Denmark: Cultural and Historical

About thirty years after the publication of Gísli’s article, Frederik Vilhelm Valdemar Rønning (1851–1929), whom we first met in chapter 1, received his Ph.D. for his dissertation, Beovulfs-Kvadet: en literær-historisk undersøgelse (The Lay of Beowulf: A Literary-Historical Study, 1883). He was an N. F. S. Grundtvig devotee and produced numerous publications about him and his work, the most significant of which for our purposes were three articles in 1885 on Grundtvig’s three trips to England9 Rønning, “Grundtvig og den oldengelske literatur.” and a richly detailed biography in four large volumes published between 1907 and 1914: N. F. S. Grundtvig: et bidrag til skildring af dansk åndsliv i det 19. århundrede (N. F. S. Grundtvig: A Contribution to the Description of Danish Intellectual Life in the Nineteenth Century). The influence Grundtvig exerted over Rønning is manifest in his Beovulfs-Kvadet, in which he first assesses the applicability of Liedertheorie (ballad theory) to Beowulf as articulated by the German philologist Karl Müllenhoff (1818–84).10 On “The victory and development of Liedertheorie,” see Shippey and Haarder, Beowulf, pp. 47–54. Point by point, Rønning scrutinizes and refutes Müllenhoff’s assertion that the poem is the work of six poets, as evidenced by numerous contradictions in the narrative structure of the poem (pp. 11–30)11 For a translation of pp. 24–30, see ibid., pp. 410–15, and for a statement on the importance of Rønning’s book, see ibid., pp. 58–59. and by a plethora of inconsistencies in tone and style in it (pp. 31–87). Rønning concludes that the Müllenhoffian Liedertheorie cannot be right and that Beowulf

Having dispensed with Liedertheorie, Rønning then takes up the problem of the Beowulf poet and the poem’s place of origin (pp. 88–107). An examination of the Northumbrian dialect features shining through the West Saxon dialect of the poem as well as the Christian elements that have been introduced into the poem lead Rønning to conclude that the author of Beowulf must have lived in Northern England, most probably in a monastery. The poem originated in southern Sweden and was transported during the Migration Period to Northern England, where it was revised into an epic whole by a Northumbrian poet, probably sometime in the eighth century.13 Ibid., p. 107. Finally, Rønning concludes his study with a lengthy discussion of the poetic character of Beowulf (pp. 108–75). This is the most Grundtvigian chapter in the book, especially in Rønning’s examination of the poem’s “poetic style.” Poetry is a “spiritual power” (en ånds-kraft) measurable by the effect it has on the human mind, which depends on two factors: the soul of poetry, or the richness and deepness of poetry, and the technical means by which poetry becomes revelatory. If the poetry is meant to evoke a mood or feeling or something else invisible, then its means are musical; if it is meant to portray an external object, then its means must emphasize the plastic.14 Ibid., p. 129. This discussion is reminiscent of Grundtvig’s concerning earthly, historical, and luminous poetry and the power of the living word. For Rønning, the wholeness and unity of Beowulf is realized through the poet’s command of the poem’s language, through his word choice and his exchanging old, worn-out, colorless words for other words that have newer and fresher colors and imagistic power.15 Ibid., p. 131. If a poet wanted to describe the profusion of a giant’s beard, he could use a simile: the giant’s beard was like a forest. Or, instead of a simile, he could use a metaphor and call his beard a “cheek-forest.” By so doing, the image and the object merge.16 Ibid., p. 141. Beowulf contains multiple examples of such refined and specific diction as applied to weapons (pp. 143–45), warriors, chieftains, and kings (pp. 145–49), battle (pp. 149–51), ships and sea (pp. 151–53), death and blood and wounds (pp. 153–56), to name some of the most conspicuous terms of interest. The poem is also characterized by two other features that contribute to its wholeness and unity: technical features of OE poetry such as descriptions of nature (pp. 161–68) and meter and verse form (pp. 168–73). All of these aesthetic effects ensure that the poet’s story glides along “like a broad, epic stream, winding steadily forward wherever its path may best fall; here are no waterfalls, no roar and froth; calm and still it glides along until it reaches its goal and winds itself around the foot of Beowulf’s burial mound towering high by the seashore.”17 “som en bred, episk strøm, der slynger sig jævnt fremad, hvor dens vej bedst kan falke; her er ingen fossefald, ingen brusen og syden; rolig og stille glider den afsted, til den når sit mål, og slynger sig om foden på Beovulfs gravhøj, knesende højt ved havets bred.” Ibid., p. 173.

A scholar whom we met in the previous chapter, Axel Olrik, made significant observations about Beowulf in a book in which the poem plays a vital role. Olrik (1864–1917) is one of the most important medievalists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and has had several biographical essays written about him. A student of Svend Grundtvig (1824–83), the son of N. F. S. Grundtvig, and a Romantic nationalist and patriot, Olrik is considered “the founder of folkloristics in Denmark and of the geographic-historical (or ‘Finnish’) school of folkloristics.”18 Hemmingsen, “Axel Olrik,” p. 267. He published over 200 books and articles and helped found several scholarly entities such as the “Danish Folklore Archives” (p. 269) and co-founded the journal DS, in which he published many articles. His major publication, which was projected to encompass seven volumes, is Danmarks Heltedigtning (Denmark’s Heroic Poetry), an exhaustive examination of the whole history of heroic legend pertaining to Denmark. He managed to produce just two volumes, the first in 1903 on Rolf Krake og den ældre Skjoldungrække (Rolf Kraki and the Elder Scyldings, translated into English and revised in collaboration with the author by Lee M. Hollander as The Heroic Legends of Denmark in 1919) and the second in 1910 on Starkad den gamle og den yngre Skjoldungrække (Starkad the Old and the Younger Scyldings). It is in the first volume that he makes frequent mention of Beowulf and touches on other OE texts as well, such as “The Battle of Maldon,” “The Finnsburg Fragment,” and “Widsith,” which he alludes to sixteen times in the English translation. Beowulf and “Widsith” contain “our earliest information concerning the Danish kings of the oldest times,”19 Olrik, Heroic Legends of Denmark, p. 12. and Olrik devotes his first chapter to exploring Beowulf in particular. Shippey and Haarder have translated the most important part of that chapter concerning future strife in Heorot, Wealhtheow’s speech (lines 1159–91), and the presence of Unferth, which underscores the hints at the catastrophe to come for the Danes.20 Shippey and Haarder, Beowulf, pp. 497–99. Cp. Olrik, The Heroic Legends of Denmark, pp. 49–65. Olrik observes that the role that Unferth plays as troublemaker

It should be noted that the Danish edition of the book was reviewed in several journals, and the augmented English version was reviewed in several more. The author of one of the latter reviews was Gudmund Schütte, who wrote a lengthy and laudatory essay22 In SS 6 (1920–21), 210–21. that – together with his publishing a series of articles in Olrik’s DS – indicates that the indignity he felt that he had suffered at Olrik’s hands in 1907 or so had been forgiven if not forgotten. This was fortunate because Olrik did not live long. He died a broken man at the age of fifty-two after the death of his wife, Margarete, with whom he spent the happiest years of his life when he had “not yet learned what sorrow is.”23 Hemmingsen, “Axel Olrik,” p. 269. He left behind many incomplete projects, one being his Nogle Grundsætninger for Sagnforskning (Some Principles for Oral Narrative Research) that his successor Hans Ellekilde assembled from Olrik’s papers dealing with the nine epic laws (later, rules)24 Ibid., p. 276. of oral narrative and published in 1921. That book was translated into English by Kirsten Wolf and Jody Jensen and published in 1992. One of the laws enumerated in it is the law or rule of twins, which states that “[w]hen two characters appear in the same role, they are both depicted as being weaker than a single character.” Thus, only together do Hrothgar’s sons Hrethric and Hrothmund in Beowulf have the power of a single strong character such as Beowulf.25 Olrik, Principles for Oral Narrative Research, p. 51. This law, then, along with Hrethric’s being known as “the stingy with rings” in the ON tradition,26 Shippey and Haarder, Beowulf, p. 64. when a king should be liberal with them, perhaps gives Wealhtheow’s seeming anxiety about Hrethric’s becoming king more weight.

Christian Ludwig Kier (1839–1934) was an attorney and prominent community official in Aarhus after fighting in the eight-month Dano-Prussian or Second Slesvig–Holstein War of 1864 when Denmark lost Slesvig and Holstein to Prussia and Austria.27 Nordstrom, Scandinavia since 1500, p. 211. He was, for example, a Superior Court Prosecutor in Aarhus beginning in 1869, Director of the Jydsk Handels- og Landbrugsbank 1874–76, Member of the Aarhus City Council 1876–87 and 1891–99, and Chairman of the Danish Market Association 1894–1900. He was also a legal historian and made several contributions to the field including a book asserting a close connection between Nordic and Lombard law.28 Dahl, “Kier, Christian Ludvig.” His 1915 Beowulf: Et Bidrag til Nordens Oldhistorie (Beowulf: A Contribution to the Legendary History of the North) so impressed a reviewer of the book for its originality that he declared that it “by all means deserves, through a translation into German or English, to be made available to a broader audience.”29 “verdient unbedingt, durch eine übersetzung ins Deutsche oder Englische weiteren kreisen zugänglich gemacht zu werden.” Björkman review of Kier, p. 245.

Kier’s purpose in writing his book is to try to specify where the tribes mentioned in Beowulf originated, because scholars do not agree on the issue. Some believe the Angles came from southern Jutland, some from southern Germany where the lex Angliorum & Werinorum prevailed. Some believe that the Geats, on the other hand, came from Jutland or Gotland or Bornholm or Öland or Västergötland.30 Kier, Beowulf, p. 2. Kier’s study basically argues for Danish provenance for all of them, even the Geats, because the Goths (from Västergötland) and Swedes were never at war, but the Jutes and Swedes have always been.31 Ibid., pp. 46ff. In equating the Geats with the Jutes, Kier is in agreement with, among others, Heinrich Leo in 1839, Frederik Schaldemose in 1847, and Pontus Fahlbeck in 1884.32 Ibid., p. 31. The poem is about old Denmark: in the first part, a hero from Jutland (Beowulf) sails to Sælland to help the Danish king, Hrothgar, battle Grendel and his mother. In the second part, having returned to Jutland, Beowulf fights the dragon and dies. Kier notes (in agreement with Rønning) that the poem was composed in Mercia or Northumbria, and the Angles who settled there mainly came from the Jutland peninsula.33 Ibid., p. 12. The mythic elements aside, the poem is replete with names that substantiate Kier’s view. He devotes a chapter each to the Danes, the Geats, the Angles, the Geatish and Danish royal genealogies, and then to Frode (OE Froda), Halfdan (OE Healfdene), and Ongentheow. The chapters on Froda and Ongentheow are the most striking in the book.

Froda appears once in Beowulf at line 2025b of the Ingeld or Heathobard episode, and Kier claims that the Danes under his brother Healfdene, who appears first in line 57a as the son of Beow, killed him (line 2050) and that he is the one who had to be avenged.34 Ibid., p. 98. He is Ingeld’s father, the Heathobard lord, and therefore has been widely considered a Heathobard as well. The situation is more complicated than it seems, however, and does not necessitate that conclusion. Saxo tells us that Froda subjugated the Saxons and made it all the way to Hannover; his son Ingeld’s connection with the Heathobards was thus naturally established.35 Ibid., p. 99. Froda, however, remained king of the Danes, and there was good peace under his rule. Then his brother Healfdene came home and Froda was killed, where and by whose hand is unknown, although Sven Aggesen in the late twelfth century identified Healfdene as the culprit.36 Ibid., p. 100. For the relevant passage from Aggesen, see Fulk et al., Klaeber’s Beowulf, p. 302. “Ingeld then seeks refuge with the Heathobards, from where he returns again and again to his homeland, Denmark. The above result is confirmed by all the best Nordic sources.”37 “Ingeld søger da Ly ned hos Headobarderne, hvorfra han atter gentagne Gange hjemsøger sit Fædreland, Daneriget. Ovenstaaende Resultat bekræftes ved alle de bedste nordiske Kilder.” Ibid., p. 100. Froda thus is a Dane, not a Heathobard, but Ingeld is still considered one. The ramifications of these facts, which Kier does not mention because his focus is historical, is that the theme of the destructive power of the blood feud in Beowulf arises as early as line 57a with the introduction of Healfdene, his brother’s slayer.

The focus on blood vengeance and its consequences continues throughout Beowulf and is seen again in the poem’s second half in the renewed strife between the Swedes and the Geats beginning at line 2472. Ongentheow, the king of the Swedes slain by Hygelac of the Geats, is first mentioned in line 1968a. The question Kier tries to answer concerning these warring factions is where they came from. The Geats lived in Jutland, as he has already demonstrated. But what about the Swedes? Most mentioned in Beowulf, as affirmed by Swedish sources such as Thjódólf of Hvinir’s Ynglingatal and Ynglingasaga, came from Uppland, Sweden. But Ongentheow stands apart from them as not being mentioned in those Swedish sources except in their “speak[ing] against attributing Ongentheow’s realm to Uppland.”38 “tale begge imod ogsaa at henføre Ongentheows Rige til Upland.” Ibid., p. 126. Kier reminds us that the Beowulf poet descended from the Angles of southern Jutland, that the poem originated in England, and that the legends that formed the basis of the poem migrated to Mercia and Northumbria from the Jutland peninsula. The audience for the poem would therefore perhaps be expected to recognize place-names from the homeland from long ago but not necessarily from Swedish Uppland. And there are numerous specific place-names in lines 2922–99 of the poem, such as Ravenswood in line 2925b, which is also referred to as Hrefnes Holt in line 2935a. A Northumbrian or Mercian audience descended from Angles of the Jutland peninsula would be unlikely to recognize that name unless it came from Denmark, where Ravenholt is a very common place-name even today.39 Ibid., pp. 129–30. On this and other evidence, then, Kier identifies Ongentheow with Angeltheow of the Mercian genealogy from The Parker Chronicle40 See Fulk, Kaleber’s Beowulf, p. 292. and Ongen in the Historia Brittonum.41 Kier, Beowulf, p. 130. He further locates the battle of Ravenswood in or around Schleswig and fleshes out that identification in the next chapter on “Kampen omkring Hedeby” (the battle near Hedeby).42 Ibid., pp. 137–44.

One ancient Danish place-name that does not appear in Beowulf is nevertheless important to it: Lejre. Tom Christensen, Emeritus Archaeologist at Roskilde Museum in Denmark, published the results of the excavations that he directed in the 1980s at the home of the legendary kings of Denmark in his book Lejre: syn og sagn (Lejre: Fact and Fable, 1991). That book, with an additional chapter on a new round of excavations up to 2005 that includes the discovery of a previously unknown hall complex from the sixth century at the farm called Fredshøj on the outskirts of Lejre, was translated into English by Faith Ingwersen as Lejre: Fact and Fable for John D. Niles’s Beowulf and Lejre (2007). The remnants of the long house found at Fredshøj indicate that the building was originally 45 to 47 meters long and seven meters wide and “therefore must be classed among the very largest buildings known from the sixth century in Denmark. With its stout posts, as evidenced by the holes they left, and its situation on top of this prominence [høj] with a broad view across the surrounding landscape, this building was large, high, and broad-gabled,” comparable in splendor to Hrothgar’s hall in Beowulf: