BEOWULF

 
And now this is ‘an inheritance’ –
upright, rudimentary, unshiftably planked
in the long ago, yet willable forward
again and again and again.

Seamus Heaney
 Problems
• Author
• Date of composition
• Genre
• Language
HWÆT, WE GAR-DEna in geardagum, 
þeodcyninga þrym gefrunon, 
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon! 
oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum, 
monegum mægþum meodosetla ofteah, 
egsode eorlas, syððanærest wearð
feasceaft funden; he þæs frofre gebad,
weox under wolcnum weorðmyndum þah,
oð þæt him æghwylc ymbsittendra
ofer hronrade hyran scolde, 
gomban gyldan; þæt wæs god cyning! 
 Literary value of the poem
- Narration of a classical structure.
- Construction of a hero.
- Representation of warrior society.
- Embodiment of Christian and pagan
ideas.
- Representation of a national change.
 “A brave man of the tribe f the
Geats , a thane of Hygelac […] he
was the strongest and mightiest
man alive, noble and stalwart…”
“Death is better to every noble
warrior than life in disgrace”
“The grim spirit was called Grendel
[…] The miserable creature had
long inhabited the haunts of
monsters, since the Creator had
condemned him and all his race,
the progeny of Cain, in vengeance
for the slaying of Abel”
“Now the receiving of treasure and
giving of swords, all the enjoyment
of hereditary estate and comfort,
shall cease for you and your kin;
every man of your clan will have to
turn away, deprived of the
landowner’s privileges..”
The fight with Grendel
 Activities
• Diferentiate the different steps in the
narrative.
• Explain the use of epithets.
• Characterise the function of divine
intervention.
• Characterise the hero
How is the battle between good
and evil presented?