314 Bcozviilf and JVidsith 



tions of spiritual culture, than in the other English kingdoms; 

 here there flourished no Christian scholarship, and, so far as we 

 are informed, no Christian poetry. But all the better on this 

 account could ancient tradition and the ancient popular poetry be 

 kept alive.' 



It must, one would think, be clear, however, that the three con- 

 ditions which Ten Brink lays down as indispensable for creating 

 the nucleus of the Bcoivulf are much better satisfied by the latter 

 half of the seventh century, after the conversion of Northumbria 

 was in full swing, and especially by the age of Aldfrith,^ than by 

 the former half. Ten Brink himself regards the Irish influence 

 as highly important,- though he goes so far as to assume that 

 Oswald's reign of eight years was sufficient to compass the results 

 which he thus describes : 'W'enn die englische Poesie, soviel wir 

 wissen, in Nordhumbrien eine krjiftigere Bliite entfaltete als 

 anderswo, so hangt dies mit jener von den schottischen Glaubens- 

 boten geiibten Schonung der nationalen Eigenart . . . zusammen.' 



Ten Brink's chief reason for favoring Mercia as the region 

 where the Beoivulf assumed its final form is connected with the 

 episode relating to Offa ( 1931-62) . The first lines of this passage 

 deal with a queen, Thryth or Thrytho, who is contrasted by the 

 poet, for her evil qualities, with Hygd, wife of Hygelac, a wise 

 and well nurtured queen. Eventually Thryth marries Ofifa, 

 wdiom the poet highly praises, and becomes celebrated for her 

 goodness. On the passage in question, thirty-one and a half lines 

 in length, reposes the principal argument in favor of Mercia. 

 The Offa presented by the poem was a Continental Anglian king 

 of the fourth century, of whom nothing contemporary is known. 

 All the information we have concerning him is contained (i) in 

 the genealogy of the royal line of IMercia, as given in the Saxon 

 Chronicle (626) and by Florence of Worcester; (2) in the Dan- 

 ish history of Saxo Grammaticus; and (3) in the Latin Lives of 

 the Tzvo Off as — both the latter works having been written about 

 1200 A. D. This is the Offa of Beozvulf and of JVidsith (35-44). 



^ Ten Brink (p. 227) thinks of Aldfrith merely as the patron of the 

 scholarship represented by Bede, while Green (p. 398) talks of the 'school 

 of biography' represented by Eddi and the author of the anonymous life of 

 Cuthbert. 



° P. 226; cf. Lappenberg i. 200-201. 



