The Beowulf Reader (Basic Readings in Anglo-Saxon England, Vol. 1)

328 Pages·2000·139.97 MB·English

by  Peter Baker

THE BEOWULF READER
BASIC READINGS IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND
VOLUME 1
GARLAND REFERENCE LIBRARY OF THE HUMANlTIES
VOLUME 1431
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BASIC READINGS IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND
CARL T. BERKHOUT, PAUL E. SZARMACH,
AND JOSEPH B. TR ... ~ERN, JR., General Editors
OLD ENGLISH SHORTER POEMS ANCLO-SAXON MANUSCRIPTS
Basic Readings Basic R.eadings
edited by Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe edited by Mary P. Richards
BEOWULF CYNEWULF
Basic R.eadings Basic Readings
edited by Peter S. Baker Robert E. Bjork
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF ANGLO-SAXON OLD ENGLISH PROSE
ENGLAND Basic Readings
Basic Readings edited by Paul E. Szarmach
edited by Catherine E. Karkov
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THE BEOWULF READER
edited by
S.
PETER BAKER
I~ ~~~!!~~~~p
New York london
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Copyright <0 2000 by Peter S. Baker
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechani
cal, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Beowulf Reader I edited by Peter S. Baker
p. cm. -(Basic readings in Anglo-Saxon England ; v. 1)
(Garland reference libary of the hum:lOities ; vol. 1431)
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8153-3666-7(alk. paper).
1. Beowulf. 2. Epic poetry, English(OJd)-History and
CritIcIsm. 3. Civilization, Anglo-Saxon, in literature. I.
Baker, Peter S. (Peter Stuart), 1952- . II. library of the
humanities ; vol. 1431.
PR1585.B27 1995
829'.3-dc20
94-28245
CIP
cover image ~ Adam WoolfittlCORBIS
Printed on acid-free, 250 year-life paper
Manufactured in the United States of America
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Contents
Preface of the General Editors VII
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
&owu/f 3
E.G. STANLEY
The Pagan Coloring of B~owu/f 35
LARRY D. BENSON
B~owulf and the Margins of Literacy SI
ERIC JOHN
Elements of the Marvellous in the Characterization of Beowulf:
A Reconsideration of the Textual Evidence 79
FIlED C. ROBINSON
The Authenticating Voice in &owu/f 97
STANLEY B. GREENFIELD
The Great Feud: Scriptural History and Strife in B~owu/f 111
MARIJANE OSBORN
The Germanic Context of the Unferl> Episode 127
CAR.OL). CLOVER
Skaldic Verse and the Date of B~owu/f IS5
ROBERTA FRANK
B~owu/f. Bede. and St. Oswine:
The Hero's Pride in Old English Hagiography lSI
COLIN CHASE
The Legacy ofWiglaf: Saving a Wounded &OWtl/f 195
s.
KEVIN KIERNAN
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vi Conttnts
The Women of B~owu/f: A Context for Interpretation 219
GILLIAN R OVERING
Kuhn's Laws, Old English Poetry, and the New Philology
MARy BLOCKLEY and THOMAS CABLE
On the Dating of BtOWUIf 281
Roy MICHAEL LIUZZA
Indexes 303
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Preface of the General Editors
BASIC Readings in Anglo-Saxon England (BRASE) is a series of
volumes that collect classic, exemplary, or ground-breaking essays
in the fields of Anglo-Saxon studies generally written in the 1960s
or later, or commissioned by a volume editor to fulfill the purpose of the
given volume. The General Editors impose no prior restraint of "cor
rectness" of ideology, method, or critical position. Each volume editor
has editorial autonomy to select essays that sketch the achievement in a
given area of study or point to the potential for future study. The liveli
ness and diversity of the interdisciplinary field, manifest in the annual
bibliography of the Old English N~sktur and in the review of that
bibliography in the Ytars Work in Old English Studits. can lead only to
editorial choices that reflect intellectual openness. BRASE volumes must
be true to their premises. complete within their articulated limits. and
accessible to a multiple readership. Each collection may serve as a "first
book" on the delimited subject. where scudents and teachers alike may
find a convenient starting point. The urminus a quo. approximately the
1960s. may be associated with the general rise of Anglo-Saxon Studies
and a renewed. interdisciplinary professionalism therein; other collec
tions. particularly in literature. represent the earlier period. Changes in
publication patterns and in serial-acquisitions policies. moreover. sug
gest that convenient collections can still assist the growth and develop
ment of Anglo-Saxon studies.
In this first volume of the series. Peter S. Baker selects essays illus
trating the evolution of Btowu/f studies from the mid-1960s. when the
New Criticism dominated the field. to the present. in which that for
malist mode is being supplanted by the array of methodologies that go
under the labels "post-structuralist" and "post-modern." This critical
sea-change has been accompanied by a slow but sweeping shift in orien
tation: Earlier scholarship was informed by philological techniques de
veloped in the early nineteenth century. which focused attention on re
constructed archetypes-textual. linguistic. historical. and mythologi
cal-presumed to be more "correct" than those that actually survive.
Later scholarship. on the other hand. in a movement recently codified as
"The New Philology," tends to look instead at immediately accessible
VII
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viii Prefou 0/ th~ qmeral &Jirors
contexts-the surviving manuscript, the attested language, Anglo-Saxon
history, and the scholarly culture in which the poem is read now. Both
the older position and the restlessness of thoughtful scholars working
with that position are well represented here by such classic essays as E.G.
Stanley's "Beowulf," Larry D. Benson's "The Pagan Coloring of B(o
wulf,' Fred C. Robinson's "Elements of the Marvellous in the Charac
terization of Beowulf," and others. Recent trends are well illustrated in
such essays as Kevin S. Kiernan's "The Legacy of Wiglaf," Gillian R.
Overing's "The Women of &owulf," and two studies written especially
for this volume, Mary Blockley and Thomas Cable's "Kuhn's Laws, Old
English Poetry, and the New Philology" and Roy Michael Liuzza's "On
the Dating of Beowulf" Anglo-Saxonists will therefore recognize that
this collection marks a notable departure from previous collections of
this kind and helps lay the foundation for future study of the world
masterpiece of Old English literature.
The General Editors would like to thank Professor Baker for prepar
ing this inaugural volume in the series. Other BRASE volumes available
in 1994 are Old English Shorter PO(ms, edited by Katherine O'Brien
O'Keeffe, and Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, edited by Mary P. Richards.
Further volumes are in preparation or in planning.
Carl T. Berkhout
Paul E. Szarmach
Joseph B. Trahern, Jr.
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Acknowledgments
IN preparing this volume I have incurred many obligations which it is
a pleasure to acknowledge. For permission to reprint the articles here
I wish to thank the Brown University Press. the Bulktin oft h~ John
Rylands Univmity Library ofManchm", the Cambridge University Press.
the Kentucky R~inu. the Medieval Academy of America. the Modern
Language Association ofA merica. the Southern Illinois University Press.
the University ofT oronto Press. and the Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
The article by E.G. Stanley was published by Thomas Nelson and Sons
and is reprinted with Professor Stanley's kind permission. Three of the
authors represented here-Fred C. Robinson. Kevin S. Kiernan. and
Gillian R. Overing-revised their studies for this volume. and I am in
debted to them for their trouble and care.
The articles by Mary Blockley and Thomas Cable and by Roy Michael
Liuzza appear here for the first time. I thank these scholars for their
cooperation and good cheer in permitting me to include their work in
this volume. For expert advice on the design of this book I wish to thank
my sister. Christine Bouchelle. and for help with individual points I
thank Garrett W. Brown. Monique Willemien Dull. and Eric Miller.
While planning the project I benefited greatly from conversations
with Carl Berkhout. Fred Robinson and Paul Szarmach. Carl Berkhout
read almost the whole of this book and made many valuable sugges
tions. Paul Szarmach read the introduction and-what was more valu
able-kept me going with his friendly entreaties that the book might
one day be done.
Finally. I am grateful to the students who have studied Old English
and Btowulfwith me over the last fourteen years at Emory University
and the University of Virginia. Their interests have guided me in assem
bling this collection. which is for them and for Btowu/fians everywhere.
IX
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