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Reassessing the Wrestling in Beowulf

Reassessing the Wrestling in Beowulf English Language Notes Volume XLI ♦ Number 3 ♦ March 2004 In a study published some ten years ago in English Language Notes, Frank Peters argues that the battle between Beowulf and Grendel takes the form of hryggspenning, a type of Norse com­ bat wrestling in which the assailant “reached both arms around the waist of the opponent, [and] fastened his hands against the opponent’s back . . . until the opponent surrendered.”1 While he is right to examine the Grendel fight through the lens of wrestling, as some scholars have before him,2 and he has good reason to look to the Scandinavian world for his analysis due to the subject matter of the poem, I find Peters’ assumption that Beowulf would have wrestled in the hryggspenningsXy\e problem­ atic with regard to both the details of the poem and the techni­ cal and historical aspects of wrestling itself. Instead, I would like to offer the alternative solution that Beowulf’s fight with Grendel stems from a Greek/Roman wrestling tradition with which, due to the development of wrestling in England, the Anglo-Saxon poet may have been more familiar,3 rather than from a Norse custom that may or may not have been http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png English Language Notes Duke University Press

Reassessing the Wrestling in Beowulf

Eyler, Joshua R.
English Language Notes , Volume 41 (3) – Mar 1, 2004
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Copyright
Copyright © 2004 Regents of the University of Colorado
ISSN
0013-8282
eISSN
2573-3575
DOI
10.1215/00138282-41.3.1
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

English Language Notes Volume XLI ♦ Number 3 ♦ March 2004 In a study published some ten years ago in English Language Notes, Frank Peters argues that the battle between Beowulf and Grendel takes the form of hryggspenning, a type of Norse com­ bat wrestling in which the assailant “reached both arms around the waist of the opponent, [and] fastened his hands against the opponent’s back . . . until the opponent surrendered.”1 While he is right to examine the Grendel fight through the lens of wrestling, as some scholars have before him,2 and he has good reason to look to the Scandinavian world for his analysis due to the subject matter of the poem, I find Peters’ assumption that Beowulf would have wrestled in the hryggspenningsXy\e problem­ atic with regard to both the details of the poem and the techni­ cal and historical aspects of wrestling itself. Instead, I would like to offer the alternative solution that Beowulf’s fight with Grendel stems from a Greek/Roman wrestling tradition with which, due to the development of wrestling in England, the Anglo-Saxon poet may have been more familiar,3 rather than from a Norse custom that may or may not have been

Journal

English Language Notes – Duke University Press

Published: Mar 1, 2004

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