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MANCHESTER The Four Funerals in Beowulf 2009 Edition by Gale Owen-Crocker
It is well known that the old English poem Beowulf begins and ends with funerals and includes the third as a digression part way through. Now, for the first time, a fourth funeral (hitherto disguised as poetic imagery) is identified from archaeological evidence. A detailed analysis of the four funerals establishes their thematic and structural importance, revealing them as pillars around which the poem is built. The poet is revealed as a literate antiquarian of considerable structural skill; one who explores feminist issues, plays with numbers and enjoys a pun; who establishes an ideal then probes its darker side.The author's unique knowledge of Anglo-Saxon culture provides constant surprises and enlightenment. This book will be invaluable to all students of the poem for its fresh and detailed reading, its identification of a coherent structure and its establishment of the integrity of the surviving texts. -- . Table of contents :- 1. IntroductionPart I - the Four Funerals2. The first funeral: Scyld Scefing's Ship of Death3. The second funeral: the cremation of Hildeburg's kin4. The third funeral: the Last Survivor's Lament5. The fourth funeral: Beowulf's complex obsequies6. Classicising the pastPart II - The Funerals and the Structure of the Poem7. Rings and fitts8. The funerals and elliptical structures I: the inner funerals as frames9. The funerals and elliptical structures II: the outer structures10. The funerals and elliptical structures III: the funerals as centres11. Three movements and a coda: Beowulf's femininst middleConclusions -- .