Bees, Barley, Bēowulf and Beyla

A primary aim of this study is its attempt to uncover a prehistoric layer of cereal grain (barley) mythology and ritual that may have backgrounded the Beowulf-poem. Toward this end, the poem and the mythological figures of Byggvir, Beyla, Scef 'sheaf' and Scyld 'shield' are interpreted in terms of a conceivable ritual context. Moreover, cereal deities, their ritualized veneration and the possible associations between them are referenced to the scourge of ergotism that once threatened much of Europe. The scope of Beowulf as not only an heroic epic but as also a cultural repository is thereby am... Mehr ...