1
Examining the Geographical and Psychological Landscapes of Beowulf
Abstract
Readings of Beowulf which fail to acknowledge the underlying significance of
each of the poem’s major settings often overlook the cohesion of meaning that exists
between the poem’s physical and mental landscapes. An examination of the
geography of the poem reveals settings filled with accumulative layers of meaning,
most of which anticipate Beowulf’s eventual downfall by connoting visions of
desolation and destruction. The poet begins with an anthropocentric vision of Heorot
as the emblematic heart of Hroðgar’s people largely to dramatise Grendel’s
desecration of Heorot from a hall of feasting to a hall of slaughter. Grendel’s status as
a God-forsaken outcast reminiscent of Old Testament villainy is enhanced by the
eschatological elements embedded within the description of his watery dwelling,
creating a kind of ‘anti-hall’ in which he and his mother subsist. The Beowulf-poet
appears to subscribe to the Anglo-Saxon notion of hell by infusing his narrative with
geographical features found in homiletic and apocryphal writings in wide circulation
in early Christian Britain and Ireland. This trend is also present in some of the
Biblical imagery in Hroðgar’s ‘sermon’, which foreshadows Beowulf’s ultimate
downfall in the dragon’s cursed lair. The atmospheres evoked by the poet throughout
the text are ultimately indebted to topographical descriptions that function as both
self-contained landscapes and as associative unifiers in their connections to other
parts of the narrative and a range of medieval texts.
2
Beowulf has been described as being centrally occupied with ‘[…] human
perception of the external world and with the workings of the human mind.’1 The
psychological states induced by the Beowulf-poet in both his audience and his
characters remain deeply indebted to the images conjured by the poem’s settings,
implicating a ‘cohesion of meaning’2 between physical and mental landscapes.
Although lacking in geographical realism, the poem’s settings function as isolated
vignettes that unite the narrative through connotative content often containing elegiac
and eschatological elements. An examination of the major settings in Beowulf reveals
accumulative layers of meaning that anticipate Beowulf’s eventual downfall by
evoking visions of desolation and destruction.
The poet’s depiction of Hroðgar’s mead-hall as the emblem of his heresped,
and thus a cultural cornerstone, is important to address in light of Grendel’s later
devastation of Heorot. In his description of Heorot, the poet elicits an image of beauty
unparalleled by any natural feature present in Beowulf.3 Heorot is, in short, an
anthropocentric testament to earthly glory, the Germanic warrior’s haven towering
‘heah ond horngeap’ (l.82a)4 and adorned with gold (ll.308b,1253b). As the hub of
community life, the mead-hall is also characterised by a constant flow of social
activity,5 including drinking (ll.494b-496a), song (ll.496b-498), Hroðgar’s generous
distribution of treasure (ll.71-72,80-81a), and Wealhþeo’s social rounds (ll.620-623).
In addition, the function of leoht as a recurring motif becomes important when
assessing the symbolic significance of Heorot to the Danes. In line 311, the poet
mentions ‘lixte se leoma
ofer landa fela’, casting Heorot as a source of light while
concurrently associating light with community and order. When the scop at Heorot
sings of God’s Creation, he mentions that the Almighty, ‘gesette sigehreþig
sunnan
Michael Lapidge, ‘Beowulf and the Psychology of Terror’, in Heroic Poetry in the Anglo-Saxon
Period, ed. H. Damico (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1993), pp.373-402.
2
Charlotte Ball, ‘Monstrous Landscapes: The Interdependence of Meaning Between Monster and
Landscape in Beowulf’, Hortulus: The Online Graduate Journal of Medieval Studies, 5:1, (2009): 1-26.
3
Ibid., 6.
4
All Old English quotations from Beowulf in this essay are taken from Beowulf: A Student Edition, ed.
George Jack (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
5
Ball (2009), parag.5.
1
3
ond monan, / leoman to leohte
landbuendum’ (ll.94-95). The Beowulf-poet’s
rendition of the story of Creation is unique in its anthropocentric claim that God
tailored the Earth specifically to fulfil the needs of humans, as opposed to humans
fulfilling the potential of the Earth, as common amongst other traditions.6 Light
emerges as a mark of divine order enhancing Heorot’s status as the emblematic heart
of Hroðgar’s people.
The transformation of Heorot from a hall of celebration to a hall of slaughter
and chaos is perhaps best understood as a clashing of Hroðgar’s God-ordained
success and Grendel’s status as a God-forsaken outcast. Grendel represents all that is
in opposition to Heorot: He is associated with darkness (l.160a), roams misty moors at
night (ll.161b-162a), lives in solitude (l.165a), is a foe of mankind (l.164b), and exists
as a cursed exile descended from Cain (ll.106-107a). As a marginalised figure foreign
to the joys of Heorot, Grendel is tormented because, ‘[…] he dogora gehwam
dream gehyrde / hludne in healle’ (ll.88-89a).7
Grendel’s arrival at the mead-hall could thus be seen as a desecration of
Heorot by a ‘feond on helle’ (l.101b), one who is able to transform images of feasting
and treasure-giving into images of ‘blood-spattered bench[es] […] slick with
slaughter.’8 Grendel brings the desolation of his dark and monstrous moors with him
to Heorot as an elegiac reminder of the transience of earthly glory. The setting of
Beowulf’s first battle is thus characterised by a nightmarish atmosphere at least
partially evoked by the poet’s style of narration. Although we are informed that
Grendel is human-shaped and dwells in water (ll.104-105), he is initially described in
vague but ominous terms, using words like wiht (l.120b), aglæca (l.159), and deorc
deaþscua (l.160). During Grendel’s approach, this lack of physical detail works in
conjunction with the poet’s rhythmic, threefold repetition of com (ll.702,710,720),
Christopher Mannes, ‘The Substance of Earth in Beowulf’s Song of Creation’, English Language
Notes, 31:4 (1994): 1-5.
7
It is worth noting that Grendel closely identifies with exiled figures from Old English elegies
confined to bodies of water analogous to Grendel’s mere. The Wanderer and The Seafarer are also
about wonsæli wer isolated from their respective mead-halls and condemned to roam in solitude.
8
Seamus Heaney, ed., Beowulf: Bilingual Edition (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000),
ll.485b,487a.
6
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and with the poet’s habit of alternating between the viewpoints of Grendel and the
Geats, to build cinematic horror.9
In addition to inspiring suspense at Heorot, the Beowulf-poet provides
frightening ‘snapshots’ of Grendel’s mere that are embedded with highly symbolic
imagery. Grendel’s family’s depiction as demonic exiles is maintained through a
craggy, desolate environment inhabited by wolves (ll.1411,1358) – animals often
associated with exile in Germanic literature.10 Hroðgar mentions that even if hounds
were in pursuit of a hart, the animal would rather die at the mere’s edge than delve
into its bloodied depths (ll.1369-1372) – a detail which calls to mind Heorot, meaning
‘hart’. Grendel’s family lair is presented as an ‘anti-hall’, or the antithesis of Heorot.
Donald Fry notes that the monster mere exhibits what he calls ‘Cliffs of Death’, or
vernacular poetic type-scenes contained in at least three other Old English poems,
including Judith.11 These ‘Cliffs of Death’ refer to ‘four basic elements: cliffs,
serpents, darkness, and deprivation, and occasionally wolves and wind.’12 Grendel’s
hinterlands appear to conform to widespread conceptions of Anglo-Saxon hell.
Furthermore, numerous parallels have been drawn between Grendel’s mere
and eschatological Christian writings, including Blickling Homily XVI and the
fourth-century apocryphal Visio S. Pauli, both of which contain Paul’s visions of hell.
Although a contentious topic, recent criticism seems in favour of the idea that the
Blickling Homily author and the Beowulf-poet drew from the Visio independently.13
Beowulf’s descriptions of frosty trees (ll.1363-1364,1374-1375) and sea monsters
(ll.1425-1429) were likely influenced by the Visio’s description of trees rooted on a
cliff edge as contained in The Hanging Sinners interpolation, as well as by the Visio’s
9
Lapidge (1993), pp.383-384.
Ball (2009), parag.10.
11
Quoted in: Andy Orchard, Pride and Prodigies (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1995).
12
Ibid., 41.
13
Charles D. Wright, The Irish Tradition in Old English Literature (Cambridge, Cambridge University
Press, 1993).
10
5
mention of a, ‘[…] terrible river and demonic, fish-like beasts’ in the Bridge of Hell
scene.14
Although the two pieces were likely written independently of one another,
similarities between Blickling Homily XVI and Beowulf are nevertheless notable for
the bleak vision of hell they offer and for the implications this has on the
‘otherworldly’ natures of Beowulf’s seafaring enemies. Shared features also shed
light upon widespread Anglo-Saxon conceptions of hell drawn from apocryphal
sources in wide circulation in early Christian Britain and Ireland.15 Both texts set their
hellish landscapes in the North (l.1346) and depict a scene in which mountain streams
descend into mist and moorland (ll.1359b-1360) occupied by wolves (l.1358). Frosty
trees (ll.1363-1364,1374-1375) rise over an enormous, rocky cliff (ll.14151416,1420-1421), which overhangs a darkened body of water (ll.1373-1374a,1422)
inhabited by reptilian sea monsters (ll.1425-1429). In Blickling Homily XVI, souls of
unrepentant sinners dangle from trees. When the branches snap, these souls are
snatched by monsters that wait greedily in the blackened water. Through imagery rife
with connotative elements, the Beowulf-poet fashions a psychologically jarring
environment replete with demonic sea monsters in the form of Grendel and his mother
(l.845).
Imagery contained in Hroðgar’s ‘sermon’ also draws upon the Anglo-Saxon
concept of hell – and thus on Grendel’s mere – as he warns Beowulf against the
dangers of pride. Hroðgar admonishes Beowulf by advising him to seek eternal gains
(ll.1759b-1760a) because war, sickness, old age, ‘oþþe fyres feng,
oþþe flodes
wylm’ (l.1764) will eventually extinguish his glory. The juxtaposition of ‘fyres’ and
‘flodes’ seems particularly relevant because it is associated with ‘[…] Insular visions
of the Otherworld, where lost souls flit between fire and ice.’16 Grendel’s Mother’s
watery home is illuminated each night, ‘fyr on flode’ (l.1366a), drawing connections
14
Ibid., 136.
Orchard (1995), p.23.
For the relevant excerpt of Blickling Homily XVI, see Andy Orchard, A Critical Companion to
Beowulf (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2003), pp.157-158.
16
Orchard (1995), p.42.
15
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between Hroðgar’s quasi-biblical warning and images of hell. The coexistence of fire
and water is also seen in the firelight inside Grendel’s Mother’s ‘anti-hall’ upon
Beowulf’s entrance (‘færgripe flodes; fyrleoht geseah’, l.1516). The contrast between
fire and flood seems appropriately applied to the death site of Cain’s kin because
similar images were used in homiletic and apocalyptic writings that portray fire as a
cleansing force analogous to Noah’s flood.17
One of the most significant juxtapositions of fire and water is seen at the
setting of Beowulf’s final battle. The fiery stream that flows from the dragon’s hoard
(ll.2545-2547) is set against another cliff overlooking a body of water (ll.3131b3133). Several other aspects of the dragon’s dwelling place are infused with meaning
that seems to foreshadow the calamitous events that ensue. The dragon’s lair is
described in ambiguous terms as either a natural cave or an artificial grave mound.18 It
is filled with grave goods yet seems to lack human remains.19 Its maðm belonged to
the last survivor of an ancient race destroyed by war (ll.2249b-2250a). The dragon’s
lair is a place presided over by death, which uses the promise of treasure to lure its
victims. Nostalgic, the poet summons to mind the familiar image of the mead-hall
(l.3065b) to contrast it with the gloom of impending death. After Beowulf is slain, it
becomes clear that the treasure is under a ‘galdre’ (l.3052) that only allows those to
remain alive ‘swa him gemet ðuhte’ (l.3057b). Interestingly enough, the pagan curse
on the treasure is couched in distinctively Christian language, employing parallel
syntactical structures (ll.3071b-3073a) and references to doomsday
(ll.3069a,3072a,3072b). The curse ‘[…] certainly seems to owe much to the Christian
language of anathema and condemnation’20 and further establishes the lair as an illfated place.
The poet’s homiletic juxtaposition of the fiery stream and the sea and his
repeated association of the dragon’s hlæw with death and doomsday seem to suggest
17
Ibid., 44.
Christine Rauer, Beowulf and the Dragon (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2000).
19
Ibid., 39.
20
Orchard (2003), pp.153-154.
18
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that Beowulf’s downfall could be a consequence of losing God’s favour. This divine
retribution could be seen as a result of Beowulf’s unwillingness to heed Hroðgar’s fyr
and flode warning. Beowulf appears vulnerable to the treasure’s curse, tantalised by
the thought of lof. Even Wiglaf criticises Beowulf’s decision to fight the dragon for
‘mæðu fremman’ (l.2514), claiming, ‘Oft sceall eorl monig
anes willan / wræc
adreog[an]’ (ll.3077-3078a). While the last survivor of the ancient race realised that
‘the coat of mail […] decays with the warrior’21 and ‘foresaw that his joy / in the
treasure would be brief,’22 Beowulf is so obsessed with personal glory, he demands to
see the treasure before he dies (ll.2743b-2751) and relays his posthumous plans for
‘Beowulf’s barrow’ to Wiglaf (ll.2802-2808). Beowulf remains wholly at odds with
the Christian notion of storing treasures in heaven ‘[…] where neither moth nor rust
doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.’23
The ultimate irony of Beowulf’s desire to obtain the treasure for his people is
that, ‘No warrior will display the bright gold that Beowulf has won, and no maiden
adorn herself from its store; their doom must be war and exile.’24 Wiglaf’s death will
mark the end of the Wægmundings, and war with the Franks and Frisians is
imminent. Although the poem’s closing lines are often taken as a testament to
Beowulf’s virtue, Beowulf was the mildest and most gentle (l.3181) of
‘wyruldcyning[a]’ – a qualification which restricts the potency of the statement.
Beowulf is put, ‘firmly in his place, […] a hero of a bygone and strictly secular age.’25
It is fitting that the poem concludes with the statement that Beowulf was ‘lofgeornost’ (l.3182b).
Although the Beowulf-poet is not overly wordy in his descriptions of settings,
the impressions he offers are rife with underlying connotations implicit in imagery.
They function both as self-contained landscapes and as associative unifiers in their
21
Heaney (2000), ll.2258a-2260a.
Ibid., ll.2240b-2241a.
23
Matt. 6:20 (KJV).
This concept permeates Old English elegies and is especially evident in The Seafarer, ll.97-102.
24
William Lawrence, ‘The Dragon and His Lair in Beowulf’, Modern Language Association, 33:4,
(1918): 547-583.
25
Orchard (1995), p.54.
22
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connections to other parts of the narrative and a range of medieval texts. Examining
Beowulf’s settings reveals much about the harrowing atmosphere the poet hopes to
create for the audience and also sheds light upon the fates of Beowulf and his
enemies.
9
Bibliography
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Anglo-Saxon Period: Studies in Honor of Jess B. Bessinger, Jr., ed. H.
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Manes, Christopher, ‘The Substance of Earth in Beowulf’s Song of Creation’, English
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