| Sumario: | Previous studies exploring the possibility of “Celtic†influence in Beowulf have categorically neglected Brittonic parallels, even though the early English historically had more direct contact with the Britons during the early settlement period than any other Insular people (which may be symptomatic of the neglect of Brittonic traditions in other early English texts, such as the works of Bede and other church authors). The present study unearths the ancient Brittonic traditions of dual-natured female water deities and the offering of votives, particularly swords, to sacred bodies of water, among others, the resonances of which may be detected within the lines of Beowulf, particularly as they relate to Grendel’s mother, the mere, and the “giant’s sword†Beowulf finds in the Grendel-kin’s aquatic lair. The following analysis suggests that these traditions, which likely persisted throughout the early English period, may have provided an effective foil for English ideologues-an antagonist “other,†in a sense-from which to construct an early instance of English ethnic identity based upon the conquest and redefinition of the preexisting physical, cultural, political, and religious landscapes of early medieval Britain. The archaeological record also turns up widespread features of the Brittonic landscape that offer continuous parallels for long sequences of lines in Beowulf, far surpassing the relatively minor details that crop up in the Irish analogues. Consideration of these themes may expand scholarly consensus regarding Brittonic and Gaelic influences in Beowulf from existing merely as idiosyncratic borrowings to agents crucial to the text’s exploration of identity formation and the seeming inseparability between physical space and cultural memory. The paper concludes with an invitation to scholars to more actively consider ancient Brittonic influences in early medieval English texts outside of Beowulf.
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