The Waning Sword: Conversion Imagery and Celestial Myth in Beowulf

Edward Pettit

Description

The image of a giant sword melting stands at the structural and thematic heart of the Old English heroic poem Beowulf. This meticulously researched book investigates the nature and significance of this golden-hilted weapon and its likely relatives within Beowulf and beyond, drawing on the fields of Old English and Old Norse language and literature, liturgy, archaeology, astronomy, folklore and comparative mythology.

In Part I, Pettit explores the complex of connotations surrounding this image (from icicles to candles and crosses) by examining a range of medieval sources, and argues that the giant sword may function as a visual motif in which pre-Christian Germanic concepts and prominent Christian symbols coalesce.


In Part II, Pettit investigates the broader Germanic background to this image, especially in relation to the god Ing/Yngvi-Freyr, and explores the capacity of myths to recur and endure across time. Drawing on an eclectic range of narrative and linguistic evidence from Northern European texts, and on archaeological discoveries, Pettit suggests that the image of the giant sword, and the characters and events associated with it, may reflect an elemental struggle between the sun and the moon, articulated through an underlying myth about the theft and repossession of sunlight.

The Waning Sword: Conversion Imagery and Celestial Myth in 'Beowulf' is a welcome contribution to the overlapping fields of Beowulf-scholarship, Old Norse-Icelandic literature and Germanic philology. Not only does it present a wealth of new readings that shed light on the craft of the Beowulf-poet and inform our understanding of the poem’s major episodes and themes; it further highlights the merits of adopting an interdisciplinary approach alongside a comparative vantage point. As such, The Waning Sword will be compelling reading for Beowulf-scholars and for a wider audience of medievalists.
 

Sujets

• Historical

Informations

• Publié par: Open Book Publishers
• Date de parution: 14 janvier 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783748303
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

THE WANING SWORD
The Waning Sword
Conversion Imagery and Celestial Myth in Beowulf
by Edward Pettit
https://www.openbookpublishers.com
© 2020 Edward Pettit

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work; to adapt the work and to make commercial use of the work providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information:
Edward Pettit, The Waning Sword: Conversion Imagery and Celestial Myth in Beowulf . Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2020, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0190
In order to access detailed and updated information on the license, please visit https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0190#copyright
Further details about CC BY licenses are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
All external links were active at the time of publication unless otherwise stated and have been archived via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web
Digital material and resources associated with this volume are available at https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0190#resources
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ISBN Paperback: 978-1-78374-827-3
ISBN Hardback: 978-1-78374-828-0
ISBN Digital (PDF): 978-1-78374-829-7
ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 978-1-78374-830-3
ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 978-1-78374-831-0
ISBN Digital (XML): 978-1-78374-832-7
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0190
Cover image: Freyr, adapted from an illustration by Johannes Gehrts (1855-1921). Wikimedia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Freyr_by_Johannes_Gehrts.jpg
Cover design by Anna Gatti.
Very bright was that sword when it was made whole again; the light of the sun shone redly in it, and the light of the moon shone cold, and its edge was hard and keen. And Aragorn gave it a new name and called it Andúril, Flame of the West.
J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Grendel by Russell Marks. © Russell Marks. All rights reserved.

Grendel’s mother by Russell Marks. © Russell Marks. All rights reserved.
In memoriam
Alan Paul Pettit
24 January 1918–15 May 1995
Hazell Macdonald Pettit
4 October 1923–16 March 2016
Robert Charles Pettit
20 June 1955–10 March 2011
ic him æfter sceal
Contents
Acknowledgements
xvii
Signs and Abbreviations
xix
1.
Introduction: Beowulf , an Early Anglo-Saxon Epic
1
Part I. Ice, Candle and Cross: Images of the Giant Sword in Beowulf
33
2.
The Giant Sword and the Ice
35
Prior Views on the Melting of the Giant Sword
37
Old Norse Ice-Swords
42
3.
The Giant Sword and the Candle
47
Vargeisa’s Candle-Sword
51
Grýla’s Icicle-Candle
65
The Giant Sword as Solar Candle
71
Sörli and Sigrljómi ‘Victory-Light’
79
The Giant Sword as Paschal Candle
84
4.
The Giant Sword and the Cross
93
The Cross in the Lake
94
Three Old English Heavenly Candle-Crosses
98
Sword-Hilts, Sword-Blades and Crosses
100
Beowulf and Christ as Bearers of the Sword-Cross
112
The Battle-Standard and the Cross
113
Wiglaf as Sword-Bearer and Cross-Bearer
118
Part II. Sun-Swords and Moon-Monsters: On the Theft and Recovery of Sunlight in Beowulf and Other Early Northern Texts
121
5.
Whose Sword Is it, Anyway?
123
Giant-Forged and Giant-Stolen?
124
The Giant Sword and the Theft of M jǫ llnir
129
The Cup-Thief, Grendel’s Glove and Grendel’s ‘Un-Sword’: Aspects of Recurrent Thievery in Beowulf
131
The Basis for Detecting Germanic Myth in Beowulf
137
6.
Ing, Ingvi-Freyr and Hroðgar
143
The Ingwin e ‘Ing-Friends’ and Ing, Son of Man
143
Ing and Ingi-/Yngvi-Freyr
145
Freyr, the Friendly God
147
Worship of Ing in England?
147
Ing in the Old English Rune Poem
148
The Ing e-Peoples and the Sun-God of Psalm 112
156
Hroðgar and Danish Worship of an Unnamed Devil
158
Hroðgar, Healfdene’s ‘Firebrand’ and the Incgelaf
159
Ingunar-Freyr and Freyr’s Sword
166
Hroðgar a s Frea
167
Wealhþeo’s Brosinga Men e and Freyja’s Brísingamen
168
Freawaru
169
The Danes and the ‘Life-Lord’
169
7.
Freyr, Skírnir and Gerðr
171
Fǫ r Skírni s and Beowulf ’s Mere-Episode
172
Lokasenna , Gylfaginnin g and the Gifted Sword
184
Gymir and Gerðr as Sea-Giants
185
Hjálmþér, Ýma and Margerðr
188
The Burning Candle and the Barley Isle
194
8.
Lævateinn and the Maelstrom-Giantess
197
Svipdagr’s Quest for Meng l ǫ ð
197
Loki’s Taking of the Twig
206
More About Lævateinn and Mistilteinn
210
Saxo’s Hotherus, Balderus and the Sword of Mimingus
212
Lævateinn in the Lúðr
216
The Maelstrom-Giantess in Sagas of Hjálmþér, Grettir and Samson
219
Grendel’s Mother as Maelstrom-Giantess
222
9.
Freyr’s Solar Power and the Purifying Sword
225
Solar Aspects of Freyr in th e Eddas
225
Skírnir as Purifier
227
Beowulf and the Giant Sword as Purifiers
230
Freyr as Thawer
232
10.
Freyr, Heorot and the Hunt for the Solar Stag
235
Freyr, Beli and the Hart’s Horn
235
Heorot, the Hart-Hall
236
The ‘Hunted Hart’ Passage in Beowulf
238
The Solar Stag in Early Europe
244
The Hunt for the Sun
251
The ‘Battle-Thief/Wolf of the Sky-Shield’
252
S k ǫ ll and Hati
252
The Old One, the Pitchforker and Mánagarmr
255
Wolf-Snake versus Sun-Stag: Norse Myth on the Gosforth Cross
261
Hunted Stags on Other Anglo-Saxon Crosses
279
The Ovingham Stone
281
One Man (in the Moon) and His Dog
282
11.
A Tale of Two Creatures: The Theft and Recovery of Sunlight in Riddle 29
287
The Lunar Thief and Grendel
289
The Solar Repossessor and Beowulf
291
12.
Another Tale of Two Creatures: The Loss and Recovery of the Solar Draught-Beast in Wið Dweorh
293
An Old English Dwarf-Horse-Deer?
298
A Headache(?)-Causing Dwarf from Denmark
304
Another Headache-Causing Dwarf and a Radiant Sword
305
The Sun as Healer, Especially in Old English Remedies
308
The Dwarf and Grendel as ‘In-Going’ Fever-Demons
309
13.
The Solar Antler in Sólarljóð
315
The Buried Antler and Christian Legends, Especially of the Cross
317
The Solar Antler, the Dwarf-Horse-Stag(?) and a Solar Sword
321
Svafrlami and Dvalinn
324
Dvalinn and the Deaths of Alvíss and Hrímgerðr
328
Runes of Resurrection
335
Sólarljóð and Beowulf
337
14.
Grendel, His Mother and Other Moon-Monsters
339
Trees of Sun and Moon, and a Monster Called Quasi Caput Luna
340
Grendel the Wan
346
Grimm Brothers’ Fairy Tale 175: Der Mond ‘The Moon’
351
The Dead Moo n, a Blickling Homily and Beowulf
352
Nið ‘Waning/Dark Moon’(?) in Beowulf
358
Grendel and Glámr, the Monster with Moonlit Eyes
368
Grendel’s Mother and Norse Moon-Giantesses
372
Mána, Moon-Giantess and Thief
373
Mána and Brana
374
Skjaldvör, the ‘Dark-Moon Chest’ and More about the Nið -Dragon
376
Hyndla at the ‘Darkness of Darknesses’
388
Þórgunna, Mána-Ljótur and the Half-Moon
390
The Old One and the Pitchforker, Again
391
Ýma and the Boatforker
395
Two More Male Forkers and a Sword of Lunar Waning
399
King Dagr and the Hayforker
399
Kolr the Gibbous, His Fork-Wielding Son and the Sword Angrvaðill
400
Anger, Death and the Dismembered Moon
406
The Lunar Head and the Solar Head
408
15.
The Sun in the Pike
411
Three Golden Eggs, a Fallen Spark and a Pike
412
Tyrfingr and the Pike
413
Mistilteinn and the Pike
414
Hrómundr Gripsson, Þráinn and Mistilteinn
415
Grendel’s Mother as Pike
418
16.