Lines 3074–3075 in ‘Beowulf’: Movement into Knowing

Abstract

Lines 3074–75 in Beowulf have been among the most vexing lines for editors, readers, and translators of the poem. The lines' tricky lexicon, syntax, and seemingly odd location in context have generated many commentaries and emendations, but what is often overlooked or understated in these treatments is the way that features of the Beowulf-manuscript contribute to the purpose and sense of the lines. By addressing aspects of the manuscript text as crucial to our understanding of lines 3074–75, this paper draws attention to the way that the lines emphasize Beowulf's coming to a concrete knowledge of Christian order in the world. However, this paper is also interested in the procedures and processes that make possible the possibility of interpretation; for this reason, two Old English renderings and a modern English translation of lines 3074–75 in their immediate context are presented here. These different readings seek to situate the lines in the narrative of Beowulf-scholarship as much as in the narrative of the poem.