The Beowulf Poet and His Real Monsters: A Trauma-Theory Reading of the Anglo-Saxon Poem

188 Pages·2013·5.39 MB·English

by  Ted Morrissey

THE BEOWULF POET
AND HIS REAL MONSTERS
A Trauma-Theory Reading
of the Anglo-Saxon Poem
Ted Morrissey
With a Foreword by
Steven Moore
The Edwin Mellen Press
LewistoneQueenstoneL ampeter
Library of Congress Cataloging-in·Publication Data
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013933797
Morrissey, Ted.
The Beowulf poet and his real monsters : a trauma-theory reading of the
Anglo-Saxon poem / by Ted Morrissey; with a foreword by Steven Moore.
1. Literary criticism--Medieval. 2. Literary criticism--European--English.
3. Psychology--general.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-I3: 978-0-7734-4464-5 (hardcover)
ISBN-lO: 0-7734-4464-5 (hardcover)
I. Title.
hors serie.
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Author photograph and front cover photo, "Forest for the Trees,"
by Shannon O'Brien
Copyright C> 2013 Ted Morrissey
A11 rights reserved. For information contact
The Edwin Mellen Press The Edwin Mellen Press
Box 450 Box 67
Lewiston, New York Queenston, Ontario
USA 14092-0450 CANADA LOS 1L O
The Edwin Mellen Press, Ltd.
Lampeter, Ceredigion, Wales
UNITED KINGDOM SA48 8LT
Printed in the United States of America
For my father, Vince Morrissey,
who passed away suddenly during
the writing of this project-
And for the BeowulfP oet

Contents
Foreword by Steven Moore
Preface v
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Language, Thought, and the Creation of Trauma
Cultures 7
Trauma Theory: A Retrospective 9
The Creation of Trauma Cultures 16
The Pervasiveness of Trauma Cultures 25
The Creation of Trauma Texts 31
Chapter 2: "Postmodern" Narration, and Characteristics of the
Traumatized Voice 3 7
Postmodern Techniques and the Voice of the
Traumatized 38
Beowulfand Its Intertexts 42
Repetition in Beowulf 52
The Poem's Dispersed or Fragmented Voice 60
The Poet's Powerful Language 64
Beowulfa nd the Zone 73
Chapter 3: The Beowulf Poet, and Trauma in Anglo-Saxon
England 79
The BeowulfP oet as a Real Author 79
Literacy and Textual Communities 81
The Dating Controversy 84
Violence in Anglo-Saxon England: The Peasant Class
and the Clergy 87
Quality of Life and Anglo-Saxon Medicine 97
Posttraumatic Stress among the Anglo-Saxons 103
Chapter 4: A Trauma-Theory Reading of Beowulf 113
The Psychic Origins of Creativity 114
Trauma Theory and the Monsters 117
Grendel's Invasion of Heorot Hall 118
Grendel's Mother and Her Battlehall 129
The Dragon and His Lair 136
Conclusion: Embracing New Directions
in Scholarship 145
Notes 149
Bibliography 153
Index 165
Foreword
Not having studied Anglo-Saxon since grad school, nor
having kept up with Beowulf criticism in particular, I'll take Ted
Morrissey's word for it that most recent criticism on the Anglo
Saxon poem remains fixated on old-fashioned philological
study. While these textual issues are important-especially
when one's interpretation hinges upon a proposed emendation
or the accurate identification of the dialect of a certain word
Morrissey's illuminating monograph demonstrates the
advantages of bringing newer critical strategies to bear on the
poem, especially "postmodern" ones that might be seen as
incompatible with this premodern work. Looking at Beowulf
through postmodem eyes fosters a greater appreciation of the
craftsmanship and subtlety of this masterpiece.
For example, one the earliest theorists of
postmodernism, architecture critic Charles Jencks, argued that
po-mo works are characterized by "double-coding," whereby
the artist appeals to both popular and elite audiences by
encoding for the latter group subtle allusions, references, and
ironies that will probably go unnoticed by the larger popular
audience who focus on the more obvious and appealing aspects
of a work. In his essay "What Was Postmodemism?"
(electronic book review, 2007), Brian McHale gives as an
example animated movies like Aladdin, which "appeal to
children through slapstick and cuteness, and to their parents
through pop-culture allusions and double entendres that go right
over youngsters' heads." Beowulf strikes me as a deliberately
"double-coded" work, with exciting fight scenes that would
delight the scop's mead-muddled audience, but at the same time
i
encoded with theological and political issues, intertextual
references to other works, and some dazzling wordplay for the
benefit of the connoisseurs and intellectuals of his time.
Double-coding is also in effect as the poet ostensibly tells a tale
set in Denmark and Sweden in the sixth century but that is also
(if not really) about England in a trawnatized period several
centuries later, a trarishistorical strategy that would probably go
over the heads of the tipsy masses but would not be lost on the
more sober thanes in the hall. The popular aspects of a double
coded work will always appeal to a larger audience; Howell D.
Chickering, Jr., speculates that "Beowulf's tragic third fight
with the dragon was more frequently read than his earlier
adventures, since folio 182, where this adventure begins, is
quite worn out" (Beowulf: A Dual-Language Edition [Anchor
Books, 1977], 246). In contrast, Hrothgar's serious sennon on
pride (lines 1700 ff.) shows little sign of wear.
Postmodem works also flaunt a heightened self
consciousness about their status as artificial literary creations,
metafictionally drawing attention to the artist behind the work.
Noone would mistake Beowulff or a chapter in the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, partly because the poet frequently draws attention to
himself and to his artistry. On a half-dozen occasions, the first
person "ie" pops up to remind the reader that the tale isn't
telling itself, but is rather a dramatized reconstruction of what
the seop has only heard. The seop is self-consciously aware that
he is performing his story, not merely reporting it, and
highlights this process at line 871, the morning after our hero's
first encounter with the monster Grendel. The anonymous
author self-consciously introduces his stand-in into the
proceedings, whereupon this wordsmith
found new words, bound them up truly,
ii
began to recite Beowulfs praise,
a well-made lay of his glorious deed,
skillfully varied his matter and style.
(trans. Chickering)
Suddenly the reader realizes the previous 870 lines have not
been a historical account of Beowulfs actions but a fanciful re
creation-a literary performance; the poet, having ''unlocked
his word-hoard" (line 259), has armored himself with words to
perfonn a glorious linguistic deed to rival if not outdo
Beowulfs wrestling match of the night before. For the story of
Beowulf s deeds, you can read the CliffsNotes; the poem is a
performance of the story, a showy display of the poet's
wrestling match with words in which he emerges triumphant.
(Beowulf only tears off an arm.) Look at me, at my prowess, the
word-warrior proclaims, not at Beowulf, whose own later
account of his fight with Grendel (lines 2069 ff.) is deliberately
bland in comparison. One of the few interesting things about
Robert Zemeckis's comically crude film version of Beowulf-
aside from the golden splendor of Angelina Jolie-was
Beowulf s postmodern awareness that he was the protagonist in
a work-in-progress to be called The Song ofB eowulf.
The poet's innovative, unconventional use of words is
another feature associated with postmodernism, as Morrissey
argues in his second chapter, and which he goes on to align with
the obsession with diction that trauma victims display. I was
previously unaware of trauma theory, but Morrissey argues
convincingly that this branch of postmodern theory shines new
light on several murky aspects of the poem, on what some
readers call its disjointedness and downright weirdness.
Beowulf enacts on both a formal and verbal level the effects of
iii