Aid from the Elf-Ruler: Line 1314a and the Pre-Christian Antecedents of Beowulf.
Line 1314b of Beowulf is regularly emended to "alwalda" (Ruler of All) from the manuscript form "alf walda" (Ruler of Elves). But the other instances of "alwalda" in Beowulf do not have visible space between the l and the w , and no plausible motivation for the addition of an f and a space has been...
| Publicado en: | Studies in Philology Vol. 121; no. 2; pp. 209 - 236 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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University of North Carolina Press
Spring2024
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=177422236&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 177422236 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00393738 SPL jtl: Studies in Philology issn: 00393738 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Spring2024 vid: 121 iid: 2 pid: 2027 pub: University of North Carolina Press artinfo: ui: 177422236 10.1353/sip.2024.a923964 ppf: 209 ppct: 27 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 924KB tig: atl: Aid from the Elf-Ruler: Line 1314a and the Pre-Christian Antecedents of Beowulf. aug: au: Drout, Michael D. C. Kumar, Caiden affil: Wheaton College su: Beowulf Manuscripts Christianity God Scribes sug: subj: Beowulf Manuscripts Christianity God Scribes ab: Line 1314b of Beowulf is regularly emended to "alwalda" (Ruler of All) from the manuscript form "alf walda" (Ruler of Elves). But the other instances of "alwalda" in Beowulf do not have visible space between the l and the w , and no plausible motivation for the addition of an f and a space has been proposed if the exemplar read "alwalda." We contend, therefore, that MS "alf walda" is correct, and that the compound refers to the pre-Christian deity Yngvi-Freyr (to use the more familiar Norse name) rather than to the Christian God. We note that in the same passage in which "alf walda" appears, the Danes are called the "Ingwine" (friends/followers of Ing) and that later in the poem Hrothgar's daughter is named "Freawaru" (watchful care of Freyr). Connecting this material with archaeological finds at Gamle Lejre that indicate the sacrifice of pigs (Freyr's sacred animal), the place name Hleiðra ("the place of the tent"), and the statement in line 175 that the Danes made sacrifices "æt hærgtrafum" (at the pagan tabernacles), we argue that "alf walda" is part of a larger pattern of connections between the Danes in Beowulf and pre-Christian Germanic practices that appear to have been understood by one of Beowulf' s sources (and perhaps by the Beowulf -poet) but which were opaque to later scribes. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Studies in Philology is the property of University of North Carolina Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Studies in Philology holder: University of North Carolina Press dt: @attributes: year: 2024 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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