Beowulf

Seminar One: Beowulf - handout1. Origin. Plot. Structure

A. Origin an epic poem (= an extended narrative poem celebrating the feats / exploits / notable deeds of a legendary hero) often referred to as the most important work of literature in English (Old English heavily Germanic with little influence from Latin or French; these influences came later on with the Norman conquest and evolved into the Middle English); the poem was meant for oral delivery (this is why one refers often to the audience of the poem rather than its readers) it has long been agreed that the poem originated in England and it was the work of a Christian poet (possibly a monk); impossible to date: early eighth to tenth century

the poem recounts the heroic exploits of its eponymous protagonist: Beowulf the protagonist Beowulf is a Geatish hero (belonging to the North Germanic tribe of the Geats who inhabited some parts of what is known now as modern Sweden)B. Plot

The action of most of the poem is set in Denmark (at the Danish court of Hrothgar). King Hrothgar enjoys a prosperous life in the kingdom of Denmark; he builds a mead-hall (Heorot = Hall of Hart) where he gathers his most praiseworthy warriors to grant them gifts and feast until Grendel, a horrible demon who lives in the swamplands of Hrothgars kingdom, disturbed by the joyful noise from Heorot starts to terrorize the Danes every night, killing them. For twelve winters had the Danes suffered death at the hands of Grendel. Eventually, a young Geatish warrior named Beowulf hears of Hrothgars sorrows. Inspired by the challenge of fighting a frightful enemy, Beowulf sails to Denmark with a small company of men determined to defeat Grendel.Hrothgar, who had once done a great favor for Beowulfs father, accepts Beowulfs offer to fight Grendel and holds a feast in the heros honor. During the feast, an envious Dane named Unferth mocks Beowulf and accuses him of being unworthy of his reputation. Beowulf responds with a boastful description of some of his past accomplishments. His confidence cheers the Danish warriors, and the feast lasts merrily into the night. After the king and his retinue retires, Grendel arrives. Beowulf fights him unarmed, proving himself stronger than the demon. Terrified and wounded Grendel struggles to escape, Beowulf tears the monsters arm off. Mortally wounded, Grendel sneaks back into the swamp to die. The severed arm is hung high in the mead-hall as a trophy of victory.

Overjoyed, Hrothgar showers Beowulf with gifts and treasure at a feast in his honor. Songs are sung in praise of Beowulf, and the celebration lasts late into the night. When they all go to sleep another threat is approaching. Grendels mother, a swamp-hag who lives in a desolate lake, comes to Heorot seeking revenge for her sons death. She murders Aeschere, one of Hrothgars most trusted advisers and takes the corpse with her. To avenge Aescheres death, the company travels to the swamp, where Beowulf dives into the water and fights Grendels mother in her underwater lair. He kills her with a sword forged for a giant, then, finding Grendels corpse, decapitates it and brings the head as a prize to Hrothgar. The Danish countryside is now purged of its treacherous monsters.

The Danes are again overjoyed, and Beowulfs fame spreads across the kingdom. Beowulf departs after a sorrowful goodbye to Hrothgar, who has treated him like a son. He returns to Geatland, where he and his men are reunited with their king and queen, Hygelac and Hygd, to whom Beowulf recounts his adventures in Denmark. Beowulf then hands over most of his treasure to Hygelac, who, in turn, rewards him. In time, Hygelac dies and Beowulf ascends to the throne of the Geats. He rules wisely for fifty years, bringing prosperity to his kingdom. When Beowulf is an old man, however, a thief disturbs a barrow, or mound, where a great dragon lies guarding a horde of treasure. Enraged, the dragon emerges from the barrow and begins unleashing fiery destruction upon the Geats. Sensing his own death approaching, Beowulf goes to fight the dragon. With the aid of Wiglaf and after all his loyal companions had fled away in terror, he succeeds in killing the beast, but at a heavy cost. The dragon bites Beowulf in the neck, and its fiery venom kills him in no time. The Geats fear that their enemies will attack them now that Beowulf is dead. According to Beowulfs wishes, they burn their departed kings body on a huge funeral pyre and then bury him with a massive treasure in a barrow overlooking the sea.

C. Structure

- divided in two halves (binary structure): the heros youthful exploits in Denmark (the killing of Grendel and of his vengeful mother) and his years as king of the Geats (his final fight with the dragon and the seizing of the treasure it guarded). Tolkien (1986:107): the structure is essentially a balance, an opposition of ends and beginnings, a contrasted description of two moments in a great life, rising and setting; an elaboration of the ancient and intensely moving contrast between youth and age, first achievement and final death.

Figures of speech: kenning = a conventional metaphoric name for something; a form of compressed metaphor in which the referent is compared with something it is not ex. the sun = heavens candle, Gods bright beacon, heavens gem; the sky = heavens vault; the sea = the gannets bath2. A pagan or a Christian poem?

Christian seeds esp. those embedded in the Old TestamentThen the bold demon who went by darkness / listened against his will and was steeped in pain / each day he heard the revel of men / ring out in the hall; there was harp music, / the clear voice of the poet. He who well remembered / told of the shaping of men long ago, / he said how the Almighty laboured over the earth, / made the lovely plains, braiding them about with water, / he set as a victory sign the sun and the moon, / twin lights for the land-dwellers, / and adorned each naked ridge and gap / with leaves and branches. Life also He shaped, / each of the species that swim or crawl. (86-98)The cruel spirit was named Grendel, / () the miserable creature () kinsmen of Cain / He avenged that killing, / the slayer of Abel knew Gods ire / he did not exult in that evil, but the Lord drove him out / from all fellowship for that fratricide.(102-110)

It is awesome to contemplate / how the Lord God through his vast conception / grants wisdom to someone, and others / titles and lands; He oversees all things. / At times He allows that a man be absorbed / by pleasure alone; grant him his hearts desire / of earthly treasure, the rule of populous / harbours and towns; places in his hands / control of commonwealths and vast kingdoms / the world possesses him, in his folly / he cant conceive he will ever die. () Gird yourself against wickedness, dear Beowulf, / best of men, and choose what is true, / the eternal gifts; forego pride, / famous champion. The fullness of your strength / lasts but a while. (1725-1768) on transience, the deadly sin: prideSo Beowulf revealed himself brave; / martial in war and merciful in peace, / he sought glory. Nor did he slay / his hearth-companions in drunken frenzy; / nor was he savage of temper: he reserved for battle / that peerless strength, prodigious gift / God had given him. (2177-2183)

Pagan values: the heroic code = loyalty to ones Lord esp. in battle (a human relationship between warrior and lord based less on subordination than on mutual trust and respect loyalty was granted wilfully in exchange for gifts, praise and military service; ex. Hrothgar is often referred to as protector of warriors, dispenser of treasure, gold-friend and ring-giver); the warrior who fails his lord loses all these and his honour; he is doomed to a life of disgrace, condemned to infamy and shame (ex. Beowulfs warriors fail him in the battle with the dragon except Wiglaf); loyalty among peers and blood relatives i.e. if one of the kinsmen had been slain the others were supposed to avenge his death (blood-feud for kin) or demand an amount of money to be paid = wergild (man-price = a price set upon a person's life on the basis of rank and paid as compensation by the family of a slayer to the kindred or lord of a slain person to free the culprit of further punishment or obligation and to prevent a blood feud) ex. When Hrothgar mourns the killing of Aschere by Grendels mother, B. says: It is better for a man to avenge his friend than much mourn at first killing Grendel was not expected to give rise to a blood-feud bec. he is a monster (outside of the social order) (vengeance is not a Christian value and neither is strife or tribal feuds); the primacy of physical prowess (superior strength, courage esp. in battle); pagan rituals and ceremonies related to death and burial; ceremonial sacrifices (ex. B. is cremated on a pyre and his ashes are buried amid treasures in a barrow = Rom. tumul)Sometimes they sacrificed at heathen shrines, / kneeled to idols, calling them forth, / that the slayer of souls might intervene / in their time of need. Such was their custom, / vain hope of heathens; they honoured hell / in mind and heart, but God they knew not, / the deeds of the Judge, what was due their Lord, / and how to praise Him. (175-182)

I call to mind what I resolved at my journeys / outset, at sea with my band of men / that I would fully execute / your peoples will, or may death seize me / fast in the fiends grip. I shall acquit / myself with courage, or here will I bide (Rom. ramane) / my final moments in the mead-hall. (632-638)

Beowulfs warriors / time and again brandished their ancient swords, / they would stand between their leader and death, / protect their lord, if it lay in their power. (794-797)

She came to Heorot where the Ring-Danes / were sleeping in their hall; as soon as Grendels mother / stepped over the threshold, a change in fortune / befell the men. () Before any could act, she grabbed a warrior / fast in her claws as she fled to the marsh. (1279-1295) Enough to say, she avenged your killing of Grendel / night before last, when you tore him / with your bare hands, because he had preyed / on (Rom. chinui) my people too long. He fell in battle, / his life forfeit (Rom. pierde); and now another mighty / man-killer has come to avenge her blood relative (1334-1339)the grief-stricken king implored me / to risk my life, test my courage / in the violent surf, gaining thereby / lasting glory. He promised me gifts. () / So that king lived as custom demands; / I was not deprived of the promised reward / my strength had earned me, [Hrothgar] heaped these arms with radiant treasures - / these, lord, I will lay before you, / bestow with courtesy. (2131-2149)So Beowulf revealed himself brave; / martial in war and merciful in peace, / he sought glory. Nor did he slay / his hearth-companions in drunken frenzy; / nor was he savage of temper: he reserved for battle / that peerless strength, prodigious gift / God had given him. (2177-2183)

Wiglaf spoke, sick at heart, / said much to his comrades concerning their duty: / I recall the time when we drank mead / and pledged to our lord, who gave us rings / in the fire-lit hall flowing with drink, / that we would redeem his gifts to us, / both helmet and hard sword, should it happen / his need be such. () let us go forth / to bolster the war-prince, as long as it lives, / the cruel fire-lizard! God knows this: / I would much rather my own body / be shrouded in flame with my gold-friend. / It would do us dishonour to bear the shields / back to our dwellings, unless we first / fell the dragon, defend the life / of the Geats lord. (2631-2656)

A true warrior prefers death to a life of disgrace (2891)

Conclusion: while Christianity is a correct term for the religion of the poet and probably of his audience, it was a Christianity which had not yet managed to suppress the ancient pagan tradition.