Beowulf
“Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the
measure of two things: what’s said and what’s done.”
Review: Historical Context
the earliest surviving piece of extended narrative fiction in English literature;
over 3000 lines long, the first surviving epic poem in the English language.
Composed more than twelve hundred years ago, in the first half of the eighth
century—as late as the tenth century.
Survived the fire that destroyed the building in London that housed the
collected of manuscripts made by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton.
The poem is thought to be an idealized and nostalgic recreation of the culture
and values of the so-called "Heroic Age," i.e., the period of European history
dominated by the northern "barbarians" who plundered and gradually
dismembered the Western Roman Empire as the Roman imperial system
broke down in the fifth and sixth centuries. The poem takes tales and
memories of real and legendary kings of old Scandinavia (who were claimed as
ancestors by some of the Anglo-Saxon kings) and weaves them around the
central folktales of a hero's battles against swamp monsters and a primeval
dragon.
Terms
“the dark ages”
the Heroic age
•
strength, courage, loyalty
kenning
•
“whale-road”; “shadow-stalker”
epic (vs. epyllion vs. lyric)
progeny
oral tradition and the “Finnsburg
episode”
•
society that is honor bound
and blood stained, an eye for
an eye
Cain’s curse
•
out of which sprung “orgres
and elves and evil phantoms /
and the giants too who strove
with God” (9).
Review: Plot
The story begins with a brief family history of the Danish royal
family, starting with their mythic ancestor, Scyld Scefing or SHIELD
SHEAFSON in Heaney's translation, who arrives in Denmark as
an unknown child in a boat
This history culminates (after the reign of his son, Beow --- not the
hero of the poem) in the reign of HROTHGAR, who builds the
great ceremonial palace or "hall" HEOROT.
The hall is attacked by the monstrous swamp fiend GRENDEL,
and word spreads overseas of the Danes' inability to deal with him.
Young Beowulf, nephew of HYGELAC, king of a neighboring
nation, the GEATS, responds to the challenge, crossing the sea to
Hrothgar's kingdom with a small band of retainers.
Review: Ghouls and Heroes
“he is truly noble. This is no mere /
hanger-on in a hero’s armour”
“Yet there was no laying of blame on
their lord, the noble Hrothgar; he was
a good king.”
H: “O flower of warriors, beware of
that trap. / choose, dear Beowulf, the
better part, / eternal rewards. Do not
give way to pride”
“Grendel had cruelly killed earlier—as
he would have killed more.”
of U: “Beowulf’s coming, his seabraving, made him sick with envy.”
“Then a powerful demon, a prowler
through the dark, nursed a hard
grievance”
B: “Now I cannot recall any fight you
entered, Unferth…The fact is,
Unferth, if you were truly as keen or
courageous as you claim to be Grendel
would never have got away with such
unchecked atrocity, attacks on your
king.”
“A company of the best asleep from
their feasting, insensible to pain and
human sorrow”
“So Grendel ruled in defiance of
right, one against all”
Grendel’s Characterization (9,
11, 57 141, 115)
“grim demon / haunting the marshes,
marauding round the heath / and the
desolate fens”
“dwelt for a time / in misery among
the banished monsters, / Cain’s clan,
whom the Creator had outlawed / and
condemned as outcasts”
“insensible to pain and human
sorrow”
“God-cursed brute was creating havoc:
/ greedy and grim”
“Malignant by nature, he never showed
remorse”
“dark death-shadow / who lurked and
swooped”
“murdering, guilt-steeped, God-cursed
fiend”
“maddened spirit”
“terror of those twilights”
He’d skulked away, exhausted in spirit
And beaten in battle, bloodying the path,
Hauling his doom to the demons’ mere.
The bloodshot water wallowed and surged,
There were loathsome upthrows and
overtrunings
Of waves and gore and wound-slurry.
With his death upon him, he had dived deep
Into his marsh-den, drowned out his life
And his heathen soul… hell claimed him
there.
Dragon—“the sky plague” (159)
After 50 winters of Beowulf’s
rule, “one began to dominate the
dark, a dragon on the prowl”
“slick-skinned, threatening the
night sky / with streamers of fire”
“People on the farms / are in
dread of him…HE rippled down
the rock, writhing with anger”
“Hot and savage”
“belch out flames”
“the Geat nation / bore the
brunt of his brutal assaults / and
virulent hate”
“hoard-guard”
“nightmarish destroyer”
…the serpent on the ground, gruesome
and vile,
lying facing him. The fire-dragon
was scaresomely burnt, scorched all
colours.
From head to tail, his entire length
was fifty feed. He had shimmered froth
on the night air once, then winged
back down to his den; but death owned
him now,
he would never enter his earth-gallery
again.
Gendered “Ghouls”
“Whoever she was
Who brought forth this flower of
manhood,
If she is still alive, that woman can say
That in her labour the Lord of Ages
Bestowed a grace on her.”
“But now his mother / had
sallied forth on a savage
journey, / grief-racked and
ravenous, desperate for
revenge”
“monstrous hell-bride”
“now she would avenge her
only child”
“poisonous fiend”
“ghastly dam”
“terror-monger”
Discussion Questions
Themes and Tropes: what makes a monster; ghoul; villain; evil;
inhuman creature?
How are Grendel, his mother, and the dragon fashioned as
“other” or a monster? What reasoning does the poet give? What
are the differences between them and Beowulf? Them and
Unferth?
What are the repeated themes of masculinity in Beowulf? What
gets mentioned over and over?
How does violence assert masculinity? Any contradictions here?
Is all violence good violence?
Who speaks, and what are they allowed to speak of? Who feels
human emotions? Is our narrator reliable? Is Beowulf reliable?
Reading Questions: Marie de
France and Sir Gawain
How has heroic masculinity changed, in contrast to that of
the “Heroic Age”?
What do monsters / antagonists look like in Bisclavret,
Lanval, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight? What do heroes
/ protagonists look like?
What biographical details and / or speculations about
Marie de France do you find relevant to uncovering
“meaning” in Lanval and Bisclavret.
How are the Queens in Lanval and Sir Gawain similar and /
or different to the Queens we see in Beowulf?