A Beowulf Handbook (review)

Reviews 177 many of the primary sources, apart from Chaucer and Augustine, are quoted from secondary materials. That, and the decision to quote some of the medieval texts in modern translations, are somewhat surprising. Bisson is deliberately restrained in her discussion of Chaucerian texts. Her intention has been to document Chaucer's world rather than to advance particular readings of his work. While that restraint deserves credit, it is also at times rather frustrating. Given the clarity of her prose and the extensiveness of her secondary reading, I would have appreciated a fuller discussion of some of the critical issues broached here. Peter Whiteford Department ofEnglish Language and Literature Victoria University of Wellington Bjork, Robert E. and John D. Niles, ed., A Beowulf Handbook, Exeter, University of Exeter Press, 1997; pp. 466; R.R.P. £16.99 (paper), £40.00 (cloth). This valuable compendium, written by a team of mainly North American academics, covers the main areas of scholarly inquiry into the p o e m in eighteen short chapters, followed by lengthy bibliographies and an index. Each chapter is prefaced by a summary of its contents and a detailed, annotated chronology of major contributions to the area treated. Each contributor provides an historical survey of critical responses to his or her subject before drawing out a few major strands for detailed discussion or presenting a case for a particular point of view. The essays are presented in broad thematic groups. Following the introduction by John D. Niles, and a discussion of the vexed questions of date, provenance, author and audience by Robert E. Bjork and Anita Obermeier, R. D. Fulk presents a strongly-argued piece on textual criticism and editing. There follow three essays on the language of the p o e m (prosody; diction, variation and the formula; rhetoric and style). The heart of the volume comprises eight essays on questions of structure, theme and the wider symbolic and social meanings of the p o e m (sources and analogues; structure and unity; Christian and pagan elements; digressions and episodes; myth and history; symbolism and allegory; social milieu; 178 Reviews the hero and the theme). Catherine M . Hills ponders the question of the relationship between Beowulf and archaeology, and there are two pieces, informed by more recent critical preoccupations, on gender roles and contemporary critical theory. The final essay surveys translations, versions and illustrations inspired by the poem. The editors state in their preface that the book is intended for 'a broad audience', and while a moderately advanced level of knowledge is assumed by most contributors, the pieces are not heavily technical. The book has been carefully edited, so that where there are overlaps between sections they are not repetitious, but muminating in the way they reinforce or intersect with the conclusions of other contributors. It is of course immensely convenient to have all the major issues relating to Beowulf treated between one set of covers, by acknowledged experts in their fields, and A Beowulf Handbook can be recommended with enthusiastic confidence for use by undergraduates and advanced students alike. While m a n y of the surveys in the book are excellent and authoritative, it is impossible to discuss them all, even briefly, in a short review and I shall expand on only a few. Edward B. Irving Jr's contribution on Christian and pagan elements is judicious, balanced and accessible. The author lays out the issues clearly before surveying the history of critical responses to them. Irving convincingly defends a thorough-going heroic view of the poem, and denies a 'Christian' reading that sees Beowulf as ultimately a flawed hero. His is a reading with which this reviewer concurs! Writing on the question of structure and unity in the poem, Thomas A. Shippey presents a masterly synthesis that is both cogent and detailed. His piece is especially valuable for his summaries of early Germanic critics w h o proposed (what n o w seem absurdly complex) theories of the poem's alleged composite origin (Liedertheorie). As in a number of other essays in the book, Tolkien's famous essay of 1936, which appreciated the poem on its o w n terms for the first time, is...