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The change in the meaning of the words þegn and drengr in medieval times reflected in the analysis of Jesch and Meulengracht Sørensen was observed already by Aakjær (1927) and has been further discussed, e.g., by Christophersen (1982, p. 132). In relation to the word good the problem of understanding þegn and drengr relates to the fact that the Iron Age usage of drengr as a social quality was closely related to the quality of being good, while in the Christian era the word was not primarily linked to being a warrior or member of a retinue. Comparing two quotations from a medieval code of laws shows this: 58 Sextandi war Swarkir konungær, sniællær man oc goðþær ðrængær. Västgötalagen (Schlyter I, p. 302). The sixteenth was Sverker, a capable (nice) man and a good ðrengr. Döpis ængin tysna. elles han see swa gother drængr at han sik sjælwer j Jorþdan döpir. Smålandslagen (Schlyter VI, p. 104). No one is to be christened twice if he is not so good a drengr that he christens himself in the Jordan. About the king we hear an echo of the prehistoric good, the social external quality, paired with the quality of being capable, sniællær, which is a variety of being good, but when it comes to baptism, in the second quotation the expression suggests the Christian disposition and an individual internal quality. The character of proved loyalty, which is essential to the prehistoric concept and also the rationale for flattering the king, namely his loyalty to his people, is absent from the quotation about baptism, which implies one of the possible benefits of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In this question good describes someone with an inclination for pilgrimage. There is little doubt that drengr or góðr drengr designate a man who stands out in society as loyal and if we are not kings and loyal to our people loyalty is directed towards some sort of leader of a hierarchy. The words reflect the sorting of men within the hierarchies in such a way that it is better to be a góðr drengr than drengr. The same is true of þegn in relation to a king or a chieftain, but in addition it is possible for the þegn himself to be a leader to whom we, e.g., as drengr, ought to be loyal. Þegn may in other words designate a man with a stable and more or less elevated social position, but the basic divide is probably that between a serf and a man of family. This is expressed in the Västgöta code of laws in the following way: Þrel dræper man ættaþan han ana eig hetæ þengsbane. bóndi skal sak bøtæ. baþe arna bot ok ættærbot. (Västgötalagen, Schlyter I, p. 125). If a serf kills a man of family he shall not be called a thane’s bane (i.e. a free man’s bane). (His) master shall pay the fine. Both the fine to heirs and to the family (cf. Holmbäck and Wessén 1946, p. 25 and 45, notes 51 and 52).
The point of the law is to link a rule to the stratification of society and to tell us that the serf, although a man, is not a human being, but more like a soul-less animal or a thing.The divide between thane and serf, þegn and þrel, is in other words that between the socially accepted and the socially unacceptable man. Gräslund has, in a recent article (1995), discussed the meaning of good on runestones, from a gender perspective, pointing out that if good means ‘generally speaking good’, as Herschend proposed (1994b, pp. 187 ff.), it is strange that so very few women are described as good. In agreement with Strid, Gräslund rejects Moltke’s views (Moltke 1985, pp. 288 f.) and explains the lack of epithets expressing quality, as well as of descriptions of women’s achievements and women’s ways of dying, as a result of the narrow world—the farms and the local community (cf. Holtsmark 1964, col. 565 ff.)—of the rune-stone woman. Women, at least in the Mälar Valley, were privately, but not publicly good. So, in relation to Moltke’s view upon the word also Gräslund favours a general meaning. Good does mean generally speaking good, but rune-stone texts are not designed to give a fair picture of the usage. This gender bias is odd, but perhaps significant for the Late Iron Age, since there are other words, which are in our opinion rather neutral, such as the Anglo-Saxon (wel)-þungen, i.e., accomplished or excellent, a word used about women only. We can, however, be sure that several men considered themselves accomplished or excellent. Hovstad (1958) discusses the connection between good and drengr and he gives several examples from The Sagas of the Icelanders showing that good is a reinforcing of the word drengr parallel to constructions such as drenglikr and dreng-skapr. Good drengr thus means a good man, trustworthy and helpful of the weak. His examples suffice to show how (Christian) ethics influenced the meaning of good, and Hovstad dates this influence to the end of the Viking Age. In his discussion of the personal qualities of the Icelandic goði, Sigurðsson (1993, pp. 94 ff. and p. 95 note 5) points to two examples of the expression góðr drengr signifying two of the peaceful, nice and good-natured representatives of that group of men. Hovstad, Meulengracht Sørensen and Sigurðsson demonstrate the Christian and Pagan links necessary to understand the Christian and, moreover, Icelandic usage of drengr as a disposition, an internal quality, and thus also the stock expression drengr góðr. Their analyses supply us with a hint as to the general development of the usage, not least for the interpretation of the rune-stones. Even in the rune-stone material there are texts strongly pointing to a Christian meaning of good: Assurr gærði kumbl þessi æftiR Öind, faður sinn. Hann vaR manna mæstr oniðingR, vaR yndr mataR ok omunr hatrs. Goðr þegn Guðs tro goða hafði (SM 37). Assurr made this memorial after his father Öind. He was the most honest man, was generous with food and unwilling to revenge. A good þegn; he had God’s good faith. 59
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Occasional Papers in Archaeology 15
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Published with grants from Swedish
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6 The Two Panegyrics ..............
Page 9 and 10: I. Introduction This study seeks an
Page 11 and 12: (Herschend 1993). It has also becom
Page 13 and 14: democratic congregation had been es
Page 15 and 16: ample of a need for large storage f
Page 17 and 18: mately the sense applied to the oth
Page 19 and 20: is found at Borg in Lofoten and dat
Page 21 and 22: Figures 3a and b. (a) The hall at W
Page 23 and 24: (b) An early phase of a farm at Cow
Page 25 and 26: The Farm Owner’s Seat The positio
Page 27 and 28: place. Living quarters are limited
Page 29 and 30: Figure 9. A proposed schematic deve
Page 31 and 32: When eventually hall and power, kin
Page 33 and 34: Figures 12a and b. A comparison bet
Page 35 and 36: kitchen. The tempo in Northern Norw
Page 37 and 38: have their obvious counterparts in
Page 39 and 40: they, contrary to most of the guest
Page 42 and 43: accessible, elevated and at the sam
Page 44 and 45: Figures 17a-c. Three sections of ro
Page 46 and 47: this farm, however, the village was
Page 48 and 49: Figure 19. The Oelandic Iron Age vi
Page 50 and 51: 50 Figures 21a and b. (a), Early Me
Page 52 and 53: question. This is certainly a matte
Page 54 and 55: the sources used, houses as well as
Page 56 and 57: Although we may accept the argument
Page 60 and 61: 60 UlfR ok þeR Ragnarr restu sten
Page 62: Earlier discussions of the Old Engl
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Page 67 and 68: than pious disposition, ought to do
Page 69 and 70: Figure 25. Two partly overlapping e
Page 71 and 72: good father, good son or good broth
Page 73 and 74: 72 In reality it gives a significan
Page 75 and 76: and immediately afterwards he is cu
Page 77 and 78: current, throughout the poem as wel
Page 79 and 80: 2209 hé gehéold tela fiftig wintr
Page 81 and 82: Figure 30. The use of the word good
Page 83 and 84: to introduce Beowulf and to describ
Page 85 and 86: mate success, but there is no sharp
Page 87 and 88: Wealhtheow, whose name means ‘cel
Page 89 and 90: In verse 1810 the sword Hrunting is
Page 91 and 92: you and perhaps take a liking to yo
Page 93 and 94: it must be discussed how a Late Cla
Page 95 and 96: 45 Post tenebras noctis stellarum l
Page 97 and 98: Sigibert burn to marry the maid. Th
Page 99 and 100: why is the description of Brunhild
Page 101 and 102: Skírne-motif and hints at the para
Page 103 and 104: fourth belongs to a period after Si
Page 105 and 106: The second poem seems ultimately to
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Distant or stand-offish Germanic ki
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110 So am I, exhausted by the might
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the first poem to express the unite
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How fast does Fame fly, rising on f
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order to survive and develop, but a
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Their peaceful role in general and
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eciprocal connection between a pair
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esult of a philosophical developmen
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connections is marked and dispropor
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and humans and animals on each side
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competition on the farm was smooth
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The established aristocracy is alwa
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166
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peasants, namely the marriage betwe
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have been their obvious right to ex
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not free to pass through the lower
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174 Then Ælfwine said, he talked b
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was a child. Today we would not cou
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Beowulf in the first part of the po
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180
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Andersson, K., 1993. Romersk guldsm
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Fabech, C., 1998. Slöinge i perspe
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⎯ 1993. The origin of the hall in
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Knudsen, S. Aa. & Hertz, E., 1994.
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Nielsen, K. M., 1945. Var thegnerne
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⎯ 1993. Vikingetidens volde og bo
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Williams, T. A., M. Shaw & V. Debha
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212
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214
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216
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3 Dejbjerg. The hall from Dejbjerg
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on a central farm among other large
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186 Appendix II An English version
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188 To him who strengthless fled th
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190 When I, as a stranger, saw Germ
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Notes 1 The translation follows the
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always fasting, incessantly praying
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7. When Atharidos got to know this
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