The extent of the Beowulf poet’s knowledge of pre-Christian Germanic mythology is a matter of considerable dispute. The present article reconsiders the claims of Ursula Dronke’s 1969 essay “Beowulf and Ragnarǫk” and corroborates her argument that the poet, instead of unwittingly transmitting pre-Christian mythological traditions, knew and deliberately utilized the myth of Ragnarǫk. Parallels between the background narrative of Beowulf and the myth preserved in eddic materials are detected; resemblances between Herebeald and Baldr, and between the father in the “Old Man’s Lament” and Frigg, are explored. By identifying an array of hitherto unrecognized connections, this article increases the likelihood that the Beowulf poet was well informed about Germanic mythological traditions similar to those preserved in later Old Norse sources.

贝奥武夫诗人对前基督教日耳曼神话的了解程度是一个颇有争议的问题。本文重新考虑了乌苏拉·德龙克 (Ursula Dronke) 1969 年文章《贝奥武甫与诸神黄昏》中的主张，并证实了她的论点，即诗人并非无意识地传播前基督教神话传统，而是了解并有意利用了诸神黄昏的神话。发现《贝奥武夫》的背景叙述与保存在埃迪材料中的神话之间的相似之处；赫里比尔德和巴尔德尔之间以及《老人的挽歌》中的父亲和弗丽嘉之间的相似之处都得到了探讨。通过识别一系列迄今为止尚未认识到的联系，本文增加了贝奥武夫诗人充分了解日耳曼神话传统的可能性，这些传统与后来古挪威语来源中保存的相似。