The Dynastic Drama of ‘Beowulf’ by Francis Leneghan

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Dynastic Drama of ‘Beowulf’ by Francis Leneghan Erica Steiner Leneghan, Francis, The Dynastic Drama of ‘Beowulf’ (Anglo-Saxon Studies, 39), Woodbridge, D. S. Brewer, 2020; hardback; pp. xxii, 302; 1 b/w illustration; R.R.P. £60.00, ISBN 9781843845515. Beowulf, the longest extant poem within the Old English corpus, has been the subject of countless books and articles which seek to understand the nuances, authorship, and cultural context of this single poem. Entire careers have been both launched and sustained on the back of such work, and with The Dynastic Drama of ‘Beowulf’, Francis Leneghan builds on his previous years of scholarship. Fundamentally, this book seeks to argue that ‘the dynastic material does not merely serve as ‘background’ but provides the essential context for the monster-fights, while the monster-fights themselves serve to dramatize dynastic legend’ (p. 6). Dynastic Drama opens with a brief account of the poem’s historiography, the importance of kings, and the qualities of an ideal king. Chapter 1 analyses the progression of events by applying the tripartite division of the human lifespan used by classical and medieval Christian authors to the lifespan of a whole dynasty. Thus: the period of pueritia is used to reflect the ‘birth of a dynasty’, iuuentus describes the period of ‘dynasties in crisis’, and senectus concludes with the ‘death of a dynasty’. Chapter 2 examines the evolution and origins of the character of Beowulf and argues very persuasively that he was an amalgam of a folkloric hero and a ‘fictionalization, or poetic double, of his legendary uncle, King Hygelac’ (p. 120). Chapter 3 discusses the importance of Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon within the poem, the manuscript and the early medieval period ‘as portents of dynastic and national crises (p. 155). Chapter 4 analyses the influence of different models of kingship—from the Old Testament, the Merovingians, Carolingians, and the earlier centuries of early (southern) English dynasties. To conclude, Leneghan presents how he views the reception of the poem to have worked within three periods: seventh-century Mercia and Northumbria, Alfredian Wessex, and the turn of the millennium. Those parts of Dynastic Drama which feature literary analysis shine with a rare depth and understanding. By highlighting the language of youth versus old age, Leneghan’s approach is fruitful on a number of levels: personal, temporal, and prefigurative. The source of the conflict between Grendel and Hrothgar is [End Page 252] presented through the lens of illegitimacy and usurpation centred on an analysis of the gif-stol. And the closing description of Beowulf as both manna mildust and lof-geornost is shown as being textually indebted to Bede’s interpretation of biblical kingship. Very often it is not only within the body of Dynastic Drama that Leneghan’s measured and thorough analysis is on show, but in the footnotes, which must be singled out for their detailed and important extensions of the argument. However, within a generally excellent book, there are two related areas where Dynastic Drama falls flat. Firstly, there is a persistent thread of commentary which casts Beowulf’s lineage—being the grandson of Hrethel through his daughter—as somehow lesser than those of his peers who were descended of the paternal line. Leneghan refers to ‘the weaker, maternal line’ (pp. 15, 57), ‘the privileged male line’ (p. 19), ‘[Beowulf’s] relatively weak claim [to the Geatish throne] via his mother’ (p. 86), and that ‘Beowulf’s descent from Hrethel comes through his mother, thereby weakening his claim’ (p. 88). Indeed, he buries his clearest statement within a footnote in the front matter, stating that ‘[t]he absence of these [royal women’s] names may reflect the fact that dynastic power passes through the male line in the world depicted in the poem’ (p. xxi, n. 1). However, this entirely neglects the important role which was played in early English—and indeed early medieval—society in according importance to both foster-kin relationships and an uncle–nephew relationship mediated specifically through a female relative. It is important to remind oneself that Beowulf was cast in the roles of both foster-kin (to Hygelac and Hrothgar) and sister’s son (to Hygelac), thus...