¹ The older theories are reviewed by Chambers, R. W, Beowulf, An Introduction (Cambridge 1932) 121–8. Chadwick, H. M., The Growth of Literature (Cambridge 1932) I, 552-61, defends a somewhat more sophisticated form of the older theory.Google Scholar

² E.g., Lawrence, W. W***, Beowulf and Epic Tradition (Cambridge, Mass. 1930) 9.Google Scholar

³ E.g., Kennedy, C. W***, Beowulf, the Oldest English Epic (Oxford 1940) liv.Google Scholar

⁴ Even Fr. Klaeber, whose detailed investigations led him to the conclusion that ‘the Christian elements are almost without exception so deeply ingrained in the very fabric of the poem that they cannot be explained away as the work of a reviser or later interpolator’ (Beowulf, 3rd ed. Boston 1941, p. l), constantly speaks of the ‘Christian coloring’ of the poem. Chambers (“Beowulf,’ in Man's Unconquerable Mind, London 1939) declares that ‘the whole spirit of Beowulf is Christian’ (p. 61) but nonetheless feels that ‘the combination of Christian and heathen elements’ is ‘sometimes incongruous’ (p. 62).Google Scholar

⁵ Tolkien, J. R. R., “Beowulf : the Monsters and the Critics,’ Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture, 1936, reprinted from Proceedings of the British Academy 22.Google Scholar

⁶ Ibid. 22.Google Scholar

⁷ Op. cit. 281.Google Scholar

⁸ Op. cit. li.Google Scholar

⁹ Beowulf, An Introduction 126–7.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Op. cit. 24.Google Scholar

¹¹ Op. cit. 556–7.Google Scholar

¹² He said ‘se non posse carere consortio praedecessorum suorum et cum parvo numero sedere in caelesti regno.’ See Annales Xantenses, ad ann. 718 (MGH, SS 2, 221) and cf. Plummer's note in Ven. Baedae Opera historica (Oxford 1896) II, 289. A Chinese Jesuit now in the United States tells of his pagan relatives that, when told that their salvation would be in danger if they did not embrace Christianity, they said they preferred to be with their ancestors in hell rather than separated from them in heaven.Google Scholar

¹³ So Chadwick, , op. cit. 556 n.4, believes. While he was of a gentler temperament than Alcuin, Bede does represent the same severe Augustinian tradition. Like Augustine himself, however, he recognizes the possibility of salvation for some outside the Judaeo-Christian tradition. See Thomas, Sister M. Carroll, Aquin, The Venerable Bede: His Spiritual Teachings (Washington 1946) 77. Bede, too, permits himself a certain qualified admiration for the pagan Bernician king, Aedilfrid, and compares him — significantly — to Saul, , ‘excepto dumtaxat hoc, quod divinae erat religionis ignarus’ (Hist. eccl. 1.34). Cf. infra, note 71.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Born c. 735 and educated in the monastic school at York, Alcuin did not go to Charlemagne's court until 780. See Kleinclausz, A., Alcuin (Paris 1948) 18, 38. Most modern investigators date Beowulf around the year 700. See the survey of recent opinions in Elizabeth Martin-Clarke, D., Culture in Early Anglo-Saxon England (Baltimore 1947) 49-52.Google Scholar

¹⁵ The relevant passage from Alcuin's often cited letter to Higbald, Bishop of Lindisfarne, is as follows (MGH, Epist. Karol. Aevi, 2, 183) : ‘Verba Dei legantur in sacerdotali convivio. Ibi decet lectorem audiri non citharistam; sermones patrum, non carmina gentilium. Quid Hinieldus cum Christo? Angusta est domus; utrosque tenere non poterit. Rex ille aeternus regnat in caelis; ille paganus perditus plangit in inferno.’ Google Scholar

¹⁶ Hamilton, Marie Padgett, ‘The Religious Principle in ‘Beowulf’,’ PMLA 61 (1946) 309–30.Google Scholar

¹⁷ See, e.g., De civ. dei 15.18: ‘Et Seth, inquit, natus est filius, et nominavit nomen eius Enos: hic speravit invocare nomen domini Dei. Nempe clamat attestatio veritatis. In spe igitur vivit homo filius resurrectionis : in spe vivit, quamdiu peregrinatur hic Civitas Dei, quae gignitur ex fide resurrectionis Christi.’ Google Scholar

¹⁸ This is noted by Tolkien, , op. cit. 41.Google Scholar

¹⁹ See infra, note 75.Google Scholar

²⁰ We are, of course, not concerned with the explicit doctrine of Augustine nor with the implications that might be drawn out of it by an accomplished theologian. It might not be out of place to mention here, however, that the reconciliation referred in the text might perhaps be based on two considerations: (1) Augustine teaches that the grace necessary for salvation is given to some outside the Judaeo-Christian tradition. Such was certainly the case with Job, and it may be, Augustine adds, that we are providentially informed of Job so that we may know that among other peoples there could have been (esse potuisse) men who belonged to the Spiritual Jerusalem (De civ. dei 18.47). This passage can be used to open the Celestial Jerusalem to large numbers of mankind outside the Judaeo-Christian tradition without doing violence to Augustinian theology. Cf. Thomas Aquinas, St., Summa theol. 2-2.2.7, which represents a stage on the way to a broader interpretation. (2) Augustine had a keen humanistic appreciation of the greatness of man's intellect and accomplishments even in his fallen state. He admires the art of the citizens of the civitas terrena and even the ingenuity displayed by heretics and pagan philosophers in defense of false opinions (De civ. dei 22.24). A civilization that was heathen and hopeless could, therefore, be noble, but intellectually rather than morally noble. It might be suggested that Dante, who shares with the albeit on a far more sophisticated level, the vision of the third city, uses both devices suggested by Augustine to reconcile this vision with the Christian scheme. Some few citizens of the third city are really, by grace, citizens of the Celestial Jerusalem, benefitting, like Job, from a special revelation. Of these the type is Riphaeus who ‘per grazia che da sì profonda / Fontana stilla, che mai creatura / Non pinse l'occhio infino alla prim’ onda, / Tutto suo amor laggiù pose a drittura; / Per che, di grazia in grazia, Dio gli aperse / L'occhio alla nostra redenzion futura. / Ond'ei credette in quella ' (Paradiso 20. 118-124). Most of the third city, however, is condemned along with the rest of the civitas terrena. But, since they had manifested the grandeur of human nature, Vergil explains to Dante, , ‘l'onrata nominanza / Che di lor suona su nella tua vita / Grazia acquista nel ciel ’ (Inferno 4.76-8), so that, although without hope and for ever deprived of the Beatific Vision, they enjoy light, natural beauty, and a natural happiness in a noble castle in Limbo (Inferno 4.106). It is well to remember, however, that in arriving at this solution of the problem of the third city — at once poetically adequate and in accord with Augustine's thought (or at least not doing violence to it) — Dante had the benefit of the whole tradition of medieval humanist thinking and particularly of St. Thomas. That the bare text of Augustine would have suggested anything of the sort to an eighth-century barbarian is, in my opinion, very improbable.Google Scholar

²¹ The question of how the ideas treated below, natural good, natural law, and the natural knowledge of God, came to Ireland I hope to consider elsewhere in the light of a more detailed presentation of the Irish material, only a small portion of which is presented here.Google Scholar

²² ‘Et invenit eos porcinarius cuiusdam viri natura boni licet gentilis, cui nomen erat Dichu.’ See ‘Notes by Muirchu maccu Machtheni,’ ed. Stokes, W. in The Tripartite Life of Patrick (London 1887) II, 269–300, at p. 275. On the date of Muirchu's notes see Kenney, James F., The Sources for the Early History of Ireland, Vol. I, Ecclesiastical (New York 1929) 332.Google Scholar

²³ Ed. Reeves, W, The Life of St. Columba (Dublin and Edinburgh 1857). Reeves's text is reproduced by Fowler, J. T., Adamnani Vita Columbae (Oxford 1894), from which I quote.Google Scholar

²⁴ 1.33.Google Scholar

²⁵ 3.14.Google Scholar

²⁶ For a recent survey of the field, see Binchy, D. A., “The Linguistic and Historical Value of the Irish Law Tracts,’ Proceedings of the British Academy 29 (1943) 195–227.Google Scholar

²⁷ Although this text is of great interest as a meeting point of Christianity and the native legal tradition, it has never been subjected to a detailed study, and only very tentative suggestions can be made as to its date and origin. The original treatise must have been in existence before the great collection of legal texts known as the Senchas Mar, ‘The Great Body of Tradition,’ was compiled, for it was incorporated in that collection. Thurneysen, , Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie (=ZfcP) 16 (1927) 186, assigns the original preface of the Senchas Mar to the eighth century. MacNeill, , Studies 13 (1924) 179, expresses the opinion that the Corus Bescna was composed in the second half of the seventh century. In a forthcoming study, I hope to offer detailed substantiation for my opinion that the Patrician material (including all the passages quoted in this paper) was not part of the original treatise but goes back to glosses and commentaries added during the second half of the eighth century, the ninth century, and perhaps later. Some (but not all) of the Patrician material contains linguistic archaisms that point to the seventh or early eighth century (cf. note 41 below). This portion of the material must, if my assumption is correct, have existed in written form elsewhere prior to its incorporation in Corus Bescna. The text of Corus Bescna with an unsatisfactory translation is published in Ancient Laws of Ireland (Dublin 1865–1901) III, 2-78. The oldest MS (14th century), which contains most of the text, including all the passages cited here, is available in a collotype facsimile published by the Irish Manuscripts Commission, Oldest Fragments of the Senchas Mar (Dublin 1931). The Irish text for the above passage (Facsimile p. 48, col. 2) is as follows: ‘Recht aicnig robai la firu erind co tiachtain creitme i naimsir laegaire mic neil isan aimsir side tanic patraic is iar credem do feraib erend do patraicc coneirgedtha in da recht racht naicnig ocus racht litre.’ Google Scholar

²⁸ coneirgedtha: an obscure and probably corrupt form. As Atkinson (glossary to Ancient Laws, s.v. airgim) suggests, it is probably connected with the root reg-, ‘to bind,’ and intended to be a preterit perfect plural passive. The old preterit perfect passive to con-rig was con-arracht (pl. con-arrachta) but later forms, con-airged, con-airiged, in which the verb has gone over to the weak conjugation, occur. As plural to these later forms, one would expect something like *con-airigthea. Of some such form con-eirgedtha may be a corruption. Parallels for the variation between air- and eir- exist. Speculation as to the grounds for the scribe's confusion about the ending is perhaps vain.Google Scholar

²⁹ recht litre, the law of the letter, means in a general way Holy Scripture or ecclesiastical law derived from Scripture.Google Scholar

³⁰ Facsimile p. 49, col. 2 : ‘robo coir racht aicnid uile acht cretem ocus a coir’ Google Scholar

³¹ Fili, pl. filid, one of a class of learned native poets.Google Scholar

³² Fascimile p. 49, col. 2: ‘Ata mara a recht aicnid ro siachtatar nad rocht racht litre Do arfein didiu dubtach do patraic ni nad udcaid fri breithir nde a racht litre ocus fri cuibse na creisen conairiged a nord mbretheman la heclais ocus filida.’ Google Scholar

³³ Presumably the law. I assume an original da-arfein with infixed neuter pronoun. On recht as a neuter see Pedersen, , Keltische Grammatik II, 66.Google Scholar

³⁴ nad udcaid fri: probably a mistake for nad tudcaid fri, literally ‘did not go against.’ Google Scholar

³⁵ So Thurneysen conjectures, loc. cit. supra n.27. Kenney indicates briefly various points of contact between secular and ecclesiastical law, op. cit. (n.22) 244–50.Google Scholar

³⁶ Gougaud, L., Christianity in Celtic Lands (London 1932) 278–9, considers this point with bibliography.Google Scholar

³⁷ The compilers of the Hibernensis were Rubin of Dair-Inis (t 725) and Cu Chuimne of Iona († 747). See Kenney. op. cit. 248-49. It is edited by Wasserschleben, H., Die irische Kanonensammlung (Giessen 1874; 2nd ed. Leipzig 1885). For the patriarchs as models of conduct, cf 32.10, 11; 35.1; 40.15, 41.1. (I cite the first edition.) Google Scholar

³⁸ Cf. Tertullian, , Adv. Judaeos 2 (PL 2, 638C) : ‘Denique ante legem Moysi scriptam in tabulis lapideis legem fuisse contendo non scriptam, quae naturaliter intelligebatur et a patribus custodiebatur.’ And Cassian, , Collatio 8.23 (PL 49, 765-6)): ‘Et idcirco in eos qui ante legem, immo ante diluvium peccaverunt, justo judicio Deum animadvertisse probabimus, quia transgressi naturalem legem sine ulla meruerunt excusatione puniri Illi namque habentes naturalis atque insitae legis sanam atque integram disciplinam, nequaquam lege hac extrinsecus adhibita litterisque descripta, quaeque in adjutorium illi naturali data est, indigebant.’ Google Scholar

³⁹ Facsimile p. 49, col. 2 : ‘Ro raide Dubthach mac ua lugair in fili brethem fer nerend a racht aicnid ocus a racht faide arofallnastar faidsine a racht aicnid i mbreithemnus indse herend ocus ina filedaib do toircechnatar didhu faide leo do nicfa berla ban biaid i. racht litre.’ Google Scholar

⁴⁰ The absence of eclipse n in recht aicnid is perhaps no objection to taking the phrase as object, for such an omission was possible very early in established combinations of noun and genitive modifier which were treated as units, e.g. fri laa bratha (Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus I, 687). A later glossator has, however, written vel bretha over brethem. If this conjecture is correct, the passage may be rendered: ‘Dubthach maccu Lugair, the fili, spoke the judgments of the men of Ireland according to the law of nature and the law of the prophets.’ Google Scholar

⁴¹ For do toircechnatar didhu faide leo , Thurneysen, , ZfcP 20 (1936) 204, citing O'Davoren's variant, toich do-airrcechnatar faithi leo, proposes to read to-ch-airrchechnatar faithi leo, ‘and prophets among them had foretold.’ The use of enclitic -ch, ‘and,’ is very archaic and would suggest a date no later than the first quarter of the eighth century and possibly earlier than that. Cf. Thurneysen, , ZfcP 13 (1921) 299; 18 (1930) 100-01.Google Scholar

⁴² The heroes are constantly represented as swearing by pagan gods, although the gods are not mentioned by name. Tongu do dia toinges mo thuath, ‘I swear to the god my people swear to,’ and similar phrases are common. See Windisch, E., Irische Texte mil Wörterbuch (Leipzig 1880) 838, s.v. tongim. Google Scholar

⁴³ See the unequivocal statement from ‘The Phantom Chariot of Cu Chulainn’ cited below, note 68.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Conchobar is a central figure in the oldest of the Irish cycles of saga, the Ulster or Cu Chulainn cycle. His reign was assigned by later chroniclers to the beginning of the Christian era. Aided Conchobuir, ‘The Death of Conchobar,’ extant in four versions, is edited by Meyer, Kuno, The Death Tales of the Ulster Heroes (Royal Irish Academy, Todd Lectures Series 14; 1906, reprinted 1937) 2–21. See also Thurneysen, , Die irische Helden- und Königsage (Halle/S. 1921) 534-9. The earliest reference to Conchobar's death as a result of his indignation at the Crucifixion is in a poem of Cinaed ua h-Artacain († 975). Meyer, , loc. cit. 18; Thurneysen, , loc. cit. 534.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Or, according to other versions, by druids.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Meyer's version B, loc. cit. 14, and C, loc. cit. 17.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ The sagas relating to Cormac, whose reign as high king at Tara the chroniclers place in the early third century, are surveyed with bibliographical details by Dillon, M., The Cycles of the Kings (Oxford 1946) 15–29. The gnomic collection has been edited by Meyer, K., The Instructions of King Cormac (Royal Irish Academy, Todd Lecture Series 15; 1909).Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Gaelic text in R.I. Best and Osborn Bergin. Book of the Dun Cow (Dublin 1929) 127. Also in Petrie's “Round Towers,’ Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy 20 (1845) 98, translation p. 100. The passage, portion of a text entitled in the Manuscript, Senchas na Relec, ‘History of the Burial Places,’ is in the hand of Mael Muire, who died 1106 (Best, and Bergin, , op. cit. xii). It introduces a by Cinaed ua h-Artacain (t 975), in which Cormac's burial in Rosnaree instead of in the Brug is referred to. Consequently, the notion that Cormac enjoyed a special theological status goes back at least to the tenth century.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ fri re iubili bicci, ‘for the space of a little jubilee.’ Cf. Collectio canonum Hibernensis 36.2: ‘In Deuteronomio : Septimo anno facies remissionem, quae hoc ordine celebrabitur : cui debetur aliquid, hoc est de minore jubileo Hebreorum nobilium ab amico suo et fratre et proximo repetente non poterit repetere, quia annus est remissionis Domini.’ Cf. Deut. 15:1-2, where there is no equavalent of the italicized words.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ do reir rechta. Recht, without modification, often means the Old Law, the law of Moses, or the Old Testament, and that is probably its meaning here where it is used in close association with the mention of the Old Testament custom of the jubilee.Google Scholar

⁵¹ On the pagan burial place at Brug na Boinne see Macalister, R.A.S., Ancient Ireland (London 1935) 63–6.Google Scholar

⁵² Rom. 1.20-21.Google Scholar

⁵³ Edited with a careful study and translation by Thurneysen, R., “Morands Fürstenspiegel,’ ZfcP 11 (1917) 56–106. Morand was traditionally considered a wise judge, contemporary of Conchobar and the heroes of the Ulster cycle. He is mentioned in the early saga, ‘The Birth of Cu Chulainn’ (c. 700). Later accounts tell how he refused the throne of Ireland after the death of his father, the usurper Cairbre Catshead, and advised that the lawful heirs be recalled. One of these heirs, the Feradach to whom the precepts are addressed, became high king. These accounts are edited, translated, and evaluated by Thurneysen, , loc. cit. 56-73. See also Smith, R. M., Speculum 2 (1927) 415-9.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ I refer to the precepts by Thurneysen's numbers for the A redaction; text, Gaelic, loc. cit. pp. 80-8; translation, German, ibid 98–106.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Loc. cit. 74.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Ibid. 77.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ No. 5.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Nos. 30, 34, 43.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ No. 19.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ No. 42.Google Scholar

⁶¹ No. 31.Google Scholar

⁶² Literally, ‘it is spilled.’ Above supplied from context and no. 37.Google Scholar

⁶³ The reference to the punishment of the slaying of kin to the ninth generation is also in the Book of Leinster recension (loc. cit. 90), but without the mention of God. Cf. Exod. 20.5: ‘Ego sum Dominus Deus tuus fortis, zelotes, visitans iniquitatem patrum in filios, in tertiam et quartam generationem eorum qui oderunt me.’ Google Scholar

⁶⁴ athgabail, literally, ‘a taking back,’ in legal language, ‘a pledge.’ Thurneysen translates Pfand. Google Scholar

⁶⁵ No. 52 et passim. Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Cf. no. 48.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Text in Best and Bergin, , op. cit. 278–87; bibliography of editions and translations, ibid. xxxiv; discussion, Thurneysen, , Heldensage (n.44 supra) 567-71.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Best, and Bergin, , op. cit. lines 9459-66.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Gougaud, , op. cit. (n.36) 297, mentions a modern Irish superstition that salvation may be assured ‘by burial in some cemetery where saints of bygone ages have found a resting place.’ Google Scholar

⁷⁰ The much discussed passage (lines 175-188) where the poet mentions and condemns the pagan sacrifices offered in an effort to put a stop to the raids of Grendel seems to imply that the practice was only occasional.Google Scholar

⁷¹ E.g. Kennedy, , op. cit. (n.3) 1; Klaeber, , op. cit. (n.4) cx; Hamilton, Marie Padgett, op. cit. (n.16) 310; and especially Tolkien, , op. cit. 28. Cf. Bede's comparison between Aedilfrid and Saul, note 13 above.Google Scholar

⁷² Lines 2327-31.Google Scholar

⁷³ Lines 2736-41. Tolkien, , op. cit. 43, notes that the crimes which Beowulf is happy not to have on his conscience are closely paralleled in the heathen Völuspá where the grim hall Náströndu á contains especially perjurers and murderers. Cf., however, the emphatic condemnation of slaughter of kin in Morand's precepts.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ For what is apparently an English equivalent of Irish recht litre, cf. the opening of the Old English Exodus (ed. Krapp, , The Junius Manuscript [New York 1931] 91–107) lines 1-3: ‘Hwæt! We feor and neah / gefrigen habath / ofer middangeard / Moyses domas, / wræclico wordriht’ (Lo! We have heard far and near over the middle earth the judgments of Moses, goodly written laws [laws in words]).Google Scholar

⁷⁵ The relevant passage is lines 2819–20: ‘him of hræthre gewat / sawol secean / sothfæstra dom,’ (From his [Beowulf's] breast, his soul went to seek the judgment [of God] upon the righteous [or] the glory of the righteous). The Irish material gives support, if support be needed, to Tolkien's contention (op. cit. 41-2) that the poet is intentionally ambiguous here. He was perhaps groping for some such solution of the problem as Dante found in the noble castle in Limbo. Cf. above, note 20.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ See Bede, , Hist. eccl. 5.15 (Plummer, , op. cit. I. 315-6) and 5.21 (ibid. I, 344-5); Reeves, , op. cit. (n.23) cli-cliv; Cook, A. S., ‘The Possible Begetter of the Old English Beowulf and Widsith,’ Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 25 (1922) 303-5.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ See above, note 37.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Of the two related characteristics of the third city, a natural goodness based on natural law and a natural knowledge of God, it will be noted that the first is much more prominent in Irish tradition, the second in Beowulf. Google Scholar