2. OUTLINE
I. GNOMES AND THEIR TYPES ACCORDING TO CRITICS
II. HROTHGAR’S THANES AND THEIR IDOLATRY
III. THE QUESTION OF PAGAN VS CHRISTIAN INTERPRETATIONS
IV. LAWS PASSED AGAINST PAGANISM
V. EXODUS AND THE OLD TESTAMENT (PARALLELISM)
VI. CONCLUSION
3. The gnomes serve as an advice “about life, to cure illness, and they try to explain how to act or
where to be in the social or natural matrix. But they are full of artful mystery, tangled
ambiguity, surreal gaps in meaning” (Williamson 178). In Beowulf, after the attack of Cain’s
descendant Grendel, the reader encounters Danes vowing offerings to idols, swearing oaths that the
killer of souls might come to their aid and save the people” (lines 175-180).
Yet it is in dispute among the critics whether Beowulf-poet is condemning them, or sympathetic
to their tragedy. As the poem continues “ That was their way, their heathenish hope; deep in their
hearts/ they remembered hell. /The Almighty Judge, of good deeds and bad, the Lord God, Head of the
Heavens and High King of the World /was unknown to them” (Norton 45).
4. • In the anthology footnotes, the killer of the souls is referred as the devil, for the Heathen gods were
thought to be devils. Yet, many critics including Wentersdorf question whether the poet can actually
be sympathetic as there was no revelation to the Danes, or whether the word “unknown” denotes a
kind of ignorance, that can be also understood as not acknowledging (Wentersdorf 108).
• Hence, this paper aims to analyze the gnomic stance of those lines to decipher the function of them within
the context. As the pagan rituals have continued until Norman era, and before that, revived during the
Viking raids and people may have returned to their old beliefs. Therefore, it is possible to argue that
the poem may be presenting the issues of the time it was written, and cursing the ones who believe
in idols. As medieval characters hold an importance in relation to Shakespeare’s time, the pagan
idolatry may be related to political and religious instability of its time. Yet, it is problematic to base
our ideas related to notion of curse with Latin sources (proverbs and medieval homilies), as there is a very
different understanding of Christianity in Anglo-Saxon period.
5. • It is a crucial task to track the use of gnomes in Beowulf. Arvo Krikmann remarks the use of
relational words such as “every, all, sometimes, never” words marking modalities “good, bad,
must, cannot”, interrogatives and syntactic formulas “if x then y, where a then b, better c then d”
(Krikmann qtd in Deskis 4).
• The use of generalizations are vital in gnomic utterances in Beowulf, as the idolatry part continues “
Oh, cursed is he/ who in time of trouble has to thrust his soul/ in the fire’s embrace, forfeiting help;
he has nowhere to turn./ Blessed is he who after death can approach the Lord and find friendship in
Father’s embrace” (Lines 183-188).
6. • Monotheism: As Klaber thought that the poet sought to “ modernize” the pagan society of
sixth-century Scandinavia by depicting it as Christian but that his modernization is marred by
lapses into historical accuracy, as when the Danes are shown worshiping idols (p. 135)
• Paganism: It is important to track the idea of paganism. Fred J. Robinson claims that the gnomes
have an “apposite” use, to create a spiritual experience that allows us to know “that they are pagans
and yet presenting them in a way that keeps their paganism in abeyance […] It is through this style
[…] that the poet creates a spiritual setting in which his audience can assess the men of old for what
they were.” And by means of that “he does not deny his characters’ heathenism but uses the
traditional diction and appositional effects to free the audience of the mind-numbing alarm which a
graphic depiction of a pagan society would cause” (Robinson 30)
7. • Celtic literature by Donahue: monotheistic god: fact that the Irish had constructed for themselves in the early Middle
Ages 'an idealized vision of their pre-Christian ancestors. ' Irish hagiographers tell of non-Christians who during
their whole lives had followed the natural good (naturale bonum). Christian commentators on Irish native law assure
their readers that before the coming of St. Patrick the men of Ireland possessed the law of nature (Irish recht aicnid, lex
naturae). The law of nature, they add, is good and still binding in Christian (58).
Thesis “Maxims in Old English Poetry”: together with the analysis of Bible in relation to part “Romans” punishment
by fire: refuses Dantenian purgatory. Beowulf poet also turns to his audience and generalizes, 183b-88, warning them of
the future. He knows, and his audience know, the truth which the Danes did not-it is well for the one who is able to (mot)
seek the embrace of the Father, and terrible for the one who has to (sceal) go to hell. Scael: may, must. He accepts all the
possibilities the gnome provides: it becomes clear that the poet's use of the formulas was motivated by three
purposes: one, to acknowledge and condemn the idolatry of the Danes; two, to generalise from that to a statement of
Christian biblical belief about judgement, applicable to both the Danes and his audience; and three, to make an
emphatic closure to that particular incident and its implications (Cavill 139-148)
8. • Paganism and idolatry: places of worship and the performance of pagan rites continued throughout
England for centuries, as is evident from the repeated promulgation of ecclesiastical edicts and
secular laws against paganism, right up to the Norman era.
• Poenitentiale of Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury (668-go), includes a canon De cultura idolorum,
"On the worship of idols," imposing ecclesiastical sanctions for a variety of heathen transgressions
• The Laws of Wihtraed “If a freeman, without his wife's knowledge, worships heathen gods, let him
forfeit all of his possessions and pay his healsfang [a fixed portion of his wergeld]»
9. AGAINST PAGANS (WENTERSDORF ):
• A new problem occurred: after 835-constant raiding, and in 865 the raids turned into an invasion. The
ecclesiastical authorities were particularly hard hit, since the monasteries and churches, the very
strongholds of Christian orthodoxy, were among the principal targets of the heathen attacks. The
impact of the wars on the religious activities of the embattled Anglo- Saxons can only be guessed at.
Some, perhaps many, returned to the proscribed beliefs of their forefathers
• In 886, Alfred, king of Wessex, concluded a peace treaty with Guthrum, the Danish King of East Anglia,
and then the two leaders jointly issued a code of laws beginning with the these statement "that they
would love the one God and zealously renounce all heathen practices"; the laws also decreed that "if
anyone violates Christianity or honors heathenism by word or deed," he is to be heavily fined, while
"wizards or sorcerers;' are to be expelled from the country.31
• These laws of Alfred and Guthrum were reaffirmed by Edward I of Wessex
10. AGAINST PAGANS:
• In 664, England suffered from an unusually disastrous visitation of the plague: as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records,.
Bede: "In the same year a sudden pestilence first depopulated the southern parts of Britain and afterwards attacked the
kingdom of Northumbria, raging far and wide with cruel devastation and laying low a vast number of people. «
• In 786, the news reaching Rome concerning the deterioration of Christianity in England was so disturbing that Pope
Hadrian dispatched a mission, headed by veteran diplomats, to investigate and rectify the situation (apparently the only
legatine mission to be sent to England during the whole of the Anglo-Saxon period). 116
• There was another revival of paganism in the 88o's. After the onset of the great Danish invasion of England in 865, the
Anglo- Saxons were locked in a life-and-death struggle with the invaders. The administration of the Church faltered;
episcopal sees were left vacant, sometimes for several years. The reaction of Pope Formosus to clerics:
• We had heard that the abominable ceremonies of the heathens had once again sprouted forth in your territories, and that
you had remained silent like dogs without the strength to bark. We had been thinking seriously of smiting you with the
sword of excommunication. But because our beloved brother Plegmund has informed us that you are waking up at last. ...
we have drawn back the sword of destruction and are sending you the blessing of Almighty God..., praying that you may
persevere in the task that you have so well begun."
11. EXODUS AND BEOWULF
• Exodus parallelism: Exodus 1-7: Lo! We far and near heard have/ over middle-earth Moses‟
dooms,/ the wonderful word-right, for men‟s generations,/ in heaven blessings each/ after the
baleful journey the reward of life,/ for the living each long lasting wisdom/ to warriors to say.
Hear he who wills!
• Beowulf 1-11: Lo! We the Spear-Danes in days of yore the people-kings the glory have heard,
how the princes fame won! Often Scyld Scefing seized from enemies from many clans, mead-
benches he seized, terrified earls, though before he was destitute found; he that comfort
experienced, grew under sky in honors throve, until him each of the neighboring ones over
whale-road to hear had to, to pay tribute: that was a good king! (Hopkins «Solving the Old
English Exodus» 13)
• Yet in Anglo-Saxon Exodus we have Hebrews and Egyptians as warriors, there is a heroic society,
dramatic descriptions of blood and conflict and even plunder. (We have to consider heroic ideals
mixed with biblical figures Cambridge Companion 225)
12. • Conclusion: I believe it is hard to know how Anglo-Saxons perceived the world. It can be said that
the poet curses the ones who commit idolatry, and he might have his own society in mind.
However, it can be claimed that it is hard to base our ideas in parallel to Latin sources of homilies
and proverbs, for though there are similarities between two sources, the Anglo-Saxon society had
a very different view on Christianity as it is presented before. Therefore, I would not claim that the
scribe was empathetic to the ones who committed idolatry. Nevertheless, he most probably had a
very different idea of Christianity. (As Aelfric records the tendency of his contemporaries to cite
Old Testament support for their own practice of taking concubines, and for their fondness of
revenge, the marriage of priests and the involvement of clergy in warfare etc- The Cambridge
Companion 216).
