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Lawrence, and many others before her, Oldham includes a “writer/artist”
character in her narrative representing herself. This character has outsider
status and artistic talents which enable him to give the audience solid and
extensive insight into character and motivation. Moreover, he can
comment on the world of Beowulf, on the nature of composition in
general, and more specifically on the history of the composition of the
Beowulf poem.
By presenting the poem from a new perspective, that of the boy
Hrethric and the Scop Angenga, she can, as Barthes says, “produce the
text, open it out, set it going” (904) in a new direction. Since, according
to Barthes, one cannot actually re-write a work, Oldham instead “pre
writes” Beowulf, going back to the story before it was the “work” as we
know it and examining its means of production. In other words, she
imagines herself into the world of Beowulf in the guise of someone who
not only takes an active part in the events recorded in the poem, but who
actually himself composes a version of the Beowulf poem which pre
dates the one we know.
Crafting an authorial persona for herself in the story
differentiates Oldham from the Beowulf poet, who takes no active part in
the events of the poem, and instead puts her more in line with authors
such as Chaucer, who project themselves into the stories. Richard Neuse
states:
We do credit a character like “Chaucer the pilgrim” with
at least potential depth, interiority, mystery, even before
the text has had much opportunity to establish its
identity or “voice.” (Neuse 9)
By putting himself in the story as a voice with all this potential, Chaucer
plays a visible role as a character directly involved in the observation and
re-telling of the events depicted in his poetry. By impersonating the
“voices” of different pilgrims, Chaucer “ultimately impersonates
himself’ (Neuse 10). Likewise, Oldham’s scop, embodies who she might
be if she were a participant in the Beowulf Text. And, like Chaucer,
Oldham shares similarities with her literary alter-ego: the scop makes
references to geography and history known to modem British
schoolchildren, though not known to the historic Geats of the Beowulf
poem.
Reading Oldham in conjunction with Barthes, I suggest this
scop’s interpretation of the story’s events form a pre-version of the
Beowulf work that we know today. And, through the scop character —
the only “writer” in the story — the author herself can take an active '@