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119-607: [REDACTED] Look up ettin in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Ettin is an English word descended from Old English: eoten , referring to a type of being in Germanic folklore. The term may further refer to: Folklore [ edit ] Bogle (also called Ettin), a malevolent creature in Northumbrian folklore Gaming [ edit ] Ettin ( Dungeons & Dragons ) ,
238-485: A barrow on a headland in his memory. Scholars have debated whether Beowulf was transmitted orally , affecting its interpretation: if it was composed early, in pagan times, then the paganism is central and the Christian elements were added later, whereas if it was composed later, in writing, by a Christian, then the pagan elements could be decorative archaising; some scholars also hold an intermediate position. Beowulf
357-477: A slave steals a golden cup from the lair of a dragon at Earnanæs. When the dragon sees that the cup has been stolen, it leaves its cave in a rage, burning everything in sight. Beowulf and his warriors come to fight the dragon, but Beowulf tells his men that he will fight the dragon alone and that they should wait on the barrow. Beowulf descends to do battle with the dragon, but finds himself outmatched. His men, upon seeing this and fearing for their lives, retreat into
476-411: A connection between Beowulf and Virgil near the start of the 20th century, claiming that the very act of writing a secular epic in a Germanic world represents Virgilian influence. Virgil was seen as the pinnacle of Latin literature, and Latin was the dominant literary language of England at the time, therefore making Virgilian influence highly likely. Similarly, in 1971, Alistair Campbell stated that
595-472: A disdain for the ringing of church bells. Similarities are also both seen in their role in the construction of stoneworks. Akin to the Old Norse tale of the jötunn who built the wall of Ásgarðr , giants often enter into wagers involved in the building of churches which they later lose, as with the tale of Jätten Finn who is attributed with the construction of Lund Cathedral . Ruins are also attributed to
714-547: A giant's sword that he found in her lair. Later in his life, Beowulf becomes king of the Geats, and finds his realm terrorised by a dragon , some of whose treasure had been stolen from his hoard in a burial mound. He attacks the dragon with the help of his thegns or servants, but they do not succeed. Beowulf decides to follow the dragon to its lair at Earnanæs , but only his young Swedish relative Wiglaf , whose name means "remnant of valour", dares to join him. Beowulf finally slays
833-698: A group of wolves is referred to as "Gríðr's grey herd of horses". Wolf-riding gýgjar are referred to as myrkriður ("riders in the night") or kveldriður ("dusk riders"). Hræsvelgr is told in Vafþrúðnismál (37) and Gylfaginning (18) to be a jötunn in an arnarhamr (eagle-guise) who creates the wind by beating his wings. Other jötnar , such as Þjazi and Suttungr are able to become eagles by wearing their arnarhamir , or resemble them like Griðr in Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra who has hands like eagle talons. In later material composed during
952-606: A hall was built in the mid-6th century, matching the period described in Beowulf , some centuries before the poem was composed. Three halls, each about 50 metres (160 ft) long, were found during the excavation. The protagonist Beowulf , a hero of the Geats , comes to the aid of Hrothgar, king of the Danes , whose great hall, Heorot , is plagued by the monster Grendel . Beowulf kills Grendel with his bare hands, then kills Grendel's mother with
1071-670: A more attractive folk tale parallel, according to a 1998 assessment by Andersson. The epic's similarity to the Irish folktale "The Hand and the Child" was noted in 1899 by Albert S. Cook , and others even earlier. In 1914, the Swedish folklorist Carl Wilhelm von Sydow made a strong argument for parallelism with "The Hand and the Child", because the folktale type demonstrated a "monstrous arm" motif that corresponded with Beowulf's wrenching off Grendel's arm. No such correspondence could be perceived in
1190-437: A much wider semantic scope in Old Norse literature than solely jötnar , also including individuals with unusual or supernatural traits such as witches, abnormally strong, large or ugly people, ghosts and berserkers . Terms for jötnar are often translated into Modern English as "giant" or "giantess". John Lindow uses the glosses to contrast them with the gods but notes that they are not giant, being similar in size to
1309-573: A naturalistic standpoint. Despite this, a system of motifs repeat when travelling to the jötnar . In the Prose Edda that the jötnar dwell in Jötunheimr which is at points located in the North or East and in Þrymskviða can only be reached by air, however jötnar are also found South and across water . Jötnar such as Suttungr and Skaði live in mountains, which is further reflected in
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#17328686990781428-443: A number of conditions to Hrothgar in case of his death (including the taking in of his kinsmen and the inheritance by Unferth of Beowulf's estate), Beowulf jumps into the lake and, while harassed by water monsters, gets to the bottom, where he finds a cavern. Grendel's mother pulls him in, and she and Beowulf engage in fierce combat. At first, Grendel's mother prevails, and Hrunting proves incapable of hurting her; she throws Beowulf to
1547-502: A powerful impression of historical depth, imitated by Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings , a work that embodies many other elements from the poem. The dating of Beowulf has attracted considerable scholarly attention; opinion differs as to whether it was first written in the 8th century, whether it was nearly contemporary with its 11th-century manuscript, and whether a proto-version (possibly
1666-404: A result, the second scribe's script retains more archaic dialectic features, which allow modern scholars to ascribe the poem a cultural context. While both scribes appear to have proofread their work, there are nevertheless many errors. The second scribe was ultimately the more conservative copyist as he did not modify the spelling of the text as he wrote, but copied what he saw in front of him. In
1785-534: A revised reprint in 1950. Klaeber's text was re-presented with new introductory material, notes, and glosses, in a fourth edition in 2008. Another widely used edition is Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie 's, published in 1953 in the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records series. The British Library, meanwhile, took a prominent role in supporting Kevin Kiernan 's Electronic Beowulf ; the first edition appeared in 1999, and
1904-446: A section with 22 reviews of Heaney's translation, some of which compare Heaney's work with Liuzza's. Tolkien's long-awaited prose translation (edited by his son Christopher ) was published in 2014 as Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary . The book includes Tolkien's own retelling of the story of Beowulf in his tale Sellic Spell , but not his incomplete and unpublished verse translation. The Mere Wife , by Maria Dahvana Headley ,
2023-411: A source of information about Scandinavian figures such as Eadgils and Hygelac, and about continental Germanic figures such as Offa , king of the continental Angles. However, the scholar Roy Liuzza argues that the poem is "frustratingly ambivalent", neither myth nor folktale, but is set "against a complex background of legendary history ... on a roughly recognizable map of Scandinavia", and comments that
2142-687: A two-headed giant Ettin, the twisted, mindless remains of the fighters of the Legion in the computer game Hexen: Beyond Heretic Ettins, a species in the Creatures series of computer games Ettin, a two-headed monstrous giant found in Ultima game series Media [ edit ] Ettins, a name given to the Goa'uld by the Asgard in the TV series Stargate SG-1 Ettin,
2261-761: A two-headed giant humanoid character in the Three Thieves graphic novel series See also [ edit ] Hind Etin The Red Ettin Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Ettin . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ettin&oldid=1254663991 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Articles containing Old English (ca. 450-1100)-language text Short description
2380-632: A verse and a prose translation of his own. The events in the poem take place over the 5th and 6th centuries, and feature predominantly non-English characters. Some suggest that Beowulf was first composed in the 7th century at Rendlesham in East Anglia , as the Sutton Hoo ship-burial shows close connections with Scandinavia, and the East Anglian royal dynasty, the Wuffingas , may have been descendants of
2499-402: A version of the " Bear's Son Tale ") was orally transmitted before being transcribed in its present form. Albert Lord felt strongly that the manuscript represents the transcription of a performance, though likely taken at more than one sitting. J. R. R. Tolkien believed that the poem retains too genuine a memory of Anglo-Saxon paganism to have been composed more than a few generations after
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#17328686990782618-449: Is " British Library , Cotton Vitellius A.XV" because it was one of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton 's holdings in the Cotton library in the middle of the 17th century. Many private antiquarians and book collectors, such as Sir Robert Cotton, used their own library classification systems. "Cotton Vitellius A.XV" translates as: the 15th book from the left on shelf A (the top shelf) of the bookcase with
2737-442: Is by its nature invisible to history as evidence is in writing. Comparison with other bodies of verse such as Homer's, coupled with ethnographic observation of early 20th century performers, has provided a vision of how an Anglo-Saxon singer-poet or scop may have practised. The resulting model is that performance was based on traditional stories and a repertoire of word formulae that fitted the traditional metre. The scop moved through
2856-601: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Eoten A jötunn (also jotun ; in the normalised scholarly spelling of Old Norse , jǫtunn / ˈ j ɔː t ʊ n / ; or, in Old English , eoten , plural eotenas ) is a type of being in Germanic mythology . In Norse mythology , they are often contrasted with gods (the Æsir and Vanir ) and other non-human figures, such as dwarfs and elves , although
2975-515: Is inhabited by jötnar and beings associated with them. A common motif is the journeying to obtain secret knowledge from the jötnar . In the Eddic poem Hyndluljóð , Freyja travels to the gýgr Hyndla to obtain understanding of the lineage of Ottar , and the "ale of remembrance" ( Old Norse : minnisǫl ) so that he does not forget it. In the Eddic poem Vafþrúðnismál , Óðinn travels to
3094-680: Is known only from a single manuscript, estimated to date from around 975–1025, in which it appears with other works. The manuscript therefore dates either to the reign of Æthelred the Unready , characterised by strife with the Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard , or to the beginning of the reign of Sweyn's son Cnut the Great from 1016. The Beowulf manuscript is known as the Nowell Codex, gaining its name from 16th-century scholar Laurence Nowell . The official designation
3213-539: Is noted for having the likeness of a þurs . As the influence of Christianity grew, jötnar became demonised and typically portrayed as less intelligent, easier to outwit and more monstrous, as is common with giants in later Germanic folklore . In some later sagas, such as Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss , risar are clearly distinct from jötnar however in others the terms are used interchangeably, albeit with an overall trend that jötnar have begun to be seen negatively relative to risar . Troll has
3332-399: Is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature . The date of composition is a matter of contention among scholars; the only certain dating is for the manuscript, which was produced between 975 and 1025 AD. Scholars call the anonymous author the " Beowulf poet". The story is set in pagan Scandinavia in the 5th and 6th centuries. Beowulf , a hero of
3451-526: Is pained by the sounds of joy. Grendel attacks the hall and devours many of Hrothgar's warriors while they sleep. Hrothgar and his people, helpless against Grendel, abandon Heorot. Beowulf, a young warrior from Geatland, hears of Hrothgar's troubles and with his king's permission leaves his homeland to assist Hrothgar. Beowulf and his men spend the night in Heorot. Beowulf refuses to use any weapon because he holds himself to be Grendel's equal. When Grendel enters
3570-461: Is seen as problematic by some scholars as jötnar are not necessarily notably large. The terms for the beings also have cognates in later folklore such as the English yotun , Danish jætte and Finnish jätti which can share some common features such as being turned to stone in the day and living on the periphery of society. Old Norse : jötunn and Old English eoten developed from
3689-601: Is written mostly in the Late West Saxon dialect of Old English, but many other dialectal forms are present, suggesting that the poem may have had a long and complex transmission throughout the dialect areas of England. There has long been research into similarities with other traditions and accounts, including the Icelandic Grettis saga , the Norse story of Hrolf Kraki and his bear- shapeshifting servant Bodvar Bjarki ,
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3808-543: The jötunn Vafþrúðnir whereupon they engage in a wisdom contest. He also travels to the jötnar to obtain from Suttungr the Mead of poetry , which imparts skill in poetry to any who drink it. The völva who tells the Völuspá prophecy to Óðinn, while not explicitly described as a jötunn but was raised by them. Cosmology in Germanic mythology, as with other oral cultures, has many apparent contradictions when viewed from
3927-602: The Angelcynn , in which Scyldic descent was attributed to the West-Saxon royal pedigree. This date of composition largely agrees with Lapidge's positing of a West-Saxon exemplar c. 900 . The location of the poem's composition is intensely disputed. In 1914, F.W. Moorman , the first professor of English Language at University of Leeds , claimed that Beowulf was composed in Yorkshire, but E. Talbot Donaldson claims that it
4046-626: The Bear's Son Tale ( Bärensohnmärchen ) type, which has surviving examples all over the world. This tale type was later catalogued as international folktale type 301 in the ATU Index , now formally entitled "The Three Stolen Princesses" type in Hans Uther's catalogue, although the "Bear's Son" is still used in Beowulf criticism, if not so much in folkloristic circles. However, although this folkloristic approach
4165-414: The Beowulf manuscript, as possible source-texts or influences would suggest time-frames of composition, geographic boundaries within which it could be composed, or range (both spatial and temporal) of influence (i.e. when it was "popular" and where its "popularity" took it). The poem has been related to Scandinavian, Celtic, and international folkloric sources. 19th-century studies proposed that Beowulf
4284-444: The Beowulf metre; B.R. Hutcheson, for instance, does not believe Kaluza's law can be used to date the poem, while claiming that "the weight of all the evidence Fulk presents in his book tells strongly in favour of an eighth-century date." From an analysis of creative genealogy and ethnicity, Craig R. Davis suggests a composition date in the AD 890s, when King Alfred of England had secured
4403-497: The Beowulf text is too varied to be completely constructed from set formulae and themes. John Miles Foley wrote that comparative work must observe the particularities of a given tradition; in his view, there was a fluid continuum from traditionality to textuality. Many editions of the Old English text of Beowulf have been published; this section lists the most influential. The Icelandic scholar Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin made
4522-576: The Faroese and Shetlandic popular customs of dressing up as giantesses referred to as Grýla (plural grýlur ), or other similar terms, in costumes traditionally made from a combination of animal skins, tattered clothes, seaweed, straw and sometimes featuring masks. Grýla is a female creature described in Sturlunga saga as having fifteen tails, and listed as a tröllkona in the Nafnaþulur section of
4641-462: The Geats , comes to the aid of Hrothgar , the king of the Danes , whose mead hall Heorot has been under attack by the monster Grendel for twelve years. After Beowulf slays him, Grendel's mother takes revenge and is in turn defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland and becomes king of the Geats. Fifty years later, Beowulf defeats a dragon , but is mortally wounded in the battle. After his death, his attendants cremate his body and erect
4760-1028: The Old Saxon adjective wrisi-līk 'enormous' is likely also connected. Old Norse þurs , Old English þyrs , and Old High German duris 'devil, evil spirit' derive from the Proto-Germanic masculine noun * þur(i)saz , itself derived from Proto-Germanic * þurēnan , which is etymologically connected to Sanskrit turá - 'strong, powerful, rich'. Several terms are used specifically to refer to female entities that fall into this wider category, including íviðja (plural íviðjur ), gýgr (plural gýgjar ) and tröllkona (plural tröllkonur ). Terms for jötnar are also found in Old Norse compound words such as bergrisi , ("mountain-risi") and hrímþurs ("rime-þurs", or "frost-þurs"). The cognates jötunn and eoten , and þurs and þyrs have been equated by scholars such as J. R. R. Tolkien and Rudolf Simek , with
4879-465: The Prose Edda who features in folklore throughout the North Atlantic islands settled by Scandinavians. Place-names derived from þurs or cognate: England Beowulf Beowulf ( / ˈ b eɪ ə w ʊ l f / ; Old English : Bēowulf [ˈbeːowuɫf] ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines . It
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4998-509: The Proto-Germanic masculine noun * etunaz . Philologist Vladimir Orel says that semantic connections between * etunaz with Proto-Germanic * etanan ('to eat') makes a relation between the two words likely. The words are cognate with ettin , an archaic word for a type of being. Old Norse risi and Old High German riso derive from the Proto-Germanic masculine noun * wrisjon . Orel observes that
5117-512: The Scyldings , appears as "Hrothulf" in Beowulf . New Scandinavian analogues to Beowulf continue to be proposed regularly, with Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar being the most recently adduced text. Friedrich Panzer [ de ] (1910) wrote a thesis that the first part of Beowulf (the Grendel Story) incorporated preexisting folktale material, and that the folktale in question was of
5236-557: The apologue technique used in Beowulf is so rare in epic poetry aside from Virgil that the poet who composed Beowulf could not have written the poem in such a manner without first coming across Virgil 's writings. It cannot be denied that Biblical parallels occur in the text, whether seen as a pagan work with "Christian colouring" added by scribes or as a "Christian historical novel, with selected bits of paganism deliberately laid on as 'local colour'", as Margaret E. Goldsmith did in "The Christian Theme of Beowulf ". Beowulf channels
5355-613: The battle between Eadgils and Onela ). The raid by King Hygelac into Frisia is mentioned by Gregory of Tours in his History of the Franks and can be dated to around 521. The majority view appears to be that figures such as King Hrothgar and the Scyldings in Beowulf are based on historical people from 6th-century Scandinavia. Like the Finnesburg Fragment and several shorter surviving poems, Beowulf has consequently been used as
5474-410: The jötunn Eggþér who has been interpreted as either a guardian of the gýgjar who live there or a herdsman of the wolves. Wolves are also taken as mounts by gýgjar such as Hyndla and Hyrrokkin , the latter of which using snakes as reins. This is further attested in skaldic poetry in which "wolf" is described by the kennings " Leikn's horse", " Gjálp's horse", " Gríðr's horse", while
5593-630: The 19th century, including those by John Mitchell Kemble and William Morris . After 1900, hundreds of translations , whether into prose, rhyming verse, or alliterative verse were made, some relatively faithful, some archaising, some attempting to domesticate the work. Among the best-known modern translations are those of Edwin Morgan , Burton Raffel , Michael J. Alexander , Roy Liuzza , and Seamus Heaney . The difficulty of translating Beowulf has been explored by scholars including J. R. R. Tolkien (in his essay " On Translating Beowulf " ), who worked on
5712-503: The 20th century. In 2000 (2nd edition 2013), Liuzza published his own version of Beowulf in a parallel text with the Old English, with his analysis of the poem's historical, oral, religious and linguistic contexts. R. D. Fulk, of Indiana University , published a facing-page edition and translation of the entire Nowell Codex manuscript in 2010. Hugh Magennis 's 2011 Translating Beowulf: Modern Versions in English Verse discusses
5831-421: The 8th century; in particular, the poem's apparent observation of etymological vowel-length distinctions in unstressed syllables (described by Kaluza's law ) has been thought to demonstrate a date of composition prior to the earlier ninth century. However, scholars disagree about whether the metrical phenomena described by Kaluza's law prove an early date of composition or are evidence of a longer prehistory of
5950-638: The Bear's Son Tale or in the Grettis saga . James Carney and Martin Puhvel agree with this "Hand and the Child" contextualisation. Puhvel supported the "Hand and the Child" theory through such motifs as (in Andersson's words) "the more powerful giant mother, the mysterious light in the cave, the melting of the sword in blood, the phenomenon of battle rage, swimming prowess, combat with water monsters, underwater adventures, and
6069-469: The Beowulf's Afterlives Bibliographic Database listed some 688 translations and other versions of the poem. Beowulf has been translated into at least 38 other languages. In 1805, the historian Sharon Turner translated selected verses into modern English . This was followed in 1814 by John Josias Conybeare who published an edition "in English paraphrase and Latin verse translation." N. F. S. Grundtvig reviewed Thorkelin's edition in 1815 and created
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#17328686990786188-426: The Christian period such as the legendary sagas, jötnar are often portrayed as uncivilised and cannibalistic. In the case of Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss and Hálfdanar saga Brönufóstra they specifically eat both human and horse meat , the latter of which was directly associated with heathen practices. The post-Christian association between jötnar and pre-Christian practices is also seen in Beowulf , in which
6307-494: The English ettin or yotun , thurse and hobthrust , Danish jætte , Swedish jätte and Finnish jätti . In Germanic folklore , giants often share traits with jötnar , particularly as depicted in legendary sagas, combined with motifs from other European giants and are often interchangeable with trolls . As with jötnar , Germanic giants live outside of human communities, in woods and mountains. They commonly show an aversion to Christianity, often showing
6426-691: The Geatish Wulfings . Others have associated this poem with the court of King Alfred the Great or with the court of King Cnut the Great . The poem blends fictional, legendary, mythic and historical elements. Although Beowulf himself is not mentioned in any other Old English manuscript, many of the other figures named in Beowulf appear in Scandinavian sources . This concerns not only individuals (e.g., Healfdene , Hroðgar , Halga , Hroðulf , Eadgils and Ohthere ), but also clans (e.g., Scyldings , Scylfings and Wulfings) and certain events (e.g.,
6545-560: The Geats are defenceless against attacks from surrounding tribes. Afterwards, a barrow, visible from the sea, is built in his memory. The poem contains many apparent digressions from the main story. These were found troublesome by early Beowulf scholars such as Frederick Klaeber , who wrote that they "interrupt the story", W. W. Lawrence , who stated that they "clog the action and distract attention from it", and W. P. Ker who found some "irrelevant ... possibly ... interpolations". More recent scholars from Adrien Bonjour onwards note that
6664-448: The Geats of the poem may correspond with the Gautar (of modern Götaland ); or perhaps the legendary Getae. Nineteenth-century archaeological evidence may confirm elements of the Beowulf story. Eadgils was buried at Uppsala ( Gamla Uppsala , Sweden) according to Snorri Sturluson . When the western mound (to the left in the photo) was excavated in 1874, the finds showed that a powerful man
6783-499: The Last Survivor" in the style of another Old English poem, " The Wanderer ", and Beowulf's dealings with the Geats such as his verbal contest with Unferth and his swimming duel with Breca, and the tale of Sigemund and the dragon; history and legend, including the fight at Finnsburg and the tale of Freawaru and Ingeld; and biblical tales such as the creation myth and Cain as ancestor of all monsters. The digressions provide
6902-777: The Loch of Scockness to drink. Orcadian folklore also explains the Ring of Brodgar as dancing giants who were turned to stone by the morning sun. This motif is also seen in Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar , in which the gýgr Hrímgerðr engages in a senna with Helgi Hundingsbane until the sun rises and she is turned to stone. The Orcadian tradition of Gyro Night derives its name from Old Norse : gýgr and consisted of two older boys dressing up as masked old women one night in February and chasing smaller boys with ropes. Similar to this are
7021-415: The Old Norse record, with eotenas also featuring in the Old English epic poem Beowulf . The usage of the terms is dynamic, with an overall trend that the beings become portrayed as less impressive and more negative as Christianity becomes more influential. Although the term " giant " is sometimes used to gloss the word " jötunn " and its apparent synonyms in some translations and academic texts, this
7140-457: The University of Minnesota, published his edition of the poem, Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg ; it became the "central source used by graduate students for the study of the poem and by scholars and teachers as the basis of their translations." The edition included an extensive glossary of Old English terms. His third edition was published in 1936, with the last version in his lifetime being
7259-453: The adventure of Beowulf, adeptly tell a tall tale, and ( wordum wrixlan ) weave his words." The poem further mentions (lines 1065–1068) that "the harp was touched, tales often told, when Hrothgar's scop was set to recite among the mead tables his hall-entertainment". The question of whether Beowulf was passed down through oral tradition prior to its present manuscript form has been the subject of much debate, and involves more than simply
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#17328686990787378-454: The appearance of jötnar are uncommon; however, the progenitor of the jötnar is described as having the form of a man. Some female jötnar are described as being beautiful, such as Gerðr and Hymir 's partner, while others are described as monstrous and having many heads. Some dwarfs are described as jötnar such as Regin and Fáfnir , while in Alvíssmál , the eponymous dwarf
7497-456: The bear-hug style of wrestling." In the Mabinogion , Teyrnon discovers the otherworldly boy child Pryderi , the principal character of the cycle, after cutting off the arm of a monstrous beast which is stealing foals from his stables. The medievalist R. Mark Scowcroft notes that the tearing off of the monster's arm without a weapon is found only in Beowulf and fifteen of the Irish variants of
7616-520: The bust of Roman Emperor Vitellius standing on top of it, in Cotton's collection. Kevin Kiernan argues that Nowell most likely acquired it through William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , in 1563, when Nowell entered Cecil's household as a tutor to his ward, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford . The earliest extant reference to the first foliation of the Nowell Codex was made sometime between 1628 and 1650 by Franciscus Junius (the younger) . The ownership of
7735-428: The challenges and history of translating the poem, as well as the question of how to approach its poetry, and discusses several post-1950 verse translations, paying special attention to those of Edwin Morgan , Burton Raffel , Michael J. Alexander , and Seamus Heaney. Translating Beowulf is one of the subjects of the 2012 publication Beowulf at Kalamazoo , containing a section with 10 essays on translation, and
7854-565: The claimed ancestors of the Ynglings . Odin also seduces the jötnar Gunnlöð and Rindr and marries Jörð . In the cases when gods marry jötnar , they appear to be fully incorporated into the gods and are referred to as Ásynjur in Nafnaþulur . Consistent with this, reference to Skaði's vés in Lokasenna and toponyms such as Skedevi in Sweden suggests that despite being a jötunn , she
7973-415: The codex before Nowell remains a mystery. The Reverend Thomas Smith (1638–1710) and Humfrey Wanley (1672–1726) both catalogued the Cotton library (in which the Nowell Codex was held). Smith's catalogue appeared in 1696, and Wanley's in 1705. The Beowulf manuscript itself is identified by name for the first time in an exchange of letters in 1700 between George Hickes, Wanley's assistant, and Wanley. In
8092-563: The completion of the Christianisation of England around AD 700, and Tolkien's conviction that the poem dates to the 8th century has been defended by scholars including Tom Shippey , Leonard Neidorf , Rafael J. Pascual, and Robert D. Fulk . An analysis of several Old English poems by a team including Neidorf suggests that Beowulf is the work of a single author, though other scholars disagree. The claim to an early 11th-century date depends in part on scholars who argue that, rather than
8211-533: The descendants of jötnar . A common motif that often forms the core storyline of Eddic narratives is the unsuccessful attempts of jötnar to marry one of the goddesses, be it through either trickery or force. In contrast, the female jötunn Skaði chooses the male Vanr Njörðr as a husband. According to the Ynglinga saga , she later had children with Odin, from whom kings such as Earl Hakon were descended. The Vanr Freyr also marries Gerðr , who are
8330-512: The digressions can all be explained as introductions or comparisons with elements of the main story; for instance, Beowulf's swimming home across the sea from Frisia carrying thirty sets of armour emphasises his heroic strength. The digressions can be divided into four groups, namely the Scyld narrative at the start; many descriptions of the Geats, including the Swedish–Geatish wars , the "Lay of
8449-400: The dragon, but is mortally wounded in the struggle. He is cremated and a burial mound by the sea is erected in his honour. Beowulf is considered an epic poem in that the main character is a hero who travels great distances to prove his strength at impossible odds against supernatural demons and beasts. The poem begins in medias res or simply, "in the middle of things", a characteristic of
8568-496: The encounter between Beowulf and Unferth was parallel to the encounter between Odysseus and Euryalus in Books 7–8 of the Odyssey, even to the point of both characters giving the hero the same gift of a sword upon being proven wrong in their initial assessment of the hero's prowess. This theory of Homer's influence on Beowulf remained very prevalent in the 1920s, but started to die out in
8687-467: The end for Beowulf. The poem is tightly structured. E. Carrigan shows the symmetry of its design in a model of its major components, with for instance the account of the killing of Grendel matching that of the killing of the dragon, the glory of the Danes matching the accounts of the Danish and Geatish courts. Other analyses are possible as well; Gale Owen-Crocker , for instance, sees the poem as structured by
8806-430: The epics of antiquity. Although the poem begins with Beowulf's arrival, Grendel's attacks have been ongoing. An elaborate history of characters and their lineages is spoken of, as well as their interactions with each other, debts owed and repaid, and deeds of valour. The warriors form a brotherhood linked by loyalty to their lord. The poem begins and ends with funerals: at the beginning of the poem for Scyld Scefing and at
8925-476: The fight with mother of the eoten Grendel which has been noted by scholars to closely resemble the fight between a trollkona and Grettir in his eponymous saga , wherein the female beings may only be reached by crossing through water. The seemingly ununified location of the jötnar has been suggested to be an outcome of their intrinsically chaotic nature. Even within the same story, what seem like contradictions have been noted by scholars, prompting
9044-458: The first gods , resulting in a flood of Ymir's blood, in which all jötnar drowned except Bergelmir and his family, who survive this event by way of sailing upon a luðr . This has been linked to a runic inscription on a sword hilt in Beowulf which describes the eotenas being killed in an ancient flood and has been proposed to derive from Germanic and wider Indo-European mythology . According to Gylfaginning , after Ymir
9163-439: The first complete verse translation in Danish in 1820. In 1837, John Mitchell Kemble created an important literal translation in English. In 1895, William Morris and A. J. Wyatt published the ninth English translation. In 1909, Francis Barton Gummere 's full translation in "English imitative metre" was published, and was used as the text of Gareth Hinds's 2007 graphic novel based on Beowulf . In 1975, John Porter published
9282-548: The first complete verse translation of the poem entirely accompanied by facing-page Old English. Seamus Heaney 's 1999 translation of the poem ( Beowulf: A New Verse Translation , called "Heaneywulf" by the Beowulf translator Howell Chickering and many others ) was both praised and criticised. The US publication was commissioned by W. W. Norton & Company , and was included in the Norton Anthology of English Literature . Many retellings of Beowulf for children appeared in
9401-464: The first transcriptions of the Beowulf -manuscript in 1786, working as part of a Danish government historical research commission. He had a copy made by a professional copyist who knew no Old English (and was therefore in some ways more likely to make transcription errors, but in other ways more likely to copy exactly what he saw), and then made a copy himself. Since that time, the manuscript has crumbled further, making these transcripts prized witnesses to
9520-539: The following decade when a handful of critics stated that the two works were merely "comparative literature", although Greek was known in late 7th century England: Bede states that Theodore of Tarsus , a Greek, was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 668, and he taught Greek. Several English scholars and churchmen are described by Bede as being fluent in Greek due to being taught by him; Bede claims to be fluent in Greek himself. Frederick Klaeber , among others, argued for
9639-416: The four funerals it describes. For J. R. R. Tolkien , the primary division in the poem was between young and old Beowulf. Beowulf begins with the story of Hrothgar , who constructed the great hall, Heorot, for himself and his warriors. In it, he, his wife Wealhtheow , and his warriors spend their time singing and celebrating. Grendel, a troll -like monster said to be descended from the biblical Cain ,
9758-671: The fourth in 2014. The tightly interwoven structure of Old English poetry makes translating Beowulf a severe technical challenge. Despite this, a great number of translations and adaptations are available, in poetry and prose. Andy Orchard, in A Critical Companion to Beowulf , lists 33 "representative" translations in his bibliography, while the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies published Marijane Osborn 's annotated list of over 300 translations and adaptations in 2003. Beowulf has been translated many times in verse and in prose, and adapted for stage and screen. By 2020,
9877-524: The gods, and are best conceived of as a kin or family group, separated by relation rather than physical appearance. Due to this issue, some scholars such as Terry Gunnell, Jeramy Dodds and Benjamin Thorpe either anglicise or leave untranslated terms for jötnar in translations and academic work. In a stanza of Völuspá hin skamma (found in the poem " Hyndluljóð "), all jötnar descend from Ymir . Gylfaginning elaborates on this, describing that
9996-409: The ground and, sitting astride him, tries to kill him with a short sword, but Beowulf is saved by his armour. Beowulf spots another sword, hanging on the wall and apparently made for giants, and cuts her head off with it. Travelling further into Grendel's mother's lair, Beowulf discovers Grendel's corpse and severs his head with the sword. Its blade melts because of the monster's "hot blood", leaving only
10115-407: The groupings are not always mutually exclusive. The entities included in jötunn are referred to by several other terms, including risi , þurs (or thurs ) and troll if male and gýgr or tröllkona if female. The jötnar typically dwell across boundaries from the gods and humans in lands such as Jötunheimr . The jötnar are frequently attested throughout
10234-757: The hall and kills one of Beowulf's men, Beowulf, who has been feigning sleep, leaps up to clench Grendel's hand. Grendel and Beowulf battle each other violently. Beowulf's retainers draw their swords and rush to his aid, but their blades cannot pierce Grendel's skin. Finally, Beowulf tears Grendel's arm from his body at the shoulder. Fatally hurt, Grendel flees to his home in the marshes, where he dies. Beowulf displays "the whole of Grendel's shoulder and arm, his awesome grasp" for all to see at Heorot. This display would fuel Grendel's mother's anger in revenge. The next night, after celebrating Grendel's defeat, Hrothgar and his men sleep in Heorot. Grendel's mother, angry that her son has been killed, sets out to get revenge. "Beowulf
10353-490: The hero" or the "hero on the beach" do exist across Germanic works. Some scholars conclude that Anglo-Saxon poetry is a mix of oral-formulaic and literate patterns. Larry Benson proposed that Germanic literature contains "kernels of tradition" which Beowulf expands upon. Ann Watts argued against the imperfect application of one theory to two different traditions: traditional, Homeric, oral-formulaic poetry and Anglo-Saxon poetry. Thomas Gardner agreed with Watts, arguing that
10472-576: The hilt. Beowulf swims back up to the edge of the lake where his men wait. Carrying the hilt of the sword and Grendel's head, he presents them to Hrothgar upon his return to Heorot. Hrothgar gives Beowulf many gifts, including the sword Nægling , his family's heirloom. The events prompt a long reflection by the king, sometimes referred to as "Hrothgar's sermon", in which he urges Beowulf to be wary of pride and to reward his thegns. Beowulf returns home and eventually becomes king of his own people. One day, fifty years after Beowulf's battle with Grendel's mother,
10591-528: The international folktale the Bear's Son Tale , and the Irish folktale of the Hand and the Child. Persistent attempts have been made to link Beowulf to tales from Homer 's Odyssey or Virgil 's Aeneid . More definite are biblical parallels, with clear allusions to the books of Genesis , Exodus , and Daniel . The poem survives in a single copy in the manuscript known as the Nowell Codex . It has no title in
10710-497: The issue of its composition. Rather, given the implications of the theory of oral-formulaic composition and oral tradition, the question concerns how the poem is to be understood, and what sorts of interpretations are legitimate. In his landmark 1960 work, The Singer of Tales , Albert Lord, citing the work of Francis Peabody Magoun and others, considered it proven that Beowulf was composed orally. Later scholars have not all been convinced; they agree that "themes" like "arming
10829-438: The letter to Wanley, Hickes responds to an apparent charge against Smith, made by Wanley, that Smith had failed to mention the Beowulf script when cataloguing Cotton MS. Vitellius A. XV. Hickes replies to Wanley "I can find nothing yet of Beowulph." Kiernan theorised that Smith failed to mention the Beowulf manuscript because of his reliance on previous catalogues or because either he had no idea how to describe it or because it
10948-456: The letters. Rebinding efforts, though saving the manuscript from much degeneration, have nonetheless covered up other letters of the poem, causing further loss. Kiernan, in preparing his electronic edition of the manuscript, used fibre-optic backlighting and ultraviolet lighting to reveal letters in the manuscript lost from binding, erasure, or ink blotting. The Beowulf manuscript was transcribed from an original by two scribes, one of whom wrote
11067-505: The man-eating eoten Grendel is described as having a "heathen soul" and "heathenish hand-spurs". Female jötnar are explicitly described as being heathen in some later sources such as Orms þáttr Stórólfssonar , in which religion prevents her from being with the hero, and the legendary saga Þorsteins þáttr bæjarmagns , in which she must be baptised before marrying the hero. Giants with names cognate to terms for jötnar are found in later Northern European folklore , such as
11186-409: The manuscript stood on a shelf unbound, as was the case with other Old English manuscripts. Knowledge of books held in the library at Malmesbury Abbey and available as source works, as well as the identification of certain words particular to the local dialect found in the text, suggest that the transcription may have taken place there. The scholar Roy Liuzza notes that the practice of oral poetry
11305-638: The original manuscript, but has become known by the name of the story's protagonist. In 1731, the manuscript was damaged by a fire that swept through Ashburnham House in London, which was housing Sir Robert Cotton 's collection of medieval manuscripts. It survived, but the margins were charred, and some readings were lost. The Nowell Codex is housed in the British Library . The poem was first transcribed in 1786; some verses were first translated into modern English in 1805, and nine complete translations were made in
11424-462: The primordial jötunn Ymir formed in the warm waters that arose in Ginnungagap when the rime of Niflheim was melted by the heat of Muspelheim . He lay there asleep, fed by milk from Auðumbla , whereupon from his left armpit he sweated a male and a female, and his legs begat a son with one another. Together, these children became the ancestors of all other jötnar . Later, he was killed by
11543-497: The proposal of a model that the otherworld where the jötnar dwell can be reached from a number of passages or boundaries that cannot be traversed under normal conditions, such as the mountains, darkness and "flickering flame" crossed by Skírnir in Skírnismál . In Eddic sources, jötnar present a constant threat to gods and humans, often leading them to confrontation with Thor . Hárbarðsljóð and Þrymskviða tell that if it
11662-445: The prose at the beginning of the manuscript and the first 1939 lines, before breaking off in mid-sentence. The first scribe made a point of carefully regularizing the spelling of the original document into the common West Saxon, removing any archaic or dialectical features. The second scribe, who wrote the remainder, with a difference in handwriting noticeable after line 1939, seems to have written more vigorously and with less interest. As
11781-443: The scenes, such as putting on armour or crossing the sea, each one improvised at each telling with differing combinations of the stock phrases, while the basic story and style remained the same. Liuzza notes that Beowulf itself describes the technique of a court poet in assembling materials, in lines 867–874 in his translation, "full of grand stories, mindful of songs ... found other words truly bound together; ... to recite with skill
11900-680: The submission of Guthrum , leader of a division of the Great Heathen Army of the Danes, and of Aethelred , ealdorman of Mercia. In this thesis, the trend of appropriating Gothic royal ancestry, established in Francia during Charlemagne 's reign, influenced the Anglian kingdoms of Britain to attribute to themselves a Geatish descent. The composition of Beowulf was the fruit of the later adaptation of this trend in Alfred's policy of asserting authority over
12019-480: The tale; he identifies twelve parallels between the tale and Beowulf . Attempts to find classical or Late Latin influence or analogue in Beowulf are almost exclusively linked with Homer 's Odyssey or Virgil 's Aeneid . In 1926, Albert S. Cook suggested a Homeric connection due to equivalent formulas, metonymies , and analogous voyages. In 1930, James A. Work supported the Homeric influence, stating that
12138-408: The terms Old Norse : bergrisar (mountain risar) and Old Norse : bergbúi (mountain dweller), a kenning for jötunn . Their lands of inhabitation are not restricted to this, also including forests, underground, and the shore. Sometimes they are referred to as living in specific geographical locations such as Ægir on Læsø . These motifs are also seen in the section of Beowulf concerning
12257-500: The text. While the recovery of at least 2000 letters can be attributed to them, their accuracy has been called into question, and the extent to which the manuscript was actually more readable in Thorkelin's time is uncertain. Thorkelin used these transcriptions as the basis for the first complete edition of Beowulf , in Latin. In 1922, Frederick Klaeber , a German philologist who worked at
12376-414: The transcription of a tale from the oral tradition by an earlier literate monk, Beowulf reflects an original interpretation of an earlier version of the story by the manuscript's two scribes. On the other hand, some scholars argue that linguistic, palaeographical (handwriting), metrical (poetic structure), and onomastic (naming) considerations align to support a date of composition in the first half of
12495-472: The way that it is currently bound, the Beowulf manuscript is followed by the Old English poem Judith . Judith was written by the same scribe that completed Beowulf , as evidenced by similar writing style. Wormholes found in the last leaves of the Beowulf manuscript that are absent in the Judith manuscript suggest that at one point Beowulf ended the volume. The rubbed appearance of some leaves suggests that
12614-510: The woods. However, one of his men, Wiglaf, in great distress at Beowulf's plight, comes to his aid. The two slay the dragon, but Beowulf is mortally wounded. After Beowulf dies, Wiglaf remains by his side, grief-stricken. When the rest of the men finally return, Wiglaf bitterly admonishes them, blaming their cowardice for Beowulf's death. Beowulf is ritually burned on a great pyre in Geatland while his people wail and mourn him, fearing that without him,
12733-528: The words being used to describe the being in either Old Norse or Old English respectively. In the Eddas , jötnar are beings typically with similar power to the gods and may also be referred to by the negative terms troll and þurs . The harmful nature of þursar is also described in the Icelandic and Norwegian rune poems , where they are identified for causing strife to women. Descriptions of
12852-553: The works of both beings, as in the Old English poem The Ruin and the aetiological story of Wade's Causeway in Yorkshire . Some standing stones in northern Europe are explained as petrified giants such as the Yetnasteen in Orkney which derives its name from Old Norse : Jǫtna-steinn ( Jötunn's stone). According to folklore, it awakens every New Year at midnight whereupon it visits
12971-503: Was a parallel with the Grettis Saga , but in 1998, Magnús Fjalldal challenged that, stating that tangential similarities were being overemphasised as analogies. The story of Hrolf Kraki and his servant, the legendary bear- shapeshifter Bodvar Bjarki , has also been suggested as a possible parallel; he survives in Hrólfs saga kraka and Saxo 's Gesta Danorum , while Hrolf Kraki, one of
13090-428: Was buried in a large barrow, c. 575 , on a bear skin with two dogs and rich grave offerings. The eastern mound was excavated in 1854, and contained the remains of a woman, or a woman and a young man. The middle barrow has not been excavated. In Denmark, recent (1986–88, 2004–05) archaeological excavations at Lejre , where Scandinavian tradition located the seat of the Scyldings, Heorot , have revealed that
13209-478: Was elsewhere. Earlier, after the award of treasure, The Geat had been given another lodging"; his assistance would be absent in this attack. Grendel's mother violently kills Æschere , who is Hrothgar's most loyal advisor, and escapes, later putting his head outside her lair. Hrothgar, Beowulf, and their men track Grendel's mother to her lair under a lake. Unferth , a warrior who had earlier challenged him, presents Beowulf with his sword Hrunting . After stipulating
13328-500: Was killed, his body was wrought into the world and a sea surrounded it. The gods then gave the surviving families jötnar lands along the shore to settle, placing them in the periphery. Ymir's brows were then used to build Midgard and protect it from the jötnar due to their known aggression. Most stories in Old Norse mythology show a clear division between "This World", pertaining to that of gods and men, and "The Other", which
13447-510: Was not for Thor and Mjöllnir , jötnar would soon overrun Midgard and Asgard respectively. Nonetheless, Thor also has a positive relationship with some gýgjar , such as Gríðr and the unnamed wife of Hymir , who provide magical items and council that enable him to overcome other jötnar . The distinction between gods and jötnar is not clearly defined and they should be seen as different culturally rather than biologically, with some gods, such as Odin , Thor and Loki being
13566-618: Was probably composed during the first half of the eighth century, and that the writer was a native of what was then called West Mercia, located in the Western Midlands of England. However, the late tenth-century manuscript "which alone preserves the poem" originated in the kingdom of the West Saxons – as it is more commonly known. Beowulf survived to modern times in a single manuscript, written in ink on parchment , later damaged by fire. The manuscript measures 245 × 185 mm. The poem
13685-555: Was published in 2018. It relocates the action to a wealthy community in 20th-century America and is told primarily from the point of view of Grendel's mother. In 2020, Headley published a translation in which the opening "Hwæt!" is rendered "Bro!"; this translation subsequently won the Hugo Award for Best Related Work . Neither identified sources nor analogues for Beowulf can be definitively proven, but many conjectures have been made. These are important in helping historians understand
13804-428: Was seen as a step in the right direction, "The Bear's Son" tale has later been regarded by many as not a close enough parallel to be a viable choice. Later, Peter A. Jorgensen, looking for a more concise frame of reference, coined a "two-troll tradition" that covers both Beowulf and Grettis saga : "a Norse ' ecotype ' in which a hero enters a cave and kills two giants, usually of different sexes"; this has emerged as
13923-405: Was temporarily out of the codex. The manuscript passed to Crown ownership in 1702, on the death of its then owner, Sir John Cotton, who had inherited it from his grandfather, Robert Cotton. It suffered damage in a fire at Ashburnham House in 1731, in which around a quarter of the manuscripts bequeathed by Cotton were destroyed. Since then, parts of the manuscript have crumbled along with many of
14042-426: Was translated from a lost original Scandinavian work; surviving Scandinavian works have continued to be studied as possible sources. In 1886 Gregor Sarrazin suggested that an Old Norse original version of Beowulf must have existed, but in 1914 Carl Wilhelm von Sydow claimed that Beowulf is fundamentally Christian and was written at a time when any Norse tale would have most likely been pagan . Another proposal
14161-455: Was worshipped in Old Norse religion . One of the tröllkonur who dwell in the wood Járnviðr is a mother of jötnar in the forms of wolves and from whom are descended all wolves. This tröllkona has been suggested to be Angrboða , the gýgr who begat with Loki the monstrous wolf Fenrir and venomous worm Jörmungandr who become enemies of the gods. Also in Járnviðr dwells
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