The Shield and the Cross

As shown in the prophetic visions of the Olympian§smiths, who recorded these the arms and armor donned§by epic heroes, or by the weapons of warfare used by§the heroes of post-imperial Germanic epic, metals§constitute the essential imagistic substance of epic.§ Drawn from subterranean recesses which shed light on§the economic realities of the epic poet s world, the§conjoined motifs of metals and the underworld§constitute one important element in the line§connecting Homer and Beowulf. The shield serves as§the most dominant illustration of the symbolic§preeminence of metals within a Classical ethos, as§defined first in the tribalism of Homer and later the§proto-Christian imperialist leanings of Virgil. As§the Classical world view gives way to a§Christianized, pre-Chivalric world view in§post-imperial Western Europe, the sword prefiguring§the Christian cross replaces the shield as the most§telling illustration of the importance of metals and§metalworking in epic literature, as shown§particularly in Beowulf. This study represents an§effort to understand the economic and social§dimensions that are implied in the progress of this§imaginative transformation.