The Dating of Beowulf ed. by Colin Chase, and: Beowulf and Celtic Tradition by Martin Puhvel

Abstract

R E V I E W S Colin Chase, ed., The Dating of Beowulf. Toronto Old English series, no. 6 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981). 220. $27.50 Martin Puhvel, Beowulf and Celtic Tradition (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1979). x, 142. $6.95 paper The purpose of Colin Chase’s book is to date the composition of Beowulf. For those initiated into the large difficulties of writing the literary history of the Anglo-Saxon period and of placing Beowulf somewhere in that uncer­ tain account, such an undertaking will immediately be recognizable as a large one, heroic or foolhardy or an intelligent mixture of both, depending on how one views such things. The overall result of this particular quest is ambiguous at best, not because the scholarship used is amateurish (it defi­ nitely is not) or the definition of the problem in any way inept, but because, so far, the question itself is one of the most intractably difficult ones in English literary scholarship. That does not mean it should not be addressed. On the contrary, Chase’s book is a very important one, partly because it defines the difficulty of the problem, and so reduces the possibilities of excessive scholarly confidence, but partly also because it opens or points to certain lines of inquiry and kinds of evidence, one or more of which may yet bring the kind of real knowledge that will command wide assent. After the editor’s introductory tracing of scholarly opinions on the date of Beowulf, as these have been expressed between 1815 and 1980, there follow twelve different approaches to the matter, some of which are more con­ fident than others and in any one of which a reader of the book may find an answer to the dating question that satisfies. At the end there is a thought­ ful “doubts and no conclusions” epilogue to the main skirmishes and action of the book, in which E. G. Stanley tells how his view of the date of the poem has been altered as a result of the conference at which the papers were presented. The genesis of Chase’s book is instructive, and although the three-year English Studies in Canada, rx, 3, September 1983 process that brought it into printed form must have been filled with logistical and political problems as well as scholarly ones, the way Chase and his colleagues at the Centre for Medieval Studies in Toronto conceived and executed this project could well be a model for serious professional discus­ sion of scholarly questions requiring the mustering of many kinds of expertise if the questions are even to be defined intelligently. In autumn 1978 the contributors were asked for brief statements outlining the kind of evidence and methodology they were going to use. Each then saw the others’ oudines. Each one then wrote a paper; in the case of the paper on the language of Beowulf, the work was done by a team of five. The finished papers were submitted in January 1980 and circulated to everyone. Then in April 1980 the authors met for a four-day conference in Toronto for a discussion, following which they had six months to revise in the light of the discussion but not to debate with each other in the final version. Then followed editing, indexing, and publication in Toronto. Chase claims in his Preface that “Beowulf studies will never be the same: henceforth every discussion of the poem and its period will begin with reference to this volume.” I have some comments, expressed later in this article, about the relative importance of the dating question itself, but I agree with Chase that this book probably will be a central document in all subsequent discussions of the period of the poem. Chase’s first paper, “ Opinions on the Date of Beowulf, 1815-1980,” is a succinct, necessary kickoff to the moves and plays of this sophisticated schol­ arly encounter. He summarizes the history of attempts to date the poem, indicating the kinds of evidence considered and something of the degree of acceptance given each argument. The earliest that Beowulf has ever been dated is the fifth century, by Thorkelin in 1815...