Women in Beowulf

Lali, I really like your idea in the previous post - I feel a bit iffy about having good, likely topics for that paper, too, so I'll certainly get round to that. In the meanwhile, I'm sorting out my 'God willing, it will be on there' questions for A1. From my perusals of old papers, it seems that it will be a very, very bad year if there isn't a) a question on OE literature vs context, and b) a question on women. As for my third topic, I'm not sure - possibly something about hagiographies/Cynewulf, because I really don't think much of my chances of writing anything comprehensible about the Phoenix vs Guthlac. I don't get the Phoenix! However, I digress. Which is, I suppose, relevant to the topic in hand.

Women in OE Literature: Are they there? Do they have a function? How do they relate to 'wisdom'?

- Beowulf, like a lot of heroic poetry, is very androcentric: however, although only Waltheow is a speaking female character, it does contain several females: Waltheow, Hygd, Freowaru, Modthryth, Hildeburh, Grendel's mother. George Jack has pointed out how meticulously structured Beowulf is, to the extent that he feels it cannot have been composed orally: within this carefully organised narrative, all these women have functions. Wealtheow, for instance, is the ideal of the queenly peace-weaver: her success contrasts Hildeburh's failure in this regard, and the prophesied failure of Freowaru. The story of Hildeburh's forced impassivity upon the deaths of her son and brother, immediately preceding the episode of Grendel's mother's revenge, pointedly colours our view of the latter character.

- So, we have a fairly complex interplay between 'good' and 'bad' female figures, often as foils to each other. To an extent, what we get from these juxtapositions is that 'action' was, indeed, commendable in man and criticised in woman. The poet does accord Grendel's mother some degree of sympathy, or at least womanhood, calling her 'ides' and 'dam'. However, she represents an inversion of the peaceweaving queen, receiving her hall-guests (selegyst) Beowulf with 'grimmum graepum' rather than treasure. Even before Beowulf encounters her, she has proven herself active, attacking Heorot and killing Aeschere. It is hard to know where she fits - the digression about the old man whose son has been hanged illustrates the difficulties of being unable to avenge one's slain kin, which the heroic code would permit. But the problem for Grendel's mother is that she is not part of the heroic code, because, as a woman, she is attempting to manipulate it as if she were a man. Her actions undermine her womanhood; she is indeed occasionally accorded a male pronoun, and Hrothgar's men are not entirely sure that she is a woman. According to Jane Chance, '‘the mystery of [Grendel’s] begetting and conception hints at a possible parody of the conception and birth of Christ’, which would make Grendel's mother not only an inversion of Wealtheow, but ultimately the antithesis of the Virgin. Indeed, the language of the fight with Beowulf may even be read in sexual terms, casting her not merely as a lustful being, but indeed as a sexual agressor to the extent of taking the masculine role and straddling Beowulf. She is a wraecend as well as a "modor, / ides aglæcwif".

- Although Grendel's mother may be the most aggressive female character, she is not the only one. We also have the aggressive Modthryth, of whose behaviour the narrator says 'ne bith swylch cwenlice/idese to efnanne, the heo aenlicu sy'. She is, perhaps, more disturbing than Grendel's mother because of her far less ambiguous human womanhood. She is vain, mean, proud and destructive, and where Grendel's mothers actions had the aim of avenging her son, Modthryth's seem absolutely arbitrary. She is a hysteric, wreaking violence on all who look upon her: ‘ac him aelbende weotode tealde handgewrithene; hrathe seoththan waes aefter mundgripe mece gethinged, thaet hit sceadenmael scyran moste, cwealmbealu cythan.’ Outside the social order, she violently refuses to be objectified, and thus typifies the Germanic anti-peaceweaver, who instead weaves destruction and war (Stephanie Hollis). Of course, marriage to a 'god cyning', Offa, silences and tames Modthryth, reminding us that, unlike Grendel's mother, she really is only a woman. But she is the perfect foil to the noble and beautiful Hygd.

- Where 'Modthryth' suggests physical strength, 'Hygd' linguistically implies 'thought' or 'deliberation'; she is described as 'wis'. Thus she does not need to speak in order to serve as a reminder than the perfect woman of Maxims II should be wise and thoughtful. She bestows treasure, rather than violence, giving gifts and playing the frithusibb, being quiet, loving, loyal and very wise. The peaceweaver idea is very common to Old English literature, and in Beowulf we have two sides of the story: Hygd and Wealtheow have both been successful peaceweaving tokens, while Hildeburh has not. When the ties of Hildeburh's literal peace-knot come undone, she is left with no function, no hall in which to perform her dispensations of gifts, advice, and the cup. At the pyre, she mourns not only her son and brother but the failure of herself as a peace-pledge and thus the loss of her only identity (Chance). She is 'laeddon to leodum', but has nowhere to go to and no function to perform in future: she has, effectively, disappeared.

- Hildeburh is not remarkable. Beowulf predicts that the same will happen to Freowaru, her marriage dissolved by tensions resulting from old wars. He believes that '‘ond [her husband’s] wiflufan/aefter cearwaelmum colran weorðað.’ What we see is basically the submission of a noblewoman as an uncertain sacrifice to the cause of peace between two tribes, in which her success is not determined as much by her wisdom and skill as by the reactions of the men in power.

- Wealtheow, conversely, is an inveterately successful peace-weaver. She maintains a degree of control through her language and wisdom, she ‘exercises a leadership that parallels and interlocks with Hrothgar’s, her postures towards the hero, of welcome and treasure-giving, on each occasion mirroring the king’s. Her perambulations around the hall…are the graphic embodiment of her role as peace-weaver…As she circulates the cup, she dispenses advice.’ (Hollis) Outside of Wessex, the queen's throne was not nominal - rather than being ceremonial, she had a joint leadership role linked to her advisorial capacity. Like her husband, a queen would dispense gifts as bonds of fealty, which she must earn by wise council, according to Maxims I: ‘him raed witan/boldagendum baem aetsomne.’ In her wisdom lies a queen's right to authority.

- Wealtheow advises the men in hall, with authority, on matters of great importance, pertaining not only to the waning king, but to the king to come. She is explicitly concerned with her sons' wellfare: because the throne is a joint one, she has some say in who will succeed to it. Hygd, likewise, freely offers Beowulf the succession to her king's throne. Wealtheow is so experienced a peaceweaver that her wisdom sometimes approaches the prophetic. She advises Hrothgar to leave the kingdom to his sons, and then, as if sensing trouble, warns her nephew Hrothulf of his obligations to these sons - which, indeed, he later denies. In her own court - which is truly half her own - she weaves, and thus understands, the extant bonds of fealty, telling Beowulf: ‘hér is aéghwylc eorl óþrum getrýwe módes milde mandrihtne hléo; þegnas syndon geþwaére þéod ealgearo, druncne dryhtguman dóð swá ic bidde.' (‘Here is each man true to the others, generous in mind, in the protection of their liege-lord; the thanes are united, the people alert; the warrior retinue cheered by drink: do as I bid.’) By her counsel, Wealtheow has amassed loyalty, as her husband has done by his deeds.

- However, although Wealtheow's words bear weight,she is not a rival lord to Hrothgar, nor is wisdom her domain solely. She cannot overturn his wishes with her own *willa*, much as it might be respected. She can incorporate her rule into his, but he remains the ultimate authority. Despite his lack of involvement in wars, Hrothgar is 'god cyning' because he is wise: his sage speech to Beowulf is considered the centre of the poem. In King Alfred's Boethius, Wisdom, contrary to the Latin original, is masculine, even where this seems problematic to the story, as when man is described as making love to Wisdom (linguistically masculine). : Ic ongyte nu Þaet Þu lufast Þone wisdom swa swiðe, and Þe lyst hine swa wel nacode ongitan and gefredan Þaet Þu noldest Þaet aenig clað betweuh wer.’ Alfred draws a contrast between love of Wisdom and love of a woman, making it important that he be literally as well as linguistically masculine. Thus, clearly Wisdom was in no way a solely feminine attribute in Old English society.

- Beowulf has feminine illustrations for basically every good and bad Anglo Saxon feminine type. All are either in some way subject to male authority, even where very wise (Wealtheow), or else or portrayed as monstrous and unnatural (Grendel's mother). Women (or at least noblewomen) are political pawns: the success or failure of a peaceweaver depends on the relevant masculine overlordship.