ABSTRACT

We do not think it likely that the composition of ‘Beowulf is so complex as it is supposed to be in the theories of Müllenhoff [1869] and Ten Brink [1888]. There is an enormous antecedent improbability in the supposition that a poem dealing essentially with foreign legends can have been built together by the labours of a succession of poets and interpolators in various parts of England from the sixth down to the ninth century. But the hypothesis that the work has been more or less interpolated is really the simplest that can account for the facts. There is little ground for hoping that, in the total absence of external evidence, the problem will ever fully be solved; but that both Müllenhoff and Ten Brink have contributed elements of real value to its solution cannot be doubted by any unbiassed and careful reader. Prof. Earle has evidently only cursorily studied the treatises of these two distinguished scholars, and (though his candour is beyond question) he has in several instances grievously misrepresented their views. He refers to Müllenhoff as having said that the passage in lines 20-25 has ‘a political drift.’ This harmonizes with Prof. Earle’s own theory, and he mentions it with delighted approval over and over again. But in fact Müllenhoff did not say anything of the kind. The observation which Prof. Earle quotes in a foot-note [on p. xciv, section 7] is as follows [reviewer quotes Müllenhoff in German]:

There is nothing here about a ‘political drift’ in Prof. Earle’s sense of a reference to the ‘politics’ of the time when the passage was written. What Müllenhoff means is that while the general maxim is inappropriate to the context, the questionable political doctrine it contains is a further reason for regarding the lines as spurious. Instead of praising Müllenhoff for the sagacity displayed in this remark, Prof. Earle ought, from his point of view, to have bestowed his applause on ten Brink, who (in opposition to Müllenhoff) does recognize in the passage a sentiment that may have been suggested by actual political circumstances, and on this very ground considers it to be a genuine part of the Prologue.