scyld and Sceaf were both ancient figures standing at the head of famous dynasties. Their names alHterate. What more likely than that their stories should have influenced each other, and that one king should have come to be regarded as the parent or ancestor of the other? Contamination with Scyld would account for Sceaf's boat being stated to have come to land in Scani, Scanza — that Scedeland which is men- tioned as the seat of Scyld's rule. Yet this explanation is not necessary, for if Sceaf were an early Longobard king, he would be rightly represented as ruling in Scandinavia^. 1 I do not understand why Olrik [Hdtedigtning, i, 235) declares the coining to land in Scani (Ethelwerd) to be inconsistent with Sceaf as a Longobardic king {Widsith). For, according to their national historian, the Longobardi came from "Scadinavia" [Paul the Deacon, i, 1-7]. It is a more serious difficulty that Paul knows of no Longobardic king with a name which we can equate with Sceaf. SECT, vi] Beow 87 Section VI. Beow. The Anglo-Saxon genealogies agree that the son of SceldWa (Scyld) is Beow (Beaw, Beo). In Beowulf, he is named not Beow, but Beowulf. Many etymologies have been suggested for Beow. But considering that Beow is in some versions a grandson, in all a descendant of Sceaf, it can hardly be an accident that his name is identical with the O.E. word for grain, heow. The Norse word corresponding to this is hygg^. Recent investigation of the name is best summed up in the words of Axel Olrik: ** New light has been cast upon the question of the derivation of the name Beow by Kaarle Krohn's investigation of the debt of Finnish to Norse mythology, together with Magnus Olsen's linguistic interpretation. The Finnish has a deity Pekko, concerning whom ii is said that he promoted the growth of barley: the Esths, closely akin to the Finns, have a corresponding Peko, whose image — the size of a three-year-old child — was carried out into the fields and invoked at the time of sowing, or else was kept in the corn-bin by a custodian chosen for a year. This Pekko is plainly a personification of the barley; the form corresponding phonetically in Runic Norse would be *beggw- (from which comes Old Norse hygg). "So in Norse there was a grain *beggw- (becoming bygg) and a corn-god *Beggw- (becoming Pekko). In Anglo-Saxon there was a grain beow and an ancestral Beow. And all four are phonetically identical (proceeding from a primitive form *beuwa, 'barley'). The conclusion which it is difficult to avoid is, that the corn-spirit ' Barley ' and the ancestor 'Barley' are one and the same. The relation is the same as that between King Sheaf and the worship of the sheaf: the worshipped corn- being gradually sinks into the background, and comes to be regarded as an epic figure, an early ancestor. "We have no more exact knowledge of the mythical ideas connected either with the ancestor Beow or the corn-god Pekko. But we know enough of the worship of Pekko to show that he dwelt in the corn-heap, and that, in the spring, he was fetched out in the shape of a little child. That reminds us not a little of Sampsa, who lay in the corn- heap on the ship, and came to land and awoke in the spring^." 1 So, corresponding to O.E. tnewe we have Icel. tryggr; to O.E. gleaw, Icel. gloggr; O.E. scuwa, Icel. skugg-. '2 Olrik, HeUedigtning, 11, 1910, pp. 254-5. An account of the worship of Pekko will be found in Finmsch-Ugrische Forschungen, vi, 1906, pp. 104-111: Vber den Pekokultus bei den Setukesen, by M. J. Eisen. See also Appendix (A) below. o Pellon-Pecko is mentioned by Michael Agricola, Bishop of Abo, in his translation of the Psalter into Finnish, 1551. It is here that we are told that he "promoted the growth of barley." 88 Beow [CH. II But it may be objected that this is "harking back" to the old mythological interpretations. After refusing to accept Miillenhoff's assumptions, are we not reverting, through the names of Sceaf and Beow, and the worship of the sheaf, to very much the same thing? No. It is one thing to beUeve that the ancestor-king Beow may be a weakened form of an ancient divinity, a mere name surviving from the figure of an old corn-god Beow ; it is quite another to assume, as Miillenhoff did, that what we are told about Beowulf was originally told about Beow and that there- fore we are justified in giving a mythological meaning to it. All we know, conjecture apart, about Beow is his traditional relationship to Scyld, Sceaf and the other figures of the pedigree. That Beowulf's dragon fight belonged originally to him is only a conjecture. In confirmation of this conjecture only one argument has been put forward : an argument turning upon Beowulf, son of Scyld — that obscure figure, apparently equi- valent to Beow, who meets us at the beginning of our poem. Beowulf's place as a son of Scyld and father of Healfdene is occupied- in the Danish genealogies by Frothi, son of Skjold, and father of Half dan. It has been urged that the two figures are really identical, in spite of the difference of name. Now Frothi slays a dragon, and it has been argued that this dragon fight shows similarities which enable us to identify it with the dragon fight attributed in our poem to Beowulf the Geat. The argument is a strong one — if it really is the case that the dragon slain by Frothi was the same monster as that slain by Beowulf the Geat. Unfortunately this parallel, which will be examined in the next section, is far from certain. We must be careful not to argue in a circle, identifying Beowulf and Frothi because they slew the same dragon, and then identifying the dragons because they were slain by the same hero. Whilst, therefore, we admit that it is highly probable that Beow (grain) the descendant of Sceaf (sheaf) was originally a corn divinity or corn fetish, we cannot follow Miillenhofi in his bold attribution to this "culture hero" of Beowulf's ad- ventures with the dragon or with Grendel. SECT, vii] The house of Scyld and Danish parallels 89 Section VII. The house of Scyld and Danish parallels: Heremod-Lotherus and Beowulf-Frotho. Scyld, although the source of that Scylding dynasty which our poem celebrates, is not apparently regarded in Beowulf as the earliest Danish king. He came to the throne after an interregnum; the people whom he grew up to rule had long endured cruel need, "being without a prince^." We hear in Beowulf of one Danish king only whom we can place chrono- logically before Scyld— viz. Heremod^. The way in which- "* Heremod is referred to would fit in very well with the sup-*^ 7 position^ that he was the last of a dynasty; the immediate predecessor of Scyld; and that it was the death or exile of Heremod which ushered in the time when the Danes were without a prince? Now there is a natural tendency in genealogies for each king to be represented as the descendant of his predecessor, whether he really was so or no; so that in the course of time, and sometimes of a very short time, the first king of a new dynasty may come to be reckoned as son of a king of the preceding line*. Consequently, there would be nothing surprising if, in another account, we find Scyld represented as a son of Heremod. And we do find the matter represented thus in the West Saxon genealogy, where Sceldwa or Scyld is son of Heremod. Turning to the Danish accounts, however, we do not find any Hermo&r (which is the form we should expect corresponding to Heremod) as father to Skjold (Scyld). Either no father of ^jold is known, or else (in Saxo Grammaticus) he has a father Lotherus. But, although the names are different, there is some correspondence between what we are told of Lother and what we are told of Heremod. A close parallel has indeed been drawn by Sievers between the whole dynasty : on the one hand Lotherus, his son Skioldus, and his descendant Frotho, 1 1. 15. 2 That Heremod is a Danish king is clear from 11. 1709 etc. And as we have all the stages in the Scylding genealogy from Scyld to Hrothgar, Heremod must be placed earlier. ' Of Grein in Eherts Jahrbvch, iv, 264. * A good example of this is supplied by the Assyrian records, which make Jehu a son of Omri — whose family he had destroyed. 90 The house of Scyld and Danish parallels : [CH. ii as given in Saxo: and on the other hand the corresponding figures in Beowulf, Heremod, Scyld, and Scyld's son, Beowulf the Dane. The fixed and certain point here is the identity of the central figure, Skioldus-Scyld. All the rest is very doubtful; not that there are not many parallel features, but because the parallels are of a commonplace type which might so easily recur accidentally. ^"""^lihQ story of Lother, as given by Saxo, will be found below : . . the story of Heremod as given in Beowulf \^ hopelessly obscure — a mere succession of allusions intended for an audience who knew the tale quite well. Assuming the stories of Lother and Heremod to be different versions of one original, the following would seem to be the most likely reconstruction^, the more doubtful portions being placed within round brackets thus ( ) : The old Danish prince [Dan in Saxo] has two sons, one a weakling [Humhlus, Saxo] the other a hero [Lotherus, Saxo : Heremod, Beowulf] (who was already in his youth the hope of the nation). But after his father's death the elder was (through violence) raised to the throne : and Lother-Heremod went into banishment. (But under the rule of the weakling the kingdom went to pieces, and thus) many a man longed for the return of the exile, as a help against these evils. So the hero conquers and deposes the weaker brother. But then his faults break forth, his greed and his cruelty: he ceases to be the darling and becomes the scourge of his people, till they rise and either slay him or drive him again into exile. If the stories of Lother and Heremod are connected, we may be fairly confident that Heremod, not Lother, was the name of the king in the original story. For Scandinavian literature does know a Hermoth (Her- mo&r), though no such adventures are attributed to him as those recorded of Heremod in Beowulf. Nevertheless it is . probable that this Hermoth and Heremod in Beowulf are one f and the same, because both heroes are linked in some way or other with Sigemund. How these two kings, Heremod and Sigemund, came to be connected, we do not know, but we find this connection recurring again and again^. This 7nay be ^ This reconstruction is made by Sievers in the Berichte d. k. sacks. GeseU- schaft der Wissenschaften, 1895, pp. 180-88. 2 The god Hermodr who rides to Hell to carry a message to the dead Baldr is here left out of consideration. His connection with the king Hermo&r is obscure. SECT, vii] Heremod-Lotherus and Beowulf-FrothA) 91 mere coincidence : but I doubt if we are justified in assuming it to be so^. It has been suggested^ that both Heremod and Sigemund were originally heroes specially connected with the worship of Odin, and hence grouped together. The history of the Scandi- navian Sigmund is bound up with that of the magic sword which Odin gave him, and with which he was always victorious till the last fight when Odin himself shattered it. And we are told in the Icelandic that Odin, whilst he gave a sword to Sigmund, gave a helm and byrnie to Hermoth. Again, whilst in one Scandinavian poem Sigmund is repre- sented as welcoming the newcomer at the gates of Valhalla, in another the same duty is entrusted to Hermoth. Jt is clear also that the Beowulf-^oet had in mind some kind of connection, though we cannot tell what, between Sigemund and Heremod. We may take it, then, that the Heremod who is linked with Sigemund in Beowulf was also known in Scandinavian literature as a hero in some way connected with Sigmund: whether or no the adventures which Saxo records of Lotherus were really told in Scandinavian lands in connection with Hermoth, we cannot say. The wicked king whose subjects rebel against him is too common a feature of Germanic story for us to feel sure, without a good deal of corroborative evidence, that the figures of Lotherus and Heremod are identical. The next king in the line, Skioldus in Saxo, is, as we have seen, clearly identical with Scyld in Beowulf. But beyond the name, the two traditions have, as we have also seen, but little in common. Both are youthful heroes^, both force neigh- bouring kings to pay tribute*; but such things are common- places 5. We must therefore turn to the next figure in the pedigree : the son of Skjold in Scandinavian tradition is Frothi (Frotho ^ On this see Dederich, Historische u. geographische Studien, 214; Heinzel in A.f.d.A. xv, 161; Chadwick, Origin, 148; Chadwick, Cult of Othin, 51. 2 Chadwick, Cult of Othin, pp. 50, etc. ^ puerulus...pro miraculo exceptus (William of Malmesbury). Cf. Beowulf, 1. 7. In Saxo, Skjold distinguishes himseK at the age of fifteen, * omnem Alemannorum gentem tributaria ditione perdomuit. Cf. Beowulf, 1. 1 1. * See above, p. 77. 92 The house of Scyld and Danish parallels : [CH. ii in Saxo)^, the son of Scyld in Beowulf is Beowulf the Dane. And Frothi is the father of Halfdan (Haldanus in Saxo) as Beowulf the Dane is of Healfdene. The Frothi of Scandinavian tradition corresponds then in position to Beowulf the Dane in Old English story2. Now of Beowulf the Dane we are told so little that we have really no means of drawing a comparison between him and Frothi. But a theory that has found wide acceptance among scholars assumes that the dragon fight of Beowulf the Geat was originally narrated of Beowulf the Dane, and only sub- sequently transferred to the Geatic hero. Theoretically, then, Beowulf the Dane kills a dragon. Now certainly Frotho kills a dragon : and it has been generally accepted^ that the parallels between the dragon slain by Frotho and that slain by Beowulf the Geat are so remarkable as to exclude the possibility of mere accidental coincidence, and to lead us to conclude that the dragon story was originally told of that Beowulf who corresponds to Frothi, i.e. Beowulf the Dane, son of Scyld and father of Healfdene; not Beowulf, son of Ecgtheow, the Geat. But are the parallels really so close? We must not forget that here we are building theory upcm theory. That the Frotho of Saxo is the same figure as Beowulf the Dane in Old English, is a theory, based upon his common relationship to Skiold-Scyld before him and to Haldanus-Healfdene coming after him: that Beowulf the Dane was the original hero of the dragon fight, and that that dragon fight was only sub- sequently transferred to the credit of Beowulf the Geat, is again a theory. Only if we can find real parallels between the dragon-slaying of Frotho and the dragon-slaying of Beowulf will these theories have confirmation. ^ This relationship of Frothi and Skjold is preserved by Sweyn Aageson : Skiold Danis primum didici praefuisse....A quo primum...Ski6ldunger sunt Reges nuncupati. Qui regni post se reliquit haeredes Frothi videlicet & Hal- danum. Svenonis Aggonis Hist. Regum Dan. in Langebek, S.E.D. i, 44. In Saxo Frotho is not the son, but the great grandson of Skioldus — but this is a discrepancy which may be neglected, because it seems clear that the differ- ence is due to Saxo having inserted two names into the line at this point — those of Gram and Hadding. There seems no reason to doubt that Danish tradition really represented Frothi as son of Skjold. 2 Those who accept the identification would regard Frodi (O.E. Froda, 'the wise') as a title which has ous^^ed the proper name. ^ Boer, Ark. f. nord.filol, xix, 67, calls this theory of Sievers "indisputable." SECT, vii] Heremod-Lotheru8 and Beowvlf-Frotho 93 Parallels have been pointed out by Sievers which he regards as so close as to justify a belief that both are derived ultimately from an old lay, with so much closeness that verbal resem- blances can still be traced. Unfortunately the parallels are all commonplaces. That Sievers and others have been satisfied with them was perhaps due to the fact that they started by assuming as proved that the dragon fight of Beowulf the Geat belonged originally to Beowulf the Dane^, and argued that since Frotho in Saxo occupies a place corresponding exactly to that of Beowulf the Dane in Beowulf^ a comparatively limited resemblance between two dragons coming, as it were, at the same point in the pedigree, might be held sufficient to identify them. But, as we have seen, the assumption that the dragon fight of Beowulf the Geat belonged originally to Beowulf the Dane is only a theory that will have to stand or fall as we can prove that the dragon fight of Frotho is really parallel to that of Beowulf the Geat, and therefore must have belonged to the connecting link supplied by the Scylding prince Beowulf the Dane. In other words, the theory that the dragon in Beowulf is to be identified with the dragon which in Saxo is \ slain by Frotho the Danish prince, father of Haldanus-Healf- dene, is one of the main arguments upon which we must base the theory that the dragon in Beowulf was originally slain by the Danish Beowulf, father of Healfdene, not by Beowulf the Geat. We cannot then turn round, and assert that the fact that they were both slain by a Danish prince, the father of Healfdene, is an argument for identifying the dragons. Turning to the dragon fight itself, the following parallels have been noted by Sievers: (1) A native (indigena) comes to Frotho, and tells him of the treasure-guarding dragon. An informer (melda) plays the same part in Beowulf^. But a dragon is not game which can be met with every day. He is a shy beast, lurking in desert places. Some informant has very frequently to guide the hero to his 1 Sievers, p. 181. 2 Beovmlf, 2405. Cf. 2215, 2281. 94 The house of Scyld and Danish parallels : [CH. ii foe^. And the situation is widely different. Frotho knows nothing of the dragon till directed to the spot: Beowulf's land has been assailed, he knows of the dragon, though he needs to be guided to its exact lair. (2) Frotho's dragon lives on an island. Beowulf's lives near the sea, and there is an island (ealond, 2334) in the neigh- bourhood. But ealond in Beowulf probably does not mean "island" at all : and in any case the dragon did not live upon the ealond. Many dragons have lived near the sea. Sigemund's dragon did so 2. (3) The hero in each case attacks the dragon single-handed. But what hero ever did otherwise? On the contrary, Beowulf's exploit differs from that of Frotho and of most other dragon slayers in that he is unable to overcome his foe single-handed, and needs the support of Wiglaf. (4) Special armour is carried by the dragon slayer in each case. But this again is no imcommon feature. The Red Cross Knight also needs special armour. Dragon slayers constantly invent some ingenious or even unique method. And again the parallel is far from close. Frotho is advised to cover his shield and his limbs with the hides of bulls and kine: a sen- sible precaution against fiery venom. Beowulf constructs a shield of iron^ : which naturally gives very inferior protection*. (5) Frotho's informant tells him that he must be of good courage^. Wiglaf encourages Beowulf^. But the circumstances under which the words are uttered are entirely different, nor have the words more than a general resemblance. That a man needs courage, if he is going to tackle a dragon, is surely a conclusion at which two minds could have arrived independently. (6) Both heroes waste their blows at first on the scaly back of the dragon. 1 So Regin guides Sigurd : Una the Red Cross Knight. The list might be indefinitely extended. Similarly with giants : "Then came to him a husband- man of the country, and told him how there was in the country of Constantine, beside Brittany, a great giant"..,. Morte d' Arthur, Book v, cap. v. 2 Beoimlf, 895. » i, 2338. * 11. 2570 etc. ^ intrepidum mentis habitum retinere memento. * 11. 2663 etc. SECT, vii] Heremod-Lotherus and Beoioidf-Frotho 95 But if the hero went at once for the soft parts, there would be no fight at all, and all the fun would be lost. Sigurd's dragon-fight is, for this reason, a one-sided business from the first. To avoid this, Frotho is depicted as beginning by an attack on the dragon's rough hide (although he has been specially warned by the indigena not to do so) : ventre sub imo esse locum scito quo femim mergere fas est, hunc mucrone petens medium rimaberis anguem^. (7) The hoard is plundered by both heroes. But it is the nature of a dragon to guard a hoard^. And, having slain the dragon, what hero would neglect the gold? (8) There are many verbal resemblances : the dragon spits venom^, and twists himself into coils*. Some of these verbal resemblances may be granted as proved: but they surely do not prove the common origin of the two dragon fights. They only tend to prove the common origin of the school of poetry in which these two dragon fights were told. That dragons dwelt in mounds was a common Germanic belief, to which the Cottonian Gnomic verses testify. Naturally, therefore, Frotho's dragon is montis possessor: Beowulf's is heorges hyrde. The two phrases undoubtedly point back to a similar gradus, to a similar traditional stock phraseology, and to similar beliefs : that is all. As well argue that two kings must be identical, because each is called folces hyrde. These commonplace phrases and commonplace features are surely quite insufiicient to prove that the stories are identical — at most they only prove that they bear the impress of one and the same poetical school. If a parallel is to carry weight there must be something individual about it, as there is, for example, about the arguments by which the identity of Beowulf and Bjarki have been supported. That a hero comes from * Cf. Beoumlf, 2705: foriordt Wedra helm wyrm on middan. 2 Cf. Cotton. Gnomic verses, 11. 26-7 : Draca sceal on hlxwe : frod, fratwum wlanc, ' virusque profundens : wearp wxl-fyre, 2582. * implicitus gyris serpens crebrisque reflexus orbibus et caudae sinuosa volumina ducens multiplicesque agitans spiras. Cf. Beoumlf, 2567-8, 2569, 2661 {hring-boga), 2827 {wohhogen). 96 The house of Scyld and Danish parallels : [CH. ii Geatland (Gautland) to the court where Hrothulf (Rolf) is abiding; that the same hero subsequently is instrumental in helping Eadgils (Athils) against Onela (Ali) — here we have something tangible. But when two heroes, engaged upon slaying a dragon, are each told to be brave, the parallel is too general to be a parallel at all. " There is a river in Macedon : and there is also moreover a river at Monmouth, and thereis salmons in both." And there is a fundamental difference, which would serve to neutralize the parallels, even did they appear much less accidental than they do. Dragon fights may be classified into several types: two stand out prominently. There is the story in which the young hero begins his career by slaying a dragon or monster and winning, it may be a hoard of gold, it may be a bride. This is the type of story found, for instance, in the tales of Sigurd, or Perseus, or St George. On the other hand there is the hero who, at the end of his career, seeks to ward off evil from himself and his people. He slays the monster, but is himself slain by it. The great example of this type is the god Thor, w^ho in the last fight of the gods slays the Dragon, but dies when he has reeled back nine paces from the "baleful serpent^." Now the story of the victorious young Frotho is of the one type: that of the aged Beowulf is of the other. And this difference is essential, fundamental, dominating the whole situation in each case : giving its cheerful and aggressive tone to the story of Frotho, giving the elegiac and pathetic note which runs through the whole of the last portion of Beowulp. It is no mere detail which could be added or subtracted by a narrator without altering the essence of the story. In face of this we must pronounce the two stories essentially and originally distinct. If, nevertheless, there were a large number of striking and specific similarities, we should have to allow that, though originally distinct, the one dragon story had influenced the other in detail. For, whilst each poet who retold the tale would make alterations in detail, and might 1 Volospd, 172-3 in Corpus Podicum Boreale, i, 200. 2 Cf. on this Olrik, HeUedigtning, i, 305-16. SECT, vii] Heremod-Lotherus and Beowulf-Frotho 97 import such detail from one dragon story into another, what we know of the method of the ancient story tellers does not allow us to assume that a poet would have altered the whole drift of a story, either by changing the last death-struggle of an aged, childless prince into the victorious feat of a young hero, or by the reverse process. Those, therefore, who hold the parallels quoted above to be convincing, may believe that one dragon story has influenced another, originally distinct^. To me, it does not appear that even this necessarily follows from the evidence. It seems very doubtful whether any of the parallels drawn, by Sievers between the stories of Lotherus and Heremod^, Skioldus and Scyld, Frotho and Beowulf, are more than the resemblances inevitable in poetry which, like the Old Danish and the Old English, still retains so many traces of the common Germanic frame in which it was moulded. Indeed, of the innumerable dragon-stories extant, there is probably not one which we can declare to be really identical with that of Beowulf. There is a Danish tradition which shows many similarities^, and I have given this below, in Part II ; but rather as an example of a dragon-slaying of the Beowulf type, than because I believe in any direct connection between the two stories. 1 Panzer, Beoundf, 313. * 2 A further and more specific parallel between Lotherus and Heremod has been pointed out by Sarrazin {Anglia, xix, 392). It seems from Beotmdf that Heremod went into exile (11. 1714-15), and apparently mid Eotenum (1. 902) which (in view of the use of the word Eotena, Eotenum, in the Finnsburg episode) very probably means "among the Jutes." A late Scandinavian document tells ua that Lotherus... superatus in Jvtiam profugit (Messenius, Scondia illustrata, printed 1700, but written about 1620). * Pointed out by Panzer. A possible parallel to the old man who hides his treasure is discussed by Bugge and Olrik in Dania, i, 233-245 (1890-92). O. B. CHAPTER III THEORIES AS TO THE ORIGIN, DATE, AND STRUCTURE OF THE POEM Section I. Is "Beowulf" translated from a Scandinavian original? Our poem, the first original poem of any length in the English tongue, ignores England. In one remarkable passage (11.1931-62) it mentions with praise Offa I, the great king who ruled the Angles whilst they were still upon the Continent. But, except for this, it deals mainly with heroes who, so far as we can identify them with historic figures, are Scandinavian. Hence, not unnaturally, the first editor boldly declared Beowulf to be an Anglo-S3,xon version of a Danish poem ; and this view has had many supporters. The poem must be Scandinavian, said one of its earliest translators, because it deals mainly with Scandinavian heroes and "everyone knows that in ancient times each nation celebrated in song its own heroes alone^." And this idea, though not so crudely expressed, seems really to underlie the belief which has been held by numerous scholars, that the poem is nothing more than a translation of a poem in which some Scandinavian minstrel had glorified the heroes of his own nation. But what do we mean by "nation"? Doubtless, from the point of view of politics and war, each Germanic tribe, or offshoot of a tribe, formed an independent nation : the Longo- bardi had no hesitation in helping the "Romans" to cut the throats of their Gothic kinsmen: Penda the Mercian was willing to ally with the Welshmen in order to overthrow his * Cf. Ettmiiller, Scopas and Boceras, 1850, p. ix; Carmen de Beowulfi rebus gestis, 1875, p. iii. SECT, i] Is " Beowulf" a translation ? 99 fellow Angles of Northumbria. But all this, as the history of the ancient Greeks or of the ancient Hebrews might show us, is quite compatible with a consciousness of racial unity among the warring states, with a common poetic tradition and a common literature. For purposes of poetry there was only one nation — the Germanic — split into many dialects and groups, but possessed of a common metre, a common style, a common standard of heroic feeling: and any deed of valour performed by any Germanic chief might become a fit subject for the poetry of any Germanic tribe of the heroic age. So, if by "nation" we mean the whole Germanic race, then Germanic poetry is essentially "national." The Huns were the only non-Germanic tribe who were received (for poetical purposes) into Germania. Hunnish chiefs seem to have adopted Gothic manners, and after the Huns had disappeared it often came to be forgotten that they were not Germans. But with this exception the tribes and heroes of Germanic heroic poetry are Germanic. If, however, by "nation" we understand the different warring units into which the Germanic race was, politically speaking, divided, then Germanic poetry is essentially "inter- national." This is no theory, but a fact capable of conclusive proof. The chief actors in the old Norse Volsung lays 'are not Norsemen, but Sigurd the Frank, Gunnar the Burgundian, Atli the Hun. In Continental Germany, the ideal knight of the Saxons in the North and the Bavarians in the South was no native hero, but Theodoric the Ostrogoth. So too in England, whilst Beowulf deals chiefly with Scandinavian heroes, the Finnshurg fragment deals with the Frisian tribes of the North Sea coast : Waldere with the adventures of Germanic chiefs settled in Gaul, Deor with stories of the Goths and of the Baltic tribes, whilst Widsith, which gives us a catalogue of the old heroic tales, shows that amongst the heroes whose names were current in England were men of Gothic, Burgundian, Frankish, Lombard, Frisian, Danish and Swedish race. There is nothing peculiar, then, in the fact that Beowulf celebrates heroes who were not of Anglian birth. 7—2 100 Is ^^ Beowiilf" translated from a [CH. in In their old home in Schleswig the Angles had been in the -^exact centre of Germania: with an outlook upon both the North Sea and the Baltic, and in touch with Scandinavian tribes on the North and Low German peoples on the South* That the Angles were interested in the stories of all the nations which surrounded them, and that they brought these stories with them to England, is certain. It is a mere accident that the one heroic poem which happens to have been preserved at length is almost exclusively concerned with Scandinavian doings. It could easily have happened that the history of the Beowulf ms and the WaMere ms might have been reversed : that the Beowulf might have been cut up to bind other books, and the Waldere preserved intact: in that case our one long poem would have been localized in ancient Burgundia, and would have dealt chiefly with the doings of Burgundian champions. But we should have had no more reason, without further evidence, to suppose the Waldere a translation from the Burgundian than we have, without further evidence, to suppose Beowulf a translation from the Scandinavian. To deny that Beowulf, as we have it, is a translation from the Scandinavian does not, of course, involve any denial of the Scandinavian origin of the story of Beowulf's deeds. The fact that his achievements are framed in a Scandinavian setting, and that the closest parallels to them have to be sought in Scandinavian lands, makes it probable on a priori grounds that the story had its origin there. On the face of it, Miillen- hoff's belief that the story was indigenous among the Angles is quite unlikely. It would seem rather to have originated in the Geafcic country. But stories, whether in prose or verse, would spread quickly from the Geatas to the Danes and from the Danes to the Angles. After the Angles had crossed the North Sea, however, this close intimacy ceased, till the Viking raids again reminded Englishmen, in a very unpleasant way, of their kinsmen across the sea. Now linguistic evidence tends to show that Beowulf belongs to a time prior to the Viking settlement in England, and it is unlikely that the Scandinavian traditions embodied in Beowulf found their way to England just at the time when SECT, i] Scandinavian original? 101 communication with Scandinavian lands seems to have been suspended. We must conclude then that all this Scandinavian tradition probably spread to the Angles whilst they were still in their old continental home, was brought across to England by the settlers in the sixth century, was handed on by English bards from generation to generation, till some Englishmen formed the poem of Beowulf as we know it. Of course, if evidence can be produced that Beowulf is translated from some Scandinavian original, which was brought over in the seventh century or later, that is another matter. But the evidence produced so far is not merely inconclusive, but ludicrously inadequate. It has been urged^ by Sarrazin, the chief advocate of the translation theory, that the description of the country round Heorot, and especially of the journey to the Grendel-lake, shows such local knowledge as to point to its having been composed by some Scandinavian poet familiar with the locality. Heorot can probably, as we have seen, be identified with Leire : and the Grrendel-lake Sarrazin identifies with the neighbouring Eoskilde fjord. But it is hardly possible to conceive a greater contrast than that between the Koskilde fjord and the scenery depicted in 11. 1357 etc., 1408 etc. Seen, as Sarrazin saw it, on a May morning, in alternate sun and shadow, the Roskilde fjord presents a view of tame and peaceful beauty. In the days of Hrothgar, when there were perhaps fewer cultivated fields and more beech forests, the scenery may have been less tame, but can hardly have been less peaceful. The only trace of accurate geography is that Heorot is represented as not on the shore, and yet not far remote from it (11. 307 etc.). But, as has been pointed out above, we know that traditions of the attack by the Heathobeardan upon Heorot were current in England: and these would be quite sufficient to keep alive, even among English bards, some remembrance of the strategic situation of Heorot with regard to the sea. A man need not have been near Troy, to realize that the town was no seaport and yet near the sea. 1 P.B.B. XI, 167-170. 102 Is ^'Beoivulf" translated from a [CH. iii Again, it has been claimed by Sarrazin that the language of Beowulf shows traces of the Scandinavian origin of the poem. Sarrazin's arguments on this head have been contested ener- getically by Sievers^. After some heated controversy Sarrazin made a final and (presumably) carefully-weighed statement of his case. In this he gave a list of twenty-nine words upon which he based his belief^. Yet of these twenty-nine, twenty-one occur in other O.E. writings, where there can be no possible question of translation from the Scandinavian : some of these words, in fact, are amongst the commonest of O.E. poetical expressions. There remain eight which do not happen to be found elsewhere in the extant remains of O.E. poetry. But these are mostly compounds like hea&o-ldc, feorh-seoc: and though the actual compound is not elsewhere extant in English, the component elements are thoroughly English. There is no reason whatever to think that these eight rare words are taken from Old Norse. Indeed, three of them do not occur in Old Norse at all. Evidence to prove Beowulf a translation from a Scandi- navian original is, then, wanting. On the other hand, over and above the difficulty that the Beowulf belongs just to the period when intimate communication between the Angles and Scandinavians was suspended, there is much evidence against the translation theory. The earliest Scandinavian poetry we possess, or of which we can get information, differs absolutely Ni from Beowulf in style, metre and sentiment : the manners of Beowulf are incompatible with all we know of the wild heathen- dom of Scandinavia in the seventh or eighth century^. . Beowulf as we now have it, with its Christian references and \ its Latin loan-words, could not be a translation from the Scandi- navian. And the proper names in Beowulf which Sarrazin claimed were Old Norse, not Old English, and had been taken 1 Sarrazin, Der Schauplatz des ersten Beovmlfliedes (P.B.B. xi, 170 etc.)t Sievers, Die Heimat des Beovmlfdichters {P.B.B. xi, 354 etc.); Sarrazin, Altnord- isches im Beotmlfliede {P.B.B. xi, 528 etc.); Sievers^ Altnordisches im Beovmlf? {P.B.B. xn, 168 etc.) 2 Beovulf-Studien, 68. 2 Sarrazin has countered this argument by urging that since the present day Swedes and Danes have better manners than the English, they therefore presumably had better manners abeady in the eighth century. I admit the premises, but deny the deduction. SECT, i] Scandinavian original? 103 over from the Old Norse original, are in all cases so correctly transliterated as to necessitate the assumption that they were brought across early, at the time of the settlement of Britain or very shortly after, and underwent phonetic development side by side with the other words in the English language. Had they been brought across from Scandinavia at a later date, much confusion must have ensued in the forms. Somewhat less improbable is the suggestion " that the poet had travelled on the continent and become familiar with the legends of the Danes and Geats, or else had heard them from a Scandinavian resident in England^." But it is clear from the allusive manner in which the Scandinavian tales are told, that they must have been familiar to the poet's audience. If, then, the English audience knew them, why must the poet himself have travelled on the continent in order to know them ? There is, therefore, no need for this theory, and it is open to many of the objections of the translation theory: for example it fails, equally with that theory, to account for the uniformly correct development of the proper names. The obvious conclusion is that these Scandinavian traditions were brought over by the English settlers in the sixth century. Against this only one cavil can be raised, and that will not bear examination. It has been objected that, since Hygelac's raid took place about 516, since Beowulf's accession was some years subsequent, and since he then reigned fifty years, his death cannot be put much earlier than 575, and that this brings us to a date when the migration of the Angles and Saxons had been completed^. But it is forgotten that all the historical events mentioned in the poem, which we can date, occur before, or not very long after, the raid of Hygelac, c. 516. The poem asserts that fifty years after these events Beowulf slew a dragon and was slain by it. But this does not make the dragon historic, nor does it make the year 575 the historic date of the death of Beowulf. We cannot be sure that there was any actual king of the Geatas named Beowulf; and if there was, the last known historic act with which that king is associated is the raising of Eadgils to the Swedish throne, * Sedgefield, Beowulf (1st ed.), p. 27. ^ Schiick, Studier i Beovulfsagan, 41. 104 Is "Beotmlf" a translation? [CH. iii c. 525 : the rest of Beowulf's long reign, since it contains no event save the slaying of a dragon, has no historic validity. It is noteworthy that, whereas there is full knowledge shown in our poem of those events which took place in Scandi- navian lands during the whole period from about 450 to 530 — the period during which hordes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes were landing in Britain — there is no reference, not even by way of casual allusion, to any continental events which we can date with certainty as subsequent to the arrival of the latest settlers from the continent. Surely this is strong evidence that these tales were brought over by some of the last of the invaders, not carried to England by some casual traveller a century or two later. ^ Section II. The dialect, syntax, and metre of " Beowulf " as evidence of its literary history. A full discussion of the dialect, metre and syntax of Beowulf forms no part of the scheme of this study. It is only intended in this section to see how far such investigations throw light upon the literary history of the poem. Dialect. Beowulf is written in the late West Saxon dialect. Im- bedded in the poem, however, are a large number of forms, concerning which this at least can be said — that they are not normal late West Saxon. Critics have classified these forms, and have drawn conclusions from them as to the history of the poem: arguing from sporadic "Mercian" and "Kentish" forms that Beowulf is of Mercian origin and has passed through the hands of a Kentish transcriber. But, in fact, the evidence as to Old English dialects is more scanty and more conflicting than philologists have always been willing to admit. It is exceedingly difficult to say with any certainty what forms are "Mercian" and what "Kentish." Having run such forms to earth, it is still more difficult to say what arguments are to be drawn from their occasional SECT, ii] The dialect y metre, and syntax of^^BeowvJf'' 105 appearance in any text. Men from widely different parts of the country would be working together in the scriptorium of one and the same monastery, and this fact alone may have often led to confusion in the dialectal forms of works transcribed. A thorough investigation of the significance of all the abnormal forms in Beowulf has still to be made. Whether it would repay the labour of the investigator may well be ques- tioned. In the meantime we may accept the view that t poem was in all probability originally written in some no IWest-Saxon dialect, and most probably in an Anglian dialec since this is confirmed by the way in which the Anglian hero Offa is dragged into the story. Ten Brink's attempt to decide the dialect and transmission of Beowulf will be found in his Beowulf, pp. 237-241: he notes the difficulty that the "Kentish" forms from which he argues are nearly aU such as occur also sporadically in West Saxon texts. A classi- fication of the forms by P. G. Thomas will be found in the Modem Language Review , i, 202 etc. How difficult and uncertain aU classi- fication must be has been shown by Frederick Tupper {Pvh. Mod. Lang. Assoc, Amer. xxvi, 235 e ''LichtenheldYTestr ^ • ^^-M ^ \ '^\^ Somewhat more definite results can be drawn from certain syntactical usages. There can be no doubt that as time went on, the use of se, seo, p^t became more and more common in O.E. verse. This is largely due to the fact that in the older poems the weak adjective H- noun appears frequently where we should now use the definite article : wisa fengel — " the wise prince"; se wisa fengel is used where some demonstrative is needed — "that wise prince." Later, however, se, seo, past comes to be used in the common and vague sense in which the definite article is used in Modern English. We consequently get with increasing frequency the use of \ the definite article + weak adjective + noun : whilst the usage ^ weak adjective + noun decreases. Some rough criterion of date can thus be obtained by an examination of a poet's usage in this particular. Of course it would be absurd — as has been done — to group Old English poems in a strict chronological order according to the proportion of forms with and without the article. Individual usage must count for a good deal: 106 The dialect f syntax, and metre of ^^ Beowulf " [CH. iii also the scribes in copying and recopying our text must to a considerable extent have obliterated the earlier practice. Metre and syntax combine to make it probable that, in line ^ of our poem, the scribe has inserted the unnecessary article para before ymhsittendra : and in the rare cases where we have an O.E. poem preserved in two texts, a comparison proves that the scribe has occasionally interpolated an article. But this later tendency to level out the peculiarity only makes it the more remarkable that we should find such great differences between O.E. poems, all of them extant in copies transcribed about the year 1000. How great is the difference between the usage of Beowulf and that of the great body of Old English poetry will be clear from the following statistics. The proportion of phrases containing the weak adjective + noun with and without the definite article in the certain works of Cynewulf is as follows^: With article Without article Juliana 27 3 I Christ (II) ... 28 3 Elene 66 9 In Guthlac (A) (c. 750) the proportions are : With article Without article Guthlac (A) ... 42 6 Contrast this with the proportion in our poem: With article Without article Beowulf .13 65 The nearest approach to the proportions of Beowulf is in the (certainly very archaic) With article Without article Exodus 10 14 On the other hand, certain late texts show how fallible this criterion is. Anyone dating Maldon solely by " Lichtenheld's Test" would assuredly place it much earher than 991. ^ The brief Fata Apostolorum is doubted by Sievers {Anglia, xin, 24). p SECT, ii] as evidence of its literary history 107 It is easy to make a false use of grammatical statistics: j and this test should only be applied with the greatest caution, i But the difference between Beowulf and the works of Cynewulf i is too striking to be overlooked. In Beowulf, to every five i examples without the article (e.g. hea^o-steapa helm) we have one with the article (e.g. se kearda helm) : in Cynewulf to every five examples without the article we h3bve forty with it. A further test of antiquity is in the use of the weak adjective with the instrumental — a use which rapidly diminishes. There are eighteen such instrumental phrases in Beowulf (3182 lines)^. In Exodus (589 lines) there are six examples^ — proportionally more than in Beowulf In Cynewulf's un- doubted works (c. 2478 lines) there is one example only, heorhtan reorde^. ' This criterion of the absence of the definite article before the weak N adjective is often referred to as Lichtenheld's Test (see article hy y him in Z.f.d.A. xvi, 325 etc.). It has been apphed to the whole body of O.E. poetry by Barnouw {Textcritische Untersitchungen, 1902). The data collected by Barnouw are most valuable, but we must be cautious in the conclusions we draw, as is shown by Sarrazin {Eng, Stud, xxxvin, 145 etc.), and Tupper {Pvb. Mod. Lang. Assoc, xxvi, 274). ""^ Exact enumeration of instances is difficult. For example, Lichten- held gave 22 instances of definite article + weak adjective + noun in Beowulf*. But eight of these are not quite certain; se goda maeg Hygeldces may be not "the good kinsman of Hygelac," but "the good one — the kinsman of Hygelac," for there is the haK Une pause after goda. These eight examples therefore should be deducted^. One instance, though practically certain, is the result of conjectural emen- dation^ Of the remaining thirteen' three are variations of the same phrase. The statistics given above are those of Brandl {SitzungsbericTiie d. k. Preuss. ATcad. d. Wissenschaften, 1905, p. 719) which are based upon those of Barnouw. "Morsbach's Test." Sievers' theories as to O.E. metre have not been accepted by all scholars in their entirety. But the statistics which he 1 Two of these occur twice ; Mtan heolfre, 1423, 849 ; nlowan stefne, 1789, 2594; the rest once only, 141, 661, 963, 977, 1104, 1502, 1505, 1542, 1746, 2102, 2290, 2347, 2440, 2482, 2492, 2692. See Barnouw, 51. 2 74, 99, 122, 257, 390, 412. _ ' Christ, 510. * Lichtenheld omits 2011, se rrmra mago Healf denes, inserting instead 1474, where the same phrase occurs, but with a vocative force, ^ 758, 813, 2011, 2587, 2928, 2971, 2977, 3120. « 1199. 7 102, 713, 919, 997, 1016, 1448, 1984, 2255, 2264, 2675, 3024, 3028, 3097, 108 Tfie dialect J syntax, and metre of ^^ Beowulf " [CH. iii collected enable us to say, with absolute certainty, that some given types of verse were not acceptable to the ear of an Old English bard. Sceptics may emphasize the fact that Old English texts are uncertain, that nearly all poems are extant in one ms only, that the ms in each case was written down long after the poems were composed, and that precise verbal accuracy is therefore not to be expected^. All the more remarkable then becomes the fact, for it is a fact, that there are certain types of line which never occur in Beowulf, and that there are other types which are exceedingly rare. Again, there are certain types of line which do occur in Beowulf as we have it, though they seem contrary to the principles of O.E. scansion. When we find that such lines consistently contain some word which had a different metrical value when our extant ms of Beowulf was transcribed, from that which it had at the earlier date when Beowulf was composed, and that the earlier value makes the line metrical, the conclusion is obvious. Beowulf must have been composed at a time or in a dialect when the earlier metrical values held good. But we reach a certain date beyond which, if we put the language back into its older form, it will no longer fit into the metrical structure. For example, words like fiod, feld, eard were originally "u-nouns" : with nom. and ace. smg.flodu, etc. But the half -line ofer fealone flod (1950) becomes exceedingly difficult if we put it in the form ofer fealone flodu^ : the half- line flfelcynnes eard becomes absolutely impossible in the form fifelcynnes eardu^. It can, consequently, with some certainty be argued that these half-lines were composed after the time when flodu, eardu had become flod, eard. Therefore, it has been further argued, Beowulf was composed after that date. But are we justified in this further step — in assuming that because a certain number of half-lines in Beowulf must have been composed after a certain date, therefore Beowulf itself must have been composed after that date ? ^ Saintsbury in Short History of English Literature, i. 3. 2 Morsbach, 270. » Morsbach, 271. SECT, ii] as evidence of its literary history 109 From what we know of the mechanical way in which the Old English scribe worked, we have no reason to suppose that he would have consistently altered what he found in an older copy, so as to make it metrical according to the later speech into which he was transcribing it. But if we go back to a time when poems were committed to memory by a scop^ skilled in the laws of O.E. metre, the matter is very different. A written poem may be copied word for word, even though the spelling is at the same time modernized, but it is obvious that a poem preserved orally will be altered slightly from time to time, if the language in which it is written is undergoing changes which make the poem no longer metrically correct. Imagine the state of things at the period when final u was being lost after a long syllable. This loss of a syllable would make a large number of the half-lines and formulas in the old poetry unmetrical. Are we to suppose that the whole of O.E. poetry was at once scrapped, and entirely new poems composed to fit in with the new sound laws? Surely not; old formulas would be recast, old lines modified where they needed it, but the old poetry would go on^, with these minor verbal changes adapting it to the new order of things. We can see this taking place, to a limited extent, in the transcripts of Middle English poems. In the transmission of poems by word of mouth it would surely take place to such an extent as to baffle later investigation^. Consequently I am inclined to agree that this test is hardly final except " on the assumption that the poems were written down from the very beginning^." And we are clearly not justified in making any such assumption. A small number of such lines would accordingly give, not so much a means of fixing a period before which Beowulf cannot have been composed, as merely ^ Chadwick, Heroic Age, 4. 2 "Thus in place of the expression to widanfeore we find occasionally tvidan feme in the same sense, and even in Beowulf we meet with widan feorh, which is not improbably the oldest form of the phrase. Before the loss of the final -u it [widan feorhu] would be a perfectly regular half verse, but the operation of this change would render it impossible and necessitate, the substitution of a synonymous expression. In principle, it should be observed, the assumption of such substitutions seems to be absolutely necessary, unless we are prepared to deny that any old poems or even verses survived the period of apocope." Chadwick, Heroic Age, pp. 46-7. * Heroic Age, 46. 110 The dialect J syntax, and metre of ^Beowulf [ch. hi one before which Beowulf cannot have been fixed by writing in its present form. If, however, more elaborate investigation were to show that the percentage of such lines is just as great in Beowulf as it is in poems certainly written after the sound changes had taken place, it might be conceded that the test was a valid one, and that it proved Beowulf to have been written after these sound changes occurred. This would then bring us to our second difficulty. At what date exactly did these sound changes take place? The chief documents available are the proper names in Bede's History, and in certain Latin charters, the glosses, and a few early runic inscriptions. Most important, although very scanty, are the charters, since they bear a date. With these we proceed to investigate: A. The dropping of the u after a long accented syllable (flodu becoming flSd), or semi-accented syllable {Stdnfdrdu becoming Stdnfdrd). There is evidence from an Essex charter that this was already lost in 692 or 693 (uuidmundesfelt)^. From this date on, ex- amples without the u are forthcoming in increasing number^. One certain example only has been claimed for the preservation of u. In the runic inscription on the "Franks casket" flodu is found for flod. But the spelling of the Franks casket is erratic: for example giupeasu is also found ioi giuj^eas, "the Jews." Now u here is impossible^, and we must conclude perhaps that the inscriber of the runes intended to write giupea su\7n(B\^ or giufiea su[na]^y "some of the Jews," "the sons of the Jews," and that having reached the end of his line at w, he neglected to complete the word: or else perhaps that he wrote giupeas and having some additional space added a u at the end of his line, just for fun. Whichever explanation we 1 Birch, Cart. Sax. No. 81. See Morsbach, 260. 2 The most important examples being breguntford (Birch, Cart. Sax. No. 115, dating between 693 and 731; perhaps 705): heffled in the life of St Gregory written by a Whitby monk apparently before 713: -gar on the Bewcastle Column, earlier than the end of the first quarter of the eighth century and perhaps much earlier : and many names in ford and feld in the Moore MS of Bede's Ecclesiastical History (a MS written about 737). 3 An EngHsh Miscellany presented to Dr Furnivall, 370. * Grienberger, Anglia, xxvn, 448. SECT, ii] as evidence of its literary history 111 adopt, it will apply to flodu, which equally comes at the end of a line, and the u of which may equally have been part of some following word which was never completed^. Other linguistic data of the Franks casket would lead us to place it somewhere in the first half of the eighth century, and we should hardly expect to find u preserved as late as this^. For we have seen that by 693 the u was already lost after a subordinate accent in the Essex charter. Yet it is arguable that the u was retained later after a long accented syllable {flddu) than after a subordinate accent (uuidmundesfelt) ; and, besides, the casket is Northumbrian, and the sound changes need not have been simultaneous all over the country. We cannot but feel that the evidence is pitifully scanty. All we can say is that perhaps the flodu of the Franks casket shows that u was stUl preserved after a fully accented syllable as late as 700. But the u in flodu may be a deliberate archaism on the part of the writer, may be a local dialectal survival, may be a mere miswriting. 5. The preservation of h between consonant and vowel. Here there is one clear example which we can date: the archaic spelling of the proper name Welhisc. Signum manus uelhisci occurs in a Kentish charter of 679^. The same charter shows h already lost between vowels : uuestan ae (ae dative of ea, "river," cf. Gothic ahwa). Not much can be argued from the proper name Welhisc^ as to the current pronunciation in Kent in 679, for an old man may well have continued to spell his name as it was spelt when he was a child, even though the current pronunciation had changed*. But we have further evidence in the glosses, which show h sometimes preserved and sometimes not. These glosses are mechanical copies of an original which was pre- sumably compiled between 680 and 720. We are therefore justified in arguing that at that date h was still preserved, at any rate occasionally. ^ i.e. flodu ahof might stand ioi flod u[p] ahof, as is suggested by Chadwick, Heroic Age, 69. 2 In the Franks casket 6 already appears as/, and the n of sefu, "seven," has been lost. 3 Birch, Cart. Sax. No. 45. * Chadwick, Heroic Age, 67 : "In personal names we must clearly allow for traditional orthography." Morsbach admits this in another connection (p. 259). \ 112 The dialect, syntax, and metre of ^^ Beowulf" [ch. hi Of "Morsbach's test" we can then say that it establishes something of an argument that Beowulf was composed after the date when final u after a long syllable, or h between consonant and vowel, were lost, and that this date was probably within a generation or so of the year 700 a.d. But there are too many uncertain contingencies involved to make the test at all a conclusive one. Morsbach's Zur Datierung des Beowulf-epos will be found in th© Gottingen Nachrichten, 1906, pp. 252-77. These tests have been worked out for the whole body of Old English poetry in the Chrono- logische Studien of Carl Richter, Halle, 1910. Section III. Theokies as to the structure of "Beowulf." Certain peculiarities in the structure of Beowulf can hardly fail to strike the reader. (1) The poem is not a biography of Beowulf, nor yet an episode in his life: it is two distinct episodes: the Grendel business and the dragon business, joined by a narrow bridge. (2) Both these stories are broken in upon by digressions : some of these concern Beowulf himself, so that we get a fairly complete idea of the life of our hero : but for the most part these digressions are not strictly apposite. (3) Even apart from these digressions, the narrative is often hampered: the poet begins his story, diverges and returns. (4) The traces of Christian thought and knowledge which meet us from time to time seem to belong to a different world from that of the Germanic life in which our poem has its roots. Now in the middle of the nineteenth century it was widely believed that the great epics of the world had been formed from collections of original shorter lays fitted together (often unskilfully) by later redactors. For a critic starting from this assumption, better material than the Beowulf could hardly be found. And it was with such assumptions that Carl Miillenhoff, the greatest of the scholars who have dissected the Beowulf set to work. He attended the lectures of Lachmann, and formed. SECT. Ill] Theories as to the structure of ^^Beowvlf" 113 ja biographer tells us, the fixed resolve to do for one epic what his admired master had done for another^. Miillenhoff claimed for his theories that they were simple^ and straightforward : and so they were, if we may be allowed to assume as a basis that the Beowulf \^ made up out of shorter lays, and that the only business of the critic is to define the scope of these lays. In the story of Beowulf's fight with Grendel (11.194-836 : Miillenhoff's Sect. I) and with the dragon (11. 2200- 3183: Miillenhoff's Sect. IV) Miillenhoff saw the much inter- polated remains of two original lays by different authors. But, before it was united to the dragon story, the Grendel story, Miillenhoff held, had already undergone many inter- polations and additions. The story of Grendel's mother (11. 837-1623: Sect. II) was added, Miillenhoff held, by one continuator as a sequel to the story of Grendel, and 11. 1-193 were added by another hand as an introduction. Then this Grendel story was finally rounded off by an interpolator (A) who added the account of Beowulf's return home (Sect. Ill, 11. 1629-2199) and at the same time inserted passages into the poem throughout. Finally came Interpolator B, who was the first to combine the Grendel story, thus elaborated, with the dragon story. Interpolator B was responsible for the great bulk of the interpolations: episodes from other cycles and "theologizing" matter. Ten Brink, like Miillenhoff, regarded the poem as falling into four sections : the Grendel fight, the fight with Grendel's mother, the return home, the dragon fight. But Miillenhoff had imagined the epic composed out of one set of lays: in- coherences, he thought, were due to the bungling of successive interpolators. Ten Brink assumed that in the case of all three fights, with Grendel, with Grendel's mother, and with the dragon, there had been two parallel versions, which a later redactor had combined together, and that it was to this combination that the frequent repetitions in the narra- ^ Liibke's preface to MiillenhofE's Beovulf. Both the tendencies specially associated with Miillenhoff's name — the " mythologizing " and the "dissecting " — are due to the influence of Lachmann. It must be frankly admitted that on these subjects Miillenhoff did not begin his studies with an open mind. 2 "Es ist einfach genug" — Beovulf, 110. c. B. 8 114 Theories as to the structure of ^^Beoimd/" [ch. hi tive were due: he believed that not only were the different episodes of the poem originally distinct, but that each episode was compounded of two originally distinct lays, combined together. Now it cannot be denied that the process postulated by Miillenholf might have taken place: a lay on Grendel and a lay on the dragon-fight might have been combined by some later compiler. Ten Brink's theory, too, is inherently not improbable : that there should have been two or more versions current of a popular story is probable enough: that a scribe should have tried to fit these two parallel versions together is not without precedent: very good examples of such attempts at harmonizing different versions can be got from an examina- tion of the Mss of Piers Plowman. It is only here and there that we are struck by an inherent improbability in MUllenhoff's scheme. Thus the form in which Miillenhoff assumes the poem to have existed before Inter- polator A set to work on it, is hardly a credible one. The "original poet" has brought Beowulf from his home to the Danish court, to slay Grendel, and the " continuator " has taken him to the haunted lake: Beowulf has plunged down, slain Grendel's mother, come back to land. Here Miillenhoff be- lieved the poem to have ended, until "Interpolator A" came along, and told how Beowulf returned in triumph to Hrothgar, was thanked and rewarded, and then betook himself home, and was welcomed by Hygelac. That it would have been left to an interpolator to supply what from the old point of view was so necessary a part of the story as the return to Hrothgar is an assumption perilous indeed. "An epic poem only closes when everything is really concluded: not, like a modern novel, at a point where the reader can imagine the rest for himself^." Generally speaking, however, the theories of the " dissecting school" are not in themselves faulty, if we admit the assump- tions on which they rest. They fail however in two ways. An examination of the short lay and the long epic, so far as these are represented in extant documents, does not bear out 1 MoUer, V.E. 140: cf. Schiicking, B.R. 14. SECT. Ill] Theories as to the structure of ^^ Beowulf" 115 well the assumptions of the theorizers. Secondly, the minute scrutiny to which the poem has been subjected in matters of syntax, metre, dialect and tradition has failed to show any difference between the parts attributed to the different authors, such as we must certainly have expected to find, had the theories of the "dissecting school" been correct. That behind our extant Beowulf, and connecting it with the events of the sixth century, there must have been a number of older lays, may indeed well be admitted : also that to these lays our poem owes its plot, its traditions of metre and its phraseology, and perhaps (but this is a perilous assumption) continuous passages of its text. But what Miillenhoff and ten Brink go on to assume is that these original oral lays were simple in outUne and treated a single well-defined episode in a straightforward manner; that later redactors and scribes corrupted this primitive simplicity; but that the modern critic, by demanding it, and using its presence or absence as a criterion, can still disentangle from the complex composite poem the simpler elements out of which it was bmlt up. Here are rather large assumptions. What right have we to postulate that this primitive "literature without letters i," these short oral ballads and lays, dealt with a single episode without digression or confusion : whilst the later age, — the civilized. Christianized age of written literature during which Beowulf in the form in which we now have it was produced, — is assumed to have been tolerant of both? No doubt, here and there, in different literatures, groups of short lays can be found which one can imagine might be com- bined into an orderly narrative poem, without much hacking about. But on the other hand a short lay will often tell, in less than a hundred lines, a story more complex than that of the Iliad or the Odyssey. Its shortness may be due, not to any limitation in the scope of the plot, but rather to the passionate haste with which it rushes through a long story. It is one thing to admit that there must have been short lays on the story of Beowulf : it is another to assume that these lays were of such a character that nothing was needed but compilers 1 Earle, Deeds of Beowulf, xlix (an excellent criticism of Miillenhoff). 8—2 116 Theories as to the structure of ^'Beowulf" [CH. iii with a taste for arrangement and interpolation in order to turn tliem into the extant epic of Beowulf. When we find nearly five hundred lines spent in describing the reception of the hero in Hrothgar's land, we may well doubt whether this passage can have found its way into our poem through any such process of fitting together as Miillenhoff postulated. It would be out of scale in any narrative shorter than the Beowulf as we have it. It suggests to us that the epic is developed out of the lay, not by a process of fitting together, but rather by a retelling of the story in a more leisurely way. A comparison of extant short lays or ballads with extant epics has shown that, if these epics were made by stringing lays together, such lays must have been different from the great majority of the short lays now known. "The lays into which this theory dissects the epics, or which it assumes as the sources of the epics, differ in two ways from extant lays: they deal with short, incomplete subjects and they have an epic breadth of stylei." It has been shown by W. P. Ker^ that a comparison of such fragments as have survived of the Germanic short lay (Finns- hurg, Hildehrand) does not bear out the theory that the epic is a conglomeration of such lays. "It is the change and development in style rather than any increase in the com- plexity of the themes that accounts for the difference in scale between the shorter and the longer poems." A similar conclusion is reached by Professor Hart: "It might be illuminating to base a LiedertJieorie in part, at least, upon a study of existing Lieder, rather than wholly upon an attempt to dismember the epic in question. Such study reveals indeed a certain similarity in kind of Ballad and Epic, but it reveals at the same time an enormous difference in degree, in stage of development. If the Beowulf, then, was made up of a series of heroic songs, strung together with little or na modification, these songs must have been something very different from the popular ballad^." * Heusler, Lied u. Epos, 26. ^ Epic and Romance, Chap, n, § 2. 8 Ballad and Epic, 311-12. SECT. Ill] Theories as to the structure of ''Beowulf" 117 And subsequent investigations into the history and folk-lore of our poem have not confirmed Mlillenhofi's theory: in some cases indped they have hit it very hard. When a new light was thrown upon the story by the discovery of the parallels between Beowulf and the Grettis saga, it became clear that passages which MiillenhofE had condemned as otiose inter- polations were likely to be genuine elements in the tale. Dr Olrik's minute investigations into the history of the Danish kings have shown from yet another point of view how allusions, which were rashly condemned by Miillenhoff and ten Brink as idle amplifications, are, in fact, essential. How the investigation of the metre, form, and syntax of Beowulf has disclosed an archaic strictness of usage has been explained above (Sect. II). This usage is in striking contrast with the practice of later poets like Cynewulf. How far we are justified in relying upon such differ ences of usage as criteria of exact date is open to dispute. But it seems clear that, had MullenhofE's theories been accurate, we might reasonably have expected to have been able to differentiate between the earlier and the later strata in so composite a poem. The composite theory has lately been strongly supported by Schiickingi. Schiicking starts from the fact, upon which we are all agreed, that the poem falls into two main divisions : the story of how Beowulf at Heorot slew Grendel and Grendel's mother, and the story of the dragon, which fifty years later he slew at his home. These are connected by the section which tells how Beowulf returned from Heorot to his own home and was honourably received by his king, Hygelac. It is now admitted that the ways of Old English narrative were not necessarily our ways, and that we must not postulate, because our poem falls into two somewhat clumsily connected sections, that therefore it is compounded out of two originally distinct lays. But, on the other hand, as Schiicking rightly urges, instances are forthcoming of two O.K poems having been clumsily connected into one^. Therefore, whilst no one would now urge that Beowulf is put together out of two older ^ Beovmlfs Ruckkehr^ 1906. * e.g. Genesis, 118 Theories as to the structure of ^^Beowidf" [CH. iii lays, merely because it can so easily be divided into two sections, this fact does suggest that a case exists for examination. Now if a later poet had connected together two old lays, one on the Grendel and Grendel's mother business, and one on the dragon business, we might fairly expect that this connecting link would show traces of a different style. It is accordingly on the connecting link, the story of Beowulf s Return and reception by Hygelac, that Schiicking concentrates his at- tention, submitting it to the most elaborate tests to see if it betrays metrical, stylistic or syntactical divergencies from the rest of the poem. Various tests are applied, which admittedly give no result, such as the frequency of the repetition in the Return of half verse formulas which occur elsewhere in Beowulp-, or the way in which compound nouns fit into the metrical scheme^. Metrical criteria are very little more helpful^. We have seen that the antiquity of Beowulf is proved by the cases where metre demands the substitution of an older uncontracted form for the existing shorter one. Schiicking argues that no instance occurs in the 267 lines of the Return. But, even if this were the case, it might well be mere accident, since examples only occur at rare intervals anywhere in Beowulf. As a matter of fact, however, examples are to be found in the Return^ (quite up to the normal proportion), though two of the clearest come in a portion of it which Schiicking rather arbitrarily excludes. Coming to syntax in its broadest sense, and especially the method of constructing and connecting sentences, Schiicking enumerates several constructions which are found in the Return, but not elsewhere in Beowulf. Syntax is a subject to which he has given special study, and his opinion upon it must be of value. But I doubt whether anyone as expert in the subject as Schiicking could not find in every passage of like length in Beowulf some constructions not to be exactly paral- leled elsewhere in the poem. 1 Chap. IV, pp. 29-33. 2 chap. v, pp. 34-41. ' Chap. VI, cf. esp. p. 60. * In the portion which Schiicking excludes, we twice have gsed = gaiff (2034, 2055). Elsewhere in the Return we have don — doan (2166) whilst Jrea (1934), Hondacio (2076) need to be considered. SECT, III] Theories as to the structure of ^^ Beowulf " 119 The fact that we find here, and here only, passages intro- duced by the clauses ic sceal for& sprecan^, and to lang ys to reccenne^, is natural when we realize that we have here the longest speech in the whole poem, which obviously calls for such apologies for prolixity. The fact that no parentheses occur in the Return does not differentiate it from the rest of Beowulf: for, as Schiicking himself points out elsewhere, there are three other passages in the poem, longer than the Return, which are equally devoid of parentheses^. There remain a few hapax legomena\ but very inconclusive. There are, in addition, examples which occur only in the Return, and in certain other episodic passages. These episodic passages also, Schiicking supposes, may have been added by the same reviser who added the Return. But this is a perilous change of position. For example, a certain peculiarity is found only in the Return and the introductory genealogical section 5 ; or in the Return and the Finn Episode^. But when Schiicking proceeds to the suggestion that the Introduction or the Finn Episode may have been added by the same reviser who added Beowulf s Return, he knocks the bottom out of some of his previous arguments. The argument from the absence of parentheses (whatever it was worth) must go : for according to Schiicking's own punctuation, such parentheses are found both in the Introduction and in the Finn Episode. If these are by the author of the Return, then doubt is thrown upon one of the alleged pecuharities of that author ; we find the author of the Return no more averse on the whole to parentheses than the author or authors of the rest of the poem. Peculiar usages of the moods and tenses are found twice in the Return'^, and once again in the episode where Beowulf 1 2069. 2 2093. ' Satzverknupfung im Beovmlf, 139. * pylse8= "lest" (1918); ac indirect question (1990); J>a occurring unsup- ported late in the sentence (2192); fcyrjydm (1957) [see Sievers in P.B.B. xxix, 313]; siod = "since," "because" (2184). But Schiicking admits in his edition two other instances of forpdm (146 and 2645), so this can hardly count. ^ hyrde ic as introducing a statement, 62, 2163, 2172; siSffan Brest, 6, 1947. « A similar use of /a, 1078, 1988; cf. 1114, 1125, 2135. ' hs^hhe, 1928; geat jafnan ; tvau haust hefir )7at nii hingat vitjat ok gert mikinn skaSa ; a |7at bita ekki vapn, en kappar konungs koma ekki heim, ]7eir sem at eru einna mestir." BgSvarr mselti : " ekki er hQllin sva vel skipuS, sem ek aetlaSi, ef eitt dyr skal her eySa riki ok fe konungsins." Hgttr sagSi : " )7at er ekki dyr, heldr er )7at hit mesta trgll." Nii kemr jolaaptann ; )?a maelti kon- ungr : " nil vil ek, at menn se kyrrir ok hljoSir i nott, ok banna ek gllum minum mgnnum at ganga i ngkkurn haska viS dyrit, en fe ferr eptir )7vi sem auSnar ; menn mina vil ek ekki missa." Allir heita her goSu um, at gera eptir ]7vi, sem konungr bauS. B^Svarr leyndiz i burt um nottina ; hann laetr Hgtt fara me6 ser, ok gerir hann j^at nauSugr ok kallaSi hann ser styrt til bana. BgSvarr segir, at betr mundi til takaz. peir ganga i burt fra hgllinni, ok verSr BgSvarr at bera hann ; sva er hann hraeddr. Nii sja \eu dyrit ; ok )?vi naest sepir Hgttr slikt, sem hann ma, ok kvaS dyrit mundu gleypa hann. BgSvarr baS bikkjuna hans l?egja ok kastar honum niSr i mosann, ok J>ar liggr hann ok eigi me3 gllu ohraeddr ; eigi J^orir hann heim at fara heldr. Nii gengr BgSvarr moti dyrinu ; |?at haefir honum, at sverSit er fast i umgjgrSinni, er hann vildi bregSa ]7vi. BgSvarr eggjar mi fast sverSit ok \k bragSar i umgjgrSinni, ok mi faer hann brugSit umgjgrSinni, sva at sverSit gengr lir sliSrunum, ok leggr )7egar undir bsegi dyrsins ok sva fast, at stoS i hjartanu, ok datt )?a dyrit til jarSar dautt niSr. Eptir )7at ferr hann ]?angat sem Hgttr liggr. BgSvarr tekr hann upp ok berr J^angat, sem dyrit liggr dautt. Hgttr skelfr akaft. BgSvarr maelti: "mi skaltu drekka bloS dyrsins." Hann er lengi tregr, en J?6 ]?orir hann vist eigi annat. BgSvarr Isetr hann drekka tva sopa stora ; hann let hann ok eta ngkkut af dyrshjartanu; eptir ]7etta tekr BgSvarr til hans, ok attuz )?eir vis lengi. BgSvarr maelti : " helzt ertu mi sterkr orSinn, ok ekki vaenti ek, et J^ii hraeSiz mi hirSmenn Hrolfs konungs." Hgttr sagSi : " eigi mun ek |7a hraeSaz ok eigi )7ik upp fra )?essu." " Vel er )?a or6it, Hgttr felagi ; fgru vit mi til ok reisum upp dyrit ok biium sva um, at aSrir aetli at kvikt muni vera." The mmister is slain by Bothvar and Hott 141 peir gera nii sva. Eptir )?at fara J^eir heim ok hafa kyrt um sik, ok veit engi maSr, hvat )?eir hafa iSjat. Konungr spyrr um morguninn, hvat )?eir viti til d^frsins, hvart }7at hafi ngkkut )?angat vitjat um nottina; honum var sagt, at fe alt vseri heilt i grindum ok osakat. Konungr bat5 menn forvitnaz, hvart engi saei likindi til, at |7at hefSi heim komit. VarSmenn gerSu sva ok komu skjott aptr ok sggSu konungi, at dyrit faeri )?ar ok heldr geyst at borginni. Konungr baS hirt5menn vera hrausta ok duga mi hvern eptir )>vi, sem hann hefSi hug til, ok raSa af ovaett j^enna ; ok sva var gert, sem konungr bauS, at )7eir bjuggu sik til )?ess. Konungr horfSi a dyrit ok maelti sfSan: *'enga se ek fgr a dyrinu, en hverr vill mi taka kaup einn ok ganga i moti )7vi? " BgSvarr mselti : " J?at vseri naesta hrausts manns forvitnisbot. Hgttr felagi, rektu mi af \qx illmselit )7at', at menn lata, sem engi krellr ne dugr muni i j^er vera; far mi ok drep )?u dyrit; mattu sja, at engi er allfiiss til annarra." " Ja," sagSi Hgttr, " ek mun til J?essa raSaz." Konungr mselti: ''ekki veit ek, hvaSan }?essi hreysti er at J7er komin, Hgttr, ok mikit hefir um J^ik skipaz a skammri stundu." Hgttr maelti : " gef mer til sverSit Gullinhjalta, er J?u heldr a, ok skal ek fa fella d^^rit eSa fa bana." Hrolf konungr maelti : "l^etta sverS er ekki beranda nema )7eim manni, sem baeSi er goSr drengr ok hraustr." Hgttr sagSi: "sva skaltu til aetla, at mer se sva hattat." Konungr maelti : " hvat ma vita, nema fleira hafi skipz um hagi J^ina, en sja ]?ykkir, en faestir menn )7ykkjaz J^ik kenna, at \vi ser enn sami maSr; mi tak viS sverSinu ok njot manna bezt, ef fetta er til unnit." SiSan gengr Hgttr at dyrinu alldjarfliga ok hj^ggr til )?ess, fa er hann kemr i hgggfaeri, ok dyrit fellr niSr dautt. BgSvarr maelti: "sjaiS mi, herra, hvat hann hefir til unnit." Konungr segir: *' vist hefir hann mikit skipaz, en ekki hefir Hgttr einn dyrit drepit, heldr hefir fii fat gert." BgSvarr segir: "vera ma, at sva se." Konungr segir: " vissa ek, fa er fii komt her, at fair mundu finir jafningjar vera, en fat fykki mer fo fitt verk fraegiligast, at f li hefir gert her annan kappa, far er Hgttr er, ok ovaenligr fotti til mikillar giptu; ok mi vil ek at hann heiti eigi Hgttr lengr ok skal hann heita Hjalti upp fra f essu ; skaltu heita eptir sverSinu Gullinhjalta." 142 Translation of the Saga of Rolf Kraki, chap. 23 Then Bothvar went on his way to Leire, and came to the king's dwelling. Bothvar stabled his horse by the king's best horses, without asking leave; and then he went into the hall, and there were few men there. He took a seat near the door, and when he had been there a httle time he heard a rummaging in a corner. Bothvar looked that way and saw that a man's hand came up out of a great heap of bones which lay there, and the hand was very black. Bothvar went thither and asked who was there in the heap of bones. Then an answer came, in a very weak voice, "Hott is my name, good fellow." "Why art thou here?" said Bothvar, "and what art thou doing?" Hott said, "I am making a shield- wall for myself, good fellow." Bothvar said, "Out on thee and thy shield- wall ! " and gripped him and jerked him up out of the heap of bones. Then Hott cried out and said, " Now thou wilt be the death of me : do not do so. I had made it all so snug, and now thou hast scattered in pieces my shield- wall; and I had built it so high all round myself that it has protected me against all your blows, so that for long no blows have come upon me, and yet it was not so arranged as I meant it should be." Then Bothvar said, "Thou wilt not build thy shield- wall any longer." ^ Hott said, weeping, "Wilt thou be the death of me, good fellow?" Bothvar told him not to make a noise, and then took him up and bore him out of the hall to some water which was close by, and washed him from head to foot. Few paid any heed to this. Then Bothvar went to the place which he had taken before, and led Hott with him, and set Hott by his side. But Hott was so afraid that he was trembhng in every Mmb, and yet he seemed to know that this man would help him. After that it grew to evening, and men crowded into the hall: and Rolf's warriors saw that Hott was seated upon the bench. And it seemed to them that the man must be bold Bothvar Bjarhi protects Hott 143 enough who had taken upon himself to put him there. Hott had an ill countenance when he saw his acquaintances, for he had received naught but evil from them. He wished to save his hfe and go back to his bone-heap, but Bothvar held him tightly so that he could not go away. For Hott thought that, if he could get back into his bone-heap, he would not be as much exposed to their blows as he was. Now the retainers did as before ; and first of all they tossed small bones across the floor towards Bothvar and Hott. Both- var pretended not to see this. Hott was so afraid that he neither ate nor drank ; and every moment he thought he would be smitten. And now Hott said to Bothvar, "Good fellow, now a great knuckle bone is coming towards thee, aimed so as to do us sore injury." Bothvar told him to hold his tongue, and put up the hollow of his palm against the knuckle bone and caught it, and the leg bone was joined on to the knuckle bone. Then Bothvar sent the knuckle bone back, and hurled it straight at the man who had thrown it, with such a swift blow that it was the death of him. Then great fear came over the retainers. Now news came to Eang Rolf and his men up in the castle that a stately man had come to the hall and killed a retainer, and that the retainers wished to kill the man. Ejng Rolf asked whether the retainer who had been killed had given any offence. "Next to none," they said: then all the truth of the mftitter came up before King Rolf. King Rolf said that it should be far from them to kill the man: "You have taken up an evil custom here in pelting men with bones without quarrel. It is a dishonour to me and a great shame to you to do so. I have spoken about it before, and you have paid no attention. I think that this man whom you have assailed must be a man of no small valour. Call him to me, so that I may know who he is." Bothvar went before the king and greeted him courteously. The king asked him his name. " Your retainers call me Hott's protector, but my name is Bothvar." The king said, " What compensation wilt thou offer me for my retainer?" 144 Translation of the Saga of Rolf KraM, chap, 23 Botlivar said, "He only got what he asked for." The king said, " Wilt thou become my man and fill his place ? " Bothvar said, "I do not refuse to be your man, but Hott and I must not part so. And we must sit nearer to thee than this man whom I have slain has sat; otherwise we will both depart together." The king said, "I do not see much credit in Hott, but I will not grudge him meat." Then Bothvar went to the seat that seemed good to him, and would not fill that which the other had before. He pulled up three men in one place, and then he and Hott sat down there higher in the hall than the place which had been given to them. The men thought Bothvar overbearing, and there was the greatest ill will among tjiem concerning him. And when it drew near to Christmas, men became gloomy. Bothvar asked Hott the reason of this. Hott said to him that for two winters together a wild beast had come, great and awful, "And it has wings on its back, and flies. For two autumns it has attacked us here and done much damage. No weapon will wound it: and the champions of the king, those who are the greatest, come not back." Bothvar said, " This hall is not so well arrayed as I thought, if one beast can lay waste the kingdom and the cattle of the king." Hott said, "It is no beast: it is the greatest troll." Now Christmas-eve came; then said the king, "Now my will is that men to-night be still and quiet, and I forbid all my men to run into any peril with this beast. It must be with the cattle as fate will have it: but I do not wish to lose my men." All men promised to do as the king commanded. But Bothvar went out in secret that night; he caused Hott to go with him, but Hott did that only under compulsion, and said that it would be the death of him. Bothvar said that he hoped that it would be better than that. They went away from the hall, and Bothvar had to carry Hott, so frightened was he. Now they saw the beast; and thereupon Hott cried out as loud as he could, and said that the beast would swallow him. Bothvar said, "Be silent, thou dog," and threw him down in the mire. And there he lay in no small fear ; but he did not dare to go home, any the more. Bothvar slays the monster 145 Now Bothvar went against the beast, and it happened that his sword was fast in his sheath when he wished to draw it. Bothvar now tugged at his sword, it moved, he wrenched the scabbard so that the sword came out. And at once he plunged it into the beast's shoulder so mightily that it pierced him to the heart, and the beast fell down dead to the earth. After that Bothvar went where Hott lay. Bothvar took him up and bore him to where the beast lay dead. Hott was trembhng all over. Bothvar said, "Now must thou drink the blood of the beast." For long Hott was unwilhng, and yet he did not dare to do anything else. Bothvar made him drink two great sups ; also he made him eat somewhat of the heart of the beast. After that Bothvar turned to Hott, and they fought a long time. Bothvar said, " Thou hast now become very strong, and I do not beheve that thou wilt now fear the retainers of King Rolf." Hott said, "I shall not fear them, nor thee either, from now on." "That is good, fellow Hott. Let us now go and raise up the beast, and so array him that others may think that he is still ahve." And they did so. After that they went home, and were quiet, and no man knew what they had achieved. In the morning the king asked what news there was of the beast, and whether it had made any attack upon them in the night. And answer was made to the king, that all the cattle were safe and uninjured in their folds. The king bade his men examine whether any trace could be seen of the beast having visited them. The watchers did so, and came quickly back to the king with the news that the beast was making for the castle, and in great fury. The king bade his retainers be brave, and each play the man according as he had spirit, and do away with this monster. And they did as the king bade, and made them ready. Then the king faced towards the beast and said, "I see no sign of movement in the beast. Who now will undertake to go against it?" Bothvar said, " That would be an enterprise for a man of true valour. Fellow Hott, now clear thyself of that ill-repute, c. B. 10 146 Extracts from Grettis Saga in that men hold that there is no spirit or valour in thee. Go now and do thou kill the beast; thou canst see that there is no one else who is forward to do it." "Yea," said Hott, "I will undertake this." The king said, " I do not know whence this valour has come upon thee, Hott; and much has changed in thee in a short time." Hott said, "Give me the sword Goldenboss, Gulhnhjalti, which thou dost wield, and I will fell the beast or take my death." Rolf the king said, "That sword cannot be borne except by a man who is both a good warrior and vahant." Hott said, "So shalt thou ween that I am a man of that kind." The king said, " How can one know that more has not changed in thy temper than can be seen? Few men would know thee for the same man. Now take the sword and have joy of it, if this deed is accompUshed." Then Hott went boldly to the beast and smote at it when he came within reach, and the beast fell down dead. Bothvar said, "See now, my lord, what he has achieved." The king said, "Verily, he has altered much, but Hott has not killed the beast alone, rather hast thou done it." Bothvar said, "It may be that it is so." The king said, "I knew when thou didst come here that few would be thine equals. But this seems to me nevertheless thy most honourable work, that thou hast made here another warrior of Hott, who did not seem shaped for much luck. And now I will that he shall be called no longer Hott, but Hjalti from this time ; thou shalt be called after the sword Gulhnhjalti (Goldenboss)." C. Extracts prom Grettis Saga (ed. G. Magniisson, 1853; R. C. Boer, 1900) (a) Glam episode (caps. 32-35) porhallr het mat5r, er bj6 a porhallsst^Sum i Forsaeludal. Forsseludalr er upp af Vatnsdal. porhallr var Grimsson, porhallssonar, FriSmundarsonar, er nam Forsaeludal. porhallr atti psb konu, er GuSriin het. Grimr het sonr j^eira, en puriSr dottir; J^au varu vel a legg komin. porhallr var vel auSigr Glam as a servant 147 maSr, ok mest at kvikfe, sv4 at engi maSr atti jafnmart gan- ganda fe, sem hann. Ekki var hann hgfsingi, en ]?6 skilrikr bondi. par var reimt mjgk, ok fekk hann varla sauSamann, sva at honum foetti duga. Hann leitaSi raSs viS marga vitra menn, hvat hann skyldi til bragSs taka ; en engi gat J^at raS til gefit, er dygSi. porhallr reit5 til J?ings hvert sumar. Hann atti hesta goSa. pat var eitt sumar a alj?ingi, at porhallr gekk til biiSar Skapta Iggmanns, poroddssonar. Skapti var manna vitrastr, ok heilraSr, ef hann var beiddr. pat skildi metJ ]7eim feSgum: poroddr var forspar ok kallaSr undir- hyggjumaSr af sumum mgnnum, en Skapti lagSi j^at til meS hverjum manni, sem hann aetlaSi at duga skyldi, ef eigi vaeri af J?vi brugSit; J?vi var hann kallaSr betrfeSrungr. porhallr gekk i bus Skapta; hann fagna^i vel porhalH, J^vi hann vissi, at hann var rikr maSr at fe, ok spurSi hvat at tiSendum vaeri. porhallr mselti: "HeilraeSi vilda ek af ySr J'iggja." "f htlum foerum em ek til J^ess," sagSi Skapti; "eSa hvat stendr J^ik?" porhallr maelti: "pat er sva hdttat, at mer helz litt a sauSamgnnum. VerSr J?eim heldr klakksart, en sumir gera engar lyktir a. Vill mi engi til taka, sa er kunnigt er til, hvat fyrir byr." Skapti svarar: "par mun hggja meinvsettr ngkkur, er menn eru tregari til at geyma siSr J?ins fjar en annarra manna. Nu fjnrir f>vi, at )?u hefir at mer raS sott, J^a skal ek fa ]7er sauSa- mann, J^ann er Glamr heitir, aettaSr or Svi}?j6S, or Sylgsdglum, er lit kom i fyrra sumar, mild 11 ok sterkr, ok ekki mjgk viS al)>ySu skap." porhallr kvaz ekki um ]7at gefa, ef hann geymdi vel fjarins; Skapti sagSi gSrum eigi vaent horfa, ef hann geymdi eigi fyrir afls sakir ok araeSis; porhallr gekk fa lit. petta var at J^ing- lausnum. porhalli var vant hesta tveggja Ijosbleikra, ok for sjalfr at leita ; af J>vi J^ykkjaz menn vita, at hann var ekki mikilmenni. Hann gekk upp undir SleSas ok suSr meS fjalU J?vi, er Ar- mannsfell heitir. pa sa hann, hvar maSr for ofan or GoSaskogi ok bar hris a hesti. Bratt bar saman fund J^eira; porhallr spurSi hann at nafni, en hann kvez Glamr heita. pessi maSr 10—2 148 Extracts from Grettis Saga var mikill vexti ok undarligr i yfirbragSi, blaeygSr ok opineygSr, tilfgrar a harslit. porhalli bra ngkkut i brun, er hann sa )?enna mann; en ]f6 skildi hann, at honum mundi til J?essa visat. "Hvat er J^er bezt hent at vinna?" segir porhallr. Glamr kvatS ser vel hent at geyma sauSfjar a vetrum. "Viltu geyma sauSfjar mins?" segir porhallr ; "gaf Skapti J?ik a mitt vald." "Sva mun ]?er hentust min vist, at ek fari sjalfraSr; J^vi ek em skapstyggr, ef mer likar eigi vel," sagSi Glamr. "Ekki mun mer mein at J?vi," segir porhallr, "ok vil ek, at ]>u farir til mm." "Gera ma ek J?at," segir Glamr; "eSa eru J?ar ngkkur vandhcefi a?" "Eeimt )>ykkir J>ar vera," sagSi porhallr. "Ekki hrseSumz ek flykur J^ser," sagSi Glamr, "ok ]?ykkir mer at 6daiiflig[r]a." "pess muntu viS J?urfa," segir porhallr, "ok hentar J?ar betr, at vera eigi alllitill fyrir ser." Eptir )?at kaupa J?eir saman, ok skal Glamr koma at vetr- nottum. SiSan skildu J^eir, ok fann porhallr hesta sina, )?ar sem hann hafsi nyleitat. KeitS porhallr heim, ok J?akkaSi Skapta sinn velgerning. Sumar leiS af, ok fretti porhallr ekki til sauSamanns, ok engi kunni skyn a honum. En at anefndum tima kom hann a porhallsstaSi. Tekr bondi viS honum vel, en gllum gSrum gaz ekki at honum, en husfreyju j>6 minst. Hann tok vi5 fjarvarSveizlu, ok varS honum litit fyrir J?vi; hann var hljoS- mikill ok dimmraddaSr, ok feit stgkk allt saman, )7egar hann hoaSi. Kirkja var a porhallsstgSum ; ekki vildi Glamr til hennar koma; hann var osgngvinn ok trulauss, stirfinn ok viSskotaillr ; gllum var hann hvimleiSr. Nu lei?5 sva J>ar til er kemr atfangadagr jola. pa stoS Glamr snemma upp ok kallaSi til matar sins. Husfreyja svarar: "Ekki er pat hattr kristinna manna, at mataz J^enna dag, J?viat a morgin er joladagr hinn fyrsti," segir hon, "ok er pYi fyrst sky It at fasta i dag." Hann svarar: "Marga hindrvitni hafi J^er, J?a er ek se til enskis koma. Veit ek eigi, at mgnnum fari mi betr at, heldr Gla/m is slain 149 en J7a, er menn foru ekki me3 slikt. potti mer 'pk betri siSr, er menn varu heiSnir kallaSir; ok vil ek mat minn en engar refjur." Husfreyja maelti: "Vist veit ek, at J?er mun ilia faraz i dag, ef J7U tekr J^etta illbrigSi til." Glamr baS hana taka mat i staS ; kvaS henni annat skyldu vera verra. Hon J^orSi eigi annat, en at gera, sem hann vildi. Ok er hann var mettr, gekk hann ut, ok var heldr gustillr. VeSri var sva farit, at myrkt var um at litaz, ok flggraSi or drifa, ok gnymikit, ok versnaSi mjgk sem k leiS daginn. HeyrSu menn til sauSamanns gndverCan daginn, en miSr er a leiS daginn. Tok J^a at fjiika, ok gert5i a hriS um kveldit; komu menn til tiSa, ok leiS sva fram at dagsetri ; eigi kom Glamr heim. Var }>a um talat, hvart bans skyldi eigi leita; en fyrir J7vi, at hriS var a ok niSamyrkr, J^d varS ekki af leitinni. Kom hann eigi heim jolanottina; bi5u menn sva fram um tiSir. At cernum degi foru menn i leitina, ok fundu feit viSa i fgnnum, lamit af ofviSri eSa hlaupit a fjgll upp. pvinaest komu j^eir a traSk mikinn ofarhga i dalnum. potti )?eim J7vi likt, sem }>ar hefSi glimt verit heldr sterkliga, }?viat grjotit var viSa upp leyst, ok sva jgrSin. peir hugSu at vandUga ok sa, hvar Glamr la, skamt a brott fra J?eim. Hann var dauSr, ok blar sem Hel, en digr sem naut. peim bauS af honum ofekt mikla, ok hraus )?eim mjok hugr vis honum. En ]?6 leituSu )?eir viS at foera hann til kirkju, ok gatu ekki komit honum, nema a einn gilsj^rgm J?ar skamt of an fra ser; ok foru heim viS sva biiit, ok SQgSu bonda }>enna atburS. Hann spurSi, hvat Glami mundi hafa at bana orSit. peir kvaSuz rakit hafa spor sva stor, sem keraldsbotni vseri niSr skelt J?aSan fra, sem traSkrinn var, ok upp undir bjgrg )?au, er J^ar varu ofarhga i dalnum, ok fylgSu )>ar meS bloSdrefjar miklar. pat drogu menn saman, at sii meinvaBttr, er aSr hafSi [)>ar] verit, mundi hafa deytt Glam ; en hann mundi f engit hafa henni ngkkurn averka, J^ann er tekit hafi. til fulls, J^viat vis }7a meinvsetti hefir aldri vart orSit siSan. Annan joladag var enn til farit at foera Glam til kirkju. Varu eykir fyrir beittir, ok gatu )?eir hvergi foert hann, J^egar slettlendit var ok eigi var forbrekkis at fara. Gengu mi fra viS sva biiit. Hinn J?riSja dag for prestr meS }?eim, ok leituSu allan daginn, 150 Extracts Jrom Grettis Saga ok Glamr fannz eigi. Eigi vildi prestr optar til fara; en sauSamaSr fannz, J^egar prestr var eigi i ferS. Letu peh J?a fyrir vinnaz, at foera hann til kirkju; ok dysjuSu hann J^ar, sem )7a var hann kominn. Litlu siSar urSu menn varir vi5 J>at, at Glamr la eigi kyrr. VarS mgnnum at J?vi mikit mein, sva at margir fellu i ovit, ef sa hann, en sumir heldu eigi vitinu. pegar eptir John J^ottuz menn sja hann heima J?ar a boenum. UrSu menn akafliga hrseddir ; stukku pa, margir menn i brott. pvinaest tok Glamr at riSa hiisum a naetr, sva at la viS brotum. Gekk hann )?a naliga naetr ok daga. Varla J^orSu menn at fara upp i dahnn, J^oat aetti nog ^rendi. potti mgnnum ]?ar i heraSinu mikit mein at J^essu. Um varit fekk porhallr ser hjon ok gerSi bii a jgrSu sinni. Tok pk at minka aptrgangr, meSan solargangr var mestr. LeiS sva fram a miSsumar. petta sumar kom lit skip i Hunavatni ; par var a sa maSr, er porgautr het. Hann var litlendr at kyni, mikill ok sterkr; hann hafSi tveggja manna afl; hann var lauss ok einn fyrir ser; hann vildi fa starfa ngkkurn, )?vi(at) hann var felauss. porhallr reiS til skips ok fann porgaut; spurSi ef hann vildi vinna fyrir honum; porgautr kvaS J^at vel mega vera, ok kvez eigi vanda }7at. "Sva skaltu viS biiaz," segir porhallr, "sem J^ar se ekki veslingsmgnnum hent at vera, fyrir aptrggngum J^eim, er J^ar hafa verit um hris, en ek vil ekki ]?ik a talar draga." porgautr svarar: "Eigi J^ykkjumz ek upp gefinn, J^oat ek sja smavafur; mun J?a eigi gSrum daelt, ef ek hraeSumz; ok ekki bregS ek vist minni fyrir fat." Nu semr J?eim vel kaupstefnan, ok skal porgautr gseta sauSfjar at vetri. LeiS mi af sumarit. Tok porgautr viS fenu at vetrnattum. Vel likaSi gllum viS hann. Jafnan kom Glamr heim ok reiS hiisum. pat ]76tti porgauti allkathgt, ok kvaS, *'J?r8eUnn J?urfa mundu naer at ganga, ef ek hraeSumz." porhallr baS hann hafa fatt um; "er bezt, at J^it reyniS ekki meS ykkr." porgautr maelti: "Sannliga er skekinn J?r6ttr or ySr; ok dett ek eigi niSr milU doegra viS skraf )?etta." Nu for sva fram um vetrinn allt til jola. Atfangakveld jola for sauSamaSr til fjar. Glam ^^ walks" after death 151 pa maelti hiisfreyja: "purfa J?cetti mer, at nii foeri eigi at fornum brggSum." Hann svarar: "Ver eigi hrsedd um J^at, hiisfreyja," sagSi hann; "verSa mun eitthvert sgguligt, ef ek kem ekki aptr." SiSan gekk hann aptr til f jar sins. VeSr var heldr kalt, ok f jiik mikit. pvi var porgautr vanr, at koma heim, J^a er halfr^ikkvat var ; en mi kom hann ekki heim i J^at mund. Komu ti?5amenn, sem vant var. pat j^otti mgnnum eigi olikt 4 horfaz sem fyrr. Bondi vildi leita lata eptir sauSamanni, en ti(5amenn tglduz undan, ok sggSuz eigi mundu hsetta ser lit i trgllahendr um naetr; ok treystiz bondi eigi at fara, ok varS ekki af leitinni. Joladag, er menn varu mettir, foru menn til ok leituSu sauSa- manns. Gengu J^eir fjnrst til dysjar Glams, J>viat menn setluSu af hans vgldum mundi orSit um hvarf sauSamanns. En er )>eir komu naer dysinni, sau J^eir )7ar mikil tiSendi, ok )7ar fundu J7eir sauSamann, ok var hann brotinn a hals, ok lamit sundr hvert bein i honum. SiSan foerSu )?eir hann til kirkju, ok varS engum manni mein at porgauti siSan. En Glamr tok at magnaz af nyju. GerSi hann mi sva mikit af ser, at menn allir stukku brott af porhallsstgSum, litan bondi einn ok hiisfreyja. NautamaSr hafsi J^ar verit lengi hinn sami. Vildi porhallr hann ekki lausan lata fyrir goSvilja sakir ok geymslu. Hann var mjgk viS aldr, ok J?6tti honum mikit fyrir, at fara a brott ; sa hann ok, at allt for at onytju, J^at er bondi atti, ef engi geymdi. Ok einn tima eptir miSjan vetr var )?at einn morgin, at hiisfreyja for til fjoss, at mjolka kyr eptir tima. pa var alljost, J?viat engi treystiz fyrr liti at vera annarr en nautamaSr ; hann for lit, J^egar lysti. Hon heyrsi brak mikit i fjosit, ok beljan gskurliga ; hon hljop inn oepandi ok kvaz eigi vita, hver odoemi um vseri i fjosinu. Bondi gekk lit ok kom til nautanna, ok stangaSi hvert annat. potti honum )?ar eigi gott, ok gekk innar at hlgSunni. Hann sa, hvar la nautamaSr, ok hafSi hgfuSit i gSrum basi en foetr i gSrum; hann la a bak aptr. Bondi gekk at honum ok J^reifaSi um hann; finnr bratt, at hann er dauSr ok sundr hryggrinn i honum. Var hann brotinn um bdshelluna. Nii J^otti bonda eigi vaert, ok for i brott af boenum meS allt fat, sem hann matti i brott flytja. En allt kvikfe j^at, sem eptir var, deyddi G14mr. Ok J^vinssst for 152 Extracts from Grettis Saga hann um allan dalinn ok eyddi alia boei upp fra Tungu. Var porhallr ]>k me?5 vinum sinum )?at [sem] eptir var vetrarins. Engi maSr mdtti fara upp i dalinn meS best eSr hund, J?viat J^at var J?egar drepit. En er varaSi, ok solargangr var sem mestr, letti heldr aptrg^ngunum. Vildi porhallr nii fara aptr til lands sins. UrSu honum ekki aut5fengin hjon, en ]>o gerSi hann bu a porhallsstgSum. For allt a sama veg sem fyrr; )?egar at haustaSi, toku at vaxa reimleikar. Var J>a mest sott at bondadottur; ok sva for, at hon lez af J^vi. Margia raSa var i leitat, ok var3 ekki at g^rt. potti mgnnum til J?ess horfaz, at eyt5az mundi allr Vatnsdalr, ef eigi yrSi boetr a raSnar. Nil er J?ar til at taka, at Grettir Asmundarson sat heima at Bjargi um haustit, siSan )7eir VigabarSi skildu a poreyjar- gniipi. Ok er mjgk var komit at vetrnottum, reiS Grettir heiman norSr yfir hdlsa til ViSidals, ok gisti a AuSunarstgSum. Ssettuz J^eir AuSunn til fulls, ok gaf Grettir honum j^xi goSa, ok maeltu til vinattu meS ser. AuSunn bjo lengi a AuSunar- stQSum ok var kynsaell maSr. Hans sonr var Egill, er atti tJlfheiSi, dottur Eyjolfs GuSmundarsonar, ok var J^eira sonr Eyjolfr, er veginn var a alj^ingi. Hann var faSir Orms, kapilans porlaks biskups. Grettir reiS nortSr til Vatnsdals ok kom a kynnisleit i Tungu. par bjo )>a JgkuU BarSarson, moSurbroSir Grettis; JgkuU var mikill maSr ok sterkr ok hinn mesti ofsa- matJr. Hann var siglingamaSr, ok mjgk odsell, en Jjo mikil- hoefr maSr. Hann tok vel viS Gretti, ok var hann J?ar J?rjar naetr. pa var sva mikit orS a aptrggngum Glams, at mgnnum var ekki jafntiSroett sem J^at. Grettir spurSi innihga at }>eim atburSum, er hgfSu orSit; Jgkull kvaS J?ar ekki meira af sagt en til vaeri hoeft; "eSa er )7er forvitni a, frsendi! at koma >ar?" Grettir sagSi, at J?at var satt. • Jgkull baS hann J?at eigi gera, "J7vi ]?at er gaefuraun mikil; en fraendr J?inir eiga mikit i hsettu, }?ar sem J>u ert," sagSi hann; "J?ykkir oss mi engi slikr af ungum mgnnum sem )>u; en illt mun af ilium hljota, )?ar sem Glamr er. Er ok miklu betra, at faz vis mennska menu en viS ovsettir slikar." Grettir kvaS ser hug a, at koma a porhallsstaSi, ok sja, hversu J>ar vseri um gengit. Grettir resolves to combat Glam 163 Jgkull maelti: "S6 ek nu, at eigi tjair at letja J>ik; en satt er J?at sem mselt er, at sitt er hvart, gaefa eSa gervigleikr." "pa er gSrum va fyrir dyrum, er gSrum er inn um komit ; ok hygg at, hversu fer mun fara sjalfum, aSr lykr,'* kvaS Grettir. Jgkull svarar : "Vera kann, at vit sjaim baSir ngkkut fram, en hvarrgi fai viS ggrt." Eptir fat skildu )?eir, ok likaSi hvarigum annars spdr. Grettir reiS a porhallsstaSi, ok fagnaSi bondi honum vel. Hann spurtSi, hvert Grettir aetlaSi at fara; en hann segiz far vilja vera um nottina, ef bonda likaSi, at sva vaeri. porhallr kvaz fgkk fyrir kunna, at hann vaeri far, "en fam fykkir sloegr til at gista her um tima; muntu hafa heyrt getit um, hvat her er at vsela. En ek vilda gjama, at fii hlytir engi vandraeSi af mer. En foat fu komiz heill a brott, fa veit ek fyrir vist, at fii missir bests fins; fvi engi heldr her heilum sinum fararskjota, sa er kemr." Grettir kvaS gott til hesta, hvat sem af fessum yrSi. porhallr var3 glaSr viS, er Grettir vildi far vera, ok tok vis honum baSum hgndum. Var hestr Grettis laestr i hiisi sterkliga. peir foru til svefns, ok leiS sva af nottin, at ekki kom Glamr heim. pa mselti porhallr: "Vel hefir brugSit viS fina kvamu, fviat hverja nott er Glamr vanr at riSa husum eSa brjota upp hurSir, sem fii matt merki sja." Grettir maelti: "pa mun vera annathvart, at hann mun ekki lengi a ser sitja, etJa mun af venjaz meirr en eina nott. Skal ek vera her nott aSra ok sja, hversu ferr.'* SiSan gengu f eir til bests Grettis, ok var ekki viS hann glez. Allt fotti bonda at einu fara. Nii er Grettir far aSra nott, ok kom ekki f raelHnn heim. pa fotti bonda mjgk vsenkaz. For hann fa at sja best Grettis. pa var upp brotit hiisit, er bondi kom til, en hestrinn dreginn til dyra litar, ok lamit i sundr i honum hvert bein. porhallr sagSi Gretti, hvar fa var komit, ok baS hann forSa ser: "fviat viss er dauSinn, ef fii biSr Glams." Grettir svarar: "Eigi ma ek minna hafa fyrir best minn, en at sj4 frseUnn." 154 Extracts from Grettis Saga Bondi sagSi, at J?at var eigi bati, at sja hann, ")?viat hann er olikr ngkkurri mannligri mynd; en goS pjkki mer hver sti stund, er pu vilt her vera." Nil liSr dagrinn; ok er menn skyldu fara til svefns, vildi Grettir eigi fara af klseSum, ok lagSiz niSr i setit gegnt lokrekkju bonda. Hann bafsi rgggvarfeld yfir ser, ok knepti annat skautit niSr undir fcetr ser, en annat snaraSi hann undir bgfuS ser, ok sa lit um hgfuSsmattina. Setstokkr var fyrir framan setit, mjgk sterkr, ok spyrndi hann )?ar i. Dyraumbuningrinn allr var fra brotinn litidyrunum, en mi var J^ar fyrir bundinn hurSarflaki, ok ovendiliga um biiit. pverj?iht var allt brotit fra skalanum, ]7at sem J?ar fyrir framan hafSi verit, bseSi fyrir ofan J7vertreit ok neSan. Ssengr allar varu or staS fcerSar. Heldr var J^ar ovistuUgt. Ljos brann i skalanum um nottina. Ok er af mundi J^riSjungr af nott, heyrSi Grettir lit dynur miklar. Var ]>k farit upp a hiisin, ok risit skalanum ok barit haelunum, sva at brakaSi i hverju tre. pvi gekk lengi; )?a var farit ofan af husunum ok til dyra gengit. Ok er upp var lokit hurSunni, sa Grettir, at J^raellinn retti inn hgfuSit, ok syndiz honum afskrsemiliga mikit ok undarHga storskorit. Glamr for seint ok rettiz upp, er hann kom inn i dyrnar ; hann gnsef aSi of arhga viS rsefrinu ; snyr at skalanum ok lagSi hand- leggina upp a )7vertreit, ok gsegSiz inn yfir skalann. Ekki let bondi heyra til sin, J^viat honum J?6tti oerit um, er hann heyrSi, hvat um var liti. Grettir la kyrr ok hroerSi sik hvergi. Glamr sa, at hriiga ngkkur la i setinu, ok rez mi innar eptir skalanum ok J^reif i feldinn stundarfast. Grettir spyrndi i stokkinn, ok gekk J?vi hvergi. Glamr hnykti i annat sinn miklu fastara, ok bifaSiz hvergi feldrinn. I J^risja sinn pieii hann i meS baSum hgndum sva fast, at hann retti Gretti upp or setinu; kiptu mi i sundr feldinum i milium sin. Glamr leit a slitrit, er hann belt a, ok undraSiz mjgk, hverr sva fast mundi togaz vis hann. Ok i J?vi hljop Grettir undir hendr honum, ok J?reif um hann miSjan, ok spenti a honum hrygginn sem fastast gat hann, ok setlaSi hann, at Glamr skyldi kikna viS. En J^rselhnn lagSi at handleggjum Grettis sva fast, at hann hgrfaSi allr fyrir orku sakir. For Grettir J>a undan i yms setin. Gengu J?a fra stokkarnir, ok allt brotnaSi, J?at sem fyrir varS. Vildi Grettir overthrows Glam 166 G14mr leita lit, en Grettir foerSi viS foetr, hvar sem liann matti. En J76 gat Glamr dregit hann fram or skalanum. Attn J^eir }?a allharSa sokn, )?viat J^raellinn setlaSi at koma honum tit or boenum ; en sva illt sem var at eiga viS Gldm inni, J?^ s4 Grettir, at )?6 var verra, at f 4z viS hann liti ; ok )7vi brauz hann i moti af gllu afli at f ara lit. Glamr f oerSiz i aukana, ok knepti hann at ser, er J^eir komu i anddyrit. Ok er Grettir ser, at hann fekk eigi vis spornat, hefir hann allt eitt atriSit, at hann hleypr sem harSast i fang J^rselnum ok spyrnir baSum fotum i jarSfastan stein, er stoS i dyrunum. Vi6 J?essu bjoz J>raelhnn eigi; hann haf Si J?a togaz viS at draga Gretti at ser ; ok J?vi kiknatsi Glamr a bak aptr, ok rank gfugr tit a dyrnar, sva at herSarnar namu uppdyrit, ok raefrit gekk i sundr, bseSi visirnir ok J?ekjan frerin; fell hann sva opinn ok gfugr lit or hiisunnm, en Grettir a hann ofan. Tunglskin var mikit uti ok gluggaj?ykkn ; hratt stundum fyrir, en stundum dro fra. Nii i ]?vi, er Glamr fell, rak skyit fra tungUnu, en Glamr hvesti augun upp i moti. Ok sva hefir Grettir sagt sjalfr, at }?a eina syn hafi hann set sva, at honum brygSi viS. pa sigaSi sva at honum af gllu saman, moeSi ok )?vi, er hann sa at Glamr gaut sinum sjonum harSliga, at hann gat eigi brugSit saxinu, ok la nahga i milli heims ok heljar. En fvi var meiri ofagnaSarkraptr meS Glami en flestum gSrum aptrggngumgnnum, at hann maelti J?a a J?essa leiS: "Mikit kapp hefir fii a lagit, Grettir," sagSi hann, "at finna mik. En J7at mun eigi undarhgt J?ykkja, J^oat J?u hljotir ekki mikit happ af mer. En J?at ma ek segja )7er, at J^ii hefir nii fengit helming afls J?ess ok J^roska, er )?er var setlaSr, ef )?u hefSir mik ekki fundit. Nii fae ek J?at afl eigi af fer tekit, er J7ii hefir aSr hrept ; en ]?vi ma ek raSa, at J^u verSr aldri sterkari en nti ertu, ok ertu J>6 nogu sterkr, ok at ]7vi mun mgrgum verSa. pii hefir fraegr orSit her til af verkum J>inum; en heSan af munu falla til J^in sektir ok vigaferli, en flest gll verk J?in sniiaz J?er til ogsefu ok hamingjuleysis. pii munt verSa utlaegr ggrr, ok hljota jafnan liti at biia einn samt. pa legg ek fat a viS J?ik, at J?essi augu se J^er jafnan fyrir sjonum, sem ek ber eptir; ok mun fer erfitt J?ykkja, einum at vera; ok ]?at mun )7er til dautJa draga." Ok sem )?raellinn hafSi J^etta mselt, )?a rann af Gretti omegin. 156 Extracts from Grettis Saga j?at sem a honum hafsi verit. Bra hann pa saxinu ok hjo h^fuS af Glami ok setti J?at viS )>j6 honum. Bondi kom pa ut, ok haM klsez, a meSan Glamr let ganga tgluna; en hvergi J?orSi hann naer at koma, fyrr en Glamr var falhnn. porhallr lofaSi guS fyrir, ok J?akka3i vel Gretti, er hann hafsi unnit J?enna ohreina anda. Foru )7eir pk til, ok brendu Glam at kgldum kolum. Eptir J>at [baru J^eir gsku bans i eina hit ok] grofu pax niSr, sem sizt vara fjarhagar eSa manna vegir. Gengu heim eptir J?at, ok var J?a mjgk komit at degi. LagSiz Grettir niSr, pviat hann var stirSr mjgk. porhallr sendi menn a naestu boei eptir mgnnum; syndi ok sagSi, hversu farit haM. Qllum )>6tti mikils um vert um }?etta verk, )?eim er heyrSu. Var J^at }7a almaelt, at engi vseri J?vilikr maSr a gllu landinu fyrir afls sakir ok hreysti ok allrar atgervi, sem Grettir Asmundarson. porhallr leysti Gretti vel af garSi ok gaf honum goSan best ok klseSi soemihg, )>vi[at] J^au varu gll sundr leyst, er hann bafsi aSr borit. Skildu J?eir meS vinattu. EeiS Grettir J?a5an i As i Vatnsdal, ok tok porvaldr viS honum vel ok spurSi inniliga at sameign )>eira Glams ; en Grettir segir honum viSskipti J?eira, ok kvaz aldri i J^vilika aflraun komit hafa, sva langa viSreign sem J?eir hgfSu saman att. porvaldr baS hann hafa sik spakan, " ok mun j?a vel duga, en ella mun per slysgjarnt verSa." Grettir kvaS ekki batnat hafa um lyndisbragSit, ok sagSiz nil miklu verr stiltr en aSr, ok allar motgerSir verri J7ykkja. A pyi fann hann mikla muni, at hann var orSinn maSr sva myrkfselinn, at hann J>orSi hvergi at fara einn saman, J^egar myrkva tok. Syndiz honum J?a hvers kyns skripi; ok ]?at er haft siSan fyrir orStoeki, at J>eim Ijai Glamr augna eSr gefi glamsyni, er mjgk syniz annan veg, en er. Grettir reiS heim til Bjargs, er hann hafsi ggrt ^rendi sin, ok sat heima um vetrinn. (b) Sandhaugar episode (caps. 64-66) Steinn bet prestr, er bjo at Eyjardalsd i BarSardal. Hann var buj?egn goSr ok rikr at fe. Kjartan bet son bans, rgskr maSr ok vel a legg kominn. porsteinn hviti bet maSr, er Grettir (Gestr) comes to Sandhaugar 167 bjo at Sandhaugum, suSr fra Eyjardalsa. Steinvgr het kona bans, ung ok glaSlat. pau attu bgrn, ok varu J?au ung i J^enna tima. par J^otti mgnnum reimt mjgk sakir trgllagangs. pat bar til, tveim vetrum fyrr en Grettir kom norSr i sveitir, at Steinvgr husfreyja at Sandbaugum for til jolatiSa til Eyjar- dalsar eptir vana, en bondi var beima. LggSuz menn niSr til svefns um kveldit; ok um nottina beyrSu menn brak mikit i skalann, ok til saengr bonda. Engi J?orSi upp at standa at forvitnaz um, J?viat J?ar var fament mjgk. Husfreyja kom beim um morguninn, ok var bondi borfinn, ok vissi engi, bvat af bonum var orSit. LiSu sva bin nsestu misseri. En annan vetr eptir, vildi biisfreyja fara til tiSa; baS bon biiskarl sinn beima vera. Hann var tregr til; en ba3 bana raSa. For J?ar allt a sgmu leis, sem fyrr, at buskarl var borfinn. petta ]?6tti mgnnum undarbgt. Sau menn ]?a bloSdrefjar ngkkurar i liti- dyrum. pottuz menn J^at vita, at ovaettir mundu bafa tekit J?a baSa. petta frettiz viSa um sveitir. Grettir bafsi spurn af J?essu. Ok meS J?vi at bonum var mjgk lagit at koma af reim- leikum eSa aptrggngum, J?a gerSi bann ferS sina til BarSardals, ok kom atfangadag jola til Sandba[u]ga. Hann duldiz ok nefndiz Gestr. Husfreyja sa, at bann var furSu mikill vexti, en beimafolk var furSu brsett viS bann. Hann beiddiz J?ar gistingar. Husfreyja kvaS bonum mat til reiSu, "en abyrgz )7ik sjalfr." Hann kvaS sva vera skyldu. "Mun ek vera beima," segir bann, "en J?u far til tiSa, ef }>u vilt." Hon svarar: "Mer J^ykkir J?u braustr, ef ]?u J>orir beima at vera." "Eigi Iset ek mer at einu getit," sagSi bann. "Hit J?ykkir mer beima at vera," segir bon, "en ekki komumz ek yfir ana." "Ek skal fylgja J^er yfir," segir Gestr. SiSan bjoz bon til titJa, ok dottir bennar meS benni, litil vexti. Hlaka mikil var uti, ok km i leysingum; var a benni jakafgr. \)k mselti biisfreyja: "Ofoert er yfir ana, baeSi mgnnum ok bestum." "Vg5 munu a vera," kvaS Gestr; "ok veriS eigi brseddar." 158 Extra/its from Grettis Saga "Ber Jjii fyrst meyna," kvaS hiisfreyja, "hon er lettari." "Ekki nenni ek at gera tvaer ferSir at J?essu," segir Gestr, ** ok mun ek bera J?ik a handlegg mer." Hon signdi sik ok maelti: "petta er ofcera; eSa hvat gerir J?u J?a af meyjunni?" "Sja mun ek ra3 til J^ess," segir hann; ok greip j^ser upp baSar ok setti bina yngri i kne moSur sinnar, ok bar J^ser sva a vinstra armlegg ser; en bafsi lausa bina boegri bgnd ok 6S sva lit a vaSit. Eigi forSu J?8er at oepa, sva varu )78er braeddar. En ain skall j^egar upp a brjosti bonum. pa rak at bonum jaka mikinn; en bann skaut viS bendi J?eiri, er laus var, ok bratt fra ser. GerSi j?a sva djupt, at strauminn braut a gxbnni. 63 bann sterkUga, j?ar til er bann kom at bakkanum gSrum megin, ok fleygir J?eim a land. SiSan sneri bann aptr, ok var ]>k balfr^kvit, er bann kom beim til Sandbauga; ok kallaSi til matar. Ok er bann var mettr, baS bann beimafolk fara innar i stofu. Hann tok J^a borS ok lausa viSu, ok rak um ]7vera stofuna, ok gerSi balk mikinn, sva at engi beimamaSr komz fram yfir. Engi j^orSi i moti bonum at msela, ok i engum skyldi kretta. Gengit var i bbSvegginn stofunnar inn viS gaflblaSit; ok J^ar J7verpallr bja. par lagSiz Gestr niSr ok for ekki af klseSunum. Ljos brann i stofunni gegnt dyrum. Liggr Gestr sva fram a nottina. Hiisfreyja kom til Eyjardalsar til tiSa, ok undruSu menn um ferSir bennar yfir ana. Hon sagSiz eigi vita, bvart bana befSi yfir flutt maSr et5a trgll. Prestr kvaS mann vist vera mundu, )>6at farra maki se; *'ok latum bljott yfir," sagSi bann; "ma vera, at bann se aetlaSr til at vinna bot a vandraeSum J^inum." Var biisfreyja far um nottina. Nii er fra Gretti J^at at segja, at ]>k er dro at miSri nott, beyrSi bann lit dynur miklar. pvinsest kom inn i stofuna trgllkona mikil. Hon bafSi i bendi trog, en annarri skalm, beldr mikla. Hon btaz um, er bon kom inn, ok sa, bvar Gestr la, ok bljop at bonum, en bann upp i moti, ok reSuz a grimmliga ok sottuz lengi i stofunni. Hon var sterkari, en bann for undan koenbga. En allt J?at, sem fyrir J^eim varS, brutu )>au, jafnvel J?ver)7ilit undan stofunni. Hon dro bann fram yfir dyrnar, ok sva i anddyrit; J?ar tok bann fast 1 moti. Hon Grettir (Gestr) struggles with the Troll-wife 159 vildi draga hann lit or boenum, en )?at varS eigi fyrr en J^au leystu fra allan litidyraumbuninginn ok baru hann ut a herSum ser. poefSi hon J?a of an til arinnar ok allt fram at gljiifrum. pa var Gestr akafliga moSr, en J?6 varS annathvdrt at gera: at herSa sik, ella mundi hon steypa honum i gljiifrin. Alia nottina sottuz }?au. Eigi fottiz hann hafa fengiz viS J^vilikan ofagnaS fyrir afls sakir. Hon haM haldit honum sva fast at ser, at hann matti hvarigri hendi taka til ngkkurs, utan hann helt um hana misja k[ett]una. Ok er J?au komu a argljiifrit, bregSr hann flagSkonunni til sveiflu. I )>vi varS honum laus hin hoegri hgndin. Hann J^reif J?a skjott til saxins, er hann var gyrSr meS, ok bregSr J?vi; h^ggr J^a a gxl trglhnu, sva at af tok hgndina hoegri, ok sva var 5 hann lauss. En hon steyptiz i gljufrin ok sva i fossinn. Gestr var )?a baeSi stirSr ok moSr, ok la J?ar lengi a hamrinum. Gekk hann J^a heim, er lysa tok, ok lagSiz i rekkju. Hann var allr J^riitinn ok blar. Ok er hiisfreyja kom fra tiSum, j^otti henni heldr raskat um hybyli sin. Gekk hon ]>k til Gests ok spurSi, hvat til hefsi borit, er allt var brotit ok boelt. Hann sagSi allt, sem farit hafsi. Henni J^otti mikils um vert, ok spurSi, hverr hann var. Hann sagSi J^a til hit sanna, ok batJ seek j a prest ok kvaz vildu finna hann. Var ok sva ggrt. En er Steinn prestr kom til Sandhauga, varS hann bratt J^ess viss, at J^ar var kominn Grettir Asmundarson, er Gestr nefndiz. Prestr spurSi, hvat hann setlaSi af {^eim mgnnum mundi vera orSit, er J^ar hgfSu horfit. Grettir kvaz aetla, at i gljufrin mundu J?eir hafa horfit. Prestr kvaz eigi kunna at leggja triinaS a sagnir hans, ef engi merki maetti til sja. Grettir segir, at siSar vissi J?eir J?at gf^rr. For prestr heim. Grettir la i rekkju margar nsetr. Hiisfreyja gerSi vis hann harsla vel; ok leis sva af John, petta er sggn Grettis, at trgllkonan steypSiz i gljufrin viS, er hon fekk sarit ; en BarSardalsmenn segja, at hana dagaSi uppi, ]fk er J?au glimdu, ok spryngi, J?a er hann hjo af henni hgndina, ok standi far enn i konu liking a bjarginu. peir dalbiiarnir leyndu J?ar Gretti. Um vetrinn eptir jol var }>at einn dag, at Grettir for til Eyjardalsar. Ok er J?eir Grettir funduz ok prestr, maelti Grettir: "Se ek fat, prestr," segir hann, "at fu leggr litinn 160 Extracts from Grettis Sczga trunaS a sagnir minar. Nii vil ek at fii farir meS mer til 4rinnar, ok sjair, hver likendi pei )?ykkir a vera." Prestr gerSi sva. En er J^eir komu til fossins, sau J?eir skiita upp undir bergit; ]?at var meitilberg sva mikit, at hveigi matti upp komaz, ok nser tiu faSma ofan at vatninu. peir hgfSu festi meS ser. p4 maelti prestr: "Langt um of cert syniz mer pei niSr at fara." Grettir svarar : " Foert er vist ; en J?eim mun bezt J?ar, sem agsetismenn em. Mun ek forvitnaz, hvat i fossinum er, en J?u skalt geyma festar." Prestr baS hann raSa, ok keyrSi niSr hael a berginu, ok bar at grjot, [ok sat J>ar hja], Nti er fra Gretti at segja, at hann let stein i festaraugat ok let sva siga ofan at vatninu. "Hvern veg aetlar J?u nti," segir prestr, "at fara?" "Ekki vil ek vera bundinn," segir Grettir, "j?a er ek kem i fossinn; sva boSar mer hugr um." Eptir J?at bj6 hann sik til ferSar, ok var faklaeddr, ok gyrtJi sik meS saxinu, en hafsi ekki fleiri vapn. SiSan hljop hann af bjarginu ok niSr i fossinn. Sa prestr i iljar honum, ok vissi siSan aldri, hvat af honum varS. Grettir kafaSi undir fossinn, ok var J7at torvelt, J>viat iSa var mikil, ok varS hann allt til grunns at kafa, aSr en hann koemiz upp undir fossinn. par var f orberg ngkkut, ok komz hann inn )?ar upp a. par var heUir mikill undir fossinum, ok felKain fram af berginu. Gekk hann pa, inn i helHnn, ok var )?ar eldr mikill a brgndum. Grettir sa, at J?ar sat jgtunn ggurhga mikill; hann var hrseSihgr at sja. En er Grettir kom at honum, hljop jgtunninn upp ok greip flein einn ok hj6 til )?ess, er kominn var, Jrviat bseSi matti hgggva ok leggja me?S [honum]. Treskapt var i ; J^at kglluSu menn pa, heptisax, er J>annveg var ggrt. Grettir hjo a moti meS saxinu, ok kom a skaptit, sva at i sundr tok. Jgtunninn vildi pa, seilaz a bak ser aptr til sverSs, er J^ar hekk i helHnum. I pvi hjo Grettir framan a brjostit, sva at nahga tok af alia bring- spelina ok kvisinn, sva at iSrin steyptuz or honum ofan i ana, ok keyrSi )?au ofan eptir anni. Ok er prestr sat viS festina, sa hann, at slySrur ngkkurar rak ofan eptir strengnum bloSugar Grettir slays the Troll 161 allar. Hann varS J?a lauss a velli, ok J^ottiz nti vita, at Grettir mundi dauSr vera. Hljop hann J?a fra festarhaldinu ok for heim. Var J>a komit at kveldi, ok sagSi prestr visliga, at Grettir vaeri dauSr; ok sagSi, at mikill skaSivseri eptir J?vilikan mann. Nu er fra Gretti at segja; hann let skamt hgggva i milli, J?ar til er jgtunninn do. Gekk Grettir J?a innar eptir hellinum. Hann kveikti Ijos ok kannaSi helHnn. Ekki er fra J?vi sagt, hversu mikit fe hann fekk i heUinum; en )7at setla menn, at verit hafi ngkkut. Dvaldiz honum J?ar fram a nottina. Hann fanA )?ar tveggja manna bein, ok bar ]?au i belg einn. LeitaSi hann ]?a or hellinum ok lagSiz til festarinnar, ok hristi hana, ok setlaSi, at prestr mundi )?ar vera. En er hann vissi, at prestr var heim farinn, varS hann ^k at handstyrkja upp festina, ok komz hann sva upp a bjargit. For hann ]?a heim til Eyjardalsar ok kom i forkirkju belginum J?eim, sem beinin varu i, ok J?ar meS runakefli J?vi, er visur )?essar varu forkunnhga vel 4 ristnar : / "Gekk ek i gljufr et dgkkva gein veltiflug steina, vi}? hjgrgaej^i hrij?ar hlunns ursvglum munni, fast la framm a brjosti flugstraumr i sal naumu heldr kom a her)>ar skaldi hgrj? fjon Braga kvonar." Ok en )?essi: "Ljotr kom m6r i moti mellu vinr or belli; hann fekz, heldr at sgnnu har]?fengr, vij? mik lengi; harj^eggjat let ek hgggvit heptisax af skepti; Gangs klauf brjost ok bringu bjartr gunnlogi svarta^." 1 See Fianur Jonsaon, Den Norsk-Islandske Skjaldediginingy B. ii. 473-4. C. B. 11 162 Extracts from Grettis Saga par sagSi sva, at Grettir hafi bein J^essi or hellinum haft. En er prestr kom til kirkju um morgininn, fann hann keflit ok }>at sem fylgdi, ok las ninarnar. En Grettir haM farit heim til Sandhauga. En J>a er prestr fann Gretti, spurSi hann inniliga eptir atburSum ; en hann sagSi alia sggu um f erS sina, ok kvaS prest otruHga hafa haldit festinni. Prestr let J?at a sannaz. pottuz menn J?at vita, at J?essar ovaettir mundu valdit hafa manna- hvgrfum J^ar i dalnum. VarS ok aldri m«in af aptrggngum eSa reimleikum J?ar i dalnum siSan. potti Grettir ]?ar ggrt hafa mikla landhreinsan. Prestr jarSaSi bein )?essi i kirkju- garSi. Translation of Extracts from Grettis Saga The Grettis saga was first printed in the middle of the eighteenth century, in Iceland (Marcusson, Nockrer Marg-frooder Sogu-patter, 1766, pp. 81-163). It was edited by Magnusson and Thordarson, Copenhagen, 1853, with a Danish translation, and again by Boer {AUnordische Saga-bibliothek, Halle, 1900). An edition was also printed at Reykjavik in 1900, edited by V. Asmundarson. There are over forty mss of the saga: Cod. Am. Mag. 551 a (quoted in the notes below as A) forms the basis of all three modern editions. Boer has investigated the relationship of the mss {Die handschriftliche iiber- lieferung der Grettissaga, Z.f.d.Ph. xxxi, 40-60), and has published, in an appendix to his edition, the readings of five of the more important, in so far as he considers that they can be utilized to amend the text supplied by A. The reader who consults the editions of both Magntisson and Boer will be struck by the differences in the text, although both are following the same ms. Many of these differences are, of course, due to the fact that the editors are normalizing the spelling, but on different principles: many others, however, are due to the extraordinary difficulty of the MS itself, Mr Sigfus Blondal, of the Royal Library of Copenhagen, has examined Cod. Am. Ma^. 551 a for me, and he writes: "It is the very worst MS I have ever met with. The writing is small, almost every word is abbreviated, and, worst of aU, the writing is in many places effaced, partly by smoke (I suppose the ms needs must have been lying for years in some smoky and damp batSstofa) rendering the parchment almost as bjack as shoe-leather, but still more owing to the use of chemicals, which modern editors have been obUged to use, to make sure of what there really was in the text. By the use of much patience and a lens, one can read it, though, in most places. Unfortunately, this does not apply to the Gldmur episode, a big portion of which belongs to the very worst part of the ms, and the readings of that portion are therefore rather uncertain." The Icelandic text given above agrees in the main with that in the excellent edition of Boer, to whom, in common with all students of the Glam as a servant 163 GreUis saga, I am much indebted: but I have frequently adopted in pre- ference a spelling or wording nearer to that of Magnusson. In several of these instances (notably the spelhng of the verses attributed to Grettir) I think Prof. Boer would probably himself agree. The words or letters placed between square brackets are those which are not to be found in Cod. Am. Mag. 551 a. To Mr Blondal, who has been at the labour of collating with the MS, for my benefit, both the passages given above, my grateful thanks are due. There are EngUsh translations of the Orettis saga by Morris and E. Magnusson (1869, and in Morris' Works, 1911, vol. vn) and by G. A. Hight {EverymarCs Library, 1914). For a discussion of the relationship of the Grettis saga to other stories, see also Boer, Zur Grettissaga, in Z.f.d.Ph. xxx, 1-71. (a) Glam e'pisode (p. 146 above) •■^ There was a man called Thorhall, who lived at Thorhall's Farm in Shadow-dale. Shadow-dale runs up from Water-dale. Thorhall was son of Grim, son of Thorhall, son of Frithmund, who settled Shadow-dale. Thorhall's wife was called Guthrun: their son was Grim, and Thurith their daughter — they were grown up. Thorhall was a wealthy man, and especially in cattle, so p. i that no man had as much live stock as he. He was not a chief, yet a substantial yeoman. The place was much haunted, and he found it hard to get a shepherd to suit him. He sought counsel of many wise men, what device he should follow, but he got no counsel which was of use to him. Thorhall rode each summer to the All-Thing ; he had good horses. That was one summer at the All-Thing, that Thorhall went to the booth of Skapti Thoroddsson, the Law-man. Skapti was the wisest of men, and gave good advice if he was asked. There was this difference between Skapti and his father Thorodd: Thorodd had second sight, and some men called him underhanded; but Skapti gave to every man that advice which he believed would avail, if it were kept to: so he was called ' Better than his father.' Thorhall went to the booth of Skapti. Skapti greeted Thorhall well, for he knew that he was a prosperous man, and asked what news he had. Thorhall said, "I should like good counsel from thee." "I am little use at that," said Skapti. "But what is thy need?" 11—2 164 Extracts from Grettis Saga Thorhall said, "It happens so, that it is difficult for me to keep my shepherds: they easily get hurt, and some will not serve their time. And now no one will take on the task, who knows what is before him." Skapti answered, "There must be some evil being about, if men are more unwilling to look after thy sheep than those of other folk. Now because thou hast sought counsel of me, I will find thee a shepherd, who is named Glam, a Swede, from Sylgsdale, who came out to Iceland last summer. He is great and strong, but not much to everybody's taste." Thorhall said that he would not mind that, if he guarded the sheep well. Skapti said that if Glam had not the strength and courage to do that, there was no hope of anyone else. Then Thorhall went out; this was when the All- Thing was nearly ending. Thorhall missed two light bay horses, and he went himself to look for them — so it seems that he was not a great man. He went up under Sledge-hill and south along the mountain called Armannsfell. Then he saw where a man came down from Gothashaw, bearing faggots on a horse. They soon met, and Thorhall asked him his name, and he said he was called Glam. Glam 148 was tall and strange in bearing, with blue^ and glaring eyes, and wolf-grey hair. Thorhall opened his eyes when he saw him, but yet he discerned that this was he to whom he had been sent, "What work art thou best fitted for?" said Thorhall. Glam said he was well fitted to watch sheep in the winter. " Wilt thou watch my sheep ? " said Thorhall. " Skapti gave thee into my hand." "You will have least trouble with me in your house if I go my own way, for I am hard of temper if I am not pleased," said Glam. "That will not matter to me," said Thorhall, "and I wish that thou shouldst go to my house." "That may I well do," said Glam, "but are there any difficulties?" 1 MS A, followed by Magniisson, makes Glam bldeyg&r, "blue-eyed": Boer reads grdeygdr, considering grey a more uncanny colour. Glam is slain 166 "It is thought to be haunted," said Thorhall. "I am not afraid of such phantoms/' said Glam, "and it seems to me all the less dull." "Thou wilt need such a spirit," said Thorhall, "and it is better that the man there should not be a coward." After that they struck their bargain, and Glam was to come at the winter-nights [14th-16th of October]. Then they parted, and Thorhall found his horses where he had just been search- ing. Thorhall rode home and thanked Skapti for his good deed. Summer passed, and Thorhall heard nothing of his shepherd, and no one knew anything of him ; but at the time appointed he came to Thorhall's Farm. The yeoman greeted him well, but all the others could not abide him, and Thorhall's wife least of all. Glam undertook the watching of the sheep, and it gave him Uttle trouble. He had a great deep voice, and the sheep came together as soon as he called them. There was a church at Thorhall's Farm, but Glam would not go to it. He would have nothing to do with the service, and was godless; he was obstinate and surly and abhorred by all. Now time went on till it came to Yule eve. Then Glam rose early and called for meat. The yeoman's wife answered, "That is not the custom of Christian men to eat meat today, because tomorrow is the first day of Yule," said she, "and therefore it is right that we should first fast today." He answered, " Ye have many superstitions which I see are good for nothing. I do not know that men fare better now than before, when they had nought to do with such things. It p. i seemed to me a better way when men were called heathen; and I want my meat and no tricks." The yeoman's wife said, "I know for a certainty that it will fare ill with thee today, if thou dost this evil thing." Glam bade her bring the meat at once, else he said it should be worse for her. She dared not do otherwise than he willed, and when he had eaten he went out, foul-mouthed. Now it had gone so with the weather that it was heavy all round, and snow-flakes were falling, and it was blowing loud, and grew much worse as the day went on. The shepherd 166 Extracts from Grettis Saga was heard early in the day, but less later. Then wind began to drive the snow, and towards evening it became a tempest. Then men came to the service, and so it went on to nightfall. Glam did not come home. Then there was talk whether search ought not to be made for him, but because there was a tempest and it was pitch dark, no search was attempted. That Yule night he did not come home, and so men waited till after the service [next, i.e. Christmas, morning]. But when it was full day, men went to search, and found the sheep scattered in the snow-drifts^, battered by the tempest, or strayed up into the mountains. Then they came on a great space beaten down, high up in the valley. It looked to them as if there had been somewhat violent wrestling there, because the stones had been torn up for a distance around, and the earth likewise. They looked closely and saw where Glam lay a little distance away. He was dead, and blue like Hel and swollen Hke an ox. They had great loathing of him, and their souls shuddered at him. Nevertheless they strove to bring him to the church, but they could get him no further than the edge of a ravine a Httle below, and they went home leaving matters so, and told the yeoman what had happened. He asked what appeared to have been the death of Glam. They said that, from the trodden spot, up to a place beneath the rocks high in the valley, they had tracked marks as big as if a cask-bottom had been stamped down, and great drops of blood with them. So men concluded from this, that the evil thing which had been there before must have killed Glam, but Glam must have done it damage which had been enough, in that nought has ever happened since from that evil thing. The second day of Yule it was again essayed to bring Glam to the church. Beasts of draught were harnessed, but they could not move him where it was level ground and not down hill, so they de- parted, leaving matters so. The third day the priest went with them, and they searched p. 150 all day, but Glam could not be found. The priest would go no 1 MS A has fon^ or /en*", it is difficult to tell which. Magntisson reads fenum, "morasses." Glam ^^ walks" after death 167 more, but Glam was found when the priest was not in the company. Then they gave up trying to carry him to the church, and buried him where he was, under a cairn. A Httle later men became aware that Glam was not lying quiet. Great harm came to men from this, so that many fell into a swoon when they saw him, and some could not keep their wits. Just after Yule, men thought they saw him at home at the farm. They were exceedingly afraid, and many fled away. Thereupon Glam took to riding the house-roofs at nights, so that he nearly broke them in. He walked almost night and day. Men hardly dared to go up into the dale, even though they had business enough. Men in that coimtry-side thought great harm of this. In the spring Thorhall got farm-hands together and set up house on his land. Then the apparition began to grow less frequent whilst the sun's course was at its height; and so it went on till midsummer. That summer a ship came out to Hunawater. On it was a man called Thorgaut. He was an outlander by race, big and powerful; he had the strength of two men. He was in no man's service, and alone, and he wished to take up some work, since he had no money. Thorhall rode to the ship, and met Thorgaut. He asked him if he would work for him. Thorgaut said that might well be, and that he would make no difficulties. "But thou must be prepared," said Thorhall, "that it is no place for weakHngs, by reason of the hauntings which have been going on for a while, for I will not let thee into a trap." Thorgaut answered, "It does not seem to me that I am undone, even though I were to see some little ghosts. It must be no easy matter for others if I am frightened, and I mil not give up my place for that." So now they agreed well, and Thorgaut was to watch the sheep when winter came. ^ Now the summer passed on. Thorgaut took charge of the sheep at the winter-nights. He was well-pleasing to all. Glam ever came home and rode on the roofs. Thorgaut thought it sporting, and said that the thrall would have to come nearer 168 Extracts from Grettis Saga in order to scare him. But Thorhall bade him keep quiet: "It is best that ye should not try your strength together." Thorgaut said, "Verily,, your courage is shaken out of you: I shall not drop down with fear between day and night over such talk." Now things went on through the winter up to Yule-tide. On Yule evening the shepherd went out to his sheep. Then p. 151 the yeoman's wife said, " It is to be hoped that now things will not go in the old way." He answered, • " Be not afraid of that, mistress ; something worth telhng will have happened if I do not come back." Then he went to his sheep. The weather was cold, and it snowed much. Thorgaut was wont to come home when it was twilight, but now he did not come at that time. Men came to the service, as was the custom. It seemed to people that things were going as they had before. The yeoman wished to have search made for the shepherd, but the church-goers excused themselves, and said they would not risk themselves out in the hands of the trolls by night. And the yeoman did not dare to go, so the search came to nothing. On Yule-day, when men had eaten, they went and searched for the shepherd. They went first to Glam's cairn, because men thought that the shepherd's disappearance must have been through his bringing-about. But when they came near the cairn they saw great things, for there they found the shepherd with his neck broken and not a bone in him whole. Then they carried him to the church, and no harm happened to any man from Thorgaut afterwards; but Glam began to increase in strength anew. He did so much that all men fled away from Thorhall's Farm, except only the yeoman and his wife. Now the same cattle-herd had been there a long time. Thorhall would not let him go, because of his good- will and good service. He was far gone in age and was very unwilhng to leave : he saw that everything went to waste which the yeoman had, if no one looked after it. And once after mid-winter it happened one morning that the yeoman's wife went to the byre to milk the cows as usual. It was quite light, because no one dared^ to go out before, except the cattle-herd : he went Destruction caused by Glam 169 out as soon as it dawned. She heard great cracking in the byre and a hideous bellowing. She ran back, crying out, and said she did not know what devilry was going on in the byre. The yeoman went out, and came to the cattle, and they were goring each other. It seemed to him no good to stay there, and he went further into the hay-barn. He saw where the cattle- herd lay, and he had his head in one stall and his feet in the next. He lay on his back. The yeoman went to him and felt him. He soon found that he was dead, and his back-bone broken in two ; it had been broken over the partition slab. Now it seemed no longer bearable to Thorhall, and he left his farm with all that he could carry away; but all the live-stock left behind Glam killed. After that he went through all the p. 152 dale and laid waste all the farms up from Tongue. Thorhall spent what was left of the winter with his friends. No man could go up into the dale with horse or hound, because it was slain forthwith. But when spring came, and the course of the sun was highest, the apparitions abated somewhat. Now Thorhall wished to go back to his land. It was not easy for him to get servants, but still he set up house at Thorhall's Farm. All went the same way as before. When autumn came on the hauntings began to increase. The yeoman's daughter was most attacked, and it fared so that she died. Many counsels were taken, but nefthing was done. Things seemed to men to be looking as if all Water-dale must be laid waste, unless some remedies could be found. Now the stoiy must be taken up about Grettir, how he sat at home at Bjarg that autumn, after he had parted from Barthi- of-the-Slayings at Thorey's Peak. And when it had almost come to the winter-nights, Grettir rode from home, north over the neck to Willow-dale, and was a guest at Authun's Farm. He was fully reconciled to Authun, and gave him a good axe, and they spake of their wish for friendship one with the other. (Authun dwelt long at Authun's Farm, and much goodly off- spring had he. Egil was his son, who wedded Ulfheith, daughter of Eyjolf Guthmundson; and their son was Eyjolf, who was slain at the All-Thing. He was father of Orm, chaplain to 170 Extracts from Grettis Saga Bishop Thorlak.) Grettir rode north to Water-dale and came on a visit to Tongue. At that time Jokul Barthson lived there, Grettir' s uncle. Jokul was a man great and strong and very proud. He was a seafaring man, and very over-bearing, yet of great account. He received Grettir well, and Grettir was there three nights. There was so much said about the apparitions of Glam that nothing was spoken of by men equally with that. Grettir inquired exactly about the events which had happened. Jokul said that nothing more had been spoken than had verily occurred. "But art thou anxious, kinsman, to go there?" Grettir said that that was the truth. Jokul begged him not to do so, " For that is a great risk of thy luck, and thy kinsmen have much at stake where thou art," said he, " for none of the young men seems to us to be equal to thee; but ill will come of ill where Glam is, and it is much better to have to do with mortal men than with evil creatures Hke that." Grettir said he was minded to go to Thorhall's Farm and p. 153 see how things had fared there. Jokul said, " I see now that it is of no avail to stop thee, but true it is what men say, that good-luck is one thing, and goodliness another." " Woe is before one man's door when it is come into another's house. Think how it may fare with thee thyself before the end," said Grettir. Jokul answered, " It may be that both of us can see somewhat into the future, but neither can do aught in the matter." After that they parted, and neither was pleased with the other's foreboding. Grettir rode to Thorhall's Farm, and the yeoman greeted him well. He asked whither Grettir meant to go, but Grettir said he would stay there over the night if the yeoman would have it so. Thorhall said he owed him thanks for being there, " But few men find it a profit to stay here for any time. Thou must have heard what the dealings are here, and I would fain that thou shouldst have no troubles on my account ; but though thou shouldst come whole away, I know for certain that thou Grettir at ThorhalVs Farm 171 wilt lose thy steed, for no one who comes here keeps his horse whole." Grettir said there were plenty of horses, whatever should become of this one. Thorhall was glad that Grettir would stay there, and wel- comed him exceedingly. Grettir's horse was strongly locked in an out-house. They went to sleep, and so the night passed without Glam coming home. Then Thorhall said, "Things have taken a good turn against thy coming, for every night Glam has been wont to ride the roofs or break up the doors, even as thou canst see." Grettir said, "Then must one of two things happen. Either he will not long hold himself in, or the wonted haunting will cease for more than one night. I will stay here another night and see how it goes." Then they went to Grettir's horse, and he had not been attacked. Then everything seemed to the yeoman to be going one way. Now Grettir stayed for another night, and the thrall did not come home. Then things seemed to the yeoman to be taking a very hopeful turn. He went to look after Grettir's horse. When he came there, the stable was broken into, and the horse dragged out to the door, and every bone in him broken asunder. Thorhall told Grettir what had happened, and bade him save his own life — "For thy death is sure if thou waitest for Glam." Grettir answered, " The least I must have in exchange for my horse is to see the thrall." The yeoman said that there was no good in seeing him: " For he is unhke any shape of man ; but every hour that thoup. 154 wilt stay here seems good to me." fT Now the day went on, and when bed-time came Grettir \ would not put off his clothes, but lay down in the seat over against the yeoman's sleeping-chamber. He had a shaggy cloak over him, and wrapped one corner of it down under his feet, and twisted the other under his head and looked out through the head-opening. There was a great and strong partition beam in front of the seat, and he put his feet against it. The door- 172 Extracts from Grettis Saga frame was all broken away from the outer door, but now boards, fastened together carelessly anyhow, had been tied in front. The panelling which had been in front was all broken away from the hall, both above and below the cross-beam ; the beds were all torn out of their places, and everything was very wretched ^. A light burned in the hall during the night: and when a third part of the night was past, Grettir heard a great noise outside. Some creature had mounted upon the buildings and was riding upon the hall and beating it with its heels, so that it cracked in every rafter. This went on a long time. Then the creature came down from the buildings and went to the door. When the door was opened Grettir saw that the thrall had stretched in his head, and it seemed to him monstrously great and wonderfully huge. Glam went slowly and stretched himself up when he came inside the door. He towered up to the roof. He turned and laid his arm upon the cross-beam and glared in upon the hall. The yeoman did not let himself be heard, because the noise he heard outside seemed to him enough. Grettir lay quiet and did not move. Glam saw that a heap lay upon the seat, and he stalked in up the hall and gripped the cloak wondrous fast. Grettir pressed his feet against the post and gave not at all. Glam pulled a second time much more violently, and the cloak did not move. A third time he gripped with both hands so mightily that he pulled Grettir up from the seat, and now the cloak was torn asunder between them. Glam gazed at the portion which he held, and wondered much who could have pulled so hard against him ; and at that moment Grettir leapt under his arms and grasped him round ^ Immediately inside the door of the Icelandic dwelling was the anddyri or vestibule. For want of a better word, I translate anddyri by "porch": but it is a porch inside the building. Opening out of this 'porch' were a number of rooms. Chief among which were the skdli or "hall," and the stufa or " sitting room," the latter reached by a passage {gqng). These were separated from the *' porch" by panelling. In the struggle with Glam, Grettir is lying in the hall {skdli) J but the panelling has all been broken away from the great cross-beam to which it was fixed. Grettir consequently sees Glam enter the outer door; Glam turns to the shdli, and glares down it, leaning over the cross-beam; then enters the hall, and the struggle begins. See GuSmundssen (V.), Privatbolegen pa Island i Sagatiden, 1889. Grettir overthrows Glam 173 the middle, and bent his back as mightily as he could, reckoning that Glam would sink to his knees at his attack. But the thrall laid such a grip on Grettir' s arm that he recoiled at the might of it. Then Grettir gave way from one seat to another. The beams ^ started, and all that came in their way was broken. Glam wished to get out, but Grettir set his feet against any p. 155 support he could find ; nevertheless Glam dragged him forward out of the hall. And there they had a sore wrestling, in that the thrall meant to drag him right out of the building; but ill as it was to have to do with Glam inside, Grettir saw that it would be yet worse without, and so he struggled with all his might against going out. Glam put forth all his strength, and dragged Grettir towards himself when they came to the porch. And when Grettir saw that he could not resist, then all at once he flung himself against the breast of the thrall, as powerfully as he could, and pressed forward with both his feet against a stone which stood fast in the earth at the entrance. The thrall was not ready for this, he had been pulHng to drag Grettir towards himself; and thereupon he stumbled on his back out of doors, so that his shoulders smote against the cross- piece of the door, and the roof clave asunder, both wood and frozen thatch. So Glam fell backwards out of the house and Grettir on top of him. There was bright moonshine and broken clouds without. At times they drifted in front of the moon and at times away. Now at the moment when Glam fell, the clouds cleared from before the moon, and Glam rolled up his eyes; and Grettir himself has said that that was the one sight he had seen which struck fear into him. Then such a sinking came over Grettir, from his weariness and from that sight of Glam rolhng his eyes, that he had no strength to draw his knife and lay almost between life and death. 1 The partition beams (set-stokkar) stood between the middle of the skdli or hall and the planked dais which ran down each side. The strength of the combatants is such that the stokkar give way. Grettir gets no footing to with- stand Glam till they reach the outer-door. Here there is a stone set in the ground, which apparently gives a better footing for a push than for a puU. So Grettir changes his tactics, gets a purchase on the stone, and at the same time pushes against Glam's breast, and so dashes Glam's head and shoulders against the lintel of the outer-door. 174 Extracts from Grettis Saga But in this was there more power for evil in Glam than in most other a'pparitions, in that he spake thus : " Much eagerness hast thou shown, Grettir," said he, "to meet with me. But no wonder will it seem if thou hast no good luck from me. And this can I tell thee, that thou hast now achieved one half of the power and might which was fated for thee if thou hadst not met with me. Now no power have I to take that might from thee to which thou hast attained. But in this may I have my way, that thou shalt never become stronger than now thou art, and yet art thou strong enough, as many a one shall find to his cost. Famous hast thou been till now for thy deeds, but from now on shall exiles and manslaughters fall to thy lot, and almost all of thy labours shall turn to ill-luck and unhappiness. Thou shalt be outlawed and doomed ever to dwell alone, away from men; and then lay I this fate on thee, that these eyes of mine be ever before thy sight, and it shall seem grievous unto thee to be alone, and that shall drag thee to thy death." And when the thrall had said this, the swoon which had p. 156 fallen upon Grettir passed from him. Then he drew his sword and smote off Glam's head, and placed it by his thigh. Then the yeoman came out : he had clad himself whilst Glam was uttering his curse, but he dare in no wise come near before Glam had fallen. Thorhall praised God for it, and thanked Grettir well for haAdng vanquished the unclean spirit. Then they set to work and burned Glam to cold cinders. After, they put the ashes in a skin-bag and buried them as far as possible from the ways of man or beast. After that they went home, and by that time it was well on to day. Grettir lay down, for he was very stiff. Thorhall sent people to the next farm for men, and showed to them what had happened. To all those who heard of it, it seemed a work of great account; and that was then spoken by all, that no man in all the land was equal to Grettir Asmundarson for might and valour and all prowess. Thorhall sent Grettir from his house with honour, and gave him a good horse and fit clothing ; for all the clothes which he had worn before were torn asunder. They parted great friends. Grettir rode thence to Ridge in Water-dale, and Thorvald greeted him well, and asked closely as to his meeting GlcmCs curse. Haunting s at Sandhaugar 175 with Glain. Grettir told him of their dealings, and said that never had he had such a trial of strength, so long a struggle had theirs been together. Thorvald bade him keep quiet, "and then all will be well, otherwise there are bound to be troubles for thee." Grettir said that his temper had not bettered, and that he was now more unruly than before, and all offences seemed worse to him. And in that he found a great difierence, that he had become so afraid of the dark that he did not dare to go anywhere alone after night had fallen. All kinds of horrors appeared to him then. And that has since passed into a proverb, that Glam gives eyes, or gives "glam-sight" to those to whom things seem quite other than they are. Grettir rode home to Bjarg when he had done his errand, and remained at home during the winter. (6) Sandhaugar episode (p. 156 above) There was a priest called Stein who lived at Eyjardalsd (Isledale River) in Barthardal. He was a good husbandman and rich in cattle. His son was Kjartan, a doughty man and well grown. There was a man called Thorstein the White who lived at Sandhaugar (Sandheaps), south of Isledale river ; his p. 157 wife was called Steinvor, and she was young and merry. They had children, who were young then. People thought the place was much haunted by reason of the visitation of trolls. It happened, two winters before Grettir came North into those districts, that the good-wife Steinvor at Sandhaugar went to a Christmas service, according to her custom, at Isledale river, but her husband remained at home. In the evening men went to bed, and during the night they heard a great rummage in the hall, and by the good-man's bed. No one dared to get up to look to it, because there were very few men about. The good-wife came home in the morning, but her husband had vanished, and no one knew what had become of him. The next year passed away. But the winter after, the good- wife wished again to go to the church-service, and she bade her 176 Extracts from Grettis Saga manservant remain at home. He was unwilling, but said she must have her own way. All went in the same manner as before, and the servant vanished. People thought that strange. They saw some splashes of blood on the outer door, and men thought that evil beings must have taken away both the good- man and the servant. The news of this spread wide throughout the country. Grettir heard of it ; and because it was his fortune to get rid of hauntings and spirit- walkings, he took his way to Barthardal, and came to Sandhaugar on Yule eve. He disguised himself^, and said his name was Guest. The good-wife saw that he was great of stature; and the farm-folk were much afraid of him. He asked for quarters for the night. The good-wife said that he could have meat forthwith, but " You must look after your own safety." He said it should be so. "I will be at home,'' said he, "and you can go to the service if you will." She answered, " You are a brave man, it seems to me, if you dare to remain at home." "I do not care to have things all one way^," said he. "It seems ill to me to be at home," said she, "but I cannot get over the river." "I will see you over," said Guest. Then she got ready to go to the service, and her small daughter with her. It was thawing, the river was in flood, and there were ice- floes in it. Then the good- wife said, "It is impossible for man or horse to get across the river." "There must be fords in it," said Guest, "do not be afraid." p. 158 "Do you carry the child first," said the good- wife, "she is the lighter." "1 do not care to make two journeys of it," said Guest, "and I will carry thee on my arm." She crossed herself and said, " That is an impossible way ; what will you do with the child?" 1 So MS 551 a. Magniisson reads dvaldistpar " he stayed there." 2 Meaning that an attack by the evil beings would at least break the monotony. Grettir at Sandhaugar 177 "I will see a way for that," said he; and then he took them both up, and set the child on her mother's knee and so bore them both on his left arm. But he had his right hand free, and thus he waded out into the ford. They did not dare to cry out, so much afraid were they. The river washed at once up against his breast ; then it tossed a great icefloe against him, but he put out the hand that was free and pushed it from him. Then it grew so deep that the river dashed over his shoulder ; but he waded stoutly on, until he came to the bank on the other side, and threw Steinvor and her daughter on the land. Then he turned back, and it was half dark when he came to Sandhaugar and called for meat ; and when he had eaten, he bade the farm folk go to the far side of the room. Then he took boards and loose timber which he dragged across the room, and made a great barrier so that none of the farm folk could come over it. No one dared to say anything against him qje ff\ to murmur in any wise. The entrance was in the side wall of the chamber by the gable-end, and there was a dais there. Guest lay down there, but did not take ofE his clothes : a hght was burning in the room over against the door : Guest lay there far into the night. The good- wife came to Isledale river to the service, and men wondered how she had crossed the river. She said she did not know whether it was a man or a troll who had carried her over. The priest said, " It must surely be a man, although there are few like him. And let us say nothing about it," said he, "it may be that he is destined to work a remedy for your evils." The good-wife remained there through the night. Now it is to be told concerning Grettir that when it drew towards midnight he heard great noises outside. Thereupon there came into the room a great giantess. She had in one hand a trough and in the other a short-sword^.iather a big one. She looked round" when she came in, and saw where Guest lay, and sprang at him ; but he sprang up against her, and they struggled fiercely and wrestled for a long time in the room. She was the as. 12 178 Extracts from Grettis Saga stronger, but he gave way warily ; and they broke all that was before them, as well as the panelling of the room. She dragged him forward through the door and so^ into the porch, and he p. 159 struggled hard against her. She wished to drag him out of the house, but that did not happen until they had broken all the fittings of the outer doorway and forced them out on their shoulders. Then she dragged him slowly down towards the river and right along to the gorge. By that time Guest was exceedingly weary, but yet, one or other it had to be, either he had to gather his strength together, . or else she would have hurled him down into the gorge. All *^ night they struggled. He thought that he had never grappled with such a devil in the matter of strength. She had got such a grip upon him that he could do nothing with either hand, except to hold the witch by the middle ; but when they came to the gorge of the river he swung the giantess round, and there- upon got his right hand free. Then quickly .he gripped his knife that he wore in his girdle and drew it, and smote the shoulder of the giantess so that he cut ofi her right arm. So he got free: but she fell into the gorge, and so into the rapids below. Guest was then both stiff and tired, and lay long on the rocks ; then he went home when it began to grow light, and lay down in bed. He was all swollen black and blue. And when the good- wife came from the service, it seemed to her that things had been somewhat disarranged in her house. Then she went to Guest and asked him what had happened, that all was broken and destroyed 2. He told her all that had taken place. She thought it very wonderful, and asked who he was. He told her the truth, and asked her to send for the priest, and said he wished to meet him ; and so it was done. Then when Stein the priest came to Sandhaugar, he knew soon that it was Grettir Asmundarson who had come there, and who had called himself Guest. The priest asked Grettir what he thought must have become of those men who had vanished. Grettir said he thought they * A passage (gqng) had to be traversed between the door of the room {stufa) and the porch {anddyri). 2 MSS hosU. Boer reads bolat "hewn down." Grettir and the Priest Stein 179 must have vanished into the gorge. The priest said that he could not believe Grettir's saying, if no signs of it were to be seen. Grettir said that they would know more accurately about it later. Then the priest went home. Grettir lay many days in bed. The good- wife looked after him well, and so the Christmas-time passed. Grettir's account was that the giantess fell into the gulf when she got her wound ; but the men of Barthardal say that day came upon her whilst they wrestled, and that she burst when he smote her hand off, and that she stands there on the clifE yet, a rock in the likeness of a woman^. The dwellers in the dale kept Grettir in hiding there. But after Christmas time, one day that winter, Grettir went to Isledale river. And when Grettir and the priest met, Grettir said, " I see, priest, that you place httle belief in my words, p. 160 Now will I that you go with me to the river and see what the likelihood seems to you to be." The priest did so. But when they came to the waterfall they saw that the sides of the gorge hung over^ : it was a sheer cliff so great that one could in nowise come up, and it was nearly ten fathoms^ from the top to the water below. They had a rope with them. Then the priest said, " It seems to me quite im- possible for thee to get down." Grettir said, " Assuredly it is possible, but best for those who are men of valour. I will examine what is in the waterfall, and thou shalt watch the rope." 1 A night troll, if caught by the sunrise, was supposed to turn into stone. 2 Skuta may be ace. of the noun skuti, "overhanging precipice, cave"; or it may be the verb, "hang over." Grettir and his companion see that the sides of the ravine are precipitous {skuta upp) and so clean-cut {nieitil-berg: meitill, " a chisel") that they give no hold to the climber. Hence the need for the rope. The translators all take skuta as ace. of skuti, which is quite possible: but they are surely wrong when they proceed to identify the skuti with the hellir behind the waterfall. For this cave behind the waterfall is introduced in the saga as something which Grettir discovers after he has dived beneath the fall, the fall in front naturally hiding it till then. The verb skuta occurs elsewhere in Grettis saga, of the glaciers overhanging a valley. Boer's attempt to reconstruct the scene appears to me wrong: cf. Ranisch in A.f.d.A. xxviii, 217. 3 The old editions read fimm tigir faSma "fifty fathoms": but according to Boer's collation the best ms (A) reads X, whilst four of the five others collated give XV (fimtdn). The editors seem dissatisfied with this: yet sixty to ninety feet seems a good enough height for a dive. 12—2 180 Extracts from Grettis Saga The priest said it should be as he wished, drove a peg into the cliff, piled stones against it, and sat by it^. Now it must be told concerning Grettir that he knotted a stone into the rope, and so let it down to the water. "What way," said the priest, "do you mean to go? " " I will not be bound," said Grettir," when I go into the water, so much my mind forebodes me." After that he got ready for his exploit, and had little on; he girded himself with his short sword, and had no other weapon. Then he plunged from the cliff down into the waterfall. The priest saw the soles of his feet, and knew no more what had become of him. Grettir dived under the waterfall, and that was difficult because there was a great eddy, and he had to dive right to the bottom before he could come up behind the waterfall. There was a jutting rock and he climbed upon it. There was a great cave behind the waterfall, and the river fell in front of it from the precipice. He went into the cave, and there was a big fire burning. Grettir saw that there sat a giant of frightful size. He was terrible to look upon : but when Grettir came to him, the giant leapt up and seized a pike, and hewed at the new-comer : for with the pike he could both cut and stab. It had a handle of wood: men at that time called a weapon made in such a way a heptisax. Grettir smote against it with his short sword, and struck the handle so that he cut it asunder. X i Then the giant tried to reach back for a sword which hung Jir behind him in the cave. Thereupon Grettir smote him in the breast, and struck off almost all the lower part of his chest and his belly, so that the entrails gushed out of him down into the river, and were swept along the current. And as the priest sat by the rope he saw some lumps, clotted p. 161 with blood, carried down stream. Then he became unsteady, and thought that now he knew that Grettir must be dead : and he ran from keeping the rope and went home. It was then evening, and the priest said for certain that Grettir was dead, and added that it was a great loss of such a man. Now the tale must be told concerning Grettir. He let little space go between his blows till the giant was dead. Then he ^ ok sat J?ar hjd, not in MS A, nor in Boer's edition. Adventure behind the waterfall 181 went further into the cave ; he kindled a light and examined it. It is not said how much wealth he took in the cave, but men think that there was something. He stayed there far into the night. He found there the bones of two men, and put them into a bag. Then he left the cave and swam to the rope and shook it, for he thought that the priest must be there. But when he knew that the priest had gone home, then he had to draw himself up, hand over hand, and so he came up on to the cHfE. Then he went home to Isledale river, and came to the church porch, with the bag that the bones were in, and with a rune- staff, on which these verses were exceedingly well cut : There into gloomy gulf I passed, O'er which from the rock's throat is cast The swirling rush of waters wan, To meet the sword-player feared of man. By giant's hall the strong stream pressed Cold hands against the singer's breast; Huge weight upon him there did hurl The swallower of the changing whirl^. And this rhyme too : The dreadful dweller of the cave Great strokes and many 'gainst me drave; Full hard he had to strive for it, But toiling long he wan no whit; For from its mighty shaft of tree The heft-sax smote I speedily; And dulled the flashing war-flame fair In the black breast that met me there. These verses told also that Grettir had taken these bones out p. 162 of the cave. But when the priest came to the church in the morning he found the staff, and what was with it, and read the runes ; but Grettir had gone home to Sandhaugar. But when the priest met Grettir he asked him closely as to what had happened : and Grettir told him all the story of his journey. And he added that the priest had not watched the rope faithfully. The priest said that that was true enough. Men thought for certain that these monsters must have caused the loss of men there in the dale ; and there was never any loss from hauntings or spirit-walkings there afterwards. 1 The two poems are given according to the version of William Morris. 182 Extracts from BJarha Rimur Grettir was thought to have caused a great purging of the land. The priest buried these bones in the churchyard. D. Extracts prom Bjarka RImur {Hrdlfs saga Kraka og Bjarkarimur udgivne ved F. J6nsson, K0benhavn, 1904) 58. Flestir gmuSu Hetti heldr, hann var ekki i mali sneldr, einn dag foru J^eir lit af hgll, svo ekki vissi hirSin gll. 59. Hjalti talar er felmtinn faer, "fgrum viS ekki skogi naer, her er sii ylgr sem etr upp menn, okkr drepr hiin baSa senn." 60. Ylgrin hljop lir einum runn, ogurlig meS gapanda munn, hgrmuligt varS Hjalta viSr, a honum skalf bseSi leggr og liSr. 61. Otaept Bjarki aS henni gengr, ekki dvelr hann viS ]?a?> lengr, hgggur svo aS i hamri stoS, hljop ur henni ferligt bloS. 62. "Kjostu Hjalti urn kosti tv6," kappinn BgSvar talaSi svo, "drekk nii bloS eSa drep eg J?ig her, dugrinn liz mer engi i ]?er." 63. Ansar Hjalti af sernum moS, "ekki j7ori eg a3 drekka bloS, nytir flest ef nauSigr skal, nu er ekki a betra val." 64. Hjalti gjgrir sem B^Svar biSr, aS bloSi fra eg hann lagtJist niSr, drekkur siSan drykki J?rja, duga mun honum viS einn aS rjd. IV, 58-64. Bjarhi and Hott 183 4. Hann hefr fengiS hjartaS snjalt af hgrtSum moSi, fekk hann huginn og afliS alt af ylgjar bloSi. 5. 1 grindur vandist grdbjgrn einn i garSinn HleiSar, var s4 margur vargrinn beinn og visa sveiSar. 6. Bjarka er kent, aS hjarSarhunda hafi hann drepna, ekki er honum allvel hent vis ]fta kepna. 7. Hrolfur byst og hirS hans gll a5 huna styri, "S4 skal mestr i minni hgll er msetir dyri." 8. Beljandi hljop bjgminn framm ur boli krukku, veifar sinum vonda hramm, svo virSar hrukku. 9. Hjalti ser og horfir )7a 4, er hafin er roma, haM hann ekki i hgndum J?a nema hnefana toma. 10. Hrolfur fleygSi a5 Hjalta yk J>eim hildar vendi, kappinn moti krummu br4 og klotiS hendi. 11. LagSi hann siSan bJQrninn br4tt vis boginn haegra, bessi fell i briiSar att og bar sig Isegra. 12. Vann hann J?aS til frsegSa fyst og fieira siSar, hans var lundin Igngum byst i leiki griSar. 184 ExtvdCts from Bjarha Rimur 13. Her meS fekk hann Hjalta nafn hins hjartapriiSa, Bjarki var eigi betri en jafn vis byti skriiSa. V, 4-13. 23. ASals var glaSr afreksmaSr, austur J?angaS komu, fyrSar )?eir meS franan geir flengja J^egar til romu. 24. Ytar byta engum friS, unnu vel til mala, }?ar fell Ali og alt bans liS ungr i leiki stala. 25. Hestrinn beztur Hrafn er kendr, hafa )7eir teki?5 af Ala, Hildisvin er hjalmrinn vendr, hann kaus Bjarki i m41a. 26. QSling baS J?4 eigi drafl eiga um ngkkur skipti, J?at5 mun kosta kongligt afl, hann kappann gripunum svipti. 27. Ekki fotti BgSvar betr, i burtu foru J?eir Hjalti, letust aSr en liSinn er vetr leita aS FroSa malti. 28. SiSan riSa seggir heim og SQgSu kongi J^etta, hann kveSst mundu handa J^eim heimta slikt af letta. VIII, 23-28. Translation of Extracts from Bjarka Rimur 58. Most [of Rolf's retainers] much tormented Hott [Hjalti] ; he was not cunning in speech. One day Hjalti and Both var went out of the hall, in such wise that none of the retainers knew thereof. BjarTd and Hott 185 59. Hjalti spake in great terror, "Let us not go near the wood; here is the she- wolf who eats up men; she will kill us both together." 60. The she-wolf leapt from a thicket, dread, with gaping jaws. A great terror was it to Hjalti, and he trembled in every limb. 61. Without delay or hesitation went Bjarki towards her, and hewed at her so that the axe went deep ; a monstrous stream of blood gushed from her. 62. " Choose now, Hjalti, of two things " — so spake Bothvar the champion — "Drink now the blood, or I slay thee here; it seems unto me that there is no valour in thee." 63. Hjalti replied stoutly enough, "I cannot bring myself to drink blood; but if I needs must, it avails most [to submit], and now is there no better choice." 64. Hjalti did as Bothvar bade: he stooped down to the blood; then drank he three sups: that will suffice him to wrestle with one man. IV, 58-64. 4. He [Hjalti] has gained good courage and keen spirit; he got strength and all valour from the she- wolf's blood. 5. A grey bear visited the folds at Hleithargarth ; many such a ravager was there far and wide throughout the country. 6. The blame was laid upon Bjarki, because he had slain the herdsmen's dogs; it was not so suited for him to have to strive with men^. 7. Rolf and all his household prepared to hunt the bear; "He who faces the beast shall be greatest in my hall." 8. Roaring did the bear leap forth from out its den, swinging its evil claws, so that men shrank back. 9. Hjalti saw, he turned and gazed where the battle began ; nought had he then in his hands — his empty fists alone. 1 On his first arrival at Leire, Bjarki had been attacked by, and had slain, the watch-dogs (Rimur, rv, 41): this naturally brings him now into disfavour, and he has to dispute with men. 186 Extract from pdttr Orms Stdrdlfssonar 10. Rolf tossed then to Hjalti his wand of war [his sword]; the warrior put forth his hand towards it, and grasped the pommel. 11. Quickly then he smote the bear in the right shoulder; Bruin fell to the earth, and bore himself in more lowly wise. 12. That was the beginning of his exploits: many followed later; his spirit was ever excellent amid the play of battle. 13. Herefrom he got the name of Hjalti the stout-hearted: Bjarki was no more than his equal. V, 4-13. 23. Joyful was the vaHant Athils when they [Bjarki and Rolf's champions] came east to that place [Lake Wener] ; troops with flashing spears rode quickly forthwith to the battle. 24. No truce gave they to their foes : well they earned their pay; there fell Ali and all his host, young in the game of swords. 25. The best of horses, Hrafn by name, they took from Ali; Bjarki chose for his reward the helm Hildisvin. 26. The prince [Athils] bade them have no talk about the business; he deprived the champions^ of their treasures — that will be a test of his power. 27. Ill-pleased was Bothvar: he and Hjalti departed; they declared that before the winter was gone they would seek for the treasure [the malt of Frothi]. 28. Then they rode home and told it to the king [Rolf] ; he said it was their business to claim their due outright. VIII, 23-28. E. EXTKACT FROM }>ATTR OrMS StOROLFSSONAR (Fommanna Sggur, Copenhagen, 1827, m. 204 efc.; Flateyarhdk, Christiania, 1859-68, i. 527 etc.) 7. Litlu siSarr enn J^eir Ormr ok Asbjgrn hyfSu skilit, fystist Asbjgrn norSr i SauSeyjar, for hann viS 4 menn ok 20 a skipi, heldr norSr fyrir Maeri, ok leggr seint dags at SauSey 1 Reading kappana. Death of Asbiorn 187 hinni ytri, gdnga d land ok reisa tjald, em )?ar um n6ttiiia, ok verSa vi5 ekki varir; um morgininn aria ris AsbJQrn upp, klaeSir sik, ok tekr vopn sin, ok gengr uppa land, en biSr menn sina biSa sin; en er nokknt sva var liSit fra J>vi, er Asbjgrn hafsi i brott gengit, verSa J^eir vi5 J?at varir, at ketta ogrlig var komin i tjaldsdyrnar, hon var kolsvgrt at lit ok heldr grimmlig, )?viat eldr J^otti brenna or ngsum hennar ok munni, eigi var hon ok vel eyg; J?eim bra mjgk vi5 )7essa syn, ok urSu ottafullir. Ketta hleypr J^a innar at feim, ok gripr hvern at gSrum, ok svd er sagt at suma gleypti hon, en suma rifi hon til dauSs meS klom ok tQnnum, 20 menn drap hon )7ar a litilli stundu, en 3 kvomust lit ok undan ok a skip, ok heldu )?egar undan landi ; en Asbjgrn gengr J?ar til, er hann kemr at hellinum Briisa, ok snarar )7egar inn i; honum varS nokkut dimt fyrir augum, en skuggamikit var i hellinum; hann verSr eigi fyrr var viS, enn hann er J^rifinn alopt, ok fserSr niSr sva hart, at Asbirni J^otti fur?ya i, verSr hann J?ess J?^ van, at )?ar er kominn Brusi jgtun, ok syndist heldr mikiligr. Briisi maelti J?a : ]>6 lagSir ]?u mikit kapp a at ssekja hingat; skaltu nii ok eyrindi hafa, )>viat J>u skalt her lifit lata meS sva miklum harmkvaelum, at )?at skal aSra letja at saekja mik heim meS ofriSi ; fletti hann J7d AsbJQrn klaeSum, J7viat sva var J^eirra mikill afia munr, at jgtuninn varS einn at rdSa J^eirra i milli; balk mikinn sa Asbjgrn standa um J^veran hellinn ok stort gat a misjum balkinum; jarnsiila stor stoS nokkut sva fyrir framan balkinn. Nii skal profa J?at, segir Briisi, hvart )?u ert nokkut harSari enn aSrir menn. Litit mun J^at at reyna, segir Asbjgrn.... SiSan let Asbjgrn lif sitt meS mikilli hreysti ok dreingskap. 8. pat er at segja at )7eir )7rir menn, er undan komust, sottu knaliga r65r, ok lettu eigi fyrr enn )7eir komu at landi, SQgSu fau tiSindi er gerzt hgfSu i J^eirra fgrum, kvoSust aetla Asbjgrn dauSan, en kunnu ekki fra at segja, hversu at hefsi borizt um bans liflat ; kvomu J?eir ser i skip me5 kaupmgnnum, ok fluttust svd su5r til Danmerkr; spurSust mi )^essi tiSindi visa, ok ]76ttu mikil. p4 var orSit hgfSingja skipti i Noregi, Hakon jarl dauSr, en 6lafr Tryggvason i land kominn, ok bauS gllum retta trii. Ormr Storolfsson spurSi lit til Islands um 188 Extract from pdttr Orms Stdrdlfssonar farar ok liflat Asbjarnar, er m^nnum J^otti sem vera mundi; J?6tti honum J^at allmikill skaSi, ok undi eigi lengr a Island! , ok tok ser far i ReySarfirSi, ok for )?ar utan ; J?eir kvomu nor- Sarliga vi?5 Noreg, ok sat hann um vetrinn i prandheimi ; )?a hafSi (3lafr raSit 3 vetr Noregi. Um vorit bjost Ormr at fara til SauSeya, J?eir voru pvi naerr margir a skipi, sem J?eir AsbJQrn hgfSu verit; peiv IggSu at minni SauSey si6 um kveldit, ok tjglduSu a landi, ok lagu J?ar um nattina.... 9. Nu gengr Ormr J^ar til er hann kemr at hellinum, ser hann nii bjargit )?at stora, ok leizt umatuligt nokkurum manni }>at i brott at fsera ; J?6 dregr hann a sik glofana MenglaSarnauta, tekr siSan a bjarginu ok faerir pat hurt or dyrunum, ok J^ikist Ormr }?4 aflraun mesta synt hafa; hann gekk ]?a inni hellinn, ok lagSi malajarn i dyrnar, en er hann var inn kominn, sa hann hvar kettan hljop met5 gapanda ginit. Ormr hafSi boga ok grvamseli, lagSi hann pa. gr a streing, ok skaut at kettunni J?remr grum, en hon hendi allar meS hvoptunum, ok beit i sundr, hefir hon sik J?a at Ormi, ok rekr klsernar framan i fangit, sva at Ormr kiknar viS, en klaBrnar gengu i gegnum klseSin sv4 at i beini stoS; hon aetlar pa. at bita i andlit Ormi, finnr hann J?a at honum mun eigi veita, heitir J?a a sjdlfan guS ok hinn heilaga Petrum postula, at ganga til Roms, ef hann ynni kettuna ok Briisa, son hennar; siSan fann Ormr at minkatJist afl kettunnar, tekr hann J?a annarri hendi um kverkr henni, en annarri um hrygg, ok gengr hana a bak, ok brytr isundr i henni hrygginn, ok gengr sva af henni dauSri. Ormr sa J^a, hvar balkr storr var um J?veran hellinn; hann gengr pa, innar at, en er hann kemr pa.T, ser hann at fleinn mikill kemr utar i gegnum balkinn, hann var baeSi digr ok langr; Ormr gripr }?a i moti fleininum, ok leggr af lit; Briisi kippir J?a at ser fleininum ok var hann fastr sva at hvergi gekk; J?at undraSist Briisi, ok gsegdist upp yfir balkinn, en er Ormr s6r J^at, J?rifr hann i skeggit a Briisa baSum hgndum, en Brusi bregzt viS i gSrum staS, sviptast )?eir J^a fast um balkinn. Ormr hafSi vafit skeg- ginu um hgnd ser, ok rykkir til sva fast, at hann rifr af Briisa allan skeggstaSinn, hgkuna, kjaptana baSa, vangafyllurnar upp alt at eyrum, gekk her meS holdit niSr at beini. Briisi let J?a Death of Bnisi 189 siga brynnar, ok grettist heldr greppiliga. Ormr stgkkr J?a innar yfir bdlkinn, gripast peiv )?a til ok glima lengi, maeddi Briisa J?a fast bloSras, tekr hann J?a heldr at gangast fyrir, gefr Ormr J?d a, ok rekr Briisa at balkiniun ok brytr hann J?ar um a bak aptr. Snemma sagSi mer J?at hugr, sagSi Briisi, at ek munda af J^er nokkut erfitt fa, J?egar ek heyrSa pin getit, enda er }?at nii fram komit, muntu nii vinna skjott um, ok hgggva hgfuS af mer, en }?at var satt, at mjgk pinda ek Asbjgrn priiSa, pa> er ek rakta or honum alia }?armana, ok gaf hann sik ekki vis, fyrrenn hann do. Ilia gerSir )7u J^at, segir Ormr, at pin a hann sva mjgk jafnrgskvan mann, skaltu ok hafa J?ess nokkurar menjar. Hann bra J^a saxi ok reist bloSgrn a baki honum, ok skar q11 rifin fra hryggnum, ok dro ]?ar lit liingun; let Briisi sva lif sitt meS litlum dreingskap; siSan bar Ormr eld at, ok brendi upp til gsku baeSi Briisa ok kettuna, ok er hann hafsi J?etta starfat, for hann hurt or hellinum meS kistur tvaer fullar af gulli ok silfri, en J?at sem meira var femaett, gaf hann i vald MenglaSar, ok sva eyna; skildu J^au meS mikilli vinattu, kom Ormr til manna sinna i nefndan tima, heldu siSan til meginlands. Sat Ormr i prandheimi vetr annan. Tkanslation of Extract from ]?attr Orms Storolfssonar A little after Orm and Asbiorn had parted, Asbiorn wished to go north to Sandeyar^; he went aboard with twenty-four men, went north past Mseri, and landed late in the day at the outermost of the Sandeyar^. They landed and pitched a tent, and spent the night there, and met with nothing. Early in the morning Asbiorn arose, clothed himself, took his arms, went inland, and bade his men wait for him. But when some time had passed from Asbiorn's having gone away, they were aware that a monstrous ^ cat had come to the 1 The MSS have either Sandeyar or Saudeyar {Sauffeyar). But that Sand- eyar is the correct form ia shown by the name Sand0, which is given still to the island of Dollsey, where Orm's fight is localized (Panzer, 403). 2 Literally "she-cat," ketta; but the word may mean "giantess." It is used in some Mss of the Qrettis saga of the giantess who attacks Grettir at Sand- haugar. 190 Extract from pdttr Orms Stdrdlfssonar door of the tent : she was coal-black in colour and very fierce, for it seemed as if fire was burning from her nostrils and mouth, and her eyes were nothing fair: they were much startled at this sight, and full of fear. Then the cat leapt within the tent upon them, and gripped one after the other, and so it is said that some she swallowed and some she tore to death with claws and teeth. Twenty men she killed in a short time, and three escaped aboard ship, and stood away from the shore. But Asbiorn went till he came to the cave of Brusi, and hastened in forthwith. It was dim before his eyes, and very shadowy in the cave, and before he was aware of it, he was caught off his feet, and thrown down so violently that it seemed strange to him. Then was he aware that there was come the giant Brusi, and he seemed to him a great one. Then said Brusi, " Thou didst seek with great eagerness to come hither — now shalt thou have business, in that thou shalt here leave thy Ufe with so great torments that that shall stay others from attacking me in my lair." Then he stripped Asbiorn of his clothes, forasmuch as so great was their difference in strength that the giant could do as he wished. Asbiorn saw a great barrier standing across the cave, and a mighty opening in the midst of it; a great iron column stood somewhat in front of the barrier. "Now it must be tried," said Brusi, "whether thou art somewhat hardier than other men." "Little will that be to test," said Asbiorn.... [Asbiorn then recites ten stanzas, Brusi tormenting him the while. The first stanza is almost identical with No. 50 in the Grettis saga.] Then Asbiorn left his life with great valour and hardihood. Now it must be told concerning the three men who escaped ; they rowed strongly, and stopped not until they came to land. They told the tidings of what had happened in their journey, and said that they thought that Asbiorn was dead, but that they could not tell how matters had happened concerning his death. They took ship with merchants, and so went south to Orm attacks Brusi 191 Denmark: now these tidings were spread far and wide, and seemed weighty. There had been a change of rulers in Norway: jarl Hakon was dead, and Olaf Tryggvason come to land : and he proclaimed the true faith to all. Orm Storolfson heard, out in Iceland, about the expedition of Asbiorn, and the death which it seemed to men must have come upon him. It seemed to him a great loss, and he cared no longer to be in Iceland, and took passage at Reytharfirth and went abroad. They reached Norway far to the north, and he stayed the winter at Thrandheim : Olaf at that time had reigned three years in Norway. In the spring Orm made ready for his journey to Sandeyar, and there were nearly as many in the ship as the company of Asbiorn had been. They landed at Little Sandey late in the evening, and pitched a tent on the land, and lay there the night.... 9. Now Orm went till he came to the cave. He saw the great rock, and thought it was impossible for any man to move it. Then he drew on the gloves that Menglath had given him, and grasped the rock and moved it away from the door; this is reckoned Orm's great feat of strength. Then he went into the cave, and thrust his weapon against the door. When he came in, he saw a giantess (she-cat) springing towards him with gaping jaws. Orm had a bow and quiver; he put the arrow on the string, and shot thrice at the giantess. But she seized all the arrows in her mouth, and bit them asunder. Then she flung herself upon Orm, and thrust her claws into his breast, so that Orm stumbled, and her claws went through his clothes and pierced him to the bone. She tried then to bite his face, and Orm found himself in straits : he promised then to God, and the holy apostle Peter, to go to Rome, if he conquered the giantess and Brusi her son. Then Orm felt the power of the giantess diminishing : he placed one hand round her throat, and the other round her back, and bent it till he broke it in two, and so left her dead. Then Orm saw where a great barrier ran across the cave : he went further in, and when he came to it he saw a great shaft 192 A Danish Dragon-slaying of the Beowulf-type coming out through the barrier, both long and thick. Orm gripped the shaft and drew it away; Brusi pulled it towards himself, but it did not yield. Then Brusi wondered, and peeped up over the barrier. But when Orm saw that, he gripped Brusi by the beard with both hands, but Brusi pulled away, and so they tugged across the barrier. Orm twisted the beard round his hand, and tugged so violently that he pulled the flesh of Brusi away from the bone — from chin, jaws, cheeks, right up to the ears. Brusi knitted his brows and made a hideous face. Then Orm leapt in over the barrier, and they grappled and wrestled for a long time. But loss of blood wearied Brusi, and he began to fail in strength. Orm pressed on, pushed Brusi to the barrier, and broke his back across it. " Right early did my mind misgive me," said Brusi, "even so soon as I heard of thee, that I should have trouble from thee : and now has that come to pass. But now make quick work, and hew off my head. And true it is that much did I torture the gallant Asbiorn, in that I tore out all his entrails — yet did he not give in, before he died." "Ill didst thou do," said Orm, "to torture him, so fine a man as he was, and thou shalt have something in memory thereof." Then he drew his knife, and cut the " blood eagle " in the back of Brusi, shore off his ribs and drew out his lungs. So Brusi died in cowardly wise. Then Orm took fire, and burned to ashes both Brusi and the giantess. And when he had done that, he left the cave, with two chests full of gold and silver. And all that was most of value he gave to Menglath, and the island likewise. So they parted with great friendship, and Orm came to his men at the time appointed, and then they sailed to the mainland. Orm remained a second winter at Thrandheim. F. A Danish Dkagon- slaying of the Beowulf- type Paa den Tid, da kong Gram Guldk^lve regierede i Leire, vara der ved Hoffet to Ministre, Bessus og Henrik. Og da der paa samme Tid indkom idelige klager fra Indbyggerne i Vendsyssel, at et grueligt Udyr, som B0nderne kaldte Lindorm, ^delagde baade Mennesker og Kreaturer, gav Bessus det Raad, at Kongen skulde sende Henrik did hen, efterdi ingen i det ganske Bige kunde maale sig med ham in Tapperhed og Mod. Da svarede A Banish Dragon-slaying of the Beowulf-type 193 Henrik, at ban vel vilde paatage sig dette, dog tilf0iede ban, at ban ansaae det for umuligt at slippe fra saadan Kamp med Livet. Og belavede ban sig da strax til Reisen, tog r0rende Afsked med sin Herre og Konge og sagde iblandt andet : " Herre ! om jeg ikke kommer tilbage, da s0rg for min kone og for mine B^rn ! " Da ban derefter var kommen over til Vendsyssel, lod ban sig af B^nderne vise det Sted, bvor Ubyret bavde sit Leie, og fik da at vide, at Ormen endnu den samme Dag bavde vseret ude af Hulen og borttaget en Hyrde og en Oxe, og at den efter Saedvane nu ikke vilde komme ud, f^rend om tre Timer, naar den skulde ned til Vandet for at drikke efter Maaltidet. Henrik if^rte sig da sin fulde Rustning, og eftersom Ingen vovede at staae bam bi i dette Arbeide, lagde ban sig ganske alene ved Vandet, dog saaledes, at Vinden ikke bar fra bam benimod Dyret. Da udsendte ban f^rst en vseldig Piil fra sin Bue, men uagtet den rammede n0ie det sted, bvortil ban bavde sigtet, t^rnede den dog tilbage fra Ormens baarde Skael. Herover blev Ubyret saa optsendt af Vrede, at det strax gik benimod bam, agtende bam kun et ringe Maaltid ; men Henrik bavde if orveien bos en Smed ladet sig gij2^re en stor Krog med Gjenbold, bvilken ban jog ind i Beestets aabne Gab, saa at det ikke kunde blive den qvit, ibvormeget det end arbeidede, og ibvorvel Jern- stangen brast i Henriks Hsender. Da slog det bam med sin vaeldige Hale til Jorden, og ski^ndt ban bavde fuldkommen Jernrustning paa, kradsede det dog med sine forfserdelige Kl^er saa at ban, naesten d^deligt saaret, faldt i Besvimelse. Men da ban, efterat Ormen i nogen Tid bavde baft bam liggende under sin Bug, endelig kom lidt til sin Samling igien, greb ban af yderste Evne en Daggert, af bvilke ban f^rte flere med sig i sit Bselte, og stak Dyret dermed i underlivet, bvor Skaellene vare bl^dest, saa at det tilsidst maate udpuste sin giftige Aande, medens ban selv laae balv knust under dens Byrde. Da B0nderne i Vendsyssel som stode i nogen Afstand, under megen Frygt og lidet Haab omsider maerkede, at Striden sagtnede, og at begge Barter boldte sig rolige, naermede de sig og fandt Hr. Henrik naesten livl^s under det drsebte Udyr. Og efterat de i nogen Tid bavde givet bam god Pleie, vendte ban tilbage for at d0 bos sin Konge, til bvem ban gientagende anbefalede sin 0. B. 13 194 A Danish Dragon-slaying of the Beowulf-type Slsegt. Fra ham nedstammer Familien Lindenroth, som til Minde om denne vseldige Strid f^rer en Lindorm i sit Vaaben. MS 222. 4°. Stamme och Slectebog over den h^iadelige Familie af Lindenroth, in Danmarks Folkesagn, samlede af J. M. Thiele, 1843, i, 125-7. A DANISH DRAGON- SLAYING OF THE BEOWULF-TYPE. Translation. In the days when King Gram Guldk^lve ruled in Leire, there were two ministers at court, Bessus and Henry. And at that time constant complaints came to the court from the in- habitants of Vendsyssel, that a dread monster, which the peasants called a Drake, was destroying both man and beast. So Bessus gave counsel, that the king should send Henry against the dragon, seeing that no one in the whole kingdom was his equal in valour and courage. Henry answered that assuredly he would undertake it; but he added that he thought it impossible to escape from such a struggle with his life. And he made himself ready forthwith for the expedition, took a touching farewell of his lord and king, and said among other things: "My lord, if I come not back, care thou for my wife and my children." Afterwards, when he crossed over to Vendsyssel, he caused the peasants to show him the place where the monster had its lair, and learnt how that very day the drake had been out of its den, and had carried off a herdsman and an ox; how, ac- cording to its wont, it would now not come out for three hours, when it would want to go down to the water to drink after its meal. Henry clothed himself in full armour, and inasmuch as no one dared to stand by him in that task, he lay down all alone by the water, but in such wise that the wind did not blow from him toward the monster. First of all he sent a mighty arrow from his bow: but, although it exactly hit the spot at which he had aimed, it darted back from the dragon's hard scales. At this the monster was so maddened, that it attacked him forthwith, reckoning him but a little meal. But Henry had had a mighty barbed crook prepared by a smith beforehand, which he thrust into the beast's open mouth, so that it could The Old Eitglish Genealogies 195 not get rid of it, however much it strove, although the iron rod broke in Henry's hands. Then it smote him to the ground with its mighty tail, and although he was in complete armour, clutched at him with its dread claws, so that he fell in a swoon, wounded almost to death. But when he came somewhat to his senses again, after the drake for some time had had him lying under its belly, he rallied his last strength and grasped a dagger, of which he carried several with him in his belt, and smote it there- with in the belly, where the scales were weakest. So the monster at last breathed out its poisoned breath, whilst he himself lay half crushed under its weight. When the Vendsyssel peasants, who stood some distance away, in great fear and little hope, at last noticed that the battle had slackened, and that both combatants were still, they drew near and found Henry almost lifeless under the slain monster. And after they for some time had tended him well, he returned to die by his king, to whom he again commended his offspring. From him descends the family Lindenroth, which in memory of this mighty contest carries a drake on its coat of arms. This story resembles the dragon fight in Beowulf, in that the hero faces the dragon as protector of the land, with forebodings, and after taking farewell; he attacks the dragon in its lair, single-handed; his first attack is frustrated by the dragon's scales; in spite of apparatus specially pre- pared, he is wounded and stunned by the dragon, but nevertheless smites the dragon in the soft parts and slays him; the watchers draw near when the fight is over. Yet these things merely prove that the two stories are of the same type; there is no evidence that this story is descended from Beowulf. G. The Old English Genealogies. I. TEE MERCIAN GENEALOGY. Of the Old English Genealogies, the only one which, in its stages helow Woden, immediately concerns the student of Beowulf is the Mercian. This contains three names which also occur in Beowulf, though two of them in a corrupt form — Offa, Wermund (Garmund, Beowulf), and Eoma3r (Geomor, Beowulf). This Mercian pedigree is found in its best form in MS Cotton Vesp. B. VI, fol. 109 6,^ and in the sister ms at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge {C.C.C.C. 183)2. Both these mss are of 1 See Sweet, Oldest English Texts, 1885, p. 170. 2 See Catalogue of MSS. in the Library of Corpus Christi CoUege, Cambridge by Montague Rhodes James, Camb., 1912, p. 437. 13—2 196 The Old English Genealogies the 9th century. They contain lists of popes and bishops, and pedigrees of kings. By noting where these lists stop, we get a limit for the final compilation of the document. It must have been drawn up in its present form between 811 and 814^. But it was obviously compiled from lists already existing, and some of them were even at that date old. For the genealogy of the Mercian kings, from Woden, is not traced directly down to this period 811-814, but in the first place only as far as iEthelred (reigning 675-704), son of Penda: that is to say, it stops considerably more than a century before the date of the document in which it appears. Additional pedigrees are then appended which show the subsequent stages down to and including Cenwulf, king of Mercia (reigning 796-821). It is difl&cult to account for such an arrangement except on the hypothesis that the genealogy was committed to writing in the reign of iEthelred, the monarch with whose name it terminates in its first form, and was then brought up to date by the addition of the supplementary names ending with Cenwulf. This is confirmed when we find that precisely the same arrange- ment holds good for the accompanying Northumbrian pedigree, which terminates with Ecgfrith (670-685), the contemporary of -^thelred of Mercia, and is then brought up to date by additional names. Genealogies which draw from the same source as the Ves- pasian genealogies, and show the same peculiarities, are found in the Historia Brittonum (§§ 57-61). They show, even more emphatically than do the Vespasian lists, traces of having been originally drawn up in the time of -^Ethelred of Mercia (675-704) or possibly of his father Penda, and of having then been brought up to date in subsequent revisions 2. One such revision must have been made about 796 ^i it is a ^ See Publications of the Palseographical Society, 1880, where a facsimile of part of the Vespasian MS is given. (Pt. 10, Plate 165: subsequently Ser. i. Vol. II.) 2 So Zimmer, Nennius Vindicatus, Berlin, 1893, pp. 78 etc., and Duchesne {Remie Celtique, xv, 196). Duchesne sums up these genealogies as "un recueil constitue, vers la fin du vn« siecle, dans le royaume de Strathcluyd, mais com- plete par di verses retouches, dont la demiere est de 796." ^ This is shown by one of the supplementary Mercian pedigrees being made to end, both in the Vespasian genealogy and the Historia Brittonum, in Ecgfrith, who reigned for a few months in 796. See Thurneysen {Z.f.d.Pk. xxviii, 101). The Mercian Genealogy 197 modification of this revision which is found in the Historia Brittonum. Another was that which, as we have seen, must have been made between 811-814, and in this form is found in MS Cotton Vespasian B. VI, MS C.C.C.C. 183, both of the 9th century, and in the (much later) MS Cotton Tiberius B. V. The genealogy up to Penda is also found in the A.-S. Chronicle under the year 626 (accession of Penda). This Mercian list, together with the Northumbrian and other pedigrees which accompany it, can claim to be the earliest extant English historical document, having been written down in the 7th century, and recording historic names which (allowing thirty years for a generation) cannot be later than the 4th century a.d. In most similar pedigrees the earliest names are meaningless to us. But the Mercian pedigree differs from the rest, in that we are able from Beowulf, Widsith, Saxo Grammaticus, Sweyn Aageson and the Vitae Off arum, to attach stories to the names of Wermund and Off a. How much of these stories is history, and how much fiction, it is difficult to say — but, with them, extant English history and English poetry and English fiction alike have their beginning. MS Cotton Vesp. B. VI. MS C.C.C.C. 183. AeSilred Peding .EtSebed Pending Penda Pypbing Penda Pybbing Pypba Crioding Pybba Creoding Crioda Cynewalding Creoda Cynewalding Cynewald Cnebbing Cynewald Cnebbing Cnebba Icling Cnebba Icling Icil Eamering Icel Eomsering Earner Angengeoting Eomser Angengeoting Angengeot Offing Angengiot Offing Offa Uaermunding -OfEa Waermunding Uermund Uihtlaeging ^Wsermund Wihtlaeging Uihtlaeg WiotSulgeoting Wihtlaeg Wio]>olgeoting WeotJulgeot Wodning WeoJ>olgiot Wodning Woden Frealafing Woden Frealafing 198 The Old English Genealogies Historia Brittonum^, MS Harl 3859. Penda Pubba Earner Ongen Offa Guerdmund Guithleg Gueagon Guedolgeat [U]Uoden Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. MSS Cotton Tib. A. VI. and B. I.^ Penda Pybbing Pybba Creoding Creoda Cynewalding Cynewald Cnebbing Cnebba Iceling Icel Eomaering Eomaer Angeljjeowing AiigelJ)eow Offing Offa Waermunding Waermund Wihtlseging Wihtlseg Wodening II. THE STAGES ABOVE WODEN, (!) WODEN TO GEAT. The stages above Woden are found in two forms: a short list which traces the line from Woden up to Geat : and a longer list which carries the line from Geat to Sceaf and through Noah to Adam. The line from Woden to Geat is found in the Historia Brittonum, not with the other genealogies, but in § 31, where the pedigree of the Kentish royal family is given, when the arrival of Hengest in Britain is recounted. Notwithstanding the dispute regarding the origin and date of the Historia Brit- tonum, there is a pretty general agreement that this Woden to Geat pedigree is one of the more primitive elements, and is not likely to be much later than the end of the 7th century^. The original nucleus of the Historia Brittonum was revised by 1 Ed. Mommsen, p. 203. 2 Anno 626: a similar genealogy will be found in these MSS and in the Parker MS, anno 755 (accession of Offa II). 3 Zimmer {Nennius Vindicatus, p. 84) argues that this Geta-Woden pedi- gree belongs to a portion of the Historia Brittonum written down a.d. 685 . Thumeysen {Z.f.d.Ph. xxviii, 103-4) dates the section in which it occurs 679; Duchesne {Revue Celtique, xv, 196) places it more vaguely between the end of the sixth and the beginning of the eighth century; van Hamel {Hoops Reallexikon s.v. Nennius) between much the same limits, and clearly before 705. Hie Stages above Woden 199 Nennius in the 9th century, or possibly at the end of the Sth^. The earliest MS of the Historia, that of Chartres, belongs to the 9th or 10th century — this is fragmentary and already inter- polated ; the received text is based upon MS Harleian 3859, dating from the end of the 11th century 2, or possibly somewhat later. I give the pedigree in four forms: A. The critical text of the Historia Brittonum as edited by Th. Mommsen (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auct. Antiq., Chronica Minora, iii, Berolini, 1898, p. 171). B. MS Harl. 3859, upon which Mommsen' s text is based, fol. 180. C. The Chartres MS. D. Mommsen's critical text of the later revision, Nennius interpretatus, which he gives parallel to the Historia Brittonum, Hors et Hengist Hors & Hengist Cors et Haecgens Hors et Hengist filii Guictgils filii Guictgils filii Guictils filii Guictgils Guigta Guitta Guicta Guigta Guectha Guectha Gueta Guectha Woden Woden Woden Voden Frealaf Frealaf Frelab Frealaf Fredulf Fredulf Freudulf Fredolf Finn Finn Fran Finn Frenn Fodepald Fodepald Folcpald Folcvald Geta Geta G[e]uta Gaeta qui f uit, ut aiunt. qui f uit, ut aiunt, qui sunt [sic], ut Vanli filius del fiKus dei aiunt, filius dei Saxi Negua MS Cotton Vespasian B. VI (9th century) contains a number of Anglo-Saxon genealogies and other lists revised up to the period 811-14^. The genealogy of the kings of Lindsey in this list has the stages from Woden to Geat. This genealogy is also found in the sister list in the 9th century MS at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge {MS C.C.C.C. 183). 1 Zimmer (p. 275) says a.d. 796; Duchesne (p. 196) a.d. 800; Thurneysen {Zeitschr. /. Celtische Phtlologie, i, 166) a.d. 826; Skene {Four Ancient Books of Wales, 1868, i, 38) a.d. 858; van Hamel (p. 304) a.d. 820-859. See also Chad- wick, Origin, 38. 2 Bradshaw, Investigations among Early Welsh, Breton and Cornish MS8. in Collected Papers, 466. » See above, p. 196. 200 The Old English Genealogies A similar list is to be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (entered under the year 547). But there it is appended to the genealogy of the Northumbrian kings. This genealogy has been erased in the oldest MS (Parker, end of the 9th century) to make room for later additions, but is found in MSS Cotton Tiberius A, VI and B. I. Cotton {Vespasian) MS. Corpus MS. A. -S. Chronicle UUoden Frealafing Woden Frealafing Woden Freo>olafing Frealaf FriotSulfing Frealaf Frio^owulsing {sic) Freo)>elaf Freo)>ulfing FrioSulf Finning FreoJ>owulf Godwulfing Frijjulf Finning Finn Goduulfing Finn Godulfing Godulf Geoting Godwulf Geating Godulf Geating The Fodepald or Folcfold who, in the Historia Brittonum, appears as the father of Finn, is clearly the Folcwalda who appears as Finn's father in Beowulf and Widsith. The Old English w (p) has been mistaken for p, just as in Pinefred for Winefred in the Life of Off a II. In the Vespasian MS and in other genealogies Godwulf is Finn's father. It has been very generally held that Finn and his father Godwulf are mythical heroes, quite distinct from the presumably historic Finn, son of Folcwalda, mentioned in Beowulf and Widsith : and that by confusion Folcwald came to be written instead of Godwulf in the genealogy, as given in the Historia Brittonum. I doubt whether there is suflScient justification for this distinction between a pre- sumed historic Finn Folcwalding and a mythical Finn Godwulfing. Is it not possible that Godwulf was a traditional, probably historic, king of the Frisians, father of Finn, and that Folcwalda^ was a title which, since it alliterated conveniently, in the end supplanted the proper name in epic poetry? III. THE STAGES ABOVE WODEN. (2) WODEN TO SCEAF. The stages above Geat are found in the genealogy of the West- Saxon kings only 2. This is recorded in the Chronicle 1 Cf. Bretwalda. 2 The genealogies have recently been dealt with by E. Hackenberg, Die Stammtafeln der angelsdchsischen Konigreiche, Berlin, 1918; and by Brandl, (Herrig's Archiv, cxxxvii, 1-24). Most of Brandl' s derivations seem to me to depend upon very perilous conjectures. Thus he derives Scefing from the Gr.-Lat. scapha, "a skiff" : a word which was not adopted into Old English. This seems to be sacrificing all probability to the desire to find a new interpretation : Extract from the Chronicle Roll 201 under the year 855 (notice concerning ^Ethelwulf) and it was probably drawn up at the court of that king. Though it doubt- less contains ancient names, it is apparently not so ancient as the Woden-Geat list. It became very well known, and is also found in Asser and the Textus Roffensis. It was copied by later historians such as William of Malmesbury, and by the Icelandic genealogists^. The principal versions of this pedigree are given in tabular form below (pp. 202-3) ; omitting the merely second-hand re- productions, such as those of Florence of Worcester. H. EXTEACT PROM THE CHRONICLE ROLL. This roll was drawn up in the reign of Henry VI, and its compiler must have had access to a document now lost. There are many copies of the roll extant — the "Moseley" Roll at University College, London (formerly in the Phillipps collection) ; at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (No. 98 a) ; at Trinity College, Cambridge ; and in the Biblioth^que Rationale, Paris^ ; and one which recently came into the market in London. Steph Steldius Boerinus —r—r—T—T—T—T—<— I f ^ I f I I i I Cm 09 C CD O •" 2. & 00 Q, g g g and, even so, it is not quite successful. For Riley in the Gentleman's Magazine^ August, 1857, p. 126, suggested the derivation of the name of Scef from the schiff or skiff in which he came. ^ For a list of the Icelandic versions, see Heusler, Die gdehrte Urgeschichte im altisldndischen Schrifttum, pp. 18-19, in the Abhandlungen d. preuss. Akad., PUl.-Hist. Klasse, 1908, Berlin. 2 The names are given as in the Trinity Roll (T), collated with Corpus (C) and Moseley (M). For Paris (P) I follow Kemble's report {Postscript to Preface, 1837, pp. vii, viii: Stammtafel der Westsachsen, ^p. 18, 31). All seem to agree in writing t for c in Steph and Steldius, and in Boerinus, obviously, as Kemble pointed out, r is written by error far p = Beow-inus [or Beoivius] ; Cinrinicius T, Cinrinicus C, Cininicus P, Siuruncius M; Suethedus TCP, Suechedius M; Gethius T, Thecius M, Ehecius CP; Geate T, Geathe CM, Geathus P. 202 The Old English Genealogies O .J ^~ II ^» tip ■3 i 1 2 ^ I I II O eS OQ ^ tiD ee ^ 3 a ^ § f .2 .S .§ © H § 1 '^ _^ ^ '^ g I 2 -111!!? I g « I ? ^ |g § ^||g C-4 HfShO^Q S S "^Ci^c!^©© no S^^-l^ ^^§ '^ .§3©o'^-=3 rt«ii ^llllglllll illl-^i 2 »^^ H o W) bo £ wM^-gS^ bo wjSS.S « g^^iS'|tJD«bDS^.aaig •;: 2 p © The Stages above Woden 203 a t 3 9.. '%- i o^ g'l 1-1 _ .5 * ^ fl m £ M O PQ M W H ° £.So1s©©S©®=«^©m'*'^ 0,3^0 Eh *^ ^ tL S © o © ^ ta » 1^1 f.^c^ili I rill g^iili e g 2 I s I I 1 1 " 5 I 1 1 * g s .3 § a a .| 204 Extract from the Chronicle Roll The following marginal note occurs : Iste Steldius i^rimus inhabitator Germanie fuit. Que Germania sic dicta erat, quia instar ramor^tm germinaricium ab arbore, sic nomen regnaqtte germania nuncuparitur. In nouem filiis diuisa a radice Boerini geminaueru/it. Ab istis nouem filiis Boerini descenderunt nouem gentes septentrionalem partem inhabitantes, qui quondam regnum Brita?tnie inuaseruTit et optinueruiit, videlicet Saxones, Angli, luthi, Daci, Norwagences, Gothi, Wandali, Geathi et Fresi^. I. Extract from the Little Chronicle of THE Kings of Leire From the Annates Lundenses. These Annals are comparatively late, going up to the year 1307; but the short Chronicle of the Kings of Leire, which is incorporated in them, is supposed to date from the latter half of the 12th century. The text is given in Langebek, Scriptores Rerum Danicarum, i, 224-i6 (under the name of Annales Esromenses) from Cod. Am. Mag. 841. There is a critical edition by Gertz, Scriptores Minores historise Danicas, Copenhagen, 1917, based upon Cod. Am. Mag. 843. Thg text given below is mainly that of Langebek, with corrections from Gertz's fine edition. See below, p. 216. Erat ergo Dan rex in Dacia^ per triennium. Anno tandem tertio cognouit uxorem suam Daniam, genuitque ex ea filium nomine Ro. Qui post patris obitum hereditarie possidebat regnum. Patrem uero suum Dan colle apud Lethram tumu- laiiit Sialandiae, ubi sedem regni pro eo pater constituit, quam ipse post eum diuitiis multiplicibus ditauit. Tempore illo ciuitas magna erat in medio Sialandiae, ubi adhuc mons desertus est, nomine Hekebiarch, ubi sita erat ciuitas quse Hj2ikekoping nuncupata est; ad quam ut mox Ro rex uidit, quod mercatores a nauibus in uia currus conducentes multum expenderent, a loco illo ciuitatem amoueri jussit ad portum, ubi tenditur Issefiorth, et circa fontem pulcherrimum domos disponere. ^dificauit ibi Ro ciuitatem honestam, cui nomen partitiuum imposuit post se et Fontem, partem capiens fontis partemque sui, Roskildam Danice uocans, quae hoc nomine uoca[bi]tur^ in aeternum. Uixit autem rex Ro ita pacifice, ut nullus ei aciem opponeret, nee ipse usquam expeditionem d.irexit*. Erat autem uxor eius 1 I follow the spelling of the Moseley roll in this note. 2. Z)aaa = " Denmark": Dacia and Dania were identified. 3 uocahitur, Gertz ; ttocatur, all mss. * This account of the peaceful reign of Ro is simply false etymology from Danish ro, "rest." Extract from the Little Chronicle of the Kings of Leire 205 fecunda sobole, ex qua genuit duos filios, nomen primi Helhgi et secundi Haldan^. Cumque cepissent pueri robore confortari et crescere, obiit pater eorum Ro, et sepultus est tumulo quodam Lsethrae, post cuius obitum partiti sunt regnum filii, quod in duas partes diuidentes, alter terras, alter mare possidebat. Rexit itaque terras Haldanus, et genuit filium nomine Siwardum, cognomine Album, qui patrem suum Haldanum Lsethrse tumu- lauit mortuum. Helgi autem rex erat marinus, et multos ad se traxit malificos, nauali bello bene adeptus diuersas partes, quasdam pace, quasdam cum piratica classe ^ petisse perhibetur . . . The Chronicle then tells how Rolf was born, the son of Helgi and Yrse or Ursula: also of the death and burial of Helgi. Filius autem eius et Ursulae puer crescebat Rolf et forti- tudine uigebat. Mater uero eius Ursula, uelo uiduitatis depo- sito, data est regi Suethise Athislo, qui ex ea filiam sibi genuit, Rolf uero ex matre eius sororem nomine Skuld. Interea dum haec de rege marino Helgi agerentur, f rater eius, rex Dacise, mortuus est Haldanus. Post quem^ rex Swecise Athisl a Danis suscepit tributum. * * * * Interea . . . conf ortabatur filius Helgi, Rolff , cognomine Krake. Quem post mortem Snyo^Dani [inpregemassumpserunt. Qui Sialandiae apud Lethram, sicut antecessores sui, saepissime moratus est. Sororem suam nomine Sculd secum habuit, Athisli regis filiam, et suae matris Ursulae, de qua superius dictum est; quam fraterno amore dilexit. Cui provinciam Hornshse- raeth Sialandiae ad pascendas puellas suas in expensam dedit, in qua uillam aedificauit, nomine Sculdelef , unde nomen suscepit. Hoc tempore erat quidam Comes Scaniae, nomine Hiarwarth, Teotonicus genere, Rolf tributarius, qui ad eum procos misit, ut ^ Note that Ro (Hrothgar), the son of Haldanus (Healfdene), is here repre- sented as his father. Saxo Grammaticus, combining divergent accounts, as he often does, accordingly mentions two Roes — one the brother of Haldanus, the other his son. See above, pp. 131-2. 2 cum piratica classe, Langebek; the mss have cum pieiate(l) with or without classe. ' post quem, Holder-Egger, Gertz; postquam, all mss. * Snyo : the viceroy whom Athisl had placed over the Danes. * in added by Gertz; omitted in all mss. 206 Extract from the Little Chronicle of the Kings of Leire sororem suam Sculd Hiarwardo daret uxorem. Quo nolente, propria ipsius uoluntate puellae clanculo earn raptam sociauit sibi. Unde conspirauerunt inter se deliberantes Hiarwart et Sculd, quomodo Rolf interficeretur, et Hiarwardus superstes regni heres efficeretur. Non post multum vero temporis ani- mosus ad uxoris exhortationem Hiarwart Sialandiam classe petiit. Genero suo RolfE tributum attulisse simulauit. Die quadam dilucescente ad Lsethram misit, ut uideret tributum, Rolff nunciauit. Qui cum uidisset non tributum sed exercitum armatum, uallatus est Rolff militibus, et a Hyarwardo inter- fectus est. Hyarwardum autem Syalandenses et Scanienses, qui cum eo erant, in regem assumpserunt. Qui breui tempore, a mane usque ad primam, regali nomine potitus est. Tunc uenit Haky, f rater Haghbardi, filius Hamundi; Hyarwardum interfecit et Danorum rex efiectus est. Quo regnante, uenit quidam nomine Fritleff a partibus Septentrionalibus et filiam sibi desponsauit RolfE Crake, ex qua filium nomine Frothe genuit, cognomine Largus. K. The Story op Offa in Saxo Grammaticus Book IV, ed. Ascensius, f ol. xxxii b ; ed. Holder, pp. 106-7. Cui filius Wermundus succedit. Hie prolixis tranquillitatis otiis felicissima temporum quiete decursis, diutinam domesticse pacis constantiam inconcussa rerum securitate tractabat. Idem prolis expers iuuentam exegit ; senior uero filium Uffonem sero fortunae munere suscitauit, cum nuUam ei sobolem elapsa tot annorum curricula peperissent. Hie UfEo coseuos quosque cor- poris habitu supergressus, adeo hebetis ineptique animi prin- cipio iuuentse existimatus est, ut priuatis ac publicis rebus inutilis uideretur. Siquidem ab ineunte aetate nunquam lusus aut ioci consuetudinem praebuit ; adeoque humanae delectationis uacuus fuit, ut labiorum continentiam iugi silentio premeret, et seueritatem oris a ridendi prorsus officio temperaret. Uerum ut incunabula stoliditatis opinione referta habuit, ita post modum conditionis contemptum claritate mutauit ; et quantum inertiae spectaculum fuit, tantum prudentiae et fortitudinis exemplum euasit. The Story of Offa in Saxo Grammaticvs 207 Book IV, ed. Ascensius, fol. xxxivb; ed. Holder, pp. 113-7. Cumque Wermundus aetatis uitio oculis orbaretur, Saxonise rex, Daniam duce uacuam ratus, ei per legatos mandat, regnum, quod praeter aetatis debitum teneat, sibi procurandum committat, ne nimis longa imperii auiditate patriam legibus armisque desti- tuat. Qualiter enim regem censeri posse, cui senectus animum, caecitas oculum pari caliginis horrore f uscauerit ? Quod si abnuat, filiumque habeat, qui cum suo ex prouocatione confligere audeat, uictorem regno potiri permittat. Si neutrum probet, armis secum, non monitis agendum cognoscat, ut tandem inuitus praebeat, quod ultroneus exhibere contemnat. Ad haec Wer- mundus, altioribus suspiriis fractus, impudentius se aetatis exprobratione lacerari respondit, quem non ideo hue inf elicitatis senectus prouexerit, quod pugnae parous timidius iuuentam exegerit. Nee aptius sibi caecitatis uitium obiectari, quod plerunque talem aetatis habitum talis iactura consequi soleat, potiusque condolendum calamitati quam insultandum uideatur. lustius autem Saxoniae regi impatientiae notam afferri posse, quem potius senis fatum operiri, quam imperium poscere decuisset, quod aliquanto praestet defuncto succedere, quam uiuum spoliare. Se tamen, ne tanquam delirus priscae libertatis titulos externo uideatur mancipare dominio, propria manu prouocationi pariturum. Ad haec legati, scire se inquiunt, regem suum conserendae cum caeco manus ludibrium perhorrere, quod tam ridiculum decernendi genus rubori quam honestati propinquius habeatur. Aptius uero per utriusque pignus et sanguinem amborum negotio consuli. Ad haec obstupefactis animo Danis, subitaque responsi ignorantia perculsis, Uffo, qui forte cum ceteris aderat, responsionis a patre licentiam flagita- bat, subitoque uelut ex muto uocalis euasit. Cumque Wer- mundus, quisnam talem a se loquendi copiam postularet, inquireret, ministrique eum ab Uffone rogari dixissent, satis esse perhibuit, ut infelicitatis suae uulneribus alienorum fastus illuderet, ne etiam a domesticis simili insultationis petulantia uexaretur. Sed satellitibus Uffonem hunc esse pertinaci affirmatione testantibus, "Liberum ei sit," inquit, "quisquis est, cogitata profari." Tum Uffo, frustra ab eorum rege regnum appeti, inquit, quod tam proprii rectoris officio quam fortissi- 208 The Story of Offa in Saxo Grammaticus morum procerum armis industriaque niteretur: prseterea, nee regi filium nee regno suecessorem deesse. Sciantque, se non solum regis eorum filium, sed etiam quemeunque ex gentis suae fortissimis seeum adsciuerit, simul pugna aggredi eonstit- uisse. Quo audito legati risere, uanam dieti animositatem existimantes. Nee mora, eondieitur pugnae locus, eidemque stata temporis meta praefigitur. Tantum autem stuporis Uffo loquendi ac prouocandi nouitate praesentibus iniecit, ut, utrum uoei eius an fiduciae plus admirationis tributum sit, incertum extiterit. Abeuntibus autem legatis, Wermundus, responsionis auetore laudato, quod uirtutis fiduciam non in unius, sed duorum pro- uocatione statuerit, potius se ei, quieunque sit, quam superbo hosti regno cessurum perhibuit. Uniuersis autem filium eius esse testantibus, qui legatorum fastum fidueiae sublimitate contempserit, propius eum aceedere iubet: quod oculis nequeat, manibus experturus. Corpore deinde eius curiosius contrectato, cum ex artuum granditate lineamentisque filium esse cognosset, fidem assertoribus habere ccepit, percontarique eum, cur suauis- simum uocis habitum summo dissimulationis studio tegendum curauerit, tantoque aetatis spatio sine uoee et cunctis loquendi commerciis degere sustinuerit, ut se linguae prorsus officio defectum natiuaeque taciturnitatis uitio obsitum credi permit- teret? Qui respondit, se paterna hactenus defensione conten- tum, non prius uocis officio opus habuisse, quam domesticam prudentiam externa loquacitate pressam animaduerteret. Ko- gatus item ab eo, cur duos quam unum prouocare maluit, hunc iceirco dimicationis modum a se exoptatum respondit, ut Athisli regis oppressio, quae, quod a duobus gesta f uerat, Danis opprobrio extabat, unius facinore pensaretur, nouumque uirtutis specimen prisca ruboris monumenta eonuelleret. Ita antiquae crimen infamiae recentis famae litura respergendum dicebat. Quem Wermundus iustam omnium aestimationem fecisse testatus, armorum usum, quod eis parum assueuisset, praediscere iubet. Quibus UfEo oblatis, magnitudine pectoris angustos loricarum nexus explicuit; nee erat ullam reperire, quae eum iusto capaci- tatis spatio contineret. Maiore siquidem corpore erat, quam ut alienis armis uti posset. Ad ultimum, cum paternam quoque The Dvel 209 loricam uiolenta corporis astrictione dissolueret, Wermundus earn a Iseuo latere dissecari, fibulaque sarciri praecepit, partem, quae clypei praesidio muniatur, ferro patere parui existimans. Sed et gladium, quo tuto uti possit, summa ab eo cura conscisci iussit. Oblatis compluribus, Uffo manu capulum stringens, frustatim singulos agitando comminuit; nee erat quisquam ex eis tanti rigoris gladius, quern non ad primae con- cussionis motum crebra partium fractione dissolueret. Erat autem regi inusitati acuminis gladius, Skrep dictus, qui quodlibet obstaculi genus uno ferientis ictu medium penetrando diffin- deret, nee adeo quicquam praedurum foret, ut adactam eius aciem remorari potuisset. Quem ne posteris fruendum relin- queret, per summam alienae commoditatis inuidiam in profunda defoderat, utilitatem ferri, quod filii incrementis diffideret, ceteris negaturus. Interrogatus autem, an dignum Uffonis robore ferrum haberet, habere se dixit, quod, si pridem a se terrae traditum recognito locorum babitu reperire potuisset, aptum corporis eius uiribus exhiberet. In campum deinde perduci se iubens, cum, interrogatis per omnia comitibus, defossionis locum acceptis signorum indiciis comperisset, ex- tractum cauo gladium filio porrigit. Quem Uffo nimia uetustate fragilem exesumque conspiciens, feriendi diffidentia percontatur, an hunc quoque priorum exemplo probare debeat, prius habitum eius, quam rem ferro geri oporteat, explorandum testatus. Refert Wermundus, si praesens ferrum ab ipso uentilando coUideretur, non superesse, quod uirium eiushabitui responderet. Abstinendum itaque facto, cuius in dubio exitus maneat. Igitur ex pacto pugnae locus expetitur. Hunc fluuiua Eidorus ita aquarum ambitu uallat, ut earum interstitio repug- nante, nauigii duntaxat aditus pateat. Quem Uffone sine comite petente, Saxoniae regis filium insignis uiribus athleta consequitur, crebris utrinque turbis alternos riparum anfractus spectandi auiditate complentibus. Cunctis igitur huic spectaculo oculos inferentibus, Wermundus in extrema pontis parte se coUocat, si filium uinci contigisset, flumine periturus. Maluit enim sanguinis sui ruinam comitari, quam patriae interitum plenis doloris sensibus intueri. Uerum Uffo, geminis iuuenum congressibus lacessitus, gladii diffidentia amborum ictus umbone O. B. 14 210 The Story of Oj^a in Saxo Grammaticits uitabat, patientius experiri constituens, quern e duobiis atten- tius cauere debuisset, ut hunc saltern uno ferri impulsu contin- geret. Quern Wermundus imbecillitatis uitio tantam recipien- dorum ictuum patientiam prsestare existimans, paulatim in occiduam pontis oram mortis cupiditate se protrahit, si de filio actum foret, fatum precipitio petiturus. Tanta sanguinis caritate flagrantem senem fortuna protexit. UfEo siquidem filium regis ad secum auidius decernendum hortatus, claritatem generis ab ipso conspicuo fortitudinis opere aequari iubet, ne rege ortum plebeius comes uirtute prsestare uideatur. Athletam deinde, explorandae eius fortitudinis gratia, ne domini sui terga timidius subsequeretur, admonitum fiduciam a regis filio in se repositam egregiis dimicationis operibus pensare praecepit, cuius delectu unicus pugnaB comes adscitus fuerit. Obtemper- antem ilium propiusque congredi rubore compulsum, primo ferri ictu medium dissecat. Quo sono recreatus Wermundus, filii ferrum audire se dixit, rogatque, cui potissimum parti ictum inflixerit. Referentibus deinde ministris, eum non unam cor- poris partem, sed totam hominis transegisse compagem, abstractum prsecipitio corpus ponti restituit, eodem studio lucem expetens, quo fatum optauerat. Tum UfEo, reliquum hostem prioris exemplo consumere cupiens, regis filium ad ultionem interfecti pro se satellitis manibus parentationis loco erogandam impensioribus uerbis sollicitat. Quem propius accedere sua adhortatione coactum, infligendi ictus loco curio- sius denotato, gladioque, quod tenuem eius laminam suis imparem uiribus formidaret, in aciem alteram uerso, penetrabili corporis sectione transuerberat. Quo audito Wermundus Screp gladii sonum secundo suis auribus incessisse perhibuit. Affirmantibus deinde arbitris, utrunque hostem ab eius filio consumptum, nimietate gaudii uultum fletu soluit. Ita genas, quas dolor madidare non poterat, Isetitia rigauit. Saxonibus igitur pudore moestis, pugilumque funus summa cum ruboris acerbitate ducentibus, Uffonem Dani iocundis excepere tri- pudiis. Quieuit tum Athislanae caedis infamia, Saxonumque obprobriis expirauit. Ita Saxonise regnum ad Danos translatum, post patrem Uffo regendum suscepit, utriusque imperii procurator effectus, From Shiold to Offa in Sweyn Aageson 211 qui ne unum quidem rite moderaturus credebatur. Hie a compluribus Olauus est dictus, atque ob animi moderationem Mansueti cognomine donatus. Cuius sequentes actus uetus- tatis uitio solennem fefellere notitiam. Sed credi potest, gloriosos eorum processus extitisse, quorum tarn plena laudis principia fuerint. L. From Skiold to Offa in Sweyn Aageson In Langebek, Serif tores, i, 44-7 ; Gertz, i, 97. CAP. I. De primo Kege Danorum. Skiold Danis primum didici praefuisse. Et ut eius alludamus uocabulo, idcirco tali functus est nomine, quia uniuersos regni terminos regiae defensionis patrocinio affatim egregie tuebatur. A quo primum, modis Islandensibus, " Skioldunger " sunt reges nuncupati. Qui regni post se reliquit hseredes, Frothi uidelicet et Haldanum. Successu temporum fratribus super regni ambitione inter se decertantibus, Haldan, fratre suo interempto, regni monarchiam obtinuit. Hie filium, scilicet Helghi, regni procreauit hseredem, qui ob eximiam uirtutum strenuitatem, pyraticam semper exercuit. Qui cum uniuersorum circum- iacentium regnorum fines maritimos classe pyratica depopulatus, suo subiugasset imperio, "Kex maris " est cognominatus. Huic in regno successit filius Rolf Kraki, patria virtute pollens, occisus in Lethra, quae tunc famosissima Regis extitit curia, nunc autem Roskildensi uicina ciuitati, inter abiectissima ferme uix colitur oppida. Post quem regnauit filius eius Rokil cog- nomento dictus " Slaghenback." Cui successit in regno hseres, agilitatis strenuitate cognominatus, quem nostro uulgarj_ "Frothi bin Frokni" nominabant. Huius filius et hseres regni extitit Wermundus, qui adeo prudentise pollebat uirtute, ut inde nomen consequeretur. Unde et "Prudens" dictus est. Hie filium genuit Ufl& nomine, qui usque ad tricesimum aetatis suae annum fandi possibilitatem cohibuit, propter enormitatem opprobrii, quod tunc temporis Danis ingruerat, eo quod in 14—2 212 The Story of Offa in Sweyn Aageson ultionem patris duo Dani in Sueciam prof ecti, patricidam suum una interemerunt. Nam et tunc temporis ignominiosum extitit improperium, si solum duo iugularent; prsesertim cum soli strenuitati tunc superstitiosa gentilitas operam satagebat im- pendere. Praefatus itaque Wermundus usque ad senium regni sui gubernabat imperium ; adeo tandem aetate consumptus, ut oculi eius prse senio caligarent. Cuius debilitatis fama cum apud transalpinas^ partes percrebuisset, elationis turgiditate Teotonica intumuit superbia, utpote suis nunquam contenta terminis. Hinc furoris sui rabiem in Danos exacuit Imperator, se iam Danorum regno conquisito sceptrum nancisci augustius conspicatus. Delegantur itaque spiculatores, qui turgidi prin- cipis jussa reportent prsefato Danorum regi, scilicet Wermundo, duarum rerum prsefigentes electionem, quarum pars tamen neutra extitit eligenda. Aut enim regnum jussit Romano resignare imperio, et tributum soluere, aut athletam inuestigare, qui cum Imperatoris campione monomachiam committere auderet. Quo audito, regis extitit mens consternata ; totiusque regni procerum legione corrogata, quid facto opus sit, diligenti inquisitione percontabatur. Perplexam se namque regis autu- mabat autoritas, utpote cui et ius incumbebat decertandi, et qui regno patrocinari tenebatur. Uultum ccecitas obnubilauerat, et regni heres elinguis factus, desidia torpuerat, ita ut in eo, communi assertione, nulla prorsus species salutis existeret. Nam ab infantia praefatus UfFo uentris indulgebat ingluuiei, et Epicurseorum more, coquinae et cellario alternum oflS.ciose impendebat obsequium. Corrogato itaque coetu procerum, totiusque regni placito^ celebrato, Alamannorum regis ambiti- onem explicuit, quid in hac optione baud eligenda f acturus sit, indagatione cumulata senior sciscitatur. Et dum uniuersorum mens consternaretur angustia, cunctique indulgerent silentio, praefatus Uffo in media concione surrexit. Quem cum cohors uniuersa conspexisset, satis nequibat admirari, ut quid elinguis uelut orationi gestus informaret. Et quia omne rarum dignum nouimus admiratione, omnium in se duxit intuitum. Tandem sic orsus coepit: "Non nos minae moueant lacessentium, cum 1 A scribal error for transalbinas, *' beyond the Elbe.'* 2 Assembly. The Duel 213 "ea Teotonicse turgiditati innata sit conditio, ut uerborum " ampullositate glorientur, minarumque uentositate pusill- **animes et imbecilles calleant comminatione consternare. "Me etenim unicum et uerum regni natura produxit heredem, "cui profecto nouistis incumbere, ut monomachiae me discrimini "audacter obiiciam, quatenus uel pro regno solus occumbam, "uel pro patria solus uictoriam obtineam. Ut ergo minarum "cassetur ampullositas, haec Imperatori referant mandata, ut " Imperatoris filius et heres imperii, cum athleta praestantissimo, "mihi soli non formidet occurrere." Dixit, et haec verba dictauit voce superba. Qui dum orationem complesset, a collateralibus senior sciscitabatur, cuiusnam hsec fuisset oratio? Cum autem a circumstantibus intellexisset, quod filius suus, prius veluti mutus, hunc effudisset sermonem, palpandum eum jussit accersiri. Et cum humeros lacertosque, et clunes, suras atque tibias, cseteraque membra organica crebro palpasset : "Talem,'* ait, "me memini in flore extitisse iuuentutis." Quid multa? Terminus pugnae constituitur et locus. Talique res- ponso percepto, ad propria legati repedabant. CAP. II. De duello Uffonis. Superest ergo, ut arma nouo militi congrua corrogentur. Allatisque ensibus, quos in regno praestantiores rex poterat inuestigare, Uffo singulos dextra uibrans, in partes confregit minutissimas. "Haeccine arma sunt," inquit, "quibus et uitam et regni tuebor honorem? " Cuius cum pater uiuidam ex- periretur uirtutem, "Unicum adhuc," ait, "et regni et uitae nos- tras superest asylum." Ad tumulum itaque ducatum postulauit, in quo prius mucronem experientissimum occultauerat. Et mox intersigniis per petrarum notas edoctus, gladium jussit effodi praestantissimum. Quem illico dextra corripiens, "Hie est," ait, "fili, quo numerose triumphaui, et qui mihi infallibile semper tutamen extitit." Et haec dicens, eundem filio contra- didit. Nee mora; terminus ecce congressioni praefixus arctius 214 The Story of Offa in Sweyn Aageson instabat. Tandem, confluentibus undique phalangis innumera- bilibus, in Egdorse fluminis mediamne^ locus pugnse constituitur : ut ita pugnatores ab utriusque coetus adminiculo segregati nullius opitulatione fungerentur. Teotonicis ergo ultra flumi- nis ripam in Holsatia considentibus, Danis uero citra amnem dispositis, rex pontis in medio sedem elegit, quatenus, si uni- genitus occumberet, in fluminis se gurgitem praecipitaret, ne pariter nato orbatus et regno cum dolore superstes canos dedu- ceret ad inferos. Deinde emissis utrinque pugilibus, in medio amne conuenerunt. Ast ubi miles noster egregius Uflo, duos sibi conspexit occurrere, tanquam leo pectore robusto infremuit, animoque constanti duobus electis audacter se opponere non detrectauit, illo cinctus mucrone, quem patrem supra memi- nimus occuluisse, et alterum dextra strictum gestans. Quos cum primum obuios habuisset, sic singillatim utrumque allo- quitur, et quod raro legitur accidisse, atbleta noster elegantis- simus, cuius memoria in seternum non delebitur, ita aduersarios animabat ad pugnam: "Si te," inquit, "regni nostri stimulat ' ambitio, ut nostrse opis, potentiaeque, opumque capessere uelis 'opulentias, comminus te clientem decet prsecedere, ut et ' regni tui terminos amplifices, et militibus tuis conspicientibus, strenuitatis nomen nanciscaris." Campionem uero hunc in modum alloquitur: "Uirtutis tu88 experientiam jam locus est 'propagare, si comminus accesseris, et eam, quam pridem 'Alamannis gloriam ostendisti, Danis quoque propalare non ' cuncteris. Nunc ergo f amam tuse strenuitatis poteris ampliare, ' et egregiae munificentiae dono ditari, si et dominum praecedas, ' et clypeo def ensionis eum tuearis. Studeat, quaeso, Teotonicis 'experta strenuitas variis artis pugillatoriae modis Danos 'instruere, ut tandem optata potitus uictoria, cum triumphi 'ualeas exultatione ad propria remeare." Quam quum com- plesset exhortationem, pugilis cassidem toto percussit conamine, ita ut, quo feriebat, gladius in duo dissiliret. Cuius fragor per uniuersum intonuit exercitum. Unde cohors Teotonicorum exultatione perstrepebat : sed contra Dani desperationis con- sternati tristitia, gemebundi murmurabant. Rex uero, ut audiuit, quod filii ensis dissiliuisset, in margine se pontis jussit ^ Island. Note on the Danish Chronicles 215 locari. Uerum UfEo, subito exempto, quo cinctus erat, gladio, pugilis illico coxam cruentauit, nee mora, et caput pariter amputauit. Sic ergo ludus fortunae ad instar lunse uarius, nunc his, nunc illis successibus illudebat, et quibus iamiam exultatione fauebat ingenti, eos nouercali mox uultu, toruoque conspexit intuitu. Hoc cognito, senior jam confidentius priori se jussit sede locari. Nee jam anceps diu extitit uictoria. Siquidem Uifo ualide instans, ad ripam amnis pepulit haeredem imperii, ibique eum baud difi&culter gladio iugulauit. Sicque duorum solus uictor existens, Danis irrogatam multis retro temporibus infamiam gloriosa uirtute magnifice satis aboleuit. Atque ita Alamannis cum improperii uerecundia, cassatisque minarum ampullositatibus, cum probris ad propria remeantibus, postmodum in pacis tranquillitate praecluis Uffo regni sui regebat imperium. M. Note on the Danish Chkonicles The text of Saxo Grammaticus, given above, is based upon the magnificent first edition printed by Badius Ascensius (Paris, 1514). Even at the time when this edition was printed, manuscripts of Saxo had become exceedingly scarce, and we have now only odd leaves of ms remaining. One fragment, however, discovered at Angers, and now in the Royal Library at Copenhagen, comes from a MS which had apparently received additions from Saxo himself, and therefore affords evidence as to his spelling. Holder's edition (Strassburg, 1886) whilst following in the main the 1514 text of Badius Ascensius, is accordingly revised to comply with the spelling of the Copenhagen fragments, and with any other traces of MS authority extant. I doubt the necessity for such revision. If the text were extant in MS, one might feel bound to follow the spelling of the MS, as in the case of the old English mss of the Vitae Off arum below: but seeing that Saxo, with the exception of a few pages, is extant only in a 16th century printed copy, the spelling of which is almost identical with that now current in Latin text books, it seems a pity to restore conjecturally mediaeval spellings likely 216 Note on the Danish Chronicles to worry a student. Accordingly I have followed the printed text of 1514, modernizing a very few odd spellings, and correct- ing some obvious printers errors^. A translation of the first nine books of Saxo by Prof. 0. Elton has been published by the Folk-Lore Society (No. xxxiii, 1893). Saxo completed his history in the early years of the 13th century. His elder contemporary, Sweyn Aageson, had already written a Brief History of the Kings of Denmark. Sweyn's History must have been completed not long after 1185, to which date belongs the last event he records. The extracts given from it (pp. 211-15) are taken from Langebek's collection, with modifications of spelling. Langebek follows the first edition (Stephanius, 1642) ; the ms used in this edition had been destroyed in 1728. Cod. Am. Mag. 33, recently printed by Gertz, although very corrupt, is supposed to give the text of Sweyn's History in a form less sophisticated than that of the received text (see Gertz, ScHpfores Minores Historise Danic3B, 1917, p. 62). The Little Chronicle of the Kings of Leire is probably earlier than Sweyn's History. Gertz dates it c. 1170, and thinks it was written by someone connected with the church at Roskilde. It covers only the early traditional history. See above, pp. 17, 204. For comparison, the following lists, as given in the roll of kings known as Langfe&gatal, in the Little Chronicle, in Sweyn, and in Saxo may be useful: LangfeSgata Little il Chronicle Dan Sweyn Saxo Dan Names as given in Beonmlf Skioldr. . . Skiold {Humblu3 (Lotherus Skioldus ?=Herem9.d Scyld 1 I have substituted u for v, and have abandoned spellings like theutones, thezauro, orrifico, charitas, phas (for fas), atlethas, choercuit, iocundum, charum, fcelicissima, nanque, hsereditarii . exoluere. The actual reading of the 1514 text is abandoned by substituting: p. 130, 1. 3 ingeniti for ingenitis (1514); p. 132, 1. 22, iacientisior iacentis; p. 134, 1. 2, diutinsF for diutiuse; p. 136, 1. II, fudit ior fugit; p. 136, 1. 20, ut for aut; p. 137, 1. 8, ammirationi for ammirationis; p. 137, 1. 16, offert for affert; p. 137, 1. 17, Roluoni for Rouolni; p. 137, 1. 27, ministerio for ministros; p, 137, 1. 33 diuturnus for diuturnius; p. 206, 1. 22, diutinam for diutina; p. 207, 1. 3, ei for eique; p. 207, 1. 5, destituat for deficiat; p. 209, 1. 2, latere for latera; p. 209, 1. 5, conscisci for concissi; p. 209, 1. 14, defoderat for defodera. Lists of Early Danish Kings 217 Little Names as given LangfeSgatal Chronicle Sweyn Saxo Gram Hadingua in Beowulf Frothi Haldanus Frotho I ?= Beowulf I Halfdan C Haldanus I Healfdene Ro JRoel ( Scato (Hroar ^Helgi Haldaa Helgi Roe II Helgo Hrothgar Helghi Halga Rolf Kraki Rolf Krake Rolf Kraki Roluo Krage Hrothulf Hiarwarth Hiarthuarus Heoroweard Hrserekr Rokil R€^ricu8 Hrethric N. The Life of Offa I, with extracts from the Life of Offa II. Edited from two mss in the Cottonian Collection The text is given from MS Cotton Nero D. I (quoted in the footnotes as A), collated with MS Claudius E. IV (quoted as B). Minor variations of B are not usually noted. The two mss agree closely. The Nero ms is the more elaborate of the two, and is adorned with very fine drawings. Claudius, however, offers occasionally a better text; it has been read by a corrector whose alterations — contrary to what is so often the case in mediaeval mss — seem to be authoritative. The Lives of the Offas were printed by Wats in his edition of Matthew Paris (1639-40) from ms A. Miss Rickert has printed extracts from the two lives, in Mod. Phil, n, 14 etc., following ms A, "as Wats sometimes takes liberties with the text." INCIPIT HISTORIA DE OFFA PRIMO QUI STRENUITATE SUA S75I ANGLIE MAXIMAJf P^i^TEJtf SiJBEGiT. GUI SIMILLI- M.U8 FUIT SECUNBUS OFFA^. ^ol. 2o Inter occidentalium Anglorum reges illustrissimos, precipua commendac2onis laude celebratur Rex Warmundus, ab hiis qui historias Anglorum non solum relatu proferre, set eciam scrip tis inserere consueuerant. Is fundator erat cuiw^dam urbis a seipso denominate, que lingua Anglicana Warwic, id est curia Warmundi, nuncupatur. Qui usque ad annos seniles absqwe liberis extitit, preter unicum filium; quern, ut estimabat, regni sui heredem et successorem puerilis debilitatis incomodo laborantem, constituere non ualebat. Licet enim idem unices filius eius, Offa uel Offanus nomine, statura fuisset procerus, ^ Above this heading B has Geata Offe Regis merciorwm. 218 The Life of Offa I corpore integer, et elegantissime forme iuuenis existeret, per- mawsit tamen a natiuitate uisu priuatus usqwe ad annum septimum, mutus autem et uerba humana non proferens usqwe ad annum etatis sue tricesimum. Huius debilitatis incomodum non solum rex, &ed eciam regni proceres, supra qwam dici potest moleste sustinuerunt. Cum enim imineret pa^ri etas senilis, et ignoraret diem mortis sue, nesciebat quern, alium sibi^ con- stitueret heredem et regni successorem. Quidam aMem pri- mari^^s regni, cui nomen Eiganus^, cum quodam suo complice Mitunno nomiwe, ambiciosus cum ambic^oso, seductor cum proditore uidens regem decrepitum, et sine spe prolis procreande senio fatiscentem, de se presumens, cepit ad regie dignitatis culmen aspirare, contemptis aliis regni primatibws, se solum pre ceteris ad ]ioc dignum reputando. Iccirco diebus singulis regi molestus nimis, proterue eum aggreditur, ut se heredis loco adoptaret. Aliqwando cor regis blande alliciens, interim aspere minis et terroribus prouocans, persuadere non cessat regi qi/od optabat^. Suggerebat eciam regi per uiros potentes, complices cupiditatis et malicie sue, se regni sui summum apicem, uiolentia et terrorib^^5 et ui extor- quere, nisi arbitrio uoluntatis sue rex ip^e pareret, faciendo uirtutem de necessitate. Super hoc itaq?^e et aliis regni negociis, euocato semel concilio, proteruus ille a rege reprobatus discessit a curie presentia, iracundie calore fremews in semetipso, pro repulsa qwam sustinuit. Nee mora, accitis mwltis qui contra regis imperium partem suam cowfouebant, infra paucos dies, copiosum immo infinitum excercitum cowgregauit: et sub spe uictorie uiriliter optinende, regem et suos ad hostile prelium prouocauit. Rex au^em con- fectus senio, time9^s rebellare, declinauit aliquociens impetus aduersariorwm. Tandem uero, conuocatis in unum principibws et magnatibw5 suis, deliberare cep^^t quo iacto opus habeiet. Dum igitur tractarent in commune per aliqwot dies, secum deliberantes instantissime necescitatis articulum, affuit inter 1 A repeats sibi after constitueret. 2 Hie Riganus binomin[i]8 fuit. Vocabatwr enim alio nomine Aliel. Riganws uero a rigore. Huic erat filiws Hildebrandtt*, miles strenuus, ab ense sic dic^ws. Huwc uoluit pater promouere : Contemporary rubric in A, inserted in the middle of the sketch representing Riganus demanding the kingdom from Warmundus. » optat, B. PLATE V o pq O IB K pQ Offa miraculotLsly gains his speech 219 Fol. 26sennoci|nantes natus et unigenitus regis, eo usqwe elinguis et absque sermone, sed aure purgata, singulorum uerba discernens. Cum autem pa^ris senium, et se ipswm ad regni negocia qila, in margin, A. " iwcongnita, A. 3 dicebant, B. * frustratim. A, B 232 The Life of Offa I oiatioxiihus, ducens heremiticam, circa noctis crepusculum eo pertransie/is, mulieris cuiusdam luctus lacrimabiles et querelas usqwe ad intima cordis et ossuum^ medullas penetratiuas, quas Domiiiu^ ex mortuorum corporibws licet laceratis elicuit, audiuit. Infantulorumq^^e uagitus lugubres nimis cum doloris ululatibus quasi in materno sinu audiendo similiter annotauit. Misericordia autem aanctua Dei motus, usque ad lacrimarum aduberem effusionem, quo ipsa uox iipsum. uocabat, Domino ducente peruenit. Et cum illuc peruenisset, nee aliud qt^am corpora humana in frusta detruncata reperisset, cognouit^ in spm^u ipsa alicuius innocentis corpws, uel aliquorum iwnocentium corpuscula extitisse, que tam inhumanam sentenciam subierunt. Nee sine martirii palma, ipsos quorum hee fuerunt exuuie, ab hoc^ secwlo transmigrasse suspicabatur. Auxilium tamen pro Dei amore et caritatis intuitu postulatum non denegans, se pro illorum reparacione prostrauit in deuotissimam cum lacrimis oiacionem, maxime propter uocem celitus emissam, quam pro- fecto cognomt^ per De^^m lingwas cadauerum protulisse. Piis ^gi^wr sanctus commotus uisceribws, igneqwe succensus caritatis, ex cognic*one* eius, quam., ut iam dictum., dudum uiderat, Fol. 8 a ha^uit, iactus hilarior, pro ipsis | flexis gembus, inundantibus oculis, iunctisqwe palmis orauit, dicens: "Domme Jesu Chr^'s^e, "qui Lazarum quatriduanum ac fetidum resuscitasti, immo " qui omnium nostroium. corpora in extremo examine suscitabis, "uestram. oro misericordiam, ut non habens ad me peccatorem, "&ed ad horum innocentum pressuras respectum piissimum, "corpuscula hee iubeas resuscitari, ad laudem et gloriam tuam *' in sempiternum, vt omnes qui mortis horum causam et f ormam ** audierint, te glorificent Deum et Dominum mundi Saluatorem." Sic igitur sanctus iste, Dommi de fidei sue^ uirtute in Domino presumens et cowfidens, inter orandum, membra precisa recolli- gens, et sibi particulas adaptans et coniungens, et in quantum potuit redintegrans, in parcium q^«amplurimum, set in integri- tatem pocius delectatws, Domino rei consummac^'onem qui mortificat et uiuificat commendauit. Coniuncta igitur corpora, signo crucis triumphali consignauit. Mira fidei uirtus et ^ ossium, B. 2 congnouit, A. ' hoc omitted, B. * cowgnicione, A. ^ sui, A. OffaJs return home 233 efficacia, signo crucis uiuifice et oiationm ac fidei send Dei uirtute, non solum ma^ris orbate animws reparatwr, ^ed et filiorwm corpwscula in pristinum et integrum nature sunt reformata decorem, necnon et anime mortuorwm ad sua pristina domicilia sunt reuerse. Ad mansiuncule igitur sue septa (a qua elongatus fuerat, gracia, lignorwm ad pulmentaria deqwoquenda colligen- doTum) ipse senex: qui prius detruncati fuerant, Domino iubente integri uiui et aJacres sunt reuersi, ducem sanctum, suum sequentes pedetentim. Ubi more patris, ipsam desolatam cum liberis sibi ipsis restitutis, alimentis quibus potuit, et que ad manum habuit, pie ac misericorditer cowfouebat. Nesciens ergo quo migraret regina, cum suis infantulis intra uastissimam heremum cum memorato solitario, diu moram ibidem oiationihuSj uigiliis, ac aliis Sanctis operibus eius intenta et iamiam conuenienter informata, et edulio siluestri sustentata, cowtinuabat. Post duorum uero mensium curricula, Eex Olia uictoriosissimus domum letus remeauit, spolia deuictorum suis magnatibws regali munificentia gloriose distribuendo ; uerun- tamen, ne lacrime gaudia regis, et eorum qui cum eo aduenerant, miserabiliter interrumperent, consiliarii regii qwe de regina et liberis eius acciderant, diu sub silenc^o caute dissimulando, et causas absencie eius fictas annectendo, cowcelabant. Tandem cum rex uehementer admiraretur ubinam regina delituisset, qwe ipsi regi ab ancipiti bello reuertenti occurrisse gaudenter teneretur, et in oscuks et amplexibws ceteris gaudentius trium- phatorem aduentantem suscepisse, sciscitabatur instantiws, et toruius et proteruius, quid de ipsa fieret uel euenisset. Suspi- Fol. 8 h cabatur enim eam morbo detentam, ipsamqt^e cum liberis | suis, regis et aliorum hominum, ut quieti uacaret, frequentiam declinasse. Tandem cum iratus nullatenus se uelle ampliws ignorare, cum iuramento, qwid de uxore sua et liberis euenisset, uultu toruo asseruisset, unus ex edituis omnia que acciderant, de tirannico eius mandato, et mandati plenaria execuc^one, seriatim enarrauit. Hiis auditis, risus in luctum, gaudium in lamenta, iubilus in singultus flebiliter conuertuntur, totaqwe regia ululatibus personuit et meroribws. Lugensqwe rex diu tam immane infor- tunium, induit se sacco cilicino, aspersum cinere, ac multipliciter 234 The Life of Offa I deformatum. Tandem monitu suorum, qui dicebant non uirorwm magnificorwm ^ed pocius effeminatorww, dolorem inter- iecto solacio nolle temperare^, esse, proprium et co^isuetudinem, rex cepit respirare, et dolori modum imponere. Consilio igitur peritorum, qui nouerant regem libenter m tempore prospero in studio uenatico plurimum delectari, conuocantur uenatores, ut rex spaciaturus uenando, dolorem suum diminueret et luctum solacio demulceret. Qui inter uenandum dum per siluarum abdita, Deo misericordiarum et tocius co?^solac[t]onis ducente, feliciter solus per inuia oberrauit, et tandem ad heremitorium memorati heremite directe peruenit, eiusqwe exiguum domicilium subintrans, humaniss[m]e et cum summo gaudio receptus est. Et cum humili residens sedili, membra ^ f atigata quieti daret ad horam, recolens quaK^er uxorem suam ibidem quondam diuinitus reperisset, et feliciter educasset, et educatam duxisset \n uxorem, et qwam elegantem ex ea prolem protulisset, eruperunt lacrime cum gemitibus, et in querelas lugubres ora resoluens, hospiti suo sinistrum de uxore sua qui^ infausto sidere nuper euenerat quam et ipse quondam viderat, enarrauit. At senex sereno uultu, factus ex intrinsecus concepto gaudio alacrior, consolatus est regem, et in uocem exultac^oms eminus prorumpens: '^Eia "domme mi rex, eia, ait; uere Deus misericordiar^^m, Dominws, "famulos suos quasi pa^er filios in omni tribulacione ^ost pres- " suras consolatur, percutit et medetur, deicit ut gloriosius eleuet " pregrauatum. Uiuit uxor tua, cum liberis tuis in omni sospi- "tate restauratis: non meis meritis, se^ pociws tuis, integritati, " sanitati et leticie pleni?/5 qui trucidabantur restituuntwr. Re- " cognosce* quanta fecit tihi Dommws, et in laudes et graciaTum "acciones totus exurge." Tunc prosiliens sanctus pre gaudio, euocauit reginam, que in interiori diuerticulo, pueros suos balneo micius ma^erno studio cowfouebat. Que cum ad regem intro- Fol. 9 a isset, uix se | gaudio capiens, pedibus mariti sui prouoluta, in lacrimis exultacionis inundauit. In cuius amplexus desidera- tissimos ruens rex, ipsam in mains q^^am dici possit gaudium suscepit. Interim senex, pueros elegantissimos et ex abluc^one elegantiores, uestit, comit, et pa^erno more et afEec^u componit, et ad presentiam pa^ris et matris introducit. Quos pater intra 1 obtemperare, B. ^ menbra. A. ^ qui, AB; quae, Wats. * recowgnosce, A. Offa's vote and death 235 brachia suscipiens, et ad pectus arctioribws amplexibw^ applicans, roseis uultibi^s infantum oscula imprimit m^^ltiplicata ; quos tamen rore lacnmarum, pre nimia mentis exultac^one, made- fecit. Et cuw diucius eorum colloquiis pasce^et^^r, co^^uersus rex ad senem, ait: "0 -patei sancte, -pater dulcissime^, mentis *'mee reparator, et gaudii cordis mei restaurator, qua merita "ues^ra, caritatis officia, pietatisqwe beneficia, proseqwar re- " munerac[t]one ? Accipe ergo, licet mwlto maiora exigant *' merita tua, q?/icqwid erarium meum ualet effundere; me, meos, "et mea, tue expono uoluntati." At sajictus, "Domne mi rex, "non decet me peccatorem conuersum ad Dominum, ad insanias *'quas reliqui falsas respicere. Tu uero pocius pro ammabws "pa^ris tui et matris tue, quibws quandoque caius fueram ac ''familiaris, et tua, et uxoris tue, et liberorwm tuorwm corporali "sanitate, et salute spm^uali, regni tui soliditate, et successoritm "tuorwm prosperitate, Deo gratus, qui tot in te congessit bene- "ficia, cenobium quoddam fundare, uel aliquod dirutum studeas "restaurare: in quo digne et laudabiliter Deo in perpetuum "seruiatur; et tui memoria cum precihus ad Dominum fusis, cum " benediccionibw5 semper recenter recolatur." Et conuersus ad reginam, ait, "Et tu, filia, qt^amuis mulier, non tamen mulie- "briter, ad hoc regem accendas et admoneas diligenter, Gliosque " tuos instrui facias, ut^ et Dominum Deum, qui eos uite reparauit, "studeant gratanter honorare, et eidem fideliter famulando "fundandi cenobii possessiones ampliare, et tueri libertates." Descensus ad secundum Ofiam. Sanctus autem ad cellam reuersus, post paucum temporis ab incolatu huius, mundi migrauit ad Dominum, mercedem eternam pro labore temporali recepturus. Rex au^em, cito monita ipsius salubria dans obliuioni et incurie, ex tunc ocio ac paci uacauit: prolemqwe copiosam utriusqwe sexus expectabilis pulchritudinis procreauit. Unde semen regium a latere et descensu felix sus- cepit incrementum. Qui completo vite sue tempore, post etatem bonam qwieuit in pace, et regaliter sepultus, appositus est ad patres suos; in eo multum redarguendw^, quod cenobium^ uotiuo affeciu repromissum, thesauris parcendo non construxit. Post ^ sancte et dulcissime, B. 2 ^^ added above line, A, B. * scenobium, A; the s is erased in B. 236 The Life of Offa II uictorias enim a Dommo^ sibi collatas, amplexibws et ignauie necnon auaricie plus equo indulsit. Prosperitas enim secularis, Fol. 96 animos, licet uir|iles, solet frequenter eifeminare. Ueru^tamen hoc onus humeris filii sui moriturus apposuit: qui cum deuota assercione, illud sibi suscepit. ^ed nee ipse Deo auerso pol- licita, prout pa^ri suo promiserat, compleuit; set filio suo huius uoti obligac*onem in fine uite sue dereliquit. Et sic memorati uoti uinculum, sine efficacia complementi de pa^re in filium descendens, usq^/e ad tempora Pineredi filii Tuinfreth suspende- batur. Quibus pro pena negligentie, tale euenit infortunium, ut omwes principes, quos Offa magnificus edomuerat, a subiec- c^'one ipsius Offe et posteritatis sue procaciter recesseruwt, et v^sum moriente7>^ despexerunt. Quia ut pred^'c^t^m est, ad mor- tem uergens, deliciis et senii ualitudine marcuit eneruatus. Ui De ortu secundi Offe. Natus est igitur memorato Tuinfred[o]2 (et qui de stemate regum fuit) filius, videlicet Pineredus, usqi^e ad annos adoles- centie i/iutilis, poplitibw5 contractis, qui nee oculorwm uel aurium plene officio naturali fungeretwr. Unde pa^ri suo Tmniredo et matii sue Marcelline, oneri fuit non honori, cowfusioni et non exultac^oni. Et licet unicws eis fuisset, mallent prole caruisse, q^^am talem habuisse. JJevuntamen memorie reducentes euen- tum Offe magni, qui in tenera etate penitus erat inutilis, et postea, Deo propicio, penitws sibi restitutus, mirabili strenuitate omnes suos edomuit aduersarios, et bello prepote^is, gloriose multociens de magnis hostibi^s triumphauit: spem conceperunt, quod eodem medico medente (Qhiisto uidelicet, qui eciam mor- tuos suscitat, propiciatus) posset similiter uisitari et sibi restitui. Pater igitur eiw5 et matei ipsum puerum inito salubri consilio, in templo presentaruwt Domino, votiua deuoc^one firmiter pro- mittewtes: "Ut si ii^sum Deus restauraret, quod parentes eius "negligenter omiserunt, ipse puer cum se facultas ofEerret fide- " liter adimpleret" : yidoiicet de cenobio^, cuius mencio prelibata est, honorifice construendo: uel de diruto restaurando. Et cum hec tam puer qwam ipatei et mater deuotissime postularent, exaudita est ovatio eorum a Deo, qui se nuwqwam difficilem exhibet precibt/5 iustis supplicantium, hoc modo. 1 deo, B 2 tuinfreth, B, 3 scenobio. A; s erased B. Rise of the Second Offa {Wine/red) 237 QwomocZo prosperabatwr. Erat in eadem regione (Merciorwm uidelicei) quidam tirannus, pocius destruens et dissipans regni nobilitatem, qt^am regews, nomine Beormredus^. Hie generosos, quos regius sanguis pre- claros [f ecerat]^, usqwe ad internecionem subdole perseqwebatur, relegauit, et occulta nece perdidit iugulandos. Sciebat enim, qwod uniuersis de regno merito extitit odiosus ; et ne aliqwis loco ipsius subrogaretwr (et presertim de sangwine regio propagatus) uehementer formidabat. Tetendit insuper laqweos Tuinfredo et uxori eius, ut ip^os de terra expelleret, uel ^omis perderet truci- Fol. lOadatos. I Puerum autem Pinefredum^ spreuit, nee ipswra querere ad perdendum dignabatur; reputaws eum inutilem et ualitudin- arium. Fugientes igitur memoratw.9 Tuinfredus et uxor eius et familia a facie pers^wentis, sese in locis tucioribus receperunt, ne generali calumpnie inuoluerentur. Quod comperiens Pine- fredus adolescens, qt/asi a graui sompno expergef actus, erexit se: et compagibw5 neruort^m laxatis, et miraculose protensis, sese de longa desidia redarguens, fecit alices, brachia, crura, pedes, ex- tendendo. Et aliquociens oscitans, cum loqui conaretur, solu- tum est uinculum lingue eius, et loquebatur recte, uerba pro- ferens ore facundo prompcii/5 articulata. Quid plura? de con- tracto, muto, et ceco, fit elegans corpore, eloquens sermone, acie perspicax ocvloium. Qui tempore modico in tantam floruit ac uiguit strenuitatem, ut miWus in regno Merciorwm, ipsi in mori- hus et probitate mwltiplici ualuit comparari, unde ipsi Mercii, ^Gundium. Offam, et non Pinefredum, iam nomiwantes (quia a Deo respectus et electus fuisset, eodem modo quo et rex Ofla filius regis Warmundi) ceperunt ipsi quasi Domino uniuersaliter adherere; ipsumque iam iactum militem, contra regem Beorm- redum et eius insidias, potenter ac prudenter protegere, dantes ei dextras, et iedus cum ipso, prestitis iuramentis, ineuntes. Quod audiens Beormredus, doluit, et dolens timuit sibi vehe- menter. Penituitqwe eum amarissime, ipsum Pinefredum^ (qui iam Offa nominabatwr) cum ceteris fraudulenter non intere- misse. . . . * * * * ^ de tiranwide Beormredi regis Mercie, B, 2 fecerat, wanting in A; added in margin, B. ^ Pinefredum, B; Penefrednm, A, but with i above in first case. 238 The Life of Offa II Pol. 11a Qualiter Offa rex uxorem duxerit. Diebus itaqwe sub eisdem, regnante in Francia Karolo rege magno ac uictoriosissimo, quedam puella, facie uenusta, ^ed mente nimis ir^honesta, ipsi regi cowsanguinea, pro quodam qwod patrauerat crimine flagiciosissimo, addicta est iudicialiter morti ignominiose ; uerum, ob regie dignitatis reuerentiam, igni uel ferro tradenda non iudicatur, ^ed in nauicula ar ma mentis ca- rente, apposito uictu tenui, uentis et mari, eorumque ambiguis csLsihus exponitur condempnata. Que diu uariis^ procellis exagi- tata, tandem fortuna trahente, litori Britonum est appulsa, et cum in terra subiecta potestati regis OfEe memorata cimba ap- plicuiss€^, conspectui regis -protinus presentatwr. Interogata Shutem qwenam esset, respondens, pa^ria lingua affirmauit, se Karolo regi Fra>iiCOium fuisse co/^sangiAnitate propinqwam, Fol. ll6Dridamqi«6 nominatam, sed per tirannidem J quorwwdam igno- bilium (quorum nuptias ne degeneraret, spreuit) tali fuisse dis- crimini adiudicatam, abortisqwe lacrimis addidit dice/is, "Deus autem qui innocentes a laqweis insidia?^tium liberat, me captiuam ad alas tue protec^onis, o regum serenissime, f eliciter transmisit, vt meum infortunium, in auspicium fortunatum transmutetwr, et beatior in exilio qt^am in natali pa^ria, ab omni predicer posteritate." Rex au^6m uerbor^^m suort^m ornatum et eloqwentiam, et corporis puellaris cultum et elegantiam considerans ^, motus pie- tate, precepit ut ad comitissam Marcellin[am]^ matrem suam tucius duceretur alenda, ac mitius sub tam honeste matrone custodia, donee regium mandatum audiret, confouenda. Puelle igitur infra paucos dies, macie et pallore per alimenta depulsis, rediit decor pristinus, ita ut mulierum pulcherima censeretur. Sed cito in uerba iactantie et elac^onis {secundum, pa^rie sue co?^suetudinem) prorumpens, domine sue comitisse, que mateTno afiec^u eam dulciter educauerat, molesta nimis fuit, ipsam pro- caciter contempnendo. Sed comitissa, pro amore filii sui regis, omma pacienter tolerauit : licet et ipsa dicta, puella, inter comitem et comitissam uerba discordie seminasset. Una igitur dierum, cum rex ipsam causa uisitac^onis adiens, uerhis corisolatoriis ^ uariis repeated. A; second variis cancelled^ B. 2 considerans, B, inserted in margin; omitted, A. 3 Marcelline, A; Marcett, B. Offa weds Drida. Her crimes 239 alloqweretur, incidit in retia amoris illius; erat enim iam spectes illius coTicupiscibilis. Clandestino igitur ac repentino ma^ri- monio ip^am sibi, mcowsultis pa^re et matte,, necnon et magnatibws suis uniuersis, copulauit. Unde uterque parentum, dolore ac tedio in etate senili contahescens, dies uite abreuiando, sue mortis horam lugubriter anticiparuwt ; sciebant enim ipsam mulier- culam f uisse et regalibus amplexibus prorsus indignam ; perpen- debantqwe iamiam ueracissime, non sine causa exilio lacrimabili, ipsam, ut -piedictum. est, fuisse conde[m]pnatam. Cum autem annos longeue senectutis vixisset^ comes Tuinfredus, et i^re senectute caligassewt oculi eius, data filio suo regi bened^cione, nature debita persoluit; emus corpus magnifice, prout decuit, tradidit sepulture. Anno qaoque sub eodem uxor eius comitissa Marcellina, mater uidelice^ regis, valedicens filio, ab huius in- colatu seculi f eliciter trawsmigrauit M. 19 a De sancto Mlherto^ cui tercia filia regis Offe tradenda fuit nuptui. Erat qaoque quidam iuuenis, cui rex Offa regnum Orientalium Anglori^m, quod eum iure sanguinis cowtiwgebat, cowcesserat, nomine ^Elbertus. De cuius virtutibus^ qwidam uersificator, solitus regum laudes et gesta describere, eleganter ait; Mlhertus iuuenis fuerat rex, fortis ad arma. Pace pius, pulcher corpore, mente sagax. Cumque Humbertw^ Aichieipiscopus Lichefeldensis, et Vnwona 'E-pisco'pus Legrecestrensis, uiri sancti et discreti, et de nobili stirpe Merciorwm oriundi, speciales essent regis cowsiliarii, et semper que honesta erawt et iusta atqwe utilia, regi Offe sug- gessissent, inuidebat eis regina uxor Off e, que prius Drida, postea uero Quendrida, id est regina Drida, quia regi ex insperato nupsit, est appellata: sicut in precedentibt^5 plenii/5 enarratwr. Mulier auara et subdola, superbiens, eo quod ex stirpe Karoli originem duxerat, et inexorabili odio uiros memoratos perseqi^e- batur, tenders eis muscipulas muliebres. Porro cum ipsi reges suprad^c^os regi Offe in spm^u consilii salubriter recowciliassent, et ut eidem regi federe ma^rimoniali specialiw5 coniungerenti/r, diligenter et efficaciter procurassent, ipsa mulier iacta, eorum 1 vixisset, B, inserted in margin; omitted, A. ^ Alberto, etc. passim, B. ' virtutibus, in margin, later hand, A ; in B, over erasure. 240 The Life of Offa II nitebatwr in irritum reuocare, nee poterat, quib?^5 acriter in- uidebat. Ipsas enim puellas filias suas, ultramarinis, alieni- genis, in regis supp]antac^onem et regni Mercioiam perniciem, credidit tradidisse maritawdas. Qums rei prescii ddcti Ep^^scopi, muliebre co?isilium prudencie repagulis impediebant. Uerum et adhuc tercia filia regis Offe in thalamo regine remansit mari- tanda, ^Ifleda nomine. Procurantib^^s igitur suprad^cris e^is- cofi&i inclinatum est^ cor regis ad cowsensum, lice^ cow^radiceret regina, ut et'^ hec regi Mlherto nuptui tisideretur: ut et sic speci- alises regi Offe teneretur in fidelitate dileci^onis obligatus. Uocatws igitur rex Mlhertus, a rege Offa^ ut filiam suam despon- Fol. 196 saret, affuit festiu?/5 | et gaudens, ob honorem sibi a tanto rege oblatum. Cui amicabiliter rex occurrens aduentanti, recepit ipswm in osculo et paterno amplexu, dicens: "Prospere ueneris "fili et gener, ex hoc, iuuenis amantissime, te in filium adopto *'specialem." ^ed hec postq^eam efferate regine plenius in- notuertt^, plus accensa est liuore ac furore, dole^ts eum pietatis in manu* regis et suoium fidelium prosperari. Yidensque sue neqwicie argumenta minime preualere, nee banc saltern tereiam filiam suam, ad uoluntatem suam aliewi transmarino amieo suo, in regni subuersionem {quod eertissime sperauerat) dare nuptui, cum non preualuisset in dic^os &piscopos huius rei auctores eminus malignari, in iElbertum regem uiius sue malieie trucu- lenter euomuit, hoc modo. Fraus muliebns crudelissima. Rex huius rei ignarus tantam latitasse fraudem non eredebat, immo -pocius eredebat hec ipsi omnia placit?/ra. Cum igitwr rex piissimies ipsam super premissis^ seciecius conueniret, consilium queiens qusblitei et q^«ando forent complenda, hec respondit: "Ecce tradidit De^ts hodie inimicum tuum, tihi caute, si sapis, " trucidandum, qui sub specie superficiali, uenenum prodic^oms "in te et regnum tuum exercende, neqwiter, ut fertur, occultauit. "Et te eupit iam senescentem, eum sit iuuenis et elegans, de "regno supplantando preeipitare; et posterum suorwm, immo et "multorum, ut iaetitat, quos regnis et possessionibus uiolenter ^ est in margin, A. ^ et omitted, B. ' innotuerunt, B. * in pietatis manu, B. ' premissimis, A. Murder of jEtheTbert 241 "e^ iniuste spoliasti, iniurias uindicare. In emus rei fidem, "michi a meis amicis significatum est, quod regis Karoli multis "muneribus et nuwciis ocultis intermeantibw^, implorat ad hoc " patrocinium : se spondees ei fore tributarium. Illo igitur, dum "se tihi fortuna prebet fauorabilem, extincto latenter, regnuw "ems in ius tuum et successori^m tuorwm transeat in etcrnum.'* Cui rex mente nimium perturbatus, et de uerbis quibws cre- didit inossQ ueraciter falsitatem et fraudem, cum indignacione ipsam iwcrepando, respondit: "Quasi una de stultis mulieribw* "locuta es! Absit a me, absit, tarn detestabile iaQtum\ Quo "perpetrato, mihi meisqwe successoribw5 foret obprobrium sem- "piternum, et pecca^wm in g&nus meum cum graui uindtc^a "diuciw5 propagabile." Et hiis dzciis, rex iratus ab ea recessit; detestans tawtos ac tales occultos laqt^os in muliere latitasse. Interea mentis pertu^bac^one paulatim deposita, et hiis ciuiliter dissimulatis, reges cowsederunt ad me/isam pransuri: ubi regalibws esculentis et poculentis ref ecti, in timpanis, citharis, et choris, diem totum in ingenti gaudio expleuerunt. ^ed regina malefica, interim a ferali proposito non recedens, iussit in dolo thalamum more regio pallis sericis et auleis sollempniter adornari, in qwo rex iElbertus nocturnum caperet sompnum; iuxta stratum quoqwe regium sedile preparari fecit, cultu nobilissimo ex- tructum, et cortinis undiqwe redimitum. Sub qwo eciam fossam 20oP^eparari fecit profundam, | ut nephandum propositum perdu- ceret ad efPec^wm. De martirio Sawcti ^Iberti, regis innocentissimi. Regina uero uultu sereno co/iceptum scelus pallians, intrauit in palatium, ut tam regem Offanum qwam regem -^Ibertum exhilararet. Et inter iocandum, conuersa ad iElbertum, nihil sinistri^ suspicantem, ait, "Fili, ueni uisendi causa puellam tihi "nuptu copulandam, te in thalamo meo sicienter expectant em, "ut sermonibws gratissimis amores subarres profutwros.'* Sur- gens igitur rex iElbertus, secutws est reginam in thalamum iw- gredientem: rege Offano remanente, qwi nil mali formidabat. Ingresso igitur rege Mlberto cum regina, exclusi sunt omwes qui eundem e uestigio seqt^ebantwr sui commilitones. Et cum puellam expectasset, ait regina : " Sede fili dum ueniat aduocata." ^ sinistrum, B. a B. 1^ 242 The Life of Offa II Et cum in memorato sedili residisset, cum ipsa sella in fosse corruit profunditatem. In qwa, subito a lictoribw5 quos regina now procul absconderat, rex innocens suffocatus expirauit. Nam ilico cum corruisset, proiecerunt super eum regina et sui com- plices nepbandissimi puluinaria cum uestibi^s et cortinis, ne damans ab aliqwibws audiret?/r. Et sic elegantissimus iuuenis rex et martir Mlbertus, innocenter et sine noxa extinctus, accepit coronam uite, [quam]^ ad iwstar Johannis Bapt^ste mulieris laq^^eis irretitus, meruit optinere. Puella uero regis filia ^Elfleda uirguncula uenwstissima, cum hec audisset, non tantum matns detestata facinora, aed tocius seculi pompam relinqi^ens, ha6itum susceptt religioms, u^ uirgo martiris uestigia seqi^eret^r. [PJorro^ ad augmentum^ muliebris tirannidis*, decoUatum est corpwsculum exanime quia adhuc palpitans uidebatur. Clam igitur delatum est corpus cum capite, usque ad partes remociores ad occultandum sub profundo terre, et dum spiculator cruentus ista ferret, caput obiter amissum est feliciter: nox enim erat, et festinabat lictor, et aperto ore sacci, caput cecidit euolutum, ignorante hoc portitore. Corpus autem ab ipso carnifice sine aliquo teste conscio ignobiliter est bu- matum. Contigit auiem, Deo sic disponente, u^ quidam cecus eadem via graderetur, baculo semitam prctemptante. Habens autem caput memoratum pro pedum offendiculo, mirabatur qwidnam esset: erat enim pes eius irretitus in cincinnis capitis flauis et prolixis. Et palpans ccrcius cognouit^ esse caput bominis decoUati. Et datum est ei in spmYu intelligere, quod alicuiws sancti caput esset, ac iuuenis. Et cum maduissent manws eius sanguine, apposuit et sangwinem faciei sue: et loco ubi quandoque oculi eit^s extiterant, et ilico restitutus est ei uisus; et quod babuerat pro pedum offendiculo, factum est ei f elix luminis restitucio. Sed et in eodem loco quo caput sanctum. iacuerat, fons erupit lucidissimus. Quod cum celebriter^fuerat diuulgatum, compertum est hoc fuisse caput sancti adolescentis Mlbertif quern, regina in thalamo neqwiter fec*t sugillari ac de- collari. Corptts autem ubinam locorum occultatum f uerat, peni- tus ignoratwr. Hoc cum constaret Humberto Aichie-piscopo, 1 quam in margin, A; over erasure, B. ^ Space for cap. left vacant, A. 3 aucmentum, A. * facinoris, B. *» congnouit, A. ^ celeriter, B. PLATE VI DRIDA (THUYTH) ENTRAPS ALBERTUS (yETHELBERHT) OF EAST ANGLIA, AND CAUSES HIM TO BE SLAIN From, MS Cotton Nero D. I, fol. 19 b. hra|>e seo^San waes aefter mimd-3ripe mece 3ejjin3ed. {Beoumlf, 11. 1937-8. Punishment and death of Drida 243 iaclQ, capside ex auro et argento, illud iussit in tesauro recondi precioso in Eccfesm Herefordensi. De predwd facinoris ulc^'one. Cuius tandem detestabilis sceleris a regina perpetrati, ad commilitonum heati legis et Marf^^is aures cum^ peruenisse^, f ama ceieriws ante lucem aurore diei seqwentis clanculo recesserunt, ne de ipsis simile fieret indicium metuentes. Unde dolens re- gina, in thalamo ficta infirmitate decubans, qwasi uulpecula latitabat. Rex uero Offa cum de commisso facinore certitudinem com- perisset, sese lugens, in cenacwlo interiori recludens, pe[r] ^ ties dies cibum penitws non gustauit, animam suam lacrimis, lamen- tskcionihus, et ieiunio uehementer affligens. Et execrans mu- lieris impietatem, earn iussit omnihus uite sue diebws inclusam in loco remotam secreciori peccoia sua deplorare, si forte si6i ceKtus coUata grac*a, penite/^do tanti commissi facinoris ma- culam posset abolere. Rex au^m ipsam postea ut sociam lateris in lecto suo dormire quasi suspectam non permisit^. De morte illiws facinorose regine. In loco igitur sibi deputato, commorante regina annis aliqwot, insidiis latronum preuenta, auro et argento quo multum ha- bundabat spoliata*, in puteo suo proprio precipitata, spiritum exalauit; iusto dei iudic*o sic condempnata, ut sicut regem iElbertum innocentem in foueam fecit precipitari, et precipi- tatum suffocari, sic in putei profunditate swbme/'sa, uitam miseram terminaret. 0. WiDSiTH, 11. 18, 24-49 18. iEtla weold Hunum, Eormanric 7otum, ******* peodric weold Froncum, )?yle Rondin3um, 25. Breoca Brondin3um, Billin} Wernum. Oswine weold Eowum ond Ytum vefwulf, 1 cum in K is inserted after pemenisse^ instead of before: and this was prob- ably the original reading in B, although subsequently corrected. ^ per, B. * corrected to nuUateniw dormire quasi suspectam permisit, B. * Justa Vindicta, A, in margin. 16—2 244 Widsith V ^ Fin Folcwaldin} Fresna cynne. Si3eliere len3est Sse-Denum weold, Hnsef H6cin3um, Helm Wulfin3um, 30. Wald Woin3um, Wod pyrin3um, SseferS Syc3um, Sweom On3end)?eow, Sceafthere Ymbrum, Sceafa Lon3-Beardum, Hun Haetwerum, ond Holen Wrosnum. Hrin3 weald wses haten Heref arena cyning. 35. Offa weold Ongle, Alewih Denum: se wses )?ara manna m5d3ast ealra; n6liw8e)?re lie ofer Offan eorlscype fremede, ac Offa 3eslo3 serest monna cniht wesende cynerica mgest; 40. ngeni3 efen-eald him eorlscipe maran on orette ane sweorde: merce 3em8erde wis Myr3in3um bi Fifeldore; heoldon forS sij>)7an En3le ond Swsefe, swa hit Ofia 3eslo3. 45. Hro]?wulf ond HroS3ar heoldon len3est sibbe setsomne suhtorfaedran, si)?)?an by forwrsecon wicin3a cynn ond In3eldes ord forbi3dan, forheowan aet Heorote HeaSo-Beardna J>rym. PART III THE FIGHT AT FINNSBURG Section I. The Finnsburo Fragment The Finnshurg Fragment was discovered two centuries ago in the library of Lambeth Palace by George Hickes. It was written on a single leaf, which was transcribed and published by Hickes: but the leaf is not now to be found. This is to be regretted for reasons other than sentimental, since Hickes' transcript is far from accurate^. The Fragment begins and breaks off in the middle of a line: but possibly not much has been lost at the beginning. For the 1 Mr Mackie, in a'a excellent article on the Fragment {J.E.G.Ph. xvi, 251) objects that my criticism of Hickes' accuracy "is not altogether judicial." Mackie urges that, since the MS is no longer extant, we cannot tell how far the errors are due to Hickes, and how far they already existed in the MS from which Hickes copied. But we must not forget that there are other transcripts by Hickes, of MSS which are still extant, and from these we can estimate his accuracy. It is no disrespect to the memory of Hickes, a scholar to whom we are all indebted, to recognize frankly that his transcripts are not sufficiently accurate to make them at all a satisfactory substitute for the original MS. Hickes' transcript of the C Ottoman Gnomic Verses {Thesaurus^ i, 207) shows an average of one error in every four lines : about half these errors are mere matters of speUing, the others are serious. Hickes' transcript of the Calendar {Thesaurus^ i, 203) shows an average of one error in every six lines. When, therefore, we find in the Finnsburg Fragment inaccuracies of exactly the type which Hickes often com- mits, it would be "hardly judicial" to attribute these to the MS which he copied, and to attribute to Hickes in this particular instance an accuracy to which he has really no claim. . Mr Mackie doubts the legitimacy of emending Garulf to Garulfle] : but we must remember that Hickes (or his printer) was systematically careless as to the final e: cf. Calendar, 15, 23, 41, 141, 144, 171, 210; Gnomic Verses, 45. Other forms in the Finnsburg Fragment which can be easily paralleled by Hickes' mis writings in the Calendar and Gnomic Verses are Confusion of u and a {Finn. 3, 27, perhaps 44) cf. Gn. 66. „ c „ e {Finn. 12) cf. Cal. 136, Gn. 44. „ e „ « {Finn. 41) cf. Cal. 44, 73, Gn. 44. „ „ e „ a {Finn. 22) cf. Cal. 74. „ „ eo „ ea {Finn. 28) cf. Cal. 121. „ „ letters involving long down stroke, e.g., /, s, r, )>, w, p {Finn. 2, 36) cf. Cal. 97, 142, 180, 181, Gn. 9. Addition of n {Finn. 22) cf. Cal. 161. 246 The Fight at Finnsburg first lines of the fragment, as preserved, reveal a well-loved opening motive — the call to arms within the hall, as the watcher sees the foes approach. It was with such a call that the Bjarhamdl, the poem on the death of Eolf Kraki, began: "a good call to work" as a fighting king-saint thought it^. It is with a similar summons to business that the Finnsburg Fragment begins. The watchman has warned the king within the hall that he sees lights approaching — so much we can gather from the two and a half words which are preserved from the watch- man's speech, and from the reply made by the "war-young" king: "This is not the dawn which is rising, but dire deeds of woe; to arms, my men." And the defending warriors take their posts: at the one door Sigeferth and Eaha: at the other Ordlaf and Guthlaf, and Hengest himself 2. Then the poet turns to the foes, as they approach for the attack. The text as reported by Hickes is difficult: but it seems that Garulf ^ is the name of the warrior about to lead the assault on the hall. Another warrior, Guthere, whether a friend, kinsman, or retainer* we do not know, is dissuading him, urging him not to risk so precious a life in the first brunt. But Garulf pays no heed; he challenges the champion on guard: "Who is it who holds the door? " "Sigeferth is my name," comes the reply, "Prince I am of the Secgan: a wandering champion known far and wide: many a woe, many a hard fight have I endured: from me canst thou have what thou seekest." So the clash of arms begins: and the first to fall is Garulf, son of Guthlaf : and many a good man round him. " The swords flashed as if all Finnsburg were afire." ^ Heimskringla, chap. 220. 2 It has been suggested that the phrase "Hengest himself "indicates that Hengest is the "war-young king." But surely the expression merely marks Hengest out as a person of special interest. If we must assume that he is one of the people who have been speaking, then it would be just as natural to identify him with the watcher who has warned the king, as with the king himself. The difficulties which prevent us from identifying Hengest with the king are explained below. 3 Garulf must be an assailant, since he falls at the beginning of the struggle, whilst we are told that for five days none of the defenders fell. * Very possibly Guthere is uncle of Garulf. For Garulf is said to be son of Guthlaf (1. 35) and a Guthere would be likely to be a brother of a Guthlsd. Further, as Klaeber points out {Engl. Stud, xxxix, 307) it is the part of the uncle to protect and advise the nephew. The Finnsburg Fragment 247 Never, we are told, was there a better defence than that of the sixty champions within the hall. ''Never did retainers repay 7 the sweet mead better than his bachelors did unto Hnaef . For five days they fought, so that none of the men at arms fell : but they held the doors." After a few more lines the piece breaks off,^ There are many textual difficulties here. But these, for the most part, do not affect the actual narrative, which is a story of clear and straightforward fighting. It is when we try to fit this narrative into relationship with the Episode in Beowulf that our troubles begin. Within the Fragment itself one difficulty only need at present be mentioned. Guthlaf is one of the u- champions defending the hall. Yet the leader of the assault, Garulf, is spoken of as Guthlaf's son . Of course it is possible that we have here a tragic incident parallel to the story of Hildebrand and Hadubrand: father and son may have been separated through earlier misadventures, and now find them- selves engaged on opposite sides. This would harmonize with the atmosphere of the Finnsburg story, which is one of slaughter breaking out among men near of kin, so that afterwards an uncle and a nephew are burnt on the same pyre. And it has been noted ^ that Garulf rushes to the attack only after he has asked "Who holds the door?" and has learnt that it is Sigeferth: Guthlaf had gone to the opposite door. Can Garulf's question mean that he knows his father Guthlaf to be inside the, hall, and wishes to avoid conflict with him? Possibly; but I do not think we can argue much from this double appearance of the name Guthlaf, It is possible that the occurrence of Guthlaf as Garulf's father is simply a scribal error. For, puzzling as the tradition of Finnsburg everywhere is, it is peculiarly puzzling in its proper names, which are mostly given in forms that seem to have undergone some alteration. And even if GU&ldfes sunu be correctly written, it is possible that the Guthlaf who is father of Garulf is not to be identified with the Guthlaf whom Garulf is besieging within the hall^. 1 Koegel, Qeschichte d. deut. Litt. i, i, 165. 2 Klaeber {Engl. Stud, xxxix, 308) reminds us that, as there are two warriors i named Godric in the Battle of Maldon (1. 325), so there may be two warriors \ named Guthlaf here. But to this it might possibly be replied that "Godric" was, in England, an exceedingly common name, "Guthlaf" an exceedingly rare one. ^" 248 The Fight at Finnsburg One or other of these rather unsatisfactory solutions must unfortunately be accepted. For no theory is possible which will save us from admitting that, according to the received text, Guthlaf is fighting on the one side, and a "son of Guthlaf " on the other. Section II. The Episode in Beowulf Further details of the story we get in the Episode of Finns- burg ^ as recorded in Beowulf (11. 1068-1159). BeowuK is being entertained in the court of the king of the Danes, and the king's harper tells the tale of Hengest and Finn. Only the main events are enumerated. There are none of the dramatic sa^Sj^es which we find in the Fragment. It is evident that the t^lpps been reduced in scope, in order that it may be fitted into lislglace as an episode in the longer epic. The tone, too, is quite different. Whereas the Fragment is inspired by the lust and joy of battle, the theme of the Episode, as told in Beowulf, is rather the pity of it all; the legacy of mourning and vengeance which is left to the survivors : For never can true reconcilement grow Where wounds of deadly hate have struck so deep. It is on this note that /the Episode in Beowulf begins: with the tragic figure of Hildeburh. Hildeburh is closely related to both contending parties. She is sister to Hnsef, prince of the "Half -Danes," and she is wedded to Finn, king of the Frisians. Whatever may be obscure in the story, it is clear that a fight has taken place between the men of Hnaef and those of Finn, and that Hnsef has been slain : probably by Finn directly, though perhaps by his followers^. A son of Finn has also fallen. With regard to the peoples concerned there are dijQ&culties. Finn's Frisians are presumably the main Frisian race, dwelling in and around the district still known as Friesland; for in the Catalogue of Kings in Widsith it is said that "Finn Folcwalding 1 Finn is called the bana, "slayer" of Hnsef. But this does not necessarily mean that he slew him with his own hand; it would be enough if he were in command of the assailants at the time when Hnsef was slain. Cf. Beoumlf, 1. 1968. The Episode in Beowulf 249 ruled the kin of the Frisians^." Hnaef and his people are called Half-Danes, Danes and Scyldings ; Hnsef is therefore presumably related to the Danish royal house. But, in no account which has come down to us of that house, are Hnaef or his father Hoc ever mentioned as kings or princes of Denmark, and their con- nection with the family of Hrothgar, the great house of Scyldings who ruled Denmark from the capital of Leire, remains obscure. In Widsith, the people ruled over by Hnsef are called " children of Hoc*' (Hocingum), and are mentioned immediately after the "Sea-Danes2.'» Then there is a mysterious people called the Eotens, upon whom is placed the blame of the struggle: "Verily Hildeburh had Uttle reason to praise the good faith of the Eotens." This is the typical understatement of Old EngHsh rhetoric: it can only point to dehberate treachery on the part of the Eotens. Our interpretation of the poem will therefore hinge largely upon our interpretation of this name. There have been two views as to the Eotens. The one view holds them to be Hnsef's Danes, and consequently places on Hnsef the responsibihty for the ag- gression. This theory is, I think, quite wrong, and has been the cause of much confusion: but it has been held by scholars of great weight^. The other view regards the Eotens as subjects ^ The idea that Finn's Frisians are the "North Frisians" of Schleswig has been supported by Grein {Eberts Jahrbuch, iv, 270) and, following him, by many scholars, including recently Sedgefield {Beowulf, p. 258). The difficulties of this view are very many : one only need be emphasized. We first hear of these North Frisians of Schleswig in the 12th century, and Saxo Grammaticus tells us expressly that they were a colony from the greater Frisia (Book xrv, ed. Holder, p. 465). At what date this colony was founded we do not know. The latter part of the 9th century has been suggested by Langhans : so h,as the end of the nth century by Lauridsen. However this may be, all the evidence precludes our supposing this North Friesland, or, as Saxo calls it, Fresia Minor, to have existed at the date to which we must attribute the origin of the Finn story. On this point the following should be consulted: Langhans (V.), Ueber den Ursprung der Nordfriesen, Wien, 1879 (most valuable on accbunt of its citation of documents : the latter part of the book, which consists of an attempt to rewrite the Finn story by dismissing as corrupt or spurious many of the data, must not blind us to the value of the earlier portions): Lauridsen, Om Nordfrisernes Indvandring i S^derjylland, Historisk Tidsskrift, 6 R, 4 B. n, 318-67, KJ€Jbenhavn, 1893: Siebs, Zur Geschichte der Englisch-Friesischen Sprache, 1889, 23-6: Chadwick, Origin, 94: Much in Hoops Beallexikon, s.v. Friesen; and Bremer in Pauls Grdr. (2), iii, 848, where references will be found to earlier essays on the subject. 2 The theory that Hnsef is a captain of Healfdene is based upon a rendering of 1. 1064 which is in all probability wrong. 3 The view that the Eotenas are the men of Hnsef and Hengest has been held by ThoT^ {Beowulf, pp. 76-7),Ettmuller(5eoMntZf. 1840, p. 108), Bouterwek 250 The Fight at Finnshurg of Finn and foes of Hnsef. This view has been more generally held, and it is, as I shall try to show, only along these lines that a satisfactory solution can be found. The poet continues of the woes of Hildeburh. "Guiltless, she lost at the war those whom she loved, child and brother. They fell as was fated, wounded by the spear, and a sad lady was she. Not for naught did the daughter of Hoc [i.e. Hilde- burh] bewail her fate when morning came, when under the sky she could behold the murderous bale of her kinsfolk " Then the poet turns to the figure of Finn, king of the Frisians. His cause for grief is as deep as that of Hildeburh. For he has lost that body of retainers which to a Germanic chief, even as to King Arthur, was dearer than a wife^. "War swept away all the retainers of Finn, except some few." What follows is obscure, but as to the general drift there is no doubt. After the death of their king Hnsef, the besieged Danes are led by Hengest. Hengest must be Hnaef's retainer, for he is expressly so called ('}peodnes pegn) "the king's thegn." So able is the defence of Hengest, and so heavy the loss among Finn's men, that Finn has to come to terms. Peace is made between Finn and Hengest, and the terms are given fully in the Episode. Unfortunately, owing to the confusion of pro- nouns, we soon lose our way amidst the clauses of this treaty, and it becomes exceedingly difficult to say who are the people who are alluded to as "they." This is peculiarly unlucky be- cause here again the critical word Eotena occurs, but amid such a tangle of "thems" and "theys" that it is not easy to tell from this passage to which side the Eotens belong ^. But one thing in the treaty is indisputable. In the midst of these complicated clauses, it is said of the Danes, the retainers {Germania, i, 389), Holtzmann {Germania, viii, 492), MoUer {Volksepos, 94-5), Chadwick {Origin, 53), Clarke {Sidelights, 184). ^- "And therefore, said the King. . .much more I am sorrier for my good knights' loss, than for the loss of my fair queen. For queens I might have enow: but such a fellowship of good knights shall never be together in no company." Malory, Morte Darihur, Bk. xx, chap. ix. 2 The argument of Bugge {P.B.B. xii, 37) that the Eotens here (1. 1088) must be the Frisians, is inconclusive: but so is Miss Clarke's argument that they must be Danes {Sidelights, 181), as is shown by Lawrence {Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. xxx, 395). The Episode in Beowulf 251 of Hnsef, that they are not to be taunted with a certain fact: or perhaps it may be that they are not, when speaking amongst themselves, to remind each other of a certain fact. However that may be, what is clear is th.Q fact, the mention of which is barred. Nothing is to be said of it, even though ^Hhey were following the slayer (hana) of their lord, being without a prince, since they were compelled so to do J' Here, at least, are two Hnes about the interpretation of which we can be certain : and I shall therefore return to them. We must be careful, however, to remember that the word bana, "slayer," conveys no idea of fault or criminality. It is a quite neutral word, although it has fre- quently been mistranslated "murderer," and has thus helped to encourage the belief that Finn slew Hnaef by treachery. Of course it conveys no such implication : bana can be applied to one who slays another in self-defence : it implies neither the one thing nor the other. Then the poet turns to the funeral of the dead champions, who are burned on one pyre by the now reconciled foes. The bodies of Hnaef and of the son (or sons)^ of Hildeburh are placed together, uncle and nephew side by side, whilst Hildeburh stands by lamenting. Then, we are told, the warriors, deprived of their friends, departed to Friesland, to their homes and to their high-city. Hengest still continued to dwell for the whole of that winter with Finn, and could not return home because of the winter storms. But when spring came and the bosom of the earth became fair, there came also the question of Hengest's departure : but he thought more of vengeance than of his sea-journey: "If he might bring about that hostile meeting which he kept in his mind concerning the child (or children) of the Eotens." Here again the word Eotena is used ambiguously, but, I think, this Jjime not without some indication of its meaning. It has indeed been urged that the child or children of the Eotens are Hnaef, and any other Danes who may have fallen with him, and that when it is said that Hengest keeps them in mind, it is meant that he is remembering his fallen comrades with a view to taking ^ I say "son" in what follows, without prejudice to the possiblKty of more than one son having fallen. It in no wise affects the argument. 252 The Fight at Finnsburg vengeance for them. But this would be a queer way of speaking, as Hengest and his living comrades would on this theory be also themselves children of the Eotens^. We should therefore need the term to be further defined: "children of the Eotens who fell at Finnsburg.'' It seems far more hkely, from the way in which the expression is used here, that the children of the Eotens are the people upon whom Hengest intends to take vengeance. Then, we are further told, Hunlafing places in the bosom of Hengest a sword of which the edges were well known amongst the Eotens. Here again there has been ambiguity, dispute and doubt. Hunlafing has been even bisected into a chief "Hun," and a sword "Lafing" which "Hun" is supposed to have placed in the bosom of Hengest (or of someone else). Upon this act of "Hun" many an interpretation has been placed, and many a theory built. Fortunately it has become possible, by a series of rather extraordinary discoveries, such as we had little reason to hope for at this time of day, to put Hunlafing together again. ^ We now know (and this I think should be regarded as outside the region of controversy) that the warrior who put the sword into Hengest' s bosom was Hunlafing. And about Hunlafing we gather, though very little, yet enough to help us. He is ap- parently a Dane, the son of Hunlaf, and Hunlaf is the brother of the two champions Guthlaf and Ordlaf^. Now Guthlaf and Ordlaf , as we know from the Fragment, were in the hall together 1 For example, it might well be said of Achilles, whilst thirsting for ven- geance upon the Trojans for the death of Patroclus, that "he could not get the children of the Trojans out of his mind." But surely it would be unin- telligible to say that "he could not get the child of the Achaeans out of his mind," meaning Patroclus, for "child of the Achaeans" is not sufl&ciently dis- tinctive to denote Patroclus. Cf. Boer in Z.f.d.A. XLVii, 134. 2 In the Skjoldunga Saga [extant in a Latin abstract by Amgrim Jonsson, ed. Olrik, 1894], cap. iv, mention is made of a king of Denmark named Leifus who had six sons, three of whom are named Hunleifus, Oddleifus and Gunn- leifus — corresponding exactly to O.E. Hunlaf, Ordlaf and Gudlaf. That Hunlaf was well known in English story is proved by a remarkable passage unearthed by Dr Imelmann from MS Cotton Vesp. D. IV (fol. 139 6) where Hunlaf is mentioned together with a number of other heroes of Old English story — Wudga, Hama, HrothuLf, Hengest, Horsa (Hoc testamur gesta rudolpM et hunlapi, Unwini et Widie, horsi et hengisti, Waltefet hame). See Chadwick, Origin, 52 : R. Huchon, Revue Oermanique, iii, 626 : Imelmann, in D.L.Z. xxx, 999 : April, 1909. This disposes of the translation " Hun thrust or placed in his bosom Lafing, best of swords," which was adopted by Bugge (P.B.B. xii, 33), Holder, ten Brink and Gering. Hun is mentioned in Widsith (1. 33) and in the Icelandic Thulor. That Guthlaf, Ordlaf and Hunlaf must be connected together had been noted by Boer {Z.f.d.A. XLvn, .139) before this discovery of Chadwick's con- firmed him. The Episode in Beowulf 253 with Hengest: it was "Guthlaf, Ordlaf and Hengest himself" who undertook the defence of one of the doors against the assailants. Guthlaf and Ordlaf were apparently sons of the king of Denmark. As Scyldings they would be Hnsef 's kinsmen, and accompanied him to his meeting with Finn. Hunlafing, then, is a nephew of two champions who were attacked in the hall, and it is possible, though we cannot prove this, that his father Hunlaf was himself also in the hall, and was slain in the struggle^. At any rate, when Hunlaf's son places a sword in the bosom of Hengest, this can only mean one thing. It means mischief. The placing of the sword, by a prince, in the bosom of another, is a symbol of war-service. It means that Hengest has accepted obligations to a Danish lord, a Scylding, a kinsman of the dead Hnaef, and consequently that he means to break the troth which he has sworn to Finn. Further, we are told concerning the sword, that its edges were well known amongst the Eotens. At first sight this might seem, and to many has seemed, an ambiguous phrase, for a sword may be well known amongst either friends or foes. The old poets loved nothing better than to dwell upon the adorn- ments of a sword, to say how a man, by reason of a fine sword which had been given to him, was honoured amongst his as- sociates at table^. Eut if this had been the poet's meaning here, he would surely have dwelt, not upon the edges of the sword, but upon its gold-adorned hilt, or its jewelled pommel. When he says the edges of the sword were well known amongst the Eotens, this seems to convey a hostile meaning. We know that the ill-faith of the Eotens was the cause of the trouble. The phrase about the sword seems therefore to mean that Hengest used this sword in order to take vengeance on the Eotens, presumably for their treachery. The Eotenas, therefore, far from being the men of Hnaef and Hengest, must have been their foes. Then the poet goes on to tell how "Dire sword- bale came upon the valiant Finn likewise." The Danes fell upon Finn at 1 The fragment which tells of the fighting in the hall is so imperfect that there is nothing impossible in the assumption, though it is too hazardous to make it. 2 Cf. Beoimlf, 11. 1900 etc. > 254 The Fight at Finnshurg his own home, reddened the floor of his hall with the life-blood of his men, slew him, plundered his town, and led his wife back to her own people. Here the Episode ends. Section III. Holler's Theory Now our first task is to find what is the relation between the events told in the Fragment and the events told in the Episode in Beowulf. It can, I think, be shown that the events of the Fragment precede the events of the Episode in Beowulf; that is to say that the fight in the hall, of which we are told in the Fragment, is the same fight which has taken place before the Episode in Beowulf begins, the fight which has resulted in the slaughter over which Hildeburh laments, and which ne- cessitates the great funeral described in the first part of the Episode (11. 1108-24). How necessary it is to place the Fragment here, before the beginning of the Episode, will be best seen, I think, if we examine the theory which has tried to place it elsewhere. This is the theory, worked out elaborately and ingeniously by Holier^, a theory which has had considerable vogue, and many of the assumptions of which have been widely accepted. According to MoUer and his followers, the story ran something like this : "Finn, king of the Frisians, had canied off Hildeburh, daughter of Hoc (1076), probably with her consent. Her father Hoc seems to have pursued the fugitives, and to have been slain in the fight which ensued on his overtaking them. After the lapse of some twenty years, the brothers Hnaef and Hengest, Hoe's sons, were old enough to undertake the duty of avenging their father's death. They make an inroad into Finn's country." Up to this, all is Moller's hypothesis, unsupported by any evidence, either in the Fragment or the Episode. It is based, so far as it has any real foundation, upon a mythical interpre- tation of Finn, and upon parallels with the Hild-story, the Gudrun-story, and a North Frisian folk-tale^. Some of the 1 Das Altenglische Volksepos, 46-99. 2 C. P. Hansen, Uald' Soldering tialen, IMefgeltje^nder, 1858. See Moller, Volksepos, 75 etc. Moller's Theory 255 parallels are striking, but they are not sufficient to justify Moller's reconstruction. The authenticity of large portions of the folk- tale is open to doubt ^i and these portions are vital to any parallel with thj^tory of Finnsburg; whilst we have no right to read into the jj^ story details from the Hild or Gudrun stories, unless we can show that they are really versions of the same tale: and this cannot be shown. Moller's suppositions as to the events before the Episode in Beowulf opens, must there- fore be dismissed. Moller's reconstruction then gets into /ela- tion with the real story, as narrated in Beowulf: "A battle takes place in which many warriors, among them Hnsef and a son of Finn (1074. 1079, 1115), are killed. Peace is therefore solemnly concluded, and the slain warriors are burnt (1068-1124). As the year is too far advanced for Hengest to return home (11. 1130 ff.), he and those of his men who survive remain for the winter in the Frisian country with Finn. But Hengest' s thoughts dwell constantly on the death of his brother Hnsef, and he would gladly welcome any excuse to break the peace which has been sworn by both parties. His ill-concealed desire for revenge is noticed by the Frisians, who anticipate it by themselves taking the initiative and attacking Hengest and his men whilst they are sleeping in the haU. This is the night attack described in the Fragment. It would seem that after a brave and desperate resistance Hengest himself falls in this fight 2, but two of his retainers, Guthlaf and Oslaf^, succeed in cutting their way through their enemies and in escaping to their own land. They return with fresh troops, attack and slay Finn, and carry his queen Hildeburh ofiE with them (1125-1159)3." Now the difficulties of this theory will, I think, be found to be insuperable. Let us look at some of them. Moller's view rests upon his interpretation of the Eotens as the men of Hnsef*. Since the Eotens are the aggressors, he has consequently to invent the opening, which makes Hnaef and Hengest the invaders of Finn's country: and he has therefore to relegate the Fragment (in which Hnsef's men are clearly not the attacking party but the attacked) to a later stage in the story. But we have already seen that this inteMetation of the Eotens as the men of Hnaef is not the natural one. Further, the assumption that Hnsef and Hengest are brothers, though still frequently met with^, is surely not justifiable. 1 See Mullenhoff in A.f.d.A. vi, 86. 2 So Moller, Volksepos, 152. 3 See Beowulf, ed. Wyatt, 1894, p. 145. * Volksepos, 71 etc. 5 e.g., Sedgefield, Beoumlf, 2nd ed., p. 258. So 1st ed., p. 13 {Hoc being an obvious misprint). 256 The Fight at Finnshurg There is nothing which demands any such relationship, and there is much which definitely excludes it. After Hnaefs death, Hengest is described as the thegn of Hnsef : an expression without parallel or explanation, if he was really his brother and successor. Again, we are expressly told in the Episode that the Danish retainers make terms with Finn, the slayer of their lord, being without a prince. How could this be said, if Hengest was now their lord and prince? These lines are, as we have seen, one of the few clear and indisputable things in the poem. An inter- pretation which contradicts them flatly, by making Hengest the lord of the Danish retainers, seems self-condemned. Again, in Beowulf, the poet dwells upon the blameless sorrows of Hildeburh. We gather that she wakes up in the morning to find that the kinsfolk whom she loves have, during the night, come to blows. "Innocent, she lost son and brother^ — a sad lady she." Are such expressions natural, if Hildeburh had eloped with Finn, and her father had in consequence been slain by him some twenty years before? If she has taken that calmly, and continued to live happily with Finn, would her equanimity be so seriously disturbed by the slaughter of a brother in addition? But these difl&culties are nothing compared to the further difl&culties which MoUer's adherents have to face when they proceed to find a place for the night attack as told in the Fragment, in the middle of the Episode in Beowulf, i.e. between lines 1145 and 1146. In the first place we have no right to postulate that such important events could have been passed over in silence in the summary of the story as given in Beowulf, For MoUer has to assume that after the reconciliation between Hengest and Finn, Finn broke his pledges, attacked Hengest by night, slew most of the men who were with him, including perhaps Hengest himself; and that the Beowulf-'poet neverthe- less omitted all reference to these events, though they occur in the midst of the story, and are essential to an understanding of it. But even apart from this initial dijficulty, we find that by no process of explaining can we make the night attack narrated ^ On the poet's use of plural for singular here, see Osthoff, I.F. xx, 202-7. Bvjgge's Theory 257 in the Fragment fit in at the point where Moller places it. In the night attack the men are called to arms by a "war-young king." This "war-young king" cannot be, as Moller supposes, Hengest, for the simple reason that Hengest, as I have tried to show above, far from being the brother of Hnaef, and his suc- cessor as king, is his servant and thegn. The king can only be \ Hnsef. But Hnsef has already been slain before the Episode begins: and this makes it impossible to place the Fragment (in which Hnsef appears) in the middle of the Episode. Further, it is said in the Fragment that never did retainers repay a lord better than did his men repay Hnsef. Now these words would only be possible if the retainers were fighting for their lord; that is, either defending him alive or avenging him dead. But Holler's theory assumes that we are dealing with a period when the retainers have definitely left the service of their lord Hnsef, after his death, and have entered the service of his slayer, Finn. They have thus dissolved all bonds with their former lord: they have taken Finn's money and become his men. If Finn then turns upon his new retainers and treacherously tries to slay them, it might be said that the retainers defended their own lives stoutly: but it would be far-fetched to say that in doing so they repaid their lord Hnsef. Their lord, according to Holler's view, is no longer Hnsef, but Finn, who is seeking their lives. Against such difficulties as these it is impossible to make headway, and we must therefore turn to some more possible view of the situation^. Section IV. Bugge's Theory Let us therefore examine the second theory, which is more particularly associated with the name of Bugge, though it was the current theory before his time, and has been generally ac- cepted since. According to this view, the Eotenas are the men of Finn, and since upon them is placed the blame for the trouble, it 1 I have thought it necessary to give fully the reasons why Moller's view cannot be accepted, because in whole or in part it is still widely followed in England. Chadwick {Origin, 53) still interprets "Eotens" as "Danes"; and Sedgefield {Beowulf (2), p. 268) gives Moller's view the place of honour. O. B. 17 258 The Fight at Finnshurg must be Finn that makes a treacherous attack upon his wife's brother Hnaef , who is his guest in Finnsburg^. This is the fight of which the Fragment gives us the beginning. Hnsef is slain,and then follow the events as narrated in the Episode : the treaty which Finn makes with Hengest, the leader of the survivors: and the ultimate vengeance taken upon Finn by these survivors. Here I think we are getting nearer to facts, nearer to a view which can command general acceptance: at any rate, in so far as the fight narrated in the Fragment is placed before the be- ginning of the Episode in Beowulf. Positive evidence that this is the right place for the Fragment is scanty, yet not altogether lacking. After all, the fight in the Fragment is a night attack, and the fight which precedes the Episode in Beowulf, as I have tried to show, is a night attack ^. But our reason for putting the Fragment before the commencement of the Episode is mainly negative: it lies in the insuperable difficulties which meet us when we try to place it anywhere else. But, it will be objected, there are difficulties also in placing the Fragment before the Episode. Perhaps: but I do not think these difficulties will be found to survive examination. The first objection to supposing that the Fragment narrates \ the same fight as precedes the Episode is, that the fight in the Fragment takes place at Finnsburg^, whilst the fight which precedes the Episode apparently takes place away from Finn's capital: for after the fighting is over, the dead burned, and the treaty made, the warriors depart "to see Friesland, their homes, and their high-town (hea-burh)^.'' ^ The treachery of Finn is emphasized, for example, by Bugge (P.B.B. XII, 36), Koegel {GeschicMe d. deut. Lift. 164), ten Brink (Pauls Grdr. (1), ii, 545), Trautmann {Finn und Hildebrand, 59), Lawrence (Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. xxx. 397, 430), Ayres {J.E.G.Ph. xvi, 290). 2 sy|)San morgen com 6a heo under swegle geseon meahte, etc. ' 1. 36. The swords flash swylce eal Finnsburuh fyrenu wmre, "as if all Finnsburg were afire." I think we may safely argue from this that the swords are flashing near Finnsburg. It would be just conceivable that the poet's mind travels back from the scene of the battle to Finn's distant home: "the swords made as great a flash as would have been made had Finn's distant capital been aflame": but this is a weak and forced interpretation, which we have no right to assume, though it may be conceivable. * Beowulf, 11. 1125-7. I doubt whether it is possible to explain the diffi- culty away by supposing that "the warriors departing to see Friesland, their homes and their head-town" simply means that Finn's men, "summoned by Finn in preparation for the encounter with the Danes, return to their respective Biigge's Theory 259 But I do not see that this involves us in any difficulty. It is surely quite reasonable that Finnsburg — Finn's castle — where the first fight takes place, is not, and was never meant to be, the same as Finn's capital, his heahurh, his "own home." After all, when a king's name is given to a town, the presumption is rather that the town is not his capital, but some new settlement built in a newly acquired territory. Eadwineshurh was not the capital of King Eadwine: it was the stronghold which he held against the Picts on the outskirts of his realm. Aosta was not the capital of Augustus, nor Fort William of William III, nor Harounabad of Haroun al Raschid. So here: we know that the chief town of the Frisians was not Finnsburg, but Dorestad: "Dorostates of the Frisians^." The fight may have taken place at some outlying castle built by Finn, and named after him Finnsburg: then he returned, we are told, to his heahurh: and it is here, ast his sylfes ham, "in his own home" (the poet himself seems to emphasize a distinction) that destruction in the end comes upon him. There is surely no difficulty here. A second discrepancy has often been indicated. In the Fragment the fight lasts five days before any one of the de- fenders fall: in the Episode (it is argued) Hildeburh in the morning finds her brother slain 2. Even were this so, I do not know that it need trouble us much. In a detail like this, which homes in the country," and that "heaburh is a high sounding epic term that should not be pressed." This is the explanation offered by Klaeber (J.E.G.Ph. VI, 193) and endorsed by Lawrence {Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. xxx, 401). But it seems to me taking a liberty with the text to interpret heaburh (singular) as the "respective homes in the country" to which Finn's warriors resort on demobilisation. And the statement of 11. 1125-7, that the warriors departed from the place of combat to see Friesland, seems to necessitate that such place of combat was not in Friesland. Klaeber objects to this (surely obvious) inference: "If we are to infer [from 11. 1125-7] that Finnsburg lies outside Friesland proper, we might as well conclude that Dyflen (Dublin) is not situated in Ireland according to the Battle of Brunanburh {gewitan him pa NorQmenn . . . Dyflen secan and eft Iraland)." But how could anyone infer this from the Brunanburh lines? What we are justified in inferring, is, surely, that the site of the battle of Brunanburh (from which the Northmen departed to visit Ireland and Dublin) was not identical with Dublin, and did not lie in Ireland. And by exact parity of reason, we are justified in arguing that Finnsburg, the site of the first battle in which Hnsef fell (from which site the warriors depart to visit Friesland and the heaburh) was not identical with the heaburh, and did not lie in Friesland. Accordingly the usual view, that Finnsburg is situated outside Friesland, seems incontestable. See Bugge {P.B.B. xii, 29-30), Trautman|f{v {Finn und HildebVand, 60) and Boer {Z.f.d.A. xlvii, 137). Cf. Ayres {J.E.O.pM XVI, 294). t'/ 1 See below, p. 289. 2 go Brandl, 984, and Heinzel. '^^ 17—2 260 The Fight at Finnshurg does not go to the heart of the story, there might easily be a discrepancy between two versions ^. But the whole difficulty merely arises from reading more into the words of the Episode than the text will warrant. It is not asserted in the Episode that Hildeburh found her kinsfolk dead in the morning, but that in the morning she found "mur- derous bale amid her kinsfolk." Hildeburh woke up to find a fight in progress : how long it went on, the Episode does not say : but that it was prolonged we gather from 11. 1080-5 : and there is no reason why the deadly strife which Hildeburh found in the morning might not have lasted five days or more, before it culminated in the death of Hnsef. Thirdly, the commander in the Fragment is called a "war- young king." This, it has been said, is inapplicable to Hnaef, since he is brother of Hildeburh, who is old enough to have a son slain in the combat. But an uncle may be very young. Beowulf speaks of his uncle Hygelac as young, even though he seems to imply that his own youth is partly past ^, And no advantage, but the reverse, is gained, even in this point, if, following MoUer's hypothesis, and assuming that the fight narrated in the Fragment takes place after the treaty with Finn, we make the "war-young king" Hengest. For those who, with Moller, suppose Hengest to be brother of Hnaef, will have to admit the avuncular diffi* culty in him also. Section V. Some Difficulties in Bugge's Theory We may then, I think, accept as certain, that first come the events narrated in the Fragment, then those told in the Episode in Beowulf. But we are not out of our troubles yet. There are difficulties in Bugge's view which have still to be faced. The cause of the struggle, according to Bugge and his ad- herents, is a treacherous attack made by Finn upon his brother-in- 1 Or just as the attack on the Danes began at night, we might suppose (as does Trautmann) that it equally culminated in a night assault five days later. There would be obvious advantage in night fighting when the object was to storm a hall: Flugum;frr was burnt by night, and so was the hall of Njal. So, too, was the hall of Rolf Kraki. It would be, then, on the morning after this second night assault, that Hildeburh found her kinsfolk dead. 2 Beovmlf, 1. 1831 : of. 1. 409. Some Difficulties in Bitgge's Theory 261 law Hnsef . According to the Episode^ it is the Eotens who are treacherous ; so Eotens must be another name for the Frisians. The word occurs three times in the genitive, Eotena ; once in the dative, Eotenum: as a common noun it means "giant," "monster": earlier in Beowulf it is applied to Grendel and to the other misbegotten creatures descended from Cain. But how "giant" can be applied to the Frisians, or to either of the con- tending parties in the Finnsburg fight, remains inexplicable^. Eotena must rather be the name of some tribe. But what tribe? The only people of whom we know, possessing a name at all like this, are the people who colonized Kent, whom Bede calls Jutes, but whose name would in Anghan be in the genitive Eotna, but in the dative Eotum, or perhaps occasionally Eotnum, Eotenum^. Now a scribe transliterating a poem from an Anglian dialect into West- Saxon should, of course, have altered these forms into the corresponding West-Saxon forms Ytena and Ytum. But nothing would have been more likely than that he would have misunderstood the tribal name as a common noun, and retained the Anglian forms (altering eotum or eotnum into eotenum) supposing the word to mean "giants." After all, the common noun eotenum, "giants," was quite as like the tribal name Eotum, which the scribe presumably had before him, as was the correct West-Saxon form of that name, Ytum. It is difficult therefore to avoid the conclusion that the "Eotens" are Jutes: and this is confirmed by three other pieces of evidence, not convincing in themselves, but helpful as sub- sidiary arguments^. ^ Leo {Beonmlf, 1839, 67), Miillenhoff {Nordalbingische Studien, i, 157^), Rieger (Lesefmch; Z.f.d.Ph. iii, 398-401), Dederich (Studien, 1877, 96-7), Heyne (in his fourth edition) and in recent times Holthausen have interpreted eoten as a common noun "giant," "monster," and consequently "foe" in general. But they have failed to produce any adequate justification for interpreting eoten as "foe," and Holthausen, the modern advocate of this interpretation, has now abandoned it. Grundtvig { Beowulf es Beorh, 1861, pp. 133 etc. ) and Moller ( Voiles- epos, 97 etc.) also interpret "giant," Moller giving an impossible mythological explanation, which was, at the time, widely followed. 2 liike oxnum, nefenum (cf. Sievers, § 277, Anm. 1). ' I do not attach much importance to the argument which might be drawn from the statement of Binz {P.B.B. xx, 185) that the evidence of proper names shows that in the Hampshire district (which was colonized by Jutes) the legend of Finnsburg was particularly remembered. For on the other hand, as Binz points out, similar evidence is markedly lacking for Kent. And why, indeed, should the Jutes have specially commemorated a legend in which their part appears not to have been a very creditable one? 262 The Fight at Finnsburg / (1) We should gather from Widsith that the Jutes were concerned in the Finnsburg business. For in that poem gener- ally (though not always) tribes connected in story are grouped together; and the Jutes and Frisians are so coupled: '^^^S "4| Ytum [weold] Gefwulf Fin Folcwalding Fresna cynne. (2) There is another passage in Beowulf in which Eotenas is possibly used in the sense of "Jutes." We have seen above^ that according to a Scandinavian tra- dition Lotherus was exiled in Jutiam: and Heremod, who has been held to be the counterpart of Lotherus mid Eotenum weartJ on feonda geweald fortJ forlacen. But the identification of Lotherus and Heremod is too hypothetical to carry the weight of much argument. (3) Finn comes into many Old English pedigrees, which have doubtless borrowed from one another. But the earliest in which we find him, and the only one in which we find his father Folcwald, is that of the Jutish kings of Kent^. Here, too, the name Hengest meets us. The view that the name "Eoten" in the Finnsburg story is a form of the word "Jute" is, then, one which is very difficult to reject. It is one which has in the past been held by many scholars and is, I think, held by all who have recently expressed any opinion on the subject^. But this renders very difficult the assumption of Bugge and his followers that the word "Eoten" is synonymous with "Frisian*." For Frisians were not Jutes. 1 p. 97, note 2. 2 See above, p. 200. Zimmer, Nennius Vindicatus, 84, assumes that the Kentish pedigree borrowed these names from the Bemician: but there is no evidence for this. 3 Among those who have so held are Kemble, Thorpe {Beowulf, pp. 76-7), Ettmiiller {Beowulf, 1840, p. 23), Bouterwek {Germanla, i, 389), Grein {Eberts Jahrbuch, iv, 270), Kohler {Germania, xiii, 155), Heyne (in first three editions). Holder {Beowulf, p. 128), ten Brink {Pauls Grdr. (1), ii, 548), Heinzel {A.f.d.A. X, 228), Stevenson {Asser, 1904, p. 169), Schiicking {Beowulf, 1913, p. 321), Klaeber {J.E.G.Ph. xiv, 545), Lawrence {Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. xxx. 393), Moorman {Essays and Studies, v, 99), Bjorkman {Eigennamen im Beowulf , 21). So too, with some hesitation, Chadwick {Origin, 52-3): with much more hesitation, Bugge {P.B.B. xii, 37). Whilst this is passing through the press Holthausen has withdrawn his former interpretation eotena, ' ' enemies,* in favour of Eotena = Eotna, "Jutes" {Engl. Stud, li, 180). * P.B.B. XII, 37. Some Difficulties in Bugge's Theory 263 The tribes were closely related; but the two words were not synonymous. The very lines in Widsithj which couple Jutes and Frisians together, as if they were related in story, show that the names were regarded as those of distinct tribes. And this evidence from Widsith is very important, because the com- piler of that Hst of names clearly knew the story of Finn and Hnsef. But this is not the only difficulty in Bugge's interpretation of the Eotens as Frisians. The outbreak of war, we are told, is due to the treachery of the Eotens. This Bugge and his followers interpret as meaning that Finn must have treacher- ously attacked Hnaef. Yet the poet speaks of "the warriors of Finn when the sudden danger fell upon them": pa Me sef^r hegeat. It is essential to fser that it signifies a sudden and un- expected attack 1 : and the unexpected attack must have come, not upon the assailants but upon the assailed. Yet this difficulty, though it has been emphasized by Moller^ and other opponents of Bugge's view, is not insuperable^, and I hope to show below that there is no real difficulty. But it leads us to a problem not so easily surmounted. If Finn made a treacherous attack upon Hnaef, and slew him, how did it come that Hengest, and Hnaef s other men, made terms with their murderous host? In the primitive heathen days it had been a rule that the retainer must not survive his vanquished lord*. The ferocity of this rule was subsequently softened, and, in point of fact, we do often hear, after some great leader has been slain, of his followers accepting quarter from a chivalrous foe, without being 1 The cognate of O.E. /«r (Mod. Eng. **fear')in other Germanic languages, such as Old Saxon and Old High German, has the meaning of "ambush." In the nine places where it occurs in O.E. verse it has always the meaning of a peril which comes upon one suddenly, and is applied, e.g. to the Day of Judge- ment (twice) or some unexpected flood (three times). In compounds /«r con- veys an idea of suddenness: ''feer-deaff, repentina mors." 2 Volksepos, 69. * It has been surmounted in two ways. ( 1 ) By altering eaferum to eaferan (a very slight change) and then making /«r refer to the final attack upon Finn, in which he certainly was on the defensive (Lawrence, 397 etc., Ayres, 284, Trautmann, BB. n, Klaeber, Anglia, xxviii, 443, Holthausen). (2) By making hie rtffer to haeleff Healf-Dena which follows (Green in Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc, Amer. xxxt, 759-97); but this is forced. See also below, p. 284. * Cf. Tacitus, Oermania, xrv. 264 The Fight at Finnshurg therefore regarded as having acted disgracefully^. But, if Finn had invited Hnsef and Hnaef 's retainers to be his guests, and had fallen upon them by treachery, the action of the retainers in coming to terms with Finn, in entering his service, and stipu- lating how much of his pay they shall receive, would be con- trary to all standards of conduct as understood in the Heroic Age, and would deprive Hnaef s men of any sympathy the audi- ence might feel for them. But Hnaef 's men are not censured: they are in fact treated most sympathetically in the Efisode, and in the Fragment, at an earlier point in the story, they are enthusiastically applauded ^. It is strange enough in any case that Hnaef's retainers should make terms with the slayer of their lord. But it is not merely strange, it is absolutely unintelligible, if we are to suppose that Finn has not merely slain Hnaef, but has lured him into his I power, and then slain him while a guest. ^ It is to the credit of Bugge that he felt this difficulty: but his attempt to explain it is hardly satisfactory. He fell back upon a parallel between the story of the death of Rolf Kraki and the story of Finnshurg. We have already seen that the resemblance is very close between the Bjarkamdl, which narrates the death of Rolf, and the opening of the Finnshurg Fragment, The parallel which Bugge invoked comes from the sequel to the Rolf story ^ which tells how Hiarwarus, the murderer of RoH Kraki, astonished by the devotion of Rolf's retainers, lamented their death, and said how gladly he would have given quarter to such men, and taken them into his service. Thereupon Wiggo, the one survivor, who had previously vowed to avenge his lord, and had concealed himself with that object, came forward and offered to accept these terms. Accordingly he i placed his hand upon the hilt of his new master's drawn sword, I as if about to swear fealty to him: but instead of swearing, he ran him through. " Glorious and ever memorable hero, who valiantly kept his vow," says Saxo*. Whether or no we share the exultation of ^ For examples of this see pp. 278-82 below. 2 Fragment, 40-1. ^ gee above, p. 30. * Book II (ed. Holder, p. 67). Some Difficulties in Bvjgge's Theory 266 that excellent if somewhat bloodthirsty ecclesiastic, we must admit that Wiggo's methods were sensible and practical. If, singlehanded, he was to keep his vow, and avenge his lord, he could only hope to do it by some such stratagem. Bugge tries to explain Hengest's action on similar lines: "He does not hesitate to enter the service of Finn in order thereby to carry out his revenge^." But the circumstances are entirely different. Wiggo was left alone, the only survivor of Rolf's household, to face a whole army. But Hengest is no single survivor: he and his fellows have made so good a defence that Finn cannot overcome them by conflict on the med'el-stede. Not only so, but, if we accept the interpretation that almost every critic and editor has put upon the passage (11. 1184-5), Hengest's position is even stronger, Finn has lost almost all his thegns; the usual interpretation puts him at the mercy of Hengest : at best it is a draw^. If, then, Hengest wants vengeance upon Finn, why does he not pursue it? Instead of which, according to Bugge, he enters Finn's service in order that he may get an opportunity for revenge. And note, that Wiggo did not swear the oath of fealty to the murderer of his master Rolf: he merely put himself in the posture to do so, and then, instead, ran the tyrant through forthwith. But Hengest does swear the oath, and does not forthwith slay the tyrant. He spends the winter with him, receives a sword from Hunlafing, after which his name does not occur again. Finn is ultimately slain, but the names which are found in that connection are those of Guthlaf and Oslaf [Ordlaf], So Bugge's explanation comes to this: Hengest is fighting with success against Finn, but he refrains from vengeance: instead, he treacherously enters his service in order that he may take an opportunity of vengeance, which opportunity, however, it is never made clear to us that he takes. Had Hengest been a man of that kind, he would not have been a hero of Old English heroic song. 1 P.B.B. XII, 34. 2 For a discussion of the interpretation of the difficult forpringan, see Carlton Brown in M.L.N, xxxiv, 181-3. 266 The Fight at Finnshurg Section VI. Recent Elucidations. Prof. Ayres' Comments It is one of the merits of Bugge's view — one of the proofs of its general soundness — that it admits of successive improve- ments at the hands of succeeding commentators. No one has done more in this way than has Prof. Ayres to clear up the story, particularly the latter part of the Episode. Ayres evolves unity out of what had been before "a rapid-fire of events that hit all around a central tragic situation and do not once touch it." Hengest does not, Ayres thinks, enter the service of Finn with any such well-formed plan of revenge as Bugge had attri- buted to him. Hengest was in a difficult situation. It is his mental conflict, "torn between his oath to Finn and his duty to the dead Hnaef," which gives unity to all that follows. It is a tragedy of Hengest, hesitating, like Shakespeare's Hamlet, over the duty of revenge. Prof. Ayres' statement here is too good to summarize; it must be quoted at length: "How did he feel during that long, blood-stained winter? He naturally thought about home {eard gemunde, 1129), but there was no question of sailing then, no need yet of decision while the storm^roared outside. By and by spring came roimd, as it has a way of doing. How did he feel then? Then, like any other Northerner, he wanted to put to sea: fundode wrecpa, - gist of geardum. That is what he would naturally do. He would speak to Finn and be off; in the spring his business was on the sea. That is all right as to Finn, but as to the dead Hnaef it is very Kke running away; it is post- poning vengeance sadly. Will he prove so unpregnant of his cause as that? No; though he would like to go to sea, he thought rather of vengeance, and staid in the hope of managing a successful surprise against Finn and his people: he to gyrn-wraece swiSor ]?6hte ]?onne to s£e-lade, gif he torn-gemot ]?urhteon mihte, )?3et he Eotena beam inne gemunde. All this says clearly that Hengest was thinking things over, whether he should or should not take vengeance upon Finn; it tells us also very clearly, with characteristic anticipation of the outcome of the story, that in the end desire for vengeance carried the day: Swa he ne-forwyrnde worold-rsedenne, he did not thus prove recreant to his duty. But we have not been told the steps by which Hengest arrived at his decision. That seems Recent Elucidations 267 to be what we should naturally want to know at this point, and that is precisely what we are about to be told. Occasions gross as earth informed against him^." Then Ayres goes on to explain the "egging," through the presentation of a sword by Hunlafing. This feature of the story is now pretty generally so understood ; but Ayres has an inter- pretation of the part played by Guthlaf and Oslaf , which is new and enlightening. "Hengest's almost blunted purpose was not whetted by Hunlafing alone. The latter's uncles, GuSlaf and Oslaf [Ordlaf] took occasion to mention to Hengest the fierce attack (the one, presumably, in which Hnaef had fallen); cast up to him all the troubles that had befallen them ever since their disastrous sea- journey to Finnsburg; they had plenty of woes to twit him with: sitySan grimne gripe GuSlaf and Oslaf aefter see-siSe sorge meendon, aetwiton weana diel. The eflFect of all this on Hengest is cumulative. Where he was before in perfect balance, he is now wrought to action by the words of his followers; he can control himself no longer; the balance is destroyed. The restless spirit (Hengest's in the first instance, but it may be thought of as referring to the entire attacking party, now of one mind) could no longer restrain itself within the breast: ne meahte wsefre mod f orhabban in hre'Sre. Vengeance wins the day 2." By this interpretation Ayres has, as he claims, "sharpened some of the features" of the current interpretation of the Finn story. For, as he says, "in some respects the current version was very unsatisfactory; there seemed to be little relation be- tween the presentation of the sword to Hengest and the spectacle of GuSlaf and Oslaf howling their complaints in the face of Finn." That Ayres' interpretation enhances the coherency of the story is beyond dispute: that it does so at the cost of putting some strain upon the text in one or two places may perhaps be urged 3. But that in its main lines it is correct seems to me certain: the story of Finnsburg is the tragedy of Hengest — his hesitation and his revenge. Keeping this well in view, many of the difficulties disappear. 1 J.E.Q.Ph. XVI, 291-2. 2 lb. 293-4. * I wish I could feel convinced, with Ayres, that the person whom Guthlaf and Oslaf blame for their woes is Hengest rather than Finn. Such an inter- pretation renders the story so much more coherent; but if the poet really meant this, he assuredly did not make his meaning quite clear. 268 The Fight at Finnsburg Section VII. Problems still outstanding Many of the difficulties disappear: but the two big ones re- main. Firstly, if " Eoten " means " Jute," as it is usually agreed that it does, why should the Frisians be called Jutes, seeing that a Frisian is not a Jute? Secondly, when Hengest and the other thegns of Hnsef enter the service of the slayer of their lord, they are not blamed for so doing, but rather excused, pa him swd gepearfod wses. Such a situation is unusual; but it becomes incredible if that slayer, whose service they enter, had fallen upon and slain their lord by treachery, when his guest. It seems to me that neither of these difficulties is really inherent in the situation, but rather accidental, and owing to the way Bugge's theory, right enough in its main lines, has been presented both by Bugge and his followers. For it is not necessary to assume that Frisians are called Eotenas or Jutes. All that we are justified in deducing from the text is that Frisians and Eotenas are both under the command of Finn. If we suppose what the text demands, and no more, we are at one stroke relieved of both our difficulties. Though "Jute" can hardly have been synonymous with *' Frisian," nothing is more probable, as I shall try to show ^, than that a great Frisian king should have had a tribe of Jutes subject to him, or should have had in his pay a band of Jutish mercenaries. Now if the trouble was due to these "Eotens" — and we are told that it was^ — our second difficulty is also solved. It would be much more natural for Hengest to come to terms with Finn, albeit the hana of his lord, if Finn's conduct had not been stained by treachery, and if the blame for the original attack did not rest with him. And, as I have said, there is nothing in the text which justifies us in assuming that Eotenas means "Frisians" and that therefore Eotena treowe refers to Finn's breach of faith. It has indeed been argued that Eotenas and Frisians are synonymous, 1 See below, pp. 276, 288-9. 2 Ne huru Hildeburh herian J>orfte Eotena treowe. Problems still outstanding 269 because in the terms of peace, whilst it is stipulated that Hengest and his comrades are to have equal control with the Eotena beam, it is further stipulated that Finn is to give Hengest' s men gifts equal to those which he gives to the Fresena cynn^. Here then Eotena beam and Fresena cynn are certainly parallel, and are both contrasted with Hengest and his troops. But surely this in no wise proves Eotena beam and Fresena cynn synony- mous: they may equally well be different sections of Finn's host, just as in Brunanburh the soldiers of Athelstan are spoken of first as Westseaxey and then as Myrce. Are we to argue that West-Saxons are Mercians? So. in the account of Hygelac's fatal expedition^ the opponents are called Franks, Frisians, HugaSy Hetware, A reader ignorant of the story might suppose these all synonymous terms for one tribe. But we know that they are not : the Netware were the people immediately attacked — ^the Frankish overlord hastened to the rescue, and was ap- parently helped by the neighbouring Frisians, who although frequently at this date opposed to the Franks, would naturally make common cause against the pirate from overseas^. It was quite natural that the earUer students of the Finns- burg Episode, thinking of the two opposing forces as two homo- geneous tribes, and finding mention of three tribal names, Danes, Eotens and Frisians, should have assumed that the Eotens must be exactly synonymous with either Danes or Frisians. But it is now recognized that the conditions of the time postulate not so much tribes as groups of tribes *. In the Fragment we have, on the side of the Danes, Sigeferth, prince of the Secgan, The Secgan are not necessarily Danes, because their lord is fighting on the Danish side. Neither need the Eotenas be Frisians, because they are fighting on the Frisian side. We cannot, then, argue that two tribes are identical, because engaged in fighting a common foe: still less, because they are 1 Ayres, in J.E.Q.Ph. xvi, 286. So Lawrence in a private communication. 2 U. 2910, etc. * Wfe can construct the situation from such historical information as we can get from Gregory of Tours and other sources. The author of Beoivulf may not have been clear as to the exact relation of the different tribes. We cannot tell, from the vague way he speaks, how much he knew. * I have argued this at some length below, but I do not think anyone would deny it. Bugge recognized it to be true {P.B.B. xii, 29-30) as does Lawrence (392). See below, pp. 288-9. 270 The Fight at Finnshurg ^ mentioned with a certain parallelism^. And anyway, it is im- possible to find in the use of the expression Eotena beam in 1. 1088 any support for the interpretation which makes Eotena treowe signify the treachery of Finn himself. For, assuredly, the proviso that Hengest and his fellows are to have half control as against the Eotena beam does not mean that they are to have half control as against Finn himself. For the very next lines make it clear that they are to enter Finn's service and become his retainers. That Hengest and his men are to have equal rights with Finn's Jutish followers (Eotena beam) is reasonable enough: but they obviously have not equal rights with Finn, their lord whom they are now to follow. Eotena beam in 1. 1088, then, does not include Finn: how can it then be used as an argument that Eotena treowe must refer to Finn's faith and his breach of it? Finn, then, is the bana of Hnaef, but there is nothing in the / text which compels us to assume that he is the slayer of his guest. The reader may regard my zeal to clear the character of Finn as excessive. But it is always worth while to understand a good / old tale. And it is only when we withdraw our unjust asper- sions upon Finn's good faith that the tale becomes intelligible. This, I know, has been disputed, and by the scholars whose opinion I most respect. The poet tells us that Finn was the bana of Hnsef, so, says Ayres, "it is hard to see how it helps matters^" to argue that Finn was not guilty of treachery. And Lawrence argues in the same way: "How is it possible to shift the blame for the attack from Fimi to the Eotenas when Finn is called the bana of Hnsef? It does not matter whether he killed him with his own hands or not; he is clearly held responsible; the lines tell us it was regarded as disgraceful for the 1 We can never argue that words are synonymous because they are parallel. Compare Psalm cxiv; in the first verse the parallel words are synonymous, but in the second and third not : "When Israel came out of Egypt and the house of Jacob from among the strange people" [Israel = house of Jacob: Egypt = strange people]. " Judah was His sanctuary and Israel His dominion." [Judah is only one of the tribes of Israel.] "The sea saw that and fled: Jordan was driven back." [The Red Sea and Jordan are distinct, though parallel, examples.] a J.E.G.Ph. XVI, 288. Problems still outstanding 271 Danes to have to follow him, and the revenge at the end falls heavily upon him. The insult and hurt to Danish pride would be very little lessened by the assumption that someone else started the quarrel; and for this assumption, too, the lines give no warrant^." Let US take these objections in turn. I do not see how the fact that Finn is called the bana of Hnsef can prove anything as to "the blame for the attack." Of course the older editors may have thought so. Kemble translates bana "slaughterer," which implies brutality, and perhaps culpabihty. Bosworth- Toller renders bana "murderer," which certainly implies blame for attack. But we know that these are mere mistranslations. Nothing as to "blame for attack" is implied in the term bana: *^bana 'slayer' is a perfectly neutral word, and must not be translated by 'murderer,' or any word connoting criminahty. A man who slays another in self-defence, or in righteous execu- tion of the law, is still his * bane '2." Everyone admits this to be true: and yet at the same time banu is quoted to prove that Finn is to blame; because, for want of a better word, we half- consciously render bana " murderer " : and "murderer " does imply blame. "Words," says Bacon, "as a Tartars bow, do shoot back upon the understanding of the wisest." Lawrence continues: "The lines tell us that it was regarded as disgraceful for the Danes to have to follow him." But surely this is saying too much. That the Frisians are not to taunt the Danes with following the slayer of their lord is only one of two possible interpretations of the 11. 1101-3. And even if we accept this interpretation, it does not follow that the Danes are regarded as having done anything with which they can be justly taunted. It is part of the settlement between Gunnar and Njal, that Njal's sons are not to be taunted: if a man repeats the taunts he shall fall unavenged^. Surely a man may be touchy about being taunted, without being regarded as having done anything disgraceful. Indeed, in our case, the poet im- plies that taunts would not be just, pa him swd gepearfod waes. But, as I try to show below, no pearf could have excused the submission of retainers to a foe who had just slain their lord by deliberate treachery. 1 Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. xxx, 430. 2 Plummer, Two Saxon Chronicles Parallel, ii, 47. • Nj^ Saga, cap. 45. 272 The Fight at Finnshurg "The revenge at the end falls heavily upon Finn." It does; as so often happens where the feud is temporarily patched up, it breaks out again, as in the stories of Alboin, Ingeld or Bolli. But this does not prove that the person upon whom the revenge ultimately falls heavily had been a guest-slayer. The possi- bility of even temporary reconciliation rather implies the reverse. "The insult and hurt to Danish pride would be very little lessened by the assumption that someone else [than Finn] started the quarrel ; and for this assumption, too, the lines give no warrant." But they do: for they tell us that it was due to the bad faith of the Eotens. Commentators may argue, if they will, that "Eotens" means Finn. But the weight of proof lies on them, and they have not met it, or seriously attempted to meet it. Section VIII. The Weight of Proof: the Eotens Finn is surely entitled to be held innocent till he can be proved guilty. And the argument for his guilt comes to this: the trouble was due to the bad faith of the Eotens: "Eotens" means "Jutes": "Jutes" means "Frisians": "Frisians" means "Finn" : therefore the trouble was due to the treachery of Finn. Now I agree that it is probable that Eotenas means Jutes; and, as I have said, there is nothing improbable in a Frisian king having had a clan of Jutes, or a body of Jutish mercen- aries, subject to him. But that the Frisians as a whole should be called Jutes is, j)er se, exceedingly improbable, and we have no shadow of evidence for it. Lawrence tries to justify it by the authority of Siebs: "Siebs, perhaps the foremost authority on Frisian conditions, con- jectures that. . .the occupation by the Frisians of Jutish territory after the conquest of Britain assisted the confusion between the two names." But did the Frisians occupy Jutish territory? When we ask what is Siebs' authority for the hypothesis that Frisians occupied Jutish territory, we find it to be this: that because in Beowulf "Jute" means "Frisian," some such event must have taken place to account for this nomenclature^. So it comes to this: the Frisians must have been called Jutes, because they occupied 1 Pauls Grdr. (2), ii, 524. I The Weight of Proof: the Eotem 273 Jutish territory: the Frisians must have occupied Jutish terri- tory because they are called Jutes. I do not think we could have a better example of what Prof. Tupper calls "philological legend." Siebs rejects Bede's statement, which places the Jutes in what is now Jutland : he believes them to have been immediately adjacent to the Frisians. For this belief that the Jutes were immediate neighbours of the Frisians there is, of course, some support, though not of a very convincing kind: but the belief that the Frisians occupied the territory of these adjacent Jutes rests, so far as I know, solely upon this identification of the jKoiewos-Jutes with the Frisians, which it is then in turn used to prove. But if by Jutes we understand (following Bede) a people dwelUng north of the Angles, in or near the peninsula of Jutland, then it is of course true that (at a much later date) a colony of Frisians did occupy territory which is near Jutland, and which is sometimes included in the name "Jutland." But, as I have tried to show above, this "North Frisian" colony belongs to a period much later than that of the Finn-story: we have no reason whatever to suppose that the Frisians of the Finn story are the North Frisians of Sylt and the adjoining islands and mainland — the Frisiones qui habitabant Juthlandie^. And when we have assumed, without evidence, that, at the period with which we are dealing, Frisians had occupied Jutish territory, we are then further asked to assume that, from this settlement in Jutish territory, such Frisians came to be called Jutes. Now this is an hypothesis fer se conceivable, but very improbable. Throughout the whole Heroic Age, for a thousand years after the time of Tacitus, Germanic tribes were moving, and occupying the territory of other people. During this period, how many instances can we find in which a tribe took the name of the people whose territory it occupied? Even where the name of the new home is adopted, the old tribal name is not adopted. For instance, the Bavarians occupied the territory of the Celtic Boii, but they did not call themselves Boii, but Bai(haim)varii, "the dwellers in the land of the Boii" — a very 1 Helmhold- c. B. 18 274 The Fight at Fmnsburg different thing. In the same way the Jutes who settled in the land of the Cantii did not call themselves Kente, but Cantware, "dwellers in Cantium." Of course, where the old name of a country survives, it does often in the long run come to be applied to its new inhabitants; but this takes many ages. It was not till a good thousand years after the English had conquered the land of the Britons, that Englishmen began to speak and think of themselves as "Britons." In feudal or 18th century days all the subjects of the ruler of Britain, Prussia, Austria, may come to be called British, Prussians, Austrians. But this is no argu- ment for the period with which we are deaHng. The assumption, then, that a body of Frisians, simply because they inhabited land which had once been inhabited by Jutes, should have ; called themselves Jutes, is so contrary to all we know of tribal ; nomenclature at this date, that one could only accept it if com- pelled by very definite evidence to do so. And of such evidence there is no seraph. Neither is there a scrap of evidence for the underlying hypothesis that any Frisians were settled at this date in Jutish territory. And as if this were not hypothetical enough, a further hypo- thesis has then to be built upon it: viz., that this name "Jutes," belonging to such of the Frisians as had settled in Jutish terri- tory, somehow became applicable to Frisians as a whole. Now this might conceivably have happened, but only as a result of certain political events. If the Jutish Frisians had become the governing element in Frisia, it would be conceivable. But after all, we know something about Frisian history, and I do not 1 I know of only one parallel for such assumed adoption of a name : that also concerns the Jutes. The Angles, says Bede, dwelt between the Saxons and Jutes : the Jutes must, then, according to Bede, have dwelt north of the Angles, since the Saxons dwelt south. But the people north of the Angles are now, and have been from early times, Scandinavian in speech, whilst the Jutes who settled Kent obviously were not. The best way of harmonizing known lin- guistic facts with Bede's statement is, then, to assume that Scandinavians settled in the old continental home of these Jutes and took over their name, whilst introducing the Scandinavian speech. Now many scholars have regarded this as so forced and unlikely an explana- tion that they reject it, and refuse to believe that the Jutes who settled Kent can have dwelt north of the Angles, in spite of Bede's statement. If we are asked to reject the "Scandinavian- Jute" theory, as too unlikely on a priori grounds, although it is demanded by the express evidence of Bede, it is surely absurd to put forward a precisely similar theory in favour of " Frisian- Jutes " upon no evidence at all. The Weight of Proof: the Eotens 276 think we are at liberty to assume any such changes as would have enabled the Frisian people, as a whole, to be called Jutes. How is it that we never get any hint anywhere of this Jutish preponderance and Jutish ascendancy? The argument that the "treachery of the Jutes" means the treachery of Finn, King of the Frisians, has, then, no support at all. One further argument there is, for attributing treason to Finn. It has been urged that in other stories a husband entraps and betrays the brother of his wife. But we are not justified in reading pieces of one story into another, unless we believe the two stories to be really connected. The Signy of the VqI- sunga Saga has been quoted as a parallel to Hildeburh^. Signy leaves the home of her father Volsung and her brother Sigmund to wed King Siggeir. Siggeir invites the kin of his wife to visit him, and then slays Volsung and all his sons, save Sigmund. But it is the difference of the story, rather than its likeness, which is striking. No hint is ever made of any possibility of reconciliation between Siggeir and the kin of the men he has slain. The feud admits of no atonement, and is continued to the utterance. Siggeir's very wife helps her brother Sigmund to his revenge. How different from the attitude of Sigmund and Signy is the willingness of Hengest to come to terms, and the merely passive and elegiac bearing of Hildeburh ! These things do not suggest that we ought to read a King Siggeir treachery into the story of Finn. Again, the fact that Atli entices the brother of his wife into his power, has been urged as a parallel. But surely it is rather unfair to erect this into a kind of standard of conduct for the early Germanic brother-in-law, and to assume as a matter of course that, because Finn is Hnsef's brother-in-law, therefore he must have sought to betray him. The whole atmosphere of the Finn-Hnaef story, with its attempted reconciliation, is as op- posed to that of the story of Atli as it is to the story of Siggeir. 1 Koegel (164), Lawrence (382). 18—2 276 The Fight at Finnsburg The only epithet applied to Finn is ferh&-freca, "valiant in soul." Though freca is not necessarily a good word, and is applied to the dragon as well as to Beowulf, yet it denotes grim, fierce, almost reckless courage. It does not suggest a traitor who invites his foes to his house, and murders them by night. I interpret the lines, then, as meaning that the trouble arose from the Jutes, and, since the context shows that these Jutes were on Finn's side, and against the Danes, we must hold them to be a body of Jutes in the service of Finn^. Section IX. Ethics of the Blood Feud But, as we have seen, it is objected that this interpretation of the situation, absolving Finn from any charge of treachery or aggression, does not "help matters^." Or, as Prof. Lawrence puts it, "the hurt to Danish pride [in entering the service of Finn] would be very little lessened by the assumption that some- one else [than Finn] started the quarrel." These objections seem to me to be contrary to the whole spirit of the old heroic literature. I quite admit that there is a stage in primitive society when the act of slaying is everything, and the circumstances, or motives, do not count. In the Levitical Law, it is taken for granted that, if a man innocently causes the death of another, as for instance if his axe break, and the axe-head accidentally kill his comrade, then the avenger of blood will seek to slay the homicide, just as much as if he had been guilty of treacherous murder. To meet such cases the Cities of Refuge ar6 estab- lished, where the homicide may flee till his case can be investi- gated; but even though found innocent, the homicide may be at once slain by the avenger, should he step outside the City of Refuge. And this "eye for eye" vengeance yields slowly: it took long to establish legally in our own country the distinction between murder and homicide. 1 Bjorkman {Eigennamen im Beowulf, 23) interprets the Eotenas as Jutish subjects of Finn. This suggestion was made quite independently of anything I had written, and confirms me in my belief that it is a reasonable interpreta- tion. 2 Ayres in J.E.Q.Ph. xvi, 288. Ethics of the Blood Fevd 277 For "The thought of man" it was held "shall not be tried: as the devil himself knoweth not the thought of man." Never- theless, even the Germanic wer-gild system permits consideration of circumstances: it often happens that no wer-gild is to be paid because the slain man has been unjust, or the aggressor^, or no wer-gild will be accepted because the slaying was under circun>- stances making settlement impossible. Doubtless in Germanic barbarism there was once a stage similar to that which must have preceded the establishment of the Cities of Eefuge in Israel^; but that stage had passed before the period with which we are dealing; in the Heroic Age the motive did count for a very great deal. Not but what there were still the literal people who insisted upon "an eye for an eye," without looking at circumstances; and these people often had their way; but their view is seldom the one taken by the characters with whom the poet or the saga-man sympathises. These generally hold a more moderate creed. One may almost say that the leading motive in heroic literature is precisely this difference of opinion between the people who hold that under any circumstances it is shameful to come to an agreement with the bana of one's lord or friend or kinsman, and the people who are willing under certain circumstances to come to such an agreement. , It happens not infrequently that after some battle in which a great chief has been killed, his retainers are offered quarter, and accept it; but I do not remember any instance of their doing this if, instead of an open battle, it is a case of a trea- cherous attack. The two most famous downfalls of Northern princes afford typical examples: after the battle of Svold, Kolbjorn Stallari accepts quarter from Eric, the chivalrous bani of his lord Olaf^; but Rolf's men refuse quarter after the trea- cherous murder of their lord by Hiarwarus*. ^ e.g. Njdls Saga, cap. 144: Laxdsela Saga, cap. 51. 2 Of course a primitive stage can be conceived at which homicide is regarded as worse than murder. Your brother shoots A intentionally : he must therefore have had good reasons, and you fraternally support him. But you may feel legitimate annoyance if he aims at a stag, and shooting A by mere misadventure, involves you in a blood-feud. ' Heimskritigla, 6l. Tryggv. K. Ill; Saga Olafs Tryggvasonar, K. 70 {Forri' manna Sggur, 1835, x.) * Saxo Grammaticus (ed. Holder, p. 67). 278 The Fight at Finnshurg That men, after a fair fight, could take quarter from, or give it to, those who had slain their lord or closest kinsman, is shown by abundant references in the sagas and histories. For instance, when Eric, after the fight with the Jomsvikings, 'offers quarter to his prisoners, that quarter is accepted, even though their leaders, their nearest kin, and their friends have been slain. The first to receive quarter is young Sigurd, whose father Bui has just been killed: yet the writer obviously does not the less sympathize with Sigurd, or with the other Jomsviking sur- vivors, and feels the action to be generous on the part of Eric, and in no wise base on the part of the Jomsvikings^. But this is natural, because the Jomsvikings have just been defeated by Eric in fair fight. It would be impossible, if Eric were repre- sented as a traitor, slaying the Jomsvikings by a treacherous attack, whilst they were his guests. Is it to be supposed that Sigurd, under such circumstances, would have taken quarter from the slayer of Bui his father? In the Laxdasla Saga, Olaf the Peacock, in exacting ven- geance for the slaying of his son Kjartan, shows no leniency towards the sons of Osvif, on whom the moral responsibility rests. But he accepts compensation in money from Bolli, who had been drawn into the feud against his will. Yet Bolli was the actual slayer of Kjartan, and he had taken the responsi- bility as such^. And Olaf is not held to have lowered himself by accepting a money payment as atonement from the slayer of his son — on the contrary "he was considered to have grown in reputation" from having thus spared Bolli. But after Olaf's death, the feud bursts out again, and revenge in the end falls heavily upon Bolli^, as it does upon Finn. On this question a fairly uniform standard of feeling will be found from the sixth century to the thirteenth. That it does make all the difference in composing a feud, whether the slaying from which the feud arises was treacherous or not, can be abundantly proved from many documents, from Paul the Deacon, and possibly earlier, to the Icelandic Sagas. Such composition of feuds may or may not be lasting; it may or may 1 Heimskringla, 6l. Tryggv, K. 41. 2 lysti vigi a hendr s&. Laxdsela Saga', cap. 49. 3 Cap. 55. Ethics of the Blood Feud 279 not expose to taunt those who make it ; but the questions which arise are precisely these: Who started the quarrel? Was the slaying fair or treacherous? Upon the answer depends the possibility of atonement. There may be some insult and hurt to a man's pride in accepting atonement, even in cases where the other side has much to say for itself. But if the slaying has been fair, composition is felt to be possible, though not without danger of the feud breaking out afresh. Prof. Lawrence has suggested that perhaps, in the original version of the Finnshurg story, the Danes were reduced to greater straits than is represented to be the case in the extant Beowulf Efisode. He thinks that it is "almost incomprehen- sible" that Hengest should make terms with Finn, if he had really reduced Finn and his thegns to such a degree of helpless- ness as the words of the Episode state. It seems to me that the matter depends much more upon the treachery or the honesty of Finn. If Finn was guilty of treachery and slaughter of his guests, then it is "unintelligible" that Hengest should spare him: but if Finn was really a respectable character, then the fact that Hengest was making headway against him is rather a reason why Hengest should be moderate, than otherwise. To quote the Laxdasla Saga again: though Olaf the Peacock lets off Bolli, the bani of his son Kjartan, with a money payment, he makes it clear that he is master of the situation, before he shows this mercy. Paradoxical as it sounds, it was often easier for a man to show moderation in pursuing a blood feud, just because he was in a strong position. It is so again in the Saga of Thar stein the White, But the adversary must be one who deserves to be treated with moderation. Of course it is quite possible that Prof. Lawrence is right, and that in some earlier and more correct version the Danes may have been represented as so outnumbered by the Frisians that they had no choice except to surrender to Finn, and enter his service, or else to be destroyed. But, whether this be so or no, all parallel incidents in the old literature show that their choice between these evil alternatives will depend upon whether Finn, the bana of their lord, slew that lord by deliberate and premeditated treachery whilst he was his guest, or whether he 280 The Fight at Finmburg was embroiled witk Lim through the fault of others, under circumstances which were perfectly honourable. If the latter is the case, then Hnsef's men might accept quarter. Their posi- tion is comparable with that of lUugi at the end of the Grettis Saga^. lUugi is a prisoner in the hands of the slayers of Grettir, and he charges them with having overcome Grettir, when already on the point of death from a mortifying wound, which they had inflicted on him by sorcery and enchantment. The slayers propose to lUugi terms parallel to those made to the retainers of Hnsef. "I will give thee thy life," says their leader, "if thou wilt swear to us an oath not to take vengeance on any of those who have been in this business." Now, note the answer of Illugi: "That might have seemed to me a matter to be discussed, if Grettir had been able to defend himself, and if ye had overcome him with valour and courage; but now it is not to be looked for that I will save my life by being such a coward as art thou. In a word, no man shall be more harmful to thee than I, if I live, for never can I forget how it was that ye have vanquished Grettir. Much rather, then, do I choose to die." Now of course it would have been an "insult and hurt" to the pride of Illugi, or of any other decent eleventh century Ice- lander, to have been compelled to swear an oath not to avenge his brother, even though that brother had been slain in the most chivalrous way possible ; and it would doubtless have been a hard matter, even in such a case, for Illugi to have kept his oath, had he sworn it. But the treachery of the opponents puts an oath out of the question, just as it must have done in the case of the followers of King Cynewulf^ or of Rolf Kraki, and as it must have done in the case of the followers of Hnsef, had the slaying of Hnsef been a premeditated act of treachery on the part of Finn. In the Njdls Saga, Flosi has to take up the feud for the slain Hauskuld. Flosi is a moderate and reasonable man, so the first thing he does is to enquire into the circumstances under which Hauskuld was slain. Flosi finds that the circumstances, and the outrageous conduct of the slayers, give him no choice 1 Cap. 85. ^ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, anno 755. Ethics of the Blood Feud 281 but to prosecute the feud. So in the end he burns NjaFs hall, and in it the child of Kari. Now to have burned a man's child to death might well seem a deed impossible of atonement. Yet in the end Flosi and Kari are reconciled by a full atonement, the father of the slain child actually taking the first step^. And all this is possible because Flosi and Kari recognise that each has been trying to play his part with justice and fairness, and that each is dragged into the feud through the fault of others. When Flosi has said of his enemy, "I would that I were altogether such a man as Kari is," we feel that reconciliation is in sight. Very similar is the reconciliation between Alboin and Thuri- sind in Longobard story, but with this difference, that here it is Alboin who seeks reconciliation by going to the hall of the man whose son he has slain, thus reversing the parts of Flosi and Kari; and reconciliation is possible — ^just barely possible. Again, when Bothvar comes to the hall of Kolf, and slays one of Rolf's retainers, the other retainers naturally claim full vengeance. Rolf insists upon investigating the circumstances. When he learns that it was his own man who gave the provo- cation, he comes to terms with the slayer. Of course it was a difficult matter, and one involving a sacrifice of their pride, for the retainers of Hnaef to come to any composition with the bana of their lord; but it is not unthinkable, if the quarrel was started by Finn's subordinates without his consent, and if Finn himself fought fair. But had the slaying been an act of premeditated treachery on the part of Finn, the atonement would, I submit, have been not only difficult but impossible. If the retainers of Hnsef had had such success as our poem implies, then their action under such circumstances is, as Lawrence says, "almost incomprehensible." If they did it under compulsion, and fear of death, then their action would be contrary to all the ties of Germanic honour, and would entirely deprive them of any sympathy the audience might otherwise have felt for them. Yet it is quite obvious that the retainers of Hnsef are precisely the people with whom the audience is expected to sympathise^. 1 Njdls Saga, cap. 158. 2 Fragment, 11. 40-1. 282 The Fight at Finnshurg In any case, the feud was likely enough to break out again, as it did in the case of Alboin and Thurisind, and equally in that of Hrothgar and Ingeld. Indeed, the different versions of the story of the feud be- tween the house of Hrothgar and the house of Froda are very much to the point. Much the oldest version — probably in its main lines quite historical — is the story as given in Beowulf. Froda has been slain by the Danes in pitched battle. Subsequently Hrothgar, upon whom, as King of the Danes, the responsibility for meeting the feud has devolved, tries to stave it off by wedding his daughter Freawaru to Ingeld, son of Froda. The sympathy of the poet is obviously with the luckless pair, Ingeld and Freawaru, involved as they are in ancient hatreds which are not of their making. For it is foreseen how some old warrior, who cannot forget his loyalty to his former king, will stir up the feud afresh. But Saxo Grammaticus tells the story differently. Froda (Frotho) is treacherously invited to a banquet, and then slain. By this treachery the whole atmosphere of the story is changed. Ingeld (Ingellus) marries the daughter of his father's slayer, and, for this, the old version reproduced by Saxo showers upon him literally scores of phrases of scorn and contempt. The whole interest of the story now centres not in the recreant Ingeld or his wife of treacherous race, but in the old warrior Starkad, whose spirit and eloquence is such that he can bring Ingeld to a sense of his "vast sin^," can burst the bonds of his iniquity, and at last compel him to take vengeance for his father. In the Saga of Rolf Krahi the story of Froda is still further changed. It is a tale not only of treachery but also of slaying of kin. Consequently the idea of any kind of atonement, how- ever temporary, has become impossible; there is no hint of it. Now the whole atmosphere of the Hengest-story in Beowulf is parallel to that of the Beowulf version of the Ingeld-story : agreement is possible, though it does not prove to be permanent. There is room for much hesitation in the minds of Hengest and of Ingeld: they remain the heroes of the story. But if Finn had, as is usually supposed, invited Hnsef to his fort and then 1 p. 213 (ed. Holder). An Attempt at Reconstruction 283 deliberately slain him by treachery, the whole atmosphere would have been different. Hengest could not then be the hero, but the foil: the example of a man whose spirit fails at the crisis, who does the utterly disgraceful thing, and enters the service of his lord's treacherous foe. The hero of the story would be some other character — possibly the young Hunlafing, who, loyal in spite of the treachery and cowardice of his leader Hengest, yet, remaining steadfast of soul, is able in the end to infuse his own courage into the heart of the recreant Hengest, and to inspire all the perjured Danish thegns to their final and tri- umphant revenge on Finn. But that is not how the story is presented. Section X. An Attempt at Reconstruction The theory, then, which seems to fit in best with what we know of the historic conditions at the time when the story arose, and which fits in best with such details of the story as we have, is this: Finn, King of Frisia, has a stronghold, Finnsburg, outside the hmits of Frisia proper. There several clans and chieftains are assembled^: Hnaef, Finn's brother-in-law, prince of the Hocings, the Eotens, and Sigeferth, prince of the Secgan; whether Sigeferth has his retinue with him or no is not clear. But the treachery of the Eotens causes trouble: they have some old feud with Hnsef and his Danes, and attack them by surprise in their hall. There is no proof that Finn has any share in this treason. It is therefore quite natural that in the Efisode — although the treachery of the Eotens is censured — Finn is never blamed; and that in the Fragment, Finn has ap- • parently no share in the attack on the hall, at any rate during those first five days to which the account in the Fragment is limited. The attack is led by Garulf (Fragment, 1. 20), presumably the prince of the Eotens : and some friend or kinsman is urging Garulf not to hazard so precious a life in the first attack. And ^ Finn may perhaps be holding a meeting of chieftains. For similar meetings of chieftains, compare S^rlapdttr, cap 4; Laxdada Saga, cap. 12; SkcUdskaparmdl, cap. 47 (50). 284 , The Fight at Finnsburg here, too, the situation now becomes clearer: if Garulf is the chief of the attacking people, we can understand one of his kinsmen or friends expostulating thus: but if he is merely one of a number of subordinates despatched by Finn to attack the hall, the position would not be so easily understood. Garulf, however, does not heed the warning, and falls, "first of all the dwellers in that land." The Fragment breaks ofi, but the fight goes on : we can imagine that matters must have pro- ceeded much as in the great attack upon the hall in the Nibel- ungen lied?-. One man after another would be drawn in, by the duty of revenge, and Finn's own men would wake to find a battle in progress. "The sudden bale (fser) came upon them." Finn's son joins in the attack, perhaps in order to avenge some young comrade in arms; and is slain, possibly by Hnsef. Then Finn has to intervene, and Hnaef in turn is slain, possibly, though not certainly, by Finn himself. But Hengest, the thegn of Hnasf , puts up so stout a defence, that Finn is unable to take a full vengeance upon all the Danes. He offers them terms. What are Hengest and the thegns to do? Finn has slain their lord. But they are Finn's guests, and they have slain Finn's son in his own house. Finn himself is, I take it, blameless. It is here that the tragic tension comes in. We can understand how, even if Hengest had Finn in his power, he might well have stayed his hand. So peace is made, and all is to be forgotten : solemn oaths are sworn. And Finn keeps his promise honestly. He resumes his position of host, making no distinction between Eotens, Frisians and Danes, who are all, for the time at least, his followers. I think we have here a rational explanation of the action of Hengest and the other thegns of Hnaef, in following the slayer of their lord. The situation resembles that which takes place when Alboin seeks hospitaUty in the hall of the man whose son he has slain, or when Ingeld is reconciled to Hrothgar. Very similar, too, ^ There is assuredly a considerable likeness between the Finn story and the Nibelungen story : this has been noted often enough. It is more open to dispute whether the likeness is so great as to justify us in believing that the Nibelungen story is copied from the Finn story, and may therefore safely be used as an indication how gaps in our existing versions of that story may be filled. See Boer in Z.f.d.A. xlvii, 125 etc. An Attempt at Reconstruction 285 is the temporary reconciliation often brought about in an Ice- landic feud by the feeUng that the other side has something to say for itself, and that both have suffered grievously. The death of Finn's son is a set off against the death of Hnsef^. But, as in the case of Alboin and of Ingeld, or of many an Icelandic Saga, the passion for revenge is too deep to be laid to rest permanently. This is what makes the figure of Hengest tragic, hke the figure of Ingeld: both have plighted their word, but neither can keep it. The assembly breaks up. Finn and his men go back to Friesland, and Hengest accompanies them : of the other Danish survivors nothing is said for the moment: whatever longings they may have had for revenge, the poet concentrates all for the moment in the figure of Hengest. Hengest spends the winter with Finn, but he cannot quiet his conscience: and in the end, he accepts the gift of a sword from a young Danish prince Hunlafing, who is planning revenge. The uncles of Hunlafing, Guthlaf and Oslaf [Ordlaf], had been in the hall when it was attacked, and had survived. It is possible that the young prince's father, Hunlaf, was slain then, and that his son is therefore recognised as having the nominal leadership in the operations of vengeance^. Hengest, by ac- cepting the sword, promises his services in the work of revenge, and makes a great slaughter of the treacherous Eotens. Per- haps he so far respects his oath that he leaves the simultaneous attack upon Finn to Guthlaf and Oslaf [Ordlaf]. Here we should have an explanation of swylce: "in like wise^"; and also an explanation of the omission of Hengest' s name from the final act, the slaying of Finn himself. Hengest made the Eotens 1 The fact that both sides have suffered about equally facilitates a settle- ment in the Teutonic feud, just as it does among the Afridis or the Albanians at the present day. 2 The situation would then be parallel to that in Laxdaela Saga, cap. 60-5, where the boy Thorleik, aged fifteen, is nominally in command of the expedition which avenges his father BoUi, but is only able to accomplish his revenge by enlisting the great warrior Thorgils, who is the real leader of the raid. * Bugge {P.B.B. XII, 36) interpreted this swylce as meaning that sword-bale came upon Finn in like manner as it had previously come upon Hnsef. But this is to make sioylce in 1. 1146 refer back to the death of Hnaef mentioned (72 lines previously) in 1. 1074. Moller {Volksepos, 67) tries to explain sioylce by supposing the passage it introduces to be a fragment detached from its context. 286 The Fight at Finmburg feel the sharpness of his sword: and in like wise Guthlaf and Oslaf conducted their part of the campaign. Of course this is only a guess: but it is very much in the manner of the Heroic Age to get out of a difficulty by respecting the letter of an oath whilst breaking its spirit — just as Hogni and Gunnar arrange that the actual slaying of Sigurd shall be done by Guttorm, who had not personally sworn the oath, as they had. Section XI. Gefwulf, Prince of the Jutes Conclusive external evidence in favour of the view just put forward we can hardly hope for : for this reason, amongst others, that the names of the actors in the Finn tragedy are corrupted and obscured in the different versions. Hneef and Hengest are too well known to be altered: but most of the other names men- tioned in the Fragment do not agree with the forms given in other documents. Sigeferth is the Sseferth of Widsith: the Ordlaf (correct) of the Fragment is the Oslaf of the Episode. The first Guthlaf is confirmed by the Guthlaf of the Episode : the other names, the second Guthlaf, Eaha and Guthere, we cannot control from other sources: but they have all, on various grounds, been suspected. Tribal names are equally varied. Sigeferth's people, the Secgan, are called Sycgan in Widsith. And he would be a bold man who would deny (what almost all students of the subject hold) that Eotena, Eotenum in the Episode is yet another scribal error: the copyist had before him the Anglian form, eotna, eotnum, and miswrote eotena, eotenum, when he should have written the West- Saxon equivalent of the tribal name, Ytena, Ytum — the name we get in Widsith: Ytum [weold] Gefwulf Fin Folcwalding Fresna cynne. But in Widsith names of heroes and tribes are grouped together (often, but not invariably) according as they are related in story. Consequently Gefwulf is probably (not certainly) a hero of the Finn story. What part does he play? If, as I have been trying to show, the Jutes are the aggressors, then, as their chief, Gefwulf would probably be the leader of the attack upon the haU. Ccniclusion 287 This part, in the Fragment, is played by Garulf. Now Garulf is not Gefwulf, and I am not going to pretend that it is. But Garulf is very near Gefwulf: and (what is im- portant) more so in Old English script thg-n in modern script^. It stands to Gefwulf in exactly the same relation as Heregdr to Heorogdr or SigefercS to S^fer^ or Ordldf to Osldf: that is to 8ay the initial letter and the second element are identical. And no serious student, I think, doubts that Heregdr and Heorogdr, or Sigeferd" and Sseferc^, or Ordldf and Osldf are merely corruptions of one name. And if it be admitted to be probable that Gefwulf is miswritten for Gdrulf, then the theory that Garulf was prince of the Jutes, and the original assailant of Hnsef , in addition to being the only theory which satisfactorily explains the internal evidence of the Fragment and the Episode, has also powerful external support. Section XII. Conclusion But, apart from any such confirmation, I think that the theory offers an explanation of the known facts of the case, and that it is the only theory yet put forward which does. It enables us to solve many minor difficulties that hardly otherwise admit of solution. But, above all, it gives a tragic interest to the story by making the actions of the two main characters, Finn and Hengest, intelligible and human : they are both great chiefs, placed by circumstances in a cruel position. Finn is no longer a treacherous host, plotting the murder of his guests, without even having the courage personally to superintend the dirty work: and Hengest is not guilty of the shameful act of entering the service of a king who had slain his lord by treachery when a guest. The tale of Finnsburg becomes one of tragic misfortune besetting great heroes — a tale of the same type as the stories of Thurisind or Ingeld, of Sigurd or Theodric. 1 f, r, s, b, w, p (FnrJrP)' ^^ letters involving a long down stroke, are constantly confused. For examples, see above, p. 245, and cf. e.g. Beowulf y 1. 2882 ifergendra for wergendra); Crist, 12 (craestga for crasftga); Phoenix, 15 {fnmftiox fnfest); Riddles in (rv), 18 {f>yran for pywan)', xl (xli), 63 {pyrre for J^yrse); xlh (xlui), 4 {speop for speow), 11 {wses for \>aes); Lvn (Lvni), 3 {rope for rdfe or rowe), etc. 288 The Fight at Finnsburg FRISIA IN THE HEROIC AGE It is now generally recognised that loose confederacies of tribes were, at the period with which we are dealing, very common. Lawrence says this expressly: "The actors in this drama are members of two North Sea tribes, or rather groups of tribes^''-, and again^: "At the time when the present poem was put into shapC; we surely have to assume for the Danes and Frisians, not compact and unified pohtical units, but groups of tribes held somewhat loosely together, and sometimes known by tribal names." This seems to me a quite accurate view of the political situation in the later Heroic Age. The independent tribes, as they existed at the time of Tacitus, tended to coalesce, and from such coalition the nations of modern Europe are gradually evolved. In the seventh and eighth centuries a great king of Northumbria or Frisia is likely to be king, not of one only, but of many allied tribes. I cannot therefore quite understand why some scholars reject so immediately the idea that the Eotens are not necessarily Frisians, but ^ rather a tribe in aUiance with the Frisians. For if, as they admit, we are dealing not with two compact units, but with two groups of tribes, why must we assume, as earher scholars have done, that Eotenas must be synonymous either with Frisians or Danes? That assumption is based upon the belief that we are dealing with two compact imits. It has no other foundation. I can quite understand Kemble and Ettmiiller jumping at the conclusion that the Eotens must be identical with the one side or the other. But once we have recognised that confederacies of tribes, rather than individual tribes, are to be expected in the period with which we are dealing, then surely no such assumption should be made. I think we shall be helped if we try to get some clear idea of the nation- alities concerned in the struggle. For to judge by the analogy of other */ contemporary Germanic stories, there probably is some historic basis for the Finnsburg story: and even if the fight is purely fictitious, and if Finn Folcwalding never existed, still the Old English poets would represent the fictitious Frisian king in the light of what they knew of contemporary kings. Now the Frisians were no insignificant tribe. They were a power, con- trolling the coasts of what was then called the "Frisian Sea^." Commerce was in Frisian hands. Archaeological evidence points to a lively trade between the Frisian districts and the coast of Norway*. From about the sixth century, when "Dorostates of the Frisians" is mentioned by the Geographer of Ravenna (or the source from which he drew) in a manner which shows it to have been known even in Italy as a place of peculiar 1 p. 392. 2 p, 431. 3 Nennius Interpretatus, ed. Mommsen {Chronica Minora, iii, 179, in Mon. Oerm. Hist.) * " De norske oldsager synes at vidne cm, at temmelig livlige handelsfor- bindelser i den aeldre jemalder har fundet sted mellem Norge og de sydlige Nordsje^kyster." Undset, Fra Norges seldre Jemalder in the Aarb0ger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie, 1880, 89-184, esp. p. 173. See also Chadwick, Origin, 93. I am indebted to Chadwick's note for this reference to Undset. Frisia in the Heroic Age 289 importance^, to the ninth century, when it was destroyed by repeated ^ attacks of the Vikings, the Frisian port of Dorestad^ was one of the greatest trade centres of Northern Europe^. By the year 700 the Frisian power had suffered severely from the constant blows dealt to it by the Frankish -^ Mayors of the Palace. Yet evidence seems to show that even at that date the Frisian king ruled all the coast which intervened between the borders of the Franks on the one side and of the Danes on the other*. When a zealous missionary demonstrated the powerlessness of the heathen gods by baptizing three converts in the sacred spring of Fosetisland, he was carried before the King of Frisia for judgement^. At a later date the "Danes" became the controlling power in the North Sea; but in the centuries before the Viking raids began, the Frisians appear ' to have had it all their own way. Finn, son of Folcwald, found his way into some English genealogies* just as the Roman Emperor did into others. This also seems to point to the Frisian power having made an impression on the nations around. We should expect all this to be reflected in the story of the great Frisian king. How then would a seventh or eighth century Englishman re- gard Finn and his father Folcwalda ? Probably as paramount chiefs, holding authority over the tribes of the South and East coast of the North Sea, similar to that which, for example, a Northumbrian king held over the tribes settled along the British coast. Indeed, the whole story of the Northumbrian kings, as given in Bede, deserves comparison: the relation with the subordinate tribes, the alliances, the feuds, the attempted ^- sassiQations, the loyalty of the thegns — this is the atmosphere amid which the Finn story grew up in England, and if we want to understand the story we must begin by getting this point of view. But, if this be a correct estimate of tribal conditions at the time the Finnshurg story took form, we no longer need far-fetched explanations to account for Finnsburg not being in Friesland. It is natural that it should not be, just as natural as that the contemporary Eadwinesburg should be outside the ancient limits of Deira. Nor do we need any far-fetched explanations why the Frisians should be called Eotenas. That the King of Frisia should have had Jutes under his rule is likely enough. And this is all that the words of the Episode demand. 1 Ravennatis anonymi cosmographia, ed. Pinder et Parthey, Berolini, 1860, pp. 27, 28 (§ I, 11). * The modem Wijk bij Duurstede, not far from Utrecht, on the Lower Rhine. ' An account of the numerous coins found among the ruins of the old town will be found in the Forschungen zur deutschen Gescfdchte, iv (1864), pp. 301-303. They testify to its commercial importance. * So Adam of Bremen, following Alcuin. Concerning "Heiligland" Adam says : " Hanc in vita Sancti WiUebrordi Fosetisland appellari discimus, quae sita est in eonfinio Danorum et Fresonum." Adam of Bremen in Pertz, Scriptores, VII, 1846, p. 369. 5 Alcuin' 8 Life of Willibrard in Migne (1851) — Alcuini Opera, vol. ii, 699-702. « See above, pp. 199-200. O. B. 19 PART IV APPENDIX A. A POSTSCRIPT ON MYTHOLOGY IN BEOWULF (1) Beowulf the Scylding and Beowulf son of Ecgtheow It is now ten years since Prof. Lawrence attacked the mytho- logical theories which, from the time when they were first enunciated by Kemble and elaborated by Miillenhoff, had , wielded an authority over Beowulf scholars which was only f very rarely disputed^. Whilst in the main I agree with Prof. Lawrence, I believe that there is an element of truth in the theories of Kemble. It would, indeed, be both astonishing and humiliating if we found that a view, accepted for three-quarters of a century by almost every student, had no foundation. What is really re- markable is, not that Kemble should have carried his mytho- logical theory too far, but that, with the limited information at his disposal, he at once saw certain aspects of the truth so clearly. The mythological theories involve three propositions: (a) That some, or all, of the supernatural stories told of Beowulf the Geat, son of Ecgtheow (especially the Grendel- struggle and the dragon-struggle), were originally told of Beowulf the Dane, son of Scyld, who can be identified with the Beow or Beaw^ of the genealogies. * It had been disputed by Skeat, Earle, Boer, and others, but never with such strong reasons. 2 I use below the form "Beow," which I believe to be the correct one. "Beaw" is the form in the Angh-Saxon Chronicle. But as the name of Sceldwa, Beaw's father, is there given in a form which is not West-Saxon {aceld, not Kcield or scyld), it may well be that "Beaw" is also the Anglian dialect form, if it be not indeed a mere error: and this is confirmed by Beo (Ethelwerd), Beoivius (William of Malmesbury), Boerinua (for Beowinus: Chronicle Roll), perhaps too by Beoioa (Charter of 931) and Beowi (MS Cott Tib. B. IV). For the significance of this last, see pp. 303-4, below, and Bjorkman in Engl. Stud. Ln, 171, Anglia, Beiblatty xxx, 23. 19—2 292 A Postscript on Mythology in Beowulf (6) That this Beow was an ancient " god of agriculture and fertility." (c) That therefore we can allegorize Grendel and the dragon into culture-myths connected with the "god Beow." Now (c) would not necessarily follow, even granting [a) and (h) ; for though a hero of story be an ancient god, many of his most popular adventures may be later accretion. However, these two propositions (a) and (6) would, together, establish a very strong probability that the Grendel- story and the dragon - story were ancient culture-myths, and would entitle to a sympathetic hearing those who had such an interpretation of them to offer. That Beow is an ancient "god of agriculture and fertility," I believe to be substantially true. We shall see that a great deal of evidence, unknown to Kemble and Miillenhoff, is now forthcoming to show that there was an ancient belief in a corn- spirit Beow : and this Beow, whom we find in the genealogies as son of Scyld or Sceldwa and descendant of Sceaf, is pretty obviously identical with Beowulf, son of Scyld Scefing, in the Prologue of Beowulf. So far as the Prologue is concerned, there is, then, almost V certainly a remote mythological background. But before we can claim that this background extends to the supernatural adventures attributed to Beowulf, son of Ecgtheow, we must prove our proposition {a) : that these adventures were once told, not of Beowulf, son of Ecgtheow, but of Beowulf or Beow, son of Scyld. When it was first suggested, at the very beginning of Beowulf -ciiticism, that Beowulf was identical with the Beow of the genealogies, it had not been realized that there were in the poem two persons named Beowulf: and thus an anonymous scholar in the Monthly Review of 1816^, not knowing that Beowulf the slayer of Grendel is (at any rate in the poem as it stands) distinct from Beowulf, son of Scyld, connected both with Beow, son of Scyld, so initiating a theory which, for almost a century, was accepted as ascertained fact. * Vol. Lxxxi, p. 517. Kemhle's mythological theory 293 Kemble's identification was probably made independently of the work of this early scholar. Unlike him, Kemble, of course, realized that in our poem Beowulf the Dane, son of Scyld, is a person distinct from, is in fact not related to, Beowulf son of Ecgtheow. But he deliberately identified the two : he thought that two distinct traditions concerning the same hero had been amalgamated: in one of these traditions Beowulf may have been represented as son of Scyld, in the other as son of Ecgtheow, precisely as the hero Gunnar or Gunter is in one tradition son of Gifica (Giuki), in another son of Dankrat. Of course such duplication as Kemble assumed is conceivable. Kemble might have instanced the way in which one and the same hero reappears in the pages of Saxo Grammaticus, with somewhat different parentage or surroundings, as if he were a quite different person. The Lives of the Two Off as present another parallel: the adventures of the elder Offa have been transferred to the younger, so that, along with much that is historical or semi-historical, we have much in the Life of Offa II that is simply borrowed from the story of Offa I. In the same way it is conceivable that reminiscences of the mythical ad- ventures of the elder Beowulf (Beow) might have been mingled with the history of the acts of the younger Beowulf, king of the Geatas. A guarantee of the intrinsic reasonableness of this theory lies in the fact that recently it has been put forward again by Dr Henry Bradley. But it is not enough that a theory should be conceivable, and be supported by great names. I cannot see that there is any positive evidence for it at all. The arguments produced by Kemble are not such as to carry conviction at the present day. The fact that Beowulf the Geat, son of Ecgtheow, "is represented throughout as a protecting and redeeming being" does not necessarily mean that we must look for some god or demigod of the old mythology — Frey or Sceaf or Beow — with whom we can identify him. This characteristic is strongly present in many Old English monarchs and magnates of historic. Christian, times: Oswald or Alfred or Byrhtnoth. Indeed, it might with much plausi- bility be argued that we are to see in this " protecting " character 294 A Postscript on Mythology in Beowulf of the hero evidence of Christian rather than of heathen in- fluence^. Nor can we argue anything from the absence of any historic record of a king Beowulf of the Geatas; our records are too scanty to admit of argument from silence : and were such argu- ment valid, it would only prove Beowulf fictitious, not mytho- logical — no more necessarily an ancient god than Tom Jones or Mr Pickwick. There remains the argument of Dr Bradley. He points out that "The poem is divided into numbered sections, the length of which was probably determined by the size of the pieces of parchment of which an earlier exemplar consisted. Now the first fifty-two lines, which are concerned with Scyld and his son Beowulf, stand outside this numbering. It may reasonably be inferred that there once existed a written text of the poem that did not include these lines. Their substance, however, is clearly ancient. Many difficulties will be obviated if we may suppose that this passage is the beginning of a different poem, the hero of which was not BeowuK the son of Ecgtheow, but his Danish namesake^." In this Bradley sees support for the view that "there were circulated in England two rival poetic versions of the story of the encounters with supernatural beings: the one referring them to Beowulf the Dane" [of this the Prologue to our extant poem would be the only surviving portion, whilst] "the other (represented by the existing poem) attached them to the legend of the son of Ecgtheow." But surely many objections have to be met. Firstly, as Dr Bradley admits, the mention of Beowulf the Dane is not confined to the Prologue) this earlier Beowulf "is mentioned at the beginning of the first numbered section" and conse- quently Dr Bradley has to suppose that "the opening lines of this section have undergone alteration in order to bring them into connection with the prefixed matter." And why should we assume that the "passus" of Beowulf correspond to pieces of 1 It has indeed been so argued by Brandl: " Beowulf... ist nur der Erloser seines Volkes...und dankt es schliesshch dem Himmel, in einer an den Heiland gemahnenden Weise, dass er die Seinen um den Preis des eigenen Lebens mit Schatzen begliicken konnte." Pauls Grdr. (2), ii, 1. 1002. * Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11 th edit., iii, 760-1. Dr Bradley's argument 295 parcliment of various sizes of which an earlier exemplar con- sisted? These "passus" vary in length from 43 lines to 142, a disproportion by no means extraordinary for the sections of one and the same poem, but very awkward for the pages of one and the same book, however roughly constructed. One of the "passus" is just twice the average length, and 30 lines longer than the one which comes next to it in size. Ought we to assume that an artificer would have made his book clumsy by putting in this one disproportionate page, when, by cutting it in two, he could have got two pages of just about the size he wanted? Besides, the different "passus" do not seem to me to show signs of having been caused by such mechanical reasons as the dimensions of the parchment upon which they were written. On the contrary, the 42 places where sections begin and end almost all come where a reader might reasonably be expected to pause: 16 at the beginning or end of a speech: 18 others at a point where the narrative is resumed after some digression or general remark. Only eight remain, and even with these, there is generally some pause in the narrative at the point indicated. In only two instances does a "passus" end at a flagrantly inappropriate spot ; in one of these there is strong reason to suppose that the scribe may have caused the trouble by beginning with a capital where he had no business to have done so^. Generally, there seems to be some principle governing the division of chapter from chapter, even though this be not made as a modern would have made it. But, if so, is there anything extraordinary in the first chapter, which deals with events three generations earlier than those of the body of the poem, being allowed to stand outside the numbering, as a kind of prologue? The idea of a preface or prologue was quite familiar in Old English times. The oldest mss ^ of Bede's History have, at the end of the preface. Explicit praefatio incipiunt capitula. So we have in one of the two oldest mss^ of the Pastoral Care "©is is seo foresprsec." On the other hand, the prologue or preface might be left without any heading or colophon, and the next * 1. 2039, where a capital occurs, but without a section number. 2 Moore, Namur, Cotton. » Cotton Tiberius B. XL 296 A Postscript on Mythology in Beowulf chapter begin as No. I. This is the case in the other ms of the Pastoral Care^. Is there, then, such difficulty in the dissertation on the glory of the ancient Danish kings being treated as what, in fact, it is: a prologue or preface; and being, as such, simply left outside the numbering? Still less can we argue for the identification of our hero, the son of Ecgtheow, with Frotho, and through him with Beow, from the supposed resemblances between the dragon fights of Beowulf and Frotho. Such resemblances have been divined by Sievers, but we have seen that it is the dissimilarity, not the resemblance, of the two dragon fights which is really note- worthy^. To prove that Beow was the original antagonist of Grendel there remains, then, only the mention in the charter of a Grendles mere near a Beowan hamm^. Now this was not known to Kemble at the time when he formed his theory that the original slayer of Grendel was not Beowulf, but Beow. And if the argu- ments upon which Kemble based his theory had been at all substantial, this charter would have afforded really valuable support. But the fact that two names occur near each other in a charter cannot confirm any theory, unless that theory has already a real basis of its own. (2) Beow Therefore, until some further evidence be discovered, we must regard the belief that the Grendel and the dragon stories were originally myths of Beow, as a theory for which sufficient evidence is not forthcoming. But note where the theory breaks down. It seems indis- putable that Beowulf the Dane, son of Scyld Scefing, is identical with Beo(w) of the genealogies: for Beo(w) is son of Scyld* or Sce(a)ldwa^, who is a Scefing. But here we must stop. There is, as we have seen, no evidence that the Grendel or dragon adventures were transferred from him to their present hero, . 1 Hatton, 20. ^ gee above, pp. 92-7. ^ g^e above, pp. 43-4. * Ethelwerd. ^ Chronicle. Beow as the spirit of the com 297 Beowulf the Geat, son of Ecgtheow. It would, of course, be quite possible to accept such transference, and still to reject the mythological interpretation of these adventures, just as it would be possible to believe that Gawain was originally a sun-hero, whilst rejecting the interpretation as a sun-myth of any particular adventure which could be proved to have been once told concerning Gawain. But I do not think we need even concede, as Boer^ and Chadwick^ do, that adventures have been transferred from Beowulf the Dane to Beowulf the Geat. We have seen that there is no evidence for such transference, how- ever intrinsically likely it may be. Till evidence is forthcoming, it is useless to build upon Kemble's conjecture that Beowulf the Scylding sank into Beowulf the Waegmunding^. But it is due to Kemble to remember that, while he only put this forward as a tentative conjecture, what he was certain about was the identity of Beowulf the Scylding with Beow, and the divinity of these figures. And here all the evidence seems to justify him. "The divinity of the earlier Beowulf," Kemble wrote, "I hold for indisputable.... Beo or Beow is... in all probability a god of agriculture and fertility.... It strengthens this view of the case that he is the grandson of Scedf, manipulus frumenti, with whom he is perhaps in fact identical*." Whether or no Beow and Sceaf were ever identical, it is certain that Beow (grain) the descendant of Sceaf (sheaf) sug- gests a corn-mjrfch, some survival from the ancient worship of a corn -spirit. Now heow, 'grain, barley,' corresponds to Old Norse hygg, just as, corresponding to O.E. triewe, we have O.N. tryggr, or corresponding to O.E. gleaw, O.N. glgggr. Corresponding to the O.E. proper name Beow, we might expect an O.N. name, the first letters in which would be Bygg{v)-. And pat he comes, like the catastrophe of the Old Comedy. When Loki strode into the Hall of ^Egir, and assailed with clamour and scandal the assembled gods and goddesses, there were present, among the major gods, also Byggvir and his wife 1 Boer, Beowulf, 135, 143: Arkiv f. nord. Filologi, xix, 29. 2 Heroic Age, 126. ' Postscript to Preface, p. ix. * Postscript, pp. xi, xiv. 298 A Postscript on Mythology in Beowulf Beyla, the servants of Frey, the god of agriculture and fertility. Loki reviles the gods, one after the other: at last he exchanges reproaches with Frey. To see his lord so taunted is more than Byggvir can endure, and he turns to Loki with the words: Know thou, that were my race such as is that of Ingunar-Frey^ and if I had so goodly a seat, finer than marrow would I grind thee^ thou crow of ill- omen, and pound thee all to pieces^. Byggvir is evidently no great hero : he draws his ideas from the grinding of the homely hand-mill, with which John Barley- corn has reason to be familiar: A miller used him worst of all. For he crushed him between two stones^. Loki, who has addressed by name all the other gods, hi& acquaintances of old, professes not to know who is this insigni- ficant being: but his reference to the hand-mill shows that in reality he knows quite well: What is that little creature that I see, fawning and sneaking and snuffling : ever wilt thou be at the ears of Frey, and chattering at the quern^. Byggvir replies with a dignity which reminds us of the traditional characteristics of Sir John Barleycorn, or Allan. O'Maut. For: Uskie-bae ne'er bure the bell Sae bald as Allan bure himsel*. ^ See Lokasenna in Die Lieder der Edda, herausg. von Sijmons u. Gering^ I, 134. Byggvir kvaj?: "[Veiztu] ef [ek] iS^le ffittak sem Ingunar-Freyr, ok sva sffillekt setr, merge smara mMbak [j^a] meinkrgko ok lem}>a alia i li]?o." 2 Lines corresponding to these of Bums are found both in the Scotch ballad recorded by Jamieson, and in the English ballad (Pepys Collection). See Jamieson, Popular Ballads and Songs, 1806, ii, 241, 256. 3 Loki kva)>: "Hvat's J>at et litla, es [ek] j^at iQggra sek, ok snapvist snaper? at eyrom Freys mont[u] © vesa ok und kvernom klaka." * Jamieson, n, 239. So Bums: "John Barleycorn was a hero bold," and the ballad John Barleycorn is the wightest man That ever throve in land. Bemo and Byggvir 299 Byggvir adopts the same comic-heroic pose: Byggvir am I named, and all gods and men call me hasty; proud am I, by reason that all the children of Odin are drinking ale together^. But any claims Byggvir may make to be a hero are promptly dismissed by Loki: Hold thou silence, Byggvir, for never canst thou share food justly among men: thou didst hide among the straw of the hall: they could not find thee, when men were fighting^. Now the taunts of Loki, though we must hope for the credit of Asgard that they are false, are never pointless. And such jibes as Loki addresses to Byggvir would be pointless, if applied to one whom we could think of as in any way like our Beowulf. Later, Beyla, wife of Byggvir, speaks, and is silenced with the words "Hold thy peace — wife thou art of Byggvir." Byggvir , must have been a recognized figure of the old mythology^, but one differing from the monster-slaying Beow of Miillenhoff's imagination. Byggvir is a little creature (et litla), and we have seen above^ that Scandinavian scholars have thought that they have dis- covered this old god in the Pekko who "promoted the growth of barley" among the Finns in the sixteenth century, and who is still worshipped among the Esthonians on the opposite side of the gulf as a three year old child; the form Pekko being derived, it is supposed, from the primitive Norse form *Beggwuz. This is a corner of a very big subject: the discovery, among the Lapps and Finns, of traces of the heathendom of the most ^ Byggvir kva}>: "Byggver ek heite, en mik brajjan kve)>a go\> 9II ok gumar; ]>vi emk h^r hrojjogr, at drekka Hropts meger aller 9I saman." * Loki kva|>: "))ege J)ii, Byggver! \>vi kunner aldrege deila me\> mgnnom mat; [ok] )>ik 1 flets strae finna n6 mptto, ]}&s v9go verar." ' This follows from the allusive way in which he and his wife are introduced — there must be a background to allusions. If the poet were inventing this figure, and had no background of knowledge in his audience to appeal to, he must have been more expUcit. Cf. Olsen in Christiania VidenskapsseUkapets Skrifter, 1914, 11, 2, 107. 300 A Postscript on Mythology in Beowulf ancient Teutonic world, just as Thomsen has taught us to find in the Finnish language traces of Teutonic words in their most antique form. The Lappish field has proved the most successful hunting ground^: among the Finns, apart from the Thunder-god, con- nection with Norse beliefs is arguable mainly for a group of gods of fruitfulness^. The cult of these, it is suggested, comes from scattered Scandinavian settlers in Finland, among whom the Finns dwelt, and from whom they learnt the worship of the spirits of the seed and of the spring, just as they learnt more practical lessons. First and foremost among these stands Pekko, whom we know to have been especially the god of barley, and whose connection with Beow or Byggvir {^Beggwuz) is therefore a likely hypothesis enough^. Much less certain is the connection of Sampsa, the spirit of vegetation, with any Germanic prototype; he may have been a god of the rush-grass* (Germ, simse). Runkoteivas orRukotivo was certainly the god of rye, and the temptation to derive his name from Old Norse {rugr-tivorr, "rye-god") is great^. But we have not evidence for 1 See Olrik, "Nordisk og Lappisk Gudsdyrkelse," Danske Studier, 1905, pp. 39-57; "Tordenguden og hans dreng," 1905, pp. 129-46; "Tordenguden og bans dreng i Lappernes myteverden," 1906, pp. 65-9; Krohn, "Lappische beitrage zur germ, mythologie," Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen, vi, 1906, pp. 155-80. 2 See Axel Olrik in Festgabe f. Vilh. Thomsen, 1912 {= Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen, xii, 1, p. 40). Olrik refers therein to his earlier paper on the subject in Danske Studier, 1911, p. 38, and to a forthcoming article in the Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift, which has, I think, never appeared. See also K. Krohn in Gottingische gelehrte Anzeigen, 1912, p. 211. Reviewing Meyer's Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte, Krohn, after referring to the Teutonic gods of agriculture, continues "Ausser diesen agrikulturellen Gottheiten sind aus der finnischen Mythologie mit Hiilfe der Linguistik mehrere germanische Naturgotter welche verschiedene Nutzpfianzen vertreten, entdeckt worden: der Roggengott Runkoteivas oder Rukotivo, der Gerstengott Pekko (nach Magnus Olsen aus urnord. Beggw-, vgl. Byggwir) und ein Gott des Futtergrases Sampsa (vgl. Semse od. Simse, 'die Binse')." See also Krohn, "Germanische Elemente in der finnischen Volksdichtung," Z.f.d.A. li, 1909, pp. 13-22; and Karsten, "Einige Zeugnisse zur altnordischen Gotterverehrung in Finland," Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen, xii, 307-16. 3 As proposed by K. Krohn in a publication of the Finnish Academy at Helsingfors which I have not been able to consult, but as to which see Setala in Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen, xiii, 311, 424. Setala accepts the derivation from beggwu-, rejecting an alternative derivation of Pekko from a Finnish root. * This is proposed by J. J. Mikkola in a note appended to the article by K. Krohn, "Sampsa Pellervoinen fflft"). For examples of "-)i" for>a, see JElfrics Orammatik, her&us^. Zupitza, 1880; 38, 3; 121, 4; 291, 1. * There are two copies, one of the tenth and one of the eleventh century, among the Crawford Collection in the Bodleian. See Birch, Cart. Sax. iii, 667 (No. 1331); Napier and Stevenson, The Cratvford Collection (Anecdota Oxoniensia), 1895, pp. 1, 3, 50. OB.' 20 306 Grendel A.D. 931. Grant of land at Ham in Wiltshire by Athelstan to his thane Wulfgar. Quoted above, p. 43. It is in this charter that on Beowan hammes Jiecgan, on Grendles mere^ occur. "Grendel pits or meres" are in most other cases in low-lying marshy country : but this, like (perhaps) the preceding one, is in the uplands — it must have been a lonely mere among the hills, under Inkpen Beacon. Circa a.d. 957. A list of boundaries near Battersea^. Bis synd &d landgemxre to Batriceseie. Mrst at hegefre ; fram hegefre to g^tenesheale; fram gmteneshsele to gryndeles syllen ; fram gryndeles sylle to russemere ; fram ryssemere to hadgenham.... All this is low-lying land, just south of the Thames. Hegefre is on the river; Bselgenham is Balham, co. Surrey. "From Grendel's mire to the rushy mere" harmonizes excellently with what we know of the swampy nature of this district in early times. A.D. 958. Grant of land at Swinford, on the Stour, co. Stafford, by King Eadred to his thane Burhelm^. Ondlong hseces wi&neol^an eostacote; ondlong dices in grendels- mere; of grendels-mere in stdncofan; of stdncofan ondlong dUne on stir an mere.... A.D. 972. Confirmation of lands to Pershore Abbey (Wor- cester) by King Edgar*. of Grindles hece swd pmt genisere ligtS.... A.D. 972. Extract from an account of the descent of lands belonging to Westminster, quoting a grant of King Edgar^. andlang hagan to grendeles gatan a^fter kincges mearce innan hriegentan.... The property described is near Watling Street, between Edgware, Hendon, and the River Brent. It is a low-lying 1 MS Cotton Gh. VIII, 16. See Birch, Cart. Sax. ii, 363 (No. 677); Kemble, Cod. Dipl. II, 172. 2 A nearly contemporary copy: Westminster Abbey CJiarters, iii. See Birch, Cart. Sax. iii, 189 (No. 994), and W. B. Sanders, Ord. Surv. Foes, ii, plate III. 3 A fourteenth to fifteenth century copy preserved at Wells Cathedral j {Registr. Album, f. 289 6). See Birch, Cart. Sax. iii, 223 (No. 1023). < MS Cotton Aug. II, 6. See Birch, Cart. Sax. iii, 588 (No. 1282). 6 Brit. Mu8. Stowe Chart. No. 32. See Birch, Cart, Sax. iii, 605 (No. 1290) I His liking for mereSf pits, mires and hecks 307 district almost surrounded by the hills of Hampstead, Highgate, Barnet, Mill Hill, Elstree, Bushey Heath and Harrow. The bottom of the basin thus formed must have been a swamp ^. What the "gate" may have been it is difficult to say. A foreign scholar has suggested that it may have been a narrow mountain defile or possibly a cave^: but this suggestion could never have been made by anyone who knew the country. The "gate" is likely to have been a channel connecting two meres — or it might have been a narrow piece of land between them — one of those enge dnpa&as which Grendel and his mother had to tread. Anyway, there is nothing exceptional in this use of "gate" in connection with a water-spirit. Necker, on the Continent, also had his "gates." Thus there is a "Neckersgate Mill" near Brussels, and the name "Neckersgate" used also to be applied to a group of houses near by, surrounded by water^. All the other places clearly point to a water-spirit : two meres, two pits, a mire and a beck : for the most part situated in low- lying country which must in Anglo-Saxon times have been swampy. All this harmonizes excellently with the fenfreo&o of Beowulf (1. 851). Of course it does not in the least follow that these places were named after the Grendel of our poem. It may well be that there was in England a current belief in a creature Grendel, dwelling among the swamps. Von Sydow has compared the Yorkshire belief in Peg Powler, or the Lancashire Jenny Greenteeth. But these aquatic monsters are not exactly parallel; for they abide in the water, and are dangerous only to those who attempt to cross it, or at any rate venture too near the bank*, whilst Grendel and even his mother are capable of excursions of some distance from their fastness amid the fens. 1 Cf. the Victoria History, Middlesex, it, p. 1. 2 " Orendelea gate har val snarast varit nagon naturbildning t. ex. ett trangt bergpass eller kanske en grotta": C. W. von Sydow, in an excellent article on Orendel i anglosaxiska ortnamn, in Nordiska Ortnamn: Hyllningsshrift tilldgnad A. Noreen, Upsala, 1914, pp. 160-4. 3 Pr6s du Necker sgat molen, il y avait jadis, anterieurement aux guerres de religion, des maisons entourees d'eau et appelees de hoffstede te Neckersgate: Wauters (A.), Histoire des Environs de Bruxelles, 1852, iii, 646. * Peg Powler lived in the Tees, and devoured children who played on the banks, especially on Sundays: Peg o' Nell, in the Ribble, demanded a life every seven years. See Henderson ( W. ), Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England, 1879 {Folk-Lore Society), p. 265. 20—2 * 308 Grendel Of course the mere-haunting Grendel may have been iden- tified only at a comparatively late date with the spirit who struggles with the hero in the house, and flees below the earth in the folk- tale. At any rate belief in a Grendel, haunting mere and fen, is clearly demonstrable for England — at any rate for the south and west of England: for of these place-names two belong to the London district, one to Wiltshire, one to Devonshire, two to Worcester and one to Stafford. The place-name Grendele in Yorkshire is too doubtful to be of much help. (Domesday Book, I, 302.) It is the modern village Grindale, four miles N.W. of Bridlington. From it, probably, is derived the surname Grindle, Grindall (Bardsley). Abroad, the nearest parallel is to be found in Transsylvania, where there is a Grdndels mdr among the Saxons of the Senndorf district, near Bistritz. The Saxons of Transsylvania are sup- posed to have emigrated from the neighbourhood of the lower Rhine and the Moselle, and there is a Grindelhach in Luxemburg which may possibly be connected with the marsh demon ^. Most of the German names in Grindel- or Grendel- are con- nected with grendel, "a bar," and therefore do not come into consideration here^ : but theTranssylvanian " Grendel's marsh^,'* anyway, reminds us of the English " Grendel's marsh " or " mere " or "pit." Nevertheless, the local story with which the Trans- sylvanian swamp is connected — that of a peasant who was ploughing with six oxen and was swallowed up in the earth — is such that it requires considerable ingenuity to see any con- nection between it and the Beowulf -Grendel-tole^. ^ See Kisch (G.), Vergleichendes Worterbuch der siebenbilrgischen und mosel- ^rdnkischluxemburgischen Mundart, nebst siebenbiirgischniederrheinischem Orts- und Familiennamen-verzeichnis (vol. xxxiii, 1 of the Archiv des Vereins f. siebenbiirg. Landeskunde, 1905). 2 See Grindel in Forstemann (E.), Altdeutsches Namenbuch, Dritte Aufl., herausg. Jellinghaus, ii, 1913, and in Fischer (H.), Schwdbisches Worterbuch^ III, 1911 (nevertheless Rooth legitimately calls attention to the names recorded by Fischer in which Grindel is connected with bach, teich and moos). * There is an account of this by G. Kisch in the Festgabe zur Feier der Einweihung des neuen evang. Gymnasial Burger- und Elementar-schulgebdudes in Besztercze {Bistritz) am 7 Oct. 1911; a document which I have not been able to procure. * Such a connection is attempted by W. Benary in Hern^B Archiv, cxxx, 154 Alternative suggestions, which would exclude any connection with the Grendel of Beoumlf, are made by Klaeber, in Archiv, cxxxi, 427. I ] Suggested derivations of the name 309 The Anglo-Saxon place-names may throw some light upon the meaning and etymology of "GrendeU." The name has generally been derived from grindan, " to grind " ; either directly^, because Grendel grinds the bones of those he devours, or in- directly, in the sense of " tormentor^." Others would connect with O.'N. grindill, "storm," and perhaps with M.E. gryndel, "angry*." It has recently been proposed to connect the word with grund, "bottom": for Grendel lives in the mere-grund or grund- wong and his mother is the grund-wyrgin. Erik Rooth, who proposes this etymology, compares the Icelandic grandi, "a sandbank," and the common Low German dialect word grand, "coarse sand^." This brings us back to the root "to grind," for grand, "sand" is simply the product of the grinding of the waves^. Indeed the same explanation has been given of the word "ground^." However this may be, the new etymology differs from the old in giving Grendel a name derived, not from his grinding or tormenting others, but from his dwelling at the bottom of the lake or marsh^. The name would have a parallel in the Modern English grindle, grundel, German grundeP, a fish haunting the bottom of the water. The Old English place-names, associating Grendel as they do with meres and swamps, seem rather to support this. As to the Devonshire stream Grendel (now the Grindle or Greendale Brook), it has been suggested that this name is also 1 A very useful summary of the different etymologies proposed is made by Rooth in Anglia, Beiblatt, xxviii (1917), 335-8. 2 So Skeat, "On the significance of the monster Grendel," Journal of Philology, Cambridge, xv (1886), p. 123; Laistner, Batsel der Sphinx, 1889, p. 23; Holthausen, in his edition. =» So Weinhold in the SB. der k. Akad. Wien, Phil.-Hist. Classe, xxvi, 255. * Cf. Gollanoz, Patience, 1913, Glossary. For grindill as one of the synonyms for "storm," see Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, Hafniae, 1852, n, 486, 569. ^ This will be found in several of the vocabularies of Low German dialects published by the Vereinfur Niederdeutsche Sprachforschung. « See grand in Falk and Torp, Etymologisk Ordbog, Kristiania, 1903-6. ' See Feist, Etymol. Worterbuch der Ootischen Sprache, Halle, 1909; grundu- loaddjus. * With Grendel, thus explained, Rooth would connect the "Earth man" of the fairy-tale "Dat Erdmanneken" (see below, p. 370) and the name Sandhaug, Sandey, which clings to the Scandinavian Orettir- and Orw-stories. We have seen that a sandhaug figures also in one of the Scandinavian cognates of the folk-tale (see above, p. 67). These resemblances may be noted, though it would be perilous to draw deductions from them. * Schweizerisches Idiotikon, ii, 1885, p. 776. 310 Grendel connected with the root grand, "gravel," "sand." But, so far as I have been able to observe, there is no particular suggestion of sand or gravel about this modest little brook. If we follow the Eiver Clyst from the point where the Grindle flows into it, through two miles of marshy land, to the estuary of the Exe, we shall there find plenty. But it is clear from the charter of 963 that the name was then, as now, restricted to the small brook. I cannot tell why the stream should bear the name, or what, if any, is the connection with the monster Grendel. We can only note that the name is again found attached to water, and, near the junction with the Clyst, to marshy ground. Anyone who will hunt Grendel through the shires, first on the 6-in. ordnance map, and later on foot, will probably have to agree with the Three Jovial Huntsmen This huntin' doesn't pay, But we'n powler't up an' down a bit, an' had a rattlin' day. But, if some conclusions, although scanty, can be drawn from place-names in which the word grendel occurs, nothing can be got from the numerous place-names which have been thought to contain the name Beow, The clearest of these is the on Beowan hammes hecgan, which occurs in the Wiltshire charter of 931. But we can learn nothing definite from it: and although there are other instances of strong and weak forms alternating, we cannot even be quite certain that the Beowa here is identical with the Beow of the genealogies^. The other cases, many of which occur in Domesday Booh are worthless. Those which point to a weak form may often be derived from the weak noun heo, "bee": " The Anglo-Saxons set great store by their bees, honey and wax being indispensables to them2." Beas hroc, Bias f eld (Bewes feld) occur in charters: but here a connection with heaw, "horsefly," is possible: for parallels, one has only to consider the long list of places enumerated by Bjorkman, the names of which are derived from those of beasts, * See above, pp. 43, etc.; below, p. 311. •Duignan, Warioickshire Place Names, p. 22. Duignan suggests the same etymology for Beoshelle, beos being "the Norman scribe's idea of the gen. plu.'* This, however, is very doubtful. Beow, Bea, in place names 311 birds, or insects^. And in such a word as Beoleah, even if the first element be beow, why may it not be the common noun *' barley," and not the name of the hero at all? No argument can therefore be drawn from such a conjecture as that of Olrik, that Beas brdc refers to the water into which the last sheaf (representing Beow) was thrown, in accordance with the harvest custom, and in the expectation of the return of the spirit in the coming spring^. C. THE STAGES ABOVE WODEN IN THE WEST-SAXON GENEALOGY The problems to which this pedigree gives rise are very numerous, and some have been discussed above. There are four which seem to need further discussion. (I) A "Sceafa" occurs in Widsith as ruling over the Longobards. Of course we cannot be certain that this hero is identical with the Sceaf of the genealogy. Now there is no one in the long list of historic or semi- historic Longobard kings, ruling after the tribe had left Scandinavia, who bears a name at all similar. It seems therefore reasonable to suppose that Sceafa, if he is a genuine Longobard king at all, belongs to the primitive times when the Longobardi or Winnili dwelt in *'Scadan," before the historic or semi-historic times with which our extant list deals. And Old English accounts, although making Sceaf an ancestor of the Saxon kings, are unanimous in connecting him with Scani or Scandza. Some scholars^ have seen a serious difficulty in the weak form "Sceafa," as compared with "Sceaf." But we have the exactly parallel cases of Horsa^ compared with Hors^, and HrMla^ compared with Hr^deP, Hre&el. Parallel, but not quite so certain, are Sceldwa^ and ScyW, Geata^^ and Geat^'^, Beowa^^ and Beaw, Beo(wy^. 1 Engl. Stud, lii, 177. « Heltedigtning, ii, 255. See above, pp. 81-7. ' Binz in P.B.B. xx, 148; Chadwick, Origiriy 282. So Clarke, Sidelights, 128. Cf. Heusler in A.f.d. A. xxx, 31. • A.-S. Chronicle. 6 Historia Brittonum. • "hraedlan" (gen.), Beowulf, 464. ' "hrsedles," Beoumlf, 1485. • ^.--S'. Chronicle. » Beotvulf, Ethelwerd. 10 Geata, Geta, Historia Brittonum; Asser; MS Cott. Tib. A. VI; Textus Roffensia. " A.-S. Chronicle. " Charter of 931. " A.-S. Chronicle, Ethelwerd. 312 The Stages above Woden in the West-Saxon Genealogy I do not think it has ever been doubted that the forms Hors and Horsa, or Hre&el and Hrmdla, relate to one and the same person. Prof. Chadwick seems to have little or no doubt as to the identity of Scyld and Sceldwa^, or Beo and Beowa^. Why- then should the identity of Sceaf and Sceafa be denied because one form is strong and the other weak^? We cannot demon- strate the identity of the figure in the genealogies with the figure in Widsith; but little difficulty is occasioned by the weak form. (II) Secondly, the absence of the name Sceaf from the oldest MS of the Chronicle (the Parker MS, C.C.C.C. 173) has been made the ground for suggesting that when that MS was written (c. 892) Sceaf had not yet been invented (MoUer, Volksepos, 43; Symons in Pauls Grdr. (2), iii, 645; Napier, as quoted by Clarke, Sidelights, 125), But Sceaf, and the other names which are omitted from the Parker MS, are found in the other MSS of the Chronicle and the allied pedigrees, which are known to be derived independently from one and the same original. Now, unless the names were older than the Parker MS, they could not appear in so many independent transcripts. For, even though these transcripts are individually later, their agreement takes us back to a period earlier than that of the Parker MS itself*. An examination of the different versions of the genealogy, given on pp. 202-3, above, and of the tree showing the con- nection between them, on p. 315, will, I think, make this clear. The versions of the pedigree given in the Parker MS of the Chronicle, in Asser and in Textus Roffensis 7, all contain the stages Fripuwald and FriJ?uwulf. Asser and Roff. I are connected by the note about Geata: but Roff. I is not derived from that text of Asser which has come down to us, as that 1 Origin, 273. 2 Origin, 282. ' Some O.H.G. parallels will be found in Z.f.d.A. xii, 260. The weak form Geata, Mr Stevenson argues, is due to Asser' s attempt to reconcile the form Geat with the Latin Geta with which he identifies it (Asser, pp. 160-161). See also Chadwick, Heroic Age, 124 footnote. Yet we get Geata in one text of the Chronicle, and in other documents. * This is the view taken by Plummer, who does not seem to regard any solution as possible other than that the names are missing from the Parker MS by a transcriber's slip (see Two Saxon Chronicles Parallel, 11, p. xciv). Relationship of the Manuscripts 313 text has corrupted Fin and Godwulf into one name and has substituted Seth for Sceaf ["Seth, Saxonice Sceaf": Florence of Worcester]. Roff. I is free from both these corruptions. Ethelwerd is obviously connected with a type of genealogy giving the stages Fripuwald and Frij^uwulf, but differs from all the others in giving no stages between Scyld and Scef. None of the other versions contain the names Fripuwald and Fripuwulf. They are closely parallel, but fall into groups showing special peculiarities. MSS Tib. A. VI and Tib. B. I of the Chronicle show only trifling differences of spelling. The MSS belong respectively to about the years 1000 and 1050, and are both derived from an Abingdon original of about 977^. MS Cott. Tib. B. IV is derived from a copy of the Chronicle sent North about 892^. MS Cott. Tib. B. V and Textus Roffensis II are closely connected, but neither is derived from the other. For Roff. II preserves Tepwa and Hwdla, who are lost in Tib. B. V; Tib. B. V preserves Iterman, who is corrupted in Roff. II. Both Tib. B. V and Roff. II carry the pedigree down to Edgar, mentioning his three sons Sadweard and Eadmund and JEpelred ae&elingas syndon Eadgdres suna cyninges. The original therefore appa- rently belongs to some date before 970, when Edmund died (cf. Stevenson's Asser, 158, note). Common features of MS Cott. Tib. B, V and Roff. II are (1) Eat(a) for Geat{a), (2) the omission of d from Scealdwa, and (3) the expression se Scef, "this Scef." Features (1) and (3) are copied in the Icelandic pedigrees. Scealdwa is given cor- rectly there, but the Icelandic transcriber could easily have got it from Scealdwaging above. The Icelandic was, then, ulti- mately derived either from Tib. B. V or from a version so closely connected as not to be worth distinguishing. Accordingly Cott. Tib. B. F, Textus Roffensis II, Lang- Je&gatal and Flateyarbok from one group, pointing to an arche- type c. 970. ^ Plummer, ii, pp. xxix, xxxi, Ixxxix. * Plummer, ir, p. Ixxi. Note Beowi for Bedwig. 314 The Stages above Woden in the West-Saxon Genealogy^ The pedigrees can accordingly be grouped on the system shown on the opposite page^. (Ill) Prof. Chadwick, in his Origin of the English Nation^ draws wide deductions from the fact that the Danes traced the pedigree of their kings back to Skjold, whilst the West-Saxons included Sceldwa (Scyld) in their royal pedigree: "Since the Angli and the Danes claimed descent from the same ancestor, there can be no doubt that the bond was beUeved to be one c;f blood2." This belief, Prof. Chadwick thinks, went back to exceedingly early times^, and he regards it as well-founded : "It is true that the Angli of Britain seem never to have included themselves among the Danes, but the reason for this may be that the term Dene (Danir) had not come into use as a collective term, before the invasion of Britain*." Doubtless the fact that the name of a Danish king Scyld or Sceldwa is found in a pedigree of West-Saxon kings, as drawn up at a period certainly not later than 892, points to a belief, at that date, in some kind of a connection. But we have still to ask: How close was the connection supposed to be? And how old is the belief? Firstly as to the closeness of the connection. Finn also occurs in the pedigree — possibly the Frisian king : Sceaf occurs,, possibly, though not certainly, a Longobard king. Noah and Adam occur ; are we therefore to suppose that the compiler of the Genealogy believed his kings to be of one blood with the Hebrews? Certainly he did: but only remotely, as common descendants of Noah. And the occurrence of Sceldwa and Sceaf and Finn in the genealogies — granting the identity of these heroes with Skjold of the Danes, Sceaf a of the Longobards and Finn of the Frisians, might only prove that the genealogist believed in their common (Germanic) race. Secondly, how old is the belief? The Anglian genealogies (Northumbrian, Mercian and East Anglian), as reproduced in ^ This table shows the relationship of the genealogies only, not of the whole MSs, of which the genealogies form but a small part. MS-relationshipa are always liable to fluctuation, as we pass from one part of a MS to another, and for obvious reasons this is pecuharly the case with the Chronicle MSS. 2 Origin, 296. » Origin, 292. * Origin, 296. Relationship of the Manuscripts 315 to o A^ 3S ■*:> r-l to «»-< Ol ,<1^ . H o CI4 a> >-^ S o o § ^ > H O ? © S "TJ 316 The Stages above Woden in the West-Saxon Genealogy the Historia Brittonum and in the Vespasian MS, form part of what is doubtless, as is said above, the oldest extant English historical document. But in this document there is no mention of Scyld. Indeed, it contains no pedigree of the West-Saxon kings at all. From whatever cause, the West-Saxon genealogy is not extant from so early a date as are the pedigrees of the Northumbrian, Mercian, East Anglian and Kentish kings^. Still, this may well be a mere accident, and I am not prepared to dispute that the pedigree which traces the West-Saxon kings to Woden dates back, like the other genealogies connecting Old English kings with Woden, to primitive and heathen times. Now the West-Saxon pedigree is found in many forms : some which trace the royal house only to Woden, and some which go beyond Woden and contain a list of names by which Woden is connected with Sceaf, and then with Noah and Adam. (1) The nucleus of the whole pedigree is to be found in the names between Cynric or Cerdic and Woden. These occur in every version. The pedigree in this, its simplest form, is found twice among the entries in the Chronicle which deal with the events of heathen times, under 552 and 597. These names fall into verse : [Gynric Gerdicing], Gerdic Elesing, Elesa Esling, Esla GiWising, GiWis Wiging, Wig Freawining, Freawine FriSugaring, FriSugar Bronding, Brond Bseldseging, Bseldseg Wodening. Like the mnemonic lists in Widsith, these lines are probably very old. Their object is clearly to connect the founder of the West-Saxon royal house with Woden. Note, that not only do the names alliterate, but the alliteration is perfect. Every line attains double alliteration in the first half, with one alliterating word only in the second half. The lines must go back to times when lists of royal ancestors, both real and imaginary, had to ^ The absence of the West-Saxon pedigree may be due to the document from which the Historia Brittonum and the Vespasian MS derive these pedigrees having been drawn up in the North : Wessex may have been outside the purview of its compiler; though against this is the fact that it contains the Kentish pedigree. But another quite possible explanation is, that Cerdic, -v^ith his odd name, was not of the right royal race, but an adventurer, and that it was only later that a pedigree was made up for his descendants, on the analogy of those possessed by the more blue-blooded monarchs of Mercia and Northumbria. Various expansions of the original pedigree 317 be arranged in correct verse; times when such things were recorded by memory rather than by writing. They are pre- literary, and were doubtless chanted by retainers of the West- Saxon kings in heathen days. (2) An expanded form of this genealogy occurs in MSS CC.C.C. 183 and Cotton Tib. B. V. Woden is here furnished with a father Frealaf . We know nothing of any Frealaf as father of the All-Father in heathen days, though Frealaf is found in this capacity in other genealogies written down in the ages after the conversion. Frealaf breaks the correct alUterative system. In both MSS the pedigree is brought down to King Ine (688- 726): both mss are ultimately, no doubt, derived from a list current in the time of that king, that is to say less than a century after the conversion of Wessex. (3) A further expansion, which Prof. Napier has held on linguistic grounds^ to have been written down as early as 750, is incorporated in a genealogical and chronological note regarding the West-Saxon kings, which is extant in many Mss^. In its present form this genealogical note is a recension, under Alfred, of a document coming down to the death of his father iEthelwulf . It traces the pedigree of ^thelwulf to Cerdic, but it keeps this district from the rhythmical nucleus, in which it traces Cerdic to Woden, and no further. (4) Then, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle^ under the year 855, the pedigree is given in its most elaborate form. There the genealogy of ^Ethelwulf is traced in one unbroken series, not merely through Cerdic to Woden, but from Woden through a long line of Woden's ancestors, including Frealaf, Geat, Sceldwa and Sceaf, to Noah and Adam. It has been noted above^ that none of the Chronicle pedigrees 1 See M.L.N. 1897, xn, 110-11. * It is prefixed to the Parker MS of the Chronicle, and is found also in the Cambridge ms of the Anglo-Saxon Bede {Univ. Lib. Kk. 3. 18) printed in Miller's edition; in MS Cott. Tib. A. Ill, 178 (printed in Thorpe's Chronicle)-. and in MS Add. 34652, printed by Napier in M.L.N. 1897, xii, 106 etc. There are uncollated copies in MS G.C.C.C. 383, fol. 107, and according to Liebermann (Herrig's Archiv, crv, 23) in the Textus Roffensis, fol. 7 b. There is also a fragment, which does not however include the portion under consideration, in MS Add. 23211 {Brit. Mus.) printed in Sweet's Oldest English Texts, p. 179. The statement, sometimes made, that there is a copy in MS CC.C.C. 41, rests on an error of Whelock, who was really referring to the Parker MS of the Chronicle {CC.C.C. 173). 3 p_ 73^ 318 The Stages above Woden in the West-Saxon Genealogy stop at Sceaf. The Chronicle^ in the stages above Woden, recognizes as stopping places only Geat (Northumbrian pedigree, anno 547) or Adam (West-Saxon pedigree, anno 855). (5) The Chronicle of Ethelwerd (c. 1000) does, however, stop at Scef^. Now it has been argued that Ethelwerd' s pedigree is merely abbreviated from the pedigree in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under 855, and that, in making Scef the final stage, and in what he tells us about that hero, Ethelwerd is merely adapting what he had read in Beowulf about Scyld^. But this seems hardly possible. Ethelwerd, it is true, borrows most of his facts from the Chronicle^ from Bede, and other known sources: but there are some passages which show that he had access to a source now lost. Ethelwerd was a member of the West-Saxon royal house, and he wrote his Chronicle for a kins- woman, Matilda, in order, as he says, to explain their common stock and race. They were both descended from iEthelwulf, the chronicler being great-great-grandson of iEthelred, and the lady to whom he dedicates his work being great-great-granddaughter of Alfred. So he writes to tell "who and whence were their kin, so far as memory adduces, and our parents have taught us." Accordingly, though he begins his Chronicle with the Creation, the bulk of it is devoted to the deeds of his or Matilda's ancestors. Is it credible that he would have cut out all the stages in their common pedigree between Scyld and Scef, that he would have sacrificed all the ancestors of Scef, thus severing relations with Noah and Adam, and that he would have attributed to Scef the story which in Beowulf is attributed to Scyld, all this simply in order to bring his English pedigree into some harmony with what is told about the Danish pedigree in Beowulf— 2k poem of which we have no evidence that he had ever heard? To suppose him to have done this, is to make him sacrifice, without any reason, just that part of the pedigree in the Chronicle under 855 which, from all we know of Ethelwerd, was most likely to have interested him: that which connected his race with Noah and Adam. Further, it is to suppose him to have reproduced just those stages in the pedigree which on critical 1 See above, p. 70. 2 Brandl in Herrig's Archive cxxxvii, 12-13. Are the stages above Woden original ? 319 grounds modern scholars can show to be the oldest, and to have modij&ed or rejected just those which on critical grounds modern scholars can show to be later accretion. When Brandl supposes Ethelwerd to have produced his pedigree by comparing together merely the materials which have come down to us to-day, namely Beowulf and the Chronicle, he is, in reality, attributing to him the mind and acumen of a modern critic. An Anglo- Saxon alderman could only have detected and rejected the additions by using some material which has not come down to us. What more natural than that Ethelwerd, who writes as the historian of the West-Saxon royal family, should have known of a family pedigree which traced the line up to Sceaf and his arrival in the boat, and that he should have (rightly) thought this to be more authoritative than the pedigree in the Chronicle under the year 855, which had been expanded from it? Prof. Chad wick, it seems to me, is here quite justified in holding that Ethelwerd had "acquired the genealogy from some unknown source, in a more primitive form than that contained in the Chronicle^ y But, because the source of Ethelwerd's pedigree is more primitive than that contained in the Chronicle under the year 855, it does not follow that it goes back to heathen times. Wessex had been converted more than two centuries earlier. We are now in a position to make some estimate of the antiquity of Scyld and Sceaf in the West-Saxon pedigree. The nucleus of this pedigree is to be found in the verses connecting €ynric and Cerdic with Woden. (Even as late as iEthelwulf and Alfred this nucleus is often kept distinct from the later, more historic stages connecting Cerdic with living men.) Pedigrees of other royal houses go to Woden, and many stop there ; however, in times comparatively early, but yet Christian, we find Woden provided with five ancestors: later, Ethelwerd gives him ten: the Chronicle gives him twenty-five. It is evidently a process of accumulation. Now, if the name of Scyld had occurred in the portion of the pedigree which traces the West-Saxon kings up to Woden, * Ongin, p. 272. 320 The Stages above Woden in the West-Saxon Genealogy it would possess sufficient authority to form the basis of an argument. But Scyld, like Heremod, Beaw and Sceaf, occurs. ^^ in the fantastic development of the pedigree, by which Woden, is connected up with Adam and Noah. The fact that these heroes occur above Woden makes it almost incredible that their position in the pedigree can go back to heathen times. Those who believed in Woden as a god can hardly have believed at the same time that he was a descendant of the Danish king Scyld. This difficulty Prof. Chad wick admits: "It is difficult to believe that in heathen times Woden was credited with five generations of ancestors, as in the Frealaf-Geat list." Still less is it credible that he was credited with 25 generations of ancestors, as in the Frealaf-Geat-Sceldwa-Sceaf-Noe-Adam list. The obvious conclusion seems to me to be that the names above Woden were added in Christian times to the original list, which in heathen times only went back to Woden, and which is still extant in this form, A Christian, rationalizing Woden as a human magician, would have no difficulty in placing him far down the ages, just as Saxo Grammaticus does^. Ob- viously Noe-Adam must be an addition of Christian times, and the same seems to me to apply to all the other names above Woden, which, though ancient and Germanic, are not therefore ancient and Germanic in the capacity of ancestors of Woden. And even if these extraordinary ancestors of Woden were really believed in in heathen times, they cannot have been regarded as the special property of any one nation. For it was never claimed that the West-Saxon kings had any unique distinction in tracing their ancestry to Woden, such as would give them a special claim upon Woden's forefathers. How then can the ancient belief (if indeed it were an ancient belief) that Woden was descended from Scyld, King of Denmark, prove that the Anglo-Saxons regarded themselves as specially related to the Danes? For any such relationship derived through Woden must have been shared by all descendants of the All-Father. Prof. Chadwick avoids this difficulty by supposing that Woden did not originally occur in the pedigree, but is a later ^ So Ethelwerd {Lib. i) sees in Woden a rex multitudinis Barharorum, in error deified. It is the usual point of view, and persists down to Carlyle {Heroes) . Are the stages above Woden original? 321 insertion^. But how can this be so when, of the two forms in which the West-Saxon pedigree appears, one (and, so far as our evidence goes, much the older one) traces the kings to Woden and stops there. The object of this pedigree is to connect the West-Saxon kings with Woden. The expanded pedigrees, which carry on the line still further, from Woden to Sceldwa, Sceaf and Adam, though very numerous, are all traceable to one, or at most two, sources. It is surely not the right method to regard Woden as an interpolation (though he occurs in that portion of the pedigree which is common to all versions, some of which we can probably trace back to primitive times), and to regard as the original element Scyld and Sceaf (though they form part of the continuation of the pedigree found only in, at most, two families of mss which we cannot trace back beyond the ninth century). Besides, there is the strongest external support for Woden in the very place which he occupies in the West-Saxon pedigree. That pedigree is traced in all its texts up to one Baldaeg and his father Woden. Those texts which further give Woden's an- cestry make him a descendant of Frealaf — they generally make Woden son of Frealaf, though some texts insert an intermediate Frithuwald. Now the very ancient Northumbrian pedigree also goes up, by a different route, to "Beldseg," and gives him Woden for a father. In some versions (e.g. the Historia Brittonum) the Northumbrian pedigree stops there: in others (e.g. the Vespasian MS) Woden has a father Frealaf. How then can it be argued^ contrary to the unanimous evidence of all the dozen or more MSS of the West-Saxon pedigree, that Woden, standing as he does between his proper father and his proper son, is an inter- polation? There is no evidence whatsoever to support such an argument, and everything to disprove it. The fact that Sceaf, Sceldwa and Beaw occur above Woden, that some versions of the pedigree stop at Woden, and that in heathen times presumably all must have stopped when they reached the All-Father, seems to me a fatal argument — not against the antiquity of the legends of Sceaf, Sceldwa, and 1 Origin, p. 293. C. B. 21 322 TJie Stages above Woden in the West-Saxon Genealogy Beaw, but against the antiquity of these characters in the capacity (given to them in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle) of an- cestors of the West-Saxon kings, and against the vast deduction concerning the origin of the English nation which Prof. Chadwick draws from this supposed antiquity. (IV) Precisely the same argument — that Sceaf , Sceldwa and Beaw are found above Woden in the pedigree of the English kings, and are not likely to have occupied that place in primitive heathen times, is fatal to the attempt to draw from this pedigree any argument that the myths of these heroes were specially and exclusively Anglo-Saxon. The argument of Miillenhoff and other scholars for an ancient, purely Anglo-Saxon Beowa-myth^ falls, therefore, to the ground. D. EVIDENCE FOR THE DATE OF BEOWULF. THE RELATION OF BEOWULF TO THE CLASSICAL EPIC A few years ago there was a tendency to exaggerate the value of grammatical forms in fixing the date of Old English poetry, and attempts were made to arrange Old English poems in a chronological series, according to the exact percentage of "early" to "late" forms in each. There has now been a natural reaction against the assumption that, granting certain forms to be archaic, these would necessarily be found in a per- centage diminishing exactly according to the dates of compo- sition of the various poems in which they occur. The reaction has now gone to the other extreme, and grammatical facts are in danger of being regarded as not being "in any way valid or helpful indications of dates^." Schlicking^, in an elaborate recent monograph on the date of Beowulf, rejects the grammatical evidence as valueless, and proceeds to date the poem about two centuries later than has usually been held, placing its composition at the court of some christianized Scandinavian monarch in England, about 900 a.d. 1 Beowulf, p. 5. For a further examination of this " Beowa-myth " see Appendix A, above. 2 Cf. Tupper in Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. xxvi, 275. 3 P.B.B. XLii, 347-410. A theory as to the date of Beowulf, in some respects similar, was put forward by Mone in 1836 : Untersuchungen zur GeschicfUem der teutschen Heldensage, p. 132. ml Schiiching on the date o/ Beowulf 323 But it surely does not follow that, because grammatical data have been misused, therefore no use can be made of them. And, if Beowulf was composed about the year 900, from stories current among the Viking settlers, how are we to account for the fact that the proper names in Beowulf are given, not in the Scandinavian forms of the Viking age, nor in corruptions of such forms, but in the correct English forms which we should expect, according to English sound laws, if the names had been brought over in the sixth century, and handed down traditionally i? For example. King Hygelac no doubt called himself Hugi- laikaz. The Chochilaicus of Gregory of Tours is a good — ^if uncouth — shot at reproducing this name. The name became, in Norse, Hitgleikr and in Danish Huglek (Hugletus in Saxo): traditional kings so named are recorded, though it is difficult to find that they have anything in common with the King Hygelac in Beowulf^. Had the name been introduced into England in Viking times, we should expect the Scandinavian form, not Hygelac^. Even in the rare cases where the character in Beowulf and his Scandinavian equivalent bear names which are not phono- logically identical, the difference does not point to any corrup- tion such as might have arisen from borrowing in Viking days*. We have only to contrast the way in which the names of Viking chiefs are recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, to be convinced that the Scandinavian stories recorded in Beowulf are due to contact during the age when Britain was being conquered, not during the Viking period three or four centuries later ^. And the arguments from literary and political history, which Schiicking adduces to prove his late date, seem to me to point in exactly the opposite direction, and to confirm the orthodox view which would place Beowulf nearer 700 than 900. 1 See above, p. 103; and Brandl in Pauls Ordr. (2) n, 1000, where the argu- ment is excellently stated. 2 g^e Olrik, Sakses Oldhistorie, 1894, 190-91. ' See Bjorkman, Eigennamen im Beoivulf, 77. * Sarrazin's attempt to prove such corruption is an entire failure. Cf. Brandl in Herrig's Archiv, cxxvi, 234; Bjorkman, Eigennamen im Beowulf 58 {Heaifo- Bear dan). ^ A few Geatic adventurers may have taken part in the Anglo-Saxon invasion, as has been argued by Moorman {Essays and Studies, v). This is likely enough on a priori grounds, though many of the etymologies of place-names quoted by Moorman in support of his thesis are open to doubt. 21—2 324 Evidence for the date of Beowulf Schiicking urges that, however highly we estimate the civilizing effect of Christianity, it was only in the second half of the seventh century that England was thoroughly permeated by the new faith. Can we expect already, at the beginning of the eighth century, a courtly work, showing, as does Beowulf, such wonderful examples of tact, modesty, unselfishness and magnanimity? And this at the time when King Ceolwulf was forced by his rebellious subjects to take the cowl. For Schiicking^, following Hodgkin^, reminds us how, in the eighth century, out of 15 Northumbrian kings, five were dethroned, five murdered; two abdicated, and only three held the crown to their death; and how at the end of the century Charlemagne called the Northumbrian Angles "a perfidious and perverse nation, murderers of their lords." But surely, at the base of all this argument, lies the same assumption which, as Schiicking rightly holds, vitiates so many of the grammatical arguments; the assumption that develop- ment must necessarily be in steady and progressive proportion. We may take Penda as a type of the unreclaimed heathen, and Edward the Confessor of the chaste and saintly churchman; but Anglo-Saxon history was by no means a development in steady progression, of diminishing percentages of ruffianism and increasing percentages of saintship. The knowledge of, and interest in, heathen custom shown in Beowulf, such as the vivid accounts of cremation, would lead us to place it as near heathen times as other data will allow. So much must be granted to the argument of Prof. Chadwick^ But the Christian tone, so far from leading us to place Beowulf late, would also lead us to place it near the time of the conversion. For it is precisely in these times just after the conversion, that we get the most striking instances in all Old English history of that "tact, modesty, generosity, and magnanimity" which Schiicking rightly regards as characteristic of Beowulf. King Oswin (who was slain in 651) was, Bede tells us, hand- some, courteous of speech and bearing, bountiful both to great 1 P.B.B. XLii, 366-7. 2 History of England to the Norman Conquest, i, 245. * Heroic Age, 52-6. I have tried to show (Appendix F) that these accounts of cremation are not so archaeologically correct as has sometimes been claimed. TheAgeofBede 325 and lowly, beloved of all men for his qualities of mind and body, so that noblemen came from all over England to enter his service — yet of all his endowments gentleness and humility were the chief. We cannot read the description without being reminded of the words of the thegns in praise of the dead Beowulf. Indeed, I doubt if Beowulf would have carried gentleness to those around him quite so far as did Oswin. For Oswin had given to Bishop Aidan an exceptionally fine horse — and Aidan gave it to a beggar who asked alms. The king's mild suggestion that a horse of less value would have been good enough for the beggar, and that the bishop needed a good horse for his own use, drew from the saint the stern question " Is that son of a mare dearer to thee than the Son of God?" The king, who had come from hunting, stood warming himself at the fire, thinking over what had passed ; then he suddenly ungirt his sword, gave it to his squire, and throwing himself at the feet of the bishop, promised never again to grudge anything he might give in his charities. Of course such conduct was exceptional in seventh century Northumbria — it convinced Aidan that the king was too good to live long, as indeed proved to be the case. But it shows that the ideals of courtesy and gentleness shown in Beowulf were by no means beyond the possibility of attainment — were indeed surpassed by a seventh century king. I do not know if they could be so easily paralleled in later Old English times. And what is true from the point of view of morals is true equally from that of art and learning. In spite of the mis- fortunes of Northumbrian kings in the eighth century, the first third of that century was "the Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon England^." And not unnaturally, for it had been preceded by half a century during which Northumbria had been free both from internal strife and from invasion. The empire won by Oswiu over Picts and Scots in the North had been lost at the battle of Nectansmere: but that battle had been followed by the twenty years reign of the learned Aldf rid, whose scholarship did not prevent him from nobly retrieving the state of the kingdom^, though he could not recover the lost dominions. ^ Oman, England before the Norman Conquest, 319. « Bede, Hist. Eccles. iv, 26. 326 Evidence for the date (>/' Beowulf Now, whatever we may think of Beowulf as poetry, it is remarkable for its conscious and deliberate art, and for the tone of civilization which pervades it. And this half century was distinguished, above any other period of Old English history, precisely for its art and its civilization. Four and a half centuries later, when the works of great Norman master builders were rising everywhere in the land, the buildings which Bishop Wilfrid had put up during this first period of conversion were still objects of admiration, even for those who had seen the glories of the great Koman basilicas^. Nor is there anything surprising in the fact that this "golden age " was not maintained. On the contrary, it is " in accordance with the phenomena of Saxon history in general, in which seasons of brilliant promise are succeeded by long eras of national eclipse. It is from this point of view quite in accordance with natural likelihood that the age of conversion was one of such stimulus to the artistic powers of the people that a level of effort and achievement was reached which subsequent genera- tions were not able to maintain. The carved crosses and the coins certainly degenerate in artistic value as the centuries pass away, and the fine barbaric gold and encrusted work is early in date2." Already in the early part of the eighth century signs of decay are to be observed. At the end of his Ecclesiastical History, Bede complains that the times are so full of disturbance that one knows not what to say, or what the end will be. And these fears were justified. A hundred and forty years of turmoil and decay follow, till the civilization of the North and the Midlands was overthrown by the Danes, and York became the uneasy seat of a heathen jarl. How it should be possible to see in these facts, as contrasted with the Christian and civilized tone of Beowulf, any argument for late date, I cannot see. On the contrary, because of its Christian civilization combined with its still vivid, if perhaps not always quite exact, recollection of heathen customs, we should be inclined to put Beowulf in the early Christian ages. ^ " Nunc qui Roma veniunt idem allegant, ut qui Haugustaldensera f abricam vident ambitionem Romanam se imaginari jurent." William of Malmesbury, Qesta Pontificum, Rolls Series, p. 255. 2 Baldwin Brown, The Arts in Early England, ii, 1903, p. 325. Scandinavian sympathies o/" Beowulf 327 A further argument put forward for this late date is the old one that the Scandinavian sympathies of Beowulf show it to have been composed for a Scandinavian court, the court, Schiicking thinks, of one of the princes who ruled over those portions of England which the Danes had settled^. Of course Schiicking is too sound a scholar to revive at this time of day the old fallacy that the Anglo-Saxons ought to have taken no interest in the deeds of any but Anglo-Saxon heroes. But how, he asks, are we to account for such enthusiasm for, such a burning interest in, a people of alien dialect and foreign dynasty, such as the Scyldings of Denmark? The answer seems to me to be that the enthusiasm of Beowulf is not for the Danish nation as such : on the contrary, Beowulf depicts a situation which is most humiliating to the Danes. For twelve years they have suffered the depredations of Grendel; Hrothgar and his kin have proved helpless: all the Danes have been unequal to the need. Twice at least this is emphasized in the most uncompromising, and indeed insulting, way^. The poet's enthusiasm is not, then, for the Danish race as such, but for the ideal of a great court with its body of retainers. Such retainers are not necessarily native born — rather is it the mark of the great court that it draws men from far and wide to enter the service, whether permanently or temporarily, even as Beowulf came from afar to help the aged Hrothgar in his need. It is this ideal of personal valour and personal loyalty, rather than of tribal patriotism, which pervades Beowulf, and which certainly suits the known facts of the seventh and early eighth centuries. The bitterest strife in England in the seventh century had been between the two quite new states of North- umbria and Mercia, both equally of Anglian race. Both these states had been built up by a combination of smaller units, and not without violating the old local patriotisms of the diverse elements from which they had been formed. At first, at any rate, no such thing as Northumbrian or Mercian patriotism can have existed. Loyalty was personal, to the king. Neither the kingdom nor the comitatus was homogeneous. We have seen * p. 407. a Beoumlf, U. 201, 601-3. 328 Evidence for the date 0/ Beowulf that Bede mentions it as a peculiar honour to a Northumbrian prince that from all parts of England nobles came to enter his service. We must not demand from the seventh or eighth century our ideals of exclusive enthusiasm for the land of one's birth, ideals which make it disreputable for a "mercenary" to sell his sword. The ideal is, on the contrary, loyalty to a prince whose service a warrior voluntarily enters. And the Danish court is depicted as a pattern of such loyalty — ^before the Scyldings began to work evil^, by the treason of Hrothulf. Further, the fact that the Danish court at Leire had been a heathen one might be matter for regret, but it would not prevent its being praised by an Englishman about 700. For / England was then entirely Christian. In the process of con- version no single Christian had, so far as we know, been martyred. There had been no war of religion. If Penda had fought against Oswald, it had been as the king of Mercia against the king of Northumbria. Penda' s allies were Christian, and he showed no antipathy to the new faith^. So that at this date there was \ no reason for men to feel any deep hostility towards a heathen- \ dom which had been the faith of their grandfathers, and with which there had never been any embittered conflict. But in 900 the position was quite different. For more than a generation the country had been engaged in a life-and-deatb struggle between two warring camps, the " Christian men " and the "heathen men." The "heathen men" were in process of conversion, but were liable to be ever recruited afresh from beyond the sea. It seems highly unlikely that Beowulf could have been written at this date, by some English poet, for the court of a converted Scandinavian prince, with a view perhaps, as Schiicking suggests, to educating his children in the English speech. In such a case the one thing likely to be avoided by the English poet, with more than two centuries of Christianity behind him, would surely have been the praise of that Scan- dinavian heathendom, from which his patron had freed himself, and from which his children were t o b e weaned. The martyrdom of S. Edmund might have seemed a more appropriate theme'. 1 Cf. Beomilf, 1. 1018. 2 Bede, Eccles. Hist, m, 21. * See Oman, pp. 460, 591, for the honour done to this saint by converted Danes. Learning in the Age of Bede 329 The tolerant attitude towards heathen customs, and the almost antiquarian interest in them, very justly, as it seems to me, emphasized by Schiicking^, is surely far more possible in a.d. 700 than in a.d. 900. For between those dates heathendom had ceased to be an antiquarian curiosity, and had become an imminent peril. If those are right who hold that Beowulf is no purely native growth, but shows influence of the classical epic, then again it is easier to credit such influence about the year 700 than 900. At the earlier date we have scholars like Aldhelm and Bede, both well acquainted with Virgil, yet both interested in verna- cular verse. It has been urged, as a reductio ad absurdum of the view which would connect Beowulf with Virgil, that the relation to the Odyssey is more obvious than that to the Mneid. Perhaps, however, some remote and indirect connection even between Beowulf and the Odyssey is not altogether unthinkable, about the year 700. At the end of the seventh century there was a flourishing school of Greek learning in England, under Hadrian and the Greek Archbishop Theodore, both "well read in sacred and in secular literature." In 730 their scholars were still alive, and, Bede tells us, could speak Greek and Latin as correctly as their native tongue. Bede himself knew something about the Iliad and the Odyssey. Not till eight centuries have passed, and we reach Grocyn and Linacre, was it again to be as easy for an Englishman to have a first-hand knowledge of a Greek classic as it was about the year 700. What scholarship had sunk to by the days of Alfred, we know : and we know that all Alfred's patronage did not produce any scholar whom we can think of as in the least degree comparable to Bede. So that from the point of view of its close touch with heathendom, its tolerance for heathen customs, its Christian magnanimity and gentleness, its conscious art, and its learned tone, all historic and artistic analogy would lead us to place Beoumlf in the great age — ^the age of Bede. This has brought us to another question — more interesting to many than the mere question of date. Are we to suppose 330 Evidence for the date 0/ Beowulf any direct connection between the classical and the Old English, epic? As nations pass through their "Heroic Age," similar social conditions will necessarily be reflected by many similarities in their poetry. In heroic lays like Finnshurg or Hildebrand or the Norse poems, phrases and situations may occur which remind us of phrases and situations in the Iliad, without affording any ground for supposing classical influence direct or indirect. But there is much more in Beowulf than mere accidental coincidence of phrase or situation. A simple-minded romancer would have made the Mneid a biography of ^neas from the cradle to the grave. Not so Virgil. The story begins with mention of Carthage. iEneas. then comes on the scene. At a banquet he tells to Dido his- earlier adventures. Just so Beowulf begins, not with the birth of Beowulf and his boyhood, but with Heorot. Beowulf arrives. At the banquet, in reply to Unferth, he narrates his earlier adventures. The Beoundf-'poet is not content merely to tell us that there was minstrelsy at the feast, but like Virgil or Homer,. he must give an account of what was sung. The epic style leads often to almost verbal similarities. Jupiter consoling Hercules- for the loss of the son of his host says: stat sua cuique dies, breve et inreparabile tempus omnibus est vitae; sed famam extendere factis hoc virtutis opus^. In the same spirit and almost in the same words does Beowulf console Hrothgar for the loss of his friend : Ure eeghwylc sceal ende gebidan worolde lifes; wyrce se l^e mote domes ^r dea>e; >set bi|) drihtguman unlifgendum sefter selest. On the other hand, though we are often struck by the- likeness in spirit and in plan, it must be allowed that there is no tangible or conclusive proof of borrowing^. But the influence may have been none the less effective for being indirect: nor is 1 jEneid, x, 467-9. 2 In the two admirable articles by Klaeber (Archiv, cxxvi, 40 etc., 339 etc,) every possible parallel is drawn : the result, to my mind, is not complete con viction. 1 Possible classical influence in Beowulf 331 it quite certain that the author, had he known his Virgil, would necessarily have left traces of direct borrowing. For the deep Christian feeling, which has given to Beowulf its almost prudish propriety and its edifying tone, is manifested by no direct and dogmatic reference to Christian personages or doctrines. I sympathize with Prof. Chadwick's feeling that a man who knew Virgil would not have disguised his knowledge, and would ptobably have lacked both inclination and ability to compose such a poem as Beowulf^. But does not this feeling rest largely upon the analogy of other races and ages? Is it borne out by such known facts as we can gather about this period? The reticence of Beowulf with reference to Christianity does not harmonize with one's preconceived ideas; and Bishop Aldhelm gives us an even greater surprise. Let anyone read, or try to read, Aldhelm's Epistola ad Acircium, sive liber de septenario et de metris. Let him then ask himself "Is it possible that this learned pedant can also have been the author of English poems which King Alfred — surely no mean judge — thought best of all he knew?" These poems may of course have been educated and learned in tone. But we have the authority of King Alfred for the fact that Aldhelm used to perform at the cross roads as a common minstrel, and that he could hold his audiences with such success that they resorted to him again and again^. Only after he had made himself popular by several performances did he attempt to weave edifying matter into his verse. And the popular, secular poetry of Aldhelm, his carmen triviale, remained current among the common people for centuries. Nor was Aldhelm's classical knowledge of late growth, something super- imposed upon an earlier love of popular poetry, for he had * Chad wick. Heroic Age, 74. 2 " Litteris itaque ad plenum instructus, nativae quoque linguae non negli- gebat carmina; adeo ut, teste libro Elfredi, de quo superius dixi, nulla umquam aetate par ei fuerit quisquam. Poesim Anglicam posse facere, cantum com- ponere, eadem apposite vel canere vel dicere. Denique oommemorat ELfredus carmen triviale, quod adhuc vulgo cantitatur, Aldelmum fecisse, aditiens causam qua probet rationabiliter tantum virum his quae 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 continuat, abeuntibus se opposuisse obicem, quasi artem cantitandi professum. Eo plusquam semel facto, plebis favorem et concursum emeritum. Hoc commento sensim inter ludicra verbis Scripturarum insertis, cives ad sanitatem reduxisse." William of Malmesbury, De gestis pontificum Anglorum, ed. Hamilton, Bolls Series, 1870, 336. 332 Evidence for the date o/" Beowulf /studied under Hadrian as a boy^. Later we are told that I King Ine imported two Greek teachers from Athens for the help Vf Aldhelm and his schooP ; this may be exaggeration. Everything seems to show that about 700 an atmosphere existed in England which might easily have led a scholarly Englishman, acquainted with the old lays, to have set to work to compose an epic. Even so venerable a person as Bede, during his last illness, uttered his last teaching not, as we should expect on a priori grounds, in Latin hexameters, but in English metre. The evidence for this is conclusive^. But, at a later date, Alcuin would surely have condemned the min- strelsy of Aldhelm*. Even King Alfred seems to have felt that it needed some apology. It would have rendered Aldhelm liable to severe censure under the Laws of King Edgar^; and Dunstan's biographer indignantly denies the charge brought against his hero of having learnt the heathen songs of his forefathers^. The evidence is not as plentiful as we might wish, but it rather suggests that the chasm between secular poetry and ecclesiastical learning was more easily bridged in the first generations after the conversion than was the case later. But, however that may be, it assuredly does not give any grounds for abandoning the old view, based largely upon grammatical and metrical considerations, which would make Beowulf a product of the early eighth century, and substituting for it a theory which would make our poem a product of mixed Saxon and Danish society in the early tenth century. ^ " Reverentissimo patri meaeque rudis infantiae venerando praeceptori Adriano." Epist. (Aldhelmi Opera, ed. Giles, 1844, p. 330). 2 Faricius, Life, in Giles' edition of Aldhelm, 1844, p. 357. ' Letter of Cuthbert to Cuthwine, describing Bede's last illness. "Et in nostra lingua, hoc est anglica, ut erat doctus in nostris carminibus, nonnuUa dixit. Nam et tunc Anglico carmine componens, multum compunctus aiebat, etc.'" The letter is quoted by Simeon of Durham, ed. Arnold, Eolls Series, 1882, I, pp. 43-46, and is extant elsewhere, notably in a ninth century MS at St Gall. * "quid Hinieldus cum Christo." ^ " ^set aenig preost ne beo ealuscop, ne on senige wisan gliwige, mid him sylfum ojjjje mid 6|>rum mannum "7-Thorpe, Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, 1840, p. 400 (Laws of Edgar, cap. 58). * "avitae gentilitatis vanissima didicisse carmina." This charge is dis- missed as "scabiem mendacii." Vita Sancti Dunstani, by "B," in Memorials of Dunstan, ed. Stubbs, Eolls Series, 1874, p. 11. Were these songs heroic or magic ? The ^^Jute-question" reopened 333 E. THE "JUTE-QUESTION" REOPENED The view that the Geatas of Beowulf are the Jutes (luti, lutae) of Bede (i.e. the tribe which colonized Kent, the Isle of Wight and Hampshire) has been held by many eminent scholars. It was dealt with only briefly above (pp. 8-9) because I thought the theory was now recognized as being no longer tenable. Lately, however, it has been maintained with conviction and ability by two Danish scholars, Schiitte and Kier. It therefore becomes necessary once more to reopen the question, now that the only elaborate discussion of it in the English language favours the " Jute- theory," especially as Axel Olrik gave t^e support of his great name to the view that "the question is still open^" and that "the last word has not been said con- cerning the nationality of the Geatas^." As in most controversies, a number of rather irrelevant side issues have been introduced^, so that from mere weariness students are sometimes inclined to leave the problem undecided. Yet the interpretation of the opening chapters of Scandinavian history turns upon it. Supporters of the "Jute-theory" have seldom approached the subject from the point of view of Old English. Bugge* perhaps did so: but the "Jute-theory" has been held chiefly by students of Scandinavian history, literature or geography, like Fahlbeck^,Steenstrup^, Gering', Olrik^ Schiitte^ and Kier^o. But, now that the laws of Old English sound-change have been ^ The Heroic Legends of Denmark, New York, 191&, p. 32 (footnote). 2 Ibid. p. 39. ' Thus, much space has been devoted to discussing whether "Gotland," in the eleventh century Cotton MS of Alfred's Orosius, signifies Jutland. I believe that it does; but fail to see how it can be argued from this that Alfred believed the Jutes to be "Geatas." Old English had no special symbol for the semi- vowel J; so, to signify Jotland, Alfred would have written "Geotland" (Sievers, Oram. §§ 74, 175). Had he meant "Land of the Geatas" he would have written "Geataland" or "Geatland." Surely "Gotland" is nearer to "Geotland" than to "Geatland." * P.B,B. xii, 1-10. * See above, p. 8. Fahlbeck has recently revised and re-stated his arguments. • Danmarks Riges Historie, i, 79 etc. ' BeowulJ, iibersetzt von H. Gering, 1906, p. vii. 8 See above, also Nordisk AandsUv, 10, where Olrik speaks of the Geatas as "Jydeme." His arguments as presented to the Copenhagen Philologisk- historisk Samfund are summarized by Schiitte, J.E.O. Ph. xi, 575-6. Clausen also supports the Jute-theory, Danahe Sludier^ 1918 137-49. » J.E.Q.Ph. XI, 574-602. 1® Beoumlf, et Bidrag til Nordens Oldhistorie af Chr. Kier, Kji^benhavn, 1916. 334 The ^^Jute-question" reopened clearly defined, it seldom happens that anyone who approaches the subject primarily as a student of the Anglo-Saxon language holds the view that the Geatas are Jutes. And this is naturally so: for, from the point of view of language, the question is not disputable. The Geatas phono- logically are the Gautar (the modern Gotar of Southern Sweden). It is admitted that the words are identical^. And, equally, it is admitted that the word Geatas cannot be identical with the word luti, lutae, used by Bede as the name of the Jutes who colonized Kent^. Bede's luti, lutae, on the contrary, would correspond to a presumed Old English *Iuti or "^lutan^, current in his time in Northumbria. This in later Northumbrian would become lote, lotan (though the form lute, lutan might also survive). The dialect forms which we should expect (and which we find in the genitive and dative) corresponding to this would be: Mercian, Bote, Eotan; Late West-Saxon, Yte, Ytan (thiough an intermediate Early West-Saxon *Iete, *Ietan, which is not recorded). If, then, the word Geatas came to supplant the correct form lote, lotan (or its Mercian and West-Saxon equivalents Bote, Eotan, Yte, rton),thiscanonly have been the result of confusion. Such confusion is, on abstract grounds, conceivable : it is always possible that the name of one tribe may come to be attached to another. "Scot" has ceased to mean "Irishman," and has come to mean "North Briton" ; and there is no intrinsic impossibility in the word Geatas having been transferred by Englishmen, from the half-forgotten Gautar, to the Jutes, and having driven out the correct name of the latter, lote, lotan. For example, there might have been an exiled Geatic family among the Jutish invaders, which might have become so prominent as to cause 1 This is admitted by Bugge, P.B.B. xn, 6. " Oedtas... iat sprachlich ein ganz anderer name als altn. Jotar, Jutar, bei Beda Jutae, und nach Beda im Chron. Sax. 449 Jotum, Jutna... Die Geatas... tragen einen namen der sprachlich mit altn. Gautar identisch ist." 2 From a presumed Prim. Germ. *Eutiz, *Eutjaniz. The word in O.E. seems to have been declined both as an i-stem and an n-stem, the w-stem forms being used more particularly in the gen. plu., just as in the case of the tribal names, Seaze, Mierce (Sievers, § 264). The Latinized forms show the same duplication, the dat. Euciis pointing to an i-stem, the nom. Euthio to an w-stem, plu. *Eutiones. For a discussion of the relation of the O.E. name to the Danish Jyder, see Bjorkman in Anglia, Beiblatt, xxviii, 274-80: "Zu ae. Eote, Yte, dan. Jyder 'Jtiten'." Form of the word in Old English 335 the name Geataa to supplant the correct lote. Bote, etc. But, whoever the Geatas may have been, Beowulf is their chief early '^ record: indeed, almost all we know of their earliest history is ^ derived from Beowulf. In Beowulf, therefore, if anywhere, the old names and traditions should be remembered. The word Geat occurs some 50. times in the poem. The poet obviously wishes to use other synonyms, for the sake of variety and alliteration: hence we get Weder-Geatas, WederaSy S^-Geatas, GutS-Geatas. Now, if these Geatas are the Jutes, how comes u^ it that the poet never calls them such, never speaks of them under the correct tribal name of Bote, etc., although this was the current name at the time Beoumlf was written, and indeed for centuries later? For, demonstrably, the form Bote, etc., was recognized as the name of the Jutes till at least the twelfth century. Then it died out of current speech, and only Bede's Latin luti (and the modern "Jute" derived therefrom) remained as terms used by the historians. The evidence is conclusive: {a) Bede, writing about the time when Beoumlf, in its present form, is supposed to have been composed, uses luti, lutae, corresponding to a presumed contemporary Northumbrian ''^luti, *Iutan. (b) In the O.E. translation of Bede, made in Mercia perhaps two centuries after Bede's time, we do indeed in one place find "Geata," "Geatum" used to translate "lutarum," "lutis," instead of the correctly corresponding Mercian form "Eota," "Eotum." Only two mss are extant at this point. But since both agree, and since they belong to different types, it is probable that "Geata" here is no mere copyist's error, but is due to the translator himself^. But, later, when the translator ^ I regard it as simply an error of the translator, possibly because he had before him a text in which Bede's lutis had been corrupted in this place into OiotiSy as it is in Ethelwerd: Cantuarii de Giotis trazerunt originem, Vuhtii quoque. (Bk. i: other names which Ethelwerd draws from Bede in this section are equally corrupt.), Bede's text runs: (i, 15) Aduenerant autem de tribus Oermaniae populis fortioribus, id est Saxonibua, Anglis, lutis. De lutarum origine sunt Cantuarii et Victuarii; in the translation: "Comon hi of |>rim f oleum tSam strangestan Germanic, )>8et [is] of Seaxum and of Angle and of Geatum. Of Geata fruman syndon Cantware and Wihtsaetan": (iv, 16) In proximam lutorum prouinciam translati...in locum, qui uocatur Ad Lapidem; "in t>a neahmsegtJe^ seo is gecegd Eota lond, in surae stowe seo is nemned Mt Stane" (Stoneham, near South- ampton). MS C.C.C.C. 41 reads "Ytena land": see below. 336 The ^^Jute-question" reopened has to render Bede's "lutorum," lie gives, not "Geata," but the correct Mercian "Eota." There can be no possible doubt here, for five mss are extant at this point, and all give the correct form — ^four in the Mercian, "Eota," whilst one gives^ the West-Saxon equivalent, "Ytena." Now the 6^mto-passage in the Bede translation is the chief piece of evidence which those who would explain the Geatas- of Beowulf as "Jutes" can call: and it does not, in fact, much help them. What they have to prove is that the Beowulf--poet could consistently and invariably have used Geatas in the place of Bote. To produce an instance in which the two terms are both used by the same translator is very little use, when what has to be proved is that the one term had already, at a much earlier period, entirely ousted the other. All our other evidence is for the invariable use of the correct form lote, lotan, etc. in Old English. (c) The passage from Bede was again translated, and in- serted into a copy of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which wa& sent quite early to one of the great abbeys of Northumbrian. In this, "lutis, lutarum" is represented by the correct North- umbrian equivalent, "lutum," "lotum"; "lutna." (d) This Northumbrian Chronicle, or a transcript of it, subsequently came South, to Canterbury. There, roughly about the year 1100, it was used to interpolate an Early West-Saxon copy of the Chronicle. Surely at Canterbury, the capital of the old Jutish kingdom, people must have known the correct form of the Jutish name, whether Geatas or lote. We find the forms "lotum," "lutum"; "lutna." (e) Corresponding to this Northumbrian (and Kentish) form lote, Mercian Bote, the Late West-Saxon form should be Yte. Now MS Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 41, gives us "the Wessex version of the English Bede" and is written by a scribe who knew the Hampshire district^. In this ms the " Eota " of the Mercian original has been transcribed as " Ytena," "Eotum" as "Ytum," showing that the scribe understood the tribal name and its equivalent correctly. This was about the ^ Two Saxon Chronicles, ed. Plummer, 1899. Introduction, pp. Ixx, Ixxi. 2 The O.E. version of Bede's Ecclesiastical History, ed. Miller, ii, xv, xvi, 1898. Beovmlf 8 people never called Yte 337 time of the Norman Conquest, but the name continued to be understood till the early twelfth century at least. For Florence of Worcester records that William Rufus was slain in Nona Foresta quae lingua Anglorum Ytene nuncupatur; and in another place he speaks of the same event as happening in prouincia Jutarum in Noua Foresta^, which shows that Florence under- stood that "Ytene" was Ytena land, "the province of the Jutes." It comes, then, to this. The "Jute-hypothesis" postulates not only that, at the time Beowulf was composed, Geatas had come to mean "Jutes," but also that it had so completely ousted the correct old name luti, lote, Bote, Yte, that none of the latter terms are ever used in the poem as synonyms for BeowuK's people 2. Yet all the evidence shows that luti etc. was the recognized name when Bede wrote, and we have evidence at intervals showing that it was so understood till four centuries later. But not only was luti, lote never super- seded in O.E. times; there is no real evidence that Geatas was ever generally used to signify "Jutes." The fact that one translator in one passage (writing probably some two centuries after Beowulf was composed) uses "Geata," "Geatum," where he should have used "Eota," "Eotum," does not prove the misnomer to have been general — especially when the same translator subsequently uses the correct form "Eota." I do not think sufficient importance has been attached to what seems (to me) the vital argument against the "Jute- theory." It is not merely that Geatas is the exact phonological equivalent of Gautar (Gotar) and cannot be equivalent to Bede's luti. This difficulty may be got over by the assumption that somehow the luti, or some of them, had adopted the name Geatas : and we are not in a position to disprove such assumption. But the advocates of the " Jute- theory " have further to assume that, at the date when Beowulf was written, the correct name luti (Northumbrian lote, Mercian Bote, West-Saxon Yte) must have 80 passed into disuse that it could not be once used as a 1 Florentii Wigom. Chron., ed. Thorpe, n, 45; i, 276. ' It cannot be said that this is due to textual corruption in our late copy, for the alliteration constantly demands a G-form, not a vowel-form. o. B. 22 338 The ^^Jute-question" reopened synonym for Beowulf's people, by our synonym-hunting poet. And this assumption we are in a position to disprove. The Jute-theory would therefore still be untenable on the ground of the name, even though it were laboriously proved that, from the historical and geographical standpoint, there was more to be said for it than had hitherto been recognized. But even this has not been proved: quite the reverse. As I have tried to show above, historical and geographical con- siderations, though in themselves not absolutely conclusive, point emphatically to an identification with the Gotar, rather than with the Jutes^. The relations of Beowulf and the Geatas with the kings of Denmark and of Sweden are the constant topic of the poem. Now the land of the Gotar was situated between Denmark and Sweden. But if the Geatas be Jutes, their neighbours were the Danes on the east and the Angles on the south ; farther away, across the Cattegat lay the Gotar, and beyond these the Swedes. If the Geatas be Jutes, why should their immediate neighbours, the Angles, never appear in Beowulf as having any dealings with them? And why, above all, should the Gotar never be mentioned, whilst the Swedes, far to the north, play so large a part? Even if Swedes and Gotar had at this time been under one king, the Gotar could not have been thus ignored, seeing that, owing to their position, the brunt of the fighting must have fallen on them^. But we know that the Gotar were independent. The strictly contemporary evidence of Procopius shows quite conclusively that they were one of the strongest of the Scandinavian kingdoms^. How then could warfare be carried on for three generations between Jutes and Swedes without concerning the Gotar, whose territory lay in between? Again, in the "Catalogue of Kings" in Widsith, the Swedes are named with their famous king Ongentheow. The Jutes (Yte) are also mentioned, with their king. And their king is 1 See pp. 8, 9 above, §§ 2-7. 2 Just as, for example, in Heimskringla: Haraldz saga ins hdrfagra^ 13-17, the Gotar are constantly mentioned, because the kingdom of Sweden is being attacked from their side, 3 Procopius tells us that there were in Thule (i.e. the Scandinavian peninsula) thirteen nations, each under its own king: /^aa-stem. (See Noreen, A.f.n.F. i, 166, arguing from the form begg in the Dalecarlian dialect.) The presumed Primitive Norse form is beggvm, whence the various Scandinavian forms, Icel. bygg, Old Swedish and Old Danish biug{g). See Hellquist in A.f.n.F. vn, 31; von Unwerth, A.f.n.F. XXXIII, 331; Bmz, P.B.B. xx, 153; von Helten, P.B.B. xxx, 245; Kock, Umlaut u. Brechung im Aschw. p. 314, in Lunds Universitets arsskrift, Bd. xn). The proper name Byggvir is a ^'a-stem, but Beow cannot have been so formed, as a ja-stem would give the form Seowe. Cosijn {Aanteekeningen, 42) was accordingly justified in pointing to the form Biuuulf as refuting Kegel's attempt to connect Beowulf with Beow through a form *Bawivmlf (A.f.d.A. xvni, 56). Kogel replied with a laboured defence (Z.f.d.A. xxxvn, 268): he starts by assuming that Beow and Beowulf are etymologically connected, which is the very point which has to be proved : he has to admit that, if his etymology be correct, the Biuuulf of the Liber Vitae is not the same form as Beovmlf, which is the very point Cosijn urged as telling against his etymology: and even 80 his etymological explanations depend upon stages which cannot be accepted in the present state of our knowledge (see especially Sievers in P.B.B. xvni, 413; Bjorkman in Engl. Stud. UJ, 150). 368 Bee-wolf and Bear's son affinities and forms of that word are quite different from all that the evidence has hitherto led us to beheve. So much at least seems certain. Besides, we have seen that Byggvir is. taunted by Loki precisely with the fact that he is no warrior. If we can estimate the characteristics of the O.E. Beow from those of the Scandinavian Byggvir, the name "Warrior after the manner of Beow" would be meaningless, if not absurd. Bugge^, relying upon the parallel O.N. form Bjolfr^, which is recorded as the name of one of the early settlers in Iceland^, tried to interpret the word as Bcejolfr "the wolf of the farm- stead," quoting as parallels Heimulf, Gardulf. But Bjolfr itself is best interpreted as "Bee- wolf*." And admittedly Bugge's explanation does not suit the O.E. Beowulf, and necessitates the assumption that the word in EngUsh is a mere meaningless borrowing from the Scandinavian : for Beowulf assuredly does not mean "wolf of the farmstead^." Neither can we take very seriously the explanation of Sarrazin and Ferguson^ that Beowulf is an abbreviation of Beadu-wulf, "wolf of war." Our business is to interpret the name Beowulf, or, if we cannot, to admit that we cannot; not to substitute some quite distinct name for it, and interpret that. Such theories merely show to what straits we may be reduced^ if we reject the obvious etymology of the word. And there are two further considerations, which confirm, almost to a certainty, this obvious interpretation of "Beowulf" as " Bee- wolf " or "Bear." The first is that it agrees excellently with Beowulf's bear-Hke habit of hugging his adversaries to death — a feature which surely belongs to the original kernel of our story, since it is incompatible with the chivalrous, weapon- 1 Tidskr. f. Philol og Psedag. vm, 289. 2 First pointed out by Gmndtvig in Barfod's Brage og Iduriy iv, 1841, p. 500,. footnote. ^ " Lodmundr hinn gamli het madr enn annarr. Biolfr f ostbrodir bans. )?eir foru til Islands af Vors af J>vlviieai" (Voss in Norway). See Landndmabok, Kobenhavn, 1900, p. 92. * Noreen, Altisldndische Orammatik, 3te Aufl. p. 97. See also Noreen in Festskrift til H. F. Feilberg, 1911, p. 283. Noreen seems to have no doubt a» to the explanation of Bjolfr as By-olfr, "Bee-wolf." ^ Bugge, has, however, been followed by Gering, Beovmlf, 1906, p. 100. ^ Ferguson in the Athenseum, June 1892, p. 763: "Beadowulf by a common form of elision (!) would become Beowulf." Sarrazin admits "FreUich ist da» eine ungewohnliche verkiirzung" {Engl. Stud, xui, 19). See also Sarrazin in AngliUy v, 200; Beotvulf-Studien, 33, 77; Engl. Stud, xvi, 79. Panzer's theory 369 loving trappings in which that story has been dressed^. The second is that, as I have tried to show, the evidence is strongly in favour of Bjarki and Beowulf being originally the same figure^: and Bjarki is certainly a bear-hero^. His name signifies as much, and in the Saga of Rolf Krahi we are told at length how the father of Bjarki was a prince who had been turned by enchantment into a bear*. If, then, Beowulf is a bear-hero^, the next step is to enquire whether there is any real hkeness between his adventures at Heorot and under the mere, and the adventures of the hero of the widely-spread " Bear's Son " folk- tale. This investigation has, as we have seen above^, been carried out by Panzer in his monu- mental work, which marks an epoch in the study of Beowulf. Panzer's arguments in favour of such connection would, I think, have been strengthened if he had either quoted textually a number of the more important and less generally accessible folk-tales, or, since this would have proved cumbersome, if he had at least given abstracts of them. The method which Panzer follows, is to enumerate over two hundred tales, and from them to construct a story which is a compound of them all. This is obviously a method which is hable to abuse, though I do not say that Panzer has abused it. But we must not let a story so constructed usurp in our minds the place of the actual recorded folk-tales. Folk-tales, as Andrew Lang wrote long ago, "con- sist of but few incidents, grouped together in a kaleidoscopic variety of arrangements." A collection of over two hundred cognate tales offers a wide field for the selection therefrom of a composite story. Further, some geographical discrimination is necessary : these tales are scattered over Europe and Asia, and it is important to keep constantly in mind whether a given type of tale belongs, for example, to Greece or to Scandinavia. 1 This incompatibility comes out very strongly in U. 2499-2506, where Beowulf praises his sword particularly for the services it has not been able to render him. 2 See above, pp. 60-1. 3 Obik, Heltedigtning, i, 140: F. Jonsson, Hrdlfs Saga Kraka, 1904, Inledning, XX. * Hrdlfs Saga Kraka, cap. 17-20. * The trait is wanting in the Orettis saga: Grettir son of Asraund was too historical a character for such features to be attributed to him. « See pp. 62-7. o. B. 24 370 Bee-wolf and Bear's son A typical example of the Bear's son tale is Der StarJce Hans in Grimm^. Hans is brought up in a robber's den: but quite apart from any of the theories we are now considering, it has long been recognized that this is a mere toning down of the original incredible story, which makes a bear's den the nursery of the strong youth 2. Hans overcomes in an empty castle the foe (a mannikin of magic powers) who has already worsted his comrades Fir- twister and Stone-sphtter. He pursues this foe to his hole, is let down by his companions in a basket by a rope, slays the foe with his club and rescues a princess. He sends up the princess in the basket; but when his own turn comes to be pulled up his associates intentionally drop the basket when halfway up. But Hans, suspecting treason, has only sent up his club. He escapes by magic help, takes vengeance on the traitors, and weds the princess. In another story in Grimm^, the antagonist whom the hero overcomes, but does not in this case slay, is called the Earth- man, Dat Erdmdnnehen. This type begins with the disappearance of the princesses, who are to the orthodox number of three; otherwise it does not differ materially from the abstract given above. Grimm records four distinct versions, all from Western Germany. The versions of this widespread story which are most easily accessible to English readers are Hkely to prejudice such readers against Panzer's view. The two versions in Campbell's Popular Tales of the West Highlands^, or the version in Kennedy's Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts^ are not of a kind to remind any unprejudiced reader strongly of Beowulf, or of the Grettir- story either. Indeed, I beheve that from countries so remote as North Italy or Russia parallels can be found which are closer than any so far quoted from the Celtic portions of the British Isles. Possibly more Celtic parallels may be forthcoming in the future: some striking ones at any rate are promised^. 1 No. 166. Translated as "Strong Hans." (Grimm's Household Tales, trans, by M. Hunt, with introduction by A. Lang, 1884.) 2 As, for example, by Cosquin, Contes populaires de Lorraine, i, 7. A com- parison of the different versions in which the "strange theme" is toned down, in a greater or less degree, seems to make this certain. ® No. 91. * Edinburgh, 1860, vol. i, No. xvi, "The king of Lochlin's three daughters": vol. Ill, No. Lviii, "The rider of Grianaig." ^ London, 1866: p. 43, "The Three Crowns." « Notably by von Sydo^_ i Versions of the Bear's son folk-tale 371 So, too, the story of the "Great Bird Dan" {Fugl Dam^), which is accessible to English readers in Dasent's translation^, is one in which the typical features have been overlaid by a mass of detail. A much more normal specimen of the '* Bear's son " story is found, for example, in a folk-tale from Lombardy — the story of Giovanni delV Orso^. Giovanni is brought up in a bear's den, whither his mother has been carried ofE. At five, he has the growth of a man and the strength of a giant. At sixteen, he is able to remove the stone from the door of the den and escape, with his mother. Going on his adventures with two comrades, he comes to an empty palace. The comrades are defeated: it becomes the turn of Giovanni to be alone. An old man comes in and "grows, grows till his head touched the roof*." Giovanni mortally wounds the giant, who however escapes. They all go in search of him, and find a hole in the ground. His comrades let Giovanni down by a rope. He finds a great hall, full of rich clothes and provision of every kind: in a second hall he finds three girls, each one more beautiful than the other: in a third hall he finds the giant himself, drawing up his will^. Giovanni kills the giant, rescues the damsels, and, in spite of his comrades deserting the rope, he escapes, pardons them, himself weds the youngest princess and marries his comrades to the elder ones. I cannot find in this version any mention of the hero smiting the giant below with a magic sword which he finds there, as suggested by Panzer^. But even without this, the first part of the story has resemblances to Beowulf, and still more to the Grettir-^toTj . There are many Slavonic variants. The South Russian story of the Norka' begins with the attack of the Norka upon the King's park. The King offers half his kingdom to whomsoever will destroy the beast. The youngest prince of three watches, 1 A8bj£(ni8en og Moe, Norske Folkeeventyr, Christiania, 1852, No. 3. 2 Popular TaUafrmn the Norse (third edit., Edinburgh, 1888, p. 382). 3 Visentini, Fiabe Mantovane, 1879, No. 32, 157-161. * "fino a che col capo tocca le travi." Cf. Glam in the Grettis Saga. 5 "e qui vede il gigante seduto, che detteva il suo testamento." * p. 153. This is Panzer's version 97. ' "A fabulous creature, but zoologically the name Norka (from worn, a hole) belongs to the otter," Ralston, Russian Folk Tales, p. 73. 24—2 372 Bee-wolf and Bears son after the failure of his two elder brothers, chases and wounds the monster, who in the end pulls up a stone and disappears into the earth. The prince is let down by his brothers, and, with the help of a sword specially given him in the underworld, and a draught of the water of strength, he slays the foe, and wins the princesses. In order to have these for themselves, the elder brothers drop what they suppose to be their youngest brother, as they are drawing him up: but it is only a stone he has cautiously tied to the rope in place of himself. The prince's miraculous return in disguise, his feats, recognition by the youngest princess, the exposure of the traitors, and marriage of the hero, all follow in due course^. A closer Russian parallel is that of Ivashko Medvedko^, " John Honey-eater" or "Bear." John grows up, not by years, but by hours : nearly every hour he gains an inch in height. At fifteen, there are complaints of his rough play with other village boys, and John Bear has to go out into the world, after his grandfather has provided him with a weapon, an iron staff of immense weight. He meets a champion who is drinking up a river: "Good morning, John Bear, whither art going? " "I know not whither; I just go, not knowing where to go." "If so, take me with you." The same happens with a second champion whose hobby is to carry mountains on his shoulder, and with a third, who plucks up oaks or pushes them into the ground. They come to a revolving house in a dark forest, which at John's word stands with its back door to the forest and its front door to them: all its doors and windows open of their own accord. Though the yard is full of poultry, the house is empty. Whilst the three companions go hunting, the river-swallower stays in the house to cook dinner: this done, he washes his head, and sits at the window to comb his locks. Suddenly the earth shakes, then stands still: a stone is Hfted, and from under it appears Baba Yaga driving in her mortar with a pestle: behind her comes barking a httle dog. A short dialogue ensues, and the champion, at her request, gives her food; but the second helping she throws to her dog, and thereupon beats the champion with 1 Afanasief (A. N.), Narodnuiya Russkiya Skazki, Moscow, 1860-63, i, 6. See Ralston, p. 73. ^ Afanasief, vin. No. 6. Russian variants 373 her pestle till he becomes unconscious; then she cuts a strip of skin from his back, and after eating all the food, vanishes. The victim recovers his senses, ties up his head with a handkerchief, and, when his companions return, apologizes for the ill-success of his cooking: "He had been nearly suffocated by the fumes of the charcoal, and had had his work cut out to get the room clear." Exactly the same happens to the other champions. On the fourth day it is the turn of John Bear, and here again the same formulas are repeated. John does the cooking, washes his bead, sits down at the window and begins to comb his curly locks. Baba Yaga appears with the usual phenomena, and the usual dialogue follows, till she begins to belabour the hero with her pestle. But he wrests it from her, beats her almost to death, cuts three strips from her skin, and imprisons her in a closet. When his companions return, they are astonished to find dinner ready. After dinner they have a bath, and the companions try not to show their mutilated backs, but at last have to confess. "Now I see why you all suffered from suffocation," says John Bear. He goes to the closet, takes the three strips cut from his friends, and reinserts them: they heal at once. Then he ties up Baba Yaga by a cord fastened to one fOot, and they all shoot at the cord in turn. John Bear hits it, and cuts the string in two; Baba Yaga falls to the earth, but rises, runs to the stone from under which she had appeared, hfts it, and vanishes. Each of the companions tries in turn to Hft the stone, but only John can accomplish it, and only he is wilHng to go down. His com- rades let him down by a rope, which however is too short, and John has to eke it out by the three strips previously cut from the back of Baba Yaga. At the bottom he sees a path, follows it, and reaches a palace where are three beautiful maidens, who welcome him, but warn him against their mother, who is Baba Yaga herself: "She is asleep now, but she keeps at her head a sword. Do not touch it, but take two golden apples lying on a silver tray, wake her gently, and offer them to her. As soon as she begins to eat, seize the sword, and cut her head off at one blow." John Bear carries out these instructions, and sends up the maidens, two to be wives to his companions, and the youngest to be his own wife. This leaves the third companion wifeless 374 Bee-wolf and Bear's son and, in indignation, he cuts the rope when the turn comes to pull John up. The hero falls and is badly hurt. [John has for- gotten, in this version, to put his iron club into the basket instead of himself — indeed he has up to now made no use of his staff.] In time the hero sees an underground passage, and makes his way out into the white world. Here he finds the youngest maiden, who is tending cattle, after refusing to marry the false companion. John Bear follows her home, slays his former com- rades with his staff, and throws their bodies on the field for the wild beasts to devour. He then takes his sweetheart home to his people, and weds her. The abstract given above is from a translation made by one of my students. Miss M. Steine, who tells me that she had heard the tale in this form many times from her old nurse "when we were being sent to sleep, or sitting round her in the evening." I have given it at this length because I do not know of any acces- sible translation into any Western language. Panzer enumerates two hundred and two variants of the story : and there are others^. But there is reason in the criticism that what is important for us is the form the folk-tale may have taken in those countries where we must look for the original home of the Beowulf-stoiy^. The Mantuan folk-tale may have been carried down to North Italy from Scandinavia by the Longobards: who can say? But Panzer's theory must stand or fall by the parallels which can be drawn between the Beowulf- Grettir-stoTj on the one hand, and the folk-tales as they have been collected in the countries where this story is native: the lands, that is to say, adjoining the North Sea. Now it is precisely here that we do find the most remarkable resemblances: in Iceland, the Faroes, Norway, Denmark, Jut- land, Schleswig, and the Low German lands as far as the Scheldt. An Icelandic version exists in an unprinted MS at Reykja- vik^ which can be consulted in a German translation*. In this 1 For example, "Shepherd Paul," in The Folk-Tales of the Magyars, by W. H. Jones and L. L. Kropf, Folk-Lore Society, 1889, p. 244. The latest col- lection contains its version, 'The Story of Taling, the Half-boy ' in Persian Tales, written down for the first time and translated by D. L. R. and E. O. Lorimer, London, 1919. ^ Qf. yon Sydow in A.f.d.A. xxxv, 126. 3 Ion Amason's mss. No. 536, 4°. * Rittershaus (A.), Die Neuisldndischen Volksmdrchen, Halle, 1902, No. 25. North Sea variants: from Iceland and the Faroes 375 version a bear, who is really an enchanted prince, carries off a princess. He resumes his human form and weds the princess, but must still at times take the bear's form. His child, the Bear-boy (Bjarndreingur), is to be kept in the house during the long periods when the enchanted husband is away. But at twelve years old the Bear-boy is too strong and unmanageable, bursts out, and slays a bear who turns out to be his father. His mother's heart is broken, but Bear-boy goes on his adven- tures, and associates with himself three companions, one of whom is Stein. They build a house in the wood, which is attacked by a giant, and, as usual, the companions are unable to withstand the attacks. Bear-boy does so, ties the giant's hands behind his back, and fastens him by his beard. But the giant tears himself free. As in Beowulf, Bear-boy and his com- panions follow the track by the drops of blood, and come to a hole. Stein is let some way down, the other companions further, but only Bear-boy dares to go to the bottom. There he finds a weeping princess, and learns that she, and her two sisters, have been carried off by three giants, one of whom is his former assailant. He slays all three, and sends their heads up, together with the maidens and other treasures. But his companions desert the rope, and he has to climb up unaided. In the end he weds the youngest princess. The story from the Faroe Islands runs thus : Three brothers lived together and took turns, two to go out fishing, and one to be at home. For two days, when the two elder brothers were at home, came a giant with a long beard (Skeggjatussi) and ate and drank all the food. Then comes the turn of the despised youngest brother, who is called in one version 0skud61gur — "the one who sits and rakes in the ashes" — a kind of male Cinderella. This brother routs the giant, either by catch- ing his long beard in a cleft tree- trunk, or by branding him in the nose with a hot iron. In either case the mutilated giant escapes down a hole: in one version, after the other brothers come home, they follow him to this bole by the track of his blood. The two elder brothers leave the task of plunging down to the youngest one, who finds below a girl (in the second version, two kidnapped princesses). He finds also a magic sword hanging 376 Bee-wolf and Bear's son on the wall, which he is only able to Hft when he has drunk a magic potion. He then slays the giant, rescues the maiden or maidens, is betrayed in the usual way by his brothers: in the one version they dehberately refuse to draw him up: in the other they cut the rope as they are doing so : but he is discreetly sending up only a big stone. The hero is helped out, however, by a giant, "Skrseddi Kjalki" or "Snerkti risi," and in the end marries the princess^. In the Norwegian folk-tale the three adventurers are called respectively the Captain, the Lieutenant and the Soldier. They search for the three princesses, and watch in a castle, where the Captain and Lieutenant are in turn worsted by a strange visitor — who in this version is not identical with the troll below ground who guards the princesses 2. When the turn of the Soldier comes, he seizes the intruder (the man, as he is called). "Ah no. Ah no, spare my life," said the man, "and you shall know all. East of the castle is a great sandheap, and down in it a winch, with which you can lower yourself. But if you are afraid, and do not dare to go right down, you only need to pull the bell rope which you will find there, and up you will come again. But if you dare venture so far as to come to the bottom, there stands a flask on a shelf over the door : you must drink what is in it : so will you become so strong that you can strike the head off the troll of the mountain. And by the door there hangs a Troll-sword, which also you must take, for no other steel will bite on his body." When he had learnt this, he let the man go. When the Captain and the Lieutenant came home, they were not a httle surprised to find the Soldier ahve. "How have you escaped a drubbing," said they, "has not the man been 1 Fs&rjiske Folkesagn og Mventyr, ed. by Jakob Jakobsen, 1898-1901, pp. 241-4 {Samfund til Udgivelse af gammel Nordisk Litteratur). 2 This folk-tale is given in a small book, to be found in the Christiania University Library, and no doubt elsewhere in Norway : Nor, en Billedhog for den norske Ungdom (Tredie Oplag, Christiania, 1865). Norske Folke-Eventyr og Sagn, fortalte af P. Chr. Asbj£^rnsen. A copy of the story, slightly altered, occurs in the Udvalgte Eventyr og Sagn for B^rn, of Knutsen, Bentsen and Johnsson, Christiania, 1877, p. 58 etc. North Sea variants: from Norway and Denmarh ^77 here? '* "Oh yes, he is quite a good fellow, he is," said the Soldier, "I have learnt from him where the princesses are,'* and he told them all. They were glad when they heard that, and when they had eaten, they went all three to the sandheap. As usual, the Captain and the Lieutenant do not dare to go to the bottom : the hero accomplishes the adventure, is (as usual) betrayed by his comrades, but is saved because he has put a stone in the basket instead of himself, and in the end is rescued by the interposition of " Kl^verhans." What is the explanation of the " sandheap " (sandhaug) I do not know. But one cannot forget that Grettir's adventure in the house, followed by his adventure with the troll under the earth, is locaHzed at Sandhaugar. This may be a mere accident; but it is worth noting that in following up the track indicated by Panzer we come across startling coincidences of this kind. As stated above, it can hardly be due to any influence of the Grettis Saga upon the folk-tale^. The Hkeness between the two is too remote to have suggested a transference of such details from the one story to the other. We find the story in its normal form in Jutland^. The hero, a foundling, is named Bj0rn0re (Bear-ears). There is no explana- tion offered of this name, but we know that in other versions of the story, where the hero is half bear and half man, his bear nature is shown by his bear's ears. "Bear-ears" comes with his companions to an empty house, worsts the foe (the old man, den gamle) who has put his companions to shame, and fixes him by his beard in a cloven tree. The foe escapes nevertheless ; they follow him to his hole: the companions are afraid, but "Bear- ears" is let down, finds the enemy on his bed, and slays him. The rest of the story follows the usual pattern. "Bear-ears" rescues and sends up the princesses, his comrades detach the rope, which however is hauHng up only the hero's iron club. He escapes miraculously from his confinement below, and returns to marry the youngest princess. In another Danish version, from the South of Zealand^, the hero, "Strong Hans" (nothing is said 1 pp. 66-7. * Bemtsen (K.), Folke-Mventyr, 1873, No. 12, pp. 109-115. 2 Grundtvig (Sv.), Gamle Danske Minder, 1854, No. 34, p. 33: from Nffistved. 378 Bee-wolf and Bear*s son about his bear-origin), comes with his companions to a mag- nificent but empty castle. The old witch worsts his comrades and imprisons them under the trap-door: but Hans beats her, and rescues them, though the witch herself escapes. Hans is let down, rescues the princesses, is betrayed by his comrades (who, thinking to drop him in drawing him up, only drop his iron club), and finally weds the third princess. A little further South we have three versions of the same tale recorded for Schleswig-Holstein^. The hero wins his victory below by means of "a great iron sword" (en grotes ysernes Schwdert) which he can only wield after drinking of the magic potion. From Hanover comes the story of Peter Bar^, which shows all the famihar features: from the same district came some of Grimm's variants. Others were from the Rhine provinces: but the fullest version of all comes from the Scheldt, just over the Flemish border. The hero, Jean I'Ourson, is recovered as a child from a bear's den, is despised in his youth ^, but gives early proof of his strength. He defends an empty castle un superbe chateau, when his companion has failed, strikes off an arm* of his assailant Petit- Pere-Bidoux, chases him to his hole, un fuits vaste et fro- fond. He is let down by his companion, but finding the rope too short, plunges, and arrives battered at the bottom. There he perceives une lumiere qui brillait au bout d'une longue galerie^. At the end of the gallery he sees his former assailant, attended by une vieillefemme a cheveux blancs, qui semblait dgee de plus de cent ans, who is salving his wounded arm. The hero quenches the hght (which is a magic one) smites his foe on the head and kills him, and then rekindles the lamp^. His companion above seeks to rob him of the two princesses he has won, by detaching the rope. Nevertheless, he escapes, weds the good princess, and punishes his faithless companion by making him wed the bad one. The white-haired old woman is not spoken of as the mother 1 Hans mit de ysern Stang\ MiillenhofF, Sagen, Mdrchen u. Lieder... 1S4:5. No. XVI, p. 437. 2 Colshom {C.aLndTh.)y Mdrchen u. Sagen, Hannover, 1854, No. v, pp. 18-30^ 3 Cf. Beovmlf, li. 2183-8. * Cf. Beovmlf, U. 816 etc. « Cf. Beovmlf, U. 1516-17; cf. Grettis Saga, lxvi. • Cf. Oreitis Saga, lxvi, kann kveikti Ijos; cf. Beowulf, 1570. North Sea variants: from Schleswig and the Scheldt 379 of the foe she is nursing, and it may be doubted whether she is in any way parallel to Grendel's mother. The hero does not fight her : indeed it is she who, in the end, enables him to escape. Still the parallels between Jean I'Ourson and Beowulf are striking enough. Nine distinct features recur, in the same order, in the Beowulf-story and in this folk-tale. It needs a more robust faith than I possess to attribute this solely to chance. Unfortunately, this French-Flemish tale is found in a some- what sophisticated collection. Its recorder, as Sainte-Beuve points out in his letter introductory to the series^, uses literary touches which diminish the value of his folk- tales to the student of origins. Any contamination from the Beowulf-stoiy or the Grettir-stoTj is surely improbable enough in this case: never- theless, one would have hked the tale taken down verbatim from the hps of some simple-minded narrator as it used to be told at Conde on the Scheldt. But if we take together the different versions enumerated above, the result is, I think, convincing. Here are eight versions of one folk-tale taken as representatives from a much larger number current in the countries in touch with the North Sea : from Iceland, the Faroes, Norway, Jutland, Zealand, Schleswig, Hanover, and the Scheldt. The champion is a bear-hero (as Beowulf almost certainly is, and as Bjarki quite certainly is); he is called, in Iceland, Bjarndreingur, in Jutland, Bj^rn(fre, in Hanover, Peter Bar, on the Scheldt Jean VOurson. Like Beowulf, he is despised in his youth (Faroe, Scheldt). In all versions he resists his adversary in an empty house or castle, after his com- rades have failed. In most versions of the folk-tale this is the third attack, as it is in the case of Grettir at Sandhaugar and of Bjarki: in Beowulf, on the contrary, we gather that Heorot has been raided many times. The adversary, though vanquished, escapes; in one version after the loss of an arm (Scheldt): they follow his track to the hole into which he has vanished, some- times, as in Beowulf, marking traces of his blood (Iceland, Faroe, Schleswig). The hero always ventures down alone, and gets into ^ Contes du roi CamJhrinus, par C. Deulin, Paris, 1874 (I. Uintrdpide QayarU). The story is associated with Gayant, the traditional hero of Douai. 380 ~ Bee-wolf and Bear's son an underworld of magic, which has left traces of its mysterious- ness in Beowulf. In one tale (Scheldt) the hero sees a magic lamp burning below, just as he sees the i&re in Beowulf or the Grettis Saga. He overcomes either his original foe, or new ones, often by the use of a magic sword (Faroe, Norway, Schleswig) ; this sword hangs by the door (Norway) or on the wall (Faroe) as in Beowulf. After slaying his foe, the hero rekindles the magic lamp, in the Scheldt fairy tale, just as he kindles a hght in the Grettis Saga, and as the Hght flashes up in Beowulf after the hero has smitten Grendel's mother. The hero is in each case deserted by his companions: a feature which, while it is marked in the Grettis Saga, can obviously be allowed to survive in Beowulf only in a much softened form. The chosen retainers whom Beowulf has taken with him on his journey could not be repre- sented as unfaithful, because the poet is reserving the episode of the faithless retainers for the death of Beowulf. To have twice represented the escort as cowardly would have made the poem a satire upon the comitatus, and would have assured it a hostile reception in every hall from Canterbury to Edinburgh. But there is no doubt as to the faithlessness of the comrade Stein in the Grettis Saga. And in Zealand, one of the faithless com- panions is called Stenhuggeren (the Stone-hewer), in Schleswig SteenUower, in Hanover Steinsfieler, whilst in Iceland he has the same name, Stein, which he has in the Grettis Saga. The fact that the departure home of the Danes in Beowulf is due to the same cause as that which accounts for the betrayal of his trust by Stein, shows that in the original Beowulf-stoTj also this feature must have occurred, however much it may have become worn down in the existing epic. I think enough has been said to show that there is a real . Hkeness between a large number of recorded folk-tales and the J Beoivulf-Grettir story. The parallel is not merely with an arti- ficial, theoretical composite put together by Panzer. But it becomes equally clear that Beowulf cannot be spoken of as a version of these folk-tales. At most it is a version of a portion of them. The omission of the princesses in Beowulf and the Grettis Saga is fundamental. With the princesses much else falls away. There is no longer any motive for the betrayal of trust The date of the death of Hygelac 381 by the watchers. The disguise of the hero and his vengeance are now no longer necessary to the tale. It might be argued that there was something about the three princesses which made them unsatisfactory as subjects of story. It has been thought that in the oldest version the hero married all three: an awkward episode where a scop had to compose a poem for an audience certainly monogamous and most probably Christian. The rather tragic and sombre atmosphere of the stories of Beowulf and Grettir fits in better with a version from which the princesses, and the hving happily ever afterwards, have been dropped. On the other hand, it might be argued that the folk-tale is composite, and that the source from which the Beowulf-Grettir-8toTj drew was a simpler tale to which the princesses had not yet been added. And there are additions as well as subtractions. Alike in Beowulf and in the Grefiis Saga, the fight in the house and the fight below are associated with struggles with monsters of different sex. The association of " The Devil and his Dam " has only few and remote parallels in the " Bear's-son " folk-tale. But Panzer has, I think, proved that the struggle of Beowulf in the hall, and his plunging down into the deep, is simply an epic glorification of a folk-tale motive. X. I. THE DATE OF THE DEATH OF HYGELAC. \ Gregory of Tours mentions the defeat of Chochilaicus (Hygelac) as an event of the reign of Theudoric. Now Theudoric succeeded his father Chlodoweg, who died 27 Nov. 511. Theudoric died in 534. This, then, gives the extreme Hmits of time; but as Gregory mentions the event among the first occurrences of the reign, the period 512-520 has generally been suggested, or in round numbers about 515 or 516. Nevertheless, we cannot attach much importance to the mere order followed by Gregory^. He may well have had no means of dating the event exactly. Of much more importance than the order, is the fact he records, that Theudoric did not ^ Cf. Schmidt, Oeschichte der deutachen Stdmme, n, 495, 499, note 4. 382 The date of the death of Hygelac defeat Chocliilaicus in person, but sent his son Theudobert to repel the invaders. Now Theudobert was born before the death of his grand- father Chlodoweg. For Gregory tells us that Chlodoweg left, not only four sons, but a grandson Theudobert, elegantem atque utilem^: utilem cannot mean that, at the time of the death of Chlodoweg, Theudobert was of age to conduct affairs of state, for Chlodoweg was only 45 at death^. The Merovingians were a precocious race; but if we are to allow Theudobert to have been at least fifteen before being placed in charge of a very important expedition, and Chlodoweg to have been at least forty before becoming a grandfather, the defeat of Hygelac cannot be put before 521; and probabihty would favour a date five or ten years later. There is confirmation for this. When Theudobert died, in 548, he left one son only, quite a child and still under tutelage^; probably therefore not more than twelve or thirteen at most. We know the circumstances of the child's birth. Theudobert had been betrothed by his father Theudoric to a Longobardic prin- cess, Wisigardis*. In the meantime he fell in love with the lady Deoteria^, and married her^. The Franks were shocked at this fickleness (valde scandalizabantur), and Theudobert had ulti- mately to put away Deoteria^, although they had this young son {farvulum filium), who, as we have seen, could hardly have been born before 535, and possibly was born years later. Theudobert then married the Longobardic princess, in the seventh year after their betrothal. So it cannot have been much before 530 that Theudobert's father was first arranging the Longobardic match. A king is not likely to have waited to find a wife for a son, upon whom his dynasty was to depend, till fifteen years after that son was of age to win a memorable victory ^. 1 III, 1. , ^ "' ^^• ^ Ilais...vios TJv KOfiidrj, Kai ^tl virb iraidoKSfii^ TL6r]vo{>fi€vos, Agathias, I, 4: parvulus, Gregory, iv, 6. "^ Gregory, ni, 20. ^ m, 22. « in, 23. ' in, 27. 8 Many recent historians have expressed doubts as to the conventional date, 515, for Hygelac's death. J. P. Jacobsen, in the Danish translation of Gregory (1911) suggested 525-30: following him Severinsen [Danske Studier, 1919, 96) suggested c. 526, as did Fredborg, Detforsta artalet i Sveriges historia. L. Schmidt {Oeschichte der deutschen Stdmme, n, 500, note, 1918) suggested c. 528. PLATE VIII. SOUTHERN SCANDINAVIA IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ^|fe^^4:^3^: f -y - I % ^ — ^^ — It ENGLISH BOAR-HELMET AND RING-SWORDS I. Benty Grange Helmet (Roach Smith, Collectanea Antiqua, ii, 238). II. Pommel of Ring-Sword from Faversham, Kent {Ibid, vi, 139). III. Pommel of Ring-Sword from Gilton, Kent {Archasologia, xxx, 132). BIBLIOGRAPHY OP BEOWULF AND FINNSBURO I remember it was with extreme difficulty that I could bring my master to under- stand the meaning of the word opinion, or how a point could be disputable; because reason taught us to affirm or deny only where we are certain; and beyond our knowledge we cannot do either. So that controversies, wranglings, disputes, and positiveness in false or dubious propositions are evils unknown among the Houyhnhnms....B.e would laugh that a creature pretending to reason should value itself upon the knowledge of other people's conjectures, and in things, where that knowledge, if it were certain, could be of no use.... I have often since reflected what destruction such a doctrine would make in the libraries of Europe. GrvUiver's Travels. The following items are (except in special cases) not included in this bibliography : (a) Articles dealing with single passages in Beowulf, or two passages only, in cases where they have already been recorded under the appro- priate passage in the footnotes to the text, or in the glossary, of my revision of Wyatt's edition. (6) Articles dealing with the emendation or interpretation of single pas- sages, in cases where such emendations have been withdrawn by their author himself. (c) Purely popular paraphrases or summaries. (d) Purely personal protests (e.g., P.B.B. xxi, 436), however well founded, in which no point of scholarship is any longer involved. Books dealing with other subjects, but illustrating Beoivulf, present a diffi- culty. Such books may have a value for Beowulf students, even though the author may never refer to our poem, and have occasionally been included in previous bibliographies. But, imless Beowulf is closely concerned, these books are not usually mentioned below : such enumeration, if carried out consistently, would clog a bibliography already all too bulky. Thus, Siecke's Drcichenkdmpfe does not seem to come within the scope of this bibliography, because the author is not concerned with Beowulf's dragon. Obviously every general discussion of Old English metre must concern itself largely with Beowulf: for such treatises the student is referred to the section Metrik of Brand] 's Bibliography {Pauls Or dr.); and, for Old English heroic legend in general, to the Bibliography of my edition of Widsith. Many scholars, e.g. Heinzel, have put iuto their reviews of the books of others, much original work which might well have formed the material for independent articles. Such reviews are noted as "weighty," but it must not be supposed that the reviews not so marked are negligible ; unless of some value to scholarship, reviews are not usually mentioned below. The title of any book, article or review which I have not seen and verified is denoted by the sign f. 384 Bibliography SUMMARY § 1. Periodicals. § 2. Bibliographies. § 3. The MS and its transcripts. §4. Editions. § 5. Concordances, etc. § 6. Translations (including early summaries). § 7. Textual criticism and interpretation. § 8. Questions of literary history, date and authorship. Beoumlf in the light of history, archaeology^, heroic legend, mythology and folk-lore. § 9. Style and Grammar. §10. Metre. §1. PERIODICALS The periodicals most frequently quoted are : A.f.d.A. = Anzeiger fUr deutsches Alterthum. Berlin, 1876 etc. A.f.n.F. =Arkiv for nordisk Filologi. Christiania, Lund, 1883 etc. Quoted according to the original numbering. Anglia. Halle, 1878 etc. Archiv = lieTTiga Archiv fiir das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Littera- turen. Elberfeld, Braunschweig, 1846 etc. Quoted according to the original numbering. D.L.Z. = Deutsche Literatur-Zeitung. Berlin, 1880 etc. Engl, ^f tw^. = Englische Studien. Heilbronn, Leipzig, 1877 etc. Germania. Wien, 1856-92. /.I''. =Indogermanische Forschungen. Strassburg, 1892 etc. J. {E.)G.Ph.= Journal of (EngUsh and) Germanic Philology. Bloomington, Urbana, 1897 etc. Lit. Chi. = Literarisches Centralblatt. Leipzig, 1851 etc. Literaturhlatt fiir germanische und romanische Philologie. Heilbronn, Leipzig,. 1880 etc. 3f.i/.iV.=: Modem Language Notes. Baltimore, 1886 etc. Quoted by the page, Twt the column. M.L.R. =The Modem Language Review. Cambridge, 1906 etc. Mod. Phil. = Modem Philology. Chicago, 1903 etc. Morsbachs Studien zur englischen Philologie. Halle, 1897 etc. P.J5.5. =Beitrage zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache u. Litteratur. Halle, 1874 etc. Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc, ^mer. = Publications of the Modem Language Associ- ation of America. Baltimore, 1889 etc. Z.f.d.A. =ZeitschTiit fiir deutsches Alterthum. Leipzig, Berlin, 1841 etc. Z.f.d.Ph. =Za,cheTs Zeitschrift fiir deutsche Philologie. Halle, 1869 etc. Z.f .6.0. =Zeitschnit fiir die osterreichischen Gymnasien. Wien, 1850 etc. The titles of other periodicals are given with sufficient fulness for easy identification. ^ Archaeological works bearing less directly upon Beowulf are enumerated in Appendix F; that enumeration is not repeated here. Bibliographies: the MS 385 §2. BIBLIOGRAPHIES Bibliographies have been pubhshed from time to time as a supplement to Anglia; also in the Jahresbericht uber...german. Philologie; by Gamett in his Translation, 1882 etc.; and will be found in Wiilker's Grundriss (with very useful abstracts), 1885, pp. 246 etc. Clark Hall's Translation, 1901, 1911. Holthausen's Beowulf, 1906, 1909, 1913, 1919. Brandl's Englische Literatur, in Pauls Ordr.{2), n, 1015-24 (full, but not so reliable as Holthausen's). Sedgefield's Beowulf, 1910, 1913 (carefully selected). An excellent critical bibliography of jBeot^wZ/-translations up to 1903 is that of Tinker : see under § 6, Translations. § 3. THE MS AND ITS TRANSCRIPTS Beowulf fills ff. 129 (132)a to 198 (201)6 of the British Museum MS Cotton Vitellius A. XV. BeounUfia written in two hands, the first of which goes to 1. 1939. This hand was identified by Prof. Sedgefield {Beowulf, Introduction, p. xiv, footnote) with that of the piece immediately preceding Beowulf in the MS, and by Mr Kenneth Sisam, in 1916, with that of all three immediately preceding pieces: the Christopher fragment, the Wonders of the East, and the Letter of Alexander on the Wonders of India. The pieces preceding these, however (the Soliloquies of 8. Augustine, the Gospel of Nicodemus, Salomon and Saturn), are certainly not in the same hand, and their connection with the Beowulf -m^ is simply due to the bookbinder. From 1. 1939 to the end, Beowulf \% written in a second hand, thicker and less elegant than the first. This second hand seems to be clearly identical with that in which the poem of Judith, immediately following Beowulf, is written. This was pointed out by Sievers in 1872 {Z.f.d.A. xv, 457), and has never, I think, been disputed (cf. Sisam, p. 337; Forster, p. 31). Nevertheless the two poems have probably not always formed one book. For the last page of Beowulf was apparently once the last page of the volume, to judge from its battered con- dition, whilst Judith is imperfect at the beginning. And there are trifling difiEerences, e.g. in the frequency of the use of contractions, and the form of the capital H. This identity of the scribe of the second portion of Beowulf and the Judith scribe, together with the identity (pointed out by Mr Sisam) of the scribe of the first portion of Beoumlf and the scribe of the three preceding works, is important. A detailed comparison of these texts will throw light upon the characteristics of the scribes. That the three preceding works are in the same hand as that of the first Beoumlf scribe was again announced, independently of Mr Sisam, by Prof. Max Forster, in 1919. Sievers had already in 1871 arrived at the same result (see Forster, p. 35, note) but had not published it. It seems to me in the highest degree improbable that the Beowvlf-va has lost its ending, as Prof. Forster thinks (pp. 82, 88). Surely nothing could be better than the conclusion of the poem as it stands in the MS: that the O.B. 25 c 386 Bibliography casual loss of a number of leaves could have resulted in so satisfactory a con- clusion is, I think, not conceivable. Moreover, the scribe has crammed as much material as possible into the last leaf of Beoiimlf, making his lines abnormally long, and using contractions in a way he does not use them elsewhere. The only reason for this must be to avoid running over into a new leaf or quire: there could be no motive for this crowded page if the poem had ever run on beyond it. There is pretty general agreement that the date of the Beowulf -MS is about the year 1000, and that it is somewhat more likely to be before that date than after. The Beotimlf-MS was injured in the great Cottonian fire of 1731, and the edges of the parchment have since chipped away owing to the damage then sustained. Valuable assistance can therefore be derived from the two tran- scripts now preserved in the Royal Library of Copenhagen, made in 1787, when the MS was much less damaged. A. Poema anglosaxonicum de rebus gestis Danorum... fecit exscribi Londini a.d. mdcclxxxvh Grimus Johannis Thorkehn. B. Poema anglosaxonicum de Danorum rebus gestis... exscripsit Grimus Johannis Thorkelin. Londini MDCCtxxxvn. The first description of the Beowulf-us is in 1705 by H. Wanley {Librorum Septentrionalium...Catalogus, pp. 218-19, Oxonise, forming vol. n of Hickes' Thesaurus). Two short extracts from the MS are given by Wanley. He describes the poem as telling of the wars quse Beovmlfus quidam Danus, ex regio Scyl- dingorum stirpe ortus, gessit contra Suecise regulos. The text was printed by Thoekemn in 1815, and the MS was collated by Conybeare, who in his Illustrations (1826) issued 19 pages of corrections of Thorkelin. These cor- rections were further corrected by J. M. Kemble in 1837 (Letter to M. Francisque Michel, in Michel's Bibliotheque Anglo-Saxonne, pp. 20, 51-8). Meantime Kemble's text had been issued in 1833, based upon his examination of the MS. The MS was also seen by Thobpe (in 1830: Thorpe's text was not published till 1855) and by Gbundtvig (pub. 1861). A further collation was that of E. KoLBiNG in 1876 (Zur Beovulf-handschrift, Archiv, lvi, 91-118). Kolbing's collation proves the superiority of Kemble's text to Grundtvig's. Line for line transcripts of the MS were those of Holder, Wiilker and Zupitza: 1881 Holder, A. Beowulf. Bd. i. Abdruck der Handschrift. Freiburg u. Tubingen. ({1881, from collation made in 1875.) Reviews: Kolbing, Engl. Stud, vn, 488; Kluge, Literaturblatt, 1883, 178; Wulker, Lit. Cbl. 1882, 1035-6. 1882. 2Aufl. 1895. 3 Aufl. Reviews: Dieter, Anglia, Beiblatt, vi, 260-1 ; Brandl, Z.f.d.A. XL, 90. 1881 Wulker, R. P. Beowulf: Text nach der handschrift, in Grein's Bibliothek, 1, 18-148. 1882 Zupitza, J. Beowulf. Autotypes of the unique Cotton MS. Vitellius A XV; with a transliteration and notes. Early English Text Society, London. Reviews: Trautmann, Anglia, vii, Anzeiger, 41; Kolbing, Engl. Stud, vn, 482 etc.; Varnhagen, A.f.d.A. x, 304; Sievers, Lit. CbL 1884, 124. The MS: Editions 387 Further discussion of the MS by 1890 Davidson, C. Differences between the scribes of Beowulf. M.L.N, v, 43-4; McClumpha, C, criticizes the above, M.L.N, v, 123; reply by Davidson, M.L.N, v, 189-90. 1910 Lamb, Evelyn H. "Beowulf": Hemming of Worcester. Notes and Queries, Ser. xi, vol. i, p. 26. (Worthless. An assertion, unsupported by any evidence, that both the hands of the Beowulf MS are those of Hemming of Worcester, who flourished c. 1096.) 1916 SiSAM, K. The Beowulf Manuscript. M.L.R. xi, 335-7. (Very important. Gives results of a scrutiny of the other treatises in MS Vitellius A. XV (see above) and shows, among other things, that the Beowulf MS, before reaching the hands of Sir Robert Cotton, was (in 1563) in those of Lawrence No well, the Elizabethan Anglo-Saxon scholar.) 1919 FoBSTEB, Max. Die Beowulf- Handschrift, Leipzig, Berichte der SdcTis. Akad. der Wissenschaften, Bd. 71. (An excellent and detailed dis- cussion of the problems of the MS, quite independent of that of Mr Sisam, whose results it confirms.) Review: Schroder, Z.f.d.A. LVin, 85-6. 1920 Rypins, S. I. The Beowulf Codex. Mod. Phil, xvii, 541-8 (promising further treatment of the problems of the MS). The MS of Finnsburg has been lost. See above, p. 245. § 4. EDITIONS OF BEOWULF AND FINNSBURG 1705 HiCKES, G. Linguarum Vett. Septentrionalium Thesaurus. Oxonise. (Vol. I, 192-3, text of Finnsburg Fragment.) 1814 CoNYBEABE, J. J. The Battle of Finsborough, in Brydges' British Bibliographer, vol. iv, pp. 261-7; No. xv (Text, Latin translation, and free verse paraphrase in English: some brief notes). 1815 Thobkelin, G. J. De Danorum rebus gestis secul. in et iv. Poema Danicum dialecto Anglo-Saxonica. (Copenhagen, with Lat. transl.) Reviews: See §7, Textual Criticism, 1815, Grundtvig; also Dansk Litteratur-Tidende, 1815, 401-32, 437-46, 461-2 (defending Thorkelin against Gnmdtvig); Iduna, vn, 1817, 133-59; Monthly Review, lxxxi, 1816, 516-23; tJenaische Liter atur-Zeitung, 1816, Ergdnzungsbldtter, 353-65 (summary in Wiilker's Grundriss, p. 252); Outzen in Kider Blatter, 1816, see § 8, below. 1817 Rask, R. K. Angelsaksisk sproglaere. Stockholm (pp. 163-6 contain Beowulf, 11. 53-114, with commentary). 1820 Text of Finnsburg, given by Gbundtvig in Bjowulfs Drape, pp. xl-xlv. 1826 Text of Finnsburg, and of large portions of Beowulf, given in Conybeabe's Illustrations. See § 5, Translations. 1833 Kemble, J. M. Beowulf, the Travellers Song, and the Battle of Finnes- burh, edited with a glossary... and an historical preface. London. 1835. Second edit. 1847 Schaldemose, F. Beo-wulf og Scopes Widsia...med Oversaettelse. Kj0benhavn. (Follows Kemble's text of 1835: Text and transl. of Finnsburg also given, pp. 161-4.) 1851, Reprinted. 1849 Klipstein, L. F. Analecta Anglo-Saxonica. New York. (Selections from Beowulf, ii, 227-61 : Text of Finnsburg, 426-7.) 1850 Ettmulleb, L. Engla and Seaxna scopas and boceras. Quedlinburg u. Leipzig. (Text of large portions of Beowulf, with Finnsburg, pp. 95-131.) 1855 Thobpe, B. The A.S. poems of Beowulf, the scop or gleeman's tale, and Finnesburg, with a literal translation... Oxford. |1876, Reprinted. 26—2 388 Bibliography 1857 Grein, C. W. M. Bibliothek der angelsachsischen Poesie, i. Gottingen (pp. 255-343, Beovulf, Ueberfall in Finnsburg). 1861-4. Bd. ni, iv. Sprachschatz. 1861 RiEGER, M. Alt- u. angelsachsisches Lesebuch. Giessen. (Der Kampf zu Finnsburg, pp. 61-3: aus dem Beovulf, 63-82.) 1861 Grundtvig, N. F. S. Beowulfes Beorh eller Bjovulfs-Drapen. KLioben- havn, London. (The Finnsburg Fragment is inserted in the text of Beowulf, after 1. 1106.) 1863 Heyne, M. Beovulf, mit ausfiihrlichem Glossar. Paderbom. (Anhang: Der Ueberfall in Finnsburg.) Reviews: Grein, Lit. Chi. 1864, 137-8; Holtzmann, Germania, vm, 506-7. 1868. J2 Aufl. Review: Rieger, Z.f.d.Ph. n, 371-4. 1873. 3 Aufl. Review: Sievers, Lit. CM. 1873, 662-3, brief but severe. 1879. 4 Aufl. [in this, Kolbing's collation of 1876 was utilized; see p. 82]. Reviews: Brenner, Engl. Stud, iv, 135-9; Gering, Z.f.d.Ph. xn, 122-5. 1867 Grein, C. W. M. Beovulf, nebst den Fragmenten Finnsburg u. Valdere. Cassel u. Gottingen. 1875 Ettmuller, L. Carmen de Beovulfi, Gautarum regis, rebus praeclare gestis atque interitu, quale fuerit antequam in manus interpolatoris, monachi Vestsaxonici, inciderat. (Ziirich. University Programme. The additions of the "interpolator" being omitted, the edition contains 2896 lines only.) Reviews: Schonbach, A.f.d.A- m, 36-46; JSuchier, Jenaer Literatur-Zeitung, XLvn, 1876, 732. 1876 Arnold, T. Beowulf, with a translation, notes and appendix. London. Reviews (unfavourable): Sweet, Academy^ x, 1876, 588; Wiilker, Lit. Chi. 1877, 665-6, and Anglia, i, 177-86. 1879 WiJLKER, R. P. Kleinere angelsachsische Dichtungen. Halle, Leipzig. (Finnsburg, pp. 6-7.) 1883 MoLLER, H. Das altenglische Volksepos in der urspriinglichen stror phischen Form. I. Abhandlungen. II. Texte. Eael. (Containing only those parts of the Finn-story and of Beowulf which Moller regarded as "genuine," in strophic form.) Reviews: Heinzel, A.f.d.A. x, 215-33 (important); Schonbach, Z.f.o.G. xxxv, 37-46. 1883 WiJLKER, R. P. Das Beowulf slied, nebst den kleineren epischen...stiicken. Kassel. (In the second edit, of Grein' s Bibliothek der ags. Poesie.) Review: Kolbing, Eiigl. Stud, vn, 482 etc. 1883 Harrison, J. A. and Sharp, R. Beowulf. Boston, U.S.A. (J 1883, on the basis of Heyne' s edition; with Finnsburg.) Reviews: York Powell, Academy, xxvi, 1884, 220-1; reply by Harrison, 308-9; by York Powell, 327; Kolbmg, Engl. Stud, vn, 482; Bright, Literaturblatt, 1884, 221-3. 1892. Third edit. 1894. Fourth edit. Reviews: Wiilker, Anglia, Beiblatt, v, 65-7; Glode, Engl. Stud, xx, 417-18. 1884 Holder, A. Beowulf, n. Berichtigter Text u. Worterbuch. Freiburg u. Tiibingen. Reviews: York Powell, Academy, xxvi, 1884, 220-1; Wiilker, Lit. Chi. 1885, 1008-9; Kriiger, Literaturblatt, 1884, 468-70. 1899. 2 Aufl. [with suggestions of Kluge and Cosijn]. Reviews: Trautmann, Anglia, Beiblatt, x, 257; Wiilfing, Engl. Stud, xxix, 278-9; Holthausen, Literaturblatt, 1900, 60-2 (important cor- rections). 1888 Heyne, M. and Socin, A. [Fifth edit, of Hejme's text.] Paderbom u. Miinster. Reviews: Koeppel, Engl. Stud, xm, 466-72; Heinzel, A.f.d.A. XV, 189-94; Sievers, Z.f.d.Ph. xxi, 354-65 (very important corrections); Schroer, Literaturblatt, 1889, 170-1. Editimis 389 1898. 6 Aufl. Reviews: Trautmann, Anglia, Beihlatt, x, 257; Holthausen, Anglia, BeiblaU, x, 265 ; Sarrazin, Engl. Stvd. xxvni, 408-10; Jantzen, Archiv, era, 175-6. 1903. 7 Aufl. Reviews: Holthausen, Anglia, Beihlatt, xvin, 193-4; Klaeber, the same, 289-91; Kruisfnga, Engl. Stvd. xxxv, 401-2; V. Grienberger, Z.f.6.0. lvi, 744-61 (very full); E. Kock, A.f.n.F. XXII, 215 (brief). 1894 Wyatt, a. J. Beowulf, edited with textual footnotes, index of proper names, and glossary. (Text of Finnsburg.) Cambridge. Reviews: Bradley, Academy, xlvi, 1894, 69-70; Wiilker, Anglia, Beihlatt, v, 65-7; Brenner, Engl. Stud, xx, 296; Zupitza, Archiv, xciv, 326-9. 1898. Second edit. Reviews: Trautmann, Anglia, Beihlatt, x, 257; Sarrazin, Engl. Stud, xxvin, 407-8. 1902 Klfge, F. Angelsachsisches Lesebuch. 3 Aufl. Halle, (xxx. Der Uberfall von Finnsburuh, pp. 127-8.) 1903 Trautmann, M. Finn u, Hildebrand. Bonner Beitrdge, vn. (Text, translation and comment on the Episode and Fragment.) Reviews: Binz, Z.f.d.Ph. xxxvn, 529-36; Jantzen, Die Neueren Sprachen, xi, 543-8; Neue philol. Rundschau, 1903, 619-21 (signed -tz- ? Jantzen). Some additional notes by Trautmann, " Nachtragliches zu Finn u. Hildebrand" appeared in Bonner Beitrdge, xvn, 122. 1904 Trautmann, M. Das Beowulflied...dasFinn-Bruch8tiicku. die Waldhere- Bruchstiicke. Bearbeiteter Text u. deutsche Ubersetzung. Bonner Beitrdge, xvi. Reviews: Klaeber, M.L.N, xx, 83-7 (weighty); Eckhardt, Engl. Stud, xxxvn, 401-3; Schiicking, Archiv, cxv, 417-21; Bamouw, Museum, xiv, 96-8 ; Neue philologische Rundschau ( ? by Jantzen), 1905, 549-50. 1905-6 Holthausen, F. Beowulf nebst dem Finnsburg-Bruchstiick. I. Texte. II. Einleitung, Glossar u. Anmerkungen. Heidelberg. Reviews: Lawrence, J.E.G.Ph. vn, 125-9; Klaeber, M.L.N, xxiv, 94-5; Schiicking, Engl. Stvd. xxxix, 94-111 (weighty); Deutschbein, Archiv, cxxi, 162-4; v. Grienberger, Z.f.6.0. 1908, ux, 333-46 (giving an elaborate list of etymological parallels); Bamouw, Museum, xiv, 169- 70; Wulker, D.L.Z. 1906, 285-6; J Jantzen, Neue philologische Rund- schau, 1907, 18. 1908-9. 2 Aufl., nebst den kleineren Denkmalem der Heldensage, Finnsburg, Waldere, Deor, Widsith, Hildebrand. Reviews: Eichler, Anglia, Beihlatt, xxi, 129-33; xxn, 161-5; Schiicking, En^l. Stud. XLii, 108-11; Brandl, Archiv, cxxi, 473, cxxiv, 210; Binz, Literaturhlatt, xxxii, 1911, 53-5: see also Koeppel, Anglia, Beihlatt, xxni, 297. 1912-13. 3 Aufl. 1914-19. 4 Aufl. Reviews: Binz, Literaturhlatt , xli, 1920, 316-17; Fischer, Engl. Stud, liv, 404-6. 1908 ScHiJCKiNG, L. L. Beowulf [8th edit, of Heyne's text]. Paderbom. Reviews: Lawrence, M.L.N, xxv, 155-7; Klaeber, Engl. Stvd. xxxix, 425-33 (weighty); Imelmann, D.L.Z. 1909, 995 (contains important original contributions); v. Grienberger, Z.f.o.G. LX, 1089; Boer, Museum, xvi, 139 (brief). 1910. 9 Aufl. Reviews: Sedgefield, Engl. Stud. XLin, 267-9; F. Wild, Z.f.o.G. LXiv, 153-5. 1913. 10 Aufl. Reviews: Klaeber, Anglia, Beihlatt, xxiv, 289-91; Engl. Stvd. xux, 424; JDegenhart, Blatter /. gymnasialschvl- wesen, u, 130; E. A. Kock, A.f.nF. xxxn, 222-3; Holthausen, Z.f.d.Ph. XLvra, 127-31 (weighty). 1918. 11, 12 Aufl. Reviews: Bjorkman, Anglia, BeibkUt, xxx, 121-2, 180; Fischer, Engl. Stud, mil, 338-9. 390 Bibliography 1910 Sedgefield, W. J. Beowulf, edited with Introduction, Bibliography, Notes, Glossary and Appendices. Manchester. Reviews: Thomas, M.L.R. VI, 266-8; Lawrence, J.E.G.Ph. x, 633-40; Wild, Anglia, Beiblatt, xxm, 253-60; Klaeber, Engl. Stud, xuv, 119-26; Brandl, Archiv, cxxvi, 279. 1913. Second edit. Reviews: M.L.R. ix, 429; Lawrence, J.E.G.Ph. XIV, 609-13; Klaeber, Anglia, Beiblatt, xxv, 166-8. 1912 Text of the Finn episode given in Meyer, W., Beitrage zur Geschichte der Eroberung Englands durch die Angelsachsen. 1914 Chambers, R. W. Beowulf with the Finnsburg Fragment, ed. by A. J. Wyatt. New edition, revised. Cambridge. Reviews: Jones, M.L.R. XI, 230-1: Lawrence, J.E.G.Ph. xiv, 609-13; Bright, M.L.N, xxxi, 188-9; Schucking, Engl. Stud. LV, 88-100. 1915 DiCKiNS, B. Runic and Heroic Poems (Text of Fumsburg with Notes). Cambridge. Review: Mawer, M.L.R. xn, 82-4. 1917 Mackie, W. L. The Fight at Finnsburg (Introduction, Text and Notes). J.E.G.Ph. xvi, 250-73. 1919 Schucking, L. L. Kleines angelsachsisches Dichterbuch. [Includes Finnsburg Fragment, Finnsburg Episode and "Beowulf's Return" (11. 1888-2199).] Reviews: Binz, Liter aturblatt, xli, 1920, pp. 315-16; Imelmann, D.L.Z. XL, 1919, 423-5; Fischer, Engl. Stud, uv, 1920, 302-3. 1920 Text of Finnsburg Fragment and Episode, with commentary, in Imel- mann's "Forschungen zur altenglischen Poesie." An edition of Beowulf by Prof. F. Klaeber is in the press. §5. CONCORDANCES, etc. 1896 Holder, A. Beowulf , vol. n &, Wortschatz. Freiburg. Review: Brandl, A.f.d.A. xxm, 107. 1911 Cook, A. S. Concordance to Beowulf . Halle. Reviews: Klaeber, J.^.G'.PA. XI, 277-9; Garnett, Amer. Jnl. Philol. xxxm, 86-7. § 6. TRANSLATIONS (INCLUDING EARLY SUMMARIES) 1881 WtJLKER, R. p. Besprechung der BeowuKiibersetzungen, Anglia, iv, Anzeiger, 69-80. 1886 GuMMERE, F. B. The translation of Beowulf, and the relations of ancient and modem English verse, Amer. Jour, of Phil, vn, 46-78. (A weighty argument for translation into "the original metre.") 1891 Garnett, J. M. The translation of A.S. poetry. Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. vi, 95-105. (Agreeing in the main with Gummere.) 1897 Frye, p. H. The translation of Beowulf, M.L.N, xn, 79-82. (Advo- cating blank verse.) 1898 Fulton, E. On translating A.S. poetry. Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer, xni, 286-96. (Recommending an irregular four-accent line.) 1903 Garnett, J. M. Recent translations of O.E. poetry, Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. xvni, 445-58. 1903 Tinker, C. B. The translations of Beowulf. A critical bibliography. Yale Studies in English. New York. Reviews: Klaeber, J.E.G.Ph. V, 116-8; Binz, Anglia, Beiblatt, xvi, 291-2. 1909 Child, G. C. "Gummere's Oldest English Epic," M.L.N, xxiv, 253-4. (A criticism advocating prose translation.) 1910 Gummere, F. B. Translation of Old English Verse, M.L.N, xxv, 61-3. (Advocating alliterative verse.) Reply by Child, M.L.N, xxv, 157-8. See also reviews of Gummere, under year 1909, below. Translations 391 1918 Leonard, W. E. Beowulf and the Niebelungen couplet, Univ. of Wis- consin Studies in Language and Literature, n, 99-152. 1805 Turner, Sharon. History of the manners... poetry... and language of the Anglo-Saxons. London. (From p. 398 to p. 408 is a summary, with translations, of Beowulf, Prol.-vin. Turner was misled as to the subject of the poem, because a leaf had been misplaced in the MS, so that the account of the fighting between Grende and Beowulf (11. 740- 82) occurred immediately after 1. 91. The struggle between Beowulf and an (unnamed) adversary being thus made to follow the account of Hrothgar's court at Heorot, Turner was led to suppose that the poem narrated the attempt of Beowulf to avenge on Hrothgar the feud for a homicide he had committed. "The transition," Turner not unreason- ably complains, "is rather violent." The correct placing of the shifted leaf is due to Thorkelin.) 1815 Thorkelin, G. J. [Latin version in his edition, q.v.] The reviewers gave summaries of the poem, with translations of portions of it: English in the Monthly Review, lxxxi, 1816, 516-23 (less inaccurate than Turner's summary); Danish in the DansJc Litteratur-Tidende, 1815, 401-32, 437-46, and by Grundtvig in the Nyeste Skilderie (see below, §7); Swedish in Iduna, vn, 1817, 133-59. 1819 Grundtvig, N. F. S. Stykker af Skjoldung-Kvadet eUer Bjovulfs Minde, Dannevirke, iv, 234r-62. 1820 Grundtvig, N. F. S. Bjowulfs Drape, Kje^benhavn. (Free rhymed translation of Beowulf: Finnsburg rendered into short lines, unrhymed: Introduction and most important critical notes.) Review: J. Grimm in Oott. Anzeigen, 1S2S = Kleinere Schriften, iv, 178-86. For second edit., see 1865. 1820 Turner, Sharon. History of the Anglo-Saxons... third edit. London. (Vol. in, pp. 325-48, contains a summary, with translations, of the earlier part of the poem, much less inaccurate than that of 1805.) 1826 Conybeare, J. J. Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon poetry. London. (Pp. 35-136 contain a summary of Beowulf, with blank verse transl. and the corresponding text in A.S. and Latin; pp. 175-82, Finnsburg, text with transl. into Latin and into English verse.) 1832 Grundtvig, N. F. S. Nordens mythologi. Anden Udgave. Kiobenhavn. (Pp. 571-94 give a summary of the Beowulf- stories. This was, of course, wanting in the first edit, of 1808.) 1837 Kemblb, J. M. Translation... with... glossary, preface and notes. London. (The "postscript to the preface" in which Kemble supplemented and corrected the "Historical Preface" to his edition of 1833, is the basis of the mythological explanations of Beowulf as an Anglian god, Beowa.) 1839 Leo, H. [Summary with translation of extracts.] See § 8, below. 1840 Ettmuller, L. Beowulf, stabreimend iibersetzt, mit Einleitung und Anmerkungen (Finnsburg, pp. 36-8). Ziirich. 1845 Longfellow, H. W. The Poets and Poetry of Europe. Philadelphia. (Pp. 8-10 contain transl. of extracts from Beowulf.) 1847 ScHALDEMOSE, F. [Danish transl. of Beowulf and Finnsburg, in his edit., q.v.] 1849 Wackerbarth, A. D. Beowulf, translated into English verse. London. (Imitation of Scott's metre.) 1855 Thorpe, B. [In his edit., q.v.] 1857 Uhland, L. [Prose transl. of Finnsburg.] Germania, n, 354-5. 392 Bibliography 1857 Gbein, C. W. M. Dichtungen der Angelsachsen, stabreimend iibersetzt. Gottingen. (Vol. i, pp. 222-308, Beowulf, trans, into alliterative verse.) 1883. 2 Aufl. [Incorporating Grein's manuscript corrections, seen through the press by Wiilker.] Cassel. Review: Kriiger, Engl. Stud, vm, 139-42. 1859 SiMROCK, K. Beowulf iibersetzt u. erlautert. Stuttgart u. Augsburg. (Alliterative verse: Finnsburg Fragment inserted after 1. 1124.) 1859 Sandbas, G. S. De carminibus anglo-saxonicis Caedmoni adjudicatis. Paris. (Pp. 8-10 contain extract from Beowulf and Latin transl.) 1861 Haigh, D. H. (Prose transl. of Finnsburg.) In Anglo-Saxon Sagas, pp. 32-3, q.v. 1863 Heyne, M. Beowulf iibersetzt. Paderbom. (Blank verse.) Review: Holtzmann, Oermania, vni, 506-7. 1897-8. 2 Aufl. Paderborn. Reviews: Holthausen, Archiv, cni, 373-6; Wiilker, Anglia, Beiblatt, ix, 1; Jantzen, Engl. Stud, xxv, 271-3; Lohner, Z.f.6.0. xlix, 563. 1915. 3 Aufl. Paderbom. 1865 Grundtvig, N. F. S. Bjovulfs-Drapen. Anden Udgave. 1872 VON WoLZOGEN, H. Beovulf aus dem ags. Leipzig. (Verse.) 1876 Arnold, T. [In his edit., q.v.] 1877 BoTKiNE, L. Beowulf traduite en fran9ais. Havre. (Prose: some omis- sions.) Review: Korner, Engl. Stud, ii, 248-51. 1881 Zinsser, G. Der Kampf Beowulfs mit Grendel [vv. 1-836] als Probe einer metrischen Uebersetzung. Saarbriicken. Reviews : Archiv, Lxvm, 446; Kruger, Engl. Stud, vn, 370-2. 1881 LuMSDEN, H. W. Beowulf... transl. into modem rhymes. London. (Some omissions.) Reviews: Athenamm, April 1881, p. 587; Garnett, Amer. Jour, of Phil. II, 355-61 ; Wiillter, Anglia, iv, Anzeiger, 69-80. 1883. JSecond edit. Review: York Powell, Academy, xxvi, 1884, pp. 220-1. 1882 Schuhmann, G. Beovulf, antichissimo poema epico de' popoli germanici. Giornale Napoletano di filosofia e lettere. Anno iv, vol. 7, 25-36, 175- 190. (A summary only.) 1882 Garnett, J. M. Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, translated. Boston, U.S.A. Reviews: Nation (New York), No. 919, 1883; Harrison, Amer. Jour, of Phil. IV, 84-6, reply by Garnett, 243-6; Schipper, Anglia, vi, Anzeiger, 120-4; Kriiger, Engl. Stud, viii, 133-8, and (second edit.) ix, 151; Bright, Liter aturhlatt, 1883, 386-7. 1885. Second edit., revised. 1900. Fourth edit. 1883 Grion, Giusto. Beovulf, poema epico anglosassone del VII secolo, tradotto e illustrato. In the Atti della reale Accademia Lucchese, xxii. (First Itahan translation.) Review: Kriiger, Engl. Stud, ix, 64-77. 1889 JWiCKBERG, R. Beowulf, en fomengelsk hjaltedikt oversatt. Westervik. 1914. JSecond edit. Upsala. Review: Kock, A.f.n.F. xxxn, 223-4. 1892 Hall, John Lesslie. Beowulf translated. (Verse, with notes.) Boston, U.S.A. Reviews: M.L.N, vn, 128, 1892 (brief mention); Miller, Viking Club Year Book, i, 91-2; Holthausen, Anglia, Beiblatt, iv, 33-6; Glode, Engl. Stud, xix, 257-60. 1893. ^Student's edit. 1892 (1891) Earle, John. The deeds of Beowulf. Oxford. (Prose translation, somewhat spoilt by its artificial and sometimes grotesque vocabulary; very valuable introduction, with summary of the controversy to date. Translations 393 and notes.) Reviews: Aihenseum, 1 Oct. 1892; Koeppel, Engl. Stud. xvin, 93-5 (fair, though rather severe). 1893 Hoffmann, P. Beowulf... aus dem angelsachsischen iibertragen. Ziilli- chau. (In the measure of the Nibelungenlied; incl. Finnsburg.) Re- views (mostly unfavourable) ; Shipley, M.L.N, ix, 121-3, 1894; Wiilker, Anglia, Beiblatt, v, 67; Wiilker, Lit. Chi. 1894, p. 1930; Glode, Engl. Stud. XIX, 412-5; JDetter, Oster. Literaturblatt, v, 9; |Marold, Deut. Literaturblatty xxin, 332. 1900. JSecond edit. Hannover. 1895 Morris, W. and Wyatt, A. J. The Tale of Beowulf. Kelmscott Press, Hammersmith. (Verse: archaic vocabulary.) 1898. New edit. Review: Hulme, M.L.N, xv, 22-6, 1900. 1896 Simons, L. Beowulf... vertaald in stafrijm en met inleiding en aanteeken- ingen. Gent (Koninklijke vlaamsche Academie). Reviews: Glode, Engl. Stud. XXV, 270-1 ; Uhlenbeck, Museum (Groningen), v, 217-8. 1898 Steineck, H. Altenglische Dichtungen (Beowulf, Elene, u.a.) in wort- getreuer tjbersetzimg. Leipzig. (Prose, line for line.) Reviews: Binz, Anglia, Beiblatt, ix, 220-2; Holthausen, Archiv, cm, 376-8 (both very unfavourable). 1901 Hall, J. R. Clark. Beowulf and the fight at Finnsburg. A translation into modem English prose. London. Reviews: Athenseum, 1901, July, p. 56; Academy, lx, 1901, 342; Stedman, Viking Club Year Book, m, 72-4; Tinker, J.E.G.Ph. iv, 379-81; Holthausen, Anglia, Beiblatt, xm. 225-8; Dibelius, Archiv, cix, 403-4; Victor, Die neueren Sprachen, xi, 439; Wiilker, Lit. CM. 1902, 30-1 ("sehr zu empfehlen"). 1911 (q.v.). New edit., with considerable additions. 1902 Tinker, C. B. Beowulf translated out of the Old English. New York. (Prose.) Reviews: Klaeber, J.E.G.Ph. v, 91-3; Holthausen, Anglia, Beiblatt, xiv, 7. 1903 JBjorkman, E. Swedish transl. (prose) of Beowulf, Part n (in Schiick'g Vdrldslitteraturen, with introd. by Schiick). 1903-4 Trautmann, M., in his editions, q.v. 1904 Child, C. G. Beowulf and the Finnesburh Fragment translated. London and Boston. Reviews: Grattan, M.L.R. m, 303-4 ("a good prose translation which steers an even course between pseudo- archaisms and modern colloquialisms"); MiUer, Viking Club Year Book, i, 91-2; Klaeber, Anglia, Beiblatt, xvi, 225-7; Brandl, Archiv, cxxi, 473. 1904 {Hansen, A. Transl. into Danish of Beowulf, 11. 491-924, Danske Tidsskrift. 1905 VoGT, P. Beowulf... iibersetzt. Halle. (Text rearranged according to theories of interpolation: Finnsburg Fragment translated, following Moller's text.) Reviews: Binz, Anglia, Beiblatt, xxi, 289-91; Eichler, Z.f.o.G. Lvn, 908-10; Klaeber, Archiv, cxvn, 408-10: Jantzen, Lit. Chi. 1906, 257-8. 1906 Gering, H. Beowulf nebst dem Finnsburg-Bruchstiick iibersetzt. Heidelberg. (Verse.) Reviews: Lawrence, J.E.G.Ph. vn, 129-33 ("thoroughly scholarly"); Jantzen, Lit. Chi. 1907, 64-5; Ries, A.f.d.A. xxxra, 143-7; Binz, lAteraturblatt, xxxi, 397-8 ("Fliessend und ungezwimgen, sinngetreu..."); :{:Zehme, Monatsschrift, xiv, 597-600; V. Grienberger, Z.f.o.G. 1908, Lix, 423-8. 1914. 2Aufl. 1907 HuYSHE, W. Beowulf... translated into... prose ("Appendix: The Fight at Finn's burgh"). London. ("Translation," to quote Clark Hall, "apparently such as might have been compiled from previous transla- tions by a person ignorant of Ags. Some original mistakes.") Reviews: Athenasum, 1907, n, 96 ("Mr Huyshe displays sad ignorance of Old 394 Bibliography English... but an assiduous study of the work of his predecessors has preserved him from misrepresenting seriously the general sense of the text"); Notes and Queries, Ser. x, vol. vin, 58; Gamett, Amer^ Jul. Philol. XXIX, 344-6; Klaeber, Anglia, Beiblatt, xix, 257. 1909 GuMMEBE, F. B. The oldest English Epic. Beowulf, Finnsburg, Waldere,. Deor and the German Hildebrand, translated in the original metres. New York. Reviews: Athenseum, 1909, n, 151; Trautmann, Anglia^ Beiblatt, xxxin, 353-60 (metrical debate); Sedgefield, Engl. Stud, xli, 402-3 (discussing possibility of reproducing in Mod. Eng. the Old Eng. alliterative verse-rhythm); Derocquigny, Revue Germanique, vi, 356-7; see also above, p. 390. 1910 Hansen, Adolf. Bjovulf, oversat af A. Hansen, og efter bans d£^d gaet efter og fuldfje^rt samt forsynet med en inledning og en overssettelse af brudstykket om kampen i Finsborg, af Viggo Julius von Holstein Rathlou; udgivet ved Oskar Hansen. Kjefbenhavn og Kristiania. An account of this translation, by v. Holstein Rathlou, in Tilskueren, June, 1910, pp. 557-62; Review: Obik, Danske Studier, 1910, 112-13. 1911 Clark Hall, J. R. Beowulf and the Finnsburg Fragment. A translation into Modem English Prose. London. Reviews: Mawer, M.L.R. vi, 542 ("probably the best working translation that we have, enriched by a valuable introduction and excellent appendices"); Academy, 1911, I, 225-6; Bjorkman, Engl. Stud, xliv, 127-8; Archiv, cxxvi, 492-3; Binz, Liter aturblatt, xxxii, 232. 1912 PiEEQUiN, H. Le poeme Anglo-Saxon de Beowulf. (An extraordinary piece of work; the version mainly follows Kemble's text, which is reproduced, but with many misprints: Kemble's Saxons in England is translated by way of introduction. The Finnsburg Fragment is included.) Reviews: Academy, 1912, n, 509-10 (seems to regard Pierquin as author of Les Saxons en Angleterre); Sedgefield, M.L.R. vin, 550-2; Klaeber, Anglia, Beiblatt, xxiv, 138-9; Imelmann, D.L.Z. xxxiv (1913), 1062-3 (very unfavourable); JLuick, Mitt. d. inst. f. osterr. gesch.-forsch. xxxvi, 401; JBarat, Moyen Age, xxvi (sec. ser. xvn), 298-302. 1913 KiRTLAN, E. J. The Story of Beowulf. London. (A fair specimen of the less scholarly translations; nicely got up and not exceedingly incorrect.) Reviews: Athenaeum, 1914, n, 71; Klaeber, Anglia, Beiblatt, xxvn, 129-31. 1914 Clark Hall, J. R. Beowulf: a metrical translation. Cambridge. (Not so successful as the same writer's prose translation.) Reviews: Sedgefield, M.L.R. x, 387-9 (discussing the principles of metrical translation); Klaeber, Anglia, Beiblatt, xxvi, 170-2. 1915 Olivero, F. Traduzioni dalla Poesia Anglo -sassone. Bari. (Pp. 73-119^ extracts from Beowulf.) Review: M.L.R. xi, 509. 1916 JBenedetti, A. La canzone di Beowulf, poema epico anglo-sassone del VI secolo. Versione italiana, con introduzione e note. Palermo. 1918 Leonard, W. E. [Specimen, Passus ix, of forthcoming transl., in the- measure of the Nibelungenlied.] In Univ. of Wisconsin Studies, ii, 149-52: see above. A translation of Beowulf into the Norwegian "landsmaal," by H, Rytteb, will appear shortly. Popular paraphrases of Beowulf are not included in the above list. An account will be found in Tinker's Translations of those of E. H. Jones (in Cox's Popular Romances, 1871): J. Gibb, 1881-4; Wagner-MacDowall, 1883 etc. Miss Z. A. Ragozin, 1898, 1900; A. J. Church, 1898; Miss C. L. Thomson, 1899, 1904. Mention may also be made of those of {F. A. Turner, 1894; H. E. Marshall, 1908; T. Cartwright, 1908; Prof. J. H. Cox, 1910. An illustrated summary of Translations: Criticism and Interpretation 395 the Beovmlf story was issued by Mr W. T. Stead in his penny "Books for the Bairns." The versions of Miss Thomson and Prof. Cox are both good. The paraphrase in the Canadian Monthly, ii, 83 (1872), attributed in several bibliographies to Earle, is assuredly not the work of that scholar: it is an inaccurate version based upon Jones. An account will be found in Tinker of the German paraphrase of Therese Dahn, 1883 etc.; mention may also be made of those of J. Amheim, 1871; 1 F. Bassler, sec. edit. 1875 (praised highly by Klaeber in J.E.O.Ph. v, 118). § 7. TEXTUAL CRITICISM AND INTERPRETATION 1815 Grundtvtg, N. F. S. Et Par Ord om det nys udkomne angelsaxiske Digt. Nyeste Skilderie af Kj^benhavn, No. 60 etc., cols. 945, 998, 1009, 1025, 1045; Nok et Par Ord om Bjovulfs Drape, 1106, 1121, 1139 (comment upon Thorkelin's text and translation). 1815 Thobkelin, G. J. Reply to Grundtvig in Nyeste Skilderie, cols. 1057, 1073. (There were further articles in the same magazine, but they were purely personal.) 1820 Grundtvig, N. F. S. Emendations to Thorkelin's text, added to Bjoumlfs Drape, 267-312. 1826 CoNYBEAEE, J. J. Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon poetrv. London. (Beo- wulf and "Finnsborough," pp. 30-182.) 1859 BouTERWEK, K. W. Zur Kritik des Beowulfliedes, Z.f.d.A. xi, 59-113. 1859 Dietrich, F. Rettungen, Z.f.d.A. xi, 409-20. 1863 HoLTZMANN, A. Zu Beowulf, Germania, vin, 489-97. (Incl. Finnaburg.) 1865 Grein, C. W. M. Zur Textkritik der angelsachsischen Dichter: Finnsburg, Germania, x, 422. 1868-9 BuGGE, SoPHFS. Spredte iagttagelser vedkommende de oldengelske digte om Beowulf og Waldere; Tidskrift for Philologi og Psedagogik, vm, 40-78 and 287-307 (incl. Finnsburg, 304-5). Important. 1871 RiEGER, M. Zum Beowulf, Z.f.d.Ph. in, 381-416. 1873 BuGGE, S. Zum Beowulf, Z.f.d.Ph. iv, 192-224. 1880 KoLBiNG, E. Kleine Beitrage (Beowulf, 168, 169), Engl Stud, m, 92 etc. 1882 Kluge, F. Sprachhistorische Miscellen (Beowulf, 63, 1027, 1235, 1267), P.B.B. vni, 532-5. 1882 CosiJN, P. J. Zum Beowulf, P.B.B. vm, 568-74. 1883 SiEVERS, E. Zum Beowulf, P.B.B. ix, 135-44, 370. 1883 Kluge, F. Zum Beowulf, P.B.B. ix, 187-92. 1883 Kruger, Th. Zum Beowulf, P.B.B. ix, 571-8. 1889 Miller, T. The position of Grendel's arm in Heorot, Anglia, xii, 396-400. 1890 Joseph, E. Zwei Versversetzungen im Beowulf, Z.f.d.Ph. xxn, 385-97. 1891 ScHROER, A. Zur texterklarung des Beowulf, Anglia, xin, 333-48. 1891-2 CosiJN, P. J. Aanteekeningen op den Beowulf. Leiden. (Important.) Reviews: Liibke, A.f.d.A. xix, 341-2; Holthausen, LiteraturblaU. 1895, p. 82. 1892 SiEVERS, E. Zur texterklarung des Beowulf, Anglia, xiv, 133-46. 1895 Bright, J. W. Notes on the Beowulf (11. 30, 306, 386-7, 623, 737), M.L.N. X, 43-4. 1899 Trautmann, M. Berichtigungen, Vermutungen und Erklarungen zum Beowulf (11. 1-1215). Bonner Beitrage zur Anglistik, n, 121-92. Re- views: Binz, Anglia, Beihlatt, xiv, 358-60; Holthausen, LiteraturblaU, 1900, 62-4 (important). See Sievers, P.B.B. xxvii, 572; xxvm, 271. 1901 Klaeber, F. A few Beowulf notes (11. 459, 847 etc., 1206, 3024 etc., 3171); M.L.N. XVI, 14-18. 396 Bibliography 1902 Klaebeb, F. Zum Beowulf (497-8; 1745-7), Archiv, cvin, 368-70. 1902 Klaebeb, F. Beowulf's character, M.L.N, xvii, 162. 1903 Krackow, O. Zu Beowulf, 1225, 2222, Archiv, cxi, 171-2. 1904 Bbyant, F. E. Beowulf, 62, M.L.N, xix, 121-2. 1904 Abbott, W. C. Hrothulf, M.L.N, xix, 122-5. (Abbott suggests that Hrothulf is the name — missing in whole or part from 1. 62 — of the husband of the daughter of Healfdene. This suggestion is quite un- tenable, for many reasons: Hrothulf (Rolf Kraki) is a Dane, and the missing husband is a Swede: but the article led to a long controversy between Bryant and Klaeber; see M.L.N, xx, 9-11; xxi, 143, 255; xxn, 96, 160. Klaeber is undoubtedly right.) 1904 Krapp, G. B. Miscellaneous Notes: Sciirheard; M.L.N, xix, 234. 1904 SiEVEBS, E. Zum BeowuK, P.B.B. xxix, 305-31. (Criticism of Traut- mann's emendations.) 1904 KocK, E. A. Interpretations and Emendations of Early English Texts: m (Beowulf), Anglia, xxvu, 218-37. 1904 SiEVEBS, E. Zum Beowulf (1. 5, Criticism of Kock), P.B.B. xxix, 560-76. Reply by Kock, Anglia, xxvm (1905), 140-2. 1905 Tbautmann, M. Auch zum Beowulf: ein gruss an herren Eduard Sievers, Bonner Beitrdge zur Anglistik, xvn, 143-74. (Reply to Sievers' criticism of Trautmann's conjectural emendations.) Review: Klaeber, M.L.N, XXII, 252. 1905 Swiggett, G. L. Notes on the Finnsburg fragment, M.L.N, xx, 169-71. 1905 Klaeber, F. Notizen zur texterklanmg des Beowulf, Anglia, xxvrn, 439-47 (incl. Finnsburg) ; Zum Beowulf, the same, 448-56. 1905 Klaeber, F. Bemerkungen zum Beowulf, Archiv, cxv, 178-82. (Incl. Finnsburg.) 1905 Holthausen, F. Beitrage zur Erklarimg des altengl, epos, i, Zum Beowulf; n, Zum Finnsburg-fragment; Z.f.d.Ph. xxxvn, 113-25. 1905-6 Klaeber, F. Studies in the Textual Interpretation of "Beowulf," Mod. Phil. HI, 235-66, 445-65 (Most important). 1906 Child, C. G. Beowulf, 30, 53, 132 (i.e. 1323), 2957, M.L.N, xxi, 175-7, 198-200. 1906 Horn, W. Textkritische Bemerkungen (Beowulf, 69 etc.), Anglia, xxix, 130-1. 1906 Klaeber, F. Notizen zum Beowulf, Anglia, xxix, 378-82. 1907 Klaeber, F. Minor Notes on the Beowulf, J.E.Q.Ph. vi, 190-6. 1908 Tinker, C. B. Notes on Beowulf, M.L.N, xxm, 239-40. 1908 Klaebeb, F. Zum Beowulf, Engl. Stud, xxxix, 463-7. 1909 Klaebeb, F. Textual Notes on Beowulf, J.E.G.Ph. vm, 254-9. 1910 VON Gbienbebqeb, T. Bemerkungen zum Beowulf, P.B.B. xxxvi, 77- 101. (Incl. Finnsburg.) 1910 Sievebs, E. Gegenbemerkungen zum Beowulf, P.B.B. xxxvi, 397-434. (Incl. Finnsburg.) 1910 Sedgefield, W. J. Notes on "Beowulf," M.L.R. v, 286-8. 1910 Tbautmann, M. Beitrage zu einem kiinftigen "Sprachschatz der alt- englischen Dichter," Anglia, xxxin, 276-9 (gedrseg). 1911 Blackbubn, F. a. Note on Beowulf, 1591-1617, Mod. Phil, ix, 555-66. (Argues that a loose leaf has been misplaced and the order of events thus disturbed.) 1911 Klaebeb, F. Zur Texterklanmg des Beowulf, vv. 767, 1129, Anglia, Beiblatt, xxii, 372-4. 1912 Habt, J. M. Beowulf, 168-9, M.L.N, xxvn, 198. Criticism and Interpretation 397 1912-14 Gbein, C. W. M. Sprachschatz der angelsachsischen dichter. Unter mitwirkung von F. Holthausen neu herausgegeben von J. J. Kohler. Heidelberg. Reviews: Trautmann, Anglia, Beiblatt, xxiv, 36-43; Schiicking, Engl. Stud, xlix, 113-5. 1915 Chambers, R. W. The "Shifted leaf" in Beowulf, M.L.R. x, 37-41. (Points out that the alleged "confused order of events" is that also followed in the Grettis saga.) 1916 Green, A. The opening of the episode of Finn in Beowulf, Ptib. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. xxxi, 759-97. 1916 Bright, J. W. Anglo-Saxon umbor and seld-guma, M.L.N, xxxi, 82-4; Beowulf, 489-90, M.L.N, xxxi, 217-23. 1917 Green, A. An episode in Ongenjjeow's fall, M.L.R. xn, 340-3. 1917 Hollander, L. M. Beowulf, 33, M.L.N, xxxn, 246-7. (Suggests the reading itig.) 1917 Holthausen, F. Zu altenglischen Denkmalem — Beowulf, 1140, Engl. Stud. LI, 180. 1918 Hubbard, F. G. Beowulf, 1598, 1996, 2026: uses of the impersonal verb geweorpan, J. E.G. Ph. xvii, 119. 1918 KocK, E. A. Interpretations and emendations of early English Texts: IV, Beowulf, Anglia, xui, 99-124, (Important.) 1918 JKocK, E. A. Jubilee Jaunts and Jottings, in the Lunds univ. drsskriftf N. F. avd. 1, bd. 14, nr. 26 {FeMskriJt vid... 250 -arsjubileum). Reviews: Holthausen, Anglia, Beihlatt, xxx, 1-5; Klaeber, J.E.O.Ph. xix, 409-13. 1919 Moore, Samuel. Beowulf Notes (Textual), J.E.G.Ph. xvm, 205-16. 1919 Klaeber, F. Concerning the functions of O.E. geweorffan, J.E.Q.Ph. xvin, 250-71. (C;!f. paper of Prof. Hubbard above, by which this was suggested.) 1919 Klaeber, F. Textual notes on "Beowulf," M.L.N, xxxiv, 129-34. 1919 Brown, Carleton. Beowulf, 1080-1106, M.L.N, xxxiv, 181-3. 1919 Brett, Cyril. Notes on passages of Old and Middle English, M.L.R. XIV, 1-9. 1919-20 KocK, E. A. Interpretations and emendations of Early English Texts: v (Incl. Beowulf, 2030, 2419-24); vi (Incl. Beowulf 24, 154-6, 189-90, 1992-3, 489-90, 581-3, 1745-7, 1820-1, 1931-2, 2164); vn (Incl. Beowulf, 1230, 1404, 1553-6); Anglia, xim, 303-4; xliv, 98 etc., 245 etc. 1920 Bryan W. F. Beowulf Notes (303-6, 532-4, 867-71), J.E.O.Ph. xix, 84-5. § 8. QUESTIONS OF LITERARY HISTORY, DATE AND AUTHORSHIP: BEOWULF IN THE LIGHT OF HISTORY, ARCHAEOLOGY, HEROIC LEGEND, MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE See also preceding section. No attempt is made here to deal with Old English heroic legend in general: nor to enumerate the references to Beowulf in histories of literature. Probably the earliest allusion to our poem by a great writer is in Scott's Essay on Romance (1824): "The Saxons had, no doubt, Romances,... and Mr Turner.. .has given us the abridgement of one entitled Caedmon, in which the hero, whose adventures are told much after the manner of the ancient Norse Sagas, encounters, defeats and finally slays an evil being called Grendel...." 1816 OuTZEN, N. Das ags. Gedicht Beowulf, Kiel&r Blatter, in, 307-27. (See above, p. 4, note.) 398 Bibliography 1816 (Review of Thorkelin in) Monthly Review, lxxxi, 516-23. (Beowulf identified with Beaw Sceldwaing of the West Saxon genealogy; see above, p. 292.) 1817 Grundtvig, N. F. S. Danne-Virke, ii, 207-89. (Identifies Chochilaicus; see above, p. 4, note.) 1826 Grimm, W. Einleitung iiber die Elfen, Kleinere Schriften, i, 405, esp. p. 467 (extract relating to Grendel's hatred of song). From Xlrische Elfenmarchen. 1829 Grimm, W. Die deutsche Heldensage. Gottingen. (Pp. 13-17. Extracts from Beowulf, with translation, relating to Weland, Sigemund, Hama and Eormenric.) 1836 Kemble, J. M. tJber die Stammtafel der Westsachsen. Miinchen. Re- view: J. Grimm, Gottingische gelehrte Anziegen, 1836, 649-57, = Kleinere Schriften, v, 240. 1836 MoNE, F. J. Zur Kritik des Gedichts von Beowulf (in Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der teutschen Heldensage). QuedJinburg u. Leipzig. (Pp. 129-36.) 1839 Leo, H. Beowulf... nach seinem inhalte, und nach seinen historischen imd mythologischen beziehungen betrachtet. Halle. 1841 Disraeli, I. Amenities of Literature. London. (Beowulf; the Hero- Life. Vol. I, pp. 80-92.) 1841 Grundtvig, N. F. S. Bjovulfs Drape, Brage og Idun, iv, 481-538. (Dis- cusses the story, with criticism of previous scholars, and especially of Kemble.) 1843-9 Grimm, W. Einleitung zur Vorlesung iiber Gudrun [with an abstract of Beowulf]; see Kleinere Schriften, TV, 557-60. 1844 MiJLLENHOFF, K. Die deutschen Volker an Nord- und Ostsee in altester Zeit, Nordalhingische Studien, i, 111 etc. 1845 A brief discussion of Beowulf in Edinburgh Review, Lxxxn, 309-11. 1845 Hatipt, M. Zum Beowulf, Z.f.d.A. v, 10. (Drawing attention to the reference to Hygelac in the liber de monstris; see above, p. 4.) 1848 MtJLLENHOFF, K. Die austrasische Dietrichssage, Z.f.d.A. vi, 435 etc, 1849 MiJLLENHOFF, K. Sceaf u. seine Nachkommen, Z.f.d.A. vn, 410-19; Der Mythus von Beovulf, Z.f.d.A. vn, 419-41. 1849 Grimm, J. Ueber das Verbrennen der Leichen, Abhandl. d. Berl. Akad., 1849, 191 etc.=Kleinere Schriften, n, 211-313 (esp. 261-4). 1849 Bachlechner, J. Die Merovinge im Beowulf, Z.f.d.A. vn, 524r-6. 1851 Zappert, G. Virgil's Fortleben im Mittelalter, Denkschriften der k. Akad, Wien, Phil.-Hist. Glasse, Bd. n, Abth. 2, pp. 17-70. (Gives numerous parallels between Virgil and "Beowulf," somewhat indiscriminately.) 1852 Brynjulfsson, G. Oldengelsk og Oldnordisk, Antikuarisk Tidsskrift, Kjobenhavn, 1852-4, pp. 81-143. (An important paper which has been unduly overlooked. Brynjulfsson notes the parallel between Beowulf and Bjarki (see above, p. 61) and in other respects anticipates later scholars, e.g., in noting the close relationship between Angles and Danes (p. 143) and less fortunately (pp. 129-31) in identifying the Geatas mth the Jutes.) 1856 Bachlechner, J. Eomaer und Heming (Hamlac), Oermania, i, 297-303 and 455-61. 1856 Bouterwek, K. W. Das Beowulflied: Eine Vorlesung; Germania, i, 385-418. 1857 Uhland, L. Sigemund und Sigeferd, Germania, ii, 344-63 =>ScAri/f A, K. Arkeologiska anteckningar till Beovulf, Kungl. vitterhets akademiens mdnadsblad for 1903-5 (1907), pp. 436-51. 1906 Emerson, 0. F. Legends of Cain, especially in Old and Middle English (see particularly § vi, "Cain's Descendants"), Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. xxi, 831-929. (Important.) 1906 Skemp, a. R. Transformation of scriptural story, motive, and conception in Anglo-Saxon poetry, 31 od. Phil, iv, 423-70. 1906 Duff, J. W. Homer and Beowulf : a literary parallel, Saga-Book of the Viking Club. London. 1906 MoRSBACH, L. Zur datierung des Beowulf-epos, Nachrichten der kgl. Ges. d. Wiss. zu Gottingen, Phil.-Hist. Klasse, pp. 252-77. (Important. See above, pp. 107-12.) 1906 Pfandler, W. Die Vergniigungen der Angelsachsen, Anglia, xxix, 417- 526.. 1906 Garlanda, F. Beowulf. Origini, bibliografia, metrica...significato storico, etico, sociologico. Roma. (Slight.) 1906 Stjerna, K. Drakskatten i Beovulf, Fornvdnnen, i, 119-44. 1907 Chad WICK, H. M. Origin of the English Nation. Cambridge. (Important.) Reviews: Andrews, M.L.N, xxm, 261-2; Chambers, M.L.R. iv, 262-6; Schiitte, A.f.n.F. xxv (N. F. xxi), 310-32 (an elaborate discussion of earlv Germanic ethnology and geography) ; Huchon, Revue Germanique, m, 625-31. 1907 Chad WICK, H. M. "Early National Poetry," in Cambridge History of English Literature,ro\. 1,19-32,4:21-3. Important. See above, pp. 122-6. 1907 Hart, Walter Morris. Ballad and Epic. Boston: Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature. (Important: see above, p. 116.) Review: Archiv, cxix, 468. 1907 Olrik, a. Nordisk AandsUv i Vikingetid og tidlig Middelalder. K0ben- havn og Kristiania. (Translated into German by W. Ranisch, 1908, as "Nordisches Geistesleben.") I History y Legend^ Composition^ Origin^ etc. 405 1907 ScHUCK, H. Folknamnet Geatas i den fornengelska dikten Beowulf. Uppsala. (Important. See above, pp. 8-10, 333 etc.) Reviews: Mawer, M.L.R. IV, 273; Freeburg, J.E.O.Ph. xi, 279-83. 1907 Cook, A. S. Various notes, M.L.N, xxi, 146-7. (Further classical parallels to Beowulf, 1408 ff., in succession to a parallel from Seneca quoted in M.L.N, xvn, 209-10.) 1907 Sarrazin, G. Zur Chronologic u. Verfasserfrage Ags. Dichtungen, Engl. Stvd. xxxvin, 145 etc, esp. 170-95 (Das Beowulflied und die altere Genesis). 1907 Brandl, a. Entstehungsgeschichte des Beowulf epos. A five-hne sum- mary of this lecture is given in the Sitzungsberichte d. k. preuss. Akad. Phil.-Hist. Classe, p. 615. 1907 Holthausen, F. Zur altenglischen literatur — Zur datierung des Beowulf, Anglia, Beiblatt, xvin, 77. 1907 JGruner, H. Mathei Parisiensis vitae duorum OfEanim, in ihrer manu- skript- und textgeschichte. Dissertation, Munich. Kaiserslautem. 1908 Brandl, A, Geschichte der alteng. Literatur. (Offprint from Pavls Grdr.{2): Beowulf, pp. 988-1024; Finnsburg, pp. 983-6; an exceedmgly useful and discriminating summary.) 1908 ScHUCKiNG, L. L. Das Angelsachsische Totenklagelied, Engl. Stvd. xxxix, 1-13. 1908 Weyhe, H. Konig Ongentheow's Fall, Engl. Stud, xxxix, 14r-39. 1908 Neckel, G. Beitrage zur Eddaf orschung ; Anhang: Die altgermanische heldenklage (pp. 495-6: cf. p. 376). Dortmund. 1908 Klaeber, F. Zum Finnsburg Kampfe, Engl. Stvd. xxxix, 307-8. 1908 Bjorkman, E. tJber den Namen der Jiiten, Engl. Stud, xxxix, 356-61. 1908 Levander, L. Sagotraditioner om Sveakonungen Adils, Antikvarisk Tidskrift for Sverige, xvm, 3. 1908 Stjerna, K. Fasta fomlamningar i Beovulf, Antikvarisk Tidskrift for Sverige, xvm, 4. 1908 Graf, G. Quellen u. Verwandtschaften der alteren germanischen Dar- stellungen des jiingsten Gerichtes. Halle. (See esp. pp. 145-56.) Review: Guntermann, Z.f.d.Ph. xli, 401-415. 1909 ScHUCK, H. Studier i BeowuKsagan. Uppsala. Review: Freeburg, J.E.O.Ph. XI, 488-97 (a very useful summary). 1909 Lawrence, W. W. Some disputed questions in Beowulf-criticism, Pnh. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. xxiv, 220-73. (Very important.) Review: Brandl, Archiv, cxxm, 473. 1909 Ehrismann, G. Religionsgeschichtliche Beitrage zum germanischen Fruhchristentum, P.B.B. xxxv, 209-39. 1909 BuGGE, S. Die Heimat der Altnordischen Lieder von den Welsimgen u. den Nibelungen, ii, P.B.B. xxxv, 240-71. 1909 Deutschbein, M. Die Sagenhistorischen u. literarischen Grundlagen des Beowulfepos, Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift, i, 103-19. 1910 Olbik, a. Danmarks Heltedigtning : n, Starkad den gamle og den yngre Skjoldungraekke. Kobenhavn. (Most important.) Reviews: Heusler, A.f.d.A. xxxv, 169-83 (important); Ussing, Danske Studier, 1910, 193- 203; Boer, Museum, xix, 1912, 171-4. 1910 Panzer, F. Studien zur germanischen Sagengeschichte. i. Beowulf. Miinchen. (Most important: see above, pp. 62-8; 365-81. Valuable criticisms and modifications are suppUed by the reviews, more particu- larly perhaps that of von Sydow (A.f.d.A. xxxv, 123-31), but also in the elaborate discussions of Heusler (Engl. Stud. XLn, 289-98), Binz {Anglia, Beiblatt, xxiv, 321-37), Brandl (Archiv, cxxvi, 231-5), Kahle 406 BihliograpJiy (Z.f.d.Ph. XLin, 383-94) and the briefer ones of Lawrence (M.L.N. xxvn, 57-60) Sedgefield [M.L.R. vi, 128-31) and Golther {Neue Jahrbiicher f. das klassische AUertum, xxv, 610-13).) 1910 Bradley, H. Beowulf, in Encyclopsedia Britannica, in, pp. 758-61. (Important. See above, pp. 121, 127-8.) 1910 ScHUCK, H. Sveriges forkristna konungalangd. Uppsala. 1910 Clark Hall, J, R. A note on Beowulf, 1142-5, M.L.N, xxv, 113-14. (Hunldfing.) 1910 Sarrazin, G. Neue Beowulf-studien, Engl. Stud, xlii, 1-37. 1910 Klaeber, F. Die altere Genesis und der Beowulf, Engl. Stud, xlii, 321- 38. 1910 Heusler, a. Zeitrechnung im Beowulf-epos, Archiv, cxxiv, 9-14. 1910 Neckel, G. Etwas von germanischer Sagenforschung, Germ.-Rom. Monatsschrift, n, 1-14. 1910 Smithson, G. a. The Old English Christian Epic... in comparison with the Beowulf. Berkeley. Univ. of California Pub. in Mod. Phil. (See particularly pp. 363-8, 376-90.) 1911 Clarke, M. G. Sidelights on Teutonic History. Cambridge. Reviews: Mawer, M.L.N, vn, 126-7; Chambers, Engl. Stud. XLVin, 166-8; Fehr, Anglia, Beiblatt, xxvr, 19-20; Imelmann, D.L.Z. xxxiv, 1913, 1062 etc. 1911-19 Heusler, A. A series of articles in Hoops' Reallexikon: Beowulf, Dichtung, Ermenrich, Gautensagen, Heldensage, Hengest, Heremod, Offa, Skjgldungar, Ynglingar, etc. Strassburg. (Important.) 1911 Neckel, G. Ragnacharius von Cambrai, Festschrift zur Jahrhundertfeier der Universitdt zu Breslau = Mitt. d. Schlesischen Gesellschaft fur Volks- kunde, xm-xiv, 121-54. (A historical parallel between the treatment of Ragnachar by Chlodowech and that of Hrethric by Hrothulf.) 1911 Schonfeld, M. Worterbuch der altgermanischen Personen- und Volker- namen. Heidelberg. See also Schiitte, Noter til Schonfelds Navne- samling, in A.f.n.F. xxxiii, 22-49. 1911 Klaeber, F. Aeneis und Beowulf, Archiv, cxxvi, 40-8, 339-59. (Im- portant: see above, p. 330.) 1911 Liebermann, F. Grendel als Personenname, Archiv, oxxvi, 180. 1911-12 Klaeber, F. Die Christlichen Elemente im Beowulf, Anglia, xxxv, 1 1 1-36, 249-70, 453-82 ; xxxvi, 169-99. (Most important : demonstrates the fundamentally Christian character of the poem.) 1912 Chadwick, H. Munro. The Heroic Age. Cambridge. (Important: see above, p. 122.) Reviews: Mawer, M.L.R. vni, 207-9; Chambers, Engl. Stud. XLVin, 162-6. 1912 Stjerna, K. Essays on questions connected with the O.E. poem of Beowulf, transl. and ed. by John R. Clark Hall, (Viking Club), Coventry. (Important: see above, pp. 346 etc.) Reviews: Klaeber, J. E.G. Ph. xiii, 167-73, weighty; Mawer, M.L.N, vm, 242-3; Athenaeum, 1913, i, 459- 60; Brandl, Archiv, cxxxii, 238-9; Schutte, A.f.n.F. xxxm, 64-96, elaborate; Olrik, Nord. Tidskr. f. Filol. iv, 2. 127; Mogk, Historische Vierteljahrsschrift, xvni, 196-7. 1912 Chambers, R. W. Widsith: a study in Old English heroic legend. Cam- bridge. Reviews: Mawer, M.L.R. vrn, 118-21; Lawrence, M.L.N. xxvin, 53-5; Fehr, Anglia, Beiblatt, xxvi, 289-95; Jordan, Engl. Stud. XLV, 300-2; Berendsohn, Liter aturblatt, xxxv (1914), 384-6. 1912 Boer, R. C. Die Altenglische Heldendiclitung. i. Beowulf. Halle, (Important.) Reviews: JJantzen, Z. f. franzosischen u. englischen Unterricht, xin, 546-7; Berendsohn, Liter aturblatt, xxxv, 152-4; Dyboski, Allgemeines Literaturblatt, xxn, 1913, 497-9; Imelmann, D.L.Z. xxxiv, 1913, 1062-6 (weighty criticisms); Barnouw, Museum, xxi, 53-8. History, Legend, Composition, Origin, etc, 407 1912 VON DER Leyen, F. Die deutschen Heldensagen (Beowulf, pp. 107-23, 345-7). Miinchen. 1912 Meyer, W. Beitrage zur Geschichte der Eroberung Englands. Disserta- tion, Halle. (Finn story.) 1912 Lawrence, W. W. The haunted mere in Beowulf. Pvb. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. xxvii, 208-45. (Important. See above, pp. 52-3.) 1912 ScHiJTTE, G. The Geats of Beowulf, J.E.G.Ph. xi, 574^602. (See above, pp. 8, 333 etc.) 1912 Stefanovi6, S. Bin beitrag zur angelsachsischen Offa-sage, Anglia, xxxv, 483-525. 1912 Much, R. Orendel, Worte^- u. Sachen, iv, 170-3. (Deriving Vendsyssel^ Vandal, and the Wendle of Beowulf from wandil—^'' a, bough, wand.") 1912 Chambers, R. W. Six thirteenth century drawings illustrating the story of Off a and of Thryth (Drida) from MS Cotton Nero D. I. London, privately printed. 1913 JFahlbeck, p. Beowulfskvadet som kalla for nordisk fomhistoria. (Stockholm, N. F. K. Vitterhets Historic och Antikvitets Akademien^ Handlingar, 13, 3.) Review: Klaeber, Ev^l. Stud. XLVin, 435-7. 1913 Nerman, B. Studier over Svarges hedna litteratur. Uppsala. 1913 Nerman, B. Vilka konungar ligga i Uppsala hogar? Uppsala. 1913 Lawrence, W. W. The Breca episode in Beowulf (Anniversary papers to G. L. Kittredge). Boston. 1913 Sarraztn, G. Von Kadmon bis Kynewulf. Berlin. Reviews: Dudley, J.E.G.Ph. XV, 313-17; Berendsohn, Liter aturllatt, xxxv (1914), 386-8; Funke, Anglia, Beihlatt, xxxi, 121-33. 1913 Thomas, P. G. Beowulf and Daniel A, M.L.R. vra, 537-9. (Parallels between the two poems.) ' 1913 Belden, H. M. Onela the Scylfing and Ali the Bold, M.L.N, xxvm, 149-53. 1913 Stedman, D. Some points of resemblance between Beowulf and the Grettla (or Grettis Saga). From the Saga Book of the Viking Club, London. (It should have been held unnecessary to prove the relation- ship yet once again.) 1913 VON Sydow, C. W. Irisches in Beowulf i. {Verhandlungen der 52 Ver- sammlung deutscher Philologen in Marburg, pp. 177-80.) 1913 Berendsohn, W. A. Drei Schichten dichterischer Gestaltung im Beowulf - epos, Miinchener Museum, u, i, pp. 1-33. 1913 Deutschbein, M. Beowulf der Gautenkonig, Festschrift fur Lorenz Morsbach, Halle, pp. 291-7, Morsbachs Studien, l. (Very important. Expresses very well, and with full working out of details, the doubts which some of us had already felt as to the historic character of the reign of Beowulf over the Geatas.) ^ Most students nowadays will probably agree with v. Sydow's contention that the struggle of Beowulf, first above ground and then below, is a folk- story, one and indivisible, and that therefore there is no reason for attributing the two sections to different authors, as do Boer, Miillenhoff and ten Brink. But that the folk-tale is exclusively Celtic remains to be proved; v. Sydow's contention that Celtic influence is shown in Beowulf by the inhospitable shame- lessness of Unferth (compare that of Kai) is surely fanciful. Also the statement that the likeness of Bjarki and Beowulf is confined to the freeing of the Danish palace from a dangerous monster by a stranger from abroad, and that "das sonstige Beiwerk vollig verschieden ist" surely cannot be maintained. As argued above (pp. 54-61) there are other distinct points of resemblance. V. Sydow's statement no doubt suffers from the brevity with which it is reported, and his forthcoming volume of Beovmlf studien wiU be awaited with interest. 408 Bibliography 1913 Benary, W. Zum Beowulf-Grendelsage, Archiv, cxxx, 154-5. (Grandels- mor in Siebenbiirgen : see above, p. 308.) 1913 Klaeber, F. Das Grandelsmor — eine Frage, Archiv, cxxxi, 427. 1913 Brate, E. Betydelsen av ortnamnet Skalv [cf. Scilfingas], Namn och Bygd, i, 102-8. 1914 MiJLLER, J. Das Kulturbild des Beowulfepos. Halle. Morshachs Stvdien, Lin. Reviews: Klaeber, Ariglia, Beihlattf xxvn, 241-4; Brunner, Archiv, cxxxvin, 242-3. 1914 Moorman, F. W. English place-names and Teutonic Sagas, in Essays and Studies by members of the English Association, vol. v, pp. 75-103. (Argues that "Gilling" and other place-names in Yorkshire, point to an early colony of Scandinavian "Gautar," who may have been instru- mental in introducing Scandinavian traditions into England.) 1914 Olson, 0. L. Beowulf and the Feast of Bricriu, Mod. Phil xi, 407-27. (Emphasises the slight character of the parallels noted by Deutschbein.) 1914 VON Sydow, C. W. Grendel i anglosaxiska ortnamn, vaNordiska Ortnamn, hyllningsskrift tilldgnad Adolf Noreen, Uppsala, pp. 160-4 = Namn och Bygd, it. (Important). 1915 KiER, Chr. Beowulf, et Bidrag til Nordens Oldhistorie. Kobenhavn. (An elaborate and painstaking study of the historic problems of Beowulf, vitiated throughout by quite unjustifiable assumptions. See above, p. 333 etc.) Review: Bjorkmann, Anglia, Beihlatt, xxvn, 244-6. 1915 Bradley, H. The Numbered Sections in Old Enghsh Poetical MSS, Proc. Brit. Acad. vol. vn. 1915 Lawrence, W. W. Beowulf and the tragedy of Finnsburg, Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. xxx, 372-431. (Important. An excellent survey of the Finnsburg problems.) 1915 VAN SwERiNGEN, G. F. The main... types of men in the Germanic Hero- Sagas, J.E.G.Ph. xiv, 212-25. 1915-19 LiNDROTH, H. Ar Sk&ne de gamles Scadinavia? Namn och Bygd, m, 1915, 10-28. Lindroth denied that the two words are the same, and was answered by A. Kock [A.f.n F. xxxiv, 1917, 71 etc.), A. Noreen (in %Stvdier tillegn. E. Tegner, 1918) and E. Bjorkman ("Scedeland, Scedenig," Namn och Bygd, vi, 1918, 162-8). Lindroth replied ("Aro Scadinavia och Sk&ne samma ord," A.f.n.F. xxxv, 1918, 29 etc., and "Skandinavien och Sk&ne," Namn och Bygd, vi, 1918, 104^12) and was answered by Kock ("Vidare om Sk&ne och Scadinavia," A.f.n.F. xxxvi, 74-85). Bjorkman's discussion is the one of chief importance to students of Beowulf. 1915 Klaeber, F. Observations on the Finn episode, J.E.G.Ph. xiv, 544-9 1915 Anscombe, a. Beowulf in High-Dutch saga. Notes and Queries, Aug. 21, 1915, pp. 133-4. 1915 Berendsohn, Walter A. Die Gelage am Danenhof zu Ehren Beowulfs, Miin^hener Museum, m, i, 31-55. 1915-16 Pizzo, E. Zur frage der asthetischen einheit des Beowulf, Anglia, xxxix, 1-15. (Sees in Beowulf the uniform expression of the early Anglo-Saxon Christian ideal.) 1916 Olson, 0. L. The relation of the Hrolfs Saga Kraka and the Bjarkarimur to Beowulf. Chicago. (Olson emphasises that the monster slain by Bjarki in the Saga does not attack the hall, but the cattle outside, and is therefore a different kind of monster from Grendel (p. 30). But he does not disprove the general equation of Beowulf and Bjarki: many of the most striking points of resemblance, such as the support given to Eadgils(Athils) against Onela (Ali),lie outside the scope of his study. Review: Hollander, J.E.G.Ph. xvi, 147-9. History, Legend, Composition, Origin, etc, 409 1916 Neckbl, G. Adel und gefolgschaft, P.B.B. xu, 385-436 (esp. pp. 410 ff. for social conditions in Beowulf). 1917 Flom, G. T. Alliteration and Variation in Old Germanic name giving, M.L.N, xxxn, 7-17. 1917 Mead, G. W. WiSersyld of Beowulf, 2051, M.L.N, xxxn, 435-6. (Sug- gests, very reasonably, that WiSerjyld is the father of the young Heathobard warrior who is stirred to revenge.) 1917 Aybes, H. M. The tragedy of Hengest in Beowulf, J.E.O.Ph. xvi, 282-95. (See above, pp. 266-7.) 1917 AuENEB, N. S. An analysis of the interpretations of the Finnsburg documents. {Univ. of Iowa Monographs: Humanistic Stvdies, i, 6.) 1917 BjSrkman, E. Zu ae. Eote, Yte, usw., dan. Jyder, "Jiiten," Anglia, Beiblatt, xxvm, 275-80. (See above, p. 334.) 1917 RooTH, E. G. T. Der name Grendel in der Beowulfsage, Anglia, Beiblatt, xxvni, 335-40. (Etymologies. Grendel is the "sandman," a man- eating monster of the sea-bottom. With this, compare Panzer's inter- pretation of Grendel as the "earthman." See above, p. 309.) 1917 ScHTJCKiNG, L. L. Wann entstand der Beowulf? Glossen, Zweifel und Fragen, P.B.B. xlh, 347-410. (Important. See above, pp. 322-32.) 1917 Fog, Reginald. Trolden "Grendel" i Bjovulf: en hypothese, Danske Studier, 1917, 134-40. (Grendel is here interpreted as an infectious disease, prevalent among those who sleep in an ill-ventilated hall in a state of intoxication, but to which Beowulf, whose health has been confirmed by a recent sea-voyage, is not liable. This view is not as new as its author believes it to be, and a letter from von Holstein Rathlau is added, pointing this out. It might further have been pointed out that as early as 1879 Grendel was explained as the malaria. Cf. the theories of Laistner, Kogel and Golther, and see above, p. 46.) 1917 Neuhaus, J. Sillende = vetus patriae Angel, Nordisk Tidsskrift for Filologi, iv. Raekke, Bd. v, 125-6; Helges Prinsesse Sv&v& = Eider =den svebiske Flod hos Ptolemseos, vi, 29-32; Halfdan= Erode = Hadbardemes Konge, hvis Rige forenes med det danske, vi, 78-80; Vegtgermanske Navne i dansk Historie og Sprog, 141-4. The inherent difficulty of the subject is enhanced by the obscurity of the writer's style: but much of the argument (e.g. that Halfdan and Erode are identical) is obviously based upon quite reckless conjectures. The question is complicated by political feeling: many of Neuhaus' argu- ments are repeated in his pamphlet. Die Frage von Nordschleswig im Lichte der neuesten vorgeschichtlichen Untersuchungen, Jena, 1919. His theories were vigorously refuted by G. Schuttb. " Urjyske ' Vestger- maner,' " Nordisk Tidsskrift far Filologi, iv. Raekke, Bd, vn, 129 etc. 1917 JFbedboeg. Det forsta &rtalet i Sveriges historia. Ume&. 1917 Nebman, B. Ynglingasagan i arkeologisk belysning, Fornvdnnen, 1917, 226-61. 1917 Nebman, B. Ottar Vendelkr&ka och Ottarshogen i Vendel, Upplands Fornminnesforenings Tidskrift, vn, 309-34. 1917 Bjobkman, E. Beowulf och Sveriges Historia, Nordisk Tidskrift, 1917, 161-79. 1917-18 tvoN Sydow, C. W. Draken som skattevaktare, Danmarks folke- minder, xvn, 103 etc. 1918 Hackenbebg, E. Die Stammtafeln der angelsachsischen Konigreiche, Dissertation, Berlin. (A useful collection.) Reviews: Fischer, Anglia, Beiblatt, xxxi, 73-4; Ekwall, En^l. Stud, uv, 307-10; Liebermann, D.L.Z. 1 March, 1919. 1918 Laweence, W. W. The dragon and his lair in Beowulf, Pub. Mod. Lang Assoc. Amer. xxxm, 547-83. 26-^ 410 Bibliography 1918 Belden, H. M. Beowulf 62, once more, M.L.N, xxxin, 123. 1918 Belden, H. M. Scyld Scefing and Huck Finn, M.L.N, xxxin, 315. 1918 Klaebeb, F. Concerning the relation between Exodus and Beowulf, M.L.N, xxxra, 218-24. 1918 Bjobkman, E. Beow, Beaw, und Beowulf, Engl. Stiid. ui, 145-93. (Very important. See above, p. 304.) 1918 Bbandl, a. Die Urstammtafel der Westsachsen imd das Beowulf -Epos, Archiv, cxxxvn, 6-24. (See above, p. 200, note.) 1918 Bbandl, a. Die urstammtafel der engUschen konige, Sitzungsberichte d. k. preuss. Akad., Phil. -Hist. Classe, p. 5. (Five line summary only published). 1918 JBjobkman, E. Beowulf-forskning och mytologi, Finsk Tidakrifty 151 etc, (Cf. Anglia, Beiblatt, xxx, 207.) 1918 Bjobkman, E. Skoldungaattens mytiska stamfader, Nordisk Tidskrift, 163 etc. 1918 V. Unwebth, W. Eine schwed. Heldensage als deutsches Volksepos, A.f.n.F. XXXV, 113-37. (An attempt to connect the story of Hygelac and Hsethcyn with the M.H.G. Herhort Hz Tendant.) 1918 Neuhaus, J. Om Skjold, A.f.n.F. xxxv, 166-72. (A dogmatic assertion of errors in Ohik's arguments in the Heltedigtning.) 1918 Clausen, H. V. Kong Hugleik, Danske Stvdier, 137-49. (Conjectures based upon the assumption Geatas= Jutes.) 1918 JLuND University "Festskrift" contains Nobond, Skattsagner; von Sydow, Sigurds strid med Favne. 1919 Oleik, a. The heroic legends of Denmark translated... and revised in collaboration with the author by Lee M. Hollander. New York. (Very important.) Review: Flom, J.E.G.Ph. xix, 284^90. 1919 Bjobkman, E. Bed wig in den westsachsischen genealogien, Anglia, Beiblatt, xxx, 23. 1919 Bjobkman, E. Zu einigen Namen im Beowulf: Breca, Brondingas, WealhJ)eo{w); Anglia, Beiblatt, xxx, 170-80. 1919 MoGK, E. Altgermanische Spukgeschichten : Zugleich ein Beitrag zur Erklarung der Grendelepisode im Beowulf, Neue Jahrbilcher fur das Mass. altertum...und deutsche literatur, xxxiv, 103-17. (Mogk here abandons his older allegorical interpretation of Grendel as the destroying power of the sea, and sees in the Grendel-story a Germanic ghost-tale, poetically adorned.) 1919 Bjobkman, E. Skialf och Skilfing [edited by E. Ekwall, with a note on Bjorkman's work], Namn och Bygd, vn, 163-81. 1919 LiNDEBHOLM, E. Vendclshogens konunganamn i socknens 1600-tals- tradition, Namn och Bygd, vn, 36-40. 1919 Fog, R. Bjarkemaals "Hjalte," Danske Studier, 1919, 29-35. (With a letter from A. Olrik.) 1919 Sevebinsen, P. Kong Hugleiks Dpdsaar, Danske Studier, 1919, 96. 1920 Imelmann, R. Forschungen zur altenglischen Poesie. (ix.Hengest u. Finn; x. Enge dnpadas, uncud geldd; xn. pry do; xni. Hse/>enra hyht.) Berlin. (A weighty statement of some original views). 1920 Bjobkman, E. Studien iiber die Eigennamen im Beowulf. HaUe. Mors- bachs Studien, Lvm. (An extremely valuable and discriminating digest. See above, p. 304.) 1920 Babto, p. S. The Schwanritter-Sceaf Myth in Perceval le Gallois, J.E.O.Ph, XIX, 190-200. 1920 HuBBABD, F. G. The plundering of the Hoard. Univ.Wisconsin8tud.il, History and Legend: Style and Grammar 411 1920 ScHtJCKiNG, L. L. WiSergyld (Beowulf, 2051), Ethcjl. Stud. Lin, 468-70. (Schiicking, like Mead, but independently, interprets Withergyld as the name of the warrior whose son is being stirred to revenge.) 1920 Bjoekman, E. HaetScyn und Hakon, Engl. Stud, liv, 24-34. 1920 Hoops, J. Das Verhiillen des Haupts bei Toten, ein angelsachsisch- nordischer Branch (Zu Beowulf, 446, hafcdan hydan), Engl. Stud, uv, 19-23. 1920 NoBEEN, A. Yngve, Inge, Inglinge [Ingwine], Namn och Bygd, vm, 1-8. 1920 La Cour, V. Lejrestudier, Danske Stvdier, 1920, 49-67. (Weighty. Emphasizing the importance of the site of Leire in the sixth century.) A discussion on the date and origin of Beowulf, by Liebermann, is about to appear {Qott. Gdehrt. Oesdlschaff). § 9. STYLE AND GRAMMAR Titles already given in previous sections are not repeated here. General treatises on O.E. style and grammar are recorded here only if they have a special and exceptional bearing upon Beowulf. 1873 Lichtenheld, A. Das schwache adjectiv im ags., Z.f.d.A. xvi, 325-93. (Important. See above, pp. 105-7.) 1875 Heinzel, R. "Dber den Stil der altgermanischen Poesie. Strassburg. {Qudlen u. Forschungen, x.) (Important and suggestive: led to further studies on the style of Beowulf, such as those of Hoffmann and Bode.) Review: Zimmer, A.f.d.A. n, 29^300. 1877 JAendt, O. Uber die altgerm. epische Sprache. Paderbom. 1877 ScHONBACH, A. [A discussion of words peculiar to sections of Beowulf, added to a review of Ettmiiller's Beowulf], A.f.d.A. in, 36-46. See also Moller, Volksepos, 60 etc. 1879 Nader, E. Zur Syntax des Beowulf. Progr. der Staats-Ober-Realschule, in Briinn. Review: Bernhardt, Literaturblatt, 1880, 439-40 (imfavour- able: reply by Nader and answer by Bernhardt, 1881, 119-20). 1881 JGuMMERE, F. B. The Anglo-Saxon metaphor. Dissertation, Freiburg. 1882 ScHEMANN, K. Die Synonyma im Beowulf sliede, mit Riicksicht auf Composition u. Poetik des Gedichtes. Hagen. Dissertation, Miinster. (Examines the use of noun -synonyms in the different sections of the poem as divided by MiiUenhoff, and finds no support for Mullenhoff's theories.) Review: Kluge, Literaturblatt, 1883, 62-3. 1882 JNader, E. Der Genitiv im Beowulf. Briinn. Review: Klinghardt, Engl. Stud. \i, 288. 1882 ScHTJLZ, F. Die Sprachformen des Hildebrand-Liedes im Beovolf. Konigsberg. 1883 Nader, E. Dativ u. Instrumental im Beowulf. Wien. Review: KUnghardt, Engl. Stud, vn, 368-70. 1883 Harbison, J. A. List of irregular (strong) verbs in Beowulf, Amer. Jour. o/PM. IV, 462-77. 1883 Hoffmann, A. Der bildliche Ausdruck im Beowulf u. in der Edda, Engl. Stud. VI, 163-216. 1886 Bode, W. Die Kenningar in der angelsachsischen Dichtung. Darmstadt and Leipzig. Reviews: Gummere, M.L.N, n, 17-19 (important^— praises Bode highly); Kluge, Engl. Stud, x, 117; Brandl, D.L.Z. 1887, 897-8; Bischoff, Archiv, lxxix, 115-6; Meyer, A.f.d.A. xm, 136. 1886 JKohler, K. Der syntaktische gebrauch des Infinities und Particips im Beowulf. Dissertation, Miinster. 1886 Banning, A. Die epischen Formehi im Bfiowulf. i. Die yerbalen synonyma. Dissertation, Marburg. 412 Bibliography 1887 ToLMAN, A. H. The style of Anglo-Saxon poetry, Trans. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. ni, 17-47. 1888-9 Nader, E. Tempus und modus im Beowulf, Anglia, x, 542-63; xi, 444-99. 1889 Kail, J. tJher die Parallelstellen in der Ags. Poesie, Anglia, xn, 21-40. (A reductio ad absurdum of the theories of Sarrazin. Important.) 1891 Davidson, C. The Phonology of the Stressed Vowels in Beowulf, Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. vi, 106-33. Review: Karsten, Engl. Stud. xvn, 417-20. 1892 SoNNEFELD, G. Stilistisches und Wortschatz im Beowulf. Dissertation, Strassburg. Wiirzburg. 1893 ToDT, A. Die Wortstellung im Beowulf, Anglia, xvi, 226-60. 1898 KiSTENMACHER, R. Die wortUchen Wiederholungen im Beowulf. Dis- sertation, Greifswald. Reviews: Mead, J.(£^.)(5^.P^. ii, 546-7; Kaluza, En{il. Stud, xxvn, 121-2 (short but valuable). 1902 Barnotjw, a. J. Textkritische Untersuchungen nach dem gebrauch des bestimmten Artikels und des schwachen Adjektivs in der altenglischen Poesie. Leiden. (Important, see above, p. 107.) Reviews: Kock, En^L Stud, xxxn, 228-9; Binz, Z.f.d.Ph. xxxvi, 269-74; Schucking, Got- tingische gelehrte Anzeigen, 1905, 730-40. 1902 Heuslee, a. Der dialog in der altgermanisehen erzahlenden Dichtung. Z.f.d.A. XLVi, 189-284. 1903 Shipley, G. The genitive case in Anglo-Saxon Poetry. Baltimore. Reviews: Kock, Engl. Stud, xxv, 92-5; Mourek, A.f.d.A. xxx, 172-4. 1903 Krackow, 0. Die Nominalcomposita als Kunstmittel im altenglischen Epos. Dissertation, Berlin. Review: Bjorkman, Archiv, cxvn, 189-90. 1904 ScHiJCKiNG, L. L. Die Grundziige der Satzverkniipfung im Beowulf. Pt. I. {Morshachs Studien, xv.) Halle. (Important.) Reviews: Eckhardt, Engl. Stud, xxxvn, 396-7; Pogatscher, D.L.Z. 1905, 922-3; Behagel, Literaturblatt, xxvin, 100-2; Grossmann, Archiv, cxvin, 176-9. 1904 Hauschkel, B. Die Technik der Erzahlimg im Beowulfliede. Disserta- tion, Breslau. 1905 Krapp, G. p. The parenthetic exclamation in Old English poetry, M.L.N. XX, 33-7. 1905 Scheinert, M. Die Adjektiva im Beowulfepos als Darstellungsmittel, P.B.B. XXX, 345-430. 1906 Thomas, P. G. Notes on the language of Beowulf, M.L.R. i, 202-7. (A short summary of the dialectal forms.) 1906 Barnouw, a. J. Nochmals zum ags. Gebrauch des Artikels, Archiv, cxvii, 366-7. 1907 RiES, J. Die Wortstellung im Beowulf. Halle. (An important and ex- haustive study by an acknowledged specialist.) Reviews: Binz, Anglia, Beiblatt, xxn, 65-78 (important); Borst, Engl. Stud, xui, 93-101; Delbriick, A.f.d.A. xxxi, 65-76 (important); Reis, Literaturblatt, xxvin, 328-30; Lit. Cbl. 1907, p. 1474; Huchon, Revue germanique, in, 634-8. 1908 Krauel, H. Der Haken- und Langzeilenstil im Beowulf. Dissertation, Gottingen. 1908 LoRS, A. Aktionsarten des Verbums im Beowulf. Dissertation, Wiirzburg. 1908 JMouREK, E. Zur Syntax des konjunktivs im Beowulf, Prager deutsche stud. vm. 1909-10 Rankin, J. W. A study of the Kennings in Ags. poetry, J.E.G.Ph. vni, 357-422; ix, 49-84. (Latin parallels; very important.) Style and Grammar: Metre 413 1909 Shbarin, H. G. The expression of purpose in Old English poetry, An^lia^ xxxn, 235-52. 1909 JRiaoERT, G. Der syntaktische Gebrauch des Infinitivs in der alt- engliachen Poesie. Dissertation, Kiel. 1910 RiCHTEB, C. Chronologische Studien zur angekachsischen Literatur auf gnind sprachl.-metri8cher Kriterien. Halle. {Morshacha Studien^ xxxm.) Reviews: Binz, Anglian Beiblatt, xxn, 78-80; Imelmann, D.L.Z. 1910, 2986-7; Hecht, Archiv, cxxx, 430-2. 1910 Wagneb, R. Die Syntax des Superlativs...im Beowulf. Berlin. (Palaestra, xci.) Reviews: Schatz, D.L.Z. 1910, 2848-9; Kock, A.f.n.F. xxvin, 347-9. 1910 ScHircHARDT, R. Die negation im Beowulf. Berlin. {Berliner Beitrdge zur germ. u. roman. Philol. xxxvm.) 1912 Bright, J. W. An Idiom of the Comparative in Anglo-Saxon, M.L.N, xxvn, 181-3. (Bearing particularly upon Beowulf, 69, 70.) 1912 ExNEB, P. Typische Adverbialbestimmungen in friihenglischer Poesie. Dissertation, Berlin. 1912 Grimm, P. Beitrage zum Pluralgebrauch in der altenglischen Poesie. Dissertation, HaUe. 1913 Paetzel, W. Die Variationen in der altgermanischen Alliterationspoesie. Berlin. See pp. 73-84 for Beowulf and Finnsburg. {Palaestra^ XLVin.) Pt I. had appeared in 1905 as a Berlin dissertation. §10. METRE For bibliography of O.E. metre in general, see Pauls Ordr.{2)f n, 1022-4. 1870 ScHFBERT, H. De Anglosaxonum arte metrica. Dissertatio inauguralis, Berolini. 1884 SiEVERS, E. Zur rhythmik des germanischen alliterationsverses: i. Vor- bemerkungen. Die metrik des Beowulf: n. Sprachliche Ergebnisse, P.B.B. X, 209-314 and 451-545. (Most important.) 1894 Kalttza, M. Studien zum altgermanischen alliterationsvers. i. Kritik der bisherigen theorien. ii. Die Metrik des Beowulfliedes. (Important.) Reviews: Martin, Engl. Stud, xx, 293-6; Heusler, A.f.d.A. xxi, 313-17; Saran, Z.f.d.Ph. xxvn, 539-43. 1905 Trautmann, M. Die neuste Beowulfausgabe und die altenglische vers- lehre, Bonner Beitrdge zur Anglistik, xvn, 175-91. (A discussion of O.E. metre in view of Holthausen's edition.) Review: Kllaeber, M.L.N. xxn, 252. 1908 Morgan, B. Q. Zur lehre von der alliteration in der westgermanischen dichtung: i. Die tonverhaltnisse der hebungen im Beowulf: n. Die gekreuzte alliteration; P.B.B. xxxin, 95-181. 1908 BoHLEN, A. Zusammengehorige Wortgruppen, getrennt durch Casur oder Versschluss, in der angelsachsischen Epik. Dissertation, Berlin. Re- views: Dittes, Anglia, Beiblatt, xx, 199-202; Kroder, Engl. Stud, xl, 90. 1912 Trautmann, M. Zum altenglischen Versbau, Engi.. Stud, xliv, 303-42. 1913 Seiffert, F. Die Behandlung der Worter mit auslautenden urspriing- lich silbischen Liquiden oder Nasalen und mit Kontraktionsvokalen in der Genesis A imd im Beowulf. Dissertation, Halle. (Concludes the dialect of the two poems to be distinct, but finds no evidence on these grounds which is the earlier.) 1914 FiJN VAN Draat, p. The cursus in O.E. poetry, Anglia, xxxvin, 377-404. 1918 Leonard, W. E. Beowulf and the Niebelungen couplet, in Univ. of Wisconsin Studies in Larvguo/ge and Literature, n, 98-152. (Important. Pp. 123-46 advocating the "four-accent theory.") 1920 JNeuneb, E. Ueber ein- und dreihebige Halbverse in der altenglischen aUiterierenden Poesie. Berlin. Review: Bright, 3f .2/.^. xxxvi, 59-63. INDEX Abingdon, sheaf ordeal at, 83-4, 303 Adam of Bremen, on the Gotar, 339 ^thelbert of East Anglia, 239-43 Agnerus, 132-3 Alboin and Thurlsind, 281, 282, 285 Aleester, Orinddes pytt near, 305 Alcuin, 22, 332 Aldfrid, 325 Aldhelm, 331 Alfsola, 69 Ali, see Onela Aliel, see Riganus Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Pedigrees in, 72 etc., 312 etc. Archaeology in relation to Beowulf, 122 etc., 345-65 Asbiom, 186-92 Athils, Athislus, see Eadgils Attila, funeral of, compared with that of Beowulf, 124 Atuarii, see Hetware Ayres, Prof. H. M., on the Finnsburg story, 266 etc, Baldseg, 321 Baldr, 69 bana, 270-1 Battersea, Gryndeles sylle near, 306 "Bear's-son" folk-tale, 62 etc., 369-81 Beas broc. Bias feld, 310 Bede, the Venerable, 326 etc. Bedwig, 303-4 Beow(a), Beaw, 10, 42 etc., 87-8, 202-3, 291 etc., 296 etc. Beowi, 303 Beowulf the Dane (Beowulf Scyld- inga), 41 etc., 88, 92 etc., 291 etc. Beowulf son of Ecgtheow, king of the Geatas, 10-13; his struggle with Grendel and Grendel's mother, 41 etc.; with the dragon, 92 etc. ; his funeral rites, 122 etc.; etymology and meaning of the name, 365-9 Beowulf, suggested translation from a Scandinavian original, 98-104; dia- lect, sjmtax and metre of, 104-12; theories as to the structure of, 112- 20; the Christian elements in, 121-8; date of, 122, 322 etc., 353 etc.; pos- sible classical influence upon, 329 etc. ; archaeology of, 345-65; division into fittes or passus, 294 etc. Biar, 7, 45 Biuuulf, 367 Bjarkamdl, 26, 264; Saxo's Latin translation quoted, 135-6 Bjarka rimur, 58, 182-6 Bjarki, 9, 12, 54-61, 132-6, 138-46^ 182-6 Bjarndreingur, 374-5 BJ0m0re, 377 Blackburn, Prof., on the Christian element in Beowulf, 125 Blood-feud, in primitive society,. 276 etc. Boar-helmets, 350-1, 358-9 Bocus, 26, 135 Boerinus, 201 Bothvar Bjarki, see Bjarki Bow, the, in Beowulf, 361 Bradley, Dr Henry, on the Christian elements in Beowulf, 127; on Beow and Beowulf the Dane, 293 etc.; on the passus in Beowulf, 294-5 Brusi, 187-92 Brutus (Hildebrandus), 222 Bugge, Sophus, on the Finnsburg story, 257-66 Burial mounds, Scandinavian, 356 Burials, 122 etc., 353-5 Byggvir, 45, 297 etc. Cerdic, his ancestry, 316 etc. Chad wick. Prof. H. M., on the date of Beowulf, 122, 353 etc. Chatuarii, see Hetware Chochilaicus, 2, 3 Christianity of . Beowulf, 121 etc.y 322 etc.. Cities of Refuge, 276-7 Clyst, river, 44, 310 Creedy, the, Orendeles pyt near, 305 Crying the Neck, 82-3, 302 Cynethryth, 37 etc. Dan, king of the Danes, 129, 204 Danes, first mentioned soon after A.D. 500, 14; their early kings, 13- 31; their early history as recorded in Saxo, 129-37; in the Little Chronicle of the Kings of Leire,. 204—6; in Sweyn Aageson, 211; their relation to the English, 314 ete. Date of Beowulf, 122, 322 etc., 353 etc. Dialect of Beowulf, 104 Dorestad, 259, 288-9 Dragons, not extinct in 1649, 1] (note); Frotho's dragon, 92 ete. 1 30-1 ; the Vendsyssel dragon, 1 9^ Dunstan, 332 Drida, 36 etc. ; 238-43; see also Thryt Eadgils (Athils, Athislus), 5-8; \i 186, 356 Index 415 Eaha, 246 lOanmund, 5 i:dda of Snorri, 69 l^lngelhardt, on the Moss-finds, 345 etc. Eomaer (Earner), 31, 197-8 Eotan, Eote, see Jutes Eotenas, part played by them in the Finnsburg Episode, 249 etc. ; 260 etc. ; 283 etc. Eric, jarl, 277, 278 Esthonian cult of Pekko, 299 etc. Ethelwerd, 70 etc., 202, 318 etc. Fahlbeck, Pontus, his Jute-theory, 8, 333 etc. Faroe "Bear's-son" tale, 375-6 ferM-freca, 276 Fifeldor, 35, Tiote Finn, son of Folcwald, 199, 200, 248 etc., 253-4, 283 etc., 289 Finnsburg, the story of, 245-89; site of, 259 Florence of Worcester, 8 Folcwald(a), 199 Frealaf, 321 Freawaru, daughter of Hrothgar, 21 etc., 282 Frisia in the Heroic Age, 288-9 Froda (Frothi, Frotho), 21, 24-5, 211, 282 Frotho and the dragon, 92-7, 130-1 Frowinus, 33-4 Funeral rites, see Burials Garulf, his part in the Finnsburg story, 246-7; 283 etc., 287 Gautar, see Geatas Geatas (O.N. Gautar), 2, 8-10, 333-45; their kings, 2-13; boundaries of their territory, 339 Gefwulf, 286-7 Genealogies, 311 etc. Giovanni dell' Orso, 371 Glam, 48, 147 etc., 164 etc. Godulf, 200 Gotar, see Geatas Gokstad ship, 363-4 Gold in the Heroic Age, 348 etc. Gram Guldkolve, 192, 194 Grandels mor in Transsylvania, 308 grandi, 309 Greek scholarship in Anglo-Saxon times, 329 Gregory of Tours, his account of the death of Hygelac, 3-4, 9, 342 Grendel, 41 etc.; occurrence of the name in English charters, 305-6; etymology, 309-10 Orendles mere, 43-4, 306 Grettir Asmundarson, 48 etc., 162-62, 169-82 Orettis Saga, 162; extracts from, 146- 62; translation, 162-82; death of Illugi, 280 Grimm's story of Der Starke Hans, 370 Grindale village, 308 Grindle or Greendab.^ brook, near Exeter, 44, 309 grundel, 309 Grundtvig, his identification of Chochi- laicus, 4 Guest (Gestr), see Grettir Gullinhjalti, 141, 146 Guthlaf, 246-7, 252, 267, 285 Haki, 68-9 Halga (Helgi, Helgo), 14 etc., 132, 205, 211 Hall, Dr Clark, on the archaeology of Beowulf, 346 etc. Hall, the, in Beowulf, 361 Ham, Orendles mere near, 43-4, 306 Hamlet (Amlethus), 39; Hengest's hesitation compared to that of Shakespeare's Hamlet, 266 Hans, der starke, 370 Harold Fairhair and the Gautar, 340 Harvest customs, 81 etc. heaburh, 259 note Healfdene (Halfdan, Haldanus), 14 etc., 131,205, 211 Heardred, slain by Onela, 5, 13 Heathobeardan, 20 etc., 244 Hendon, "Grendels gate" near, 306-7 Hengest, 246, 250 etc., 284 etc. Henry (Henrik) slays a dragon, 192-5 Heorogar, 14, 287 Heorot, 13-20; see also Leire Heoroweard (HjgrvarSr, Hiarwarus), 14, 15, 29-30, 134-7, 205-6, 277 Heremod, 89 etc. Hermuthruda, 39 Heruli, identified by some wdth the Heathobeardan, 24 Hetware (Atuarii), 2-3 Hiarthwarus, Hiarwarus, see Heoro- weard Hickes, his text of the Finnsburg Fragment, 245-6 Hildebrandus, another name for Brutus, q.v. Hildeburh, 248 etc. Hjalti (Hott), 55 etc., 132 etc., 138-46, 182-6 Hnsef, 247 etc., 283 etc. Hocingas, 249 Hott, see Hjalti Hrethric, 25-7, 135 (Roricus), 211 (Rokil) Hrothgar (Hroarr, Roe), 14 ete., 132, 204. 244 416 Index Hrothulf (Rolf Kraki, Roluo), 15, 25-9, 132-7, 139-46, 205-6, 244= Hugleikr, 323 Huglek, 323 Humblus, 129 Hunlafing, 252, 267, 283 Hygelac, death of, 2-4 lalto, see Hjalti Icelandic "Bear's-son" tale, 374r-5 lUugi, see Grettis Saga Ingeld, son of Froda, 21 etc., 244, 282, 284-5 Intercourse between tribes in Heroic Age, 348 etc. Ivashko Medvedko, 372-4 Jean I'Ourson, 378-9 Jenny Greenteeth, 307 Jomsvikings, 278 Jovial huntsmen, the Three, their views, 310 Jutes, attempt to identify them with the Geatas, 8-10, 333-45; Jutes and Eotenas, 261 etc., 272 etc. Jutland, "Bear's-son" tale in, 377 Kdlfsvisa, 7, 45 Kemble, his mythological theories, 291 etc. Keto, 33-4 Klaeber, on the Christian element in Beowulf, 126 Lawrence, Prof. W. W., on mythology in Beowulf, 43 etc., 291 etc.; on Finnsburg, 270 etc. Laxdaela Saga, parallels from, 278-9 Leifus, 252, note Leire, 16 etc., 134, 204, 211, 216, 365; see also Heorot Leire, Little Chronicle of the Kings of, extracts from, 204-6 Lethra, see Leire Liber Historiae Francorum, account of the death of Chochilaicus (Hygelac) in, 3 "Lichtenheld's Test," 105 etc. Loka^enna quoted, 297-9 Loki, 297-9 Lombardstory of the " Bear's-son," 371 Longobardi, relation to the Heatho- beardan, 23; 311; see also Alboin Lother(us), 89 etc., 129 Malmesbury, WiUiam of, see William of Malmesbury Mercian genealogy, 195-8 Milio, 220 Minstrelsy forbidden to priests, 332 Mitunnus, 218 etc. MoUer, on Finnsburg, 254r-l Monsters and Strange Beasts, account of Hygelac in the Book of {Liber Monstrorum), 4, 339 "Morsbachs Test," 107-12 Moss-finds, 345 etc. MiiUenhoff's theories on Beowulf, 113 etc., 292 etc. Myrgingas, 31-2, 244 Mythology in Beowulf, 46 etc., 291 etc. Neck, see Crying the Neck Neckersgate, 307 Njdls Saga, parallels from, 271, 277, 280-1 Norka, the, 371-2 North Frisians, 249, note, 273 Northumbrian anarchy in the eighth century, 324 Norwegian folk- tale ("Bear's-son" type), 376-7 Nydam, 345 etc. Nydam boat, 362-3 Odyssey, parallels with Beoioulf, 329 OfEa I, king of Angel, 31^0, 197-8, 206-15, 217-35, 244 Off a II, 36 etc., 235-^3 Ohthere, 5, 343 etc. ; see also Ottar Vendel-crow Onela, 5-8, 184-6 Ongentheow, 4-5, 8 Ordlaf (Oslaf), 246, 252, 267, 285, 287 Origin of the English, 314 etc. Orm Storolfsson, 53, 186-92 Oseberg ship, 363-4 Oslaf, see Ordlaf Oswin, king, 324 etc. Oswiu, king, 325 Otta, 220 Ottar Vendelcrow, his mound, 343-5, 356; see also Ohthere Panzer, his derivation of the story of Beowulf from the "Bear's-son" folk-tale, 67-8, 369-81 passus of Beowulf, 294 etc. Peg o' Nell, 307 Peg Powler, 307 Pekko, 87, 299 etc. Pellon-Pecko, see Pekko Peter Bar, 378 Pinefredus, see Offa II Procopius, mentions the Goutai (Gea- tas), 8-9, 338 Riganus (or Aliel), 21S etc. Ring-corslets, 351, 360 Ring-money, 351-2 Ring-swords, 349 etc. Roe, see Hrothgar Index 417 Rokil, see Hrethric Roricus, see Hrethric Rolf Kraki, Saga of, 16, 55 etc.; ex- tract from, 138-46; quoted in illus- tration of the Finnsburg story, 281, 282 Rolf Kraki, see Hrothulf Roluo, see Hrothulf Roskilde, 18, 132, 204 Runkoteivas, 300 Russian variants of the "Bear's-son" story, 371-4 Ruta, 133 Sampsa, 84-5, 300 Saga of Rolf Kraki, see Rolf Kraki, Saga of Sandhaugar, 48, 66, 156-62, 175-82 Saxo Grammaticus, 16; his story of Starcatherus, 22-3; of Roricus, 26; of Hiarwarus, 30; of Uffo (OfEa), 32-3; of Biarco (Bjarki), 57 etc.; of Skyoldus, 77; of Lotherus, 89 etc.; of Frotho, 91 etc.; on cremation, 123 ; extracts from, 129-37, 206-1 1 ; on text of, 215-16; 282 Sceaf, 68-86, 200-3, 302 etc., 311 etc. Sceafa, 311 Scenery of Beoumlf, 101 Schiicking, Prof., on the structure of Beovmlf, 117-20; on the date of Beowulf, 322 etc. Schiitte, on the Geatas, 8, 333 eic. Sculda, 133-4, 204-5 Scyld, 68-86, 201-4, 303, 314 etc. Secgan, 269, 286 Setukese, 301 Sheaf, see Sceaf Shield, see Scyld Shield, the, in Anglo-Saxon times, 360-1 Ships, 362-4 Sigeferth, 246-7, 269, 286, 287 Sigmund, 91 Sigurd Ring, 69 Sinfjotli, his foul language, 28 Skeggjatussi, 375 Skjold (Skyoldus), 71 etc., 130, 211 Skjoldunga Saga, account of Adilsus (Eadgils) in, 7; of Rolf Kraki (Hrothulf), 16 etc.; quoted, 69, 252 note Spear, the, in Anglo-Saxon times, 360 Starkad (Starcatherus), 22-3 Steenklower, Stenhuggeren, 380 Stein, 49, 66, 156-62, 175-82; 380 Steinspieler, 380 Steinv9r, 157-62, 175-82 Stjema, Knut, on the funeral customs of Beoumlf, 124; on Ottar Vendel- crow, 343-5; on the archaeology of Beoumlf, 346 etc. Sueno, 222 Svold, battle of, 277 Sweden, kings of, 4-8; see Eadgils, Ohthere, Onela, Ongentheow Sweyn Aageson, his account of UfiEo (Offa), 33; extract from, 211-15; 216 Swinford, Orendels mere near, 306 Swords in Beoumlf a,nd in Anglo-Saxon grave-finds, 357 Ten Brink's theories on Beoumlf, 113 etc. Theodoric, king of the Franks, 3 Thorgaut, 150 etc., 167 etc. ThorhaU Grimsson, 14&-56, 163-74 Thorsbjerg, 345 etc. Thryth, 37 etc., 238-43 Tours, Gregory of, see Gregory of Tours Uffo, see Offa UU, 303 Unferth, 27-30 Ursula, 205 Vendel finds, 347 etc, Vendsyssel, dragon of, 192-5 Virgil, possible influence of, upon Beowulf, 329 etc. Vitae dux)rum Off arum, 34 etc., 217-43 Vglsunga Saga, parallels from, 275, 286 Wader Oar and Wader Fiord, 342 Warmundus, see Wermundus Weak and strong forms of heroic names used alternatively, 311 Wealhtheow, her forebodings, 25 Weapons in Beowulf, 357-61 Wederas, name applied to the Geatas, 342 Wener, Lake, 9, 342 wer-gild, 277 Wermund, 32 etc., 197-8, 206-15, 217-26 West-Saxon genealogy, 72 etc., 198- 201, 311 etc. Widsith, accoimt of the Heathobear- dan in, 20 etc.; of Hrothulf, 25; of Oflfa, 31 ; of Sceafa, 80; extract from, 243-4; 286; 338 Wiggo, 133-7, 264-5 Wigo, 33-4 Wijk bij Duurstede, see Dorestad William of Malmesbury, 70 etc., 203, 302 Woden's ancestors, 311 etc. Ynglinga tal and Ynglinga Saga, 5-7, 68-9, 344 Yte, see Jutes Ytene, 8, 337 CAMBRIDGE : PRINTED BY J. 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