344 Beozvulf and IVidsith 



seem likely to any one who admits the probability that the king is 

 figured, in certain respects, by the Beowulf of the closing scenes. 

 But that he must have heard many parts of the poem, perhaps 

 repeatedly, seems to me possible enough, and in that case his 

 applause and criticism would doubtless have contributed mate- 

 rially to the excellence of the existing poem. How dependent a 

 minstrel could be upon an appreciative and qualified patron is 

 shown by the last lines of the Widsith, as well as what such a 

 patron, if a man of deeds and station, had to expect from the 

 singer : 



South or north they [the gleemen] ever meet with one skilled in 

 songs, bounteous in gifts, who desires to exalt his fame before his 

 chieftains^ — to do deeds of honor till all departs, life and light together ; 

 he gaineth glory, and hath under the heavens the honor which passeth 

 not away.^ 



That a court-minstrel (cf. 1066; Dear's Lament 36-39) should 

 exalt a monarch or hero to his face was not unexampled. The 

 qualifications of such a minstrel are well exhibited in Beozv. 867- 

 874^: 



At times one of the king's thanes, laden with boasts/ mindful of 

 songs, who knew old tales without number, invented a new story, 

 closely bound up with fact; the man deftly narrated the adventure o\ 

 Beowulf, and cunningly composed'"' other skilful lays'' with interwoven 

 words." 



According to this, the minstrel must 



(i) have great store of legends and olden tales (cf. 89 ft"., 2106, 

 2109-10) ; 



^ Chambers' note : 'before the assembled company.' 



^Chambers' translation; Chadwick renders the close (p. 87): 'He who 

 wins praise shall have his glory established on high beneath the sky.' 



^According to William of Malmesbury {Gest. Pont., p. 336), it was to the 

 credit of Aldhelm that he was equally skilled in the composition of verse 

 and its accompanying music, and that, according to circumstances, he could 

 either chant or declaim his English poems : 'Poesim Anglicam posse facere, 

 cantum componere, eadem apposite vel canere vel diccrc.' 



■'Chambers suggests 'laden with glorious words,' or (after Klaeber), 

 'covered with glory.' 



° Rather, perhaps, 'poured forth.' 



"Cf. 1159-60, 2446-7. 



'I suggest 'develop, unfuld with words," with the notion, perhaps, of 

 rhetorical expansion and diversification (cf. Gr. troLKiWeip) . 



