Names and Naming in 'Beowulf'

Studies in Heroic Narrative Tradition

Philip A. Shaw

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781350211674
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781350145771
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

'Beowulf', one of the earliest poems in the English language, recounts a tale of heroism played out against the backdrop of Scandinavia in the 5th to 6th centuries AD. And yet, this Old English verse narrative set in Scandinavia is – a little surprisingly, perhaps – populated with names of German descent.

This insight into the personal names of 'Beowulf' acts the starting point for Philip A. Shaw's innovative and nuanced study. As Shaw reveals, the origins of these personal names provide important evidence for the origins of Beowulf as it enables us to situate the poem fully in its continental contexts. As such, this book is not only a much-needed reassessment of 'Beowulf''s beginnings, but also sheds new light on the links between 'Beowulf' and other continental narrative traditions, such as the Scandinavian sagas and Continental German heroics. In doing so, Names and Naming in 'Beowulf' takes readers beyond the continuing debate over the dating of the poem and provides a compelling new model for the poem's origins.

1

The Geats, Brondings and Wylfings

The named Geats in Beowulf represent a substantial proportion of the characters in the poem whose names are given. Since they are also the tribal group of the hero, it is helpful to begin with this group of characters, although, as we shall see, Beowulf himself does not appear to be tightly integrated into the royal house of the Geats as depicted in the poem. Beowulf’s name, and those of his family members, mark him out as distinct from the main body of the Hreðling dynasty, and it is with this dynasty that we begin our exploration of the names of Geats in the poem.

The royal house of Hreðel

The central figures of the Hreðling dynasty are Hreðel, his son Hygelac and grandson Heardred. These figures constitute the main line of succession to the throne of Geatland, while Hreðel’s other sons Herebeald and Hæðcyn exist within a self-contained episode in which the latter accidentally kills the former – an episode that appears to be closely related to the narrative of Hǫðr’s accidental killing of Baldr in Scandinavian mythological narratives. On these grounds alone, we might suspect that these two figures represent an addition to the dynastic genealogy from another tradition and, as we shall see, the probable origins of the names of these two characters also bear out this interpretation. Female figures also provide links for the insertion of additional figures into the dynastic tradition (a point noted by Shippey 2014: 65). Hreðel has an unnamed daughter, whose marriage with Beowulf’s father Ecgþeow links Beowulf and his relatives Ecgþeow, Wihstan, Wiglaf and Ælfhere to the Hreðlings. Similarly, Hygelac’s unnamed daughter provides the means of linking Wonred and his sons Wulf and Eofor into the Hreðling dynasty. In the cases of Beowulf and of Wulf and Eofor, it seems likely that these figures developed separately from the main dynastic tradition of the Hreðlings, and may well have been attached to the Hreðlings at some point in the development of Beowulf itself. The only named female figure among the Hreðlings, moreover, is Hygelac’s wife Hygd, who, together with her father Hæreð, could represent another addition to the central tradition. This leaves the figures Swerting and Hereric, who are loosely specified relatives of the central Hreðling figures Hygelac and his son Heardred. Given that the poet tells us almost nothing about these figures, we could be forgiven for thinking that they are peripheral figures but, in fact, the probable origins of their names are consistent with these names having formed part of the core Hreðling dynasty. As we shall see, the names of figures in the Hreðling dynasty are not uniformly of Scandinavian origin; the core dynastic figures as outlined here bear names that could be of Scandinavian origin (although Continental Germanic origin is not out of the question) whereas the peripheral groups show signs of deriving from either Continental Germanic or Old English tradition. In order to demonstrate this clearly, we will consider each group in turn, looking first at the core Hreðling dynasty, before turning to the peripheral groups.

The dynastic core of the Hreðlings

The head of the dynasty of the Hreðlings, Hreðel, bears a name that Peterson (2004: 39) interprets as plausibly Proto-Scandinavian, arguing that it is formed from the element *Hrōþi-, which is attested in her runic and her place-name material, and the diminutive suffix *-ilaz. If we treat Hreðel as a West Saxon form, then this is entirely etymologically plausible, as the result of i-mutation of /o/ in West Saxon is represented as <e>. We should note, however, that the form of this name varies in the text of Beowulf; while it usually appears in forms where the stem vowel is represented by <e> (lines 374, 1847, 2191, 2358, 2430, 2474 and 2992), it does occur on two occasions with <æ> for the stem vowel; at line 454 we encounter the form Hrædlan and at 1485 Hrædles. Although these forms with <æ> are very much in the minority, they are significant variants; they do not represent obvious errors, but rather suggest an earlier spelling of the name that has apparently been updated in most of the references to Hreðel in the text. These two forms appear to reflect the use of <d> to represent the dental fricative in early Old English, suggesting that they may be spellings preserved from a form of the text dating no later than the eighth century or perhaps the early ninth century (see Lapidge 2000: 29–34 and Shaw 2013a). It seems possible, then, that forms such as Hreðel, with the stem vowel represented by <e>, represent the result of updating of the text during the course of its transmission, while the forms with <æ> representing the stem vowel give us an insight into the original form of the name.

If the original form of this name had the stem vowel /æ/, this would suggest that this is not, in fact, a name formed with the first element *Hrōþi-. This vowel would suggest instead that this name is formed either with an element related to Old English hræð ‘quick’ that appears in Continental Germanic names as Hrad-/Hrat- (Förstemann 1900: s.v. HRADA), or with an element that appears in Scandinavian names as Hreið- (Lind 1905–1915: s.v. Hreiðarr, Hreiðmarr, Hreiðúlfr, Hreiðunna and Hreiðunnr) and in Continental Germanic names as Hraid-/Hrait-/Raid- and similar (Förstemann 1900: s.v. HRAID). The only possible bearers of a name containing one or other of these elements in early medieval England are an eighth-century Abbot of Abingdon (PASE: Ræthhun 2) and a Bishop of Leicester (PASE: Ræthhun 1), who may well be the same person. Given the frequent omission of initial <h> in representations of his/their name, moreover, it seems quite likely that he/they was/were of Continental Germanic origin, and that this simply provides additional evidence for the Continental Germanic name element Hrad-/Hrat-. As Shaw (2011b: 84–86) points out, then, it is possible that the name Hreðel in Beowulf derives either from this specifically Continental Germanic element Hrad-/Hrat-, or from the Scandinavian and Continental Germanic element Hreið-/Hraid-, although derivation from Hrad-/Hrat- might account more straightforwardly for the alternation between <æ> and <e> spellings that we observe in the text of Beowulf. Given that this alternation can be satisfactorily accounted for by updating of the text in the course of transmission, however, it seems unwise to prefer one possible derivation over the other, and we must content ourselves with the observation that Hreðel could represent a Scandinavian or a Continental Germanic name.

Hreðel’s son Hygelac bears a name that is, if anything, even less regionally distinctive, although here we have also to consider the possibility of another textual witness to this figure. Peterson (2004: 39) includes the name Hygelac among those she considers plausibly Proto-Scandinavian in Beowulf, noting the presence of the second element of the name in her corpus of personal names from early Scandinavian runic inscriptions. Both elements occur (although not in combination) in the Viking Age runic material from Scandinavia assembled in Peterson (2007: s.v. Hugaldr, Hugbiǫrn, -læikr/-lakr). It is possible, then, that this combination of elements could have been used as a name in pre-Viking Age Scandinavia, although it seems not to have been a common name if it was in use. On the Continent, in contrast, this combination of name elements is attested, although the name is not especially common (Förstemann 1900: s.v. HUGU). In England, PASE identifies two individuals under the name form Hyglac (PASE: Hyglac 1–2) and this name appears four times in ninth-century contexts in the Durham Liber Vitae (Rollason and Rollason 2007: 2.132). This would appear, then, to be a rare name that might occur in most, if not all, areas of the Germanic-speaking world, and it would therefore provide no evidence for the geographical development of the narrative materials of Beowulf.

It is also, however, worth addressing the evidence for the Scandinavian king who bears this name in the work of Gregory of Tours, in the Liber Historiae Francorum and in the Liber Monstrorum. If, as is often accepted, there was an actual Scandinavian king in the early sixth century who bore this name, then this would provide compelling evidence that Hygelac and his disastrous raid formed the basis of a narrative tradition, although we might still question whether this narrative tradition was created originally in Scandinavia, among the losing party or their neighbours, or in Frankia or its environs, among the victors. The identification of Hygelac with the figure mentioned by Gregory, in the Liber Historiae Francorum and in the Liber Monstrorum has, however, been questioned by Christensen (2005), who argues that the name forms given in these sources cannot safely be identified with the name Hygelac in Beowulf. While this questioning of a long-held assumption is salutary, the fact that the name Hygelac need not be identical with the name(s) recorded in the other sources does not demonstrate that the figure Hygelac in Beowulf was not based on the Scandinavian king with a similar name who is evidenced in these other sources. To insist on a precise equivalence between the names is perhaps to expect too much consistency in a popular narrative tradition that probably circulated orally, especially when we consider the chronological and geographical distance that separates Gregory from the Beowulf poet. We might be cautiously positive, then, about this identification and the possibility that the Hygelac of Beowulf was ultimately based on an historical figure whose fatal last venture was memorialised, perhaps in Scandinavian tradition, but certainly in Continental Germanic tradition.

The name of Hygelac’s son Heardred is also not especially regionally distinctive. Peterson (2004: 38) treats this name as one of the Proto-Scandinavian personal names in Beowulf, although she also notes an Old English and a Continental Germanic form of the name. PASE records three bearers of this name, all of them in the later eighth century (PASE: s.v. Heardred 1–3). Insley, Rollason and McClure (Rollason and Rollason 2007: 2.125) also treat the name form Heared, which appears in S 1431b, as an instance of Heardred, although they do not explain why they prefer this interpretation to the possibility that this is a form of Heahred. In the Durham Liber Vitae, the name Heardred appears several times in early ninth-century contexts (see Rollason and Rollason 2007: 2.124 for a list of instances). Förstemann (1900: s.v. HARDU) lists a considerable number of instances of this name from Continental Germanic contexts. In fact, this name is considerably better attested in England and on the Continent than it is in Scandinavia; Peterson apparently includes this name as Proto-Scandinavian on the basis that the two elements used in forming the name appear in other combinations in her early Scandinavian runic material. This certainly makes it possible that this particular combination was used in Scandinavia...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of maps
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1 The Geats, Brondings and Wylfings
• 2 The Scyldings, Heathobards and Helmings
• 3 The Scilfings
• 4 The Finnsburh episode and the non-Scylding Danes
• 5 Weland and the Wælsings
• 6 The continental characters
• 7 A glove in hood’s clothing: Hondscio and the narrative tradition of Beowulf
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Indices
• Index of Personal Names
• Word Index
• Subject Index
• Copyright