Beowulf

1. In what ways does Beowulf engage with and/or challenge ‘heroic’ values? Identify some
specific examples

 Beowulf = undertakes fight against Grendel to save Danes from the monster and
exact vengeance for the men he has slain
o Other motive = demonstrate his strength and courage, enhance his personal
glory
o Beowulf’s slaying of Grendel’s mother = revenge and glory
o Last battle against the dragon = no other way to save people
 Beowulf’s character development
o First view of Beowulf = ambitious young hero
o End = become an old king, facing the dragon and death
o His people mourn and praise him as does the poet e.g., for kindness (less
common for Germanic heroes)
 Entire poem could be viewed as the poet’s lament for heroes like Beowulf who went
into the darkness without the light of the poet’s own Christian faith

 Dead king Beowulf

o Youthful adventures before account of his defeat by a dragon in old age
o Embody other virtues
o His eagerness for praise = retrospective Christian moral viewpoint to equate
to vaunting pride
 End of poem = dying Beowulf regrets he has not produced a similar heir for his own
people
o Sclyd = founds a dynasty
o Hrothgar = builds Heorot
 Beowulf’s journey to Heoret
o Rich in compound nouns
o Description of the sea that requires no exertion
o Metaphor of the flying bird = extended ot the warrior themselves
o Coast watcher = fulfils his role with fine words, first of many formal speeches
in the poem
 Wulfar draws attention to the question of the hero’s motivation
o The Geats = not allowed weapons in hall – normal protocol but also
paradoxical gesture to Grendel’s nocturnal raids
 Beowulf offers no reason for his quest other than that his own people advised him to
the venture
o Come to test his strength
o Boasting words reiterate the humiliation of the Danes
 Beowulf = poses a threat
o Underlined by resentment from Unferth

 Ethos of heric life = pervades Old English literature

o Marking its conventions, imagery and values
2. What narrative features or literary conventions align the poem with the genre of ‘epic’

 Poet reviving the heroic language, style and pagan world of ancient Germanic oral
poetry
o World remote to and strange to the modern reader
o A few shorter heroic poems in Old English and later in poetry and prose in
Old Saxon, Old Icelandic, and Middle High German, we can only conjecture
what Germanic oral epic must have been like when performed by the
Germanic scop, or bard
o Beowulf poet himself imagines such oral performances by having King
Hrothgar’s court poet recite a heroic lay at a feast celebrating Beowulf’s
defeat of Grendel
 Any words and formulaic expressions in Beowulf can be found in other Old English
poems
o ‘hapax legomena’ – words recorded only once in a language
o Poet = wordsmith In own right

 Framing of the narrative between two moments of chaos = characteristic of the

poet’s rhetorical style
o Narrative events = structural emphasis

3. What function do the monsters play in Beowulf? What distinction, if any does the poem
draw between monstrosity and heroism?

 The manuscript itself seems a self-conscious collection of texts about monsters

 Three monster fights = three-part narrative structure, thinking about how Beowulf
links to pattern of folk narratives/fairy tales = based on the number 3
o Grendel (John Gardner – contemporary interpretation)
o Grendel’s mother
o Dragon
 Three-part structure, reminiscent of fairy tales

 Beowulf = undertakes fight against Grendel to save Danes from the monster and
exact vengeance for the men he has slain
o Other motive = demonstrate his strength and courage, enhance his personal
glory
o Beowulf’s slaying of Grendel’s mother = revenge and glory
o Last battle against the dragon = no other way to save people
 Beowulf’s character development
o First view of Beowulf = ambitious young hero
 o End = become an old king, facing the dragon and death
o His people mourn and praise him as does the poet e.g., for kindness (less
common for Germanic heroes)

 Grendel, his mother and the dragon

o 3 creatures whose combates with the hero provide the tipartite structure of
the poem
o Monsters = metaphoric purpose, providing moral mirrors for the poem’s
human characters
o E.g., encounters with Beowulf point the audience towards an interrogation of
the hero’s psychology
 Grendel
o Outside the lawful order
o All Denmark’s have failed, demonstrating the limits of their legal order and
the heroic system as well

 Grendel’s depredations necessitate vengeance

o Grendel is too savae to understand wergild or too monstrous to acknowledge
its vital social function
 the Grendel kin are descendants of the fratricide Cain
o but merely mirror behaviour in the civilized human world

 J.R.R. Tolkein
o First highlighted the central importance of the monsters
o Arguing that in the struggles of Beoqulg agains his various monstrous foes the
poet wished to portray the noble image of “man at war with the hostile
world, and his inevitable overthrow in Yime”
 Kenneth Sisam – sanguine view
o Suggests that “the monsters Beowulf kills are inevitably evil and hostile
because a reoutation for heroism is not made by killing creatures that are
believed to be harmless or beneficent – sheep for instance”
o Beowulf’s battle with Grendel is one fall, one submission and one knock-out
bout whilist the fight with Grendel’s mother has quite a different pace
 Grendel’s mother
o Monstrous female, bestial
o Has two weapons = cruel knife and hideous nails
o Nearly succeeds in killing Beoqulf
 Dragon-fight
o Has 3 rounds
o Marked off by narratorial enumeration of each phase of the attack
 The level of difficulty experienced by Beowulf increases with each battle
o Progresses from primarily defensive role to an aggressive role, motivated to
varying degrees in each of his battles by thoughts of glory, vengeance and
treasure
 Parallels between successive conflicts = bind the episodes together
 o Grendel and mother connected by family relationship but by human shape,
cannibalistic acts, shared dwelling and decapitation
 Clear antagonism between the worlds of monsters and men
 But something deeply human about the ‘monsters’
o All given human attributes at some stage
o E.g., our symphathy is evoked for Grendel’s mother driven to avenge the
killing of her son
o Active engagement in the feud vs. passive impotence of other (human)
mothers in the poem e.g., Wealhtehow and Hildeburh
o Seen as victim of an unprovoked attack
 Offered the monster’s perspective
 Grendel = most consistently depicted in human terms
o E.g., in constant evocation of exile imagery to describe his plight
 Links between Beowulf and his most famous foes may be suggested
o Beoqulf “wretched and solitary figure” – similar vocab used to describe
Grendel
o Both linked as “hall-dwellers”
o Fury
 The conflict and comparison between monsters and men = far from being only such
a thematic contrast which runs through Beowulf
 Michael Lapidge
o Doubts if the poem can be described ‘heroic’ in any traditional sense
 R.E. Kaske
o Highlights the central importance in Beowulf of what he describes as “the
great heroic ideal of sapiential et fortitude (‘wisdom and stength’)
o Underlines the differences between the physical and psychological worlds =
important in the poet’s developing depictions of the monsters

4. How is the relationship between lord and retainer represented in Beowulf? What
comparisons might we draw between the various kings in the poem

 Poetry depicting warrior society, important human relationship = between warrior

(thane) and his lord
o Relationship based less on subordination of will to another but mutual trust
and respect
o When vowed loyalty = becomes voluntary companion, one with pride in
defending him not as servant
o Lord was expected to take care of his thanes and reward their valour
o Hrothgar/Beowulf = “ring-giver”, the “helmet” and “shield” of their people
 Relationship between kinsmen = deep significance to this society
o Moral obligation to exact the payment of wergild (man-price) in
compensation for crime
o Each rank of society evaluated at a definite price to be payed
 In the absence of any legal code (custom or body of law enforcement), was duty of
the family to execute justice
o Failure to take revenge or exact compensation = shameful
 o E.g., Hrothgar’s anguish for murders = shame of his inability either to kill
Grendel or to exact a “death-prize” from the killer
 Beowulf’s attempt to comfort the bereaved old king by invoking code of vengeance =
instance of poet’s ironic treatment of tragic futility of never-ending blood feuds?

 The touchstone of that life… is the vitale relationship between retainer and lord
whose binding virtue is loyalty
o Continuing loyalty is ensured in the lord’s giving of treasure
o Through gifts of worth = lord enhances both his reputation and that of his
retainer
 The transaction of a gift = becomes the material reminder of the reainer’s reciprocal
obligation when war service or vengeance is required
 Nature of Kings
o E.g., Hrothgar’s last word to Beowulf = promise of rewards if he survives
 The economy of such generosity must be understood in the function of the exchange
to enhance the reputation of both parties and confirm a continuing interdependence
 What was the nature of the loyalty which the hero owed his lord?
o Comment that death is better for a warrior than a life of disgrace should be
understood in the context of the exile enforced as punishment on those who
fled to save their own lives
o E.g., the killing of Hydelac, Ongentheow and Onela are all acts of vengeance
taken to repay the death of a lord
 The disturbance of order has a moral dimension as well which is reflected in the
shifting balance of power between the king’s men and those of the usurper
o Narrative focuses on the tensions created by the conflicting demands of kin
and group, of king and usurper and of loyalty and self-interest
 In Beowulf = feud and vengeance is connected to social order and is as inexorable as
xs itself
 features of early kingship in Anglo-saxon England are insufficiently documented =
absence of contemporary culture
o Tacitus’s Germania = found a general outine of the behaviour and
expectations of Germanic barbarian war bands
o Lafred the Great = anglo-saxon king

5. How does the poet treat such themes as fate, mortality and transience?

Fate
 Hrothfar = privately sees God’s hand at work in the brave young man
o Imposes order on the young man’s impulsiveness = by interpreting his good
deed as directed by God and by incorporating the son’s promsed act into a
system of social obligation
 Hero thinks he can act as an independent agent
o But freedom is bound by society’s conventions
Mortality
 Sombre and dignified elegiac mood pervades Beowulf
o Poem opens and closes with description of a funeral
o Filled with laments for the dead

 End of poem = dying Beowulf regrets he has not produced a similar heir for his own
people
o Sclyd = founds a dynasty
o Hrothgar = builds Heorot

 Poetic articulation of the heroic ethos, a warrior’s paramount goal is the

achievement of a lasting reputation
o Lasting reputation = warrior’s only hope for immortality
o E.g., Beowulf asks tomb to be built on coastal headland to recall the barrow
 Beowulf’s desire for glory and pursuit of it
o Shown in last lines of the poem
 Lasting glory is won only under conditions where one’s life is in doubt
o To gain a heroic reputation

 in literature of Anglo-Saxon England = strong motifs of fatalism about life in this

world and a sense of its transience
o there is the equally persistent beief that this life prepares one for a more
enduring one
 ‘wyrd’ = ‘what happens’
 ‘meotud’ = God as the ordainer of what happens
 ‘gehygd’ = ‘mind’, ‘though’
 There is a hope for a more stable and enduring life
o Content of hope
 Early medieval eschatology
o Focus on the Last Judgement and the Kinddom of God which the judgement
will initiate
 ‘Eschatology’ = theological term
o Means in Greek the study of the “last things’ or the end of history as it is
presently known
o Fundamental sense = the expectation that God would intervene in a final and
definitive way in the history of the Chose People

Transcience
 Preoccupation with transcience = not found solely within Old English elegiac poetry
o Theme = wonder at the demise of earlier civilizations and regret for the
brevity of human life and human joy
 Parallels in other Germanic medieval literatures
o Old Icelandic poetry called ‘eddic’
 Old English poems traditionally called ‘elegiac’
o Many lost/destroyed
  ‘transient’ – latin implied something that is passing, and the image therefore is one
of a journey
o Anglo-saxons = laene or ‘lent’/’on loan’
o Vs. with ece = ‘eternal’ nature of things of the next
 ‘lent’ and ‘eternal’ for the modern reader are not such a natural pair of opposites
 We may loosely call the Germanic or heroic or secular perception of immortality in
this period is the survival of personal reputation
o Narrowed down to the individual
 ‘elegiac’ passages in Beolqulf
o Lines 2455-9
o 2262-5

6. In what ways does the text blend Christian and heathen subject matter

 Pagan elements
o Ship funerals
o Grave goods
 Ship funerals
o Evidence = people were buried in ship-shaped graves
 Christians = not meant to be buried with material goods
 Christian elements
o The scop’s song of creation
o Grendel’s biblical ancestry
o Are all OT
o Single but unspecified ‘God’ of characters is not explicitly Christian?

 Believed to be work of single poet

o Christian = poem reflects well-established Christian tradition
o E.g., mid- 7th century = conversion of the Germanic settlers in England largely
completed
o Line 87-89 = Danish King Hrothgar’s poet sings song about the Creation
reminiscent of Caedmon’s Hymn
 Religious impact
o Monster Grendel = said to be descendant of Cain
o Allusions to God’s judgment and to fate (wyrd) but none to pagan deities
o References to New Testament absent, but Hrothgar and Beowulf speak as
though their religion is monotheistic
o The Danes pray for help at heathen shrines = just as children of Israel had
lapsed into idolatry
 Hrothgar and Beowulf = morally upright and enlightened pagans
o But fully espouse and affirm the values of Germanic heroic poetry
 Entire poem could be viewed as the poet’s lament for heroes like Beowulf who went
into the darkness without the light of the poet’s own Christian faith

 Poet and audience = Christians

o References to the Creation, Cain and the Flood
 o The pervasive power of God
 Beowulf represented a former age of pagan Germanic heroes

 Bede’s Ecclesiastcal History

o Tells the story of the conversion of the pagan English with detail and
predicatble bias
o For Bede, the Angles and Saxons were invited to mid-15th century Britain as
mercenaries who then turned against their Romano-British employers
o Refers to them as ‘pagans’, ‘heathen conquerors’ and ‘the enemy’
o Also careful not to direct sympathy towards the Christian Britons
o “the fires kindled by the pagans proved to be God’s just punishment on the
sins of the nation”
 According to Bede, the missionaries who landed in Kent in 597 = no interest in
restoring the Church but set out to establish the true apostolic Church in England
 Bede = like all things evil, paganism had an inate capacity to self-destruct
 Paganism in England (not English paganism) = did not die out so easily
o Continues until the Norman Conquest
o Reintroduced by Viking settlers