Abstract
AbstractThe respective heroes ofBeowulfand theNibelungenlied, Beowulf and Siegfried, display contrasting attitudes towards the treasures ubiquitous in the two poems. A comparative analysis of these behaviours has not been attempted yet. Using a Maussian model of gift exchange, this article argues that their distinctive behaviours are closely linked with the dissimilar outcomes of each narrative. Furthermore, there is a successful resolution of the story inBeowulf, whose hero is transformed into an ancestor through the exchange of gifts, whereas Siegfried becomes a ghost, something unfinished that haunts the second part of the narrative in theNibelungenlied. Contributing to current debates in material culture studies, the article shows that, just like there is fluidity between hoards, gifts, and loot, so are the boundaries between human and nonhuman and between the living and the dead fluid in both poems.
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
Literature and Literary Theory,Linguistics and Language
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