[Sca-cooks] [tmr-l at wmich.edu: TMR 05.01.31 Pollington, The Mead-Hall: Feasting in A-S England (Bruce)]

Thu Jan 20 15:49:30 PST 2005

I have this guy's work on Anglo-Saxon medical treatises, and its really 
pretty darn solid, though I disagree with him here and there (well, he's 
not a gardener, and that may be the source of my disagreements with one 
or two of his identifications.) This should be a very solid work!

Pollington, Stephen. The Mead-Hall: Feasting in Anglo-Saxon 
England. Norfolk, England: Anglo-Saxon Books, 2003. Pp. 283, 24 
illustrations by Lindsay Kerr, and bibliography. $27.00 (hb). ISBN 
1-898281-30-0.

   Reviewed by Alexander M. Bruce
        Florida Southern College
        abruce at flsouthern.edu

Heorot: gold-adorned, horn-gabled, greatest of mead-halls ?. Such is 
the image most readers have of that building so central to 
Beowulf. We recognize the hall as the place of social order and 
anti-social chaos, where Hrothgar dispenses gifts and Wealh<th>eow 
presents the cup, where Grendel deals death as he strives for the 
gift-throne before Beowulf violently ends his attacks. Heorot is the 
place of much of the poem's action--yet the building itself is often 
essentially forgotten by us and we pursue the plot and characters and 
allow the setting to move into the background. Thus for many of us 
Heorot, as well as other mead-halls in Germanic literature, remains 
fragmentary and, often, of secondary importance for our own 
understanding of the literature.

Stephen Pollington, in his The Mead-Hall: Feasting in Anglo-Saxon 
England, seeks to correct both of those responses. In his book, 
which balances the anthropological and archaeological, the literary and 
the linguistic, Pollington argues that an understanding of the reality 
of the mead-hall is absolutely essential for a full understanding of 
Beowulf, "The Wanderer," or any other Anglo-Saxon text that 
makes reference to the mead-hall, for after all "these halls served as 
the focal points of the communities" (17). Pollington also includes 
invaluable information about the construction of mead-halls and about 
the lives of those who lived within them, so that the book is as much a 
reference work as it is a theoretical argument. In fact, it is helpful 
to label the chapters by their dominant quality--either as "theory" or 
"reference" chapters.

Pollington begins his work with "Feasting and Society," a "theory" 
chapter that addresses the importance of the mead-hall to the 
Anglo-Saxon community--an importance we, removed by ten centuries or 
more from Anglo-Saxon society (or societies), might not always 
recognize. He lays out the Anglo-Saxons' "appreciation of the value and 
limitations of community for their own society" (20) and how that sense 
of community became equated with the mead-hall itself, so that the 
image of the hall and the notion of community became inextricably 
intertwined. Pollington then elaborates briefly on the social events 
held within the hall that only reinforced its role as the symbolic 
manifestation of community; it is the place for fellowship, both the 
informal gebeorscipe and the more structured, formal, and 
ritualistic symbel at which gifts were given, oaths and boasts 
made, and weddings and alliances confirmed.

Having outlined the cultural importance of the mead-hall for the 
Anglo-Saxons, Pollington then describes the actual construction and 
layout of those halls in chapter two, "The Hall?construction & 
furniture," the first of his "reference" chapters. Making any such 
description is of course problematic because "settlement remains are 
quite insubstantial and easily overlooked or destroyed," and "unless 
there happens to be a sizeable concentration of pottery or metalwork, 
dating any structures that are found can be problematic" (65). Using 
archaeological evidence reinforced by literary descriptions (from both 
Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse sources), he is able to make "reasonable 
inferences and cautious interpretations" about the form and shape of 
the typical Anglo-Saxon hall (68). The resulting picture seems to be 
not so different from what many of us may have assumed: the typical 
hall was rectangular, with an entrance on one narrow wall and a smaller 
private chamber off the far wall. On one side sat the young warriors, 
with a place for notable guests among them; opposite were the veteran 
warriors, with the lord and lady seated on a higher dais in their 
center. A long open hearth ran along the center of the hall. More 
remarkable than the layout of the hall are its construction techniques; 
Pollington, who has shared his love of words in his Anglo-Saxon/modern 
English dictionary-cum-thesaurus Wordcraft, takes some delight 
in sharing the vocabulary of construction as a means of illustrating 
the range and precision of building equipment and techniques. The 
vocabulary lesson continues as he discusses other particulars of the 
physical hall: the hearth, seating, chairs, stools, benches, tables, 
the floor, and, notably, the giefstol. In discussing the 
giefstol, Pollington offers ample literary evidence (much from 
Old Norse) to highlight the place and importance of this ritualistic 
seat. The chapter ends with a survey of excavated sites that offer 
illustrations of the development of Anglo-Saxon building styles from 
the fifth century to the eleventh.

Now that he has built the hall, Pollington considers the shifting 
perception of the mead-hall in "Ritual Space: The Hall in Ideology." 
Returning to the more abstract interpretation of the mead-hall begun 
chapter one, Pollington discusses how the mead-hall as an "ideal 
dwelling" brings together the community under the protection of a 
leader (99). The hall thus came to stand for the power of the leader 
and of his responsibility to the group. In an ideal situation, the hall 
stood as a symbol of social order, wherein warriors pledged loyalty to 
the leader, the leader shared with his retainers, and kinsmen expressed 
their unity with one another. Understanding these ideal expectations 
for the mead-hall society thereby helps us appreciate more fully the 
sad irony coursing through so much of Anglo-Saxon poetry, as clearly 
the ideal social order fails. Pollington then discusses the mead-hall 
as the physical and therefore literal center of the Anglo-Saxon 
community. In closing the chapter, he briefly explores how the image of 
the mead-hall was adopted by both pagan and Christian writers as a 
symbol of the afterlife and how the notion of the "joys of the hall" 
encapsulated all that was good and desirable for the Anglo-Saxon 
community.

The next two "reference" chapters function as brief encyclopediae, with 
entries covering a wide range of subjects pertinent to the chapters' 
topics. In most every entry, Pollington gives us a sense of the 
richness of the vocabulary associated with the aspects of life in the 
mead-hall. In the first of these two chapters, "Food and Feasting 
Equipment," Pollington takes us into such mundane, homely matters as 
how the Anglo-Saxons flavored their biscuits (with honey, resulting in 
something like modern shortbread) or what they kept their cooking oil 
in (an elef?t). For those who think just in terms of beer, mead, 
and ale, he notes that the Anglo-Saxons differentiated between "Welsh 
ale" (wylisc ealo<th>) and "clear ale" (hlutor ealo<th>) 
and also drank apple-wine (?ppelwin), the good stuff apparently 
being too expensive for the typical Anglo-Saxon. In terms of "feasting 
equipment," Pollington focuses on the evidence of what items were made 
of wood, metal, glass, horn, bone, etc. The chapter also includes 
fascinating discussion of various archaeological finds, with attention 
given to the drinking bowls and "clawbeaker" goblets and to the cooking 
cauldrons and hanging bowls found at Sutton Hoo and other sites. 
Finally, the chapter offers some description of Anglo-Saxon clothing; 
though arguably a departure from the topic of the chapter, the 
information is most useful for completing the detailed picture of life 
within the mead-hall.

The chapter "Positions of Power" likewise catalogues the various 
individuals one would find in the mead-hall. There are those who held 
special position, such as the lord, the lady, thescop, and the 
<th>yle (and while Pollington does not attempt a definitive 
statement about the position of Unfer<th>, the most famous 
<th>yle, he does give an efficient summary of the flyting 
tradition that Unfer<th> seems to be engaging in). Then there are those 
who served, such as the mete<th>egn ("food-thane"), 
disc<th>egn ("dish-thane"), and duru<th>egn 
("door-thane"). As elsewhere, Pollington shares the multitude of 
various terms associated with the specific office. "Positions of Power" 
is the most accessible of his "reference" chapters and will prove 
invaluable to any reader, undergraduate to professor, who wants a quick 
job description of the various occupants of the mead-hall.

Pollington returns to the social aspect of the mead-hall, specifically 
the activities that comprise the rest of life within the mead-hall, in 
his final chapter, "Entertainment." He provides commentary about four 
types of diversion: storytelling, music, riddles, and board games. His 
discussion of storytelling must perforce be brief, and he only 
highlights the general types of tales and poems told within the 
mead-hall. Music is likewise treated rather quickly, though he has 
detailed descriptions of Anglo-Saxon harps and lyres. (Such 
descriptions are a strength of the book; Pollington is most engaging 
when he focuses on specific sources, whether objects, images, or 
texts.) Riddles and board games receive longer consideration, and his 
summary of Craig Williamson's system for classifying the riddles is 
useful for its brevity alone. [[1]]

In terms of ancillary material, Pollington has included three 
appendices, as well as twenty-four line drawings by Lindsay Kerr. All 
of this supporting material reflects Pollington's emphasis on primary 
sources.?The black-and-white drawings by Kerr serve as effective 
support for Pollington's comments about the artifacts. (The 
black-and-white images yield two benefits: they are sharper than many 
color images as there are no problems with light and shadow, and they 
make for a less expensive book.) The first two appendices work 
hand-in-hand: the first, "Hall- and Feasting-Themes in Old English 
Verse," offers a brief catalogue of the relevant poems; the second, 
"Some Old English Sources," provides both the original text and 
translation of some of the key works that Pollington has cited 
throughout his book. (The translations are his own and uncontroversial; 
for example, according to Pollington Beowulf still had a swimming 
competition with Breca.) These sources are primarily poetic, coming 
mostly from elegiac and heroic poems, though he also provides the whole 
story of C?dmon from the Old English version of Bede's Historia 
Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum. The third appendix is an outline of 
"The Structure and Origins of the Warband," a helpful essay that turns 
to Tacitus and to philological analyses of proto-Germanic as it offers 
insight into the continental, pre-Anglo-Saxon development of that 
social relationship we most often associate with the mead-hall. 
Finally, the seven-page bibliography is very wide-ranging in terms of 
years (early nineteenth century editions up to critical studies 
published in 2002) and subject, reflecting the range of literary, 
archaeological, and anthropological perspectives Pollington offers in 
his work.

Without question, the strongest aspect of Pollington's work is his 
dedication to primary sources. He quotes the poetry copiously, giving 
multiple examples to support his claims (at least when multiple 
examples exist); he likewise meticulously refers to the physical 
artifacts (often with accompanying illustrations) so that the reader 
can perceive how he shapes his arguments and reaches his conclusions. 
He does not so much talk about the examples as let the examples speak 
for themselves, although it seems fair to say that he is more a student 
of the word than of the object. The "reference" chapters (and 
appendices) of The Mead-Hall: Feasting in Anglo-Saxon England 
make it of immediate value to students and scholars of all levels. 
Those portions provide quick, direct answers to those sorts of 
practical questions many ask when reading Beowulf or other 
heroic works: what did the mead-hall look like? How big might it have 
been? Other than the named characters like Hrothgar and Wealh<th>eow, 
who else was in the mead-hall? What were they eating at the feast when 
Wealh<th>eow passed round the drinking cup? What did that cup look 
like? And what was in it? Pollington's "theory" chapters on the 
cultural and symbolic significance of the mead-hall will appeal more to 
advanced students of the literary and archaeological sources, and in 
those chapters he has made a successful case for arguing that without 
an appreciation of the place of the mead-hall in Anglo-Saxon society, 
we are less prepared to make sense of the literary and archaeological 
sources. Thanks to Pollington's efforts, we need never see the 
mead-hall in fragments or shadows again; nor will we be able to 
consider it as having a secondary role, for Pollington has showed us 
that the mead-hall towers at the center of the culture, that "the 
window of the hall is a window into early English society" (17).

NOTES:

[[1]] Craig Williamson, A Feast of Creatures--Anglo-Saxon Riddle 
Songs (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982).

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