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The Heroic AgeIssue 5Summer/Autumn 2001 |
Hwanan
sio fæhð aras:
Defining the
Feud in Beowulf
Notes and
Bibliography
Notes
1.
I am indebted in general and particular to both John Hill and
Wade Tarzia for their patient reading, rereading, and suggestions
for improvements to this text.
2.
The best statement of this general view is still, to my mind,
that of Berger and Leicester. For other similar views, see Karhl,
Liggens, Harris, Atkinson. All references to Beowulf are
to Klaeber's third edition.
3.
(Hill 1989, 1995).
Hill relies on Max Gluckman's notion of "peace in the feud,"
formulated by observation of the way feud works in various African
tribal societies: "by this he means that in long-settled
areas, with much intermarriage between groups as well as close
working arrangements between neighbors . . . nearly everyone
will be related in some way to nearly everyone else. This limits
the taste for prosecuting feuds and increases pressure for and
the likelihood of peaceful settlements that 'attempt to reconcile
parties in permanent relationships'" (1995:
30). Gluckman's ideas have also appealed to other researchers
working on medieval Germanic culture, such as Miller
1984, 1990; and Wallace-Hadrill
1982.
4.For
example, the term osveta among the Albanians does not translate
easily into our English word feud: the parameters of what is
meant by each term do not match exactly, the Albanian term coming
closer to the English "vengeance" than to "feud";
specialized terms are used to distinguish the various modes of
vengeance; see in this regard Boehm
p. 51-53. Interestingly, Miller (1990:
181-82), has noted similar diffuse semantics in the Icelandic
sagas; the Icelanders in the family sagas have no distinct term
for feud, although they clearly practice it, referring to various
aspects of its prosecution with specialized words.
5.
(Gould and Kolb 267-68). For effective
critiques of this model, see Black-Michaud
1-32; Boehm 191-227; and White
198-199. While accepting the idea that the classification of
conflicting groups can play a useful role in distinguishing feud
from war, Black-Michaud rejects the idea that the presence of
settlement mechanisms help in defining it, since in his view
the feud is ongoing and interminable. White, in his study of
feuds in the Touraine around 1100, casts doubt on the first component
of this definition as well, noting that "in medieval France,
where boundaries between distinct societies are hard to locate,
the commonplace anthropological distinction between feuding and
warfare is often difficult, if not impossible to make" (n.
18, pp. 198-99). White's point is also important for the situation
in Beowulf, where the precise nature of the groups feuding
with one another is often difficult to define. I have opted in
this article to bracket this question in the interest of space,
calling these various groups by the rather colorless term of
"peoples," but it is certainly an area for further
research.
6.
There is also the question of how the Dragon's disproportionately
harsh vengeance for the theft of the cup fits into observable
patterns of "acceptable" retaliation within the feud.
Miller (1990: 203) notes that in
the Icelandic feud "the idea of balance, of equivalence,
as has been noted, assumed that responses would be of roughly
equal gravity to the offense." And Hill, 1995,
argues the Beowulf poet distinguishes acceptable feuding
behavior, justified juridically and proportionate in scope, from
the tendency of the monsters and some of the human actors (notably
the Swedes and Geats) to seek unlimited vengeance without the
possibility of settlement. This may be, although I would contend
the poet still focuses on the inherently unfortunate nature of
the underlying feuding structure itself, regardless of who is
prosecuting it or how.
7.
This feature of the feuds in Beowulf, particularly the
long standing conflicts between the Geats and Swedes or Danes
and Heathobards, fits them remarkably well into Peters' and Black-Michaud's
delineation of the "interminable feud" among the Bedouin
of Cyrenaica and in the Mediterranean and Middle East. As Peters
says of the Bedouin feuds: "These hostilities are of a sort
that cannot be terminated; feud is not a matter of a group indulging
in hostilities here at one moment and there the next, but a sequence
of hostilities which, as far as the contemporary Bedouin are
concerned at least, know no beginning and are insoluble."
Furthermore, the existence of compensation mechanisms does not
really mitigate these feuds. Black-Michaud notes that among the
feuding groups he studies, compensation forms not a substitute
for vengeance but rather an episode in the larger feuding relationship
that can itself keep the feud alive. He cites Peters' statement
of the Bedouin prescription that "a horse bought with blood
money will be used to ride when 'bringing vengeance'" (Black-Michaud 12). Such a conception
may lie behind the fatalism with which Beowulf predicts
the failure of Hrothgar's attempts to buy peace with the Heathobards
through the marriage of Ingeld and Freawaru.
8. I wish to acknowledge my debt to Miller for the general idea that the feud played such a role in some Germanic cultures: of Iceland, he notes "the social structures produced and enabled by the systems of reciprocity, that is, by feud and gift-exchange, produced, in Foucault's terms, a regime of truth" (Miller 1990: 186).
9.
That Grendel's mother is a female avenger somewhat complicates
her actions, marking them as aberrant and further increasing
the shame of the Danes at their inability to deal with her themselves.
For a full discussion of these issues, see Day
105-27.
10.
Interestingly, the poet refers to the accidental killing of Herebeald
as a potential stirring up of the feud, although what makes this
situation so terrible for Hrethel is the fact that he cannot
"fæghðe gebetan; / no ðy ær he þone
heaðorinc hatian ne meahte / laðum dædum"
(lines 2465-2467; "settle the feud; not at all could he
pursue the warrior with harmful deeds").
11. Miller (1990: 200-202) notes in the sagas a similar propensity for vengeance to coincide with political opportunity, for example in Hrafnkel's Saga, Hrafnkel's choice of targets and the moment he strikes to avenge himself on Sam by killing Sam's brother Eyvind, the more dangerous and socially prominent member of Sam's family.
12.
Interestingly, White (237) notes
a similar tendency of feuds to grow out of raids and warfare
in 11th-12th c. France; it is clear the scribes he deals with
see a continuum between these various modes of conflict just
as the Beowulf poet evidently does: "any armed conflict
was likely to trigger secondary conflicts, since the fact that
a killing had occurred in an open military confrontation did
not exempt the slayer from a retaliatory attack by his victim's
kin" . Nor are vengeance motives and military or economic
motives clearly differentiated in an individual conflict: "the
process of raiding and plundering an upper-class enemy's lands
and subject peoples was so closely associated with efforts to
take vengeance against that enemy as to make one wonder whether
feuding or plundering was the more important activity" (White 202).
13.
Among the societies of the early Middle Ages, such raids with
their feuding rationale probably also served as an economic resource;
see in this regard Grierson. Such
a "plunder and raid" economic impulse may also underlie
some of the violence between the societies the Beowulf-poet
describes; see Berger and Leicester
42-43; Silber 11-19.
14.
The feud is thus similar to other cultural institutions that
serve as explanatory devices for unfamiliar concepts: I am thinking
here of the mead hall and the way its construction functions
in works such as "Cædmon's Hymn," or even Beowulf
itself, as a metaphor for the creation of the world by God. See
in this regard Calder 23. Interestingly,
Wallace-Hadrill (127) notes that
Frankish churchmen, among them Gregory of Tours, had no problem
conceiving of God as an active participant in feuds, in spite
of the official church position against them: "Look through
his writings for the view of Gregory of Tours on divine vengeance
and it will be found that he visualizes it as nothing less than
God's own feud in support of his servants, who can have no other
kin".
15.
A similar melding of "negative" and "positive"
terms of exchange occurs in Icelandic literature, indicating
that the idea is widespread in Germanic culture and literature.
Miller notes the same tendency among saga Icelanders to ironically
express feud exchanges using the verbs launa (to repay,
requite), gjalda (to repay, return and repay), and gefa
(to give). He points to Bergthora's taunt to her sons in Njal's
Saga, when they are given an insulting nick-name: "Gifts
have been given to you, to father as well as sons, and your manhood
will suffer unless you repay them" (Miller
1990: 182).
16.
It is not at all unusual for the Beowulf poet to engage
in precisely this kind of linguistic conflation of hospitality
and violence; it has been well documented by critics working
with the range of "fatal feast" metaphors used in the
battle between Grendel and Beowulf. See in this regard Irving,
De Roo, De
Lavan Foley.
17. Part of my disagreement in degree with Dr. Hill comes from his overall conviction that the feuds in Beowulf are not unrelentingly negative as Berger and Leicester among others would have it, but rather that "Beowulf clearly countenances the good of violence in situations where one seeks a justifiable settlement rather than dark pleasures" (Hill 1995: 31), and furthermore that "for many societies, including Germanic ones, revenge can be jurally definitive" (Hill 1997: 266). While I agree with this formulation as far as Germanic society goes, I am less sure the Beowulf poet is interested in it, as he seems far more focused on the catastrophic and regrettable aspects of the phenomenon, perhaps as much for literary effect as anything else. Even Beowulf himself expresses little faith in attempts to settle feuds: "Oft seldan hwær / æfter leodhryre lytle hwile / bongar bugeð, þeah seo bryd duge!" (2029-31; Seldom anywhere after a prince's fall will the deadly spear rest even for a little while, though the bride is good.)
Bibliography
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Black-Michaud, Jacob (1975) Cohesive Force: Feud in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. New York: St. Martin's.
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