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Understatement in Old English Poetry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Frederick Bracher
Frederick Bracher*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin
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Extract

One of the most striking features of the style of Old English poetry is the frequent use of rhetorical understatement. A. H. Tolman was apparently the first to point out this stylistic trait, and more recently passing references to it have been frequent. The following article attempts an investigation of its origin, occurrence, and uses.

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Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 52 , Issue 4 , December 1937, pp. 915 - 934
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1937

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References

1 “The Style of Anglo-Saxon Poetry,” PMLA, iii (1887), 32.

2 R. W. Chambers, Introduction to A. Strong's translation of Beowulf (London, 1925), p. xlvi; F. B. Gummere, The Oldest English Epic (New York, 1925), p. 19; W. J. Sedgefield, Beowulf (Manchester Univ., 1913), p. xxiii; Fr. Klaeber, Beowulf (Boston, 1928), p. lxvi; J. R. C. Hall, Beowulf (London, 1911), p. xxviii; R. Schuchardt, “Die Negation im Beowulf,” Berliner Beiträge zur Germ. und Rom. Phil., Germanische Abteilung, xxv (1910), 120 f.

3 My references are to line numbers in Klaeber's edition of Beowulf (1928), and for the rest of the poetry, unless otherwise stated, to line numbers in the Grein-Wülcker Bibliothek der Angelsächsischen Poesie (Kassel, 1881).

4 Negation in English and Other Languages (Copenhagen, 1917) in K. Danske Videnskabernes selskab, Historisk-filologiske meddelelser, i, 5, 22 f.

5 A Comparative Study of the Beowulf and the Æneid (Princeton Univ., 1931), p. 34.

6 Beowulf (Manchester Univ., 1913), p. 112.

7 An exception might be made in the case of certain words compounded with leas. An indication that such words may have been taken in a literal sense and so have given an effect of understatement (e.g. Christ 1628, “þæt is dreamleas hus” in reference to hell—although the relative infrequency of understatement in the Christ might argue against this particular case) is the not infrequent occurrence of such phrases as Beowulf 850, dreama leas; Elene 693, duguÐa leas; Andreas 1314, duguÐum bereafod; etc. These would almost certainly be taken literally. Cf. MnE words with -less: painless, useless, joyless.

8 Cf. also. Beowulf 109, 793 f., 1304, 2687; Andreas 1702 f.; Maldon 192; Christ and Satan 576 f.; Elene 910; Exodus 42; Guthlac 783 f.

9 The fairly common practice among Old English poets of borrowing or adapting a half line of verse, often irrelevant or inappropriate, merely to get the proper alliteration (cf., for example, the modifications of the formula “… ne gymdon” in Andreas 139, Genesis 2459, Exodus 140, Christ 706, Maldon 192, Beowulf 1757) may explain this passage.

Compare Beowulf 2919 f., “feoll on feÐan; nalles frætwe geaf / ealdor dugoÐe,” in which context the negation is quite appropriate.

10 My references are to W. J. Sedgefield's edition (Oxford, 1899).

11 Cf. also Metrum ix, 18; xiii, 23 f.; xiii, 33 f.; xx, 117; xxviii, 35; viii, 36 f.; xv, 10 f.; Proem, 7 f.

12 Cf. also 88, 172 f., 210 f., 283 f., 297 f., 362 f., 696 f., 741, 746 f., 1319 f.

13 References are to chapter and line of Gonser's edition, Anglistische Forschungen, xxvii (1909).

14 On the general decline of the Old English heroic style, cf. W. W. Lawrence, Beowulf and Epic Tradition (Harvard Univ., 1928), p. 4.

15 The Deeds of Beowulf (Oxford, 1892), p. 107.

16 The Development of English Humour (New York, 1930), Ch. i.

17 Beowulf (Boston, 1928), p. lxi.

18 Die Technik der Erzählung im Beowulfliede (Breslau, 1904), p. 29.

19 Cf. also Juliana 605 f.; Maldon 46 f.; Beowulf 562, 595 f., 756 f., 972 f., 1071 f., 2363 f., 2873 f.; Guthlac A 392; Christ and Satan 576 f.; Brunanburh 47 f., Judith 117 f.

20 xiv, 24 Orti hann jafnan visur ok kviÐlinga ok þotti heldr niÐskældinn.

21 Cf. Priscus' account of the effect of heroic verse on the warrior at Attila's court. K. W. Müller, Fragmenta Historicorum Græcorum (1851), iv, 92.

22 “Studien über die Figur der Litotes,” Neue Jahrbücher für Philologie und Pädagogik, Supplement, xv (1886), 451.

23 Cf. also Beowulf, 1025 f., 1455, 2354 f., 2541, 2995 f.; Genesis 2327; Juliana 328 f.; Guthlac 783 f., 1330 f.; Maldon 268, 249 f.

24 Irony, an Historical Introduction (London, 1926).

25 G. Vigfusson and F. Y. Powell, Origines Islandicae (Oxford, 1905), ii, 500, 14 f.

26 Cf. T. B. Haber, A Comparative Study of the Beowulf and the Æneid (Princeton Univ., 1931); J. W. Rankin, “A Study of the Kennings in Anglo-Saxon Poetry,” JEGPh, viii, 357 f., ix, 49 f.; A. Keiser, The Influence of Christianity on the Vocabulary of Old English Poetry (Univ. of Illinois, 1919).

27 Cf. J. S. P. Tatlock, “Laamon's Poetic Style and Its Relations,” The Manly Anniversary Studies in Language and Literature (Univ. of Chicago, 1923), p. 3 f.

28 R. Heinzel, “Ueber den Stil der altgermanischen Poesie,” Quellen und Forschungen, x (1875); E. Sievers, Altgermanische Metrik (Halle, 1893), Abschnitt 2 and 7; L. Wolff, “Ueber den Stil der altgermanischen Poesie,” Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift, i (1923), 214 f.; W. Paetzel, Die Variationen in der altgermanischen Alliterationspoesie (Berlin, 1913), 1 f., and passim; H. v. d. Merwe Scholtz, The Kenning in Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse Poetry (Utrecht, 1927), p. 176 f. and passim; A. Heusler, Die altgermanische Dichtung (Berlin, 1923), pp. 134 f., 161 f.

29 Cf. Beowulf 249 f., nis þæt seldguma / wæpnum geweorÐad.

30 B. Dickins, in Runic & Heroic Poems (Cambridge, 1915), p. 85, translates “were of none avail.”

31 Cf. Muspilli 99, Ludwigslied 35, Guthlac A 783, Debate of the Body and the Soul 163.

32 “Die unechte Negation bei Otfrid und im Heliand,” PB Beiträge, xxv (1900), 544.

33 Cf. also 2, 5, 20; 2, 14, 38; 2, 16, 40; 3, 1, 20; 4, 15, 35; 5, 23, 152; etc.

34 J. Wiegand, “Stilistische Untersuchungen zum König Rother,” Germanistische Abhandlungen, xxii (1904), 57; J. Schmedes, Untersuchungen über den Stil der Epen Rother, Nibelungenlied und Gudrun (Kiel, 1893), p. 36; H. Timm, Das Nibelungenlied nach Darstellung und Sprache ein Urbild Deutsches Poesie (Halle, 1852), p. 201 f.; K. Kinzel, “Zum Charakteristik des Wolframschen Stils,” Zeitschrift für Deutsche Philologie, v (1874), 3; C. Borchling, Der jüngere Titurel und sein Verhältnis zu Wolfram von Eschenbach (Göttingen, 1897), p. 168; S. Singer, Wolframs Stil und der Stoff des Parzival (Vienna, 1916), p. 15.

35 Stilistische Untersuchungen über Rudolf von Ems' Weltchronik und seine beiden Meister Gottfried und Wolfram (Amsterdam, 1927).

36 Some of these are noted by Lörcher, op. cit., p. 544. My references are to M. Heyne's edition (Paderborn, 1905).

37 Cf. also, 83 f., 243, 263 f., 320, 538 f., 1094, 1855 f., 3818 f., 4194 f., 4595.

38 My references are to line numbers in Vigfusson and Powell's Corpus Pceticum Boreale (Oxford, 1888). I have, however, used their final corrected readings, which appear sometimes in the notes and sometimes in the list on pp. cxxiv-cxxx of Volume I. I have also used their translations, indicated by VP, except where these are not sufficiently literal to bring out the understatement.

39 Cf. also The Old Play of the Wolsungs 19, Loka-senna 121, Hakonar-mal 20, HofuÐlausn 58, Sona-torrek 19 f., The Long Lay of Brunhild 280, Thiodwulf's Haust-long 12, Satires 44.

40 Cf. also HamÐis-mal 23 f., The Old Play of the Wolsungs 35 f., Hyndlo-lioÐ 176, Eywind's Improvisations 2, Haleygia-tal 43 f., Alla-mal 2, Havamal 117 f., The Christian's Wisdom 71 f.

41 Cf. Cormac's Improvisations 162 f.; Sighvat: Dirge on Erling 29 f., Bersoglis Visor 15 f.

42 The Northern Saga (London, 1929), p. 66.

43 E. V. Gordon, An Introduction to Old Norse (Oxford, 1927), p. li.

44 The Saga of King Olaf Tryggvason (London, 1895), p. ix.