Professor Borges - A Course on English Literature

the writer’s worldview. 7 Borges—for whom history sometimes represented yet another branch of fantastic literature—was less worried about the reality of historical facts than the literary pleasure or emotion evoked by every scene and story. In keeping with this, after explaining the context that led up to the battle of Stamford Bridge, our professor laments:
“So, we have King Harold and his brother, Earl Toste orTostig, depending on the text. Now, the earl believed that he had a right to part of the kingdom, that the king should divide England between them. King Harold did not agree, so Tostig left England and allied himself with the king of Norway, who was named Harald Hardrada, Harald the Resolute, the Hard . . . Pity he has almost the same name asHarold, but history cannot be changed.”
    Borges would like to go as far as change the names of the protagonists in order to improve the literary quality of this episode!
    In conclusion: It doesn’t matter if in reality there was a Viking who sacked a city, believing it was Rome; it doesn’t matter if King Olaf Haraldsson really possessed extraordinary agility; it doesn’t matter if the minstrel Taillefer really entered into the Battle ofHastings doing acrobatics with his sword. Beyond their veracity, these scenes have value because of how they contribute to the creation of an atmosphere.
    Given over to the literary enjoyment produced by these words, exalting in the bravery and the iron syllables of the language, Borges plays in these classes with etymologies, weaving into his analysis Anglo-Saxon words and verses; he recites them, explains and analyzes them, and attempts—above all—to awaken in his students the same pleasure that he derives from this language and this literature.
    In other words, Borges feels that his vocation is to share this ancient gold. In the last lines of the famous epic, the Geats claim that Beowulf was the mildest of kings, kind to his kin and eager for praise. We know that Borges was at once mild and gentle; we know for a fact that he had no interest in fame. We can be certain that he would have been delighted, however, to receive the royal title of which this course makes him a worthy recipient:
beahgifa
, “giver of rings,” “distributor of treasures,” “sharer of wealth,” the expression the Anglo-Saxons used to extoll the generosity of monarchs when they passed out gold to their men.
    — MARTÍN HADIS

ENDNOTES

    CLASS 1

1. Borges is referring here to the first edition of
Literaturas germánicas medievales
[
Medieval Germanic Literature
] (Buenos Aires: Falbo Librero Editor, 1965). Co-authored with María Esther Vázquez, it is a revised version of a book titled
Antiguas literaturas germánicas
[
Ancient Germanic Literature
], originally co-authored with Delia Ingenieros and published in the Breviarios collection of Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico, 1951. The book was also published by Emecé Editores, Buenos Aires, in 1978 and 1996.
2. Throughout these classes, Borges uses both “Hengest” and “Hengist” to refer to this legendary character. In order to facilitate matters, we will use “Hengest” throughout.
3. The two anthologies of mythology and legend of ancient Icelandic literature are called
Eddas
. The
Prose Edda
, or
Younger Edda
, was written around the year 1200 by the Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson. It is a manual of Skaldic poetry. The first part, titled
Gylfaginning
, “The Tricking of Gylfi,” was translated by Borges into Spanish as
La alucinación de Gylfi
(Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1984). The second, titled
Skáldskaparmal
, or “The Language of Skaldic Poetry,” deals extensively with kennings. The third, titled
Háttatal
or “List of Verse Forms,” exemplifies the metric forms Snorri Sturluson knew. The
Poetic Edda
, or
Elder Edda
, written anonymously, is a collection of heroic and mythological poems; though produced in the second half of the eighteenth century, the poems are much older. They were probably composed between the eighth and the eleventh centuries. The compilations done by Snorri Sturluson and the anonymous author of the
Poetic Edda
were responsible, to a large extent, for the preservation of Old Norse mythology, legends, and forms of poetic composition. In most other Germanic nations, this material has either completely disappeared or remained in an extremely fragmentary form. Borges laments more than once “the treatise on Saxon mythology that Bede did not