The Transmission of Beowulf: Language, Culture, and Scribal Behavior

224 Pages·2017·3.3 MB·English

by  Leonard Neidorf

THE TRANSMISSION
OF BEOWULF
A VOLUME IN THE SERIES
MYTH AND POETICS II
GREGORY NAGY, EDITOR
LEONARD MUELLNER, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
For a full list of titles in this series,
visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.
A complete list of titles published in the original
Myth and Poetics series is available at the back of this book.
THE
TRANSMISSION

OF
BEOWULF
Language, Culture, and
Scribal Behavior
LEONARD NEIDORF
Cornell University Press
Ithaca and London
Copyright © 2017 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts
thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the
publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East
State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.
First published 2017 by Cornell University Press
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Neidorf, Leonard, author.
Title: The transmission of Beowulf : language, culture, and scribal behavior
/ Leonard Neidorf.
Description: Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2017. | Series: Myth and poetics II |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016035593 (print) | LCCN 2016037074 (ebook) | ISBN
9781501705113 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781501708275 (epub/mobi) |
ISBN 9781501708282 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Beowulf--Criticism, Textual. | Epic poetry, English (Old)--
Criticism, Textual. | Transmission of texts--England--History--To 1500. |
Language and culture--England--History--To 1500.
Classification: LCC PR1586 .N45 2017 (print) | LCC PR1586 (ebook) | DDC
829/.3--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016035593
Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and
materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such mate-
rials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid- free papers that are recycled,
totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information,
visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.
Cover: © The British Library Board, Cotton Vitellius A.XV, f. 172.
TO
R. D. FULK
JOSEPH HARRIS
RAFAEL J. PASCUAL
Beowulf is a work, as we have it, of a single hand and mind—comparable
to a play (say King Lear) by Shakespeare: thus it may have varied sources;
minor discrepancies due to imperfections in the handling and blending of
these; and may have suffered some “corruption” (e.g. occasional deliberate
tinkering or editing, and many minor casual errors) in the course of tradition
between author and our copy. But it makes a unified artistic impression: the
impress of a single imagination, and the ring of a single poetic style. The
minor “discrepancies” detract little from this, as a rule.
J. R. R. Tolkien, Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary
There is one kind of corruption which our text has escaped, viz. that which
is imported by a too clever scribe who thinks he knows what his author
ought to have written and “mends his book” accordingly. Our two scribes
were immune from this weakness; they were conscientious, if unintelligent,
copyists who set down what they saw or thought they saw in their book
(perhaps itself a copy) without worrying about sense or metre. There is one
great advantage in this faithful form of transcription; for, by studying the
different kinds of involuntary error to which it is subject, we can usually
correct with confidence either nonsense or wrong sense…
S. O. Andrew, Postscript on Beowulf
Die Überlieferung ist also gerade für die Dichtungen der klassischen
Zeit, des 7. und 8. Jahrhunderts, durchschnittlich um 200 bis 250 Jahre
jünger als die Texte selbst und gibt alle anglischen Gedichte in fremder
Dialektform wieder. Es ist selbstverständlich, daß bei einer solchen Art
der Überlieferung auch das Metrum vielfach gestört worden ist, durch
Einsetzung jüngerer und dialektisch abweichender Sprachformen, von
eigentlichen Textverderbnissen ganz abgesehen. Doch lassen sich die
meisten Fehler dieser Art mit ziemlicher Sicherheit erkennen und
beseitigen.
Eduard Sievers, Altgermanische Metrik
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ix
Series Foreword by Gregory Nagy xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xvii
List of Abbreviations xix
1. Introduction
1. The Duration of Transmission 1
2. The Detection of Scribal Error 10
3. Meter and Alliteration 18
4. Probabilistic Reasoning 22
5. General Prefatory Remarks 25
2. Language History
1. Diachronic Variation 31
2. Dialectal Variation 46
3. Syntactic Misconstruction 57
4. Trivialization 62
5. Interpolation 68
3. Cultural Change
1. Obliteration of Personal Names 73
2. Obliteration of Ethnic Names 80
3. Erroneous Spacing 87
4. Scribal Self-Correction 92
5. Chronological Significance 96
4. Scribal Behavior
1. The Lexemic Theory 103
2. Competing Theories 109
3. Variation in Parallel Texts 114
4. The Four Poetic Codices 126
5. Theory and Evidence 130
viii   Contents
5. Conclusion
1. The Unity of Beowulf 133
2. Linguistic Regularities 137
3. Methodological Considerations 149
4. Textual Criticism 155
5. Manuscript Context 160
Appendix: J. R. R. Tolkien’s Beowulf
Textual Criticism 163
Glossary of Terms 175
Bibliography 179
Index of Verses 195
Index of Subjects 199
ILLUSTRATIONS
All illustrations from London, British Library, Cotton MS Vitellius A.xv.
Figure 1. Scribal addition of e to dōgor, line 1797b (fol. 172r) ..................35
Figure 2. Scribal insertion of g into ecþeow, line 263b (fol. 137v) .............44
Figure 3. Scribal addition of ƿ to wealhþeo, line 612b (fol. 146r) ..............45
Figure 4. Scribal addition of ƿ to ongenðio, line 2961a (fol. 197v) .............45
Figure 5. Scribal insertion of i into ǣngum, line 793b (fol. 150r) ..............54
Figure 6. Anomalous spacing in mere wio ingasmilts, line 2921b (fol. 197r) .88
Figure 7. Scribal alteration of cames into cāines, line 107a (fol. 134r) .......93
Figure 8. Scribal interpolation of sīde before reced, line 1981a (fol. 176v) .155