The Worlds of Anglo-Saxon Society

THE WORLDS OF ANGLO-SAXON SOCIETY STEPHEN R. ELL* It is difficult to believe how very few primary sources survive from early Anglo-Saxon England. The vast majority of what survives, as is true for the rest of Western Europe in the time of Bede, is ofecclesiastic provenance. Thus, there is a natural tendency to see Bede's England through Bede's eyes. Essential to a broader understanding of early Anglo-Saxon culture is the realization that monasteries were imported institutions and that Christianity was more a matter of political expediency (when not ignored outright) or public posturing than of belief. Bede's England knew another world, that of the warrior-nobles. This world differed as much from that of Bede as does either from our own. We are fortunate that we have a document from which we may view that other world and so broaden our perspective. Even as Bede wrote the stately and insightful Latin prose that has caused him to be judged the sole historian of the Early Middle Ages worthy of the name [1, p. 379], the same part of what is now Britain knew authors laboring on a very different work, Beowulf [2, pp. 20-21]. The world of the authors of Beowulf touched that of Bede at many points, but reading the works ofboth forces us to recognize a dichotomy in worldviews. Bede's world draws its force from classical antiquity and Christianity. The world of Beowulf is the territory of Germanic prehistory . Beowulf's world is much more foreign to us, yet we must remember that when Cuthbert walked the roads of England outside monastic shelter, he walked mainly in the world of Beowulf. The nonmonastic world was above all personal. Kingship was ideally not so much hereditary as the domain of men with certain qualities. So we see both Beowulf, who was not of royal stock, made king and then Wiglaf (the man who alone stood with Beowulf in his last combat) given the kingship personally by the dying Beowulf [2, p. 129]. Once a man was king, kingship was his property to be left to others as he chose. Kingship, as an abstract office, did not exist; only kings existed, and ?Department of Radiology, University of Utah Medical School, 50 North Medical Drive, Salt Lake City, Utah 84132.© 1989 by The University of Chicago. AU rights reserved. 0031-5982/89/3203-0633$01.00 398 I Stephen R. Ell ¦ Worlds ofAnglo-Saxon Society kings made other men kings. Indeed, government in the abstract also did not exist. There were good rulers and bad, but rule was inseparable from the person of the ruler. We know what was expected of a good king. Beowulf says of his kingship of 50 years: . . . there wasn't a king Dared affront me with war; I held my own well, Seldom swore wrongful oaths! In all of these things I may still rejoice. [2, p. 124] In turn, his liegemen praise their dead lord as follows: They said he had proved of all kings in the world The gentlest to his men, the most gracious, The kindest to his people, the keenest for fame. [2, p. 133] The primary quality of the king's retainers, ofcourse, was loyalty. The overwhelmingly militaristic ethos should not be overlooked, in king or follower. Fame or glory came through feats of arms. "Battles in plenty I ventured in youth / And old as I am now I'll again achieve glory," says Beowulf before his ultimate battle [2, p. 124]. Men of worth were soldiers and, while birth counted (especially outside of literature), personal qualities could make a man rise far above inherited station. This was a warrior's society. The transitory nature of all things is emphasized again and again in Beowulf. Old age and death overcame everyone and there was nothing to mitigate the loss. . . . you shall live to be comfort And bulwark to your heroes. The noon of your strength Shall last for a while now, but we know in little time Flame, drowning, spear, or ugliness of age Will conquer you finally, O bravest of warriors. So it is with myself! But now join those here seated...