NOTES

 

 

BLOOD AND DEEDS : THE INHERITANCE SYSTEMS IN BEOWULF  

 

 

 

* Cet article a été initialement publié dans la revue Studies in Philology, vol. 104, n° 2, p. 199-226 

 

(1) All quotations from Beowulf are taken from Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, (éd.) Fr. Klaeber, Lexington, MA : D. C. Heath, 1951 and are cited by line numbers in parentheses. I have not reproduced Klaeber's macrons or his punctuation ; translations are my own. At this point in the poem (lines 18a and 53b), the manuscript reads unequivocally "beowulf," but many editors emend to "Beow" to make the poem fit the West Saxon genealogies (where Beow is the son of Scyld) on the grounds that the scribe knew he was copying a poem about one Beowulf and so took "Beow" in his exemplar as an abbreviation. For a more detailed discussion, see James Earl, Thinking about Beowulf, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1994, p. 23-26. Although I have no particular objection to the emendation, adopting "Beow" could be seen, for my particular argument, as a form of disguised special pleading, so I have therefore retained the manuscript reading.

 

(2) See R. W. Chambers, Beowulf : An Introduction to the Study of the Poem with a Discussion of the Stories of Offa and Finn, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1963, p. XVII.

 

(3) There is no break in or damage to the manuscript at this point, but the metrical and grammatical inconsistency suggests a lacuna in the text. The name of the missing daughter is usually reconstructed as Yrse (Beowulf, éd. cit, p. 128).

 

(4) It is possible that this statement is a modesty topos, and de mortuis nil nisi bonum may well have applied in Anglo-Saxon England. However, the lack of modesty topoi anywhere else in the corpus of Old English heroic poetry strongly suggests that Hrothgar is being sincere when he states his belief that his brother would have been a better king ; Hrothgar could have, after all, said something to the effect of "þæt wæere god cyning" [that would have been a good king] in the subjunctive mood and left it at that. 

 

(5) John Hill, The Cultural World in Beowulf, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1995, p.101-102.

 

(6) See below for a more detailed analysis of Wealhtheow's objection to the "adoption" of Beowulf. At this point in the argument, it is sufficient to point out that the queen herself recognizes Hrothgar's words as having dynastic implications.

  

(7) This argument can thus be applied to almost any of the reasonable datings of the poem.

 

(8) See Michael Sheehan, The Will in Medieval England, Toronto, Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1963 and Michael D. C. Drout, "Anglo-Saxon Wills and the Inheritance of Tradition in the English Benedictine Reform", Revista de la Sociedad Espaflola de Lengua y Literatura Inglesa Medieval, n°10  (2000), p. 1-53. See also Stephen Glosecki, "Beowulf and the Wills : Traces of Totemism ?" , Philological Quarterly n°79 (2000), p.15-73.

 

(9) Lorraine Lancaster, "Kinship in Anglo-Saxon Society-I", British Journal of Sociology n°9 (1958), p. 232-237. The presence of this kinship terminology in Old English further indicates the underlying gender asymmetry of the inheritance system, and it supports my contention that blood inheritance alone is not sufficient to explain the depictions of inheritance in Beowulf or in the wider culture.

 

(10) Ibidem, p. 237.

 

(11) Lorraine Lancaster, "Kinship in Anglo-Saxon Society-II", British Journal of Sociology n° 9 (i958), p. 360. 

 

(12)  Ibidem, p. 361.

 

(13) David Dumville, "Kingship, Genealogies and Regnal Lists", Early Medieval Kingship, (dir.) P. H. Sawyer and Ian N. Wood, Leeds, School of History, University of Leeds, 1977, p. 73-104.

 

(14) David Dumville, "The Ætheling : A Study in Anglo-Saxon Constitutional History", Anglo-Saxon England n°8 (1979), p. 2.

 

(15) Bède, Ecclesiastical History, 1, 15 ;  and see Kenneth Sisam, "Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogies", Proceedings of the British Academy n° 9 (1953), p. 288-289.

 

(16 R. W. Chambers, Beowulf : An Introduction to the Study of the Poem with a Discussion of the Stories of Offa and Finn, op. cit., p. 202-203.

 

(17) Craig R. Davis, "Cultural Assimilation in the Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogies", Anglo-Saxon England n°21 (1992), p. 32. The appearance of linearity and continuity was a political fiction useful to the West Saxon dynasty in the ninth and tenth centuries ; see Alexander Callander Murray, "Beowulf, the Danish Invasions, and Royal Genealogy", The Dating of Beowulf, (éd.) Colin Chase, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1981, p 103-105. In the early Anglo-Saxon period, male members of a royal family up to the seventh generation from a king could inherit a throne (David P. Kirby, The Making of Early England, London, B.T. Batsford, 1967, p. 165). Dumville, however, believes that although descent from the founder of a dynasty was a necessity for kingship, in general, "at any period the throne was potentially available for whoever could seize it by force" (David Dumville, "The Ætheling : A Study in Anglo-Saxon Constitutional History" art. cit., p. 17-18). The membership of such a usurper in the descent group of a dynastic founder is more likely to be a result of the structure of a warrior class drawn from a restricted elite than it is evidence for a concern with the niceties of kin relationship and legal succession.

 

(18) Kenneth Sisam, "Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogies", art. cit. p. 322-323. 

 

(19) R. W. Chambers, Beowulf : An Introduction to the Study of the Poem with a Discussion of the Stories of Offa and Finn, op. cit., p. 202-203.

 

(20) Joseph Harris, "Love and Death in the Mdnnerbund : An Essay With Special Reference to the Bjarkamdl and The Battle of Maldon, Heroic Poetry in the Anglo-Saxon Period :  Studies in Honor of less B. Bessinger, Jr., (dir.) Helen Damico and John Leyerle, Kalamazoo, 1993, p. 89-92.

 

(21) Carol Clover, "Regardless of Sex : Men, Women and Power in Early Northern Europe", Speculum n°68 (1993), p. 380.

 

(22) At times, that competition could be channeled into less violent forms, such as Beowulf's flyting with Unferth (v. 506-606). But scenes such as the aged retainer's encouraging the young Heathobard warrior to break the imposed peace (v. 2041-2056) show the violent and destructive side of an over-reliance upon deeds.

 

(23) Hill writes : "The Lord gives rings, weapons and armour in anticipation of promised  services ; he then rewards or repays service by gifts, through which he again, while honouring his retainers, places them in temporary debt and affirms the heroic contract between himself and them. More than a bond, that affirmation underlines an entire system of reciprocal relationships between equals and unequals, with some relationships being more stable than others" (The Cultural World in Beowulf, op. cit., p.89).

 

(24) Edward Irving notes that "glift giving is-must be-entirely public. Gifts must not only change hands but must be seen to change hands" ; Rereading Beowulf, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989, p. 131.

 

(25) Hill's adoption of Bronislaw Malinowski's label "economy" is thus particularly apt.

 

(26) A word, by the way, not commonly used in the corpus of wills even when items such as swords are bequeathed.

 

(27) John Hill, The Cultural World in Beowulf, op. cit., p. 99.

 

(28) Lines 189, 268, 344, 645, 1009, 1020, 1040, 1474, 1652, 1699, 2143, and 2147.

 

(29) At this point, the manuscript reads "brand" (weapon or fire), but "weapon of Healfdane" is an awkward reading, and Grundtvig's emendation seems to be universally accepted (Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, éd. cit. 38n).

 

(30) Irving has noted that in this section of the poem formulas that invoke the lineage of Hrothgar and his troop are "rather noticeably bunched," but he attributes this clumping of formulaic references to the poet's putting "particular stress on dynastic pride and order, and on the national community as a close-knit family" (Rereading Beowulf, op. cit. p. 130-131).

 

(31) Hill notes that in this scene Beowulf acts to reassure Hygelac that his allegiance remains Geatish ; The Cultural World in Beowulf, op. cit., p. 99-100.

 

(32) However, perhaps a warrior less loyal than Beowulf might have accepted Hrothgar's treasures for himself.

 

(33) The passage runs as follows :

 

Þær him Hygd gebead   hord ond rice,

beagas ond bregostol ;  bearne ne truwode,

Þæt put he wið ælfcum eÞelstolas

healdan cuðe,                ða wæs Hygelac dead.   (v. 2369-2372)

 

[There to him Hygd offered treasure and kingdom, rings and the princely seat. She did not trustthat her child could  hold the native seat against foreign armies now that Hygelac was dead.]

 

(34) Long ago, F. B. Gummere suggested that Hygd may be in fact proposing marriage to Beowulf, but Beowulf does not take her up on this offer because he "belongs to the new order ;  he holds to the sentiments of nephew-right, but rejects its privileges" ;  Gummere showed that "nephew-right" is found throughout Germanic and Scandinavian history and myth ("The Sister's Son" in An English Miscellany Presented to Dr. Furnivall, (éd.) W. P. Ker, A. S. Napier, and W. W. Skeat, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1901, p. 138). But if Beowulf rejects the right of the nephew to marry his uncle's wife (and I suspect that it was less a legal right than a commonly taken route to power), then so does the poet, who does not hint that such a practice is part of the cultural world of Beowulf. Just as Hygd seems to make no overt suggestion that she will be queen with Beowulf when he takes the throne, so too does Wealhtheow avoid mentioning herself as marrying Hrothulf if Hrothgar dies nbefore his sons' majority.

 

(35) Hill sees Beowulf's choice to champion Hygelac's son as an example of the hero's insisting on the "continuing, uncompromised integrity" of his relationship with Hygelac ; The Cultural World in Beowulf, op. cit., p. 106.

 

(36) This scene is depicted as follows : 

 

Het ða eorla hleo      in gefetian,

Heaðorof cyning       Hreðles lafe

golde gegyrede ;      næs mid Geatum ða

sincmaðÞum selra    on sweordes had ;

Þæt he Biowulfes      bearm alegde,

ond him gesealde     seofan Þusendo,

bold ond bregostol.  Him was bam samod

on ðam leodscipe     lond gecynde,

earl eðelriht,              oðrum swiðor

side rice                    Þam ðære selra wæs. (v. 2190-2199)

 

[The commander of earls, the famed battle-king, then ordered that a gold-adorned heirloom of Hrethel be brought in. There was not then a better treasure in the form of a sword among the Geatas that he laid on Beowulf's bosom. And he gave to him seven thousands (of land), a hall and a princely seat. To them both belonged together in that polity inherited land and ancestral rights, though more to the one who was better.]

 

(37)  Craig R. Davis, "Cultural Assimilation in the Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogies", art. cit., p. 32.

 

(38) Uncle and nephew "form an ideal pair in the eyes of the poet" ; Rolf H. Bremmer Jr.,"The Importance of Kinship : Uncle and Nephew in Beowulf", Amsterdamer Beitrage zur Alteren Germanistik n°15 (1980), p. 28-29.

 

(39) Jack Goody, "The Mother's Brother and the Sister's Son in West Africa", Journal of the Anthropological Society n°89 (1959), p. 66-67. For an application to Anglo-Saxon kinship structures (though the idea is developed in less detail) see Goody, The Development of the Family and Marriage in Europe, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1985, p. 267-270. Jan Bremmer points out that the mother's father "is just as much an outsider in the paternal family as the [mother's brotherl]" and he therefore should be expected to develop some of the same affectionate relationships ("Avunculate and Fosterage", Journal of Indo-European Studies n°4,1976, p. 72).

 

(40) In so hedging his bets on reproduction, Hrethel ran the risk of alienating his own son as well as potentially turning him against Beowulf. Sons may reasonably be resentful if they discover their fathers are supporting for self-interested reasons other, synthetic sons who might one day compete with them for scarce resources. Beowulf's unpromising youth (described in lines 2183-2188) is surely a surprise after the favor shown to the young boy by Hrethel and may be a result of such resentment of the young Beowulf by Hygelac or his brothers. 

 

(41) John Hill, The Cultural World in Beowulf, op. cit., p. 36-37. 

 

(42) Klaeber believed there to be two branches of the Waegmundings, one Geatish, one Swedish, with Beowulf and his father Ecgtheow part of the former, and with Wiglaf and his father Weohstan part of the latter (Beowulf, éd. cit., p. XLIV).

 

(43) Friedrich Wild, "Beowulf und die Wagmundinge", Moderne Sprachen Schriftenreihe n°6 (1961), p.17.

 

(44) Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, éd. cit., p. 493.

 

(45) If Ecgtheow were a Waegmunding, Norman E. Eliason writes, "Beowulf would be half-Swedish-an unthinkable or even ridiculous state of affairs in a poem depicting him as the hero of the Geats and the Geats and Swedes as implacable enemies" ; Eliason then argues that because the Waegmunding connection "was not through Beowulf's father and could not have been through his mother, it must be sought through some other relative. These considerations lead us to expect that the connection was through Beowulf's sister, who we must accordingly suppose became the wife of Weohstan, the Waegmunding, and the mother of Weohstan's son Wiglaf. Wiglaf is therefore Beowulf's nephew" ("Beowulf, Wiglaf and the Wegmundings", Anglo-Saxon England n°7, 1978, p. 101.

 

(46) Eliason writes, "though seeming to deny the existence of a sister or nephew, [the passage] actually does not, for at that time Wiglaf would presumably not yet have been born, and the term used, heafodmagas, signifying 'royal relatives', I believe, rather than 'close relatives,' would properly exclude Beowulf's sister, who was not royal by birth or by marriage. Besides, it is doubtful that in such family reckonings a woman would have figured at all" ("Beowulf, Wiglaf," 101 n.1). Although there is significant special pleading required for this argument, a very similar reading was put forward independently by Rolf Bremmer, who shows that when nephews or sisters' sons are mentioned in Bede's Ecclesiastical History, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and The Battle of Maldon, the text is silent as to the name of their mothers. He thus argues that in this regard and in this way the uncle-nephew bond is dramatized : "Beowulf employs everyday notions, but also transfers them to a higher level." According to Bremmer, the special relationship between the mother's brother and his nephew "functions in the poem as a mirror to the bond between the father's brother [...] and the brother's son [...] the one is always positive, the other is troubled" ("The Importance of Kinship", p. 23-28, et 36). Hrothulf's relationship to Hrothgar's sons is that of the father's brother. Both Bremmer and Eliason suggest that the uncle-nephew bond of Sigemund and Fitela is analogous to that of Beowulf and Wiglaf (Bremmer, "The Importance of Kinship", p. 28-29 ; Norman Eliason, "Beowulf, Wiglaf and the Wegmundings", art. cit., p.  96-97), but it is unclear how much of the Norse story of Sigemund was known by the Anglo-Saxon poet. In the Old Norse legend, Sinfiotli (Fitela) is, because of Sigemund's incestuous relationship with his sister Signy, both son and nephew to Sigemund (Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, éd. cit., p. 158-161). Such a blood relationship, if known to the Beowulf poet, thoroughly complicates the suggested parallel between the two pairs of warriors.

 

(47) Friedrich Wild, "Beowulf und die Wagmundinge", art. cit. p. 20.

 

(48) Lorraine Lancaster, "Kinship in Anglo-Saxon Society-I", art. cit., p. 236-238.

 

(49) Adapted from Friedrich Wild, "Beowulf und die Wagmundinge", art. cit., p. 20.

 

(50) Lorraine Lancaster, "Kinship in Anglo-Saxon Society-II", art. cit., p. 362-363.

 

(51) Helen Damico, Beowulf's Wealhtheow and the Valkyrie Tradition, Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1984, p. 127. 

 

(52) R. W. Chambers, Beowulf : An Introduction to the Study of the Poem with a Discussion of the Stories of Offa and Finn, op. cit., p. 26-27.

 

(53) Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, éd. cit., p. XXXII. 

 

(54) The failure of Hrethric or Hrothmund to inherit is a complex argument based on much inference. The relevant lines are 1163-1165 : "Þær Þa godan twegen / sæton suhterfæderan ; Þa gyt wæs hiera sib atgædere / æghwylc oðbrum trywe" (there those two good ones sat, uncle and nephew ;  then yet was their friendship together, each to the other true). Much hangs on the interpretation of "gyt" : does it just mean "then," or is there an implication that at some later time there was not "sib" between Hrothgar and Hrothulf ? Saxo Grammaticus's statement (taken from the lost Bjarkamál) that Roluo (Hrothulf) slew Røricus (Hrethric) seems to lend credence to the theory that Hrothulf will usurp Hrethric's throne ; see R. W. Chambers, Beowulf : An Introduction to the Study of the Poem with a Discussion of the Stories of Offa and Finn, op. cit., p. 25-27. But whether or not the poet and the audience knew these stories and had them in mind is a very difficult question. That the poet suggests that Heorot will one day be destroyed by fire (v. 81-85) has been taken to substantiate this line of argument, but the evidence is still ambiguous.

 

(55) Sisam writes :"Everything hangs on the meaning of Þa gyt wæs hiera sib atgædere. It can be explained as an allusion to a final breach between Hrothgar and Hrothulf. Yet nothing is known of such a quarrel : that it was about succession is a guess, not to be found in medieval sources. And there is a possible alternative. Suppose that, as the Widsith reference suggests, the names of Hrothgar and Hrothulf called to mind a long harmonious co-operation, strong enough to break Ingeld's attack on Heorot, rather than its dissolution. Then the clause could mean 'the good pair of kinsmen were still together (when Beowulf visited Heorot).' This supposition may seem relatively uninteresting ; but it has the advantage of dispensing with a story built up in modern time on very slight foundations" ; Kenneth Sisam, The Structure of Beowulf, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1965, p. 80-82)

 

(56) Kemp Malone, "Hrethric," PMLA n° 42 (1927), p. 269-271.

 

(57) Damico argues that it would be "understandable" for Wealhtheow to support her sons Hrethric and Hrothmund by preventing Beowulf from becoming a legitimate heir (Helen Damico, Beowulf's Wealhtheow and the Valkyrie Tradition, op. cit., p. 126). But Wealhtheow promotes her nephew, Hrothulf, to whom she is related only by marriage. Other critics have read Wealhtheow as sponsoring  Hrothulf as protector until either Hrethric or Hrothmund is old enough to assume the throne ; in her speech, she is warning Hrothulf to respect the future rights of his cousins (see George Clark, Beowulf, Boston, Twayne Publishers, 1990l, 87). But, Damico notes, "there is no substantive or formal indication in the speech to suggest that the queen regards the youngsters as future rulers or kings" (Helen Damico, Beowulf's Wealhtheow and the Valkyrie Tradition,  op. cit., p. 126-127). Indeed, within the world of the poem there is no suggestion that a king may relinquish the throne if a relative with a superior bloodline claim reaches majority. Beowulf himself refuses to take the throne of the Geats while Heardred is alive (v. 2367-2378). Damico argues that "rather than being an appeal, [Wealhtheow's] speech is closer to a proclamation of proper action." By supporting Hrothulf, the queen casts herself in the role not only of aunt, but "aunt-mother", seeking to protect "her nephew-son's legal claim to the throne" from any challenge that might be justified by Hrothgar's adoption of Beowulf (Helen Damico, Beowulf's Wealhtheow and the Valkyrie Tradition, op. cit., p. 129-131). It is important when reading this section of the poem not to allow kinship to overshadow all other possible reasons for a character's actions. Wealhtheow may have preferred Hrothulf's succession for any number of reasons not directly related to his relationship to Hrothgar. If in fact the Anglo-Saxon audience would have recognized Hrothulf as possessing many of the same characteristics as the Scandinavian hero Rolf Kraki, then they might have seen Wealhtheow's preference as entirely reasonable and based (albeit anachronistically) upon the great deeds Hrothulf would later accomplish.

 

(58) This fact is evidenced most obviously by Hildeburh : when she consigned her sons to the funeral pyre,"ides gnornode, geomrode giddum" (the woman mourned, lamented with song) (v. 1117b-11118a).

 

(59) Hill argues that Wealhtheow "vigorously remind[s] Hrothgar of his duties" to the two boys and suggests that her actions work to bind the men in the warband together "in horizontal reciprocity" ; John Hill, The Cultural World in Beowulf, op. cit., p. 101-103). Mary Dockray-Miller argues that Wealhtheow does not in fact want her own sons to succeed to the throne because they would be likely to be killed if either assumed the kingship ; Mary Dockray-Miller, Motherhood and Mothering in Anglo-Saxon England, New York, St. Martin's Press, 2000, p. 106-114.

 

(60) Helen Damico, Beowulf's Wealhtheow and the Valkyrie Tradition, op. cit., p. 127.

 

(61) As both Damico and Hill have noted, Wealhtheow is, like Beowulf, a strong supporter of law and custom. According to Damico, Wealhtheow's actions "have clearly indicated her full awareness of and adherence to the concepts of royal honor and generosity" ; Helen Damico, Beowulf's Wealhtheow and the Valkyrie Tradition, op. cit., p. 127). Or, as Hill puts it, Wealhtheow's speech and actions work to preserve the social bonds of the comitatus through her "strong-minded" support of the bonds of kinship ;  John Hill, The Cultural World in Beowulf, op. cit., p. 101-103.

 

(62) In discussing the Finnsburg episode, Irving states that "men can at least draw up treaties, they can act in some way, however foolishly, but women can only see and suffer". He thus reads "a defeat of Wealhtheow's impassioned expectations" as inevitable ; Edward Irving, Rereading Beowulf, op. cit., p. 140-141). But, as Damico and Hill both note, Wealhtheow's political skills are not limited to the merely ceremonial or incantatory powers discussed by Irving.

 

(63) Klaeber notes that wealh can mean either "Celtic" (i.e., "Welsh") or "foreign," and peow may mean "captive" or "carried off in war" ; Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, éd. cit., p. 440.

 

(64) Luce Irigaray claims that women receive their value in a society or culture only insofar as they are exchanged among men. This exchange of women creates both culture and identity through such rules as the incest taboo and its inculcation in the consciousness of the individual ; This Sex Which Is Not One, (trad.) Catherine Porter with Carolyn Burke, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 19851, p. 170-176.

 

(65) Gillian Overing, Language, Sign and Gender in Beowulf, Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Press, 1990, p. 88-90. It is of course possible that the exchange of her body may have solved other crises of violence that are not a part of the poem, a point Overing makes when she notes that Wealhtheow "embodies" her function as peace-weaver. Wealhtheow's identity in Beowulf arises from her actions to bind together individual men in a homosocial bond. By passing the cup from one warrior to another she links them to Hrothgar through herself (p. 97).

 

(66) This would be the system described by Gayle Rubin in "The Traffic in Women : Notes on the Political Economy of Sex," Toward an Anthropology of Women, (dir.) Rayna R. Reiter, New York, Monthly Review Press, 1975, p. 157-210. Note that Rubin's system does not in fact exist in the poem but is a possible telos of Hrothgar's actions that Wealhtheow, apparently, fears. Women, in the feared system that does not actually exist, would be Irigarayan "commodities" ; Luce Irigaray, This Sex Which Is Not One, trad. cit., p. 192-197.

 

(67) John Hill, The Cultural World in Beowulf, op. cit., p. 100.

 

(68) Ibidem. 

 

(69) James Earl, Thinking about Beowulf, op. cit., p. 181-182.

 

(70) Assuming some (however small) finite chance of a blood lineage coming to an end at some generational boundary, it is literally only a matter of time until a biological lineage is broken. Mathematically, the proof may be expressed thus :

 

where P is equal to the probability of the event occurring, t is equal to a unit time, and tau is equal to i divided by the probability per unit time. As time increases to infinity, the probability of the event occurring (the lineage ending) increases to 1 in an exponential manner. I am grateful to Andrew C. E. Reid for his assistance on this point.

 

(71) But while "patrilineal genealogy cannot guarantee the continuity of kingly life [...] it is the only institution available" ; Clare A. Lees, "Men and Beowulf", Medieval Masculinities : Regarding Men in the Middle Ages, (dir.) Clare A. Lees, Minneapolis, Minnesota University Press, 1994,  p. 141-142).

 

(72) Overing argues that the ultimate expression of the masculine ethos of Beowulf can be encapsulated in the statement "I will do this or I will die" ; Gillian Overing, Language, Sign and Gender, op. cit., p. 70). Such a statement is a both/and rather than either/or construction: either the hero will accomplish the task and live, or he will fail and die. Beowulf's victory over the dragon, then, may be a transcendence of this oppositional structure, or it may be its ultimate fulfillment, since Beowulf's success and death leads to the failure of his people.

 

(73) I would like to thank Allen J. Frantzen for all of his help with this article. A version of this essay was presented at the 1999 Modern Language Association meeting. Thanks also to Helen Damico, Kathryn Powell, Teresa MacNamara, the students in my senior seminar in 1999, and my colleagues in Wheaton's English department.