E-Book Overview
One of the great triumphs of nineteenth-century philology was the development of the wide array of comparative data that underpins the grammars of the Old Germanic dialects, such as Old English, Old Icelandic, Old Saxon, and Gothic. These led to the reconstruction of Common Germanic and Proto-Germanic languages. Many individuals have forgotten that scholars of the same period were interested in reconstructing the body of ancient law that was supposedly shared by all speakers of Germanic. Stefan Jurasinski's "Ancient Privileges: Beowulf, Law, and the Making of the Germanic Antiquity" recounts how the work of nineteenth-century legal historians actually influenced the editing of Old English texts, most notably "Beowulf", in ways that are still preserved in our editions. This situation has been a major contributor to the archaizing of "Beowulf". In turn, Jurasinski's careful analysis of its assumptions in light of contemporary research offers a model for scholars to apply to a number of other textual artifacts that have been affected by what was known as the historische Rechtsschule. At the very least, it will change the way you think about "Beowulf".
E-Book Content
Ancient Privileges
Medieval European Studies VI Patrick W. Conner, Series Editor
Other Titles in the Series: Volume I Via Crucis: Essays on Early Medieval Sources and Ideas Thomas N. Hall, Editor with assistance from Thomas D. Hill and Charles D. Wright
Volume II Hêliand: Text and Commentary Edited by James E. Cathey
Volume III Naked Before God: Uncovering the Body in Anglo-Saxon England Edited by Benjamin C. Withers and Jonathan Wilcox
Volume IV Theorizing Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture Edited by Catherine E. Karkov and Fred Orton
Volume V Old English Literature in its Manuscript Context Edited by Joyce Tally Lionarons
Volume VI Ancient Privileges: Beowulf, Law, and the Making of Germanic Antiquity Stefan Jurasinski
Volume VII Innovation and Tradition in the Writings of the Venerable Bede Edited by Scott DeGregorio
Ancient Privileges: Beowulf, Law, and the Making of Germanic Antiquity by
Stefan Jurasinski
West Virginia University Press Morgantown 2006
West Virginia University Press, Morgantown 26506 © 2006 by West Virginia University Press All rights reserved First edition published 2006 by West Virginia University Press Printed in the United States of America 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06
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ISBN 0-937058-98-X (alk. paper) Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Ancient Privileges. Beowulf, Law, and the Making of Germanic Antiquity / Stefan Jurasinski. p. cm. -- (Medieval European Studies ; 6) 1. Social history Medieval, 500-1500. 2. English Literature–Old English, ca. 450-1100–History and criticism. 3. Civilization, Medieval, in literature. 4. Germanic literature--History and criticism. 5. Germanic philology. 6. Philologists--Germany--Biography. 7. Beowulf–Editing. I. Title. II. Jurasinski, Stefan. III. Series. IN PROCESS Library of Congress Control Number: 2005937638
Printed in USA by Lightning Source. Typeset by Than Saffel. Cover image by Lazlo Matulay and published in By His Own Might: The Battles of Beowulf by Dorothy Hosford (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1947).
Contents Abbreviations Preface Introduction: “The Forests of Germany”: Legal History and the Inheritance of Philology
vi VII
1
Jakob Grimm, Legal Formalism, and the Editing of B e ow u l f
23
“Public Land,” Germanic Egalitarianism, and Nineteenth-Century Philology
49
The Ecstasy of Vengeance: Nineteenth-Century Germanism and the Finn Episode
79
f e oh l e a s G e fe oht : Accidental Homicide and the Hrethel Episode
113
Conclusions: Law and the Archais