Anthropological and Cultural Approaches to Beowulf

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A Letter from the Editor
Articles Beowulf and the Wills: Traces of Totemism? by Stephen O. Glosecki, University of Alabama at Birmingham   This paper accounts for the prominence of the avunculate (the mother's brother-sister's son relationship) in Beowulf and other OE sources. Commentary from 1861 to the present is examined in order to establish that the avunculate does indeed reflect matrilineal kinship structure, which in turn suggests that a full-scale totemic kinship system prevailed in prehistoric Germania. Wicked Queens and Cousin Strategies in Beowulf and Elsewhere by Tom Shippey, Saint Louis University   This essay sets the "Modthrytho Episode" of Beowulf in the context of historical and legendary "wicked queens" in Anglo-Saxon England, and suggests that a consistent factor in such stories may be the alternative "cousin strategies" available to far-sighted rulers. "The Wealth They Left Us": Two Women Author Themselves through Others' Lives In Beowulf by Marijane Osborn, University of California at Davis   This essay proposes the idea, based on narrative genres identified both by native tellers of tales and anthropologists, that the Beowulf poet imagines the queens Wealhtheow and Hygd as "consciously" using the stories of women who have lived before them as a means for evaluating and directing their personal lives.   An Education in the Mead-Hall: Beowulf's Lessons for Young Warriors by Alexander Bruce, Southern Florida College   This essay explores how Beowulf may have indoctrinated the young warriors hearing the tale. The poem prompts the geoguð (young warriors) to consider how they would respond in psychologically threatening situations, and it presents as their model Beowulf, who faces each risk bravely and is justly rewarded.   The Social Centrality of Women in Beowulf by Dorothy Carr Porter, Western Michigan University   This paper examines the roles of the women in Beowulf, focusing on those of hostess, peaceweavers, and monsters. When read through an anthropological lens, Beowulf presents the female characters as being central both in the story itself and in the society presented in the poem.   Hwanan si faehth aras: Defining the Feud in Beowulf by David Day   The Beowulf poet's use of the term fæhð or feud differs from that of modern anthropologists-the poet uses the term to define any ongoing violent intra or inter social conflict, lending it irony and tragedy.   Gast, Gender, and Kin in Beowulf: Consumption of Boundaries by Carolyn Anderson, University of Wyoming   Grendel's Mother's masculinity is connected with the textual anxiety over kinslaughter in Beowulf. Grendel's Mother enacts the physical threat between hosts and guests, which itself recalls the ever present violence between men and the closest reflections of themselves, their kin. Gæst (host, guest), literally embodies the social relationship of consumption at both the metaphorical and physical levels; the term suggests more fluidity in the threat Grendel's mother poses to Beowulf than the purely oppositional one of monster, or even the psychological one of archaic feminine annihilation. Redundant Ethnogenesis in Beowulf by Craig R. Davis, Smith College   One of the Beowulf poet's purposes is to inspire a sense of common identity in an ethnically complex audience by reimagining relations between various hero-peoples of a traditional past with whom members of that audience might have identified. However, the poem's ethnogenesis failed to achieve broad cultural authority. It proved superfluous to the task of national consciousness-building which was already being accomplished on a biblical model of moral ethnicity adumbrated in the poem itself.
The Independent Scholar Career Alternatives for Medievalists: Academic and Nonacademic by Brad Eden, University of Nevada, Los Vegas
Electronic Medievalia The Electronic Beowulf by L.J. Swain, Western Michigan University
Archaeology Digest Compiled by Michelle Ziegler Genetics Did the Vikings Spread HIV Resistence? Gaelic and Norse Ancestry on the North Atlantic Isles England Anglo-Saxon Lakenheath, Suffolk Saxon Cemetery Discovered in Buckinghamshire Anglo-Saxon Vengeance on Viking Leader Anglo-Saxon Warrior's Grave Discovered near Sutton-Hoo Grave of an Early Saxon Nobleman Found Anglian Whitby Lady Godiva Revealed? Athelney Abbey's Cartulary Resurfaces Ireland Early Medieval Cemetery Discovered Kells Market Cross Restored, Replicated, and Relocated St. Odhran's Monastery Roman Britain Carlisle's Roman Armory Roman London's Waterworks Discovered Newly Discovered Roman Settlements and Towns Romans in Wales Roman Art Unearthed Iron Age British Fortress Found in North Yorkshire Silurian Council Chamber Discovered Scotland Book of Aneirin on Loan to Edinburgh St. Blane's Fort Discovered Hilton Cadboll Stone Base Unearthed Scandinavia Seventh Century Christian Grave Discovered in Norway Viking Sword found in Oslo A Little Burial Mound with Immense Dimensions Remarkable Bronze Find in Uppåkra 8th Century Viking Grave Found in Egersund
Book Reviews Spain: A History Edited by Raymond Carr, 2000 Reviewed by Linda A. Malcor   Jon B. Coe and Simon Young's The Celtic Sources for the Arthurian Legend, 1995 Reviewed by Christopher Snyder   The Vision of MacConglinne: A Middle -Irish Wonder Tale. Edited and translated by Kuno Meyer Reviewed by Joseph Carroll   Meirion Pennar's Taliesin poems: new translations, 1988 Reviewed by Anne Berthelot   Samantha Riches' St. George: hero, martyr and myth, 2000. Reviewed by Brad Eden.   Bert Olton's Arthurian Legends on Film and Television, 2000. Reviewed by Rebecca Umland.   Carole M. Cusack's The Rise of Christianity in Northern Europe 300-1000, 1998 Reviewed by Brad Eden.   Britain and Ireland 900-1300: Insular Responses to Medieval European Change. Edited by Brendan Smith, 1999. Reviewed by Larry Swain.   Clare Walker Leslie and Frank E. Gerace's The Ancient Celtic Festivals and How We Celebrate Them Today, 2000. Reviewed by Brad Eden.   Medieval Germany: An Encyclopedia. Edited by John M. Jeep, 2000. Reviewed by Felice Lifshitz   Medieval Hagiography: An Anthology Edited by Thomas Head, 2000 Reviewed by Brad Eden   St. Augustine and the Conversion of England. Edited by Richard Gameson, 1999. Reviewed by Brad Eden   Northumbria's Golden Age. Edited by Jane Hawkes and Susan Mills, 1999. Reviewed by Michelle Ziegler.
In Memoriam Archaeologist Philip Barker 1920-2001 Archaeologist Brian Hope-Taylor 1923-2001 Galloway Historian Daphne Patricia Brooke, 1921-2001 Archaeologist Graham Webster 1913-2001 Archaeologist and Author Laurence Flanagan 1933-2001 Rescue Archaeologist Margaret Ursula Jones, 1916-2001 Explorer and Historian Helge Ingstad, Discoverer of the Norse Settlement in Newfoundland 1900-2001 Placename Scholar Kenneth Cameron 1922-2001
Next Issue Highlights: Connections and Interconnections: The British Isles and the Continent 400-1000


 

 

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The Heroic Age, Issue 5

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Staff for this Issue

 

Issue Editor: John M. Hill

Editor-in-Chief: Michelle Ziegler

Reviews Editor (Books and Film): Brad Eden

Electronic Medievalia Editor : L.J. Swain

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