THE GERMANIC CONTEXT OF
“CYNEWULF AND CYNEHEARD” REVISITED*
Abstract
Because of its inclusion in practically every Old English reader, the entry for 755 from the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle enjoys a wide popularity. It reports a struggle for the Wessex throne,
the loyalties within factions and the bloody effects of feuding, which are generally held to
be exemplary of the Germanic heroic ethos. Much discussed as the entry is, my paper seeks
to illucidate some aspects that have received less critical attention, but which also can only
be understood in a wider contextual reading, based especially an Old Norse and Old Frisian
sources. The Germanic topoi I discuss are: (a) the kinship relation between Cynewulf and
Cyneheard: uncle and nephew; (b) the woman’s rôle: rape; and (c) the alliterative phrase
feoh and feorh: a king’s prerogative.
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Probably the best known annal from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is that of
755 AD which vividly describes the rebellion of the atheling Cyneheard
against King Cynewulf of Wessex. The attraction of “Cynewulf and
Cyneheard,” as the annal is generally known, rests, for one thing, in its rising
above the merely factual annalistic writing which so much characterizes the
Chronicle, anyway before 755, and often enough after that year.1 The story
is self-contained, lively and dramatic, with a faint touch of sex, and a
good deal of violence. The magnetism of the story especially lies in its treatment of the conflicting loyalties which lead to the eventual clash between
the rebel Cyneheard and his followers on the one hand, and the faithful
retainers of the murdered King Cynewulf on the other. Cyneheard, who
has all but cleared his path to the West-Saxon throne, is faced by Cynewulf ’s
men determined to revenge their lord. When it appears that he cannot induce
them to choose his side, he tries to win them over by offering material
benefits. Seeing that this strategy does not work, Cyneheard seeks to ward
off a final battle by telling his opponents that some of their kinsmen are
on his side who do not want to leave him. The answer of Cynewulf ’s
I a
retainers has become exemplary of the Germanic comitatus spirit:2 P
cwædon hie þæt him nænig mæg leofre nære þonne hiera hlaford.3 (“Then
they said that no kinsman was dearer to them than their lord.”) As both
parties show an equal degree of determination to fight it out, the outcome
is a massacre, albeit one with poetic justice. Just as in an earlier fight
there had been one survivor among Cynewulf ’s bodyguard, likewise there
was now only one survivor among Cyneheard’s band.
Another aspect which has attracted at least three generations of critical
attention,4 is the annal’s narrative mode. It contains many features that might
be indicative of an oral origin for the story. These features have even led
Neophilologus 81: 445–465, 1997.
 1997 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
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Rolf H. Bremmer Jr.
to the opinion, as expressed by C. L. Wrenn, that the account contained
the germ of Anglo-Saxon saga composition.5 The narratological aspects
of “Cynewulf and Cyneheard” have been extensively dealt with by Rory
McTurk in an exhaustive paper.6 Basing his analysis on the work of the
famous Danish Scandinavist, Axel Olrik, McTurk concluded that it is not
so much the general style of “Cynewulf and Cyneheard” which bears the
stamp of orality, as its frequently obeying the laws which Olrik had formulated with respect to the unilinear progression of oral narrative.
Most recently, Fredrik Heinemann has pointed out why the episode does
not even come close to the genre of saga. Most importantly, this is because
Icelandic sagas rely on the presence of intertextuality. They constantly
refer to other sages and thus are important comments on other representatives of the corpus. The episode in the Chronicle lacks such intertextual
links. We know next to nothing about its characters apart from what the
annal itself tells us. Moreover, Heinemann argues, the episode lacks context.
The chronicler has not developed (or was not able to do so within the
space allotted to him) the main characters into recognizable stereotypes. We
are stuck with too many questions that cannot be answered from the text,
such as: “How old are Cynewulf and Cyneheard? Where has Cyneheard
stayed during Cynewulf ’s long reign?” and many more. Heinemann arrives
at the conclusion that it is impossible to come to an interpretation that
pushes beyond the literal account. But critical frustration can be turned
into gratitude for “what [the episode] shows us about the difficulty of
reading narrative cut loose from its context.”7
Notwithstanding the popularity of the annal for 755 and despite the
critical attention it has attracted over the years, I do not think that everything has been said about “Cynewulf and Cyneheard” that needs to be
said, even though no less a critic than T. A. Shippey has stated that “this
short passage has been analyzed all too often already.”8 I agree with
Heinemann’s opinion that “many discussions of ‘Cynewulf and Cyneheard’
suffer from overexplication,” but I would not discard with him the applicability in this case of Roberta Frank’s opinion that “a useful working
principle for the study of Germanic legend is that all the details in the
text are capable of explanation, even at the cost of oversubtelty and error.”9
There are details in the annal for 755 that have either been left untouched
in critical discussions or insufficiently explained. I am thinking, for example,
of the precise nature of the kinship relation between Cynewulf and
Cyneheard. In what way are they related? (A question that Heineman considers unanswerable). And how are we to interpret the unnamed woman’s
role in the episode? Why does she start screaming only after Cynewulf
has been slain? What exactly are the implications of Cyneheard’s two offers
to Cynewulf ’s retainers? It is the purpose of this essay to show that new
answers to these old or unasked questions can be found if we widen the
horizon of our reading from Anglo-Saxon texts to that of the legal and
The Germanic Context of “Cynewulf and Cyneheard” Revisited
447
literary traditions of Germanic culture at large. What I propose to do here
is a macro-contextualization that leads us away from the immediate context
of the annal.
1. Cynewulf and Cyneheard: uncle and nephew
As is the case with so much information in this Chronicle entry, the annalist
is tantalizingly concise when he states about Cynewulf and Cyneheard
that hiera ryhtfæderencyn gæþ to Cerdice (“their direct paternal ancestry
goes back to Cerdic”). The mention of Cerdic here is to assure the
audience/readership that the two protagonists descended in a straight line
from the founder of the West-Saxon royal dynasty, and that as such both
men were entitled to the throne. In other words, neither man was a mere
upstart.10
The annalist becomes more specific when he informs us that Cyneheard
was a brother of Sigebryht, the king who had been deposed by Cynewulf
with the consent and support of the West Saxon witenagemot (“National
Council”) for his unjust deeds. The relation between Cynewulf and
Sigebryht is characterized by the use of the generic term mæg, meaning
‘kinsman, relative’.11 The fact that the main protagonists of our annal have
names that begin with the same element is indicative of their being close
relatives. Anglo-Saxons preferred to mark their close blood ties by giving
alliterative names. King Alfred, for example, had three brothers and a
sister whose name began with Æthel- and two nephews with the same
first element. Three of Alfred’s children likewise have names beginning with
Æthel-.
Later authors seem to have felt somewhat uneasy about the vagueness
with which the relation between Cynewulf and Cyneheard was indicated
in the Chronicle. In the twelfth century, the Anglo-Norman historian Geffrei
Gaimar sat down to write a history of the English for his courtly
Francophone audience. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle served as one of his
main sources. Without the help of an elementary grammar he had managed
to master the first principles of Old English, so as to get direct access to
primary information. In composing his history, Gaimar did a lot of rewriting
and reinterpreting, as so many medieval authors before and after him. As
a result, the social relations in the Germanic Anglo-Saxon society are
translated into terms that belong to a Norman feudal society. The witan,
‘councillors,’ of our prose account that support Cynewulf in the dethronement of Sigebryht, appear as barouns in his verse Estoire des Engleis.
Gaimar, apparently, was not satisfied at leaving the kinship relation as
unspecified as the Chronicle does, and he has Cyneheard refer to Cynewulf
as mien uncle ‘my uncle.’12 Since, as we have seen, they are related on
the paternal side, it would appear on the basis of this late witness that
Cynewulf was Cyneheard’s father’s brother.
Why is it so important to establish this relationship? According to
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McTurk, a nephew fighting his father’s brother would make the story “all
the more tragically ironic, since there is evidence for a special relationship between uncle and nephew in early Germanic.”13 McTurk also adds
that the relationship between paternal uncle and nephew has been less
well investigated than that between maternal uncle and nephew.
The bond between a mother’s brother and a sister’s son was very affectionate, and a reality not only among the ancient German tribes, but also
among many other Indo-European peoples.14 It finds its origin in the
clan-like organisation of society in those early days. If a woman married,
she would join her husband’s clan and leave behind an empty place in her
own clan. This economic loss was of course partly compensated for by
the bridegroom and his party’s paying a bride-price to the clan of his wifeto-be. But on top of that, we often see that if a son is born to the new couple,
he would often be educated in the house of his mother’s parents. There
he could develop a special relationship with his mother’s brother, who did
not exercise the same authority over him as his father would have done
at home, or, as the case might be, his father’s unmarried brothers who
also lived in the same extensive household. The nuclear family which is
so characteristic of our modern western society was unknown at the time.
Elsewhere I have amply documented the presence of a cordial bond between
a mother’s brother and a sister’s son among the Anglo-Saxons and demonstrated what implications this has for our reading of Beowulf.15 The best
known instance of such a pair is of course Beowulf and his uncle Hygelac,
the one always true to the other. Beowulf was brought up in the house of
his maternal grandfather from the age of seven. Other instances of this
special bond from the poem are the dragon killers Sigemund and Fitela, and
Hnaef and his unnamed nephew, Hildeburh’s son, both tragic characters
in the Finnsburg episode.
In Beowulf the relation between maternal uncles and nephews is the
reverse of that between paternal uncles and nephews. In this respect, too,
Beowulf reflects the aristocratic society of early Anglo-Saxon England. If
a boy stayed at home, he would be raised not only by his father, but also
by his father’s brother. In such an environment the potential father-versusson conflict could easily shift to a conflict between father’s brother and
brother’s son. It is noteworthy in this context that the near identity of
father and father’s brother in Indo-European societies is reflected in the
languages. The Anglo-Saxons called them fæder and fædera, respectively.
The Romans, for example, designated them with pater and patruus.16 But
it is not only a psychological or generation conflict, involving the acknowledgement of paternal authority. Particularly when material interests are at
stake, we can also detect a hightened tension between paternal relatives.
At the time of our annal, succession to the throne was not automatically
secured for the son, but could also be granted to the brother of the king.17
A good illustration of this turn of events is found in the case of King Alfred.
The Germanic Context of “Cynewulf and Cyneheard” Revisited
449
He was the fourth son to succeed his father, his brother Athelbald, Athelberht
and Athelred having all occupied the throne before him. So if succession
first moved sideways, rather than to a son of the last king, it implied that
a line could be excluded from the throne afterwards. That is the reason
why in royal dynasties nephews and uncles are frequently in conflict.18
A simple example would be Hamlet’s conflict with his father’s brother
Claudius. Shakespeare has understandably obliterated the succession
problem in his play because he was interested in other aspects, but his source
makes the dynastic theme plain,19 and there are plenty of indications left
in the play where the original tension surfaces.
In the context of Anglo-Saxon literature, the best known example of
the conflict can be found in Beowulf.20 In Denmark, King Hrothgar had
not succeeded his father Healfdene, but his brother Heorogar. In his hall
he had given hospitality to Hrothulf, the son of his younger brother Halga.
The poem quite clearly brings out the doom that surrounds Hrothgar and
his nephew Hrothulf. Immediately after the scop has finished his performance of the Lay of Finnsburh, the poem continues:
P
I a cwom Wealhþeo forð
gan under gyldnum beage
þær þa godan twegen
sæton suhtergefæderan:
þa gyt wæs hiera sib atgædere,
æghwylc oðrum trywe.
Beow 1162b–65a
[Then Wealhtheow stepped forwards under the golden torque to the place where the two good
men, father’s brother and brother’s son, were seated: at that time they still retained peace,
each one was loyal to the other.]
Shortly before the scop starts singing his account of the tragedy in the
hall of King Finn in Frisia, we come across Hrothgar and Hrothulf drinking
gladly together in the royal hall of the Danes: nalles facenstafas P
I eodScyldingas þenden fremedon (Beow 1018b–1019) (“The Scyldings did not
at that time perform deeds of treachery”). By implication, the poet makes
clear what lies ahead. Also Queen Wealhtheow fears for the future and
tries to secure Beowulf ’s support for her son Hrethric. Beowulf himself
anticipates a conflict between Hrothgar and Hrothulf when he suggests
that Hrothgar’s son Hrethric would always be welcome at the court of the
Geats. Evidence from outside the poem reveals that after Hrothgar’s death,
Hrothulf indeed seized the throne, and in this way fulfilled the prophecy
as it were. More than once, critics – including McTurk in the above-mentioned study – have tried to deny the smouldering conflict in Beowulf
between the Danish king and his nephew Hrothulf, but they have not really
adduced convincing arguments for such a denial.21 However, elsewhere in
the poem we have another, unmistakable example of such an internecine
struggle, namely that between the Swedish King Onela, and his brother’s
sons Eanmund and Eadgils. Onela employed an assassin to kill his nephew
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Eadmund, and did not shed a single tear over his death. Eadgils was driven
into exile, but eventually, with Beowulf ’s help, he killed his uncle and
succeeded to the Swedish throne.
Another example which McTurk adduced as an argument in his attempt
to question the reality of the problematic relationship between a father’s
brother and a brother’s son is taken from the Old English poetic version
of Genesis. In a way it falls outside the scope of this paper as we are dealing
here with non-Germanic material. Nonetheless, it is instructive to see how
the Anglo-Saxon poet treats his source in this respect. Abraham had left
his fatherland, together with Lot, a son of his brother Haran. During their
wanderings friction arose between Abraham and Lot about the sharing of
pastures in Canaan. Lot’s eyes had fallen on the greener patches, but before
affairs could come to a head, Abraham discussed the matter with his nephew.
According to the King James version he said to Lot: “Let there be no
strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and
thy herdmen; for we be brethren” (Genesis 13: 8). In the Anglo-Saxon poetic
paraphrase this one verse is considerably expanded upon and much is
made by Abraham of the exact nature of their kinship relation where the
Vulgate only had fratres:22
Ic eom fædera þin
sibgebyrdum, þu min suhterga.
Ne sceolon unc betweonan
teonan weaxan,
wroht wriðian
– ne þæt wille God!
Ac wit synt gemagas; unc gemæne ne sceal
elles awiht
nymþe eall tela
lufu langsumu.
Gen 1900–1906
[I am your father’s brother by blood, you are my brother’s son. Wrongs must not grow up
between the two of us, strife spring up – may God not want that! But we are kinsmen; nothing
else must be in common for the two of us except a longlasting love.]
We see Abraham here in a position almost exactly similar to Wealhtheow
in Beowulf. He attempts to ward off a slumbering conflict with Lot by verbal
power, but his efforts would prove to be of no avail. Their ways do part,
albeit, owing to Abraham’s wisdom, in a peaceful way.
In order to gain a fuller picture of the relation between paternal uncle
and nephew, it is essential to take a look at the literature of other Germanic
peoples. McTurk’s attempt to illustrate a tragic clash between a father’s
brother and brother’s son from Icelandic sagas falls rather short.23 But
then his choice of saga genre perhaps was wrong. In Íslendingasögur such
as Laxdœla saga or Vatndœla saga one is not likely to find a conflict in
which the throne is involved. The Konungasögur, on the other hand, prove
to yield better examples.
In King Harald’s Saga, part of Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla,24 we read
how Harald in his youth leads a life in exile and performs deeds of valor
The Germanic Context of “Cynewulf and Cyneheard” Revisited
451
in the service of the Byzantine emperors. Having thus gained martial experience and amassed an enormous fortune, he journeys back to his native
country, Norway. The rumor of his arrival precedes him, so that Magnus,
the king of Norway and Denmark and Harald’s paternal nephew, learns
that Harald is about to invade his kingdom. Diplomatic moves bring about
that they are reconciled and will share the throne. Yet this coregency was
not to last for very long. Small irritations lead up to estrangement between
the two kinsmen. One night King Magnus has a dream in which his father,
King Olaf the Saint, appears to him, offering him the following choice:
“Which would you prefer, my son: to come with me now, or to live to be
the most powerful of kings and grow very old – but also to commit such
a crime as you would scarcely ever, if at all, be able to expiate?” Magnus
leaves the decision to his father, who tells him to come with him to heaven.
Shortly afterwards Magnus dies without having to kill Harald, his paternal
uncle.25
Other examples are not difficult to find. The red thread that runs through
the Saga of Hakon the Good is the constant challenge that is put to King
Hakon’s authority by the sons of his brother Eric who eventually succeed
their uncle to the throne.26 A considerable part of the introductory chapters
of Olaf Tryggvason’s Saga is taken up by the plotting of King Harald of
Denmark against his brother’s son Gold Harald. Earl Hakon retorts to the
king’s scruples: “The Danes will say that it was better to kill a Norwegian
viking rather than a Dane, and his own brother’s son.” Through treachery
the nephew is captured and hanged by Earl Hakon, who, according to Snorri
“easily settled with [King Harald] for the killing of his relative Gold
Harald.”27 The incident in this sage is remarkably reminiscent of the Onela
episode in Beowulf in which Hakon plays the part of Wihstan.28
At the other side of Europe we meet with similar situations. In Paul
the Deacon’s History of the Lombards,29 written towards the close of the
eighth century, we never come across strife between a maternal uncle and
his nephew, but, on a number of occasions, we learn of brother’s sons
who are at loggerheads with their uncles. The first such victim that Paul
mentions is Tato. Tato was the seventh king of the Lombards and had led
his people southwards from Northern Germany, gaining victory upon victory.
But, according to Paul, “[a]fter these expeditions Tato indeed did not long
rejoice in the triumph of war, for Waccho, the son of his brother Zuchilo,
attacked him and deprived him of his life” (HL I, 21). In this way Waccho
became the eighth Lombard king in succession.30 Likewise, Paul does not
fail to report that in the Merovingian realm, Theudepert and Theuderic
waged war against their paternal uncle, King Clothar (HL IV, 28). The
Lombards Radoald and Grimoald voluntarily went into exile, because they
scorned to live under the power of their father’s brother, Duke Grasulf
(HL IV, 39). It is noteworthy in this context to see that when he made up
a legal statute regarding the plotting of a relative’s death, King Rothair
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foresaw that in such internecine conflicts a nephew could kill an uncle on
his father’s side but not on his mother’s side (Edict 163).31 Further witness
of disharmony is provided by another of Rothair’s provisions, in which
he laid down the steps taken if, particularly, the paternal uncle, and barbas
or barbanus as he is called amongst the Lombards,32 calls his nephew a
bastard, or, in more modern terms, a son-of-a-bitch (Edict 164). After all,
one was always sure of the ties of blood with one’s sister’s children, but
for the children of the brother this was much harder to prove.
In Flandres, too, succession proved a dangerous affair. When in 1070,
Count Baldwin VI died, he was succeeded by his minor son Arnulf. With
guardians like the Frankish king and Count William Fitz Osborn, Arnulf ’s
future seemed secure, were it not for the aspirations of his paternal uncle
Robert “the Frisian” who killed both Arnulf and his guardian count, and put
the Frankish king to flight.33
Compared to the Lombard laws the medieval Frisian law codes – in many
respects the most conservative and most detailed of all the various Germanic
legal systems – show few traces of contention between paternal uncle and
nephew, but this is to be expected in a society which consisted of freeholders
and in which a class of (feudal) nobility was signally absent. Only in cases
in which a father had died and his brother refused to share the inheritance
with his deceased brother’s son or even his nephew’s sons, do we get a
glimpse of discord. In such a situation, according to the Twenty-Four
Landlaws, the brother’s son is allowed to hire conjurors who will appear
with him in the people’s legal gathering. If his claim proved to be justified, the uncle had to render the land to his nephew, if with due compensation to prevent future disharmony:34
. . . and tha federia alsadene minna te retzia bi asega wisdome, thet hira sibbe unslitande
se.
[. . . and to the father’s brother such a compensation must be given according to the judgment
of the asega (‘lawspeaker’), that their sib relation will not suffer any damage.]
From Anglo-Saxon England, via Norway, Lombardy, Flanders and Frisia
we must turn back to England, to see whether the conflict occurs in historical sources apart from that between Cynewulf and Cyneheard.
As was to be expected, dynastic struggles within the royal houses of
the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms are numerous. Bede is one of our most
important informants about Northumbria. One of the pivotal kings in his
Ecclesiastical History35 is King Edwin. He, who had suffered involuntary
expatriation himself, did not hesitate to send his brother’s sons into exile.
There is a complicating factor, though, involved in understanding the
events of his reign (616–632) and the first few decades following upon
it. In Edwin’s days the two small kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia were
merging into one political entity. The first king to rule both kingdoms was
The Germanic Context of “Cynewulf and Cyneheard” Revisited
453
Æthelfrith of Bernicia (539–616) who had married Edwin’s sister Acha of
the Deiran royal house. It was this Æthelfrith who had driven his young
brother-in-law Edwin into exile, to wander “as an unknown fugitive for
many years through many lands and kingdoms” (HE II, 12).36 When eventually Edwin had defeated Æthelfrith and ascended the Northumbrian throne,
he wasted no time in expelling his seven sister’s sons.37 Whereas, generally speaking, the relation between a mother’s brother and his sister’s son
is cordial, the merging of Deira and Bernicia into the kingdom of
Northumbria both politically and dynastically, has frustrated the expected
picture here. The fusion also accounts for the fact that while in general
succession in Anglo-Saxon England was arranged through the agnatic line,
here cognate relatives form a serious threat to the throne. Upon Edwin’s
death, the Northumbrian kingdom temporarily fell apart into its former constituents, but after a year Oswald, the son of Edwin’s sister Acha, became
sole ruler of Northumbria again. When he died, Oswald was succeeded,
not by his son Æthelwold, but by his brother Oswy. Oswy, too, had to
face a rebellion, not only from his own son Alchfrith, but also from his
nephew Æthelwold Oswalding (HE III, 14). Father and son were reconciled,
however, and together they went to meet the pagan King Penda of Mercia.
But the enemy army had found an apt guide in Æthelwold, who directed
Penda’s troops contra patriam et patruum (“against fatherland and father’s
brother”) as Bede nicely remarks in an alliterative mood (HE III, 24).
Perhaps a better known event is the revolt of Æthelwald, son of King
Alfred’s older brother Æthelred, against King Edward. Rather than opposing
the powerful and popular king, Æthelwald seized his chance immediately
upon the death of his uncle, and claimed his rights. This is how the Chronicle
reports the events for 901:38
Then the atheling Æthelwold, [Edward’s] father’s brother’s son, rode and seized the residence
at Wimborne and at Twinham, against the will of the king and his councellors. Then the
king rode with the army till he encamped at Badbury near Wimbourne, and Æthelwold
stayed inside the residence with the men who had given allegiance to him; and he had barricaded all the gates against him, and said that he would either live there or die there. Then
meanwhile the atheling rode away by night, and went to the Danish army in Northumbria,
and they accepted him as a king and gave allegiance to him. Then the woman was seized
whom he had taken without the king’s permission and contrary to the bishop’s orders – for
she had been consecrated a nun.
As will be clear, the Chronicle entry for 901 bears a remarkable resemblance
to that of 755: a barricaded fortification with a rebel inside, a loyal retinue,
an immanent clash, and a resolve to fight till the end. There is even a woman
involved. The outcome, though, is rather stale as compared to the enduring
loyalty which resulted in destructive violence in the annual for 755.
Of course, fighting was not the only way out of an immanent dynastic
conflict. Instead of driving a brother’s son into exile, a king might grant
him a considerable amount of property by way of appeasement. This is what
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the West Saxon King Cenwealh did when he gave his paternal nephew
Cuthred three thousand hides of land near Ashdown, as the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle (MSS ABC) records for the year 648.
It is time to state explicitly what I have been driving at by parading all
these quarreling paternal uncles and nephews before you: contrary to what
Rory McTurk argued, it is clear that the relations between a father’s brother
and a brother’s son were usually troubled, particularly where the succession
of the throne was concerned. Therefore, the relationship between Cynewulf
and Cyneheard can best be understood as that of paternal uncle and nephew.
It provides a context in which the struggle for power spirals to violence
according to a familiar pattern.
2. The woman’s rôle
We are told that Cynewulf was in Merantune on wifcyþþe, a hapax
commonly translated as “visiting a woman”. 39 Æthelkweard, in his later
tenth-century Latin translation of the Chronicle,40 is more specific. Cynewulf
was not simply having tea with the woman – wif, after all, is the generic
term for ‘woman who is no longer a virgin.’ In Æthelweard’s account she
is a quadam meretri[x], ‘a certain whore.’ A king visiting a woman of
easy virtue – a mistress or concubine rather than a (professional) whore –
should not surprise us. There is ample evidence of Anglo-Saxon kings entertaining extra-marital relationships.41
The text makes clear that Cynewulf and the nameless woman are sharing
the same bedroom, until the king involuntarily had to interrupt his business.
No critic so far has observed that the woman starts screaming only after
Cynewulf has been killed. And it is upon her screaming that Cynewulf ’s
retainers hurry to the place of the disaster.42 Why did not the woman shout
for help right away? Was she not aware of what was going on? Was her
screaming an outbrust of hysterics or perhaps something else?
In one of the medieval Frisian legal texts it is stated that:43
Hwersa ma ene frowa ur wald and ur willa a nede nimith and hiu wepande and hropande
ther sitte and thet bifolgie thi frana and tha liude . . . sa istet alsa iechta.
[Whenever a woman has been taken by force (i.e. raped) against her wish and will, and she
sits there weeping and shouting, and the legal officer pursues it (the deed) with the people,
. . . it is a manifest crime.]
Elsewhere in Frisian law texts, we read that a woman had to scream and
shout if a man abducted her against her will and wish, and dragged her
through the door and over the threshold into his house.44 The shouting
was necessary as evidence that the woman did not approve of the abduction, and it turned the action into a public crime. Scandinavian laws appear
to contain similar provisions. In the Swedish Östgöta law (c. 1250), for
example, the case is stated as follows:45
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455
Now we have a case that a man rapes a woman: then he has broken the law. It is visible
on the man or on his clothes, how the woman scratched him, or on the woman [how he bruised
her]; or screaming and calling is heard: then the district court must establish the truth. Now
we have the case that he wrestles with her, but cannot complete his intentions; he tears her
clothes, screaming and calling is heard: then he has broken the law.
According to Gotland law, too, shouting was hard evidence for a rape.
If no one had heard the woman’s cries, she would be worse off. She had
to go to the village on the same day, make a declaration and mention the
man’s name. If she failed to do so on the same day, she had better forget
about raising a complaint at all.46 Finally, Frankish law, written during
the middle of the eighth century, knew of similar provisions, possibly
influenced by Romand law, as did non-Germanic Indo-European peoples.47
These various Continental and Scandinavian examples have made clear
that the combination of a woman and shouting is indicative of a sexual
assault.
Unfortunately, we do not find similar statements concerning rape in
Anglo-Saxon law. Shouting as a legal procedure, however, was widely
known to the Anglo-Saxons but is connected mainly with theft and murder.48
Strangers and foreigners who left the regular road had to shout or blow a
horn to make their presence known. If they failed to do so, they were considered to be thieves and could be killed on the spot, unless they paid
their wergeld, according to the laws of King Wihtred (Wi 28 = Ine 20).49
Shepherds had to guard their flock against preying beasts and rustlers by
raising the alarm cry, as King Cnut stipulated in one of his laws (I cn 26,
1). Thiefs caught red-handed had to be prosecuted with hue and cry. Any
witness who failed to raise the alarm cry or who ignored it was considered an accomplice of the crime, and had to pay a fine to the king,
amounting up to a full wergeld. King Edward prescribed that a killer
should be followed with shouting by everyone who wants to establish justice
(EGu 6, 9 = II Cn 48, 2).
So how does the wide-spread custom of raising the alarm cry relate to
the woman in “Cynewulf and Cyneheard”? For one thing, we may safely
conclude that she played no part in Cyneheard’s coup d’état. Her shouting
can be interpreted, most obviously, as an attempt to make public the king’s
murder. Or should we see the late moment when the Chronicle mentions
her screams as a flaw in the narrator’s account, perhaps on account of
his incapability to tell what exactly was going on in the confusion of
Cynewulf ’s attack? I find it equally attractive, though, to see it as an indication of rape. This would be my reconstruction of what happened: During
the fight, the woman stays (hides?) in the bedroom. After Cynewulf has
been killed, Cyneheard and his men rush into the bur to inspect it. They
discover the woman and in a violent spree of victory Cynewulf, wounded
though he might be,50 assaults her to demonstrate who is the new leader.
Only then does she start to shout. Of course, this is speculation. For the
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more sober minded the one thing that can be said with certainty about the
woman’s part in this piece of docu-fiction in the Chronicle is that we have
another vignette here of a woman who falls prey to the machinations of men
thursting for power. Here, too, we can say: “That was a pitiful lady!”51
3. Cyneheard’s offer of feoh and feorh
It must be said with due respect, nephew Cyneheard does not emerge from
the story as a relentlessly ambitious man, comparable to someone like
Macbeth, who would wade through streams of blood to reach his goal,
the throne. He rather appears to be the diplomat who will only use force
if needs be. On more than one occasion in the episode he prefers negotiation over confrontation. After Cyneheard has surrounded the king’s bur,
it is on Cynewulf that the chronicler focusses our attention. The camera,
as it were, suddenly moves away from the nightly shadows outside the
bur into the building itself. Cynewulf gets up, puts on his trousers and dashes
for the doorway, defends himself in no mean way, only to rush out in
blind anger once he sees the atheling – from a defensive badger he turns
into a charging boar, the comparison is Tom Shippey’s.52 It is Cynewulf who
deals the first wounds to Cyneheard, and they are serious ones if we are
to believe the chronicler. Cyneheard and his men prove far superior to the
king, although they kill him only after prolongued fighting.53 When
Cynewulf ’s bodyguard has been aroused by the woman’s screams, they rush
to his rescue, only to find that they are too late. Instead they are approached
not by the naked sword, but by Cyneheard’s offer of feoh and feorh to
each of them – the pronoun gehwelcum suggests that Cyneheard knew
who they were and approached them individually. What does this offer
mean? In the many translations of this annal, there are as many different
interpretations, ranging from a neutral “money and life”54 to a more suggestive “riches and immunity.”55 Is Cyneheard’s offer a case of “part bribery,
part threat,” as one critic has stated?56 With such a range of different
opinions, there is clearly need for clarification.
Until recently it has escaped critics that the phrase feoh and feorh is
an alliterative expression which is not unique to “Cynewulf and Cyneheard”.
It is also found in Anglo-Saxon legal texts, and, in cognate forms, in Old
Norse and Old Frisian legal texts or contexts.57 The mere presence of the
phrase in three different Germanic languages suggests that we are dealing
here with an inherited Germanic concept. If we want to understand the
phrase properly as it occurs in the Chronicle annal for 755, we must first
see in what contexts it is used elsewhere, for only then can we hope to
gain a clearer insight into the nature of Cyneheard’s offer.
The occasion in which the alliterative phrase occurs in an Anglo-Saxon
text is in Edmund’s law for the Danelaw, issued after he had reconquered
it from the Danes (early 10th c.). Special measures are taken for those
without a lord:58
The Germanic Context of “Cynewulf and Cyneheard” Revisited
457
Gyf man gehadodne oððe ælþeodigne ðurh ænig ðing forrædde æt feo oððe æt feore, ðonne
sceol him cing beon – oððon eorl þær on lande – and bisceop ðære ðeode for mæg and for
mundboran, buton he elles oðerne hæbbe.
[If any one in any way plots against an ordained man or a foreigner concerning his property
or life, then the king must act as his kinsman and guardian – or the jarl in the Danelaw –
and the bishop of the disocese, unless he has another one otherwise.]
Here we see the reverse of what is the case in the Chronicle. Whereas
Cyneheard offers feoh and feorh, in this legal provision certain groups of
people are presented as being threatened in their possession of it. This
reversed situation is the more usual, anyway as far as the Scandinavian
sources are concerned.
In one of the most important collections of Icelandic legal texts, the
Grágás, in the section on Inheritance (Arfa-IP áttr), the phrase occurs a
number of times. If an Icelander dies in Germany or even further south,
the property of the deceased must be transported back North. When it has
arrived in Denmark its value must be estimated. If, however, the appraiser
should risk “life and property” in this endeavor, estimation must be carried
out in Norway. Likewise, if someone dies in England, in the islands or in
Dublin, estimation should only be carried out once there was no danger
for property or life (fé eða fio˛rve).59
In Iceland, one of the most common ways of confirming an agreement
or transaction was known as handsal ‘giving or shaking hands’. According
to the Grágás, there was also involuntary or harða handsal which a man
was forced to give if he was threatened in “life or property” (fjo˛ r eða
fé).60 Again a situation which is the reverse of that in “Cynewulf and
Cyneheard.”
Outside the Scandinavian laws, the phrase is indeed very frequent in
sagas, and can also occasionally be found in poetic texts. I will give a
few examples from both genres. In Njáls saga, Flosi plans to attack Njál
and rallies supporters whom he ties to himself by making them swear that
they will not withdraw from the case. So they do. They all go up to Flosi
and swear their oaths. Yet, this is not sufficient to Flosi’s taste. “We shall
also pledge by hand-clasp that anyone who backs out shall forfeit life and
property.”61 We have observed in the Grágás that people could be forced
to handsal if life or propertity was in danger. Here we see that handtak is
asked exactly with life and property as a surety for a pledge.
In Örvar-Odds saga, a Viking romance as it has been termed,62 we read
of the many adventures of Arrow-Odd bringing him to virtually all corners
of Europe. On one occasion he happens to be in England, more precisely
in Northumbria according to one of the manuscripts. There he learns of a
Viking, named Skolli, who is lying there with forty ships. Odd takes off
in a small boat, as he wants to have a word with Skolli. As soon as he is
aboard the Viking’s ship he bluntly says: “I want to fight you.” “What
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have I ever done to you?,” is Skolli’s surprised answer. “Nothing at all,”
says Odd, “but I want to have your property and your life (fé þitt ok fjo˛r),
because you’ve been plundering the kingdom of the ruler here.”63 The
king he refers to is Edmund, King Alfred’s grandson, and it is probably a
curious coincidence that we find the phrase here in his presence, so to speak,
if we bear in mind that the first time the phrase is found in an AngloSaxon legal document is exactly in one promulgated by the same Edmund.
Were it not for the annal of 755, we might just as well have assumed that
Old English feoh and feorh was a legal term adopted from the Scandinavian
settlers. At any rate, we seem to see Odd here as a prize-hunter, ready to
cash in on the elimination of a criminal. Is such an interpretation right?
There is a good chance that the author of Arrow-Odd’s saga somehow or
other had some knowledge of Anglo-Saxon legal traditions. In one of
Alfred’s laws (Af 4, 5) we find the following provision:
Gif hwa ymb cyninges feorh sierwe, ðurh hine oððe ðurh wreccena feormunge oððe his
manna, sie he his feores scyldig 7 ealles þæs ðe he age.
[If anyone should plot against the king’s life by himself or by harboring an outlaw or his men,
let him forfeit his life and all that he owns.]
It is evident that Odd interprets Skolli’s raids as a deed of insurrection
against the king. The same kind of punishment for treason and treachery
is recorded in the Norwegian Hirðskrá, or “Statutes for the King’s
Bodyguard.” To ensure absolute internal coherence and mutual loyalty, every
member of this Männerbund was obliged to make known if one comrade
was intending to slander or hurt another. And whoever of the members
threatened a comrade in his “life or property” (fjo˛res eða fjár) would lose
“life or property” if he were found guilty.64
It was not only insurrection that could be punished in this way. In the
Instituta Cnuti, a Latin law text issued by Cnut, the authorship of which
has sometimes been attributed to Archbishop Wulfstan, the rectitudines or
rights of the English kings are listed. The last one of the list is “vita aut
pretium publici latronis” (III Cn 47), that is, “either the life or the property
of a manifest thief.” So here, too, we see the king as the one entitled to
either life or property of a criminal.
Unlike in Old English, the phrase is also found in Old Norse poetry, as
might be expected for alliterative verse. I will give only one example here,
from the gnomic part of Hávamál:65
Ár scal rísa,
sá er annars vill
fé eða fio
˛ r hafa;
sialdan liggiandi úlfr
lær um getr,
né sofandi maðr sigr.
[He must rise early who wants to have another man’s money or life; a lying wolf rarely
gets a joint of ham, nor a sleeping man victory.]
The Germanic Context of “Cynewulf and Cyneheard” Revisited
459
The stanza is a free variation on the theme of “The early bird gets the
worm,” and if we remember the situation depicted in the Chronicle annal
for 755, we see the applicability of this piece of Germanic wisdom to
Cynewulf lying in bed in the arms of his mistress with quite a different joint
of ham on his mind than Cyneheard has.
If all the examples I have given so far are considered in their contexts,
it is striking to see that whenever property and life is involved, it is either
because one party is at risk of losing it or has already lost it, or because
another party seeks to win it from somebody else.
The situation is different for Old Frisian texts. The alliterative phrase
occurs in the Fifth Londriucht. This statute settles the problems of disputed
ownership of land. A farmer who has been accused of occupying land
unlawfully may defend himelf by saying:66
Thit lond ther thu mi vmbe to that thinge lathad hest, thet capade ic et ene Rumfara. Hi
lette inur berch fia and ferech end nerede mitha fia bethe lif ande sele.
(The land for which you have summoned me to court – that I bought from a pilgrim on his
way to Rome. He brought across the mountain [i.e. the Alps] money and life and saved
with the money both his life and soul.)
The new owner had to swear to it that this had been the proper course of
events, and only then was he allowed to keep the land. The background
to this provision is that land was not thought of as being private property.
Instead, according to the notions of the time land belonged to the clan.
The owner, so to speak, only administered the land on behalf of his clan,
and as such he had to pass it on to the next generation. Only in a few
cases could land be alienated from the sib. One of the earliest exceptions
was the selling of land to provide money for a pilgrimage undertaken as
penitence for one’s sins.67 Here we have such a case. The former owner
had sold his landed property, and with the money he had travelled to Rome
in order to die there and be buried there mith boke and stole “with a book
[i.e. missal] and a stole,” that is to say by way of synechdoche, in a
ceremony conducted by a proper priest. The pilgrim had given his everything to the church. We can find a parallel idea in the C-text of William
Langland’s Piers Plowman, when Piers cries out:68
Of þe dede þat y haue do y do me in Zoure grace.
Bothe my lond and my licame at Zoure likynge taketh hit,
and haue mercy on me, riZtfol Iesu!
[Concerning the deeds I have done I put myself into your mercy. Both my land and my
property, take it as you please. And have mercy upon me, merciful Jesus!]
The Frisian example of the phrase, in fact, is the first in my survey to be
used in a non-violent context. There is no threat here, only the gift, as it
were, of money and life. For it will by now have become clear that the
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remarkable thing about the phrase in “Cynewulf and Cyneheard” is that it
is not used as a threat but as an offer. It follows from his superior strategic
position that Cyneheard does not offer his own life and money to
Cynewulf ’s men. In the Anglo-Saxon context, as we have seen, whenever
feoh and feorh, or similar wordings, are mentioned, the king is involved.
What Cyneheard is doing here is assuming royal pretensions. To the king,
according to law, belong the life and property of those plotting against either
him or the community. Cyneheard, therefore, refers in so many words to the
king’s prerogative, and simultaneously attempts to exercise the royal right
of granting mercy to offenders. In other words: Cyneheard is the rightful
king, and Cynewulf ’s men are turned into rebels!
His pretensions are reiterated publicly in the second episode of the event,
when the tables have turned and Cynheard is surrounded by Cynewulf ’s
followers. Then he offers them money and land of their own choice, hiera
agenne dom, if they would grant him the kingdom.
While “Cynewulf and Cyneheard” has rightly been recognized as
breathing the Germanic spirit with respect to loyalties, it has also been
noticed that the story contains an element that seems to stem from Germanic
legal procedure. The phrase hiera agenne dom ‘of their own judgement’
is paralleled by OIce sjálfdœmi. This ‘self-judgment’ implied that, instead
of submitting a case to arbitration or to the judgement of a court, one
party gave it over to his adversary to give judgement himself.69 Particularly
in the Fornaldursögur it was considered to be the most honorable way of
putting an end to a feud or a suit, and it was often allowed to an injured
man. It gave him the sole right to decide and assess the penalty or compensation. When in Njáls saga Gunnar wants to make amends for a theft
committed by his wife, he says to Otkel that the best men in the district
should assess the compensation. Otkel rejoins that in view of Gunnar’s popularity this assessment might well be too low. Hereupon Gunnar reacts:
“Then I offer you to assess your compensation myself. I’ll pay you the
double amount of the losses.” But Otkel is advised not to grant Gunnar selfjudgement, so that Gunnar finally says: “Come, assess the compensation
yourself, then.” Even this is refused by Otkel, a refusal which leads to a
dramatic conclusion.70
But returning to “Cynewulf and Cyneheard”, who in Anglo-Saxon
England was in the comfortable position of being able to offer money and
land? This again was the lord or king. Gift-giving was an important instrument with which kings secured the service of their retainer.71 Weapons,
jewelry and suchlike chattels were presented to the young warriors, the
geoguth, while the experienced warriors, the duguth, after a long service
would be given land. Land, after all, implied settled life and familiar
duties, while the young men could easily move about.
There is also evidence for this custom in, for example, Beowulf. King
Hygelac rewards his thegns Eofor and Wulf Wonreding with hund þusenda
The Germanic Context of “Cynewulf and Cyneheard” Revisited
461
landes and locenra beaga, ‘a hundred thousands’ worth of land and interlocked rings’. For Eofor there is settled life, too. He is given Hygelac’s
daughter hamweorðunge, ‘as an ornament to the home’ (Beow 2989–2998).
Beowulf himself was granted seven thousand hides by Hygelac upon his
return from Denmark, a sign tht he had passed on to the category of
duguth.72
So when Cyneheard in his final round of negotiations offered ‘property
and land’ to Cynewulf ’s retainers, he was still assuming royal prerogatives, able to share out such rewards as was expected of a king to his
young as well as to his experienced retainers. At the same time, we observe
that Cyneheard’s position had considerably weakened when compared with
his earlier bid of feoh and feorh. He must have realized that behind the
palisade he was not in a proper position any longer to grant his opponents
life. Also, the addition hiera agenne dom, “of their own choice,” marks a
shifting of initiative from the rebel to the royalists. Finally, the additional
condition gif hie him þæs rices uþon, “if they granted him the kingdom,”
abundantly makes clear that Cyneheard is no longer in the superior position
he was in when he offered feoh and feorh. Even his offer of feos and londes,
“of property and land,” could not win over the men outside to participate
in his revolt. The game was over.
While the literary qualities of “Cynewulf and Cyneheard” have long been
recognized, and especially have been used to illustrate the conflict between
a retainer’s loyalty to his lord or to his relatives,73 recent work on the
annal has overlooked the presence of less obvious topoi that also find their
origin in the Germanic ethos and traditions. Recently, Joseph Harris has
demonstrated the value of a “nativist” approach to Beowulf, perhaps the
most important monument of Germanic literary discourse in the English
language.74 I hope to have shown that such a macro-contextual approach
is equally rewarding when it comes to a smaller, but no less intriguing
specimen of Old English literature as this annal in the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle.
Vakgroep Engels RUL
Postbus 9515
NL-2300 RA Leiden
ROLF H. BREMMER JR.
Notes
* Versions of this paper were presented at the Twenty-Fourth Medievalist Congress,
Kalamazoo, May 1989, and at The Newberry Library, Chicago, April 1991. I would like to
thank Jan Bremmer, Allen Frantzen, and Joseph Harris for their helpful comments on a
draft of this paper.
1. Its popularity is borne out by its being included in practically every Old English
textbook, despite its notoriously confusing usage of pronouns. Sweet selected it as the opening
text for his Anglo-Saxon Reader.
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Rolf H. Bremmer Jr.
2. On this topic see most recently Joseph Harris, “Love and Death in the Männerbund:
An Essay with Special Reference to the Bjarkamál and the Battle of Maldon,” in Helen Damico
and John Leyerle, eds., Heroic Poetry in the Anglo-Saxon Period. Studies in Honor of Jess
B. Bessinger, Jr. (Kalamazoo, 1993), pp. 77–114.
3. Charles Plummer, ed., Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, reissued with a
Bibliographical Note by Dorothy Whitelock, 2 vols (Oxford, 1952). All subsequent Chronicle
quotations are from this edition.
4. A full list of the critical heritage is given by Fredrik J. Heinemann, “ ‘Cynewulf
and Cyneheard’ and Landnámabók,” Leeds Studies in English N. S. 24 (1993), 57–89, in
his fn. 4.
5. “A Saga of the Anglo-Saxons,” History 25 (1940), 208–215, and in a more popular
version in C. L. Wrenn, A Study of Old English Literature (London, 1967), 202–205. The
classic study of this subject more broadly still is C. E. Wright, The Cultivation of Saga in
Anglo-Saxon England (Edinburgh, 1939).
6. R. W. McTurk, “ ‘Cynewulf and Cyneheard’ and the Icelandic Sagas,” Leeds Studies
in English, N. S. 12 (1981), 81–127.
7. Heinemann “ ‘Cynewulf and Cyneheard’,” p. 60.
8. “Boar and Badger: An Old English Heroic Antithesis?,” Leeds Studies in English,
N. S. 16 (1985), 220–239, at p. 221.
9. Heinemann, “ ‘Cynewulf and Cyneheard’,” p. 82. Frank’s quote in her “Germanic
Legend in Old English Literature,” in Malcolm Godden and Michael Lapidge, eds., The
Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature (Cambridge, 1991), pp. 88–106, at p. 102.
10. Cf. David N. Dumville, “The Ætheling: A Study in Anglo-Saxon Constitutional
History,” Anglo-Saxon England 8 (1979), 1–33, at pp. 14–15. The socio-political problems
of the rebellion are well discussed by Stephen D. White, “Kinship and Lordship in Early
Medieval England: The Story of Cynewulf and Cyneheard,” Viator 20 (1989), 1–18.
11. Therefore the kinship relation between Sigebryht and Cynewulf is just as well-defined
(or ill-defined) as that between Cyneheard and Cynewulf. They are kinsmen, and, as we
have seen, related on the paternal side.
12. Geffrei Gaimar, L’Estorie des Engleis, ed. Alexander Bell, Anglo-Norman Texts
14–16 (Oxford, 1960), line 1873. This relationship was first pointed out by Francis J. Battaglia,
“Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 755: The Missing Evidence for a Traditional Reading,” PMLA
81 (1966), 173–178, at p. 176. Gaimar’s account of the episode is somewhat garbled, cf.
Alexander Bell, “Cynewulf and Cyneheard in Gaimar,” Modern Language Review 10 (1915),
42–46.
13. “ ‘Cynewulf and Cyneheard’,” p. 85.
14. Rolf H. Bremmer Jr, “The Importance of Kinship: Uncle and Nephew in Beowulf,”
Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik 15 (1980), 21–38; Ingeborg M. Bajema,
“The Mother’s Brother: An Investigation into the Meaning of Old English eam,”
Neophilologus 78 (1994), 633–644; for the Indo-European evidence, see Jan N. Bremmer
and Nicholas M. Horsfall, Romand Myth and Mythography. Institute of Classical Studies
Bulletin Supplement 52 (London, 1987), pp. 54–56.
15. “The Importance of Kinship,” pp. 36–38.
16. Emile Benveniste, Le vocabulaire des institutions indoeuropéennes, 2 vols. (Paris,
1969), I, pp. 230–231, who also points out such pairs of etymologically related terms for
the Celts and the Greeks.
17. Cf. Henry R. Loyn, The Governance of Anglo-Saxon England 500–1087, The
Governance of England 1 (London, 1984), pp. 15–19.
18. The conflict between paternal uncle and nephew is exploited in Walt Disney’s
recent success movie “The Lion King,” in which the wickled uncle Scar usurps the throne
of his (underage) brother’s son Simba.
19. Saxo Gramaticus’ History of the Danes, trsl. Peter Fisher, ed. Hilda Ellis Davidson,
2 vols (Cambridge, 1979), I, Bk III (77)–(81).
The Germanic Context of “Cynewulf and Cyneheard” Revisited
463
20. All quotations are from Frederick Klaeber, ed., Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg,
3rd edn (Lexington, 1950).
21. Against a fatal clash have pleaded, e.g., Kenneth Sisam, The Structure of Beowulf
(Oxford, 1965), pp. 80–83 and Gerald Morgan, “The Treachery of Hrothulf,” English Studies
53 (1972), 23–29. For the traditional view which accepts treachery, see e.g. Klaeber’s edition,
p. xxxii, and T. A. Shippey, Old English Verse (London, 1972), pp. 31–35.
22. George P. Krapp, ed., Genesis, in The Junius Manuscript. ASPR 1 (London and
New York, 1931).
23. McTurnk, “ ‘Cynewulf and Cyneheard’,” pp. 85–86.
24. Snorri Sturluson, “Harald saga Sigurðarsonar,” Heimskringla, Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson,
ed., Íslenzk fornrit 28 (Reykjavík, 1951), III, ch. 28.
25. Gwyn Jones, A History of the Vikings (Oxford, 1973), p. 403, erroneously makes
Harald Magnus’ maternal uncle. Actually, Magnus’ father Olaf and Harald were half-brothers
sharing the same mother, so that this is not quite a pure instance of paternal uncleship, as
Joseph Harris points out to me. But note that independently from Snorri’s account, the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (MS D, s. a. 1049) unequivocally calls Harald Magnus fædera
‘Magnus’s paternal uncle.’
26. Snorri Sturluson, “Hákonar saga Góda,” Heimskringla, I, pp. 150–197.
27. “Óláfs saga Trygvasonar,” Heimskringla I: “IPat munu Danir kalla” segir jarl, “at
betra et þat skipti drepa víking norrœnan heldr en bróðurson sinn danskan,” ch. 11, p. 236,
and “. . . sættisk við hann [i.e. King Harald] auðvelliga um dráp Gull-Haralds, frænda
hans,” ch. 15, p. 240, respectively.
28. Cf. Klaeber, Beowulf, pp. xliii–xliv.
29. Trsl. William D. Foulke, ed. Edward Peters (Philadelphia, 1974). Henceforth HL.
30. Cf. Reinhard Schneider, Königswahl und Königserhebung im Frühmittelalter
(Stuttgart, 1972), p. 14: “Damit ordnet sich Wachos Nachfolge auf Tato ein in den bekannten Komplex der erbrechtlichen Rivalität von Oheim und Neffen.” Unfortunately, Schneider
does not specify the precise relation of uncle and nephew here.
31. Katherine F. Drew, trsl. and ed., The Lombard Laws (Philadelphia, 1973).
32. The meaning of barba(nu)s is undisputed through the gloss ‘quod est patruus’. Its
origin seems to be Latin barba ‘beard,’ cf. Florus van der Rhee, Die germanischen Wörter
in den langobardischen Gesetzen, diss. Utrecht (Rotterdam, 1970), pp. 36–38. The motivation for calling the paternal uncle ‘beard’ or ‘the bearded man’ is not clear to me, unless
the beard would signify severe authority. See also S. Curletto, “Barba = zio materno,”
Romano-Barbica 5 (1981–1982), 63–83.
33. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, MS D s.a. 1071, MS E s.a., 1070; cf. Plummer’s notes in
vol. 2, p. 266.
34. Wybren Jan Buma and Wilhelm Ebel, eds., Das Hunsingoer Recht. Altfriesische
Rechtsquellen 4 (Göttingen, 1968), III, 6.
35. All references are to Bertram Colgrave and Roger A. B. Mynors, eds. and trsls., Bede’s
Ecclesiastical History of the English People, improved edn. (Oxford, 1991).
36. Æthelfrith likewise had bannished his nephew Hereric, but Bede (HE IV, 23) does
not make clear whether Hereric was his paternal or maternal nephew.
37. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle MS E, s. a. 617.
38. Dorothy Whitelock, David C. Douglas and Suzie I. Tucher, eds. and trsls., The AngloSaxon Chronicle, rev. edn. (London, 1965), pp. 58–59.
39. Sweets’ Anglo-Saxon Reader, 15th edn, rev. by Dorothy Whitelock, p. 396: wifcyþþ(u) “company of a woman”; Francis P. Magoun, “Cynewulf, Cyneheard, and Osric,”
Anglia 57 (1933), 361–376, at p. 375; Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson, A Guide to
Old English, 5th edn (Oxford, 1991), p. 361 “company or intimacy with a woman”. Less
prudish but also less sure than the previous scholars is J. R. Clark Hall, A Concise AngloSaxon Dictionary, 4th edn (Cambridge, 1960), p. 408, who glosses ‘company of a woman?,
intercourse with a woman?’
464
Rolf H. Bremmer Jr.
40. Alastair Campbell, ed. and trsl., The Chronicle of Æthelweard (London, 1962).
41. Professional prostitution seems to have started only towards the close of the AngloSaxon period, cf. Christine Fell, Women in Anglo-Saxon England (London, 1984), pp. 64–66.
42. The plural ending in gebærum, ‘cries,’ expresses the intensity of her alarm.
43. Wybren Jan Buma and Wilhelm Ebel, Das Emsiger Recht. Altfriesische Rechtsquellen
3 (Göttingen, 1965), VIII, 8.
44. Buma and Ebel, Das Emsiger Recht, V, 3.
45. Sveriges gamla Lagar (Stockholm, 1826ff ), II, 31, Östgötalagen: Konungx eþsöre
III: “Nu takær kunæ mæþ wald. þa hauör han brutit eþzssörit. synis a manninum, ælla a
klæþum hans þæt sum konan ref. ælla kununne. ælla [höri]s op ok kallan. þa skal hæraþzs
næmd uita huat þær ær sant um. Nu bryzs han wiþær hana ok gitær egh sin uilia framt.
slitær klæþe hænna. höris op ok akallan. þa hauær brutit eþzssörit.” Quoted after Hammerich,
Clamor, p. 72 (see fn. 46 below).
46. The institution of the alarm cry is excellently surveyed by L. L. Hammerich,
Clamor. Eine rechtsgeschichtliche Studie. Det Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Historiskfilologiske Meddelelser, XXXIX, no. 1 (Copenhagen, 1941), a highly interesting but rarely
quoted monograph. See also Adalbert Erler and Ekkehard Kaufmann, eds., Handwörterbuch
zur deutschen Rechtsgeschichte (Berlin, 1971), I, s. v. Gerüfte.
47. Hammerich, Clamor, pp. 46–47. Mosaic law (Deuteronomy 22: 24, 27) also stipulates crying as evidence for a rape.
48. Cf. Felix Liebermann, Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, 3 vols. (Halle, 1903–1916),
II: Rechts- und Sachglossar, s.v. Gerüfte. Henceforth I will use Liebermann’s abbreviations
of the law codes.
49. An interesting illustration of such shouting by travelers through forests is given in
Abbo’s passion of St Edmund in his description of the search for King Edmund’s head (in
Ælfric’s translation): Hi eodon þa secende and symle clypigende, swa swa hit gewunelic is
þam ðe on wudu oft gað . . . (“They then went searching and shouting frequently, as is
customary for those who often travel in forests . . .”), G. J. Needham, ed., Ælfric: Lives of
Three English Saints (London, 1966), p. 51, lines 124–125. On Ælfric’s translation, see
Michael Benskin, “The Literary Structure of Ælfric’s Life of St Edmund,” in L. A. J. R.
Houwen and A. A. MacDonald, eds., Loyal Letters. Studies on Mediaeval Alliterative Poetry
& Prose (Groningen, 1994), pp. 1–27.
50. Though Cynewulf is said to have severely wounded Cyneheard (hine miclum gewundode), Cyneheard’s subsequent actions suggest that he could still play a dominant rôle.
51. “IP æt wæs geomuru ides!,” the poet’s comment on Hildeburh’s plight, Beowulf,
line 1075b.
52. “Badger and Boar,” pp. 225–226.
53. The duration of the fight appears from the usage of the progressive form wærun
feohtende.
54. So, for example, G. N. Garmondsway, trsl., The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 2nd edn
(London, 1954), p. 48 and Whitelock et al., Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 31.
55. Tom H. Towers, “Thematic Unity in the Story of Cynewulf and Cyneheard,” Journal
of Germanic and English Philology 62 (1963), 310–316, at p. 311.
56 Ruth Waterhouse, “The Theme and Structure of 755 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,”
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 70 (1969), 630–640, at p. 636.
57. Rolf H. Bremmer Jr, “Old English feoh and feorh, Old Norse fé ok fjor, ergo: Old
Frisian fiā and ferech,” Us Wurk 32 (1983), 55–62, in which I establish the presence of
ferech for Old Frisian, a word hitherthen overlooked.
58. Lieberman, Gesetze, EGu 12. This decree is repeated in II Cnut 40 (25 December
1027–1034) and elaborated upon in VIII Æthelred 33 (1014, after February). Both these
later decrees retain the alliterative formula.
59. Vilhálmur Finsen, ed., Grágás. Islændernas Lovbog i Fristatens Tid, 2 vols
(Copenhagen, 1852), I, ch. 125, p. 239.
The Germanic Context of “Cynewulf and Cyneheard” Revisited
465
60. Finsen, ed., Grágás, II, ch. 244, p. 189.
61. Einar Ol. Sveinsson, ed., Brennu-Njáls Saga. Íslenzk Fornrit 12 (Reykjavík, 1954),
ch. 124, p. 315: “Flosi mælti: ‘Vér skulum ok hafa handtak at því, at sá skal hafa fyrirgo
˛ rt
fé ok fjo˛ rvi, er ór gengr þessu máli’.”
62. Seven Viking Romances, Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards, trsl. and eds.
(Harmondsworth, 1985), pp. 8ff.
63. Richard C. Boer, ed., Örvar-Odds Saga. Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek 2 (Halle, 1892),
ch. 25, p. 44.
64. R. Meissner, ed., Hirðskrá (Weimar, 1938), 41, 3; cf. R. Meissner, trsl., Das
Gefolgschaftsrecht, Germanenrechte 5 (Witzenhausen, 1938), 41, 3.
65. Gustav Neckel and Hans Kuhn, eds., Edda. Die Lieder des Codex Reigus nebst verwandten Denkmälern. I: Text, 4th ed. (Heidelberg, 1962), p. 26, stanza 59.
66. Wybren Jan Buma and Wilhelm Ebel, eds., Das Hunsingoer Recht, 3.5. Altfriesische
Rechtsquellen 5 (Göttingen, 1972), IV, 59–61.
67. Thus in the 13th-century Elder ‘Skeltanariucht’, §38, in Wybren Jan Buma and
Wilhelm Ebel, eds., Jus Municipale Frisonum, Altfriesische Rechtsquellen 6/1 (Göttingen,
1977); cf. N. E. Algra, De Zeventien Keuren en Vierentwintig Landrechten, 2nd edn. (Doorn,
1991), p. 389.
68. William Langland, Piers Plowman, the C-Text, ed. Derek Pearsall, improved edn.
(Exeter, 1994), XX, 93–95; cf. Pearsall’s note to line 94.
69. Cf. The Battle of Maldon (ed. D. G. Scragg [Manchester, 1981]), line 37, in which
the Viking messenger offers the English to fix their price for peace on hyra sylfra dom “at
their own judgement,” as pointed out by Plummer, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, II, p. 46.
70. Sveinsson, Brennu-Njáls saga, ch. 49.
71. Cf. Richard P. Abels, Lordship and Military Obligtaion in Anglo-Saxon England
(London, 1988), pp. 29–33.
72. Beow 2195; cf. Abels, Lordship and Military Obligation, p. 30.
73. For example, Stanley B. Greenfield and Daniel G. Calder, A New Critical History
of Old English Literature, with a survey of the Anglo-Latin background by Michael Lapidge
(New York and London, 1986), p. 60; Helmut Gneuss, Die Battle of Maldon als historisches
und literarisches Zeugnis, Bayerische Akdemie der Wissenschaften, PhilosophischeHistorische Klase, Sitzungsberichte 5 (Munich, 1976), p. 24; Harris, “Love and Death in
the Männerbund,” pp. 93, 96. For more skeptic view, see Rosemary Woolf, “The Ideal of
Men Dying with their Lord in the Germania and The Battle of Maldon,” Anglo-Saxon England
5 (1976), 63–81, esp. pp. 70–71.
74. “A Nativist Approach to Beowulf: The Case of Germanic Elegy,” in Henk Aertsen
and Rolf H. Bremmer Jr, eds., Companion to Old English Poetry (Amsterdam, 1994), 45–62.