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matter [apart from the ship]. I would not venture even a line on such a
slight acquaintance . . . Men must be studied and understood” (25).
Though the scop refuses to give any “words” for Beowulf at first sight,
he does say that he sees by Hrethric’s eagerness “That the man can
fascinate and draw others to him” (25). A careful reading reveals the
irony in this compliment, since in the previous scene Hrethric has
admitted that for as long as he can remember he has never seen confident
warriors in battle gear, so he is presumably quite easily dazzled by the
strangers.
The implication then is not that Beowulf is necessarily worthy of
great admiration, but rather that he has good timing and knows how to
take advantage of an opportunity to impress a depressed and weary
people. This Beowulf is immature, boastful, arrogant, rude and
ungrateful. He is far more concerned with saving face than with saving
the Danes. Oldham presents Beowulf as he might have been before
battles and years seasoned his wisdom. Though the author’s note implies
that the scop, as the “subsequent recorder” will eventually compose the
poem of Beowulf
the fact that the scop is already a world-weary
warrior of some years at the occasion of Beowulf s battle with the
Grendels makes it impossible to believe that the scop would still be alive
to take this part of the story and fashion it into the final poem, which
includes Beowulf s dragon fight 50 years later. However, it is possible
that Oldham imagines the scop as the recorder of the Grendel episode
who leaves the story for another poet to pick up and embellish with the
dragon episode added on at a later date.
Strangely, Oldham does not recreate the “Finnsburg Fragment”
(lines 1068-1159), even though this is an episode with obvious metanarrational applications, since it depicts a scop telling a story.^^ With it,
the Beowulf ^OQi gives “us something quite different, related to the theme
of the [scop’s] song but organized in a way which furthers his own tale”
(Osborn B.AGTS 83). Because it is “true Anglo-Saxon battle poetry,” it
would have been a perfect fit with Oldham’s battle-scarred bard (84).
Moreover, scholars such as Arthur G. Brodeur have argued for “revenge”
as the fragment’s central theme, and this theme is also the driving force
in the plot of The Raven Waits:
If anyone dared with audacious speech
To remind the Danes of that deadly hatred
Then the sword’s edge would settle it! (1104-6)^^
Echoing Oldham’s regret at the cost of violence, the story tells how
“gashes burst open and the blood sprang out/ through bitter wounds”
(1121) and how “soon the blaze, greediest of spirits, had swallowed the
dead/of both peoples; their powers had vanished” (1122-4).