Beowulf - Sources and Analogues

Sources and Analogues

Neither identified sources nor analogues for Beowulf can be proven. Both of these are important in regards to the uncertainty surrounding the Beowulf manuscript, as the works which it draws from or influences suggest time-frames of composition, geographic boundaries from 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). There are five main categories in which potential sources and/or analogues are included: Scandinavian parallels, classical sources, Irish sources and analogues, ecclesiastical sources, and echoes in other Old English texts.

Early studies into Scandinavian sources/analogues proposed that Beowulf was a translation of an original Scandinavian work, but this idea has been discarded. In 1878, Guðbrandur Vigfússon made the connection between Beowulf and the Grettis saga. This is currently one of the only Scandinavian analogues to receive a general consensus of potential connection. Tales concerning the Skjöldungs, possibly originating as early as the 6th century, were later used as a narrative basis in such texts as Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus and Hrólfs saga kraka. Some scholars see Beowulf as a product of these early tales along with Gesta Danorum and Hrólfs saga kraka. Paul Beekman Taylor used the Ynglingasaga as proof that the Beowulf poet was likewise working from Germanic tradition.

Friedrich Panzer attempted to contextualise Beowulf and other Scandinavian works, including Grettis saga, under the international folktale type 301B, or "The Bear's Son" tale. However, although this approach—the "shift ... from the quasi-historical or legendary materials ... to the folktale line of inquiry," was seen as a step in the right direction, "The Bear's Son" tale was seen as too universal. In a term coined by Peter Jørgensen, the "two-troll tradition," a more concise frame of reference was found. The "two-troll tradition" refers to "a Norse 'ecotype' in which a hero enters a cave and kills two giants, usually of different sexes." Both Grettis saga and Beowulf fit this folktale type.

Scholars who favored Irish parallels directly spoke out against pro-Scandinavian theories, citing them as unjustified. Wilhelm Grimm is noted to be the first person to ever link Beowulf with Irish folklore. Max Deutschbein is noted as the first person to present the argument in academic form. He suggested the Irish Feast of Bricriu as a source for Beowulf—a theory that was soon denied by Oscar Olson. Swedish folklorist Carl Wilhelm Von Sydow argued against both Scandinavian translation and source material due to his theory that Beowulf is fundamentally Christian and written at a time when any Norse tale would have most likely been pagan in nature.

In the late 1920s, Heinzer Dehmer suggested Beowulf as contextually based in the folktale type “The Hand and the Child,” due to the motif of the “monstrous arm”—a motif that distances Grettis saga and Beowulf and further aligns Beowulf with Irish parallelism. James Carney and Martin Puhvel also agree with this “Hand and the Child” contextualisation. Carney also ties Beowulf to Irish literature through the Táin Bó Fráech story. Puhvel supported the “Hand and the Child” theory through such motifs as “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 the bear-hug style of wrestling.”

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. James A. Work's essay, “Odyssean Influence on the Beowulf,” also supported the Homeric influence. He stated that 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 them both 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 the following decade when a handful of critics stated that the two works were merely “comparative literature” although Greek was known in contemporary England. Bede states that Theodore, 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. At this time, Homer's poems were used as textbooks for the study of Greek.

Friedrich Klaeber somewhat led the attempt to connect Beowulf and Virgil near the start of the 20th century, claiming that the very act of writing a secular epic in a Germanic world is contingent on Virgil. 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 the apologue technique used in Beowulf is so infrequent in the epic tradition aside from when Virgil uses it that the poet who composed Beowulf could not have written the poem in such a manner without first coming across Virgil's writings. A large number of similarities in episodes, themes, and description in the two epics have been identified. Some specific examples of these are things such as:

• The reception of Beowulf by the coast guard with drawn spear and a challenge but the situation is quickly smoothed over by an explanation of why the ship has arrived parallels Aeneas' landing and very similar reception with drawn spear by Pallas in book VIII of the Aeneid.
• The court bard in both epics sings of the creation of the world.
• A human like giant, a Cyclops in the Aeneid book III, Grendel in Beowulf, coming into a hall every day to eat members of the hero's crew.
• Hercules (Aeneid book VIII) following a trail to the giant Cacus' cave where he wrestles with him and kills him parallels Beowulf following a trail to Grendel's mother's cave where he wrestles with and kills her.
• The scene in the forest of the hero shooting a "huge" beast with his bow and arrow while his men watch, and the men retrieve the body - a deer in the Aeneid, and a sea snake in Beowulf.
• The commissioning of a special metallic shield to fight Turnus in the Aeneid and the dragon in Beowulf.
• The hero's sword shattering in his final battle before he is killed, at the end of the poem - Turnus' in the Aeneid and Beowulf's in Beowulf.
• The following of a deer leading to a critical encounter with the enemy.
• Youths riding around on horses at the funeral of a great man - Anchises and Pallas in the Aeneid and Beowulf in Beowulf.
• A woman predicting the fall and destruction of the nation by invaders - Cassandra in book II of the Aeneid and "A Geatish Woman" in Beowulf.

Some more fundamental structural similarities are things such as:

• The division of both poems into two distinct phases - a first half Odyssean phase of wandering and adventuring in a different land and a second half Iliadic phase upon taking leadership in a new kingdom and fighting a terrible enemy there.
• Beowulf's landing, an awkward reception at first, and stay at Heorot, being begged to stay there to fight king Hrothgar's enemies paralleling Aeneas' landing and stay at Carthage, again, awkward at first, including being begged to stay there to fight the queen's enemies, but the hero decides to leave in spite of being promised great wealth and privilege.
• The hero works for and under another king for half the epic. In Beowulf, Hrothgar. In the Aeneid, king Latinus.

Whether seen as a pagan work with “Christian coloring” added by scribes or as a “Christian historical novel, with selected bits of paganism deliberately laid on as 'local color', as Margaret E. Goldsmith did in “The Christian Theme of Beowulf,” it cannot be denied that Christianity pervades the text, and with that, the use of the Bible as a source. Beowulf channels Genesis, Exodus, and Daniel in its inclusion of references to God's creation of the universe, the story of Cain, Noah and the flood, devils or the Devil, Hell, and the Last Judgement.

The Bible can fall into both the category of ecclesiastical sources and also this category, as the Beowulf poet would have relied on Old English translations.