The Beowulf Discussion: Section III

[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.


III


THUS seethed unceasing the son of Healfdene
with the woe of these days; not wisest men
assuaged his sorrow; too sore the anguish,
loathly and long, that lay on his folk,
most baneful of burdens and bales of the night.


This heard in his home Hygelac's thane,
great among Geats, of Grendel's doings.
He was the mightiest man of valor
in that same day of this our life,
stalwart and stately. A stout wave-walker
he bade make ready. Yon battle-king, said he,
far o'er the swan-road he fain would seek,
the noble monarch who needed men!
The prince's journey by prudent folk
was little blamed, though they loved him dear;
they whetted the hero, and hailed good omens.
And now the bold one from bands of Geats
comrades chose, the keenest of warriors
e'er he could find; with fourteen men
the sea-wood {3a} he sought, and, sailor proved,
led them on to the land's confines.
Time had now flown; {3b} afloat was the ship,
boat under bluff. On board they climbed,
warriors ready; waves were churning
sea with sand; the sailors bore
on the breast of the bark their bright array,
their mail and weapons: the men pushed off,
on its willing way, the well-braced craft.
Then moved o'er the waters by might of the wind
that bark like a bird with breast of foam,
till in season due, on the second day,
the curved prow such course had run
that sailors now could see the land,
sea-cliffs shining, steep high hills,
headlands broad. Their haven was found,
their journey ended. Up then quickly
the Weders' {3c} clansmen climbed ashore,
anchored their sea-wood, with armor clashing
and gear of battle: God they thanked
or passing in peace o'er the paths of the sea.
Now saw from the cliff a Scylding clansman,
a warden that watched the water-side,
how they bore o'er the gangway glittering shields,
war-gear in readiness; wonder seized him
to know what manner of men they were.
Straight to the strand his steed he rode,
Hrothgar's henchman; with hand of might
he shook his spear, and spake in parley.
"Who are ye, then, ye armed men,
mailed folk, that yon mighty vessel
have urged thus over the ocean ways,
here o'er the waters? A warden I,
sentinel set o'er the sea-march here,
lest any foe to the folk of Danes
with harrying fleet should harm the land.
No aliens ever at ease thus bore them,
linden-wielders: {3d} yet word-of-leave
clearly ye lack from clansmen here,
my folk's agreement. -- A greater ne'er saw I
of warriors in world than is one of you, --
yon hero in harness! No henchman he
worthied by weapons, if witness his features,
his peerless presence! I pray you, though, tell
your folk and home, lest hence ye fare
suspect to wander your way as spies
in Danish land. Now, dwellers afar,
ocean-travellers, take from me
simple advice: the sooner the better
I hear of the country whence ye came."



INITIAL COMMENTARY:

"bales of the night". I think that is a metaphor, as "bale" derives from an ancient Germanic word (*ball-), which itself is believed to come from Proto-Indo-European (*bhel-), meaning "to blow, swell". If my identification is right, the meaning is "storms of the night". That is, the poet is saying the slaying of Hrothgar's thanes is "most baneful of burdens and (figurative tempests or storms) of the night". Night storms can be furious and frightening in the human imagination. But they can also be fascinating. When I was a child, maybe only four years old, I was living in the south Miami area and a hurricane blew through. My family huddled together in the living room to wait out the storm, but the room got so stuffy and stale that I went back to my bedroom and fell asleep in my bed. My mother had left the windows open (they were jalousied windows, a layered type very commonly used in south Florida which endure storms well). I will remember that storm for the rest of my life. It was not so terrifying as mystifying to me. The lightning and thunder seemed to be continuous. But I was tired so I soon fell asleep.

"This heard in his home Hygelac's thane" is an interesting passage. Hygelac is a historical figure. He is known in French history as Chlochilaich, and he led a great raid against the Franks. To be honest, I don't know how the identification has been made or justified. While I have studied Frankish, Anglo-Saxon, and Danish history, I am by no means expert in these subjects. Chlochilaich is mentioned in Geoffrey of Tours' History of the Franks, in Book III. Geoffrey's early history is considered to be somewhat suspect (or, in some cases, extremely liberalized). He was a churchman who lived a couple of centuries after the early facts he wrote about, but he is still regarded as a useful resource.

Geoffrey tells us that Chlochilaich was a Danish king, however, whereas Hygelac may have been a Geat (living in southern Sweden). Chlochilaich lived in the early 6th century (500s) and he was slain by Theudebert, son of Theuderic, King of the Franks. The Svear (the northern Swedish people who conquered the Geats of southern Sweden) had not, in this timeframe, yet asserted their power over the Geats. So, I suppose that scholars feel the Geats had closer ties with the Danes at this time. This all occurred before the great Phonetic Shift of the 7th century (600s) which separated the Old English language from the Old Norse language (and Old Danish and Old Swedish).

The early 500s would be approximately equivalent to King Arthur's later reigning years. It is known that the Saxons began migrating OUT of Britain in the early 500s, and that they did not begin to return in great numbers for one or two generations. What happened? Well, supposedly, Arthur defeated them at Mons Badonicus. A Celto-Romanic victory over the Saxons of Britain would have set quite a few clans and war-bands into motion. Beowulf's traveling warband thus fits in well with the uprooting of Saxon peoples in Britain.

Beowulf took only fourteen men with him. That was a pretty small warband. He would not have seemed like a man of great stature among the ancient Germanic peoples of the north. Something I should have pointed out in a previous discussion was where Hrothgar would have gotten the gold for the rings he gave out. Historically, the Scandinavians of the 4th through 6th centuries are held to have gotten gold from the Roman Empire. A discussion of the migration of that gold and its use is provided here:
http://www.algonet.se/~arador/postfestum.html

The Scandinavians reshaped the gold into rings. The reach of German warbands into the eastern Roman empire at this time makes sense within the historical context. While the Celto-Romans in Britain were beating up on Saxons, the Franks were beating up on everyone else in the west. The Visigoths were driven south into Iberia, where they established a kingdom that lasted around 200 years. The Langobards were still migrating through the mountains, not having yet settled in Italy (which was held at this time by the Ostrogoths). Opportunity would have abounded for Germanic mercenaries in the east, where the emperors were raising armies. Eventually, Justinian would send Belisarius to recapture portions of the western empire, but Beowulf seems to hail from the early 500s.

The cultural homogeneity of the northern Germans and Scandinavians is most apparent in the Old English poem "Widsith", which dates from the 6th or 7th century. It lists many kings and tribes, including a couple of "Sceaf-" names, such as "Sceafthere of the Umbers" and "Sceafa of the Langobards". "Ongendtheow" is king of the Svear (Swedes). Ongendtheow is mentioned in "Beowulf" (section XXVIII, named "Egil" in some sources).

In this section of the poem, we see that Beowulf's men all wear mail. Historically, that would have been very unlikely. Chain mail had been invented by the Celts more than 600 years prior to this time, and it was widely used by the Roman empire after the 1st century BCE (Marius, who defeated the Cimbri and Teutoni, and Julius Caesar, adapted Gaulish mail for their needs). The "Beowulf" poet is probably just projecting the styles of his own (later) time onto the warriors of Beowulf's band. At most, Beowulf himself might have worn mail.

The Scylfing warden's greeting has been compared by many people to the greeting of Theoden's gate-wardens in Edoras, when Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli arrived at the Rohirrim's town:

From "The White Rider" in The Lord of the Rings:
With these words the travellers passed the silent mounds. Following the winding way up the green shoulders of the hills, they came at last to the wide wind-swept walls and the gates of Edoras.

There sat many men in bright mail, who sprang at once to their feet and barred the way with spears. 'Stay, strangers here unknown!' they cried in the tongue of the Riddermark, demanding the names and errand of the strangers. Wonder was in their eyes but little friendliness; and they looked darkly upon Gandalf.

'Well do I understand your speech,' he answered in the same language; 'yet few strangers do so. Why then do you not speak in the Common Tongue, as is the custom in the West, if you wish to be answered?'

'It is the will of Théoden King that none should enter his gates, save those who know our tongue and are our friends,' replied one of the guards. 'None are welcome here in days of war but our own folk, and those that come from Mundburg in the land of Gondor. Who are you that come heedless over the plain thus strangely clad, riding horses like to our own horses? Long have we kept guard here, and we have watched you from afar. Never have we seen other riders so strange, nor any horse more proud than is one of these that bear you. He is One of the _Mearas_, unless our eyes are cheated by some spell. Say, are you not a wizard, some spy from Saruman, or phantoms of his craft? Speak now and be swift!'

It is interesting that Hrothgar's coast-warden is mounted and armed with a spear. He sounds like a Rider of Rohan. But the Danes did not have much in the way of cavalry (nor did the Angles and Saxons).

It is not so well-known, I think, that a similar scene to this occurs in THUVIA, MAID OF MARS, by Edgar Rice Burroughs. John Carter is chasing his beloved Dejah Thoris across the Martian landscape (she has been taken captive by an enemy) and he passes through a dense Martian jungle. There on the road he is attacked by a huge creature, and he only barely escapes when a lone Martian warrior arrives to spear the beast. The warrior then informs Carter that he is a policeman assigned to watch the road, and he requires Carter to identify himself. Carter is thus led to the city of Thuvan Dihn, father of Thuvia (who fell in love with Carter but later married his son).

I seriously doubt Tolkien was influenced by Edgar Rice Burroughs, but I have always wondered if Burroughs wasn't influenced by Beowulf. Carter is stronger than the Martians (because he was born on Earth, which has a stronger gravity than Mars) and he performs what seems like superhuman feats. He also slays monsters, leads armed warbands on great adventures, befriends kings in foreign lands -- in short, he does everything that Beowulf does, in a pulp space operish fashion.

I know some ERB scholars and should probably ask them if there is an established connection between ERB and "Beowulf". I have seen at least one informal claim of such a connection. The resemblance is quite striking.

[Swain]

I'd like to begin by again thanking Michael for the opportunity. I've been meaning to get back to this discussion for months, but haven't been able since July. In fact, to do so today, I'm actually avoiding other kinds of work. But that's the way of things.

Originally Posted by Michael

INITIAL COMMENTARY:

"bales of the night". I think that is a metaphor, as "bale" derives from an ancient Germanic word (*ball-), which itself is believed to come from Proto-Indo-European (*bhel-), meaning "to blow, swell".

The Old English doesn't help here much: nightbealu. This is up the right tree, but wrong English "bale". The modEnglish "bale" survives, but barely, most known as far as I can ascertain in the adjective "baleful" that seems to appear in various fantasy novels. This "bale" comes from Proto-Germanic *balwom from a Proto-Indo-European word *bheleu meaning "to beat". Even in Old English though its a "poetic" word, meaning misery, unhappiness, evil, malice. So nightbealu, "bales of night" mean "night fears" or even night mares.

If my identification is right, the meaning is "storms of the night". That is, the poet is saying the slaying of Hrothgar's thanes is "most baneful of burdens and (figurative tempests or storms) of the night". Night storms can be furious and frightening in the human imagination.

If we take your comments here figuratively as I think they are meant, the meaning isn't all that different: things that scare one in the night, whether storms beating on the hall, or a bad dream, or other cause of misery. Certainly the "son of Healfdane" is unable to keep the "bales of night" at bay, nor the burdens that are baneful, i. e. a burden that slays.

"This heard in his home Hygelac's thane" is an interesting passage. Hygelac is a historical figure. He is known in French history as Chlochilaich, and he led a great raid against the Franks. To be honest, I don't know how the identification has been made or justified. While I have studied Frankish, Anglo-Saxon, and Danish history, I am by no means expert in these subjects. Chlochilaich is mentioned in Geoffrey of Tours' History of the Franks, in Book III. Geoffrey's early history is considered to be somewhat suspect (or, in some cases, extremely liberalized). He was a churchman who lived a couple of centuries after the early facts he wrote about, but he is still regarded as a useful resource.

The translator here is going for alliteration, hence all the h words. The identification of Hygelac with Chlochilaicus (one of the Latin forms) in Gregory of Tours is based in part on phonology: Latin Ch is an attempt to represent Germanic "h" with rough breathing (like modern German ch in Bach), so CH=H, and the ch=g since Latin had no "g" sound either, laicus is clearly related to -lac or close to it anyway.

It is also based even more importantly on other forms of the name: Hygelac, in ONose it appears as Hugleikr, in Latin Huiglaucus, Higlacus, Hyglacus, Hugletus, Chochilaicus, Chlochilaichus: when reading Latin about this episode and these different spellings occur and seems to all refer to the same person, well, it becomes a bit safer to conclude that its the same person. (Besides, Gregory was a horrible Latinist and often got the spelling of names and things wrong).

Which brings me to where we read the episode in other sources: besides Gregory's history, we find it recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Liber Monstrorum, the book of monsters, and in the Gesta Francorum, the Deeds of the Franks. Later, both Snorri Sturlson and Saxo Grammaticus in their histories speak of Hygelac and this invastion of Frankish territory. In section 33, the Beowulf poet gives a short version of it too. Anyway, I hope that helps. Gregory, by the way, is a difficult source. He is the only written source we have for the rise of the Franks in the late fifth and early sixth centuries (and when reporting on this, he's writing fairly close to his own time, born about 538). So for example, when talking about Hygelac invading Theuderic's territory, Theuderic died in 533, 534, not long before Gregory was born. That's amazingly close for medieval history. Anyway, he's problematic in that he is the only source: it is difficult if not impossible to verify much of what he writes and so difficult to know how to assess his accuracy for events he himself didn't witness.

Geoffrey tells us that Chlochilaich was a Danish king, however, whereas Hygelac may have been a Geat (living in southern Sweden). Chlochilaich lived in the early 6th century (500s) and he was slain by Theudebert, son of Theuderic, King of the Franks. The Svear (the northern Swedish people who conquered the Geats of southern Sweden) had not, in this timeframe, yet asserted their power over the Geats. So, I suppose that scholars feel the Geats had closer ties with the Danes at this time.

Which is certainly the assumption of the Beowulf poet: not just Beowulf's welcome at Hrothgar's court, but Hrothgar offers to make Beo his heir, and of course Beowulf's father had lived in Hrothgar's court as we'll learn shortly. Hygelac's interest in Beowulf's report and assessment of politics across the Baltic are indicative too--so it seems if this is historical that there were good ties there at the time.

Beowulf took only fourteen men with him. That was a pretty small warband. He would not have seemed like a man of great stature among the ancient Germanic peoples of the north.

True, and later in the poem we're told that the young Beowulf was considered "unpromising".

It is interesting that Hrothgar's coast-warden is mounted and armed with a spear. He sounds like a Rider of Rohan. But the Danes did not have much in the way of cavalry (nor did the Angles and Saxons).

Here's a good overview of military equipment for a Germanic warrior. http://www.heroicage.org/issues/6/devingo.html

I don't know much about horses in this time period, regrettably, but given the amount of vocabulary for horses, about horses, and horse gear, I'd be very surprised to learn that there wasn't much in the way of horses among the Germanic tribes. I'll see if I can dig up some bibliography to give us a fuller view.

I have to say that this is one of my favorite bits of the poem. The description of the sea-voyage and the boat are exquisite and the challenge of the coast guard is priceless, one horsed man against 15 well armed men.

I shoud look this up, but need to get on with things, but there is mention of the Vikings slaying a coast warden in the A-S Chronicle, I think if memory serves when they come to Portsmouth. Interesting analogue to Beowulf.

More another time....

[Michael]

Thanks for the clarifications and for returning on a busy day.

I know there are some horse burials in that time period but the use of a large cavalry force like Rohan's is not historically attested, except for Germanic peoples who spent time on the Steppes (like the Goths and similar tribes). I think the Franks developed a cavalry tradition fairly early but only after entering Gaul.

There was a famous horse burial for one of the Merovingian kings, if I recall correctly. So while the coast-warden's mount surprises me, it actually makes sense for a king's officers to be mounted in that time period. They must have had horses stationed throughout Anglo-Saxon England and Scandinavia for rapid communication if nothing else.

[Martin Read]

The kings of Wessex, according to the laws of Ine (fl. circa 700AD), had a class of servant called radcnihtas (road-knights) who were, apparently, often Britons. These servants were quite well-to-do and not servile, they seem to have been men who rode on the king's business, carrying messages and commands, patrolling and generally representing the king about his kingdom. This class of royal servant probably had a considerable previous history.

Two Anglo-Saxon horse burials have been discovered in the same cemetary in Lakenheath. In each case a warrior with weapons was closely associated with a horse with its harness. It is hard to escape the conclusion that these were burials of men who used horses in warfare, with mounts being sacrificed to accompany their masters into the afterlife..

A link to one such burial (the first one, found in 1997):

http://www.libertynet.co.uk/LHS/saxon.html

[Michael]

This quote from the article is particularly interesting:

She said that to find a Saxon warrior and his horse buried in the same grave is extremely rare in Britain, and sheds new light on Anglo Saxon horsemanship.

She said: "People have always thought that the Saxons were actually pretty inept horse people. I would like to think that it actually tells us that the Saxons were better horsemen than we imagined."

[Swain]

Originally Posted by Martin Read

The kings of Wessex, according to the laws of Ine (fl. circa 700AD), had a class of servant called radcnihtas (road-knights) who were, apparently, often Britons. These servants were quite well-to-do and not servile, they seem to have been men who rode on the king's business, carrying messages and commands, patrolling and generally representing the king about his kingdom. This class of royal servant probably had a considerable previous history.

Two Anglo-Saxon horse burials have been discovered in the same cemetary in Lakenheath. In each case a warrior with weapons was closely associated with a horse with its harness. It is hard to escape the conclusion that these were burials of men who used horses in warfare, with mounts being sacrificed to accompany their masters into the afterlife..

A link to one such burial (the first one, found in 1997):

http://www.libertynet.co.uk/LHS/saxon.html

Thanks much Martin! An acquaintance of mine wrote an article about 10 years ago on horses mentioned in charters and other "historical" documents in the 10th-11th century and demonstrated a keen interest by the late Anglo-Saxons in horses generally and war horses in particular. I haven't see a lot else written about on the subject though, and thank you again for this link. I'll ask around and see if there have been other such finds/artefacts etc.

[Martin Read]

You're quite welcome.

I personally think that the Anglo-Saxons used horses in warfare as and when it suited the tactical, or strategic, situation. The big difference from the continentals, from early Carolingian times onwards, was that they didn't elevate horse-warfare to cult status and weave an elaborate social and political structure around it.

BTW have you seen the Pictish Aberlemno Stone?

http://www.ancient-scotland.co.uk/picframe.php?a=6

It is believed to show the defeat of the Northumbrians at the Battle of Nechtansmere. The interpretation is that the left-hand figures show the Pictish army of infantrymen flanked by light cavalry, fighting them is the Northumbrian army, apparently they are all cavalry, fighting with lances and bearing shields. Interestingly the Northumbrian figures all wear round-skulled helmets with very long nasals identical to the one found at Coppergate, York (and the more recently unearthed "Pioneer Helmet" [with an iron boar crest!] also the ones shown on the Franks Casket).