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- Title
Beowulf and Ragnarǫk: A Reassessment.
- Authors
Zhu, Chenyun
- Abstract
The extent of the Beowulf poet's knowledge of pre-Christian Germanic mythology is a matter of considerable dispute. The present article reconsiders the claims of Ursula Dronke's 1969 essay "Beowulf and Ragnarǫk" and corroborates her argument that the poet, instead of unwittingly transmitting pre-Christian mythological traditions, knew and deliberately utilized the myth of Ragnarǫk. Parallels between the background narrative of Beowulf and the myth preserved in eddic materials are detected; resemblances between Herebeald and Baldr, and between the father in the "Old Man's Lament" and Frigg, are explored. By identifying an array of hitherto unrecognized connections, this article increases the likelihood that the Beowulf poet was well informed about Germanic mythological traditions similar to those preserved in later Old Norse sources.
- Subjects
GERMANIC mythology; GERMAN folklore; OLD Norse literature; EUROPEAN literature; ANCIENT literature
- Publication
Neophilologus, 2024, Vol 108, Issue 1, p53
- ISSN
0028-2677
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s11061-023-09784-7