Beowulf
some points to discuss and consider
The main characters:
- Beowulf – a Geatish warrior arriving with his band of men to help fight of Grendel (in the second fragment he is a king of Geats).
- King Hrothgar – king of Danes who built a hall called Heorot, Grendel from his sleep.
- Grendel – a man-eating monster, wounded by Beowulf.
- Wiglaf – in the second fragment the only of Beowulf’s men who remains with him, after the death of Beowulf he predicts the fall of the Geatish kingdom.
1. The contexts:
a. Beowulf as a text which functions across several traditions: pagan (e.g.: a king’s body burned on a
ship) and Christian; Germanic (the text contains proofs of connections with other Germanic literature)
and early English; supernatural (monsters and the dragon) and yet presenting a moral teaching (what do you think it might be in the poem?).
b. A text exemplifying the beginnings of literature and national myths: from spoken narratives (orature) to written texts (literature); from possibly historical figures to mythicized past.
c. Beowulf as an epic poem, or as a heroic elegy? Does it present a sense of nostalgia for the past (it might have been written down in the 8th c., in the times of Viking raids and invasions)? Remember, however that the narrator of Beowulf constantly presents or alludes to approaching doom (the idea of instability and transitoriness – sic transit Gloria mundi – “that is how the glory of this world passes away”).
Look at the original opening of Beowulf below:
(translated by Seamus Heaney)
So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by
And the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness.
We have often heard of those princes’ heroic campaigns.
There was Shield Sheafson, scourge of many tribes,
A wrecker of mead-benches, rampaging among foes.
This terror of the hall-troops had come far.
A foundling to start with, he would flourish later on
As his powers waxed and his worth was proved.
In the end each clan on the outlying coasts
Beyond the whale-road had to yield to him
And begin to pay tribute. That was one good king.
Afterwards a boy-child was born to Shield,
A cub in yard, a comfort sent
By God to that nation. He knew what they had tholed
The long times and troubles they’d come through
Without a leader; so the Lord of Life,
The glorious Almighty, made this man renowned.
Shield had fathered a famous son:
Beow’s name was known through the north.
And a young prince must be prudent like that,
Giving freely while his father lives
So that afterwards in age when fighting starts
Steadfast companions will stand by him
And hold the line. Behaviour that’s admired
Is the path to power among people everywhere.
Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga,
þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas
ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,
5 monegum mægþum,
meodosetla ofteah,
egsode eorlas.
Syððan ærest wearð
feasceaft funden,
he þæs frofre gebad,
weox under wolcnum,
weorðmyndum þah,
oðþæt him æghwylc
þara ymbsittendra
10 ofer hronrade
hyran scolde,
gomban gyldan.
þæt wæs god cyning!
ðæm eafera wæs
æfter cenned,
geong in geardum,
þone god sende
folce to frofre;
fyrenðearfe ongeat
15 þe hie ær drugon aldorlease
lange hwile.
Him þæs liffrea,
wuldres wealdend,
woroldare forgeaf;
Beowulf wæs breme
(blæd wide sprang),
Scyldes eafera
Scedelandum in.
20 Swa sceal geong guma
gode gewyrcean,
fromum feohgiftum
on fæder bearme,
þæt hine on ylde
eft gewunigen
wilgesiþas,
þonne wig cume,
leode gelæsten;
lofdædum sceal
25 in mægþa gehwære
man geþeon.
2. The hero:
a. What adjectives might be used to describe Beowulf arriving to help King Hrothgar? Would such
adjectives be only positive?
b. How does Beowulf behave and do you think he has a choice to behave differently? Is there any moral ambivalence in the character of Beowulf?
c. What is Beowulf eager to achieve? What might be the aim of his exploits – both for himself and for
his people?
d. Beowulf as a heroic leader in the two fragments – how do his men behave when he is to confront
Grendel (1st fragment)? What does he ask them to do for him in his last speech, when he is dying,
having killed the dragon (2nd fragment)?
e. Beowulf as an archetypical western hero?
(cf two films in the making Beowulf and Grendel http://www.beowulf-movie.com/ and Beowulf
http://www.beowulfmovie.com/ )
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AViking sword found in the River Thames, England
Beowulf is a heroic poem, the highest achievement of Old English literature and the earliest European
vernacular epic. Preserved in a single manuscript (Cotton Vitellius A XV – the manuscript almost
burnt down in the great fire of Cottonian Librabry in 1731) from c. 1000, it deals with events of the
early 6th century and is believed to have been composed between 700 and 750. It did not appear in
print until 1815. Although originally untitled, it was later named after the Scandinavian hero Beowulf,
whose exploits and character provide its connecting theme. There is no evidence of a historical
Beowulf, but some characters, sites, and events in the poem can be historically verified.
The plot of the poem clearly dates back to the times when the ancestors of the Angles, Saxons and
Jutes still lived in mainland Europe, before arriving to Britain. The poem is set in contemporary
Denmark and later in southern Sweden.
_________________
The poem falls into two parts. It opens in Denmark, where King Hrothgar's splendid mead hall,
Heorot, has been ravaged for 12 years by nightly visits from an evil monster, Grendel, who carries off
Hrothgar's warriors and devours them. Unexpectedly, young Beowulf, a prince of the Geats of
southern Sweden, arrives with a small band of retainers and offers to cleanse Heorot of its monster.
The King is astonished at the little-known hero's daring but welcomes him, and after an evening of
feasting, much courtesy, and some discourtesy, the King retires, leaving Beowulf in charge [1st fragment begins here]. During the night Grendel comes from the moors, tears open the heavy doors,
and devours one of the sleeping Geats. He then grapples with Beowulf, whose powerful grip he cannot
escape. He wrenches himself free, tearing off his arm, and leaves, mortally wounded [1st fragment
finishes here].
The next day is one of rejoicing in Heorot. But at night as the warriors sleep, Grendel's mother comes
to avenge her son, killing one of Hrothgar's men. In the morning Beowulf seeks her out in her cave at
the bottom of a mere and kills her. He cuts the head from Grendel's corpse and returns to Heorot. The
Danes rejoice once more. Hrothgar makes a farewell speech about the character of the true hero, as
Beowulf, enriched with honours and princely gifts, returns home to King Hygelac of the Geats.
The second part passes rapidly over King Hygelac's subsequent death in a battle (of historical record),
the death of his son, and Beowulf's succession to the kingship and his peaceful rule of 50 years. But
now a fire-breathing dragon ravages his land and the doughty but aging Beowulf engages it. The fight
is long and terrible and a painful contrast to the battles of his youth. [2nd fragment begins here]
Painful, too, is the desertion of his retainers except for his young kinsman Wiglaf. Beowulf kills the
dragon but is mortally wounded [2nd fragment ends here]. The poem ends with his funeral rites and a
lament.
Beowulf belongs metrically, stylistically, and thematically to the inherited Germanic heroic tradition.
Many incidents, such as Beowulf's tearing off the monster's arm and his descent into the lake, are
familiar motifs from folklore. The ethical values are manifestly the Germanic code of loyalty to chief
and tribe and vengeance to enemies. Yet the poem is so infused with a Christian spirit that it lacks the
grim fatality of many of the Eddic lays or the Icelandic sagas. Beowulf himself seems more altruistic
than other Germanic heroes or the heroes of the Iliad. It is significant that his three battles are not
against men, which would entail the retaliation of the blood feud, but against evil monsters, enemies of
the whole community and of civilization itself. Many critics have seen the poem as a Christian
allegory, with Beowulf the champion of goodness and light against the forces of evil and darkness. His
sacrificial death is not seen as tragic but as the fitting end of a good (some would say “too good”)
hero's life.
That is not to say that Beowulf is an optimistic poem. The English critic J.R.R. Tolkien suggests that
its total effect is more like a long, lyrical elegy than an epic. Even the earlier, happier section in
Denmark is filled with ominous allusions that were well understood by contemporary audiences. Thus,
after Grendel's death, King Hrothgar speaks sanguinely of the future, which the audience knows will
end with the destruction of his line and the burning of Heorot. In the second part the movement is slow
and funereal; scenes from Beowulf's youth are replayed in a minor key as a counterpoint to his last
battle, and the mood becomes increasingly sombre as the wyrd (Old English for fate, compare “weird”
in Modern English) that comes to all men closes in on him. John Gardner's novel Grendel (1971) is a
retelling of the story from the point of view of the monster.
Adapted from Encyclopaedia Britannica
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An Old English heroic poem describing a historical skirmish between East Saxons and Viking (mainly
Norwegian) raiders in 991. It is incomplete, its beginning and ending both lost. The poem is
remarkable for its vivid, dramatic combat scenes and for its expression of the Germanic ethos of
loyalty to a leader. The poem, as it survives, opens with the war parties aligned on either side of a
stream (the present River Blackwater near Maldon, Essex). The Vikings offer the cynical suggestion
that the English may buy their peace with golden rings. The English commander Earl Byrhtnoth
replies that they will pay their tribute in spears and darts. When the Vikings cannot advance because of
their poor position, Byrhtnoth recklessly allows them safe conduct across the stream, and the battle
follows. In spite of Byrhtnoth's supreme feats of courage, he isfinally slain. In panic some of the
English warriors desert. The names of the deserters are carefully recorded in the poem along with the
names and genealogies of the loyal retainers whostand fast to avenge Byrhtnoth's death. The 325-line
fragment ends with the rallying speech of the old warrior Byrhtwold (here in modern English):
Mind must be firmer, heart the more fierce, / Courage the greater, as our strength / diminishes . . . .
Viking warriors in attack – carving on a stone slab, England
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