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other characters within the narrative, describing events that he has
witnessed in the past. Because of this, we can suppose that he will shape
the events of The Raven Waits into a poem similar to these tales and will
tell it to others back in Anglia. Presumably, another poet might hear it
and embellish or re-interpret the tale himself before passing it on to
others. This all suggests that the Beowulf poem that we know will be
composed after the story told in the novel, by the very scop in whom
Oldham personifies herself and in this way, she depicts herself as an
early, though not the last, author of the poem B eow ulff This suggests
support for the theory of multiple singer-composers rather than that of
the single-composer,''' and reinforces Barthes assertion that a Text is a
plurality of voices, rather than a unified statement.'^
Beowulf scholar Scott DeGregorio, in discussing the use of irony
in the poem, describes the narrative of Beowulf as “dynamic and plural,”
qualities that allow Oldham room to write her voice into the Text. He
notes Elizabeth Liggins’ argument that the “duality of perspective”
contributes to “the structure of the poem” (DeGregorio 314). Oldham’s
(new) perspective, posed as the first perspective on the events,
contributes in a fundamental way to the structure, as she imaginatively
re-creates the origins of the composition of Beowulf s story. If we define
irony as Daniel O’Hara does as “the power to entertain widely divergent
possible interpretations to provoke the reader into seeing that there is a
radical uncertainty surrounding the process by which meanings get
determined in texts and interpreted by readers,”’^ then we can understand
why non-scholar Oldham feels empowered to participate in a re-reading
and re-interpretation of Beowulf, through the persona of an often ironic
narrator. Oldham sees herself simultaneously as a reader and interpreter
of the Text, as well as the writer of a version of the text (with a small t).
At the end of The Raven Waits, she offers the following “Author’s
Note”;
As will be clear to readers familiar with the poem
Beowulf this novel is not a translation. Sections
unrelated to the plot have been omitted and several
additions made, notably the exile Angenga as a witness
and subsequent recorder. Hrethric is given a central
place and Unferth a less admirable one. Hints in the
poem of Hrothulf s ambitions, which are supported by
the historical probability of his final seizure of the
throne, have been developed within the events of my
narrative. (Oldham 170, “Author’s Note,” emphasis
mine)