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Matheliende is published quarterly by the students and faculty of Anglo-Saxon studies at The University of Georgia.
Matheliende welcomes any and all correspondence and articles pertinent to the Anglo-Saxon period. Such material should be sent to Mr. Alex Bruce, Department of English, The Univerity of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. Copyright 1997. All rights reserved.
By Eric Rochester
Last issue, I looked at two critics who took a semiotic approach to Beowulf. This issue, I am examining another critical tool by presenting two who use a feminist perspective. Again, I will be only giving a cursory, brief, and overly simplistic introdu ction and explanation of this complex theory, so those interested would do well to consult other works. (The bibliography in the back of Terry Eagleton's Literary Theory: An Introduction is a good place to start.) Feminist literary theory is largely bas ed upon the writings of Freud as interpreted by Jacques Lacan and can be extremely technical. But while an understanding of these writers is needed for any in-depth evaluation and explanation of this perspective, some appreciation can be gained just by l ooking at it in use. Here, I will be summarizing Gillian R. Overing's interpretation of Modthryth and Helen Bennett's observations on the female mourner at Beowulf's funeral.
Modthryth is perhaps one of the most disturbing women in Beowulf. Her violent nature stands in stark contrast to the demeanors of other women in the poem, especially Hildeburh and Wealhtheow, whose main function is to make peace. And, because she is a human being, she is in many ways more disturbing than even Grendel's mother. Although she certainly acts to define Hygd, whom she is mentioned in conjunction with, Overing explains how Modthryth's unpredictability and inexplicability are more meaningful than simple definition by contrast.
To appreciate these new meanings, we first must remind ourselves of some commonly noted facts about the society portrayed in Beowulf. This society is quintessentially male. In it, the primary relationship celebrated is a relationship between men: that of the lord and the thegn. Likewise, the primary desire represented in the poem is the desire for death. Overing notes that "Freud equates the logical end, the ultimate object of all desire, with actual death," but we need not seek an "understanding of desire as deferred death" in Beowulf (70). All possibilities are presented as binary opposites: repeatedly Beowulf says "I will succeed or die trying." Resolving desire frequently involves literal death, and in other cases represents a resolution of cho ices and opposites in a foreshadowing of the ultimate closure of death.
Matching this primary desire of the poem is its primary method of representation. Overing proposes that language and violence represent two modes of representation in the poem. In the masculine mode of language--especially as represented in the boast-- words derive meaning through an "inscription in the flesh" (Overing 89). Beowulf's boasts only have meaning because he makes good on them through violence. Traditionally, however, Overing argues that the women in Beowulf offer language as an alternate m eans of representation; Wealhtheow, in particular, tries to remove the link between language and violence. In this way, women act from their position as possessions to try to change the social order.
This effort of trying to overcome violence with words, though, is paradoxical. Lacan posits that "language is our inscription into the patriarchy; language embodies the Name-of-the-Father, or phallocentric Law, and is the point at which we enter the sym bolic order" (91). Hence, language is a system for maintaining male society, a society of violence. Ultimately, then, women have no part of this masculine mode of language, since they cannot signify through inscription of the flesh; they are thus in the class of hysterics, those outside society. Two commentators on Freud, Helne Cixous and Catherine Clement, define this broad category of "hysterics" to include "madmen, deviants, neurotics, women, drifters, jugglers, tumblers" (qtd. in Overing 75).
In Beowulf, Modthryth is a clear example of an hysteric. Excluding Grendel's mother, she is the least womanly woman in the poem. "She is vain, mean, proud, apparently gratuitously violent, aggressive, power-hungry, and initially displays an almost casu al contempt for men" (103). She clearly acts from outside the social order. Finally, though, she does become an assimilated hysteric, one who has conformed to what society expects of her and who subsequently disappears. In Modthryth's case, she is assi milated by her marriage to Offa, after which she becomes a model wife.
Overing sees Modthryth's rebellion as being motivated by a refusal to be looked at and objectified. The poem describes the penalties Modthryth imposes on those who look on her:
In refusing to be seen and therefore held or possessed by the masculine gaze, Modthryth highlights "the connection between seeing and masculinity . . . insisted on by Lacan" (104). Moreover, she expresses her refusal to be objectified by society in its o wn terms. Her use of the masculine mode of expression--here bizarrely inverted and redirected toward itself--underscores the process: "Modthryth turns the masculine gaze back upon itself, briefly becoming a spectator, an overseer herself, but then is co- opted in a joint spectacle." Overing goes on to say that Modthryth "calls attention to, even makes a spectacle of, that same connection between violence and signification in which she also participates" (105).
Also, the shock Modthryth causes in the poem is heightened by her lack of apparent motivation. While her actions to preserve her chastity may call to mind female saints and martyrs, she is not doing so for Christ; while Grendel's mother may be committin g acts of violence to revenge her son--a motive Anglo-Saxon society could recognize and agree with in a human--Modthryth has apparently not been wronged. The reader's inability to resolve the mystery and shock she presents only strengthens her part of th e poem and makes her that much more memorable.
Helen Bennett examines another female character, one who is hardly as shocking, though every bit as mysterious, as Modthryth: the female mourner at Beowulf's funeral. She has been variously identified as being Beowulf's wife (possibly even Hygd), a prof essional lament leader, or a woman about to be burned with Beowulf as a companion in death (Bennett 38). A related debate about her, however, stems from the manuscript, which on this page is damaged and barely legible. Bennett quotes the following as a conservative reading of the manuscript:
Klaeber fills in the blanks thusly:
Because of the extensive lacunae in the MS, and the subsequent (re)creation of the text, Bennett sees the female mourner as being partially a "dream of patriarchal scholars" who have inserted into the manuscript holes "their own inverted reflection to ful fill the supposed desire of the text while confirming their own ideologies" (35). What they have inserted has created the impression of a weak female mourner. However, Bennett uses analogues--a traditional tool in reconstructing and interpreting a text- -to posit a strong female mourning figure.
In contrast to the male lament, which often acknowledges a failure in the social order (cf., "The Lament of the Last Survivor," The Wanderer, etc.), Bennett sees the female lament as allowing women a way around or into a system that otherwise excludes th em. Since women are not able to act, they "surround the action with their words: urging before and officially mourning after" (42). Bennett quotes Tacitus as supporting the idea that Germanic men listen to women's advice and that, unlike the men who are expected to hold their pain inside, the women express their grief freely. Moreover, by contrasting present pain with past joy, women critique the male social structure, which otherwise excludes them. Such critiques are implied, for example, in Atlaml in groenlenzco from the Poetic Edda.
A feminist perspective of the incomplete nature of the MS, though, paradoxically allows the woman to be who she is specifically by her "not-being." Feminist critics see silence and open-endedness as being women's tools against the masculine social order . As female characters often refute desire and death through open-ended language, Bennett here refutes the critical desire for closure and instead insists upon the manuscript's open-endedness, enjoying the fluidity of meanings.
This article does not have the scope here to reflect upon the many questions feminist literary criticism raises for medieval and Anglo-Saxon studies: indeed, I have not resolved them in my own mind. This perspective does, however, allow us a different v iewpoint on some characters, like Modthryth and the nameless mourner, whom traditional approaches may explain only inadequately or overlook; it also provides us, a way to deal with some of the many irresolvable problems inherent in Anglo-Saxon studies, li ke incomplete manuscripts.
By Alex Bruce
From the first lines of the Old English poem Andreas we are taken to a world in which Christian saints have become Germanic thanes, where Christ serves as the supreme leader of a comitatus consisting of the faithful disciples. Such intermingling of the two ideals--the Christian theology with the Germanic war-culture--is very familiar; "The Dream of the Rood," for example, describes Christ as a "warrior" and the Rood as his faithful retainer. In Andreas we find such a mixture manifested far more often t han as an occasional metaphor. Yet instead of ultimately idealizing the Anglo-Saxon warrior code, the Andreas-poet seems intent upon denouncing the heathen practices which, we may assume, he saw practiced in some manner throughout Anglo-Saxon England. I n fact, parts of Andreas, especially as the poem moves to a close, can be read as a sermon delivered to those Anglo-Saxons who have not completely renounced their heathen beliefs.
At first, though, Andreas does appear to illustrate a complementary blending of Germanic and Christian elements. The Germanic social structure re-defines the nature of the disciples and offers a new perspective even on God. The original disciples are n ow considered maere menn ofer eorthan, / frame folc-togan and fierd-hwaete, / rofe rincas (7-9a). They fight with rand and hand on the here-felda (9b, 10a) in their attempts to save souls. The warriors also feel an obligation to serve their lord, to do as he bids; Matthew without hesitation ventures to the Mermedonians, knowing full well that he will be tormented. In turn, they are protected by their over-lord, God and Christ with him; when Matthew is taken prisoner by the Mermedonians, God haele and f rofre his thane during his captivity (95). God is now in the role of a "good king," of a king who values the support of his thanes and will not abandon them. Nor do holy warriors wish to be considered lord-less; such a condition means being lathe on lan da gehwaem, / folcum fracuthe (408b-409a). The cultural interaction seems balanced and positive.
But further observations reveal a re-defining of the Germanic code. For example, while the Germanic emphasis on fame as the best reward for a faithful warrior comes out in God's address to the imprisoned Matthew, "fame" is now understood in Christian pa rameters:
As we recall from Beowulf, a similar heroic tale though with a secular hero, unending fame is the best hope for any Germanic warrior; one benefit of Beowulf's deeds in Heorot is that all warriors will praise him: [him] feor ond neah / ealne wideferhth wer as ehtigath (1221-1222). Here in Andreas, though, such fame will be unending not only on earth but also in heaven because the soul will live forever; about half-way through the poem, heaven is described as being filled with warriors-turned-saints, a sort of Valhalla for the righteous:
In the Christian Heaven, the reward for which the saints fight, earthly matters--riches and songs and fame--have no place. These warriors strive to enter a land of peace; such a goal suggests that the poet appreciated and perhaps desired such a non-viole nt existence.
The poet of Andreas also adapts another deeply felt Germanic belief, altering the secular tone to re-direct the emphasis to Christian doctrine. Wyrd, that power which controlled the lives of Germanic warriors, has been replaced by God in Andreas. Howev er, the terms by which God determines the fate of man parallel those of Wyrd. Again, Beowulf provides the secular example. Beowulf's explanation of man's destiny rings out as one of the more memorable lines of the poem: Wyrd oft nereth / unfaegne eorl, thonne his ellen deah! (572b-573). The Andreas poet offers a slightly revised perspective: naefre forlaeteth lifiende God / eorl on eorthan gief his ellen deag (459-460). The Germanic warrior ideal is still there--a warrior must be brave in either case --but the controller of man's destiny has changed from Wyrd to God. Additionally, God has a slightly different role than fate. Rather than rescuing those in need, he refuses to abandon the faithful. Such conditions place slightly different demands on t he warrior in question; he must have been already committed to God.
Later in the poem, however, the Christian poet speaks out more strongly and explicitly against the Germanic philosophy of Wyrd. It is no longer an impersonal controlling element but a deceptive force of the devil. Christ, when speaking to Andreas in the guise of a sea-captain, tells him that the Jews crucified him because
The poet's commentary on this pagan Germanic belief is obvious: clearly Wyrd is equated with the devil, a misleading agent of evil. Such a statement against a Germanic tradition stands out in the poem; we have seen the poet willing to call his saints "wa rriors" and cast Christ in the role of a leader in battle, but he cannot accept that any agent other than God controls man's true destiny. There is no "fate"; there is only the will of God, and those who look elsewhere for guidance will only be led to ru in.
By the end of the poem, the poet's sermonizing attitude stands out most clearly, as in those passages which describe the Mermedonians' reactions to their lack of food. These Mermedonians, often called "heathens," are more than willing to sacrifice their own children. They readily and eagerly join battle against Andreas, the saint chosen by God, and torture him with delight. In such passages we can hear the sermon of the poet as he offers an example of what actions are considered crimes against God. T he poet further denounces such un-Christian actions through the mouth of Andreas:
Though these condemning words are spoken by Andreas to Satan, we can easily imagine the poet standing in his pulpit railing this sermon to a congregation below. He recognizes that turning from Christian doctrine is the first step toward destruction; his poem thereby serves as a warning to those who have not heeded the Christian teachings.
We might question why the Andreas-poet began by presenting his Christian heroes as Germanic warriors if he ultimately turns his work into an attack on the "heathen" beliefs so strongly associated with Germanic tradition. But consider that the poet wante d to reach his audience; to do so, he adopted the language and images familiar to those listening. He even chose the medium of heroic tales--the epic poem--to couch his sermon. In a way, this Christian poet had to say, "Yes, and" to reach his audience; he had to reach them through accepting the forms they knew, then propose his own perspectives before ending with a strong assertion of what he thought was right. By adopting such a progressive approach, the poet, we may believe, avoided directly threaten ing the Anglo-Saxon traditions--and thus was all the more effective in changing them.
By C. Tidmarsh Major
Although grammars of Old English often mention adverbial uses of the genitive case, in many instances the meaning of this construction is unclear. Quirk and Wrenn give several examples but make no real attempt to classify the different uses of the genit ive case as adverb (63). Similarly, Campbell lists without classification several nouns whose genitives are commonly used adverbially, noting that some adverbial forms "are not always the normal gen. sg. of the related noun" (276). Cassidy and Ringler, in the third edition of Bright's Old English Grammar and Reader list a number of genitives which function as adverbs but make no mention of different purposes for adverbial genitives (82).
In contrast to these brief mentions of adverbial genitives, however, Bruce Mitchell painstakingly examines the attested adverbial uses of the genitive case. In his Old English Syntax, Mitchell devotes several pages to the various genitive adverbial fun ctions. In addition to the common adverbs of time, in particular daeges and nihtes, Mitchell addresses the adverbial thaes. Although he asserts that "even in the earliest literary texts it was almost fossilized in the sense 'after,'" it derives original ly from a genitive to express time from which, in other words "from that" (Mitchell 586). Such an interpretation could shed light on two problematic passages in Deor, both involving the genitive thaes. Although the refrain and line 26 of Deor seem to in volve similar uses of the genitive case, the functions and meanings of these two uses of the genitive are essentially different; the refrain uses the genitive to express time from which, but line 26 uses the genitive as a modifier for an assumed subject of the clause.
The classic crux of Deor is the refrain thaes ofereode thisses swa maeg (Deor 7). Although the general sense of the line is well understood (That passed over, so shall this), the grammatical function has remained unclear. Although semantically thaes se ems to act as the subject, syntactically it seems to demand a nominative to modify. The other problematic genitive in Deor occurs in lines 24-26:
In this passage also arises the problem of how to construe the genitive forms.
Mitchell summarizes various proposed solutions to these cruces. Kemp Malone posits that these are instances of the genitive of reference or respect, yielding "It passed over in respect of that; it can (pass over) in respect of this" (Mitchell 588). Eri ckson rejects Malone's claim for an Old English genitive of respect but agrees that both passages should be resolved in the same manner. Instead, Erickson suggests that the genitives are the remnants of the subject with the nominatives deleted, supportin g a rendering of "The sorrow of that passed; so may the sorrow of this" (Mitchell 588). Mitchell himself agrees with Erickson that there is no precedent for on Old English genitive of reference or respect but suggests that each passage might be construed differently. Mitchell's solution is to treat thaes and thisses as genitives of point of time from which, with a resulting translation of "It passed over from that; it can from this" (588).
Mitchell's solution of a genitive of time from which is illuminating, but the Deor refrain perhaps calls for more analysis. Given that the genitives serve to indicate time from which, I propose an alternate rendering of the verb forms. Ofereode is a th ird person singular preterite form. Perhaps it should best be translated not as neuter but as masculine: "he overcame." Similarly, maeg is first or third person singular present indicative. Translating maeg as first rather than third person brings a ne w sense to the refrain. Putting both of these variations together, the line becomes "He overcame from that, so too may I from this."
The second instance is more problematic. Although Bosworth takes ofercumen as the object of thaes cynerices--"that there was an end of that kingdom" (184), the use of a past participle rather than a gerund makes a periphrastic passive construction more likely. This use of the past passive participle with a form of wesan leaves less room for an alternate verbal interpretation than is available in the refrain. Waere can be either second person singular preterite indicative or first, second, or third pe rson singular preterite subjunctive. A second person form in this construction is nonsensical, as is first person. The only remaining choice is third person. Erickson here postulates a deletion similar to the one he suggests for the refrain, in this c ase something with a meaning similar to "ruler" (Mitchell 589). In this case I defer to Mitchell, who suggests supplying nominative wea from wean in the previous line, giving as precedent the assumed he in line 68 of Beowulf derived from him in line 67 ( 589). Thus, the problematic passage becomes
Although this interpretation involves some difficulty, the construction is attested to elsewhere in Old English poetry.
The difficulties of rendering the genitive pronouns which seem to function as subjects in Deor has challenged scholars for decades. By shifting the focus of study from the perplexing genitives themselves to other elements of the sentence, one can perhap s resolve the difficulty. Accepting Mitchell's interpretation of thaes and thisses as genitive constructions of time from which resolves the difficulty and shifts emphasis to the verbs ofereode and maeg. The passage beginning in line 24 is more difficul t, but by not forcing it into the same construction as the refrain simply because both seem to involve unorthodox uses of the genitive, one can resolve this obstacle as well.
Feminism and Beowulf
Bennett, Helen. "The Female Mourner at Beowulf's Funeral: Filling in the Blanks/Hearing the Spaces." Exemplaria 4.1 (1992): 35-50.
Klaeber, Fr. Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg. 3rd ed. Lexington, MA: Heath, 1950.
Overing, Gillian R. Language, Sign, and Gender in Beowulf. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois UP, 1990.
Andreas: A Critique of Germanic Traditions
Andreas. In The Vercelli Book Poems. Ed. Francis P. Magoun Jr. Cambridge: Harvard University, 1960.
Genitive of "Time From Which" in Deor
Bosworth, Joseph. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Based on the Manuscript Collections of the Late Joseph Bosworth. T. Northcote Toller, ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1882.
Campbell, A. Old English Grammar. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1959.
Cassidy, F. G. and Richard N. Ringler. Bright's Old English Grammar and Reader. Third Ed. Fort Worth: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971.
Deor in Klaeber, Fr. Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg. Lexington, Mass: Heath, 1950.
Mitchell, Bruce. Old English Syntax. Vol. I. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1985.
Quirk, Randolph, and C. L. Wrenn. An Old English Grammar. New York: Holt, 1957.