奇幻與歷史交會時隱藏的創傷－重探《貝武夫》屠龍詩篇

A Traumatic Reading of ＂Beowulf＂-The Entangled Narratives of the Fabulous Dragon and the Historical Geatish-Swedish Wars

劉雅詩(Sophia Ya-Shih Liu)

《英美文學評論》 24期 (2014/06) Pp. 103-127

https://doi.org/10.6711/REAL.201406_(24).0005

摘要

古英文長詩《貝武夫》（＂Beowulf＂）主要敘述三段奇幻故事：年輕的貝武夫消滅格蘭德爾（Grendel）、貝武夫與格蘭德爾之母相戰、及年老的貝武夫與噴火龍之戰。在這三段英雄式的奇幻故事中，穿插了許多歷史逸軌片段（historical digressions）。這些歷史片段一再出現於奇幻詩篇間，時而提供歷史背景，時而呼應隱晦的主題，甚至影響奇幻敘事的情節進展。本文的關注在於最後一段的屠龍詩篇，探討此處的歷史逸軌敘事。詩人此處的敘事方式頗為特別，一邊主述貝武夫的屠龍行動，一邊回顧吉特人與瑞典人之間的夙怨歷史。詩篇藉由回顧歷史重建了兩族間的歷史糾葛，並在歷史敘事中描繪出一個不同於奇幻敘事中英雄式貝武夫的歷史貝武夫。本文指出就此詩的結構與意義而盲，奇幻文學式的屠龍行動與歷史敘述式的兩族夙怨關係密不可分。由於詩人的基督教背景，故事中關於復仇殺戮的吉特與瑞典兩部族間的歷史夙怨無法正面言敘，在歷史詩篇辜被壓抑而潛藏的復仇黑暗面，便在詩人的敘述中以火龍形式重返，以奇幻的方式重現了「壓抑之復返」，最終貝武夫只能與火龍相門而雙亡，留下吉特人民面對滅族的危機。

關鍵字

《貝武夫》 ； 奇幻屠龍 ； 歷史逸軌 ； 吉特人與瑞典人的夙怨 ； 壓抑之復返

並列摘要

The Old English poem ＂Beowulf＂ mainly narrates three fantastic stories: how Beowulf kills Grendel, fights against Grendel's mother, and beats a firedrake after he rules the Geats for fifty years. Among all these three fabulous stories, many historical digressions appear. Sometimes they provide extra historical information; sometimes they allude to certain motives; and sometimes they even interrupt the progress of the fabulous narratives. This study, focusing on the final dragon-fight, explores how critics interpret the historical digressions of the narrative of the Geatish-Swedish feud, which keeps interrupting Beowulf's dragon-fight. The poet's narrative strategy here is peculiar: while he mainly narrates how Beowulf fights against the dragon, he reestablishes the historical feud between the Geats and the Swedes. Through this process, the poem reveals a historical Beowulf, different from the heroic Beowulf in the fantastic narrative. This study argues that the part of the fabulous dragon-fight and the part of historical Geatish-Swedish feud are closely related, both in the sense of narrative structure and its poetic meaning. Because of the poet's Christian background, the brutal elements of revenge in the Geatish-Swedish feud are suppressed: the poet mentions the battles between these two peoples implicitly, while the details of these wars are narrated by the mouths of the characters in the poem. These suppressed dark elements appear in the text, as the return of the repressed, with its fantastic form of the firedrake. Finally, Beowulf has no choice but to fight the dragon and encounter his own death, leaving the Geats to face the danger of being eliminated.

並列關鍵字

＂Beowulf＂ ； fabulous dragon-fight ； historical digressions ； the Geatish-Swedish feud ； the return of the repressed

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