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Reading Beowulf's Creation Song in the Christian

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Reading Beowulf's Creation Song in the Christian THE ONE WHO KNEW, SANG: READING BEOWULF'S CREATION SONG IN THE CHRISTIAN APOLOGETIC TRADITION by DAVID NATHANIEL GRUBBS (Under the Direction of Jonathan Evans) ABSTRACT In this study, the complex topic of religious and ethnic identity in Beowulf is approached through a focused consideration of Beowulf's Creation Song (ll. 90-8) within the context of the patristic and early medieval Christian apologetic tradition. In this reading, the Beowulf poet is viewed as an active participant in a broader cultural dialogue about religious and ethnic identity, whose contribution can be better understood when read in conversation with the apologetic tradition's handling of those two identities as they relate to Christian theology of creation and the knowledge and worship of the creator. INDEX WORDS: apologetics, Beowulf, creation, creator, patristics, theology THE ONE WHO KNEW, SANG: READING BEOWULF'S CREATION SONG IN THE CHRISTIAN APOLOGETIC TRADITION by DAVID NATHANIEL GRUBBS B.A., Southeastern Bible College, 2002 M.A., University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2004 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2014 © 2014 David Nathaniel Grubbs All Rights Reserved THE ONE WHO KNEW, SANG: READING BEOWULF'S CREATION SONG IN THE CHRISTIAN APOLOGETIC TRADITION by DAVID NATHANIEL GRUBBS Major Professor: Jonathan Evans Committee: Cynthia Camp Alexander Sager Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2014 iv DEDICATION To Gary Greene and Stephen Glosecki Đonne sorg ond slæp somod ætgædre earmne anhogan oft gebindað, þinceð him on mode þæt he his mondryhten clyppe ond cysse, ond on cneo lecge honda ond heafod, swa he hwilum ær in geardagum giefstolas breac. Ðonne onwæcneð eft wineleas guma, gesihð him biforan fealwe wegas, baþian brimfuglas, brædan feþra, hreosan hrim ond snaw, hagle gemenged. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the journey that led to this finished dissertation, I've benefited from much kindness along the way. As Ælfric writes in his St. Stephen's Day homily, ne bið nan anginn herigendlic butan godre geendunge—"No beginning is praiseworthy without a good ending"—and many have aided me in reaching this good ending. Thanks to my dissertation committee, Cynthia Camp and Alexander Sager, and to my major professor, Jonathan Evans: they have been invariably encouraging and helpful, both in their academic capacities and in being their genial and warm-hearted selves. Thanks to my wife, Katie, for her unflagging confidence and her boundless patience. Thanks to my family—my Grubbs in Alabama and my Normans in Georgia—for the countless great and small ways they have encouraged Katie and I, especially in the course of a major relocation. Thanks to my academic friends, especially my fellow podcasters Nathan Gilmour (Emmanuel College) and Michial Farmer (Crown College), for always reminding me that we have the sweetest gig in the world. Thanks to my department chair at Central Christian College of Kansas, Candi Alexander, for granting me about three months' worth of "afternoon sabbatical"; also, thanks to my pastor, John Stultz, for giving me a hermit's cell in which to hide and write. Without those gifts of time and space, this project would not have been finished. Finally, ælc lof bið on ende gesungen: "All praise comes at the end" (Ælfric again). Now I must praise heaven's king and defender, from whose provident might and plan all these good gifts descend: sy him wuldor and lof on ealra worulda woruld, Amen. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................v CHAPTER INTRODUCTION: THE SINGER'S KNOWLEDGE AND ETHNIC IDENTITY ...........1 1. Defining Ethnicity ................................................................................................1 2. Beowulf, Ethnic Representation, and the Anglo-Saxon Ancestral Past ...............6 3. Beowulf, Religious Identity, and Ethnic Representation .....................................9 4. The Creation Song's Neglected Contribution ....................................................16 5. The Apologetic Tradition and Ethnic Representation .......................................22 6. The One Who Knew, Sang ................................................................................30 PART ONE: THE SONG: BEOWULF'S CREATION SONG AND RELIGIOUS IDENTITY .............................................................................................................33 1 BEOWULF'S CREATION SONG AND THE CRITICS ............................................34 2 CREATION AND RELIGIOUS IDENTITY IN THE APOLOGETIC TRADITION ......................................................................................................................41 1. Creation apologetic in Judaic scripture ..............................................................41 2. Creation apologetic in Christian scripture .........................................................44 3. Creation apologetic in the Church Fathers.........................................................49 4. Creation apologetic in the late Roman empire and early middle ages ...............56 5. Summary and application ..................................................................................75 vii 3 BEOWULF'S "ÆLMIHTIGA" AND THE ALMIGHTY CREATOR OF THE CREEDS ......................................................................................................................77 1. Fred Robinson: ælmihtig/se ælmihtiga as polysemous ......................................78 2. Creation and the Almighty in creeds and the fathers .........................................84 3. The Almighty Creator of the creeds in Anglo-Saxon England ..........................94 4. Answering Fred Robinson: ælmihtig/se ælmihtiga as distinctively Christian ..............................................................................................................103 4 BEOWULF'S CREATION SONG AMONG THE COMPETING COSMOGONIES .............................................................................................................107 1. Fred Robinson, Craig Davis, and Laura Morland: A Creation Song for Pious Heathen?.....................................................................................................107 2. Genesis 1 and Competing Cosmogonies in the Ancient Near East .................111 3. Competing Cosmogonies in Early Christianity ...............................................121 4. Competing Cosmogonies in Anglo-Saxon England ........................................128 5. Answering Robinson, Davis, and Morland: Beowulf's Creation Song as a Competing Cosmogony .......................................................................................132 3 PART ONE CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................139 PART TWO: THE STAGE: THE GEARDAGAS IN THE FRAMEWORK OF SACRED HISTORY ..................................................................................................................140 5 THE GEARDAGAS AND THE CRITICS .................................................................141 6 THE FRAMEWORK OF HISTORY IN THE APOLOGETIC TRADITION .........148 1. Too New, Too Late: Pagan Critique, Chronological Apologetic, and Sacred History ......................................................................................................148 viii 2. The Origin and Development of the Christian World Chronicle .....................156 3. The Apologetic Tradition and Beowulf's Historical Vision .............................164 7 FRAMING THE GEARDAGAS WITH CREATION ................................................167 1. Creation, the Deluge, and "Old Testament Atmosphere" in Beowulf Scholarship ...........................................................................................................167 2. Creation in Christian Historiography ...............................................................172 3. Creation in Beowulf..........................................................................................180 8 FRAMING THE GEARDAGAS WITH THE DELUGE ...........................................189 1. The Deluge in Christian Historiography ..........................................................189 2. The Deluge as a Paradigmatic Precedent .........................................................190 3. The Deluge as Paradigmatic Precedent in Beowulf .........................................204 4. The Deluge as a Chronological Point-of-Contact ............................................218 5. The Deluge as Chronological Point-of-Contact in Beowulf ............................227 PART TWO CONCLUSION ..........................................................................................242 CONCLUSION: THE SINGER'S ENCORE ..................................................................244 1. Hearing Caedmon in Context: Praise and Pagans in Bede's Historia ..............244 2. Hearing the Singer in Heorot: Praise and the Ancestors in Beowulf ...............255 WORKS CITED ..........................................................................................................................262 1 INTRODUCTION: THE SINGER'S KNOWLEDGE AND ETHNIC IDENTITY When Beowulf was first reintroduced to the world in the early 19th century, scholars sought to locate its position on the map of past and present ethnic identities:
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