Representations of the Natural World in Old English Poetry by Jennifer Neville (review)

Abstract

Reviews Representationsof the Natural World in Old English Poetry. By JENNIFER NEVILLE. (CambridgeStudiesin Anglo-Saxon England, 27) Cambridge, New York,and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. I999. x + 224 pp. ?40; $64.95. JenniferNeville takeson atough topic for,asshestatesat theend of herintroductory chapter, 'representationof "thenaturalworld"is never an end in itselfand is always ancillary to other issues' in Old English poetry (p. I8). In this wide-ranging first chapter she gives carefulconsiderationboth to the problems inherent in anachronistic categorization and to the definition of what she means by the naturalworld. She sets aside human elements and the supernatural.Thus there is no place for consideration of the harvest simile of ThePhoenix, presumably because idealized depictions of the pastoralworld involve the interventionof men in the creation of a crop-bearing landscape. Supernatural elements must however play a part: the Anglo-Saxons, after all, 'did not conceive of an entity defined by the exclusion of the supernatural'(pp. 2-3). There is a place thereforefor 'thingsthatmodern critics would collectivelycall "the Other"' (p. 3) in the next three chapters. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 treat the separationof humanity from the naturalworld (a fallen world that is ideland unnyt), the separatenessof society from external threats (landscapesaretypicallynegative),and the identificationof the individual(someone who triumphsoverthenaturalworld).Chapter2signalsthelackof anyphilosophical debate about the nature of creation in the poetry. Neville notes also the lackof 'the kind of detailed praise of birds and plants' found in early Irish poetry (p. 44), suggesting that Anglo-Saxon poets are intent on the powerlessness of humanity. Seas beat against cliffs,and the physical surroundingsof Guthlac's hermitage lack specificity.Joy is associated with hall life, and, in Chapter 3, society is defined by what is outside, Grendel or a wolf stalking the boundaries. The ideal, to which Beowulf restores Heorot, is 'a society at peace because strong enough to defend those within it'; Beowulf's own kingdom is overthrown 'by destructive incursions from the outside' (p. 8 ), and the point of the settingin the Wife'sLament is to 'recall a society that has been lost' (p. 87). Chapter 4, long and closely argued, shows that in this poetry, just as individual voices utter laments for the human condition, representativeindividualsprove themselvesagainstthe powersof the naturalworld. Guthlac defeats demons in their territory,and Beowulf takes on creatures others dare not oppose. In Chapter 5 the focus shifts from the insecurity of the natural world to God's powerful stability. Neville recognizes hints of myths, but little that reflects 'pagan cosmology' (p. I48). She finds the conjunction of sufferinggod and heroic lord in the Dreamof theRoodincongruous, seeing not so much 'Christ defeated and then transformed' as the elision of Christ's defeat (p. I52). There is an air of disappointmentalmost that the poets made limited use of the cosmological systems knownto them. The Order oftheWorld may presenta 'superficiallyBoethian universe' (p. I60), seeming to 'share the understandingthat underliesAlfred'sre-imagining of Boethius'work'(p. 162),but nowhere does she find any attemptto deal with 'the contradiction between the naturalworld representingthreats to humanity and the natural world representing the Saviour's power' (p. I63). In Exodus'the natural world has a hostile, if impersonal,will of its own' (p. I74), and there is 'ambiguityin YES, 32, 2002 YES, 32, 2002 the source of the will' behind the violence of the wind in Elene,lines 1272-76 (pp. I76-77). Chapter 6 moves away from 'the naturalworld as a force in opposition to human constructions' (p. 178), and Neville now examines 'representationsof the natural world that do not fit neatly into the topics discussed in the previous chapters' (p. i83). Charms, riddles, catalogues, dialogues, and bestiary fragments construct and manipulate the understandingof the phenomena of the physical environment. As wisdom literature, they served to 'establish knowledge' (p. 197), and they demonstrate 'the ability of writing to contain and control' (p. 20I). Although different in perspective from the preceding chapters, this one at once provides a rewarding account of texts that reveal 'self-consciousness' and 'deliberateness' (p. 20I), and completes a thought-provokingoverview of the naturalworld in Old English poetry. Neville states her conclusions in a brief final chapter. It is not possible to 'define a unified whole entitled "the natural...