Satire and the Heroic Life: Two Studies (Helgakvida Hundingsbana I, 18 and Bjgrn Hitdrelakappi’s Gramagafltm) Scholars like Otto Rank, Lord Raglan, and Jan de Vries have pointed out a remarkably rigid patterning in the lives of many legendary “ heroes,” 1 and one of the most interesting recent tendencies in the study of heroic legend pursues such patterns to the influence of myth or ritual or, at least, to tradition in an oral culture.2 Another route to what might be called “ heroic conformity” begins with the elusive background in a heroic ethos, and George Fenwick Jones’ The Ethos o f the Song o f Roland can stand as a good representative of this more sociological (and hence less exact) scholarly direction.3 Strangely the two approaches—the one from traditional narrative structures and the other from the real-life ideological matrix supporting such 1. Otto Rank, The Myth of the Birth of the Hero: a Psychological Interpretation of Mythology, tr. by F. Robbins and S. E. Jelliffe (New York, 1955); Lord Raglan, The Hero: a Study in Tradition, Myth, and Drama (London, 1936); Jan de Vries, Betrachtungen zum Marchen. .., FFC 150 (Helsinki, 1954) and in more popular form in Heroic Song and Heroic Legend, tr. B. J. Timmer (London, 1963), ch. ii . 2. A few examples: Otto Hofler, “ Das Opfer im Semnonenhain und die Edda,” in Edda, Skalden, Saga: Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von Felix Genzmer, ed. by Hermann Schneider (Heidelberg, 1952), pp. i —67; Franz Rolf Schroder, “ Mythos und Heldensage,” GRM, 36(1955), 1- 2 1 and revised in Zur germanisch-deutschen Helden- sage, ed. by Karl Hauck (Bad Homburg, 1961), pp. 285-317; Jan de Vries, “ Das Motiv des Vater-Son-Kampfes im Hildebrandslied,” GRM, 34(1953), 257-74 and expanded in Hauck, pp. 248-84; Georges Dumezil, From Myth to Fiction: the Saga of Hadingus, tr. by D. Coltman (Chicago, 1973). 3. (Baltimore, 1963); another good example: George Clark, “ The Battle of Maldon: A Heroic Poem,” Speculum 43 (1968), 52-71. 172 “Speak Useful Words or Say Nothing structures— are never combined. As a general assignment the task would be too large for the present small contribution to the honor of Professor Lord; but if I focus here on a single neglected feature common to both approaches, perhaps the results, though minor, will be suggestive. The connection of satire with the hero-life, its role in a Helden- leben, may not appear obvious at first glance. We are accustomed to thinking of our heroes as shining figures, glowing with a generous inner passion for heroic accomplishment; in this we are still seeing through idealistic nineteenth-century eyes, eyes like those of a Carlyle who could make even the treacherous, contradictory, and, arguably, neurotic Odin an object of “ hero-worship.” But there is evidence that heroic society embodied a strong dash of paranoia, that conformity to social ideals was achieved partly through fear of criticism and, especially, of satire— criticism in comic form. In such a “shame culture,” which Jones contrasts with the predominant modern “ guilt culture,” a Roland’s quintessentially “ heroic” act, his refusal to blow his horn for help, arises largely in his fear of “male chan^un,” satirical songs that might be composed to his shame.4 At the Battle of Maldon in 991 Earl Byrhtnoth’s men voiced a number of varied reasons, some as old as Tacitus, for fighting on to the last man; among them was Leofsunu, who promised not to flee but to advance because the “steadfast heroes around Sturmere” were not to be given cause to “criticize [him] with words,” alleging that he turned from battle now that his lord lay dead.5 Leofsunu’s wordum &twitan may or may not imply verse satire, but his probable pun on stedef&ste h&l&d, where “steadfast” could mean “unswerving” or “stay-at- home,” certainly looks like a satirical preemptive strike.6 No formal satire has survived in Old English, but in early Old English times the major word for poet, scop, must have carried connotations of its origin in “scoffing” and derision. In the closely related Old Frisian, skof meant “mockery,” and Old High German scof embraced both 4. Jones, pp. 89, 96-98, and passim. 5. The Battle o f Maldon, ll. 246-53a, esp. 249-50, in The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, VI, ed. by E. van Kirk Dobbie (New York, 1942). 6. I have not seen this (probable) pun pointed out, but on the topic generally cf. Roberta Frank, “ Some Uses of Paronomasia in Old English Scriptural Verse,” Speculum 47(i972), 207-26. Satire and the Heroic Life 173 “poet” and “derision.” 7 A favored etymology for Old Norse skald “ poet” relates the word to these unromantic concepts, and English scold (“ to abuse verbally,” etc., or “ an abusive person, especially a woman” ) is probably borrowed from Old Norse. The Scandinavian institution of nib (roughly: “ legally culpable insults” ) is closely linked with poets and poetry.8 Many of the heroes of the realistic family sagas are intimately involved with various forms of satire, either as its victims or its perpetrators, and such mudslinging extends more often than one would expect to the heroes of tradition, the “ heroes” par excellence. I. Oneiss sem kattar sonr: Helgakvida Hundingsbana I, 18 Notable for their satirical components are the first and third Helgi poems in the Poetic Edda; called Helgakviba Hundingsbana I and II, they tell different but overlapping segments of the same heroic biography.9 The most likely explanation of the historical relation­ ship between the two poems is that both derive chiefly from an “ Old Lay of the Vplsungs” (Vglsungakviba in forna).10 Both poems (along with the more distantly related Helgakviba Hjgrvarbzsonar) contain long sennur, formal exchanges of abuse equivalent to the English and Scottish flytings, between the antagonist and Helgi’s representative Sinfjptli, a certified specialist in billingsgate. Helgi himself intervenes only to put an end to the flyting, but other heroes, including the sterling Beowulf,11 speak for themselves. Helgi’s valkyrie heroine 7. Cf. further MDu schop, ON skop, skaup, Dan. skuf, and MHG schelte, and see C. T. Onions, The Oxford Dictionary o f English Etymology (Oxford, 1966), s.v. scop, scold; F. Holthausen, Altenglisches etymologisches Worterbuch (Heidelberg, 1963), s.v. scop; Jan de Vries, Altnordisches etymologisches Worterbuch, 2nd ed. rev. (Leiden, 1962), s.v. skald; and Klaus von See, ” Skop und Skald. Zur Auffassung des Dichters bei den Germanen,” GRM, 14(1964), 1-14. 8. The great study of nib is Bo Almqvist, Norron niddiktning: traditionshistoriska studier i versmagi, vol. 1: Nid mot furstar (Uppsala, 1965) and vol. 2: Nid mot missionarer. Senmedeltida nidtraditioner (Uppsala, 1974) (= Nordiska texter och undersokningar, 21 and 23). 9. Eddic poems are quoted from Gustav Neckel, ed., Edda: die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmalern, 3rd ed. rev. by Hans Kuhn (Heidelberg, 1962); the major Helgi poems are abbreviated HH and HHII. 10. The best study nevertheless presents an unclear picture of these relationships: Jan de Vries, “ Die Helgilieder,” ANF, 72(1957), 123-54. 174 “Speak Useful Words or Say Nothing unleashes her sharp tongue in a curse directed at her brother, Helgi’s slayer (HHII, 31-33); her first words to Helgi have a sarcastic edge (HH, 17); and in H H II, 25 she has the poor taste to jeer at Helgi’s dying rival. Helgi himself bluntly blames Sigrun for the death of her father and brother (HHII, 26-29) and is even presented as jibing unsportingly at his enemy Hundingr when they meet in Valholl after death (HHII, 39)—this last passage has seemed so offensive that many commentators brand it a late interpolation. The remarks I wish to examine here are of this kind but more cryptically satirical. In Helgakvida Hundingsbana I Sigrun, accom­ panied by other valkyries and dramatic celestial lighting effects, has sought out the victorious young Helgi on a battlefield to complain that she has been betrothed against her will to HpSbroddr; it is up to Helgi to save her, and the rest of the poem narrates the preparations for and approach to battle, the insults before battle, and the enemy’s preparations; the concluding stanzas describe Helgi’s victory in the words of his valkyrie consort. In the problematical stanza 18, Sigrun protests: Hefir minn faSir meyio sinni grimmon heitit Granmars syni; enn ec hefi, Helgi, HpSbrodd qveSinn, konung oneisan, sem kattar son. (My father has pledged his daughter fair As bride to Granmar’s son so grim; But, Helgi, I once Hothbrodd called As fine a king as the son of a cat.)12 The groundwork for a full understanding of this debated passage has been laid by Anne Holtsmark’s definitive establishment of the basic 11. Two recent articles study the “ Unferth-Intermezzo” as a flyting: Carol Clover (forthcoming) [“ The Germanic Context of the Unferth Episode,” Speculum 55 (1980), 444-68; rpt. in Beowulf: Basic Readings, ed. Peter S. Baker (New York: Garland, 1995), pp. 127-54. Eds.] and J. Harris, “ The senna: From Description to Literary Theory,” MGS, 5 (1979), 65-74. 12. Unless otherwise noted, translations are those of Henry Adams Bellows, The Poetic Edda (New York, 1923); Bellows’ stanza numbers often differ from the standard Neckel-Kuhn; this is Bellows’ st. 19. Satire and the Heroic Life i 75 meaning of oneiss and her discussion of kattar sow,13 and Bjarne Fidjestol has added an interesting further ramification.14 It remains to offer a clear statement of the primary meaning of the last line and to suggest a number of more problematic refinements.