Beowulf Read online

  HEATHOBARDS: Germanic tribe to which Ingeld belonged.

  HEMMING: Kinsman of Offa.

  HENGEST: Leader of the Danes after Hnaef’s death at the Battle of Finnsburuh.

  HEOROGAR: Elder brother of Hrothgar; dead before Beowulf’s arrival at Heorot.

  HEOROT: Splendid meadhall built by Hrothgar and ravaged by Grendel.

  HEOROWEARD: Son of Hrothgar’s elder brother, Heorogar.

  HEREBEALD: Eldest son of Hrethel; older brother of Hygelac; accidentally killed by Haethcyn, his younger brother.

  HEREMOD: Early Danish king who turned against his people and died without an heir, leaving the Danes kingless until the arrival of Scyld Scefing.

  HETWARE: Frankish people on the lower Rhine; engaged in battle against Hygelac.

  HNAEF: Hildeburh’s brother, slain by his brother-in-law Finn.

  HOC: Danish king; father of Hnaef and Hildeburh.

  HONDSCIOH: Geatish warrior devoured by Grendel in Heorot.

  HREFNAWUDU/HREFNESHOLT: (alternate names meaning “Ravenswood”); forest in Sweden, scene of a Geat-Swede battle.

  HREOSNABEORH: Hill in Götland; scene of a Geat-Swede battle.

  HRETHEL: Geatish king; father of Hygelac.

  HRETHRIC: Young son of Hrothgar and Wealhtheow.

  HRONESNAES: Headland in Götland; site of Beowulf’s barrow.

  HROTHGAR: Danish king; builder of Heorot.

  HROTHMUND: Young son of Hrothgar and Wealhtheow.

  HROTHULF: Son of Halga.

  HRUNTING: Unferth’s sword, loaned to Beowulf for his fight with Grendel’s mother.

  HUGAS: A Frankish people.

  HYGD: Wife of Hygelac.

  HYGELAC: King of the Geats; uncle of Beowulf.

  INGELD: Heathobard prince; according to Beowulf, betrothed to Hrothgar’s daughter, Freawaru.

  NAEGLING: Beowulf’s sword in later life; probably taken from Daeghrefn.

  OFFA: King of the Continental Angles in the fourth century; king of Mercia (English Midlands) in the eighth century.

  OHTHERE: Son of Ongentheow.

  ONELA: Son of Ongentheow; usurper of Swedish throne.

  ONGENTHEOW: Swedish king; killed by Wulf and Eofor in battle.

  SCYLD SCEFING: Legendary Danish king who arrived mysteriously as a child in a drifting boat and began a new dynasty, apparently many years after the death of Heremod.

  SIGEMUND: In Beowulf, son of Waels and a famous dragon slayer.

  UNFERTH: Hrothgar’s thyle; challenger of Beowulf in a duel of words; a difficult character to understand (see my comments in the translation following line 498.)

  WAEGMUNDINGS: Family to which Ecgtheow, Beowulf, Weohstan, and Wiglaf belong.

  WAELS: In Beowulf, father of Sigemund (cf. Völsungs in Norse tradition).

  WEALHTHEOW: Hrothgar’s queen.

  WELAND: Legendary Germanic smith.

  WEOHSTAN: Wiglaf’s father, a Waegmunding who served the Swedish king Onela for a time and killed Eanmund, Onela’s nephew.

  WIGLAF: Weohstan’s son; young warrior who helps Beowulf kill the dragon; Beowulf’s kinsman (a Waegmunding) and successor.

  WULF: Eofor’s brother, who badly wounded Ongentheow before Eofor killed him.

  WULFGAR: Hrothgar’s herald, who welcomed Beowulf and his men to Heorot.

  YRSE: Name of Hrothgar’s sister; not found in Beowulf; suggested by Kemp Malone to fill an obvious lacuna in the manuscript.

  Suggested Readings

  1. GENERAL

  Beowulf and Its Analogues, edited and translated by G. N. Garmonsway and Jacqueline Simpson, including “Archaeology and Beowulf” by Hilda Ellis Davidson (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1968). Exhaustive collection of just what the title indicates, including a prose translation of the poem by the editors. Useful information on all families and tribes in Beowulf as well as the monsters; enlightening essay on pertinent archaeological finds with excellent photographs.

  Beowulf: Reproduced in Facsimile, etc., with transliteration and notes by Julius Zupitza; second edition by Norman Davis with improved reproduction, published for the Early English Text Society (Oxford University Press, 1959). For the specialist or adventurous amateur; reading a facsimile of the manuscript is a wonderful experience for anyone with a basic knowledge of Old English.

  Adrien Bonjour, The Digressions in Beowulf, Medium Aevum Monograph V (Basil Blackwell, 1965). A very perceptive discussion of the “digressions” in Beowulf, primarily dealing with their artistic justification.

  Arthur G. Brodeur, The Art of Beowulf (University of California Press, 1959). A marvelous, affectionate examination of virtually all aspects of the poem by a fine scholar; required reading for students of Beowulf.

  R. W. Chambers, Beowulf: An Introduction to the Poem with a Discussion of the Stories of Offa and Finn, third edition by C. L. Wrenn (Cambridge University Press, 1958). Originally published in 1921, this is the Beowulf student’s bible, a vast accumulation of learning by two fine scholars examining historical and nonhistorical elements as well as the origin, date, and structure of the poem, with copious documentation. Nicely complemented by Brodeur’s book.

  Edward B. Irving Jr., An Introduction to Beowulf (Prentice-Hall, 1969). One hundred pages introducing the beginner to the background and offering a “critical run-through” of the poem.

  Edward B. Irving Jr., A Reading of Beowulf (Yale University Press, 1968). An engrossing presentation of one well-informed scholar’s reaction to the poem; readable and stimulating.

  Kenneth Sisam, The Structure of Beowulf (Oxford University Press, 1965). An examination of the poem’s structure as it would have been perceived by an Anglo-Saxon audience a thousand years ago, justifying the poem’s effective diversity of mood; followed by other observations and notes by this deeply learned and meditative scholar. An interesting complement to Whitelock’s Audience (see below), some features of which Sisam discusses.

  J. R. R. Tolkien, “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics,” from Proceedings of the British Academy, vol. 22 (Oxford University Press, 1936). Also available in An Anthology of Beowulf Criticism, edited by Lewis E. Nicholson (University of Notre Dame Press, 1963), and The Beowulf Poet, edited by Donald K. Fry (Prentice-Hall, 1968). See the beginning of my introduction for the importance of this delightful, witty lecture.

  Dorothy Whitelock, The Audience of Beowulf (Oxford University Press, 1951). A collection of three lectures by a great scholar, always keeping in mind Anglo-Saxon contemporaries of the Beowulf poet and using things known to and experienced by them to explain the poet’s methods of composition; includes an intelligent discussion of the possible dates of the poem’s composition. Like Sisam’s book (see above), which it usefully complements, recommended for its brevity and wisdom.

  2. EDITIONS

  Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, edited by Frederick Klaeber, third edition, Houghton Mifflin, 1994. Even for those not well trained in Old English, this edition is worth studying if only for its fine introductory material and exhaustive explanatory notes. A fourth edition with three editors is now (2003) in preparation.

  A completely new and excellent edition of Beowulf was published by Blackwell in 1998, sensibly printed in quality paperback with a striking cover. This edition, by Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson, two of the best Beowulf scholars ever, is quite different from Klaeber’s and takes advantage of a half-century of scholarship since Klaeber’s third edition with supplements in 1950. I recommend that anyone tackling Beowulf alone should work through both of these editions. I also recommend the bibliographical section of this edition as an update and addition to my suggested readings.

  3. ANGLO-SAXON HISTORY

  Frank M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, third edition, completed by Doris Mary Stenton (Oxford University Press, 1971). The greatest of all histories of Anglo-Saxon England, some seven hundred pages of profound erudition with an excellent foldout map. Not for the beginner.

  Dorothy Whitelock, The Beginnings of English Society, vol. 2 in the Pe
lican History of England (Penguin Books, 1952). In less than 250 pages this superb scholar has examined every aspect of Anglo-Saxon civilization, working consistently with primary sources and setting forth in captivating detail and graceful prose the evidence for her conclusions. This is the book for nonspecialist readers.

  4. OLD ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

  It is possible for an interested and disciplined reader to learn Old English well enough to move on to a good edition of Beowulf without benefit of a teacher. Readers unable or unwilling to attend a class in Old English should obtain a copy of A Guide to Old English, by Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson (Blackwell, Sixth Edition, 2001) or the third edition of Bright’s Old English Grammar and Reader, edited by Frederick C. Cassidy and Richard N. Ringler (now, incredibly, out of print, but check with the Library of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, for print-on-demand service). Either of these excellent guides will lead you through Old English grammar and into a few good readings as well.

  About the Author

  FREDERICK REBSAMEN was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. He received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Arkansas in 1949 and 1950 and his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1962. From 1952 to 1954 he served in the U.S. Army as a liaison interpreter with the French Army Transportation Corps. He studied French language and literature at the University of Paris and also studied in Germany, Italy, and Spain between 1954 and 1956. From 1958 to 1978 he was Professor of English at the University of Arizona, Tucson. His stories and poems have appeared in literary magazines, and in 1971 he published a prose version of Beowulf that included information and explanations as part of the text. Rebsamen is married and lives in Tucson, Arizona.

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  Copyright

  A hardcover edition of this book was published in 1991 by HarperCollins Publishers.

  BEOWULF. Copyright © 2004, 1991 by Frederick Rebsamen. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  First Perennial Classics edition published 2004.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

  ISBN: 978-0-06-057378-2

  ISBN-10: 0-06-057378-3

  EPub Edition JUNE 2013 ISBN 9780062303912

  07 08 WBC/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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