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Techniques of pacing in Beowulf

A. Leslie Harris
a a

Georgia State University Published online: 13 Aug 2008.

To cite this article: A. Leslie Harris (1982) Techniques of pacing in Beowulf , English Studies, 63:2, 97-108 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00138388208598164

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T E C H N I Q U E S OF P A C I N G IN

BEOWULF

Beowulf is at once a product of its time, bound to and developed from literary traditions and techniques that were largely abandoned in later English poetry, and the unique, recognizably individual work of a masterpoet. The tension between these two, the tradition and the alterations wrought upon it, has both fascinated and divided commentators. Much of the enduring artistic merit and appeal of the poem lies in the flexibility the Beowulf-poet found within apparently inflexible stylistic confines, either by achieving the effects of the traditional devices through non-traditional means or by manipulating the traditional to create unexpected, atypical results. Although the poet appears to have been keenly aware of his audience and its expectations, the extent to which he both satisfied and played upon these expectations marks his worth as a poet rather than as a skilled craftsman. The poet's handling of pacing and tempo offers one of the most striking instances of his poetic virtuosity. Although variation is usually cited as the most pervasive and efficient means of retarding action, too many otherwise astute readers of Old English poetry have assumed that the relative density of variations in a given passage is exclusively responsible for the shifts between action and reflectiveness which characterize Beowulf. However, other related verbal patterns and often-slighted transitional features of the diction are equally important in creating an effective opposition between swift-paced action and ceremonial solemnity. No matter how vivid or striking an individual word or phrase may appear in Old English poetry, both the broadest and the subtlest effects are achieved through variation and those patterns closely aligned to it, parallelism and enumeration. Just how precisely variation was defined in the period of Old English verse or how strictly the Beowulf-poet, or any other, followed the rules for its application remains unknown and probably unknowable.1 Because Old English diction differs both in kind and in spirit from ours, modern critical terminology and scholarly perspectives are inadequate, often failing entirely to capture the precise quality of some type of Old English verbal usage or distorting the nature or effect of others. We know surprisingly and disconcertingly little about the most interesting and basic feature of Old English verse how the poets actually composed. Since the poets themselves bequeathed us no poetic handbooks or stylistic guides, modern scholars have found themselves hypothesizing the creative process from the finished product. As with any reconstructive analysis, such an unavoidably imprecise method may obscure as
1

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The closest we have to a contemporary literary comment is wordum wrixlan in line 874, but as Stanley Greenfield wryly notes (Stanley Greenfield, The Interpretation of Old English Poems [London and Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972], p. 64), the same phrase in line 366 merely means 'to exchange words with someone'.

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often as it clarifies. The temptation to transform recurring features of the diction into fixed, rigid rules and requirements for composition becomes a Procrustean dilemma when, or whether, to sacrifice' the effects of individual examples for a 'traditional' conformity. The definition of variation adopted here is that of Professor Robinson: 'Its [variation's] essence, then, is structural and semantic repetition, with variety of wording. Accordingly, I define variation as parallel words or groups of words which share a common referent and which occur within a single clause (or, in the instance of sentence variation) within contiguous clauses.'2 By demanding both 'structural and semantic' repetition, this definition helps to resolve or, at least, to suggest possible resolutions to the major critical disputes concerning variation. Beyond their inability to settle on a definition, scholars have been unable to agree on the structural limits of an individual variation, to determine its functions or effects, or to distinguish between variation and the lists and parallelisms which resemble variation but differ from it both intrinsically and significantly. One of the chief difficulties in setting the limits of variation by form is that any content word, regardless of its morphology (simplex, compound, derivative) can participate in variation, not only with a comparable form but with any other form; a compound can vary a simplex or vice versa. Genitive phrases freely vary compounds or simplices, as long as the overall grammatical and semantic relationship between the two elements remains stable. The key factor is one not of morphological but of grammatical and semantic identity. If a genitive phrase fulfills the same function as the original referent, it deserves to be considered a variation. However, by asserting that variation has strict-formal, if not purely morphological, boundaries, Robinson's definition excludes such loose interpretations of variation as Malone's 'inner and outer variation', Schaar's 'close and loose variation', and Leslie's 'formal and conceptual variations'.3 Although his study yields a workable definition, Robinson acknowledges without completely solving the problem of determining the functions of variation. His study lists the kinds of information that variation can convey, but he does not propose definite requirements for the kind or amount of semantic information involved, beyond saying that variations are always broadly suited
2

Fred Robinson, 'Variation in Beowulf (Unpublished dissertation, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1961), p. 32. Kemp Malone, T h e Old Tradition: Poetic Form', A Literary History of England, ed. Albert C. Baugh (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 2nd ed., 1967), p. 30. Outer variations restate 'something already expressed, ... but not in the same sentence', and inner variation limits this multiple statement to a single sentence. Claes Chaar, Critical Studies in the Cynewulf Group (Lund: C. W. K. Gleerup, 1949), pp. 320-25. 'Close' variation is a direct one-to-one correlation of every element in the variation to its original. 'Loose' variation does not require absolute syntactical parallelism. R. F. Leslie, 'Analysis of Stylistic Devices and Effects in Anglo-Saxon Literature', Proceedings of the Seventh Congress of the International Federation for Modern Language and Literature (Heidelberg: Modern Language and Literature, 1959) p. 132ff. Leslie's categories resemble Schaar's except that conceptual variation extends Schaar's loose variation to encompass entire passages.

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to their context and in 'neutral' contexts tend to be most general and most abstract. Confusing the issue still further is Greenfield's observation that variation may move either from the general to the specific (lines 39-40 hildewpnum ond heaowdum, / billum ondbyrnum) or from the specific to the general (lines 1158-59 to Denum feredon, / lddon t lodum).* Regardless of the precise function of each variation, the overall effect is consistently one of clarification. The poet may emphasize his point by repeating it or may enhance it, but he strives to make the point complete by making his audience aware of its full connotative, as-well as denotative, scope. The relationship between variation and other kinds of parallelism is central to any discussion of this kind of patterned usage. Greenfield is skeptical of Robinson's insistence on formal parallelism and rightly stresses that there are many examples of parallelism without variation. However, Robinson also observes that parallelisms which are not variations are ubiquitous in the poem and that the effect of such parallelisms and enumerations may run counter to that of variation. Even if we specify that form and meaning are necessary elements of variation, distinguishing between a parallelism or enumeration and a true variation is often difficult and occasionally subjective, hinging on the interpreter's decision that the same referent is involved in each instance. Beowulf, lines 22123 illustrates the range of scholarly disagreement over a single passage:
bst 5a fiende land geswon, brimclifu bfican, beorgas stape, sde sSnaessas ...

Brodeur admits that the passage has parallelism of form but says that the identity of meaning necessary for a true variation is lacking because the poet is enumerating different aspects of the approaching coast-line. Robinson and Greenfield interpret the formal parallelisms of noun modified by three adjective-and-noun phrases as variation, a lengthy explanation of the referent (land) by three more specific kinds of land (land fronting the sea).5 Parallelism of form can occur in enumerations and lists or in progressions. I am interested only in exact parallelisms of specific syntactic units (especially such examples as recurring verb forms or phrases), not entire sentences or sentence groups. Parallelisms that are not variations range from lists of plainly disparate items through shady areas where the referents appear to be identical but the meanings vary subtly. An example of parallel verbs forming a list but not a variation may be seen in lines 2132-34:

See Greenfield (The Interpretation of Old English Poems, pp. 66-68) for additional examples. Fr. Klaeber, ed. Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg (Lexington, Massachusetts: D. C. Heath and Company, 3rd ed., 1950. All subsequent citations are from this edition. Brodeur, The Art of Beowulf (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1960), p. 275; Robinson, 'Variation in Beowulf, p. 82, no. 98; Greenfield, The Interpretation of Old English Poems, pp. 6869.

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pxt ic on holma gearing eorlscipe efnde, ealdre genede, msro fremede.6

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With parallelisms of verbs, the problem becomes whether we have distinct actions or the same action twice. Identifying the referent of an action is even more taxing than finding that of an object or an idea. All too often verb parallelisms appear to have the same referent, but the meaning has altered slightly in the progressive expansion. For example, Robinson notes of lines 30607 {Guman netton, / sigon cetsomne,...) that 'the subjective apprehension of the action referred to is so different in each parallel verb that the effect is more one of listing than of restating, and hence the effect of variation is lost.'7 Frequently parallelisms of form, especially of verbs, stress related but not synonymous actions:
seonowe onsprungon, burston bnlocan. (lines 817-18)

bonne he Hrogares heorogenatas slh on sweofote, slpende frst folces Denigea. (lines 1580-82)

Hafa nu ond geheald husa seiest, gemyne msrbo, maegenellen cy, waca wi wrbum! (lines 658-60)

Clearly, the similar verbs of the first example have not only different subjects but different meanings in a sequential destruction; only in the most general sense may the two verbs be seen as having the same meaning of 'break'. The second phrase {burston bnlocan) offers a metaphorical noun joined to a less specific and less colorful verb. The second passage is variational in repeating a general idea, but the 'additional' information represents a far more explicit temporal refinement of the action than Greenfield's movement of variation from the general to the particular would seem to cover. First Grendel slew, then he devoured, the thanes. Similarly, Hrothgar's advice to Beowulf before retiring contains grammatically parallel admonitions, but the second and third elements obviously refer to Beowulfs fame and valor and are not parallel to the hall.
6

Robinson says of this passage that 'since all nouns and all verbs are different in individual reference, the effect is that of a list', not of a variation, stressing the proper actions of a noble man (p. 121). Although most of my examples are of verbs (because the distinctive effects of parallelism versus true variation are clearest with verbs), lists of nouns are common. Of lines 333-35 (Hwanon ferigea g ftte scyldas,/ grge syrcan, ond grmhelmas / heresceafta Kap?). Brodeur says, 'This (list) stresses, individually, distinct details that, taken together, present the total image of a company of splendidly armed men; but the several referents are different things.' (Art of Beowulf p. 142). Robinson, 'Variation in Beowulf, p. 120.

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Once the limits of variation have been established (albeit roughly), there is little point in re-covering ground well-trodden by citing extensive examples from the poem, cataloguing types of variations, or even analyzing closely each role this stylistic feature plays in the poem. However, the main effects do merit closer examination. Generally, variation contributes to retarding the tempo, making transitions, marking structural divisions, amplifying, repeating, or emphasizing a point, and indicating emotion. All of these are subsumed by the poet's control of the pace or the tempo of his narrative, playing compressed action sequences against the more highly rhetorical and slowerpaced sections. Thus, we can naturally expect denser concentration of variations to be well suited to long conversational or reflective passages. One of the most striking effects of variation is that least connected, superficially, with the narrative pace or tempo. Studies of variation from Paetzel on have noted that variation heightens or intensifies emotion. Brodeur makes this one of the chief tenets of his chapter on variation in The Art of Beowulf? Certainly, extensive variation is more common in lines exploring the characters' feelings and thoughts than their actions, and variational descriptions of objects, emotions, and the results of action outweigh those referring to the actions themselves. This disparity can be explained only partly by the general emphasis on substantives over verbs in the diction. The use of variation to heighten an emotion depends primarily on the poet's willingness to dwell on the emotion or the situation through repetition. Thus, the sections of the poem concerned with action contain more parallelisms and series of verbs and fewer variations, gnomic utterances, or interruptions on the part of the poet. When the characters' speeches turn from reflection or ceremonial politeness to advocating action, we may see a similar decrease in variation and increase in forceful series. Unferth's accusations and the conclusion of Beowulf's direct, pointedly personal attack against his challenger contain more variations than the main body of Beowulf's rebuttal, the account of his sea adventures with Breca. Brodeur
8

Brodeur (The Art of Beowulf, p. 39) says that variation 'raises into high relief those concepts which the poet wants to emphasize and permits him to exhibit the object of this thought in all its aspects.' Recently, there have been studies of other means of 'heightening emotion' or 'intensification'. Peltola (Nilo Peltola, 'Observations on Intensification in Old English Poetry', NM, 72 [1971], 649-90) and Mitchell (Bruce Mitchell, T h e Expression of Extent and Degree in Old English', NM, 77 [1976], 253ff.) cite elaborate ways of achieving intensification through dimensional adverbs or adjectives, adverbs or adjectives denoting strong feeling or transferred sensory perception (i.e. dark ignorance), litotes, irony, hyperbole, repetition, and parallelism. They caution that the Beowulf-poet is atypical in not using these features to heighten the moment. Peltola agrees with Fry (Donald Fry, 'The Artistry of Beowulf', The Beowulf-Poet: A Collection of Critical Essays [Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1968], p. 4) that the 'emotional heightening' of Beowulf is 'dramatic'. Although neither critic quite explains what he means by 'dramatic' (opposed to static?), both seem to refer to narrative pacing to create different kinds of emphasis. Certainly, the poem makes scanty use of the usual adverbial intensifiers. Swide occurs only seven times and ful only six. Such intensive prefixes as - or b- retain little of their intensive flavor (See W. F. Bryan, 'rgd in Beowulf, and Other Old English Compounds of r', MP, 28 [November 1930], 157-61. Bryan denies any purely intensive impact of r .) The repetition and parallelism that Peltola passes over quickly, merely distinguishing tautological from formal repetitions, are the core of 'dramatic heightening' in Beowulf.

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attributes this distribution of variations to the heightened emotion of the mutual slurs.9 A supplemental explanation, if not an alternative one, might be that the close focus on events, on the contest itself, in the Breca interlude is better suited to a quicker, less interrupted pace. There are, of course, variations within the contest. However, the account of the swimming contest advances smoothly with interruptions and repetitions only in lines 542-43 (fldypumfeor flotan meahte, / hrapor on holme), 545-46 (op pcet une fld tdrf, / wado weallende, wedera cealdosi), 550-51 (tcsyrce mm / heard hondloceri), 569-70 (Loht astan com, / beorht bacen Godes), 571-72 (pt ic snssas geson mihte, / windige weallas) and 579-81 (Dmec s opbcer, /fld after faroe on Finna land, I wadu weallendu) compared to the variations in the last twenty-four lines of the speech.10 Of the variations within the swimming contest only two (lines 545ff. op pcet une fld tdrf, / wado weallende, wedera cealdost; lines 579-81 -Dmecs opbcer, /fld cefterfaroe on Finna land, / wadu weallendu) contain even double variation. BeowulPs three fights with the monsters are often cited as examples of the poet's narrative control in straightforward action sequences.11 These episodes lack the stately, highly rhetorical ceremony characteristic of formal direct discourse and combine parallel lists or progressions with variations for striking and unusual effects. Irving commends the 'exhilarating series of verbs' detailing the sword stroke that dispatches Grendel's dam (lines 1563ff. geng, gebreegd, slh, grpode, breec, durhwd, gecrong).12 However, rather than analyzing these passages in more detail, let us consider briefly the effects achieved in two other action sequences, the Finnsburg tale and the battle at Ravenswood. The Ingeld and Sigemund episodes are not considered because, regardless of the violence and vigor of the stories, their telling in the poem involved little overt action. We are told that Sigemund was an exemplary warrior and fought a dragon, with the emphasis on his heroic qualities, not his heroic deeds. Similarly, the Ingeld digression dwells more on the subtle interplay of conflicting emotions than on warring enemies. Ravenswood is the only fully-fledged battle scene we have in the poem, and the fight at Finnsburg runs a close second, compressing more action in its eighty-eight lines than any comparable section of the poem. These two sections are distinct from the foreground narration as much in their style as in their
9 10

II

12

Brodeur, The Art of Beowulf, p. 54. Although Brady (Caroline Brady, 'Synonyms for "Sea" in Beowulf, Studies in Honor of Albert Morey Sturtevant [Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1952], 22-47) discriminates between the apparent synonyms for 'sea' in Old English, here the referents only seem to emphasize the general movement involved. Thus, we have a variation and not a list or progression. See T. Culbert ('Narrative Technique in Beowulf, Neophilologus, 47 [1963], 52ff.) and A. Renoir, ('Point of View and Design for Terror in Beowulf', NM, 63 [1962], 154-67) who praise these sections against Klaeber's charge that the poem shows a 'lack of steady advance'. J. M. Evans ('Genesis B and its Background, Part II', RES, 14 [February 1913], p. 117) interprets the poem as unfolding 'not in a continuous action but in a series of vivid stills'. However, Evans sees the battle with Grendel as one exception to this technique. Edward B. Irving, Jr., A Reading of Beowulf (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1968), p. 123.

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'digressive' subject matter. Their compression and total dedication to presenting events with little dialogue, emotional analysis, or moralizing make them persuasive examples of the non-variational effects that the poet could achieve through parallelisms and verb progressions. Alistaif Campbell distinguishes between the Finnsburg Episode and the rest of the poem on the basis of its 'lay characteristics'. He observes that the Episode moves more quickly than the rest of the poem and that the vocabulary of this passage shows the 'obsolescent words typical of the lay, such as the dvanda type seen in pumsweora or suhtergefcederan. In passing, he says the 'lay employs an abbreviated narrative technique with compressed descriptions and little, but rapid-paced conversation'.13 The Finnsburg Episode contains all of the elements found in the rest of the poem, the so-called epic sections; the compression or reduction of these elements is a product of altering the narrative tempo. The most radical change we see both here and in Ravenswood is the reduction of variations in the central sections devoted to the action. Not surprisingly, with the variations have gone many of the descriptions of objects, such as wargear or swords. Details are present, but especially in Ravenswood, one of the most vivid and intensely visual 'stills' in the poem they are details of actions, linked together through parallel verbs which drive forward to describe different actions rather than dwelling on a single act as variation would. The effect, then, in both Finnsburg and Ravenswood is of violent, swirling movement, glimpsed and then passed over for the next series of events. Verbs rather than substantives come to the foreground in all the action sequences (battles and monster-fights). Although frequently involved in variation, verbs are the most strikingly effective word-elements in non-variational parallelisms. Lines 1120-24 from the Finnsburg Episode illustrate the speed and intensity non-variational series can achieve:
hlynode for hlwe; hafelan multon, bengeato burston, onne bld tspranc, labite fices. LTg ealle forswealg, gssta gfrost, para e b s r g fornam, bga folces; wses hira bld scacen.

Each verb phrase focuses on a different aspect of the entire funeral scene but does so briefly, a shutter-speed glimpse with the only variational pause at the flame, the most fearsome of spirits. Both Ravenswood and the Finnsburg Episode begin more abruptly than any of the monster combats; the violence is thrust into the foreground unqualified by the lengthy preambles characteristic of the fights with the monsters. As a battle, Ravenswood is more detailed when compared to the swift-paced, headlong narration of the Finnsburg Episode as well as to the succinct, economical references to the tribal-allegiances and feuds which play an increasingly impor13

Alistair Campbell, 'The Old English Epic Style', English and Medieval Studies Presented to J. R. R. Tolkien on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday, ed. Norman Davis and C. L. Wrenn (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1962), pp. 18, 21.

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tant role in the second part of the poem. The parallel series of verbs in lines 2929-35 compresses all of Hthcyn's actions:
ondslyht geaf, brot brimwsan, bryd hredde, gomela imowlan golde berofene, Onelan mdor ond Ohtheres; ond folgode feorhgen9Ian ...

The only variations identify the gold-bereft mother of Onela and Ohtere. Hygelac's dramatic rescue (lines 2941-45) is similarly accomplished almost without variations, depending rather on sudden, clear, physical details, and Ongentheow's last battle and death are related with few variations.
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Frfor eft gelamp srigmdum somod rdaege, syan he Hygelces horn ond byman, gealdor ongaton, b se gda com Ioda dugoe on last faran. Wass so swtswau Sw[]ona ond Gata, wslrs weora wde gesyne, h foie mid him fehe twehton. Gewt him se gda mid his gccdelingum, frd felagemor fssten scean, eorl Ongenbo ufor oncirde; hsfde Higelces hilde gefrnen, wlonces wgcraft; wires ne truwode, bt h smannum onsacan mihte, heaooloendum hord forstandan, bearn ond bryde; bah eft bonan eald under eorweall. D ws ht boden Swona lodum, segn Higelce[s] freoowong bone for oferodon, syan Hrelingas t hagan brungon. Dir wear Ongenoow ecgum sweorda, blondenfexa on bid wrecen, b s t se bodcyning afian sceolde Eafores nne dm. Hyne yrringa Wulf Wonrding wSpne grante, b s t him for swenge swt edrum sprong for under fexe. Ns h forht sw oh, gomela Scilfing, ac forgeald hrae wyrsan wrixle wslhlem bone, syan eodcyning byder oncirde. Ne meahte se snella sunu Wonrdes ealdum ceorle ondslyht giofan, ac h him on hafde helm Sr gescer, baet h blde fh bgan sceolde, foll on foldan; nxs h fige b gt, ac h hyne gewyrpte, pah e him wund hrine. Lt se hearda Higelces begn brd[n]e mce, b his bror lsg, ealdsweord eotonisc entiscne helm brecan ofer bordweal; gebah cyning, folces hyrde, wss in feorh dropen. (2941-81)

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In line 2962 blondenfexa, an adjective used substantively, is a variation for OngenTow in line 2961. In line 2968 gomela Scilfing is a variation of he in line 2967. Line 2975, ollon foldan, is not, I think, a variation; in form it is parallel to sceolde, but in meaning it refers to bgan. Line 2979 is a variation (ealdsweord eotoniscj/entiscne helm) as is folces hyrde (2981) for cyning in line 2980. The rest of the battle is verb-dominated, verbs parallel in form (past tense) joined either by sequential conjunctions and adverbs (p, ac, ond) or without overt linkage by parataxis. Variation depends on repetition of form and meaning; the parallelisms cited all stress syntactic, not semantic, parity. Having seen that the poet manipulated these related kinds of repetition for different effects in order to alter the narrative tempo, let us now turn to other ways the poet controlled his narrative pace, repeating a word not for semantic impact but for its effect in retarding, in interrupting or focusing the action, and in making transitions all of which are widely-acknowledged functions of variation. One such pattern has consistently attracted approving notice. The cumulative impact of the triple c/w-/>-infinitive repetition of Grendel's approach to Heorot is undeniably sinister, stressing the impending menace and force of Grendel's attack. Both Greenfield and Renoir praise the syntactical complexity of the entire passage which divides Grendel's advance into three cinemagraphic scenes and maintains suspense by alternating between the sleeping thanes and the monster. 14 Perhaps the initial com serves an even more basic function. It reminds the audience of Grendel's murderous intent while moving the narrative forward in time with Grendel's own approach. The repeated com returns the narrative focus to Grendel in the foreground, allowing the poet to shift his own perspective and give his audience additional information. First, we see the hall warriors, asleep except for Beowulf (lines 702-09). Then, we return to Grendel, the pa com emphasizing narrative continuity as com stresses the inevitable advance. Again the poet turns aside (lines 712-19), this time to explain the nature of Grendel's exile and hatred. The com p (line 720) refocuses attention on Grendel, now at the very door of the hall, and he does not leave the foreground of the action again. Thus, this pattern stresses Grendel's steady advance, but it simultaneously pauses to let the poet insert additional information a type of variational pattern and effect, but one stretched far beyond the formal limits of variation. The poet's repetition of the cnj-^-infinitive to keep the main narrative moving steadily and at the same time to provide glimpses of the background also suggests what both Brodeur and Robinson have called an important but often overlooked function of variation to make transitions between one narrative sequence and another. 'Frequently the poet will anticipate in a variation (usually in the variants) the particular aspect of the subject at hand which
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Stanley B. Greenfield, 'Grendel's Approach to Heorot: Syntax and Poetry', Old English Poetry: Fifteen Essays, ed. Robert P. Creed (Providence, Rhode Island: Brown University Press, 1967), pp. 275-84; A. Renoir, 'Point of View and Design for Terror in Beowulf', NM, 63 (1962), pp. 154-67; A. Bartlett, Larger Rhetorical Patterns in Anglo-Saxon Poetry (Morningside Heights, New York: Columbia University Press, 1935), p. 50.

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he intends to treat next. Though the transitional effect is only a slight one, yet it contributes to the flow and coherence of the narrative, and recognition of the device sometimes reveals a subtle continuity in passages which otherwise appear awkward or abrupt.'15 One of the most subtle repeating patterns the poet uses to 'contribute to the flow and coherence of the narrative' consists of the interplay of p and sw, hard-working and efficient grammatical drudges, but devoid of stylistic glamour, which have only recently begun to attract attention as features of poetic style. Although I would not claim they are on a par with variation as a notable feature of the diction in Beowulf, they perform their key transitional roles with surprising economy and grace. Morphology poses a serious problem in treating p and sw, for the ambiguity of the written forms occasionally makes determining whether they are adverbial or conjunctival difficult.16 Even context is a less-than-dependable guide, and the question of variable stress clouds the issue still further. Since only the adverbial uses of p and sw are of interest here, the examples designated as adverbial in Klaeber's glossary and the Bessinger Concordance will furnish the basis for this discussion. R. Foster has examined the role of p in Old English and Middle English narratives, concentrating on the problems involved in paratactic and hypotactic constructions. According to his findings, strings of p clauses occur in narratives where p is 'used as an infinitely repeatable marker of temporal sequentiality and carries little or no information about the grammatical relation of clauses.'17 The main advantage of/>, he believes, is that it is a short word with little semantic weight, and narrative, segmentation is thus usually unobtrusive. In Beowulf, however, the role of p is both more insistent and more consistent than Foster suggests. As mentioned in the cursory discussion ocmpa, adverbial p helps focus attention on the immediate action or event;
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16

17

Robinson, 'Variation in Beowulf', p. 147. As examples cites lines 100-05: o t n ongan/fyrene fieman fond on helle; / was se grimma gst Grendel hten / mre mearcstapa, s e mras hold, / fen ond fasten; ffelcynnes eard / wonsl wer weardode hwle ... Mre mearcstapa furnishes the transition between the first three lines which emphasize Grendel's crime and the last three which describe his habitat. This type of transition depends exclusively on repeated meaning. The transitions discussed below depend less on the meaning of the adverbial elements than on their use as almost subliminal cues. Their traditional meaning is intact, but their repeated presence marks the transition. Thomas Cable, 'Rules for Syntax and Metrics in Beowulf, JEGP, 60 (January 1970), 81-83. In metrical studies the resolution of determining the part of speech of and sw could help explain controversial scansions. Cable argues that an unstressed adverbial in the verb--noun syntactical patterns in Beowulf, rather than the more traditional stressed form, would supply normal scansions for troublesome passages. See S. O. Andrew, Postscript on Beowulf (New York: Russell and Russell, 1948). Andrew also devotes much of his first chapter in Syntax and Style (Cambridge, 1940) to . He examines primarily the distinction between adverb and conjunction as far as this marked differentiation between main and subordinate clauses. In passing (p. 13) he notes that cm (as in Grendel's approach) marks a 'rapid transition from speech to action or from one action to another'. Robert Foster, 'The Use of ' ' in Old and Middle English Narratives', NM, 76 (1975), 405. Eugene R. Kintzer ('Echoic Repetition in Old English Poetry, Especially the "Dream of the R o o d " ' , NM, 75 [1974], 202-23) similarly notes that adverbial bears little or no semantic weight in itself (p. 205).

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accordingly, this narrative pointer allows the poet to wander afield without his audience losing the narrative thread. For example, in Grendel's advance and entrance into Heorot, adverbial p occurs six times (710, 720, 723, 730, 734, 746). If we extend the approach into the actual fight with the monster, we find the heaviest concentration of adverbial p in the poem (thirteen occurrences in eighty-four lines). Enkvist argues convincingly that p marks action in Old English poetry, clustering in passages of vigorous physical action compared to dialogue or reflective passages. In Beowulf adverbial p appears least frequently in the conversations of Beowulf and Hrothgar and in the highly ceremonial exchanges and is most densely concentrated immediately preceding the monster fights.18 Although the morphological problems of sw are comparable to those of p,19 its functions are diametrically opposed. When adverbial sw appears in clauses of extent or in locative or temporal clauses, it often seems to be the remnant of various formulaic phrases (i.e., as a remnant of a locative formula, sw hwcet sw, or of a temporal formula, sw sna sw). Old English sw is most consistently a 'demonstrative adverb meaning in a manner or to a degree that is indicated by some other word or words following (usually forming a dependent clause, either abridged or unabridged) or implied in the general meaning of the sentence.'20 Adverbial sw often introduces either negative or adversative clauses. Of more interest, however, is the role of sw as a resumptive element, summarizing events or drawing a passage to a close. It then provides a transition from one series of events or segment of the poem to another, frequently in an authorial interpolation, gnomic reflection {Sw sceal man don), or, occasionally, in a genuine occupatio. In line 2115 (Sw w par inne//andlangne dg/riode nman) Beowulf uses the adverb to turn his recital smoothly from the exultation following Grendel's death to the fresh onslaught by Grendel's dam. In line 2144 (Sw se dodkyningj'jpawum lyfde), Beowulf again uses swto skip lightly and modestly over the account of the ceremonies following his victories. In line 2177 (Sw bealdode beam Ecgowes) the poet adopts the rhetorical occupatio, as he had his hero do earlier, to touch on Beowulf's heroism and worthiness, without overstressing these virtues in the face of new and pressing
18
19

Nils E. Enkvist, 'Old English Adverbial -An Action M a r k e r ? ' NM, 72 (1972), 90-96. Sw can be either an adverb o r a conjunction. Critical opinion is divided concerning its role as a relative p r o n o u n . Ericson (E. E. Ericson, ' T h e Use of Old English " S w " as a P s e u d o - p r o n o u n ' , JEGP, 30 [1931], 6-20). See also Bruce Mitchell ( ' P r o n o u n s in Old English Poetry: Some Syntactical N o t e s ' , RES, n.s. 15 [1964], 129-34), who suggests t h a t Beowulf, line 93 ( sw wter bebge) is a candidate, albeit shaky, for a relative reading of sw. However, I agree with Bessinger whose C o n c o r d a n c e lists sw in this reference as a conjunction. F o r further refutation of adverbial sw in this line, see E r n s t A . K o c k , 'Interpretation a n d E m e n d a t i o n of Early English Texts', Anglia, 42 (1918), 102. F o r further discussion of sw in Old English poetry, see E. E. Ericson, 'Old English " S w " in W o r n - d o w n Correlative Clauses,' Englische Studien, Offprint, p p . 343-50; C. Stoffel, 'Intensives a n d D o w n - T o n e s ' , Anglistische Forschungen, 1 (Heidelberg, 1902), 67; a n d E. E. Ericson, The Use of Old English Sw In Negative Clauses, Offprint from Studies in Honor of Herman Collitz (Baltimore, 1930), p p . 159-75.

20

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demands on his hero. Not surprisingly, swa rarely occurs in action sequences and appears most often in reflective sections of the poem. Frequently, following reflective passages, sw introduces gnomic statements. M. Fukuchi observes that transitional gnomes in Beowulf are usually those introduced by sw (rather than oft, selre, sum, or the other of Blanche Colton Williams' gnomic indicators). In Beowulf the summarizing and the transitional effect of these gnomes seems to balance their moralizing.21 These examples are not intended to be exhaustive, merely to illustrate the new growth the Beowulf-poet grafted onto traditional features of the poetic diction. Recent analysis has only begun to show us that the poet composed with attention both to his audience's expectations of meaning and tempo and their gratification at his manipulations, which are slight only superficially. His control of narrative pacing is only one instance of the poet's dexterity in handling the verbal resources at his command. To such a word-conscious poet, the tradition was not restrictive; rather, it let him display his virtuosity on a restricted scale as well as in the sweep and grandeur of his epic theme. Georgia State University A.
LESLIE HARRIS

21

Michael S. Fukuchi, 'Gnomic Statement in Old English Poetry', Neophilologus, 56 (October 1975), 611. See also Robert B. Burlin, 'Gnomic Indirection in Beowulf Anglo-Saxon Poetry: Essays in Appreciation for John C. McGalliard', ed. Lewis E. Nicholson and Dolores W. Frese (Notre Dame and London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1975), pp. 41-49; Bartlett, pp. 72-74; and Blanche C. Williams, Gnomic Poetry in Anglo-Saxon (New York: Columbia University Press, 1914).

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