Saving the "undoomed man" in beowulf (572B-573)

The maxim Wyrd oft nere // unfægne eorl, / onne his ellen deah "Fate often spares an undoomed man when his courage avails" (Beowulf 572b-573) has been likened to "Fortune favors the brave," with little attention to the word unfægne, which is often translated "undoomed". This comparison between proverbs emphasizes personal agency and suggests a contrast between the proverb in 572b-573 and the maxim G3 a wyrd swa hio scel "Goes always fate as it must" (Beowulf 455b), which depicts an inexorable wyrd. This paper presents the history of this view and argues that linguistic analysis and further attention to Germanic cognates of (un)f3ge reveal a proverb that harmonizes with 455b. (Un)fæge and its cognates have meanings related to being brave or cowardly, blessed or accursed, and doomed or undoomed. A similar Old Norse proverb also speaks to the significance of the status of unfæge men. Furthermore, the pronominal position of unfægne is argued to represent a characterizing property of the man. The word unfægne is essential to the meaning of this proverb as it indicates not the simple absence of being doomed but the presence of a more complex quality. This interpretive point is significant in that it provides more information about the portrayal of wyrd in Beowulf by clarifying a well-known proverb in the text; it also has implications for future translations of these verses.