1. Studies in Historical, Linguistic, and Cultural Subjects (with a direct bearing on the Literature)
Denmark is the sole Scandinavian country in this category. We begin with Vilhelm Grønbech’s spectacular four-volume
Vor Folkeæt i Oldtiden (Our Peoples in Antiquity). It appeared in 1909–12 and was translated into English by William Worster as
The Culture of the Teutons (1931) and into German by Ellen Hoffmeyer as
Kultur und Religion der Germanen (1937–39). It is a substantial and important work by an important scholar who has been compared in intellectual impact to Grundtvig in the international community.
1 Mitchell, “Vilhelm Grønbech, Synthesist,” p. 318. Although there is not a direct line of descent from the latter to the former, the two men shared some interesting characteristics. Grundtvig was, among other things, a preacher; Grønbech was, among other things, a professor of religion and church organist; Grundtvig was conversant with multiple ancient and modern languages and studied OE with the internationally known linguist Rasmus Rask; Grønbech was conversant with multiple ancient and modern languages and studied OE with the internationally known linguist Otto Jespersen (1860–1943);
2 Hvidtfeldt, “Grønbech.” Grundtvig was a celebrated poet; Grønbech was both a poet and novelist, though far less prolific and far less celebrated than Grundtvig;
3 Mitchell, “Vilhelm Grønbech, Synthesist,” pp. 319 and 321. both Grundtvig and Grønbech believed in the power of myth;
4 Ibid., p. 323. and, most importantly for our purposes, both thinkers believed in the importance of a scholar’s immersing themselves in the culture they study. As we have seen, Grundtvig practiced dynamic equivalence in translating OE texts and even transformed himself into an OE poet to produce spiritually faithful, pneumatological translations into Danish of OE texts.
5 Bjork, “Grundtvig the Old English Scop.” Similarly, Grønbech in 1922 explained both his method of conducting research and the responsibility that a researcher has, which is “to live in the culture or the person he wants to describe until the unfamiliar thoughts spring forth from his own comprehensive understanding”
6 “Det er forskerens pligt at leve sig ind i den kultur eller det menneske han vil skildre, til de fremmede tanker springer frem af hans egen helhedsforståelse.” Quoted in Hvidtfeldt, “Grønbech.” as familiar ones in the present day.
Grønbech applies this method in his
The Culture of the Teutons. The work is Grundtvigian in scope, dealing as it does with the language and literature of all the major Germanic peoples: Scandinavians, mainland Germans, and Anglo-Saxons to whose words and poetry – such as
Beowulf, “The Rune Poem,” and gnomic verse – he refers dozens of times throughout his study.
7 Grønbech, The Culture of the Tuetons: references to Beowulf throughout beginning at p. 35; “Rune Poem,” p. 133; gnomic verse, p. 136. By looking at single words such as “peace,” “honor,” “luck,” and “soul,” and what they meant in all their fullness in the original culture, Grønbech could explore larger subjects such as “Death and Immortality,” “The Realm of the Unhappy Dead,” “The Structure of the Clan,” “Name and Inheritance,” “Play and Vow,” and “The Gods.” Because of the anisomorphism of languages, the word “frith” (peace), or “freod” in OE, for example, embraces a range of meanings in the original languages not embraced by comparable words in modern target languages into which it is translated. The “frith” that Hrothgar gives to Beowulf in line 1707a after Beowulf has killed Grendel and his mother brings affection and obligation along with it; the “frith” that a woman bestows, on the other hand, “glows with passion” for the Northmen.
8 Ibid., p. 35. On the reality of death, Grønbech observes that it is not much like our own, which embraces our own realities:
We do not find, among our forefathers, any fear of the ending of life. They passed with a laugh of defiance through the inevitable, we are told; or they faced the thought of an earthly ending with a convinced indifference, plainly showing that they did not attach great importance to that event.
9 Ibid., p. 190. For a great deal more on this concept, see Shippey, Laughing Shall I Die.Grønbech’s concentrating on the psychology and spirit of the early Germanic peoples as revealed in their language and literature allowed him to open their world to us as had not been done before.
10 Grønbech cites Beowulf from Holder, not Grundtvig, and the rest of OE poetry from Wülcker, Bibliothek. Worster’s translating Grønbech’s groundbreaking study into English allowed it to reach an international audience as it would not have otherwise.
Other historical and cultural studies in Danish on OE topics during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have tended to be much more restricted in scope than Grønbech’s. Four historians have focused on some aspect of the history of Denmark and used OE material to help substantiate their arguments. Possessed by a raging energy, driven by a violent temper, raised in a Grundtvigian and nationalistic home, and twice incarcerated by the Nazis for his work against them during the German occupation of Denmark during WWII,
11 Kjersgaard, “Vilh. la Cour.” the historian Vilhelm la Cour (1883–1974) traces the Danes back to 4000 BCE
12 “Vort Folks Oprindelse,” p. 263. in his contribution to volume one of
Det danske Folks Historie: Skrevet af danske Historikere (The Danish People’s History, written by Danish Historians, 1927 – note that titles continue to be important).
13 Ibid., especially pp. 276–327. In doing so, he affirms the strong historical connection between Denmark and England because the Angles and Jutes came from what is now Denmark and the Saxons from an area contiguous with Denmark to the south. The Angles, for example, came from the region between Flensborg Fjord and Sli (or the southern part of Schleswig), as attested by OE documents from “Widsith” to Bede’s
Ecclesiastical History,
14 Ibid., pp. 276–77. and the Jutes came from Jutland to inhabit Kent, according once again to Bede. Hengest was among those Jutes.
15 Ibid., p. 305. La Cour does not promote a closer connection between the Danes and English, however, such as that supposedly affirmed by Saxo Grammaticus. Saxo begins his great history of the Danes, writes la Cour, by stating that the Danes trace their beginning back to Dan and Angul, sons of Humbli, who were both founders of and guides for the Danish people:
It is said that the historical background for Saxo’s account of the two brothers is Canute the Great’s time, when Denmark and England were united under one ruler and when Danes and Angles (Englishmen) felt more closely connected to each other than to any other people. But this explanation does not touch on the most essential point. It is not England that Saxo is thinking of at all in the first place. “From one of them, Angul,” he says, “the Angle people are descended according to legend; he named the landscape that he ruled after himself … , and when his descendants later occupied Britain, they separated the island from its old name and gave it a new one instead, namely their own homeland.” It is, therefore, the Schleswig Angel and nothing else that is associated with Angul’s person, and although his descendants took dominion in England and transferred the name to it, it is nevertheless the fact that he and his brother are in effect the descendants of the Danes that has captured Saxo’s attention.
16 “Det er sagt, at den historiske Baggrund for Sakses Beretning om de to Brødre er Knud den Stores Tid, da Danmark og England var forenet under een Hersker, og da Daner og Angler (Englændere) følte sig næmere knyttede til hinanden end til noget andet Folkeslag. Men denne Forklaring rammer ikke det væsentligste. Det er slet ikke England, Sakse i første Række tænker paa. ‘Fra den ene af dem,’ siger han, ‘Angul, skal efter Sagnet Anglerfolket nedstamme; han gav det Landskap, han raadede, Navn efter sig selv … , og da hans Efterkommere siden indtog Britannien, skilte de Øen ved dens gamle Navn og gav den et nyt i Stedet, nemlig deres eget Hjemlands.’ Det er altsaa det slesvigske Angel og intet andet some forbindes med Anguls Person, og selv om hans Efterkomere tog Herredømmet i England og overførts Navnet dertil, er det dog den Kendsgerning, at han og Broderen staar som Danernes Ætmænd, der har fanget Sakses Sind.” Ibid., p. 307.Such clear-sightedness typifies la Cour’s scholarly work, and he uses it in his frequent judicious references to “Widsith”
17 Ibid., pp. 276, 301–02, 311, 319, 321, and 323. and
Beowulf18 Ibid., pp. 280, 311, 313ff., 323–27. as well as his two references to “The Rune Poem”
19 Ibid., pp. 280 and 311. and one to an Anglo-Saxon genealogy
20 Ibid., p. 301. to bolster his meticulous account of the Danish people. His other contributions to OE studies center on
Beowulf and its relationship to Denmark.
21 “Lejrestudier,” DS 17 (1920), 49–67; “Lejrestudier: Mindesmærkerne,” DS 18 (1921), 147–66 ; “Lejrestudier: Navnet,” DS 21 (1924), 13–22 ; and “Skjoldungefejden,” DS 23 (1926), 147–56.Writing in the same 1927 volume on Danish history (written by Danish historians) as does la Cour is Johannes C. H. R. Steenstrup (1844–1935), Professor of History at the University of Copenhagen 1882–1917 and a Danish romantic nationalist specializing in medieval law. He was also interested in broad and untraditional topics such as women’s history, the relationship between nature and culture, and historiography. His studies of Danish place-names and works on legal history were groundbreaking.
22 Tiemroth, “Johannes Steenstrup.” In the final section of his contribution to
The Danish People’s History, Steenstrup outlines the meaning for England of Danish settlement and governance, basing his view on numismatics (for the reigns of Harald I Harefoot and Hardicanute), placenames, “The Battle of Brunanburh,” and the Norse influence on OE legal terminology.
23 Steenstrup, “Harald Harefod,” pp. 432–37. Another historian affiliated with the University of Copenhagen (from 1947 to 1968) was Erik Kroman (1892–1982), who combined dialect studies and historical linguistics with the study of early Danish history, as in his 1976 book
Det Danske Rige i den Ældre Vikingetid (The Danish Kingdom in the Earlier Viking Age). He focused in particular on his discussion of Danish settlements in England, where place-names tell such an intriguing story, as Steenstrup also saw.
24 Kroman, Det Danske Rige, pp. 137–55. But AS historical sources likewise tell an intriguing story for part of Danish history. Among others, these for Kroman include Bede’s
Ecclesiastical History, the
Annales Lindisfarnenses et Dunelmenses, Asser’s
Life of Alfred, and
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,
25 Ibid., pp. 36–41. which has interested Scandinavian scholars ever since Jakob Langebek in 1772
26 Langebek, Scriptores, vol. 1, pp. 6–9. See also Steenstrup, Normannerne, especially vols. 2 (1878) and 3 (1882), and “Harald Harefod og Hardeknud 1035–42,” pp. 363–66, 370–77, 414–37; Brynildsen, “Om tidsregningen i Olav den Helliges Historie,” especially chapter 7, pp. 66–73 and 80; Jónsson, “Um Erík blóðöx”; and Schiern, “Om Navnet Lodbrog.” and which Kroman finds particularly useful for Viking history, both in England and on the continent, where relevant historical sources are so scarce.
27 Kroman, Det Danske Rige, p. 37.Niels Lund (1939–), likewise affiliated with the University of Copenhagen as Emeritus Professor of Medieval History and likewise interested in the Vikings, published two books on the Viking connection between Denmark and England. In the first,
De danske vikinger i England: Røvere og bønder (The Danish Vikings in England: Robbers and Farmers, 1967), Lund acknowledges that nationalism continues to play at least a small role in the study of the Viking period, even though it does not rise to the level of Romantic Nationalism that we have seen at work during the nineteenth century in Scandinavia. Because the Viking period, however, represents the only Great Power Period in Danish history, it is naturally regarded with some favor by Danes and other Scandinavians.
28 De danske vikinger, pp. 7–8. “Our cruel ancestors, the wild Vikings, had not been blessed for long in Valhalla,” he writes, “ – or in God’s heaven, of course, since many of them were baptized – before they were held up as a model for later generations. The romantic idea of the Vikings that we still cultivate when given the chance arose very quickly.”
29 “Vore grumme forfædre, de vilde vikinger, havde ikke længe været salige i Valhal--eller i Guds himmel, menge af dem blev jo døbt--førend de blev hold op som forbillede for senere generationser. Den vikingeromantik, som vi stadig dyrker, når lejlighed gives, opstod meget hurtigt.” Ibid., p. 7. Basing his argument on sources such as
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,
Domesday Book,
The Kalendar of Abbot Samson of Bury St. Edmunds, and place-name studies, he de-romanticizes the Vikings, noting that much of their luster vanishes on closer examination. “They were hardly as wild, cruel, or all-conquering as we thought.”
30 “De var knap så vilde, grumme eller altbesejrende, som vi har troet.” Ibid., p. 97. Lund furthers this thesis in his 1997 De hӕrger og de brӕnder: Danmark og England i Vikingetiden (They Ravage and They Burn: Denmark and England in the Viking Period).In the twenty-first century, Brian Patrick McGuire (1946–) continued the trend of focusing on Denmark in his 2008
Da Himmelen kom nærmere: Fortællinger om Danmarks kristning 700-1300 (When Heaven Came Closer: Stories of the Christianization of Denmark 700–1300), the second edition of which appeared a year later in 2009. McGuire, an American turned Dane whose mother was a high school teacher and whose father was publicity director for the San Francisco 49ers,
31 McGuire, Min amerikanske Barndom, p. 18. moved in 1970 to Denmark, which he has made his home ever since. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at Roskilde University Center. In chapters 2 and 3 of his book, McGuire focuses on
Beowulf to help us understand the Danes’ transition from heathenism to Christianity and then elaborates by looking at the first AS missionary to Denmark, St. Willibrord (658–735). Without mentioning Kevin Kiernan’s hypothesis that the date of composition of
Beowulf is the same as the date of its sole manuscript from the early eleventh century,
32 Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript. McGuire advances a similar theory regarding the poem’s late origins. Although heathen in content, the poem was written by a Christian during the reign of Canute the Great (1014–35) when both England and Denmark were under one ruler, and it illustrates a heroic mentality moving from its heathen roots to its Christian flowering in Northern Europe.
33 Da Himmelen kom nærmere, pp. 40–41. Some Danes turning back to their old heathen gods for consolation after the depredations of Grendel is one instance of the transi tional nature of the epic, as are the various assurances given that Beowulf’s coming to the aid of the Danes is by the will of God, the Christian God being understood. Beowulf, therefore, becomes to some degree a Christ figure sent to save the Danish people.
34 Ibid., pp. 42–44. He is so both in his fight against Grendel and that against Grendel’s mother, especially when he emerges alive from the mere as Christ did alive from the tomb.
35 Ibid., p. 47. He is much less so in his fight against the dragon that finally kills him. Nevertheless, in the person of Beowulf we find a heathen hero showing the way toward a new and better and Christian world.
36 Ibid., p. 52.