''Ealuscerwen'' (''ealuscerƿen'', ) is an

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

hapax legomenon In corpus linguistics, a ''hapax legomenon'' ( also or ; ''hapax legomena''; sometimes abbreviated to ''hapax'', plural ''hapaxes'') is a word or an expression that occurs only once within a context: either in the written record of an entire ...

found in ''

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...

'' (verse 769). Since it appears to refer to a part of

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

drinking ritual Drinking culture is the set of traditions and social behaviors that surround the consumption of alcoholic beverages as a recreational drug and social lubricant. Although alcoholic beverages and social attitudes toward drinking vary around the ...

, it has commanded a lot of scholarly attention. The context in which it appears is: Slade in a footnote states that "the

kenning A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech in the type of circumlocution, a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English po ...

(if it is one) is obscure". From the context it is clear that "being in ''ealuscerwen''" is an unpleasant state. The first part of the compound is clearly ''ealu'' "

ale Ale is a Type of beer, type of beer brewed using a Warm fermentation, warm fermentation method, resulting in a sweet, full-bodied and fruity taste. Historically, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops. As with most beers, ale typicall ...

". The second part, ''scerwen'' is less clear. A simplex ''*scerwen'' is unknown. There is a compound verb ''be-scerwen'', meaning "to deprive". Klaeber conjectures that "''-scerwen'', related to ''*scerwan'' 'grant', 'allot' (''bescerwan'' ='deprive') - 'dispensing of ale', or, in a pregnant sense, of 'bitter or fateful drink' might have come to be used as a figurative expression for 'distress'". Hoops favours "deprivation of ale". But Brodeur (chap 2 n.8) objects to this, pointing out that if ''bescerwan'' means "deprive", ''scerwan'' could not mean "allot" because the prefix ''be-'' does not express a negative. The literal meaning would rather seem to be "deprivation of ale", giving the ironic reading of "the Danes were as distressed by the attack as if they had run out of ale".

Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works '' The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawl ...

also argues for the "deprivation of ale" interpretation and connects it to the word "meoduscerwen" (which is similarly translated as "dread" or "horror") in the poem ''Andreas''. He argues that the "giving a bitter drink" interpretation does not work with meodu (

mead Mead () is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey mixed with water, and sometimes with added ingredients such as fruits, spices, grains, or hops. The alcoholic content ranges from about 3.5% ABV to more than 20%. The defining character ...

), but also that the meaning is not quite as simple as "a fear that the beer (or mead) was gone", but more akin to the meaning of the idiomatic phrase (early in Beowulf) in which Scyld "denied the mead-benches to his foes", meaning that he prevented their pleasure. Irving (1963) reads ealuscerwen as 'pouring of ale': "In Beowulf the tremendous din made by

Grendel Grendel is a character in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem '' Beowulf'' (700–1000). He is one of the poem's three antagonists (along with his mother and the dragon), all aligned in opposition against the protagonist Beowulf. Grendel is feared by a ...

, first in struggling with Beowulf and later in roaring with pain and fright, seems to have reminded the poet of the ordinary or conventional occasion for such loud noise in a hall--a drinking party. He makes use of the opportunity to continue his ironic presentation of Grendel as a guest or caller at Heorot. The Danes then seem to be pictured, somewhat ironically, as hosts at the party" (p. 108). Splitter (1952) suggested a similar translation of "ale-serving", instead associating a quality of awe associated the pouring of ale at the ritual

symbel Symbel ( OE) and sumbl ( ON) are Germanic terms for "feast, banquet". Accounts of the ''symbel'' are preserved in the Anglo-Saxon ''Beowulf'' (lines 489-675 and 1491–1500), ''Dream of the Rood'' (line 141) and '' Judith'' (line 15), Old Saxon ...

. Other suggestions assume a connection with the runic charm '' alu'', taking "ale" as a symbol of good luck, and the pouring away of ale consequently as the failure of good luck. The similar compound ''meoduscerwen'', ''meodu'' "

" plus ''scerwen'' is attested in ''

Andreas Andreas ( el, Ἀνδρέας) is a name usually given to males in Austria, Greece, Cyprus, Denmark, Armenia, Estonia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Finland, Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of B ...

''.

References

*Henry Winfred Splitter, ''The Relation of Germanic Folk Custom and Ritual to Ealuscerwen (Beowulf 769)'', Modern Language Notes, Vol. 67, No. 4 (Apr., 1952), pp. 255-258. *F. J. Heinemann, ''Ealuscerwen-Meoduscerwen, the Cup of Death, and Baldrs Draumar'', Studia Neophilologica Uppsala, 1983, vol. 55, No. 1, pp. 3-10. *Carleton Brown, ''Poculum Mortis in Old English'', Speculum, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Oct., 1940), pp. 389-399 *Hugh Magennis, ''The Cup as Symbol and Metaphor in Old English Literature'', Speculum, Vol. 60, No. 3 (Jul., 1985), pp. 517-536.

References

See also