The Four Funerals in Beowulf; And the Structure of the Poem

by Gale R. Owen-Crocker

• ISBN13: 9780719054976
• ISBN10: 0719054974
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2000-11-18
• Publisher: Manchester University Press

Summary

The old English poem "Beowulf" begins and ends with funerals and includes the third as a digression part of the way through. Now, for the first time, a fourth funeralhitherto disguised as poetic imageryis identified from archaeological evidence. A detailed analysis of the four funerals establishes their thematic and structural importance, revealing them as pillars around which the poem is built.

Author Biography

Gale R. Owen-Crocker is Senior Lecturer in English Language at the University of Manchester.

Table of Contents

List of figures	vi
Acknowledgements	viii
Introduction	1	(8)
Part one: The four funerals	9	(122)
The first funeral: Scyld Scefing's ship of death	11	(32)
The second funeral: the cremation of Hildeburg's kin	43	(18)
The third funeral: the Last Survivor's lament	61	(24)
The fourth funeral: Beowulf's complex obsequies	85	(29)
Classicising the past	114	(17)
Part two: The funerals and the structure of the poem	131	(110)
Rings and fitts	133	(25)
The funerals and elliptical structures I: the inner funerals as frames	158	(20)
The funerals and elliptical structures II: the outer structures	178	(24)
The funerals and elliptical structures III: the funerals as centres	202	(15)
Coexistent structures: three movements and a coda: Beowulf's feminist middle; elements and seasons	217	(17)
Conclusions	234	(7)
Bibliography	241	(14)
Index	255