I'm thrilled to introduce our first-ever guest post here at In Romaunce, which is also our first post focusing on Old English literature. Sharon Rhodes — a good friend and a current Ph.D. candidate at the University of Rochester — recently gave this fascinating paper at Kalamazoo on the appearances of wine in Beowulf, and I invited her to post it here. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, and definitely take a look at her wonderful blog!
Win of
Wunderfatum: The Significance of Wine in Beowulf
-- Sharon Rhodes, University of Rochester
 |
Illustration by J.R. Skelton, in Stories of
Beowulf (1908) |
As in most cultures, alcohol had an important social
function in the world represented in Beowulf. Many sources attest to the importance of mead and ale in
medieval Germanic culture: perhaps most interesting is the Mead of Poetry in
Norse myth but, as Henry Winfred Splitter pointed out, there was also
“baptismal beer, [. . .] betrothal and marriage beers, and funeral beer”
(Splitter 257).[1] However, because grapes do not grow well in the
north, wine in the medieval north had to be imported and thus it has no place
in the mythology most relevant to Beowulf.[2] Though
chemically similar, wine is
significantly different from native
“eal-” and “medu” as a cultural symbol. For instance, in Aelfric’s Colloquy the schoolboy asserts that he drinks
beer and water because “wine is not the drink of children or fools, but of the
old and wise.”[3]
While this is not the schema of alcoholic drinks we see in Beowulf, it shows
that even in Aelfric’s day, wine was something special, fit only for the old and
wise, not the general population.When we refer to a hall as a mead-hall we are specifying a
particular sort of hall from a particular culture, region and time in terms of
alcohol. Consequently, it is unsurprising that the Beowulf-poet mentions alcoholic beverages with
the frequency he does: “medu” (mead) and compounds beginning with “medu” occur
13 times, compounds beginning with “eal-” occur 7 times, and “beor” occurs 3
times. Interestingly, “win,” a non-native alcoholic substance, only occurs 3
times as a word in itself and 5 times within compounds; moreover each mention
of wine marks something wrong or about to go wrong within the story. The three
instances of “win” occur at important moments of the first part of the poem and
within about 300 lines of one another. First, “win of wunderfatum” (wine of
wondrous vessels) makes an appearance in the feast following Beowulf’s defeat
of Grendel. Second, at the same feast, “the men drank wine” (“druncon win weras"). And third, in the passage that describes Beowulf’s weapons and armor before he
descends into Grendel’s mere, we learn that Unferth was “drunk with wine” (“wine druncen”) when he lent his sword, Hrunting, to Beowulf. Similarly, the win-compounds also
appear significant: "winsele" and "winreced" -- both of which can be translated as
‘wine-hall’ -- are used by the narrator when referring to a hall that is
failing or has failed as a center of civilization.
In his article “The Cup as Symbol and Metaphor in Old
English Literature,” Hugh Magennis asserts that “[i]n Beowulf [. . .] references to the ‘hroden
ealowaege’ (adorned ale-cup 495) and to the ‘win of wunderfatum’ (wine
of the wondrous-vessel 1162)
are an essential part of the poet’s evocation of the good life in the hall
enjoyed by Danes and Geats” (Magennis 517). While ale and mead both seem to be
generally associated with the good life in the hall, I question the positive
associations of win of wunderfatum. Wunderfatum or “wondrous vessel”
appears to be a nonce word
with no inherently positive elements. Beyond the basic semantics, however, we
must note that the Danes serve and drink this “win of wunderfatum” at a feast
celebrating what they believe is a victory over Grendel when we can see that
Grendel’s defeat brings the more violent attack of his vengeful mother. The
Danes celebrate a false victory and consequently drink in a false sense of
security; however sweet this respite may seem, it is short and ends in
Hrothgar’s bitter tears and thus the “win of wunderfatum” seems a bitter cup if
not a poculum mortis.[4]
Several scholars, such as Carleton Brown and Hugh Magennis, have looked at the
motif of the poculum mortis, or cup of death, in Old English literature. Maggenis
asserts that, “Beowulf does not exploit the complex of Christian imagery of cups
and the serving out of drink, but relies instead on the resources of the
secular poetic tradition” (535-36). This
reading, however, ignores the Beowulf-poet’s differential treatment of native drinks and wine
which is not entirely dissimilar from the double meaning ascribed to wine in
the Bible where, Magennis himself points out, it serves two symbolic purposes:
it represents both the good in life and the bad (Magennis 518).[5]
In Beowulf, rather than ascribing two meanings to one drink, two types of drink
are used, one for each meaning: native and foreign: beer, mead, and ale (native
alcoholic beverages) represent the joys of hall-life, while wine represents the
darker side of hall-life, whether the negative repercussions of drunkenness
(vs. the positive repercussions: poetry) or simply as a marker of things gone
or about to go badly.[8]
The uses and contexts of mead, ale, and beer and compounds
containing those words illustrate the particular distinctions the Beowulf-poet draws between wine and native
drinks. Beyond the numbers, note that while there are plain benches in Beowulf
("benc" 492, 327, 1013, 1188, 1243)
and seats ("setl" 2013, 1786, 1232, 1782, 2019, 1289) and mead-benches (776,
1052, 1067, 2185, 1902) and mead-seats (5), there are never wine-benches or seats.
Similarly, there is mead-joy, a word for the path to the mead-hall, a word for
the meadow around the mead-hall, and of course, vessels of mead and ale: "medoful," "meodoscenc" and "ealuwaege."[6] None of
these ideas has a counterpart beginning with “win-”.
The numbers, however, are significant too. “Med-” occurs in
9 distinct endocentric compounds (that is, a compound wherein element A denotes
a special kind of element B) a total of 15 times in addition to the 2 times
that medu itself occurs as a word in its own right. Comparing this to the 3
occurrences of win in Beowulf and the 5 win- based compounds the centrality of
the native mead to Hall-life is underscored. Additionally, there are 7
occurrences of compounds beginning with “ealo-” and the 3 instances of "beor": there are ale-benches (1029, 2867),
ale-drinkers(1945), ale-sharing (765), ale-cups (2021, 481, 495), beer and beer-halls. These numerous occurrences and myriad
endocentric compounds, 25 in all, speak to the centrality of mead and beer but
also to their ordinariness.[7]
Nevertheless, this is not a simple matter of positive and
negative implications of course; "meodosetla" certainly does not predict good things for
those that Scyld Scefing unseated (5), but this type of raiding was typical of
Germanic culture — a misfortune, for sure, but not an unexpected one and one
within the bounds of cultural norms. Furthermore, when Grendel overturns the
Danes’ mead-benches on the night of his defeat, it is a quotidian part of
hostilities within the hall in an otherwise otherworldly battle and creates a
sharp contrast with the initial image of
mead-benches (meodosetla) being torn away in the prologue (775). The two
perpetrators -- Scyld Scefing and Grendel -- are quite different, or, as
more recent arguments have it, perhaps they are not different at all. As with Scyld Scefing’s raids, Grendel’s effect on the mead-benches is symbolic
of his effect on the Danes, he has interrupted and obstructed the most basic
part of the Danes‘ lives. In overturning their mead-benches Grendel and Scyld
Scefing has overturned their social cohesion.
After defeating Grendel’s mother, Beowulf and his retinue
traversed the “meodowongas” on their way to Heorot: the very meadow Heorot
stands on is specified as a mead-meadow, a fact we can also read as signifying
that the hall is once more as it should be, a simple mead-hall in a mead
meadow, free of monsters at last. Finally, the smooth functioning of Hygelac’s
hall, unperturbed by monsters or betrayal, can be seen partly by the mead-cups:
“Mead-cups went / throughout that high-hall, Haereth’s daughter / she loved the
people, bore drinking cups / to the hands of illustrious ones”[8]
(1980b-82a). Wine is
not mentioned at all during the period of the poem set within Hygelac’s realm, presumably because his reign -- within the poem -- is marked by mead, normal, every
day mead just as it is marked primarily by concord, at least within the present
of the poem.
The word “medu” (mead) occurs only twice, but each time the
poet uses it as symbolic of what all good Germanic leaders do: in Beowulf’s
pre-fight speech and reply to Unferth he says: “I
shall offer to the Geats might and courage in battle soon now. A man may
proudly return to mead in the morning light [when] the sun clad in radiance
shines from the south” (601b-06).[9] By
saying that the men will go to their mead Beowulf is not only declaring
success, he is claiming that his heroic feats will restore Hrothgar’s world to
normalcy. Similarly, in the second half of the poem, while chastising them for
betraying Beowulf, Wiglaf reminds his fellows that Beowulf gave them mead in
the beer-hall (2633-35). Wiglaf is not merely saying that Beowulf was
hospitable to them, but that he fulfilled the most basic duties of his contract
with them as his warriors and therefore they owe him their loyal service in
times of war.[10]
Mead is not merely mead, but is a metonymic place holder for all that a good
lord or hero delivers and, conversely, as a symbol of the absence of a good
lord or hero.
In contrast, the passages wherein the poet uses “win” do not
symbolize normalcy, but instead seem to foreshadow discord. The first
occurrence of "win" -- the “win of wunderfatum”[11]-- precedes
both the attack of Grendel’s mother and Wealhtheow’s speech.[12]
We know that Weahltheow is at least a respectable cup-bearer because after
Beowulf defends his performance in the swimming contest with Breca she bears
the "medoful"
to the honored guests, as Maxims I
asserts she should (82-92).
Because Weahltheow otherwise
appears to be a good queen the poet seems to suggest that her advice should be
heeded, and thus her opposition to Hrothgar’s ‘adoption’ of Beowulf likely has
merit: to her mind it is a rash thing, betraying thoughtlessness of his own
sons and nephew in the throws of overwrought gratitude to Beowulf for,
presumably, ridding his hall of monsters. Further, though I disagree with J.D.
Ogilvy on some points of his reading of Weahltheow, I do agree with him in asserting
that Weahltheow’s public opposition of Hrothgar is one of many signs of
disfunction in his realm.[13] She speaks her piece and though she does so
graciously it is counter to the “gamen” that otherwise fills the hall after
Beowulf’s victory against Grendel. The first instance of wine underscores the
aberrancy of this adoption; Hrothgar should not place Beowulf over his own sons, and he and all of the celebrants are oblivious to the horror yet to come.
The second use of "win" directly precedes the attack of Grendel’s mother: “There was
the best of feasts / the men drank wine.” [14] That the
men drank alcohol does not concern the poet; though some Old English religious
texts can be read as condemning drinking,[15] in Beowulf mead, beer and ale are celebrated and
their absence mourned. The men drank alcohol every night, including the night
preceding Beowulf’s successful fight against Grendel. The poet warns us of the
horror to come by specifying that the men drank wine rather than their more
conventional mead or ale; an idea further supported by the ominous half-line
that follows “Wyrd ne cuthon” ("they did not know fate," 1233). Counter to the
belief of the celebrants at this “best of feasts,”[16] Grendel’s death does not mean that the danger
has passed. Rather, his death has awakened a new horror and a more legitimate
one. While Grendel seems not to have had any legitimate reason to attack the
Scyldings, Grendel’s mother has a genuine grievance to avenge. Like the wine,
this grievance is both familiar and foreign: within Germanic society kin had a
right to revenge, or "wergild." However, like Grendel, Grendel’s mother does not
belong to this civilization. So, although she has suffered a loss, there is no
protocol for dealing with that loss. Just as the men who drank wine at the
feast may not have known exactly what to expect from the foreign yet familiar beverage.[17]
The final use of wine prefaces Beowulf’s descent into
Grendel’s mere. Before Beowulf makes his speech and dives, the poet tells us
that Unferth lent Beowulf his sword, Hrunting, and also that Unferth did not
remember what he’d said before, when he was “wine druncen” (1465-67).[18]
What he spoke before is either untold or is an allusion to Unferth’s challenge
to Beowulf upon his arrival in Hrothgar’s court, what many have called a
flyting match (Ward Parks). Regardless, the poet’s reference to Unferth’s lapse
of memory when drunk with wine helps to defame Unferth who is unwilling to
descend into the mere himself and must either have failed to defeat Grendel
with Hrunting, or worse, never tried. Moreover,
we must bear in mind that despite the sword’s record in previous battles,
Hrunting fails in Grendel’s mere: it would not bite into Grendel’s mother
(1523).[19]
Though perhaps less poignantly placed, the compounds meaning
“wine-hall” -- "winreced" and "winsele" -- occur at points when halls, both Heorot
and other unnamed halls, fail as the epicenters of Germanic society. When
Hrothgar orders Heorot built, the poet says that he commands men to build a
“medoaern micel” ("a great mead-building," 69). Even in his account of Grendel’s
desecration of it, he refers to Heorot as a mead-hall still, (484) a fiction
Beowulf politely echoes in his otherwise combative response to Unferth by also
referring to Heorot as “thisse meoduhealle” (638). However, the poet/narrator
calls Heorot a “winreced” (wine hall) in line 714 when Grendel “Wod under
wolcnum,” to Heorot. "Winreced" recurs in line 993, at the celebratory feast that is
celebrated too soon and winsele occurs directly before and during Grendel’s attack (695,
771). A hall should be a safe place, but at these points Heorot’s function is
undermined and altered and it becomes a gathering of victims for monsters
rather than a place of unity and rejoicing. The final occurrence of "winsele" comes in Beowulf’s speech
before the fight with the dragon as part of the “Father’s Lament”
(2456). Here it comes in the
half-line “winsele westne,” deserted wine-hall. A deserted mead-hall is almost an oxymoron, so, just as
when Heorot is referred to as a “winreced” by the poet, the “winsele” of the
Father’s Lament is not the merry center of a comitatus and so the poet makes
the distinction between the failed hall and the successful hall explicit
through his diction. Just as things had gone horribly wrong in Hrothgar’s realm,
the lamenting father’s loss of both sons through one’s killing of the other is
a tragic undermining of normalcy.
Although the Beowulf-poet does not use the poculum motif precisely, he does use beverages to
distinguish between the usual and the unusual. Mead, beer, and ale were all
highly important to Germanic society, so intrinsic thereto that they specify a
variety of other nouns in compounds. These drinks unify society within the hall
culture in Beowulf
and in the reality of early Germanic society, like the sharing of bread that
gives us companion, sharing mead and beer is a foundational social act. Unlike
mead, beer, and ale -- all of which are ubiquitous in Beowulf -- wine appears in more specialized
instances, surrounding individuals and actions that contrast with expectations
for how hall-life should work. Wine marks instances where things are not as
they seem and where social expectation is not met. We can thus read wine as a
harbinger of the chaos that the anti-social Grendel, the dragon, and Grendel’s
mother[20]
both bring and symbolize into the human world of Beowulf.
When Beowulf dies he
is not just leaving “his magum” but the “meduseld” (mead-hall) he had occupied
with them (3065).
