In
Beowulf & Grendel: The Truth Behind England's Oldest Legend (2005), British author
John Grigsby John Grigsby is a British author of two books on prehistory and mythology: Warriors of the Wasteland and Beowulf and Grendel .- Background :...
interprets
BeowulfBeowulf is an Old English heroic epic poem of unknown authorship, dating as recorded in the Nowell Codex manuscript from between the 8th and the early 11th century, set in Denmark and Sweden...
as "the recounting in poetic form of a religious conflict between two pagan cults in Denmark around
AD 500" (p. 5). Joining scholars such as Catherine M. Hills, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology,
University of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge , located in the City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the fourth oldest in Europe...
Beowulf and Archaeology, 1997 Grigsby applied the findings of archaeology to literary myth.
In
Beowulf & Grendel: The Truth Behind England's Oldest Legend (2005), British author
John Grigsby John Grigsby is a British author of two books on prehistory and mythology: Warriors of the Wasteland and Beowulf and Grendel .- Background :...
interprets
BeowulfBeowulf is an Old English heroic epic poem of unknown authorship, dating as recorded in the Nowell Codex manuscript from between the 8th and the early 11th century, set in Denmark and Sweden...
as "the recounting in poetic form of a religious conflict between two pagan cults in Denmark around
AD 500" (p. 5). Joining scholars such as Catherine M. Hills, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology,
University of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge , located in the City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the fourth oldest in Europe...
Beowulf and Archaeology, 1997 Grigsby applied the findings of archaeology to literary myth. Referring to the modern tradition initiated by
Heinrich SchliemannHeinrich Schliemann Heinrich Schliemann Heinrich Schliemann was a German businessman and archaeologist, and an advocate of the historical reality of places mentioned in the works of Homer. Schliemann was an important...
at Hissarlik, Grigsby argues that the
Old EnglishOld English , also called Anglo-Saxon, is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written in parts of what are now England and south-eastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. What survives through writing represents primarily the literary...
poem, set in the
Anglo-Saxon homelandAnglo-Saxons is the term usually used to describe the invading Germanic tribes in the south and east of Great Britain from the early 5th century AD, and their creation of the English nation, to the Norman conquest of 1066...
of Denmark, was based upon events, which in Beowulfs case occurred during the
Age of MigrationThe Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions or Völkerwanderung , was a period of human migration that occurred roughly between the years 300 to 700 CE in Europe, marking the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...
in
DenmarkThis article covers the history of the Kingdom of Denmark and of the areas comprising modern-day Denmark.- Ancient Denmark :People lived in the area of Denmark more than 100,000 years ago, but probably had to leave because of the ice-cap that spread over the land during the period of the Weichsel...
. In particular, he argues, the poem reflects the violent ending of the
native fertility religionA mother goddess is a term used to refer to any goddess associated with motherhood, fertility, creation or the bountiful embodiment of the Earth...
of
NerthusIn Germanic paganism, Nerthus is a goddess associated with fertility. Nerthus is attested by Tacitus, a first century AD Roman historian, in his work entitled Germania. Various theories exist regarding the goddess and her potential later traces amongst the Germanic tribes...
, "a goddess in whose sacred lakes human victims were drowned in secret rites" (p. 5) and her divine spouse by followers of the cult of
OdinOdin , is considered the chief god in Norse paganism and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon Wōden and the Old High German Wotan, it is descended from Proto-Germanic *Wōđinaz or *Wōđanaz.The name Odin is generally accepted as the modern translation; although, in some cases, older...
.
For clarity, Grigsby divides the presentation of his argument, which is directed to the lay audience, into four parts: I. Old England; II. Gods and Monsters; III.To Kill a King; IV. Barleywolf.
Fertility cults
The poem
BeowulfBeowulf is an Old English heroic epic poem of unknown authorship, dating as recorded in the Nowell Codex manuscript from between the 8th and the early 11th century, set in Denmark and Sweden...
tells of BeowulfBeowulf is a legendary Geatish hero and later turned king in the epic poem named after him, one of the oldest surviving pieces of literature in the English language.-Etymology and origins of the character:...
the GeatGeats , sometimes associated with the Goths, were a North Germanic tribe inhabiting what is now Götaland in modern Sweden...
, a warrior from SwedenModern Sweden emerged out of the Kalmar Union formed in 1397 and by the unification of the country by King Gustav Vasa in the 16th century. In the 17th century Sweden expanded its territories to form the Swedish empire. Most of these conquered territories had to be given up during the 18th century...
, who travels to DenmarkThis article covers the history of the Kingdom of Denmark and of the areas comprising modern-day Denmark.- Ancient Denmark :People lived in the area of Denmark more than 100,000 years ago, but probably had to leave because of the ice-cap that spread over the land during the period of the Weichsel...
to end the twelve-year reign of terror of GrendelGrendel is one of three antagonists, along with Grendel's mother and the dragon, in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf . In the poem, Grendel is feared by all but Beowulf.-Story:The poem Beowulf is contained in the Nowell Codex...
and Grendel's motherGrendel's mother is one of three antagonists in the work of Old English literature of anonymous authorship, Beowulf . She is given the name "Enchidna" in some texts....
. Long thought to be a folk storyFolklore is the body of expressive culture, including stories, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which...
, Beowulf
Grigsby argues, is rooted in an historical event: the subjugation and destruction of an older fertility cult, with roots in the megalithic past, by an incoming warrior cult.
He draws this conclusion through a study of Norse mythNorse, North Germanic, or Scandinavian mythology comprises the myths of North Germanic pre-Christian religion.Most of the written sources for Norse mythology were assembled in medieval Iceland in Old Norse, notably as the Edda....
(an examination which discusses the way in which the old cult of the VanirIn Norse mythology, the Vanir are a group of gods associated with fertility, wisdom, and the ability to see the future. The Vanir are one of two groups of gods and are associated with the location Vanaheimr...
was replaced by the new one of the Aesir). If the Vanir were fertility spirits, (equivalent to
OsirisOsiris was an Egyptian god, usually called the god of the Afterlife, underworld or dead.Osiris is one of the oldest gods for whom records have been found; one of the oldest known attestations...
, Dionysos and
DemeterDemeter , in Greek mythology, is the Goddess of grain and fertility, the pure...
and
PersephoneIn Greek mythology, Persephone was the embodiment of the Earth's fertility at the same time that she was the Queen of the Underworld, the korē , and the parthenogenic daughter of Demeter and, in later Classical myths, a daughter of Demeter and Zeus...
) linked to the ‘alfar’ – ‘elves’, ancestral and elemental spirits associated with megalithic structures, the Aesir were associated with a type of shamanic practice called Siethr.
These attributes of Sheaf are shared by the Norse god
Yngvi-FreyrFreyr is one of the most important gods of Norse paganism. Freyr was highly associated with agriculture, weather and, as a phallic fertility god, Freyr "bestows peace and pleasure on mortals"...
who in Norse mythology dies and is reborn as a child in a ship. His myth is akin to that of the folk-hero
John Barleycorn"John Barleycorn" is an English folksong. The character of John Barleycorn in the song is a personification of the important cereal crop barley, and of the alcoholic beverages made from it, beer and whisky...
– the ever-dying fertility spirit reborn each year – whose passion reflects the waxing and waning of the vegetal world and the solar year. Yngvi-Freyr, Grigsby assumes, was a solar/vegetal god akin to Osiris, Dionysos and other cereal deities whose cults originated in the farming practices of the Neolithic that spread to North West Europe with the arrival of farming from the Near East around 4000BC.
Grendel's mother and Nerthus
According to Grigsby, the Aesir-Vanir war describes the battle between Odin and the old gods. Grigsby argues that the Beowulf legend originated in the clash between these two pagan Germanic cults. Grigsby also argues that there is a link between
Grendel's motherGrendel's mother is one of three antagonists in the work of Old English literature of anonymous authorship, Beowulf . She is given the name "Enchidna" in some texts....
and the Vanir goddess
NerthusIn Germanic paganism, Nerthus is a goddess associated with fertility. Nerthus is attested by Tacitus, a first century AD Roman historian, in his work entitled Germania. Various theories exist regarding the goddess and her potential later traces amongst the Germanic tribes...
whom the Roman writer
TacitusPublius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
records as being worshipped by the tribes of prehistoric Denmark (the ancestors of the English peoples), and in whose sacred lakes human victims were drowned.
Grigsby also argues that as a goddess of the Vanir, Nerthus would be connected to myths in which the older fertility gods possessed a sacred brew –‘mead of inspiration’ that the new warrior gods attempted to steal when they defeat the older cult. Furthermore, Grigsby suggests and have been strangled and/or stabbed and their stomach contents reveal they had eaten a barley meal before their deaths contaminated by a hallucinogenic fungus named ergot.
Beowulf and Barley-Wolf
If, Grigsby argues, the Aesir-Vanir war is about theft of the Vanir mead of immortality by Odin and his Aesir gods, and if the poem, Beowulf
, is also based on on this theft, there might be evidence of barley cult in the poem.
Grigsby cites evidence by Alby Stone http://www.indigogroup.co.uk/edge/hellhnds.htm which would support the idea that the name Beowulf
means Barley Wolf.
Grigsby then argues that this suggests a link with the hallucinogenic barley potion eaten by the bog-men - for ergotErgot refers to a group of fungi of the genus Claviceps . The most prominent member of this group is Claviceps purpurea. This fungus grows on rye and related plants, and can cause ergotism in humans and other mammals consuming seeds contaminated with the fruiting structure of this fungus, called an...
which creates the hallucination of turning into an animal (there are stories of Odin's warriors having the ability to transform themselves into wolves (they were known as ulfhednar – wolf heads).
Grigsby suggests that Beowulf refers to the stealing of the Vanir cult drink and its use as a battle drug. Ergot was known in Germany as the ‘tooth of the wolf’ and in England as ‘the strangulation of the mother’ – names suggestive of both the wolf cult of Odin and the strangled bog men. Therefore, Grigsby argues, Beowulf enacts the role of the god Odin who kills off the old cult and steals the mead of knowledge – just as
Indra' is the King of the gods or Devas and Lord of Heaven or Svargaloka in Hindu mythology, and also he is the God of War, Storms, and Rainfall....
does in Indian lore – stealing the soma from the demons.
Based on history
Grigsby suggests that Beowulf is based upon historical events through a discussion of the story recorded by
BedeBede , also Saint Bede, the Venerable Bede, or Beda , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria.He is well known as an author and...
concerning the conversion of
the English to ChristianityAnglo-Saxon paganism, sometimes referred to as Anglo-Saxon heathenism is the Germanic religion of the Anglo-Saxons which was practised for approximately three centuries in England from the Anglo-Saxon invasion in the mid 5th century till the 8th century when it gradually began blending into...
. In this story, the Northumbrian pagan priest
CoifiCoifi or Cofi was the priest of the temple at Goodmanham in Northumbria in 627.Bede's description of Coifi is that of the chief of priests in Northumbria; the fact that he is the chief priest suggests that there was some sort of organised pagan priesthood in existence during Coifi's time...
desecrates his shrine of the old gods by mounting a horse and casting a spear into it and setting it alight. But, Grigsby states, Coifi – ‘hooded one’ – is a name of Odin, and the act of spear-casting and burning directly mirrors Odin’s actions in the war with the Vanir. Thus, according to Grigsby there is a level of ambiguity as to whether Beowulf
reflects myth or history. He attempts to resolve this ambiguity by arguing that it is a combination of both by stating that Coifi bridges that gap between myth and history. This, according to Grigsby, is the kernel of historical ‘truth’ behind Beowulf.
External references