Magic is an important element in Beowulf, a poem whose roots in Germanic and Scandinavian mythology is underscored by its references to strangely illuminated caves, melting swords, and fire-breathing dragons. Dungeons and dragons in SEAFARER's Magic Module at last!
Beowulf is organized into sections called "fitts," a term you should look up (it means a section possibly intended for recitation in a single sitting). In Fitt 24 (Norton, "Further Celebration at Heorot" 56), we learn about a magic sword taken from the cave of Grendel's dam. The blade has melted, but Beowulf brings the hilt with him to Hrothgar's hall. It tells a story that the Old English word "writen" (past participle) refers to a story about monsters engraved on the hilt of a magic sword :
"Hrothgar spoke--he examined the hilt, the ancient heirloom, on which was written the origins of ancient strife."
One way to use magic to make sense of this poem is to note which objects are said to have magical powers. Swords are magical; so are shields and helmets (see the description of Beowulf's page 53), when he arms before his descent to Grendel's mother's care. The connotation of magic may perhaps be expected in Beowulf, especially since the sword is found in Grendel's cave and concerns the origins of his mysterious race.
Magic connects the present to the past: it preserves, by means of incantations and spells attached to objects, connections that life itself cannot maintain.
What does the continuity created by magic mean for our understanding of Beowulf as a poem written and read in England three centuries after the conversion to Christianity?
The quotation above (Hrothgar reading) can lead us to look at secret writing in the text in pictographic (runic) form. The magical weapons can be seen in a textual framework because the sword hilt bears writing: runes may be secret or magic writing, but they are writing nonetheless.We might regard the engraved sword hilt as a text, not as a set of pictures (as the usual interpretation of "runes" implies), and furthermore that we attend to the sense of secret mystery or magic that the "stæf" compounds generate.
The definition of "runstæf"cannot be taken either as "runes" or as "secret letters" without admitting into the discussion the element of magic. For example, a homily by Ælfric (c. 1010), retelling an episode from Bede's Ecclesiastical History, equates "runstafas" with "drycræft." Citing the authority of R. I. Page, Colgrave and Mynors identify the runic letters as "loosing letters," runes with magic powers; (see 402 n. 2) in their edition of Bede below.
Are there implications here that writing itself is a mysterious process, a way of encoding truth that is not available to everybody and that therefore also encodes social superiority for certain people? If that starts you thinking in terms of a now-traditional critique of religious, male-dominated authority, it is also good to know that Old English words incorporating "rune" also refer specifically to women with magic powers. See LINK 3 for more.
Some references for pursuing Option B here:
Bede's Ecclesiastical History, Ed. and Trans. Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969. Book 4, Ch. 22(20), 400.
Ælfric's Catholic Homilies: The Second Series, ed. Malcolm Godden, EETS SS 5 London: Oxford University Press, 1969. "Hortatorius Sermo de Efficacia Sanctae Missae". 204-5. (l. 160).
1/98