Beowulf, Chiefdoms, and the Dragon

1. Beowulf, Chiefdoms, and the Dragon • Wade Tarzia, Naugatuck Valley Community College for WCSU • Click “Folklore” then “Chapter 4 Beowulf” at www.wtarzia.com for MANY details • Thanks for the Invite, Glad to be Here! • Thanks for the Cool Poster!

2. We must study Beowulf because…? • Relationship between wealth, war, and society in the epic is still instructive today • Beowulf as leader doesn’t send warriors where he will not go himself (not a political statement) • Monsters are important symbols: Beowulf is the source of monsters in Western Tradition • “Strange” culture requires us to apply ethnographic & historical approaches to literary study (= good!) • Oral vs. written narrative style, different worldview, and more!

3. And why worry about Chiefdoms? • The 3rd of 4 general organizations of society • Band, Tribe, Chiefdom, [stratified?], State • Helps us study origin & function of power • Chiefdoms are the basis for Western Society • (and most other societies) • Still a hot topic in anthropology • Might help us read some postColonial literature

4. What is a Chiefdom? • Permanent office of leadership, but… • Leads by persuasion more than command • “…leaders can lead, but followers may not follow.” • Society based in kinship • Relations usually form retinue and support positions • Closer to the chiefly family = higher status (ranked) • Slight wealth differences • Chief has bigger house, eats a little better • Wealth from best land, raiding, trade control

5. Our Chief (ha!) Worry: Status Symbols • Chiefs gain followers by distributing wealth • “food chiefs” = gather produce, give big feasts • “war chiefs” = take your stuff, give it to followers • “trade chiefs” = control trade of exotic materials • Chiefs gain power by showing off cool stuff • Makes power/bravery/wits/luck visible • Example: periods of scare exotic goods in Europe may have not allowed complex society to form • Contact with Rome boosted exotic good flow

6. Status stuff Can Cause Problems • When enter a society, social structure changes • See great film, “The Gods Must be Crazy” • Or think about problem of $400 sneakers • Taste for exotic goods can lead to • Raiding and trading to get it to look cool • Coolness leads to political power differences • Envy: some angry they have no pretty things like you • Inflation: too many pretty things in society = less useful to display status. What to do…….?

7. Solution = sacrifice, wreck, hoard • Chiefdoms based on exotic goods experience problems of wealth abundance or scarcity • For envy/inflation problems, get rid of the stuff! • Sacrifice to gods (so everybody feels better) • Wreck the stuff (broken weapons) • Lose the stuff (throw in bogs and rivers) • Surprise! Beowulf is obsessed with • Owning, getting, and giving wealth • Hidden wealth in monster caves

8. Treasure hoards = common ritual • Neolithic through early medieval periods • Two types, hiding and sacrificing • Craftsman scraps hidden for safety • Ritual goods hidden permanently (bogs, rivers) • Goods destroyed (classic potlatch ritual) • Potlatch = status sacrifice competition, “last man standing” • Goods buried in sets suggest status positions • Fits in to anthro theory of potlatch, inflation, envy

9. 4th-5th-6th century (Migration Period) • Kragehul, Skedemose, Vimose, Nydam, Thorsbjerg -- much war gear, 2 ships, decorated ornaments/clothing, Roman imports, 100s objects: pottery, wood, leather. • Thorsbjerg -- some items deliberately broken • Öland, Vastergötland, & Torslunda -- neck rings • An old tradition -- Hjortspring, Denmark, 200 BC -- ship with ~150 shields, 138 iron spearheads, 20 chain shirts, 6 swords; also, dishes, bowls, boxes • Gear for complete war-band, useful stuff= emphasizes need for burial ritual!

10. Important Trends of Hoards • items for display of individual’s social rank were focus • votive deposits occur in wet areas (meadow, bogs, lakes, some apparently bundled or marked by poles) • deliberate destruction of some items occurred; related to wet-area deposit (indicates rituality). • largest votive deposits are near settlement areas, suggesting community ritual • communal-ritual hoards are focus in the sagas • funerals associate wealth with lineage • hoards divorce wealth from particular lineage/people

11. Scrap hoards • When is a hoard ritual, when pragmatic? Timboholm & Vittene

12. Nydam: lots of expensive stuff “lost” • Chiefly war canoe buried with goods

13. Wet-Place Sacrifice:seaside, cave under water, river Illerup site, post draining: bogs are hard to navigate and recover lost things = great places for sacrifices

14. Iron-Age Hoards: Illerup

15. The Chiefdom in Europe • Chiefdoms fluctuated with climate and trade • Food & Stuff = power; both affected by global issues • Lack of precious metals slowed chiefdom evolution • Contact with Mediterranean world brought wealth • Influenced growth of complex society in Europe • Chiefdom evidence controversial for Neolithic, very good for Bronze and Iron Ages • As Rome collapses, Europe relapses into chiefdoms • Dramatic rise of states from chiefdoms: Scandinavia near end of Viking Age, England ca 900, Eire too?

16. Chiefdom in England: • 5th-6th cen., few changes for Gmnc. colonizers • 7th century changes: move toward Feudal State • Greater wealth differences in graves • Society became more rigidly organized, “royal” • Law codes stipulate punishments (blood feud tradition used to be everybody’s right = loss of kinship focus) • Law codes start ranking society based on land • Beowulf preserves pre-7th cen. worldview? • Medievalist fist fights over Beowulf dates

17. Chiefs and Chiefdoms in Beowulf • Elite focus, manly men concerned with: • Getting and displaying material wealth as symbol of relationship with other powerful men • States use prestige goods but also laws, charters, etc. • Establishing relationships as follower or chief • Showing loyalty to chief who is usually kin • Persuading/justifying through long speeches • Social ID through blood-feud obligations • Family obligated to revenge wrongs against family

18. Blood-feud as kinship-based control over crime, structures entire epic • Beowulf vows to help “Cyning” Hrothgar because H. helped Beowulf’s father in a feud (reciprocity, debts remembered and repaid) • Fight against Grendel envisioned as feud • Grendel wants TOO MUCH revenge; against rules! • Grendel’s Mom avenges son’s death • Dragon’s attack of chiefdom requires Beowulf’s personal vengeance as head of chiefly lineage

19. But the Monsters Have Treasure! • Beowulf leaves treasure in ogre cave & lives • Blade of magic sword melted = left behind • Beowulf kills dragon as revenge/win treasure & dies • Young Wiglaf re-buries treasure quickly even though “useful”? • Cp. the “Rhine Gold” pattern (Sigurd & everybody dies) • The “otherworld” taboo; source of retribution • Sacrificed stuff=otherworld=leave alone! • Religious support to chiefdom “hoarding” rituals • Belief in supernatural intersects socio-economic needs

20. Heroic Habits + Monster Treasure = Curse (someone check my math) • Ancient tradition has two worldviews • Chiefs & chief-hopefuls: Get & give status goods • Discard/destroy/sacrifice status goods • Hero: “I’m tired. Just tell me what you want!” • Both acts OK at certain times in a region, but not at same time • Why both models in Beowulf? • Poet under stress: tradition kept both rituals from prehistory • Oral poets composing live hastily select from Tradition’s options • A mistake out of oral performance issues? (Homer has them too) • Might answer this if we had more ancient Germanic epics…. 

21. Beowulf Now: Aliens and Enemies • Gardner’s Grendel: the “monster’s” side • Suits our deconstruction of the war experience • Expresses our sense that the “Other” has a story too • Beowulf and Grendel film • Same tradition as Gardner; hero questions effects of the heroic society • The “folktale function” in Beowulf then and now • Folklore symbols express our minds’ deep-structures • Home as safe place; monster attacking home is basic symbolic expression (Aliens 2: home = spaceship)

22. The Hero in the Monster • Monsters invade. Aliens monster lays eggs in body = ultimate invader. • Ripley gets “inside” a “monster” to defeat; tosses monster from ship • Beowulf is a crusher; kills crushing monster; tosses Grendel from hall