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Full Description
Investigates the relationship between two texts separated by hundreds of years and nearly two thousand miles.
In the saga, Grettir fights a giant who wields a hepti-sax; in the poem, Beowulf uses a hæft-mēce on Grendel's mother. These two unique words for "hafted blade" appear to be related. Can the same be said for the works that surround them? This book says yes, arguing not that the weapons have a common origin, nor that their likeness is a coincidence, but that Grettis saga has borrowed from Beowulf.
The case for a textual loan begins in the context of England's connection with Denmark in the reign of Cnut the Great (1016-35). This book argues that Cnut took an interest in Scyld and the Scyldings of Beowulf and that his skalds transformed these names into "Skjǫldr" and the "Skjǫldungar". The Beowulf manuscript is placed in Lichfield in 1017, with the suggestion that it was commissioned by Eadric Streona as a gift for Earl Thorkell of Skåne. It is proposed that in 1159 a copy of Beowulf was brought from Lincoln to Iceland to serve the interests of a family that claimed descent from Skjǫldr, that in the 1180s the poem influenced Skjǫldunga saga, and that in the 1190s Beowulf went north to Þingeyrar abbey, where Oddr the Monk, author of Grettis saga, used it to enhance Grettir's fights with Glámr and the trolls of Bárðardalr. This is a daring book that sheds new light on the circulation of Beowulf, on questions of dating and patronage, and on the authorship of Grettis saga.
Contents
List of illustrations
Preface
Abbreviated references
Introduction: 'heptisax' and 'hæftmece'
1. Two words and a weapon: a wider comparison
2. The Beowulf manuscript and Lichfield in 1017
3. Beowulf of Skåne: Skjǫldr and the skalds
4. Skjǫldr and Scealdwa in Sæmundr's Langfeðgatal
5. Some influence from Beowulf on Skjǫldunga saga
6. From Lincoln to Oddi? How Beowulf came to Iceland
7. Three other English sources of Grettis saga
8. Oddr munkr as the author of Grettis saga
Conclusion: Beowulf in Grettis saga
Bibliographical abbreviations
Bibliography
Index
