Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Kent Gould. "Beowulf and Folktale Morphology: God as Magical Donor." Folklore, 96:98-101.

Provides Icelandic analogs to the Hrunting element of Beowulf with emphasis upon the aspect of the donor of a gift, who "actually has two functions: testing and donating" (99). Sees the Christian God of the Anglo-Saxons becoming the "magical donor" with Beowulf's discovery of the giant sword after the failure of Hrunting because "He replaces Unferth's failed sword with an unfailing one, supplanting any heathen donors" (100). Concludes that a signficant difference between pre-Christian and Christian myth is apparent in the Hrunting episode and its analogs, since in the Christian tradition the "magic is workable only when the man is pure and strong enough himself to put it ot use" (99) and that such overlays of subsequent traditions illustrate, in the case of Beowulf, the "unique meld of ancient Germanic hero worship and recent Christian submission to God" (101).
Area: OE, ON, CP