The Larger Rhetorical Patterns in Anglo-Saxon Poetry 9780231895057

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THE

LARGER

RHETORICAL

PATTERNS

IN

ANGLO-SAXON

POETRY

THE LARGER RHETORICAL

PATTERNS

IN ANGLO-SAXON

POETRY

BY ADELINE COURTNEY BARTLETT

AMS Press, Inc. New York

1966

Copyright 1935, Columbia University Press New York

Reprinted 1966 with Permission of Columbia University Press

AMS Press, Inc. New York, N.Y. 10003

Manufactured in The United States of America

TO THE MEMORY OF

JOSEPH EDWIN WASHINGTON

ERSKINE.

"Surely, Sir, Richardson is very tedious."

JOHNSON.

" W h y , Sir, if you were to read Richardson for the story, your impatience would be so much fretted that you would hang yourself. But you must read him for the sentiment, and consider the story as only giving occasion to the sentiment."

FOREWORD The study of rhetoric in Anglo-Saxon poetry that is presented in this volume is limited to the consideration of verse paragraphs and of digressions and formulas which belong to the design of a poem as a whole. I began my examination of the style of Anglo-Saxon poetry with the idea of analyzing metrical groupings; that is, of determining, if possible, the combinations in which the Sievers types most often appear in consecutive lines, and what relation, if any, such groupings may have to the content. But, as I read the poems over and over and always aloud, my interest was caught by some rhetorical groupings. It was more and more evident that the metrical unit, the Germanic line or half-line, is not the only structural unit in Anglo-Saxon verse, but that as with most long non-strophic poems, there is a wave-like movement of the lines, a rising and falling of emphasis—in the language of prose, a paragraph movement. I therefore gave up my work on the metrical groupings and directed my attention solely to the rhetorical features of the poems, and chiefly to the identification of certain rhetorical group patterns. The immediate purpose of this study (which covers only a part of the results of the examination) is to attempt to answer the question: Are there any long rhetorical units in AngloSaxon poetry? There is considerable evidence that the poets at times followed definite structural patterns through periods of five to fifty verses or even more. That these patterned verse groups are often effectively rhetorical and that they are undoubtedly rhetorical in intention is the thesis herein set forth. At some later time I hope to deal in a somewhat similar fashion with the shorter rhetorical figures and devices of the Anglo-Saxon poetry; and I hope eventually to be able to discuss the influences which have affected Anglo-Saxon rhetoric.

FOREWORD

viii

In writing this volume and in preparing it for publication I have found myself under heavy obligations to many friends, who are not, of course, responsible for any of the errors which may hereafter appear, but who are to be thanked that such errors are not more numerous. The investigation was begun under the direction of the late Professor George Philip Krapp, to whose tolerant wisdom and keen critical mind I owe more than I can say here. In the final stages of my work Professor William Witherle Lawrence has generously given me the benefit of his exacting scholarship and his brilliant literary judgment. I have also received kindly and stimulating criticism from Professor Charles Sears Baldwin. Other members of the English department of Columbia University who have aided me are Professor Donald Lemen Clark, Dr. Henry Willis Wells, Mr. Elliott Van K i r k Dobbie, and Mrs. Ruth Buchanan M c j i m s e y . I am indebted for various suggestions to Professors Adriaan J. Barnouw and A . F. J. Remy of the Department of Germanic Languages and to Professor Frank Gardner Moore of the Department of Classical Languages. M y colleagues at Hunter College, Miss Helaine Newstead and Miss Lisle Cecil John, have given me some valuable assistance. I am grateful also to Professor Frederick Tupper of the University of Vermont for his helpful consideration of a part of the manuscript. M y greatest debt is one which I cannot even begin to describe and which has to do not merely with this little volume but with the whole course of my graduate study at Columbia University. It is to Professor Harry Morgan Ayres, a friend whose sympathy never fails and a guide whose truly humane learning is always an inspiration. A. C. B. N E W YORK

CITY

M a y 23, 1935

CONTENTS I . TAPESTRY: T H E PATTERNS

3

I I . ENVELOPE PATTERN

9

I I I . PARALLEL PATTERN

30

I V . INCREMENTAL PATTERN

49

V . RHYTHMICAL PATTERN

62

V I . DECORATIVE INSET

72

V I I . CONVENTIONAL DEVICE VIII.

T A P E S T R Y : T H E W E F T AND THE W A R P .

91 .

.

.

107

APPENDICES

115

BIBLIOGRAPHY

119

INDEX

127

ABBREVIATIONS IN T H E NOTES A N D BIBLIOGRAPHY AfdA Anzeiger für deutsches Altertum. AmJPh American Journal of Philology. A rchiv Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen. CHEL Cambridge History of English Literature. EETS Early English Text Society. Essays and Studies Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association. JEGPh Journal of English and Germanic Philology. MLN Modern Language Notes. MPh Modern Philology. PBB Paul and Braune's Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur. PMLA Publications of the Modern Language Association. QF Quellen und Forschungen. StEngPhü Studien zur englischen Philologie. ZfdA Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum.

THE

LARGER

RHETORICAL

PATTERNS

IN ANGLO-SAXON

POETRY

I

TAPESTRY: THE PATTERNS A literature which, like Anglo-Saxon, is spread over some three hundred years and embraces some thirty thousand lines of verse1 may surely be judged on its own record. Yet Anglo-Saxon has not always been so judged. Many investigations of this literature have been largely concerned with the study of Germanic antiquities or with the relations of Anglo-Saxon poetry to the Old Icelandic poetry. In the following pages, Anglo-Saxon poetry is looked upon primarily as the first stage of English poetry and not merely as the poetry of one of the Old Germanic dialects. By far the greater part of the Anglo-Saxon verse is in the long narrative (the so-called epic) form which, according to Andreas Heusler, came to light in the Teutonic world only under Christian auspices.2 All of it except Deor and possibly Wulf and Eadwacer is non-strophic verse. This typical Anglo-Saxon form, which is likewise the form employed in the Old Saxon poetry, Heusler calls "book-epic"; and, since it is not "altgermanisch," 1 I.e., surviving verse. It is at least possible that thousands of equally good lines were lost during the Danish invasions or even later at the dissolution of the monasteries. Professor R. W. Chambers thinks the fact that there is so little repetition in the Anglo-Saxon codices is an argument that only a small proportion of the poetry is actually preserved. See Chambers, "The Lost Literature of Medieval England,'" The Library, Fourth Series, V, 309. » Die altgcrmanische Dichlung (Berlin-Neubabelsberg, 1923), p. 182. See also Heusler's Lied und Epos in germanischer Sagendichtung (Dortmund, 1905), p. 5. See also F. Klaeber, "Die christlichen Elemente im Beowulf," Anglia, X X X V , h i ff., 249 ff., and 453 ff.; and Klaeber's Beowulf (Boston, 1922), Introduction, pp. xlviii-lii. For a somewhat different conception, see H. M. Chadwick, The Cambridge History of English Literature, I, 31-34; and The Heroic Age (Cambridge, 1912), pp. 74 ff. See also H. M. Chadwick and N. K . Chadwick, The Growth of Literature (Cambridge, 1932), I, 554-560.

4

THE

PATTERNS

he very properly gives it little consideration in his brilliant study of "altgermanische Dichtung." But neither Heusler nor anyone else will deny that the AngloSaxon verse is "Dichtung"; and perhaps it is all the more characteristically English because it is not entirely "altgermanisch." 3 The following study, therefore, intends to put the emphasis on "Dichtung." It is concerned merely with certain patterns and devices of Anglo-Saxon poetic style and not with the route by which such patterns and devices came into AngloSaxon.4 I propose to abandon the theory (which seems to have conditioned much of the work in this field) that nothing in Anglo-Saxon poetry can be of any historical significance or any poetical value unless it be "altgermanisch," and to examine the Anglo-Saxon poetry alone (with some reference to other WestGermanic non-strophic poetry) for what it is worth. I shall attempt to establish the outlines of rhetorical devices which actually appear in the Anglo-Saxon poetical records. I shall not, in this book, attempt to establish any relationship between Anglo-Saxon rhetoric and Old Icelandic on the one hand or between Anglo-Saxon rhetoric and Latin on the other hand. As far back as 1883, Reinhold Merbot, in commenting on the homogeneity of the Anglo-Saxon poetic style, regretted the lack of more detailed studies than Heinzel's "Cber den Stil • Chambers, op. cit., p. 304. See also Chambers' Foreword to Archibald Strong's translation of Beowulf (London, 1925), p. xxi. See also an extract from an unpublished lecture of L. L. Schiicking, quoted in Chambers' Beowulf: An Introduction (2d ed.; Cambridge, 1932), p. 398. 4 Yet, as a corollary to the general assumption today that the Anglo-Saxons did know Latin poetry, I find it impossible to believe that the technique, any more than the subject matter, of Anglo-Saxon poetry remained uninfluenced by the Latin models. A cultural parallel to England in the Anglo-Saxon period is nowadays offered by the Philippine Islands. Before American occupation, there was little or no recorded dialect literature, although there are numerous legends and traditions which appear to have come down from a somewhat distant past. The medium of instruction in the schools, above the elementary grades, is now English. An observer ignorant of the dialects gathers by talking with educated Filipinos that the fairly abundant production of prose and poetry in the various Malay dialects today is considerably affected by English style—far more than by Anglo-American ideas. Although I am aware that the Malay is probably more facile at imitation than the Anglo-Saxon ever was, I think there may be an analogy here.

THE PATTERNS

5

der altgermanischen Poesie" (especially the lack of studies of tropes and figures) and referred to the probability of Latin formal influence.5 Meyer's comprehensive work,* which came a few years later, is committed to the theory that Christianity had an ignoble influence on Anglo-Saxon literature and that AngloSaxon poetry is only a "degenerate" form of Old Germanic poetry. No work of similar scope has since appeared. Today, however, no one could say, as Merbot said, that very little has been written about the style of the Anglo-Saxon poems. Yet many of the studies of style have been confined either to one text or to one figure (oftenest the kenning); and they have often, if not usually, been largely concerned, just as Meyer's work was, with the relationships of the Anglo-Saxon stylistic devices and the Old Icelandic stylistic devices. There has been abundant discussion of meter, also—much of it to be classified as Before Sievers, After Sievers, and Against Sievers. But of Anglo-Saxon poetry as a relatively homogeneous and relatively independent body of verse it is perhaps still true that little has been written; and even less has been written that is concerned primarily with its style. It is therefore possible that there is room for a study of some of the stylistic qualities of Anglo-Saxon poetry taken as a whole. This study deals only with the larger rhetorical patterns of the poetry and especially with those verse paragraphs which are constructed on conventional rhetorical patterns. Verse paragraphs are, of course, common to most sustained poems and have long been more or less recognized in Anglo-Saxon.7 (A few years ago it was even suggested that the pointing in the AngloSaxon manuscripts is not metrical but logical.)® The verse para1 Merbot, Ästhetische Studien zur angelsächsischen Poesie (Breslau, 1883), p. 32. Richard Heinzel, "Über den Stil," etc., QF, X, 1-54. • R. M. Meyer, Die altgermanische Poesie nach ihren formelhaften Elementen beschrieben (Berlin, 1889). 7 Cf. Heinzel, op. cit., p. 44; and see W. P. Ker, English Literature: Medieval ("Home University Library," XLV. New York, 1912), p. 41; and Ker, Epic and Romance (London, 1897), p. 155. * E. W. Scripture, "Die Grundgesetze des altenglischen Stabreimverses," Anglia, LH, 75-

6

THE P A T T E R N S

graphs are not at all like stanzas, of course; they vary quantitatively as much as qualitatively. Many verse paragraphs, to be sure, have little or no rhetorical structure. They are merely passages of unified content, more or less marked off from what precedes and what follows them. Such passages, in which the Anglo-Saxon poetry abounds, furnish excellent evidence that they were composed with the poet's eye not on the word alone or on the phrase alone or on the verse alone, but on the group, on the larger thought unit. Almost the whole of Beowulf (excluding, of course, those parts which are organized as more formal pattern groups) can be analyzed into such verse paragraphs with few or no awkward breaks. So can Maldon. The echoes and other ornamental details in some of these merely logical groups are sometimes as striking as those in the more elaborately constructed groups. Even when they appear in themselves entirely commonplace, these logical verse paragraphs are yet satisfactory proof that the poet could see beyond the end of the line or of the figure, that he was not intent on such matters as alliteration and kennings to the exclusion of the larger patterns. 9 It is my purpose to ignore those verse paragraphs which are merely logical units, to concentrate attention on such paragraphs as show decided rhetorical patterns, and to emphasize the dominance of the rhetorical unit over the metrical unit. In the patterned verse groups logical unity is reinforced by structural unity. Any one group, the rhetorical structure of which is naturally most apparent when the verse is read aloud, has a beginning and an end. It is a little unit within the larger whole. Although the patterns are often irregular, it is hard to evade the conclusion that design is there. The result is somewhat like the production of a handicraftsman, a weaver or a potter, who follows a rough pattern, repeating now and then with arbitrary and whimsical variations. A machine does not, of course, act • Cf. Max Eastman, The Enjoyment of Poetry (New Y o r k , 1921), p. 178. Although Eastman is discussing the effect of line visibility upon judgment of rhythm, his remarks might well serve as a caution against inadequate feeling for rhetorical structure also.

THE PATTERNS

7

in such a w a y but produces invariably even, regular patterns. T h e Anglo-Saxon poet was not a machine, however far from real artistry his conventional schemes may appear to some critical minds. In the groupings which are to be discussed, some examples are far more nearly "perfect" than others. Y e t , although no two verse groups have exactly the same structure in every detail, some are strikingly similar, and in all of any one type the same structural pattern is at least faintly discernible. In some passages there is an overlapping of two or even three types. What I shall call an Envelope group will often show parallelism of parts, as an Incremental group nearly always will. The classification into types which has been made here may sometimes seem (and sometimes be) arbitrary. But it is not the classification of any specific passage that is here insisted upon so much as the recognition of certain pattern types. The more these verse patterns are studied, the more they help to interpret the design of the whole poem. The Anglo-Saxon "book-epic" is not a continuous sequence, moving like the pictures in a cinema film. D u Bois has recently characterized the method of Beowulf as pageant-drama. 10 I believe that the method of Beowulf is the method of all Anglo-Saxon epic; and I should prefer to characterize it as a tapestry, which presents its pictures in a series of panels. Each verse pattern is a panel or section of the storied tapestry. It has an organic unity of its own and it has also its place in the series of pictures (some of them narrative, some descriptive, some didactic) which tells a connected, unified story. A t any given moment the poet may appear to be more interested in the elaborate detail than in the composition of the whole. Still, his panels fit smoothly as a rule into a reasonably harmonious scheme of presentation; the tapestry is an integrated and generally consistent piece of work. The tapestry is woven from both Germanic and classical threads; but, for the purposes of this investigation, the ultimate origin of the verse patterns has been ignored or only lightly touched upon. They may be derived from Old Germanic or they 10

Arthur E. Du Bois, "The Unity of Beowulf," PMLA, X L I X , 403-405.

8

THE PATTERNS

may be derived from Latin or even from Hebrew verse, through the Vulgate. From whatever source, they are more or less regular features of Anglo-Saxon poetic style. The texts employed for reference and quotation here are as follows: Krapp's Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, Vols. I, II, and V, for the Junius Manuscript, the Vercelli Book, and the Paris Psalter and Boethius; Klaeber's Beowulf; Grein-Wül(c)ker's Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Poesie, Vols. I—III, for all the Anglo-Saxon poetry not included in Krapp and Klaeber; Heyne's Heliand.

II ENVELOPE PATTERN The name Envelope pattern is here applied to any logicallyunified group of verses bound together by the repetition at the end of (i) words or (2) ideas or (3) words and ideas which are employed at the beginning. Within the group there may be other intricate verbal relationships which may reinforce the Envelope scheme. The verbal agreement itself may be strained or entirely superficial, as, for example, in Christ 759^765 and in Christ 702-711. But, besides verbal agreement at beginning and end, there must be content unity or logical completeness in the group if the name Envelope pattern is justified. The mere repetition of a phrase or phrases within the space of ten or twenty or a hundred lines does not suffice to establish the presence of what is here called the Envelope pattern. The group of verses must be a real group to the mind of the reader as well as to his ear and eye. The groups may be long or short, the repeated words or ideas may be simple or elaborate. Two very simple illustrations follow. The words which pick out the rhetorical pattern are italicized. 1. Dryhtsele dynede; Denum eallum wearS, ceasterbuendum, cenra gehwylcum, eorlum ealuscerwen. Yrre waeron begen, ref?e renweardas. Reced hlynsode. Beowulf 767-770 2. pa stod on stafie, stiSlice clypode wicinga ar, wordum maelde se on beot abead brimlif>endra aeraende to J>am eorle, ]>XT he on ofre stod: Maldon 25-28

10

ENVELOPE P A T T E R N

In the Maldon passage note the chiastic arrangement of wicinga and brimlipendra. Chiastic also are stod on stade and on ofre stod. A diagram of this short stanza-like verse group would be something like this: a half-line

b half-line

25 26 27 28 in which A is the place idea, standing on shore; B is the central idea of calling and delivering the message; C is the idea of the pirates' messenger. 27a and 28a are in parentheses to indicate that those half-lines are only partial or indirect expressions of the idea. The fact that on ofre stod should probably be read with a changed subject (Byrhtnoth instead of wicinga ar) does not invalidate the scheme, which is dependent on verbal agreement of parts and logical unity of the whole. Reading the passage aloud will show the Envelope pattern even better than the diagram does. The diagram, however, shows better the possible origin of the Envelope pattern in simple chiasmus. Another origin, and a more likely one, is suggested by Hart's comment on Beowulf 132315-1329. Dead is Mschere, Yrmenlafes yldra brojjor, min runwita ond min raedbora, eaxlgestealla, Sonne we on orlege hafelan weredon, )>onne hniton fej>an, eoferas cnysedan. Swylc scolde eorl wesan, jeweling aergod, swylc Mschere was! The Envelope framework is simple and the two parts are contrasted. Dead—swylc (swylc being the descriptive content of the passage); is—was; but the position of was in the last half-line makes it not only the antithesis of is in 1323 but also the echo of

ENVELOPE

PATTERN

11

Dead. W e close as we begin with the idea of loss. H a r t says: Somewhat artificial in the use of the sonorous name for its own sake is, as we have seen, Hrothgar's lament for ^Eschere. Here, however, parallelism is confined to a single line (v. 1325) and it is something like the "envelope figure" of the Psalms . . . that suggests the conventional quality of the dirge. 1 From this comment the name Envelope pattern has been adopted for verse groups of the type treated in this chapter. Gewat Ha neosian, syf?3an niht becom, heart huses, hu hit Hring-Dene after beorPege gebun haefdon. Fand J>a e, ond on raeste genam )>ritig J>egna; panon eft gewat hufte hremig to ham faran, mid pare wcelfylle wica neosan. Beowulf 115-125 Though the direction in which Grendel is moving is not the same in the opening lines and in the closing lines, the poet uses the same words gewat and neos(i)an. Ham 124 echoes the idea of heart huses 116 (especially in conjunction with gebun). T h e Danes' beorpege 117 is antithetically echoed in Grendel's wcelfylle 125. Selre bid aghwam, J»aet he his freond wrece, )?onne he fela murne. Ure aeghwylc sceal ende gebidan worolde lifes; wyrce se ]>e mote domes aer dea^e; pat bid drihtguman unlifgendum after selest. Beowulf 138^-1389 1 Walter Morris Hart, Ballad and Epic, "Harvard Studies and Notes," X I (Boston, 1907), 200-201.

ENVELOPE

12

PATTERN

As in Beowulf i323b-i329 the speech to which this Envelope belongs begins with an imperative addressed directly in a conversational way. Each passage becomes formal with the Envelope, the earlier a dirge, the later a gnomic outburst; after the Envelope each passage again becomes more conversational. SiPPan

of grundum

godbearn

aslag,

cyning claenra gehwaes, )>a seo circe her aefyllendra eahtnysse bad under hsej>enra hyrda gewealdum. J)aer Sa synsceaSan soJ>es ne giemdon, gaestes )jearfe, ac hi godes tempel braecan ond baerndon, blodgyte worhtan, feodan ond fyldon. Hwae)»re fortS bicwom fjurh gaestes giefe godes )>egna blaed after upstige

ecan

dryhtnes.

Christ 7 0 2 - 7 1 1

This passage has also a simple frame. The last line repeats the first, with changed syntax and very slight verbal echo. This repetition is somewhat forced and certainly does not improve the sense of the passage. Lines 702-7092. tell of the immediate or apparent triumph of the unrighteous after Christ's ascension. The remaining lines tell of the final or real triumph of the righteous—after Christ's ascension. So far as I know, no editor punctuates the passage in this way. 2 Ordinarily, the stop is at gekwas 703 and 702-7033. are separated only by a comma from 698-701. With the ordinary punctuation there is, of course, no Envelope organization of lines 702-711. With that which I suggest there is not only the Envelope indicated in 702-711 but also a slighter Envelope in 691-701, marked by Swa . . . se witga cwafi 691 and swa hit on bocum cwip 7 0 1 .

Fyrd waes gefysed, from setieImdde, modig magoraeswa, maegburh heora. 1 Mr. E. V. K. Dobbie informs me that the punctuation of this passage for Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records is like mine except that it begins with Swa 701b. This punctuation would admit my Envelope pattern 702-711 but would not indicate the echo of 691b and 701b. (The Exeter Book is not yet in print.)

ENVELOPE PATTERN

13

Oferfor he mid t>y folce faestena worn, land and leodweard laCra manna, enge anpaSas, uncut5 gelad, ot5)>aet hie on GuSmyrce gearwe baeron, (waeron land heora lyfthelme be)?eaht), mearchofu morheald. Moyses ofer pa, fela meoringa, fyrde gelcedde. Exodus 54-62 Here also the verbal repetition in the framework has a forced tone, although the repetition of fyrd and Icedde is not in itself meaningless. "Wuna mid usic and pe wic geceos on Ptssum lande J>aer pe leofost sie, ¿delstowe, }>e ic agan sceal. Wes us faele freond, we Se feoh syllaS!" CwaetS j?a eft ratSe oSre worde to Sarran sinces brytta: "Ne J>earf 5e on edwit Abraham settan, selast J?am pt oftosi sceal dreogan dryhtenbealu, deope behycgan {»roht )?eodengedal, )7onne seo J»rag cymeS

14

ENVELOPE

PATTERN

wefen wyrdstafum! )>set wat se \>e sceal aswaeman sarigferS, wat his sincgiefan holdne biheledne: he sceal hean J>onan geomor hweorfan, J>am biS gomenes wana, Se J>a earfeSa oftost dreoged on sargum sefan. Guthlac i322-i33oa Here the words are the same and the idea is almost the same in the conclusion as in the beginning. The content of the passage approaches the gnomic. The Huru that follows in 1330b marks the transition from the gnomic to the personal and supports the interpretation of i 3 2 2 - i 3 3 o a as a unit. Still longer, though not more elaborate in scheme, are Daniel 6 1 2 - 6 3 5 and Genesis 1 3 6 3 - 1 3 9 1 and 1 6 1 5 - 1 6 3 9 . Here are quoted only those parts which indicate the framework: D a for 3 am gylpe gutnena drihten forfangen wear? and on fleam gewat, ana on oferhyd ofer ealle men. Sonne gumena weard

in gylpe waes. Daniel 6 1 2 - 6 3 5

Him on hoh beleac heofonrices weard tnerehuses mud mundum sinum, sigora waldend, and segnade earce innan agenum spedum nergend usser earce from eorSan and J»a aeSelo mid, J>a segnade selfa drihten, scyppend usser, J>a he pat scip beleac. Genesis 1 3 6 3 - 1 3 9 1 Swtice Chames suno eaforan on eSle; Swilce of Cames

cende wurdon,

cneorisse woe

ENVELOPE PATTERN

15

wermsegtSa fela; of J>am widfolce cneorim micel cenned waron. Genesis 1615-1639 Note the variation in the terms for the Deity in the first Genesis passage, as also in the terms for the ark. The Envelope repetition is so clear in all three of these passages that no comment need be added to the italics. Beowulf i 4 4 i b - i 4 7 2 has the Envelope scheme, although the design is made evident b y the repetition of only one word. I quote the opening and closing lines:

eorlgewsdum,

Gyrede kine Beowulf nalles for ealdre mearn;

Ne waes t>aem oSrum swa, syttyan he hine to gutSe gegyred hcefde. This is a simple but an entirely satisfactory illustration. Beowulf girded himself. He did this and that in preparation. Unferth lent his sword. Unferth himself was too cowardly to fight. Beowulf was not so—when he girded himself. The last line is quite unnecessary except for the purpose of rounding off the verse paragraph in an approved manner. Editors generally make this group a paragraph. But nobody so divides the preceding group, 1 4 2 5 - 1 4 4 « , which is also a simple but satisfactory Envelope unit: 14401441a recall 1425. There is perhaps some Envelope feeling in Beowulf 15911622, the Envelope being suggested by the echo and antithesis in pat was yfigeblond eal gemenged 1593 and waron ydgebland eal gefalsod 1620. Two passages with very slight verbal Envelope frames may be mentioned here. "Micel is Jjeos menigeo,

16

ENVELOPE P A T T E R N Bit5 eower blaed micel!" Exodus S54-564 Us is riht micel Waes heora blaed micel! Genesis 1-14

N o b o d y could deny the paragraph structure of these two passages. T h e first is a complete speech and the second is the introductory section of the poem, so set off by editors generally. T h e repetition of micel, common word that it is, does not appear to me to be accidental. In Exodus 554-564 the position of micel is chiastic and there is probably also a purpose in balancing menigeo and bleed against each other thus. There are a number of passages which are akin in their general scheme b u t are less striking in their verbid echoes. Andreas 1253-1265a is framed by the repetition of eorl ellenheard 1254— eorl unforcud . . . prohtheard 1263-64 and ondlange niht 1254— wintercealdan niht 1265. This whole passage is a decorative inset, description apparently for its own sake imposed upon the narrative. The Envelope conclusion recalls the reader to the story. Andreas 1 0 0 4 - i o i o a is framed by Geseh he Matheus 1004 and Geseh pa . . . sweesne geferan 1009. Boethius 2:1-7; 4 : 33~4°; and 2 1 : 3 4 - 3 6 all have simple Envelope frames. The framework of the first group is marked by lioda fela . . . geo 1 — f e l a gio . . . sodewida 6-7 and by on salum 2—on salum 7; t h a t of the second is marked by Hwi . . . sio wyrd . . . wendan sceolde 33-34—hwi sio wyrd . . . wendan sceolde 40; t h a t of the third is marked by waldend 34—wealdend 36. Christ 759b—765, which has antithetic content, has a slight verbal Envelope frame: hider onsendeelum fraegn: 3 3 ib-332

Him )>a ellenrof andswarode, wlanc Wedera leod, word aefter spraec heard under helme: 34o-342a

Wlanc 341 recalls wlonc 331. These words are echoed in for wlenco 338. Professor Beaty has recently pointed out the importance of echo as a rhetorical device in BeowulfBeowulf's reply here follows Wulfgar's question closely. " W h o are you? I am Hrothgar's man. What do you want?" " W e are Geats. I am Beowulf. W e will tell the king what we want." So much, at least, is not fanciful; perhaps it is fanciful to see a balance in Hrodgares ar ond ombiht 335-336 and Higelaces beodgeneatas 342-343Beowulf 2016b-2024a is even more complicated in detail. T h a t is, if sealde is the right word in 2019a, as most editors have it. Here the two members, 20i6b-20i9 and 202o-2024a, are marked by anaphora, kwilum. The correspondence of the members is very close. Wealhtheow, mceru cwen 2016, cheers the young men and presents rings, beakwriSan 2018, to the warriors. Freawaru, dohlor Hrodgares 2020, bears the ale cup to the earls and presents treasure, nagled sine 2023, to the heroes. I am inclined to suspect that it is owing less to realism than to rhetoric that the older woman is here associated with byre geonge 2018 and the younger with dugude 2020. Note especially in this passage the echo of geonge 2018 and geong 2019, and that of flet eall geondhwearf 2017 and flelsittende 2022. Alliteration, at the door of which some students would lay the responsibility of all such verbal intricacies, can have nothing to do with the echo in geong 2019. 1

J. O. Beaty, op. cit.

36

PARALLEL P A T T E R N

It is a common word, it is true, but it is not the only possible selection here. Beowulf is just as full of artificial wordplay (artificial, that is, by our standards) as are the less generally admired Anglo-Saxon poems. These two passages, which have no slightest touch of the homiletic and ecclesiastical, which are Germanic enough in tone to satisfy the most violent Teutonolatry, betray a strong predilection for verbal echoes. And the verbal echoes are handled very much as they are handled in Prayer III. I am, of course, well aware that wordplay is also present in Old Icelandic. It is difficult for me to accept, however, what seems to be the generally accepted theory about the presence of such wordplay in Beowulf—namely, that it is a purely Germanic characteristic. How can chiasmus with echo and balance be purely Germanic when they occur in Beowulf 2016 ff. but homiletic when they occur in Be Domes Dage 161 ff.? And what is to be said of Beowulf 183 ff.? It seems clear to me that either these characteristics in verse antedated the separation of the Germanic and the Italic branches of the Indo-European family of languages, or, if such characteristics in one Anglo-Saxon poem are due to the influence of the Latin homiletic style, there is no adequate reason for denying that that influence may have affected all the poems. I believe that Allen is probably right when he asserts that in the fifth century the technique of the rhetoricus sermo of the Gaulish rhetors exercised a great influence upon the art of the vernacular Irish bards, whose example, in turn, may have "taught the Anglian monk to value his native literature, to write it down, and preserve it."* The provenance of wordplay in Anglo-Saxon, however, is not the point at issue here. The point is that the rhetoric of Beowulf is very much the same as that of the other Anglo-Saxon poems, even of those which are frankly ecclesiastical. Durham Poem 3b-8 has balanced structure, lines 3b-5 paralleling lines 6-8. There is no echo here except in the obvious wunad 4 and wuniafi 7. • P. S. Allen, The Romanesque Lyric (Chapel Hill, 1928), pp. 131-132, 173.

PARALLEL P A T T E R N

37

Elene i - i o , the introductory passage, has no verbal echo. 7 Lines i-ya. are balanced b y lines 7 b - i o , the discrepancy in length being largely due to the heaped-up expression of time in 1-4&, which corresponds structurally to 7b-8. There is perhaps a conscious balance of acenned wear's 5 and weartS afuefen g-10, in cyninga wuldor 5 and hildfruma 10, and in in middangeard 6 and in rice 9. B u t the arrangement is not nearly so neat and almost mathematical as is that in the two Beowulf passages. Juliana 46-57 and Juliana 2 7 2-28 2a probably owe their Parallel turn to the fact that they are speeches, which in AngloSaxon always tend to be formal. 8 T h e plan of each of these two is regular, each part matching the other in detail. T h e two members are marked in 46-57 b y Ic pe mag gesecgan . . . gif ¡>u soHne God 46-47 and ic pe secge, gif pu to scemran gode 51. T h e members are marked in 272-2820. b y ic pec, beorna Hleo, biddan wille 272 and ic pe bilwitne biddan wille 278. Examples of short passages with balanced structure, with less emphasis on echo and other ornamental detail are: Bi Domes Dage 5~8a; Boethius 7 : i 8 - 2 3 a ; Boethius 1 1 : 5 9 - 6 3 ; Boethius 24: 49-54; Boethius 30:5-8 (in which note the somewhat unskilful repetition of oft and gelome, 5, 7, and the echo of leodum . . . leodurn 8); Guthlac 93ob-934a; Guthlac 1033-1036 (there is some attempt at echo in ongeat 1033 and ongan 1034, the opening words of the two members, and geomormodes 1033 balances gladmod 1035); and Woman's Lament 6 - 1 0 (the phrase parallels ALrest min hlaford gewat 6 and Ha ic me feran gewat 9 do not serve the same syntactical purpose in the two members). There are a number of passages which have a loose balanced structure like that of the short passages just mentioned and which likewise lack the elaborate ornament of Beowulf 2016 ff. Andreas 696-716a has two members marked b y the echo of pa se peoden gewat 696 and Syppan eft gewat 706 and b y the bal7 Alois Brandl (Ceschichte der altenglischen Literaiur, Paul's Grundrits, ad. ed., II, 1042) calls attention to the Latin periodic beginning of Elene. • See below, pp. 100-102.

38

PARALLEL P A T T E R N

ance of pegna heape 696 and getrume mycle 707. Note also the echo of 699-700 in 7 1 0 - 7 1 1 and the less evenly balanced parallelism of 704-70sa and 712. Beowulf 210-228 has two loose members 210-216 and 217228. The parts have no close correspondence in structure; but the repetition of gewat 210 and 217, flota 210 and 218, and the echo of on siefn stigon 212 and on wang stigon 225, guHsearo geatolic 215 and gufigewcedo 227, are too symmetrical to permit the conclusion that the balance is unconscious or naive. Genesis 873-881, a speech, has indirect question parallels, its two members being marked by for hwon secest 3u 873 and For hwon wast pu wean 876. This repetition of phrase is not in the Vulgate. Genesis io75b-io89 has a commonplace division into parts 1 0 7 5 ^ 1 0 8 1 and 1082-1089; the division is logical rather than rhetorical. So likewise Genesis 1702-1718, the parts being marked here by the echo of eaforan acende 1706 and eafora feded 1712. Harrowing of Hell 107-132 has two corresponding petitions marked by Nu ic pec halsie, hcelend user 107 and Swylce ic pe halsige, hcelend user 118. Soid and Body I, 9sb-io2, has direct question parallels, marked by Ac hwat wyll cet 119. Christ 1650-1665 and Phoenix 7-27 have each a heaping up of parallels, some of them unexpanded. It may be accidental that in both these passages the formal parallels occur at first in the a half-line and later in the b half-line. Christ and Satan 512-539 is loosely organized but has three sections, marked not at the beginning as usual but at the end of each by some form of sceawian 522, 533, and 539. Andreas 39215-395, Be Domes Dage 200-207, and Dream of the Rood 59-69 are all passages composed of short, simple, syntactical parallels. These parallels are complete sentences—rarely the case in heaped-up constructions in Anglo-Saxon poetry. Genesis 1431-1482, after an introduction of five lines, has four irregular divisions, conventionally marked by Let . . . fleogan 1438 and 1441, forlet . . .fleogan 1450, was sended 1464, sende 1478; and by time phrases, ymb worn daga 1438, ymb seofon niht 1449, ymb wucan 1465, ymb wucanpriddan 1477. This variation from the biblical narrative in the matter of time shows no more freedom in the use of the material than do the additional descriptive details. The biblical account is bare. Another repetition is that of secan 1445, 1448, 1461. Lines 1443-1448 form a little rhythmical unit within the longer group, secan wolde 1445 being echoed in secan nolde 1448. Rather a good joke on Noah, the poet seems to say. He would but the raven wouldn't. Note also heah hliofio 1439—steap hleodo 1459; gespearn 1447—gespornan 1458; and the opposition of steppan 1459 and gesittan 1469. In a similar passage, Elene 225-265, the parts are marked by

40

PARALLEL

PATTERN

the repetition of conventional phrases: Da wam J>e him on mode aer, etc. l>amj>aer mid firenum cumaft, etc. Syntactical parallelism is sometimes sacrificed to rhythmic parallelism, as indicated b y the chiastic arrangement of leofum monnum to sceawianne 914-915 and to geseonne synnegum monnum 920. (I did not quote 912b, 913b, 9i5b~9i7a.) Christ 1222-1234 has balanced members, i 2 2 2 - i 2 2 5 and 12261234, marked b y on pa swipran hond 1222 and on Pa winstran hond 1228. T h e lack of proportion here is of the usual sort in A n g l o - S a x o n — t h e saints have four lines to the sinners' nine lines, pa clanan folc 1223 balances synfulra weorud 1229. " F. Klaeber ( " D i e christlichen Elemente im BccwulJ," Anglia, X X X V , 45s) says that the contrast in Beowulf 183 ff. is found at the end of many homilies— K l i n e ' s , Wulfstan's, Blickling, etc.

46

PARALLEL P A T T E R N

Christ and Satan 608-627, like Christ 1222-1234, a description of the Judgment, has two members 610-618 and 619-627. They are marked by pa sodfastan 610 and Pa forworhtan 619. Each member concludes with a command pronounced by the Lord. These commands are arranged in chiastic fashion. "Ge sind wilcuman" begins his speech to the Just; "Nu ic eow ne con" ends his speech to the Damned and ends the whole group as well—a much more emphatic ending than the exactly parallel arrangement would have been. Prayer II, 4-13, like the groups just discussed, is a passage presenting a contrast between the good and the bad man. Its two parts are marked by se by aere mirigSe, )>onne he Sa handlean hafaS and sceawa5, butan he )>aes yfeles aer geswyce.

Se by? eadig, se )>e on eorSan her daeiges ond nyhtes drihtne hyraeies geweorkes, Sonne he 3a handlean hafac5 and sceawatS, gyf he ealteawne ende gedreogeS.

Gifts of Men 8-26 is less regular than the Prayer II extract but is still mechanical. Ne bid anig pees earfoZsadig 8 balances Ntznig eft paet hi beaduweorca beteran wurdon Brunanburh

37-52

T h i s is a g o o d example of the Incremental t y p e . I t is printed as one paragraph in K e r s h a w ' s translation. 7 I t m a y be analyzed as follows: (1) H e did not dare b o a s t of the swordplay

he lost

his son; (2) H e did not dare exult o v e r the s w o r d p l a y — n o r did A n l a f ; (3) T h e y did not dare g l o a t o v e r the s w o r d p l a y — w i t h the sons of E d w a r d . T h e repetition is o b v i o u s in this passage, as is also in the final section the h e a p i n g up of the terms for warfare. In addition to the linking phrases, note the repetition of idea in meca gemanan 40—billgeslihtes 45—beaduweorca . . . / . . . cumbolgehnastesj

garmittinge,

gumena

wrixles 4 8 - 5 1 . N o t e also har hilderinc

gemotes,/

wcepenge-

39—beorn blandenfeax 45;

and wcelstowe 43—campstede 4 9 — w a l f e l d a 51. Cwom J?a to flode felamodigra, haegstealdra heap; hringnet baeron, locene leoSosyrcan. Landiveard on/and eftsiS eorla, swa he aer dyde; He patri batwearde swurd gesealde, Ilrape wœs œt holme se ]>e aer lange tid

bunden golde

hyñweard geara,

Beowulf

1888-1924

T h i s passage, while it is not so conspicuous and has not e n j o y e d ' N . Kershaw, Anglo-Saxon and Norse Poems (Cambridge, 1922), p. 69.

INCREMENTAL PATTERN

55

so m u c h a t t e n t i o n f r o m s t u d e n t s of Beowulf, is almost as carefully w o r k e d o u t as 702 S., the coming of Grendel to H e o r o t . Besides t h e linking p h r a s e s a t the beginning of each section t h e r e are parallel phrases in the middle of each: pa was on sande 1 8 9 6 — p a wees be mceste 1905—Het pa up beran 1920. T h e r e a r e several o t h e r correspondences, especially between the first a n d t h e second p a r t s . 8 N o t e also swa he cer dyde 1891—se Pe cer lange tid 1 9 1 5 . Hie se casere heht ofstum myclum eft gearwian sylfe to siSe

abeodan beadurofre, Heht hire pa aras Constantinus

Heht he Elenan keel gif hie brim nesen eac gebeodan

Hio geefnde swa, siSSan winemagas westan brohton ofer lagufaesten leofspell manig. Elene 998b-1016 This p a s s a g e is similar t o t h e others. C o n s t a n t i n e gave o r d e r s : (1) T o p r e p a r e f o r t h e j o u r n e y ; (2) T o greet Helena—if t h e y g o t t h e r e ; (3) T o bid her build a church. T h e r e is a concluding section : (4) She obeyed-—when the orders were b r o u g h t to her. In a d d i t i o n t o t h e linking heht 998—1002—1006, n o t e casere 998— Constantinus 1007 a n d abeodan 1003—gebeodan 1006. N o t e also the e m p h a s i s on t h e w a t e r j o u r n e y : side 1000—brim nesen/ ond gesundne sione miclan Daniel 495-522 This passage, Nebuchadnezzar's Dream, is built up by two sets of incremental repetitions, Puhte him 497—504—508, and het followed by the infinitive 510—513—518. Logically and syntactically, the second set must depend upon the last member of the first set. Since it is somewhat unlikely that a poet employing this sort of technique would consider echo and rhetorical effects less important than logic or syntax, the six steps have been assumed here to be equal steps in the Incremental pattern. (1) On the earth a fair tree seemed to spring up; (2) The tree seemed to shelter the animals and the birds; (3) An angel seemed to come from heaven and speak; (4) He ordered the tree cut down and the animals and birds driven away; (5) He ordered the branches and twigs trimmed off; (6) He ordered the great trunk bound and put to torture. Beowulf 825-836 is a less conspicuous example of the Incremental pattern. It lacks the reinforcing echo; but it does show cumulative logical structure. Thus: (1) He had cleansed the hall; (2) He had accomplished his boast; (3) The proof of it was clear. Similarly, Exodus 233-246 appears to follow the pattern without using the customary linking phrases. Here, however, there is some attempt to secure an echo; wace ne gretton 233, Gatnele

INCREMENTAL

PATTERN

57

ne moston 240, and hie be wastmum on wig curon 243 surely form no accidental series. Three ecclesiastical passages have a like structural scheme: Christ and Satan 53-64 (see lines 55, 59, 63); Christ and Satan 579-596 (see lines 579, 585, 589); Prayer III, 10-24 (see lines 14, 18, 21-24). It may be objected that these passages are mere parallels. It is true that their structure is plainly parallel; but it is also true that a climax is indicated, that the first step in each passage is rhetorically far less emphatic than the last (compare Prayer III, 31-35). It is so even in Christ and Satan 579 ff., which begins with the Son and ends with human beings, for this is a homiletic passage and its aim is to inspire human beings to look forward to their places in Heaven. The two concluding sentences are hortatory. They are not part of the scheme (i.e., the three parallel steps) but round it off and show the unity of the seventeen lines. This is the sort of organization a preacher uses. But it is not only here that such rhetorical organization is to be found in Anglo-Saxon poetry; it is also in Beowulf and in Brunanburh. The Prayer III passage similarly leads to a climax. The ece drihten of the first section and the mihtig drihten of the second section expand in the third section into three full verses, a remarkable instance of the heaped-up epithet, of the variation that is occasionally spoken of as if it were exclusively Germanic. Note the anaphora in these concluding lines. Line 13 is echoed in line 17. Beowulf 1818-1839 is a speech which appears to be constructed according to the Incremental pattern. There is certainly a climax and the parts are balanced in phrase as in idea. Thus: (1) If I may help you at any time, I am ready; (2) If you have enemies at any time, I can assure you of Hygelac's help; (3) If Hrethric should ever come to the court of the Geats, he will find friends there. That Hrothgar and Wealhtheow are concerned over the possible fate of their young sons is abundantly evident. The tragic and prophetic tone of lines 1838b-

58

INCREMENTAL

PATTERN

1839 harmonizes with that of Wealhtheow's speech at the feast, especially in lines u 8 o b - n 8 7 . This pattern is followed b y three other passages from Genesis: 196-205, 903-938, 1296-1313. A l t h o u g h the significance of the Incremental structure in these groups m a y be lessened b y the close relation to the Vulgate text structure, such an objection m a y have no great force. T h e poets (or their immediate sources, if any) apparently had little hesitation about departing from the text to introduce one of their favorite patterns. If they happened to find a pattern that suited them ready to hand, it m a y be questioned whether their o w n inventiveness and taste ought therefore to be discounted. I t is indeed likely that both their inventiveness and their taste were always strongly under the influence of biblical and patristic models. With each of these passages should be compared the corresponding passage f r o m the Vulgate and also from the K i n g James version. T h e freedom of these Anglo-Saxon poetical paraphrases, whether due to the poets or to other sources, is plain. T h e Anglo-Saxon rearranges, compresses, or expands at will. T h e compression in 1296-1313 is marked. A n d the poet is not merely transposing to the first speech of the Lord God to N o a h what the biblical story puts in the second speech. See Genesis V I I , 1-4, and lines 1326-1355 of the poem. There are a few short passages the parallel members of which show a slight resemblance to the Incremental structure. Andreas 256-259 has parallel questions, the second of which appears to extend the first, but very slightly. Daniel 454-457 has similar parallel statements. This passage is also the concluding section of a R h y t h m i c a l group, 440-457. 9 In Juliana 1 1 - 1 7 the parallel statements, like the parallel questions in Andreas 256-259, are only two in number; but as in the Andreas passage the second member, feondscype rcerdon, etc., appears not only to repeat b u t to extend the meaning of the first, prcece rcerdon, etc. I should like also to include among Incremental • See below, p. 66.

groups

INCREMENTAL PATTERN

59

Beowulf 1623-1650. This passage appears to me to be an imperfect sample of the pattern followed almost perfectly in Beowulf 702 ff. and in Judith 199 ff. In this passage the divisions are not even of approximately equal length nor are they marked off by "bell-like" repetition. Y e t this group has content unity-—it may be called " T h e Return from the Pool"—and its parts are perfectly clear, if not remarkably graceful. T o place the two passages, 702 ff. and 1623 ff., side by side is to find that their pattern is much the same. Note in 1623 ff. the interweaving of the Grendel-head motif. Thus: (1) He came to land with his booty; (2) They met him; (3) They took off his armor; (4) They went forth carrying the head; (5) He greeted Hrothgar; (6) The head was borne into the hall. There may be an Incremental pattern in Beowulf 549-5 79a. The incremental element is in the repetition of hwcepre me gyfepe wearlS 555, Hwapere me gesealde 574, and hwcepere ic far a feng 578. These parallel phrases indicate (with the sentences to which they belong) some cumulative force; but the cumulative force is slight, the repeated phrases are in unusual positions, and it may be that they should be regarded as concluding phrases of sections that are merely logical parallels. Genesis 852-865a is likewise an imperfect example, but it has three sections clearly marked by pa comferan2>$2—Gewitan him ¡>a gangan 858-—pa sotta ongann 862. Finally, here are included (with some reservations) three groups which resemble the Incremental pattern but which also resemble the Envelope pattern. Beowulf 1677-1686 is almost surely Incremental. Thus: (1) The sword was given to the old warrior; (2) It came into possession (after the fall of the devils) of the Danish lord; (3) After the fierce one and his mother gave up this life, it came into possession of the best king in the world. Perhaps the semicolon after eac 1683 should be replaced by a comma. The clause pa pas worold ofgeaf gromheort guma, Godes andsaca, morfires scyldig, ond his modor eac is a repetition of after deofla hryre 1680. pa 1681

60

INCREMENTAL

PATTERN

is perhaps when, not then. This expanded variation is characteristic of the Incremental type of parallel. Note the echo of enta argeweorc 1679 in wundorstnipa geweorc 1681. In Daniel 104-119 the poet has expanded the biblical statement. This passage, like so many others from that poem, is complicated in its detail. Two patterns are blended in it. The repetition of pa was breme Babilone weard 104, pa pam foldogan on frumslape,/ . . . com on sefan kwurfan 108-110, and pa onwoc wtdjheort . . ./ Babilone weard 116-117 suggests the Incremental pattern; but the repetition of Babilone weard 104 and 117, especially when combined with the contrast of breme 104 and (ne) blide hige 117, suggests rather the Envelope pattern. Note the parallelism of io6b-io7 and 119. Genesis 1010-1035 is especially interesting for the change in emphasis which the Anglo-Saxon poet has made. Cain of the biblical narrative is principally concerned with his dire punishment. The next verse responds to his appeal and it has to do only with Cain's fear of death. But what does the Cain of the poem dread most? Not death, we may be sure. He is an AngloSaxon Cain; and exile from his lord is his worst punishment. " I shall be accursed, lord, and banished from thy sight." The Peoden is a significant reinforcement of the thought. Of course, the biblical Cain hates exile, too; but the climax of his plaint is that anybody may kill him. And God answers only that portion of Cain's speech. The biblical response takes up the word occidet. The lines that come next in the poem are: Him )>a selfa oncwaeS sigora drihten: "Ne )?earft 55u }>e ondraedan deatSes brogan, feorhcwealm nu giet, peak pu from scyle freomagum feor fah gewitan. Gif \>t monna hwelc mundum sinum aldre beneoteS, hine on cyme?) aefter J>aere synne seofonfeald wracu, wite aefter weorce."

INCREMENTAL PATTERN

61

The poet had to follow his narrative; but he had also to make the Lord answer what to him, the poet, doubtless seemed Cain's real lament. The steps in this passage are indicated as in Genesis 903-938 by the repetition of scealt. The repetition of awyrged 1015 and 1034 suggests roughly the Envelope pattern. But it is never so desirable, perhaps, to pigeonhole any group of verses as it is to recognize that the poet's handling of his lines is controlled b y a feeling for design. These Incremental patterns are much less frequent than the Envelope or the Parallel patterns. The technical problems of the Incremental pattern are obviously far from simple. (The truth of this statement is suggested, I think, by the fact that in the 5,985 lines of Beliand I have found only one passage, 4298-4309, which appears to be so planned.) But that this cumulative building up of successive parallels fascinated the Anglo-Saxon poets is shown by the imperfectly developed passages in which they attempted it no less than by such fine passages as Beowulf 702 ff. and Judith 199 ff., in which they thoroughly succeeded.

V RHYTHMICAL PATTERN One t y p e of verse groups in Anglo-Saxon is built up around the expanded line. I shall call this t y p e the R h y t h m i c a l pattern. T h e r e has been much discussion of the Anglo-Saxon expanded line and some of i t has dealt with expanded lines in groups. I t has been suggested ( i ) t h a t the expanded line sounds a dignified and ceremonial note; 1 (2) t h a t the expanded line groups in Judith indicate a sort of d r a m a t i c recitative alternating with, or interrupted b y , the choral epic portion. 2 Neither of these theories would hold good everywhere in Anglo-Saxon poetry. M o r e o v e r , there are a large number of expanded lines which appear w h o l l y disconnected and arbitrary, so far as any present-day reader can tell. In this t e n t a t i v e analysis of R h y t h m i c a l groups Sievers' conception of an expanded line is not strictly maintained. M a n y students, of course, seem to accept the work of Sievers as the last possible word on the metrics of Anglo-Saxon and to ignore completely the work of Heusler and that of Leonard. I believe that I a m in general accord with Heusler and Leonard in thinking that the so-called expanded line has the same metrical base as the " n o r m a l " line, and that the expansion is only in the speech material. 3 T h e distinction concerns rhythm rather than meter. 4 1 Eduard Sievers, "Zur Rhythmik des germanischen Alliterationsverses," PBB, XII, 456. Sievers notes that an ordinary verse stands sometimes in the middle of an expanded group and vice versa. « T. Gregory Foster, "Judith," QF, L X X I , 39. • See, e.g., Heusler, Die altgermanische Dichtung, p. 35. William Ellery Leonard, "Beowulf and the Niebelungen Couplet," University of Wisconsin Studies in Language and Literature (Madison, 1918), II, 99-152. Leonard, "Four Footnotes to Papers on Germanic Metrics," Studies in English Philology, A Miscellany in Honor of Friedrich Klaeber (Minneapolis, 1929), pp. 1-13. 4 For a clear statement of this distinction, see Paull F. Baum, "The Character of Anglo-Saxon Verse," MPh, X X V I I I , 154-

RHYTHMICAL PATTERN

63

Since, however, to question any slightest detail of Sievers' metrical schemes is inevitably to court some hostility, it may be well to recall here that Sievers himself is hardly so resolute in his position as are some of his disciples. "An entirely certain division of the expanded lines from the normal lines," says he, "is not possible for the present, until we are accurately informed as to the degree of license in normal verses occurring in the separate poems." The boundary between the normal verse at its longest, with anacrusis, and the shortest conceivable expanded line cannot be drawn. " I t is even doubtful to me whether this will at any time be possible." 6 I t is perhaps not an unfair inference that Sievers himself would have granted the (after all, slight) liberties which are to be taken here with his Sckwellverse. The type of Rhythmical group which occurs oftenest (with, of course, some variations) is built up from normal lines to expanded and back to normal. I t suggests the familiar bell-shaped curve of the social sciences and, like that, its curve is often irregular in outline; a is the norm; but the poets cannot always manage it. b

a

c

It appears that there is in such built-up groups a progress from a slow start to an emotional climax; and then there is a gradual decline to the conclusion. The logical and the rhetorical curves coincide, that is, with the rhythmical curve. And this coincidence is apparently the ideal, the norm, for groups of the Rhythmical type. (This hypothesis is, in a general way, in har5

Op. cit.,

p. 457.

64

RHYTHMICAL

PATTERN

mony with Sievers' theory of the function of the expanded line. The greatest number of exceptions to the hypothesis occur in Genesis B, Christ, Dream of the Rood, and Judith.) Not all such groups attain to the ideal, just as not all Envelope groups are perfectly regular. But many do. First, some groups are noted which illustrate the built-up curve without employing any lines which Sievers recognizes as expanded. These groups differ very little from those to be presented later; but, for reasons already indicated, they are purposely separated. These groups are: Brunanburh 2ob-28a; Christ 1302-1312; Daniel 79-92; Maldon 134-142. Note the slight parallels in Christ 1302-1312, really beginning at 1306b and marked by mag 1306, 1309, and 1311. Note also the parallelism in phrase in the Maldon passage; as in the Envelope pattern of Maldon 25-28, the verbal parallelism does not indicate a logical parallelism. The rinc is not the same rinc in all three instances (134, 138, 140); but the choice of that word would seem to be all the more deliberate when it violates consistency. In almost every way like those four groups, except that anyone will admit that the centers of these next groups are expanded lines, are: Beowulf 1703b-!709a; Daniel 200-208, 430439; Dream of the Rood 6b-i2; Elene 574-597; Genesis 2162-21J2, 2864b-287oa; Guthlac 158-170, 342~354a, 670-678, 1274-1278; Be Domes Dage 119-123; Beowulf 1455-1464; A Father's Instruction i6b~20. Be Domes Dcege 119 ff. and Beowulf 1455 (by use of litotes) approach the Envelope pattern. There are also some elaborately constructed passages of this pattern, in which other rhetorical devices are employed along with the expanded lines. Such is Andreas 792-810, which is in three sections, marked by Het pa ofstlice 792, Het hie to pam side gyrwan 795, and Hie da ricene het 807. The sections are not perfect parallels, to be sure, for the second is much longer than the first or the third and is itself divisible into two parts, the command and the carrying out of the command. Geweotan Za 3a witigan pry 801 repeats faran to frean dome 796. 796b is

RHYTHMICAL PATTERN

65

echoed in 803b. Has the concept of traveling perhaps some influence here on the poet's choice of the labored, expanded lines? Christ H49b-ii74 employs interlaced parallels, the pattern of which is shown by heofon hluttre ongeat 1150; Hwatt eac scyldge men/ gesegon to sofie 1 1 5 3 - 1 1 5 4 ; Hell eac ongeat 1x60; Bwat! eac see cydde 1164; Ge eac beamas onbudon 1170. But the interlacing does not stop there. 1162b repeats or echoes 1156; and 1170b echoes i i 5 o b - i i 5 i a and also 1165a. In these twistings and wri things of the verse, the position of the important word in the phrase is varied, if not that of the whole phrase. Can such effects be accidental or can alliteration be their innocent cause? The distribution of the words and phrases here appears to be neither a rhythmical nor a logical necessity but simply a rhetorical means to ornamentation. This weaving in and out could have gone on, like an arabesque motif in a curtain or a carpet, with negligible differences in the details, as long as the poet's ingenuity could make the series last. The poet is clearly quite as much concerned with his word arrangement as with his ideas. Daniel 224-249 is in two parts, marked by pa weartS yrre anmoi cyning, het he ofn onhcetan 224 and Hreohmod was se haZena peoden, het hie hrafie barnan 241. Daniel 254b-278 is likewise in two parts, marked by Bar to geseah/ Babilone brego 254-255 and Geseah 5a swidmod cyning 268. These Rhythmical groups are similar and may be examined together. Perhaps, instead of being two groups (with lines 25o-254a forming a distinct step in the poem) Daniel 224-278 is one long group with a double curve (recalling the double Envelope groups in Chapter II). Several of the longer groups have outlines that rise and fall. The reference is not, of course, to the outlines that meet the eye in print, although those very often are fair indications of the rhythmical curves which meet the ear. Thus, lines 224-278 would be a group of four sections, marked by the lines and halflines just noted. Separately, with the little break or bridge of 25o-254a between, there are two groups of two sections each.

66

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PATTERN

The curve is simpler in the latter case but the explanation is not therefore the more correct. In each group the sections are little more than duplicates. Lines 241-249 repeat lines 224-240. And lines 268-278 repeat 254I3-267. It is not merely the initial phrase that is repeated in these sections. T h e whole substance is worked over. Perhaps some criticism of naive and inartistic Anglo-Saxon repetition might be modified if the critics dwelt on the care with which these rhetorical patterns are wrought. W e may not today very much admire this sort of wordplay. I t may be decidedly jejune; it may be a rhetorical or prose form of ornamentation instead of an appropriately poetical form; but it is, nevertheless, an entirely different thing from repeating naively because the poet is loath to leave a subject for its own sake or because he is technically unable to go straight ahead. This Daniel poet is not diverted from his course by wordplay. All these windings and twistings are his course. The minor echoes and variations in these two passages (or this one long passage) from Daniel almost defy our calculation; but it is hard to believe that they in any way escaped or outran the poet's calculation. Daniel 440-457, like Daniel 224-249, begins with a lengthened line. These groups have what might be called a sort of rhythmic anacrusis. It will be seen later that in many Rhythmical groups which do not follow the bell-shaped curve pattern, such lines tend to occur at the beginning or at the end of the group. There are here no such echoes as in the other Daniel passages; but there is a kind of alternation of topic: (1) the angel; (2) the youths; (3) the king; (4) the youths. The second, third, and fourth members of this series conclude with somewhat parallel lines: 447, 451, 4 5 6 ^ 4 5 7 . It may be that Daniel 430-457 should be interpreted as a single expanded group, in which case to the series just now given should be prefixed: (1) the king; (2) the youths. Genesis 2173-2186, like Andreas 792-810, is much less complicated than the Christ and the Daniel passages just consid-

RHYTHMICAL PATTERN

67

ered. The Genesis and Andreas groups show a very irregular curve, the Andreas passage having two pairs of expanded lines, the Genesis passage having three single expanded lines, the expanded lines in both being placed with some effect of regularity. The Genesis passage, too, is schematized; 2180a repeats 21752176a. The unity of this passage is obvious. Beowulf n 6 2 b - n 6 8 is a group made up entirely of expanded lines. There is an approach to an Envelope grouping in the mention of Wealhtheow at the beginning and the end. It does almost seem as if Wealhtheow provokes expanded lines; compare Beowulf 2172-2173. Klaeber's paragraphing makes 1159b1168 the group here; but if the Envelope group i o 6 3 - n 6 2 a be admitted, 1 1 5 9 b - ! 162a will belong to that group and a paragraph break should be made after 1162a. Several other groups of a somewhat similar structure are put forward with more hesitation. There is less artistry in these, they are certainly less regular. They may possibly be as arbitrary as are the scattered single expanded lines. Such are: Boethius 31:6b—9; Christ 1545-1549; Dream of the Rood 1 3 1 b 135a; Genesis i54~i57a, 2^26-2^20.; Soul and Body 1,95b-iooa. These are all very short passages. The principal reason for thinking these six groups less convincing illustrations of the builtup Rhythmical pattern is that in them the logical unit does not entirely coincide with the rhetorical unit. The last example, for instance, is followed by a passage of two and a half lines which is an uneven parallel—but still a parallel in content—to lines 95b-iooa. All these doubtful passages except the two from Genesis occur in lyrical, or at least in non-narrative, poems. Exodus 565-579 and Genesis 1010-1021 are longer groups which, like the six short groups just mentioned, have a less obvious built-up structure than those listed first. Still more problematical as groups around expanded centers are: Boethius 25: 37b—53; Christ 868-899; Genesis 2399-2418. Of all these eleven doubtful groups, each shows only a very slight expansion in the middle; and perhaps the logical scheme does not agree in any

68

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PATTERN

case to such an impressive extent as to justify the present classification. The Exodus group appears to come nearest to the builtup pattern. Another group that might possibly be included is Beowulf 2989-2998. It looks and sounds very much like a built-up Rhythmical pattern; but the effect of considering this passage as an organized rhetorical group and of accepting the expanded lines as the climax of interest is to find the three concluding lines a somewhat humorous anticlimax. Even so, these last lines are no funnier than many others which we must accept; for instance, Genesis 2927-2929. It may be argued that the humor in the Genesis passage is verbal, not logical; but perhaps the Anglo-Saxons saw no humor in either passage. Another pattern in which expanded lines often occur is that in which they are heaped at the beginning or at the end of a long logical group. The end is the preferred place; and perhaps such a use of the emphatic (or at least the heavy) lines seems more natural than their use in the built-up pattern. Examples are: Dream of the Rood 18-23, expanded lines 20-23; Genesis 34b-46, expanded lines 44-46; Genesis 2850-2859, expanded lines 2853-2859 (but only the first half-line expanded anywhere in this group); Guthlac 1-63, expanded lines 59^63; Guthlac 210-262, expanded lines 210-213 a n d 260-262 (this group is made up of two speeches, linked by four lines of narrative, lines 233-236; Guthlac begins his speech with expanded lines, the devil concludes with them; for the phrasing in this group, compare Elene 667-668, 594-597); Guthlac 1267b-!273, expanded lines 1268-1269a; Guthlac 423-440, expanded lines 436-440; Wonders of Creation complete, 1-102, expanded lines 98-102. The Guthlac groups are very irregular; but they are hardly so erratic as are those groups in Judith and in Genesis B which employ the expanded line. "Erratic" is meant, of course, in a rhetorical or schematic sense. Perhaps the expanded lines in Judith are the finest in Anglo-Saxon verse, as Foster says; although a word might be said for those in Daniel, of which Foster does not think so highly.

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69

Sporadic instances of an expanded a verse with a normal b verse and of a normal a verse with an expanded b verse are not uncommon. Genesis 2850-2859 and Daniel 224-249 show the rarer use of such expanded half-lines in groups. T w o very long passages—Christ 1363-1515 and Dream of the Rood 28-121—make extensive use of the expanded line. The Christ passage, which is (except for 1363-1379, the prelude) a reproachful speech of the Deity to sinful men, begins and ends with expanded lines, 1364, 1366, and 1514-1515; and it contains other such lines at 1382-1386, 1423-1428, 1488, 1496-1497, 1504, 1507. The Dream of the Rood passage, spoken by the Rood to the dreamer, contains expanded lines at 30-34, 39-43, 46-49, 59-69, 75. Neither of these passages appears to follow any set scheme. The intermittent use of the expanded line here, as in the whole of Christ and Dream of the Rood, bears some resemblance to that in Genesis B and Heliand and perhaps in Judith. All these poems (except Heliand) are more lyrical or dramatic than narrative. There are a few shorter verse groups employing the expanded line to some extent, but, like the long Christ and Dream of the Rood passages, not apparently schematic. They are Christ 16661668\Guthlac 1129b-i 135; Harrowing of Hell 14-16; Rime Poem 55-58 and 80-83; Rune Poem 25-28; Seafarer 106-109; Wanderer 1 1 1 - 1 1 5 (these lines might be explained as an expanded conclusion); here too might be listed Our Father I complete, i - i i , in which lines 2 and 5 are expanded. It has been impossible to find any controlling principle in the arrangement of most of the long lines of Genesis B or in those of Gnomes, Judith, and Salomon and Saturn. Certain topics seem to stir the poet in each case to the sort of exaltation that the expanded lines may connote—e.g., the drinking and Judith's faith in Judith; the devil's hybris in Genesis B. But even if we abandon the search for rhetorical groupings and seek to group the lines by content alone, we cannot always do so.6 • For a list of the expanded lines in groups of more than two in these five poems, see below, Appendix II.

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PATTERN

Because of the nature of the gnomic poems, their groupings can have little significance. The thoroughgoing irregularity of Salomon and Saturn and its dialogue plan make that poem also insignificant for rhetorical groups. Genesis B and Judith are more puzzling. The expanded lines in Judith have been regarded by Foster 7 and by Cook 8 as one of the strongest proofs of the poet's skill. That they are beautiful must be felt by all who read the poem. And neat rhetorical groupings are not always beautiful, of course. The Genesis B expanded lines are, as might be expected, almost in a class by themselves. They are less like those in other Anglo-Saxon poems, again as might be expected, than like those in the Heliand. But they also resemble the groups and single lines in Dream of the Rood and in Christ and in Judith. They are dominated by emotion and not by a rhetorical plan. They come without warning and they stop in the same way. Their ebb and flow might almost suggest that the poet was still a singer, after all; and that, as long as his breath lasted, he held on to the expanded lines. For relaxation he descended to the level of the normal lines. Genesis B, like Christ III, Christ and Satan, and the Judgment poems generally, is in a formal sense very uneven verse. It attempts the windings and interfacings of Beowulf and Genesis A , but its results are somewhat chaotic and look indeed like the work of a stumbling imitator in the craft. One might even be tempted to believe, so far as Genesis B is concerned, that the Old Saxons took over the expanded line from the Anglo-Saxons without perfectly understanding how to manipulate it and that, in consequence, they muddled it; but such a theory would not help at all to explain the hypermetrical irregularities of the other Anglo-Saxon poems just mentioned. Yet Genesis B, with all its dramatic interest and all its human interest, is (compared with Beowulf and Genesis A and Daniel and the Cynewulfian poems) metrically and rhetorically inept. It is doing to the al7 8

Op. cit., passim. Albert S. Cook, Judith (Boston, 1904), Introduction, p. xxiv.

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71

literative line something like what Piers Plowman later does to it. And, just as with Piers Plowman, when the meter gets in the way of the matter, it is the meter that has to yield. Genesis B has almost nothing like the graceful molded line of Genesis A ;9 nothing like the massed but firm emphasis of Exodus or Beowulf; nothing quite like the intricacy, sometimes almost grotesque and often maddening but always controlled, of Daniel. Genesis B may be the work of a good psychologist, an impassioned and sympathetic human being; but it seems also to be the work of a comparatively untrained literary craftsman. The expanded lines of Eeliand are naturally often like those of Genesis B, and do not fall often into the patterns that are found in the Anglo-Saxon poems. Noteworthy, however, are the built-up form of 984b~997a, expanded lines 988IJ-993; 2198b2221a, expanded lines 2208-2215; and 591211-5940, expanded lines 5918-5936. There is also a long passage, 2983b~3034a, which has expanded lines at its beginning, 2985b-2995a, like several passages in Anglo-Saxon. There are, of course, a great many expanded lines in AngloSaxon poetry which stand alone or in pairs.10 But when three or more such lines occur in the same logical verse paragraph, they tend to appear, as shown by the instances here recorded: (1) in a built-up pattern, resembling a bell-shaped curve; (2) heaped at the beginning or at the end of the logical group. ' Professor Krapp liked to compare Genesis A to Bach, Exodus to Wagner. In Genesis B, musical line seems entirely neglected in favor of a fortissimo effect. 10 For a complete count, see Sievers, PBB, X I I , 454-457; see also Max Kaluza, "Die Schwellverse in der altenglischen Dichtung," Englische Studien, X X I , 337384. Kaluza counts 1,070 such verses. On p. 375 he lists Sievers' count, from which he dissents in a few particulars.

VI

DECORATIVE INSET One commonly recognized characteristic of Anglo-Saxon epic is the willingness to delay the narrative at any point for almost any purpose, ornamental or didactic. This characteristic may be merely an extension of the customary breadth and leisureliness of epic style; it may, on the other hand, be due in part to that love of "dilation" which Professor Baldwin finds prevalent in decadent classical rhetoric and poetic. 1 In any case, AngloSaxon epic is often halted for passages which are not intrinsically any part of the narrative. 2 To pursue the figure of the tapestry woven from both classic and Germanic threads, these nonessential bits, ornamental or otherwise, may be looked upon as insets, independent medallions woven into the more-or-less narrative fabric, the ordinary patterns of which they definitely interrupt. They are varied in nature and in form and some are more akin than others to the patterns into which they are thrust. But, since present-day ideas of the decorative are perhaps quite different from those of an Anglo-Saxon cleric, in the eighth century all these insets may have appeared, in the best sense, highly ornamental. A . GNOMIC

It is customary to speak of certain moralizing and reflective passages as "gnomic" 3 and of certain others, not always sharply 1 Charles Sears Baldwin, Medieval Rhetoric and Poetic (New York, 1928), pp. 17 ff. * The reference is not so much to such passages as the Beowulf "episodes," which do contribute to narrative effect (see, e.g., Enrico Pizzo, "Zur Frage der ästhetischen Einheit des Beowulf," Anglia, X X X I X , 10), as to pictorial and moralizing passages. 1 For a comparison of the Aristotelian meaning of "gnome" (Rhetoric, II, 21) and the generally accepted modem application of the term, see H. M . Chadwick and N. K. Chadwick, op. cil., pp. 377 ff.

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separated, as "homiletic." The assumption has often been made, or the inference drawn, that gnomic passages are Germanic and homiletic passages are Latin and ecclesiastical. 4 This assumption or this inference may be approximately correct. There remain, however, a few passages in which it is extremely difficult to say whether the intention was actually gnomic or homiletic. There must have been congeniality, after all, between the gnomic-minded Anglo-Saxon and the homiletic Roman priest. The remarkable swiftness of the conversion of the English may point to an inner kinship of spirit. M a y it not be the case that the moralizing strain beloved by Germans in heathendom and taking there a gnomic form was perpetuated under Latin Christianity in the less aphoristic, more hortatory (but not perhaps more didactic) form which is termed "homiletic"? 4 Though one expects to find, and does find, most gnomes in Beowulf, Wanderer. Widsith, and most homiletic passages in the "Christian" poems, the two domains are not mutually exclusive. Perfect gnomes, such as are in the Exeter and Cotton collections (themselves betraying the homiletic admixture here and there) are: Wyrd' oft nereS unfaegne eorl, J>onne his ellen deah! Beowulf

S72b~573

swylc sceolde secg wesan, Jjegn a t ffearfe! Beowulf

2

708b-2709a

4 But see Blanche Colton Williams, Gnomic Poelry in Anglo-Saxon (New Y o r k , 1914), p. 40. Here Professor Williams refers to "the truth that, in general, it is difficult, if not useless, to attempt separation of heathen and Christian streams contributing to the current of early Anglo-Saxon epic." • See, e.g., Heusler, Die altgermanische Dichtung, pp. 64-76, "Spruchdichtung." And cf. Arthur R . Skemp, " T h e Transformation of Scriptural Story, Motive, and Conception in Anglo-Saxon Poetry," MPh, IV, 426. • But see Pizzo, op. cit., pp. 8, 11, on the shift in the meaning of wyrd. Cf. Andreas 458-460, quoted below, p. 76. See also B. S. Phillpotts, " W y r d and Providence in Anglo-Saxon Thought," Essays and Studies, X I I I , 7-27.

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Sine eaSe maeg, gold on grunde gumcynnes gehwone oferhigian, hyde se Se wylle! Beowulf 2 764b-2 766 But of such a passage as a maeg God wyrcan wunder aefter wundre, wuldres Hyrde Beowulf 93ob-93i who shall say whether the intention was gnomic or homiletic? The form is gnomic, but these words can be imagined more easily than not in the mouth of a pious Christian. It is impossible to make a hard-and-fast dividing line between these two types of moralizing. Other passages which suggest the gnomic cast of thought, which often constitute a deliberate turning out of the path to moralize, are: Beowulf 20-25, 28715-289, 455b, 6o3b-6o6, ioo2b-ioo8a, U 3 4 b - i i 3 6 a , I328b-i329, I384b-i389 (note the Envelope form 7 ), 1 5 3 4 ^ 1 5 3 6 , i838b-i839, i94ob-i943, 2029b2031, 2i66b-2i69a, 2541b, 26oob-26oi, 2890^-2891, 3062b3065, 3077-3078a, 3 1 7 4 ^ 3 1 7 7 ; Deor refrain; Seafarer 39-43» 55b—57, 68-71, 72-8oa, i i 5 b - n 6 (this last in the homiletic conclusion—unless Pizzo is right about the shift in the meaning of wyrd, in which case this sentence would not interrupt the homiletic context); Wanderer 5b, 12-18, 2913-31, 64-74, i i 2 - i i 4 a ; Widsith 1 3 2 - 1 3 4 (compare also the general narrative of a gnomic cast, 1 3 5 - 1 4 3 ) ; Woman's Lament 52b—53. Some of these gnomic sentences in their elegiac context are perfectly in keeping; especially so are those which occur in the lyrics. And surely somewhat similar are these passages from the "Christian" poetry: Oft maeg se )>e wile in his sylfes sefan so$ ge)?encan! Bi Domes Dcege 3b-4 7

See above, pp. 11-12.

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Ne behwylfan maeg heofon and eortSe his wuldres word, widdra and siddra J>onne befaeftman maege foldan sceattas, eorSan ymbhwyrft and uprodor, garsecges gin and )>eos geomre lyft. Exodus 427-431 Wyrd ne meahte in faegum leng feorg gehealdan, deore fraetwe, Jjonne him gedemed waes. Gulhlac 103015-1032 Wudu mot him weaxan, wyrde bidan, tanum laedan; Prayer IV, 104-1053 God bi?5 J>aet, jjonne mon him sylf ne maeg wyrd onwendan, J>aet he )?onne wel )>olige. Prayer IV, 116-117 Indeed, all of Prayer IV, 104-117, has this coloring. Here also should be mentioned Guthlac 1322-13303, which has an Envelope form. 8 Perhaps the Exodus illustration should be listed with the homiletic passages below. B.

HOMILETIC

Included here are the didactic passages which convey definitely pious, definitely Christian information and exhortation. A s the Exeter and Cotton collections and the Rune Poem are almost entirely gnomic, so certain poems are largely homiletic (with, usually, some gnomic admixture). Such are Alms, Fates of Men, A Father's Instruction, Gifts of Men, Minds of Men, Wonders of Creation, the prayers, and the hymns. Since this study is intent upon analysis of rhetorical composition and not upon content for its own sake, such short, unified poems do not enter its scheme at this point. A s in section A, the interest here • See above, pp. 13-14.

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is in passages superimposed, or perhaps rather interposed, which may or may not fit somewhat awkwardly into their context. Examples are: ForJ>on ic eow to so?5e secgan wille, )?aet naefre forlaetee longe her on Syssum windagum worolde bruceS.

Beowulf

1057^1062

Compare Andreas 458 ff. with Beowulf 57211-573. For Beowulf 1058b compare Beowulf 1134b and 2859b. In some of the following passages is to be seen a blend of gnome and homily: Andreas 32ob~323a, 88515-891,' 90615-909; Beowulf 183ID-188,9 700b702a, i663b-i664a, 229i-2293a, 2470b, 259ob-259ia, 28582859; Bi Domes Dcege 77b-8o, 11415-119; Christ and Satan 193-223, 282-314, 348-364 (allegorical; compare the Phoenix allegory), 549-556; Elene 1270I5-1321 (largely ahomileticconclusion; but this is a picture of the Last Judgment10); Exodus 532b548; Genesis A 1953b—1959; Genesis B 297b-299a; Guthlac 1-63, 315-318, 526I5-528, 536-540, 720I5-744, 762-790 (this passage is a conclusion to Guthlac A as 1-63 is its introduction11); Juliana 695I5-731 (also a homiletic conclusion11); Phoenix 51615-517; Riddles 4:53-58, i2:8b-io. But almost everywhere in the Anglo-Saxon collection, of course, the Riddle type is colored by the moralizing strain. See also Seafarer 103-124; Wanderer 114b—115; and Exeter Gnomes 133-138. It is likely that, instead of two separate divisions for gnomic and homiletic passages, only one division should be made, the • See above, pp. 44-45. See below, p. 83; see also p. 96. u See below, pp. 93,96. 10

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moralizing. 12

Such a simplified classification would get rid of the difficulty of listing a passage like Exodus 427-431; and it would be homogeneous in that it would include all passages of a reflective, philosophical, or religious character, often expressing general truths or the poet's reactions as distinct from those of the persons of the narrative. But the persons of the narrative are like-minded, as is seen in almost any speech, e.g., Maldon 94b-95, 258-259, and the often-quoted 312-313: Hige sceal J>e heardra, heorte J>e cenre, mod sceal )>e mare, )>e ure maegen lytlaS. The third section of Hrothgar's long speech to Beowulf, 1724b1768, is markedly homiletic. The whole speech, 1700-1784, is didactic. Hauschkel considers that the Beowulf poet liked to place sententious expressions at the beginning and at the end of speeches;13 and the same could be said of the other Anglo-Saxon poets. Still other reflective and moralizing passages are listed below under the Elegiac and the Runic and Macaronic headings. C . ELEGIAC

The elegiac has long been recognized as one of the most familiar notes in the Anglo-Saxon music.14 Wanderer is perhaps the u So James E d w a r d Routh in Two Studies on the Ballad Theory of the Beowulf (Johns Hopkins dissertation, 1905), pp. 47-54, lumps together all moralizing digressions in his third class of irrelevant episodes and parentheses. The purposes of his study demand the inclusion of a number of passages which have appeared to me thoroughly in harmony with the context and in no sense to be considered decorative insets. Perhaps a certain degree of subjectivity cannot be entirely avoided here. Of the passages listed b y Routh, I exclude as natural explanatory sentences in their context: Andreas i 2 o b - i 2 i ; Beowulf i62b-i63, 1046-1049; Daniel 2ob-2i; Guthlac 590-594.1 exclude as natural concluding sentences in their context: Andreas 425b426; Beowulf I722b-I724a; Christ and Saian I7b-i8; Daniel 589-592. I exclude as a natural introductory sentence in its context Beowulf 3077-3078. I have included Beoumlf 2444 ff. under the Elegiac heading below; Daniel 612-619, although serious and reflective in tone, is not what I should call homiletic. T h e other passages listed by Routh (together with many not mentioned by him) are included within the lists just given or in the lists of homiletic conclusions below, pp. 96-97. M o s t of these passages are discussed by Klaeber, Beowulf, Introduction, pp. lxi-lxii.

" Op. cit., p. 87. " For the theory that it is not altogether an Old Germanic note, see Heusler, Die altgermanische Dichiung, p. 144.

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most conspicuous example of the Anglo-Saxon elegiac poetry; Deor, Lover's Message, Ruin, Seafarer, Woman's Lament, and Wulf and Eadwacer have much the same spirit. "The cultivation of poetry of this kind [i.e., timeless, nameless] for elaborate studies of situation and emotion is one of the most distinctive features of Anglo-Saxon poetry." 15 If the Rime Poem means anything at all, it too is an elegy.16 In a broad sense, almost all Anglo-Saxon poetry is elegiac. Resignation, though not inactive renunciation, is the dominant feeling.17 The Anglo-Saxons, whatever their virtues may have been, or perhaps one should say, whatever their vices may have been, were not very rollicking in their recorded verse. The Anglo-Saxon poet always anticipates Keats's Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips Bidding adieu. Again, we recall that the writers of Anglo-Saxon poetry were probably ecclesiastics; at the very least, their teachers were ecclesiastics. Their very idiom depended on the thought that this life is transitory. If the Beowulf poet knew the jEneid also, as Klaeber and Haber and many others since Thorkelin have tended to think, 18 his Christian seriousness and submission to God were not weakened but rather reinforced by the Vergilian philosophy. That philosophy could not, it did not, make him the more cheerful. Apart from the short, complete elegies, the elegiac mood 15 H. M. Chadwick and N. K. Chadwick, op. cit., p. 443. For the short elegy as a type of Anglo-Saxon poetry, the authority is Ernst Sieper, Die altenglische Elegie (Strassburg, 1915). Sieper includes Prayer IV and the Rime Poem. u W. S. Mackie, "The Old English Rhymed Poem," JEGPh, X X I , 507-519. See especially p. 507. 17 Gustav Ehrismann, "Religionsgeschichtliche Beiträge zum germanischen Frühchristentum," PBB, X X X V , 209-239. See especially Part IV, "Die elegischen Motive in der angelsächsischen Dichtung," 230 ff. 18 See especially F. Klaeber, "/Eneis und Beowulf," Archiv, C X X V I , 40 ff. and 339 ff.; and Tom Bums Haber, A Comparative Study of the Beowulf and the ALneid (Princeton, 1931). The first editor of Beoimdf, Johannis Thorkelin, noted the resemblance between the two epics.

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INSET

79

comes oftenest into passages which ring the changes on the Wanderer theme—the sorrow of that man who is deprived of his lord and of the joys of his lord.19 The typical expression of this sorrow is Wanderer 92-110 (perhaps also 8-29a, 32-57, 7387), although such expression is the purpose of the whole poem. Similar are Beowulf 2247-2266 (the only soliloquy in the poem20), 2884-2891, 3007b-3027 (especially 302ib-3027). 21 And somewhat similar, though shot through with the grief of the bereaved father, is Beowulf 2444-2462a (for which compare Fates of Men 33-42), which concludes with nis J>ar hearpan sweg, gomen in geardum, swylce Saer iu waeron. GewiteS J?onne on sealman, sorhleoS gaeleft an aefter anum; )>uhte him eall to rum, wongas ond wicstede.

But obviously the joys and the lord, both gone never to return, may be the joys and the Lord of Heaven—when the poet is a Christian; and he always is. Ehrismann notes that the conception of the hereafter clothed in definite form (as a dwelling place, inheritance, home) is, in Germanic poetry, found only in " Cf. Heinzel's idea (QF, X , 28) that neither Bildebrand nor the Scandinavian poems show the inner sympathy with the comitatus which is in Anglo-Saxon. Heliand is nearer to it but inferior to Judith. See below, p. 104. For the Envelope form, see above, p. 24. " Sister M a r y Angelica O'Neill, in her dissertation, Elegiac Elements in Bcawulj (Catholic University, 1932), pp. 27-72, lists fifty elegiac passages in Beowulf, of which thirty-eight have been previously noted b y various commentators, and twelve are there noted for the first time. Of these fifty passages some are otherwise classed here: 1002-1008 and 1384-1389 as gnomic; 1060-1062 and 1760-1768 ashomiletic; and 1321-1331 as Envelope pattern. M a n y other passages among the fifty, while legitimately included for the purposes of Sister M a r y Angelica's study, are not included here because in them the elegiac coloring is thoroughly blended with the narrative fabric. In such a passage as, for example, the parting of Beowulf and Hrothgar, 1870-1880, the subject and the tone are indeed melancholy but not unreasonably so. The underlying cause of the elegiac tone in such a passage cannot fairly be said to be love of melancholy for its own sake; the melancholy grows naturally out of the subject and is not pushed beyond normal bounds until it becomes ornamental lyricism. Sister M a r y Angelica suggests (p. 83) as the first of three reasons for the "uniform sadness and melancholy" of Beoundj the simple fact that the poet has here a sad story to tell.

80

DECORATIVE I N S E T

Anglo-Saxon, and that it is a favorite motif in poems not bound by Bible text. 22 Hence, such passages (often termed "reminiscent") as Christ and Satan 163-171 and Harrowing of Hell 76106. The plight of the lordless one is more objectively presented in Andreas 405-414; but these ten lines of Andreas recall the other passages just named, and one cannot help suspecting that these lines too are partly ornamental. N o such elegiac passage (as it stands) can be lifted from its context, to be sure. To tear the medallion from the tapestry would leave a hole. The suggestion is only that the elegiac passage is often disproportionate to its narrative significance. It is a means of "dilation" and is, furthermore, beloved for its own sake. Often the weaver need not have used so large an ornamental inset, even if one be disposed to grant that any such inset was, at that point, judicious. Such an inset is per se never indispensable. D . LYRIC-DESCRIPTIVE (ECPHRASIS)

" A n ecphrasis is a separable decorative description, usually of a stock subject." Professor Baldwin is referring to the Sophistic inheritance of medieval rhetoric. He continues: Ecphrasis is no less significant for poetic. A form of Alexandrianism avoided by Vergil and adopted with enthusiasm by Ovid, it perverts description because it frustrates narrative movement. The habit of decorative dilation in oratory confirmed a decadent habit of literature.23 There is no intention, of course, of arguing here that the AngloSaxons were followers of Ovid or that they knew the term a Op. cit., pp. 211-212. According to Ehrismann, Otfrid and the Beliand poet did not nationalize Heaven as the Anglo-Saxons did. Otfrid sang of its beauty and joy and the Beliand poet saw it as a "lichtwelt." I must confess that I can see no great difference between Heliand and the Anglo-Saxon poems in that respect. Note, for example, Beliand 3083, groni godes wang. M Op. cit., pp. 18-19. Cf. also Baldwin's Ancient Rhetoric and Poetic, p. 203: "The Hellenistic tableau—í/c^pao-« is its ominous name—appears in the glittering conventional pauses of Ovid. Vergil had put it aside. This is the more remarkable because the ancients seem generally to have regarded certain scenes—battle, for instance, conflagration, thwarted love—as rather description than narration." See ibid., pp. 218-220, for further discussion of this device in Ovid.

DECORATIVE

INSET

81

&«t>pa

VII

CONVENTIONAL DEVICE A.

T H E INTRODUCTORY FORMULA

Although not every Anglo-Saxon poem has a formal introductory passage, there is a type of opening sentence which occurs so often as to allow its being called a formula. As has frequently been noted, it sometimes begins with "Hwat!" and it tends to employ some such phrasing as " I have been told" or "Books tell us" or perhaps " I shall now tell you." The hwal may originally have been, as some students have believed, the call to attention in a great hall, when a scop took his position to sing. But the men who wrote the poems which we read in AngloSaxon were almost certainly monks and scholars, and it is more than likely that they no longer said kwat but wrote it just as they wrote la and huru and eala. In any case, it is a common initial word; it is, furthermore, often used to introduce a new train of thought in the body of a poem. 1 The introductory passage is usually short—from three to ten lines, generally under six lines. Introductory passages are roughly classed here according to their choice of formula phrases or other common characteristics. Meyer considers that not content but use makes the real poetic formula. 2 i. Hweet,

WITH A VERB OP HEARING OR SAYING

Andreas 1-6. Beowulf 1-3. Dream of the Rood 1-3. Exodus 1-7. 1 G. P. K r a p p , Andreas and the Fates of the Apostles (Boston, 1906), Notes, pp. 75-76. E. Sievers, " C a e d m o n und Genesis," Britannica (Leipzig, 1929), p. 74. 1 Op. cit., pp. 391-392. See pp. 357-363 for "Eingangsformeln."

92

CONVENTIONAL DEVICE

Fates of the A postles i-4a. Juliana i~3a. This is the first part of a long narrative sentence, extending through 8a. Minds of Men 1-8. Salomon and Saturn i - ç a (line 6 is fragmentary); 179-1823 (or 179-201 ; compare class V). II. V E R B OF L E A R N I N G OR S A Y I N G , WITHOUT

kwœt

Boethius, Proem: 1 - 1 0 , complete. Daniel 1 - 7 (or 1-3). 3 Exhortation to a Christian Life 1 - 7 (leeran). A Father's Instruction 1 - 3 (lœran). Gnomes, Exeter, i-4a. Williams, 4 following Grein, would end the introductory passage at 3b. But 4a is a reason for 2b—3 ; and, according to Wulcker, "mit god . . . besser die spriiche beginnen." This passage is a slight departure from the form in most of the members of this class. Compare the common Riddle closing formula, Saga kwœt, etc.5 Note also the short poem called Pharao by Grein-Wiilcker, which begins with Saga me hwcet, etc., and in line 4 employs another Riddle formula, Nat ic hit, etc. Cotton Gnomes has no introductory passage. Guthlac B 79i~795a. But compare class V, below. Lover's Message (excluding Riddle 61 and beginning with fragment C) i - 2 a . The C fragment is defective but secgan is there.' Partridge 1-4. This is similarly defective but recognizable. Phoenix i~3a. Seafarer 1 - 3 , or perhaps i-8a. Cf. Daniel. Wanderer 1 - 7 , and especially 6-7. Whale 1 - 3 , or perhaps 1-7. Widsith 1-4&, or perhaps 1-9. Woman's Lament 1 - 5 . ' See Krapp, Andreas, etc., Notes, pp. 75-76. 4 B. C. Williams, op. cit., p. 130. See Grein-Wiilcker, I, 342, n. 4. • See below, p. 99., e See N. Kershaw, of. cit., pp. 37,44.

CONVENTIONAL

DEVICE

93

HI. OTHER INTRODUCTORY L A B E L S

Brunanburh i~5a, Her. So also the other Chronicle Poems. Soul and Body (both versions) i - s a , Huru. This, like hwcet and eala, is also frequently used in the body of a poem. IV. OTHER FORMAL B E G I N N I N G S , WITHOUT L A B E L

Be Domes Dcege 1-9. 7 Christ II, 44o~449a. But compare class II, above. Christ and Satan II, 365-369. Christ and Satan III, 663-666. Elene 1—10. This is a statement of time. 8 Fates of Men 1-9. This introductory passage does use a sort of label, Ful oft, etc. Compare Fela bid, etc., in Gifts of Men and also the opening lines of Panther and Heliand i~5a. Genesis 1-14. This passage is a song of praise to God.' Compare concluding formulas below, class III. Compare Hymn 1-6, and Prayers I, 1-2; II, 1-3; III, i~4a; IV, ia. Gifts of Men 1-7 (Fela biS). Panther i-8a. As noted above, this opening has a formula tone, " M a n y are (or were) there who (or which)" etc. Compare Guthlac A and Heliand. Compare also Panther 70, the opening of the quotation from St. Paul. V . LONGER INTRODUCTORY PASSAGES, CHIEFLY MORALIZING

Christ III, 779-815. I follow here Grein-Wiilcker's division, by which the runic signature forms the introduction to the third part. Christ and Satan I, 1-18 (underne). Guthlac A 1-63. It is possible that the Guthlac B introduction is also of this type, extending through 850a. But see Class II, above. For the tone of lines 1-7, see above, p. 84. For the Parallel form, see above, p. 37. • For the Envelope form, see above, p. 16.

7

8

94

CONVENTIONAL

DEVICE

Wonders of Creation 1 - 3 7 . Line 37 is an exclamation and 38 begins with kwat. Note that the longer introductions are homiletic; the shorter are an Anglo-Saxon "Once upon a time." The preacher is slower than the story-teller in getting under way. Azarias, Christ I , Finnsburh, Homiletic Fragment I , Judith, Lover's Message, Maldon, and Waldere are defective at the beginning. Harrowing of Hell and Menologium, not defective, have no formal introduction.10 Nor has Deor nor Wulf and Eadwacer nor Rime Poem. vi. Riddle OPENING FORMULAS These are so varied that they are here subdivided according to the principal word or words: a. Ic com wunderlicu wiht . . . 19, 21, 25, 26 Ic torn wreeilic wiht . . . 24: 2 b. Variants of a, in which the subject of the riddle speaks 1. Ic eom+ . . . 6, 18, 28, 31, 63, 67, 71, 79, 80, 81, 95 2. Ic sccal+ . . . 5, 17, 64 3. Ic w 97, 103 expanded line, 62-71, 117. See also: Rhythmical pattern Fates of Men, 43, 44, 75, 79, 93, 97 Fates of the Apostles, 22, 84, 89, 92, 96 Father's Instruction, A, 64, 75, 92, 97, Finnsburh, 82, 94, 99, 102, 103, 105 First Merseburg Proverb, 40 formula, concluding, 96-100, 107; introductory, 91-96, 107; speech, 101 Fortunatus, 111 Foster, T . G., 62n, 68, 70 Fritzsche, A., io2n Fulton, E . , io9n Gaulish rhetors, 36 Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir, 110 Genesis A, 13, 14-15, 16, 25, 28, 38, 39, 42, 43, 51-52, 58, 59, 60-61, 64, 66,

93, 64, 117 57,

107

Greek, 85 Grein, C. W. M., see Grein-Wiilcker Grein-Wiilcker, 8, 85n, 92, 93 Gummere, F. B., ic>9n Guthlac, 13-14, 19, 24, 33, 37, 42, 43, 47, 64, 68, 69, 75, 76, 77n, 83, 84, 92, 93, 96, 99, 100, i02n, 103, 105, 117 Haber, T . B., 78 Hanscom, E. D., 84n Harrowing of Bell, 38, 39, 40, 69, 80, 94, 98, 103 Hart, W. M . , 10, n , 25, 5 1 , 1 0 1 , 1 0 5 Häuschkel, B., 2on, 55D, 77, 8311, 86n, 88, 105 Bavamal, 40 Hebrew, 8, 52. See also: Bible; Psalms, etc. Heinzel, R., 4-5, 20-21, 49, 79n, 108, 112 Beliand, 8, 25, 26-28, 33, 38, 40, 42, 43, 46, 47, 61, 69, 70, 71, 79n, 8on, 82, 83, 93, 95n> 'osn, 105, 115 Heusler, A., 3, 4, 4 m , 62, 73n, 77n, 8in, 101, 102, 104, 105, I I I Heyne, M . , 8 Heywood, 41 Bildebrand, 79n, 105 Hofer, O., 52n Hoffmann, A., n 2-113 Holthausen, F., 28n, 85 Homer, 87, 101, 109. See also: Iliad; Odyssey Bomiletic Fragment I, 94, 97,103 Bomiletic Fragment II, 99

INDEX homiletic passage, 43, 57, 75-77, 79°, 87, 93-94, 96-97, 99, i°7 ffymn, 75, 93, 97 //iW, 87. 5 « also: Homer Incremental pattern, 7, 49-61, 82, 90, 107, 108 indirect discourse, 105 Irish bards, 36 Italian poetry, 17n Jansen, G., 34 Jellinek, M. H., io2n John Brown's Body, 113 Johnson, n o Judith, 52-53, 59, 61, 62, 64, 68, 69, 70, 79n> 82, 94, 97, 103, 107, 117 Juliana, 18, 37, 43, 47, 48, 58, 76, 84, 89, 92, 97, 100, 103, 105 Junius Manuscript, 8, 8411, 8gn Juvencus, 111 Kail, J., 10m Kaluza, M., 7 m Keats, 41, 78 kenning, 5, 6, 81 Ker, W. P., 5n, io9n Kershaw, N., 54, 9m. See also: Chadwick, H. M., and N. K. Chadwick King James Bible, Genesis, 52, 58; Proverbs, 44; Psalms, 25, 31, 33 Kistenmacher, R., 53 Klaeber, F., 3n, 8, 28n, 29, 3 m, 33, 4sn, 50, 67, 77n, 78, 8sn, 86, 87, 88, ioin, 112 Kluge, F., 3on Krapp, G. P., 8, 24n, 25, 51, 7m, 840, 8gn, gin, 92a Laokoon, 88n, 108 Latin, 4, 7-8,30,36,37n, 40,42, 52n, 72, 73, 81, 84, 85, 89, 102, 108, 110-112. See also: Vulgate; Bible; Christianity Lawrence, W. W., 28n Lefivre, P., io2n Leiden Riddle, 100 Leonard, W. E., 62, 109 Lessing, 87-88, 108 litotes, 50, 64 Lover's Message, 78, 84, 85, 92, 94, 98 Lumby, J. R., 8jn

129

L y ' y , 45

lyric-descriptive passage, see ecphrasis macaronic passage, 77, 85, 107 Mackie, W. S., 78n MacLeish, A., 8in Malay dialects in Philippines, 4n Maldon, 6, 9-10, 18, 19, 20, 64, 77, 82, 94, 99, 102, 103, 105 M enolo giutn, 94, 97, 98, 103 Merbot, R., 4-5 meter of Anglo-Saxon poetry, 5, 6, 62 Meyer, R. M., 5, 3on, 40, 42, 44n, 91, 9Ón, 112 Middleton, 41 Milton, 112 Minds of Men, 75, 92, 97, 102, 103, 104 Möller, H., 2on monk, Anglian, 36; Anglo-Saxon, 72, 78, 91 Moore, F. G., 29n Moorman, F. W., 84n Odyssey, 82n. See also: Homer Old Germanic, 3, 5, 7, 77n Old Icelandic, 3, 4, 5, 36, i n Old Norse, 41 Old Saxon, 3, 26, 70, 81, 89, 105, 112, n j - 1 1 6 . See also: Heliand; Genesis, Old Saxon O'Neill, Sister M. A., 7 9 n oratio recta, 100, i o i n Otfrid, 8on Otto, E., 83n, io8n Our Father, 69, 99, 103 Ovid, 80 Panther, 24, 89, 93, 98, 103, 104 Parallel pattern, 26-27, 30-48, 49, 61, 105, 107, 108 parallelism, 11, etc., esp. 30, 34, 4411 Paris Psalter, 8, 25 paronomasia, 41, 4 m Partridge, 92, 97, 103, 104 patterns, general nature of, 5-8, 107110. See also: tapestry Pharao, 92, 100 Phillpotts, B. S., 73n Phoenix, 33, 39, 47, 76, 84, 85, 89, 92, 98, 103, 104 Piers Plowman, 71

130

INDEX

Pizzo, E., 7211, 7311, 74 Pons, £ . , 8jn, 8411, 11 an Prayers, 34, 36, 46, 57, 75, 93, 97, 98 Psalms, 11; Vulgate, 25, 29, 83n, 108; Anglo-Saxon, 25,43,44. Seealso: King James Bible pun, 18, 4m. See also: wordplay Rankin, J . W., 81, 1 1 in repetition, 9, 12, etc., esp. 24, 66, 108, 115-116 Repetition Parallel, 3 1 - 3 3 , 34 Rhythmical pattern, 23, 58, 62-71, 107. See also: expanded line Richardson, 1 1 0 Riddles, 23, 42, 44, 76, 84, 8s, 92, 94-95, 98, 99-100, 103. See also: Leiden Riddle rime in English poetry, i7n Rime Poem, 69, 78, 94, 97 Routh, H. V., 1 ion Routh, J . E., 77n, 86, 87, 88, 89, 96n Ruin, 78 Rune Poem, 44, 69, 75, 85 runic passage, 77, 84-85, 107; signature, 22, 84, 85, 93, 96, 97 Salomon and Saturn, 42, 43, 47, 69, 70, 84, 92, 99, 100, 103, 1 1 7 Saxo, 1 1 2 Scandinavian poetry, 40, 7gn, 1 1 2 SchUcking, L. L., 411 Scripture, see Bible Scripture, E . W., sn Seafarer, 39, 69, 74, 76, 78, 82, 83, 84, 92, 97 Septuagint, 5211 Shakespeare, 18, 41, 1 1 2 Shelley, 1 1 2 Sieper, E., 78n Sievers, E., 5, 22, 28n, 3 m , 62, 63, 64, 7in, 9m, gsn, 1 1 7

simile, 84, 1 1 3 Skemp, A. R., 7311 Soul and Body, 93; /, 23-24, 38, 67, 99, 103; II, 98, 103 speech, formality of, 37, 100-106, 107 staccato rhythm, 19, 82 stichomythia, 102 Strong, A., 4n Summons to Prayer, 85, 99 tapestry, poetic, 7, 72, 80, 109-110, lr 3 Ten Brink, B., 20, 108, 109 Tennyson, 33, 109 Thorkelin, J . , 78 Tibullus, 29 Tupper, F., 95, 100 variation, 15, 18, etc., esp. 3 1 , 33,38, 57 Vercelli Book, 8, 24n Vergil, 4m, 78, 80, h i . See also: Mneid Vulgate, 8; Daniel, 52n; Exodus, 44; Genesis, 28, 38, 52, 58. See also: Psalms; Bible Wagner, 7in Waldere, 84, 88n, 94, 99, 102, 103 Wanderer, 17, 23, 43, 48, 69, 73, 74, 76, 77, 79, 83, 92, 97, 103, i09n Waste Land, The, 1 1 3 West Germanic, 4, 101. See also: Germanic; Old Germanic, etc. Whale, 27, 92, 97 Widsith, 73, 74, 82, 92, 95, 97, 103, 117 Williams, B. C., 73n, 92 Woman's Lament, 37, 74, 78, 84, 92, 98 Wonders of Creation, 68, 75, 94, 97 wordplay, 36, 41, 66 Wiilcker, R . P., see Grein-Wiilcker WulJ and Eadwacer, 3, 78, 94, 99 Wulfstan, 45n