beowulf: anonymous 1000 - wikispaceschicopee.wikispaces.com/file/view/beowulf.pdf · wishful...

52913 High School Core - Document - Beowulf Anonymous 1000

gogalegroupcompsretrievedosgHitCountType=NoneampisETOC=trueampinPS=trueampprodId=GVRLMassHSampuserGroupName=mass13ampresultListType=RELhellip 136

Page 25

Character overview Critical essay Work overview Plot summary

Beowulf Anonymous 1000

Epics for Students

Ed Sara Constantakis Vol 1 2nd ed Detroit Gale 2011 p25-50 COPYRIGHT 2011 Gale CengageLearning

Full Text

Beowulf Anonymous 1000

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

PLOT SUMMARY

MEDIA ADAPTATIONS

CHARACTERS

THEMES

TOPICS FOR FURTHER STUDY

STYLE

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

COMPARE amp CONTRAST

CRITICAL OVERVIEW



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CRITICISM

WHAT DO I READ NEXT

SOURCES

FURTHER READING

SUGGESTED SEARCH TERMS

The Old English poem Beowulf follows its main character from heroic youth to heroic old age

Beowulf saves a neighboring people from the monster Grendel eventually becomes the king of his own people

and dies defending them from a dragon It is a great adventure story and a deeply philosophical one Scholars

differ over the poems original purpose and audience but Beowulf probably appealed to a wide audience and

garnered a range of responses Beowulf survives in one manuscript which is known as British Library Cotton

Vitellius A 15 At least one scholar believes the manuscript is the authors original but most scholars believe it is

the last in a succession of copies Beowulf may have been written at any time between about 675 CE and thedate of the manuscript about 1000 CE

No one knows where the manuscript was before it surfaced in the hands of Laurence Nowell in the sixteenth

century An edition of Beowulf was published by G S Thorkelin in 1815 but for over one hundred years studyfocused on Beowulf not as poetry but on what it could tell about the early Germanic tribes and language

(philology)

J R R Tolkiens ldquoThe Monsters and the Criticsrdquo redirected study to the poemas literature The 1939 excavationof the Sutton Hoo ship burial in Suffolk England and Tolkiens own Lord of the Rings influenced by his lifelong

study of Beowulf helped to interest general readers in the poem Since then translations and adaptations of the

poem have increased the poems audience and recognition Notably Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney published a

bestselling easy-to-read modern English translation in 2001 that was reissued in 2007 with one hundredillustrations This epic poem has influenced modern adventure fantasy and inspired at least two bestsellers comicbooks and even a BeowulfStar Trek Voyager cross-over

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

As of the early 2000 the person who wrote Beowulf remained unidentified Scholars had suggested at least two

possible candidates but neither of these was generally accepted

Many dates and places have been suggested for the composition of Beowulf Most of the theories suffer fromwishful thinking Scholars connect it to a favorite time and place It is no use however to show where and whenit might have been written It must be shown that it could not have been written anywhere else at any other time

in order for a theory to be conclusive Early critics often stressed the antiquity of the poets material andattempted to break the poem down into a number of older lays (see Style section below) Others have pointed



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to Northumbria during the lifetime of the scholar Bede (c 672ndashc 735) as the place and time in which the poemwas written because Northumbria was culturally advanced and Bede was a great Anglo-Saxon scholar Thekingdom of Mercia during the reign of Offa the Great (756ndash798) has also been suggested partially because the

poet included thirty-one lines praising Offas ancestor another Offa In subsequent criticism a later compositiondate became popular Scholar Kevin Kiernan believes that the existing manuscript may be the authors own

copy which would mean the poem was written very close to 1000 CE An early date for Beowulf (675ndash700) hasfrequently connected it with East Anglia It has been suggested that the East Anglian royal family considered

themselves descended from Wiglaf who comes to Beowulfs aid during the dragon fight

The main argument for this early date however is based on archaeology The poems descriptions of magnificentburials reflect practices of the late sixth and seventh centuries but this does not mean the poem was written then

A person witnessing such a burial might describe it accurately fifty years later to a child who might then repeat thedescription another fifty years later to a person who might then write it down a century after the burial happenedSome scholars assume that the poem celebrating the ancestors of the Vikings could not have been written after

their raids on England began Others suggest that a mixed Viking Anglo-Saxon era or even the reign of theDanish Canute (King of England when the manuscript was written) would have been the most obvious time It

has also been suggested that the poem might have been written to gain the allegiance of Vikings settled inEngland to the family of Alfred since they claimed Scyld as an ancestor However it is just as feasible that

Alfreds family added Scyld to their family tree because he and his family were so famous through an alreadyexisting Beowulf

PLOT SUMMARY

Narrative in Beowulf

The action of Beowulf is not straightforward The narrator foreshadows actions that occur later Characters talkabout things that have already happened Both narrator and characters recall incidents and characters outside the

poems main narrative These digressions (see Style section below) are connected thematically to the main actionCritics once saw the digressions as flaws The poet however consciously used them to characterize humanexperience stressing recurring patterns and to represent the characters attempts to understand their situation

The Kings of the Danes and the Coming of Grendel

Scyld was found by the Danes as a small boy in a boat washed ashore The Danes at this time were without a

leader and oppressed by their neighboring countries Scyld grew to be a great warrior king and made the Danesa powerful nation Dying he ordered the Danes to send him back in a ship to the sea from which he came They

placed him in a ship surrounded by treasures and pushed it out to seamdashand ldquono one knows who received that

freightrdquo

Scylds son Beowulf Scylding becomes king in his turn His son Healfdene takes the throne and then

Healfdenes son Hrothgar succeeds him Hrothgar builds a great hall Heorot in which to entertain and rewardhis people There are great festivities at its opening but the music and laughter enraged Grendel a human

monster living underwater nearby



Sidebar Hide

MEDIA ADAPTATIONS

Beowulf was adapted in 1981 as the feature-length animated film Grendel Grendel Grendel by

independent Australian director and producer Alexander Stitt The film is narrated by Peter Ustinov as the

voice of Grendel

Kenneth Pickering and Christopher Segal adapted Beowulf as a rock musical The book and music werepublished by Samuel French in 1982 as Beowulf A Rock Musical

A movie version of Beowulf was made in 1999 by Dimension Studio starring Christopher Lambert and

Rhona Mitra

In 2003 Beowulf and the Anglo-Saxons was made by Arts Magic Studio The film traces the origins ofthe tribes in the epic and examines the story according to the society of its time

In 2004 Educational Video Network produced Background to Beowulf a DVD that explains historical

and literary traditions relevant to the epicA modern retelling with contemporary dialogue the 2005 movie Beowulf and Grendel was filmed by

StarzAnchor Bay Studio in Iceland and has a cast of Icelandic actors

Benjamin Bagby is famous for his onstage dramatization of Beowulf His performance was recorded on

DVD in 2006 by Koch VisionIn 2007 Cerebellum released a DVD study guide about Beowulf for its Rochetbooks series

A computer-generated animation of Beowulf was released in 2007 by Paramount Studios with voices and

character images by Ray Winstone Crispin Glover Angelina Jolie Robin Wright Penn and Anthony

HopkinsA 48-minute DVD production of Beowulf created by Eagle Rock Productions in 2008 is intended to be

an entertaining way to learn about a great book

Outlander starring James Caviezel and Sophia Myles is a 2008 movie from the Weinstein Companywith a plot that follows the Beowulf story but the hero is an extraterrestrial

The 2009 film Life in the Age of Beowulf available on DVD explores archaeological discoveries at a

village settled during the historical period in which Beowulf is set

That night Grendel breaks into Heorot slaughters and eats thirty of Hrothgars men (the kings warriors would

normally sleep in the hall) This happens again the next night After that ldquoit was easy to find him who sought rest

somewhere elserdquo

Grendel haunts the hall by night for twelve years The Danes despair of ridding themselves of him They can

neither defeat him nor come to terms with him

Beowulf Comes to the Kingdom of Hrothgar

Danish sailors bring news of Grendel to King Hygelac of the Geats whose nephew (also named Beowulf

Scylding) has a growing reputation for strength and monster-killing Beowulf supported by the wisest men of hispeople resolves to go to Hrothgars aid and sets off by ship with fourteen companions They land in Denmark

and are met and questioned by a coast guard who impressed with Beowulf sends them to Heorot Hrothgar

receives them and accepts Beowulfs offer of help Hrothgar knew Beowulf as a child and interprets Beowulfs

arrival at his court as an act of gratitude He had sheltered Beowulfs father Ecgtheow when he was an exile and



Page 28 |

made peace for him with his powerful enemies

Unferth an official of the court attempts to discredit Beowulf with the story of a swimming match Beowulf hadas a boy with another boy Breca Beowulf exonerates himself with his version of the swimming match

Wealtheow Hrothgars queen welcomes Beowulf The young man tells her that he would lay down his life to

defeat Grendel She thanks God for his resolve

Beowulfs Fight with Grendel

Hrothgar gives Beowulf and his companions the duty of guarding Heorot that night The young man decides toface Grendel without weapons since Grendel does not use them He tells those around him that the outcome of

the fight is in the hands of God The Danes leave the hall Beowulf and his companions bed down for the night

When darkness falls Grendel comes stalking across the empty moors Intent on slaughter and food he has no

idea what is waiting for him in the hall He bursts open the Heorots heavy iron-bound doors with the touch of hishand and rushes in grabs one of the sleeping Geats eats him greedily gulping down the blood and then grabs

Beowulf Beowulf has had a moment to get oriented however and wrestles with Grendel Surprised by

Beowulfs strength Grendel tries to get away but cannot They struggle Beowulf refusing to break his grip

Beowulfs companions try to wound Grendel only to find he is impervious to their weapons In the end Grendelmanages pull away from Beowulf leaving his arm in the heros grasp He flees bleeding to his lair

The Morning after the Battle

With morning the Danes come from the surrounding countryside to see the huge arm its nails like steel and thebloody trail of the dying monster Some of them follow the trail to the waters edge and come back singing

Beowulfs praises One of the kings men compares Beowulf to the great dragon-slayer Sigemund (In the

legends on which Nibelungenlied is based it is Sigemunds son Siegfried who is the dragon slayer) Hrothgar

thanks God that he has lived to see Grendel stopped He publicly announces that he will now consider Beowulfhis son Beowulf tells the Hrothgar that he wishes the king might have seen the fight He says that he had hoped

to kill Grendel outright but it was not Gods will

Celebrations in Honor of Beowulfs Victory

There is a celebration in honor of Beowulf and his companions Hrothgar gives him magnificent gifts including a

golden banner sword and armor The other Geats are given rich gifts too Hrothgar gives treasure for the manwhom Grendel has eaten (This probably represents his wergyld literally ldquoman-pricerdquo the payment made to a

mans lord or his family by someone responsible for his death as an indemnity) A lay or short narrative poem of

a famous battle is sun as entertainment

Wealtheow acknowledges Beowulfs great deed but counsels her husband not to alienate his nephew Hrothulf

by adopting Beowulf She hopes aloud that Hrothulf will remember all she and the king did for him when he was

young and will treat his young cousins their sons well Wealtheow then gives Beowulf a magnificent golden

necklace (worn at that time by both men and women) Wealtheow asks Beowulf to be a good friend to her sonsShe ends by saying that in Heorot all the men are loyal to one another and do her will The original Anglo-Saxon

audience knew from existing legends and stories that Hrothulf would later kill his two cousins



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Grendels Mother Comes for Vengeance and Beowulf Tracks Her to Her Lair

The Geats are given new quarters for the night and Danish warriors sleep in the hall for the first time in manyyears While the Danes are sleeping Grendels mother comes to avenge her son She carries off Aeschere

Hrothgars friend and counselor a man who had always stood at his side in battle Beowulf finds Hrothgar

broken with grief over the loss of his friend Hrothgar tells Beowulf what the Danes know about the monstersand the wilds where they live Beowulf offers to track Grendels mother to her underwater lair remarking that it

is better to perform noble deeds before death and better to avenge a friend than mourn him too much Hrothgar

Beowulf and their men ride to the sea where they find Aesheres head at the edge of the overhanging cliffs

Unferth now deeply impressed by Beowulfs generous heroism loans Beowulf his sword Beowulf asksHrothgar to take care of his companions and to send Hygelac the treasures he had been given for killing Grendel

if he (Beowulf) dies

Beowulfs Fight with Grendels Mother

Beowulf enters the water and is seized by Grendels mother who drags him to her den which is dry despite its

underwater entrance Unferths sword is useless against this monstrous hag Beowulf wrestles with her Thewoman trips him and tries to stab him with her dagger but the blade is turned by his chainmail (a mesh tunic of

fine interlocked metal rings) He struggles away from her grabs a great sword hanging on the wall and strikes off

her head He sees the body of Grendel and cuts off his head too the sword blade melting in his blood Carrying

Grendels head and the swords hilt Beowulf swims back to the surface

Beowulf Returns from the Fight in Triumph

Meanwhile from the cliffs above the waiting men see blood welling up to the surface of the water Hrothgar and

the Danes assume the worst and make their way sorrowfully back to the hall Beowulfs companions linger

grieving and forlornly hoping for his return Beowulf comes to the surface He and his men return to the hall He

presents Grendels head and the hilt of the ancient sword to Hrothgar Beowulf recounts his underwater fight tothe court acknowledging the grace of God Hrothgar praises Beowulf and counsels him to use his strength

wisely He warns him of the temptations of prosperity which lead to arrogance and avarice Beowulf returns

Unferths sword He thanks Hrothgar for his great kindness and promises him that if Hrothgar ever needs him he

shall come to his aid with a thousand warriors Beowulf and his companions return to their ship and Beowulf

presents the kindly coast guard with a sword

Beowulfs Return to His Uncles Court

Beowulf and his companions return home and go immediately to his uncles hall Hygelacs young queen Hygd is

presiding with her husband Hygelac welcomes his nephew back with great warmth Beowulf narrates his

adventures In particular he talks about Hrothgars daughter Freawaru who is engaged to Ingeld a prince

whose people are hereditary enemies of the Danes Beowulf fears the marriage will not end the feud and that

Ingeld will have to decide between his people and his young wife This passage exactly predicts what happens in

the Ingeld legend Thus the epics original listeners were likely moved by Beowulfs wisdom and prescience in

predicting the strife that is to come Beowulf presents Wealtheows and Hrothgars gifts to his uncle and aunt In



Page 30 |

return Hygelac gives his nephew a princely estate and his grandfathers sword

The Treasure and the Dragon

Years pass Beowulfs uncle and his uncles son Heardred die in battle Beowulf becomes king of the Geats and

rules for fifty years Then a dragon begins to threaten the land The dragon has been sleeping on a treasure

deposited in a barrow above the sea centuries before by the last despairing survivor of a noble family A

desperate man stumbles upon the treasure and steals a golden cup from it to regain his lords favor The dragonin revenge terrorizes the countryside burning Beowulfs hall in the old kings absence Beowulf decides to fight

the dragon He orders an iron shield made and assembles an escort of twelve warriors plus the thief brought

along as a guide They arrive on the cliffs above the barrow Beowulf feeling his death is near looks back over

his life and recounts the tragic history of his family and people He speaks affectionately of his grandfather and

the old mans grief over the accidental death of his eldest son He speaks bluntly of the warfare between the

Geats and Swedes He recalls his adventures in Denmark He speaks of his loyalty to his uncle Hygelac Finally

he remembers his uncles disastrous raid to the Rhine and his own part in it He recalls defeating Daegrefnchampion of the Franks in single combat before both armies by crushing him in a bear hug Beowulf then

announces that he intends to fight the dragon alone He goes down the path to the treasure barrow and attacks

the dragon but cannot manage to kill it One of his men a young warrior Wiglaf comes to his aid Together they

kill the dragon but Beowulf is fatally wounded He dies saying he has no fear in Gods judgment of him and

thanking God for allowing him to trade his old life for a great treasure for his people He tells Wiglaf to take care

of the Geats Finally he asks that they build a barrow for him on the cliffs where it will be seen and he

remembered The Geats build the barrow place the treasure in it and mourn their lost king as the kindest and

most worthy of rulers

CHARACTERS

Aeschere

Aeschere is Hrothgars counselor and friend his ldquowing manrdquo in battle Grendels mother murders him in revenge

for the death of her son Hrothgar is broken with grief when he learns of Aescheres death

Beowulf

Beowulf is the son of Hrethels daughter and Ecgtheow From the age of seven he is raised by his maternal

grandfather He is first and foremost the hero who kills the monsters no one else can face but he is more than a

fighter Beowulf is a strong man who thinks and feels His deep affection for his grandfather Hrethel and uncle

Hygelac lasts to the end of his long life He is capable of discernment sensitivity and compassion He is

concerned about what Freawaru may face in her political marriage He understands and sympathizes with

Wealtheow in her concern for her sons He more than any other character has a sense of Gods hand in humanaffairs He alone talks about an afterlife His impulses are not merely courageous they are generous As a young

man he comforts Hrothgar at Aescheres death saying that glorious deeds are the best thing for a man to take

into death Dying he thanks God that he has been allowed to trade his old life for a treasure for his people and

commits their welfare to Wiglaf



Beowulf is not merely an incredibly strong man skilled in hand-to-hand combat he is equally skilled with wordsHis defense against Unferth is a brilliant exercise in oration His conversation with his uncle on his return home is

a formal relation the official report of an ambassador When he looks backward on his life and times before his

final fight he produces the sort of historical memoir that was long the hallmark of the elder statesman His

choices may not have always been what people around him wanted whether in his decision not to take the

throne over his young cousin or in his decision to fight the dragon His choices however are never without

reasons with which the narrator and the audience can sympathize

Except for monsters Beowulf kills only two human beings Daegrefn the champion of the Franks during his

uncles disastrous raid in the lands at the mouth of the Rhine and Onela who was responsible for his cousin

Heardreds death Except for an expedition against the Swedes Beowulf does not engage in any war during his

reign

Beowulf Scylding

Beowulf Scylding is the son of Scyld father of Healfdene and grandfather of Hrothgar

Breca

Breca is the boy who has a swimming match with Beowulf Beowulf admits it is a foolish thing to do They are

separated by a storm at sea Breca reaches shore in Finland Beowulf comes ashore after killing nine sea

monsters who try to eat him

Daegrefn

Daegrefn is the champion of the Franks Beowulf defeats him in single combat before the armies of the Geats and

the Franks crushing him in a bear hug

Eadgils

Eadgils is the son of Othere and grandson of the Swedish king Ongetheow He and his brother Eanmund rebel

against their uncle King Onela They are sheltered by Heardred and the Geats Beowulf to avenge his cousin

supports Eadgils in taking the throne

Eanmund

Son of Othere and grandson of the Swedish king Ongetheow Eanmund and his brother Eadgils rebel against

their uncle King Onela They are sheltered by Heardred and the Geats

Ecglaf

Ecglaf is Unferths father

Ecgtheow



Page 31 |

Beowulfs father Ecgtheow married the unnamed daughter of Hrethel king of the Geats It is likely that

Ecgtheow was related to the Swedish royal family which would explain why the Swedish king Onela does not

dispute Beowulfs control of the Geat kingdom after Beowulfs cousin Heardred dies in battle with the Swedes

Ecgtheow is involved in a feud so violent that only Hrothgar would shelter him Hrothgar is able to settle the feud

Freawaru

Hrothgars daughter Freawaru gets engaged to Ingeld in the hope that doing so ends the recurring war betweenthe Danes and Ingelds people the Heathobards Beowulfs prediction of what is likely to happen is uncannily

like what the legends say did happen The passage characterizes Beowulf as perceptive and sympathetic

Grendel

Grendel is an immensely strong cannibal Whatever Grendel and his mother may have been in the traditions

behind the present poem in Beowulf they are descendants of Cain the eldest son of Adam and Eve and the

first murderer Placing Grendel and his mother in a biblical context made them even easier for the original

audience to accept They live in the wilds cut off from human society Grendels attack on the hall is motivatedby his hatred of joy and light The Danes cannot hope to come to terms with Grendel or his mother since they are

completely outside and beyond human society and understanding

Haethcyn

Second son of Hrethel Haethcyn kills his older brother in an archery accident Haethcyn himself is killed in the

border warfare between the Geats and the Swedes Hygelac his younger brother leads the relief party that

saves the remnants of the Geatish army at the battle of Ravenswood

Healfdene

Healfdene is Beowulf Scyldings son and the father of Hrothgar

Heardred

Heardred is the son of Hygelac and Hygd Beowulf refuses to take the throne before him and acts as his

guardian Heardred is killed in the fighting that follows his intervention in a power struggle between two branches

of the Swedish royal family

Heorogar

Heorogar is Healfdenes second son

Herebeald

Herebeald is Hrethels eldest son who is killed by his younger brother Haethcyn in an archery accident


gogalegroupcompsretrievedosgHitCountType=NoneampisETOC=trueampinPS=trueampprodId=GVRLMassHSampuserGroupName=mass13ampresultListType=REhellip 1036

Heremod

Heremod is a king of the Danes who reigns before Scyld Despite his great promise he grows cruel and

avaricious murdering his own supporters Both Hrothgar and the retainer who first sings Beowulfs praises usehim as an example of an evil leader

Hondscio

Beowulfs companion Hondscio is eaten by Grendel

Hrethel

Hrethel is Beowulfs maternal grandfather Hrethel raises Beowulf from the age of seven He dies of grief after hissecond son accidentally kills his eldest son Fighting between the Geats and Swedes begins after Hrethels death

Beowulf remembers his grandfather with great affection

Hrothgar

Hrothgar is the great-grandson of Scyld and a successful warrior king Hrothgar builds the greatest hall in the

world and finds himself unable to defend it or his people from Grendel Only once does his dignity and patientendurance break down when he is faced with another monster and the death of his closest friend just when he

thinks his hall and people are finally safe Hrothgar recovers his composure and gives Beowulf a philosophy of

life that while austere and pessimistic is fitted to the world in which they live As hinted in the poem he is killed

by his son-in-law Ingeld and Heorot is burned

Hygd

Wife of Hygelac Hygd represents a perfect queen She offers the throne to Beowulf after her husbands deathbecause her son is too young Interestingly Hygds name means ldquothoughtrdquo and her husbands name means

ldquothoughtlessrdquo

Hygelac

Hygelac is Hrethels youngest son and the hero of the battle of Ravenswood He dies on a raid that is initially

successful but ends with the annihilation of the Geatish forces

Ohtere

Ohtere is the son of Ongentheow His sons Eadgils and Eanmund unsuccessfully rebel against his brother Onela

Onela

Onela is the king of the Swedes and son of Ongentheow His nephews Eadgils and Eanmund rebel against him

They then seek refuge with Heardred and the Geats Onela exacts vengeance on the Geats killing Heardred but

he does not interfere when Beowulf takes the throne Beowulf helps Eadgils take the Swedish throne and kills



Page 32 |

Onela in vengeance for his cousins death

Ongentheow

Ongentheow is the king of the Swedes He is killed at the battle of Ravenswood

Scyld

Often called Scyld Scefing Scyld is the first king of his line In other ancient accounts Scyld is said to havearrived alone in a boat as a small child One tradition holds that he is the son of the biblical Noah and was born

aboard the ark Scyld appears in the genealogy of the West Saxon kings

Unferth

Unferth is characterized as Hrothgars ldquothylerdquo but modern scholars are not exactly sure what this word means In

glossaries from the Old English period the word is defined by the Latin word rhetor or orator Unferth may be

the kings ldquopress officerrdquo a source of official information about the king and his policies or he may be a scribe orcourt jester He is initially envious of Beowulfs reputation and reception at court but later Unferth offers his

friendship to Beowulf

Wealtheow

Wealtheow Is a princess of the house of the Helmings and the wife of Hrothgar She has great dignity political

sense and status among her husbands people She addresses Hrothgar like a counselor

Wiglaf

Wiglaf is the young warrior who comes to the aid of Beowulf when he fights the dragon Wiglaf is a relative of

Beowulf probably on his fathers side since his connections are Swedish His father Weohstan fought on the

Swedish side during their invasion of the Geats following Heardreds meddling in the internal feuds of the

Swedish royal house

THEMES

Fortitude and Wisdom

For the narrator and characters wisdom and fortitude represent an ideal to which every man aspires and which

every society needs Physical bravery was most appreciated when accompanied by understanding and

discernment This discernment was both practical and supported by a larger spiritual understanding of God and

the human condition This is the point of Hrothgars ldquosermonrdquo in lines 1700 to 1782

The Danish coast guard for example (lines 229ndash300) demonstrates these qualities in his respectful treatment ofBeowulf and his men Beowulf is a fearless master of hand-to-hand combat He is discerning in his understanding



Page 33 |

and treatment of men and women and in his sense of God Even if his decision to fight the dragon is questionablethe narrator underlines the reasonableness of its basis Beowulfs uncle Hygelac by contrast while having great

courage lacks wisdom and falls victim to his own folly and the greater military resources of the Franks

Glory and Treasure

The characters in Beowulf and its original audience wanted glory the immortality of good fame and humanmemory reaching across time and space Glory in Beowulf is usually connected with heroism in battle or with

generosity Treasure is the outward manifestation of glory Men are eager to receive gifts of fine weapons armorand jewelry much as modern athletes measure their own success by comparing their salaries relative to those of

other athletes In the epic treasure advertises a warriors worth and a peoples strength

Devout Christians however would have tried to seek the glory that God gives to those who do his will theimperishable treasure laid up in heaven of the Gospels They would seek to do their duty and more than their

duty purely for the love of God and neighbor rather than for earthly fame Earthly treasure was to be used to dogood deeds not as a display

The narrators and the characters view of glory is a point of contention among critics Some see lofgeornostldquomost desirous of praiserdquo the poems last word which is applied to Beowulf as well as Beowulfs own words toHrothgar ldquoLet him who can gain good repute before deathmdashthat it is the finest thing afterwards for the lifeless

manrdquo (lines 1384ndash89) as reflecting badly on Beowulf It may not be so simple

In the last lines of the poem (3180ndash82) the qualities for which Beowulfs people praise him are not a warriors

but those of a kindly friend He is they say ldquoof all the kings of the world the gentlest of men the kindest andgentlest to his people the most eager for gloryrdquo Because of the qualities the Geats link with Beowulfs eagerness

for glory and fame some readers believe that lofgeornost is specifically divine and not human

Fate and Providence

The narrator says Grendel would have killed more men if he could ldquoexcept God in his wisdom and the mans

[Beowulfs] courageous spirit had withstood that fate and him The lord ruled all the human race as he still doesrdquo

Both the narrator and individual characters talk about both Gods providence and a concept the Anglo-Saxons

called wyrd which may be translated as fate Providence is the will of God moving in the affairs of men Theconcept assumes there is a plan and meaning behind what happens It does not mean that men are coerced by

God

Sidebar Hide


Research online the Sutton Hoo Burial site that was excavated in 1939 and the archaeological dig atGammel Lejre Divide the class into two teams with one creating a presentation that compares the burial

and the treasures found at Sutton Hoo to the burials and treasures in Beowulf while the other team



Page 34 |

compares the evidence from Gammel Lejre to the description of Heorot in the epic Use visual aids soyour classmates can see the excavation sites and the treasures found at them

Research the development of kingship in the seventh and eighth centuries and compare the findings to thepresentation of kingship in Beowulf Further compare these western civilization kingships to those ofeither Africa or Asia Write a comparecontrast paper based on what you learn

Read J R R Tolkiens Lord of the Rings particularly the chapters dealing with the Riders of RohanHow is Beowulf reflected in Tolkiens work Write a personal opinion paper in which you give your

assessment of Tolkiens indebtedness to BeowulfPrepare an oral report on the scientific tests that are used to investigate manuscripts including infrared

photography and chemical analysis In particular investigate the use of fiber optic light and an electroniccamera to reveal hundreds of covered letters and parts of letters along the damaged edges of amanuscript Explain how this technique was used in the Electronic Beowulf Project with its long-term goal

of assembling a continuously expanding electronic archive of materials founded on but not limited to theonly surviving manuscript of Beowulf Give a PowerPoint presentation in which you describe this project

to your classmatesMetal working was an important Anglo-Saxon craft Although workers could not achieve the high

temperatures used in steel making in the later Middle Ages they still had techniques for making smallquantities of usable steel Learn about metal craft and make a display poster on which you arrangephotocopied images that illustrate the process and show museum pieces from this period

Their wills are their own but the ability to carry out their intentions is given by God

Many critics assume that wyrd is a blind force which predetermines the outcome of events There are one or two

places in the poem where this may be its meaning In others it signifies ldquodeathrdquo In most cases wyrd appears tomean the normal or expected pattern of cause and effect

Loyalty Vengeance and Feud

Loyalty is one of the greatest virtues in Beowulf It is a bond that holds Anglo-Saxon society together but itbrings with it the darker duties of vengeance and feud

In modern times injustice and victimization are often presented as lesser evils than ldquotaking the law into ones ownhandsrdquo but in Anglo-Saxon society order was maintained by just that the concept that all free men had a duty tosee justice done It was a duty to punish the murderer of family friends lord or servant One deposed West

Saxon king was killed by a swineherd in retribution for the kings murder of his lord It was possible to acceptones guilt and pay compensation the wergild or ldquoman pricerdquo The guilty persons family or lord had a duty to

see that it was paid Christians were encouraged to offer and accept these fines but no one was forced to Insome circumstances it was considered dishonorable to accept it

Feuds were often the result of tit-for-tat vengeance The feud is a constant unspoken



Beowulf slays Grendel Mary Evans Picture LibraryAlamy

theme in Beowulf and reflects the fact that Anglo-Saxons understood conflict generally in terms of the feud In

Beowulf Grendel is said to feud with God and with the Danes To stress Grendels alienation from humansociety the poet writes that the Danes could not expect a ldquowergyldrdquo from him (lines 154ndash58) When Grendel iskilled his mother comes to avenge his death Hrethel Beowulfs grandfather grieves bitterly because he cannot

avenge his eldest sons accidental death The presentation of the wars between the Geats and Swedes stresseselements that recall the feud particularly the stress laid on the killing of kings

Evil and the Monsters

The monsters in Beowulf may represent human suffering caused by natural disasters however this is not anentirely adequate explanation Grendel and his mother are essentially human even if they are monstrous Although

it does not excuse them each monster is activated by human actions Grendels envy is aroused by the sounds ofhuman joy The dragon only follows its nature in entering the open barrow and nesting on a treasure buried out of

despair by a man The dragon is disturbed by a thief who is himself driven by necessity

Hrothgar locates evil within man himself In lines 1700ndash82 he sums up all that can go wrong when a warrior

forgets that God is the source of everything that he has and is Beginning with the example of Heremod a Danishking turned tyrant Hrothgar asks the young Beowulf to remember the source of his strength and to be wary ofthe hunger for power that destroys the generosity that binds members of a society together Finally he begs him



Page 35 |

to recall that good fortune and life itself are transitory sickness the sea the sword or old age will eventually

take his strength and life Beowulf takes Hrothgars words to heart He refuses to accept the kingship of his

people until there is no other choice He dies thanking God that he was able to win a treasure that will be of useto his people

STYLE

Point of View

Beowulf has an omniscient narrator He comments on the characters actions and on what they think He isaware of things for example the curse on the dragons horde (lines 3066ndash75) unknown to the other characters

Beowulf shares this feature with the Iliad the Odyssey and the Aeneid but remains subtly different Thenarrator connects his knowledge with that of the audience in the opening lines of the poem ldquoWe have heard ofthe glory of the princes of the Spear Danesrdquo as a means of legitimating the story The narrators voice is also

intimately connected with the characters since both use narratives in the same way to point out a moral or toproject future events

Characterization

The poet used several methods to create character The narrator describes characters and characters expressthemselves in direct speech a popular part of all Germanic poetry Moreover characters define each other as

when the coast guard (lines 237ndash57) or Wulfgar (lines 336a-70) give their impressions of Beowulf and his menMore striking is the poets careful development of characters through their own speeches The voices of the

individual characters are just that the voices of individuals Beowulfs speeches could not be confused with

Hrothgars

Alliterative Verse

Old English poetry is different from that of most English verse written since the Norman Conquest It is based on

a pattern of stressed syllables linked by alliteration across a line of verse divided by a distinct pause in the middle

In Old English verse the basic unit is the half line Each half line has two stressed syllables and up to six

unstressed syllables In a full line the two half lines are divided by a pause (called a caesura) They are joined byalliteration the repetition of the initial consonants or vowels of stressed syllables as in ldquoAnna angry Arthurboldrdquo Two or three (never all four) stressed syllables alliterate They may be the first andor the second and the

third The third stressed syllable must alliterate The fourth stressed syllable does not

Episodes and Digressions

One distinctive feature of Beowulf is the use of shorter narratives embedded in the main story of the poem Theyare not part of the main narrative but they can be related to its past or present These narratives can be divided

into two types episodes and digressions An episode is a narrative that is complete in itself but merged one wayor another into the main narrative An example is the Finnsburg Tale (lines 1063ndash1159a) A digression is much



Page 36 |

shorter allusive rather than fully developed and interrupts the main narrative Episodes and digressions oftenillustrate good or bad conduct or suggest to the audience a particular way of looking at the main action

From Lay into Epic

Except for Beowulf the secular narrative poetry found in Old English (as in ldquoThe Battle of Maldonrdquo ldquoThe Battle

of Brunnanburhrdquo and the ldquoFinnsburg Fragmentrdquo are all lays or fairly short narratives telling the story of oneevent Only the ldquoWaldhere Fragmentrdquo (sixty-three remaining lines) may have been part of a poem as long as

Beowulf The lay seems to have been the usual native narrative poem Longer more complex epic structureappears to have come into existence with the introduction of Christian Latin culture whose educational system

included the Aeneid For this reason nineteenth century scholars assumed Beowulf was made up of earlier laysScholars later concluded that Beowulf is not a patchwork of older material stitched together but an originalcomposition using completely recast older material from a variety of sources

Formulaic Style

Many scholars have attempted to demonstrate that Beowulf was composed orally Whether the poet wrote or

spoke he used a traditional stock of words and patterns of composition used by Anglo-Saxon poets andrecognized and appreciated by their audiences

The formula can be broken down into 3 headings epithets and short modifying formulas sentence formulas and

formulaic elaboration of themes One kind of epithet the kenning is a contracted metaphor for example isern-scur (iron shower) for a flight of arrows or hildegicelum (battle icicle) for sword Another kind of epithet is a

literal description similarly reduced to its essentials for example hildebord (battle board a shield) Thedifference between a kenning and a noun compound can be seen by comparing hilde-mece (battle sword) with

hilde-leoma (battle light) There are many different compounds for warriors weapons and relationships in aheroic culture By varying the first word of the compound the poet could make different alliterative patterns Thushilde can be varied with beado guth and wael The words formed do not necessarily mean exactly the same

thing Hilde means battle but wael means specifically slaughter

Sentence formulas provide summaries and transitions Many are short half-lines as in ldquoI recall all thatrdquo There

are also sentence patterns for instance those beginning ldquonot at allrdquo or ldquonot onlyrdquo that then go on to ldquobutrdquo ldquoafterrdquoldquountilrdquo ldquothenrdquo These are often used for ironic understatement another characteristic of Anglo-Saxon verse For

example ldquoNot at all did the personal retainers the children of princes stand about him in valour but they ran tothe woodsrdquo (lines 2596ndash9a) Sentence formulas were developed to allow quick shifts of action and to carry theparallels and contrasts that are characteristic of Old English style

Certain themes were addressed through the use of specific words images and symbolic objects These wordsand ideas had an understood meaning among Anglo-Saxons Using such words invoked their understood

meaning so that the themes they referred to need not be further elaborated by the poet One example is thegroup of words and images used to develop battle descriptions the ldquobeasts of battlerdquo the wolf the raven and the

eagle who it was understood traditionally fed on the bodies of those slain

HISTORICAL CONTEXT



The Origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms

The Germanic peoples arrived in Britain over a period of perhaps a century and a half They did not alwaysarrive in tribal or family groups They do not seem to have brought their kings with them Only the Mercian royal

family claimed to be descended from a continental king Certainly groups based on kinship or on loyalty to amilitary leadermdashwhether one of their own or a Roman-Britainmdashbegan to coalesce into proto-kingdoms The

wars between the Geats and the Swedes in Beowulf may represent remembered incidents on the continent Aspossible it may represent the continual struggle among the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England

These areas absorbed one another and Romano-British areas until at the time of the Viking invasions (c 800)

there were three major kingdoms Mercia Northumbria and Wessex and two smaller ones Kent and EastAnglia When Alfred fought the Vikings to a standstill about 890 Wessex alone was left Through all these

centuries government society and culture were changing and developing

Loyalty and Society

Throughout this period however some things remained constant One is the personal loyalty that held society

together The mutual loyalty within the kindred and within the war band were at the heart of Anglo-Saxon socialorganization Institutions were centered on individuals A noble even a royal household was held together by

loyalty to a lord who was generous and worthy of respect Within this relationship the beotword a formalstatement of intention was important

Learning Literature and Craftsmanship

Life in Anglo-Saxon England had few of the comforts that modern readers take for granted but it was notwithout achievement and personal satisfaction Anglo-Saxon society appreciated craftsmanship and was open to

new ideas and technologies Within a century of the arrival of Roman and Irish missionaries among them theAnglo-Saxons had mastered the manufacture of parchment paint and ink glass and masonry By the eighth

century they had several kinds of watermills with relatively elaborate wooden machinery monumental sculptureand the potters wheel By the eighth century Anglo-Saxons were producing literature in Latin and carrying

Christianity to related tribes on mainland Europe The love of craftsmanship learning and literature survived thegreatest hardships When the educational base was nearly wiped out by the Viking raids in the ninth centuryAlfred of Wessex in the middle of his struggles to defend his kingdom set about re-establishing schools and

encouraging scholarship He encouraged translators even translating texts himself so that those who did notknow Latin could still have access to ldquothe books most necessary for men to knowrdquo

The Germanic immigrants from the continent who became the Anglo-Saxons brought a writing systemmdashrunesmdashwith them from the continent Runes were used for short inscriptions occasionally magical usually merely astatement of who made or who owned an object Their literature and history were preserved orally using an

elaborate poetic technique and vocabulary Even after the introduction of Latin learning this poetry held its ownand began to be written using the Latin alphabet Nevertheless literature was still heard rather than read even

when the text was a written one The difficulties of book production meant that multiple copies of any text exceptthe most basic religious books were a rarity even in monasteries Whether literate and illiterate men and women

would rely on hearing books read aloud Even when reading privately people read aloud which made themconscious of the rhythm of poetry and prose



Page 37 |

Beside their love of literature the Anglo-Saxons had a passion for music Small harps called lyres have been

found even in the graves of warriors and in Beowulf at least one warrior is also a poet-singer Songs and chantswere popular among the Anglo-Saxons and some of the earliest manuscripts of chant still in existence are fromAnglo-Saxon England Large organs existed in the tenth century

The Hall

Halls like Hrothgars mead-hall or drinking hall Heorot if not so magnificent were the normal homes of

wealthier landowners A great deal like the old fashioned wooden barns still seen in parts of the United Statesthey had great central open fires and beamed roofs The walls were hung with woven and embroidered draperyBy the tenth century some halls had an upper floor Some had smaller attached rooms or halls to give the women

of the family some privacy

Sidebar Hide


Anglo-Saxon period The pre-electrical world was a world of darkness People get up and bed down

with the sun Light comes from fires and small lamps burning whale or olive oil or rushes dipped in animalfat On a clear night in Anglo-Saxon England the sky is dazzlingly clear and bright with stars

Today The great urban centers light up the night Satellite photos of Earth show large glowing areas fromall the artificial light Flying across the United States one sees the light of towns cities and interstates far

below However in urban settings people see few stars because of light pollutionAnglo-Saxon period The population of Britain is probably under three million people Land is claimedfor farming by cutting down forests Most native trees readily regrow from stumps Wolves roamed the

countryside The edges of forests provide game wood and food for pigs Wetlands are important for fishwaterfowl and basketry materials such as alder willow and rushes

Today The population of Great Britain is over sixty-one million Most people live in citiesConservationists try to preserve woodlands wetlands and areas of traditional agriculture Having long

since lost most of its forests Great Britain is rocky with little top soil Thus herding sheep is morecommon than farmingAnglo-Saxon period Most people live in self-sufficient communities People grow what they eat make

what they need build their homes out of local materials or trade for goods made locally Local ortraveling smiths make knives and other metal tools to order Salt and millstones and luxury goods such as

wine spices and silk are bought at fairsToday People buy nearly everything they use Food is often bought already prepared Many items are

manufactured hundreds if not thousands of miles from where they are purchased and used Howeverconcerns about chemicals used in food production and desire for a healthy diet cause some people tokeep vegetable and herb gardens at home

Anglo-Saxon period Most people die young Some people live into their sixties and seventies but theaverage life expectancy for those who lived past infancy is probably between thirty-five and thirty-eight

Medicine is primitive Herbal remedies have limited effectiveness People have no understanding of howdiseases were contracted There were few ways of deadening pain Pneumonia and abscesses are usually



Page 38 |

fatal and blood-poisoning is common Death in childbirth is common Appendicitis is fatal

Today People in North America and Western Europe can expect to live into their seventies and eighties

Most of the illnesses and conditions that killed Anglo-Saxon people are no longer a threat given modernsanitation clean water and access to basic medical treatment

Women in Anglo-Saxon Society

The hall was in many ways a mens club but the owners wife and her eldest daughter would extend hospitality toguests and retainers offering them a drink from a special cup The modern word ldquowassailrdquo an early English toast

that later came to be applied to a hot alcoholic brewed drink derives from Waes thu hael ldquoBe you healthyrdquowhich was said as a beverage was handed to a guest

Women were active in dairying and textile production Wool and linen were spun by hand and woven on upright

frames English woolen cloth and fine embroidery were already prized on the continent by the end of the eighthcentury

Manuscript page from Beowulf

Women particularly from ruling families could have considerable power influence and education



Page 39 |

Weapons

Every Anglo-Saxon man and woman carried a plain practical knife for work and eating Men who could be

called up for military service would be equipped with a spear and shield Warriors and nobles would also own asword Swords were very expensive worth as much as a small farm and armor even more so They were

important possessions often handed down from father to son To bury them with a man was a great mark ofhonor and a display of wealth and status

CRITICAL OVERVIEW

If the Beowulf manuscript is not the authors autograph as claimed by Kevin Kiernan then the first extant criticalappreciation of the poem is the manuscript itself Someone thought enough of the work to have it copied on goodvellum by two fairly good scribes an expensive decision for the year 1000 Another indication of its earliest

popularity may be in its apparent influence on another Old English poem Andreas which survives in amanuscript kept at Exeter Cathedral in Devon since the mid-eleventh century After that there is no sign of the

poem for well over five hundred years

Laurence Nowell acquired the book in the 1560s and wrote his name and date on the top of the first page It is

unlikely he could read much of the poem The manuscript eventually appeared in the library of a family namedCotton but it does not appear in either of the librarys two catalogues (1628ndash1629 and 1696) In 1704Humfrey Wanley however recorded it in his published catalogue of manuscripts containing Old English The

effective rediscovery of the poem however was the work of an Icelander G S Thorkelin and a Dane N S FGrundtvig Thorkelin had a transcription of the poem made and made a second himself He published his edition

in 1815 Grundtvig worked on and published the poem between 1815 and 1861 Perhaps the greatest singlescholar of the poem Grundtvig proposed many of the later accepted restorations of the text (emendations) and

proved Beowulfs uncle Hygelac to be a historical figure For Grundtvig the poems greatness lay in its sense ofmoral purpose Grundtvig approached the poem as a unified work of literature in its own terms anticipating themajor topics of later Beowulf criticism

After Grundtvig some scholars concentrated on clearing up problems of the poems language and allusionsOthers mined the poem as a historical and social document in the hopes of proving their often politically inspired

theories about ancient Germanic life Still others attempted to identify older poems (lays) within it or to discover anature myth or allegory in its action By the opening years of the twentieth century Beowulf was a synonym for

undergraduate literary boredom In 1915 novelist D H Lawrence used it in The Rainbow as a symbol ofaridity and meaninglessness in education Robert Graves just back from World War I trench warfare in 1919disagreed He found the poem more relevant to his military experience than courtly works from the eighteenth

century

It was another returned soldier J R R Tolkien who in writing ldquoThe Monsters and the Criticsrdquo made itimpossible to treat the poem simply as a quarry for the study of language or anthropology W P Kerr some

thirty years earlier had complained that the monsters cheapened the poem Tolkien insisted that the evil which themonsters represented was a central part of a profound commentary on the human condition Many critics agreethat Tolkien redirected readers of Beowulf from what the poem is not to what it is His powers as a writer not

only in his lecture but also in his use of Beowulf in Lord of the Rings greatly contributed to Beowulf being



accepted not only as literature but as great literature

Criticism in the thirties was dominated by discussions lyric poetry Tolkiens elegiac reading of Beowulf althoughnot entirely convincing in its details was popular among critics and redirected critical attention from the problems

of narrative momentum and to the poems humanity Although Frederick Klaeber had established the poemsessential Christianity over twenty years before critical tendencies were also now sympathetic to Tolkiens

identification of a Christian reading beneath the surface action The horrors of war too had made monstrous andunreasoning evil at the heart of the human situation a compelling subject

Klaeber saw Beowulf as a real even Christlike hero Tolkien like many writers and film makers of the mid-twentieth century was uncomfortable with so-called traditional heroes Eric Stanley John Leyerle and othersdeveloped a vision of the man Beowulf flawed by his desire for praise or treasure or even being born before the

arrival of Christianity Leyerle and Halverson and even more thoroughly Berger and Leicester tend to relocatethe flaw from the character to his society In its most developed form this view held that the heroism the

characters see as necessary for personal worth and social solidarity is destructive of both These studies areoften selective in their presentation out of touch with historical reality and full of special pleading Kemp Malone

and others rebutted at least the more extreme of these arguments

Many later readers struggled with the assumption that since Beowulf is not Christian the poet must have assumedthat he was damned This view however does not seem to fit what actually goes on in the poem Some critics

have flirted with the idea of a slightly heretical or at least theologically confused poet For much the same reasonMargaret Goldsmith proposed an allegorical reading of the poem Then beginning with a collection of articles

edited by Colin Chase in 1981 Beowulf criticism focused on the manuscript it self and the question of dating Inthe latter half of the twentieth century hundreds of publications appeared on Beowulf of them perhaps the most

influential were Adrien Bonjours The Digressions in ldquoBeowulfrdquo (1950) E B Irvings two books A Readingof ldquoBeowulfrdquo (1968) and Rereading ldquoBeowulfrdquo (1989) and John Niles ldquoBeowulfrdquo The Poem and ItsTradition (1984) Klaebers definitive edition of Beowulf first published in 1936 was reissued in 2008 with

revised introduction and commentary updated scholarship and study aids A 2010 overview of Beowulfcriticism by Jodi-Anne George part of a Macmillan series of guides presented important criticism in

chronological order and traced the trends in theory These tools enable readers to easily find and study reliablecriticism of the great epic

CRITICISM

Helen Conrad-OBriain

Conrad-OBriain holds a PhD from Trinity College Dublin where she is a research associate of theCentre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and an adjunct lecturer in the School of English In the

following essay Conrad-OBriain discusses the epic elements in Beowulf and the Anglo-Saxon epictechniques of its author She also compares the character of Beowulf with other epic heroes

Michael Alexander a translator of Beowulf begins his entry on the epic in A Dictionary of Modern Critical

Terms with Miltons ldquogreat argumentrdquo and ldquoanswerable stylerdquo that is as a definition of epic Alexander states thatthe work must have an important theme and a style to match He continues ldquoclassically trained critics expecting

art to see life steadily and see it whole look for an idealized realism and debar folklore and romance elementsrdquoParaphrasing and then quoting the critic Northrup Frye Alexander accepts that ldquothese stories recapitulate the life



Page 40 |

of the individual and the race The note of epic is its objectivity lsquoIt is hardly possible to overestimate theimportance for western literature of the Iliads demonstration that the fall of an enemy no less than of a friend orleader is tragic

Sidebar Hide

WHAT DO I READ NEXT

The anonymous Irish epic Ta in Bo Cu ailnge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley) available in a translation by

Thomas Kinsella (1969) is unusual in that it is composed in prose with inset short verses The focus of thestory alternates between two characters Queen Maeve of Connacht who begins the war and the Ulster

hero Cuchulainn During the period in which the Ta in and Beowulf were written England and Irelandenjoyed close cultural ties

In writing his famous fantasy Lord of the Rings (1954ndash1955) J R R Tolkien used characters and actionfrom Beowulf The influence of Beowulf is obvious in the Riders of Rohan who figure in Book 2 TheTwo Towers and Book 3 The Return of the King

John Gardners 1972 bestseller Grendel is an imaginative retelling of Beowulf from Grendels point ofview

Tom Holts fantasy comedy ldquoWhos Afraid of Beowulfrdquo (1989) mixes satire heroic virtues andcomputers The heros character is loosely based on that of Beowulf

Swords and Sorcerers Stories from the World of Fantasy and Adventure edited by Clint Willis andpublished by Thunders Mouth Press in 2003 is a collection of nineteen notable fantasy stories andexcerpts from longer works including Beowulf

Theodore L Steinbergs 2003 Reading the Middle Ages An Introduction to Medieval Literatureprovides a cultural context for the literature of this period

and not comicrdquorsquo According to this definition Beowulf somehow combines the elements that define the epic withother elements that seem to come from the world of ldquoJack the Giant Killerrdquo and ldquoThree Billy Goats Gruffrdquo

Beowulf is indeed on one level a very simple story told with great elaboration A man of great strengthcourage and generosity fights three monsters two as a young man the third in his old age Other morecomplicated human events precede these others intervene others follow but those more realistic events are all

essentially background To some earlier critics such as W P Kerr in Epic and Romance the choice of afolktale main narrative was a serious fault Monsters lacked the dignity to carry the ldquogreat argumentrdquo with

ldquoanswerable stylerdquo

IN BEOWULF THE NARRATOR AND CHARACTERS USE HUMAN EXPERIENCE

TO UNDERSTAND THE HUMAN CONDITION AND TO FIND THE NOBLESTWAY TO LIVE THEIR LIVESrdquo

But Beowulf is a true epic in its breadth of interests and sympathies even though it is centered on the career of

one man killing three monsters The action and the characters of this apparently simple story have the strength toembody the experience and ideals of the original audience The monsters participate in evil and disorder as no

human even Heremod could but the evil that originates purely within the human heart is not overlooked



Page 41 |

Transforming both the fairy tale monsters and the sordid power politics of the background is the objectiverecognition of human struggle for understanding and order This is the hallmark of human experience seen throughthe lens of epic technique In Beowulf the narrator and characters use human experience to understand the

human condition and to find the noblest way to live their lives

In part Beowulfs epic inclusiveness comes from the narrators often short observations which place the poem in

a larger transcendent context The narrator periodically reminds the reader of the over-arching providence ofGod as in lines 1056ndash58 ldquoThe Lord God ruled over all men as he now yet doesrdquo In part the epic breadth

comes from the characters particularly Beowulf and Hrothgar It is Beowulfs generosity of spirit and imaginativesympathy for individuals that introduces characters like the old man mourning his executed son or the young girlFreawaru facing a political marriage It is that same generosity of spirit and sympathy that allows him to speak

objectively of the ldquosin and crime on both sidesrdquo in the war between the Geats and Swedes (lines 2472ndash73)

Hrothgar the old king of the Danes a man who has known triumph and disaster looks back across his long lifeand reaches into the workings of the human heart and out into the realities of time and circumstances tounderstand human sorrow and evil

The inclusiveness of Beowulf reaches backwards and forwards in time The short narratives embedded in themain narrative (digressions) reflect on the main action as Adrien Bonjour demonstrates in The Digressions inldquoBeowulfrdquo They also create a sense of continuity and universality in the situations the characters faceCharacter by character incident by incident they create the society and the universe in which the great tests ofthe monsters are set They define the limits of the heroic heart and heroic society the ideals which characters

such as Hrothgar and Beowulf fulfill and in some ways transcend In these narratives as in the poem asAlexander writes in his translations introduction the operations of cause and consequence however mysteriousto the characters whether deriving from natural forces or human will are inescapable

Beowulf is a carefully designed poem A heroic king comes from the sea and is given back to the sea in deathGenerations later another heroic king is buried on the cliffs overlooking the sea Between them vengeance and

feud despair and generosity weave their way through the human life Every idea every theme is examined fromone angle after another with all the techniques available to the poet from an Anglo-Saxon poetic tradition rich inirony and understatement Treasure is the lifeblood of heroic society fame made tangible but the poet links itwith death and despair Love of kin motivates Beowulf throughout his life but in the society around him families

destroy themselves Song and generosity wake a monster Just when safety seems assured the best and truestfriend and counselor dies

The poets technical skill assured that the poem would mark a high point in Anglo-Saxon poetry Although thesetechniques are specifically Anglo-Saxon they broadly parallel other western epics The poem uses an elaboratevocabulary dictated at least in part by the alliteration and stress patterns of Old English verse This vocabulary

although largely that of everyday speech or prose includes words which are rarely used other than in poetry It isquite possible the poet has even coined words for Beowulf The poet presents the material in carefully structuredsentences and equally structured verse paragraphs This structure with its emphasis on defining things by whatthey are not and by understatement produces pointed juxtapositions of characters themes and action Itclarifies cause and effect It produces clear and swift narrative movement It can be a potent source of irony

Alexander in the introduction to his translation draws attention to the use of basic values in Beowulf Sunlight isgood cold is bad The words do not refer to symbols but to reality Alexanders observations are a good



Page 42 |

introduction to the poets use of description The poem gains immediacy from simplicity and universality a qualityit shares with the Homeric epic The poet always seems to find the best and fewest words to make objectsauthentic Landscapes resonate with atmosphere grey cold and threatening as in the description of the wild

lands which Grendel haunts (lines 1357ndash76 and 1408ndash23) or full of light and life as in the landscape of thecreation song (lines 90ndash98) Sometimes space is defined by the quality of movement through it as in thelandscape through which the Danish retainers ride back after tracking Grendels last bloodstained retreat or as inBeowulfs two sea voyages (lines 210ndash24 and 1903ndash12)

The poems characters particularly Beowulf himself are molded by the needs and aspirations of the poet andaudiences society This is true to some extent of all literature but particularly of the epic Beowulf however isdifferent from other northern heroes and from the heroes of Greek and Roman epics He is radically different notjust from Heremod but from Ing and Scyld and Sigemund He is unlike Achilles unlike Odysseus except in hislove of family He is a hero driven not by personal glory but by affection and duty He seems largely untouched

by the darker emotions that dog Aeneas and betray him into fury at the end of the Aeneid Only the doomedHector of Homers Iliad seems to be a hero of the same clay Personal glory is not without meaning to BeowulfHe tells Hrothgar that the best thing men can do is to lay up fame before death (lines 1386ndash89) He happilyaccepts treasure and just as happily passes it on to others Nevertheless a sense of duty sympathy andgenerosity are his primary motivation Despite his great strength he is a man with limitations in each of his fights

Brendan as Wiglaf John Malkovich as Unferth and Robin Wright Penn as Wealthow in the 2007 fantasyfilm version of Beowulf directed by Robert Zemeckis Photos 12Alamy

he is seriously challenged and clearly sees himself as relying on the help of God

Beginning with J R R Tolkiens essay ldquoThe Monsters and the Criticsrdquo many critics have stressed a sense offutility in Beowulf This reading arose partially from factors within the poem and partially from factors external to



Page 43 |

it These critics had lived through two world wars Many of them had served as soldiers and known violent oftenpointless death often the death of friends They did not cease to admire heroism but they balanced it againstwhat they knew of wars futility Beowulf is not a pacifists poem but these critics have made readers moreaware of the problems and fragility of its warrior society and standards Beowulf and the rest of the characters

are never allowed the luxury of assuming that any victory earns more than a respite The poem conveys a deepsense of the fragility of human institutions and of human hopes Good men and women can do their best theirfame is assured but not necessarily their works The whole action of the poem happens within historical patternsin which families and kingdoms rise and fall

This sense of the transitory nature of human life is part of the critical re-evaluation of the implications of the

poems Christianity J DA Ogilvy and Donald Baker have suggested that Beowulfs death is like a saints deathand the parallels particularly with that of Bedes death are closer than even they suggest Other critics haveexplored similar implications in Beowulfs burial The real tragedy of the poem may lie not in Beowulfs owndeath which transcends the tragic through his faith in God but in his peoples despair which leads to the re-

burial of the treasure He gives his life to save them from the dragon but he cannot save them from themselvesThe Geats even Wiglaf refuse more than his dying wish they refuse to accept Beowulfs view of them a peopleworthy of the real treasure of an old kings life

Source Helen Conrad-OBriain Critical Essay on Beowulf in Epics for Students 2nd ed Gale CengageLearning 2011

Rosemary Huisman

In the following essay Huisman discusses gender roles in Anglo-Saxon society and how they shapecharacters in Beowulf

Over the last few years I have been thinking reading and writing about narrative At the 2005 conference of theAustralian Early Medieval Association in Canberra I described the model of narrative which I had developedone derived from the different natural worlds and their associated temporalities as described in modern physics Isaw a dominance of different temporalities at different periods of English narrative and in particular I saw the

dominance in narrative in Old English of sociotemporality the time of the social world of humans Traditionalnarrative theories had assumed time to be a singular concept but that time which those theories had equatedwith a chronological sequence in the understanding of narrative turns out to be only one of six possible

temporalities the one associated with the physiological or biological world in which I cant drink the water until I

pick up the glass Sociotemporality however is associated with a world of symbolic relations and socialattributes and identities its sequence is that by which a social group understands its history its social being Themeaning of this narrative sequence is equative a sequence of social similarity or frequently dissimilarity it iscomparable in the clause to the meaning choices of relational processes of being or not being In the Old

English poem Beowulf the hall Heorot is raised the narrative immediately tells us of familial strife which destroysit (lines 82bndash85) Hrothgar tells Beowulf he will be a comfort to his people and immediately adds Ne weardHeremod swa [Not thus was Heremod hellip ] as he describes the malevolent rule of a king who brought injury tohis people (lines 1707bndash1724a) It is this leaping about in chronological sequence which motivated Klaebersfamous heading on narrative in Beowulf lsquolack of steady advancersquo not to mention the persistent use of the term

lsquodigressions in earlier Beowulf scholarship



Page 44 |

In my abstract for this paper I included a short plot summary of Beowulf its a typical panoramic overviewHowever as Barbara Hemstein Smith has shown in her study of plot summaries of Cinderella no plot summaryis innocent there is always a particular purpose or assumed purpose realised in what is given or what is left outMy summary is in fact traditional because its temporality is chronological one event after another with specificlinguistic indications of time (in bold) These events are physical acts (underlined) as is appropriate for the world

of chronological sequence

The hero Beowulf from a people called the Geats when a young man visits the Danish court ofKing Hrothgar and kills in turn two monsters who have savaged the Danish peoplemdashfirst a monstercalled Grendel then Grendels mother Fifty years later as an old man and now king of the GeatsBeowulf kills a dragon which is threatening his own people but in the process is himself killed

But if one were trying instead to make a summary based on sociotemporal relations the social world of equativesequence what would one include To repeat sociotemporality is associated with a world of symbolic relationsand social attributes and identities its sequence is that by which a social group understands its history its socialbeing A summary will mention superordinate terms for symbolic relations social attributes and social identities

On textual and archaeological grounds it seemed tome that a good place to start was with the two lexical sets inOld English which cluster around the social identities of gender As Christine Fell pointed out over 20 years agothe word mon(n)man(n) is ungendered in Old English and signifies lsquohumanrsquo even into the eleventh century TheOxford English Dictionary [ OED ] gives the first sense of lsquomanrsquo as lsquoa human being irrespective of sex or agehellip in O[ld] E[nglish] the prevailing sensersquo and adds under 11 a) lsquoin many OE instances and in a few of later

date used explicitly as a designation equally applicable to either sex (obs) In OE the words distinctive of sexwere wet wif waepman and wifmanrsquo So in the second pair to indicate one gender or the other a compoundwith man as the second element was used with a first element metonymically signifying the gender wif for thefemale waep - a contraction of waepned for the male My principal concern in this paper is to suggest thedistinctive social domains associated with these first elements and to relate these domains to the symbolic

relations and social attributes of male and female characters as told in the poem Beowulf

IN THE POEM BEOWULF THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT BETWEEN THE TWOCOMPLEMENTARY DOMAINS OF SOCIAL ACTION SOCIAL POWER IS VERYUNEVENLY DISTRIBUTEDrdquo

A Boolean search of the online Dictionary of Old English Old English corpus on the stems wif and waepned

-gave 33 matches that is short contexts in which both stems occurred used contrastively sometimes with asecond element sometimes as the whole wordhellip

hellip

Wif-and waepned -were also used contrastively with other second elements for example

wifcynnewaepnedcynne wifhandawaepnedhanda

It is appropriate to describe these two first elements as two lsquolexical sitems rather than words (or morphemes) asfurther searches of the corpus demonstrate their various spellings and contractions for example



wifmenrarr wimmen waepnedmenrarr waepmenrarr wepmen

All of these variants are used at times alone that is not in the context of the contrasting term

The semantic field in modern translation from which the masculine lexical item derives is uncontentiouswaepned lsquoweaponed past participle of the weak verb waepnian lsquoto armrsquo derived from the strong nounwaepen lsquoweapon sword These grammatical variants can be related to many similar forms in other earlyGermanic languages (the OED comments that lsquooutside Teutonic no comparable cognates have been found)

While waepnedman is literally an armed human the social assumption that it is those of the male gender whobear arms has telescoped the meaning relations waepned -now directly signifies lsquomalersquo

The semantic field of the feminine first element is less confidently ascribed The OED describes lsquowifersquo OE wifas lsquoof obscure originrsquo Christine Fell echoes these words but adds lsquoit could be etymologically connected with thewords for lsquoweavingrsquo and this would certainly make good sense in so far as the duties of cloth-making seem to be

the ones most consistently linked with the feminine rolersquo Inductively I am confident (until someone candemonstrate otherwise) that wf is related to the OE strong verb wefan [to weave] that a wf is originally alsquoweaving humanrsquo Other words from the semantic field associated with cloth-making are similarly gendered inModern English As Fell notes the word lsquospinsterrsquo is not recorded until Middle English but obviously existed inOE (from verb spinnan with feminine occupational suffix -stere) My contemporary Collins English

Dictionary glosses the word lsquodistaffrsquo (from OE dis-lsquobunch of flaxrsquo and stoef for lsquothe rod on which wool flaxetc is wound preparatory to spinningrsquo) as lsquothe female side or branch of a familyrsquo and adds lsquocompare ldquospearsiderdquorsquomdashwhich in turn is glossed as lsquothe male side or branch of a familyrsquo In the latter lsquospearrsquo we see thepersistence of the semantic field of weaponry gendered as male here clearly contrasted with a term from the set

of cloth-making lsquodistaffrsquo gendered as female

In summary in the Old English (and arguably in the more generalGermanic) usage we have the contrast of aweaving human (female) with a weaponed human (male)

We can describe these as metonymic relations that is in the terms of Peircean semiotics weaving is an indexicalsign of female gender weaponed is an indexical sign of male gender What social domains of human activity do

these gendered signs refer to

I had previously wondered about indices of gender when looking at grave goods from various excavations (Itwill be obvious I am not an archaeologist) Im not referring here to the grand collections such as that of SuttonHoo in the British Museum but rather to the small collections of local material you see in places like CanterburyMost items I could identifymdashthe swords spears brooches beads combsmdashbut two items defeated me The

first the round crystal balls the size of a marble still puzzle everyone though Audrey Meaney suggests the roleof amulet an object with amagical purpose for female use The second item very common looked like aceramic or stone doughnut I now know its an item used in spinning in Modern English called a spindle whorlAlternatively if heavy it could be used in weaving to weight the warp or vertical threads on a weighted loomthe reconstruction of a large loom in the Viking Museum at York uses such weights Descriptions of grave goods

typically assert some goods as indices of gender yet there is sometimes a curious lacuna in relation toclothmaking objects Thus from The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England under the entryGRAVE GOODS

Weapons including spears shields and swords were associated with male burials while jewellery

such as strings of beads brooches and wrist-clasps and other dress fittings such as work-boxes



Page 45 |

bunches of keys and items designed to dangle from a waist-belt (girdle-hangers and chatelaines)accompanied female ones

You notice there is no mention of spinning and weaving items although other accounts refer to these as

lsquocommonrsquo in graves described as female When archaeologists contrast the grave goods found in womens andmens graves they more usually talk of the weapons of men and the jewellery of women perhaps because thereis more variation in the latter which may then be read as signifying status as well as gender For whatever reasonthe practices of cloth-making tend to be less visible in many scholarly discussions (The Blackwell

Encyclopaedia entry for TEXTILES initially states that the topic includes the processes as well as the productbut then discusses only the product the cloth produced) Yet excavations such as those at Sutton Courtenay

Oxfordshire in the 1920s and 1930s (lsquothe first early Anglo-Saxon settlement to be recognised and excavated ina systematic wayrsquo) yielded many items used in spinning and weaving As Henrietta Leyser writeshellip

hellipspinning and weaving have been the pre-eminent tasks for women of every class from slave toaristocrat in all the early civilisations of which we knowmdashEgypt Palestine Greece Rome Anglo-Saxon England is no exception In all probability every home had its loom spindle whorls shearsand weaving batons are found regularly in womens graves

Why is the activity of weaving as opposed to that using weapons comparatively invisible to some scholars

when the gendered lexical items wif -and woepned -seem so evenly contrasted in textual use (Feminist scholarsmay find this a rhetorical question)

The archaeological evidence if not conclusive is at least supportive of the linguistic evidence Both suggest thatin early Anglo-Saxon society there were understood to be two complementary social domains of actioncorresponding to the indexical signs for the two genders that of weaving (or cloth-making generally) forwomen

and that of possessing weapons for men Initially I will just assert that theAnglo-Saxons readily extended eachdomain from the physical to the social The physical is to weave cloth The social is to weave the social fabricThe physical is to wield weapons The social is to protect the social fabric The social functions of thewoepnedman and the wifman are complementary and both essential for the continuance of the social world

One consequence of this account is that it shows the irrelevance of modern dualisms like privatepublic in talkingabout Anglo-Saxon culture The more relevant dualism is that of internal perspective and external perspectivelooking inwards to or outwards from the social group in each domain of action of making and protecting thesocial fabric both perspectives come into play For a woepnedman the external perspective is that of fightingexternal threats to the social group the internal perspective is that of co-operating with his fighting companions

For a wifman the internal perspective is that of weaving good relations among those in the social group theexternal perspective I will argue is that of weaving through her body good relations with another social groupby being given in marriage and bearing a child of both groups You can see that positive and negative valuesdiffer in each domain In the male domain the external negative value is cowardice a lack of courage the internalnegative value is disloyalty or treachery For women the internal negative value is the disruption of social

relations the external negative value is the refusal of exchange For either gender externally or internally successin actions of positive value makes and strengthens the social world failure in those actions or even worsesuccess in actions of negative value weakens tears the social fabric

We can see fairly readily from the external perspective that the indexical sign of masculinity weapons is directly



Page 46 |

related to the masculine social domain of action that of protection whether defensively against attack oraggressively to augment the groups territory or treasure However the understanding of lsquoweavingrsquo as through thewomans body is also not just a figure of speech Consider talk of the Virgin Mary Just as Christian churcheswere built over the sites of pagan temples Christian discourse could incorporate the pagan indices of femininity

Jane Chance gives an extreme (if non-Germanic) example by Saint Proclus Patriarch of Constantinople (ob 416CE) He describes

the awful loom of the Incarnation wherein in ineffable manner that garment of union was wrought ofwhich the Holy Ghost is weaver the overshadowing Power from on high weaveress the old fleeceof Adam the wool the most pure flesh of the Virgin the woof the immense grace of her who bore

the Artificer the weaving-shuttlemdashthe Word in fine coming gently in from on high at the hearing ofthe ear

The Marian Library in Ohio records that in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew (thought to be derived from theProto-Evangelium of James)

Mary is called to the temple with other maidens and given wool to weave a new curtain for thetemple While spinning this purple wool at home she was visited by the Annunciation Thusspinning is one of the typical activities in representations of Marys Annunciation pregnancy andJosephs doubt

Mary Clayton who has done the most detailed work on the cult of Mary in Anglo-Saxon England remarks that

lsquoof the individual scenes found in early Christian art the most common early type of Annunciation is one with aseated Virgin generally spinninghelliprsquo She notes that in the Anglo-Saxon Benedictional of St AEthelwold theAnnunciation illumination has Mary holding a weaving-related object which may show the influence of theGospel of Pseudo-Matthew So the association of conception and spinning and weaving is part of the Christian

discourse throughout the Anglo-Saxon period It is an association readily assimilated to the pre-ChristianGermanic concept of the wifman and her domain of social action The successful wifman wove togetherwoepnedman and woepned-man The Virgin Mary wove together God and mankind

If we now approach the Old English poem Beowulf with these two gendered domains of action in mind that of

weaving the social fabric and that of protecting the social fabric what interpretative observations might be madeThe following remarks are introductory an attempt to point towards the general nature of such observations

The first observation is that the two domains are told of in the poem from both their internal and externalperspectives and each domain is realised in its most elevated most idealised that is most socially valuedcontext of social relations one that can be called lsquocourtlyrsquo or aristocratic A king builds Heorot to house his

people organises coast-guards and hallguards offers honourable hospitality Hrothgars actions instantiate theinternal perspective of the woepnedman protecting the internal co-operation and security of his societyBeowulf in the earlier events in Hrothgars court instantiates the external perspective of the woepnedmancommonly described as lsquoheroicrsquo protecting a society even one not his own from external attack A queenWealtheow at the feast following Grendels defeat ceremonially offers the cup to warriors in the appropriate

order the internal function of the wifman making and strengthening explicit recognition of the social orderAgain in the story told by the scop (poet) at that feast Hildeburh sister of the Danish chief Hnaef and wife ofFinn king of the Frisians by whom she has a son exemplifies the external function of the wifmon one through



Page 47 |

whose body two different social groups attempt to weave a relationship So the success or failure of those inthese exalted social roles will reverberate throughout the whole social system

The second observation is that both positive and negative embodiments of the two domains of social action aretold explicitly or allusively I said earlier that positive and negative values differ in each domain that in the maledomain the external negative value is a lack of courage the internal negative value is disloyalty or treachery and

that for women the internal negative value is the disruption of social relations the external negative value is therefusal of exchange into another group

For an example of masculine treachery the internal negative value of the male domain we know that Hrothulfnephew of Hrothgar but older than the sons of Wealhtheow and Hrothgar will not protect the boys after theirfathers death although at the feast previously mentioned Wealhtheow asserts to Hrothgar that he will do so

(Wealtheow is acting positively in her internal role as weaver of the social fabric but is unsuccessful) We knowless about Offa of Mercias queen variously understood to be called Thryth briefly alluded to as one whocaused discord the internal negative value of the female domain before she was married Those who showcowardice the external negative value of masculinity are so devalued that they are not even named Im referringto the men who desert Beowulf during his last fight with the dragon when only the named warrior Wiglaf

remains with him And the external negative value of the female domain the refusal of exchange My failure tofind an example of this leads on to my fourth and very important observation about the poem I say lsquofourthrsquobecause I want briefly to mention a third

This third observation is that neither Grendel nor his mother can be located in the domains of the woepnedman

and wifman This is unsurprising when you remember that the base meaning of man is lsquohumanrsquo Neither of themonsters is human even with a putative descent from Cain Grendel explicitly cannot be fought with weapons inno sense is he a woepnedman He and his mother do not live in a social group there is no function for awifman weaving a social fabric They are both excluded from the two social domains of human action

To my fourth and last observation I said that I could not find an example of the negative value of the female

domain the refusal of exchange I suggest this is because refusal is a power-based speech act And in the poemBeowulf there is no doubt that between the two complementary domains of social action social power is veryunevenly distributed The very notion of an heroic story as one centred on actions in battle is one centred on theexternal social role of the woepnedmen My earlier brief stock chronological summary of the events of thepoem homed in on verbs processes realising the masculine domain Beowulf lsquokills three times while his

opponents lsquosavage and threatenrsquo Contemporary Hollywood studios are said to consider the young maledemographic 16ndash25 as their most lucrative audience and the many so-called lsquoactionrsquo movies are made

primarily for their tastes Similarly most of the narrative of Beowulf tells a story of successes and failures acts of

positive value and negative value within the masculine social domain of the woepnedman Stories of the femaledomain of action are indeed told as necessary and complementarymdashthere is no continuing social fabric withoutthemmdashbut their telling is imbued with the power imbalance of the domains So the fight at Finnsburh betweenDanes and Frisians is told primarily through the emotions of Hildeburh who must burn her brother and sontogether on the funeral pyre and after the later death of her husband Finn be lsquoled back to her peoplersquo the

Danes (the Old English grammar does not allow her agency) The external weaving of the wifman bearing thechild who is both Dane and Frisian is ripped to shreds by the acts characteristic of the more powerful domain ofthe woepnedmen (Those thinking Wulf and Eadwacer may not be far wrong) And in Beowulf immediately



after this story of the failure of Hildeburhs female action in the continuing story of the feast Queen Wealh-theowbears the cup to her husband Hrothgar and speaks to Hrothgar of her confidence that Hrothulf his nephew

sitting beside him will protect their sons if their father dies an example of female action through speech anattempt to produce the social fabric by asserting it As already mentioned this attempt also will fail in Hrothulfsrefusal to provide such protection

There is a great deal more in examples and explication that could be said on these matters I have not examined

lsquopeaceweaverrsquo much discussed I have not mentioned the extension of lsquoweavingrsquo to the making of texture inwords rather than thread to text rather than textile But what I have tried to do in this paper is to begin with theconsideration of two complementary gendered domains of social action from which different social roles innarrative can emerge These roles can be regarded as successful or unsuccessful as positively valued or asnegatively valued It is after identifying these complementary domains that one can consider the power relation

between them through the interaction encouragement suppression or even appropriation of the possible rolesassociated with each domain This procedure contrasts with scholarly talk which begins with lsquowoman as passiveand victimrsquo or lsquowoman as herorsquo that is talk which begins with power relations or with the assumption of onlyone domain of value so that alternative possibilities become invisible I hope then in some small way to havegiven more visibility to the world of symbolic relations social attributes and social identities which can be read

into the Beowulf narrative

Source Rosemary Huisman ldquoNarrative Sociotemporality and Complementary Gender Roles in Anglo-SaxonSociety The Relevance of Wifmann and Woepnedmann to a Plot Summary of the Old English Poem Beowulfrdquoin Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association January 1 2008 pp 125ndash36

George Clark

In the following excerpt Clark discusses the world of Beowulf as it is presented by the poems narratorIn his ldquoAfterwordrdquo Clark discusses briefly the Sutton Hoo ship burial discovery and predicts how

subsequent criticism may approach the poem

DISCOVERING THE POEMS WORLD

The poem imposes many delays on its central story and includes many explorations not directly related to itsmain business but despite an indirect movement and moments of leisure Beowulf creates a powerful impressionof a great action moving irresistibly forward advancing not steadily but abruptly in sudden lurches and turns

toward a fearful event Brief summaries of the ldquobasic storyrdquo of Beowulf conceal its rich variety of forms andmatter the poem captures a vast historical scope includes a variety of genres or modes of composition andreveals a constant interplay of tones The prologue separates the poems audience from the storymdashlong ago inanother countrymdashthen presents the audience with a gratifying account of heroic success of heroism leading to

national success of the hero as founder of a great dynasty At the height of Scylds brilliant career a kingdomwon an overlordship established and an heir engendered the narrator proposes as a universal truth the rule thatin every nation the successful aspirant to honor must do praiseworthy deeds On these words the narratorannounces Scylds death at the fated time the prologue closes with his peoples grief for the great kings passing

Scyld earned the narrators accolademdashhellip that was a good king(11)mdashearly in the prologue which ends with the

universal truth of mortality and an unanswerable question Scyld returns to the mystery from which he came afterhis richly laden funeral ship is launched on the unknowable deep Still the succession of fortunate generations of



Page 48 |

Scylds line contrasts the mystery and the blunt fact of death with an unfolding story of dynastic prosperity

extending for generations until the crowning of the Scyldings success with the building of Heorot Mortality

presses in on the line of Scyld Scefing and the first celebration at Heorot awakens a monster who seems toembody or to represent the force of chaos and old night That scene dramatically reversing the stately tone ofthe poems prologue begins with the monsters anger at the sound of joy in Heorot then traces that joy to thepoets song celebrating the creation of the world then leaves the Danish ruling elite living in those joys until the

monster Grendel begins his raids

Grendels first raid turns all the successes of the triumphant line of the Scyldings into horror pain and humiliationAfter Grendels second raid the night after his first the narrator notices that

Then it was easy to find the man who got himself a more distant resting place a bed in a privatedwelling when the hall-thegns hatred was manifested to him plainly declared by a sure sign

whoever escaped that enemy kept himself farther away and safer(138ndash43)

Six full lines remorselessly detail the humiliation of noble warriors among theDanes who in the face of certaindeath there give up sleeping in the royal hall a kind of mens lodge and seek out a more domestic safety TheDanes become double victims of Grendels wrath and of the poems irony the monster diminishes their manlystatus the poem makes that diminishment public and thus real The audience is drawn toward Grendel it accepts

a certain complicity in calamity to savor the poems detached irony at the cost of Danish manliness Warriorsocieties in many cultures segregate men and women apparently the all-male fellowship ofsuchlodgescontributesto the aggressive spirit a warring society requires Grendels interruption of the regular practice unmans theDanish warrior class calls their heroic status into question and damages the means of sustaining their traditional

calling and their honor

As the poem moves from the Danes to the Geats a series of contrasts in the character and tone of the narrativebecome apparent The Danish scene represents a whole society in paralysis the Geatish a man in action TheDanes meet frequently consider deeply risk their immortal souls searching for supernatural help and lament theirlosses in an agony of helplessness Immediately following the report of Grendels first and second raids the

narrator adds that this calamity persisted for twelve years that the lord of the Scyldings suffered great sorrowsthat songs sadly revealed to the world that Grendel waged cruel war against Hrothgar for many years Thenarrator (or those songs) reports that Grendel intended never to make a truce with the Danes The narrator sumsup Grendel performed ldquomany crimes hellip cruel humiliationsrdquo many powerful men among the Danes oftenconsidered what should be done and Hrothgars sorrows burned continually in his heart

IN THE COMING DECADES BEOWULF SCHOLARSHIP WILL ALMOST SURELYBE DEEPLY INFLUENCED BY THE FINDINGS OF ARCHAEOLOGICALRESEARCH AND ESPECIALLY BY THE EXCAVATION AT SUTTON HOOrdquo

In the Danish setting some forty lines report the unending succession of humiliations and sorrow heaped upon thehapless people and above all their king but restated among the Geats the long story of passive suffering and

helplessness amounts only to a clause The Danish complaint ends with Hrothgars sorrow and inaction

the wise man was unable to ward off that misery that distress that cruel and violent hateful andlong-drawn-out onslaught that cruel distress which had fallen upon the people was too severe



Page 49 |

The scene abruptly moves to the Geats where the strongest man living on earth Hygelacs retainer hears ofldquoGrendles daeligdardquo (195) Grendels deeds The strong man at once commands that a ship be readied andannounces his intention to visit the famous king of the Danes who has need of men Between the heroscommand him announcement and his selection of his companions for the exploit the Geatish councilors consult

the omens and approve his plans even as he leads his picked company to the sea and the ready ship

The pagan and superstitious practice of consulting omens evokes no negative comment in the poem thoughAnglo-Saxon sermons strongly condemned such time-honored observances From Beowulfs first introductioninto the poem to the moment Grendel realizes his impending doom all signs agree that the heros victory iscertain The alacrity of the heros decision preparations and setting out bespeaks a self-confidence that seems

itself a token of victory The voyage is swift and easy which requires strong winds from the right quarter andconfirms the favorable omens The supernatural sign vouchsafed the Geatish councilors and the disposition ofnature agree in pointing toward Beowulfs success The wisdom of the Danes concurs the coast guard who

challenges Beowulf and the Geats at the Danish shore seems to respond to an aura of good luck and goodintentions manifested in Beowulfs appearance when he breaks off his formal challenge to observe that one of theseafarers seems a man of unique qualities and exceptional status and to wish ldquomay his look his matchlessappearance never belie himrdquo Given the Danes dearest wish of the past twelve years the coast guard must see aresolve to destroy Grendel and the tokens of success in the foreigner at the Danish coast

AFTERWORD

In the coming decades Beowulf scholarship will almost surely be deeply influenced by the findings ofarchaeological research and especially by the excavation at Sutton Hoo Students of the poem have hardlydigested the importance of the original Sutton Hoo excavation of 1939 definitively published in a massive studyby Rupert Bruce-Mitford and others (1975ndash83) Already the new excavations at Sutton Hoo have offered some

surprises While archaeologists extend our knowledge of the material culture of the Anglo-Saxon worldlexicographers are doing the same for the word-hoard of the Anglo-Saxonshellip

The study of the poem itself will surely develop in some directions already partially mapped out The poemspsychological and social realism has already become a topic of critical inquiry that will continue to prosper in an

age that can accept or even value mixtures of realism and fantasy A renewed effort to reconstruct the poemssocial and cultural milieu seems likely reader-response criticism and the new historicism alike will demand avigorous inquiry into the poems origins and attempt to discover what the poem meant to its earliest audiencesand what the place of poetry was in the Anglo-Saxon world The poems idea of the basic social institutionsneeds a deeper reading against what we know of those institutions in the Anglo-Saxon age The questions of the

poems date and place of origin will burn strongly for some decades to come We are likely to find too manyrather than too few answers and the profusion of seemingly contradictory solutions may strengthen the case forthe poems oral transmission and for its susceptibility to at least some reworking even after being committed toparchment

The poststructuralist new criticisms and formalist approaches to narrative texts will try (and have tried already)

their strength with Beowulf The possibility of a deconstructive reading of Beowulf may fill some philologists withhorror but such a reading may be illuminating The concentration of the newer critical schools on narrative willalmost surely benefit the study of the greatest poem in English before the Canterbury Tales



Page 50 |

Source George Clark ldquoThe Heroic Age Ideal and Challengerdquo and ldquoAfterwordrdquo in Beowulf Twayne 1990pp 51ndash54 143ndash44

SOURCES

Alexander Michael ldquoEpicrdquo in A Dictionary of Modern Critical Terms edited by Roger Fowler Routledgeand Kegan Paul 1987 pp 73ndash75

Bonjour Adrien The Digressions in ldquoBeowulfrdquo Medium Aevum Monographs 5 Basil Blackwell 1977

Fulk RD Robert E Bjork and JohnDNiles eds Klaebers ldquoBeowulfrdquo 4th ed University of TorontoPress 2008

George Jodi-Anne ldquoBeowulfrdquo Readers Guide to Essential Criticism Palgrave Macmillan 2010

Raffel Burton trans Beowulf Signet Classics 2008

Tolkien J R R ldquoThe Monsters and the Criticsrdquo in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays by J R

R Tolkien HarperCollins 1997 originally published in Publications of the British Academy Vol 22 1936pp 245ndash95

FURTHER READING

Alexander Michael ldquoIntroductionrdquo in ldquoBeowulfrdquo A Verse Translation Penguin Books 1973

Alexander discusses the history of the manuscript the epic tradition and the characters and plot of

the poem

Anderson Sarah ed Beowulf (Longman Cultural Edition) translated by Alan Sullivan and Timothy MurphyLongman 2004

Andersons edition includes comparative translations of the first twenty-five lines of the poem alongwith second ary works providing context and selections of other Old English poetry and prose

Backhouse Janet D H Turner and Leslie Webster The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art 966ndash1066 BritishMuseum 1985

Backhouse provides excellent illustrations of Anglo-Saxon art fine and applied covering the periodin which the Beowulf manuscript was written

Brown Michelle P Manuscripts from the Anglo-Saxon Age University of Toronto 2007

Brown explains the art of bookmaking in the Anglo-Saxon period and includes one hundred andfifty color illustrations of Anglo-Saxon books in the British Library



Clark George Beowulf Twayne 1990

This book is an excellent beginners introduction to the poem Chapters cover Beowulf criticism

the other legends embedded in the poem the ethics of heroism the monsters and kingship

Donoghue Daniel ed Beowulf A Verse Translation Norton Critical Edition translated by Seamus HeaneyNorton 2002

The Norton Critical Edition provides an excellent translation with introduction notes and scholarlyanalysis all designed to facilitate the readers appreciation of the epic

Evans Angela The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial British Museum 1994

This publication presents a richly illustrated introduction to the Anglo-Saxon ship burial which wasfirst excavated in 1939 The objects uncovered and the burial itself are relevant to Beowulf andvarious studies of the epic

Joy Eileen A The Postmodern ldquoBeowulfrdquo A Critical Casebook West Virginia University Press 2007

This book contains twenty-three essays on postmodern theory and contemporary theoreticalapproaches to the epic

Kerr W P Epic and Romance Essays on Medieval Literature Create Space 2009

J R R Tolkiens ldquoThe Monsters and the Criticsrdquo in many ways specifically responds to Kerrsapproach which first appeared in print in 1896

Kiernan Kevin S ldquoBeowulfrdquo and the Beowulf Manuscript University of Michigan 1998

Kiernan argues that the Beowulf manuscript in the British Library is the authors own working copy

Orchard Andy A Critical Companion to ldquoBeowulfrdquo D S Brewer 2005

Orchards work is a good source for all readers wanting clarity on issues of interpretation andbackground regarding the epic


Beowulf

Beowulf AND Grendel

Beowulf AND Heorot

Anglo-Saxon literature epic literature

Old English literature



Source Citation (MLA 7th Edition) Beowulf Anonymous 1000 Epics for Students Ed Sara Constantakis 2nd ed Vol 1 Detroit Gale 2011

25-50 Gale Virtual Reference Library Web 29 May 2013

Document URLhttpgogalegroupcompsidoid=GALE7CCX1773100012ampv=21ampu=mass13ampit=rampp=GVRLMassHSampsw=w

Gale Document Number GALE|CX1773100012



6 |

CRITICISM

WHAT DO I READ NEXT

SOURCES

FURTHER READING


The Old English poem Beowulf follows its main character from heroic youth to heroic old age

Beowulf saves a neighboring people from the monster Grendel eventually becomes the king of his own people

and dies defending them from a dragon It is a great adventure story and a deeply philosophical one Scholars

differ over the poems original purpose and audience but Beowulf probably appealed to a wide audience and

garnered a range of responses Beowulf survives in one manuscript which is known as British Library Cotton

Vitellius A 15 At least one scholar believes the manuscript is the authors original but most scholars believe it is

the last in a succession of copies Beowulf may have been written at any time between about 675 CE and thedate of the manuscript about 1000 CE

No one knows where the manuscript was before it surfaced in the hands of Laurence Nowell in the sixteenth

century An edition of Beowulf was published by G S Thorkelin in 1815 but for over one hundred years studyfocused on Beowulf not as poetry but on what it could tell about the early Germanic tribes and language

(philology)

J R R Tolkiens ldquoThe Monsters and the Criticsrdquo redirected study to the poemas literature The 1939 excavationof the Sutton Hoo ship burial in Suffolk England and Tolkiens own Lord of the Rings influenced by his lifelong

study of Beowulf helped to interest general readers in the poem Since then translations and adaptations of the

poem have increased the poems audience and recognition Notably Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney published a

bestselling easy-to-read modern English translation in 2001 that was reissued in 2007 with one hundredillustrations This epic poem has influenced modern adventure fantasy and inspired at least two bestsellers comicbooks and even a BeowulfStar Trek Voyager cross-over

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

As of the early 2000 the person who wrote Beowulf remained unidentified Scholars had suggested at least two

possible candidates but neither of these was generally accepted

Many dates and places have been suggested for the composition of Beowulf Most of the theories suffer fromwishful thinking Scholars connect it to a favorite time and place It is no use however to show where and whenit might have been written It must be shown that it could not have been written anywhere else at any other time

in order for a theory to be conclusive Early critics often stressed the antiquity of the poets material andattempted to break the poem down into a number of older lays (see Style section below) Others have pointed



Page 27 |










PLOT SUMMARY








freightrdquo






Sidebar Hide

MEDIA ADAPTATIONS



voice of Grendel



Rhona Mitra
















somewhere elserdquo











Page 28 |































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Page 30 |




















CHARACTERS

Aeschere



Beowulf





















reign

Beowulf Scylding


Breca




Daegrefn



Eadgils




Eanmund



Ecglaf


Ecgtheow



Page 31 |





Freawaru



Grendel






Haethcyn




Healfdene


Heardred




Heorogar


Herebeald




Heremod



Hondscio


Hrethel



Hrothgar






Hygd



Hygelac



Ohtere


Onela






Page 32 |


Ongentheow


Scyld



Unferth





Wealtheow



Wiglaf




Swedish royal house

THEMES









Page 33 |



Glory and Treasure











Fate and Providence





God

Sidebar Hide






Page 34 |
































Page 35 |




STYLE

Point of View




Characterization




Hrothgars

Alliterative Verse











Page 36 |


From Lay into Epic





Formulaic Style














HISTORICAL CONTEXT










Loyalty and Society
















Page 37 |



The Hall




Sidebar Hide
















Page 38 |













Page 39 |

Weapons




CRITICAL OVERVIEW












century




















CRITICISM









Page 40 |


Sidebar Hide

WHAT DO I READ NEXT




















Page 41 |


















Page 42 |










Page 43 |







Rosemary Huisman










Page 44 |











hellip
























Page 45 |

















Page 46 |

















Page 47 |
























George Clark











Page 48 |



















Page 49 |






AFTERWORD










Page 50 |


SOURCES








FURTHER READING



the poem

























Beowulf

Beowulf AND Grendel

Beowulf AND Heorot











Page 27 |










PLOT SUMMARY








freightrdquo






Sidebar Hide

MEDIA ADAPTATIONS



voice of Grendel



Rhona Mitra
















somewhere elserdquo











Page 28 |































Page 29 |


































0 |




















CHARACTERS

Aeschere



Beowulf





















reign

Beowulf Scylding


Breca




Daegrefn



Eadgils




Eanmund



Ecglaf


Ecgtheow



Page 31 |





Freawaru



Grendel






Haethcyn




Healfdene


Heardred




Heorogar


Herebeald




Heremod



Hondscio


Hrethel



Hrothgar






Hygd



Hygelac



Ohtere


Onela






Page 32 |


Ongentheow


Scyld



Unferth





Wealtheow



Wiglaf




Swedish royal house

THEMES









Page 33 |



Glory and Treasure











Fate and Providence





God

Sidebar Hide






Page 34 |
































Page 35 |




STYLE

Point of View




Characterization




Hrothgars

Alliterative Verse











Page 36 |


From Lay into Epic





Formulaic Style














HISTORICAL CONTEXT










Loyalty and Society
















Page 37 |



The Hall




Sidebar Hide
















Page 38 |













Page 39 |

Weapons




CRITICAL OVERVIEW












century




















CRITICISM









Page 40 |


Sidebar Hide

WHAT DO I READ NEXT




















Page 41 |


















Page 42 |










Page 43 |







Rosemary Huisman










Page 44 |











hellip
























Page 45 |

















Page 46 |

















Page 47 |
























George Clark











Page 48 |



















Page 49 |






AFTERWORD










Page 50 |


SOURCES








FURTHER READING



the poem

























Beowulf

Beowulf AND Grendel

Beowulf AND Heorot











Sidebar Hide

MEDIA ADAPTATIONS



voice of Grendel



Rhona Mitra
















somewhere elserdquo











Page 28 |































Page 29 |


































Page 30 |




















CHARACTERS

Aeschere



Beowulf





















reign

Beowulf Scylding


Breca




Daegrefn



Eadgils




Eanmund



Ecglaf


Ecgtheow



Page 31 |





Freawaru



Grendel






Haethcyn




Healfdene


Heardred




Heorogar


Herebeald




Heremod



Hondscio


Hrethel



Hrothgar






Hygd



Hygelac



Ohtere


Onela






Page 32 |


Ongentheow


Scyld



Unferth





Wealtheow



Wiglaf




Swedish royal house

THEMES









Page 33 |



Glory and Treasure











Fate and Providence





God

Sidebar Hide






Page 34 |
































Page 35 |




STYLE

Point of View




Characterization




Hrothgars

Alliterative Verse











Page 36 |


From Lay into Epic





Formulaic Style














HISTORICAL CONTEXT










Loyalty and Society
















Page 37 |



The Hall




Sidebar Hide
















Page 38 |













Page 39 |

Weapons




CRITICAL OVERVIEW












century




















CRITICISM









0 |


Sidebar Hide

WHAT DO I READ NEXT




















Page 41 |


















Page 42 |










Page 43 |







Rosemary Huisman










Page 44 |











hellip
























Page 45 |

















Page 46 |

















Page 47 |
























George Clark











Page 48 |



















Page 49 |






AFTERWORD










Page 50 |


SOURCES








FURTHER READING



the poem

























Beowulf

Beowulf AND Grendel

Beowulf AND Heorot











Page 28 |































Page 29 |


































Page 30 |




















CHARACTERS

Aeschere



Beowulf





















reign

Beowulf Scylding


Breca




Daegrefn



Eadgils




Eanmund



Ecglaf


Ecgtheow



Page 31 |





Freawaru



Grendel






Haethcyn




Healfdene


Heardred




Heorogar


Herebeald




Heremod



Hondscio


Hrethel



Hrothgar






Hygd



Hygelac



Ohtere


Onela






Page 32 |


Ongentheow


Scyld



Unferth





Wealtheow



Wiglaf




Swedish royal house

THEMES









Page 33 |



Glory and Treasure











Fate and Providence





God

Sidebar Hide






Page 34 |
































Page 35 |




STYLE

Point of View




Characterization




Hrothgars

Alliterative Verse











Page 36 |


From Lay into Epic





Formulaic Style














HISTORICAL CONTEXT










Loyalty and Society
















Page 37 |



The Hall




Sidebar Hide
















Page 38 |













Page 39 |

Weapons




CRITICAL OVERVIEW












century




















CRITICISM









Page 40 |


Sidebar Hide

WHAT DO I READ NEXT




















Page 41 |


















Page 42 |










Page 43 |







Rosemary Huisman










Page 44 |











hellip
























Page 45 |

















Page 46 |

















Page 47 |
























George Clark











Page 48 |



















Page 49 |






AFTERWORD










0 |


SOURCES








FURTHER READING



the poem

























Beowulf

Beowulf AND Grendel

Beowulf AND Heorot











Page 29 |


































Page 30 |




















CHARACTERS

Aeschere



Beowulf





















reign

Beowulf Scylding


Breca




Daegrefn



Eadgils




Eanmund



Ecglaf


Ecgtheow



Page 31 |





Freawaru



Grendel






Haethcyn




Healfdene


Heardred




Heorogar


Herebeald




Heremod



Hondscio


Hrethel



Hrothgar






Hygd



Hygelac



Ohtere


Onela






Page 32 |


Ongentheow


Scyld



Unferth





Wealtheow



Wiglaf




Swedish royal house

THEMES









Page 33 |



Glory and Treasure











Fate and Providence





God

Sidebar Hide






Page 34 |
































Page 35 |




STYLE

Point of View




Characterization




Hrothgars

Alliterative Verse











Page 36 |


From Lay into Epic





Formulaic Style














HISTORICAL CONTEXT










Loyalty and Society
















Page 37 |



The Hall




Sidebar Hide
















Page 38 |













Page 39 |

Weapons




CRITICAL OVERVIEW












century




















CRITICISM









Page 40 |


Sidebar Hide

WHAT DO I READ NEXT




















Page 41 |


















Page 42 |










Page 43 |







Rosemary Huisman










Page 44 |











hellip
























Page 45 |

















Page 46 |

















Page 47 |
























George Clark











Page 48 |



















Page 49 |






AFTERWORD










Page 50 |


SOURCES








FURTHER READING



the poem

























Beowulf

Beowulf AND Grendel

Beowulf AND Heorot











Page 30 |




















CHARACTERS

Aeschere



Beowulf





















reign

Beowulf Scylding


Breca




Daegrefn



Eadgils




Eanmund



Ecglaf


Ecgtheow



Page 31 |





Freawaru



Grendel






Haethcyn




Healfdene


Heardred




Heorogar


Herebeald




Heremod



Hondscio


Hrethel



Hrothgar






Hygd



Hygelac



Ohtere


Onela






Page 32 |


Ongentheow


Scyld



Unferth





Wealtheow



Wiglaf




Swedish royal house

THEMES









Page 33 |



Glory and Treasure











Fate and Providence





God

Sidebar Hide






Page 34 |
































Page 35 |




STYLE

Point of View




Characterization




Hrothgars

Alliterative Verse











Page 36 |


From Lay into Epic





Formulaic Style














HISTORICAL CONTEXT










Loyalty and Society
















Page 37 |



The Hall




Sidebar Hide
















Page 38 |













Page 39 |

Weapons




CRITICAL OVERVIEW












century




















CRITICISM









Page 40 |


Sidebar Hide

WHAT DO I READ NEXT




















Page 41 |


















Page 42 |










Page 43 |







Rosemary Huisman










Page 44 |











hellip
























Page 45 |

















Page 46 |

















Page 47 |
























George Clark











Page 48 |



















Page 49 |






AFTERWORD










Page 50 |


SOURCES








FURTHER READING



the poem

























Beowulf

Beowulf AND Grendel

Beowulf AND Heorot




















reign

Beowulf Scylding


Breca




Daegrefn



Eadgils




Eanmund



Ecglaf


Ecgtheow



Page 31 |





Freawaru



Grendel






Haethcyn




Healfdene


Heardred




Heorogar


Herebeald




Heremod



Hondscio


Hrethel



Hrothgar






Hygd



Hygelac



Ohtere


Onela






Page 32 |


Ongentheow


Scyld



Unferth





Wealtheow



Wiglaf




Swedish royal house

THEMES









Page 33 |



Glory and Treasure











Fate and Providence





God

Sidebar Hide






Page 34 |
































Page 35 |




STYLE

Point of View




Characterization




Hrothgars

Alliterative Verse











Page 36 |


From Lay into Epic





Formulaic Style














HISTORICAL CONTEXT










Loyalty and Society
















Page 37 |



The Hall




Sidebar Hide
















Page 38 |













Page 39 |

Weapons




CRITICAL OVERVIEW












century




















CRITICISM









Page 40 |


Sidebar Hide

WHAT DO I READ NEXT




















Page 41 |


















Page 42 |










Page 43 |







Rosemary Huisman










Page 44 |











hellip
























Page 45 |

















Page 46 |

















Page 47 |
























George Clark











Page 48 |



















Page 49 |






AFTERWORD










Page 50 |


SOURCES








FURTHER READING



the poem

























Beowulf

Beowulf AND Grendel

Beowulf AND Heorot











Page 31 |





Freawaru



Grendel






Haethcyn




Healfdene


Heardred




Heorogar


Herebeald




Heremod



Hondscio


Hrethel



Hrothgar






Hygd



Hygelac



Ohtere


Onela






Page 32 |


Ongentheow


Scyld



Unferth





Wealtheow



Wiglaf




Swedish royal house

THEMES









Page 33 |



Glory and Treasure











Fate and Providence





God

Sidebar Hide






Page 34 |
































Page 35 |




STYLE

Point of View




Characterization




Hrothgars

Alliterative Verse











Page 36 |


From Lay into Epic





Formulaic Style














HISTORICAL CONTEXT










Loyalty and Society
















Page 37 |



The Hall




Sidebar Hide
















Page 38 |













Page 39 |

Weapons




CRITICAL OVERVIEW












century




















CRITICISM









Page 40 |


Sidebar Hide

WHAT DO I READ NEXT




















Page 41 |


















Page 42 |










Page 43 |







Rosemary Huisman










Page 44 |











hellip
























Page 45 |

















Page 46 |

















Page 47 |
























George Clark











Page 48 |



















Page 49 |






AFTERWORD










Page 50 |


SOURCES








FURTHER READING



the poem

























Beowulf

Beowulf AND Grendel

Beowulf AND Heorot











Heremod



Hondscio


Hrethel



Hrothgar






Hygd



Hygelac



Ohtere


Onela






Page 32 |


Ongentheow


Scyld



Unferth





Wealtheow



Wiglaf




Swedish royal house

THEMES









Page 33 |



Glory and Treasure











Fate and Providence





God

Sidebar Hide






Page 34 |
































Page 35 |




STYLE

Point of View




Characterization




Hrothgars

Alliterative Verse











Page 36 |


From Lay into Epic





Formulaic Style














HISTORICAL CONTEXT










Loyalty and Society
















Page 37 |



The Hall




Sidebar Hide
















Page 38 |













Page 39 |

Weapons




CRITICAL OVERVIEW












century




















CRITICISM









Page 40 |


Sidebar Hide

WHAT DO I READ NEXT




















Page 41 |


















Page 42 |










Page 43 |







Rosemary Huisman










Page 44 |











hellip
























Page 45 |

















Page 46 |

















Page 47 |
























George Clark











Page 48 |



















Page 49 |






AFTERWORD










Page 50 |


SOURCES








FURTHER READING



the poem

























Beowulf

Beowulf AND Grendel

Beowulf AND Heorot











Page 32 |


Ongentheow


Scyld



Unferth





Wealtheow



Wiglaf




Swedish royal house

THEMES









Page 33 |



Glory and Treasure











Fate and Providence





God

Sidebar Hide






Page 34 |
































Page 35 |




STYLE

Point of View




Characterization




Hrothgars

Alliterative Verse











Page 36 |


From Lay into Epic





Formulaic Style














HISTORICAL CONTEXT










Loyalty and Society
















Page 37 |



The Hall




Sidebar Hide
















Page 38 |













Page 39 |

Weapons




CRITICAL OVERVIEW












century




















CRITICISM









Page 40 |


Sidebar Hide

WHAT DO I READ NEXT




















Page 41 |


















Page 42 |










Page 43 |







Rosemary Huisman










Page 44 |











hellip
























Page 45 |

















Page 46 |

















Page 47 |
























George Clark











Page 48 |



















Page 49 |






AFTERWORD










Page 50 |


SOURCES








FURTHER READING



the poem

























Beowulf

Beowulf AND Grendel

Beowulf AND Heorot











Page 33 |



Glory and Treasure











Fate and Providence





God

Sidebar Hide






Page 34 |
































Page 35 |




STYLE

Point of View




Characterization




Hrothgars

Alliterative Verse











Page 36 |


From Lay into Epic





Formulaic Style














HISTORICAL CONTEXT










Loyalty and Society
















Page 37 |



The Hall




Sidebar Hide
















Page 38 |













Page 39 |

Weapons




CRITICAL OVERVIEW












century




















CRITICISM









Page 40 |


Sidebar Hide

WHAT DO I READ NEXT




















Page 41 |


















Page 42 |










Page 43 |







Rosemary Huisman










Page 44 |











hellip
























Page 45 |

















Page 46 |

















Page 47 |
























George Clark











Page 48 |



















Page 49 |






AFTERWORD










Page 50 |


SOURCES








FURTHER READING



the poem

























Beowulf

Beowulf AND Grendel

Beowulf AND Heorot























Page 35 |




STYLE

Point of View




Characterization




Hrothgars

Alliterative Verse











Page 36 |


From Lay into Epic





Formulaic Style














HISTORICAL CONTEXT










Loyalty and Society
















Page 37 |



The Hall




Sidebar Hide
















Page 38 |













Page 39 |

Weapons




CRITICAL OVERVIEW












century




















CRITICISM









Page 40 |


Sidebar Hide

WHAT DO I READ NEXT




















Page 41 |


















Page 42 |










Page 43 |







Rosemary Huisman










Page 44 |











hellip
























Page 45 |

















Page 46 |

















Page 47 |
























George Clark











Page 48 |



















Page 49 |






AFTERWORD










Page 50 |


SOURCES








FURTHER READING



the poem

























Beowulf

Beowulf AND Grendel

Beowulf AND Heorot











Page 47 |
























George Clark











Page 48 |



















Page 49 |






AFTERWORD










Page 50 |


SOURCES








FURTHER READING



the poem

























Beowulf

Beowulf AND Grendel

Beowulf AND Heorot


















George Clark











Page 48 |



















Page 49 |






AFTERWORD










Page 50 |


SOURCES








FURTHER READING



the poem

























Beowulf

Beowulf AND Grendel

Beowulf AND Heorot











Page 48 |



















Page 49 |






AFTERWORD










Page 50 |


SOURCES








FURTHER READING



the poem

























Beowulf

Beowulf AND Grendel

Beowulf AND Heorot











Page 49 |






AFTERWORD










Page 50 |


SOURCES








FURTHER READING



the poem

























Beowulf

Beowulf AND Grendel

Beowulf AND Heorot











Page 50 |


SOURCES








FURTHER READING



the poem

























Beowulf

Beowulf AND Grendel

Beowulf AND Heorot



























Beowulf

Beowulf AND Grendel

Beowulf AND Heorot









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