THE NEWYORKER, SEPTEMBER 21, 2020 3
by God. Like his ancestor, then, Gren-
del is removed from happiness; to know
that the scop in Heorot, the magnifi-
cent hall, is singing of God’s creation
further angers him. Thus he subjects
the Danes to long nights of terror, and
thus Beowulf begins the first of his
heroic quests.
Patricia Wemstrom
Mount Carroll, Ill.Franklin applauds Headley’s thesis
about the Old English word “brimwyl,”
which appears in the “Beowulf ” man-
uscript to describe Grendel’s mother.
It is usually taken to be a scribal error
for “brimwylf,” “sea-wolf,” but Headley
believes that it could read “brimwif,”
“sea-woman.” This argument, which
feminizes Grendel’s mother, ignores
the fact that she is given the epithet
“brimwylf ” elsewhere in the poem; con-
sidering that Old English poetry often
repeats such formulaic phrases, it is
reasonable to conclude that “brimwylf ”
was intended throughout. Furthermore,
the definite article “sēo,” which just
precedes the misspelled word, is fem-
inine, which means that it can modify
“brimwylf ” but not “brimwif ”; the word
“wif,” despite meaning “woman,” is
grammatically neuter, and the neuter
form of the definite article looks noth-
ing like “sēo.” But the emendation to
“sea-wolf ” takes away nothing from
Grendel’s mother’s femininity—she is
a female sea wolf, after all, as evidenced
in the use of “wylf,” the feminine form
of “wulf.” Human and inhuman de-
scriptors for both mother and son are
integral to the poet’s conception of
these characters, who exist unhappily
on the outer edge of human society.
Randi Claire Eldevik
Professor Emerita, Old English
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, Okla.BEASTS OF NUNIVAK ISLAND
I read with interest Jon Lee Anderson’s
account of his visit to Nunivak, in the
Bering Sea, in search of musk-ox wool
(“Wanderlust,” August 17th). Anderson
cites as inspiration the late Peter Mat-
thiessen’s participation in a 1964 expe-
dition to Nunivak. That journey was
led by John J. Teal, Jr., an American an-
thropologist and visionary, who, in a
1958 Profile in The New Yorker, was de-
scribed as enjoying “the unique and
quite profitless distinction of being the
only musk-ox herdsman in the world.”
Earlier that decade, Teal had embarked
on a mission to capture and domesti-
cate the beast. With support from the
W. K. Kellogg Foundation, he started
Alaska’s first domestic-musk-ox farm,
in Fairbanks. He envisaged an Arctic
domestic industry built around the an-
imal’s underwool, known as qiviut, which
is often used in hand-knitted products.
He hoped that this environmentally
sustainable undertaking might provide
income to native Arctic residents in a
way that would align with their tradi-
tional culture and economy. In the course
of three expeditions to Nunivak, in 1964
and 1965, Teal captured thirty-three
musk-ox calves, which were taken to be
raised on the farm in Fairbanks. I be-
came involved with the project in 1968,
and am now at work on a book-length
history about it. Teal died in 1982, but
his musk-ox-domestication project and
the hand-knitting industry he began
continue to this day.
Paul F. Wilkinson
Saint-Paul-d ’Abbotsford, Quebec
1
A MODERN “BEOWULF”
Ruth Franklin’s review of Maria Dahvana
Headley’s new translation of “Beowulf ”
asks why the monster Grendel terror-
izes the Danes after hearing their feast-
ing and singing (Books, August 31st).
“The original text,” she writes, “doesn’t
give a reason” for Grendel’s fury. But,
as Franklin mentions elsewhere in the
article, the poem says that Grendel is
a descendant of Cain, who was exiled
•
Letters should be sent with the writer’s name,
address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to
[email protected]. Letters may be edited
for length and clarity, and may be published in
any medium. We regret that owing to the volume
of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter.THE MAIL
“A Rosetta Stonefor stuff about thispresidency thatdoesn’t otherwisemake sense tonormal humans.”AVAILABLE IN HARDCOVER,
EBOOK, AND AUDIOBOOK
“A thorough and damning exploration of
the incestuous relationtship between
Trump and his favorite channel.”“Stelter’s critique goes
beyond salacious tidbits about
extramarital affairs to expose
a collusion that threatens the
pillars of our democracy.”