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The Dynastic Drama of Beowulf
The original audience of Beowulf was steeped in ancient Scandinavian royal legend. But for modern readers of the poem, these traditions are frustratingly obscure and confusing.
This book argues that Beowulf is a dynastic drama centred on the fortunes of three great royal houses, the Scyldings, Scylfings and Hrethlings. At the centre of the poem is the Geatish hero, whose adventures provide the link between these three dynasties. By unravelling the web of Scandinavian royal legends known to the work's original audience, the volume allows the modern reader to appreciate better the role of the monsters as portents of dynastic and national crises. It begins by offering a new interpretation of the work's structure based on the principle of the dynastic life-cycle, providing explanations for features of the poem that have never been satisfactorily explained, most famously its many digressions and episodes. Highlighting the work's often-overlooked originality, it then proposes that the poet created a fictionalized monster-slaying hero and inserted him into royal legend in order to dramatize specific moments of dynastic crisis. Finally, it brings into focus the poet's debt to biblical paradigms of kingship and considers how the Anglo-Saxons came to read Beowulf as their own Book of Kings.
Table of Contents
Family The Dynasties of Beowulf
Dramatis Personae
Reading Beowulf as a Book of Kings
Chapter The Dynastic Life-Cycle and the Structure of the Poem
Chapter Shaping the Dynastic Drama
Chapter The Role of the Monsters in the Dynastic Drama
Chapter Beowulf and Biblical Kingship
Reading the Dynastic Drama in Anglo-Saxon England
Appendices
Bibliography
This book argues that Beowulf is a dynastic drama centred on the fortunes of three great royal houses, the Scyldings, Scylfings and Hrethlings. At the centre of the poem is the Geatish hero, whose adventures provide the link between these three dynasties. By unravelling the web of Scandinavian royal legends known to the work's original audience, the volume allows the modern reader to appreciate better the role of the monsters as portents of dynastic and national crises. It begins by offering a new interpretation of the work's structure based on the principle of the dynastic life-cycle, providing explanations for features of the poem that have never been satisfactorily explained, most famously its many digressions and episodes. Highlighting the work's often-overlooked originality, it then proposes that the poet created a fictionalized monster-slaying hero and inserted him into royal legend in order to dramatize specific moments of dynastic crisis. Finally, it brings into focus the poet's debt to biblical paradigms of kingship and considers how the Anglo-Saxons came to read Beowulf as their own Book of Kings.
Table of Contents
Family The Dynasties of Beowulf
Dramatis Personae
Reading Beowulf as a Book of Kings
Chapter The Dynastic Life-Cycle and the Structure of the Poem
Chapter Shaping the Dynastic Drama
Chapter The Role of the Monsters in the Dynastic Drama
Chapter Beowulf and Biblical Kingship
Reading the Dynastic Drama in Anglo-Saxon England
Appendices
Bibliography
323 pages, Hardcover
Published April 17, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 21, 2021
Very meticulous, layered, and logical, though a bit too careful and systematic/mechanical for my tastes: I would've liked a bit more flair. That said, Leneghan's central thesis that Beowulf resembles an Anglo-Saxon dynastic drama is very convincing indeed, and the historicisations in his epilogue are particularly interesting and incisive. So all in all still an impressive read that I would recommend to anyone interested in the great Old English epic.
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November 8, 2021My review appears in Apardjón Journal for Scandinavian Studies 2: 91—95.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews