Tarzia HoardingRitualGermanic 1989

The Hoarding Ritual in Germanic Epic Tradition
Author(s): Wade Tarzia

Source: Journal of Folklore Research, Vol. 26, No. 2 (May - Aug., 1989), pp. 99-121
Published by: Indiana University Press
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Wade Tarzia
The Hoarding Ritual in Germanic Epic Tradition
Hoards of valuable objects appear in Europe's archaeological record

from the Bronze Age through the medieval period. Archaeologists have
often suggested that these caches are votive offerings or attempts to safe-
guard valuables from marauders. These general explanations are logical
but only tell us that people made sacrifices or feared plundering expedi-
tions. However, Janet Levy (1979,1982) offers another explanation for
Bronze Age finds, an approach that I will apply to the Iron Age. Levy
correlates the existence of certain internal tensions of a society with the use
of hoarding to reduce those tensions. I became interested in her idea as I
was studying the other record of past behavior, storytelling. In particular,
Beowulf and the Sigurth story recorded from medieval Europe preserve
information about hoards. Epics have sometimes been expected to verify
archaeological reconstructions of past cultures. But ancient stories can
themselves retain information that the trowel and transit cannot yield.
Levy suggests ways in which treasure hoards were part of an adaptive
mechanism for reducing social tensions; I will examine how hoarding
and poetry were complementary components of this mechanism.
The functions of hoarding

To start, I ask my reader to follow me through a general archaeological
discussion pertaining to the facts and theories of treasure hoards, follow-
ing which we can consider the narrative traditions that may have sup-
ported the rituals of hoards.
My theory is based on the assumption that certain kinds of hoards were
deposited for ritualistic purposes and not for directly practical ones.
Some hoards are evidence of such practical concerns as the guarding of
valuables against theft. But if all hoards reflect only a concern for safety,
one might expect more of them to be of a varied, personalized nature. Yet
Journal of Folklore Research, Vol. 26, No. 2, 1989

Copyright © 1989 by the Folklore Institute, Indiana University 0737-7037
100 Wade Tarzia
particular guidelines seem to have dictated the deposition of some

hoards, as Levy has discovered. She notes that Bronze Age hoards some-
times contained sets of artifacts that denoted ranks of high-status people
(1982). She suggests that the conspicuous wealth of such people caused
social tensions-what I call the "envy syndrome"-and that hoarding
these status symbols would remove them from sight and reduce conflict. I
quote Levy at length:
It would have been very useful to the elite if they could have maintained
their control over fertility religion. A population is not likely to rebel
against those who control access to a spiritual world which influences
health and prosperity. Yet, where differences in wealth and prosperity
exist, resentment and rebellion may grow despite fears of spiritual retribu-
tion. The offering ritual, as reflected in the hoards... helped to ameliorate
these tensions. It consisted, after all, of burying wealth and status symbols.
The ritual thus allowed high status individuals to demonstrate their power
by making the appropriate gifts to the gods. At the same time, it served to
remove wealth and sumptuary goods from the elite's control. When the
offering ritual was over, the elite were reduced in wealth and lost control of
the very sumptuary goods that had set them apart from the general popula-
tion. Tensions would be eased, yet the hierarchical ranking would remain
clear. (1982:45)
Besides reducing conflicts associated with the envy of conspicuous

wealth, the ritualistic deposition of hoards also may have mitigated
problems created when inflation reduced the value of prestige goods. The
hypothesis of inflation has been developed by other authors in regard to
exchange systems (Dupre and Rey 1973, Rathje 1975, Haselgrove 1982,
Halstead and O'Shea 1982) and in regard to the value of status symbols
(Champion, Gamble, Shennan, and Whittle 1984). I am interested in
Champion's and his colleagues' concept of inflation, which seems appli-
cable to eras beyond the Bronze Age even though these authors use the
Bronze Age for their application:
The value of the status conferred by such objects [of prestige]... depended
on control over their supply and on limitation of the quantity available;
the more bronze there was in a society, for instance, the harder it would be
to restrict access to it, with the consequent risk of diminution in the status
to be derived from its manipulation. One solution to this problem was to
take prestige items out of circulation by depositing them where they would
not be recovered; it would be then possible to continue to acquire them by
exchange without the risk of lowering their value. (294)
Finally, inflation could affect the position of entire groups in relation

to other groups. Haselgrove suggests that groups monopolizing trade in
THE HOARDING RITUAL IN GERMANIC EPIC TRADITION 101
prestige goods were able to exchange the goods in return for t

(1982:81). Extrapolating the consequences: when abundant pr
items become devalued, the previously subordinate groups migh
longer sacrifice materials or services to acquire these objects, an
would-be monopolizer might have suffered reduced power.
I am not seeking to determine if the various possible tensions a
from overabundant prestige items were co-existent or mutually
sive. What is important is that ritualized hoarding can reduce any of
pathologies mentioned above by removing from circulation those
ble objects which are ordinarily expected to be distributed. Few
will withhold tribute to the gods.
Analogy with Iron Age hoards

Janet Levy's work cited here recognizes the ritual behind some Bro
Age hoards, and Champion and his colleagues, working also
Bronze Age data, suggest some of the consequences of abundant
items. I have cited this Bronze Age information because of its po
application to other times and places. However, the behavior of hoard
must be evaluated in its own historical context. In applying the id
these scholars to early medieval Europe, we must ask (1) are Iron
hoards ritualistic? (2) were their components the signallers of rank?
(3) were the hoards deposited to reduce social tensions? Let us turn t
depositional trends of the Germanic era, the era that also prod
narrative tradition about hoards.
Because this paper ultimately analyzes traditional Germanic stories, I
confine my review to the archaeology of England, Germany, Denmark,
and Scandinavia generally during the Germanic era, which I define as
the period in which northern Europe was most affected by Germanic
tribes: that is, from the second century A.D., when the tribes began to be
widely involved in European affairs, to about the eleventh century A.D.,
when Germanic tribes developed into feudal states or were incorporated
into them-an event that we might expect to disrupt a tribal ritual such
as hoarding.
Hoards of ornaments and ingots are found throughout the Migration
and Viking periods. Most of the hoards date from the fifth and sixth
century (Wilson 1970:53). More specifically, hoards of jewelry are found
in the second and third centuries (Todd 1975:135ff.; Utrecht 1947:149).
Large deposits of weapons appear in the fourth and fifth centuries: the
Skedemose, Vimose, Nydam, and Thorsbjerg hoards are well known
examples (Todd: 189ff.; Engelhardt 1969). Often, hoards of the Migration
period consist of several pieces of similar jewelry, usually neck rings, as
exemplified by the Oland, Vastergotland, and Torslunda hoards (She-
102 Wade Tarzia
telig and Falk 1937:232,234). Exceptions to the trends of these early finds
exist, however: mixed finds of jewelry, ingots, and coins have been found,
such as the fourth-century Dortmund hoard (Shetelig and Falk 1937:
232,234) and the sixth-century find from Tureholm composed predomi-
nantly of ingots (Shetelig and Falk 1937:235). Varied, "personalized"
hoards are also found (for example, Johns, Tompson, and Wagstaff
1920:48; Selkirk and Selkirk 1976:144). Similarly, although Viking Age
hoards tend to include silver coins and ingots, some hoards are composed
predominantly of ornaments (for example, Graham-Campbell and Kidd
1980:34,48,158,162-63).
Todd summarizes the nature of these finds as follows:
.. [I]t is clear that sacrifices could be made at the same spot over a
considerable period, as at Thorsbjerg and Vimose, or within a compara-
tively short space of time, as at Nydam, Illerup, and Ejsbol. It is also now
widely appreciated, from the deposits laid down over a lengthy time, that
the character of the objects sacrificed could vary considerably from period
to period. (194)
The important points of these archaeological trends are as follows.

First, the contents of most of the pre-Viking Age hoards tend toward
redundant deposition; that is, instead of burying a variety of goods, the
depositors buried a single or small variety of goods repetitiously. Second,
hoards of jewelry and weapons (votive deposits) decline in Scandinavia
before the Viking Age (Randsborg 1980:133; Wilson 1976:396) and are
balanced by an increase in silver hoarding in response to growing market
economies. An important third trend of the votive deposits is that many
of them occur in wet areas. The most striking examples, of course, are the
bog finds of Scandinavia. Swords of the Viking Age were sometimes
thrown into rivers and similar finds occur in European rivers (Wilson
1976:14). The practice of such depositions extends from the Bronze Age to
about 1000 A.D. (Champion, et al. 1984:294) and shows an aspect of
hoards with very deep roots in European prehistory. Finally, some of the
largest votive deposits-Thorsbjerg, Ejsbol, Nydam, and Vimose-are
related to settlement areas. Quoting Todd: "These central positions
suggest strongly that the cult places held a strong significance for an
entire population group, and not merely for a single ruling family or
large community" (195). I would thus argue that many hoards of the
migration period-the period of the Sigurth story and often in the mind
of the Beowulf poet-are the remains of important communal rituals
that not surprisingly find literary treatment in two medieval epics.
And what do entire communities and tribes need to hoard? Status
symbols, which have immediate social effect because they are designed to
be visible objects that structure the very workings of social inter

hierarchical societies. Jensen identifies many of the fifth- a
century gold hoards of Scandinavia as hoards of status symbols (1
I extend this possibility to include hoards of ornaments and
from other Germanic territories. Objects of status are objects
display; they communicate information that must be visible
distance (Wobst 1977:303-309,328,330) and should be unusual f
viewpoint of the culture in which they are displayed (Binford 19
Thus exotic items incorporate rare materials, considerable technic
and investment of labor, or are only available from outside th
(Haselgrove:82). The neck and arm rings of the Germanic hoards f
the criteria of status goods, and even some items of clothing, bei
positioned and invested with expensive processes. We should al
some war gear, especially swords and chain mail, which are quite
sometimes adorned with precious metal (Shetelig and Falk:232;
Campbell and Kidd:113), and always invested with time-co
processes. Even the coins of the earlier hoards may be compo
status goods because coins were probably not used for currency in
half of the millenium, most often being worked into ornamen
time (Arnold 1982:129; Nerman 1931:13).
Finally, Beowulf has something to say on the subject of stat
Beowulf has slain the dragon and lies dying, he gives his ki
Wiglaf, his armor and "golden ring" in what seems to be a passin
the tribal leadership (the original phrase is hring gyldenne, i
1950:line 2809). After this point in the narrative, Wiglaf clea
command, ordering a witnessing of the hoard that Beowulf has w
burial, the hoard's reburial, and perhaps punishment for the
who fled the dragon fight. The passage does not necessarily
historical truth, but we might understand the passage to be a
tion of values, how the culture perceived the passing of rank
poem may present a literary paradigm of the conferral of rank.
Now the question is this: were the depositions of Germanic-
symbols ritualistic in the sense that Levy defines? First of all, w
not include the deposition of craftsman's scraps when we wis
sider ritualistic hoards (Levy 1979:51-52). Complete, precious
precious objects showing evidence of ritualistic destruction m
objects of study-status symbols.
The burial of status symbols is not a directly practical behavior
a good "banking" behavior-when the recovery of the goods ev
owners is made too difficult or impossible. When a hoard is
this way, it has an aura of ritual. For example, many ho
deposited in wet areas, a trait that may be a characteristic of
(Levy 1979:51-52; Champion, et al. 1984:294). On the other h
104 Wade Tarzia
open or public burial of some hoards also is not a practical thing to do for
persons concerned with protecting their goods. Hoards marked off by
poles and wattles were not meant to be lost at all, which Jensen sees as an
indication of rituality (262). If marked burials were conceived to be the
property of the god(s) to whom the valuables were sacrificed, then con-
spicuous deposits may have instilled supernatural and legal dread in
potential thieves, a subject to which I will return. The placement of
Beowulf's hoard in a mound and Fafnir's hoard behind iron doors may
be a reflex of these kinds of "public" burials. Treasures meant to be lost
and treasures openly buried are what Rappaport might call "noninstru-
mental" behaviors, or rituals (1971:62).
The literary traditions also suggest that some hidden valuables were
not to be recovered. In Beowulf, the last survivor of a tribe buries his
people's wealth by the sea and leaves it unused (see in translation Raffe
1963:lines 2231-70; see Creed, in press, for further comments), although
he might have used it to establish a retinue (Creed, personal communica-
tion). In the Norse saga of the Rhine gold, the last possessor of the hoard
throws it into a river to discard it forever (see in translation Hollander
1962:290). And in Egil's Saga, which is a literate, medieval Icelandic
composition partly based on Norse oral tradition, Egil casts his wealth-
it does not seem to be a hoard-into a bog to ensure that his unworthy kin
will never have it (see in translation Jones 1960:239). The narrative
traditions say that wet places are good places to lose things meant to stay
lost.
The passage in Beowulf concerning the dragon hoard is most interest-
ing in the discussion of rituality. The verses describing the deposition of
the hoard seem to be a formal prayer to accompany the burial. As Creed
writes, the words of the person who deposits the hoard
begin with what can be best characterized as an apostrophe, perhaps even an

incantation-an address to hruse [the Old English word used in the prayer],
the earth. The Last Survivor [the depositor of the treasure] commands
her ... hruse is feminine ... to hold what men can hold no longer....
These lines suggest a circle: hold now what long ago you held. We are
familiar with such ritual circles in the burial formula "ashes to ashes, dust
to dust." The entire final third of Beowulf can be characterized as a circling
back to the ritual performed near its beginning by the Last Survivor. (in
press)
The Germanic narrative tradition

The archaeological record shows only part of the hoarding ritual. An
analysis of the story tradition associated with treasure hoards helps fill
out the possible linguistic component of the ritual. I opera

main assumptions, the first being that there existed a Germanic
of storytelling that allows us to fruitfully move between Beowu
Sigurth lays, in agreement with Lehmann, who argues that
written in the Germanic languages until the twelfth century be
single tradition-although there are differences within that t
(1956:35). But the Old Norse and Old English sub-traditions, if I
them that, are not necessarily contemporaneous. Lonnroth feels
late Icelandic prosimetrum style of the Eddic poems is an evolut
the stichic style of the Old English poems (1971:20).
My second assumption is that the narrative traditions of Beow
Sigurth have come down to us through a manuscript tradi
represent story patterns and perhaps some of the smaller u
narrative-passages and verses-that probably were once p
orally before a predominantly nonliterate audience. Of cours
controversy over the oral nature of the texts. A literary school r
not unreasonably, that the poems come down to us in written f
is an oralist's responsibility to prove the poems were orally
according to oral-formulaic method. On the other hand, ther
poetry school that reminds us, also not unreasonably, that the p
composed with a striking similarity to the style of oral poetry r
ethnographers in the field.
Here, I take the cowardly but safe approach of seeking neu
tory. I think many scholars from both schools of thought w
that Beowulf and the Sigurth story represent a significant
native-Germanic subject matter-at one time orally compos
each performance or read aloud as a static text from a manu
that the poems were indeed performed orally for an audie
hoarded for a few individual readers. Finally, most scholars w
that Europe did have some kind of oral tradition predating B
the Sigurth lays, probably informing the composition of these
whatever way they were composed. We may then proceed by re
that the story patterns preserved for us may go back to the
past, a time when a folklore tradition was certainly teaching an
communal values, some of which pertained to treasure hoards. C
some of the poems themselves recall an oral past, as Creed
(1962:52).'
Another serious controversy is the dating of the poems. One c
array of arguments to place Beowulf between the seventh an
centuries, and most of the tests used to do so seem unreliable (f
ple, Amos 1980:167ff.). As for the Norse heroic poems, evidence
late date in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries (Clover and Lin
106 Wade Tarzia
Lonnroth's belief that the Eddic poetry evolved from the Old English
style further places the poems in relation to each other. Furthermore,
because it is difficult to date hoards and currently impossible to say when
ritual hoards ceased entirely in Germanic Europe, we must admit to a
separation of the poems from the times they describe, with the Eddic
poems having more separation than Beowulf. This problem is at its
greatest when we try to use oral tradition as a history text complete with
reliable dates and detailed exegesis of past customs-which I am not
trying to do.
Talk of dates leads to the relation of history and narrative tradition.
Lord writes that themes in oral tradition will vary over the course of time
and will not preserve historical facts (1971:90). One can also note how
history is compressed in an epic collected in the field. In singing The
Wedding of Smailagic Meho, a tale that takes place in the sixteenth
century, the early twentieth-century singer includes a steamboat (Parry,
Lord, and Bynum 1974:243). We should expect historical facts to be
conglomerated and people and events to be polarized as the process of
storytelling molds reality. But in this study I am indeed interested in
storytelling. The ritual process of burying a hoard is not to be verified
and explicated through poetry, but accompanied by the poetry to sup-
port the ritual, either when some version of the poetry was recited at the
burying of the hoard or was to support the ritual through the very
existence of the story pattern in the tradition. We avoid most of the risks
of comparing traditions to excavations when the stories are not used to
verify the facts that archaeologists are better equipped to study.
The hoard in Beowulf

Beowulf is an Anglo-Saxon poem. But the poem concerns events
occurring in Sweden and Denmark, so Beowulf reflects the concerns of
the continental Germans and the main region of hoarding. And the
poem describes in a general way the contents of Germanic era hoards.
General terms such as "treasure" and "gold" predominate, while specific
references to objects-pitchers, cups, dishes, armor, and rings-form the
descriptions to a lesser degree. As Stjerna noted early, "The poem some-
times represents the hoard as an exceptionally large collection of very
varied objects, and sometimes merely as a huge gold-find" (1912: 145).
Perhaps this characteristic is the oral tradition compressing historical
details, because the contents of hoards from the Bronze Age through the
Iron Age varied considerably. I agree with Stjerna that the actual inven-
tory of the hoard may have not been important as long as the poem made
clear that precious goods were deposited (152ff.). I believe the tradition
served not to passively reflect the contents of hoards, but rather to actively
maintain the purpose of the ritual long after the burial. T

tions provided ideological support in an impressive way, fo
are impressed by a well-told story.
The primary message behind the poetry is this: the depo
hoard must be maintained to prevent the recovery and re
the troublesome goods. Rich deposits of any kind have a
targets for unbelievers from the earliest times. For example,
grave had been robbed during the Bronze Age: the forked "fi
used by the robber was found within the rifled tomb (Hardin
and there are other examples in the archaeological litera
would have likewise suffered. They were protected, of course
(the following English translations are my own; words in
added for clarity or where inflections in the Old English
ponne waes paet yrfe eacencraeftig,

iumonna gold galdre bewunden,
paet 6am hringsele hrinan ne moste
gumena anig, nefne God sylfa,
sigora S66cyning sealde pam 6e he wolde
- he is manna gehyld - hord openian,
efne swa hwylcum manna, swa him gemet 6uhte.
Then was that heritage huge,

men-of-old's gold, [with a] spell wound around
that the ring-hall might not touch
any man, unless God himself,
victory's truth-king, gave him [to] whom he would-
He is men's protection-to open [the] hoard
except to whichever man as seemed proper to him.
-transliteration after Klaeber: lines 305
Clearly this spell bodes ill to the disturber without divine san
the threat of the supernatural was not enough to ward of
thieves, then the threat of actual punishment may have serv
Swa hit o6 d6mes daeg diope benemdon

peodnas maere, pa 6aet paer dydon,
paet se secg ware synnum scildig,
hergum gehea6erod, hellbendum faest.
wommum gewltnad, se6one wong strude,
naefne goldhwaete gearwor haefde
Agendes est .r gesceawod.
108 Wade Tarzia
So it [the hoard] until dooms day [they] deeply cursed,

[the] famous chiefs, those that put [it] there,
that the man would be guilty [of] sins,
[in] idol-fanes confined, fast [in] hell-bonds,
[with] evil punished, he [who] plundered that place,
he [Beowulf] was not gold-greedy, [he] more certainly had
looked upon previously [the] owner's favor.
-Klaeber: lines 3069-75
The translation of the word "benemdon" as "cursed" has been called

into question by Doig (1981). He quotes dictionary definitions of the
word, which state the possible meanings to be "to name, appoint, settle,
stipulate, declare, asseverate." Translators usually translate the word as
"curse," and certainly the events of the poem unfold according to our
modern idea of what a protective spell (I will call it a curse) should do.
But it hardly matters. If the ancient chiefs make arrangements for a hoard
to be left undisturbed, perhaps in a legal (not supernatural) way, then we
can credit hoard burials as having roots in ancient law as well as super-
natural retribution, law and divine retribution having, perhaps, close
connection in traditional societies.
Whether it was from a spell, curse, or broken law, there are conse-
quences for disturbing the "owner's" (the god's?) hoard. The conse-
quences were evidently not light ones in traditional thought. The pas-
sage above may have been a warning to would-be plunderers. "Confined
in idol-fanes, fast in hell-bonds" seems to be a tantalizing echo of legal
language suggesting that apprehended hoard-thieves would be confined
in a sacred place for execution. Although this possibility is based on
meager evidence, the wealth of hoards surely attracted robbers against
whom a public punishment was probably useful.
The passages quoted above warned folk away from hoards. Another
passage is a model of behavior toward accidentally discovered treasure.
The tradition says, "Look, but don't touch." In a previous passage where
Beowulf follows Grendel's mother into a lake, Beowulf sees a pile of
treasure in her underwater cave and a magic sword with which he kills
her. He also uses the sword to cut off Grendel's head, after which the
blade melts in the blood of the monster:
Ne n6m he in paem wicum, Weder-Geata leod,

maemihta mS, pEh hE par monige geseah,
buton pone hafelan ond pa hilt somod
since fage; sweord ar gemealt,
forbarn br6denma,l; waes paet bl6d t6 paes hat,
aettren ellorgaest, se paEr inne swealt.
He did not take in those places, [the] Weather-Geat's lord,

more of exotic properties, though he saw many there,
except the head [of Grendel] and the hilt together,
[with] jewels decorated; [the] sword previously melted,
[the] braided-sword [damascened sword?] burned up, that blood was so
[the] poisonous alien-ghost, which died in there.
-Klaeber: lines 1612-16
Beowulf does take from the hoard the hilt of the sword with which he
slew the ogre, but its blade has burned away and effectively remains
behind. Beowulf, as the ideal hero, knows he must not touch any other
treasure. (That Beowulf later fights the dragon and wins a hoard is a
conflict that I will discuss below.) But was the monster's treasure a hoard
and should this example be used here? I suggest that the attributes it
shares with other treasures of archaeology and poetry support the notion
that it is a hoard. The treasure is in a cave beneath the water, and it is
guarded by a monster, so two traits are present: deposition in a wet place,
an archaeological trait, and guardianship by a supernatural creature, a
poetic trait. And the fact that the hero retains no other treasure, seem-
ingly a wise move in the mind of the poet, reminds us of the curse placed
on the dragon's hoard.
If a hoard is plundered after all these warnings, the poem uses narrative
patterns that warn of disaster to come for the community. The hoard in
Beowulf is plundered by a servant eager to please a master and the
outraged dragon that is guarding the hoard lays waste the land and kills
its great leader. Then the poet foretells a grim future for Beowulf's
people. He discusses in horrific passages how the women shall be en-
slaved in foreign lands and how the carrion creatures will boast to each
other of fine feasting on the battle-fallen (Raffel:lines 3015-27).
Following the dire consequences of a disturbed hoard, the poem pre-
sents a model of behavior for the treatment of the treasure. After Beo-
wulf's death, Wiglaf will not keep the dragon's treasure. He orders it to be
redeposited in a mound despite Beowulf's wish that the hoard he has won
be given to the people. Here is a conflict, and the clarity of the narrative
breaks down for the modern reader, and perhaps for the ancient listener.
Funeral treasure of armor is burned with the hero, and hoard treasure of
ornaments is deposited in the mound after the burning of the pyre. There
is Beowulf's happiness at having won the hoard; there is Wiglaf's repul-
sion towards the accursed stuff. The poet, who for nearly 3,000 lines has
composed often with virtuosity, is now confused. He is between tradi-
tions: his own of the present and the older one of the legendary past.
This "crux" in the poem has occupied space in many journals and
books. For example, Chambers finds confusion in the account of Beo-
110 Wade Tarzia
wulf's burial with both hoard and funeral ornaments, the funeral offer-
ings being burned, the hoard being interred (1963:353ff.). He is testing
the archaeological accuracy of the poem and such burials are not attested
in the archaeological record. This approach tries to reconcile burial
customs with hoard burials, but archaeologists now teach us that the two
kinds of burial are quite different.
Another explanation for the strange, dual burial has been offered by
Cherniss, who thinks that Beowulf was buried with the hoard because of
the social ideal of earned status: "[If a warrior dies a natural death, or
dies of wounds received in a battle in which he was victorious, the glory
which he has accumulated in his lifetime becomes his permanent posses-
sion, for he can no longer be deprived of that glory in honorable combat"
(1968:479). And of course, trophies won in battle are the visible signs of
status and glory. This argument is compelling if we treat Beowulf's final
words lightly, but the final words of a dying king would seem important
enough to be well tended by poet and audience. Beowulf states his
satisfaction at having won the treasure for his people.
We can say that Beowulf is unwise in seeking the treasure and dies
because of greed or stupidity. However, the poet has not led us in this
direction unless we feel that heroism against great odds-a major theme
in Germanic heroic epic-is foolhardy. Some authors have indeed echoed
this idea, such as Leyerle, who writes:
A king's unrestrained desire for individual glory was a particular danger in

heroic society.... All turns on the figure of Beowulf, a man of magnifi-
cence, whose understandable, almost inevitable pride commits him to
individual action [Beowulf told his retainers to stay behind in the dragon
fight] and leads to a national calamity by leaving his race without mature
leadership at a time of extreme crisis, facing human enemies [the Swedes]
much more destructive than the dragon. (1965:101-102)
Berger and Leicester (1974) soften somewhat the indictment of the hero;
instead, they indict the society in which Beowulf is a victim of social
ideals that raise up reciprocity and gift-giving, which simultaneously
create envy, competition, and the resulting quest for individual heroism.
Niles raises a fine point here: "Those who condemn the king for dying
seem to assume that he was going to live forever" (1983:245). I would add
that we may condemn the hero because we have not looked closely
enough at the function of ritual hoards in life and in lore. Beowulf has
been called doomed by society, doomed by heroism, even doomed
because of greediness for the hoard. As for greed, Niles notes that the
"winning of the hoard ceases to appear so problematical when one sees
how the exchange of material things, as part of a general c

reciprocity, plays a commanding role throughout much of B
(213). And Cherniss writes, "A warrior's treasure is the outward r
tation of the glory which he has won and is, indeed, the only
proof of the honor and esteem to which his deeds entitle h
These ideas agree with anthropological understanding of status
Beowulf's pleasure at having won the dragon hoard, his death, a
burial accompanying it are neither strange nor criminal when we
consider the role of precious objects in the society. Niles reminds
Beowulf will die; he is mortal and old. And he is without issue
wisdom and strength have kept foes at bay, and when he is dead,
is left with a young, inexperienced leader (Wiglaf) and many foes
admit that the hoard could have been buried with the hero because he and
no one else earned it, according to the Germanic custom of status earned
through deeds, then we must also admit that there were other options for
the poet, some of them historically attested. For example, the hoard
would be just the thing to send away to patch up old feuds, create new
tribal alliances, attract proven warriors for retainers, or at the worst, to
buy off enemies as, historically, English leaders did to stave off Viking
depredations. All these things are possibilities within the Germanic
social framework. But Wiglaf reburies the hoard; he does not burn it with
Beowulf and his other funeral ornaments, but simply buries it with the
hero after the pyre has burned. This separate treatment of funeral and
hoard goods suggests the memory in folk tradition of the separate func-
tions of these offerings. Similarly, the work of modern archaeologists
suggests that some literary interpretations behind Beowulf's death and
the interment of the hoard ignore the direct or indirect support to ritual
that a story pattern can give.
The heroic code of the poet's time-or the expectations created
through hearing traditional tales of heroes-says that Beowulf must
fight the dragon and kill it, win the hoard, and distribute the spoils of
battle to the people, because misers are given bad press in traditional
society and its stories. But an ancient Germanic (perhaps European)
ritual still called and channeled the poet back into its precepts: a dis-
turbed hoard must be returned to the place from which it came. The clash
of the two themes of the poem suggests that the poet is separated from the
hoarding ritual by both time and another religion (Beowulf seems to me
to reflect a Christianized society not yet entirely integrated into orthodox
Christianity), but the ritual had been important enough to become
entrenched in a story pattern despite the changing times.
112 Wade Tarzia
The hoard in the Sigurth saga

Beowulf is an excellent source of information, but we need not rest
solely on this one poem. The fragments of the story of Sigurth also
concern a dragon hoard and echo some of the themes in Beowulf. We
find, for example, that the owner of the hoard in Old Norse lore also
curses the treasure. He is a dwarf who dwells behind a waterfall-in effect
a supernatural guardian dwelling in a wet place. Here, he curses the
hoard after it is stolen:
pat skal gull,

er Gustr atti,
broe<6>rom tve<i>m
at bana ver6a,
ok 9Qlingom
atta at r6gi;
mun mins fiar
mangi ni6ta.
That gold shall, which Gust owned,

[to] brothers two a bane become
and [to] princes eight a quarrel:
no one will enjoy my treasure.
-transliteration after Helgason 1964:54
The treasure is given by the thieves-some of the Norse gods-to their

host as compensation for the accidental murder of the host's son, but the
host, in turn, is killed by a son who covets the gold. This son, Fafnir,
refuses to share the treasure with his brother, Regin, and turns into a
dragon to guard it. Regin enlists the young hero Sigurth to slay Fafnir.
Sigurth slays the dragon, but not before it warns him about the hoard:
Rae6 ek per nu, Sigur6r,

en pu rai nemir
ok r1o heim heban!
it gialla gull
ok it gl6orau6a fe,
per ver6a peir baugar
at bana!
I counsel you now, Sigurth, [if] you but take advice

and ride homewards hence!
The yellow gold, and the wealth red-as-embers,
the rings become a bane to you!
-Helgason 1964:54
The curse is made quite clear in this saga. Sigurth and all who
the hoard meet sorry ends through war and treachery. In a general
this pattern is similar to the theme in Beowulf in which the lead
and his land is to be torn by war. And, as in Beowulf, the hoard of th
is returned to the place from which it came; for the hoard was fou
wet place (the waterfall), and Gunnar, the last possessor, throws
the river Rhine so that Atli, his captor, will not have the gold.
Comparison of the traditions

Several interesting points should be mentioned in comparing B
and the Sigurth tale:
Hoard history. Both hoards have a history of evil events. The Beow
hoard is associated with people swept away in war, and the Rhine go
the center of a murderous contention of individuals. It seems that the
traditions presented the reticulated disasters associated with the manipu-
lation of hoards.
Supernatural guardians. Magical guardians watch the caches in each
case, although the guardian in Beowulf, the dragon, is more of a direct
part of the magical retribution than Andvari seems to be in the Norse
tale.2 Beowulf provides a more fabulous explanation of the results of
disturbed hoards than does the Sigurth story. The Norse tale is socially
realistic in the enactment of consequences because magical creatures
perform no retribution, but instead greedy humans enact the curse.
But even if the dragon is appropriately mythical and fit matter for
rituals of prohibition, retribution in Beowulf is also connected with very
real political assessments. The messenger riding back from the dead hero
foretells to the people a war with the Swedes now that their respected
leader is dead. Enemies are expected to capitalize on the death of a strong
leader. Thus we have a collocation of a hoard of status symbols and the
death of a high-status person with its realistic political repercussions.
Similarly in the Norse tradition, the hoard has its origin in mythology
and is invested with magic, but the manipulation of the hoard in society
engenders human ambitions that lead to the murder of the manipulators.
In summary, the Sigurth story explicates the effects of disturbed hoards
on the personal level of murder, while Beowulf demonstrates the effects
on the community level of intertribal war. Both traditions make the
important bridge between magic, ritual, and flesh-and-blood con-
sequences.
The return of the hoards. In both stories the hoards are returned to the
place where they were originally found, an important element of the
ritual "circle." However, the nature of the returns differs. Beowulf's
hoard is returned in public with evidence of legal and communal over-
114 Wade Tarzia
sight (Creed, in press); the Rhine gold has been secretly thrown into the
river by the last possessor to keep it from his captor. At this point the
Norse saga seems to abandon all pretense at ritual, although the general
cyclic pattern remains. Finally, the hoards of both traditions are returned
too late to avoid any disasters, although it is clear in Beowulf that Wiglaf
reburies the hoard quickly, perhaps to avoid the further chaos that
Sigurth and peers experience as the Rhine gold is passed along.
The tending of rank. This indirect topic is appropriate while we are
speaking of hoards of status symbols. Throughout Beowulf rank is
carefully tended. Before the dragon fight, Wiglaf, Beowulf's faithful
follower, is called a "shield warrior" (lindwiga, Klaeber:line 2603), a title
of undefined rank, but after Beowulf has passed on the tribal leadership,
with his necklace and armor, the poet calls them both "earls" (eorl,
Klaeber:line 2908), a more definite rank, perhaps higher than before.
When Wiglaf is introduced we learn of his lineage and how he got his
armor: having slain a warrior and taken his gear, he had submitted them
to his lord, who later gave them back. Wiglaf's increased status had come
only after he had affirmed a subordinate status to his lord. Similarly,
when Beowulf reports back to his lord Hygelac after the Heorot episodes,
he submits his gifts from Hrothgar and Wealhtheo, and in turn receives a
gold-hilted sword and 7,000 units of land with a house and throne
(Klaeber:line 2195ff.). These concepts of rank are consistently collocated.
In a flashback during the dragon fight we are told that Hygelac had once
rewarded two warriors with rings and 100,000 units of land, and the poet
says Hygelac could not be blamed for that, implying that rank in the
form of land grants and symbols certainly must be justified. In general we
note that land and displayable treasure are awarded in sets. This associa-
tion is logical: rank is really a function of agricultural and pastoral
resources, and as long as this power backs up its status symbols, all is
well. When status symbols unassociated with real power are distributed,
the realistic hierarchy of capable elite can become confused-that is, it is
time for the hoarding ritual to take away the symbols that are expected to
go somewhere if the possessor is a good king.
As for the Norse tales, the treasure is not collocated with land grants
but rather with the creation of social relationships; perhaps no one
survived long enough in Norse sagas to get around to farming. Be that as
it may, the Rhine gold is used first by Sigurth to marry into the family of
the Gjukungs (see The Lay of Fafnir, Hollander:231). Later Brynhild
accuses Gunnar of betraying Sigurth, "who foremost made thee," refer-
ring to the wealth of the Rhine gold (in a fragment of a Sigurth lay,
Hollander:246). The connection of the symbols of rank and the actual
power-base of rank-agricultural resources-is not made as clear as it is
in Beowulf.
Social manipulation. I end with a possibility that I think is

important, the possibility that the narratives show a fear of the
social status through manipulation of a recovered hoard. No
hoards are initially used by people of inferior social status in re
other characters in the tales. The wretched slave in Beowulf
person to discover and use the hoard: he steals a cup to win back
will from his master (Klaeber:line 2216ff.). Perhaps the audi
poem was to infer that the slave tried to buy his freedom and t
greater social status, although this is only speculation. Sigur
other hand, would seem to be a poor comparison to the slave bec
hero is nobly born. But consider: Sigurth arrives at a foreign co
outsider who must buy his way into Gjukung status through m
the king's daughter, Guthrun. Meanwhile, the status of his b
law is also raised as the hoard is manipulated in the family,
mentioned.
After the hoards are manipulated to increase social status, chaos breaks
out for the heroes of both traditions. Beowulf's retainers break their oaths
as retainers and flee from the dragon fight, for which the faithful Wiglaf
foretells their ostracism (although Beowulf did ask them to remain
behind). Oath-breaking also follows among Sigurth and his new kin as
murder and suspicion worsen the relationships begun with the Rhine
gold. Thus the attempts to create social relationships with the hoards
actually break social bonds represented in oaths of allegiance (to Beo-
wulf) and blood oaths (with Sigurth).
The emphasis on war and murder is quite appropriate in the context of
a recovered hoard. According to Levy's theory, conspicuous wealth can
breed envy in the less fortunate members of the community. According to
Champion, inflated wealth diminishes the status to be gained by pre-
cious objects. It is easy to imagine how envy can lead to unrest in a
community, and unrest to internal rebellion or a simple reduction in
communal feeling, especially when there are enough bearers of failing
status symbols to obscure central authority. In turn, a group can become
weak from within and subject to attack from without. These are the most
plausible consequences; other penalties involving the wrath of gods may
have played a part but are difficult for a scientist to evaluate.
It is suggestive that Wiglaf seems to have gained status at the end of
Beowulf both by accepting the objects of status from his dying leader (the
armor and necklace) and by reburying the captured hoard goods in what
may be a model for the hoarding ceremony. Wiglaf is the only person
who quickly rids himself of the treasure, and he is the only person who
survives the taint of the cursed hoard.
116 Wade Tarzia
Archaeology and poetry: a marriage?

Perhaps not a marriage, but at least an affectionate relationship. The
envy of wealth that Levy suggests is the basis of Bronze Age hoarding is
generally reflected in the narrative traditions; the poets often grumble
about chiefs who sit on their treasure chests like chainmailed Scrooges.
More specifically, I have suggested that Wiglaf is the model for the
hoarding personality in Germanic tradition, the ideal person who
quickly makes a public viewing of unrightfully acquired wealth, and
then oversees a public redeposition. (Gunnar is a far worse model,
because he secretly discarded the Rhine gold not out of public trust but
rather to spite his enemy; this is almost a parody of the hoard ritual.) This
does not mean that the poems offer a realistic explication (to the
audience) of the reasons why a hoard must be hidden. That is to say, the
poems function without the voices of protest from the have-nots in
society; Levy's theory about social envy is not evident in the poems.
Indeed, we rarely see people of humble origins in epic poetry. Where we
do see the envy at work is between the nobles in the tales of the Rhine
gold, nobles who are monitoring their position in society relative to
other nobles.
To say that the have-nots do not appear in epic poetry is not to say that
wealth tensions did not exist between the wealthy and the unwealthy
folk, or that hoards were not deposited to mitigate the tensions, or that
Levy's theory does not operate in conjunction with the narratives. I do
suggest that a storytelling tradition that was performed at one time in
royal halls and was sometimes patronized by wealthy people (see the Old
English poem Deor, for example) would be unlikely to mention a dis-
contented population, something that is saved for villainous kings like
Eormanric in the Old English poems Deor and Widsith. Heroic poetry is
not inclined to show villains who see their faults and change their ways.
Thus it is probable that the tradition leveled an historic reality of social
discontent and either did not mention it when portraying the hoarding
ritual (as in Beowulf) or rationalized envy as greed between high-born
individuals (as in the Norse lays). In this way the elite's distributive duty
to the community is not put to embarrassing questions, but at the same
time the stories can support the ritual of hoarding.
If Levy's "envy-syndrome," as I call it, is not evident in the lore, neither
is the other pathology of status symbols-reduction in status-giving
value of prestige goods through overabundance. In Beowulf, Wiglaf
hastens to publicly display and rebury the hoard at once, but he states no
reason. In the Norse texts, the only person who disposes of the hoard has
done so out of greed and spite, as mentioned above; this motif exists also
in Egil's Saga of Iceland's late medieval period, in which Egil casts his
wealth into a bog to prevent his unworthy kin from getting it (

1960).
The only indication that the tradition represented the pathology of
overabundant status symbols is in the connection that I identified above:
the representation of social inferiors manipulating a treasure hoard to
attain higher status. This pattern suggests that unsanctioned "upward
mobility" is the beginning of social chaos. Here I call attention to other
points I have made. In Beowulf, at least, we see that heroes who have won
rich possessions in battle first submit them to their lords before their
lords give them something in return. It is as if the chiefs must be allowed
to analyze the circumstances before distributing wealth and creating
powerful individuals.3
But in no way should we lose confidence in the poems' connection to
the ritual. I bring the reader back to my earlier discussion of tradition and
history: we are simply seeing the poems function in the best possible
way-to impress the audience through suggestion, nuance, and broad
emotional appeal, not with mechanistic, text-book details. We should
not lose confidence in the poems even when confronted by the paradox in
Beowulf, where Beowulf exults at capturing the dragon hoard but
Wiglaf rushes to rebury it. Conflicts are inherent in life. Traditions give a
place of dishonor for greedy kings, but the larger workings of society
dictate that ritualized hoarding is sometimes a better answer to social
woes. It would be no wonder if the problem mystified them as much as it
mystifies us, and a good paradox occupies our modern "epic" media as it
may have done in traditional stories.
Conclusion
The ritual of treasure hoards and its linguistic component in oral
tradition played important roles in the reduction of conflict in ranke
society. The specificity of the poets' concern with the hoards is particu-
larly interesting because rich funeral depositions also occurred in the
Germanic era but seem to find treatment more in short descriptive
passages than in encompassing narrative patterns such as the dragon
hoard pattern. One wonders if the oral tradition was specific enough t
reflect a time when hoarding was at its peak and rich burials at a low
point. Earle, in speaking of stratification as a characteristic of chiefdoms,
writes, "With expanding economies and flexible social hierarchies in
northern Europe, active competition for advantage was manifest in large
offerings in burials; however, during periods of economic contraction
competition was less manifest and burials were not as differentiated in
wealth" (1987:291). For example, evidence suggests that Denmark of
300 A.D. was a period of economic contraction, a time when rituals of
118 Wade Tarzia
"communion" were stressed over those of lavish funerals (Randsborg

1980:45). Hoarding is a ritual of communion because during the ritual
the yielder of precious goods is made to appear more like an ordinary
member of the community. Conversely, rich burials proclaim status by
associating sumptuary goods with an individual and in turn with a
family; rich funeral deposits can mean that families are competing for
status by lavishing goods openly during funerals (Pearson 1984), not
trying to reduce evident status.
No, I am not claiming that the poems I have discussed were composed
in 300A.D., or even during the Migration period, the peak of the hoarding
ritual. But because of the conservatism in tradition, the poems possibly
preserve traditional patterns from a few hundred years past-patterns
that may have lost their original function in "rituals of communion" but
remained as good stories for the expression of tragedy and the heroic
code. The "hoard pattern" was (and still is, if modern readers apply its
lesson) a powerful, linguistic adaptive mechanism that could survive
some loss of function.
There are difficulties in correlation between a specific archaeological
period and the composition of an epic poem; few such hypotheses seem
testable. But I hope that I have shown that the narrative traditions
continue to yield important information for the folklorist and archaeol-
ogist, not simply a general reflection of the archaeological record that
tempts cut-and-dry solutions that say, for example, that the poems reson-
ate with Sutton Hoo. Moreover, the models of ritual that the narratives
preserve remind us of the poems' participation in ritual. The poetic
traditions deserve study as primary, active mechanisms that helped
communities to survive.
University of Massachusetts
Amherst
NOTES
Robert P. Creed encouraged this study at every step; I offer up this hoa
ideas with gratitude. I first considered the "inflationary" hypothesis of ho
discussions with H. Martin Wobst, but I accept full responsibility for my
opment of the inflationary hypothesis in this paper. My appreciation
Janet Levy, Catherine Hilton, and Genevieve Fisher for reading early dr
this paper.
1. See also the following works: Albert Bates Lord, The Singer of
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960), sets out the basis for
formulaic theory; John M. Foley, The Theory of Oral Composition (Bl
ton: Indiana University Press, 1988), surveys oral formulaic studies in
traditions; John Miles Foley, "The Oral Theory in Context" in Oral Tr
Literature: A Festschrift forA lbert Bates Lord, edited by John Miles Fole
(Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, 1981) and Alexandra Hennessey
"Oral-Formulaic Research in Old English Studies: I." Oral Tradition
1/3(1986):548-608, and "Oral-Formulaic Research in Old English Studies: II."
Oral Tradition 3/1-2(1988):138-90 are survey studies both for and against an oral
basis for Old English poetry; Joseph Harris, "Eddic Poetry as Oral Poetry: The
Evidence of Parallel Passages in the Helgi Poems for Questions of Composition
and Performance," in Edda: A Collection of Essays, edited by Robert J. Glendin-
ning and Haraldur Bessason, 210-42 (Manitoba: University of Manitoba Press,
1983); Paul B. Taylor, "The Structure of Volundarkvitha," Neophilologus 47
(1963):228-36; Lonnroth 1971; and Clover and Lindow 1985 (especially Harris's
article, 69-156), all treat the relationship of oral theory to Eddic poetry and sagas.
2. Like Andvari, the dwarf or ogre figure, and Regin and Fafnir, called "etins"
or of the race of giants, Grendel and his mother in Beowulf are ogres, of the race of
giants; their hoard, like Andvari's, is beneath the water. There are then two
patterns associated with hoards: the ogre/giant pattern and the pattern of the
dragon. Beowulf incorporates some form of both patterns, but in the ogre-type,
when he descends Grendel's mare, the hero acts properly, perhaps avoiding the
kind of retribution that Sigurth and his friends experience after the manipula-
tion of Andvari's original treasure.
The two possible kinds of hoards might also be seen in this way: ogres in
general own treasure and dragons in general find treasure. Ogres, as part of the
"otherworld," living across or beneath water, deal out punishment in the form of
a curse; the dragons are a part of the curse. Alas, for not having more traditional
tales to flesh out this speculation!
3. A tempting line of exploration is to consider in this way the weapon
sacrifices seen in the archaeological record and in accounts by classical writers
about both the Celts and the Germans. The profusion of booty following major
military victories would certainly redefine tribal status unless the victors closely
controlled the distribution (or lack of it) of precious booty.
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Tarzia HoardingRitualGermanic 1989

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The Hoarding Ritual in Germanic Epic Tradition

Author(s): Wade Tarzia

The Hoarding Ritual in Germanic Epic Tradition

Hoards of valuable objects appear in Europe's archaeological record

The functions of hoarding

Journal of Folklore Research, Vol. 26, No. 2, 1989

particular guidelines seem to have dictated the deposition of some

Besides reducing conflicts associated with the envy of conspicuous

Finally, inflation could affect the position of entire groups in relation

prestige goods were able to exchange the goods in return for t

Analogy with Iron Age hoards

The important points of these archaeological trends are as follows.

be visible objects that structure the very workings of social inter

begin with what can be best characterized as an apostrophe, perhaps even an

The Germanic narrative tradition

out the possible linguistic component of the ritual. I opera

The hoard in Beowulf

maintain the purpose of the ritual long after the burial. T

ponne waes paet yrfe eacencraeftig,

Then was that heritage huge,

Swa hit o6 d6mes daeg diope benemdon

So it [the hoard] until dooms day [they] deeply cursed,

The translation of the word "benemdon" as "cursed" has been called

Ne n6m he in paem wicum, Weder-Geata leod,

He did not take in those places, [the] Weather-Geat's lord,

A king's unrestrained desire for individual glory was a particular danger in

how the exchange of material things, as part of a general c

The hoard in the Sigurth saga

pat skal gull,

That gold shall, which Gust owned,

The treasure is given by the thieves-some of the Norse gods-to their

Rae6 ek per nu, Sigur6r,

I counsel you now, Sigurth, [if] you but take advice

Comparison of the traditions

Social manipulation. I end with a possibility that I think is

Archaeology and poetry: a marriage?

wealth into a bog to prevent his unworthy kin from getting it (

"communion" were stressed over those of lavish funerals (Randsborg

Amos, Ashley Crandell. 1980. Linguistic Means of Determining t

Jensen, Jorgen. 1982. The Prehistory of Denmark. London: Methuen.

Levy, Janet E. 1979. "Evidence of Social Stratification in Bronze Age Den

Rappaport, R. A. 1971. "Ritual, Sanctity, and Cybernetics." American Anthro-

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