Pride as a choice : ofermod and the concept of pride in old English poetry

Abstract

This study argues that pride in Old English literature can bear a subtle range of theologically informed meanings: whilst pride may denote the puffed-up mental state of arrogance or self-sufficiency, it can also denote another homiletic notion commonly known as pride as the beginning of sin. Through the examination of Old English homilies and a number of Old English biblical narrative poems (Genesis B, Christ and Satan, Daniel), this study maintains that pride as the beginning of sin is intimately related to the concept of free will. As free will is understood in early English writings, mankind is given a life-long fundamental freedom to choose whether to embrace God’s enlightenment or accept the devil’s instigations to do wrong. When the individual, despite having been enlightened, opts to heed the devil’s instigations, his or her personal volitional choice is said to be pride. As this understanding of pride in terms of the defective operation of human free will is applied to The Battle of Maldon, an Old English heroic poem narrating the confrontation between the English and the Vikings in 991, some of the interpretative knots in respect of its deployment of ofermod (?pride) seem to be loosened. In the poem, the English general Byrhtnoth is portrayed as brave, sagacious, and even pious. Yet at one narrative moment, Byrhtnoth heeds the enemy’s incitement and deliberately allows them to marshal in an open field; this ill-fated decision is the result of – according to the poet – his ofermod. By interpreting ofermod here as pride as the beginning of sin according to contemporary homiletic understandings, the apparent contradictions observed in an individual being laudable and pious on one hand and yet demonstrating (momentary) pride on the other hand appear resolved: both qualities can co-exist within the same character. At a broader level, my study demonstrates another way in which early English religious writings are relevant to the interpretation of vernacular poetry: the genres of Old English homily and Old English poetry can interact even at the level of dramatic events and psychologies. This in turn fosters a new way of reading pride in early English literature. By situating the representations of pride in poetry within a broader literary framework that includes the homiletic mode, it becomes possible to fruitfully elucidate the artistic nuance of this complicated yet important mental occurrence.