Beowulf
More definite are Biblical
Beowulf (/ˈbeɪəwʊlf/; Old English: Bēowulf
[ˈbeːowuɫf]) is an Old English epic poem in the
tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting
of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most
important and most often translated works of
Old English literature. The date of composition
is a matter of contention among scholars; the
only certain dating is for the manuscript, which
was produced between 975 and 1025. Scholars
call the anonymous author the "Beowulf poet".
The story is set in pagan Scandinavia in the 6th
century. Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to
the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes,
whose mead hall in Heorot has been under
attack by the monster Grendel. After Beowulf
slays him, Grendel's mother attacks the hall and
is then defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home
to Geatland and becomes king of the Geats. Fifty
years later, Beowulf defeats a dragon, but is
mortally wounded in the battle. After his death,
his attendants cremate his body and erect a
tower on a headland in his memory.
Scholars have debated whether Beowulf was
transmitted orally, affecting its interpretation: if
it was composed early, in pagan times, then the
paganism is central and the Christian elements
were added later, whereas if it was composed
later, in writing, by a Christian, then the pagan
elements could be decorative archaising; some
scholars also hold an intermediate position.
Beowulf is written mostly in the Late West
Saxon dialect of Old English, but many other
dialectal forms are present, suggesting that the
poem may have had a long and complex
transmission throughout the dialect areas of
England.
There has long been research into similarities
with other traditions and accounts, including the
Icelandic Grettis saga, the Norse story of Hrolf
Kraki and his bear-shapeshifting servant Bodvar
Bjarki, the international folktale the Bear's Son
Tale, and the Irish folktale of the Hand and the
Child. Persistent attempts have been made to
link Beowulf to tales from Homer's Odyssey or
Virgil's Aeneid.
parallels, with clear allusions to the books of
Genesis, Exodus, and Daniel.
The poem survives in a single copy in the
manuscript known as the Nowell Codex. It has
no title in the original manuscript, but has
become known by the name of the story's
protagonist. In 1731, the manuscript was
damaged by a fire that swept through
Ashburnham House in London, which was
housing Sir Robert Cotton's collection of
medieval manuscripts. It survived, but the
margins were charred, and some readings were
lost. The Nowell Codex is housed in the British
Library. The poem was first transcribed in 1786;
some verses were first translated into modern
English in 1805, and nine complete translations
were made in the 19th century, including those
by John Mitchell Kemble and William Morris.
After 1900, hundreds of translations, whether
into prose, rhyming verse, or alliterative verse
were made, some relatively faithful, some
archaising, some attempting to domesticate the
work. Among the best-known modern
translations are those of Edwin Morgan, Burton
Raffel, Michael J. Alexander, Roy Liuzza, and
Seamus Heaney. The difficulty of translating
Beowulf has been explored by scholars
including J. R. R. Tolkien (in his essay "On
Translating Beowulf"), who worked on a verse
and a prose translation of his own.
Summary
The protagonist Beowulf, a hero of the Geats,
comes to the aid of Hrothgar, king of the Danes,
whose great hall, Heorot, is plagued by the
monster Grendel. Beowulf kills Grendel with his
bare hands, then kills Grendel's mother with a
giant's sword that he found in her lair.
Later in his life, Beowulf becomes king of the
Geats, and finds his realm terrorized by a
dragon, some of whose treasure had been stolen
from his hoard in a burial mound. He attacks the
dragon with the help of his thegns or servants,
but they do not succeed. Beowulf decides to people, helpless against Grendel, abandon
follow the dragon to its lair at Earnanæs, but Heorot.
only his young Swedish relative Wiglaf, whose
Beowulf, a young warrior from Geatland, hears
name means "remnant of valour", dares to join
of Hrothgar's troubles and with his king's
him. Beowulf finally slays the dragon, but is
permission leaves his homeland to assist
mortally wounded in the struggle. He is
Hrothgar.
cremated and a burial mound by the sea is
erected in his honour. Beowulf and his men spend the night in Heorot.
Beowulf refuses to use any weapon because he
Beowulf is considered an epic poem in that the
holds himself to be Grendel's equal. When
main character is a hero who travels great
Grendel enters the hall, Beowulf, who has been
distances to prove his strength at impossible
feigning sleep, leaps up to clench Grendel's
odds against supernatural demons and beasts.
hand. Grendel and Beowulf battle each other
The poem begins in medias res or simply, "in the
violently. Beowulf's retainers draw their swords
middle of things", a characteristic of the epics of
and rush to his aid, but their blades cannot pierce
antiquity. Although the poem begins with
Grendel's skin. Finally, Beowulf tears Grendel's
Beowulf's arrival, Grendel's attacks have been
arm from his body at the shoulder and Grendel
ongoing. An elaborate history of characters and
runs to his home in the marshes where he dies.
their lineages is spoken of, as well as their
Beowulf displays "the whole of Grendel's
interactions with each other, debts owed and
shoulder and arm, his awesome grasp" for all to
repaid, and deeds of valour. The warriors form a
see at Heorot. This display would fuel Grendel's
brotherhood linked by loyalty to their lord. The
mother's anger in revenge.
poem begins and ends with funerals: at the
beginning of the poem for Scyld Scefing and at
the end for Beowulf.
Second battle: Grendel's mother
The poem is tightly structured. E. Carrigan
shows the symmetry of its design in a model of Further information: Grendel's mother
its major components, with for instance the The next night, after celebrating Grendel's
account of the killing of Grendel matching that defeat, Hrothgar and his men sleep in Heorot.
of the killing of the dragon, the glory of the Grendel's mother, angry that her son has been
Danes matching the accounts of the Danish and killed, sets out to get revenge. "Beowulf was
Geatish courts. elsewhere. Earlier, after the award of treasure,
The Geat had been given another lodging"; his
assistance would be absent in this battle.
First battle: Grendel Grendel's mother violently kills Æschere, who is
Hrothgar's most loyal fighter, and escapes.
Further information: Grendel
Hrothgar, Beowulf, and their men track
Beowulf begins with the story of Hrothgar, who
Grendel's mother to her lair under a lake.
constructed the great hall, Heorot, for himself
Unferð, a warrior who had earlier challenged
and his warriors. In it, he, his wife Wealhtheow,
him, presents Beowulf with his sword Hrunting.
and his warriors spend their time singing and
After stipulating a number of conditions to
celebrating. Grendel, a troll-like monster said to
Hrothgar in case of his death (including the
be descended from the biblical Cain, is pained
taking in of his kinsmen and the inheritance by
by the sounds of joy. Grendel attacks the hall
Unferth of Beowulf's estate), Beowulf jumps
and kills and devours many of Hrothgar's
into the lake, and while harassed by water
warriors while they sleep. Hrothgar and his
monsters gets to the bottom, where he finds a
cavern. Grendel's mother pulls him in, and she
and Beowulf engage in fierce combat.
At first, Grendel's mother prevails, and Hrunting
proves incapable of hurting her; she throws
Beowulf to the ground and, sitting astride him,
tries to kill him with a short sword, but Beowulf
is saved by his armour. Beowulf spots another
sword, hanging on the wall and apparently made
for giants, and cuts her head off with it.
Travelling further into Grendel's mother's lair,
Beowulf discovers Grendel's corpse and severs
his head with the sword. Its blade melts because
of the monster's "hot blood", leaving only the
hilt. Beowulf swims back up to the edge of the
lake where his men wait. Carrying the hilt of the
sword and Grendel's head, he presents them to
Hrothgar upon his return to Heorot. Hrothgar
gives Beowulf many gifts, including the sword
Nægling, his family's heirloom. The events
prompt a long reflection by the king, sometimes
referred to as "Hrothgar's sermon", in which he
urges Beowulf to be wary of pride and to reward
his thegns.
Final battle: The dragon
Main article: The dragon (Beowulf)
Wiglaf is the single warrior to return and witness
Beowulf's death. Illustration by J. R. Skelton,
1908
Beowulf returns home and eventually becomes
king of his own people. One day, fifty years
after Beowulf's battle with Grendel's mother, a
slave steals a golden cup from the lair of a
dragon at Earnanæs. When the dragon sees that
the cup has been stolen, it leaves its cave in a
rage, burning everything in sight. Beowulf and
his warriors come to fight the dragon, but
Beowulf tells his men that he will fight the
dragon alone and that they should wait on the
barrow. Beowulf descends to do battle with the
dragon, but finds himself outmatched. His men,
upon seeing this and fearing for their lives,
retreat into the woods. One of his men, Wiglaf,
however, in great distress at Beowulf's plight,
comes to his aid. The two slay the dragon, but
Beowulf is mortally wounded. After Beowulf
dies, Wiglaf remains by his side, grief-stricken.
When the rest of the men finally return, Wiglaf
bitterly admonishes them, blaming their
cowardice for Beowulf's death. Beowulf is
ritually burned on a great pyre in Geatland while
his people wail and mourn him, fearing that
without him, the Geats are defenceless against
attacks from surrounding tribes. Afterwards, a
barrow, visible from the sea, is built in his
memory.
Digressions
The poem contains many apparent digressions
from the main story. These were found
troublesome by early Beowulf scholars such as
Frederick Klaeber, who wrote that they
"interrupt the story", W. W. Lawrence, who
stated that they "clog the action and distract
attention from it", and W. P. Ker who found
some "irrelevant ... possibly ... interpolations".
More recent scholars from Adrien Bonjour
onwards note that the digressions can all be
explained as introductions or comparisons with
elements of the main story; for instance,
Beowulf's swimming home across the sea from
Frisia carrying thirty sets of armour emphasises
his heroic strength. The digressions can be
divided into four groups, namely the Scyld
narrative at the start; many descriptions of the
Geats, including the Swedish–Geatish wars, the
"Lay of the Last Survivor" in the style of another
Old English poem, "The Wanderer", and
Beowulf's dealings with the Geats such as his
verbal contest with Unferth and his swimming
duel with Breca, and the tale of Sigemund and
the dragon; history and legend, including the
fight at Finnsburg and the tale of Freawaru and
Ingeld; and biblical tales such as the creation
myth and Cain as ancestor of all monsters. The
digressions provide a powerful impression of
historical depth, imitated by Tolkien in The Lord
of the Rings, a work that embodies many other
elements from the poem.
Nibelungenlied
The Nibelungenlied (Middle High German:
Der Nibelunge liet or Der Nibelunge nôt),
translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is
an epic poem written around 1200 in Middle
High German. Its anonymous poet was likely
from the region of Passau. The
Nibelungenlied is based on an oral tradition of
Germanic heroic legend that has some of its
origin in historic events and individuals of the
5th and 6th centuries and that spread
throughout almost all of Germanic-speaking
Europe. Scandinavian parallels to the German
poem are found especially in the heroic lays of
the Poetic Edda and in the Völsunga saga.
The poem is split into two parts. In the first
part, the prince Siegfried comes to Worms to
acquire the hand of the Burgundian princess
Kriemhild from her brother King Gunther.
Gunther agrees to let Siegfried marry
Kriemhild if Siegfried helps Gunther acquire
the warrior-queen Brünhild as his wife.
Siegfried does this and marries Kriemhild;
however, Brünhild and Kriemhild become
rivals, leading eventually to Siegfried's murder
by the Burgundian vassal Hagen with
Gunther's involvement. In the second part, the
widow Kriemhild is married to Etzel, king of
the Huns. She later invites her brother and his
court to visit Etzel's kingdom intending to kill
Hagen. Her revenge results in the death of all
the Burgundians who came to Etzel's court as
well as the destruction of Etzel's kingdom and
the death of Kriemhild herself.
The Nibelungenlied was the first heroic epic
put into writing in Germany, helping to found a
larger genre of written heroic poetry there.
The poem's tragedy appears to have bothered
its medieval audience, and very early on a
sequel was written, the Nibelungenklage,
which made the tragedy less final. The poem
was forgotten after around 1500 but was
rediscovered in 1755. Dubbed the "German
Iliad", the Nibelungenlied began a new life as
the German national epic. The poem was
appropriated for nationalist purposes and was
heavily used in anti-democratic, reactionary,
and Nazi propaganda before and during the
Second World War. Its legacy today is most
visible in Richard Wagner's operatic cycle Der
Ring des Nibelungen, which, however, is
mostly based on Old Norse sources. In 2009,
the three main manuscripts of the
Nibelungenlied were inscribed in UNESCO's
Memory of the World Register in recognition
of their historical significance. It has been
called "one of the most impressive, and
certainly the most powerful, of the German
epics of the Middle Ages".
Synopsis
The famous opening of the Nibelungenlied is
actually thought to be an addition by the editor
of manuscript "C" of the Nibelungenlied (MS C,
for short), as it does not appear in the oldest
manuscripts. It may have been inspired by the
prologue of the Nibelungenklage.
The epic is divided into two parts, the first
dealing with the story of Siegfried and
Kriemhild, the wooing of Brünhild and the death
of Siegfried at the hands of Hagen, and Hagen's
hiding of the Nibelung treasure in the river
Rhine (Chapters 1–19). The second part deals
with Kriemhild's marriage to Etzel (Attila, king
of the Huns), her plans for revenge, the journey
of the Burgundians to the court of Etzel, and
their last stand in Etzel's hall (Chapters 20–39).
Siegfried and Kriemhild
The first chapter introduces the court of
Burgundy. Kriemhild (the virgin sister of King
Gunther and his brothers Gernot and Giselher)
has a dream of a falcon that is killed by two
eagles. Her mother interprets this to mean that
Kriemhild's future husband will die a violent
death, and Kriemhild consequently resolves to
remain unmarried.
The second chapter tells of the background of
Siegfried, crown prince of Xanten. His youth is
narrated with little room for the adventures later
attributed to him. In the third chapter, Siegfried
arrives in Worms with the hopes of wooing
Kriemhild. Upon his arrival, Hagen von Tronje,
one of King Gunther's vassals, tells Gunther
about Siegfried's youthful exploits that involved
winning a treasure and lands from a pair of
brothers, Nibelung and Schilbung, whom
Siegfried had killed when he was unable to
divide the treasure between them, and, almost
incidentally, the killing of a dragon. Siegfried
leaves his treasure in the charge of a dwarf
named Alberich.
After killing the dragon, Siegfried then bathed in
its blood which rendered him invulnerable
except for a single spot on his back where a leaf
from a linden tree had fallen on him. In spite of
Hagen's threatening stories about his youth, the
Burgundians welcome him, but do not allow him
to meet the princess. Disappointed, he
nonetheless remains in Worms and helps
Gunther defeat the invading Saxons.
In Chapter 5, Siegfried finally meets Kriemhild.
Gunther requests Siegfried to sail with him to
the fictional city of Isenstein in Iceland to win
the hand of Iceland's Queen, Brünhild. Siegfried
agrees, though only if Gunther allows him to
marry Gunther's sister, Kriemhild, whom
Siegfried pines for. Gunther, Siegfried and a
group of Burgundians set sail for Iceland with
Siegfried pretending to be Gunther's vassal.
Upon their arrival, Brünhild challenges Gunther
to a trial of strength with her hand in marriage as
a reward. If they lose, however, they will be
sentenced to death. She challenges Gunther to
three athletic contests, throwing a javelin,
tossing a boulder, and a leap. After seeing the
boulder and javelin, it becomes apparent to the
group that Brünhild is immensely strong, and
they fear for their lives.
Siegfried quietly returns to the boat on which his
group had sailed and retrieves his special cloak,
which renders him invisible and gives him the
strength of 12 men (Chapters 6–8). Siegfried,
with his immense strength, invisibly leads
Gunther through the trials. Unknowingly
deceived, the impressed Brünhild thinks King
Gunther, not Siegfried, defeated her and agrees
to marry Gunther. Gunther becomes afraid that
Brünhild may yet be planning to kill them, so
Siegfried goes to Nibelungenland and single-
handedly conquers the kingdom. Siegfried
makes them his vassals and returns with a
thousand of them, himself going ahead as
messenger. The group of Burgundians, Gunther
and Gunther's new wife-to-be Brünhild return to
Worms, where a grand reception awaits them,
and they marry to much fanfare. Siegfried and
Kriemhild are also then married with Gunther's
blessings.
However, on their wedding night, Brünhild
suspects something is amiss with her situation,
particularly suspecting Siegfried as a potential
cause. Gunther attempts to sleep with her, and,
with her great strength, she easily ties him up
and leaves him that way all night. After he tells
Siegfried of this, Siegfried again offers his help,
proposing that he slip into their chamber at night
with his invisibility cloak and silently beat
Brünhild into submission. Gunther agrees but
says that Siegfried must not sleep with Brünhild.
Siegfried slips into the room according to plan
and after a difficult and violent struggle, an
invisible Siegfried defeats Brünhild. Siegfried
then takes her ring and belt, which are symbols
of defloration. Here it is implied that Siegfried
sleeps with Brünhild, despite Gunther's request.
Afterwards, Brünhild no longer possesses her
once-great strength and says she will no longer
refuse Gunther. Siegfried gives the ring and belt
to his own newlywed, Kriemhild, in Chapter 10.
Years later, Brünhild, still feeling as if she had
been deceived, goads Gunther into inviting
Siegfried and Kriemhild to their kingdom.
Brünhild does this because she is still under the
impression that Gunther married off his sister to
a low-ranking vassal (Gunther and Siegfried are
in reality of equal rank) and the proper relations
between the two ranks have not been followed.
Both Siegfried and Kriemhild come to Worms
and all is friendly between the two until, before
entering Worms Cathedral, Kriemhild and
Brünhild argue over who should have
precedence, in accordance their husbands' ranks.
Having been earlier deceived about the
relationship between Siegfried and Gunther,
Brünhild thinks it is obvious that she should go
first, in right of her (self-perceived) superior
rank. Kriemhild, unaware of the deception
involved in Brünhild's wooing, insists that they
are of equal rank, and the dispute escalates.
Severely angered, Kriemhild shows Brünhild
first the ring and then the belt that Siegfried took
from Brünhild on her wedding night, and then
calls her Siegfried's kebse (mistress or
concubine). Brünhild feels greatly distressed and
humiliated, and bursts into tears.
The argument between the queens is both a risk
for the marriage of Gunther and Brünhild and a
potential cause for a lethal rivalry between
Gunther and Siegfried, which both Gunther and
Siegfried attempt to avoid. Gunther acquits
Siegfried of the charges. Despite this, Hagen von
Tronje decides to kill Siegfried to protect the
honor and reign of his king. Although it is
Hagen who does the deed, Gunther, who at first
objects to the plot, finally quietly assents. Hagen
contrives a false military threat to Gunther, and
Siegfried, considering Gunther a great friend,
volunteers to help Gunther once again.
Under the pretext of this threat of war, Hagen
persuades Kriemhild, who still trusts Hagen, to
mark Siegfried's single vulnerable point on his
clothing with a cross under the premise of
protecting him. Now knowing Siegfried's
weakness, the fake campaign is called off and
Hagen then uses the cross as a target on a
hunting trip, killing Siegfried with a javelin as
he drinks from a brook (Chapter 16). Kriemhild
becomes aware of Hagen's deed when, in
Hagen's presence, the corpse of Siegfried bleeds
from the wound (cruentation). Some years later,
after Kriemhild begins to use the hoard of
treasure to attract warriors to her personal
retinue, Hagen steals the treasure from her.
Kriemhild's revenge
Kriemhild swears to take revenge for the murder
of her husband and the theft of her treasure.
Many years later, King Etzel of the Huns
proposes to Kriemhild, she journeys to the land
of the Huns, and they are married. For the
baptism of their son, she invites her brothers, the
Burgundians, to a feast at Etzel's castle in
Hungary. Hagen does not want to go, suspecting
that it is a trick by Kriemhild in order to take
revenge and kill them all, but he is taunted until
he does. As the Burgundians cross the river
Danube, this fate is confirmed by Nixes
(Germanic water spirits), who predict that all but
one monk will die. Hagen tries to drown the
monk in order to render the prophecy futile, but
he survives.
The Burgundians arrive at Etzel's castle and are
welcomed by Kriemhild "with lying smiles and
graces", but the lord Dietrich of Bern, an ally of
Etzel's, advises the Burgundians to keep their
weapons with them at all times, which is
normally not allowed. The tragedy unfolds as
Kriemhild comes before Hagen, reproaching
him for her husband Siegfried's death, and
demands that he return her Nibelungenschatz,
the Nibelungen treasure. Not only does Hagen
humiliate her by openly carrying Balmung,
Siegfried's sword stolen from his corpse, but
also admits to killing Siegfried and stealing the
Nibelungen treasure. Hagen blames all these acts
on Kriemhild's own behavior.
King Etzel then welcomes his wife's brothers
warmly. But outside the tense feast in the great
hall, a fight breaks out between Huns and
Burgundians. When word of the fight arrives at
the feast, Hagen decapitates the young son of
Kriemhild and Etzel before their eyes. The
Burgundians take control of the hall, which is
besieged by Etzel's warriors. Kriemhild offers
her brothers their lives if they hand over Hagen,
but they refuse. The battle lasts all day, until the
queen orders the hall to be burned with the
Burgundians inside.
All of the Burgundians are killed except for
Hagen and Gunther, who are bound and held
prisoner by Dietrich of Bern. Kriemhild has the
men brought before her and orders her brother
Gunther to be killed. Even after seeing Gunther's
head, Hagen refuses to tell the queen what he
has done with the Nibelungen treasure. Furious,
Kriemhild herself cuts off Hagen's head. Old
Hildebrand, the mentor of Dietrich of Bern, is
infuriated by the shameful deaths of the
Burgundian guests. He hews Kriemhild to pieces
with his sword. In a fifteenth-century
manuscript, he is said to strike Kriemhild a
single clean blow to the waist; she feels no pain,
however, and declares that his sword is useless.
Hildebrand then drops a ring and commands
Kriemhild to pick it up. As she bends down, her
body falls into pieces. Dietrich and Etzel and all
the people of the court lament the deaths of so
many heroes.