| The stylistic feature known as variation has long been recognized to be a signal aspect of Old English poetics. Despite scholars' consensus on its importance, there exists substantial debate over both the definition for this critical term and the boundaries within which it may be said to exist in a text. This disagreement, in turn, has led to a general inability to predict with any assurance when a variation event is "happening," to recognize that there are qualitatively different species of variation events, to articulate a description of these species, to analyze interactions among the various types at moments in a text, and to discuss the interaction between the differential deployment of variation generally and of its various types and the narrative moments in which these events occur. There exists, then, a significant lack of understanding about one of the most important features of Old English verse, variation, a deficit not shared by the two other fundamental aspects of Old English poetry, alliteration and metrics.; The dissertation addresses each of the areas in which variation is not well-understood by considering substantive (nouns and stand-alone adjectives) variation in Beowulf. Such examination is predicated on a flexible definition of what constitutes variation, insisting on a verse paragraph-level rather than a sentence-level context. Additionally, the research touches on aspects of editorial practice, oral theory, and larger stylistic structures in Old English poetry. With variation thus contextualized, one may describe not only several patterns basic to variation events, but also variation events of the extended and the meditative types. In turn, interactions among these types of variation events and the interrelationship between narrative moment and variation are explored. The study concludes by offering a robust description of substantive variation in Beowulf, which both broadens and deepens the present understanding of the stylistics of this prominent poetic feature. |
