Beowulf & Grendel : the truth behind England's oldest myth 3579108642, 9781842931530, 1842931539

Citation preview

2

f

=

LSa

. “5

:

3

y


i :

y

S

2

J

wai

i

The Truth Behind England’s Oldest Myth

Beowulf eS

44

JOHN GRIGSBY

WATKINS

PUBLISHING

LONDON

First published in the UK in 2005 Reprinted 2006

Watkins Publishing, Sixth Floor, Castle House,

75-76 Wells Street, London W1T 3QH

Distributed in the USA and Canada by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. 387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016

Text Copyright © John Grigsby 2005 John Grigsby has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,

without prior permission in writing from the Publishers

3579108642

Designed and typeset by Paul Saunders Printed and bound in Great Britain

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available

ISBN 13: 978-1-84293-153-0 ISBN 10: 1-84293-153-9

www.watkinspublishing.com

CONTENTS

©) List ofIllustrations List ofPlates Acknowledgements

vil

vil Vili

Prologue: Where Now the Horse and Rider? Introduction: The Keenest for Fame

- Part | OLD ENGLAND

17

CHAPTER I

Clans of the Sea Coasts

19

CHAPTER 2

Former Days On the Altars of their Idols

26

40

In Dread Waters

52

CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4

Part Il GODS AND MONSTERS

61

CHAPTER 5

Scyld Scefing

63

CHAPTER 6

The Barley God

CHAPTER 7 CHAPTER 8

Preyr The Wagon Ran After

75 85 93

CHAPTER 9

Elves and Evil Shades

IOI

CHAPTER I0

Choosers of the Slain

IIo

Part Ill TO KILL A KING

I2I

CHAPTER II _ Royal Obligations

123

CHAPTERI2_

The Hall turned to Ashes

138

CHAPTER 13.

The Wandering Inguz

150

CHAPTERI4

A Midwinter Game

162

Part IV BARLEY WOLF

169

CHAPTER I5

The Demon’s Head

sigs

CHAPTERI6

The Brimwylf

183

Epilogue: People of the Wolf

196

Notes

208

Appendices Timeline: 8000 BC-AD 1939

226

Chart 1: The Wuffingas Chart 2: The Geats Chart 3: The Swedes (Scylfings) Chart 4: The Danes (Scyldings) Map 1: Southern Scandinavia in Late Prehistory Map 2: The Age of Migrations (c. AD 400-600) Map 3: The Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms (c. AD 600-700)

232

Index

232 233 233 234 235 236

237

¢

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1 Petroglyph of solar boat from prehistoric Scandinavia 2 Egyptian solar barque

71 71

3 Petroglyph of man with shield from prehistoric Scandinavia

73

4 Osiris as the growing corn

78

5 The Djed pillar

78

6 The statuette of Freyr from Rallinge

131

7 Horned figure from Gundestrup Cauldron

131

8 Boar-helmed warrior from Viking Torslunda helmet

185

9 Wolf-warrior from Vendel helmet

187

10 Wolf motif from Sutton Hoo purse-clasp

187

LIST OF PLATES 1 First page of the Beowulf manuscript 2 The Neolithic passage-grave at Om, Denmark 3 Inside the grave at Om. 4 The Trundholm sun-chariot 5 The Tollund Man

6 The remains of the girl from Egtved

_

7 Goddess (Nerthus?) from the Rynkeby Cauldron

8 9 to 11

The goddess Gefion ploughing Zealand from Sweden A Valkyrie on horseback The elves dancing, from an English chapbook The Broddenbjerg Freyr scene from the Gundestrup Cauldron Lemi) The ‘drowning’ Ritual burial monuments at Lejre The site of the Viking hall at Lejre, perhaps once the site of Heorot Plan of the halls at Lejre The rays of the sun entering Newgrange on midwinter’s morning Odin as depicted on a Viking helmet Odin rides his eight-legged horse Sleipnir, from the Gotland stone Os The helmet of the Wuffinga king Raedwald, buried at Sutton Hoo Re On SU Oo XO

eS aS SS SS lanl

Vil

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to my agent, Frances Kelly, who believed in my work and urged me to continue writing at a point I was despondent; to Michael Mann for taking a risk; to my editor Matthew Cory for his patience, his unfailingly helpful suggestions and ability to sort the wheat from the chaff; to Helga Schtitze at the National Museum of Denmark who was so kind and helpful to us on our brief visit to the land of the Scyldings, and without whom we would never have found the ruins of Heorot or the tomb of the giants at @m; to Brian Bates, Kathleen

Herbert and Richard North without whose pioneering and inspiring works this book would not have been possible to write; to Paul Devereux for letting me rant; and, finally, to a certain late professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, JRR Tolkien, whose books first kindled the

northern-fire within me. On a personal note, I would like to thank Heidi, for once again

putting up with a husband living more in the Dark Ages than the 21st century. I hope you read this book, and see where I have been the last six months - if not, at least read the dedication. Thanks to Chloe, who

took her cousin’s place as ‘the wolf in our living-room’ when our much-missed Siri left us. Your silent companionship makes the hours of typing less lonely.

Vili

:

aie

: ek*

N

are

,

r

a

Ms

=

o:

alert)

—

a

“

ye

ies

7.

he,

=