Beowulf and Grettis saga

From England to Iceland, 1016-1219
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-1-84384-763-2
Verlag: D.S.Brewer

Buch, Englisch, 400 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 763 g

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-mece 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 "Skjoldr" and the "Skjoldungar". 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 Skjoldr, that in the 1180s the poem influenced Skjoldunga 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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

North, Richard

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Europäische Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Skandinavische Literaturen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

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: Skjoldr and the skalds
4. Skjoldr and Scealdwa in Sæmundr's Langfeðgatal
5. Some influence from Beowulf on Skjoldunga 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

Über Autor(innen)

North, Richard
RICHARD NORTH teaches Old and Middle English in UCL, where he has also taught Old Norse. He has published widely on all three literatures, but with a focus on Beowulf, particularly in The Origins of Beowulf: From Vergil to Wiglaf (Oxford, 2006).