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Grendel’s mother lives and where he is to fight with her in her underwater hall. The scene ends when he returns in verse 1623, but before he returns many in the party think that Beowulf has been killed by Grendel’s mother when they see blood spreading on the water. Good is used four times (vv. 1486, 1518, 1562, 1592). The first episode starts with Beowulf being called good (v. 675), and ends with the hope that God will give him good gifts (v. 956). Beowulf is good and rewarded because has taken the initiative for the fight and because he won. When he has succeeded he will not only be entitled to receive presents from Hroðgar, but also from God, since the saviours of nations must be God’s men. In between these points we note that tactics can be good (v. 681). Beowulf is good when he finds himself face to face with Grendel in verse 758 and he gets strength and determination by recollecting statements made in the King’s hall. This does not mean that he needs to encourage himself or talk himself into bravery, it is a sign of his being good and also a sign of the power of the spoken word. When Beowulf has defeated Grendel and everybody meets in front of the hall in the morning, there are several who think that Beowulf ought to be king. The author, however, points out that this is not criticism of King Hroðgar, who is still good. The situation in which some cry for a new king does not seem far-fetched, but it has obviously been put there to give Beowulf the opportunity to support old King Hroðgar. The second episode starts with Hroðgar being called good by Beowulf (v. 1486). In the end of the episode (v. 1595) also Beowulf is good. The beginning and the end of the two episodes follow rules of symmetry. The first episode, which is the result of Beowulf’s initiative, starts by calling Beowulf good (because of his initiative), but the requirements of symmetry demand that the episode ends by calling Hroðgar good. Therefore the second episode, being a reflection of the first, must start with Hroðgar being good and end with Beowulf being good. Especially the last mention of Beowulf as good seems to be put in for the sake of symmetry since his goodness is pointed out by the King and his men, when they think that Beowulf has been killed in the lake. Although the listener or reader knows that Beowulf has been victorious, it is not necessary to survive in order to be called good. For Hroðgar, Beowulf at this point in time represents the common rise-and-fall fate of a hero: he appeared, he fought, he was rewarded for proving himself to be a hero, he fought again and disappeared. Unlike the King, the reader has followed Beowulf’s fight and knows that he is alive, but also that it is not always sufficient to be a good man. Between the beginning and the end Beowulf is described as good when he finds himself face to face with Grendel’s mother (v. 1518) in the same way as he was good when he met Grendel in verse 758. However, in his fight with Grendel’s mother his sword, Hrunting, which he got from the deceitful Unferð, fails him. This results in a troublesome situation for the hero, but he manages to get hold of another sword, which is called good in verse 1562. This instrumental goodness is a parallel to the good tactics in verse 681 of the first fight scene. Instrumental and personal goodness are prerequisites for the ulti- 83
mate success, but there is no sharp limit between the goodness of an instrument and that of a person. Instruments are animated and men, as we shall see, used if they were instruments in order to bring about success. In the last fight the verses about the sword Hrunting are illustrative: 1518 Ongeat þá se góda grundwyrgenne merewíf mihtig mægenræs forgeaf hildebille, hond sweng ne oftéah, þæt hire on hafelan hringmæl ágól grædig gúðléoð. Ðá se gist onfand, þæt se beadoléoma bítan nolde, aldre sceþðan, ac séo ecg geswác ðéodne æt þearfe; ðolode ær fela hondgemóta, helm oft gescær, fæges fyrdhrægl; ðá wæs forma síð déorum mádma, þæt his dóm álæg 1518 Then the good saw the monster of the abyss the mighty water-woman1 , he granted a strong onslaught to the battle-sword, the hand did not withhold the blow, so that on her head the ring-sword sang a greedy war-song. Then the guest found, that the light of the battle2 would neither bite nor hurt to life, but its edge failed the prince in distress; it had before endured much hand-meeting, often did it cut the helmet, the corselet of the doomed-to-die; this was the first time for the precious treasure, that its honour fell. Hrunting was a gift to Beowulf from Unfreð, and there is little doubt that the man’s bad character has caused the sword not to support Beowulf. Not by sabotage as it happens, but by poisoning its good character. This is not just sad, it is also dangerous since if you cannot trust the good in all the shapes it can be expected to assume, then catastrophe is close at hand unless you find a substitute for the failing. Someone or something must take the place of a failing part, be it an animated sword or Thane Godwin at Maldon. This is also the case in the fight with Grendel’s mother, since eventually Beowulf finds a good sword in her underwater hall. In Beowulf, boats, tactics and swords are animated thus making it possible for them to act well and perform their part of the good. In this way they come close to becoming humans. For symmetrical reasons there is also an example of a good hu- 84
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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 ..............
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I. Introduction This study seeks an
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(Herschend 1993). It has also becom
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democratic congregation had been es
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ample of a need for large storage f
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mately the sense applied to the oth
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is found at Borg in Lofoten and dat
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Figures 3a and b. (a) The hall at W
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(b) An early phase of a farm at Cow
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The Farm Owner’s Seat The positio
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place. Living quarters are limited
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Figure 9. A proposed schematic deve
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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 58 and 59: The change in the meaning of the wo
Page 60 and 61: 60 UlfR ok þeR Ragnarr restu sten
Page 62: Earlier discussions of the Old Engl
Page 65 and 66: Figure 22. The structure of Wealhth
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: to introduce Beowulf and to describ
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
Page 107 and 108: 106 You have adopted the custom of
Page 109 and 110: Distant or stand-offish Germanic ki
Page 111 and 112: 110 So am I, exhausted by the might
Page 113 and 114: the first poem to express the unite
Page 115 and 116: How fast does Fame fly, rising on f
Page 117 and 118: order to survive and develop, but a
Page 119 and 120: Their peaceful role in general and
Page 121 and 122: eciprocal connection between a pair
Page 123 and 124: esult of a philosophical developmen
Page 125 and 126: connections is marked and dispropor
Page 127 and 128: and humans and animals on each side
Page 129 and 130: competition on the farm was smooth
Page 131 and 132: The established aristocracy is alwa
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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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