Herbert Simon
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BEOWULF
Beowulf, as England's national epic, occupies a place similar
to tnat of "Paradise Lost", "The Aeneid", and "The Iliad". While
Beowulf may not be as great a literary masterpiece as the other
of. these writings, its subject matter is the same
of a legendary hero.
the adventures
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Beowulf, if he ever existed, lived during the sixth century.
The minstrels probably put their stories of him into their f^nal
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form within a hundred years after his death, but it was not until
after the conversion of Britain to Christianity that it was written
down. Several parts of the story have been changed by the early
Christians, For instance, the pe«m states that the monster
Grendel is descended from Cain.
The strangest thing about the epic is that its hero is not
Anglo-Saxon, nor ts England its setting. Beowulf was a Scandinavian
of some sort probably a Dane, and the action took place in
southern Sweden and the islands north of Denmark.
The story is concerned with three adventures of Beowulf with
monsters and dragons of different sorts. The first of these
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creatures is Grendel, a monster which preys on the court of
the king of Denmark, Beowulf visits the king and offers to kill
Grendel. That night, when the monster comes to the king's hall
on one of his customary raids, Beowulf mortaly wounds it. Next,
he kills the mother of Grendel, in a fight in her cave, which is
at the bottom of a pool so ddep that it requires a day to reach
its depths. Lastly, after returning to his own land and ruling
there for some time, Beowulf is mortally pounded in a fight with
a dragon which 4.3 destroying the homes and crops of his people.
A en e us and Odysseus is portcjeayed as having almost
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attention than his wise reign as king of his people. It has been
suggested that Borne of his adventures may have been confused
with those of a Teuton god, Beowa.
Besides the three adventures which I have Just mentioned, the
story tells of many fights among the various tribes and a few
legends of the gods. Perhaps more interesting, are the descriptions
of those times and the customs of those people. Several feafcfes are
described in some detail, to say nothing of the dress of the
people and remarks as to how they spent their time.
Since the original of the poem is in a language which is practica-Pforeign to us, and since only translations of the poem can be read,
I cannot criticise it as|f a piece of literature. The best I can
do is to quote from the introduction to "Beowulf" transalated by
C. G. Child.
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"It has been said that the poem is somewhat uneven in poetic
quality, and this would naturally be so, considering the method of
its composition from separate lays. But on the whole its
composition has been done with skill. The interpolation of
massages Christian in character does not injure it, and they are,
moreover, themselves poetry of no mean order."