© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press 2006; all rights reserved
Meditating on Men and Monsters: A Reconsideration of the Thematic Unity of the Beowulf Manuscript
Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies
Since Kenneth Sisam's suggestion that the Beowulf manuscript might be described as a ‘Liber de diversis monstris, anglice’, little advance has been made in understanding the basis for its compilation. While it is possible, regarding some of the works in the manuscript, to understand the clashes between heroes and monsters as the internal battles of heroic men against their own pride, such a reading cannot explain the inclusion of such works as the Wonders of the East, where the struggles of heroes are clearly directed outward towards an external and foreign threat. In a refinement of Sisam's theory, this article argues that the Beowulf manuscript was compiled around an interest not only in monsters, but in monstrous and foreign aggression as a particular problem for rulers. Such an understanding allows for the possibility of that the Passion of Saint Christopher and Judith were late additions to an earlier collection that was perhaps more clearly organized around an interest in monsters and marvels. It also allows for an understanding of the manuscript as particularly appropriate to and readable during the reign of Æthelred II.