Beowulf
Mr. Marcel
British Literature I
Origins of the English Language
• How did the English language start?
• What were the first works of literature in
English?
– Keep in mind that The Odyssey was written
around 700 B.C.
Britain 50-450 A.D.
• At this time Britain –small part of the Roman
Empire for nearly four hundred years.
• The Roman Empire was Christian; its universal
language was Latin--the spoken Latin which in
the next five centuries would develop into
French, Italian, Spanish, and the other
"Romance" languages.
• In Roman Britain, as far as we can tell, people
spoke both Latin and Briton--the "Celtic"
language (related to modern Welsh, Breton, and
Irish and Scots Gaelic) which the Britons had
been speaking before being conquered by
Rome. Polytheistic to monotheistic.
Anglo-Saxon Conquest
• 450 A.D., a group of barbarian warriors crossed the English
Channel and invaded Roman Britain. These invaders were
members of various tribes--Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians.
Known as the Anglo-Saxon invasion.
• The Anglo-Saxons were pagan: they worshipped a
collection of gods that included the war god Tiu; Woden, the
clever one-eyed leader of the gods; thunder-hammering
Thor; and Freya, the seductive love-goddess. (Four of the
modern days of our week are named after these gods:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.)
• Their language was part of a group we now call
"Germanic," related to modern German, Dutch, and Danish.
Anglo-Saxon Conquest
• The Germanic tribes = fond of warfare. It was noble
for a warrior to fight fiercely and die in battle.
Complicated feuds: if someone from another tribe
killed your kinsman, you were morally obligated to
get revenge on someone from the killer's tribe; they
were then obligated to get revenge on you, and so
forth.
• “Mead halls," drinking and listening to poets sing
stories of famous heroes fighting and killing each
other.
• The poets "sang" these stories in poetry because
the Anglo-Saxons were illiterate. Poetry is easier to
remember than prose + attractive rhythm.
Anglo-Saxon Conquest
• It took them about a hundred years to gain control
of what we now call "England." ("England" is
"Angle-land," named after the Angles, and "English"
is "Anglish"--the language the Angles spoke.)
• Wales and Cornwall remained Celtic and
unconquered, as did Scotland, which had never
been part of Roman Britain, either. (Neither the
Romans nor the Anglo-Saxons conquered Ireland,
the large island to the west.)
• In the areas conquered by the Anglo-Saxons,
Christianity disappeared, as did any trace of the
Latin or British languages. Society was, roughly,
divided between "earls" (or nobles) and "churls"
(free workers).
Christianity in England
• 597 - Pope Gregory the Great sends a group of
missionaries to convert the Anglo-Saxons to
Christianity. Within about a century all England
had become Christian.
• Christianity - more hopeful than the old pagan
religion
• The monks and missionaries - brought books and
ideas - teach the Anglo-Saxons to read and write.
Old English Poetry
• Few books were written; most of those were
written in Latin, for religious purposes. What are
the earliest works written in Old English? Four
books of Old English poetry exist today.
1. Stories from the Old Testament turned into Old
English poetry
2. Christian poems based on themes from the New
Testament or lives of saints.
3. An anthology of different short poems
4. The fourth contains Beowulf. Badly burned in 1731;
today it is carefully preserved in the British Museum,
in London
Beowulf
•
First page of
the Beowulf
manuscript
•
How Old English sounds:
•
http://www.engl.virginia.ed
u/OE/Beowulf.Readings/Pr
ologue.html
Old English Poetry
• Our ignorance about Beowulf.
– Was it a traditional heroic story, written down by a
monk and then recopied by other monks who added a
thin veneer of Christian moralizing to a basically
pagan tale?
– Was it written by a scholar trying to create something
like the great Latin epic, the Aeneid?
Introduction
“The poem called Beowulf was
composed sometime between the
middle of the seventh and the end of the
tenth century of the first millennium, in
the language that is today called AngloSaxon or Old English. It is a heroic
narrative, more than three thousand
lines long, concerning the deeds of a
Scandinavian prince, also called
Beowulf, and it stands as one of the
foundation works of poetry in English.”
- Seamus Heaney
(translator, poet)
Background on Beowulf
• 3182 lines
• Chief literary monument of the Old English
Period
• Author unknown - - likely composed in 8th
century, by monk putting down oral tradition,
with a mixture of Christian tenets (unique
combo of Germanic pagan heroism + early
Christian teaching/world-view)
– first printed in the 19th century
Background on Beowulf
• Setting: not in England, but in earlier
period in Scandinavia (though it has
been transformed into a uniquely
English text)
– in the heroic age of Germanic peoples
(5th and 6th centuries)
– hence, celebrates a past centuries old,
glorified by oral traditions
Map of Scandinavia
Beowulf and Poetic Beginnings
1. Use of Contrast (man-filled Heorot vs. lonely
Grendel stalking among corpses)
2. Early use of Symbolism (Beowulf hangs
Grendel’s arm on wall: symbol of victory)
3. Hyperbole (struggle so fierce even the
mighty Heorot is threatened)
Beowulf and Poetic Beginnings
4.
Kennings - a compact metaphor that functions as
a name or epithet…a riddle in miniature.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Oar-steed = ship
Storm of swords = battle
Fire-drake = dragon
Ring-river = moat
Whale-path =
Mead-hall =
5.
Alliteration
6.
Caesura: a pause in a line of poetry.
Important Terms
• Primary Epic: an epic is a poem that records and celebrates the heroic
achievements of an individual or individuals. A primary epic is an epic
poem that comes from an oral tradition.
• Scop: an Old English term for poet. In Anglo-Saxon culture, the scop
had the important job of singing about the accomplishments of his
patron and his people.
• Heroic Ideal: Anglo-Saxon culture was governed by the ideals of
bravery, loyalty and generosity. The king or lord surrounded himself with
a band of retainers, who are rewarded with the spoils of their victories.
As E. Talbot Donaldson writes, “the retainers are obligated to fight for
their lord to the death, and if he is slain, to avenge him or die in the
attempt. Blood vengeance is regarded as a sacred duty, and in poetry,
everlasting shame awaits those who fail to observe it.”
Important Terms
• Wergild: “manprice”; “If one of his kinsmen had been slain, a
man had a special duty of either killing the slayer or exacting
from him the payment of wergild. The money itself had less
significance as wealth than as proof that the kinsmen had done
what was right. Relatives who failed either to exact wergild or to
take vengeance could never be happy, having found no
practical way of satisfying their grief.”
• Comitatus: “the society . . . or brotherhood of men who owed
allegiance to a chieftain and expected his benevolence in
return.”
• Wyrd: fate, which was believed to be the controlling force of the
world for pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon culture.
Basic Narrative of Beowulf
1. Beowulf (a Geat) travels to Denmark to help their
king, Hrothgar; Beowulf’s victory over the
cannibal/ogre/monster Grendel in Hrothgar’s meadhall, Heorot.
2. Beowulf’s slaying of Grendel’s mother in her lair: a
cave at the bottom of a swamp/lake
3. Beowulf’s return in glory to his uncle, Hygelac, King
of Geatland, whose son Heardred, he succeeds to the
throne
4. Fifty years later, with help of faithful young kinsman,
slays dragon, but himself falls in the fight
Anglo-Saxon Characteristics
1. The “Hero-King”: Superman
2. Importance of the “mead-hall” (read
“castle”) Heorot
• Heorot, therefore, is symbol of man’s loyalty
and celebration of unity
•
Grendel, excluded, is jealous? --Grendel as
“outsider”
3. Warrior-Thane relationship of mutual trust
and respect
– Good kings: “protector of warriors,” “dispenser
of treasure,” “ring-giver”
– Bad kings: greedy, bad-tempered
Anglo-Saxon Characteristics
4. Wer-gild (man-price)
– Loyalty is paramount
– Revenge payment for slain kin
– $ is not as significant as wealth as it is proof of worth (great
treasure on Beowulf’s pyre)
– Better to avenge death (by killing Grendel and mom) than to
mourn
– Notion of avenging Abel (Grendel as descendant of Cain)
– Existence of so many feuds requiring vengeance &
unsatisfied by arranged marriages leads to feeling of
potentiality of attack & pervading sense of doom
Old English Poetry
• Tone
– Beowulf shares its gloomy mood with a good
many other Old English poems. In this poetry
the season seems always to be winter (hail,
snow, icicles), the central figure often a
displaced person comparing his or her
present misery with some past (or
hypothetical) state of joy.
Christianity in Beowulf
• The only hope can come from God--the Christian
God.
– Some see Beowulf as a Christ figure, dying for his people;
– Some see him as a doomed pagan, victim of his own pride
when he decides to take on the dragon single-handed.
• The poet treats Beowulf sympathetically, but
Beowulf's behavior generally fits the values of a
Germanic warrior better than the values of Christ,
and his self-sacrificing death leads not to the
salvation but to the destruction of his people.
Christianity in Beowulf
• Old English poets seem less interested in
confronting their heroes with moral choices (one
right, one wrong) than in putting them in situations
where any choice loses.
• The Old English heroes do what they think is right,
but lose anyway.
– The importance of fate (or wyrd) in the Old English
worldview.
HOW CHRISTIAN THEMES/RHYTHMS ARE
INTERLACED INTO WORK
1.
God is referred to as the creator of all things (w/monotheistic sense)
2.
God’s will = Fate (wyrd)
3.
Grendel made to be descendant of Cain
4.
Sword in Grendel’s mother’s lair has the story of people destroyed
by The Flood
5.
Grendel and Mother are sent to Hell (reference to the Devil)
6.
Hrothgar’s advice to Beowulf to avoid Devil’s temptations & make
“better” choice seems not unlike Christian notion of conscience
7.
Hero is made as Christ-like as possible--high-minded and gentle,
fighting chiefly against monstrous embodiments of evil, in the end
laying down his life for his people
THE UNIQUENESS OF
BEOWULF
1.
The author of Beowulf transcends the folk tales on which the
story is based, for he strove to serve a purpose not unlike Virgil
in the Aeneid (a Roman work, the “monk” would have known
well): exalt a past which by tradition or fictions belongs to the
cultural heritage of the poet’s nation (ie. English literature begins
to see self at “nation”)
2.
In structure and tone, this is NOT a song such as would have
been sung by a scop, but has been transformed into a elaborate
and sophisticated narrative (again, reminiscent of the
Aeneid)...hence, making ,self-consciously, something much
closer to what we would call “Literature.” Ie. a purposefully
artful “story.” AND, remember “narrative” can still be “in poetic
format.”
Hegelian Dialectics
• German philosopher
• Hegel's dialectic was a three-step process of Thesis,
antithesis, and synthesis
• Three dialectical stages of development:
– a thesis, giving rise to its reaction,
– an antithesis which contradicts or negates the thesis,
– and the tension between the two being resolved by means of a
synthesis.
• Namely, a "thesis" (e.g. the French Revolution) would
cause the creation of its "antithesis" (e.g. the Reign of
Terror that followed), and would eventually result in a
"synthesis" (e.g. the Constitutional state of free citizens).
Grendel - Background
• John Gardner
– Published 5 novels since 1966
– Published Grendel in 1971
– Last 3 novels (incl. Grendel) are his best
• All include an “alien” – an eccentric, estranged from a society
• The biting wit of alienation pitted against righteousness
• Gardner’s tone is dark humor told philosophically (a sad
clown whose jokes emerge from a mood of despair)
Grendel - Background
• John Gardner
– Calls Beowulf the “greatest single work in (loosely)
English”
– Connects with Beowulf’s dark tone: hero dies alone,
deluded
• He thinks he has saved his people, when in fact his
“treasure” is worthless, and his people are certain to die at
the hands of the Swedes.
• “One of the main things Beowulf is about is how, in this
world, you simply cannot win, no matter how noble you are.
The best you can hope for is fame…[which] eventually dies”
- Gardner
– We will all die
– Creates this philosophical novel – it asks questions
(and doesn’t give many answers)
Grendel - Background
“Grendel came from two places simultaneously--from the
philosophy of Jean Paul Sartre (whom I dislike) and from
the poem Beowulf. In Beowulf Grendel represents
irrationality. When I ask myself what is the chief
irrationality of the modern age, I answer Sartre's version of
existentialism.
In essence, Sartre argues that (1) there's no god or
meaning in life, so (2) one can assert any meaning (or no
meaning) as one pleases. The trouble with this philosophy
is not the first assertion. There may or may not be a God,
but in all likelihood the question's irrelevant since we'll
never know unless, if there is one, we meet him or her in
an afterlife, at which point it's too late for this life.
Grendel - Background
“So it's a matter of opinion (whether or not there's a god),
and given the way the world has always gone, it's an easy
opinion that probably there isn't, in fact, a god. But the real
question is, if there isn't a reachable god, and if life has no
inherent meaning how should one live? There are basically
two choices: either you behave as if there were a god and
try to determine what's right, in other words you make up
values, you dream up a future better than the present and
try to create it; or else you accept the world as it seems to
be and scoff at all values (dreams for the future) because
according to what is true at this moment, they're lies.”
- John Gardner
Group Work
• Get in your groups
• Check your chapter’s sign & ism
• Describe how are they relevant to the
chapter
Existentialism
Each man exists as an individual in a
purposeless universe, and he must oppose
his hostile environment through the exercise
of his free will.
Existence precedes essence
Existentialism
• Atheistic: essence does not exist (God)
or else it is only a relative term for man’s
own creation of self
• Christian: that we are existing individuals
caught in time and that essence is
problematic; there is a problem or paradox
in the existent apprehending essence
7 Steps of Existentialism
1. The Abyss
2. The Absurd
3. Anxiety
4. Defianace/Rebellion
5. Freedom/Responsibility
6. Self-Creation
7. The Present. Here and Now.
Grendel
• Change in perspective
• Do you feel sympathetic towards Grendel now?
• If it were in 3rd person, would you have more or less sympathy?
Traits of the Anti-Hero
Grendel exhibits characteristics of the anti-hero, who
frequently appears in modern literature…the opposite of
the traditional hero.
• Deprived of the rules and consequences of society.
• Outlaw; has no status in society; must wander on fringes
of society
• Rejects values, rules, attitudes of society and political
establishment
• Seeks to establish his own rules and ethics
• A failure, crude, sometimes stupid or even dishonest
• Often angry