... of the a line, Thorpe, followed by Grein, Heyne, and Wulcker, emends guru to wura. Grundtvig, assuming that 461b refers to the Geats, emends to Wederu, as does Klaeber. Malone emends Wulgara cyn (Wulgaras, * Wulg-waras= Wylfingas), suggest- ing that Ecgtheow may be a Wylfing.2 Holthausen prefers...

... of the Father’s keeping is hardly a notion of providence; and whatever it is, whether a conveniently restrained intimation or the fullest extension of his faith, he shares it, along with other religious ideas, with his noble characters. Wiglaf tells the Geats that Beowulf will long remain in the Ruler’s...

... on between Unferth and Beowulf in the hearing of the Danish court. But investigation reveals that stu- dents of Beowulf have, in the past, confined themselves too exclusively to the one passage where the Geat and Unferth first meet, and have accordingly neglected those other parts of the poem...

... swallowed up the smoke. . . . Thus did the men of the Geats, his hearth-companions, bewail the fall of their lord; they said that among the kings of the world he was the mildest of men and most kindly, most gentle to his people and most eager for praise. (Gordon, pp. 69...

... Geats on benches (1035). There is no hint of crowding. The chief feature of its size is its height, accentuated by its probably being on a hill (285). Heorot is easily seen, and the importance of height is attested by emphasis in numerous passages. Heorot seems to tower.‘ The height...

... meadhall as b eo dgenea t . Ironically, the Danes and Geats are not the only guests of Heorot who come there to eat and drink. So do the monsters. We learn early of Grendel that he is, indeed, a grim “healtiegn” (142),9 who comes greedy (gmdig, 121) for his bloody booty. After the first...

... conversion was neither partial nor superficial,” and that the blood-feud persisted even after 1066. An examination of the historical matter in the poem, the core of the second lecture, shows that the dynastic quarrel of the Scyldings and the enmity of Geats and Swedes were familiar...

... for a tern, followed by an open and dignified depar- ture.l* Moreover, there is no indication that Ecgtheow ever had a Geatish estate, as one would have expected him to have if he had been a Geat by birth, or even by residence. Wiglaf the Waegmund- ing inherited landed property from his father...

... into dogma: the supposed “parallel between Hildeburh’s losses and those that Wealh- theow would suffer” (p. 33), the assumption that Unferth and Hrothulf will turn traitor, the supposed flaw of “Beowulfs return,” the use of the poem as evidence for the subjugation of the Geats by the Swedes...

...,” ealle can- not meanfor all (that would be eallum), but must be nominative plural (so Klaeber gives it) modifying hie: “they all [the Geats] overcame.” Unferth, says Gardner in another place, is a foil to Beowulfs uirum: [he] is mis- taken in his facts, is motivated by wrath...

... that Wealh- theow would suffer” (p. 33), the assumption that Unferth and Hrothulf will turn traitor, the supposed flaw of “Beowulfs return,” the use of the poem as evidence for the subjugation of the Geats by the Swedes in the sixth century. One listens gratefully to the hero of historical...

... theory and practice, while the latter two present us with an Alcuinian reading of “Beowulf and the Danes” and “Beowulf and the Geats.” In describing Alcuin’s literary theory, Bolton shows how important literacy was to Alcuin’s moral vision and, even more so, how important the Scriptures were...

.... Knight, G. Wilson. Shakespeare and Religion: Essays of Forty Years. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1967. ix + 374 pp. $7.50. Leake, Jane Acomb. The Geats of “Beowulf”: A Study in the Geographical Mythology of the Middle Ages. Madison, Milwaukee, and London: University of Wisconsin Press...

... is used, Hrothgar is explain- ing the relationship and bond between Beowulf‘s father, Ecgtheow, and himself: many years before, Ecgtheow had murdered the Wylfing Heatholaf and so had forfeited his tribal rights, leaving his people (the Geats) unable, for fear of war, to harbor him. Hrothgar...

... middangeard, arleas cyning, eahtnysse ahof, cwealde Cristne men, circan fylde, geat on grzswong Godhergendra, hz],en hildfruma, haligra blod, ryhtfremmendra. Wxs his rice brad, wid 7 weor6lic ofer wer],eode...

..., a secondary Germanic lord (in the same way that Beowulf is lord of his small troop of Geats in Denmark), expects loyalty from his retainers at the same time that he is plotting disloyalty to his own lord. An audience accustomed to hearing Germanic heroic poetry would immediately recognize...

... in the Age of Swijl and Defoe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979).Toland’s State-Anatomy of Geat Britain (London, 17 17), an important Whig party platform, frequently refers to the “national” interest; however, this nationalist rhetoric takes an interesting twist. Toland criticizes...