Post by Andorinha on Jan 15, 2009 12:30:50 GMT -6
Beowulf ARCHIVE: Uncles and Nephews
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Recommend Message 1 of 6 in Discussion
From: Zauber (Original Message) Sent: 12/4/2002 1:11 PM
Here I want to introduce another theme. It seems to me that 'Beowulf' the poem is not only expressing Paganism's confrontation with Christianity, but also a conflict and confusion between matrilineal and patrilineal inheritance.
Hygd offers the empty throne to Beowulf. As Hygelac's nephew, he has every right to this position (the kingship) according to a matrilineal line of succession. But Beowulf declines the kingship in favor of Hygelac's son, which expresses the 'new' patriarchal way of inheritance.
One explanation for the matrilineal mode of inheritance is: if a man can't be sure his son was truly fathered by himself, his nephew, as his sister's son, is the most reliable source for continuing his own blood line. This attitude can beunderstood from a matriarchal society, where women had power and were not expected to be monogamous, or from a society where people were unaware of paternity.
So: what other nephew/uncle pairs have we seen in Beowulf?
And the bonus question: Any nephew/uncle pairs in Tolkien?
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Message 2 of 6 in Discussion
From: Slade
Sent: 12/4/2002 1:48 PM
In connexion to this, read:
'Beowulf & the Wills: traces of totemism?' by Stephen O Glosecki - online article at The Heroic Age journal site
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Message 3 of 6 in Discussion
From: Thorkel
Sent: 12/9/2002 2:21 PM
Just a quick note: as Tolkien most closely bases both his Hobbits and his Rohirrim upon the Saxon model I would expect to find "mother's brother and nephew" relationships most clearly expressed in these two sub-created cultures. Bilbo - Frodo is actually an agnatic relationship, however, and not strictly one of an uncle-nephew nature either (2nd cousins or something?). But certainly the passing of the crown from Theoden to Eomer is classically cognatic "mother's brother to nephew," but even here Eomer only inherits because the direct father to son lineage (Theoden - Theodred) has been broken and no other agnatic heir is available. The only other "uncle-nepew" relationship I know of that is specifically used in a narrative sense by Tolkien (but is the relationship cognatic or agnatic?) refers to the blood feud duties laid upon Tom Bombadil to recover, or at least attempt the recovery, of his "nuncle Tim's" remains... (The Troll Song).
The discussion of Smeagol's early history hints also of matrilineality, which Tolkien confusingly associates with the term matriarchy via Gandalf (FotR "Shadows of the Past") and JRRT addresses this issue of "matriarchy" in his Letters where he seems to down play the concept after having thus introduced it in FotR. Matriarchy/ matrilineage figures also in his "Silmarillion," "Lost Tales," "Unfinished Tales" episodes of the Druadan and the Folk of Haleth, if I recall this correctly.
Another place where inheritance patterns might profitably be checked is found in the appendix to vol. III, "The Return of the King," and in the "Silmarillion" where the descent of Numenorean monarchy is altered from an orignally agnatic, patrilineal system toward the end of the existence of that island kingdom.
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Message 4 of 6 in Discussion
From: Zauber
Sent: 12/10/2002 11:26 AM
Excellent, Thorkel! In fact, you get Bonus Points for the "nuncle Tim"!
Bilbo and Frodo WERE cousins, but Bilbo treated Frodo, as his inheritor, like a nephew, perhaps because of their age difference. I love the way Tolkien never simply uses a concept from somewhere else, but filters it through his own mind until it comes out quite different.
Now, for even MORE Bonus Points, can you (or anyone else out there) name the uncle/nephew pairings in Beowulf?
Zauber
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Message 5 of 6 in Discussion
Sent: 12/18/2002 5:10 PM
This message has been deleted by the author.
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Message 6 of 6 in Discussion
From: Thorkel
Sent: 12/18/2002 5:17 PM
Just a few more, "quick" observations on Uncle - "Nephew" pairings in both Beowulf and the Tolkien Corpus.
First, a thanks to B. Slade for making the S. Glosecki article available here -- very informative!
Second some methodological concerns:
Zauber: you very kindly leave the "Uncles And Nephews" category broadly drawn here so that more than just a very few examples of this general relationship may be found by eager students of the matter when I suppose it is really just the cognatic, relationship of "nephew to mother's brother" that is really the point of this exercize. Furthermore, I think for direct parallels to be drawn between such Tolkien examples and the Hygelac - Beowulf relationship, we must also find evidence of some sort of flow of real estate, chattels, wealth and/ or status from the mother's brother to the nephew -- a demonstration of a matrilineal pattern of inheritance. In this latter, more restricted definition of nephew-uncle relationship I am having trouble finding many exact coorespondences in the Middle-earth corpus to such a situation as seen in Beowulf's relationship with Hygelac...
For Beowulf (in my admittedly rapid scan research) I came up with four significant "nephew-mother's brother" relationships of which only two are directly associated with some sort of episode detailing a consideration of matrilineal "inheritance."
1. Hrothgar stands as mother's brother to Hrothwulf, and although the precise mechanism of Hrothwulf's "inheritance" of the kingship may be argued as more an usurpation than a recognized right of matrilineal descent of the throne, nonetheless, Hrothwulf does succeed.
2. The Hygelac - Beowulf relationship is also a "nephew-mother's brother" connection, wherein Beowulf succeeds to the throne only after the patrilineal heir of Hygelac, his son Heardred has died.
3. In the Finnsburg Fragment and its parallel Beowulf passages, Hildeburh is married as a "peace-weaver" to the Frisian king Finn. Their son, unnamed, so I'll call him"Finnson" here, is in a state of nephew to mother's brother relationship with Hnaef. In Finnsburg, the feud between the houses of Finn and Hoc (father of Hildeburh and Hnaef) is rekindled and both the nephew and the mother's brother are killed in circumstances where I am uncertain if Finnson and Hnaef were fighting against each other, or against Finn? The only "inheritance" that comes from this battle might be found in the "treaty of mutual sharing" between the Danish and Frisian factions after Hnaef and Finnson are ceremonially cremated on a single pyre.
4. Also mentioned in the Finnsburg Fragment are Guthlaf and Garulf (both names that Tolkien reuses for some of his warriors of Rohan). In some sources Garulf is called the "son" of Guthlaf, in others the term "nefa" (latin nepos) is translated variously as nephew, step-son, and bastard son (see H.D. Chickering, Beowulf, pp. 314 - 317) possibly leaving us with another (cognatic or agnatic?) "uncle-nephew" pairing in these two Frisians, but without any "inheritance" episode at all.
Turning to Tolkien, the most explicit "mother's brother - nephew" pairing in which an inheritance figures is still that relationship between Eomer and King Theoden. Eomer does succeed to the throne, but only subsequent to the death of the patrlineal heir Theodred. Also to be found among the Rohirrim, is the transition from the first line of Rohan to the second in Third Age 2759 when the childless King Helm Hammerhand is succeeded by his "sister's son" Frealaf.
The other Uncle-Nephew pairings (found so far) that receive special mention in Tolkien are "nuncle Tim" and Tom Bombadil; Bilbo and Frodo; Hamfast Gamgee and his "cousin" Holman Greenhand; Hamson Gamgee and his uncle Andwise, the roper of Tighfield; Thorin of the Dwarves, and his nephews Fili and Kili.
In these pairings I have found that most are agnatic relationships: Tom Bombadil's "nuncle Tim" is specifically mentioned as being "father's kin" ("The Stone Troll," line 24, The Tolkien Reader, in "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" p. 39). Nor is there any mention made of an episode of inheritance in the "nuncle Tim" - Tom Bombadil relationship. Bilbo and Frodo are both agnatic and cognatic relations, cousin and second cousin, but certainly function in the manner of an avuncular relationship, as Zauber points out, and there is an inheritance episode here, but as Bilbo had no "natural" heirs of his own body it is difficult to see a principle of matrilineal inheritance at work here in preference to a patrilineal one. The relationship between Hamfast Gamgee and Holman Greenhand is cognatic, but must be traced through Hamfast's grandmother rather than his mother, although, there is an inheritance of sort here, the position of "Gardener of Hobbiton" seems to have descended from Holman (who, like Bilbo, left no issue of his body) to his apprentice, his second cousin, once removed (?) Hamfast the father of Sam. Samwise Gamgee inherited the "Gardener of Hobbiton" role from his father, while his older brother, Hamson went to Tighfield to take a position in the Gamgee ropeworks there headed up by his uncle Andwise Gamgee. Again we have an agnatic nepew-uncle relationship here and no matrilineality is inferred.
In turning to the Dwarves we have a good deal of genealogical information concerning only one of their seven houses, the House of Durin. Preferably the descent of kingly status in this house was through the male line only, and I am presuming that patrilineal inheritance would likewise be followed among all Dwarves, regal, noble, and common alike. (Appendix A LotR, III - "Durin's Folk"). Thrain I founded Erebor, but his son Thorin I removed to the Grey Mountains of the north. His son, Dain I becomes the immediate font of the various lines that later claimed kingship over Durin's people. After Dain I was slain by a dragon, many Dwarves fled south and east to re-populate Erebor and the Iron Hills, with Thror, eldest son of Dain I becoming king at Erebor. Thror was associated with an uncle at Erebor, Borin, but this was a paternal uncle and Thror inherited his throne in his own right as a son of Dain's. Thror younger brother, Gror was established at this time as the lord of the Iron Hills. Thror and his son Thrain II were homeless kings after the coming of Smaug to Erebor, and Thrain's son Thorin finally returned to Erebor where both he and his two sister's sons, Fili and Kili were killed in battle with the Goblins. Whether or not Fili or Kili would have succeeded their mother's brother upon the throne is something left uncertain. They would have had a claim to kingship based cognatically, and hence be examples of inheritance by matrilineal principles, but their extinction never allowed a testing of this case to see whether the patrlineal claims of Gror's grandson Dain Ironfoot would take precedence. At any rate, with Dain Ironfoot's ascension to the high seat of Erebor, the patrlineality of Durin's house seems vindicated.
In closing, it seems, that there are very few instances of cognatic, sister's son inheritance used in Tolkien. Most of his "uncle-nephew" pairings among the Hobbits are agnatic, and, in the case of the Dwarves, the sister's sons, Fili and Kili are not demonstrably Torin's heirs. By the time The Beowulf took shape, it seems also likely that the preferred line of status inheritance was through a patrilineage, with cognatic inheritance occuring secondarily as an act of usurpation (Hrothwulf over Hrethric), or in the event of the extinction of the main patrilineage (Beowulf from Heardred). Likewise, in Tolkien both instances of cognatic transmission of the throne of Rohan occur AFTER the extinction of the primary patrilineage, and we may presume that sister's-sons could only inherit by this means (Helm succeeded by sister-son Frealaf; Theoden succeeded by sister-son Eomer). Here I am wondering if Tolkien's "19th century" general "antipathy" towards females is at work in his reluctance to give us an example of cognatic inheritance taking precedence over the agnatic; or if he is studiously following the pattern set in The Beowulf by Hygelac and Beowulf?
In both LotR and Beowulf, I think we have a patrilineal descent of kingship (or heirship in general) accepted as the correct means of succession, with the sister's son inheriting only by usurpation, or legitimately, only after the extinction of the proper agnatic line.
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Recommend Message 1 of 6 in Discussion
From: Zauber (Original Message) Sent: 12/4/2002 1:11 PM
Here I want to introduce another theme. It seems to me that 'Beowulf' the poem is not only expressing Paganism's confrontation with Christianity, but also a conflict and confusion between matrilineal and patrilineal inheritance.
Hygd offers the empty throne to Beowulf. As Hygelac's nephew, he has every right to this position (the kingship) according to a matrilineal line of succession. But Beowulf declines the kingship in favor of Hygelac's son, which expresses the 'new' patriarchal way of inheritance.
One explanation for the matrilineal mode of inheritance is: if a man can't be sure his son was truly fathered by himself, his nephew, as his sister's son, is the most reliable source for continuing his own blood line. This attitude can beunderstood from a matriarchal society, where women had power and were not expected to be monogamous, or from a society where people were unaware of paternity.
So: what other nephew/uncle pairs have we seen in Beowulf?
And the bonus question: Any nephew/uncle pairs in Tolkien?
___________________________________________
Reply
Message 2 of 6 in Discussion
From: Slade
Sent: 12/4/2002 1:48 PM
In connexion to this, read:
'Beowulf & the Wills: traces of totemism?' by Stephen O Glosecki - online article at The Heroic Age journal site
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Reply
Message 3 of 6 in Discussion
From: Thorkel
Sent: 12/9/2002 2:21 PM
Just a quick note: as Tolkien most closely bases both his Hobbits and his Rohirrim upon the Saxon model I would expect to find "mother's brother and nephew" relationships most clearly expressed in these two sub-created cultures. Bilbo - Frodo is actually an agnatic relationship, however, and not strictly one of an uncle-nephew nature either (2nd cousins or something?). But certainly the passing of the crown from Theoden to Eomer is classically cognatic "mother's brother to nephew," but even here Eomer only inherits because the direct father to son lineage (Theoden - Theodred) has been broken and no other agnatic heir is available. The only other "uncle-nepew" relationship I know of that is specifically used in a narrative sense by Tolkien (but is the relationship cognatic or agnatic?) refers to the blood feud duties laid upon Tom Bombadil to recover, or at least attempt the recovery, of his "nuncle Tim's" remains... (The Troll Song).
The discussion of Smeagol's early history hints also of matrilineality, which Tolkien confusingly associates with the term matriarchy via Gandalf (FotR "Shadows of the Past") and JRRT addresses this issue of "matriarchy" in his Letters where he seems to down play the concept after having thus introduced it in FotR. Matriarchy/ matrilineage figures also in his "Silmarillion," "Lost Tales," "Unfinished Tales" episodes of the Druadan and the Folk of Haleth, if I recall this correctly.
Another place where inheritance patterns might profitably be checked is found in the appendix to vol. III, "The Return of the King," and in the "Silmarillion" where the descent of Numenorean monarchy is altered from an orignally agnatic, patrilineal system toward the end of the existence of that island kingdom.
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Message 4 of 6 in Discussion
From: Zauber
Sent: 12/10/2002 11:26 AM
Excellent, Thorkel! In fact, you get Bonus Points for the "nuncle Tim"!
Bilbo and Frodo WERE cousins, but Bilbo treated Frodo, as his inheritor, like a nephew, perhaps because of their age difference. I love the way Tolkien never simply uses a concept from somewhere else, but filters it through his own mind until it comes out quite different.
Now, for even MORE Bonus Points, can you (or anyone else out there) name the uncle/nephew pairings in Beowulf?
Zauber
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Message 5 of 6 in Discussion
Sent: 12/18/2002 5:10 PM
This message has been deleted by the author.
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Message 6 of 6 in Discussion
From: Thorkel
Sent: 12/18/2002 5:17 PM
Just a few more, "quick" observations on Uncle - "Nephew" pairings in both Beowulf and the Tolkien Corpus.
First, a thanks to B. Slade for making the S. Glosecki article available here -- very informative!
Second some methodological concerns:
Zauber: you very kindly leave the "Uncles And Nephews" category broadly drawn here so that more than just a very few examples of this general relationship may be found by eager students of the matter when I suppose it is really just the cognatic, relationship of "nephew to mother's brother" that is really the point of this exercize. Furthermore, I think for direct parallels to be drawn between such Tolkien examples and the Hygelac - Beowulf relationship, we must also find evidence of some sort of flow of real estate, chattels, wealth and/ or status from the mother's brother to the nephew -- a demonstration of a matrilineal pattern of inheritance. In this latter, more restricted definition of nephew-uncle relationship I am having trouble finding many exact coorespondences in the Middle-earth corpus to such a situation as seen in Beowulf's relationship with Hygelac...
For Beowulf (in my admittedly rapid scan research) I came up with four significant "nephew-mother's brother" relationships of which only two are directly associated with some sort of episode detailing a consideration of matrilineal "inheritance."
1. Hrothgar stands as mother's brother to Hrothwulf, and although the precise mechanism of Hrothwulf's "inheritance" of the kingship may be argued as more an usurpation than a recognized right of matrilineal descent of the throne, nonetheless, Hrothwulf does succeed.
2. The Hygelac - Beowulf relationship is also a "nephew-mother's brother" connection, wherein Beowulf succeeds to the throne only after the patrilineal heir of Hygelac, his son Heardred has died.
3. In the Finnsburg Fragment and its parallel Beowulf passages, Hildeburh is married as a "peace-weaver" to the Frisian king Finn. Their son, unnamed, so I'll call him"Finnson" here, is in a state of nephew to mother's brother relationship with Hnaef. In Finnsburg, the feud between the houses of Finn and Hoc (father of Hildeburh and Hnaef) is rekindled and both the nephew and the mother's brother are killed in circumstances where I am uncertain if Finnson and Hnaef were fighting against each other, or against Finn? The only "inheritance" that comes from this battle might be found in the "treaty of mutual sharing" between the Danish and Frisian factions after Hnaef and Finnson are ceremonially cremated on a single pyre.
4. Also mentioned in the Finnsburg Fragment are Guthlaf and Garulf (both names that Tolkien reuses for some of his warriors of Rohan). In some sources Garulf is called the "son" of Guthlaf, in others the term "nefa" (latin nepos) is translated variously as nephew, step-son, and bastard son (see H.D. Chickering, Beowulf, pp. 314 - 317) possibly leaving us with another (cognatic or agnatic?) "uncle-nephew" pairing in these two Frisians, but without any "inheritance" episode at all.
Turning to Tolkien, the most explicit "mother's brother - nephew" pairing in which an inheritance figures is still that relationship between Eomer and King Theoden. Eomer does succeed to the throne, but only subsequent to the death of the patrlineal heir Theodred. Also to be found among the Rohirrim, is the transition from the first line of Rohan to the second in Third Age 2759 when the childless King Helm Hammerhand is succeeded by his "sister's son" Frealaf.
The other Uncle-Nephew pairings (found so far) that receive special mention in Tolkien are "nuncle Tim" and Tom Bombadil; Bilbo and Frodo; Hamfast Gamgee and his "cousin" Holman Greenhand; Hamson Gamgee and his uncle Andwise, the roper of Tighfield; Thorin of the Dwarves, and his nephews Fili and Kili.
In these pairings I have found that most are agnatic relationships: Tom Bombadil's "nuncle Tim" is specifically mentioned as being "father's kin" ("The Stone Troll," line 24, The Tolkien Reader, in "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" p. 39). Nor is there any mention made of an episode of inheritance in the "nuncle Tim" - Tom Bombadil relationship. Bilbo and Frodo are both agnatic and cognatic relations, cousin and second cousin, but certainly function in the manner of an avuncular relationship, as Zauber points out, and there is an inheritance episode here, but as Bilbo had no "natural" heirs of his own body it is difficult to see a principle of matrilineal inheritance at work here in preference to a patrilineal one. The relationship between Hamfast Gamgee and Holman Greenhand is cognatic, but must be traced through Hamfast's grandmother rather than his mother, although, there is an inheritance of sort here, the position of "Gardener of Hobbiton" seems to have descended from Holman (who, like Bilbo, left no issue of his body) to his apprentice, his second cousin, once removed (?) Hamfast the father of Sam. Samwise Gamgee inherited the "Gardener of Hobbiton" role from his father, while his older brother, Hamson went to Tighfield to take a position in the Gamgee ropeworks there headed up by his uncle Andwise Gamgee. Again we have an agnatic nepew-uncle relationship here and no matrilineality is inferred.
In turning to the Dwarves we have a good deal of genealogical information concerning only one of their seven houses, the House of Durin. Preferably the descent of kingly status in this house was through the male line only, and I am presuming that patrilineal inheritance would likewise be followed among all Dwarves, regal, noble, and common alike. (Appendix A LotR, III - "Durin's Folk"). Thrain I founded Erebor, but his son Thorin I removed to the Grey Mountains of the north. His son, Dain I becomes the immediate font of the various lines that later claimed kingship over Durin's people. After Dain I was slain by a dragon, many Dwarves fled south and east to re-populate Erebor and the Iron Hills, with Thror, eldest son of Dain I becoming king at Erebor. Thror was associated with an uncle at Erebor, Borin, but this was a paternal uncle and Thror inherited his throne in his own right as a son of Dain's. Thror younger brother, Gror was established at this time as the lord of the Iron Hills. Thror and his son Thrain II were homeless kings after the coming of Smaug to Erebor, and Thrain's son Thorin finally returned to Erebor where both he and his two sister's sons, Fili and Kili were killed in battle with the Goblins. Whether or not Fili or Kili would have succeeded their mother's brother upon the throne is something left uncertain. They would have had a claim to kingship based cognatically, and hence be examples of inheritance by matrilineal principles, but their extinction never allowed a testing of this case to see whether the patrlineal claims of Gror's grandson Dain Ironfoot would take precedence. At any rate, with Dain Ironfoot's ascension to the high seat of Erebor, the patrlineality of Durin's house seems vindicated.
In closing, it seems, that there are very few instances of cognatic, sister's son inheritance used in Tolkien. Most of his "uncle-nephew" pairings among the Hobbits are agnatic, and, in the case of the Dwarves, the sister's sons, Fili and Kili are not demonstrably Torin's heirs. By the time The Beowulf took shape, it seems also likely that the preferred line of status inheritance was through a patrilineage, with cognatic inheritance occuring secondarily as an act of usurpation (Hrothwulf over Hrethric), or in the event of the extinction of the main patrilineage (Beowulf from Heardred). Likewise, in Tolkien both instances of cognatic transmission of the throne of Rohan occur AFTER the extinction of the primary patrilineage, and we may presume that sister's-sons could only inherit by this means (Helm succeeded by sister-son Frealaf; Theoden succeeded by sister-son Eomer). Here I am wondering if Tolkien's "19th century" general "antipathy" towards females is at work in his reluctance to give us an example of cognatic inheritance taking precedence over the agnatic; or if he is studiously following the pattern set in The Beowulf by Hygelac and Beowulf?
In both LotR and Beowulf, I think we have a patrilineal descent of kingship (or heirship in general) accepted as the correct means of succession, with the sister's son inheriting only by usurpation, or legitimately, only after the extinction of the proper agnatic line.