Beowulf: Epic Poem Wrap-up & Discussion
Directions: Write your responses to these questions on a separate sheet of paper as you read. It’s fine to type
your responses if you prefer. Responses to each question should be thorough, not just a few words or single
sentence. Be sure to use specific references to the text that we read. These could be paraphrases and/or
quotations. Include page numbers for all examples/responses you give. These in-text citations should look
like this, (Heaney 10).
1. Give examples to show that the poet attributes the traditional heroic virtues of fortitude, loyalty, and
generosity to Beowulf.
a. The speaker describes Beowulf, the strongest man on earth, as a “dauntless Jute” who is “gallant and
bold.” The poet also describes his generosity and loyalty to a king in distress who needs men who are
willing to fight. Beowulf reputedly has the strength of thirty men. He is described as being “dauntless
and bold in battle,” and having a gallant spirit.
b. Beowulf himself boasts of his bravery and strength. He boasts first to Hrothgar about his defeat of “grim
sea-monsters” and says that he will fight without any weapons, depending on his powerful grip to defeat
Grendel. He later boasts to his own men that he is superior to Grendel in combat and courage. In the
boasts, Beowulf displays not only the traditional heroic virtues of loyalty and generosity in his
willingness to die but also a faith in the judgment of God to award victory to whomever He considers
right.
2. Point out examples that demonstrate the way in which the poet superimposes Christian virtues such as
humility and faith on his pagan hero.
a. See answer above.
3. Do you consider Beowulf’s boasting inconsistent with his heroic character? Why or why not?
a. Although boasting is not considered appropriate behavior in real life, it was the chief means of
characterization employed by the Anglo-Saxon poet. In a sense, it is a psychologically realistic way for a
warrior to build up his confidence before encountering an enemy.
b. Literary Technique: The Anglo-Saxon Boast: Although they may initially strike some modern readers as
immodest at best and boorish at worst, Beowulf scholar John M. Hill argues that the various boasts in
the poem must be understood within the context of Anglo-Saxon culture:
i. [A] social view can correct misapprehensions about Beowulf’s boasting behavior as
excessive in some way. . . . [B]oasts are valued, deeply meaningful speeches to AngloSaxons. . . . [B]oasts are not egocentric. Through boasts individuals stand out, to be sure,
but in profoundly sociocentric ways [i.e., ways focused on the good of society]. . . .
[B]oast words and boasting speeches are traditional forms of public speech, and of vow
or promise, that the community requires of its aspiring heroes. (Hill, in Bjork and Niles,
262). Even today, boasting, or “bragging,” has its place as a rhetorical tool: think, for
instance, of political campaigns that include claims (often exaggerated) of what a
candidate has done or will do for her or his community. Author and rhetorical expert Jay
Heinrichs writes that “the essential point is to fashion yourself into an exemplar of [your
audience’s] values. You want to look like a good person— ‘good,’ that is, in their eyes”
(62). Candidates who do not live up to their “boasts” risk losing re-elec- tion—a further
resonance of the Anglo-Saxon concept of a boast as a solemn pledge or “contract.”
c. Anglo-Saxon boasts generally contain the following elements. List the lines in which these elements
appear in ll. 407–55:
d. Introduction (self-identification) of the speaker (sometimes including details of ancestry)
e. Statement(s) of what the speaker has done and now intends to do Statement(s) of the speaker’s
qualifications Statement(s) of how the speaker will perform the proposed action
f. How do Beowulf’s boasts in this section of the poem help him connect with the Danes and their values?
What “contract” do his boasts make?
4. Is Beowulf a hero? Why/why not? (Signet Classic Guide) Opinion
5. How does Beowulf exemplify Biblical heroism? (Don’t say that he doesn’t. Really look because the author
did include some ways.)
a. (TE, pp. 19-21)Key Ideas: Beowulf demonstrates not only fortitude (in his battle with Grendel) but also
generosity (in his willingness to sacrifice his life for foreigners). Like David, he rejects physical armor,
choosing to rely instead on God's supplying strength to defeat an outsized enemy. He reflects Christ in
his submission to higher authority and in his loving and loyal perseverance to the end of a monumental
task. TE, pp. 21-22
6. Discuss the parallels between Beowulf and Christ. (There are parallels. Look for how they do similar
things.)
a. (TE, pp. 19-21)Key Ideas: Beowulf champions right in the fight against Grendel, Grendel's mother, and
the dragon, all of which are associated with the devil and the supernatural. Beowulf's character is also
Christ-like. He is wise, blameless, selfless, and submissive to the will of God. He leads a band of men
who sleep while he struggles alone, and only one of the men is lost to the monster. His victory over
Grendel's dam occurs at the ninth hour; he reappears after his descent into the pool and the lair to greet
his grieving followers and then returns to assume the throne of his people. The irony is, however, that
Beowulf's likeness to Christ stops short of his ability to cure man's internal evil, his sin nature. Thus,
even this ancient work of literature by its symbolism points man to the only true Deliverer. TE, pp. 2122
b. As Beowulf descended into a realm of evil and death, returning with a gift of the jeweled hilt, so did
Jesus descend “to the lower, earthly regions” (Eph. 4:9; the verse evokes the Hebrew concept of Sheol,
the shadowy afterlife common to all that was sometimes pictured as “the Pit”) only to ascend with “gifts
to men” (v. 8, meaning spiritual gifts). 16. Personal responses will vary. While eternal grief is not right
or healthy, neither is converting grief into revenge. Beowulf’s maxim also may be read as an ironic
comment on how vengeance can turn human beings into “monsters” though this probably is not the
intent of the storyteller. As for extending Beowulf’s maxim to Grendel’s mother, there is an irony in
this. Beowulf certainly sees Hrothgar and his people as the original victims, therefore Beowulf takes
revenge on Grendel for his crimes and then on his mother for her crimes. However, Grendel probably
sees himself as the initial victim taking revenge for offenses against himself, as his mother does. The
reason vengeance so often devolves into a feud is that each side sees itself as the offended party,
justified in taking revenge, and does not give credence to the other party’s perceived victimhood.
Beowulf probably would not extend his maxim of revenge to Grendel’s mother because he would
consider her the instigator of the offense not the victim of an offense.
c. Beowulf seems more and more a Christian hero. Beowulf—wise, blameless, selfless, submissive to the
will of God, and a champion of right—comes as the head of a righteous band to save a helpless race
struggles alone while his companions sleep; achieves victory (over Grendel’s mother) at the ninth hour;
reappears after his descent (into Grendel’s pool and the lair of Grendel’s mother) to greet his sorrowful
followers; and then returns to assume the throne of his people.
7. Since the traditional aim of the poet is to teach by delighting, this means that wisdom can accompany
pleasure. Furthermore, this means that wisdom can be implanted by pleasurable means. What wisdom can
be gained from this epic poem? (Answers will vary.)
a. (1) the importance of virtues constituting the Anglo-Saxon heroic ideal and (2) the superiority of
Christian to pagan belief.
b. Using fiction to inculcate moral and spiritual truth is a time-honored and Biblical practice.
8. List the three major contests that Beowulf faces in this epic poem.
a. Fight with Grendel, fight with Grendel’s mother, fight with dragon
b. What do you notice about the contests?...they increase in difficulty as the hero’s strength wanes (he has
to fight Grendel’s mother on her home territory after a tiring descent through the water to reach her lair).
c. Dragon was also fought on his own home turf.
d. Beowulf must rely more and more upon weapons and the help of others. (He attacks Grendel’s mother
with a borrowed sword and defeats her with another sword he finds in her den.) He also must rely on the
help of his soldiers and weapons when he fights the dragon.
9. In the first part of the book, for what is the hero Beowulf recognized? (attributes/actions)
a. He is recognized primarily for his courage and strength, though wisdom is also attributed to him.
b. Primarily a fighter, though he is also a ruler.
10. In the second part of the book, for what is the hero Beowulf recognized? (attributes/actions)
a. Beowulf is recognized still for his courage and strength, but the emphasis is on his wisdom.
b. Fortitude naturally peaks in youth; wisdom, in age. If great wisdom appears in youth or great strength
and courage in age (as in Beowulf), their occurrence is exceptional and, indeed, a curiosity.
c. In the first part, primarily a fighter, though he is also a ruler. In the second part, he occupies the position
of ruler, from which, however, he is summoned as fighter. His last fight requires prudence, as much as
or even more than fortitude, in managing his defense.
d. The two parts of his heroic career define and emphasize the two main parts of the heroic ideal he
embodies.
e. What is the heroic ideal? fortitude, (loyalty, and generosity) prudence
f. In the poem, structure reinforces theme.
g. The ideal of fortitude and prudence is defined positively in Beowulf and negatively in the warriors of the
nations for which he fights.
11. This epic poem can be divided into two parts. Think back over the poem where would you divide the poem
in half? Justify (Defend) your division of the story. (In other words, why would you divide it here? Think
about what happens in the one section compared to the other. Think about how people act and change.)
a. The first part contains two incidents: the contests with Grendel and with Grendel’s mother. After
Beowulf defeats Grendel, Heorot is invaded again, this time by Grendel’s mother looking for revenge.
Beowulf seeks her out in her underwater lair and overcomes her, though with some difficulty, this time
by sword.
b. The second part presents Beowulf fifty years later as king of his people, the Geats, entering into combat
with a dragon that is terrorizing and destroying his people. The dragon has been provoked by the theft of
a goblet from its gold hoard the cause of the people’s misery is greed whereas in the case of the Danes it
was pride. Beowulf arms himself with his shield and weapons and accepts the support of his comiatus.
All forsake him except one, Wglaf, who helps him defeat the dragon. The poem ends with the flames of
Beowulf’s funeral pyre ascending to the sky and with Wiglaf reproaching his countrymen for forsaking
their leader in his time of need.
12. What is the main theme of Beowulf? (What lesson can we learn from this story?) Justify (Defend) your
answer.
a. Main: The necessity of heroic virtue to the preservation of the human community. *see question 16
b. Important theme: Christianity is superior to paganism. *see question 14
c. Important theme: There is a constant battle of good versus evil in our world.
13. Discuss the battle between good and evil in the poem. Who represents good? Who represents evil?
a. Grendel is evil. The monster’s hatred of songs of praise celebrating God’s creation and the poet’s
implication that Abel’s death has been avenged through this “offspring of Cain” place the creature in
direct opposition to the forces of good.
14. Where do you see evidence of the mixing of pagan and Christian elements in Beowulf?
a. The Danes are afflicted because “they prayed to the Devil”; “Their Maker they knew not”.
b. Beowulf seems more and more a Christian hero. Beowulf—wise, blameless, selfless, submissive to the
will of God, and a champion of right—comes as the head of a righteous band to save a helpless race
struggles alone while his companions sleep; achieves victory (over Grendel’s mother) at the ninth hour;
reappears after his descent (into Grendel’s pool and the lair of Grendel’s mother) to greet his sorrowful
followers; and then returns to assume the throne of his people.
c. Grendel, his mother, and the dragon are supernatural agents of the devil as well as instruments of God’s
wrath. Wyrd, the pagan conception of the supernatural forces of destiny, competes with Christian deity
as responsible for the outcome of human struggle. Whereas God is personal and benevolent, the “Ruler
all-wise”, Wyrd is cold, impersonal, distant, blind, unpetitionable, and inexorable. Whereas Hrothgar’s
dwindling war-band is being “driven by Wyrd/into Grendel’s grasp,” “God may easily/End this
monster’s mad career”. Wyrd seems in the poem to represent the negative, inscrutable, seemingly
arbitrary acts of God as they appear in an earthbound perspective. The poet’s point seems to be that
Wyrd is Providence.
15. Discuss the behavior of Beowulf’s men in each of the battles.
a. Beowulf’s king, Hygelac, and his band of warriors perish in a foolhardy raid on the Franks (a digression
in part one). They exhibit fortitude without prudence.
b. The Danes are led by a wise but old and physically decrepit king, Hrothgar, who is attended by lords
who make excuses to leave the mead hall during Grendel’s nightly visitations; they exhibit prudence
without fortitude.
c. In part two the positions are reversed. Now it is the Geats who lose their nerve and abandon their leader
in his distress. Moreover, it is prophesied that the Danes will later destroy themselves by civil war; they
will become like the foolish warriors under Hygelac.
16. Even though the poem has a hero who is able to conquer evil at times, what accounts for the gloomy tone of
Beowulf?
a. Students should be expected to recognize an overwhelmingly sad, sorrowful tone. Brodeur states, “The
mood is almost uniformly dark and melancholy; there are no major shifts in emotional tone” from line
2200 on (82). The three passages cited establish this tone or mood by virtue of their subject matter
(namely, death), and use various specific techniques to reinforce it. The “Lament of the Last Survivor”
(Brodeur, 82) in lines 2241–69 uses contrast (e.g., the seemingly indestructible mail-coat now decaying,
2258–60) and repetition (e.g., the word “no” to emphasize isolation, 2263–65). Lines 2324–44 gives
direct insight into Beowulf’s mind and heart (e.g., “It threw the hero / into deep anguish and darkened
his mood,” 2328) and explicitly foretells Beowulf’s death (2342). The “Father’s Lament” (de Looze,
245) in lines 2444– 62 uses sound (“keen / and weep,” 2446–47; “sings a lament,” 2461) and vividly
describes the experience of grief (e.g., “Morning after morning, he wakes to remember / that his child is
gone,” 2450–51).
b. Good is momentarily but not permanently triumphant. Evil appears in two forms: external (a race of
monsters perpetually at war with goodness and living under a curse) and internal (the forces within man
that bring about his ruin: pride, greed, hatred, jealousy, cowardice, foolhardiness). Human civilization
appears a glorious but fragile structures that can come to ruin through external or internal evil. But even
the attacks of external evil are permitted by God as judgments for the internal evils of pride (the erection
of Heorot Hall) and greed (the robbing of the dragon’s cache). In Beowulf’s career, heroic goodness
combats and for a while arrests a gradual moral degeneration and the judgments incurred by it. At the
end, the future is dark with the dying out of the heroes. Beowulf has distinguished himself as a slayer of
monsters when he comes to Heorot. But he has no remedy for the treachery and cowardice in the
characters of the Danes and the Geats. The victories he wins give only temporary relief from the
continuing encroachment of evil. These lessons were important ones for the Anglo-Saxon civilization,
which eventually collapsed for lack of the virtues delineated here. The necessity of heroic virtue to the
preservation of the human community.
17. Application: Modern literature, a reflection of our modern culture, is highly cynical. In such works an
antihero rather than a true hero is normally the central character.
a. Discuss the dangers of the twin errors of belief in a false hero and unbelief in all heroes.
b. Discuss the importance of moral idealism and of adopting as role models genuine heroes from both
literature and life.
i. Genuine heroes are those whose character and actions conform to the examples in
Scripture. Think of ways the Anglo-Saxon heroic ideal might be relevant to spiritual
warfare today.
ii. Are these virtues necessary to Christian’s success in a modern world?
1. Describe Heorot. What might it symbolize? Explain your answer.
a. Hrothgar builds Heorot to be not only the site of his court but also “a wonder of the world forever”
(l. 70)—an impressive display of Hrothgar’s authority, power, and wealth. The hall’s wealth,
however, will not simply be displayed; the king will distribute that wealth to his people (ll. 71–72).
Since Heorot enables Hrothgar to fulfill his royal duty as “ring-giver,” the poet seems to approve of
the king’s motives; at least, the poet says nothing against them. In fact, ll. 20– 25, although
immediately referring to Beow, may also give insight to Hrothgar’s ring-giving: kingly generosity is
not purely altruistic, it is politically expedient. The scop, however, does not view such “ring-giving”
cynically; it seems simply
2. What might Grendel symbolize? Using evidence from the text and evidence from other reading you have
done, explain your answer.
a. The scop’s song praises God for creating the world and filling it with light and life. As “a prowler
through the dark” (l. 86; cf. “after nightfall,” l. 115) and “a fiend out of hell” (l. 100), Grendel is, “by
nature” (l. 137), opposed to God and God’s purposes. He is significant as a symbol not only of evil
but also of chaos. Like many giants in world legend and lit- erature, Grendel represents nature “in its
primeval state before it was annexed by civilization” (Biedermann, p. 151). He may also symbolize
death itself: like mortality, he endangers everyone, “young and old” (l. 159). God (in the act of
Creation) and human beings (in the building of mead-halls and the skilled, masterful singing of
songs—ll. 90–91) create; however, Grendel only destroys (l. 127). He is, in short, “in defiance of
right” (l. 144): in defiance of life, defiance of order, and defiance of God.
3. Give examples to show that the poet attributes the traditional heroic virtues of fortitude, loyalty, and
generosity to Beowulf. In addition, point out examples which demonstrate the way in which he poet
superimposes Christian virtues such as humility and faith on his pagan hero.
4. Read Ephesians 4:8-10. What event in this section of Beowulf parallels this passage? How are these two
events parallel and what might this symbolize about Beowulf?
5. How does dramatic irony occur when Beowulf beheads Grendel’s corpse?
6. Many scholars of Beowulf note a significant shift in the poem’s tone or mood from line 2200 on. Reread the
following passages from this section of the poem: lines 2241–69; 2324–44; 2444–62. What overall tone do
such passages establish? How does the poet create this mood?
7. How does Beowulf become king of the Geats? Explain how his ascension to the throne reinforces the
character traits he displays earlier in the poem.