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[Bêthberry]

Both of these works, Squatter and Estelyn, the essay "The Monster and the Critics" and "On Fairy Stories" demonstrate, I think, not only elements of Tolkien's writing style and skill, but also his astonishingly acute perceptions as a reader. In his critical work, his role as a reader, as someone who responds to a work of art, was always foremost.

This perceptive reading is also shown in his brief comments on the Old English word ofermode in the heroic poem The Battle of Maldon.

Tolkien considers two passages. The first is the rightly famous,

Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre,
mod sceal þe mare þe ure mægen lytlað.

'Will shall be the sterner, heart the bolder, spirit the greater as our strength lessens.'

The second is the much darker line with one of the most contested words in Old English translation:

ða se eorl ongan for his ofermode alyfan landes to fela laþere ðeode

'then the earl in his overmastering pride actually yielded ground to the enemy, as he should not have done.'

In considering how these two lines work, Tolkien provides an interesting contrast between heroic and chivalric. This is the passage I which to offer here.

The words of Beorhtwold (the first quote above) have been held to be the finest expression of the northern heroic spirit, Norse or English; the clearest statement of the doctrine of uttermost endurance in the service of indomitable will. The poem as a whole has been called 'the only purely heroic poem extant in Old English.' Yet the doctrine apppears in this clarity, and (approximate) purity, precisely because it is put in the mouth of a subordinate, a man for whom the object of his will was decided by another, who had no responsibility downwards, only loyalty upwards. Personal pride was therefore in him at its lowest, and love and loyalty at their highest.

For this 'northern heroic spirit' is never quite pure; it is of gold and an alloy. Unalloyed, it would direct a man to endure even death unflinching, when necessary: that is when death may help the achievemnt of some object of will, or when life can only be purchased by denial of what one stands for, But since such conduct is held admirable, the alloy of personal good name was never wholly absent. Thus Léofsunu in The Battle of Maldon holds himself to his loyalty by the fear of reproach if he returns home alive. This motive may, of course, hardly go beyond 'conscience': self-judgement in the light of the opinion of his peers, to which the 'hero' himself wholly assents; he would act the same, if there were no witnesses. Yet this element of pride, in the form of the desire for honour and glory, in life and after death, tends to grow, to become a chief motive, driving a man beyond the bleak heroic necessity to excess--to chivalry. "Excess" certainly, even if it be approved by contemporary opinion, when it not only goes beyond need and duty, but interferes with it.

His point is perhaps made more clear in his final remarks:

There could be no more pungent criticism in a few words of 'chivalry' in one of responsibility than Wiglaf's exclamation: oft sceall eorl monig anes willan wræc adreogan, 'by one man's will many must woe endure.' These words the poet of Maldon might have inscribed at the head of his work.

An absolutely steely-eyed, unsentimental view of chivalry. Amazing.

Bethberry

[ February 17, 2003: Message edited by: Bethberry ]