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GOLLUM AND GRENDEL AS CAIN'S KINSMEN

ROBERTA ALBRECHT ADAMS

A thesis presented to the Faculty of the College of Liberal Arts in partial fulfillment of the degree of Master of Arts Stetson University December 19 78

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STETSON UNIVERSITY GRADUATE DIVISION

This thesis by Roberta Albrecht Adams is approved as meeting the research requirement of the Department of English for the degree Master of Arts

by

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Accepted for the Gradua-te Council

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION . , ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..... iii Chapter I. INTRODUCTION: ON TOLKIEN CRITICISM .... 1-7 II. CAIN, GOLLUM AND GRENDEL 1-31 1. Fratricide/oath 1-6 2. Exile 6-11 3. Bloodthirstiness ...... 11-12 4. Shade/shadow 12-17 5. Maternal ancestry. 17-23 6. Magic/treasure 23-27 7. Norse and Teutonic Ancestry 2 8-31 III. THE FUNCTIONS OF GOLLUM AND GRENDEL. . . . 1-14 IV. EUCATASTROPHE: FROM GRENDEL TO GOLLUM . . 1-9 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS CITED

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In memory of

Marjorie Evelyn Wright (1932 1959)

"Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief"

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I will always be grateful to Robert Carver for introducing me to Tolkien's world in 1975. Since that time various in­ dividuals have encouraged me to explore the field of Tolkien criticism. I especially appreciate two informative and very pleasant interviews with U. Milo Kaufmann, University of Illinois, in the summer of 1977. My thanks extend to the library staff of the University of Illinois, who permitted me to use materials reserved for faculty and graduate researchers. I am also thankful for the use of The Marion E. Wade Collection, at Wheaton College where I was able to gather pertinent infor­ mation and materials, including papers recently written by Clyde S. Kilby, Curator. I am grateful to my committee, William C. Johnson and E. Bryan Gillespie, for their guidance, encourage ment, and especially for their confidence in me.

I give thanks to my husband, Dan, who has constantly en­ couraged me in this thesis project, balancing criticism with assistance, and even assuming some of my responsibilities in other areas in order that I might devote myself to this task. Last of all, I wish to acknowledge a personal friend, whose visible efforts on my behalf are more easily discerned than the measure of his influence—Cliff Barnett.

December, 1978

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ON TOLKIEN CRITICISM Facem mihi tradidistis. / You have passed the torch to me. /

The Old English poem Beowulf has recently become the pro genitor of such works as John Gardner*s Grendel and J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings Gardner adapted the character of Grendel from the Beowulf story, magnified the scop's subtle

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L hints concerning Grendel's psychology, and depicted his monster as a commentary on a sick society. Tolkien used Grendel as an important ingredient in his composite and complex character, Gollum. But he did more than this. He fashioned a world—a world which combined an ethos for the past with his own vision, creating a myth different from any of the systems from which he drew. He sealed this myth through the written word. He offered it to the 20th century, but it has proved to be an enigma Since The Lord of the Rings was first published in 1954 55, responses have hit every note on the literary scale from

ii an epic masterpiece" to "juvenile trash." The question "What is it all about?" —has been answered in various ways. "It is primarily a conflict between power and suffering" or "life and death" or "good and evil." One critic says its implications are political—"Could the Land of Mordor be Russia?"! Another says, "Tolkien's world is almost nonrelig-

William Blissett, "Despots of the Rings," South Atlantic Quarterly, 50 (Summer, 1959)", 4 4 8-56.

- -."Y v , , . ^.. . . r - -. — .- J Y" •• V>' • "-• =• .• i r ' "'-I •:, r. -*i . r 2 ious."^ Still another, "For Mr. Tolkien, a believing Chris tian, Christianity itself is the apotheosis of the fairy story."3 One says, "I think that the trilogy is best to be

* understood, not as an 'overgrown fairy story,1 but as a heroic romance."^ Another, "My position, from the start, has been that The Lord of the Rings is not literature."-> It must be admitted that scholarship has been slow to involve itself in criticism of works which captivate the masses, but such critics as W. H. Auden and C. S. Lewis have enhanced the stature of Tolkien criticism. As a result more reticent voices have taken an overt stance, and younger scholars are being attracted. Using Tolkien's own scholar­ ship as a lamp to guide one's interpretation and understanding of The Lord of the Rings can be especially rewarding—an approach suggested by Neil D. Isaacs, who includes onomatological in­ vestigations and an analysis of folk-elements and archetypes among the areas yet to be explored. Isaacs elaborates: On a larger scale, I would like to see a thorough accounting of the mythic materials in The Lord of the Rings. A study of the many biblical parallels might be in order here: and a mythographer might

^Hugh T. Keenan, "Struggle for Life," in Tolkien and the Critics, Neil D. Isaacs and Rose A. Zirnbardo, eds. (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1968), p. 65. 3"Ever-Ever Land," Atlantic Monthly, 215 (March, 1965), 194-195.

4William Blissett, p. 449. 5Burton Raffel, "The Lord of the Rings as LITERATURE," in Tolkien and the Critics, p. 246.

i. 3 well show how Tolkien has used existing myths, reshaped (abused?) others, and forged new ones.° Perhaps one response to Isaacs' challenge was Christensen's dissertation, "Beowulf and The Hobbit: Elegy into Fantasy in J. R. R. Tolkien1s Creative Technique," completed in 1970.^ As the title suggests, Christensen limits herself to The Hobbit, the precursor of The Lord of the Rings and a work which many acknowledge to be of lesser literary value than the trilogy. Nevertheless, she has found some provocative parallels between the Beowulf story and The Hobbit, some of which may extend into The Lord of the Rings Comparing Tolkien's works with his Anglo-Saxon scholar ship is not, however, an entirely original idea. The onomato- logical analogues had already been noted by Isaacs and others,^ and the important role of monsters and anthropomorphic creatures is obvious in both. The hero as adversary is another common motif. That the climaxes of both Beowulf and The Hobbit center

on a dragon provokes stronger grounds for comparison, inviting closer investigation, Christensen adds insight to the obvious by noting that both works contain a series of encounters with monsters on a rising scale of terror. Beowulf's encounter

6Nei l D. Isaacs, "On the Possibilities of Writing Tolkien Criticism," in Tolkien and the Critics, p. 6. 7r.Diss, , University of Southern California 1970.

8Note s on the nomenclature in the story were originally written by Tolkien for the guidance of translators. Later they were published in A Tolkien Compass, Jared Lobdell, ed. (LaSalle, Illinois: Open Court Publishing Company, 1975).

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9 with Grendel parallels Bilbo's encounter with the trolls ; Beowulf's more dangerous struggle with Grendel's dam parallels Bilbo's riddle contest with Gollum; and Beowulf's defeat by the dragon is compared and contrasted with Smaug's demise. This last analogy is strengthened by the similar roles of Bard and Wiglaf in assisting the hero slay his foe. Though Christensen's assertion "that The Hobbit is a rewriting of Beowulf" is perhaps too bold, her study is a seminal contribution to Tolkien criticism. Here I will attempt to extend this comparison into The Lord of the Pings-- '• liPI ' |P "" " • "'• « ••'•' •• *i**PJi .in m .^ • • -., fcifc^ .LE-AitmuMiiWE HPPBUPJPP PP *+ • a denser, richer literary work--through the characters of Grendel and Gollum. Christensen has drawn some parallels be­ tween these characters in her third chapter, "The Descendant of Cain." Most of this chapter, however, is devoted to a textual study of Tolkien's revisions in the hardbook editions of 1954 and 1958 and the Ballantine editions of 1965 and 1966, whereby he transformed Gollum into a very complex character— "more than is necessary or even suitable for his function in The Hobbit."11 It is my intention to draw more careful parallels between Grendel and Gollum, using both Anglo-Saxon word study and Tolkien's own statements concerning Grendel, particularly the etymological observations found in the Appendix to his Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture, "Beowulf: The Monsters and

9Part of her reasoning is the translation of eotenas in line 112 of Beowulf as "trolls." 10Ibid., p. 6. 11 Ibid., p. 87.

f ^ :••-"• •"•->-,•!;.•-'.'-.*. -,-(.-- :• •••,'fV|r.~! .'--. M-.';.': "•.::•;•• r ,. -...;. j ^ - t •/ ;;- - _ „• - ;.- -v .L, •-.-•— „*ri~.-vr ^...- .--. ;•-.--:. ... „ ,;.*.> •«.-*. ,-:.-•••.••-'• -' -•-:• -,o" ;--:•'\ . . - —-• -- 5 the Critics,"now a classic in Beowulf criticism. I also intend to deal with the function of these characters as Cain figures within the scope of their respective worlds. Tolkien's famous lecture provoked many investigations of Grendel? s function in Beowulf, one of the most recent S. C. Bandy's dissertation, "'Caines Cynnf: A Study of Beowulf and 12 the Legends of Cain." But little has been done with the character of Gollum. Though critics have noticed he is impor-

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F tant, few have studied him in a scholarly and significant way. Charles Moorman implies Gollum's function in the Tolkien cosmos as a member of civitas terrena, (the earthly city), antithesis to civitas Dei (the heavenly city)—a dichotomy fully discussed 1 o in book fifteen of Saint Augustine's The City of God. Interestingly, Moorman fails to distinguish Gollum as a type of Cain, the founder of civitas terrena and therefore the arche­ type upon whom the system is built. Though Bandy recognizes the function of Grendel as Cain in the Augustinian scheme, Moorman does not seem to recognize the Gollum parallel. J.D.A. Ogilvy's observation certainly supports Bandy's view of Beowulf T*ie Civitas Dei was one of the most popular, if not the most popular, of Augustine's works among the English. It is continually cited and quoted without citation. It must have been known in England from the very beginning of the eighth century at the latest, and probably reached the

x^Diss. Princeton University 1967. Bandy alludes to Tolkien's lecture several times. 1^Charles Moorman, The Precincts of Felicity: The Augus­ tinian City of the Oxford Christians (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1966), pp. 86-100.

: <•',. i -• - ~'*r'-?;fv-/-rf - X _ _ .- ' J •• 6 island at least as early as the times of Hadrian and Theodore. The fifteenth book seems to have been especially popular, being used almost as much as all the other books combined. ... The audience of Beowulf may have known this work, enabling them to formulate associations in their minds as they heard the poem recited. Though The City of God cannot be proved as a source of the scop's conscious art—nor that of Tolkien's-- it does provide an anchor point for viewing both works from a cultural frame of reference. Since both authors have been explicit in aligning their monster creations with Cain, it would seem that Augustine's dichotomy between the lines of Seth and Cain, and the ramifications therein, provides a valid ap­ proach to Beowulf and The Lord of The Rings. Thus Civitas Dei will be a telescope through which the functions of Grendel and Gollum can be observed. But function will be the latter con­ cern of this study, the first being a consideration of specific parallels between the characters of Gollum and Grendel. Any comparison between the two may be broadened from the traditional Christian concept of a Cain figure to the more

* elusive Scandinavian and Teutonic type of man-monster. As a matter of fact, Tolkien, whose scholarship encompassed the lore of both the Anglo-Saxon and Norse worlds, drew from both in his creation of Gollum. While acknowledging that Grendel and Gollum are composite figures, this study will emphasize basic parallels

between them, proving Gollum's indebtedness to his ancient men­ tor, Grendel, while showing both to be progenies of Cain. Some

14J. D. A. Ogilvy, Books Known to the English, 597-1066 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Mediaeval Academy of America, 1967), p. 82.

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u of the disparate sources noted by Oliver F. Emerson in his study of Cain legends in Old and Middle English may also con tribute to an understanding of Grendel and Gollum as Cain analogues. 15 After viewing Grendel as prototype of Gollum and both creatures as kin of the archetypal Cain, I shall deal with their similar characteristics and function within the scope of their respective works, using The City of God as a framework. Finally, I shall draw a point of departure between the two characters, a sudden turn in Gollum's function, which Tolkien calls eucatastrophe.

Oliver F. Emerson, "Legends of Cain, Especially in Old and Middle English," PMLA 21(1906), 831-929. * " •^l~"*'*^^^q*^^^

CHAPTER II CAIN, GOLLUM AND GRENDEL "Nihil sub sole novum." Ecclesiastes /There is nothing new under this world-candle./

This chapter will discuss features which relate Grendel and Gollum to the legendary Cain. They will be discussed under six headings: 1) fractricide/oath, 2) exile, 3) bloodthirsti- ness, 4) shade/shadow, 5) maternal ancestry, and 6) magic/ treasure. The nature of the passages cited reveal some over lapping of character traits, necessitating the treatment of these as one unit. A seventh section discusses Norse and Teu­ tonic analogues of Grendel and Gollum,

(1) Fratricide/Oath

Though Tolkien's reader encounters Gollum in The Hobbit, he is not exposed to the fact of Gollum1s fractricide until the 1 first book of the trilogy. Here Tolkien discloses Gollum's beginnings, providing a contrast between the present slinking, pitiable creature and the original Smeagol. Gollum's homeland used to be the banks of the Great River on the edge of Wilder- land. There lived a clever and gentle little people who, unlike hobbits, loved the River and often swam in it. The most inquisitive and curious-minded of that family was called Smeagol. He was interested in roots and beginnings; he dived into deep pools; he burrowed under trees and growing plants; he tunneled into green mounds; and he ceased to look up at the hill-tops, or the leaves

1 The Fellowship of the Ring

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on trees, or the flowers opening in the air: his head and his eyes were downward.2 One day Smeagol and his bosom friend, Deagol, rowed their boat to the Gladden Fields, where Deagol entertained himself by fishing and Smeagol by nosing about. The quietude of that scene was suddenly interrupted when Deagol's line was jolted by a great fish which dragged him out of the boat and to the bottom. It was there that Deagol spied the shining ring and, gloating, brought it up. 'Give us that, Deagol, my love,' said Smeagol, over his friend's shoulder.' 'Why?' said Deagol. 'Because it's my birthday, my love, and I wants it,' said Smeagol. 'I don't care,' said Deagol. 'I have given you a present already, more than I could afford. I found this, and I'm going to keep it.' 'Oh, are you indeed, my love,' said Smeagol; and he caught Deagol by the throat and strangled him, because the gold looked so bright and beautiful. Then he put the ring on his finger. No one ever found out what had become of Deagol; he was murdered far from home, and his body was cunningly hidden. (I, 84-5) The Anglo-Saxon word decTgol means "secret," and denrhl is an adjective meaning "dark" or "secret." Though the Biblical

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, Revised edition (New York: Ballantine, 1976), p. 84. The Lord of the Rings consists of Volume I The Fellowship of the Ring, Volume II The Two Towers, and Volume III The Return of the King.In ,^p^4VP»4PPwv*f^^^rilfP* <*tP^H**#*^tfmPP^^^^^^^B ^1^IMBVM •4#^"^P"MP^*PP*P^*fc^P" •^^^^i*^*f^NN^"¥»^^^^*^^P"^|i^^^W^#*^**f*^ i4lP^T^ta*"#^^"^ fc^P"^*W^*^P™^^i"P**i' tfV^qta*P%^PJP^qprfP4*0B^^||p^^ this thesis all references to the trilogy are to this edition and are hereafter cited in parentheses within the text. 3 J. Bosworth, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, supplement by T. Northcote Toller (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882-1921) . Unless otherwise cited, my word studies have their roots in this source.

-- .K"'r^ - 3 account of LI Cain's fratricide does not explicitly mention the scene of the crime as a secret place, Emerson cites a reference from AElfric's Translation of the Old Testament which contains a variation of the Biblical narrative and suggests Cain's in­ tention to draw Abel away to a secret place for the murder. fa cwaelS Cain to Abel his brewer, 'Uton gan ut. ' J?a hi

ut agane waeron # <9 /Then Cain said to his brother Abel, 'Let us go out.' When they had gone out..7/ Gollum's crime, the murder of his bosom friend, simulates frat­ ricide and is a dark secret. It may also be seen as a usurpa tion of authority, assuming the power to take life. This dis ruption of the hierarchical structure results in suffering and punishment. In the Biblical account the punishment is meted out in the form of an oath. Neither Grendel nor Gollum can be disassociated from God's curse upon Cain. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth. . . . And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. (Gen. 4:9-15) God's curse upon Cain was in the form of an oath, and Cain's very act—the murder of another human—can be. considered a

•J ritual oath of enmity against God. Gollum affirms his kinship with Cain through a simulated fratricide, and Grendel affirms his through devouring Danish or Geatish warriors. In other words, there is a sense in which the oaths are mutual, God condemning with an oath, the Cain figures themselves marked by

4 Emerson, p. 852, quoting Bibliothek der Agelsachsischen Prosa, Genesis, 4:8. "• -fc^^tf"W&4£&^ £^™&££*2i±&^. ^

4 oath-takinq. This is one of the first characteristics the Beowulf poet ascribes to Grendel. The doom awaiting Heorot is integral with the intensity of Grendel's oath against Hrothgar. ne waes hit lenge j?a gen £ae t se/ e/cg-hete a um-swerian ae f ter wael-ni«?e wae cnan scolde. (11. 8 3-85) / It was still not the time for the sharp-edged hate of his sworn son-in-law to rise against Hrothgar in murderous rage./ A|> -swaru means "a solemn oath" or "oath-swearing" and bears the implication of a greater feud than that between Grendel and

Hrothaary . The nature of that feud is made clear in lines 102- 114. That murderous spirit was named Grendel, huge moor- stalker who held the wasteland, fens, and marshes; unblessed, unhappy, he dwelt for a time in the lair of the monsters after the Creator had outlawed, con­ demned them as kinsmen of Cain—for that murder God the Eternal took vengeance, when Cain killed Abel.

Twice the Beowulf poet emphasizes Grendel as a progeny of Cain ,• and twice in his lecture, "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," J.R.R. Tolkien stresses the Cain references as crucial to a proper interpretation of the poem. 7 Though the import of Tolkien's remarks will be dealt with later, the lines from Beowulf (cited above) are sufficient evidence,- that Grendel is • II ^•i#^y...Mfl „•»•••,- • •• • m involved in a feud against God and that the archetypal crime and punishment are disseminated throughout succeeding generations

5Beowulf: A Dual-Language Edition, ed. Howell D. Chickering, Jr. (Garden City, New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1977), p. 53. Chickering's translations will be used throughout. 6Cf . 11. 1258-1268. 7 Proceedings of the British Academy, XXII (1936), 261 and 269.

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5 Early traditions connected with the Cain story indicate the belief that the feud between God and Cain was everlasting. In the Old English Genesis (1. 1015) Cain is awyrged to widan aldre, "accursed forever. „8 The Beowulf poet may have in­ dicated predestined, as well as everlasting, punishment in his description of Grendel's condemnation. fifel-cynnes eard won-saeli wer weardode hwile, si|?&_an him Scyppend forscrifen has fde in Caines-cynne (11. 104-107) /Unblessed, unhappy, he dwelt for a time in the lair of the monsters after the Creator had outlawed, condemned them as kinsmen of Cain./ That the Creator forscrifen hae fde suggests a decree of fierce 1" •• * • »mi i i i ft IP if ***• '• «•'" •—' i intensity. ScrXfan means "to decree" or "appoint." The prefix for, according to Bosworth-Toller, sometimes "denotes an in­ crease of the signification of the word before which it is placed, and is then generally to be in English very." The prefix, for (accented), however, suggests something conceived or acted before 9 The theological implication of this latter use of the prefix would be Grendel!s predestined doom. Later in line 1266 Grendel is called geosceaft-gasta, "fatal spirit." It would seem that his destiny was determined of old. At any rate, God's decree against him is strong and in the context of an oath. The word faehj?e in line 109 (which Chickering trans­ lates "kin-slaughter") is also important. It connotes a feud of such intensity that the relations of the deceased wage enmity

8 Emerson, p. 861. 9 In the Beowulf manuscript the prefix is apparently unaccented.

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6 10 against the kindred of the murderer. Gollum's "oath" of vengeance recorded in The Hobbit is of similar import, for he swears enmity against his present foe— and against all who bear the name of Baggins. 'Thief, thief, thief! Baggins! We hates it, we hates it, we hates it for ever!" ^ Later in the trilogy this oath becomes very important. Both in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings Tolkien discloses Gollum as a Cain figure through the oath motif and its ramifications. The exile theme is so closely aligned with the passages to be treated that it demands attention also.

(2) Exile The idea of Cain as a wanderer, banished from kinsmen, is emphasized in the Old English Genesis Emerson translates a 12 section of that work as follows: Thou shalt for this murder win punishment, and go into exile acursed / sic_7 forever. . . » Sad thou shall depart, infamous from thy dwelling place, since thou wast murderer of Abel; for this reason a fugitive shalt thou tread the track of the wanderer, loathed by thy kinsmen. . . . Then Cain departed, sad in mind, from the sight of God, a friendless exile. (Genesis, II. 1013f., 1018f., 1049f.) Both the Beowulf poet and Tolkien distinctly associate Grendel and Gollum with the exile theme.

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10Bosworth-Toller . J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit or There and Back Again, Revised edition (New York: Ballantine Books, 1976), p. 93. 12 Emerson, p. 865.

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7 After his crime Smeagol returns home and soon discovers that the ring makes him invisible to his family when he wears it. He uses it to find out secrets. The etymology of "Smeagol" is also significant in the story. The Anglo-Saxon smeagan means "to investigate," "to inquire." Smeah is an adjective denoting "subtle," "crafty," "creeping in," or "penetrating." 13

Thus Smeagol became "sharp-eyed and keen-eared for all that was hurtful," (1,85). He also became very unpopular and acquired the habit of muttering and gurgling in his throat. "So they called him Gollum, and cursed him, and told him to go far away; and his grandmother, desiring peace, expelled him from the family and turned him out of her hole," (I, 85)* Tolkien's description distinguishes Gollum as Cainfs kin through curse and exile, though there may also be suggestions of crafty Satan and of Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden. The story continues with Gollum's wandering in the world, lamenting his hardships, 14 hating the Sun, and searching for roots and beginnings. So he journeyed by night up into the highlands, and he found a little cave out of which the dark stream ran; and he wormed his way like a maggot into the heart of the hills, and vanished out of all knowledge. ... (I, 85) . . . until Bilgo (as well as the reader) first meets him in The Hobbit.

1 1 In "Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings" Tolkien cites smygel as an Old English form for "burrow," a word he associates with hobbits in general and with Smeagol in par­ ticular. A Tolkien Compass, p. 200. -^Tolkien uses the pronoun her when referring to Sun. This should prevent any speculation that he is engaging in a pun, which he sometimes seems to do.

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While Bilgo Baggins is searching for an escape in the dark depths below the Misty Mountains, he happens upon Gollum's lost ring. He picks it up, puts it in his pocket and proceeds to a subterranean lake where he meets Gollum, a creature far different from the Smeagol of yesteryear and a picture of isolation. Deep down here by the dark water lived old Gollum, a small slimy creature . . .as dark as darkness, except for two big round pale eyes in his thin face. He had a little boat, and he rowed about quite quietly on the lake; for lake it was, wide and deep and deadly cold. He paddled it with large feet dangling over the side, but never a ripple did he make. Not he. He was looking out of his pale lamplike eyes for blind fish, which he grabbed with his long fingers as quick as thinking. He liked meat too. . . .15

It is within the context of this situation that Bilbo, having encountered Gollum, finds himself engaged in a deadly riddle contest—deadly because the forfeiture of his life is the consequence of losing. Gollum's cannibalism—that he would eat a "brother" hobbit—is indication of his depravity. But

r having lived so long in exile and seclusion, his mind seems to be stirred toward the riddle lore of his past and perhaps to vague reminiscences of the warmth of "hall-joys." Part of Cain's punishment was that he would be loathed by his kinsmen, a friendless exile. Both Gollum and Grendel must endure this same punishment, must "tread the track of the wanderer." The scop explicitly deals with Cain^s exile in lines 109-114. No joy that kin-slaughter: the Lord drove him out, far from mankind, for that unclean killing. From him sprang every misbegotten thing, monsters and

15The Hobbit, p. 79. * - ^-«^3t4^£^

9 elves and the walking dead, and also those giants who fought against God time and again; He paid them back in full. 6 In the context of this passage Grendel is described as a progeny of the outlawed race - Later the scop calls Grendel wergan gastes (1. 133), enforcing his role as hapless wanderer Wergan means "to curse," and gast denotes "creature," though it may be a corruption of gae st, "stranger." James D. Mason, citing Gerstein, says that in Genesis II Cain's kin are called 17 wergum folk (1. 1250), even as Grendel is called wergan gast Grendel is likewise described as se 6e moras heold, "one who r— —• — holds the wasteland." The Old English word mor means "a damp land," "waste ground or mountain*" Those familiar with the Tolkien trilogy will recognize that Gollum's relationship with Mordor, the Land of Desolation where Mt. Doom is located, is analogous As exiles, both Grendel and Gollum stalk Mordor, The theme of exile is common to several Old English poems be­ sides Beowulf. "Deor," "Widsith," "The Seafarer," and "The Wanderer" disclose the condition of the peregrinus or wanderer 18 as one of loneliness and sorrow. The angenga (1. 165), "solitary walker," of Beowulf associates Grendel*s condition with the an-haga "solitary one," of "The Wanderer." Both

1 £\ The implication is destruction by the Flood. 17 James D. Mason, "Monsters and Human Voices: The Anthropo­ morphic Adversary of the Hero in Old English and Old Norse Literature," Diss. University of Tennessee 1976, p. 131. Mason's Citation is without documentation. 18Stanly Wiersma, "A Linguistic Analysis of Words Referring to Monsters in Beowulf," Diss. University of Wisconsin 1961, p. 123. Wiersma feels angenga belongs to the same complex of ideas as mearcstapa and earmsceapen, terms which imply removal from society.

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10 exiles find deprivation from hall rituals bitter to endure. In "The Wanderer" remembered joys renew suffering. Nostalgia for physical contact—the embrace, the warmth of a kiss—causes the wanderer's sorrow to freshen (line 50). Because Grendel is Godes andsacan (1. 786 and 1, 1682), "God's opposer," he is ostracized from the society of the hall. His suffering is con­ verted to wrath. His rage having been provoked by the scop's rehearsal of the Creation story, he attacks Heorot. Gollum"s exile results in enclosure and forgetfulness. His memory is darkened, and the encounter with Bilbo begins to unravel Gollum's mind concerning the warmth of fellowship. At least this is what Tolkien's description suggests: Riddles were all he could think of* Asking them, and sometimes guessing them, had been the only games he had ever played with other funny creatures sitting in their holes in the long, long ago, before he lost all his friends and was driven away, alone, and crept down, down, into the dark under the mountain. (The Hobbit, p. 80.) ||*||IH.||||-*.M| !•••- lil-ifc! „..*_•!!— - •• -•• • - Perhaps Gollum's digging into the earth was really an express­ ion of that primordial desire for human warmth—for his mother. Effusions of this idea come from Grendel1s determination to 19 die in his mother's den, rather than in the hall. The concept of the hall in Old English poetry extends from the obvious center of human companionship to the more elusive ideas of the 20 human body, hell and the grave. Digging into the ground is a

1 Q It would seem that John Gardner's portrayal of the Grendel/Mother relationship arose from his perception of similar undertones in Beowulf. 20Puns on hall, heal, and hell, hel, were common in Old English verse. Such may be the case in line 143 of Beowulf where Grendel is called heal-^egnes.

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11 quest for one's earth-bed, for sweet death. Grendel and Gollum, both exiles, have dug down into their caves.

(3) Bloodthirstiness

The Apocryphal Book of Enoch designates bloodthirstiness as one of the principle attributes of the race of giants which descended from Cain. / The giants_7 consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, The giants turned against them and devoured man­ kind . And they began. . . to devour one another's flesh, and drink the blood. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones. (Book of Enoch, VII;3-6). Bede, whom Tolkien believed to be a contemporary of the Beowulf 21 poet, sustained this tradition in "Hexaemeron." Fuerunt autem quod in hoc maxima fuerit praevaricatio gigantum, quio cum sanguine carnem comederent; ideoaue Dominus illus diluvio exstinctis, carne quidem vesci homines concesserit, sed ne id cum sanguine facerent prohibuerit.22

/ These things happened, however, because in this matter there was a great accusation concerning giants who consumed flesh with its blood; and therefore God annihilated them in a flood. He had indeed allowed men to eat flesh, but He did not allow it to be eaten with blood. / !s description invites a comparison with the bloodthirsti- ness of Grendel, whose association with savagery and gore mark

^X"I accept without argument throughout the attribution of Beowulf to the 'age of Bede'—one of the firmer conclusions of a department of research most clearly serviceable to criticism . . . ."In "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," D. 26 2. •** 22 Bede, "Hexaemeron," Patrologia Latina 91, 10 8. Cited bv Bandy p. 74.

2 3j^y own loose translation. ^v;*fe%H^ j" r" .-"V

12 him as God's enemy and kin of Cain in a traditional sense The Beowulf poet calls him heoro-wearh hetelic (1. 1267) , "a savage, bloody wolf," immediately after designating Grendel as one of the monsters descending from the abysm of time. It is this man-foe who brutalizes Heorot, seizing and eating a warrior before Beowulf's very eyes—swilling blood from his veins, "blod edrum dranc" (1. 742). Tolkien's Gollum is likewise marked by cannibalistic traits In The Hobbit he is described as a meat-eater, catch­ ing ores whenever possible and ready to try hobbit flesh in any case. After losing the ring to Bilbo, Gollum ventured above ground in search of his "precious." He managed to evade even the elves in his stealthiness, but left a trail of blood behind him. The Wood-elves tracked him first, an easy task for them, for his trail was still fresh then. Through Mirkwood and back again it led them, though they never caught him. The wood was full of the rumour or him, dreadful tales even among beasts and birds. The Woodmen said that there was some new terror abroad, a ghost that drank blood It climbed trees to find nests; it crept into holes to find the young; it slipped through windows to find cradles. (I, 90-91) Though Tolkien mollifies the horrible implications of this passage throughout the remainder of the trilogy, Gollum never- theless maintains a diet of meat and fish but without ever touching the hobbits' lembas.

(4) Shade/Shadow

Medieval legends concerning Cain often treated him as a creature of night, sometimes associating him with the moon _ .. •" ,j -U • r." . '/'IWJ J-:_ -_K^i_^ •_-£• r_u.--n ~ J_1H.I , _" i^J^infl'^ _=" I J .•

13 (or the man in the moon) , a bundle of stolen thorns, or a dog. 24 References to these leaends survived even in the Elizabethan era through, among other things, the plays of Jonson25 and Shakespeare. 26 A line from Richard II serves as one example With Cain go wander thorough shades of night, And never show thy head by day nor light. (V," vi, 43) An examination of Beowulf indicates the antiquity of this legend. Grendel is called deorc dea& -scua (1. 160), meaning "dark death-shadow." One never sees him walking in the sun— except in John Gardner's adaptation which pictures Grendel lifting a defiant middle finger to the sky Perhaps Gardner's Grendel learned his bad manners from Tolkien's Gollum: One day it was very hot, and as he was bending over a pool, he felt a burning on the back of his head, and a dazzling light from the water pained his wet eyes. He wondered at it, for he had almost forgotten about the Sun. Then for the last time he looked up and shook his fist at her. (I, 85) Antipathy toward the "world-candle" seems to be another common trait of Cain's kinsmen! Grendel stalks by night. Grendel moves, "gliding in mists or shadows," com on wanre niht scri& an sceadu-genge (11.702-3)

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24 Emerson, 838-845. 25New s from the New World discovered in the Moon, a play cited by Emerson, pp. 841-842. 26Midsummer Night's Dream (III, i, 60 and V, i, 361.)

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14

Tolkien notes that Grendel is a blend of the pagan physical

monster and the more recent, Christian, concept of devil or

spirit The basis for this conclusion is a study of the terms

used to describe him and his mother. These terms range from

those usually connoting humaness to those indicating inhuman,

bestial or even spectral qualities Tolkien does not bring into

strong consideration the more ambivalent titles.

. . . for instance those referring to his outlawry, which are applicable in themselves to him by nature, but are of course lso fittincr either to a descendant of Cain, or to a devil 7 28 The numerous ascriptions of feond to Grendel had already been

cited by Emerson. In addition Grendel is called wiht unhaelo

(1. 120), meaning "an unholy wight, creature or being." In

line 938 he is referred to as la^um scuccum or "hateful

devil/spirit." Geosceaftgasta (1. 1266) may connote "fatal

spirit," but Tolkien says the root gaest (11. 1266, 1357, 1349,

etc.) may not necessarily support a view of Grendel as specter.

Gaest, he says, seems to be merely a corruption of "stranger"

or "guest."

In any case it / gae st / cannot be translated either by the modern ghost or spirit. Creature is probably the nearest we can now get. Where it is genuine it applies to Grendel probably in virtue of his relation­ ship or similarity to bogies (scinnum ond scuccum), physical enough in fox*m and power, but vaguely felt as belonging to a different order of being, one allied to the malevolent 'ghosts' of the dead. Fire is conceived as a gaest (1123). ^9

27,, Beowulf The Monsters and the Critics," p. 280.

28 Cf. Lines 101, 143, 164, 279, 439, 636, 698, 748, 962, 970, 984, 1273, 1276. Emerson, p. 880.

29„ Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," p. 2 79.

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15 The Beowulf poet seems to stress the physical aspects of Grendel, while allowing some interesting and subtle undertones to the contrary. Grendel, "is not yet a real mediaeval devil... a spirit of evil aiming ultimately at the soul and «30 bringing eternal death. « # According to Tolkien his in tention is to destroy the physical body, which ironically becomes his own fate. Tolkien also notes that Grendel's death is a real counterpart to the deaths of more supernatural Evils In Beowulf the weight is on the physical side: Grendel does not vanish into the pit when grappled. He must be slain by plain prowess, and thus is a gi real counterpart to the dragon in Beowulf's history.

It would seem that Tolkien's own creation, Gollum, bears some resemblance to Grendel through this ambivalence toward physical/spiritual attributes. Though the weight is again on the physical side and on associations of "humanness", there are evidences of the specter/shadow in Gollum's character. Just as Grendel is called deorc dea scua, so Gollum is described as a creature of shadow: Sometimes in the silence of that barren country they fancied that they heard faint sounds behind them, a stone falling, or the imagined step of flapping feet on the rock. But if they halted and stood still listening, they heard no more, nothing but the wind sighing over the edges of the stones—yet even that reminded them of breath softly hissing through sharp teeth. (II, 268) This passage from The Two Towers emphasizes, not only Gollum as

shadow, but Gollum as serpent, connoting the Christian's

r adversary—one who is able to destroy the soul. Tolkien

30 Ibid., p. 280 31 Ibid.

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16 stresses the more predominant shadow imagery throughout the trilogy. Even after Gollum formed an alliance with Bilbo's nephew, promising to guide Frodo to Mordor, he retained his habits as creature of the night. Whether he had slept by himself in some hole nearby, or had wandered restlessly prowling through the night, he did not say; but he returned with the first glimmer of light, and roused his companions. (II, 387) In the last book of the trilogy, The Return of the King,

Tolkien continues to emphasize this shadow imagery. The first passage to be cited also introduces Frodo as a Lear type through associations with suffering and with the wheel of fire. Then suddenly, as before under the eaves of the Emyn Huil, Sam saw these two rivals with other vision. A crouching shape, scarcely more than the shadow of a living thing, a creature now wholly ruined and defeated, yet filled with a hideous lust and rage; and before it stood stern, untouchable now by pity, a figure robed in white, but at its breast it held a wheel of fire. Out of the fire there spoke a commanding voice, 'Begone, and trouble me no more! If you touch me ever again, you shall be cast yourself into the Fire of Doom.' The crouching shape backed away, terror in its blink­ ing eyes, and yet at the same time insatiable desire•

Gollum got up on all fours, and backed away for several paces, and then he turned, and as Sam aimed a kick at him he fled away down the path. Sam gave no more heed to him. ... If he had looked.back, he might have seen not far below Gollum turn again, and then with a wild light of madness glaring in his eyes come, swiftly but warily, creeping on behind, a slinking shadow among the stones. (Ill, 272-73) Though this passage exposes Gollum's lust and cowardice—almost evoking the picture of a cur dog—it concludes with that strong

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17 focus on Gollum as shadow. As Cain is a picture of spiritual

darkness, so Gollum's associations with darkness and shadow align him with evil powers. The shadow image in Gollum's character marks him as an agent of the Great Shadow which in The Lord of the Rings becomes a symbol for the Evil One. All shadow imagery--ringwraiths, barrow-wights, the walking dead, and literal shadows—is structured around this archetypal Shadow. Gollum's ambivalence is mirrored by Tolkien's careful

r stress on physical qualities. Thus Gollum is Grendel1s proper legacy. It is tempting, at this point, to explore the broader implications of Gollum's moral ambivalence—a point of departure

i from the Grendel analogue. But consideration of Gollum's

+ function shall be relegated to the next chapter. There are yet two important parallels to be discussed concerning the Grendel/ Gollum analogue—and one distinction. Associations with a mother figure and with magical powers indicate a strong re­ lationship between the two characters, and may indicate a similar structure and theme between Beowulf and The Lord of the Rings.

(5) Maternal Ancestry

In Oliver F. Emerson's 'study of giants descending from 32 Cain the Old English Genesis is cited as an example of the Anglo-Saxon view of the legend:

32Emerson , pp. 889-890.

— • "i .• \

I .• 18

Da giet waes Sethes cynn, leofes leodfruman, on lufan swi &e Drihtne dyre and domeadig, o'S^aet beam Godes bryda ongunnon on Caines cynne secan, wergum folce, and him baer wif curon ofer Metodes est monna eaforan, scyldfulra mae g& scyne and f ae gere .... (11. 1245-52) /—Then was the race of Seth, the beloved chieftain, in much esteem, dear to the Lord and blessed with power, until the sons of God began to seek brides from the race of Cain, the cursed folk, and there chose wives for themselves against the wish of the Creator, daughters of men, maids^of the guilty race, beauteous and fair. . . . /

This account concurs with Augustine's belief that the "sons of 33 god" were Seth's line, as opposed to that of fallen angels

r j It is especially important that the daughters of men are specifically referred to as Caines cynne (1* 1249) The idea of a female progenitor to Cain's line was not new. Though the Scriptures are silent concerning the destiny of Cain's line (presumably they died in the Flood), Moses does depart from the usual practice of mentioning male descendants only Cain's daughter, Naamah, is recorded as last of his line. Out of this reference grew Old and Middle English legends concerning the voluptuous, sometimes grossly fat, seductress of mankind, who may have survived the Flood in the form of a water monster, continually breeding new bastards and wallowing in her own mire. The Beowulf account of Grendel's lineage associates his mother with Cain.

33 In The City of God, Book XV, ch. 23, Augustine argues against the belief that "sons of god" meant "angels." Emerson cites examples in early Christian literature which exchange the term "angels of God" for "sons of god," pp. 920-922.

f . - "i t -•" - - . - ''.,-.- - •- •-'.->.- r'.]••'• ' '' *—-"<•••- •"'"'=• •!.'• : ~. ',-y--" j *,^SEii3i!$§S^E!^ U — '- T"•^1-^. - \ J- 19 Grendles modor, ides, aglae c-wif yrm^e gemunde, se fie wae ter-esgesan wun i an s colde, cealde streamas, sij^ an Ca./ in _/ wear$ to ecg-banan angan brefier, fae deren-mae ge; he ^a Jfag gewat, morf>re gemearcod, man-dream fleon, westen warode. Panon_woc fela geosceaft-gasta; v/ae s ^aera Grendel_sum

* • • Ond his modor #a gyt gifre ond galg-mod gegan wolde sorh-fulne si5 sunu / d/ eo /~~#_7 wrecan - (117 1258-1278) / Grendel's mother, a monster woman, kept war-grief in her mind, dwelt in terrible waters, icy cold streams, since Cain raised the sword against closest kinsman, put blade to his brother; dripping with that fate, bright-stained outlawry, gore-marked by murder, he fled man's joys, lived in wastelands. Out of that deep and abysm of time came monsters, spirits. Grendel was one. . . And now his mother, still greedy for slaughter, wanted to visit, make a grievous journey, avenge her son's death. / The kinship between Grendel and his mother is indicated else­ where in the Beowulf poem by the more subtle device of common epithets and descriptive phrases. For example, Grendel and his mother are both described as deofla (1. 1680), geosceaftgasta (1. 1266), and manscaSa (the dam in 1. 1339 and Grendel in 11. 712 and 737). The portrayal of Grendel's mother as a sea monster underscores these more academic indications of their relationship and binds both figures to the legendary Cain. The tradition of a voluptuous sea monster could have been a seminal factor in Tolkien's creation of Shelob. Tolkien prepares his reader for the important Gollum/ Shelob relationship by fusing the images of spider and shadow in Gollum. Down the face of a precipice, sheer and almost smooth it seemed in the pale moonlight, a small black shape was moving with its thin limbs splayed out. Maybe its soft clinging hands and toes were finding crevices and holds that no hobbit could ever have seen or used, but it looked as if it was just creeping down on sticky

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At last he was no more than a dozen feet from the ground, ricfht above their heads. From that point there was a sheer drop, for the cliff was slightly undercut, and even Gollum could not find a hold of any kind. He seemed to be trying to twist round, so as to go legs first, when suddenly with a shrill whistling shriek he fell. As he did so, he curled his legs and arms up round him, like a spider whose descending thread is snapped. (II, 278-280) Near the end of The Two Towers the reader finally meets the archetype of this image, and the one to whom Gollum is bound in agreement. There agelong she had dwelt, an evil thing in spider form, even such as once of old had lived in the land of the Elves in the West that is now under the Sea, such as Beren fought in the Mountains of Terror in Doriath, and so came to Luthien upon the green sward and the hemlocks in the moonlight long ago How Shelob came there, flying from ruin, no tale tells, for out of the Dark Years few tales have come. But still she was there, who was there before Sauron, and before the first stone of Barad-dur; and she served none but her­ self, drinking the blood of Elves and Men, bloated and grown fat with endless brooding on her feasts, weaving webs of shadow; for all living things were her food, and her vomit darkness. Far and wide her lesser broods, bastards of the miserable mates, her own offspring, that she slew, spread from glen to glen, from ththee Ephel Duath to the eastern hills, to Dol Guldur and the fast­ nesses of Mirkwood. But none could rival her, Shelob the Great, last child of Ungoliant to trouble the unhappy world. (II, 422-23) Tolkien's indebtedness to Cain myths is evidenced in this passage by such words and phrases as "the Land of the Elves /"Edeny," "under the Sea /"the Flood_7," "drinking the blood," "bloated," "fat," "bastards," and especially "last child."

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Tolkien continues his description by drawing Gollum into Shelob1s sphere- Already, years before, Gollum had beheld her. Smeagol who pried into all dark holes, and in past days he had bowed and worshipped her, and the darkness of her evil will walked through all the ways of his wearings beside him, cutting him off from light and from regret. And he had promised to bring her food. But her lust was not his lust. Little she knew of or cared for towers, or rings, or anything devised by mind or hand, who only desired death for all others, mind and body, and for herself a glut of life, alone, swollen till the mountains could no longer hold her up and the darkness could not contain her. . ._. But she must eat, and however busily they / the Orcs_/ delved new winding passages from the pass and from their tower, ever she found some way to snare them. But she lusted for sweeter meat. And Gollum had brought it to her.

(II, 423) There is a definite parallel between Grendel's mother and Shelob, both more ancient foes than Grendel and Gollum. That Tolkien specifically includes Shelob's intention to destroy both body and soul indicates his conscious art in expanding the Beowulf character; for he has already distinguished Grendel as the monster who brings temporal death, not the devil who would 34 destroy the soul. In his Appendix Grendel and the dam are treated as similar types, neither approaching the description of a true devil. Yet Tolkien has been careful to include a desire for the destruction.of "mind and body" in his descrip tion of Shelob. The condition of Shelob's lair is much like that of Grendel's. In lines 1347-1379, Hrothgar relates tales of Grendel and his mother stalking the moor by their lair. The

34"Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," pp. 279-280.

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22 surrounding terrain is marked by "windy cliffs," "twisting through fens" "under darkness of hills." 35 The mere-bottom is unknown to man. Beowulf accepts Hrothgar's challenge to fight the dam and, having plunged to the depths, meets his foe Sona jSae t onfunde, se £e floda begong heoro-gTfre beheold hund missera, grim ond graeTdig, fiaa t £aer gumena sum ael-wihta eard ufan cunnode.

(11. 1497-1500) / Soon enough she who war-thirsty held the kingdom of waters for a hundred winters, fierce and kill-greedy, saw that some human came to explore the water-devils' home._/ The evil intent, battle-greed, and even physical character­ istics of Grendel and his mother parallel those of Shelob— even to the claw. Most like a spider she was, but huger than the great hunting beasts, and more terrible than they because of the evil purpose in•her remorseless eyes. . . . Great horns she had, and behind her short stalk-like neck was her huge swollen body, a vast bloated bag, swaying and sag­ ging between her legs; its great bulk was black, blotched with livid marks, but the belly underneath was pale and luminous and gave forth a stench. . . at each leg's end there was a claw.

(II, p. 425) By way of digression, John Gardner's monster-mother is like a third sister to Shelob and the dam. The following

r passage from Grendel makes *an interesting comparison: Behind my back, at the world's end, my pale slightly glowing fat mother sleeps on, old, sick at heart, in our dingy underground room. Life-bloated, baffled, long-suffering hag. Guilty, she imagines, of some unremembered, perhaps ancestral crxme. (She must have some human in her.) Not that she thinks. Not that she dissects and ponders the dusty mechanical bits of her miserable life's curse. She clutches at me in her sleep as if to crush me. I break away "Why are we

3^Chickering's phrases

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here?" I used to ask her. 'Why do we stand this putrid, stinking hole?1 She trembles at my words. Her fat lips shake. * Don't ask!1 her wiggling claws implore. (She never speaks.) 'Don't aski' 36 It must be some terrible secret . . • # Comparing the passages may seem to indicate that the two ladies have spent some time together. At least "life-bloated," ("a vast bloated bag"), "putrid" ("stench"), and "slightly glow­ ing" ("luminous") would seem to evidence this. But then—per­ haps not.

(6) Magic Treasure

Though Grendel's mother seizes Beowulf in her claws, she is unable to pierce'his mail vest. In her anger she carries

the hrj-nga jftengel (1. 1507), "lord of the rings," into her den, where he would have perished had not his eyes fallen upon a magic sword, which assisted in his triumph. Upon the death of the monster, the cavern is flooded with light Clyde S. Kilby notes a similar effect in Tolkien's description of Shelob. When they thrust this phial /~~Galadriel' s gift_7 before the evil closter of Shelob1s eyes, it created a terror she had never experienced before, 'the dreadful infec­ tion of light." 37 Though Beowulf's struggle in the mere is not exactly paralleled by Frodo's encounter with' Shelob, this allusion to light provides a strong connection The fact that Grendel "possesses" a magic

36john Gardner, Grendel (New York: Ballantine Books, 1972) , p. 6. 37Clyd e S. Kilby, "Mythic and Christian Elements in Tolkien, Paper distributed by Marion E. Wade Collection, Wheaton College, n.p., n.d., p. 3.

\ • ^ • . -

:-.,Wfvsazvm^^c ^""" * 24 38 sword makes another. The Sword and the Ring, forged by ancient foes and associated with Cain's daughter, bring the two incidents into focus. Tolkien has created an intimate connection between Gollum and his Ring, just as the Beowulf poet made a more tenuous connection between Grendel and the eald sweord eotenise (1. 1558), "old sword of a giant."

Eaten (11. 668 and 761) means "giant" or "monster" but also connotes the name given descendents of Cain (Bosworth- Toller). For example, the Beowulf poet mentions eotenas ond ylfe ond orc-neas (1. 112) as monster-kin to Cain. Character­

istics peculiar to the eald sweord eotenise were the runes inscribed on the hilt and its magical quality. Klaeber suggests that this weapon belongs to Grendel's dam. 39' This view receives support from the tradition that weapons are the legacy of Cain's race—especially through Tubalcain, who fashioned the first 40 instruments of war. The eald sweord eotenise may also be 41 significant, as Stephen Bandy suggests, as an instrument of divine purpose. It is his observation that eadig (1. 1557) is equivalent to beatus, "appearing most often in distinctly

^Christensen draws an analogy between the struggle in Grendel's mere and the riddle contest in The Hobbit, the find ing of the ring being a strong factor. "Bandy, p. 144. He is quoting Friedrich Klaeber, ed., owulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 2nd ed. (New York, 1928). Emerson had already made this observation, p. 915. Genesis 4:22. 41Bandy, p. 144.

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25 Christian contexts in other Old English writings. . Although such weapons are not uncommon in legends outside of Christian tradition, the Beowulf poet has gone to some trouble 42 to bestow a divine purpose upon this sword. Divine purpose--yes But not necessarily an object good in itself. Emerson notes that the church fathers "emphasized the making of

weapons as one of the evil results of Cain's wickedness The 43 knowledge of magic came from the same source. 11 In the context of Old English poetry magic is generally amoral, sometimes beatus. Within the context of Beowulf and The Lord of the Rings, however, magic is distinctly associated with evil powers (as well as good). Beowulf seems to have a charm upon his life, but so does Grendel. For example, Beowulf's men would have pierced Grendel

with their weapons except forsworen haa fde, ecga gehwylcre

(11. 804-5), "he had bespelled all weapons of battle." Though Beowulf would have killed him in the hall, he must later admit Ic hine ne mihte, a Metod nolde, ganqes getwae man

/ I could not keep him, God did not will it-- from an early departure._/ Grendel's fate seems to be in God's hands. The spell he cast, though an evil force, seems-to be directed by Divine purpose. The "charm" upon Grendel is possibly an allusion to God's mark upon Cain. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. (Gen. 4:15)

42Ibid. 43Emerson, pp. 915-916

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Several incidents in Gollum's story evidence this same mark

Pity and a sense of destiny prevent Bilbo, the Elves, Frodo

and Sam from doing away with him. Gandalf's words remind ..44 them that "even Gollum may have something yet to do.

Gollum's Ring and the sword of Grendel's dam are both

inscribed with runes. The word rune means "whisperings" and,

in Beowulf, seems to have some connection with hell (helruna,

1. 163). The hilt of Grendel's dam is later described by the

r scop as coming to Danish hands after the fall of devils, deofla hryre (1. 1680). Gandalf interprets the runes inscribed on Gollum's—really Sauron's—Ring as the language of Mordor and gives a close, though not exact, reading: One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. (I, p. 81) Sauron had persuaded the Elves to forge the Ring in the Second Age.It is an evil force upon all who bear it—even upon those

r 45 associated with it. Yet a Greater Power (whose conspicuous absence in The Fellowship of the Ring can only be interpreted 46 as an implication that It Is but is beyond vision) is able to guard the keeper of the Ring to a greater and lesser degree, depending upon the bearer's- spirit. Sauron's concern throughout the trilogy is the recovery of his possession; the concern of the Fellowship is to destroy it. The dark powers gathering around the Ring threaten doom to all that is good. There is a strong sense of enclosure^—of binding—and a gathering sense of

44Th e Return of the King, p. 277

r 45A n exception is Tom Bombadil. ^Tolkien's only reference to the One is in his appendix

r\

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hopelessness throughout the trilogy—as well as in Beowulf. The binding motif is inextricably connected with treasure in Beowulf and with the Ring in the trilogy Though the signifi­ cance of the Ring as an object outgrows its analogy with the sword hilt found in Grendel's mere, its function as a bindina force parallels the power of treasure, typified by the dam's sword, to enclose and corrupt man The result is a similarity in theme and tone. Grendel and Gollum are both drawn as bound- ones, doomed-ones. Yet this binding extends to each hall-dweller to each member of society In this sense both Gollum and Grendel are marked as descendants of Cain, whose line is born in bondage. The connotations of magic in the Ring and sword also associate Grendel and Gollum with Cain, who is the source of evil magic and weapons.

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28 (7) Norse and Teutonic Ancestry A knowledge of Grendel and Gollum's antecedents in northern mythology adds dimension to their characters and reveals some of the rich fabric of the respective literatures. The intent of this section is to survey some of the Norse and Teutonic background and, in so doing, to distinguish further Grendel and Gollum as unique creations. There will be no attempt to detail any of the recent studies concerning 47 Grendel's analogues. These and other studies will only be highlighted in order to appreciate further the artists who created Gollum and Grendel Though Grendel is related to several monster-types in Norse mythology, his closest analogue seems to be Glarnr of the 48 _ Grettis Saga (c. 1300-20) . Glarnr, an outlaw to society, assumes the role of monster as challenger. James D. Mason observes several close parallels between the Beowulf story and the Glamr episodes in the Grettis Saga. Among them are the numerous hall-raids and the circumstances of the struggle be­ tween hero and adversary. Before finally being quieted Glarnr, like Grendel, has been making raids for several years, has killed numerous people, and has damaged the hall. Grettir, like Beowulf, waits for his opponent to enter through a broken door. Seized by the monster, the hero wrestles until the monster attempts to flee and in his struggle virtually wrecks the hall.49

4?e.g. Beowulf and Its Analogues, trans. G.N. Garmonsway and Jacqueline Simpson (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co.,Ind., 1971) 48 Ibid., p. 302.

4 Mason, p. 172.

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29 Unlike Grendel, Glarnr succeeds in getting outside the hall before he is mortally wounded; unlike Grendel, Glarnr is decapitated on the spot. Glarnr is described in imagery which connotes both wolf and ghost, characteristics which Grendel shares. Grendel and Glarnr even have similar reactions to the unusually strong grip of the hero. The Beowulf poet describes Grendel's surprise.

Sona faa t onfunde fyrena hyrde, £ae t he ne mette middan-geardes, eor|?an sceatta, on elran men mund-gripe maran; (11. 751-54) The shepherd of sins then instantly knew he had never encountered, in any region of this middle-earth, in any other man, a stronger hand-grip. . . ._7 Likewise Glarnr "wondered greatly who could have pulled so hard against him."^° As Grendel wanted to escape, to flee to his

&en—Hyge was s him hin-fUs, wolde on heolster fleon—so Glcfmr 51 wanted to get out—vildi Glarnr leita ut. Like Grendel, Glatnr 52 stalks at night, his very name associating him with moonlight. The pagan and Christian threads are not easy to disentangle in either story. No one will ever know the shaping and reshaping of the two Only the form which was finally recorded can suggest what it once might have been. The Christian allusions in Beowulf and the Grettis Saga are undoubtedly interpolations in a pagan text. At any rate, Glarnr is antagonistic toward Christian observances, and the circumstances of his death disclose him as an enemy of the Church. Attempting to bury the monster, men find

50 Ibid., p. 173 51 Ibid. 52 Ibid., p. 176

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30 that his body grows heavier as it nears the church building. Though there may be various other subtle comparisons between Grendel and Glarnr, a strong and final parallel is that Grettir later encounters a female troll who knows the use of tools—she carries a knife and trencher—but she does not talk, and she shows little personality outside of her desire to catch a man to eat. ^ She proves to be an even more formidable foe than Glarnr, thus forming a tie with Grendel's mother. Since this saga was re- corded after Beowulf, one cannot be dogmatic concerning in­ fluence. Perhaps the influence is an interweaving of cognate traditions. Like Grendel, Gollum has his analogues in northern myth. In her book, The Mythology of Middle-Earth, Ruth S. Noel has cited the Dwarf Andvari of Scandinavian legend and the Teutonic goblin, Goldemar, as comparable to Smeagol-Gollum. Like Smeagol Andvari was the guardian of a precious ring of doom. He was a Dwarf who usually took the form of a pike, a combination of small man and water- creature comparable to the small, web-footed Gollum. Andvari lived under a waterfall and was caught there by the god Loki. Loki wanted the Dwarf's treasure as a weregild to pay his host, whose son he had accidently killed. Andvari relinquished all his hoard except the ring, which he tried to conceal. When it too was taken, he cursed it to bring tragedy on all its owners. 54 It is very likely that Tolkien drew from this source in fashion­ ing Gollum. Gollum's ring, curse and description as small water creature are analogous. Other characteristics could have been borrowed from Goldemarj .

53 Ibid., p. 181 54Ruth S. Noel, The Mythology of Middle Earth (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1977), p. 65.

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31 Goldemar, like Gollum with his Ring, was invisible: only his shadow could be seen, like the shadow of the Ring-bearer* Goldemar was described as small and froglike, and, again like the ever-hungry Gollum, as a cannibal. When a curious mortal tried to trace the invisible goblin by strewing ashes that would show-- his footprints, the angry Goldemar caught and ate him. However interesting such analogues may be, Tolkien's creation of Gollum is much more complex than a dwarf with its magic ring or an invisible goblin. Because the Ring itself is a sentient evil, Gollum's associations with it render his function in the trilogy very important. Grendel likewise surpasses Glarnr, his Norse analogue, in psychological complexity. Because their creators have aligned them with Cain, Grendel

L and Gollum transcend their pagan ancestors and become pervasive figures in the structure, tone and theme of their respective works. It was Tolkien who stressed the important role of the monsters in Beowulf, and it was Tolkien who placed a complex monster in the center of The Lord of the Rings.

55Ibid. ^-_ "'l'^-^M^«^^

CHAPTER III THE FUNCTIONS OF GOLLUM AND GRENDEL "Oh, to vex me, contraryes meete in one." --John Donne In Book XV of The City of God St. Augustine establishes the dichotomy between children born after the flesh and those born after the Spirit. / The human__7 race we have distributed into two parts, the one consisting of those who live according to man, the other of those who live according to God. And these we also mystically call the two cities, or the two communities of men, of which the one is predestined to reign eternally with God, and the other to suffer eternal punishment with the devil Cain was the first-born, and he belonged to the city of men; after him was born Abel, who belonged to the city of God r Accordingly, it is recorded of Cain that he built"a city, but Abel, being a sojourner, built none. For the city of the saints is above, although here below it begets citizens, in whom it sojourns till the time of its reign arrives In this manner Augustine discloses the great conflict of the universe, that struggle between good and evil which is mirrored in the image of the two cities—civitas Dei and civitas terrena— and in the heart of every man* . . . that which fell out between Cain and Abel illus trated the hatred that subsists between the two cities, that of God and that of men, . . . And in each individual 'the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.'^ To imagine that the cosmos is composed of that which is either omnis bonus (all good) or omne malum (totally bad) is simplistic.

^Saint Augustine, The City of God, trans. Marcus Dods (New York: The Modern Library, 1950), pp. 478-79. Dods' translation will be used throughout. 2Ibid., p. 483. J I • I

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2 All men reflect the dual nature within themselves; and onlv those who, by God's grace, are able to prevent the reign of sin

r _

• H in their mortal bodies will reign without sin in eternity.

L

• » if He does not by His own inward grace sway and upon the mind, no preaching of the truth is of any avail.

V It and when we no longer yield our members as instru- merits of unrighteousness, then the soul is converted from its own evil and selfish desires, and God possess­ ing it, it possesses itself in peace even in this life, and afterwards, with perfected health and endowed with immortality., will reign without sin in peace everlasting.

Thus a complex struggle is fused within the relationships of external and internal forces. The Cain and Abel story is an archetype for this eternal struggle which diffuses itself on

-^

r r multifarious levels, the most violent raging sometimes quietly

r suppressed within the human soul. As Augustine has indicated, freedom and bondage are issues at stake. Living after the

\ flesh and being bound are integral. Freedom and health only

+ come when the soul "possesses itself." The church father illus™

L , trates this point by citing Hagar, the bond woman, as mother of xshmaei—born after the flesh—and Sarah, the free woman, as • • L 4 mother of Isaac—born after the Spirit- "But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the 5 L Spirit* even so xt is now." Thus Cain's strife extends beyond the Flood, when his own line perished. Ishrnael*s line is bound; JL. O ^ *-*• w O -—i* w v-

\ • wu ince" both the Beowulf poet and Tolkien have been explicit

•i in aligning their monster creations with Cain, The City of God

3lbid., p. 484.

r 4Ibid., p. 430.

5 * ^ Ibid *

^ *~^*^^^i^

3 may be a framework in which the functions of Gollum. and Grendel can be elucidated- Augustine's conclusion that Cain's kin suffer bondage and disease is mirrored by the roles they play. Grendel provides an interesting study as bound-one, con­ tributing to the themes of enclosure and disease in Beowulf. His oath-taking, a&um-swerian (1. 84), is in itself a binding factor. The Anglo-Saxon mind attached great significance to the oath. It was a kind of ritual which sealed man's relation ships. The fact that Grendel was God's sworn enemy, Godes ondsaca (11. 786 and 1682), dictated his exclusion from hall- joys . Throughout the Beowulf poem "hall-joy" evokes nostalgia for an original state of perfection and freedom. Grendel,

•t because of his kinship with Cain, is a mearc-stapa, one bound and limited in his walk through life. Upon hearing the celebrations, drgam gehyrde *-*•• 88), and particularly the scop's song of Creation, he is enraged with helplessness to change

4 that ancient decree. He is oath-bound; his condition has been foreordained, forscrifen hae fde (1. 106), hae ft meaning "bond, captivity, prison." He is later called hellehafta (1. 788), indicating bondage in hell. Grendel1s bondage results in suffering, the most obvious form being the manner of his death.

r F But the scop has sprinkled the account with references to mental anguish and disease. One of the first is Grendel's appellation, won-sSB II wer (1. 105). Wana like its modern descendent wan, connotes an incomplete or deficient condition, and wan-sae lig means "unblest or miserable man." Cain's sorrow is Grendel1s sorrow. Ne gefeah he fraere fae hSe—"no joy in that deadly feud." Grendel's spiritual condition is manifested ~"---^-^i^«^^

4 in external appearance and behavior. He is described as misshapen, oger earm-screapen (1. 1351), as were all things begotten by the legendary Cain. "From him sprang every mis­ begotten thing"~-j>anon untydras ealle onwocon (1. 111). Woh connotes that which is twisted, bent, crooked or perverse

Grendel*s suffering is both physical and mental. Sar wanigean (1. 787) refers to his wail, but sar bears the connotation of mental anguish as well as bodily pain. Grendel's pitiable condition is crystalized in the form of a ritual song. Held captive by Beowulf's superhuman grip, Grendel sang a song, gryre-leo$ galan (1. 786). Sige leasne sang (1. 787): "It was a song of defeat."

, r In "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" Tolkien justifies the fact that the monsters are (and should be) in the center; for they fuse Christian and pagan concepts of man's plight. In Scandinavian myth the gods and men joined forces

\ L against the monster race, which would ultimately win. Though man would always be doomed, his courage in facing that awful destiny could be a tenuous kind of victory-^at least a con­ solation. Mixed with this pagan stoicism is, Tolkien says, the Christian's struggle against evil powers in this life. There is a sense in which the Christian is encompassed by powers greater than himself. These powers take the form of devils or monsters. It would be of little value, Tolkien says, to defeat Beowulf, the slayer of Grendel, in human combat. Only a dragon can provide a fitting end for this hero. Crucial to an under-

6Bosworth-Tollar 5 standing of the poem is a sense of timing--the newly converted Anglo-Saxon poised in a balance between his despairing

L heritage and a new-found hope. Even the Christian, Tolkien reminds his audience, can identify with heathen despair, for he too will die in this world. The Beowulf poem is an elegy commemorating the pagan's valor in spite of insurmountable obstacles. It is sung by a new convert, whose Christianity provides a certain aloofness from the anguish of defeat. . . . we may remember that the poet of Beowulf saw clearly: the wages of heroism is death. That the foes in Beowulf are not human may be an indication of cosmic strife. The greater cosmic struggle, mirrored by Grendel as Cain-figure, is evidenced on other levels through hall-strife and personal conflict. Unferth is an example of one who disrupts the hierarchy. He is a reflection of Grendel in his fratricide and lifts himself up in prideful boasts. As Beowulf's antagonist, Unferth brings the strife within the hall. The hall itself is a symbol of Cain, the builder of cities. The treasures and elaborate furnishings within picture those earthly possessions which have power to bind men. Augustine's dichotomy between Abel, the sojourner, and Cain, the city-dweller, is a commentary on Heorot. There is a disease within which seems to

J: corrupt each man. Heremod's pride serves not only as a warning to Beowulf but also as a prophecy of doom. Beowulf's near obsession with the dragon hoard is an enigma but seems to illustrate the canker in his soul. Grendel's function in all

7Tolkien, p. 269.

•'L

••. _ •.- - 6 this is, among other things, to communicate human bondage and to foreshadow man's doom. As God's sworn foe, he is doomed, simultaneously giving a tenuous victory to Beowulf. Grendel's death prophesies Beowulf's; for the hero cannot win. It is o only a matter of time. . . "until the dragon comes." Throughout the trilogy Gollum is described as a slave to the Ring. The fact that he had been its master (owner) for so long results in his being mastered by it. Gandalf explains the effect of the ring like this: He is thin and tough still. But the thing was eating up his mind, of course, and the torment had become almost unbearable. All the 'great secrets' under the mountain had turned out to be just empty night: there was nothing more to find out, nothing worth doing, only nasty furtive eating and resentful remembering. He was altogether wretched. He hated the dark, and he hated light more: He hated everything, and the Ring most of all. . . He hated it and loved it, as he hated and loved himself. He could not get rid of it. He had no will left in the matter. (I, 87) Yet Tolkien is very careful to maintain a precarious balance of moral ambivalence concerning Gollum. The two natures battling within the wretched creature are one reason for his dual name, Smeagol-Gollum. (Sam renamed him Slinker-Stinker.) Only his healing can, restore him to the Smeagol he once was, but the Ring is like a disease. It corrupts Gollum specifically but touches almost every creature of the Tolkien cosmos. Tolkien purposes to sustain a degree of tension concerning Gollum's ability to be restored to health; for the welfare of the entire world, theoretically, depends upon it. The constant motion resulting from external and internal struggles and the growing

f ". ," 8Ibid., p. 278.

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7 doom of Tolkien's world are mirrored by Gollum. Thus Gollum and Grendel play similar roles as prophets of doom. They are both monsters in the center signifying not only their own bondage and disease but also the condition of society in general. As ^e Beowulf audience watches Grendel, there is no hope. But Tolkien's reader is allowed to perceive a feeble hope through Gollum's ambivalence, through recurring struggles between his present and past conditions. Early in The Lord of the Rings Gandalf cautions the hobbits against hasty generalizations concerning Gollum's commitment to evil. . , . there was something else in it, I think, which you don't see yet. Even Gollum was not wholly ruined. He had proved tougher than even one of the Wise would have guessed—as a hobbit might. There was a little corner of his mind that was still his own, and light came through it, as through a chink in the darker light out of the past. It was actually pleasant, I think, to hear a kindly voice again, bring up memories of wind, and trees, and sun on the grass, and such forgotten things. . „ But th^t, of course, would only make the evil part of him angrier in the end-—unless it could be conquered; unless it could be cured. . . Alas I there is little hope of that for him. Yet not no hope. (I, 86-7) As the journey toward Mordor progresses, Tolkien adjusts Gollum's condition to the mounting evil which pervades the cosmos and to

r the increasing power of the Ring upon Frodo. Yet he retains this

Q In his allegory, The Holy War, John Bunyan describes the Lord Mayor of Mansoul as an "understanding man" who was confined to a high tower "just between the sun's reflections and the windows of my lord's palace. . . thus being alienated from the light he became as one that was born blind." In The Holy War (Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Puritan Publications, Inc., 1968) pp. 15-16. This is not to say that Tolkien has written The Lord of the Rings as an allegory, but rather that he has used a similar metaphor to indicate spiritual depravity. -.-... • - .v. .. ..-,..-=.-__.. ______=,...... ^••^...,:_J..l,. ^.^ fcsi!^,^^',;^ t^4,^^^=#^

8

quality of moral ambivalence in Gollum. A speech between Frodo and Faramir discloses his spiritual depravity. 'Frodo, I think you do very unwisely in this,' said Faramir. 'I do not think you should go with this creature. It is wicked.' 'No, not altogether wicked,' said Frodo. 'Not wholly, perhaps," said Faramir; 'but malice eats it like a canker, and the evil is growing. . . . i (II, 381) The evil is indeed growing—both vertically and horizontally. Its penetration to Frodo•s soul results in physical deteriora­ tion and lapses of will. Tolkien's scheme of aligning Gollum and Frodo in an oath-bound relationship as the Ring-bearer wends his way down to Mordor and Mt. Doom allows the reader to perceive, through Gollum, Frodo's internal journey toward depravity. The reader's feeble hope is for Gollum's restora­ tion. Tolkien had nurtured this attitude in an earlier passage in The Two Towers. Nearing the gates of Mordor, Frodo, Sam and Gollum stop to

r rest in the marshes. Though Frodo is supposed to be keeping watch, he falls asleep, sliding nearly to the bottom of a pit,

4* When Sam awakes, he sees Gollum bending over Frodo and holding a debate with himself—or, more specifically, Smeagol holding a debate with a squeaking, hissing voice. Throughout there are references to Sauron, the Great Master of Evil, and Frodo, currently master of the Ring. 'Smeagol promised,' said the first thought. 'Yes, yes, my previous, ' came the answer, 'we promised to save our Precious, not to let Him have it-~never. But it's going to Him, yes, nearer every step. What's the hobbit going to do with it, we wonders, yes we wonders.'

i • .- \ '" '" ""5'"J" ""'^'^-'^^

9 'I don't know. I can't help it. Master's got it. Smeagol promised to help the master.' 'Yes, yes, to help the master: the master of the Precious. But if we was master, then we could help ourselfs, yes, and still keep promises.' 'But Smeagol said he would be very very good. Nice hobbit! He took cruel rope off Smeagol's leg. He speaks nicely to me.' '. . . Still he' s a Baggins, my precious, yes, a Baggins. A Baggins stole it. He found it and he said nothing, nothing. We hates Bagginses.' 'No, not this Baggins.' 'Yes, every Baggins. All peoples that keep the Precious. We must have it!. . . Yes! We wants it! We wants it! (II, 303-305) The effect of this dialogue is the image of a seesaw in Gollum's soul. At least there is hope for him; and Tolkien sustains this hope, climaxing it in a much more poignant and important passage. Again Frodo and Sam are sleeping. Again Gollum reflects. Gollum looked at them. A strange expression passed over his lean hungry face. The gleam faded from his eyes, and they went dim and grey, old and tired. A spasm of pain seemed to twist him, and he turned away, peering back up towards the pass, shaking his head, as if engaged in some interior debate. Then he came back, and slowly putting out a trembling hand, very cautiously he touched Frodo1s knee-^but almost the touch was a caress For a fleeting moment, could one of the sleepers have seen him, they would have thought that they beheld an old weary hobbit, shrunken by the years that had carried him far beyond his time, beyond friends and kin, and the fields and streams of youth, an old starved pitiable thing. But at that touch Frodo stirred and cried out softly in his sleep, and immediately Sam was wide awake. The first thing he saw was Gollum--'pawing at master,' as he thought 'Hey you!' he said roughly. 'What are you up to?f

'Nothing, nothing,' said Gollum softly. 'Nice Master!1 'I daresay,' said Sam. 'But where have you been to--sneak ing off and sneaking back, you old villain?' (II, pg. 411)

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10 Tolkien later confessed a strong emotional response to this passage and, in his remarks, suggested a solid theistic world behind his cosmos. 10 He told Henry Resnick that the most moving part of the story for him is 'when Gollum repents and tries to caress Frodo and he is interfered with by Sam.' The tragedy is, he added, that 'the good people so often upset the not-so-good people when they try to repent and it's a traqic moment.' 1 This passage involves more than a psychological portrait of Gollum. It effuses tension between the beauty of original creation, including freedom, and the decay which corrupts all good hobbits who live in a ring-ruled world. Mounting tension matches mounting doom, as Tolkien continues to remind his reader that there is hope—when indeed the world he has created is enveloped in increasing darkness. In her dissertation, "The Cosmic Kingdom of Myth: A Study in the Myth-Philosophy of Charles Williams, C.S. Lewis, and J. R. R. Tolkien," 12 Marjorie Wright made a perceptive observation concerning imagery in the works of these men. . . . the individual images in each myth are of necessity bound together and form part of the organic whole. . . . One is never sure that a single image may not embody the whole kingdom. Because the kingdom is cosmic and nothing that happens is isolated or merely phenomenal, the result is a kingdom of archetypal images. ^ It would seem that this statement is especially applicable to Gollum as he functions in The Lord of the Rings Images

10Clyd e S. Kilby, "Mythic and Christian Elements in Tolkien," n.p., n.d., p. 9. 11..Kilb. y quoting "Niekas," No. 18, p. 39. 12Universit y of Illinois 1961. 13 Ibid., p. 94

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11 concerning Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam are bound to him. In a sense he is the single image embodying the heart-struggles within basically good creatures. He thus becomes an archetypal image, an image of the cosmic struggle typified by Cain. Citizenship in civitas Dei or civitas terrena is decided within the heart of every man. Only those who, by God's grace, are able to prevent the reign of sin in their mortal bodies, will reign free from that power in a better world. But Augustine has emphasized grace as a key factor; for everywhere, he says, men are bound. Tolkien has at least psychologized the Grendel type in fashioning Gollum as a bound-one, and he has extended that bondage to the spiritual realm. Whereas Grendel is committed to evil—a declared monster, Tolkien has woven an element of grace into Gollum's role as bound-^one. At times Gollum is "soft sift in an hourglass." Though he is primarily committed to the repossession of his Precious, the internal struggle is

h sometimes great. Even as his depravity and his commitment to the Ring increase, Tolkien wields him as an instrument of grace in the eucatastrophe (to be discussed in the last chapter). But that is the turn at the end. Throughout most of the trilogy Tolkien associates Gollum with images of binding, disease and

r.

1 shadpw—sometimes fusing these with another character and laminating over him a striking, if not haunting, picture of Gollum. Such is the case with Bilbo. Early in the trilogy Tolkien describes a confrontation between Frodo and Bilbo at Elrond's house

14Gerard Manley Hopkins, "The Wreck of the Deutschland." - - __. __._^_. _^ •_, ld J,,.,^,,^^^,.^^, ^

12 'Have you got it here?' he / Bilbo__/ asked in a whisper. 'I can't help feeling curious, you know, after all I've heard. I should very much like just to peep at it again.' 'Yes, I've got it,' answered Frodo, feeling a strange reluctance. 'It looks just the same as ever it did.' 'Well, I should just like to see it for a moment,' said Bilbo. When he had dressed, Frodo found that while he slept the Ring had been hung about his neck on a new chain, light but strong. Slowly he drew it out. Bilbo put out his hand. But Frodo quickly drew back the Ring. To his distress and amazement he found that he was no longer looking at Bilbo; a shadow seemed to have fallen between them, and through it he found himself eyeing a little wrinkled creature with a hungry face and bony groping hands. He felt a desire to strike him. (I, 305-306) The references to shadow, wrinkles, hunger, and "groping hands" are associated, of course, with Gollum. Tolkien has laminated Gollum over Bilbo in this picture of depravity, a method he duplicates in the last book of the trilogy to describe Sam. Thinking his master dead, Sam had reluctantly taken the Ring from ground Frodo's neck. His intention was to attempt to complete the quest alone. Later he discovers his error in judgment and rescues his master from the enemy Frodo demands the return of the Ring. . . . Slowly he drew the Ring out and passed the chain over his head. 'But you're in the land of Mordor now, sir; and when you get out, you'll see the Fiery Mountain and all. You'll find the Ring very dangerous now, and very hard to bear. If it's too hard a job, I could share it with you, maybe?'

'No, no!' cried Frodo9 snatching the Ring and chain from Sam's hands. 'No you won't, you thief!' He panted, staring at Sam with eyes wide with fear and enmity. Then suddenly, clasping the Ring in one clenched fist, he stood aghast. A mist seemed to clear from his eyes, and he passed a hand over his aching brow. The hideous vision had seemed so real to him, half bemused as he was still with wound and fear. Sam had changed before his very

'\

> 13 eyes into an ore again, leering and pawing at his treasure, a foul little creature with greedy eyes and slobbering mouth. But now the vision had passed. (Ill, 230) Again this is a Gollum image. Sam has accused Gollum of "pawing" at his master. Now Sam is "pawing at his treasure" with "greedy eyes" and "slobbering mouth," all of which emanate Gollum's depravity and prophesy Frodo's corruption by the Ring. The images of little, wrinkled, depraved creatures are structured, as Marjorie Wright's observation suggests, around an archetypal image Gollum is that archetype. All these figures communi­ cate a despairing world, culminating in the great defeat of Frodo's will at Mt. Doom In this sense Beowulf and The Lord of the Rings are both "pagan" in tone; and Grendel and Gollum serve as vehicles to convey the message of man's ultimate defeat, in spite of past glory. Having successfully slain Grendel and his mother, Beowulf is finally defeated by a dragon. Having exercised sheer courage and self-denial, having success-

L fully struggled against seeming insurmountable obstacles to his final destination, the quest hero is unable to do that for which he came. 'I have come,' he said. 'But I do not choose now to do what I came to do. I will not do this deed. The Ring is mine! And sudd'enly, as he set it on his finger, he vanished. . . . ' (III, 274) Before proceeding to Gollum's departure from Grendel as an analogue in function, it might be helpful to summarize the contents of this chapter. Augustine's Christian framework is one of many ways to approach Beowulf and The Lord of the Rings

•i -i 14 As Cain types, both Grendel and Gollum may be conceived as children of bondage who oppose those born in freedom. They also typify the flesh which wars against the spiriti i , Gollum especially evidences this struggle within himself. The dichotomy between civitatis terrena and civitatis Dei is not always easy to discern, for the motion of conflict takes place

r • on many different levels. This motion produces a degree of tension in the literature. Because Grendel is committed to evil, bound by ancient, immovable oaths and apparently bound psychologically, he does not experience as much tension as

Gollum. Grendel's function is to foreshadow • doom t"i o man and to suggest, by his own bondage and disease, the condition of a society bound and corrupted by love of riches, pride, and the fact that man simply cannot win against the monster race. Gollum vacillates between remembrances of his prelapsarian condition and his love for the evil Ring. As his commitment to the Ring is fixed, doom is pronounced on all who reflect his image— especially the hobbit protagonists of the trilogy. The result of this binding motif in the characters of Grendel and Gollum is a pagan tone in the literature. While there is magic and

1 y courage in Beowulf--even the sense of divine intervention—there is ultimately an absence of grace Likewise, The Lord of the Rings, though sprinkled with windfalls and the good magic of Gandalf and the Elves, is really a journey down—down to doom. Gollum's depravity is a commentary on man's destiny. Tolkien, however, steers the tone in another direction by wielding Gollum as an instrument of grace in the eucatastrophe.

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CHAPTER IV EUCATASTROPHE: FROM GRENDEL TO GOLLUM "Wyrd oft nereU / unfaegne eorl, ponne his ellen dean." (Bewoulf, 11. 572-3) / So Fate often saves an undoomed man when his courage holds./

In his essay, "On Fairy-stories," Tolkien says that the fairy-story may be, among other things, a Mirour de l'Omne.1 He then proceeds to explain that figures and devices borrowed from old may produce an important effect upon newly created works.

But when we have done all that research—collection and comparison of the tales of many lands—can do; when we have explained many of the elements commonly found embedded in fairy-stories. . . as relics of ancient customs once practised in daily life, or of beliefs once held as beliefs and not as 'fancies' — there remains still a point too often forgotten: that is the effect produced now by these old things in the stories as they are.

In 2!h£ Lord of the Rings Tolkien has fused and refashioned the literature of the past. He has adapted Gollum from Grendel,

•t employing common traits and even simulating function. Recogni zing Grendel*s vital role as monster in the center, Tolkien placed his own monster, Gollum, beside the quest hero. The Lord of the Rings becomes progressively more tragic in tone, matching that of Beowulf, which Tolkien called "an heroic-

"On Fairy-Stories" first appeared in Essays Presented to Charles Williams, pp. 38-89, ed. , C.S. Lewis (London, 1947; Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1966). It was revised and reprinted in Tree and Leaf (London, 1964; Boston, 1965) and in The Tolkien Reader (New York, 1966). I take my information from Tree and Leaf, p,26. 2Ibid., p. 31.

I 2 elegiac poem." The effect produced now by this Beowulf adaptation is to touch a sympathetic chord in an age of dis­ illusionment. The twentieth century has all but given up the quest for truth, purpose, ideals, moral value—for anything beyond the temporal. It seems right to modern man that Gollum accompany the hero to his destination; for, no matter what courage the hero possesses, what songs he may sing on the way, what friendships form—his fate is fixed in the grave. Gollum

j and Grendel typify that grave. If Grendel could not defeat Beowulf, nor his mother, there is always the dragon lurking in the dark. Likewise Gollum is man's shade, remindinq him of his

F J—' ultimate destruction. Tolkien has adapted something else from Beowulf which reinforces this theme. It is the death-ship. This pagan image is another "old thing" which, along with Tolkien's Grendel adaptation, produces a powerful effect in the trilogy. But before one can understand the new art, he must examine the gld. Beowulf begins and ends with a funeral, an object lesson in ritual form and a consummation of the "prophecy" enacted by the dragon's firing of Beowulf's hall. The burning of Beowulf's body and all its accoutrements is a ritual re-enactment of his

^ destruction by the dragon.' There were no flowers at that funeral. Rather—a vivid acknowledgment of the Anglo-Saxon ability to confront the reality of death. Scyld Scefling's funeral, described in the opening lines of the poem, has often been contrasted with Beowulf's funeral at the end—a sea burial balanced against earthly cremation. This is part of the poet's conscious art. Whether intentionally

-3 "Beowulf; The Monsters and the Critics," p. 275. 3 or not, the poet involves sea imagery in Beowulf's funeral paraphernalia. _ Him<5a gegiredan Geata leode ad on eor^j an unwaclTcne, helm /urn/ behongen, hilde-bordum, beorhtum byrnum, swa he bena waes a~legdon #H t^middes mae rne £eoden haele# hlofende, hlaford leofne. Ongunnon pa on beorge bae 1 -fyra ma^st_ __ wigend weccan; _ wud / u_7 -rec astah _ __ sweart ofer swi / o_7cfole; swogende le / a 7 wope bewunden; wind-blond qelasa o^aet he $a ban-hus gebrocen hce f de, hat on hregre. Higum unrote __ __ mod-ceare m^ndon, mon-dryhtnes cw /. e_/alm; (11. 3137-3149) / The Geatish people then built a pyre on that high ground, no mean thing, hung with helmets, strong battle-boards, laid high in the center their famous king, their beloved lord, the warriors weeping. Then on that headland the great fire was wakened. The wood- smoke climbed up, black above flames; the roaring one danced, encircled by wailing; the wind died away until the fire had broken that bone-house, had burned to the heart. Sad and despairing, the warriors grieved for the death of their lord. / The funeral of Beowulf, the lord of the rings, involves sea imagery. Helm (1. 3139) carries various meanings, one of them being "the covering made by the wave, the sea." Hilde-bord (1. 3139) denotes a war-shield, but bord may also imply the covering or deck of a ship, or the ship itself. To the helmet and shield is added a corslet, but byrne (1. 3140) may carry 5 the additional meaning, "running water or stream." SwQ~gan (1. 3145) indicates the roar of the wind as Beowulf's body burns,

r but the word may connote the rushing of water as well. Weh- ll#endum (1. 3158), wave-traveler, completes this rather blurred

4Bosworth-Tolle r 5Ibid.

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4 impression of Beowulf's pyre being like the burial ship ob served by all who travel within its wave-path. This subtle

use of water imagery contrasts with the earthly pyre surround­ ed by grieving warriors. Song is an important part of the funeral ritual. The nobles gathered round their king sing a wailing song, and a Geatish woman weaves a grief-song (1. 3152) These are reminiscent of Grendel's song of despair. gryre-leo$ galan Godes andsacan sige-l^asne sang, s3"r WcFnigean (11. 786-7) / who heard the cry-—God's enemy screaming his hate-song, a victory-less tune_7 The dying Grendel fled wounded, death-sick to his joyless

^ den (11. 819-821). Grendel dies in his den-grave, and his death is sealed in song. It is impossible to sever this fact from Beowulf's funeral ritual; for the doom of both hero and adversary is sealed in song. Both songs communicate the abysm of pagan despair. Out of that despair comes a tenuous consola­ tion for Beowulf. The scop describes him as lof-geornost (1. 3182), "anxious for praise," but lof may also carry the connotation, "a song of praise, a hymn." Beowulf desired more than anything else to become a song. This was also the desire of Sam and Frodo in The Lord of the Rings. Again Tolkien has used an "old thing" to produce something new. The nature of Beowulf's lof is transformed to something better in the trilogy Before discussing Gollum's song and Frodo's song in The Lord of the Rings, it is important to understand Tolkien's interpreta­ tion of lof in Beowulf; for only then can one come to any valid

•.-— ^—i1IP».1» •••••'• •• ^H—I^WP^"-1"1-' conclusion concerning the significance of song in his own creation. i I

5 In his Appendix to "Beowulf; The Monsters and the Critics," Tolkien deals specifically with the word, lof. Though the Old English canon indicates its use in both Christian and pagan contexts, he says, lof in Beowulf conveys a heathen world. The prominence of the motive of lof in Beowulf. . . may be interpreted, then, as a sign that a pagan time was not far away from the poet, and perhaps also that the end of English paganism. . . was marked by a twilight period, similar to that observable in Scandinavia. The gods faded or receded, and man was left to carry on his war unaided. His trust was in his own power and will, and his reward was the praise of his peers during his life and after his death. The characters within the poem do not understand heaven, or have hope of it. His / Beowulfs_y funeral is not Christian, and his reward is the recognized virtue of his kingship and the hopeless sorrow of his people. He is saying that, in spite of its Christian trappings, Beowulf is a pagan work. Without the aid of the gods, pagan man must bare his chest to the monsters, who will always win. Lof in

^ Beowulf connotes nothing more than the tenuous consolation of "recognized virtue" among the dead hero's peers. As long as men will remember, Beowulf will have his praise. But in The

«W^^iH pi> Iff ^^M-^H Lord of the Rings Tolkien transforms lof or "song" into something else, giving it eternal value. As the Beowulf poet had done with Grendel, he puts a grief-song into Gollum's mouth. But the great difference is this: Gollum's defeat does not connote doom to the hero. Through grace and the sudden turn the hero is immortalized When the forces of Aragorn and Gandalf are surrounded with­ out hope of victory, when the only hope is Frodo's destruction

"Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," pp. 281-84 6 of the Ring, when Frodo fails—Tolkien wields Gollum as an instrument of eucatastrophe, what he calls the denial "(in the face of much evidence, if you will)" of "universal final defeat."7 Gollum on the edge of the abyss was fighting like a mad thing with an unseen_foe. ^ . . Suddenly . Gollum's long hands. . . / drew__/ upwards to his mouth; his white fangs gleamed, and then snapped they bit. Frodo gave a cry, and there he was, fallen upon his knees at the chasm's edge. But Gollum, dancing like a mad thing, held aloft the ring, a finger still thrust within its circle. It shone now as if verily it was wrought of living fire.

'Precious, precious, precious!' Gollum cried. 'My Precious! 0 my Precious!1 And with that even as his eyes were lifted up to gloat on his prize, he stepped too far, toppled, wavered for a moment on the brink, and then with a shriek he fell. Out of the depths came his last wail precious, and he was gone. (Ill, 275-6)

r j There is such a mixture of triumph and defeat in that song that it is difficult to disentangle it. Up to this point Beowulf and the trilogy have been very close in tone; but now they part, leaving Gollum and Grendel closer kin than the literature which encompasses them. Gollum's song is very like Grendel's (Beowulf, 11. 786-87). Yet it is a song of victory for mankind. Though the hero has failed, an act of grace has brought salvation to Tolkien's world. The adversary's momentary triumph is the only means by which the hero could have succeeded. Marjorie Wright's observation elucidates some of the energy behind this crisis. "Tragedy," she says, "is not the final truth in these myths: it is a necessary stage the myth must pass through to reach the

7"On Fairy-Stories," p. 68 7 joy of the eucatastrophe." The tone of the trilogy has been completely redirected by Gollum's triumph/defeat. In his epilogue to the fairy-tale essay, J. R. P., Tolkien seems to "bare his heart" concerning the Great, the Archetypal Eucatastrophe. I would venture to say. . . approaching the Christian Story ... it has long been my feeling (a joyous feel­ ing) that God redeemed the corrupt making-creatures / sic /, men, in a way fitting to . . , their strange nature. The Gospels contain a fairy-story, or a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy- stories. . . .The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man's history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends m joy. It has pre-eminently the 'inner consistency of reality.' There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many sceptical men have accepted as true on its own merits. For the Art of it has the supremely convincing tone of Primary Art, that is of Creation. To reject it leads either to sadness or to wrath. But this story is supreme; and it Is true. Art has been verified. God is the Lord, of angels, and of men--and of elves. Legend and History have met and fused.

What Tolkien means by "Lord of angels, men—and elves" is this

God is the One in the heavensf in middle-dearth, and within the context of his own created world. Tolkien's Christianity and his myth have "met and fused," creating something bigger than the former, but by no means excluding it. In addition, The Lord of the Rings is indebted to Beowulf for some of its content, tone, and even structure. A beautiful example of this is the way Tolkien uses the burial ship of Beowulf to

8Marjorie Evelyn Wright, "The Cosmic Kingdom of Myth: A Study in the Myth-Philosophy of Charles Williams, C.S. Lewis, and J. R. R. Tolkien," Diss, University of Illinois 1961, pp. 146-7. 9,,0n Fairy-Stories," pp. 71-72. -^ -*i-V ±fei,£*j

8 complete his trilogy, also involving the song motif. This ship is a pagan image connoting man's ultimate defeat. In Beowulf Grendel prophesies the hero's funeral. The monster foreshadows the grave. Grendel's song haunts man, foreboding doom. Tolkien adapts these old things--the ship and song—to communicate the Christian hope, joy beyond the sorrow of partings. "Tragedy is. . .a necessary stage the myth must pass through to reach the joy of the eucatastrophe." Gollum's triumph was a

h necessary tragedy. There would have been no eucatastrophe with- 2Hi it* An(3 t^le death ship is a necessary precursor to "joy

\ •" r beyond the walls of the world." Tolkien's ship is not the grey ghost ship which Saruman had described (III, 323). Its beauty glimmers in the twilight under the evening stars. There was Gildor and many fair Elven folk; and there. . . rode Elrond and Galadriel. Elrond wore a mantle of grey and had a star upon his forehead, and a silver harp was in his hand. . . .Galadriel sat upon a white palfrey and was roped / sic__7 all in glimmering white, like clouds about the Moon. (Ill, 381) The days of Elves and wizards--and Ring-bearers—are num­ bered. All must prepare for departure. Having been greeted by Cirdan the Shipwright, they see Gandalf robed in white and wait­ ing on the quay.

I WelTA7 l / said Gandalf7, 'here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-earth. Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.'. . . and the sails were drawn up, and the wind blew, and slowly the ship slipped away down the long grey firth; and the light of the glass of Galadriel that Frodo bore glimmered and was lost. And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water (III, 384)

10 Marjorie Wright. l^&$gg&g&&^^^iX*!Sn*J*>.

9 The horror of the pit, that which was mirrored by Gollum and Grendel, has been transformed. Ironically, Tolkien has used his monster to accomplish this transformation. It would seem that Tolkien's agility as an artist enabled him to turn the ship image and the Grendel prototype without bending them out of shape. That turn does not jar; it is not an abuse. It is but "a piercing glimpse of joy, and heart's desire." There are still those grieving warriors left on the shore.

F But to Sam the evening deepened to darkness as he stood at the Haven; and as he looked at the grey sea he saw only a shadow on the waters that was soon lost in the West. There still he stood far into the night, hearing only the sign and murmur of the waves on the shores of Middle-earth, and the sound of them sank deep into his heart. (Ill, 384) Sam's consolation is that he and Frodo have been immortalized in song. Though Beowulf's praise will only be sung in the halls of middle-earth, Frodo's will be sung by the Elves throughout all eternity. But Frodo's song is a song of grace, the over- whelming fact of the trilogy. Without Gollum, whose evil intentions were turned to good, it could never be sung. Many

r have found Tolkien's cosmos believable enough to effect an escape; and that escape, for some, has led to a recovery of things lost—of hope, of truth, of the eternal. For the first time, some have encountered grace. Whether Tolkien's song— the myth he created--will endure is not to be determined now. Only Time can judge that work and, if She will, place a seal of permanence upon that art.

11"On Fairy-Stories," p. 70

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BIBLIQGHAPHY OF WORKS CITED

Augustine, Saint. The City of God, Trans, lircus Dods. New York: Modern Library, 195Q. Bandy, Stephen C. "Caines Cynn: A Study of Beowulf and the Legends of Cain." Diss. Princeton University 1967. Beowulf: A Dual-Language Edition. Trans, and Ed. Howell D. Chickering, Jr. Garden City, New York: Anchor Press/ Doubleday, 1977. Beowulf and Its Analogues. Trans. G. N. Garmonsway and Jacqueline Simpson, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1971. -. r

h Blissett, William Frank. "Despots of the Rings," South Atlantic Quarterly, 58 (Summer, 1959), 448-456. Bosworth, Joseph. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Supplement by T. Northcote Toller. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882-1921. Bunyan, John. The Holy War Made by Shaddai Upon Diabolus. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Puritan Publications Inc., 1968. Christensen, Bonniejean. "Beowulf and The Hobbit: Elegy into Fantasy in J.R.R. Tolkien's Creative Technique." Diss. University of Southern California 1969. Emerson, Oliver F. "Legends of Cain, Especially in Old and Midle English." PMLA, 21 (1906), 831-929. "Ever-Ever Land." Atlantic Monthly, 215 (March, 1965), 194-195 Gardner, John. Grendel. New York: Ballantine Books, 1972. Isaacs, Neil D. "On the Possibilities of Writing Tolkien Criticism." In Tolkien and the Critics. Ed. Neil D. Isaacs and Rose A. Zimbardo. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1968, pp. 1-11* Keenan, Hugh T. "The Appeal of The Lord of the Rings: A Struggle for Life." In Tolkien and the Critics. Ed. Neil D. Isaacs and Rose A. Zimbardo. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1968, pp. 62-80. Kilby, Clyde S. "Mythic and Christian Elements in Tolkien." n.p., n.d.

F Klaeber, Friedrich, ed. Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg. 2nd ed. New York: D. C. Heath, 1928. Mason, James D. "Monsters and Human Voices: The Anthropomorphic Adversary of the Hero in Old English and Old Norse Literature." Diss. University of Tennessee 1976. ^'^'^ea^

Moorman, Charles* The Precints of Felicity: The Augugtinian City of the Oxford Christians. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1966. Noel, Ruth S. The Mythology of Middle Earth. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1977. Ogilvy, J. D. A. Books Known to the English, 599-1066. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Mediaeval Academy of America, 1967. Raffel, Burton. "The Lord of the Rings as Literature." In Tolkien and the Critics. Ed. Neil D. Isaacs and Rose A. Zimbardo. Notre Dame, Indiana; University of Notre Dame Press, 1968, pp. 218-246, Tolkien, J. R. R. "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics." Proceedings of the British Academy, 22 (1936), 245-295. . "Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings." In A Tolkien Compass. Ed. Jared Lobdell. LaSalle, Illinois: Open Court Publishing Company, 1975, pp. 155-201. . "On Fairy-Stories." In Tree and Leaf. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965, pp. 3-84. . The Hobbit; or, There and Back Again. Rev. ed. New York:

- i Ballantine Books, 1976.

j* . The Lord of the Rings. 3 vols. The Fellowship of the Ring Vol. I. New York: Ballantine Books, 1976. The Two Towers, Vol. II. New York; Ballantine Books, 1975. The Return of the King. Vol. III. New York: Ballantine Books, 1975. Wiersma, Stanly. "A Linguistic Analysis of Words Referring to Monsters in Beowulf." Diss. University of Wisconsin 1961. Wright, Marjorie Evelyn. "The Cosmic Kingdom of Myth: A Study in the Myth-Philosophy of Charles Williams, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien." Diss. University of Illinois 1961. RECORD OF COURSE WORK

NAME: Roberta Albrecht Adams

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TITLE OF THESIS: Gollum and Grendel as Cain's Kinsmen

GRADUATE COURSES

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EH 503 Neo-Classical British Literature 1-77 Crain

EH 500 Research & Criticism 1-77 Gillespie EH 502 Renaissance English Literature Metaphysical Poets 3-77 Gillespie

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E 536 Tales of Medieval England 3-77 Stephen Phelan

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