VII AEthelred and the Genesis of the Beowulf Manuscript

Abstract

DURING THE PAST THIRTY YEARS, scholars have spilled considerable ink over date of Beowulf's composition, and cogent arguments for both early and late dates have emerged. (1) Considerably less ink has been spilled, however, concerning date of Beowulf manuscript's production. Neil Ker's dating of s.x/xi (ca. 975-1025) has for most part held. (2) Kevin Kiernan argued that both poem and manuscript belong after 1016, but his claims have been rendered highly improbable by Michael Lapidge and David Dumville, among others. (3) Dumville, in fact, makes most important advance on Ker's dating: by reinterpreting birth and death dates of Anglo-Saxon vernacular and square minuscule respectively, he concludes that manuscript was most likely copied out between years 997 and 1016. (4) This is a period for which a vast written record survives and about which much is known, and yet few have asked what exactly Beowulf might be doing there. In this paper, I intend to offer a few hypotheses as to why an Anglo-Saxon audience might have had interest in a poem like Beowulf during this period. I will suggest some of purposes for which poem might have been intended and looking to VII/AEthelred, show how Viking invasions could have provided an impetus for a scriptorium to produce a poem of this nature. I will then test my hypotheses through an examination of manuscript, to see what it can tell us about concerns of scribes, their interest in material, and importance of this text to an eleventh-century audience. While The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (MS C/D/E) depicts reign of King AEthelred Unraed (978-1016) as a continual series of disasters leading inevitably to ascension of King Cnut of Denmark, Simon Keynes has offered a more nuanced account of reign. He contends that during 990s, conditions of life in England were generally good and Vikings would have seemed like a manageable threat. Keynes demonstrates that it is only during first decade of eleventh century, particularly after devastating raids of 1006, that English affairs became increasingly turbulent and desperate. (5) The most powerful record of English desperation during these years is law code known as VII AEthelred, promulgated at Bath in Surviving in both an English and a Latin version, code propounds an elaborate program of public prayer and penance in order we Godes miltse 7 his mildheortnesse habban moton 7 paet we purh his fultum magon feondum widstandan [that we may have God's mercy and his compassion and through his help withstand our enemies]. (6) It then lays out a plan in which entire population (eal folc) would contribute to effort: on three days before Michaelmas, there is to be fasting, almsgiving, and confession, as well as a barefoot procession with relics in hand; from every hide, a penny is to be rendered; every thegn is to give a tithe of his property and each of his dependents is to contribute a penny; every priest is to sing thirty masses and every deacon and cleric must sing thirty psalms. Furthermore, every religious foundation is to direct their attention to present crisis: mass contra paganos is to be sung daily; psalm Domine, quid multiplicati sunt is to be chanted at regular hours; and both are to be performed on behalf of King and his nation (pro rege et omni populo suo; for urne hlaford 7 for ealle his peode). (7) For my purposes, importance of VII AEthelred rests in its call for entire English population to contribute in a variety of ways to a national effort. As Simon Keynes writes, the directive known as VII AEthelred bears eloquent testimony to involvement of laymen, secular clergy, and members of religious houses in an orchestrated response to Viking invasion of 1009. (8) In this respect, VII AEthelred seems to enact a spiritual or ideological version of AEthelred's shipbuilding project of 1008. …

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