"The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son": J.R.R. Tolkien's Sequal to "The Battle of Maldon"
2008; Mythopoeic Society; Volume: 26; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0146-9339
Autores Tópico(s)Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies
ResumoJ.R.R. TOLKIEN INTRODUCED of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son as piece plainly intended as a for two persons, two shapes in 'dim shadow', with help of a few gleams of light and appropriate noises and a chant at end in a footnote to Ofermod, brief essay on excessive pride that accompanied its original publication in Essays and Studies. Critics have given Tolkien's Ofermod essay considerably more attention than they have given his recitation, but then Tolkien himself modestly added [The Homecoming] has of course, never been to his Ofermod introductory note (19n1). Though Tolkien's recitation has rarely been performed (in his Descriptinve Bibliography, Wayne Hammond notes only a 1954 on BBC Radio and stage performances in London in 1975 and 1991 [303]), it seems to me to have strong performance possibilities--and I am using word here in its performing arts sense--as one act play. It presents a search in darkness of night for body of a fallen leader in which searchers progress by recognizing bodies of men who were most loyal to him. The interest of drama, then, rests in part on basic idea of search. Does it involve danger for searchers? Will they find clues that can aid them? Can they interpret those clues correctly? And Tolkien also achieves a sense of continuous conflict between two searchers by allowing them to define themselves in terms of their strongly contrasting perspectives on decision of Beorhtnoth, fallen leader whose body they must find and bring home for proper burial, to allow vikings who threatened his homeland to cross Blackwater, or Panta River, a natural protective barrier. Torhthelm, his name an apparent combination of Old English words torht, for which John R. Clark Hall and Herbert D. Meritt's Concise Anglo. Saxon Dictionary provides Modern English equivalents bright, radiant, beautiful, splendid, noble, illustrious, and helm, which translates to helmet (346, 177), represents what Tolkien calls the northern heroic perspective. Tidwald, older, wiser man, on other hand, represents more skeptical point of view that Tolkien himself takes in his Ofermod essay. The parts of Tidwald's name may not translate so easily to a role definition, but its first element, Tid, carries meaning time, and its second element wald, also spelled in Old English as weald, translates to Modern English control. Tidwald is in control of search--his young helper must do as he says--and his interpretation of evidence their search uncovers is based on a lifetime of experience. For these two reasons alone, then, it seems to me that of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son has strong possibilities for dramatic My intention here, however, involves a different understanding of word performance. I will be reading Tolkien's Homecoming and selected passages from Battle of Maldon, his Old English source, with reference to concepts introduced by J.L. Austin in 1955 in a series of Harvard University lectures and later published under title How To Do Things with Words. The work of Austin and John R. Searle, whose Speech Acts: An Essay in Philosophy of Language provides further understanding of some of ways that language works, along with that of others who have followed in their footsteps, has given us an area of language study called pragmatics that can help us understand what speakers do when they perform acts of commanding and predicting and promising and threatening. Pragmatics, or speech act theory, then, provides an additional perspective for reading of of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son and Tolkien's source, Battle of Maldon. I will begin with Tolkien's sequel to Old English poem, which begins after battle between an English force led by Beorhtnoth and a host of viking invaders has been fought and lost. …
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