Blogging Beowulf, Fit XXXI, Lines 2144-220

5 May 2009

We get a rapid transition in this fit as the narrative jumps ahead fifty years. The fit starts with Beowulf showing off the treasures he has received from Hrothgar and kicking up an appropriate percentage to his boss, Hygelac. (The economy of the Germanic comitatus resembles the mob in many ways.) We learn that in his youth, the Geats considered Beowulf something of a ne’er-do-well, slothful, and cowardly. Hygelac gives Beowulf a sword and a whole lot of land, making him the second, after Hygelac himself, most powerful noble in the kingdom. We start to rapidly move forward into the future. We learn of Hygelac’s death in battle and of Beowulf becoming king. Beowulf rules wisely and well for fifty years, until a dragon appears. A thief steals something from the dragon’s hoard, enraging the beast.

It should also be noted that from here on out the manuscript is very badly damaged and many passages are conjectural.

This fit contains some passages that in modern translation sound an awful lot like back-handed compliments, but they are meant to be flattering. Lines 2165b-2169a:

                        Hē him ēst ġetēah
mēara ond māðma.      Swa sceal mæġ dôn,
nealles inwitnet      ōðrum breġdon
dyrnum cræfte,      dēað rēn(ian)
hondġesteallan.

                        ([Beowulf] granted [Hygelac] the favor
of the horses and treasure.    As should a kinsman do,
not at all a net of malice      to knit for another
with secret skill,      to prepare death
for the close companion.)

Or “Beowulf gave him the treasure and wasn’t at all planning to kill him.” Sounds more and more like the mob.

And there are lines 2177-2180a:

Swā b(eal)dode      bearn Ecgðeowes,
guma gūð(um) cūð,      gōdum dædum,
drēah æfter dōme;      nealles druncne slōg
heorðġeneatas

(So the son of Ecgtheow      showed himself brave,
a man known for battles,      for good deeds,
pursued after glory;      and not at all slew drunken
hearth-companions.)

The son of Ecgtheow is Beowulf. He’s a good guy because he doesn’t kill his friends and retainers when they get drunk. There are many similar constructions throughout the poem. Evidently such treacherous behavior was so common that it was a compliment to single people out for not doing it.

The reference to the land Beowulf receives is of note. Line 2195 reads:

ond him ġesealde      seofan þūsendo

(and gave him      seven thousand)

Seven thousand what? From the context it’s clear the poet is talking about land. The best guess is that it is a reference to hides of land. A hide would be enough to support a single free family and all their dependents, or about 120 acres. That’s some 840,000 acres, a huge tract of land.

Finally, I should probably include the introduction of the dragon in full. Lines 2210b-20, the question marks in the translation mark missing words in the manuscript, not questions of translation:

                        Oð ðæt (ā)n ongan
deorcum nihtum      draca rīcs(i)an,
sē ðe on hea(um) h(of)e      hord beweotode,
stānbeorh stēar(c)ne;      stīg under læg,
eldum uncūð.      Þær on innan ġiong
nið[ð]a nāthwyl(ċ,      sē ðe nē)h ġ(eþ[r]on)g
hæðnum horde,       hond (ēðe ġefēng)
(searo) sinċe fāh.      Nē hē þæt syððan (bemāð),
þ(ēah) ð(e hē) slæpende      besyre(d wur)de
þēofes cræfte;      þæt sīe ðīod (onfand),
b(ū)folc b(i)orn(a),      þæt hē ġebolge(n) wæs.

                        (Until began
in the dark nights      a dragon to rule,
he who in the high court (heath?)      watched over his hoard
and the strong stone barrow;      a path lay beneath,
unknown to men.      There inside went
a certain one of men,      he who pressed forward near
the heathen hoard,      his hand (easily grasped?)
the (war-gear?) decorated with treasure      nor did [the dragon] (conceal?) afterward
that he sleeping      became ensnared
by the skill of the thief;      then the nation (discovered?)
the inhabitants of men,      that [the dragon] was enraged.)

Blogging Beowulf: Fit XXX, Lines 2093-143

4 May 2009

Beowulf continues the tale of his battle with Grendel. He describes the feasting and celebrations afterwards and tells of how he defeats Grendel’s mother.

This is a pretty straight-forward fit, except that it should be noted that there is no clear division between this fit and the previous one in the manuscript. No one is really sure where fit XXX is supposed to start. As it is really just a recap of what has happened (“Previously on Beowulf...”), there isn’t much to say about it narratively. A few notes on language:

It’s probably time to mention the verb brucan, meaning to make use of, to enjoy. It gets quite a bit of use in the poem. In this fit it appears in lines 2096b-97, referring to Grendel:

                        Hē on weġ losade,
lytle hwīle      līfwynna brē(a)c.

                        (He escaped away,
and for a little while      made use of life-joys.)

Brucan is almost always used in the context of making use of worldly things while one is still alive, making the most of life while it lasts. The theme of transitory life is a big one in medieval literature and so it is here as well.

There’s a neat triple alliteration in line 2136, grimne gryrelicne grundhyrde, the grim, terrible guardian of the deep. The –hyrde is our modern -herd, as in shepherd. The grund is ground, in this case referring to the lake bottom where Grendel’s mother dwells. So literally it would be ground-herd, but is probably best translated in context as guardian of the deep.

The FCC and the F-Word

4 May 2009

Saturday’s NY Times ran an op-ed piece by lawyer Alan Freedman on the recent Federal Communications Commission ruling prohibiting “fleeting expletives” on the nation’s airwaves. While it’s not a bad summary of the issue, the piece contains a couple of questionable lines. For one thing, the article couldn’t even bring itself to use the euphemism “F-word,” not even when referring to Jesse Sheidlower’s book of that title, calling it instead a “book on swearing.” Evidently, it’s NY Times editorial practice to avoid the euphemism “F-word.” (Even when doing so is silly.)

Freedman also pens this ludicrous line, “As much as one sympathizes with language prescriptivism in general [...], censorship is necessarily a descriptivist endeavor.” What he means is that the standards of censorship evolve with the language, but what he writes is nonsensical. One would think an editor with enough influence to get Freedman to change “F-Word” could also have flagged a clearly incorrect statement like this.

Blogging Beowulf, Fit XXIX, Lines 2039-2092

3 May 2009

Beowulf continues telling Hygelac about Freawaru. He predicts that one of the young Heathobards, egged on by an older comrade, will take offense at one of the Danes wearing the war-gear he won from his father in battle, and the feud will start anew. Beowulf goes on to give his version of the battle with Grendel, a bit different from one with got earlier in that Grendel has a pouch or sack in which he stuffs his victims. We also learn the name of the Geatish warrior whom Grendel devoured, Hondscio.

The Freawaru digression is quite interesting. Not only is a neat commentary on the practice of arranged noble marriages, but the storytelling skill that goes into it is quite high. Lines 2041-46a:

Þonne cwið æt bēore      sē ðē bēah ġesyhð,
eald æscwiga,      sē ðe eall ġe(man),
gārcwealm gumena      —him bið grim (se)fa—
onġinneð ġeōmormōd      ġeong(um) cempan
þurh hreðra ġehyġd      hiġes cunnian,
wīġbealu weċċean.

Then speaks over beer      he who sees the ring,
an old spear-warrior,      he who remembers all
the spear-deaths of men      —his spirit is grim—
he begins sad of mind      the young champion
the mettle of his heart      of his mind to test,
to awaken war.

You can just picture the scene: former enemies, lots of beer, an old warrior telling a younger one how he was there when the young man’s father was killed by the man across the room, who has the temerity to wear the father’s sword…

The old warrior says, lines 2053-56:

Nū hēr þāra banena      byre nāthwylċes
frætwum hrēmiġ      on flet gæð,
morðres ġylpe(ð),      ond þone māðþum byreð,
þone þe ðū mid rihte      rædan sceoldest.

Now here the son      of one of the slayers
exulting in his treasure      goes across the floor,
boasts of the murder,      and bears the treasure
of which you by right      should possess.

There are some neat words in this fit as well. There is wiflufa, or love of a woman. The sun is heofones ġim, heaven’s gem. Forswelgan, to swallow up, is what Grendel does to Hondscio. The grappling battle between Beowulf and Grendel is a hondræs hæleða, hand-fight of heroes. Grendel’s pouch is a glof. (And the name Hondscio is reminiscent of the modern German Handschuh, or glove.) And the pouch is closed with a searobend, or cunningly wrought clasp.

Lines 2087-92 describe the pouch further and tell of what Grendel intended for Beowulf, and alludes ever so slightly to the theme of a great warrior being able to influence his own fate through action:

Sīo wæs orðoncum      eall ġeġyrwed
dēofles cræftum      ond dracan fellum.
Hē meċ þær on innan      unsynnigne,
dīor dædfruma,      ġedōn wolde
maniġra sumne;      hyt ne mihte swā,
syððan iċ on yrre      uppriht āstōd.

It was with skill      all prepared
with the devil’s craft      and dragon skin.
Me there in the inside      guiltless,
the fierce evil-doer,      wished to place
one of many;      it was not to be,
once I in anger      stood upright.

Blogging Beowulf: XXVIII, Lines 1963-2038

2 May 2009

Beowulf enters Hygelac’s hall, where he is warmly greeted. Hygelac says he was leery about Beowulf’s going to Denmark to fight Grendel, thinking the Danes should settle their own affairs, and he asks about the journey and the fight. Beowulf announces that he was victorious, tells of the gracious greeting and treatment he received from Hrothgar, and begins talking about Freawaru, Hrothgar’s daughter. Freawaru is betrothed to Ingeld, prince of the Heathobards, as part of a settlement of a feud. Beowulf is skeptical that this will end the feud.

This is another example of where the division into fits makes no sense narratively. The Freawaru digression is interesting, but will not come to head until the next fit. The rest of this fit is pretty much filler.

As far as language goes, line 1965 has the word woruldcandel, meaning sun. The literal meaning is what it sounds like, the candle of the world.

Line 1983 has an interesting emendation. Hygd, Hygelac’s queen, is passing the ceremonial greeting cup to the warriors, hæleðum tō handa, into the hand of the heroes. But the manuscript actually reads hæ u, where a ð has been erased; so it originally read hæðu tō handa, or into the hands of the heathens. The emendation is pretty much universally accepted and you’ll find it in most editions of the poem. There is, however, some debate over it. Some hold that hænum is a tribal name for the Geats. Others that it was intended as heathen and that is a sensible reading for the non-Christian Geats. Others say the Geats, while not Christian, were monotheists, therefore heathen doesn’t apply. For my part, heroes fits better with the tone of the passage.

Beowulf also utters a gnomic statement about the eternity of feuds—the poem is filled with such maxims—about Freawaru’s betrothal and the unlikelihood of its success, lines 2029b-2031:

                        Oft seldan hwær
æfter lēodhryre      lytle hwīle
bongār būgeð,      þēah sēo bryd duge.

                        (Very seldom anywhere
after the fall of a prince      for even a little while
does the deadly spear lay still,      even though the bride is good.)

And, as the fit ends, Beowulf starts to describe the incident that will precipitate the failure of the peace overture when Freawaru’s escort is seen carrying a sword won in battle against the Heathobards, lines 2032-38:

Mæg þæs þonne ofþynċan      ðēoden Heaðo-Beardna
ond þeġna ġehwām      þāra lēoda
þonne hē mid fæmnan      on flett gæð,
dryhtbearn Dena,       duguða biwenede.
On him gladiað      gomelra lāfe,
heard ond hrinġmæl      Heaða-Bear[d]na ġestrēon,
þenden hīe ðām wæpnum      wealdan mōston

(It may then displease      the king of the Heathobards
and each of his thanes      of his people
when he with the virgin      goes across the floor,
the noble son of the Danes,    attended to with honors.
On him glitters    the heirloom sword of their ancestors
hard and ring-adorned    treasure of the Heathobards,
so long as they their weapons      could weald.)