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Neophilologus (2006) 90:621 642 Springer 2006 DOI 10.1007/s11061-005-4255-9RELAUNCHING THE HERO: THE CASE OF SCYLD AND BEOWULF RE-OPENEDDAVID CLARKMagdalen College, University of Oxford, England E-mail: [email protected] portrait of Scyld with which Beowulf begins sets up a paradigm of heroic society which the rest of the poem gradually shows to be unworkable. Specic treasures are given negative associations in the poem; the possession of treasure does not equate with worth, it fails to ensure loyalty and is nally designated as useless. The poem implies that a society based on the acquisition and distribution of treasure is doomed to feud and ineluctable decline.Beowulf begins and ends with a funeral: a simple enough observation. However, ones view of the signicance of this fact profoundly aects ones interpretation of the poem as a whole. Early Beowulf criticism is to a large extent content to dismiss the Scyld proem as irrelevant to the main narrative, as with for example Ettmuller, who believed die Verbindung des Mythus von Scild mit dem Beowuliede sei eine rein zufallige oder willkuhrliche (the connection of the myth of Scyld with the Beowulf-poem must be a purely coincidental or arbitrary one.)1 However, Judy Kings recent article, Launching the Hero: the Case of Scyld and Beowulf, cogently argues that the Beowulf-poet uses the rst section of his poem to set up an antithesis between two pagans, Scyld and Beowulf.2 King opposes two views of Scyld as the poets own ideal of kingship or alternatively as the epitome of heroic kingship also embodied in Beowulf, which the poet seeks to criticise before expounding her own view that Scylds portrait functions as a contrast with Beowulfs lack of aggression towards human enemies and kingly restraint.3 She concludes her article by stating that although we do not know Scylds fate, as a pagan who lives according to the old heroic ethos, Beowulf as a whole is designed to demonstrate the fate of a pagan who follows quite dierent principles, and in this case the poet does not declare his ignorance.4 As support for this conclusion, she cites in622David Clarkclosing the poets comment that Beowulfs soul leaves his dying body to seek out the glory of the just. To justify her translation and interpretation of the notorious crux secean sofstra dom, however,...