Beowulf notes 1
Beowulf
1. In what way is Beowulf similar to a Greek hero?
2. how is Hrothgar, as ring-giver, similar to Agamemnon?
Beowulf is an anonymous epic which was written down, scholars believe, either between
790 and 825 A.D. or 975-1025 A.D.
The epic is written in Old English, but the action takes place in Denmark, home of the
Vikings, rather than England.
The poem portrays the Germanic culture from which the Anglo-Saxon culture derived,
and gives us a picture of the heroic view of life—something like we see in the Greek
epics.
Characteristics of the Germanic Warrior-Heroic view of life:
--personal loyalty to a lord
--the expected reward of gifts from the lord (sometimes known as the
ring bearer), and feasting
--valor, glory, and the pursuit of deathless fame
Other characteristics revealed in the poem:
--picture of an aristocratic ethos (code of living)
--a life of fights and feasting, of ceremony, of bright gold and
terrifying darkness
--the society is held together by blood and kinship loyalties, sacred
obligations bound by sacred oaths
--the society is also driven by blood feuds and vengeance ( a pre-Christian
world closer to the world of aristocratic Greeks such as
Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Odysseus).
Fate or Wyrd: the forces of wyrd, or fate, seem to control man’s destiny, while evil is
both primordial and monstrous, something that can only be overcome by quick
intelligence and physical strength (think of Odysseus and the various monsters he
overcomes).
Beowulf portrays the triumph of a hero, but the final collapse of a society which is based
on the principles of the blood feud. From the point of view of the Christian narrator,
Beowulf’s society is out of harmony with the principles of Christianity.
Beowulf notes 2
The Warrior society portrayed in Beowulf:
In the ideal society, the king (“gold friend”; “ring giver”) gives treasure to his
thanes and they, in turn, give service to their king. There is no sense of payment
here but of generosity on both sides.
In order to distribute treasure, the king must have a center of power, a mead hall
with a “giving chair” (throne) at its very center. He must also have treasure in the
form of rings (gold arm-bands) or valuable armor.
These gifts are obtained by:
1. winning military victories
2. the subjugation of neighboring tribes in the form of tribute
3. or from inheritance (the successful conqueror leaves treasure
for his son, the successor to the throne)
The mead hall:
--the social and spiritual center of the Germanic and Anglo-Saxon
cultures
--the loss of the hall by Grendel’s predations is seen as a fate worse
than death; the hall is where the king distributes treasures to his
thanes and where they pledge their loyalty to him
--loyalty pledges include coming to the king’s aid in battles, but
also paying those back who have killed their kinsmen; thus,
endless blood feuds ensue
Blood feuds:
--can be avoided by paying “wergild” (a man’s price), or by
marriage alliances between families and tribes
Irony: the Scyldings (Danes) who abide by the code of the blood
feud are besieged by Grendel, who is a descendant of Cain, the
first to shed a brother’s blood.
Grendel: as a wanderer of the fens (swampy land unfit for human
habitation) and a creature of the night, Grendel represents all the aspects
of chaos in the society ( a little like the Kyklops?).
The Germanic, pre-Christian people of Europe described the abode of mankind as
“middle-earth”—a land between heaven and hell, inhabited by mankind as well as a
variety of creatures, both good and evil, with origins in legend, mythology, or fantasy.
In a sense, Beowulf is about Hell’s possession of middle-earth.
The poem is an imaginative vision of two kinds of human society, one symbolized
by the gold-hall and banqueting, characterized by generosity, loyalty, and love, and the
other by monsters of darkness and bloodshed who prey on the ordered, light-filled world
man desires and clings to.