BeowulfThe Scandinavian Prince

circa 700-1000 CE•Only one manuscript exists (in the British Library)•Written in Anglo-Saxon (Old English)•Not the oldest, but is the longest epic poem in Old English (over 3,000 lines), and is one of the foundation works in English poetry•Written in England but set in Scandinavia

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Old English (must be studied like a foreign language)

Opening lines of Beowulf (1:30)

Who is Beowulf?He is often referred to as ‘the son of Ecgtheow.’

A warrior-prince who engages in three agons, or struggles with monstrous enemies.

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This is a classic tale of the triumph of good over evil, divided neatly into three acts, as told by the British Museum:

IThe poem opens in Denmark, where a man-eating monster named Grendel is terrorising the kingdom. Prince Beowulf, the lead warrior in the land of the Geats (what is now southern Sweden) hears of his neighbours’ plight, and sails to their aid with a band of warriors. Beowulf encounters Grendel in unarmed combat, and deals the monster its death-blow by ripping off its arm.Fig. 3

IIThere is much rejoicing among the Danes; but Grendel’s loathsome mother takes her revenge, and makes a brutal attack upon the king’s hall. Beowulf seeks out the hag in her underwater lair, and slays her after an almighty struggle. Once more there is much rejoicing, and Beowulf is rewarded with many gifts.

IIIThe poem culminates 50 years later, in Beowulf’s old age. Now king of the Geats, his own realm is faced with a rampaging dragon, which had been guarding a treasure-hoard. Beowulf enters the dragon’s mound and kills his foe, but not before he himself has been fatally wounded. Beowulf closes with the king’s funeral, and a lament for the dead hero, who has become part of the legends of his people as a warrior of high renown.

Setting:

•Pagan Germanic society with a heroic code of honor, one where a reputation as a warrior is much more important than the soul’s destiny in an afterlife•Archetypal sites of fear: King Hrothgar’s hall--the barricaded night-house, an infested underwater current, the reptile-haunted rocks of a wilderness

Heorot(Pronounced /hay oh roht), Heorot is a mead hall described as the foremost of halls under heaven.It was built and presided over by King Hrothgar, a legendary Danish king of the sixth century.Heorot means “Hall of the Hart” (male deer); here the Geatish (Swedish) hero Beowulf defends the royal hall and its residents from the demonic Grendel

The form of the poem•Epic heroic narrative

•There are two poems within the larger work, where a minstrel begins singing the praises of Beowulf’s achievements.

•It is the tale of a pagan society, but narrated by a Christian poet who overlays a secondary value system.Translator Seamus Heaney: “In an age when ‘the instability of the human subject’ is constantly argued for if not presumed, there should be no problem with a poem which is woven from two such different psychic fabrics.”

Notice:

What is the world-view of the poet? (or we may say the peoples behind the poem, because it existed in oral form first, being handed down until finally it was more or less codified in written form)

Michael Woods: In Search of Beowulf (watch first 8:30 minutes)

Five groups: Jigsaw presentations Opening, Hrothgar’s Tale, the “Father’s Lament”, Beowulf’s last boast, and closing scene.Using your poetry tips and terms, prepare a brief presentation for the rest of the class.1. Read your section out loud.2. What poetic devices do you see? How do they contribute to the meaning of

the work as a whole? (Notice especially the Anglo Saxon elements of alliteration, consonance, assonance, hyperbole, simile, metaphor, kenning)

3. What aspect of human nature does this passage reveal?

Opening1-11So. The Spear-Danes in days gone byand the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness.We have heard of those princes’ heroic campaigns.

There was Shield Sheafson, scourge of many tribes,a wrecker of mead-benches, rampaging among foes.This terror of the hall-troops had come far.A foundling to start with, he would flourish later onas his powers waxed and his worth was proved.In the end each clan on the outlying coastsbeyond the whale-road had to yield to himand begin to pay tribute. That was one good king.

…………………………………………99-107So times were pleasant for the people thereuntil finally one, a fiend out of hell,began to work his evil in the world.Grendel was the name of this grim demonhaunting the marches, marauding round the heathand the desolate fens; he had dwelt for a timein misery among the banished monsters,Cain’s clan, whom the Creator had outlawed and condemned as outcasts.

Hrothgar’s Tale and Beowulf’s Response1345

“I have heard it said by my people in the hall,

counsellors who live in the upland country,

that they have seen two such creatures

prowling the moors, huge marauders

from some other world. One of these things,

as far as anyone ever can discern,

looks like a woman; the other, warped

in the shape of a man, moves beyond the pale

bigger than any man, an unnatural birth

called Grendel by country people

in former days. They are fatherless creatures,

and their whole ancestry is hidden in a past

of demons and ghosts.

They dwell apartamong wolves on the hills, on windswept cragsand treacherous keshes, where cold streamspour down the mountain and disappearunder mist and moorland.”…………………1383Beowulf, son of Ecgtheow, spoke:“Wise sire, do not grieve. It is always betterto avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning.For every one of us, living in this worldmeans waiting for our end. Let whoever canwin glory before death. When a warrior is gone,that will be his best and only bulwark.”

The “Father’s Lament”II.2444-62It was like the misery felt by an old manwho has lived to see his son’s bodyswing on the gallows. He begins to keenand weep for his boy, watching the ravengloat where he hangs; he can be of no help.

The wisdom of age is worthless to him.Morning after morning, he wakes to remember that his child has gone; he has no interestin living on until another heiris born in the hall……….

Alone with his longing, he lies down on his bedand sings a lament; everything seems too large,the steadings and the fields.

Beowulf’s Last Boast2510

Beowulf spoke, made a formal boastfor the last time: “I risked my lifeoften when I was young. Now I am old,but as king of the people I shall pursue this fightfor the glory of winning, if the evil one will onlyabandon his earth-fort and face me in the open.”

Then he addressed each dear companionone final time, those fighters in their helmets,resolute and high-born: “I would rather notuse a weapon if I knew another wayto grapple with the dragon and make good my boastas I did against Grendel in days gone by.

But I shall be meeting molten venomin the fire he breathes, so I go forthin mail-shirt and shield. I won’t shift a footwhen I meet the cave-guard: what occurs on the wall between the two of us will turn out as fate,overseer of men, decides. I am resolved.I scorn further words against this sky-borne foe.”

Closing3137The Geat people built a pyre for Beowulf,stacked and decked it until it stood four-square,hung with helmets, heavy war-shieldsand shining armour, just as he had ordered.Then his warriors laid him in the middle of it,mourning a lord far-famed and beloved.On a height they kindled the hugest of allfuneral fires; fumes of woodsmokebillowed darkly up, the blaze roaredand drowned out their weeping, wind died downand flames wrought havoc in the hot bone-house,burning it to the core. They were disconsolateand wailed aloud for their lord’s decease.

A Geat woman too sang out in grief;with hair bound up, she unburdened herselfof her worst fears, a wild litanyof nightmare and lament: her nation invaded,enemies on the rampage, bodies in piles,slavery and abasement. Heaven swallowed the smoke.……………………………………………..3178

So the Geat people, his hearth companions,sorrowed for the lord who had been laid low.They said that of all the kings upon the earthhe was the man most gracious and fair-minded,kindest to his people and keenest to win fame.

Works CitedHeaney, Seamus. Beowulf. New York: W.W.Norton, 2000. Print.https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/beowulfFig. 1 http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01762/Beowulf-_8th-11th-_1762283i.jpg

Fig. 2 http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51kfpKNBB9L._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Fig. 3 http://www.blackmermaps.com/Portfolio_Images/110602_Schwartz_Beowulf_Press.jpg

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