The Christianity of "Beowulf" Author(s): William Whallon Source: Modern Philology, Vol. 60, No. 2 (Nov., 1962), pp.

81-94 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/434846 . Accessed: 18/01/2014 17:53
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Modern Philology.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 66.77.17.54 on Sat, 18 Jan 2014 17:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

NOVEMBER 1962

VOLUME NUMBER

LX

THE CHRISTIANITY OF BEOWULF

WILLIAM WHALLON

mixtureof dialectical forms,is thought transcribed in West-Saxon, itappearslikely HE agents fortheconversion of the to have been washedin the religious curare wellknown.1 First rentscreated by Aldhelm,who was the Anglo-Saxons thelater among them is the sixth-century greatest apostlein Wessexduring Irish saint Columba, who foundedIona, seventh and intothetimeof Bede. century from which a later generation extended But thoroughgoing disagreement persists with to the kind of the to the The Thames. second regard Christianity Christianity there because is no is the Father epic contains,partly Church agent Augustine (not mention of or the or relics mass the buta namesake), whomin 596 hisone-time explicit becell mate Pope Gregory directed to Kent, Virgin or Christ Himself,and partly and thecredence in wherea missionflourished as long as the cause thefuneral pyres The lived but afterwards declined, wyrd are remnantsof heathenism. missionary a or thereluc- tendencytoday is toward discovering perhapsowingto theinability but tanceofhissuccessors to learnthelanguage highdegreeof religious sophistication, of theisland.The third and majoragentis it maybe possibleto demur,as thispaper thatthe who combined theCelticand the willseekto do, withthesuggestion Aldhelm, besides Roman strains of Christianity in his train- epic knows little of Christianity nine chaptersof and two storiesfromthe first ing,underMaeldubh at Malmesbury, then under the AfricanHadrian and the Genesis. The cornerstone to the examination of Asiatic Greek Theodore, who had both in Beowulf well elements been sentas reinforcements to Canterbury theChristian may listof analogues in spiteofits be Fr. Klaeber'sextensive by Pope Vitalian.If Beowulf, from both Testaments and from the 1 Bede's account has been admirably adapted by R. H. Hodgkin, A History of the Anglo-Saxons (Oxford, 1935), I, thehymnology, and thecorpus 245-355. patrology,
[MODERN

PHILOLOGY, November, 1962]

81

This content downloaded from 66.77.17.54 on Sat, 18 Jan 2014 17:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

82

WILLIAM WHALLON

3 Francis P. Magoun, Jr., "Oral-Formulaic of Character XXVIII (1953), Anglo-SaxonNarrativePoetry,"Speculum, 446-67. 4 AlbertB. Lord, The Singerof Tales (Cambridge, Mass., 1960),p. 200.

of Anglo-Saxonreligiouspoetry.2 Conse- had learned the elementsof writing, the in this milieu rather in either case an authentic quentlyperceptible epic appears thanin isolation,the epic remainslargely specimenfroma large corpus of heroic almost entirely lost. unique, because it is likelyto have owed verse now otherwise little direct debtto a library. An oral tradi- In scholarship the poet stood somewhere, tion of storytelling can at least be postu- perhaps between and an midway, Cynewulf lated as havinglain behindthe epic, since illiterate heathen master of the singer early thedictionis to some extent formulaic.3 If sixth He may have knownhow to century. heathen at one time, thediction underwent writein his mother tonguewithout being but seemsnot to haverequired able to readLatin; he mayhavebeenorally conversion, revision engros.Like theHomeric in Christianity bard,the instructed by a missionary creatorof Beowulf would appear indebted withoutbeinginclinedto pore over hierfirstand foremostto predecessorswho atic incunabula; and he may have been composedas he did,upon thesamethemes acquaintedwithstoriesfromthe opening and with the same verbal stereotypes. chaptersof Genesis but ignorantof the can scarcely be thought to have openingchapters of Luke. Beowulf stabilized a literary as did the Because the to language poet's obviousreferences DivineComedy and Luther's translation of religiousmattersare infrequent and elethe Bible, but the Anglo-Saxon epic mentary, he would appear to have had a was nevertheless in influential an as we underpoiesis slightgrasp of Christianity uncommonmanner.When the formulaic stand it, unlesshe disguisedhis erudition to a wide audi- with characteristic languagebecamefamiliar Anglo-Saxon underrecitation or by statement. When he speaks of the arrows ence, eitherby frequent preservationin writing,men of letters of the devil (11.1743-44),one may therecould with pen in hand appropriatethe fore look to a passage in Ephesians, time-wornphrases developed for im- observethat the image was common in was such a medieval sermons,and finally promptuversifying. Cynewulf postulate man: knownto have been literate because with Klaeber the reinterpretation of an he signedhisworkswithrunic he itemfrom such as acrostics, folklore,5 pre-Christian is virtually knownto have been a Latinist a Germaniccounterpart to the sketchof as well.Yet heusedtheepicdiction because Apollo's shafts fromthe first book of the it was thenaturalmeansforcomposing in Iliad. A missionary have the may taught thevernacular. what could be combined with poet only The singlesurviving codex of Beowulf is the nativeheroicideals, and Beowulf may thefelicity of thecombination. The probablythe copy of a copy,but the text reflect alteration. failed in lived an of escaped extensive Stylists transition, poet age religious to polish the verse so as to providefull but thereis no cause for doubting that alliteration in the a half-lines, and clerics he thought his world-view consistent and, failed to cover the traces of heathenism. indeed,enlightened, even thoughhe was from a dictating aware of only rudiments from"the more Originallya transcript Judeo-Christian tradition whichis scop4 or the compositionof a scop who general to the first be assimilated in a newly 2 "Die christlichen im Beowulf,"Anglia,XXXV Elemente always (1911-12), 111-36, 249-70, 453-83, and XXXVI (1912), 6 converted 169-99. society."
6 ElliottV. K. Dobbie (ed.), Beowulf andJudith (New York, 1953),p. Iv. 5 Anglia, XXXV, 128.

This content downloaded from 66.77.17.54 on Sat, 18 Jan 2014 17:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE CHRISTIANITY OF BEOWULF

83

and typological senses,Cassian added an anagogical sense by combiningPhilonic Such a thesiswill be untenableif Beo- ingenuity withChristian and eschatology, to the hermeneutics the fourfoldweave thus manufactured wulfseems receptive applied to the Scriptures duringthe early proveddurableuntilthetimeofDante and centuriesof our era. Philo extendedthe is, in fact,stillattractive today.8 of his predecessors methods and exegetical The huskof Beowulf conmaytherefore found behind the literalmeaningof the tain a cornof spiritual and the nutriment, a well-developed His cornmaybe Philonicallegory Pentateuch allegory. (withwhich St. Paul the rabrepudiated contemporary be grouped), or anagogemayconveniently binate by expressing the stupendous theo- Paulinetypology, or a hybrid from deriving logical and literary conceptionthat the an adaptationof thepatrology itself or of earlier covenantwas important only for the liturgy. The first of these,allegoryas the later. Paul became con- an abstracthomily,would be the least prefiguring vincedGod had so ordered theworldthat edifying but would also be the easiest to theperiodbefore and underthelaw should discover.Yet the approach of Philo may fortheperiodundergrace, notin a be rejected out ofhand,becausetraditional prepare and formulas,shaped by generations generalfashiononly,but specifically of oral part forpart. Christwas a second Adam, poets,cannotbe thought a suitable medium each created in theflesh buteach theson of fora permeating second sensein theform God (see,e.g.,Romans5:14). The Pauline of a moraldiscourse.But theapproachof elements of interpretation were thus con- Paul, because of the distinctness in its crete at both ends: persons and events premises and inferences, remainsa strong Erich Auerbach ventured the directly corresponded to persons and possibility. not to notionsbrought forward events, by opinion that the Germanic and Celtic human intellectualizing.7 Patristic com- peoplescould be taught theOld Testament mentators subsequently examined the onlyin itstypological and not in itsliteral in minute discover- meaning,9 detail,often and M. B. McNamee, S.J.,has Scriptures Philonicallegory suggested that a few passages in Beowulf ing themostenshrouded or the most elusiveaffinities betweenthe mayshowtheheroas a typeof Christ.10 twoTestaments. The schoolofAntioch beThe three synopticgospels agree that lievedprimarily in thereality of theliteral duringthe crucifixion a darknesslasted but the school of Alexandria, in over the earthfromthe sixthto the ninth meaning, the milieuthat had foundallegory in the hour,whenJesus gaveup theghost.At the Homeric poems, thoughtno passage of ninth hourtoo Beowulf is stillhiddenfrom such simple and self-evident truththat viewin the mere(1. 1600),and his friends arcana were not to be broughtto light. waitingon the bank deem thathe will reThe Latin Fathers,most notablyAugus- turnno more.Here maylie an allusionof tine (the Bishop of Hippo here, not the See CharlesDonahue, "Patristic Exegesisin theCriticism of Canterbury), struck a com- of8Medieval Archbishop Literature:Summation," EIE, 1958-59 (publ. 61-82. promise,but even theywere inclinedto- 1960),pp. 9 "Figura,"p. 52. Thisincidental speculation appearssomeward reconditenessrather than cogent what that"Chrisreplacedby Auerbach'slater observation has almost no significance at all for the Germanic tianity Then to the literal,allegorical, heroicepic" (Mimesis,trans.WillardR. Trask [Princeton, simplicity.
N.J., 1953],p. 111).
10 "Beowulf-an Auerbach, Scenes from the Drama of European Literature (New

II

7 Erich Auerbach,"Figura," trans. Ralph Manheim,in

York, 1959),pp. 34, 53.

a debtto (1960), 190-207.This essayowes and acknowledges Allen Cabaniss, "Beowulf and the Liturgy,"JEGP, LIV
(1955), 195-201.

Allegory of Salvation?"

JEGP,

LIX

This content downloaded from 66.77.17.54 on Sat, 18 Jan 2014 17:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

84

WILLIAM WHALLON

the kind that a traditional dictioncould but thereare grounds fordissent. express, For Beowulf breaks throughthe waves, withthehiltof theswordand thehead of and thethanesrejoiceto see him. Grendel, If a typeat all in thispassage,he is a type of Christresurrected; and yethe is hardly that either,since his harrowingof the underworld lasted an indefinite term,so thatit is unclearwhether he rose thethird of theninth hour,which day. The mention upon firstreading might be taken as to be explained biblical,is probably by the chancethatthewordnondesignated strong only a basic and approximatepoint of We speak of noon more casually time.11 than we speak of tierceor sext,and the have intenpoet of Beowulf maysimilarly ded neitherthe canonical officenor the houron thecrossbut merely midday. Anotherpassage is more suggestive of As the twelfth in a companyof typology. warriors Beowulf thedragon; goes to fight the wight who had stolen the cup and broughton the devastationis the thirteenth is so (11.2401-7). The enumeration as to be presumed and explicit significant, one is apt to thinkof Christ,Judas,and the elevenotherdisciples.In the Song of Roland theremay possiblybe indications of a Christ-Judas relationship,12 though thebetrayer is notone oftheTwelvePeers. Butin Beowulf thecorrespondence is more complete,and the stolen vessel even answersto thethirty Yet it is piecesof silver. remarkablethat little moral blame attachesto thethief. His motive is notbase in unsense; he seemsmerely any important not a Judas. But the precise fortunate, mentionthat he is the thirteenth in the band oughtto be accountedfor,sincethe poet appears to have composed the list withcare, and a tradition of independent
ford,1958),p. 6.
12 11

theChristian is inviting: thethief has story no luck because thirteen is an unlucky number. Ofcourse, hisill successin gaining his need with impunity preceded rather than followedhis position as thirteenth, and the position is therefore indicative rather thancausative.Although of hidden the superstition is knownto us all origin, and is observed in a number bydictionaries of languages. Modern examples are not difficult to multiply, one ofthebestcoming at theveryend of Ibsen's The WildDuck. An earlyexamplecan perhapsbe foundin Old Norse: the fragmentary "Shorter Voluspo" insertedin Hyndluljoth begins with the statementthat the gods were eleven in numberafterBalder was slain, and if Odin is thought to have been excludedfrom thisgroup13 thefatalthirteen can be made up once more.Christianity is possibly responsiblefor the superstition but appears more likely only to have an irrationalbut persistent strengthened itemfromfolklore;we hold thirteen in a but we do not think groupto be unlucky, one memberwill betrayanother. Virgil considered theseventeenth day a good one for planting the vine,the ninthan aid to thefugitive but an impediment to thethief (Georgics 1.284-286); and thirteen may be fearedthrough a heritage of similarkind but of singular Its sinister nature viability. cannotbe entirely unlessmysticexplained, and immedially,but its beingindivisible ately successive upon a number with severalfactorsmay have been conducive to the notion that one memberof the To the Anglogroupwas supernumerary. Saxon mindtwelve was a roundfigure, and the poet placed the thief as the thirteenth to emphasize thathe was an unlucky man,
13 The numberof the gods is hard to ascertain.In the twentieth to the thirty-third stanzas of Gylfaginning, Snorri declaresthat the gods are twelve, and thenlists the twelve to Odin,and reluctantly admits (including Balder)in addition Loki as a fourteenth. In "BalderDead" Matthew Arnold holds Odin above and distinct fromthe twelveothergods, and a similar to Arnold'smayhavelain behind the"Shorter concept Voluspo."

See Dorothy Whitelock, The Audience of Beowulf (Ox-

Auerbach, Mimesis, p. 101.

This content downloaded from 66.77.17.54 on Sat, 18 Jan 2014 17:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE CHRISTIANITY OF BEOWULF

85

to his ists, they nevertheless ascribe to coincinot to suggest thathe was perfidious master. dencethesimilarity between thethree days The finalformof religiousprofundity, in the bellyof the greatfishand the three to the Scriptural thecrucifixion. commentaries days following The further similarity of the church,Beowulf similarity or the ceremonies betweenChristin hell and Beowill containnolensvolens.For Augustine, wulfin the mereis evenmorelikelyto be of Book XII of the coincidental, towardthe beginning since the Anglo-Saxonepic Contra Faustum, discoursed extensively may have been producedunderrelatively of thestory littleinfluence fromScripture or the writmeanings upon theunderlying Fathers did ings of the Fathers. Long and intricate of Cain, and manyoftheother so thatit was and is impossible to documents are virtually certain to contain likewise, Cain without mention and verbalparallels,and such potentially invoking similarities forelucidation. Because the resemblances the patrology as do existmustbe searching are palpable representations of before sacraments can rather they be namedintentional than fortuitous: the of lines furthermore, Beoprocesses, many spiritual closing be taken as activities analoanswer to the close of the wulf Phaedo,but may physical a to rites of the hero cannot higher meaning:baptism epic gous conceivablybe a is thepurification ofthesoul butis accom- GermanicSocrates.Therewould seem no of the body, so conclusivereason for supposingthat the plishedby the immersion thatit was and is impossible to engagein poetwas familiar with theinterpretive techheroic endeavor underwater withoutre- niques of Paul, Philo, and the Fathers; a of speech.But fortiori thereis no reason for supposing ceivingbaptismby a figure conservatism wouldhereas elsewhere seem thathe wishedhis owncreation to exercise advisable in developing a Christian multi- these techniques;and the possibility revalence fromthe epic. Many present-day mains that the Christianity of the epic is Protestant believethattheOld naive and rudimentary. theologians Testament is mosttruly seenas fulfilled by III the New when each is regardedas a historicaland legal whole,not as a collection This possibility would nevertheless be of curiouslysignificant Without if the had the parts.14 slight poet temporal perspecdenyingthe intimateinfluencethe Old tive withwhich he has been creditedby Testament had upon the New, theyreject several scholars. One believes the epic as fancifulor bizarre much of both the dominated of history that by a philosophy frompatristic conjuredup monsters and a hero for the allegoryand the typology theBook ofJonah sake of passingcensureupon a previous, commentary. Regarding as a potentialinfluence upon the evangel- heathen age; accordingly"Beowulf is national integrity, frominternal resulting 14 See two essays in Interpretation,XII (1958): Brevard S. Grendel and his dam are the harmony. Childs, "Prophecy and Fulfillment," pp. 259-71, and James N. S. Alexander, "The Interpretation of Scripture in the AnteDanes' to for weakliability punishment Nicene Period," pp. 272-80. Contemporary Roman Catholic exegetes regard the Old Testament as inspired in its literal and The ness, pride, treachery. dragonis sense and at times equally but dissimilarly inspired in a typological sense; the degree of sanctity that attaches to certain internal a variation discord, upon Grendel, other senses remains a matter of dispute. The Church credits the Fathers with supreme authority whenever they interpret sapping national strength."15Another any text in an identical manner and, for this reason among others, continues to hold the Song of Solomon as eschatoscholardeclares in a celebrated lecture that logical in its primary meaning (see the article "Exegesis" in The Catholic Encyclopedia [New York, 1907-12], V, 692-706, the laid his in work a heathen poet age he esp. 694-96 and 700; see also Guide to the Bible, I, published
under the direction of A. Robert and A. Tricot, trans. Edward P. Arbez and Martin R. P. McGuire [Paris, 1960], pp. 36, 375).

XLIX (1934), 391.

15

Arthur E. Du Bois, "The Unity of Beowulf," PMLA,

This content downloaded from 66.77.17.54 on Sat, 18 Jan 2014 17:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

86

WILLIAMWHALLON

not so muchcensurableas noble tained in GenesisA by Abraham as he thought A thirdbelievesthat the exacts revenge but hopeless.16 upon the horde of Norththepoet deliberately archaizedto extolthe menwho had destroyed Sodom. In each of earlier age by creating a Germanic thesetwo workstheauthormayhave laid in which the charactersknow aside a scholarly of ChrisAeneid,17 understanding of but are nonetheless for the of nothing Christianity purpose makingthenew tianity 18 A fourth virtuous. thisview to religion attractiveto minds previously modifies say that the poet showed Beowulf and trainedby the heroiccode; but it would to be Christians, not because he appear equally possible that each author Hrothgar but because his epic founddifficulty in conceiving of a way of thoughttheywere, audience expectedsuch a religious affilia- life dissimilar fromhis own. Even in the tionfrom noblemen,evenof a distant and early sixteenth Cranach saw the century unchristian these the of Paris not environs about past.19Though Judgment opinions differ in the as the of among themselves, Troybut as a plains Bronze-Age aggregate bear that the before Gothic a castle on a fjord. they strongtestimony poet copse a modern The the to of historical possessed similarly regarded sensitivity poet Beowulf But a further stated the and the Geats of earlier his Danes, Swedes, change. opinion, than any of the others, as be related to him in culture23 may preferred epic closely overthemall: neither theTeutonicnorthe and also as his nearcontemporaries. To be Homericpoems"give expression to a con- sure,he thought theactionpastrather than sciousnessof the antiquity of the events present, but not in the long ago so much remove.The age theyrelate."20Composed in a traditional as in a timeof uncertain that in would itself in have which the men of the language perhaps epic lived was to caused the past to seem less remote, Beo- the poet neither censurablenor hopeless, like theIliad and the Odyssey, shows nor evenheathen;it was his own age, and wulf, the customs,ethics,and religionthat the Beowulfand Hrothgar wereto himChrisshared with his audience. tians his of own kind. poet In the Old-Saxon Heliand, Christis a In one passage, which is troublesome feudallord surrounded a enunless removed a solvent, by personal by theuniversal whether the author learned the surmise the Danes do of tourage, interpolation,24 Christian clericsor from show themselvesheathen and hopeless. story orallyfrom of the New Testamentand The minstrel manuscripts singsin Heorot of the Creaofa narrow Tatian;21and thedefense place 'tion (11.90-98); Grendelcommencesthe which lasttwelve againstodds, whichW. P. Ker designated predations years;and the as the favorite incident of epic,22 is main- Danes offervows to idols and a soulnote Klaeber'stextual (11.175-83).25 slayer 16 J. R. R. Tolkien, "Beowulf: The Monsters and the between the two Critics," Proceedings of theBritishAcademy. XXII (1936), 264. succinctly distinguishes Margaret E. Goldsmith believes that the poet created a preChristian setting so as to avoid "the danger of celebrating a most attractiveexplanations: either the pagan hero" ("The Christian Theme of Beowulf," MAE, XXIX [1960], 83). thattheDanes wereto be prepoet forgot 17 Kemp Malone, "The Old English Period," A Literary as sented men, or he desigGod-fearing History of England, ed. Albert C. Baugh (New York, 1948), p. 93. nated their to from Christianity relapse 18 Malone, "Beowulf," ES, XXIX (1948), 162. the duress the from of indicate 19 Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur, The Art of Beowulf (Berkeley, rapine
Calif., 1959), p. 206. 20 H. Munro Chadwick, 1912), p. 243. The Heroic Age (Cambridge,
21 See Friedrich Vogt and Max Koch, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur (Leipzig, 1910), I, 34. 22 Epic and Romance (London, 1931), pp. 5-6.

23 See Malone "Beowulf," p. 168. 24 See Whitelock, p. 78. 25 Ibid., p. 21: "A hundred years after Augustine's landing, a king of Kent finds it necessary to legislate against the wor" ship of 'devils.'

This content downloaded from 66.77.17.54 on Sat, 18 Jan 2014 17:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE CHRISTIANITY OF BEOWULF

87

IV Grendel. The formerpossibilityis adthe it but conceivable, requires mittedly was not, perThe song of the minstrel poet to have altered his viewpointex- haps, a chance selection. Though the plicitlywithina hundredlines. Though account of the Creation is no more imsubsequence is not to be equated with portant to our present-day concept of consequence,it would appear reasonable Christianity than the Sermon on the that the details emphasized in a single Mount, it is easilyseen as more usefulto brief narrativecompose an intelligible an Irishor Roman missionary in a land of continuum:the Danes joyously worship swords and burnies. Other biblical epiGod, thenthinktheyare failed by God, sodes,suchas Genesis A contains, could at as a finalrecourse to rites length and thenrevert for be taught, but thebasic sermon and not yet forgotten. the conversion once performed of heathenGermaniamay The Danes are nominallyconvertedbut have been the solutionto the mystery of in their faith and not farremoved how things began. Cxedmonfound this insecure fromheathenism. storythe mostinspiring part of his faith. a Christian After Beowulf, king,has for Snorrifound it the sturdiest stock upon fifty yearsruled over the Geats, theyare whichto graft the genealogy by which,in presumablyChristianas well; yet they the Prologueto the Prose Edda, Thor behonor his slain body with a pyre rather comes identified as Tror, a grandson of Because the obsequiesare Priam in the kingdomknown variously thaninterment. eitherthe poet once as Troy or Turkland.The poet of Beorecounted, favorably more overlookedhis originalconception, wulftolerated but no similar euhemerism, con- thereare grounds or the Geats of his epic are Christian thathe forconjecturing vertswho stillfindnothing objectionable anticipated Snorri in transforming the in conducting the ancientlast ritesfor a native gods by the opening verses of is Genesis. singular hero. The formerpossibility but its alarmingimIn the Homericpantheonthe only god again conceivable,, plications are obvious: no other incon- who has a nameunderstandable bymodern in the epic26is nearlyso graveas etymology, sistency besides the latecomersAres A (the personification this postulated religiousindifference. of War) and Iris (the is thatthepoetwas accus- Rainbow), is Zeus. The name was not a tenablesolution tomed to seeing Christianburial in the commonnoun in historical timesand may consideredcrema- have been obscureto the epic audienceof earth but nevertheless tion the onlysuitableend to thecareerof the Iliad and the Odyssey, but a Sanscrit Withtheexception of thetem- cognatepermits Beowulf.27 a derivation froman anwhichthe poet cient Indo-Europeanroot meaning"dayporaryDanish reversion, appears to have thoughtintolerablebut light."HoldinghisaegisoverGreece,Zeus the words and deeds of eventually understandable, inruled a verywide territory the Danes and the Geats show the kind deed. In Rome he was called Jupiter, Ju of religiousbeliefpredicableof the poet thefather, and to theearlyspeakers of our An elegyupon a previousage is language, which had observed the first himself. not to be foundin Beowulf, anymorethan consonantal sound shift,he was known multivalence. is a theological as Tiw. Possiblydominating South-Scanin dinavian heroic the fourth song century 26 For a discussion of the inconsistencies see Kenneth Sisam, "Beowulf's Fight with the Dragon," RES, N.S. IX Tiw our once have commanded era, may of 129-31. (1958), 27 For a different thereligious of suchfolk-heroes as view see Whitelock, p. 12. respect

This content downloaded from 66.77.17.54 on Sat, 18 Jan 2014 17:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

88

WILLIAMWHALLON

Beowulf, but his personalityand char- wood, was possibly associated with acter cannot be describedwithcertitude, meteorological phenomena himself. It ante- would seem that Beowulfcame from a because the spread of Christianity been converted written people who had recently of extensive datedthepreservation the of from Germanic the documents sky,and the gods worshipping peoples. among indication epic may permitspeculationabout how Yet the name alone is a strong was accomplished. theconversion thathe was at leasta god of thesky. The Hebraic name Yahweh is also obIn the Homeric poems Zeus received to his power over the scure but has been taken to mean "he epithetsreferring 29 the lightning clouds (vEqEA-qypE'p-c), (or-E- blows" or "he makes to fall." Yahweh the thunder Himself the and thunder through proclaims (-rEp7LXE'poMTyEpE-ra), and adthe and him sent were From (Ps. 18:13-14), rain, lightning hail, pavvos). and snow(Iliad X.5-6 and XII.278). When dressesJob fromthe whirlwind. Though harassed by a storm from Poseidon, not localized, though likely to speak a burning bush (Ex. 3:4), He too Odysseuscomplainednot against Posei- through thesky. mostoften from Himself don but against Zeus (Odyssey V.303- manifests Yahweh assoeven be that was It directed whom to was and Zeus it was may 5), the rebukeadmiredby Longinus(On the ciated with Mount Sinai and Zeus with Mount Olympusbecause the loftypeaks SublimeIX.10): to grazethedomainof the wereconsidered the the darkness FatherZeus, deliverfrom air. In spiteof using clouds and thehigher sonsoftheAchaeans ; the titleElohiminsteadof the name Yahthat oureyesmay clearair,and grant Create weh,theaccountof theCreationsimilarly see; indicatesthat God rules fromthe outerSlayus, butletit be in thelight. of space. The proximity most stretches ZEi3 7TTcLTEp, , avh vi a raVr' oU pVcac of the Germanicand Christianmodes of "Epos cV, 'AXau than is nowheregreater religiousthought S' atLOp-v, 3 ds 5 ' &E'uoca" it is here,theindigenous lore possiblyno7TrOL7UorV Oa,0tAoLcLv EVSdE E,7TELVVTOtEV"SEv AErCOV, C/cEL where else so receptive to newideasforold. Kat' a Miltonic transmutation Tiw or By [IliadXVII. 645-7]. Thunoror Woden could becomeboth the werenotper- gdst-bona Such prerogatives ofprimacy in the Danish aposworshipped the for hisstrength tasy (1. 177)30 and the bona who, like lost manent, greatdeity in migration to theNorthand to England. Apollo, wounds the defenseless with his The fourth day of theweek,theday of Ju arrows(1. 1743). For withno alteration of or jeudi, was his by right and shouldhave cosmology, the heavenscame to be filled been called Tuesday,had not Thunorde- by God. monstrated his ascendancy.Both Thunor the GerWhatever its original meaning, and Woden, furthermore, proved them- manicwordgod is used as theordinary deselvesmoreestimable thanTiw forAnglo- signation for the Christian Deity; the Saxon place names.28 Thunor was a alternative phrases may be regardedas suitable replacement, however,since his kennings,possibly employedto provide name means Thunderor the Thunderer, 29 Adolphe Lods, "The Religion of Israel: Origins" in and Woden,whosenameis apparently con- Record and Revelation, ed. H. Wheeler Robinson (Oxford, 1938), p. 207. In the same volume see W. 0. E. Oesterley, nectedwith the Middle Englishadjective "The Exegesis of the Old Testament," p. 420.
28 Hodgkin, I, 239.
30 Gregor Sarrazin, "Neue Beowulfstudien," Englische Studien, XLII (1910), 4 (see also Brodeur, p. 188).

This content downloaded from 66.77.17.54 on Sat, 18 Jan 2014 17:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE CHRISTIANITY OF BEOWULF

89

forprosodicneeds. Some of the kennings identifiable remnantof heathenism:swa are titles of a ruler, and correspond to our unc wyrdgetio6, Metod manna gehwxes Lord: ofthiskindare Drihten, Fria, Metod, (11.2526-27). The use of Metod here as a si gewealdhafab, Waldend,Waldend forwyrd fira kenning suggests again thatsome answers to the Homeric of the for God t (which kennings may have been ava and Waldend. Others established in the diction sigora poetic prior to a&vpCv), show a conceptionof God as a Lord of the adventof Christianity-and this posthe heavens or a Creator: Kyningwaldorsibilityis an impediment in the way of rodera those who discover mature a and intricate RiHelm, Wuldurcyning, heofena dendand Scyppend. Demendis possiblyof formof religion behindthe epic. Without eitherkind: it need not refer to the Last violenceto the textone may findBeowulf but mean Judgment, may (cf. Christian though replete with heathen onlyArbiter dime in 1. 687), or Deemer, Conceiver. carry-overs; one may equally well findit WuldresHyrde is a combination:since heathenwith Christianadditions.But a is a hackneyed an- via media is perhaps a surer path than folces hyrde metaphor to the Homeric the either alternative: is a harmonious -o1w-qv hAcv, swering Beowulf is not the of consistent and work of an conHyrde necessarily Shepherd imagination theTwenty-Third to a primitive formof Christianity. Psalm,butmaymeanno verted more than Ruler. Fxder need not be a The accountof the Creationfrom Genesis exact reference to the first have facilitated the conversion theologically might by PersonoftheTrinity butmaybe a survival allowingGod to displace the native skyfrom heathenism,since father was an gods and to demotewyrdas a secondary of the Scriptural stories epithetof Odin in Old Norse, and since agency.The first Tiwfatherwould be an exact cognate of whichwe are certain thepoet knewwould and of theZEZ in Ajax' ap- at least appear to have affected, and perJupiter TCr-`Ep forGod for The other his of peal light. kennings haps determined, conception God. are combinations, or variantsformedby the addition of strengthening modifiers: V Anwalda, Alwalda,Fxder alwalda, wuldres From the Creation storythe poet of Waldend,ylda Waldend,Ealdmetod,s5k have learned to accountfor may Metod, sigora S5kcyning, Liffria,si VEl- Beowulf the handsome and pleasantthingsin the mihtiga, migtigGod and migtigDrihten, to as false and ineffectual the halig God and halig Dryhten, witigGod world, reject native and to understand that sky-gods, and witig ice Drihten, and Drihten Drihten, God. There is no hintof the Incarnation, theheavenswerethe domain of God. But storycould he and if the expressionsas a group have only by a supplementary have learned to account for the abhorrent affinities withany singlebiblical passage, and to localize thesky-gods savagethings,31 the passage is the story of theCreation. in a and to understand the foreign place, In theIliad thereare certaintracesof a Christian of hell. In both the concept fateor destiny thatlies behind primordial heathen Nordic formulation and the body thepowerof thegods,and wyrd mayonce have similarlyproved compatible with of dogmata available to the missionary, Tiw, Thunor,and Woden. In Beowulfit heaven was the realm of the Most High, abode of those can be avertedby God (1. 1056), but un- hell was the subterranean dead who failed to enter the realmof the itis tantamount averted to whatmustcome 31 See Whitelock, to pass, and in one instance is virtually an p. 76.

This content downloaded from 66.77.17.54 on Sat, 18 Jan 2014 17:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

90

WILLIAMWHALLON

in the lines that imand theworldofmenwas more significantly orelect,32 worthy followthesong of theCreation: or locale betweenheaven mediately a middangeard toldby GilbertMurand hell.An anecdote dreamum lifdon, in Greece 99 Sw. 6d drihtguman how indicates Christianity ray o6 dadiglice, ongan 6et in absorbedthe cult of Dionysusby reinterfdond on helle; fyrene fre(m)man resurrecpretingits ritual of springtime se grimma Grendel gxast haten, wes absorbedthe tion;33in Britain Christianity mIare hMold, mearcstapa,sdpe m6ras its geoindigenouslore by reinterpreting fenondfxesten; eard fifelcynnes 105 wonsxli wer weardode graphy. hwile, in Beowulf to an afterlife The references sip6anhimScyppend forscrifen hxefde in Cainescynne- ponecwealm to assess: one passage and difficult are brief gewrec ece Drihten, pe hdAbelsl6g; (11. 1002-8, containing the expression ne gefeahhepes hine pire fgh6e, ac hM Chrisbearna, which Klaeber believes nidOa feor forwrec, tian34) speaks only of how no one can 110 Metodforpymine mancynne fram. in must lie a all fate but prepared escape ealle untydras onw6con, panon thefeastof life; otherpassages place after eotenas ondylfe ondorcne^as, death after of how soon 2741-42) (11. speak swylce gigantas Pd wi6Gode wunnon or late (11.977-79 and 3108-9) a man is langeprage; hdhim6aesl an forgeald. thanChrist;35 judged, but by God rather theHebraiclegends a further possibility passage (11. 3082-83) mentions By a remote the posterity of Cain36 may the end of the worldbut containsno hint concerning to themissionary or the have beenknown in Armageddon of the destruction responin Beowulf. elements No siblefortheChristian decisionin the valleyof Jehoshaphat. is revealedin the refer- More probably the missionaryhimself, complextheology his creed to a new enences, no acquaintance with the New accommodating a graspofChristian vironment, butmerely assignedto Cain the ultimate Testament, elementsconcordantwith the mythsof origin of crime and oppositionto God. This muchis suffi- Since the Anglo-Saxonepic dictionnever Germanicheathenism. as to refuse cient to permitthe epic hero's excellent becameso formulaic additions, could be expressions predictionthat hell will be the future certainecclesiastical made consonantwiththe heroicheritage, residence of Unferth (1. 588). residence almost as easily as certainnativeexpresHell is in additionthepresent thedistant both of Grendel (11. 101, 788, 852, and sionsfrom pastcould be turned 1274) and of certain demons skilled in to a religious purpose in the didactic own vocabulary runes(1. 163); hell is remembered by the poems. The missionary's be thought to appear in this Danes in theirreversion (1. 179). It is the maytherefore of line 106 is a lesson passage: the forscrifen domainofall evil,and theScriptural and theanalogueproscribere, is coinagefrom likelyto have producedthisconception in lines 1261-66 and thegigantasof line 113 is a Latinateloan cited twice: briefly word.37 The gigantas mayin factbe traced in the the earth fromGen. 6:4, to giants 32 Hilda Roderick Ellis, The Road to Hel (Cambridge, XXXV, 268. 1943),pp. 84, 96. See also Klaeberin Anglia, from Cain as descendant whoareheretaken 33 Preface to the Third Edition of his Five Stages of Greek the flood and (see destroyed by ultimately p. v in the 1955Anchorreprint. Religion,
34 Anglia, XXXV, 467. But patronymics such as bearn Ecgpowes argue against the coinage of nibda bearn by analogy withfilii hominum. 35 See Klaeber in Anglia, XXXV, 263. and Middle English," PMLA, XXI (1906), 878 n. 37 See Whitelock, pp. 5-6.

36OliverF. Emerson, "Legendsof Cain, Especiallyin Old

This content downloaded from 66.77.17.54 on Sat, 18 Jan 2014 17:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE CHRISTIANITY OF BEOWULF

91

or merely 11. 1689-90).38These details the poet re- the spawn of hell is exhaustive in his mind a indicative.The dragon is not explicitly ferred to as if theyformed listed and has been thought meticulously singlestory. and hismother excluded,42 ofGrendel The similarity yetthe tone and action of the to certainOld Norse creaturesindicates epic make small separationamong GrenwereGermanic thatthey commonplaces;39 del and his dam, the monstersBeowulf withBreca,the dragon to hell was possiblycom- slew in his contest theirrelegation he his own to association but their as death,and the dragon slays well; monplace withtheprimalguiltof Cain was an adap- slain by Sigemund:"what reallycountsis themonsters, for a people who thatthebroad linksbetween tation of Christianity of demoniacor draconicextracwould not believe that the moor, during whether thanthe and tion,are of muchgreater was harmless the blacknessof night, import The dragon is a grimand that arise in the differences."43 deserted.The monsters almost exactly as the lairs hellish adversary, dark fromtheirdank and repugnant at as a famous march-stepper to roam theearthwerenot scoffed is, and strikesthe but imaginationas belonging to essentially of a heathenimagination nightmare much witha moreor- thesamerace; the two are variants, wererendered compatible as "new Scripture as Circe and Calypso are variants in schemeof things, derly touchedand ignited."40 the Odyssey.The point once made that and old tradition theheathand thefen Because the kenningfrond moncynnes themonsters roaming ofCain, thesignificance of has a probable connection with the are theprogeny clearenough. hostis humani generis of the Surtees thedragonis by implication Grendeleven appears identified Side by side withBeowulf may be placed Hymns,41 AltusProsatorgenerally withthe power of evil elsewhere assigned the sixth-century to Columba,whichis, as R. H. idea of attributed The Christian to the devilhimself. a Dies Irae from the nature Hodgkinhas mentioned, affected the enemyof mankind in Beowulf to theogresthatpre- a Celtic soul. A betterspecimenof the attributed ceded him, but the poet had no greater syncretism by which the Anglo-Saxons would be hardto find, for theologicaleruditionthan was necessary wereconverted visionis "a behindthefearful the languageused by a the Lucifer for appropriating monsterready to take the place of the in teaching of Cain. thestory missionary In its use of an established epic diction Teutonic dragons which had brought content Beowulf and the heathen heroes into traditional to couch an apparently without historical perspective,Beowulf actions":44 moreclosely resembles theHomericpoems Draco magnus taeterrimus terribilis et antiquus, an thanit does theAeneid.It is also rather lubricus, qui fuit serpens thanan Iliad, sincein themainit Odyssey omnibus sapientior instead of shows heroes facingmonsters et animantibus bestiis are themonsters other heroes.Butwhether terrae ... ferocioribus. all of a spiritual kind is unclear,because This of not Cain but the devil, is, course, oftheuncertainty thecatalogueof whether in the and the allusion to the temptation 38
Emerson, pp. 888-94. 39See Charles W. Kennedy,The EarliestEnglishPoetry (London, 1943),p. 69. 40Tolkien,p. 269. 41JamesWalter Rankin, "A Study of the Kenningsin JEGP,IX (1910),57 (see also Emerson, Anglo-Saxon Poetry," XXXV, 251-55). p. 880,and Klaeberin Anglia, pant," PMLA, LXVIII (1953), 309. This conclusionis supofseveral Norseanaloguesto theepisodesof ported bya study
Beowulf: G. V. Smithers, The Making of Beowulf (Durham, 42 Brodeur, pp. 126,218. 43 Adrien and Critics RamBonjour,"MonstersCrouching

Eng., 1961),pp. 6-12. 44Hodgkin,I, 257.

This content downloaded from 66.77.17.54 on Sat, 18 Jan 2014 17:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

92

WILLIAMWHALLON

at his death that the Garden of Eden speaks of mattersun- Beowulfis gratified will be possessedby the Geatish Yet the dragonof the treasure knownto Beowulf. epic remains essentiallycongruous with nation,but he faced the dragon without and his fear of havingoffended because cupidity, Grendeland his mother precisely withthe ulti- God (11.2329-31) is by no meansjustified of a widespreadconnection no kenning withinthe poem. The thirdepisode has mate source of evil. Although as thefirst used forthedragonis adaptedforthedevil muchthesamesignificance two, the word draca and the dragon may consistentlybe poems,45 by the Christian held thismalignant mean- thoughtto share with Grendel a lineage itself frequently hostilemonstrosing attachedby the Book of Revelation.46 thatalone explainstheir offlondmoncynnes,ity.Too firmly believed in to be removable Withtheconnotations into the languageby a as unchristian, thetrolls and thefiredrakes it was introduced and came to serveas an alter- werea menaceto themissionary unlesshe missionary the could providethemwitha biblical basis, nativeto wyrm. By strong implication has the same originas such as the fusion of the stories about dragonin Beowulf of their Cain, the giants,and the Flood into what Grendel,and the reinterpretation in the is in effect naturemaybe a Columbanelement a gloss on the story of the Creation. earlyformof Christianity.47 in thefirst The arrows ofpestilence book VI be ascribedto farof theIliad could safely Even the minorportions of Beowulf are darting Apollo evenif he werenot named in the passage. But the monsters of Ger- dominated by the crime and doom of manic lore appear not to have been a Cain.50 Danish intrigue foretells that characteristic deathwill be followedby conscourgefromTiw, Thunor, Hrothgar's or Woden, and all Christianinterpreta- tentionfor his rule. The Swedish king tions of Beowulflikewisefail to demon- Onela facestheethical dilemma ofwhether stratethat Grendelwas a coerciveforce or not to rewardthe slayerof a nephew directed by God. Neither who had risenin arms againsthim. The againstmankind noranyDanish custom Geatish king Hrethelcannot resolve his Hrothgar's pride48 inthebreachthantheobser- sorrowwhenone of his sons accidentally morehonored of the rapine.The kills the other.All threeroyalhouses are vance is theinstigation motive:he is liable to extinction because each is attenudragondoes have a definite discord.But thetoughness angered because a cup has been stolen ated byinternal in need ofi and cohesionof the epic go even further. fromhis hoard by a fugitive treasure withwhichto effect a reconcilia- Not onlyis Haethcyn forhavstigmatized The hoard subsequently tion.49 appearsto ing slain Herebeald (11. 2435-40), but lie undera curse,but thisdetail does not Weohstan is guiltyof having slain his alterthestory, sincethedragonis as much brother's son (1. 2619), and Unferth faces as thecursecould require. hell for having slain his br&drum, an embodiment his from (11. 587-88). Turning hjafodm?gum 45Emerson, p. 882. 46Klaeber in Anglia, to menthepoet is stillconcerned monsters XXXVI, 189. See Goldsmith, pp. 9293. in the widersense of the with 47Following an argument fratricide, distinct from entirely myown, CharlesDonahue similarly concludesthatthereligious viewof a near and withapparkinsman, slaying IrishthanAugustinian Irelandand ("Beowulf, pointis rather VII [1949-51],263-77). theNaturalGood," Traditio, ent care causes the hero to take epic 48 See 214.
(1920), 6-7.
Hoard in Beowulf," Univ. of Wis. Stud. in Lang. and Lit., XI

Brodeur, p. 49See Frank Gaylord Hubbard, "The Plundering of the

tion(Cambridge, Mass., 1928),pp. 71-106.

50 See William Witherle Lawrence, Beowulf and Epic Tradi-

This content downloaded from 66.77.17.54 on Sat, 18 Jan 2014 17:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE CHRISTIANITY OF BEOWULF

93

in the thought that the Lord with its thronewatchedby a council of satisfaction cannot charge him with the mordorbealo nominees for the succession.51Some of the historical allusions in Beowulf to mdga (1. 2742). strifemay accordinglyhave Yet Beowulf does not proclaim the internecine effects thatwe can scarcelyexof man or even of the Ger- promoted brotherhood The poet causes evenvicariously. manic nations.The hero slew the Frank perience of the at Finnsburg, to his minstrel to avenge sing (1. 2501), perhaps fight Daeghrefn in her a textual in saw which Hildeburh son and her Klaeber suggests Hygelac (as to each other;and thedeed brother slainas enemies noteon thepassage),and reckons the granorany- directly afterward he introduces at hislast accounting a sinneither such he states that cious for whom but where Wealhtheow, else, consistently implies awaits (1. 1164), as fora man thanbrooding thata similartragedy is better avenging otherthana pun- theaudienceor readers mayhave knownit (1. 1385). No retribution ishmenton earth is indicatedfor either actually did.52 But for the audience the by theirhaving Ecgtheow or the fugitivewho robs the situationwas intensified feuds be seen their own both guilty among might people similar dragon, although is glad thathe with similar outcomes. underthedecalogue.Wiglaf Contemporaneously of the poetic corpus and aided not merelya fellowhuman being withthe growth bebut a close relative(1. 2879), and theres- the Anglo-Saxonnation,Christianity extend and the seems to came established of only provided political ponsibility loyalty not so faras to basis of the poetrywithyeta deepersigor thetribe, to thefamily the Finnsof a tongue. Beowulfand nificance.By a master-stroke the federation a need of with no tale was cast beside the converse burg figureof Hrothgar and not the incarnation of violence are but kinsmen, Grendel, they dragoman, for against kinsmen. The story of Cain, indebted Beowulfhas come as a friend not as although alluded to only twice in Beoonce givenhisfather, theprotection a cousin relatedby more than sentiment. wulf, became the central issue of the He is still an outlander,a kinsman of work, and may have been grasped by nor Deghrefn. the audience much as the story about neither Hrothgar The epic neitherexcoriatesthe tradi- the bondage of the Israelites in Egypt tional ideals nor provides a melancholy was grasped by the Negro slave in our and hopeless- country. on thesplendor commentary ness of a bygoneage. The themeof faithThe poet had no needforthetheological fulnessto the ties of blood was almost background of a Bede. He createda conwas as the and old traditional sistent unchanged, certainly epic by reinterpreting to those ties brings materials to accord withthe religiouselemoral that perfidy Whatwas newwas thepercep- mentscrucial to his personal belief. His damnation. in the same sense tion that the monstersof the moor are characters are Christian is thesame allied to theman who slayshis kinsman- as he was, and their perspective of the as his, save thattheydo not see the monan integration from and thisderived heroic code withan earlyformof Chris- stersoppressing themas the descendants in a SouthDomiciled of Cain. of the audiencemaythemSome England by tianity. Scandinavian people, the poetic corpus selveshave failedpreviously to realizethe and may continuedto evolve duringthe sixthand implicationsof this perception, while the countryreseventhcenturies, 51See Hodgkin,I, 208. 52See Lawrence, each intoseveral mainedbroken pp. 126-27. kingdoms,

This content downloaded from 66.77.17.54 on Sat, 18 Jan 2014 17:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

94

WILLIAM WHALLON

have founda striking originalaccordingly in the epic, as the warningagainst ity in matter internal conflict came in familiar the monBecause narrative a familiar style. sters and the hero appear handed down fromthe past, it is hazardous to say that theyare allegoricalor that theywere inventedto give point to the poet's philoIt is easier to say only sophy of history. that old tales were givena new meaning, once had, but from whatthey not different in the work refuller.The chiefinterest rather mainsin theheroand themonsters, or sugthan in any qualitiesrepresented

document is an authentic gested.Beowulf to be enfroma dark timejust beginning is and it stark lightened by Christianity; an advennot homiletic; exciting, drably ture,not a sermon.Yet by its religious not orientation the workhas a coherence to be foundamong its earlypredecessors as we have groundsfor conceiving them, and the coherence proceeds from an adaptation of a portionof the Book of Genesis to an age troubledby trollsand dragons.
8, D.C. Washington

This content downloaded from 66.77.17.54 on Sat, 18 Jan 2014 17:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions