Blogging Beowulf: Fit XVI, Lines 1050-1124

7 March 2009

More gifts are given, this time to Beowulf’s men, including a payment for the man killed by Grendel. Then the rest of the fit is a diversion, the recounting of a song sung by Hrothgar’s scop, the story of Hnæf and Finn. Hnæf, a Dane, visits his sister, Hildeburh in Friesland, where she is married to the King of the Frisians, Finn. There is some unspecified treachery and the Danes are attacked. (Possibly by a party of Jutes—but the text is unclear. The Jutes may be working with the Frisians, or the Jutes and the Frisians may be one and the same people, or maybe the Jutes are actually monsters; the word for Jute and the word for giant are identical, eoten. Presumably the Anglo-Saxon audience was familiar with the tale and wouldn’t be confused by the elliptical references.)

Anyway, after days of fighting Hnæf is slain and his retainer Hengist becomes the leader of the Danish contingent. Hengist and the remnant of the Danish troops control the mead-hall and the Frisians are too few to dislodge them, so, with winter coming on, the two sides come to an uneasy truce. The fit ends with the funeral pyre of Hnæf and his nephew, Hideburh’s and Finn’s son, who was also killed in the fighting.

Now the edited text I’ve been editing is the 2008 fourth edition of Klaeber’s Beowulf, edited by R.D. Fulk, Robert E. Bjork, and John D. Niles. (Frederick Klaeber, the original editor, died in 1954.) Overall, it’s a good text and the emendations are, by and large, fairly conservative and thoroughly explained in notes. But the text has one whopper of an emendation in this fit—they’ve added a whole new character. Actually, they’ve just named the anonymous scop who sings the song of Hnæf and Finn.

The line in question is 1066, which Fulk, et.al., render as, starting at line 1065:

gomenwudu grēted,      ġīd oft wrecen,
ðonne Healgamen     Hrōþgares scop
æfter medobenċe     mænan scolde
Finnes eaferan

(The lyre greeted,     the song often recited,
then Healgamen     Hrothgar’s scop
along the mead-bench     should tell of
Finn’s son.)

What Fulk, et.al., have done is capitalize Healgamen, which literally means hall-entertainment, making it into the name of the scop. There is also an emendation on line 1068a, where they change the dative plural eaferum, sons, to the accusative singular eaferan. Most editors treat both healgamen, hall-entertainment, and Finnes eaferan, Finn’s son, as grammatically equivalent, they are both objects of the verb mænan. Other editors insert the preposition be, about, before Finnes to accomplish this (which, since be takes the dative as object, also solves the problem of the dative eaferum, but it creates a problem with meter. The traditional translation is:

(Then Hrothgar’s scop, along the mead-bench, should recite the hall-entertainment about Finn’s sons.)

Fulk, et.al., claim that mænan does not mean recite in any other appearance in Old English, it only means to tell of. And since you can’t “tell of” hall-entertainment, healgamen cannot be the object of the verb. Instead, it is the object of the sentence and the name of the scop.

While this makes elegant grammatical sense and conserves the text in the manuscript (no additional prepositions necessary), it flies in the face of the naming conventions in the story. No other character has an allegorical name like this. And elsewhere Fulk, et.al., roundly criticize other commentators who would turn Unferth’s name into an allegorical one. Also, while perhaps mænan does not exactly mean to recite, it alliterates with medobenċe and that is probably the reason for its being chosen—the audience being trusted to understand the unusual sense. In the end, this is not a conservative emendation at all. Living with imperfect grammar, usage, or meter is much more conservative than introducing a whole new name into the story.

This probably sounds like a lot of “inside baseball” talk and a lot of fuss over what is actually just the capitalization of one letter, but it is illustrative of the issues faced in dealing with this poem, as well as other Old English works. There are lots of other cases of similar issues throughout the poem—albeit none that go so far as to create a new name for a character. After 1,000 years, we’re still arguing over exactly what the poem says. This isn’t a case of where the manuscript is damaged and there is argument over what it said originally. Nor is it a case of whether or not the scribe made an error. The words on the manuscript page are clear to read, it’s what they mean that is murky.

Before I end, I want to highlight the word gomenwudu. It means lyre or harp, but literally it’s entertainment-wood. It’s just a really neat compound and Old English is replete with fun words like this.

Next up, how Hengist and the Danes get back at Finn.

Blogging Beowulf: Fit XV, Lines 991-1049

6 March 2009

This fit sees more celebrations in Heorot and Beowulf gets a lot of really cool gifts: armor, swords, rings, horses, etc. While there is not much plot exposition here, there are some interesting passages.

The first spans the last line of the previous fit and the first of this one. The previous section ended with a reference to Grendel’s blōdġe beadufolme, or bloody battle-hand, his severed arm. This one begins with:

Ðā wæs hāten hreþe      Heort innanweard
folmum ġefrætwod.

(Then it was quickly ordered  that the interior of Heorot
be adorned by hands.)

No, the poet isn’t saying that hands were nailed to the walls, but that many people were to decorate the hall for the celebration. It’s the juxtaposition of folm, or hand, in the two adjacent lines that is worth remarking.

In another carry-over from the last section, I had mentioned that there Grendel was called guma, or man. This one carries that forward, discussing Grendel’s death in terms of Christian understanding of human mortality, lines 1002b-08a:

                        Nō þæt yðe byð
tō befleonne,      —fremme sē þe wille—
ac ġesēċan sceal      sāwlberendra,
nyde ġenydde,      niþða bearna,
grundbūendra      ġearwe stōwe,
þær his līċhoma      leġerbedde fæst
swefeþ æfter symle.

(                        Not that it is easy
to escape [from death]      —try it, he who would—
but [all] must seek      of soul-bearers
compelled by necessity      of sons of men
of inhabitants of earth    that place that is made ready;
there his body      fast on a bed of death
sleeps after the feast.)

Or with a more modern syntax to make it more understandable: “Not that it is easy to escape from death—try it, he who would—but, compelled by necessity, all must seek that place of soul-bearers, of sons of men, of inhabitants of earth that is made ready; there his body, fast on a bed of death, sleeps after the feast.” Because Old English, unlike our modern tongue, is an inflected language, word order is much more variable. In modern English, syntax carries much of the grammatical load and is comparatively inflexible.

Grendel, now dead, is being considered in a very different light, that of a mortal human with a soul.

Often a single word can open up whole new avenues of interpretation. Such is the case with lines 118b-19:

                        nalles fācenstafas
Þēod-Scyldingas      þenden fremedon

(                        no acts of treachery
the people of the Scyldings      then performed.)

The key word is þenden, meaning then or at that time. The poet is saying that during the celebrations the Danes (the people of the Scyldings) did not perform treachery, but implies that they did or will at some other time. This is another element in the thread of succession to Hrothgar’s throne and is an allusion to a Richard III-like tale of the deaths of Hrothgar’s two young boys. More on that in coming sections.

The latter half of the fit is devoted to description of the wonderful treasures that Hrothgar gives to Beowulf as a reward for dispatching Grendel. Line 1032 has a kenning of note, fē[o]la lāf. This literally means “the leavings of files” and means sword, that which is left over after you have removed the filings created by sharpening. It’s a neat reversal, usually the filings are considered to be the leavings, but here it is the blade itself. Note that this is an emendation; the manuscript actually reads fēla lāf, or many leavings, which makes no sense in the context of a list of gifts. Most editors, therefore, consider this to be a scribal error and add the “o.”

Next up, the Tale of Hnæf and Finn.

Good On Dare

6 March 2009

Mark Peters of Good online magazine has an article on the Dictionary of American Regional English.

Blogging Beowulf: Fit XIV, Lines 925-990

5 March 2009

We get a pair of speeches in this fit, one from Hrothgar and the other from Beowulf. Not much else happens here. There are two things of note here, however. 

The first is the question of whether Beowulf is a legitimate successor to Hrothgar. There is quite a bit of scholarly commentary on the question of kingship and succession in the poem and one particular passage draws attention, lines 946b-48a, where Hrothgar says: “nū iċ, Bēowulf, þeċ, secg bet[e]sta, mē for sunu wylle freoġan on ferhþe” (Now I will love you, Beowulf, the best of men, as a son in my heart ). Is Hrothgar adopting Beowulf here? It’s not an important point as far as the plot of the poem goes, but how you interpret the lines colors how you read the actions and words of Wealhtheow and the courtiers. For my part, I don’t think it’s meant as a formal adoption. Hrothgar is simply expressing affection for the man who rid him of the problem of Grendel.

The second thing of note is in line 973a, where Beowulf is describing his fight with Grendel. He refers to Grendel as fēasceaft guma (wretched man). The use of guma, man, is very interesting and highly unusual. Grendel has been described in all sorts of monstrous terms up to this point, but never referred to as a man. The line alliterates of / f /, so guma wasn’t chosen for metrical purposes. We’ll come back to this in the next fit, where there is an expansion of this and a discussion of Grendel, death, and salvation.

Blogging Beowulf: Fit XIII, Lines 837-924

4 March 2009

There isn’t much of a narrative of events in this fit. Instead, it’s a description of the celebrations over the death of Grendel. Nobles follow Grendel’s blood trail to a lake. There are horse races. A thane sings a song about the hero Sigemond. There was much rejoicing.

One passage is noteworthy for its poetic language. It’s about what the nobles see after they have followed Grendel’s blood trail and recounts the monster’s death, lines 847-852:

Ðær wæs on blōde      brim weallende,
atol yða ġeswinġ      eal ġemenġed
hāton heolfre,      heorodrēore wēol.
Dēaðfæġe dēog      siððan drēama lēas
in fenfreoðo      feorh āleġde,
hæþene sāwle;      þær him hel onfēng.

(The was with blood      water welling,
the horrible swirling of waves      all mingled
with hot gore,      battle-blood welled up.
It concealed the death-doomed one      when devoid of joys
in the fen refuge      he laid down his life,
his heathen soul;      there hell took him.)

(A note on my translations: I’m trying to translate each half-line separately so you, presumably without detailed knowledge of Old English, can see the connections between the Old English words and the modern ones—this is Wordorigins.org, after all. This often results in clunky modern language like, “there was with blood...” If I tried to render it in a syntax more in keeping with modern practice, it would be difficult to see the connections between the two vocabularies. Sometimes I can’t keep the half-lines intact and have it make any sense in modern English, then I will juggle the words and lines so the modern translation isn’t gibberish.)

Also of note is the thane singing the story of Sigemond, a Norse hero. The song, as described in the poem, is rather elliptical; the poet assumes the reader is familiar with the story and it’s a rather obvious comparison of Beowulf to the mythic hero. But beyond the association of Beowulf with the pantheon of Nordic heroes, even more interesting is the description of how the thane composes the song, lines 867b-874a:

                  Hwīlum cyninges þeġn,
guma ġilphlæden,      ġidda ġemyndiġ,
sē ðe eal fela      ealdġeseġena
worn ġemunde,      word ōþer fand
sōðe ġebunden;      secg eft ongan
sīð Bēowulfes      snyttrum styrian
ond on spēd wrecan      spel ġerāde,
wordum wrixlan.

(                  At times the king’s thane,
a man of glorious words,      mindful of songs,
he who well      of the old sagas
remembered a great many,      found other words
truly bound;      the man began again
the adventure of Beowulf      to recite with skill
and successfully to utter      the tale skillfully
varying the words.)

Since this passage comes immediately after the description of the horse races, one can assume the thane is on horseback. He is composing a new saga on the fly, as he is riding. He is creating a variant of the Sigemond story using new combinations of set poetic phrases (sōðe ġebunden, truly bound) to bring the adventure of Beowulf into the story. In this way, it’s not unlike modern improvisational jazz music or hip-hop rhyming. It’s a neat insight into how the Anglo-Saxons created and performed their poetry.

Finally I want to come back to the point made in an earlier blog entry about the virility and manliness of Hrothgar. Earlier, prior to the fight with Grendel, he retired to the women’s bed chambers. Here he appears again with the women, lines

                  swylċe self cyning
of brydbūre,      bēahhorda weard,
tryddode tīrfæst      ġetrume micle,
cystum ġecyþed,      ond his cwēn mid him
medostiġġe mæt      mæġþa hōse.

(                  Likewise, the king himself
from the women’s apartment,      the guardian of treasures,
trod full of glory      with a troop
well-known for excellence,      and his queen with him
traversed the mead-hall path      with a company of maidens.)

Again, we’re getting mixed signals about Hrothgar’s ability to lead. He is again with the women, but also in the company of a troop of excellent thanes. I’ve come to the conclusion that the poet intends to convey that Hrothgar, while once a strong and worthy king, is now old and coming to the end of his days. This will play out a little later on in the celebrations when there are conversations about who will succeed Hrothgar and what will happen to his two young sons, who are presumably too young to rule.