Beowulf's Dialectal Vocabulary and the Kiernan Theory

Abstract

In Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript, Kevin Kiernan provides a considerable number of supports for his theory the provenance of Beowulf took place early in the eleventh century during the reign of Cnut the Great. One of Kiernan's contentions is since the poem's archaisms and multi-dialectal spellings and grammatical forms can be accounted for by its use of a general OE poetic dialect, one need not postulate, with Klaeber and others, earlier dialectally diverse manuscripts of the poem to account for these mixed forms (p. 47). If we assume Kiernan's theory to be correct, then we might reasonably expect Beowulf to share a number of vocabulary features with three other almost contemporary OE texts: the Northumbrian Lindisfarne Gospels glossed by Aldred ca. 950 A.D.; the Mercian RushworthI Gospels (Matt.; Mark 1:1-2:15; John 18:1-3) glossed by Farman at Harwood in the West Riding of Yorkshire ca. 975 A.D.; and the West Saxon Corpus Gospels, written by IElfric at Bath ca. 1000 A.D. Interestingly enough, the Mercian Rushworth was glossed about 70 miles north of Tamworth and Lichfield, the area whence, according to Rudolf Vleeskruyer (cited in Kiernan, p. 49), the Mercian literary dialect most likely grew. Klaeber, who lists 16 Anglian words which appear in Beowulf (p. xcv; see Table I, A), warns us that extra caution is necessary in speaking of Anglian elements in the vocabulary, since the testimony of texts of a later date is of only limited value. This caveat loses half its force if Beowulf and the Gospels, which Kiernan's work suggests, are nearly contemporary. The other half of Klaeber's caveat is we must be wary of applying lexical data drawn from works to Beowulf, a poem. Kiernan, agreeing here with Klaeber, states: It is remarkable most of the dialectal forms in Beowulf are poetic words, words found exclusively in poetry, or only rarely, and then very exceptionally, in prose (p. 42). But in this Kiernan is mistaken.