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Beowulf and the Appositive Style
Originally published in 1985, Fred T. Robinson’s classic study asserts that the
appositive style of Beowulf helps the poet communicate his Christian vision of pagan
life. By alerting the audience to both the older and the newer meanings of words, the
poet was able to resolve the fundamental tension which pervades his narration of
ancient heroic deeds.
Robinson describes Beowulf ’s major themes and the grammatical and stylistic
aspects of its appositive strategies. He then considers the poet’s use of the semantically
stratified vocabulary of Old English poetry to accommodate a party Christian and
partly pre-Christian perspective on the events being narrated. The analysis draws
attention to the ways in which modern editors and lexicographers have obscured stylistic
aspects of the poem by imposing upon it various modern conventions.
Appositional techniques, Robinson shows, serve not only the poet’s major themes
but also his narrative purposes. A grasp of the fundamental role played by the appositive
style in Beowulf gives the reader new ways of understanding some of the epic’s familiar
passages. The new foreword addresses the reception this book has had and examines
recent scholarship in the ongoing interest in this amazing poem.
appositive style of Beowulf helps the poet communicate his Christian vision of pagan
life. By alerting the audience to both the older and the newer meanings of words, the
poet was able to resolve the fundamental tension which pervades his narration of
ancient heroic deeds.
Robinson describes Beowulf ’s major themes and the grammatical and stylistic
aspects of its appositive strategies. He then considers the poet’s use of the semantically
stratified vocabulary of Old English poetry to accommodate a party Christian and
partly pre-Christian perspective on the events being narrated. The analysis draws
attention to the ways in which modern editors and lexicographers have obscured stylistic
aspects of the poem by imposing upon it various modern conventions.
Appositional techniques, Robinson shows, serve not only the poet’s major themes
but also his narrative purposes. A grasp of the fundamental role played by the appositive
style in Beowulf gives the reader new ways of understanding some of the epic’s familiar
passages. The new foreword addresses the reception this book has had and examines
recent scholarship in the ongoing interest in this amazing poem.
- GenresAnglo Saxon
106 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 26, 2014
The chapters of this book were originally given has the Hodges Lectures in Knoxville in 1982 and explore the use of apposition in formulaic word phrasing and the opposing word meanings used in the Old English poem Beowulf. Robinson's lectures were a high point in Beowulf scholarship and represent a combination of Tolkien's advocation for literary interpretation of the poem and the application of interpretive methods used by the New Historicism school.
Apposition is defined be Wikipedia as a grammatical construction in which two elements, normally noun phrases, are placed side by side, with one element serving to identify the other in a different way. This feature is common throughout North Western medieval literature, particularly Germanic and more in particular Heroic epic. The feature can be seen in the Old High German Hildebrandslied: Hadubrant gimahalta, Hiltibrantes sunu and tot ist Hiltibrant, Heribrantes suno. Careful examination of the Old Icelandic Poetic Edda also reveals numerous occurrences of apposition throughout the collection: Guðrún Gjúka borin (Hamðismál) but the technique finds its fullest expression in Old English poetic texts and Beowulf: Béowulf maþelode bearn Ecgþéowes, Hiorogár cyning léod Scyldunga and on numerous other occasions. Also explored is how certain word meanings could have opposing meanings if the poem was heard by a Christian or an Anglo Saxon that could still remember England's pagan past or even a pagan Anglo Norse settler.
A wonderful little booklet that was my generations Monsters and The Critics.
Apposition is defined be Wikipedia as a grammatical construction in which two elements, normally noun phrases, are placed side by side, with one element serving to identify the other in a different way. This feature is common throughout North Western medieval literature, particularly Germanic and more in particular Heroic epic. The feature can be seen in the Old High German Hildebrandslied: Hadubrant gimahalta, Hiltibrantes sunu and tot ist Hiltibrant, Heribrantes suno. Careful examination of the Old Icelandic Poetic Edda also reveals numerous occurrences of apposition throughout the collection: Guðrún Gjúka borin (Hamðismál) but the technique finds its fullest expression in Old English poetic texts and Beowulf: Béowulf maþelode bearn Ecgþéowes, Hiorogár cyning léod Scyldunga and on numerous other occasions. Also explored is how certain word meanings could have opposing meanings if the poem was heard by a Christian or an Anglo Saxon that could still remember England's pagan past or even a pagan Anglo Norse settler.
A wonderful little booklet that was my generations Monsters and The Critics.
January 26, 2020
This slim volume is clearly designed for readers far more familiar with Beowulf and Old English than I am. (I took Intro to OE several years ago, and last read Beowulf in translation earlier than that.)
That said, here are my take-aways:
1. The Beowulf poet was deliberately using/invoking dual senses of certain words: a modern (often specifically Christian) meaning and a historical or etymological meaning (often specifically pagan).
2. References to drinking probably resonate with older traditions of swearing loyalty to the lord by accepting the cup.
3. References to boars probably resonate with older traditions of the boar as a trusted supernatural protector.
4. Apposition, broadly understood, can appear both in grammar/syntax and in concurrent dual meanings.
And now I'm thinking of Benedick in Much Ado: "there's a double meaning in that"!
That said, here are my take-aways:
1. The Beowulf poet was deliberately using/invoking dual senses of certain words: a modern (often specifically Christian) meaning and a historical or etymological meaning (often specifically pagan).
2. References to drinking probably resonate with older traditions of swearing loyalty to the lord by accepting the cup.
3. References to boars probably resonate with older traditions of the boar as a trusted supernatural protector.
4. Apposition, broadly understood, can appear both in grammar/syntax and in concurrent dual meanings.
And now I'm thinking of Benedick in Much Ado: "there's a double meaning in that"!
October 21, 2013
An excellent book, accessible to the layman (provided he's studied the poem), but by one of the finest and most rigorous Beowulf scholars.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews