The four funerals in Beowulf [Paperback]

It is well known that the old English poem Beowulf begins and ends with funerals and includes the third as a digression part way through. Now, for the first time, a fourth funeral (hitherto disguised as poetic imagery) is identified from archaeological evidence. A detailed analysis of the four funerals establishes their thematic and structural importance, revealing them as pillars around which the poem is built. The poet is revealed as a literate antiquarian of considerable structural skill; one who explores feminist issues, plays with numbers and enjoys a pun; who establishes an ideal then probes its darker side.

The author's unique knowledge of Anglo-Saxon culture provides constant surprises and enlightenment. This book will be invaluable to all students of the poem for its fresh and detailed reading, its identification of a coherent structure and its establishment of the integrity of the surviving texts.

1. Introduction

Part I - the Four Funerals

2. The first funeral: Scyld Scefing's Ship of Death

3. The second funeral: the cremation of Hildeburg's kin

4. The third funeral: the Last Survivor's Lament

5. The fourth funeral: Beowulf's complex obsequies

6. Classicising the past

Part II - The Funerals and the Structure of the Poem

7. Rings and fitts

8. The funerals and elliptical structures I: the inner funerals as frames

9. The funerals and elliptical structures II: the outer structures

10. The funerals and elliptical structures III: the funerals as centres

11. Three movements and a coda: Beowulf's femininst middle

Conclusions

Gale R. Owen-Crocker is Professor of Anglo-Saxon Culture at the University of Manchester