In the Name of God University of Tehran Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures Reconciliation of Paganism and Christianity in Beowulf: The Role of Epic Poetry as a Reconciler of Opposing Cultural Elements a New-Historicist Reading By Farbod Azsan Supervisor Dr. Maryam Soltan Beyad Reader Dr. Hamed Habibzadeh A thesis submitted to the Graduate Studies Office in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of M.A. in English Language and Literature April 2019 Abstract: Epic poems lend themselves greatly to new-historical reading, because they embrace their role as exposers of power relations in their society, so much in fact that there is not much need for reading between the lines; the epic poet proudly presents cultural elements, historical figures and norms that the dominant hegemony endorses. Beowulf, as one of these epic poems, is a portal to many Anglo-Saxon, Pagan and Germanic cultural norms, namely Comitatus, boasting before battle and the warrior code related to the Germanic Pagan culture. However, it is ultimately a promoter of Christian values. So it is clear that Beowulf is a Pagan story retold by a poet with Christian sensibilities. The writer of this thesis, using Seamus Heaney‘s translation, approaches the text of Beowulf with special regard to the juxtaposition of Pagan and Christian cultural elements in its text. The relationship between these two opposing cultural elements is manifested in Pagan and Christian tensions which the poet tries to resolve: 1. Wyrd (or the fate that drives men to destruction) and the mercy of the Christian God 2. The presence of mythological monsters in a Christian world 3. The cultural importance of vengeance in the context of a religion that abhors it. 4. The cultural value of treasure and trinkets in the context of a religion that deems them unnecessary 5. The pagan value of personal strength for overcoming challenge vs. the Christian idea of God‘s grace as a necessary requirement for overcoming evil, etc. These tensions are not just limited to Beowulf; a large number of epic poems from various cultural backgrounds (including I The Aeneid, Shahname and the Renaissance epics) also try to reconcile the opposing cultural elements of their respective societies by implementing them in juxtaposition to one another. The writer of this thesis will use the new-historical methodology of Stephen Greenblatt to identify opposing cultural elements in Beowulf and some other epics and to demonstrate how these epics try to reconcile opposing cultural elements through both thematic and formalistic means. Key Terms: Christianity, Paganism, Warrior Culture, Anglo-Saxon England, Epic Poetry, Cultural Tension, Cultural Reconciliation II Table of Contents Chapter One: Introduction ............................................................................................ 1 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 2 1.2 General Overview .................................................................................................. 6 1.3 Methodology and Approach .................................................................................. 8 1.4 Definition of Key Terms ........................................................................................ 9 1.5 Anticipated Findings ............................................................................................ 11 1.6 Thesis Statement .................................................................................................. 11 1.7 Research Question ............................................................................................... 13 1.8 Literature Review ................................................................................................ 13 Chapter Two: The History behind Beowulf ............................................................... 18 2.1 Beowulf‘s Historical Context .............................................................................. 19 2.2 Beowulf‘s Analogues ........................................................................................... 21 2.3 Beowulf‘s Date and Place of Composition .......................................................... 28 Chapter Three: Identifying the Pagan Elements in the Text ................................... 33 3.1 Beowulf‘s Inclination towards Violence and Challenges .................................... 34 3.2 Comitatus ............................................................................................................. 43 3.3 Idolization of Courage and Shaming of Cowardice ............................................. 46 3.4 Boasting ............................................................................................................... 50 3.5 Revenge Culture .................................................................................................. 53 3.6 Decoration of Shield and Armor .......................................................................... 57 3.7 Mead-Halls ........................................................................................................... 61 3.8 Anglo-Saxon Warrior Code ................................................................................. 64 Chapter Four: Identifying the Christian Elements in the Text ............................... 68 4.1 Associating Beowulf‘s Courage and Fame with God .......................................... 69 4.2 Grendel‘s Lineage ................................................................................................ 75 4.3 Wyrd vs. God‘s Will ............................................................................................ 79 4.4 Fæge and Unfæge ................................................................................................ 86 4.5 Christianization of Vengeance ............................................................................. 89 4.6 Christian Morality and Disapproval of Pagan Traditions .................................... 92 4.7 Treasure: Symbol of Personal Valor or Sinful Greed? ........................................ 99 Chapter Five: Cultural Tension and Cultural Reconciliation ............................... 103 5.1 Introducing Cultural Tension and Cultural Reconciliation ................................ 104 5.2 Identifying Cultural Tension and Cultural Reconciliation in Other Epics ........ 111 Chapter Six: Conclusion ............................................................................................ 116 Suggestions for Further Research ............................................................................ 121 Works Cited ................................................................................................................ 122 III Chapter One: Introduction 1.1 Introduction …the distinction between a sacred and a secular poem never seems to me a poetic distinction. You can regard all strong poetry as being religious, or all strong poetry as being secular, but to judge one authentic poem as being more religious or more secular than another seems to me a societal or political matter rather than an aesthetic finding. (1) Beowulf: Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretation – Harold Bloom When people hear the word ―culture‖, they envision everything that is good and noble about humanity: art, literature, music, traditional customs, national holidays rooted in the proud history of a nation. But when the social, political and historical context that conceptualize famous and beloved cultural artifacts are considered, a different, darker side of culture comes into light; we come to realize that perhaps, culture is the greatest dictator that has ever existed. Before any further elaboration on the role of culture as a great dictator, it is necessary to define the concept, which is no easy task, for as Raymond Williams has said: ―Culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language. This is so partly because of its intricate historical development, in several European languages, but mainly because it has now come to be used for important concepts in several distinct intellectual disciplines and in several distinct and incompatible systems of thought‖ (87). When we get to the definition, it might seem that the approach of this thesis towards the concept of culture is too cynical, but it is important to consider that new- historicism, the theoretical approach behind this thesis, is mostly concerned with power relations in society. This thesis is influenced by Stephen Greenblatt‘s Renaissance Self- Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare and Invisible Bullets. In these works, 2 Greenblatt demonstrates how the dominant power manifests itself even in the most innocent literary and non-literary texts. If the approach of this thesis seems cynical, it‘s because the ubiquitous force that is power has made the human world a cynical place. Clifford Geertz, one of the main inspirations behind new-historicism, has much to say about culture in his seminal work The Interpretation of Culture. Geertz also has attested to the difficulty of defining the word and his solution was to stick with one definition; ―eclecticism is self-defeating not because there is only one direction in which it is useful to move, but because there are so many: it is necessary to choose‖ (5). Geertz lists the most common understandings that people have of the word ―culture‖: (1) ―the total way of life of a people‖; (2) ―the social legacy the individual acquires from his group‖; (3)