Beowulf - Institutionen för arkeologi och antik historia

proud, if he had composed them himself, and pleased the audience even if the verses
were common stock:
Hige sceal þé heardra, heorte þé cénre,
mód sceal þé máre, þé úre mægen lýtlað.
Her líð úre ealdor eall forhéawen,
gód on greote; (Maldon vv. 312–315).
Mind shall be the harder heart the more bold
pride shall be the greater as our strength grows less.
Here lies our earl all cut-down
good on the earth;
Byrhtwold is by no means the first to die; on the contrary, he comes after Ælfwine,
Offa, Leofsune, Dunnere, Æscferth (who speaks) and Edward, Ætheric, Wistan and
Wighelm’s son, who step forward to fight and die together with Oswold and
Eadwold, who speaks just before Byrhtwold. After him Godwin (not the cowardly
Godwin) steps forward to fight and die. This series of people is presented in no
apparent order or rather deliberately without any order, high and low, talkative and
silent, some defined by their own name, one by his father’s and some by both. Together
with Eadric, Wulfstan, Ælfhere, Maccus, Wulfmær, Ælfnoð and the three
cowards Godric, Godwine, Godwig, there are roughly 20 men around Byrhtnoth,
and those who go forth after Byrhtnoth’s death are there to represent his people in a
wider sense, not just his best soldiers.
Who the retainers were, in terms of merit and descent, and why they were chosen
by Byrthnoth in the first place is of little consequence. The point is that when the Earl
of the East-Saxon people picks out a bodyguard and when the poet needs to point
out a people, then they are both looking for a group of men whose ability and will to
act as good men is not linked to class, descent or age.
It seems possible that Byrhtwold’s use of the word good signals the rounding off
of the poem’s battle scene, and the line of men going forth to die is close to being
tedious. That may of course not have bothered the author, who obviously had a
catalogue to present, but in that case it is a happy coincidence that Byrhtwold expresses
himself so well. It is his role to be old and to sum up, without forgetting his
loyalty to Byrhtnoth. He is splendid in his old age, even better than Beowulf, whom
young Wiglaf had to remind of his youth when he expected that Beowulf would be
reluctant to reopen his death-bringing fight with the dragon (Beowulf, vv. 2663–
2668). Byrhtwold’s speech is, in other words, an approach to old age as well as to
the end of the battle and of his life, which by the way is of little consequence. Growing
old and maintaining the ability to judge a matter well, while sticking to ideals
formed in our glorious youth, is, to say the least, not an easy matter.
If it can be accepted that the good represents a framework and an underlying
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