Blood and Deeds: The Inheritance Systems in "Beowulf"
Author(s): Michael D. C. Drout
Source: Studies in Philology, Vol. 104, No. 2 (Spring, 2007), pp. 199-226
Published by: University of North Carolina Press
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The
Deeds:
and
Blood
Systems
Inheritance
in
Beowulf
byMichaelD. C. Drout
Br
EOWULFbegins with successful inheritances.Arriving in Den-
mark from across the sea, Scyld Scefing builds up the Danish kingdom and bequeaths it to his son and "eafera"(12a) (heir), Beowulf
Scyldinga.1 This Beowulf works to build up his father's kingdom, and
when Scyld dies the power and wealth of his people are so great that the
Scyldings are able to provide their old king with a glorious ship funeral
that ends his reign and inaugurates that of his son:
Da waeson burgum
leof leodcyning
folcum gefrage
aldor of earde
heah Healfdene
gamol ond guOreouw
Daemfeower bearn
in world wocun
Beowulf Scyldinga
longe Prage
faederellor hwearf
op pat him eft onwoc
heold Penden lifde
gkzedeScyldingas.
forbgerime
weoroda raeswaln]
l All quotations from Beowulf are taken from Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, ed. Fr.
Klaeber, 3rd ed. with 1st and 2nd supplements (Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath, 1951) and
are cited by line numbers in parentheses. I have not reproduced Klaeber's macrons or his
punctuation; translations are my own. At this point in the poem (lines 18a and 53b), the
manuscript reads unequivocally "beowulf," but many editors emend to "Beow" to make
the poem fit the West Saxon genealogies (where Beow is the son of Scyld) on the grounds
that the scribe knew he was copying a poem about one Beowulf and so took "Beow" in
his exemplar as an abbreviation. For a more detailed discussion, see James Earl, Thinking about Beowulf (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), 23-26. Although I have no
particular objection to the emendation, adopting "Beow" could be seen, for my particular argument, as a form of disguised special pleading, so I have therefore retained the
manuscript reading.
199
?
2007
The University of North Carolina Press
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200
BloodandDeeds
Heorogarond HroOgar ond Halga til
waesOnlelan cwen.
hyrde ic Paet[......
(53-62)
[Thenwas in the castle, Beowulf of the Scyldings,the beloved king of the
people, ruling a long time, known to the folk-his fatherturned
elsewhere, the lord from the land-until to him afterwardswas born
great Healfdane.He ruled the glad Scyldings as long as he lived, old and
battle-fierce.To him four childrenwere born in succession into the
world: Heorogarand Hrothgarand Halga the Good; I have heard that
the fourthchild was Onela's queen.]
In this passage, kingly power and identity pass smoothly from Scyld
to Beowulf Scyldinga to Healfdane. Although we are not specifically
told that Beowulf and Healfdane are both the only sons of their respective fathers, we have no reason to assume otherwise-there are
no additional brothers in Beowulf or in the various possible Scandinavian analogues.2 At each step of the genealogical progression, the
father reproduces himself only once, in the person of his son and worthy
successor. But then Healfdane has four children: Heorogar, Hrothgar,
Halga, and a daughter whose name has been lost.3 The straightforward
progression from father to son is complicated. Heorogar, Healfdane's
oldest son, rules briefly but dies (466b-68), leaving Hrothgar, the second brother, to be king (64-67b).
Hrothgar's assumption of the throne in the place of his brother illustrates a problem with the processes of inheritance and succession that to
this point in the poem has been obscured by the easy passage of power
from one father to one son. Beowulf Scyldinga and Healfdane are the
optimal inheritors of their respective fathers because each is his father's
only heir. But Heorogar should have succeeded Healfdane not only because he was the elder son but also because he would have been a superior king-or so says Hrothgar: "Sewaes betera bonne ic" (469b) (he
was a better man than I).4 Hrothgar, the eventual inheritor, states that
2 See R. W. Chambers, Beowulf:An Introductionto the Study of the Poem with a Discussion
of the Storiesof Offaand Finn, 3rd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963), xvii.
3 There is no break in or damage to the manuscript at this point, but the metrical and
grammatical inconsistency suggests a lacuna in the text. The name of the missing daughter
is usually reconstructed as Yrse (Beowulf, ed. Klaeber, 128).
4 It is possible that this statement is a modesty topos, and de mortuis nil nisi bonummay
well have applied in Anglo-Saxon England. However, the lack of modesty topoi anywhere
else in the corpus of Old English heroic poetry strongly suggests that Hrothgar is being
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Michael D. C. Drout
201
he is not the optimal ruler,although he is hardly a bad king until Grendel's depredationsshow him to have become weak in his old age: "'Pet
was an cyning / aeghwaesorleahtre,op pwt hine yldo benam / maegenes
wynnum" (1885-87) (that was a singularly good king, blameless in all,
until his age took from him the joys of power).
ButalthoughHrothgarhas proven to be a worthy inheritorof his line,
his own sons do not get the chance to inherit from him. At the time
of Grendel's death, Hrothgaris an old king, but his sons Hrethricand
Hrothmund are still seated among the "giogoo" (1189-gob) (youths),
where Beowulf,presumablybecause he is a visitor,is placed at the feast.
It seems that neither son will be strong or old enough to assume the
mantle of kingship when Hrothgar dies. Wealhtheow the queen suggests just this possibility when she proposes that Hrothulf,Hrothgar's
nephew, will protect the young boys if Hrothgar dies before Hrethric
(presumably the older of the two sons) is able to become king (1180-87).
Hrothgar's sons, while heirs of the king's body, are not fit to assume the
throne-apparently the warrior troop recognized that they cannot do
those things that are necessary for kings to do. Blood is not enough.
Beowulf, on the other hand, while not a blood heir of Hrothgar, is
equal to the demands of leadership, or so the old king believes. In another controversial scene, Hrothgar appears to "adopt" Beowulf as his
son. After Beowulf has killed Grendel, Hrothgar addresses the hero: "nu
ic, Beowulf, Pec, / secg betsta, me to sunu wylle / freogan on ferhpe;
heald ford tela / niwe sibbe"(946b-49a) (now I wish you, Beowulf, the
best of warriors, to be as a son to me, to love in spirit; to hold forth
properly this new kinship). Although critics have been divided as to
whether or not Hrothgar's gesture is a true adoption into the lineage
or merely a spiritualand social embrace,Wealhtheow,at least, seems to
recognize Hrothgar's action as possessing dynastic implications. After
the scop has sung the tale of Finn and Hengest, Wealhtheow offers a cup
to Hrothgar and says,
Me man saegde,
hereri[n]chabban.
beahsele beorhta;
manigramedo,
PaetPu be for sunu wolde
Heorot is gefaelsod,
bruc Penden Pu mote
ond Pinum magum laef
sincere when he states his belief that his brother would have been a better king; Hrothgar
could have, after all, said something to the effect of "vet were god cyning" ("that would
have been a good king") in the subjunctive mood and left it at that.
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202
Bloodand Deeds
folc ond rice,
metodsceaft seon.
tonne Ou forOscyle,
(1175-8oa)
[Men tell me that you wish to have this battle-warriorfor a son. Heorot
is cleansed, the bright ring-hall.Enjoy,while you are able to be
permitted,its many rewards,and leave to your kin the people and the
kingdom when you shall go forth to the decree of fate.]
Wealhtheow sees the adoption of Beowulf as an action that could damage her sons' chances of succession, and she does not believe that Hrothgar's offer of synthetic kinship is at all appropriate. She therefore, according to John Hill's analysis, attempts to remind Hrothgar that he has
duties to his kin and that the victory feast is not the time or place for the
determination of a successor (101-2).5 In place of Hrothgar's adoption
of the unrelated Beowulf, she offers a man of closer kinship, Hrothulf,
Hrothgar's nephew, as protector for the sons.6
The potential conflict over succession to the Danish throne after
Hrothgar's death makes apparent dynamics of inheritance that are
otherwise obscured by the smooth passage of power and identity from
Scyld to Beowulf Scyldinga to Healfdane. The difficulties with the succession of Hrethric or Hrothmund and the solutions proposed in the
poem show that what seems to be a seamless process of inheritance in
fact operates along two tracks. Inheritance by blood is a familiar idea;
under this system, power and identity passes along the line of genetic
descent, from father to son. Inheritance by deeds is a more nebulous
concept but is epitomized by Hrothgar's attempt to nominate Beowulf
as successor: the hero's deeds, rather than his lineage, allow him to be
identified as a potential heir.
In ideal situations, the two systems are complementary and isomorphic, so the two separate processes appear to be one. Beowulf Scyldinga
is not only his father's only son but also a worthy warrior and king who
"earns"his title through his conquests and his contributions to the welfare of the Danish folk; Healfdane is likewise legitimate in both categories. Hrothgar, too, is a king by deeds as well as by blood, although
it is possible that his replacement of his brother (the eldest son) in the
kingship is meant to explain his failure to prepare the ground for the
5 Hill, TheCulturalWorld
in Beowulf(Toronto:Universityof TorontoPress,1995), 101-2.
6
See below for a more detailed analysis of Wealhtheow's objection to the "adoption"
of Beowulf. At this point in the argument, it is sufficient to point out that the queen herself
recognizes Hrothgar's words as having dynastic implications.
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Michael D. C. Drout
203
successful continuation of the Danish dynasty. That is, Hrothgar, while
legitimately king in every sense, is not the best possible king by blood
(or, as we learn after Grendel's attacks, by deeds). The apparent failure
of Hrothgar's sons to succeed him illustrates that not all successions are
ideal. Not all heirs are optimal in both systems.
In fact, less-than-ideal successions are more the norm than the exception in Beowulf. Most inheritors are legitimated to different degrees in
each category, some more by blood, some more by deeds, and the cultural politics of blood are not always the cultural politics of deeds. Both
systems are necessary for inheritance, and both reinforce each other in
the ideal cases of Beowulf Scyldinga and Healfdane, but in many other
cases inheritance by blood competes with inheritance by deeds.
Like any competing social process, each form of inheritance differentially rewards individuals. Different people, therefore, have different
stakes in the two systems. Some may benefit more from a greater emphasis on blood; others might gain more under a more deeds-focused
system. Although every individual would likely seek a different balance of blood- and deeds-based inheritance in order to maximize his
or her own circumstances, there are also some general tendencies that
can be attributed to members of different social groups. Inheritance by
blood is the province of the kin group; inheritance by deeds is most
prominent in the warrior band (individual membership in these institutions, does, of course, overlap). Blood inheritance happens through
the direct agency of women via biological reproduction. Inheritance by
deeds is constructed (in Beowulf) as a solely masculine activity. Thus,
the inheritance system in Beowulf is broadly gender-asymmetric, with
implications for the relationships of women with their husbands, sons,
and nephews, and for gender politics in general.
By analyzing the two inheritance systems, we may make new sense of
some of the more enigmatic moments in Beowulf.Comparing the operations of inheritance in Beowulf to the processes of inheritance in the
wider Anglo-Saxon culture and examining who has a greater stake in
which systems in what contexts can provide a better understanding of
both the cultural world in Beowulfand the culture that valued the poem
enough to copy it (at the very least) and thus preserve it.7
7 This argument can thus be applied to almost any of the reasonable datings of the
poem.
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204
BloodandDeeds
BLOOD AND KINSHIP
In the simplest form of inheritance by blood, children receive the names
and possessions of their parents. Social offices, rights, or titles are still
passed on to children selected simply by means of birth. But blood inheritance in the Anglo-Saxon age was different from familiar processes
of blood inheritance in contemporary cultures.8 These differences are
caused by the employment of different sets of rules for determining
blood relations. The well-known problems of the date and provenance
of Beowulf and the fact that the poem is a literary work and not a historical document prevent us from assuming that the kinship system in
Beowulfis identical to that in Anglo-Saxon England, but it seems reasonable to infer broad parallels between Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon culture,
particularly because nothing in the poem contradicts those kinship terminology and inheritance relations that are historically documented.
The kinship system in historical Anglo-Saxon England was "nonunilineal"; individuals could trace their lineage through both parents
and their descendants. Thus, any given individual had a slightly different set of kinship relations. Because Old English lacks specific terms that
would distinguish between cousins of various degrees, Lorraine Lancaster has concluded that "these kin and the distinctions between them
[were] not regularly of major significance."9 Direct lineal relations, however, were significant; lineal ascendants could be traced back to the sixta
fxder (sixth forefather, i.e., great-great-great-great-great-grandfather).
Collateral kin were also recognized. An individual's father's brother
was fxdera; the mother's brother was eam. Brother's sons are referred to
as suhtergaand geswiria, while a sister's son is, logically, a swustorsunu.
Nefa and genefa are more general terms having the modern equivalence
of "nephew," while nift and nefenacan be translated as "niece." As the
above terminology shows, major distinctions are made between "kin of
the same genealogical position but different sex."'1
8 See Michael Sheehan, The Will in Medieval England (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of
Medieval Studies, 1963) and Michael D. C. Drout, "Anglo-Saxon Wills and the Inheritance
of Tradition in the English Benedictine Reform," Revista de la SociedadEspaflolade Lengua
y LiteraturaInglesa Medieval (SELIM) 10 (2000): 1-53. See also Stephen Glosecki, "Beowulf
and the Wills: Traces of Totemism?" PhilologicalQuarterly79 (2000): 15-73.
9 Lancaster, "Kinship in Anglo-Saxon Society-I," British Journalof Sociology9 (1958):
232-37. The presence of this kinship terminology in Old English further indicates the
underlying gender asymmetry of the inheritance system, and it supports my contention
that blood inheritance alone is not sufficient to explain the depictions of inheritance in
Beowulf or in the wider culture.
0 Ibid., 237.
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Michael D. C. Drout
205
As Lancasternotes, the Kentish laws of Hlothhere and Eadricimply
"that the child should regularly receive property from his father."'"
Other Anglo-Saxon laws, including those of Alfred, limit inheritance
but do not give preference to certain
to a given kin-range,maxgburge,
heirs. The laws of Cnut also suggest that a man who had fulfilled his
obligations during his lifetime could leave his estate to "whomeverhe
pleased after his death."In general, then, and throughout the AngloSaxon period, it appears that "wife, children and close kin were expected to be the chief heirs of a man's property,but that considerable
freedom in disposal existed."'2
The inheritanceof political power and social position was likewise a
ratherflexibleprocess,althoughtherewere obviously some constraints.
The various royal genealogies seem to show a number of unbroken
paths of descent, but these genealogies and pedigrees were used to legitimate the power of rulers and bind together disparate kin-groups.
Genealogies,David Dumville argues,are constructed"retrospectively."
Rather than reflecting biological fact, they indicate political circumstances and necessities at the time of their production.'3Thus, the man
chosen to rule an Anglo-Saxonkingdom "fromc. 850 to c. 975 appears
to have been the most credible candidate for power and responsibility
among the eligible members of the royal house."'4
Although the actual practice of kingly succession may have been
somewhat more messy than a simple father-to-sonpassage of power,
the Anglo-Saxon ideal seems to be that of straightforwardpatrilineal
inheritancefrom a fatherto one son (the process depicted in the inheritances of Beowulf Scyldinga from Scyld and Healfdane from Beowulf
Scyldinga).The genealogical passages in Bede and Williamof Malmesbury identify ancestors as "filius"(son of) or "cuiuspater"(who is the
fatherof).'5In documents written in Old English (for example, the version of TheAnglo-SaxonChroniclein London, British LibraryMS Cotton TiberiusB.iv) a surname is constructedby adding the suffix -ing to
11 Lancaster,
"Kinship in Anglo-Saxon Society-II," BritishJournalof Sociology9 (i958):
360.
12 [bid.,
361.
Dumville, "Kingship, Genealogies and Regnal Lists," in Early Medieval Kingship,ed.
P. H. Sawyer and Ian N. Wood (Leeds: School of History, University of Leeds, 1977), 73104.
14 Dumville, "The iEtheling: A Study in Anglo-Saxon Constitutional History," AngloSaxon England 8 (1979): 2.
15 Bede, EcclesiasticalHistory, 1.15; and see Kenneth Sisam, "Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogies," Proceedingsof the British Academy39 (1953): 288-89.
13
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206
Bloodand Deeds
a father's name. Thus, we see Beaw Scealding as the father of Taetwa
Beawing who is the fatherof Geat Tatwaing.16Craig R. Davis argues
that "successionwas governed by a system of aetheling competitionin
which any son or grandson of the king could become a candidate for
the throne.""7
Succession in Beowulfoperatesno more predictablythan it did in historicalAnglo-Saxonsociety. Fathersdo not always pass title and power
to their sons. Yet the ideal of patrilineal genealogy is present in the
culture created within the poem and, scholars have argued, in a culture that valued Beowulf.18The West-Saxonroyal genealogy (in various
forms) includes the names of Beow, Heremod, Scyld, and Scyf, suggesting a link between the heroic, literary culture of Beowulf and the
concrete political reality of the West Saxon kingdom.19That linear,
father-to-only-sonsuccession is also an implied ideal for the literary
depictions of the warriorband can be inferredfrom the Danish coastguard's interrogationof Beowulfand his retainers:"Nu ic eower sceal /
frumcyn witan" (251b-52a) (now I must know your kin-lineage),the
coastguard asks. Frumcyn is a hapax legomenon, a compound of frum
(primal, original, first) and cyn (kin). The poet's use of the word as part
of his questioning of the disembarking Geats shows that a significant
part of a warrior's identity was bound up with his ancestry. But even
in this case, simple blood inheritance was not enough. The coastguard
can tell with his eyes that the Geats are doughty warriors, well armed,
and that Beowulf is the greatest of them (237-51). The sentry at Heorot
guesses that the Geats are not coming to Hrothgar's hall due to misfortune or exile but on account of pride (338-39). Outward manifestations
of a warrior's prowess, his identity as constructed by his deeds, are apChambers, Beowulf:An Introduction,202-3.
Davis, "Cultural Assimilation in the Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogies," Anglo-Saxon
England 21 (1992): 32. The appearance of linearity and continuity was a political fiction
useful to the West Saxon dynasty in the ninth and tenth centuries; see Alexander Callander Murray, "Beowulf, the Danish Invasions, and Royal Genealogy," in The Dating of
Beowulf, ed. Colin Chase (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981), 103-5. In the early
Anglo-Saxon period, male members of a royal family up to the seventh generation from a
king could inherit a throne (David P. Kirby, TheMakingof EarlyEngland[London: B.T. Batsford, 1967], 165). Dumville, however, believes that although descent from the founder of a
dynasty was a necessity for kingship, in general, "atany period the throne was potentially
available for whoever could seize it by force" ("The tEtheling," 17-18). The membership
of such a usurper in the descent group of a dynastic founder is more likely to be a result
of the structure of a warrior class drawn from a restricted elite than it is evidence for a
concern with the niceties of kin relationship and legal succession.
18Sisam, "Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogies," 322-23.
19Chambers, Beowulf:An Introduction,200-3.
16
17
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MichaelD. C. Drout
207
parent to those individuals, like the sentry and the coastguard, fluent
in the language of honor.Although it is not necessarily a realisticdocumentation of the life of any given historical period, the cultural world
in Beowulfdoes not exist purely at the level of myth, and processes of
inheritancein this world have much in common with the messy, complicated actions of real-lifekings and princes.
But the rule of blood constrains political and cultural flexibility.Inheritance by blood retards social change by preserving a given social
order that has been at least somewhat adaptive for a culture. Blood inheritance is linked, in Anglo-Saxon culture, with the rule of law and
of custom. Certain identities can only be reproduced in individuals of
certain bloodlines. Continuing social relationshipsdepend upon these
agreements and contracts remaining in force across the generations.
But in the cultural world of Beowulf,there is no way to write unbreakable agreementsexcept in the languageof blood. By instantiatingagreements in marriages,men can make permanent, in the bodies of their
children,their contractswith other men.The body of a living child cannot be divided into the two halves of his parents, and thus as long as
the child lives, so does the agreementbetween men, tribes, or nations,
and any "peace-weaving"will be successful. But,as we see in the Finnsburg episode, when the child dies, the web is brokenand the peace fails.
No amount of ceremonialpolitic by Hygd can rewrite the contractthat
had been written in blood. Blood inheritancepreserves peace, but it is
always at risk of failure and extinction.
DEEDS AND HONOR
Inheritanceby deeds is less familiar than inheritanceby blood. There
is no explicit, definitive patternfor inheritanceby deeds, no culturally
authorizedpracticeof the transmissionof identities in this manner.Although inheritanceby blood is organized around a set of kinship relations, inheritanceby deeds has the ability to cut across familial,ethnic,
racial,gender,and nationalboundaries.Its abilityto bringtogetherindividuals of differing genetic backgrounds makes it more complicated
and flexible than rigid lineal, blood inheritance.In its simplest form, inheritance by deeds is the transferof goods, power, or identity across
generationalboundaries in which the transferis based not on the genetic relationshipof two individuals but upon the performanceof certain culturally valued behaviors.Any situation in which a person may
choose his or her successor in some office representsan inheritanceby
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Bloodand Deeds
deeds. Behaviors performed by an individual cause him or her to be
selected to receive a social station. Culture is maintained and reproduced by the continued repetition of deeds-based inheritances.Such
social reproductionis in fact quite similar to the ways actual warrior
cultures reproduced themselves. In Germaniccultures, groups whose
major function was aggression nearly always excluded women, often
required celibacy of some (generally younger) members,and at times
interpretedinitiation into the group as a form of birth without female
in idealized form reproduces itself entirely
agency.20The Ma.nnerbund
by deeds. But reproductionby deeds also explains the internalviolence
that so often characterizesthe Mannerbund
in Germaniccultures,what
CarolClover calls the "franticmachismoof Norse males."21 Withoutthe
stabilizinginfluenceof blood-basedinheritance,the struggle for the inheritanceof power (connected,quite obviously,to the favorof the king)
can become a free-for-allof violent masculine competition.22
In Beowulf,inheritanceby deeds alone is most obvious in the "adoption" scene. Beowulf is clearly not a lineal descendantof Hrothgar.He
is not even among the potential Danish successors, the aethelings who
constituted the upper echelon of Hrothgar'sMannerbund.
ButHrothgar
nevertheless offers to make Beowulf his son on account of the hero's
deeds. Although Hrothgar praises without naming the woman who
gave the hero birth, he does not link her or her son to any extant lineage. The namelessness of Beowulf's mother is no accident:she is not
named because the poet is dramatizingthe unusual nature of the act
that is about to take place. Kin relations and lineages are deliberately
excluded from the scene of Hrothgar'sadoption in order to accentuate
how truly rareHrothgar'saction is. Beowulf is praised for accomplishing a deed ("dad gefremede" [9401).His reward is to be brought into
the system of inheritance.
Hrothgar's adoption of Beowulf is a special case of what John Hill
calls "theeconomy of honour."23
The verticalrelationshipsbetween lord
20
Joseph Harris, "Love and Death in the Mdnnerbund:An Essay With Special Reference
to the Bjarkamdland The Battleof Maldon,"in HeroicPoetry in the Anglo-Saxon Period:Studies
in Honorof less B. Bessinger,Jr.,ed. Helen Damico and John Leyerle (Kalamazoo: Medieval
Institute Publications, 1993), 89-92.
21 Clover, "Regardless of Sex: Men, Women and Power in Early Northern Europe,"
Speculum 68 (1993): 380.
22 At times, that competition could be channeled into less violent forms, such as Beowulf's flyting with Unferth (506-606). But scenes such as the aged retainer's encouraging
the young Heathobard warrior to break the imposed peace (2041-56) show the violent
and destructive side of an over-reliance upon deeds.
23 Hill writes, "The Lord gives rings, weapons and armour in anticipation of promised
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Michael D. C. Drout
209
and retainerare isomorphicto those between the person who bequeaths
an inheritanceand the person who receives it. In both cases, the power
to make the determinationof which deeds are acceptableand which are
not appears to lie completely within the hands of the higher-ranking
individual.But the relationshipsare in fact more balancedor reciprocal
because they are created and constrainedby social custom.24The public nature of gift giving and reward for service constrainsthe freedom
of the higher-rankingindividual to reward his followers or dispose of
his bequest. This constraintarises because such actions take place in a
social and political arena in which individuals must take into account
the opinions and reactions of others.25
The boundary between inheritanceby deeds and other transactions
of the gift-giving economy is somewhat indistinct.The key distinction
is between a traditumthat is transferredacross such boundaries only
once and the one that has a history of inheritances,a lineage. A simple
way to distinguishan inheritanceby deeds froma mere gift is thatin the
formerthe traditumis part of a tradition;it has been passed across generationalboundariesthis way before.Thus,Hrothgar'saction to reward
Beowulf's followers with treasure is probably not a true inheritance
even though the poet calls each gift an "yrfelaf"(1053)(heirloom).26
It is
improbablethat Hrothgarreceived every one of these treasuresas part
of an inheritancefrom Healfdane.More likely he acquiredmuch of the
wealth in tribute or raiding or perhaps as gifts from his retainers.The
gifts he passes to Beowulf's men do not come with a history.
On the other hand, the gifts Hrothgar gives to Beowulf himself do
seem to be objectsinheritedby deeds. Hrothgargives Beowulf a battlestandard,a helm, a corslet, a sword, eight horses, and a saddle (102043). It is possible that all the items (with the exception of the horses)
are what Hill calls "dynastic treasures."27The corslet, Beowulf tells
Hygelac, belonged to king Heorogar (Hrothgar's older brother): "no
services; he then rewards or repays service by gifts, through which he again, while honouring his retainers, places them in temporary debt and affirms the heroic contract between himself and them. More than a bond, that affirmation underlines an entire system
of reciprocal relationships between equals and unequals, with some relationships being
more stable than others" (Cultural World,89).
24 Edward Irving notes that "[glift giving is-must be-entirely
public. Gifts must not
only change hands but must be seen to change hands" (RereadingBeowulf [Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989], 131).
25 Hill's adoption of Bronislaw Malinowski's label "economy" is thus particularly apt.
26 A word, by the way, not commonly used in the corpus of wills even when items such
as swords are bequeathed.
27 Hill, Cultural World,99.
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Bloodand Deeds
210
cbywr suna sinum, syllan wolde / hwatum Heorowearde, Peah he him
hold waere / breostgewaedu" (216o-62a) (but he did not want to give
it, the breast-armor, to his older son, valiant Heoroward, although he
was loyal to him). When Hrothgar gives Beowulf the saddle, the poet
notes that it had been the preferred battle-seat of the king of the Danes
himself (1039-42).
In the initial gift-giving scene and in its recapitulation in Beowulf's
report to Hygelac, the poet calls more attention to Hrothgar's participation in a lineage than he does elsewhere in the poem. Twelve times
in Beowulf Hrothgar is identified as the son, child, or kin of Healfdane.28 These references are scattered fairly evenly through the scenes
in which Hrothgar is prominent. There are, however, two notable clusters of references to Hrothgar as the son of Healfdane. In the first giftgiving scene, the poet calls Hrothgar "Healfdenes sunu" (1009, 1040)
(Healfdane's son) twice and "bearn Healfdenes" (1020) (Healfdane's
child)29once, all within thirty-one lines.' Likewise, when Beowulf reports to Hygelac, he identifies the gifts as coming from "maga Healfdenes" (2143) (Healfdane's kin) and "sunu Healfdenes" (2147) (the son
of Healfdane). Nowhere else in the poem is Hrothgar appositively identified so frequently within so few lines; all other occurrences are a minimum of forty-seven lines apart and in general are separated by several hundred lines. These clusters of references emphasize forcefully
Hrothgar's blood-line authority and thus serve to throw into relief the
remarkable gesture of passing dynastic objects and attempting to pass
dynastic power to a hero related only by deeds.
The gift of "dynastic treasures," that is, objects possessed of their own
histories and lineages, invokes the lineage of the giver. By passing heirlooms to Beowulf, Hrothgar has created an unusual situation of inheritance, a situation of which Beowulf does not take advantage. Instead,
after reciting the lineage of the gift and the giver, Beowulf passes Hrothgar's gifts to Hygelac (2148-51). By giving Hrothgar's dynastic gifts to
Hygelac, Beowulf voids Hrothgar's potential inclusion of Beowulf in
the Danish succession. Beowulf "transfers the place of honor thereby
28
Lines 189, 268, 344, 645, 1009, 1020, 1040, 1474, 1652, 1699, 2143, and 2147.
29 At
this point, the manuscript reads "brand" (weapon or fire), but "weapon of Healfdane" is an awkward reading, and Grundtvig's emendation seems to be universally accepted (Klaeber, ed., Beowulf, 38n).
30 Irving has noted that in this section of the poem formulas that invoke the lineage
of Hrothgar and his troop are "rather noticeably bunched," but he attributes this clumping of formulaic references to the poet's putting "particular stress on dynastic pride and
order, and on the national community as a close-knit family" (RereadingBeowulf, 130-31).
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Michael D. C. Drout
211
conferred to Hygelac,"refusing any ties beyond those of friendship.31
By emphasizingthe lineage of the gifts given by Hrothgar,Beowulf emphasizes the extraordinarynatureof Hrothgar'soffer;his refusal of the
offer emphasizes his extraordinarydevotion to Hygelac. Beowulf's reaction to both the dynastic gifts and the offer of a place in the Danish
succession suggests that an inheritanceestablished purely by deeds is
not, in the culturalworld of Beowulf,a desired state of affairs.32
Beowulf's extraordinaryresistance to the temptation to succeed.out
of the order establishedby birth is dramatizedagain when, after Hygelac's disastrous raid into Frisia,the newly widowed queen, Hygd, suggests that Beowulf might take over the kingdom from his uncle (239672).33 But Beowulf does not take the throne;instead, he acts as a protector to Heardred "hwae6rehe hine on folce, freondlarumheold / estum
mid are o0 baethe yldra wearO,/ Weder-Geatumweold" (2377-79a)
(however, he supported him with his friendly counsel among the folk
with favor and with honor until he became older to rule the WederGeats). Hygd's action is surprising, particularly when compared to
Wealhtheow's objections to Hrothgar's attempted adoption. No less
surprising is Beowulf's refusal to supplant Heardred.3Only after the
young son of Hygelac is killed by Ongentheow's son Onela-only when
31
Hill notes that in this scene Beowulf acts to reassure Hygelac that his allegiance re-
mains Geatish(Cultural World,99-100).
32 However, perhaps a warrior less loyal than Beowulf might have accepted Hrothgar's
treasures for himself.
33 The passage runs as follows:
Par him Hygd gebead
beagas ond bregostol;
put he wib alfcum
healdan cuoe,
hord ond rice,
bearne ne truwode,
epelstolas
oa was Hygelac dead.
(2369-72)
[Thereto him Hygd offeredtreasureand kingdom,ringsand the princelyseat.She did not trust
thather child could hold the nativeseat againstforeignarmiesnow thatHygelacwas dead.]
3 Long ago, F. B. Gummere suggested that Hygd may be in fact proposing marriage to
Beowulf, but Beowulf does not take her up on this offer because he "belongs to the new
order; he holds to the sentiments of nephew-right, but rejects its privileges"; Gummere
showed that "nephew-right" is found throughout Germanic and Scandinavian history
and myth ("The Sister's Son" in An English Miscellany Presentedto Dr. Furnivall, ed. W. P.
Ker, A. S. Napier, and W. W. Skeat [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 19011, 138). But if Beowulf
rejects the right of the nephew to marry his uncle's wife (and I suspect that it was less a
legal right than a commonly taken route to power), then so does the poet, who does not
hint that such a practice is part of the cultural world of Beowulf. Just as Hygd seems to
make no overt suggestion that she will be queen with Beowulf when he takes the throne,
so too does Wealhtheow avoid mentioning herself as marrying Hrothulf if Hrothgar dies
before his sons' majority.
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212
Bloodand Deeds
the last living man with a superior blood-based claim to the kingly
inheritance is dead-does Beowulf take the office of king.35Blood inheritance is one of the fundamental-although unstated-rules that
Beowulf insists upon enforcing. In both situations in which he has an
opportunityto become king, Beowulf demonstratesthatinheritanceby
deeds is not, as far as he is concerned,enough to allow for a succession
out of the traditionalblood-line order of kinship passing from father
to son. However, the poet does cause Beowulf to be rewarded for his
forbearance.In returnfor passing Hrothgar'streasureto Hygelac, Beowulf is rewarded with land and an heirloom sword.?6In return for his
support of Heardred,he becomes the greatestking of the Geats,his rule
untroubledby succession struggles because his inheritanceis justified
both by blood and by deeds.
Membershipin the Anglo-Saxonwarriorculture was determinedby
birth;rank within the group, however, could be changed by deeds.37A
cowardly eorl would presumablyrank low in the lord's favor;a hero
would be esteemed. The conflictingdemands of the warriorcomitatus
for stabilityand the maintenanceof a birth-basedrankingsystem on the
one hand and semi-egalitarianrewards for prowess on the other create a tension between inheritanceby blood and inheritanceby deeds.
For ideal figureslike Healfdaneor Beowulf Scyldinga,sole sons of their
fathers and also legitimate by deeds, these two forms of inheritance
are so completely blended as to appear to be part of one process. But
35 Hill sees Beowulf's choice to champion Hygelac's son as an example of the hero's
insisting on the "continuing, uncompromised integrity" of his relationship with Hygelac
(Cultural World,io6).
`6 This scene is depicted as follows:
Het Oaeorla hleo
heaSorof cyning
golde gegyrede;
sincmabPum selra
puet he Biowulfes
ond him gesealde
bold ond bregostol.
on Oam leodscipe
earl e6elriht,
side rice
in gefetian,
Hrebles lafe
nes mid Geatum oa
on sweordes had;
bearm alegde,
seofan Pusendo,
Him was bam samod
lond gecynde,
oOrum swi0or
Pam arre selra was.
(2190-99)
[Thecommanderof earls,the famedbattle-king,then orderedthata gold-adornedheirloomof
Hrethelbe broughtin.Therewas not then a bettertreasurein the form of a swordamong the
Geatasthat he laid on Beowulf'sbosom. And he gave to him seven thousands(of land),a hall
and a princelyseat.To themboth belongedtogetherin thatpolity inheritedlandand ancestral
rights,thoughmore to the one who was better.]
37
Davis, "Cultural Assimilation,'
32.
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Michael D. C. Drout
213
most individuals are not ideal, and the relative proportions of blood
and deeds in their hybrid inheritances shape the culture they strive to
reproduce.
HYBRID INHERITANCE
The most important example of hybrid inheritance in the poem is the
passage of objects, power, and identity from uncle to nephew. 8 The
uncle-nephew bond is visibly and obviously influenced by both blood
(genetic connections) and deeds (individual personal relationships). Although the father knew that his son qualified for inheritance in terms of
blood, he could not be certain that the son would achieve his inheritance
through deeds. By working to shape both his nephew and his son (by
means of his deeds in the social world), the uncle increases his chances
that the successor to his position will be connected to him by blood as
well as by deeds. The prime example of this sort of teaching and training
relationship in which the uncle cares for the nephew as if he were a son
is that of Hygelac and Beowulf. Beowulf is related to Hygelac through
Beowulf's mother, the unnamed woman who is, like Hygelac, a child of
Hrethel. Beowulf apparently had a close, loving relationship with his
maternal grandfather:
Ic waessyfanwintre,
freawinefolca
heold mec ond haefde
geaf me sinc ond symbel,
nes ic him to life
beorn in burgum,
Herebealdond Hacyn
pa mec sinca baldor,
aetminum faedergenam;
Hre0el cyning,
sibbe gemunde;
laOraowihte,
tonne his bearnahwylc,
odde Hygelac min.
(2328-2434)
[I was seven winters old, when to me the lord of treasure,the friendruler of the folk, took me from my father;king Hrethelheld me and kept
me, gave me treasureand feasting,rememberedour kinship.I was not at
all less dear to him than any other warriorin the city, than each of his
children,Herebaldand Hathcynor my Hygelac.]
According to Jack Goody, the same cultural formations that produce
a strong uncle-nephew bond also tend to create strong ties between a
38Uncle and nephew "forman ideal pair in the eyes of the poet" (RolfH. BremmerJr.,
"The Importance of Kinship: Uncle and Nephew in Beowulf,"AmsterdamerBeitrage zur
Alteren Germanistik15 [1980]: 28-29).
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214
Bloodand Deeds
There are numberof reasons
grandson and his maternalgrandfather.39
with the well-beingof his
concerned
a
to
be
particularly
for grandfather
grandson (albeit not to the exclusion of his concern for the well-being
of his sons).We have no evidence thatHygelac and his brothershad any
children when Beowulf was seven years old and taken into the house
of Hrethelfor fostering.Although Hrethelhad successfully reproduced
himself by blood in his male children,they had not yet carriedhis identity across the next generational boundary.-'But Hrethel's unknown
daughterhad propagatedthe old king's blood into a second generation,
and the young grandsoncould ensure the continuationof Hrethel'slineage into the futureeven if mischancetook the lives of his sons. Hrethel
therefore provided cultural capital both to his sons and to his grandson, Beowulf.This capital (the armor that aids Beowulf in making his
way in the warrior culture) is understood as belonging to Beowulf as
a representativeof the lineage of Hrethel:Beowulf instructs Hrothgar
to returnto Hygelac the "beaduscrudabetst" (453a)(the best of battleshirts),which is a "laf"(454b)(heirloom)of Hrethel,if Beowulf is killed
in his battleagainstGrendel.AlthoughHrethelpassed the corsletacross
two generationalboundaries,Beowulfdoes not appearto have the same
option to violate the establishedorder of inheritance.He does not presume to leave the armorto his cousin Heardred,but arrangesto pass it
back up the generationalladder to Hygelac, restoring the heirloom to
the control of the descendantof Hrethel most closely relatedto the old
king by blood. This gesture of Beowulf's suggests that although a king
like Hrethel has the power to temporarilyoverturn the rule of inheritanceby blood, he cannoteliminatethe power of the system, established
as it is in culturalexpectations.
In fact, the power of a requiredblood inheritancecomponentis such
39 Goody, "The Mother's Brother and the Sister's Son in West Africa," Journalof the
AnthropologicalSociety 89 (1959): 66-67. For an application to Anglo-Saxon kinship structures (though the idea is developed in less detail) see Goody, The Developmentof theFamily
and Marriagein Europe(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 267-70. Jan Bremmer points out that the mother's father "is just as much an outsider in the paternal
family as the [mother's brotherl," and he therefore should be expected to develop some of
the same affectionate relationships ("Avunculate and Fosterage," Journalof Indo-European
Studies 4 [19761:72).
40 In so hedging his bets on reproduction, Hrethel ran the risk of alienating his own
son as well as potentially turning him against Beowulf. Sons may reasonably be resentful
if they discover their fathers are supporting for self-interested reasons other, synthetic
sons who might one day compete with them for scarce resources. Beowulf's unpromising
youth (described in lines 2183-88) is surely a surprise after the favor shown to the young
boy by Hrethel and may be a result of such resentment of the young Beowulf by Hygelac
or his brothers.
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Michael D. C. Drout
215
that the system is reasserted at nearly every opportunity. As noted
above,Beowulf gives Hrothgar'sgifts of dynastic heirloomsto Hygelac,
thus demonstratinghis continued allegiance to the Geatish house, and
Hygelac in turn rewards Beowulf for this gesture (2190-99). By giving
Beowulf the sword that is an heirloom of Hrethel, Hygelac effectively
equals Hrothgar'sattemptedgift of dynastic heirlooms.He emphasizes
Beowulf's position as one of the descendants of the old king Hrethel,
and he makes Beowulf a powerful prince of the realm. Hygelac does
not, however, alienate land from the Geatish dynasty, nor does he set
Beowulf up as an independent king. Hygelac is still the overall ruler of
the land, and the words "e6elriht" (21g8a) (ancestral rights) and "lond
gecynde" (2197b) (inherited land) both suggest that the land remains
within the system of blood inheritance, even though it is passed from
the son of Hrethel to the nephew. The rights of blood have passed to
Beowulf because the hero is worthy in terms of both blood and deeds,
his superiority in the second category making up for any lack in the
first. Furthermore,as we learn later in the poem, the land holdings of
the Geats are eventually reunited in the person of Beowulf, who rules
after both Hygelac and Hygelac's son Heardredare dead.
The gifts Hygelac gives Beowulf, the hero's treatmentof those gifts,
and his actions in regard to Heardredare foreshadowed by Beowulf's
plan to restore Hrethel's corslet to Hygelac if he loses his life in the
battle against Grendel. All of these actions support Hill's contention
that throughout the poem the hero is a "juristicwarrior"who works
to reassert the primacy of law and custom.41 Beowulf's extraordinary
accomplishmentsmight allow him to supersede the system of blood inheritance:both his potential for deeds in the mind of Hrethel and the
quality of his deeds in the evaluation of Hrothgarallow him to potentially receive inheritancessooner than they are due to him accordingto
the laws of blood. We might expect that early inheritanceis a perquisite of surpassingstrengthand bravery,and in some epic traditionsthe
hero would seize his birthrightearly. However, in Beowulf the hero in
every case refuses to contest the customs of blood and instead supports
the juristicframeworkof a coupled inheritancejustifiedby both blood
and deeds.
But all kings die, and the mantle of leadership will pass to a successor. Beowulf has no sons who can inheritthe kingdomof the Geatsand,
as faras the poet tells us, there are no other aethelingsof the royal house
who would be legitimate in both blood and deeds:
41 Hill, CulturalWorld,
36-37.
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216
Bloodand Deeds
Nu ic suna minum
gubgewaedu,
aenig yrfeweard
lice gelenge.
syllan wolde
paer me gifeie swa
aefter wurde
(2729-32a)
[Now I would have wished to give my battle-dress to my son, if it had
been grantedthat any inheritor,relatedby body, had come afterme.]
Beowulf wishes he had had an heir of his body (i.e., a blood heir) to
whom he could bequeath his personal heirlooms. Instead, Beowulf
gives his battle-dress to Wiglaf after the young hero assists him in
the dragon fight. With his dying words, Beowulf instructs Wiglaf to
command the Geats to build a high barrow upon an ocean bluff and
then gives him collar and helm (2809-12). Beowulf then emphasizes a
hitherto unmentioned tie of blood between him and Wiglaf: "Tu eart
endelaf uses cynnes / Waegmundinga" (2813-14a) (you are the last remnant of our kin, the Waegmundings).
Unfortunately, the specific kinship between the hero and his retainer
is not obvious, and thus there is substantial critical disagreement about
the exact relationship of Beowulf and Wiglaf.42Working from the reasonable assumption that Beowulf can only be related to Wiglaf through
Ecgtheow because it is apparent from the text that Beowulf's mother, the
daughter of Hrethel, is a Geat, Friedrich Wild suggests that Ecgtheow
and Weohstan are brothers, making Wiglaf Beowulf's first cousin.43But
interpreting Ecgtheow and Weohstan as brothers adds new difficulties.
Wiglaf (or his father-the sentence is syntactically ambiguous) is "leod
Scylfinga" (2603b) (man or prince of the Scylfings), that is, a Swede.44
If Weohstan was a Swede, then his brother Ecgtheow was also. In this
scenario, Beowulf would be half Swedish - an extremely unlikely situation.45Beowulf tells Hygelac "ic lyt hafo / heafodmaga, nefne Hygelac,
42 Klaeber believed there to be two branches of the Waegmundings, one Geatish, one
Swedish, with Beowulf and his father Ecgtheow part of the former, and with Wiglaf and
his father Weohstan part of the latter (Beowulf, xliv).
43 Wild, "Beowulf und die Wagmundinge," ModerneSprachenSchriftenreihe6 (1961): 17.
44 Klaeber, ed., Beowulf,493.
45 If Ecgtheow were a Waegmunding, Norman E. Eliason writes, "Beowulf would be
half-Swedish-an unthinkable or even ridiculous state of affairs in a poem depicting him
as the hero of the Geats and the Geats and Swedes as implacable enemies"; Eliason then
argues that because the Waegmunding connection "was not through Beowulf's father and
could not have been through his mother, it must be sought through some other relative.
These considerations lead us to expect that the connection was through Beowulf's sister,
who we must accordingly suppose became the wife of Weohstan, the Waegmunding, and
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Michael D. C. Drout
217
bec" (215ob-51) (I have no close kin except you, Hygelac), seeming to
rule out the existence of a sister or a nephew.' If Beowulf and Wiglaf are not uncle and nephew, but they are both Waegmundings,what
exactly is theirrelationship?Of all seven possible reconstructionsof the
Waegmundingfamily tree, only Wild's final example best explains the
particularsof the situation:"Lehntman die Annahme einer Schwester
oder GattingBeowulfs ab,so bleibt immerhindie Moglichkeit,mit einer
Schwester Ecgpeows zu rechnen und die Geschwister als Kinder Aelfhereszu betrachten"(Ifwe give up the supposition of a sister or spouse
of Beowulf, there is still the possibility of counting a sister of Ecgtheow
and of consideringthe brothersand sisters to be the childrenof )Elfhere)
(see figure 1).47
/Elfhereis mentioned as a kinsman of Wiglaf and Weohstan in line
2604a.We know nothing else about him. If Wild's genealogical table is
correct,Wiglaf would be Beowulf's first cousin once removed. According to Lancaster,individuals with this blood relationshipwere not considered partof an individual'simmediatekin group.48These remote kin
did not generallyinheriteithertitle or position. It was possible for there
the mother of Weohstan's son Wiglaf. Wiglaf is therefore Beowulf's nephew" ("Beowulf,
Wiglaf and the Wegmundings," Anglo-Saxon England 7 [19781: 1o0).
46 Eliason writes, "though seeming to deny the existence of a sister or nephew, [the passage] actually does not, for at that time Wiglaf would presumably not yet have been born,
and the term used, heafodmagas,signifying 'royal relatives,' I believe, rather than 'close
relatives,' would properly exclude Beowulf's sister, who was not royal by birth or by marriage. Besides, it is doubtful that in such family reckonings a woman would have figured
at all" ("Beowulf,Wiglaf," 101 n.i). Although there is significant special pleading required
for this argument, a very similar reading was put forward independently by Rolf Bremmer, who shows that when nephews or sisters' sons are mentioned in Bede's Ecclesiastical
and TheBattleofMaldon,the text is silent as to the name
Chronicle,
History,TheAnglo-Saxon
of their mothers. He thus argues that in this regard and in this way the uncle-nephew bond
is dramatized: "Beowulf employs everyday notions, but also transfers them to a higher
level." According to Bremmer, the special relationship between the mother's brother and
his nephew "functions in the poem as a mirror to the bond between the father's brother
... and the brother's son ... the one is always positive, the other is troubled" ("The Importance of Kinship," 23-28, 36). Hrothulf's relationship to Hrothgar's sons is that of the
father's brother. Both Bremmer and Eliason suggest that the uncle-nephew bond of Sigemund and Fitela is analogous to that of Beowulf and Wiglaf (Bremmer, "The Importance
of Kinship," 28-29; Eliason, "Beowulf, Wiglaf," 96-97), but it is unclear how much of the
Norse story of Sigemund was known by the Anglo-Saxon poet. In the Old Norse legend,
Sinfiotli (Fitela) is, because of Sigemund's incestuous relationship with his sister Signy,
both son and nephew to Sigemund (Klaeber, ed., Beowulf, 158-61). Such a blood relationship, if known to the Beowulfpoet, thoroughly complicates the suggested parallel between
the two pairs of warriors.
47 Wild, "Beowulf und die Wegmundinge," 20.
48Lancaster, "Kinship I," 236-38.
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BloodandDeeds
218
jElfhere
Hrethel's daughter + Ecgtheow
Daughter + Waegmund
Beowulf
Weohstan
I
Wiglaf
Figure i. Beowulf'skinshipwith Wiglaf.49
to be relationships of friendship between distant cousins, but these relationships were based on proximity and affinity, not blood.' Wiglaf does
not possess the requisite bloodline to inherit Beowulf's throne. When
it comes to kingly inheritance, as far as Beowulf himself is concerned,
deeds are not enough. Through deeds, a nephew can become like a son.
Through deeds, a first cousin once removed can become like a nephew.
But the transitive property does not apply to succession politics in the
cultural world of Beowulf. A first cousin once removed, no matter how
valorous, cannot overcome his weakness in blood through superior performance in deeds. He cannot advance as far as the position of son to
successfully inherit. When Wiglaf is the only surviving family member, Hrethel's dynasty and the Geatish kingdom ends. Deeds are not
enough.
GENDER AND INHERITANCE
Hybrid inheritance by both blood and deeds is essential in the cultural
world of Beowulf, but the relative proportions of blood or deeds necessary to inherit is contested within Beowulf's culture; different institutions and different social positions benefit from different ratios of blood
and deeds. Although every individual can be seen as having some particular blend of blood and deeds from which he or she might most effectively benefit, we can also note that various groups within the culture
will have broadly similar desiderata as to the most beneficial proportion of blood to deeds. The most important of these major divisions of
inheritance interests in Beowulf is between men and women. A char49 Adapted from Wild, "Beowulf und die Wagmundinge,"
50 Lancaster, "Kinship II," 362-63.
20.
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Michael D. C. Drout
219
acter's gender as constructed within the poem's system of gender ideology determines to a great extent the types of inheritances he or she
may influence or participate in. As is most clearly demonstrated by
Wealhtheow's reactions to Hrothgar's attempted adoption of Beowulf,
(which has been called "astonishing" and "unsettling"),5"women in Beowulf have a much greater stake in inheritance by blood than they do in
inheritance by deeds. After the queen counsels Hrothgar to leave the
kingdom to his kinsmen, she proposes a protector for the kingdom if
Hrothgar has the misfortune of dying before his oldest son can take the
throne:
gledne HroPulf,
arum healdan,
wine Scildinga,
wene ic Pat he mid gode
uncraneafteran,
hwaetwit to willan
umborwesendumar
Hweaf pa bi bence,
HreOricond Hro0mund,
giogoOaetgaedere;
Beowulf Geata
Ic minne can
taet he pa geogo0e wile
gyf Pu er tonne he,
worold oflaetest;
gyldan wille
gif he Paeteal gemon,
ond to worOmyndum
arnagefremedon.
Pere hyre byre waeron,
ond haelepabearn,
Paerse goda saet,
be Pem gebrobrumtwaem.
(ll8ob-90)
[Ii know that my kind Hrothulfwill rule in kindness the younger troop,
if you, friendof the Scyldings,relinquishthe world before him. I expect
that he wishes to pay with goodness our heirs, if he remembersall the
honors that we two gave him for his desires and glory when he was a
child."Then she turnedback to the bench where their sons were,
Hrethricand Hrothmund,and the childrenof the warriors,the youth all
together.There the braveone, Beowulf of the Geats,sat by the two
brothers.]
Wealhtheow's apparent desire to put forth Hrothulf as an alternate
heir or protector has provoked much controversy. Most historical critics of Beowulf have linked Hrothulf with the Scandinavian figure Roluo described by Saxo Grammaticus. Chambers sums up the argument
thus: "Hrethric is ... almost certainly an actual historic prince who was
thrust from the throne by Hrothulf," who was the nephew, rather than
51 Helen Damico, Beowulf's Wealhtheowand the ValkyrieTradition(Madison: University
of Wisconsin Press, 1984), 127.
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BloodandDeeds
the son, of Hrothgar.52Klaebersuggests that lines io18, 1164, 1178, and
1228 all point to treacheryby Hrothulf,and that it is "verylikely" that
Hrothulfusurped the throne.53If this is the case, Hrothulf,unlike Beowulf, jumpedhis place in the line of successionand took the throneafter
the death of his uncle. Thus, with the benefit of literary and historical
hindsight (which, presumably,the poet possessed) Wealhtheow'sinsistence upon him as protectorfor her sons seems at the least ill fated, if
not foolish.-4Sisam, however, has pointed out the difficultiesin this interpretation,coming to the conclusionthat too much has been read into
the possible conflictbetween Hrothgarand Hrothulfand thatthe line in
question means "thegood pairof kinsmenwere still together(whenBeowulf visitedHeorot)."s5
This analysis suggests that Wealhtheow'sinsistence upon Hrothulfas a proper heir for Hrothgaris neither "ironical"
nor "pathetic."'
It is still surprising,however.But it can be betterexplainedby recognizing the position of women within the blood and deeds inheritance
system57and arguing that Wealhtheow'sgender interestsin the system
52
Chambers, Beowulf:An Introduction,26-27.
53 Klaeber, ed., Beowulf, xxxii.
54 The failure of Hrethric or Hrothmund to inherit is a complex argument based on
much inference. The relevant lines are 1163-65: "Pwr pa godan twegen / saton suhterfaederan; pa gyt waes hiera sib atgadere / aghwylc obrum trywe" (there those two good
ones sat, uncle and nephew; then yet was their friendship together, each to the other true).
Much hangs on the interpretation of "gyt": does it just mean "then," or is there an implication that at some later time there was not "sib" between Hrothgar and Hrothulf?
Saxo Grammaticus's statement (taken from the lost Bjarkamdl)that Roluo (Hrothulf) slew
R0ricus (Hrethric) seems to lend credence to the theory that Hrothulf will usurp Hrethric's throne; see Chambers, Beowulf:An Introduction,25-27. But whether or not the poet
and the audience knew these stories and had them in mind is a very difficult question.
That the poet suggests that Heorot will one day be destroyed by fire (81-85) has been
taken to substantiate this line of argument, but the evidence is still ambiguous.
55Sisam writes, "Everything hangs on the meaning of pa gyt wes hiera sib aetgaedere.
It
can be explained as an allusion to a final breach between Hrothgar and Hrothulf. Yet nothing is known of such a quarrel: that it was about succession is a guess, not to be found in
medieval sources. And there is a possible alternative. Suppose that, as the Widsith reference suggests, the names of Hrothgar and Hrothulf called to mind a long harmonious cooperation, strong enough to break Ingeld's attack on Heorot, rather than its dissolution.
Then the clause could mean 'the good pair of kinsmen were still together (when Beowulf
visited Heorot).'This supposition may seem relatively uninteresting; but it has the advantage of dispensing with a story built up in modern time on very slight foundations" (The
Structureof Beowulf [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965], 80-82).
56 Kemp Malone, "Hrethric," PMLA 42 (1927): 269-71.
57 Damico argues that it would be "understandable" for Wealhtheow to support her
sons Hrethric and Hrothmund by preventing Beowulf from becoming a legitimate heir
(Beowulf's Wealhtheow,126). But Wealhtheow promotes her nephew, Hrothulf, to whom
she is related only by marriage. Other critics have read Wealhtheow as sponsoring
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MichaelD. C. Drout
221
of inheritanceby blood overshadow any desire to protect the rights of
her nephew by marriage.It is hardly problematicto guess that Wealhtheow's first loyalty was probablyto her sons. They are, as best we can
tell, by far her closest kin in Heorot, and the mother-sonbond does not
seem to have been absentfrom Anglo-Saxonculture.-`Wealhtheow,we
may safely speculate, would support Hrethricand Hrothmundfor the
throneif there were any chance of them succeeding to it and surviving,
if they were legitimate in terms of deeds.59But if the two boys are too
young to succeed when Hrothgar dies, Wealhtheow,since she apparently could not take the throne herself, like Hygd, would have to support someone to take Hrothgar'splace. Her apparentchoice of Hrothulf
over Beowulf suggests that the system of inheritanceby blood is more
importantto her than a system of inheritanceby deeds.
At the time of Wealhtheow'sspeech, Beowulf has proven himself by
deeds. He has defeated Grendel, a feat previously beyond the powers
of all of the Danes, including Hrothulf.However, while Wealhtheowis
pleased to welcome Beowulf to Heorot, she clearly does not want him
to become an heir to Hrothgar,demonstratingher "loyalty to Hrothulf
Hrothulf as protector until either Hrethric or Hrothmund is old enough to assume the
throne; in her speech, she is warning Hrothulf to respect the future rights of his cousins
(see George Clark, Beowulf [Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1ggol, 87). But, Damico notes,
"there is no substantive or formal indication in the speech to suggest that the queen regards the youngsters as future rulers or kings" (Beowulf's Wealhtheow,126-27). Indeed,
within the world of the poem there is no suggestion that a king may relinquish the throne
if a relative with a superior bloodline claim reaches majority. Beowulf himself refuses to
take the throne of the Geats while Heardred is alive (2367-78). Damico argues that "rather
than being an appeal, [Wealhtheow's] speech is closer to a proclamation of proper action."
By supporting Hrothulf, the queen casts herself in the role not only of aunt, but "auntmother," seeking to protect "her nephew-son's legal claim to the throne" from any challenge that might be justified by Hrothgar's adoption of Beowulf (Beowulf's Wealhtheow,
129-31). It is important when reading this section of the poem not to allow kinship to
overshadow all other possible reasons for a character's actions. Wealhtheow may have
preferred Hrothulf's succession for any number of reasons not directly related to his relationship to Hrothgar. If in fact the Anglo-Saxon audience would have recognized Hrothulf
as possessing many of the same characteristics as the Scandinavian hero Rolf Kraki, then
they might have seen Wealhtheow's preference as entirely reasonable and based (albeit
anachronistically) upon the great deeds Hrothulf would later accomplish.
5 This fact is evidenced most obviously by Hildeburh: when she consigned her sons
to the funeral pyre, "ides gnornode, geomrode giddum" (the woman mourned, lamented
with song) (1ll7b-18a).
59 Hill argues that Wealhtheow "vigorously remindls] Hrothgar of his duties" to the
two boys and suggests that her actions work to bind the men in the warband together "in
horizontal reciprocity" (Cultural World,101-3). Mary Dockray-Miller argues that Wealhtheow does not in fact want her own sons to succeed to the throne because they would be
likely to be killed if either assumed the kingship (Motherhoodand Motheringin Anglo-Saxon
England [New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000l, 106-14).
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BloodandDeeds
that supersedes the queen's profound indebtedness to Beowulf."' But
Beowulf has only earned Wealhtheow's loyalty by deeds; Hrothulf is
linked by blood, albeit indirectly. Although Hrothulf is not directly a
blood relation of Wealhtheow, he is a blood relation (first cousin) to her
sons.6"Wealhtheow is thus supporting the law of inheritance by blood.
Although this inheritance is indeed blended (in that nephews and other
kin, otherwise worthy by deeds, can inherit), Hrothgar's attempted
adoption of Beowulf has gone beyond the system's limits. Wealhtheow
insists de minimis on a hybrid inheritance of blood and deeds.
Wealhtheow works to reestablish these limits because a system of
inheritance with a substantial blood component is the only system in
which a female character is individually significant in the cultural world
of Beowulf.She attempts to preserve the system by supporting Hrothulf
not in a short-sighted attempt to hold on to her own political power in
the Danish nation (she does not, after all, say that she expects Hrothulf
to be kind to her, only to her sons) but as a defense of the cultural structures within which and by which her identity is constituted and her
autonomy preserved. Wealhtheow is able to influence the behavior of
men in Heorot. For example, she gives the great necklace to Beowulf
and attempts to change Hrothgar's mind through public statements.62
She can exercise this power because she possesses a certain social position-a result of her function as a mother and spouse-in the system
of inheritance by blood. Although Wealhtheow's very name (which can
be translated as "foreign captive")' suggests exchange or seizure, unlike Hildeburh or Freawaru she does not appear to weld together two
disparate families."4Her peace-weaving is directed at violence in gen60 Damico, Beowulf's Wealhtheow,127.
61 As both Damico and Hill have noted, Wealhtheow is, like Beowulf, a strong supporter of law and custom. According to Damico, Wealhtheow's actions "have clearly indicated her full awareness of and adherence to the concepts of royal honor and generosity"
(Beowulf's Wealhtheow,127). Or, as Hill puts it, Wealhtheow's speech and actions work to
preserve the social bonds of the comitatus through her "strong-minded" support of the
bonds of kinship (Cultural World,101-3).
62 In discussing the Finnsburg episode, Irving states that "men can at least draw up
treaties, they can act in some way, however foolishly, but women can only see and suffer."
He thus reads "adefeat of Wealhtheow's impassioned expectations" as inevitable (Rereading Beowulf, 140-41). But, as Damico and Hill both note, Wealhtheow's political skills are
not limited to the merely ceremonial or incantatory powers discussed by Irving (Beowulf's
Wealhtheow;Cultural World).
63 Klaeber notes that wealh can mean either "Celtic" (i.e., "Welsh") or "foreign," and
peow may mean "captive" or "carried off in war" (Beowulf,440).
64 Luce Irigaray claims that women receive their value in a society or culture only insofar as they are exchanged among men. This exchange of women creates both culture and
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MichaelD. C. Drout
223
eral ratherthan violence between any two warring family groups, and
it is accomplished through her use of language ratherthan the physical exchange of her body.' But this social identity is predicated upon
Wealhtheow'spairingwith Hrothgarand her participationin the king's
dynasty.She is called "cwenHroogares"(613a)(Hrothgar'squeen), and
"idesSycldinga"(i168b) (lady of the Scyldings).When she speaks of her
desire to have Hrothulf protect her sons she uses dual case pronouns,
"uncran"(1185a)(of our two) and "wit"(W86a)(we two),bindingherself
and Hrothgartogetheras one and, more importantly,emphasizingthat
Hrethric and Hrothmund are the product of them both. Wealhtheow
has produced heirs of Hrothgar'sbody, and without her therewould be
no inheritanceby blood. The conditions for successful peace-weaving
requirethe creationof heirs,as is seen both fromWealhtheow'ssuccessful performanceof this role and the failures of Hildeburh and Hrothgar's daughter Freawaru:before the queen can speak the language of
weaving, she must produce sons for the king.
The queen's interest, therefore, lies in the maintenance of the system from which she derives her personal value, power, and identity. A
system of inheritancepurely by deeds threatensWealhtheow'sidentity
not only because it eliminates the necessity for her specific and personal contributionto the Danish dynasty, but also because the bonds
thatwould be createdbetween Beowulf and Hrothgarare not mediated
through a woman. Similarly,a system of inheritance solely by deeds
would reduce the power of the queen in the royal court. Women's reproductive capabilities would remain necessary for the warrior band
even if the system of blood inheritancewere not hybridizedwith inheritance by deeds. But in such a system no specificwoman would be neces-
sary.' If a king may merely choose his successor from among a pool of
identity through such rules as the incest taboo and its inculcation in the consciousness
of the individual (This Sex WhichIs Not One, trans. Catherine Porter with Carolyn Burke
[Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 19851, 170-76).
(5 Gillian Overing, Language, Sign and Gender in Beowulf (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1990), 88-go. It is of course possible that the exchange of her body
may have solved other crises of violence that are not a part of the poem, a point Overing makes when she notes that Wealhtheow "embodies" her function as peace-weaver.
Wealhtheow's identity in Beowulfarises from her actions to bind together individual men
in a homosocial bond. By passing the cup from one warrior to another she links them to
Hrothgar through herself (97).
66 This would be the system described by Gayle Rubin in "The Traffic in Women: Notes
on the Political Economy of Sex," in Towardan Anthropologyof Women,ed. Rayna R. Reiter
(New York: Monthly Review Press, 1975), 157-210. Note that Rubin's system does not in
fact exist in the poem but is a possible telos of Hrothgar's actions that Wealhtheow, appar-
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BloodandDeeds
224
heroes validated only by their deeds, he need not concernhimself with
the blood origin of each man. Blood lineage becomes unimportant,and
as fares blood lineage, so fare women in the culturalworld of Beowulf.
In her efforts to prevent the inclusion of Beowulf in the line of succession, Wealhtheowis in fact aligned with the hero himself.Using her
political and social skills, she tries to convince Hrothgarto rescind his
offer of synthetic kinship.Beowulf also must use considerablepolitical
dexterity in order to avoid offending Hrothgarwhile simultaneously
refusing the offer of adoption and thus maintaining his loyalty to his
own blood-kin, Hygelac and the Geats.67Hill's analysis of Beowulf as
the juristic warrior,the ethically conscious figure who is always just
and whose actions are always rightful,explains why Beowulf supports
the already-existing inheritance system that requires both deeds and
blood." James Earl identifies Beowulf as an "ego-ideal,"a representation of what the audience of the poem found to be lawful, valorous,
The system of inheritancethat Beoand excellent, but unattainable.69
wulf supports is thereforevalued by the culturethatproduced Beowulf,
and Wealhtheow'ssupport for this system suggests that she is fulfilling
her role in the culture in the same ideal fashionas Beowulf. For all participants in the warriorband, hybridized inheritanceis the way things
ought to be. The identities of both men and women are jeopardizedif
the rules of inheritanceare changed.WhenHrothgargraspsat the straw
of inheritancethroughdeeds only, he obviates the necessity to produce
strongsons and calls into question the two-level so importantto the culture.The strong reactions of both Wealhtheowand Beowulf to Hrothgar's attemptto escape the constraintsof hybridinheritancesillustrates
that these constraintsare in some way essential to the society imagined
by the Beowulfpoet. The constraintsof heroic civilizationare integralto
heroic identity.
THE TRAGEDY OF THE INHERITANCE
SYSTEM
But herein lies a central paradoxof the cultural world of Beowulfand a
contradictionfrom which much of the tragedy of the poem arises. Inheritance with too strong an emphasis on blood cannot provide longently, fears. Women, in the feared system that does not actually exist, would be Irigarayan
"commodities" (Irigaray, This Sex, 192-97).
67 Hill, Cultural World,1oo.
68Ibid., 63.
69
Earl, Thinkingabout Beowulf, 181-82.
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Michael D. C. Drout
225
term security.A single sterile father,or one who through sheer chance
does not produce sons (and whose sisters, if they exist, do not produce nephews), or one who reproduces too late in life, or whose son is
killed, can bring a line to an end. Blood-basedinheritance(even if the
inheritanceis not entirely blood-based) creates a noble, heroic society
by controllingwithin-group violence. But the requirementthat inheritance have some blood component leads inexorablyto extinction.70It is
only a matterof time-although perhaps significantquantities of time
when the blood requirementis relatively weak-before the thread is
broken.7"
The great limitationof heroic civilization is that heroes and their lineages, children,greathalls, and treasureswill all pass from the earth.To
reconstructinheritancesolely in the form of deeds, as Hrothgar'sand
Beowulf's failed attempts show, is impossible in the cultural world of
Beowulf.The necessity of inheritanceby bothblood and deeds is an inextricablepart of the absolute juristiccharacterof the hero who serves
as the ego-ideal throughoutthe poem. Inheritancein Beowulfcannot be
either/or; it must be both/and. However, in insisting upon both/and,
the culture of the poem ensures its own eventual destruction.72Even
before the dragonworks Beowulf's death and the end of his people, the
poet has depicted the ultimate failure of inheritance:
arran maelum,
Eallehie dead fornam
ond se an Oagen
70Assuming some (however small) finite chance of a blood lineage coming to an end at
some generational boundary, it is literally only a matter of time until a biological lineage
is broken. Mathematically, the proof may be expressed thus:
1
P(to) = 1 - eOP p =-r lim P(t) = 1,
t -+ co
where P is equal to the probability of the event occurring, t is equal to a unit time, and
tau is equal to i divided by the probability per unit time. As time increases to infinity, the
probability of the event occurring (the lineage ending) increases to 1 in an exponential
manner. I am grateful to Andrew C. E. Reid for his assistance on this point.
71 But while "patrilineal genealogy cannot guarantee the continuity of kingly life...
it is the only institution available" (Clare A. Lees, "Men and Beowulf," in Medieval Masculinities: RegardingMen in the Middle Ages, ed. Clare A. Lees [Minneapolis: Minnesota
University Press, 1994], 141-42).
72 Overing argues that the ultimate expression of the masculine ethos of Beowulfcan be
encapsulated in the statement "I will do this or I will die" (Language,Sign and Gender,70).
Such a statement is a both/and rather than either/or construction: either the hero will accomplish the task and live, or he will fail and die. Beowulf's victory over the dragon, then,
may be a transcendence of this oppositional structure, or it may be its ultimate fulfillment,
since Beowulf's success and death leads to the failure of his people.
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Bloodand Deeds
226
leoda dugube,
weard winegeomor,
Paet he lytel faec
brucan moste.
se baerlengest hwearf,
wende baes ylcan,
longgestreona
(2236b-41a)
[Deathtook them all at previous times, and now the one who remained
from the warrior-troopof the people, who longest remained,the guard
mourningfor friends,expected the same thing-that he might enjoy only
for a little time the ancient riches.l
The last survivor of the ancient race, who consigns the treasures of
his people to the barrow where the dragon will find them, laments for
the failure of noble, aristocratic institutions to reproduce themselves.
The sword and cup will not be lifted; the helmet and corslet will rust
away unpolished; the harp will be silent; the hawk will not fly through
the hall; the horse will not ride through the settlement (2252b-65a). This
is all a synecdoche for the tragedy at the heart of Beowulf.The poet's
view is tragic not because Beowulf could have done anything differently to have saved his people (if not the dragon, then old age or some
other foe would have ended his reign). And the tragedy is not only that
he died without an heir. Rather, the tragedy of the cultural world of
Beowulf is that it inevitably will end through the failure of inheritance.
No system can be eternal. Blood-only replication leads to extinction.
Deeds-only replication leads to uncontrollable violence. Hybrid inheritance is better, but in the end it fails also. There is no escape from the
social system, because the system defines individual identity. And yet
the constitution of the system leads inexorably to its own destruction.
The silent barrow evinces the failure of life and lineage that haunts the
poem, the poet, and the culture.73
WheatonCollege,Norton,MA
73 I would like to thank Allen J. Frantzen for all of his help with this article. A version of
this essay was presented at the 1999 Modern Language Association meeting. Thanks also
to Helen Damico, Kathryn Powell, Teresa MacNamara, the students in my senior seminar
in 1999, and my colleagues in Wheaton's English department.
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