The Beowulf Discussion: Section II

[Michael]

This discussion was originally posted to the Endor mailing list. It used the Project Gutenberg eText based on Frances Barton Gummere's translation of the poem. The source can be found here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext97/bwulf11.txt

It is necessary to use a public domain translation, so while more modern translations may be better or preferable, we cannot legally cite their texts here.

Eventually, I switched over to using this source text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16328/16328-8.txt

The section numbers differ by 1. I had to post a "null" section for Section XVI to make the transition between translations. Some of my comments address the translator's choices, and they are not relevant to other translations.

II


WENT he forth to find at fall of night
that haughty house, and heed wherever
the Ring-Danes, outrevelled, to rest had gone.
Found within it the atheling band
asleep after feasting and fearless of sorrow,
of human hardship. Unhallowed wight,
grim and greedy, he grasped betimes,
wrathful, reckless, from resting-places,
thirty of the thanes, and thence he rushed
fain of his fell spoil, faring homeward,
laden with slaughter, his lair to seek.
Then at the dawning, as day was breaking,
the might of Grendel to men was known;
then after wassail was wail uplifted,
loud moan in the morn. The mighty chief,
atheling excellent, unblithe sat,
labored in woe for the loss of his thanes,
when once had been traced the trail of the fiend,
spirit accurst: too cruel that sorrow,
too long, too loathsome. Not late the respite;
with night returning, anew began
ruthless murder; he recked no whit,
firm in his guilt, of the feud and crime.
They were easy to find who elsewhere sought
in room remote their rest at night,
bed in the bowers, {2a} when that bale was shown,
was seen in sooth, with surest token, --
the hall-thane's {2b} hate. Such held themselves
far and fast who the fiend outran!
Thus ruled unrighteous and raged his fill
one against all; until empty stood
that lordly building, and long it bode so.
Twelve years' tide the trouble he bore,
sovran of Scyldings, sorrows in plenty,
boundless cares. There came unhidden
tidings true to the tribes of men,
in sorrowful songs, how ceaselessly Grendel
harassed Hrothgar, what hate he bore him,
what murder and massacre, many a year,
feud unfading, -- refused consent
to deal with any of Daneland's earls,
make pact of peace, or compound for gold:
still less did the wise men ween to get
great fee for the feud from his fiendish hands.
But the evil one ambushed old and young
death-shadow dark, and dogged them still,
lured, or lurked in the livelong night
of misty moorlands: men may say not
where the haunts of these Hell-Runes {2c} be.
Such heaping of horrors the hater of men,
lonely roamer, wrought unceasing,
harassings heavy. O'er Heorot he lorded,
gold-bright hall, in gloomy nights;
and ne'er could the prince {2d} approach his throne,
-- 'twas judgment of God, -- or have joy in his hall.
Sore was the sorrow to Scyldings'-friend,
heart-rending misery. Many nobles
sat assembled, and searched out counsel
how it were best for bold-hearted men
against harassing terror to try their hand.
Whiles they vowed in their heathen fanes
altar-offerings, asked with words {2e}
that the slayer-of-souls would succor give them
for the pain of their people. Their practice this,
their heathen hope; 'twas Hell they thought of
in mood of their mind. Almighty they knew not,
Doomsman of Deeds and dreadful Lord,
nor Heaven's-Helmet heeded they ever,
Wielder-of-Wonder. -- Woe for that man
who in harm and hatred hales his soul
to fiery embraces; -- nor favor nor change
awaits he ever. But well for him
that after death-day may draw to his Lord,
and friendship find in the Father's arms!


INITIAL COMMENTARY:
One of the interesting words in this passage is "wassail". As I understand it, wassail is a festive toast that was introduced into England by the Danes:
http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-was1.htm

The word has since taken on the additional meaning of referring to the actual drink itself. There are quite a few Web sites which provide information on making wassail:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=wassail

I liked this site in particular:
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5567/wassail.html

There is nothing quite like a wassail in The Lord of the Rings. And yet, there are several scenes I can think of which recall its festive spirit. The night at the Prancing Pony in Bree, for example, when the Hobbits first set out on their journey, seems festive in a way. There is also a quiet toast among Faramir's men, I think (I don't have the book with me to check) at Henneth Annun. Eowyn also does a cup-offering (a somewhat similar ceremony from Germanic tradition) for Aragorn just before he sets out on the Paths of the Dead.

Perhaps the closest thing to the wassail in LoTR is the feast celebrating Theoden's funeral. I think Tolkien mentioned a toast there.

All the same, the mention of a wassail in "Beowulf" is a curious thing. It is either a recollection of a very early Danish custom among the Angles, or else it's a borrowing from the Danes. Our knowledge of the poem's text is actually derived from a fairly late copy dated to the 12th century (after the Norman Conquest of England). I don't know enough about English etymology to have an opinion on where the wassail in the poem comes from.

Another curious expression used in this translation is "unhallowed wight", which is used to describe Grendel as he descends upon the thanes in Heorot in the dark of night. One might well recall the Barrow-wight of The Lord of the Rings, which hides out in an old Dunadan tomb amidst the ruins of a former Dunadan stronghold. Bombadil alone is able to take out the wight, just as it is Beowulf who takes out Grendel. While I doubt that Beowulf is much of an influence on Bombadil, they do both perform super-human deeds and defeat great evils.

Another curious passage comes toward the end of the section, where the poet describes how Hrothgar's nobles prayed to heathen gods for help, condemning them for their pre-Christian beliefs. Clearly, the narrative voice's acknowledge of Christian teachings is clashing with the original poem's acknowledgement of pagan beliefs. Tolkien avoided that kind of conflict in The Lord of the Rings because it was a wholly new work, but there are a few clumsy passages in The Silmarillion where Christopher seemed to be compelled to acknowledge the older, pre-Christian Silmarillion or Book of Lost Tales paganisms.

Finally, I have always thought it was remarkable that Hrothgar should have to endure the terror of Grendel for twelve years. Why was he always spared? Why were only his men killed? Talk about divine providence. It seems Hrothgar led a charmed life.

[evaine]

As far as I remember, Grendel only ever attacked the hall, where the men were sleeping. Hrothgar would have had his own private room, perhaps even in another building in the compound.

[Michael]

If Heorot is imagined like a classic northern Jarl's hall, then Hrothgar and his queen would have slept in a private chamber at one end of the hall. However, Grendel seems to be wandering far across the countryside just to get a taste of Hall-thane. His behavior is about as inexplicable as the behavior of many monsters portrayed on television and in the movies today.

Not much changes over the course of a thousand to fifteen hundred years in human literature.

[Martin Read]

I find a Danish ancestor for the wassail not very compelling. The words "waes hael" are not in Old Norse form but in the West-Saxon mode of spelling, and Wessex was not settled by Norsemen. It seems more likely to be a native Anglo-Saxon custom. It was mentioned by a French chronicler of the Third Crusade, who was obviously somewhat aghast at the amount of alcohol consumed by the English contingent, he said that the English drink to the sounds of trumpets and great shouts.

[Michael]

Well, the history of the wassail is a bit above my knowledge, I fear. But this is why I caution people to be careful about what they find on the Internet. I do my best to check what I find, but the limits of my knowledge make that very difficult.

[Swain]

Originally Posted by evaine

As far as I remember, Grendel only ever attacked the hall, where the men were sleeping. Hrothgar would have had his own private room, perhaps even in another building in the compound.

Later in the poem we're told that Heorot had outbuildings, and that Hrothgar and his queen left Heorot for the night, and come back after Grendel's defeat.

[Swain]

Originally Posted by Michael

INITIAL COMMENTARY:
One of the interesting words in this passage is "wassail". As I understand it, wassail is a festive toast that was introduced into England by the Danes:
http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-was1.htm

This is one of those unfortunate places where a translation is going to mislead one, and in this case, that's what's happened. More on that in a moment. Let me talk about wassail first.

The Middle English wassail most probably comes from Old NOrse ves heil. We know this because a) the Old English versions of this are wes thu hal--that is, the first element 'was" may have come from either Old English or Old NOrse, but more likely from ves, ON because b) the second element comes from heil, not hal. While there is heavy Scandinavian influence on the language, we don't find so early as wassail becomes attested combinations of OE elements with ON elements of words already common to both languages. The 'ves" element is an older version of the Old Norse imperative "be" (classical Old NOrse post 1100 has ver and "r" forms throughout the conjugation).

The real puzzle however is how the greeting, meaning simply "be well" "be healthy" came to be a drinking toast. There is no such evidence for a drinking toast of this kind in Old English or Old Norse, or any Germanic language for that matter.

But William of Malmesbury writing around 1140 does record its use, and this is put into Middle English later in the century by Layamon in his Brute, so it is a fairly early attestation in Middle English of the "wassail". William records the proper response too: drinkheil. IN 1190 or so a French writer talking about the students in Paris writes that English students there are too addicted to the wassail and drinkheil.

But the term nor the idea is what is being expressed here in Beowulf. Related certainly, but.....What the text of Beowulf has at that line is "tha waes aefter wiste wop up ahafen"...then after feasting (abundance, prosperity, state of well being) weeping was lifted up." I think the translator was searching for words to alliterate there because in the Old English that alliterative contrast before wiste and wop is so very striking and effective. Wassail gets at the idea, but I think we think of "wassail" too much in terms of the drinking and salute, and at least in my opinion we're more talking about a larger concept then merely a rockin' good time at Hrothgar's. The poet really presents Heorot pre-Grendel as the best that humanity can expect on earth, all joyful things are there, until Grendel comes and taints their joy.

All the same, the mention of a wassail in "Beowulf" is a curious thing. It is either a recollection of a very early Danish custom among the Angles, or else it's a borrowing from the Danes. Our knowledge of the poem's text is actually derived from a fairly late copy dated to the 12th century (after the Norman Conquest of England). I don't know enough about English etymology to have an opinion on where the wassail in the poem comes from.

A little confusion here, so a minor correction. The text of Beowulf is dated to 1000, with the manuscript that contains it. Elements may be older, but not later than 1000. So before the Norman Conquest. BUT the concept of wassail as a drinking toast comes to us in a text from the 12th century, after the Norman Conquest, and on the linguistic evidence seems to have devloped among the Danes or Danish influenced English speakers.

Another curious expression used in this translation is "unhallowed wight", which is used to describe Grendel as he descends upon the thanes in Heorot in the dark of night. One might well recall the Barrow-wight of The Lord of the Rings, which hides out in an old Dunadan tomb amidst the ruins of a former Dunadan stronghold. Bombadil alone is able to take out the wight, just as it is Beowulf who takes out Grendel. While I doubt that Beowulf is much of an influence on Bombadil, they do both perform super-human deeds and defeat great evils.

This is actually a literal translation of the Old English that calls Grendel there a wiht unhaelo, unholy or unhallowed wight. A "wight" is simply a being in Old English and is generally just a generic, though more often poetic term. Later in the poem it will be used of humans too. I do think that the Barrow-wight scene in LoTR owes something to Beowulf though, the concentration on hands, for one thing that we will encounter later, the darkness and cold and all that seem to echo the Old English poem to me at least.

Must go for now, but will hopefully return soon to continue discussing one of my favorite pieces of literature. Thanks again to Michael for the opportunity.

[Martin Read]

There is a lot of circumstantial evidence for toasting in pre-Viking Britain. The Romans seem to have wished each other good health when drinking (pro sanitate?). A number of pre-Viking grants of drinking vessels, horns and silver cups, by royal Anglo-Saxons to monasteries are accompanied by instructions that the donor was to be remembered, presumably when the monks were drinking. The prominence of drinking vessels in the Sutton Hoo and other rich A-S graves indicates that a good deal of importance was attached to the social aspects of drinking. I cannot but imagine that some structure was imposed on drinking at feasts and the wishing of health was part of that. I think that linguistic inevitability would have led to "be well" or "be healthy" becoming prominent in such public avowals.

A French observer of the 3rd Crusade was astonished by the quantity of alcohol the English contingent drank, and that they drank to the sound of trumpets and loud shouts.

[Swain]

Originally Posted by Martin Read

There is a lot of circumstantial evidence for toasting in pre-Viking Britain. The Romans seem to have wished each other good health when drinking (pro sanitate?). A number of pre-Viking grants of drinking vessels, horns and silver cups, by royal Anglo-Saxons to monasteries are accompanied by instructions that the donor was to be remembered, presumably when the monks were drinking. The prominence of drinking vessels in the Sutton Hoo and other rich A-S graves indicates that a good deal of importance was attached to the social aspects of drinking. I cannot but imagine that some structure was imposed on drinking at feasts and the wishing of health was part of that. I think that linguistic inevitability would have led to "be well" or "be healthy" becoming prominent in such public avowals.

Perhaps I wasn't very clear. There is no evidence of THAT PHRASE being used as a drinking toast before the early 12th century.

A French observer of the 3rd Crusade was astonished by the quantity of alcohol the English contingent drank, and that they drank to the sound of trumpets and loud shouts.

Well, at least we were good for something!!!

[Michael]

I see what you mean about the Beowulf-Bombadil connection. Hadn't looked at it that way before. Even the trek into the misty hills of the Barrow-downs echoes something of the poem's journey to the deadly mere.