the one who knew, sang: reading beowulf's creation song in the christian apologetic tradition

287 Pages·2014·1.46 MB·English

by  Andrea Montlick

THE ONE WHO KNEW, SANG: READING BEOWULF'S CREATION SONG IN THE
CHRISTIAN APOLOGETIC TRADITION
by
DAVID NATHANIEL GRUBBS
(Under the Direction of Jonathan Evans)
ABSTRACT
In this study, the complex topic of religious and ethnic identity in Beowulf is approached
through a focused consideration of Beowulf's Creation Song (ll. 90-8) within the context of the
patristic and early medieval Christian apologetic tradition. In this reading, the Beowulf poet is
viewed as an active participant in a broader cultural dialogue about religious and ethnic identity,
whose contribution can be better understood when read in conversation with the apologetic
tradition's handling of those two identities as they relate to Christian theology of creation and the
knowledge and worship of the creator.
INDEX WORDS: apologetics, Beowulf, creation, creator, patristics, theology
THE ONE WHO KNEW, SANG: READING BEOWULF'S CREATION SONG IN THE
CHRISTIAN APOLOGETIC TRADITION

by

DAVID NATHANIEL GRUBBS
B.A., Southeastern Bible College, 2002
M.A., University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2004

A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial
Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

ATHENS, GEORGIA
2014
© 2014
David Nathaniel Grubbs
All Rights Reserved
THE ONE WHO KNEW, SANG: READING BEOWULF'S CREATION SONG IN THE
CHRISTIAN APOLOGETIC TRADITION

by

DAVID NATHANIEL GRUBBS

Major Professor: Jonathan Evans
Committee: Cynthia Camp
Alexander Sager

Electronic Version Approved:

Maureen Grasso
Dean of the Graduate School
The University of Georgia
May 2014
iv

DEDICATION
To Gary Greene and Stephen Glosecki

Đonne sorg ond slæp somod ætgædre
earmne anhogan oft gebindað,
þinceð him on mode þæt he his mondryhten
clyppe ond cysse, ond on cneo lecge
honda ond heafod, swa he hwilum ær
in geardagum giefstolas breac.
Ðonne onwæcneð eft wineleas guma,
gesihð him biforan fealwe wegas,
baþian brimfuglas, brædan feþra,
hreosan hrim ond snaw, hagle gemenged.
v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In the journey that led to this finished dissertation, I've benefited from much kindness
along the way. As Ælfric writes in his St. Stephen's Day homily, ne bið nan anginn herigendlic
butan godre geendunge—"No beginning is praiseworthy without a good ending"—and many
have aided me in reaching this good ending. Thanks to my dissertation committee, Cynthia
Camp and Alexander Sager, and to my major professor, Jonathan Evans: they have been
invariably encouraging and helpful, both in their academic capacities and in being their genial
and warm-hearted selves. Thanks to my wife, Katie, for her unflagging confidence and her
boundless patience. Thanks to my family—my Grubbs in Alabama and my Normans in
Georgia—for the countless great and small ways they have encouraged Katie and I, especially in
the course of a major relocation. Thanks to my academic friends, especially my fellow
podcasters Nathan Gilmour (Emmanuel College) and Michial Farmer (Crown College), for
always reminding me that we have the sweetest gig in the world. Thanks to my department chair
at Central Christian College of Kansas, Candi Alexander, for granting me about three months'
worth of "afternoon sabbatical"; also, thanks to my pastor, John Stultz, for giving me a hermit's
cell in which to hide and write. Without those gifts of time and space, this project would not have
been finished. Finally, ælc lof bið on ende gesungen: "All praise comes at the end" (Ælfric
again). Now I must praise heaven's king and defender, from whose provident might and plan all
these good gifts descend: sy him wuldor and lof on ealra worulda woruld, Amen.
vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................v
CHAPTER
INTRODUCTION: THE SINGER'S KNOWLEDGE AND ETHNIC IDENTITY ...........1
1. Defining Ethnicity ................................................................................................1
2. Beowulf, Ethnic Representation, and the Anglo-Saxon Ancestral Past ...............6
3. Beowulf, Religious Identity, and Ethnic Representation .....................................9
4. The Creation Song's Neglected Contribution ....................................................16
5. The Apologetic Tradition and Ethnic Representation .......................................22
6. The One Who Knew, Sang ................................................................................30
PART ONE: THE SONG: BEOWULF'S CREATION SONG AND RELIGIOUS
IDENTITY .............................................................................................................33
1 BEOWULF'S CREATION SONG AND THE CRITICS ............................................34
2 CREATION AND RELIGIOUS IDENTITY IN THE APOLOGETIC
TRADITION ......................................................................................................................41
1. Creation apologetic in Judaic scripture ..............................................................41
2. Creation apologetic in Christian scripture .........................................................44
3. Creation apologetic in the Church Fathers.........................................................49
4. Creation apologetic in the late Roman empire and early middle ages ...............56
5. Summary and application ..................................................................................75
vii
3 BEOWULF'S "ÆLMIHTIGA" AND THE ALMIGHTY CREATOR OF THE
CREEDS ......................................................................................................................77
1. Fred Robinson: ælmihtig/se ælmihtiga as polysemous ......................................78
2. Creation and the Almighty in creeds and the fathers .........................................84
3. The Almighty Creator of the creeds in Anglo-Saxon England ..........................94
4. Answering Fred Robinson: ælmihtig/se ælmihtiga as distinctively
Christian ..............................................................................................................103
4 BEOWULF'S CREATION SONG AMONG THE COMPETING
COSMOGONIES .............................................................................................................107
1. Fred Robinson, Craig Davis, and Laura Morland: A Creation Song for
Pious Heathen?.....................................................................................................107
2. Genesis 1 and Competing Cosmogonies in the Ancient Near East .................111
3. Competing Cosmogonies in Early Christianity ...............................................121
4. Competing Cosmogonies in Anglo-Saxon England ........................................128
5. Answering Robinson, Davis, and Morland: Beowulf's Creation Song as a
Competing Cosmogony .......................................................................................132 3
PART ONE CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................139
PART TWO: THE STAGE: THE GEARDAGAS IN THE FRAMEWORK OF SACRED
HISTORY ..................................................................................................................140
5 THE GEARDAGAS AND THE CRITICS .................................................................141
6 THE FRAMEWORK OF HISTORY IN THE APOLOGETIC TRADITION .........148
1. Too New, Too Late: Pagan Critique, Chronological Apologetic, and
Sacred History ......................................................................................................148
viii
2. The Origin and Development of the Christian World Chronicle .....................156
3. The Apologetic Tradition and Beowulf's Historical Vision .............................164
7 FRAMING THE GEARDAGAS WITH CREATION ................................................167
1. Creation, the Deluge, and "Old Testament Atmosphere" in Beowulf
Scholarship ...........................................................................................................167
2. Creation in Christian Historiography ...............................................................172
3. Creation in Beowulf..........................................................................................180
8 FRAMING THE GEARDAGAS WITH THE DELUGE ...........................................189
1. The Deluge in Christian Historiography ..........................................................189
2. The Deluge as a Paradigmatic Precedent .........................................................190
3. The Deluge as Paradigmatic Precedent in Beowulf .........................................204
4. The Deluge as a Chronological Point-of-Contact ............................................218
5. The Deluge as Chronological Point-of-Contact in Beowulf ............................227
PART TWO CONCLUSION ..........................................................................................242
CONCLUSION: THE SINGER'S ENCORE ..................................................................244
1. Hearing Caedmon in Context: Praise and Pagans in Bede's Historia ..............244
2. Hearing the Singer in Heorot: Praise and the Ancestors in Beowulf ...............255
WORKS CITED ..........................................................................................................................262
1

INTRODUCTION:
THE SINGER'S KNOWLEDGE AND ETHNIC IDENTITY
When Beowulf was first reintroduced to the world in the early 19th century, scholars
sought to locate its position on the map of past and present ethnic identities: it was variously an
"Anglo-Saxon epic poem," the "song" of a "Danish seer," and "a picture of German life," and the
flag-planting only escalated from there (Shippey 79, 92, 249).1 Equally central to Beowulf studies
from the beginning is the poem’s religious identity: not only the old argument of pagan vs.
Christian, but the nature of both sorts of religious element as well. This debate continues today,
though in different terms and with different goals, and this dissertation is a contribution to that
long conversation. Specifically, this study suggests a relationship between these two forms of
identity in Beowulf and the wider Anglo-Saxon culture: namely, that the Christian apologetic
tradition provided the Anglo-Saxons with a vision of their ancestors, and that, in dialogue with
the apologetic tradition, the Beowulf poet modifies that vision—and he does it with a song.

1. Defining Ethnicity
Ethnicity, like all matters of identity, is a complex and weighty subject: "Who are we?"
and "Who are they?" are questions with only contentious answers, and it is necessary to make
clear both what is and what is not meant by "ethnicity." This is especially true in relation to

1 The scholars cited are the English Sharon Turner (1805), Danish Grímur Thorkelín (1815), and German Wilhem
Grimm (early 1840s). For a fuller account of the volatile first century and a half (roughly) of Beowulf criticism, see
Shippey’s introduction to Beowulf: the Critical Heritage; Allen Frantzen’s Desire for Origins, especially chapter
three, covers much of the same ground, but with a more overtly critical perspective.