Beowulf's Obsequies and the Roman Epic

Abstract

BEOWULF STUDIES have long since passed beyond the phase in which the poem was valued as much for its museum-like qualities as for whatever esthetic merit could incidentally be found.' It is indeed a rich trove of Germanic lore, but scholarship of late has restored a much wider context, one that the poet himself would have thought most essential to an understanding of his work. I refer to the general acknowledgment that Beowulf, for all its surface paganism, is fundamentally Christian.2 Nearly every pagan element has been justified by what is now known of the poet's esthetic and religious presuppositions. As they have learned more about English culture in the eighth century,3 scholars have been able to reinterpret those passages which used to be dismissed as pious interpolations. In addition, some have claimed that the poem's Christian authorship implies fields of thought other than the accumulated wisdom of the Church Fathers. With respect to the literary culture of the age, I should like to examine a question, or problem, set aside by most early scholars, who were unwilling to concede any influence but that of pagan Germania. It is the question whether certain parts of Beowulf were inspired by the Roman epic. It must be emphasized that one should not visualize the poet as having Virgil at hand while he composed. Neither the Aeneid nor any