This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Notes
For a summary of the textual history of this point see E. V. K. Dobbie's edition ofBeowulf, vol. IV ofASPR, p. 191.
Lines 1330–33. All textual quotations are taken fromASPR.
As von Schaubert correctly notes in her glossary, “Im praes. sg. hat MAGAN mitunter die Bedeutung: ‘ dürfen, können, mögen, werden.’” The phrasefindan miht (1378b) can mean both “can, will find” and “may find,” although this verb more often denotes the highly probable rather than the merely possible; it expresses “possibility where there are no prohibitive conditions” (Bos.-Tol. Suppl., p. 630). See Bos.-Tol. also under ‘magan,’ V, p. 665: the verb is used, it is stated, “in the Northumbrian Gospels ... as an auxiliary in the translation of the Latin subjunctive, or fut. indic.”
Compare death by hanging inBeowulf 2441 ff. and inFortunes of Men 33–47. Hanging, inBeowulf, is emblematic of murder unavenged, of a father's sorrow when son has killed son — a situation in every way anomalous to the heroic code of ethics. The lingering sight of the man hanging for days on end inFortunes presents an image of slow decay and helplessness. The hanged man is said to “seomian æt swylte” (34), his eyes attacked by ravens. His inability to send them off with his hands brings him back to life in a sense, entirely bereft of the power to act. This vision of the anti-heroic contrasts sharply with the spontaneous consumption by flame of the man on the pyre, who achieves his end “lungre” (45). Interesting how these dead characters retain life to a degree. The hanged man “rides” the gallows until his “sawlhord” corrupts. The man whose body is consumed by the flames of the pyre (some think he is being burned at the stake) receives his “lifgedal” whileon the pyre. Æschere is described as “deaðwerigne,” a word difficult to translate but which suggests the idea that the dead man retains some capacity to register feelings, although this capacity is probably the emotion the viewer registers projected onto the sight.
The comma I would insert betweenatol andœse draws attention to the parallel modifiersœse wlanc andfylle gefœgnod. The stresses fall as follows in 1332a: - X - X - ; metrically, the pause betweenatol andœse is longer than that betweenœse andwlanc. The verse is, to use A. J. Bliss's notation (The Metre of Beowulf, Oxford 1958), a ID*5 type, although he lists it as a ID5 (p. 144).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Romano, T. Beowulf 1. 1331B: A restoration of MSHwæþer . Neophilologus 66, 609–613 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01956505
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01956505