BEOWULF: THE CRITICAL HERITAGE THE CRITICAL HERITAGE SERIES GENERAL EDITOR: B.C.SOUTHAM, M.A., B.LITT. (OXON.) Formerly Department of English, Westfield College, University of London The Critical Heritage series collects together a large body of criticism on major figures in literature. Each volume presents the contemporary responses to a particular writer, enabling the student to follow the formation of critical attitudes to the writer’s work and its place within a literary tradition. The carefully selected sources range from landmark essays in the history of criticism to fragments of contemporary opinion and little-published documentary material, such as letters and diaries. Significant pieces of criticism from later periods are also included in order to demonstrate fluctuations in reputation following the writer’s death. For a list of volumes in the series, see the end of the book. BEOWULF THE CRITICAL HERITAGE Edited by T.A.SHIPPEY and ANDREAS HAARDER London and New York First published 1998 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Reprinted 2000 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Compilation, introduction, notes © 1998 T.A.Shippey and Andreas Haarder All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Beowulf/[edited by] T.A.Shippey. p. cm.—(Critical heritage series) 1. Beowulf. 2. Epic poetry, English (Old)—History and criticism. 3. Civilization, Anglo-Saxon, in literature. 4. Civilization, Medieval, in literature. I. Shippey, T.A. II. Series. PR1585.B382 1998 98–8224 CIP ISBN 0-203-97945-1 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-415-02970-8 (Print Edition) v General Editor’s Preface The reception given to a writer by his contemporaries and near-contemporaries is evidence of considerable value to the student of literature. On the one side we learn a great deal about the state of criticism at large and in particular about the development of critical attitudes towards a single writer; at the same time, through private comments in letters, journals or marginalia, we gain an insight upon the tastes and literary thought of individual readers of the period. Evidence of this kind helps us to understand the writer’s historical situation, the nature of his immediate reading public, and his response to these pressures. The separate volumes in the Critical Heritage series present a record of this early criticism. In each volume the documents are headed by an Introduction, discussing the material assembled and relating the early stages of the author’s reception to what we have come to identify as the critical tradition. The volumes will make available much material that would otherwise be difficult of access and it is hoped that the modern reader will be thereby helped towards an informed understanding of the ways in which literature has been read and judged. Professor Shippey’s Beowulf is a particularly welcome addition to the Critical Heritage series since it calls to our attention European-wide traditions in the study of language and literature and brings to our notice the relatively recent critical heritage attached to an ancient poem. What is especially fascinating, as Professor Shippey brings out so clearly in his Introduction and head-notes, is the ‘political’ colouration in so many of the documents represented here. With some irony for a great heroic poem, scholars have fought over the territories of language, folklore and tradition felt to be at stake. Notwithstanding these scholarly disputes, Beowulf itself has come through unscathed, our awareness of its ‘strangely enduring life’ (as Professor Shippey puts it) informed and sharpened by this illuminating record. B.C.S. Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xiii ABBREVIATIONS xv EDITORIAL PREFACE xvi INTRODUCTION 1 1 Humfrey Wanley 1705 57 2 Jacob Langebek 1772 59 3 Sharon Turner 1803 61 4 Sharon Turner 1805 63 5 Sharon Turner 1807 71 6 Grímur Jónsson Thorkelín 1815 77 7 Anon. [Peter Erasmus Müller] 1815 83 8 Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig 1815 91 9 Grímur Thorkelín 1815 97 10 Anon. [Abraham Jacob Penzel] 1816 101 11 Nicholaus Outzen (and Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann) 1816 107 12 Anon. [William Taylor] 1816 115 13 Anon. [Gustaf Wilhelm Gumælius] 1817 119 14 N.F.S.Grundtvig 1817 125 15 Anon. [Friedrich Ludewig Bouterwek] 1818 133 16 Ebenezer Henderson 1818 137 17 N.F.S.Grundtvig 1820 139 18 Sharon Turner 1820 143 viii 19 F.C.Dahlmann 1822 149 20 Thomas Silver 1822 151 21 Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm 1823 153 22 Richard Price 1824 157 23 Sir Walter Scott 1824 161 24 John Josias Conybeare 1826 163 25 Wilhelm Karl Grimm 1829 167 26 Joast Hiddes Halbertsma 1829 169 27 N.F.S.Grundtvig 1831 171 28 Henry Wheaton 1831 173 29 John Mitchell Kemble 1832–4 175 30 J.M.Kemble 1833 179 31 J.M.Kemble (and anonymous others) 1834 183 32 Jacob Grimm 1835 189 33 Thomas Wright 1835 193 34 J.M.Kemble 1836 197 35 Jacob Grimm 1836 199 36 Franz Joseph Mone 1836 201 37 J.M.Kemble 1837 207 38 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1838 215 39 Heinrich Leo 1839 219 40 Ernst Moritz Ludwig Ettmüller 1840 223 41 Jacob Grimm 1840 227 42 Isaac Disraeli 1841 229 43 N.F.S.Grundtvig 1841 233 44 Johannes Pieter Arend 1842 237 45 Wilhelm Grimm 1842[?] 241 46 Thomas Wright 1842 243 47 Jacob Grimm 1844 245 ix 48 Karl Victor Müllenhoff (and Gregor Wilhelm Nitzsch) 1844 247 49 Thomas Dale 1845 253 50 Anon. [Johann Martin Lappenberg?] 1845 255 51 Karl Müllenhoff 1845 257 52 Thomas Wright 1846 261 53 Ludwig Ettmüller 1847 263 54 Johann Paul Ernst Greverus 1848 265 55 Joseph Bachlechner 1849 269 56 Moriz Haupt 1849 271 57 J.M.Kemble 1849 273 58 Karl Müllenhoff 1849 279 59 Karl Müllenhoff 1849 283 60 Gísli Brynjúlfsson 1852 289 61 Benjamin Thorpe 1855 295 62 Joseph Bachlechner 1856 297 63 Karl Wilhelm Bouterwek 1856 301 64 Karl Joseph Simrock 1859 305 65 Daniel Henry Haigh 1861 315 66 Christian Wilhelm Michael Grein 1862 319 67 Adolf Holtzmann 1863 329 68 Hippolyte Adolphe Taine 1863 333 69 Henry Morley 1864 335 70 Karl Müllenhoff 1865 337 71 Karl Müllenhoff (and Wilhelm Scherer) 1868 339 72 Karl Müllenhoff 1869 343 73 Wilhelm Scherer 1869 351 74 Artur Köhler 1870 355 75 Artur Köhler 1870 361