Blogging Beowulf: Fit XXXII, Lines 2221-311

6 May 2009

In this fit we get the history of the dragon’s treasure hoard. It starts with another mention of the lone man who steals a cup from the hoard. Then we find out that the hoard is the wealth of an ancient people, long since gone from the earth. We hear the voice of the last of that people, who is dubbed the “last survivor” by critics, as he hides the treasure under the earth and gives an elegy for his people. The dragon discovers the treasure and claims it for its own—as dragons are wont to do—guarding it for 300 years, until the man comes to plunder it. The dragon is enraged and heads off to seek revenge on the nearest people, who happen to be the Geats.

First, this fit contains the coolest word in the poem. Line 2244 contains the word nearocræft, which is the art of making entry difficult; the barrow that holds the dragon’s hoard is nearocræftum fæst, or secured by the art of making entry difficult. Literally, the word is narrow-skill. As far as I know, this is the only known cite for the word.

The man who steals from the hoard and enrages the dragon is the subject of much debate. As mentioned before, this part of the manuscript is badly damaged and the reading is much disputed. In particular a key word denoting this man in line 2224 is illegible. Fulk, et al., who edited the version I am mainly working from, give the word as þē(o), or slave, also spelled þēow. Other editors give it as þeġn, or thane. Yet others as þēof, or thief. All three easily fit into the narrative context of this and other passages. Is he a slave looking for wealth to buy his freedom? Is he a lordless thane, looking to reestablish himself? Or is he nothing more than a common thief?

The bulk of the fit is taken up by the last survivor. I’m going to give his entire speech mourning the loss of his people as it really is quite beautiful, lines 2247-2266:

“Heald þū nū, hrūse,      nū hæleð ne m(ō)ston,
eorla æhte!      Hwæt, hyt ær on ðe
gode beġēaton;      guðdēað fornam,
(f)eorhbeal(o) frēcne,      fyra ġe(h)wylcne
lēoda mīnra,      þ(o)n(e) ðe þis [līf] ofġeaf;
ġesāwon seledrēam(as).      Ic nāh hwā sweord weġe
oððe f(orð bere)      fæted wæġe,
drynċfæt dēore;      dug(uð) ellor s[c]eōc.
Sceal se hearda helm      (hyr)stedgolde,
fætum befeallen;      feormynd swefað,
þā ðe beadogrīman      bywan sceoldon,
ġe swylċe sēo herepād,      sīo æt hilde ġebād
ofer borda ġebræc      bite īrena,
brosnað æfter beorne.      Ne mæġ byrnan hring
æfter wīġfruman      wīde fēran,
hæleðum be healfe.      Næs hearpan wyn,
gomen glēobēames,      nē gōd hafoc
ġeond sæl swingeð,      nē se swifta mearh
burhstede bēateð.      Bealocwealm hafað
fela feorhcynna      forð onsended.”

(“Hold now, you earth,vnow that heroes cannot,
the wealth of men!      Lo, from you before
the good ones obtained it;   death in battle took away,
the terrible deadly attack,      every one of those
of my people,      those who gave up this life;
[they] knew the joys of the hall.      I have no one to carry the sword
or bear forth      the ornamented cup,
the dear drinking cup;      the retainers have passed to another place.
The hard helm shall      of decoratively wrought gold
be deprived of gold plate;      the polishers sleep,
those who the war-mask      should tend to,
and also the mail shirt,      it survived in battle
over the crashing of shields      [and] the bite of iron,
it decays with the man.      The ringed byrnie may not
with the war-chief      travel widely,
beside the heroes.      There is no joy of the harp
or amusement of the lyre,      nor the good hawk
fly through the hall,      nor the swift horse
stamp in the courtyard.      Baleful death has
many races of men      sent forth.”)

There is also some neat imagery of the dragon’s rage. Lines 2293b-98a:

                        Hordweard sōhte
ġeorne æfter grunde,      wolde guman findan,
þone þe him on sweofote      sāre ġetēode;
hāt ond hreohmod      hlæw oft ymbehwearf
ealne ūtanweardne;      nē ðær æniġ mon
on þ(ām) wēstenne.

                        (The hoard-guardian sought
eagerly along the ground,      wished to find the man,
who him in sleep      sorely injured;
hot and fierce      he circled the barrow
all around the outside;      no man was there
in that wasteland.)

The fit ends with the dragon attacking the Geats and a portent of things to come, lines 2306b-311:

                        Þā wæs dæġ sceacen
wyrme on willan;      nō on wealle læ[n]ġ,
bīdan wolde,      ac mid bæle fōr,
fyre ġefysed.      Wæs se fruma eġesliċ
lēodum on lande,      swā hyt lungre wearð
on hyra sinċgifan      sāre ġeendod.

                        (Then was the day passed
to the pleasure of the worm;      not long on the wall
would he wait,      but with flame went,
propelled by fire.      The beginning was terrible
for the people on land,      as it would quickly become
for their treasure-giver      sorely ended.)

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.