The Culture of the Beowulf Saga
Aidan Dixon
650 A Street, Sandpoint, ID
265-2547
Total number of pages: 3
Sage and Veronica Dixon
The Culture of the Beowulf Saga
pg. 1
The Beowulf saga is the single largest piece of Western literature written in any common
language since the fall of Rome. It is one of our most important literary sources of information
about the Nordic and Germanic cultures. The saga is supposed to have been written at some
point between the seventh and eleventh centuries, probably in the eighth century. This is
believed mostly because of the increase of poets in that century. The poem is written in the
style of the heroic elegiac sagas which were common at that time. The poem also contains
elements similar to the great epic poems of Greece. The questions I will answer in this essay on
Beowulf are: what are the qualities that identify Beowulf as a true or ideal medieval
hero/warrior, and what do these qualities reveal about the values and culture of the poem’s
audience?
The basic story of Beowulf is as follows: Hrothgar, a Danish king, has finished a magnificent
hall for his warriors to feast in, but he has not had it long when a monster from a nearby swamp
comes and attacks the hall, killing many warriors. The monster, whose name is Grendel, returns
many times, killing warriors each time. Hrothgar despairs if ever being rid of this menace, until
Beowulf, a king of the geats, another Nordic tribe, hears of his problem and comes to help.
Beowulf tells them of his prowess in battle during a feast. Unferth, one of Hrothgar’s men,
challenges Beowulf to prove his statement, whereupon Beowulf says he will fight Grendel
unarmed in a wrestling match. He stays awake that night, and when Grendel comes, he grabs
Grendel’s arm and rips it off. Grendel runs back to his cave and bleeds to death, and Beowulf
nails the arm over the door to Hrothgar’s feasting hall. Hrothgar thinks he is free now, but
Grendel’s mother finds her son dead and attacks the hall to avenge his death. Beowulf follows
her to her underwater lair and, borrowing Unferth’s sword Hrunting, dives down and attacks
her. Her skin cannot be cut with Hrunting, so Beowulf grabs a large sword hanging on the wall
of the cave and cuts of her head. The men waiting for him by the lake see blood coming from
underwater and believe him dead until he surfaces with the head of Grendel and the hilt of the
sword. After Hrothgar gives another big feast with much storytelling and singing, Beowulf
returns home. Beowulf rules the Geats well and wisely for fifty years of peace, until a runaway
slave stumbles upon the hoard of a dragon and steals a cup from it. The dragon discovers the
theft and begins to ravage the countryside. Beowulf, though an old man, goes to kill the dragon
with twelve companions. He alone carries an iron shield, as wood could be burnt by the dragon.
When they meet the dragon, all of his companions run, but one of them, Wiglaf, a relative of
Beowulf, turns back to help. Wiglaf’s shield is burnt so he hides under Beowulf’s shield.
Beowulf’s sword breaks and the dragon bites his shoulder, but Beowulf kills the dragon with his
shortsword. As he is dying, Beowulf asks Wiglaf to bring the treasure out of the cave so he can
see it. Beowulf is cremated and the kingdom goes to Wiglaf.
pg. 2
Beowulf appears to be the ideal medieval hero, which is not surprising, considering that if you
want to write a heroic elegy about someone you most likely aren’t going to write, “He was a
great man, held in high repute by all throughout the land, except for about half the people in
his hometown and the other fifteen--sixteenths of the world who never even heard of him,” or,
“He feared nothing in the world, except for spiders and snakes and the dark and really big bears
and crowds of people and…” This, while it is closer to the truth than the endless praise common
in most epic poems, is not how people write these poems. They are called ‘heroic’ for a reason.
A hero is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as: “a person, typically a man, who is admired for
their courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.” Heroes must be a sort of role
model. Beowulf’s heroic qualities were the ones prized by the Nordic cultures of the Danes,
Norse, Swedes, and Anglo-Saxons. These qualities were generosity, friendship, and loyalty, but
above all others they prized the qualities of courage and skill in battle. Beowulf was very loyal,
so loyal that he honored an alliance made by his uncle Hygelac with Hrothgar a generation
before. “In the home of the Geats / Hygelac’s thane / gathered the stories / of Grendel’s
torment /… He ordered a boat / lithe wave-cutter / loudly proclaimed / he would seek the
Battle-Danes / sail the waveswells / hail their king there / kindle their hearts.”i He was
extremely generous, as can be seen by the state of his thanes’ armor. “Their weapons shine /
steel boar-helmets / gleaming with gold / their Geatish king / is a prosperous man / a mighty
ruler.”ii Beowulf was extremely friendly as well. When Unferth insulted him, he was angry, but
later forgave him and exchanged swords with Unferth to fight Grendel’s mother. “Nor was it
the worst / of weapons that day / that Unferth loaned him / orator of Heorot / a hard cuttingsword / Hrunting by name /… [Beowulf said] Give to Unferth / my good treasure sword / twisthammered blade / bound by steel-smiths / a man’s war weapon / I will manage with Hrunting /
earn my gold-gifts / or enter into death.”iii Beowulf had all these qualities of a hero, and he had
the most important qualities of courage and skill in battle, as is shown in the way he fights
Grendel alone and unarmed, dives underwater to kill Grendel’s mother, and kills a dragon with
his shortsword, even though he was bitten in the shoulder and chest. Most Anglo-Saxon heroes
were kings as well and Beowulf’s last wish is that the gold from the dragon’s hoard be used for
his people. “For these fine war-trophies / I finally must say / thanks to the Wielder / WonderKing of all / our glorious Shaper / for such gold and gemstones / that I now may leave / to my
beloved Geatfolk / at this last death-moment / darkening of light.”iv He rewards his friend
Wiglaf for coming back and helping him and at the same time provides stability for his people
by making Wiglaf king. “He removed from his throat / a marvelous neck-ring / gold-gleaming
collar / gave it to his thane / young spear-warrior, / yielded his armor / helmet and mailcoat /
hailed him farewell: / ‘You are the last / of our beloved kinsmen…”v The author of Beowulf
intentionally made Beowulf the epitome of a hero-king.
pg. 3
This picture of Beowulf also reflects on the culture and what values they held. The culture
that Beowulf was most likely written in was a formerly pagan culture that was now Christian.
The pagan religions of the Danes, Swedes, Geats, Norse, and Anglo-Saxons prized friendship,
loyalty, generosity, and leadership, but most of all war and prowess in battle. A brave man
would be excused of much and respected just because he was brave, but a coward would be
shunned and despised by all. These pagan cultures spread themselves throughout the world,
traveling to Byzantium, Russia, Italy, Africa, the Americas, and everywhere in between. Thus
Britain, being relatively close to the Nordic and Danish countries, was pretty heavily saturated
with these ideas. A lot of Vikings also settled in Britain, creating more influences. As a result,
when Christianity became the dominant religion in Britain, a lot of these ideas were grafted into
Christianity. That is not to say that these qualities were bad by any means. Christianity already
valued friendship, loyalty, generosity, leadership, and courage, while prowess in battle, though
it can be used wrongly, is not by virtue of itself wrong. The interesting thing about the Norse
culture is that it was the only pagan religion to hold to a belief that their gods and monsters
would die at Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods, and the son of a different God would rule over
the earth after the Norse gods and the monsters destroyed each other. This is one of the
reasons many of the Norse people, including the king of Norway, converted to Christianity
when missionaries were sent. They knew their own gods were eventually doomed, and that
another God would come to rule over them. Thus they were not totally averse to Christianity. It
is evident in the Beowulf text that by this time, Christianity had already had a great effect on
the Anglo-Saxon culture. In many places, throughout the book, various characters give thanks
to and praise a single character known as the “Shaper,” the “Wielder,” the “Almighty King,” the
“Wonder-King,” or just “God.”
So in the text of Beowulf there are many indicators of the kind of culture this book was
written in. The book contains elements from the Christian religion and elements from the
Nordic, and Anglo-Saxon cultures. Thus, the culture it was written in was most likely one which,
though predominantly Christian, still was heavily influenced by the Viking cultures.
Bibliography
A new verse translation by Frederick
Rebsamen, Beowulf, HarperCollins
Publishers, 1991.
References
i
Beowulf, pg. 7-8, stanzas 195-201
Beowulf, pg. 47, stanzas 1456-1458
iii
Beowulf, pg. 48, stanzas 1488-1492
iv
Beowulf, pg. 89, stanzas 2794-2798
v
Beowulf, pg. 89, stanzas, 2809-2813
ii