The two eyes of the dragon: an analysis of Beowulf
from Tolkien’s and Borges’perspective
Diego Klautau1
Abstract: This article presents the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, written in the 8th century
A.D.. The poem narrates the adventures of Beowulf, the hero of the Geats, a Northern
Germanic tribe that used to inhabit the area now occupied by Sweden in the land of the
Scylfings, now Denmark. Considered the first epic poem produced after Christ, Beowulf
has Greco-Roman and Christian matrices and also some elements from Nordic
mythology. From the work of the British philologist R.R. Tolkien, a scholar at Oxford
University, who studied and translated the poem, and the writings of the Argentinean
Jorge Luis Borges, a man of letters at the University of Buenos Aires, it is possible to
perceive a formative proposal, in the sense of the Platonic Paideia, of Christian
inspiration, in the writing of the poem. With this proposal, the writings of the two
scholars present a perspective that permits the understanding of Beowulf as an epic
exhortation of the virtue of courage as a way to confront Evil.
Key-words: Literature;Evil;Virtue
Beowulf: history and poem
The poem Beowulf is dated around the 8th century A.D. and its oldest manuscript
is at the Cotton Collection in the library of the British Museum in London. There are
3,200 verses in the manuscript dated around the 10th century A.D.
The text narrates the journey of Prince Beowulf, prince of the Geats, now the
Swedes, in the 4th century A.D.. Beowulf goes to Heorot, at the royal palace and King
Hrothgar‟s hydromel hall in Denmark. In search of glory and recognition, Beowulf
discovers that Heorot is constantly attacked by Grendel, the ogre, an anthropomorphic
monster that devours King Hrothgar‟s greatest warriors. A descendant of the Biblical
1
PhD Candidate on the Sciences of Religion at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo
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Cain, Grendel attacks civility, hides in the swamp, shows strength and envies men in
view of their grandeur at the palace.
Having fought against the monster and killed it, thus recovering the trust of
Hrothgar‟s men, Beowulf also overcomes Grendel‟s mother, another terrible threat also
living in the swamps, and comes back home to his land as a honoured and glorious hero
to become king.
After many years as the king of the Geats, Beowulf confronts, in his last
adventure, the dragon that attacks his people. Having been robbed by heedless
plunderers, the dragon that piled up treasures seeks vengeance attacking everything
around him.
Destroying the kingdom and terrifying the people, the dragon is an Evil that not
even Beowulf can face. With the help of a relative, Wiglaf, Beowulf sacrifices himself
killing the dragon. However, Beowulf‟s funeral is a prenunciation of the Geats‟ age of
sadness, and puts an end to the time of heroes since the greatest of their warriors and
their own king are both dead.
In the present paper we analyse how two authors deal in their work with the
poem under various approaches. The objective of this study is merely to compile the
various ways through which the poem is presented in the works of the British
philologist and writer John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and of the Argentinean man of letters
and writer Jorge Luis Borges.
The main translation (with introduction, text and notes) of the poem from AngloSaxon to Portuguese was done by Ary Gonzalez Galvão in 1992. In novel form, a
recreation in prose of the medieval poem, the text by A.S. Franchini and Carmen
Seganfredo (Porto Alegre: Artes e Ofícios, 2007) seeks a modern interpretation of the
poem. Finally there is the summary of the poem made by Thomas Bulfinch in O livro de
ouro da mitologia (The Golden Book of Mythology), (1999). The references to the
poem, edited by H.R. Lyon, in Dicionário da Idade Média (1997) (Dictionary of the
Middle Ages) are used to provide some sort of context.
J.R.R. Tolkien‟s work on Beowulf is more related to philology. In his 1936
essay, Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics, Tolkien makes a comprehensive
philological and literary analysis of the poem, showing its Jewish and Greek matrices.
In 1940, Tolkien wrote an introductory study for the translation from Anglo-Saxon into
Modern English, called On Translating Beowulf, emphasizing the importance of AngloSaxon as a language and a poetic form. In his letters, edited by Humphrey Carpenter
(2006) Tolkien quotes the poem several times, revealing it as inspiration for his own
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creation in his legendarium and poems. In his article On Fairy Stories, from 1939, in
which he deals with literary theory, Tolkien also refers to the poem as a literary,
mythological and religious source.
For J.L.Borges, Beowulf is a poem inserted in the history of British literature in
its genesis and matrix. In his book Curso de literatura inglesa (2006) Borges devotes
two lesson-chapters to the poem, developing its historical context and its linguistic
peculiarities. In the book Literaturas germánicas medievales (1966) Borges compares
Beowulf to the Iliad. In his O livro dos seres imaginários (2007) when he analysis the
entry “dragon” in the West, Borges shows that Beowulf, when it refers to the combat
with the dragon, gives continuity to the legends of the Old Greco-Roman Antiquity. In
his book El otro, el mismo (1989) Borges writes two poems referring to Beowulf and in
the collection Sobre a filosofia e outros diálogos (2009) Borges comments on the
importance of that epic poem for literature and for mythological thought.
In this study we will focus on how both authors perceive in Beowulf a
conception of Evil that will allow us to understand through the phenomenology how this
symbol is expressed in the image of the dragon, the destroyer of the hero. Both for
Tolkien and for Borges, this image is the key to understand the conception of Evil in the
poem and its respective conclusions.
Tolkien and philology
For Tolkien, Beowulf is a very valuable poem. In a letter, edited by Carpenter
(2006), he shows the significance of Beowulf for his own literary creation, and the
nebulous relations between the personal convictions of each author and the artistic
expressions in their works. He compares himself with the author of Beowulf, explaining
that at given moments the work of art assumes its own direction, often independent
from the author‟s original conceptions. Thus his vast literary creation is permeated with
Anglo-Saxon contributions and with the environment reflected in the poem.
Beowulf está entre minhas fontes mais valiosas, embora não estivesse conscientemente presente na
minha mente no processo de composição, no qual o episódio do roubo surgiu naturalmente (e
quase inevitavelmente) devido às circunstâncias. É difícil pensar em qualquer outro modo de
conduzir a história a partir daquele ponto. Imagino que o autor de Beowulf diria praticamente a
mesma coisa. (Carpenter, 2006, p. 35)
[Beowulf is among my most valuable sources, although it may not have been consciously present
in my mind in the process of composition, in which the episode of the robbery rose naturally (and
almost inevitably) in view of the circumstances. It is difficult to think of any other way to conduct
a story from that point. I imagine that the author of Beowulf would say practically the same thing.]
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In his essay Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics, Tolkien (1997) understands
the poem as having seven main points. The first important point he focuses on is the
literary value in terms of beauty and creativity. Tolkien does not want to restrict his
criticism by seeing Beowulf either as a historical document or as a philosophical treaty.
He does not want either classification, but prefers what he considers to be the happy
medium between the two. Beowulf is not philosophical in logical terms, it is a poem that
expresses the enchantment and exaltation of a mythology. Thus, it is not a historical
document, because it exposes the details of the everyday life of an institution,
mechanisms of control or organization.
For Tolkien, the importance of the poem goes further than the later reflections
on it or the historical conditions in which it was written. Tolkien‟s concern in affirming
that his study is about the poem and not about its concepts or about its historical context
intends to emphasize that what is important is precisely the impact that the poem has on
the reader. The experience of the poem brings echoes to those who read it. This is the
experience of the myth.
This is Tolkien‟s second point about the poem. For him, the difference between
allegory and myth is fundamental, for allegory has a direct meaning of the significant.
That which is represented can be explained without much difficulty through that which
it represents. According to Tolkien, this is not the case in Beowulf:
The myth has other forms than the (now discredited) mythical allegory of nature: the sun, the
seasons, the sea, and such things... The significance of a myth is not easily to be pinned on paper
by analytical reasoning. It is at its best when it is presented by a poet who fells rather than makes
explicit what his theme portends; who presents it incarnate in the world of history and geography,
as our poet has done. Its defender is thus at a disadvantage: unless he is careful, and speaks in
parables, he will kill what he is studying by allegory, and, what is more, probably with one that
will not work. For myth is alive at once and in all its parts, and dies before it can be dissected.
2
(Tolkien, 1997, p. 15)
Tolkien‟s criticism of analytical rationality is based on mythical thought. The
thesis that myths are allegories or representations of the natural phenomena that the
ancient peoples did not understand is refuted. In his conception, the experience of the
myth, that is alive, comes closer to a poet than to a modern scientist.
2
TN – In the Portuguese text, this footnote is the translation into Portuguese of the quotation above and
there is obviously no need to reproduce it here.
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In this experience, the myth produces feelings and reality that escapes analytical
reason, or that fails to express them in the same way. Only poetry can come closer to
this truth that the poet can express having as a base the world, the time and the space
that can be understood by his peers.
This does not mean that the very myth, its true content, is imprisoned in this time
and space, but it is the way the poet has to express this mythical reality that cannot be
explained not even allegorically, because such meaning cannot be isolated for good, as
it is always generating new significations and depending on the personal experience of
each individual that participates in the myth.
Tolkien‟s third point has a symbolic relevance. When we study the dragon, the
symbol of Evil is defined. This symbol3 is present in various cultures, be it the evil
serpent of the Genesis narrative (3:1-14) be it Midgard‟s4 serpent of the Scandinavian
mythology, that goes round the world and wakes up in the Ragnarok, in the end of time:
be it the dragon that King Beowulf confronts and kills (and Beowulf dies afterwards
because of his wounds); be it the dragon the colour of fire from the Christian
Apocalypse (12:1-18).
For Tolkien, Beowulf‟s dragon is the absolute Evil. In the Scandinavian
mythology Ragnarok ends with the defeat of the giants and of the gods‟ enemies, but all
the gods are killed and Surtur, the great demon of fire, sets fire to the universe and that
is the end of time. In the poem, the coin to obtain glory and honour is the ability to resist
cowardice and the weakness to decide before a certain death. The post-death world
would not offer eternal rest, for the warriors would return to fight in the end of time,
when all would be defeated, including the gods. The honour was to be next to those who
would fight to the end.
Here we establish the forth point of Tolkien‟s study. The dogma of courage, in
the Scandinavian mythology is the main virtue brought by the narrative of Beowulf.
Echoing this myth of the Ranarok, the experience of the myth glorifies the virtue of
3
In the discussion of the symbol, it is the representation that brings together a known and representable
figure to the non-representable mystery. The dragon my be described, but what he really means, cannot.
This is the fundamental difference between an allegory, of which we can explain what it represents, and
the symbol, that maintains a part at the mystery level. See: croatto, Severino. As linguagens da
experiência religiosa.
4
Midgard was the Kingdom of the Middle, as Scandinavian mythology called the Earth where we live.
The serpent is killed by Thor, the god of thunder and war, who goes forward nine steps and dies from the
poison. The relation of this passage of the myth with Beowulf‟s death is obvious. Thor is considered the
most powerful god after Odin, the gods‟ father. See: BULFINCH, Thomas. O livro de ouro da mitologia.
A Idade da Fábula.
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courage without hope. There is no hope of a victory, not even with the gods‟ help
because the gods themselves are doomed to die.
So regarded, Beowulf is, of course, an historical document of the first order for the study of the
mood and thought of the period and one perhaps too little used for the purpose by professed
historians. But it is the mood of the author, the essential cast of his imaginative apprehension of
the world, that is my concern, not history for its own sake; I am interested in that time of fusion
only as it may help us to understand the poem. And in the poem I think we may observe not
confusion, a half-hearted or a muddled business, but a fusion that has occurred at a given point of
contact between old and new, a product of thought and deep emotion.
One of the most potent elements in that fusion is the Northern courage: the theory of courage,
which is the great contribution of early Northern literature. 5 (Tolkien, 1997, p. 20)
This fusion expressed by Tolkien is the integration of the Scandinavian and
Anglo-Saxon mythology, full of giants and dragons, with the Biblical literature with a
Jewish-Christian bias. It is the poet‟s imaginative perception between the old, the
Anglo-Saxon mythology, and the new, Christianity. In another study, we propose an
interpretation of this integration, for historical and philosophical reasons as Augustine
of Hippo‟s philosophy of virtue, of grace and of the City of God as base for the
mythical reflection underlying the poem. Augustine‟s thought would maintain the
philosophical content reflected in the form of myth in Beowulf, being the cultural
structure that supports the morality of Beowulf.
A visão de Agostinho sobre as virtudes como dons de Deus demonstra que os romanos obtiveram
seu êxito no mundo por causa da busca e veneração dessas virtudes, até mesmo como deusas em
si. Enganados por não conhecerem a verdade do monoteísmo cristão, puderam gozar dos dons das
virtudes. No caso, o objetivo é a glória, a honra e o mando, isto é: o reconhecimento entre os pares
da vitória, essa vitória considerada justa e respeitável, e, enfim, o poder de mando entre seres
humanos e o Estado oriundo dessa glória e honra. Por isso que se explica a existência do Império
Romano como dom de Deus para os romanos. (Klautau, 2007, p. 14)
Dragão, Caim, Grendel e sua mãe estão em combate com figuras de reis e heróis que se balizam
nas virtudes de Agostinho. A teoria da coragem, ou o dogma, que Tolkien apresenta em seu
ensaio, nos mostra o quão importante esse fundamento se apresenta na narrativa de Beowulf. Da
mesma maneira que os romanos receberam seu Império como dom de Deus através das virtudes,
5
TN - In the Portuguese text, this footnote is the translation into Portuguese of the quotation above and
there is obviously no need to reproduce it here.
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os escandinavos também mantiveram sua cultura e sua tradição através do dom da coragem.
(Klautau, 2007, p. 18)
[Augustine‟s view about the virtues as God‟s gifts shows that the Romans succeeded in the world
because they searched and venerated these virtues, even considering them as goddesses. Misled
because they did not know the truth of Christian monotheism, they were able to enjoy the gifts of
those virtues. In this case, the objective is glory, honour and authority, that is: the recognition on
the part of the peers of the victory, this victory that is regarded as fair and respectable and, finally
the power of the authority over the human beings and the State resulting from this glory and
honour. It is for this reason that the existence of the Roman Empire is explained as God‟s gift to
the Romans.]
[Dragon, Cain, Grendel and his mother are battling against figures of kings and heroes that are
distinguished by having Augustine‟s virtues. The theory or dogma of courage that Tolkien presents
in his essay shows how important this fundament is in the narrative of Beowulf. Just as the Romans
received their Empire as a gift from God through their virtues, the Scandinavians also maintained
their culture and their tradition through the gift of courage.]
The theory or dogma of courage, as Tolkien presents in his essay, shows how
important the mythical experience of courage is in the narrative of Beowulf. It is
possible to draw parallels with the virtues of strength, justice, temperance and prudence
through the dogma of courage. These virtues are considered cardinal for Christianity by
Augustine of Hippo: he rescued them from the Platonic and Aristotelian philosophies
because they are human expressions, present in all cultures.
This is the fifth point that Tolkien presents in Beowulf. The point of fusion
between Christianity and the pagan thought is what is presented in the poem. This
fusion was not done in a disorderly manner – although the poem has often been accused
of corrupting pagan purity and forcing its Christianization, by making Grendel a
descendant of Cain – but is a work of integration between myth and faith that produces
a mythical and sapiential poem in an original way.
The expression of this poetic experience of fusion involves the understanding of
Beowulf‟s pagan thought and at the same time the expression of Hrothgar‟s
monotheism that claims for the unique God, Creator and Legislator, like the Jewish
kings and Grendel‟s descent until Cain. In the Scandinavian mythology there is no
salvation, not even for the strongest. The Ragnarok will consume everything, including
the gods. The battle, then, becomes a spiritual one, for it is no longer possible to turn
back, in the name of virtue itself. Resistance becomes perfect because it has no hope
whatsoever. There is a notion that it is possible to achieve victory through the sheer
obstinacy of continuing to fight even without hope.
The sixth point of the study of Beowulf is the comparison that Tolkien makes
between Northern mythology and the mythology of Southern Europe. The European
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continent, and in it, Christianity in particular, because they appreciated the gods of the
South – understood as the Mediterranean – specifically those of the Greco-Roman
world, forgot the contributions made to their culture and formation by the Northern
mythology, in particular the Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon ones.
In this essay, Tolkien compares the gods and monsters from Virgil‟s 6 Aeneid
and from Homer‟s7 Odyssey with those in Beowulf. The Cyclops, monster confronted
by Ulysses as a son of the gods that men must fool because they are invaders, so that, in
the gods‟ own game, they can succeed in safely returning to their homes, is totally
different from Grendel‟s view, his mother and the dragon.
In Beowulf, the monsters are the absolute Evil. The gods, allied to men in their
battle doomed to failure, the only fate for virtuous men, share the same fate. The
monsters are giants who oppose the gods. The descriptions of monsters and giants as
God‟s adversaries are also present in the Genesis (6:1-8). Beowulf is thus closer to the
Christian Scriptures.
In Beowulf we have, then, an historical poem about the pagan past, or an attempt at one – literal
historical fidelity founded on modern research was, of course, not attempted. It is a poem by a
learned man writing of old times, who looking back on the heroism and sorrow feels in them
something permanent and something symbolical. So far from being a confused semi-pagan –
historically unlikely for a man of this sort in the period – he brought probably first to his task a
knowledge of Christian poetry, especially that of the Caedmon school, and specially Genesis…
Secondly, to his task the poet brought a considerable learning in native laws and traditions...8
(Tolkien, 1997, p. 26-27)
The experience of the sorrow and heroism of a pagan people that belonged to the
poet‟s same tradition and culture, is the link between the text of Beowulf and the
Christian Scriptures. Just as the Christian tradition had incorporated the Greco-Roman
philosophy and culture -something for which God granted a certain virtue - the AngloSaxon text does the same thing. What they feel is something permanent and symbolic,
the truth, expressed in verses and lines that echo the theory of courage, the dogma of the
hopeless struggle. Here are the kings who must be followed, those to whom God
6
Roman poet (70 B.C to 19 B.C.), main epic poet in the Latin language. Regarded as the poet who
inspired Rome‟s imperial ideals.
7
Greek poet from the 8th century B.C. considered the founder of Greek epic poetry whose best known
works are Odyssey and Iliad describing the Trojan War and Ulysses‟ journey.
8
TN - In the Portuguese text, this footnote is the translation into Portuguese of the quotation above and
there is obviously no need to reproduce it here.
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granted the virtues that indicate His predilection and His path towards the truth of the
law inscribed in the hearts.
Finally the seventh point in Beowulf is the construction of the meaning of the
text and not of its historicity. Tolkien wants to show what remains as truth, translated
into virtues, presented through the symbolic narrative of monsters and heroes. The
conflict against Evil, symbolized by the dragon, is precisely the same conflict as in the
Christian Apocalypse.
It is the monsters‟ inhuman and supernatural character that goes beyond the
reflection of a historical tenor. The battles against superhuman beings are the ones that
encourage the experience of and the reflection on the natural reality, the cosmic
discussion about destiny and the meaning of life, its limits and its virtues. This is man
before what he can and what he cannot. This is his experience before the mystery and
his discoveries before the Creation.
“It is just because the main foes in Beowulf are inhuman that the story is larger
and more significant than this imaginary poem of a great king´s fall. It glimpses the
cosmic and moves with the thought of all men concerning the fate of human life and
efforts” 9 (Tolkien, 1997, p. 33).
In Tolkien‟s study of Beowulf, the virtues, the example of the king and of the
hero, or of the warrior who faces the battles and his own despair, are not essential in
themselves but only with regard to the mystery of the superhuman, be it the mystery we
are facing or the one that aids us. Thus the closeness between the permanence of the
virtues present in the mythology is the permanence of God‟s eternity.
Borges and literature
In the lessons Borges gives in his book Curso de literatura inglesa about the
poem Beowulf, he both analyses the historical context by which the poem is defined and
makes a philological study of the Anglo-Saxon words and their meanings.
For Borges, the protagonist is similar to a knight that embodies the virtues that
were appreciated in the Middle Ages: courage and loyalty. Classified as an epopee, the
9
TN - In the Portuguese text, this footnote is the translation into Portuguese of the quotation above and
there is obviously no need to reproduce it here.
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poem claims to be a heir of Vigil‟s Aeneid besides having some complicating factors,
such as contradictory double words referring to the same reality – both God (God) and
destiny (wyrd) appear in its text as a power superior to the gods. This is another
example of the point of fusion between Northern paganism and Christianity.
Borges is attracted by this specific characteristic. This treasure of the language
and of paganism and at the same time an affirmation of Christian culture elaborated in
literary terms, permits the discovery of a treasure that was hidden behind the prejudice
according to which Christianization would be enforced upon the untouchable pagan
element.
“Faz uns duzentos anos, descobriu-se que a literatura inglesa encerrava uma espécie de câmara
secreta, à maneira do ouro subterrâneo que a serpente do mito guarda. Esse ouro antigo é a
poesia dos anglo-saxões” (Borges, 2002, p. XXXI).
[About two hundred years ago it was discovered that British literature contained a sort of secret
chamber, similar to the underground gold protected by the mythical serpent. This old gold is the
Anglo-Saxons‟ poetry.]
For Borges, in the poem there is a predominance of social life, of the burlesque,
of hospitality, hydromel and boasting. Hrothgar‟s palace is the space for coexistence,
for gatherings and parties. Hrothgar himself is called beahgifa (the grantor of rings) and
is portrayed as a generous and fair man, a symbol of honour and wealth. The granting of
rings is the symbol of the comitatus relationship, of the group of warriors closest to the
king who have privileges and rights, proper of the Germanic tradition that will foment
the feudal vassalage.
Borges classifies the poem as a badly invented fable, pointing to the
contradiction between the powerful king Hrothgar, who controls Denmark but who is
helpless before Grendel, the monster of human origin, against whom not even the gods
had enough power or could intervene.
Analysing the passage in which Beowulf, arriving at Heorot in the banquet
between hydromel and food, describes the swimming dispute with Breca, a member of
his people, in which for ten days and ten nights they swam against sea monsters and
storms, Borges says that the main theme of the poem is conceit and pride.
Although he contextualizes this characteristic as a virtue of that age, because it
was in the large halls that warriors obtained fame and honour, Borges affirms that it is a
narrative without brilliance, and compares Beowulf to the Buenos Aires compadritos,
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men who lived on the periphery of the Argentinean capital in the first half of the 20th
century, a bit like the Brazilian malandros (rogues) who inhabited the slums. Beowulf
wanted to boast about his courage, just as the compadritos competed for their reputation
through songs and verses.
Soy del barrio Monserrate
Donde relumbra el acero
Lo que digo con el pico
Lo sostengo con el cuero
Yo soy del barrio del norte
Soy del barrio de Retiro,
Yo soy aquel que no miro
Con quien tengo que pelear
Y a quien en milonguear
Ninguno se puso a tiro.
Hágase a un lao, se lo ruego,
Que soy de la Tierra „el Fuego.
(Borges, 2006, p. 26)
Beowulf‟s main characteristic is a yearning for praise and for glory and the wish
to be feared. However, in spite of certain qualms with regard to the poem, Borges
defends Beowulf as the first epic poem in vernacular language, the first poem produced
by Christianity, coming after the Greco-Roman culture and independent from it. He
infers that in the writing of Beowulf is the basis for the virtue of knighthood, a product
of Christianity in the following centuries.
It is precisely by the integration of the legacy of Antiquity, of the Sacred
Scriptures and of the Christianization of the Germanic culture that knighthood will be
formed. Beowulf, written before the Breton cycle, is the first poem that stands out and
heralds this historical culture.
At another moment, Borges valorizes the poem when he reflects about the fact
that this characteristic of courage is also expressed in the first vernacular language as a
heralding of the Protestant Reform itself.
A linguagem anglo-saxã, o inglês antigo, estava, por sua aspereza mesma, predestinada à épica,
isto é, à celebração da coragem e da lealdade. Por isso [...] é na descrição de batalhas que os poetas
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se saem especialmente bem. É como ouvíssemos o ruído das espadas, o golpe das lanças nos
escudos, o tumulto dos gritos da batalha. (Borges, 2006, p. 76)
[The Anglo-Saxon language, the old English was, because of its very roughness, predestined to the
epic, that is, to the celebration of courage and loyalty. For this reason […] it is in the description of
battles that the poets do especially well. It is as if we heard the noise of the swords, the noise of the
spears striking the shields, the uproar of the cries of battle.]
This roughness that makes the language predestined to the epic, to this celebration
of courage and loyalty, would be more than a style or an artistic creation of a single
inspiration. It would spread throughout the Anglo-Saxon civilization. This cultural trait
shared by a given civilization, would produce the first properly Christian literary
synthesis without direct links with the Greco-Roman Antiquity.
The historical reflection proceeds to try to explain why the Germanic nations
produced translations of the Bible before the Latin ones. The trait of courage, of the
hero‟s solitary affirmation is already announced through Beowulf‟s text. Other
historical characters, such as Ulfilas (=small wolf, 311-383, Bishop of the Goths, Arian)
Wycliffe (1320-1384, theologian and forerunner of the Anglican Reform, affirmed that
the Church should abandon its worldly possessions, encouraged the first complete
translation of the Bible into English) and finally, Luther (1483-1546) would corroborate
the hypothesis defended by Borges.
On this, he quotes Francis Palgrave (1788-1861), Germanist of Jewish origin,
who presented the hypothesis that the medieval Bible was the Latin Vulgata and the
Latin languages were too close of the original and the translation seemed like a parody
of bad taste, almost an outrage. In the Germanic languages, on the other hand, the
difference from Latin was more accentuated and the translation could be made without
the danger of it becoming a parody and nobody could think of the connection with the
Aeneid.
In a comment made in the chapter “Mitologia escandinava e épica anglo-saxã”
[Scandinavian mythology and Anglo Saxon epic] of the text Sobre a filosofia e outros
diálogos (2009), Borges again reinforces this hypothesis, affirming that the nostalgia of
the past is a characteristic of Beowulf‟s period and the identification of the language
with the recovery of the pagan culture would be the causes that came together for the
elaboration of the poem:
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[…]poderíamos pensar que o autor de Beowulf leu a Eneida, e que se propôs a escrever uma
Eneida germânica, que então escreveu o Beowulf – isso foi escrito na Inglaterra, mas o autor usou
lendas escandinavas; todas as personagens são dinamarquesas, ou procedem da Suécia. Mas
naquela época não existia a ideia de que um escritor tivesse que escrever sobre o que é
contemporâneo ou local, pelo contrário, existia o prestígio daquilo que estava longe, e talvez
houvesse certa saudade do paganismo entre os anglo-saxões. (p. 127)
[we might think that the author of Beowulf read the Aeneid, and that he decided to write a
Germanic Aeneid, and then wrote Beowulf – this was written in England, but the author used
Scandinavian legends: all the characters are Danish or come from Sweden. But at that time there
was no expectation that a writer had to write about what was contemporary or local, on the
contrary, there was some prestige (in writing about) what was far away and maybe there was also
some nostalgia of paganism among the Anglo-Saxons.]
Once again, there is the argument that the poem is not just a badly made copy, or
a poor parody of some Greco-Roman epic. The poem has its own beauty because it
gives emphasis to virtuous truths that are also present in the Christian conception of
virtue and goodness.
The example of the originality of the Anglo-Saxon poetry is the kennings,
crystallized and descriptive poetic metaphors. They apparently were compositions that
described unique realities, in a crossing of meanings that would demonstrate the poetic
strength of the language. Herewith some examples brought from Borges:

The wolf of the bees: the bear, Beowulf.

House of the bones: the body

The path of the whale, the field of the seagull: the sea

The people‟s shepherd: the king.

Colt of the sea, wild boar of the waves: the ship

Guardian of the summer: the bird
In order to write, for instance, that Beowulf was on a boat, crossing the sea, in order to
recover the king‟s son‟s body when he heard a bird could have been written as follows:
the wolf of the bees was on the colt of the sea, crossing the path of the whale, in order to
recover the house of the bones of the people’s shepherd when he heard the guardian of
the summer. With this type of reasoning, there would be complicating developments,
when two kennings overlapped in order to form a third composition:

Ship: sea horse.

Sea: field of the seagull.

Ship: horse of the field of the seagull.
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
Spear: serpent of the shield.

Shield: the pirates‟ moon.

Spear: serpent of the pirates‟ moon.

Crow: swan of blood.

Blood: the beer of the dead.

Crow: swan of the beer of the dead.
These compositions become richer allowing the poet to express his creativity
with stronger metaphors in order to express in a deeper way the meaning of the
image he describes. In order to write that the ship was full of blood, spears and
shields, with crows perching on it, he would write: the horse of the field of the
seagull was full of the beer of the dead, serpents of the shield and pirates’ moon,
with swans of the beer of the dead perching on it.
Besides studying specifically the meaning and the formation of the words, of the
historical context and of the cultural developments, Borges also wrote about the
theme. In his book El otro, el mismo (1989) he devotes a poem to the theme of the
Anglo-Saxon literature, quoting Beowulf explicitly.
Fragmento
Una espada,
Una espada de hierro forjada en el frío del alba.
Una espada con runas
Que nadie podrá desoír ni descifrar del todo,
Una espada del Báltico que será cantada en Nortumbria,
Una espada que los poetas
Igualarán al hielo y al fuego,
Una espada que un rey dará a otro rey
Y este rey a un sueño,
Una espada que será leal
Hasta una hora que ya sabe el Destino,
Una espada que iluminará la batalla.
Una espada para la mano
Que regirá la hermosa batalla, el tejido de hombres,
Una espada para la mano
Que enrojecerá los dientes del lobo
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Y el despiadado pico del cuervo,
Una espada para la mano
Que prodigará el oro rojo,
Una espada para la mano
Que dará muerte a la serpiente en su lecho de oro,
Una espada para la mano
Que ganará un reino y perderá un reino,
Una espada para la mano
Que derribará la selva de lanzas.
Una espada para la mano de Beowulf.
The poem celebrates courage and loyalty, virtues pointed by Borges as the center
of the poetic of Beowulf. It is the sword forged to be sung in the various corners of
the world, to be bathed in the enemies‟ blood, to knock down the serpent to gain or
lose a kingdom. At the same time, to be loyal to a king, a sword must be at the
service not only of man‟s glory but consequently also of the loyalty and courage
where the man‟s glory resides.
Evil and the dogma of courage
As we conclude this study – a merely initial one – on the comparison of
Tolkien‟s and Borges‟ approaches to the poem Beowulf, we notice that both authors
emphasize that the poem is about courage and the confrontation of Evil.
On the one hand, Grendel, the prototype of Evil, is barbarism, that which is
outside men‟s kingdom, but on the other he refers to the fallen humankind, that of Cain,
who lives in the swamps, in marginality, and for this reason envies the joy of others. He
is strong, no one is able to fight him and he threatens the very existence of Hrothgar‟s
kingdom.
On the other hand, there is the symbol of the dragon. In his third fight, after
Grendel and his mother, the ultimate confrontation is against the dragon. This is the
third fight in which all ends. In spite of being the great hero, the hunter and the king,
there is no way he can survive the dragon that, even defeated, claims the hero‟s life.
The symbol of the dragon is found both in Tolkien and in Borges. And they
connect it with Beowulf. In O livro dos seres imaginários (2007) Borges draws a
genealogy of the dragon in the West, and praises the Anglo-Saxon poem for placing the
monster as the human enemy identifiable by its greed. It is precisely in order to steal the
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treasury, accumulated for centuries through crimes and atrocities that the dragon attacks
men.
Also in the book of poems The adventures of Tom Bombadil and in the novel
The Hobbit as well as in various moments of his legendarium Tolkien (2003)
reproduces the dragon as a being eager for treasures, full of envy and jealousy, with a
temper devoted to destruction and to the accumulation of riches with the objective of
merely saving and accumulating, with no other motives or wishes.
When he describes his view of the plot, Tolkien, in the letters edited by his
biographer Humphrey Carpenter (2006) expresses this characteristic of the dragon
shared by Grendel. The ogre becomes more collective and threatens all men and at the
same time his defeat brings joy to all. Evil then surpasses the political struggles and the
factions among men. The defeat of Evil brings people together, and for this reason it
manifests itself as superhuman.
Os objetivos pessoais de Beowulf em sua viagem à Dinamarca são precisamente aqueles de um
cavaleiro posterior: seu próprio renome e, acima disso, a glória de seu senhor e rei; porém, a todo
momento vislumbramos algo mais profundo. Grendel é um inimigo que atacara o centro do reino e
trouxera para dentro do salão real a escuridão exterior, de maneira que apenas durante o dia o rei
pode se sentar no trono. Isso é algo bem diferente e mais horrível do que uma invasão “política” de
iguais – homens de outro reino similar, tal como o ataque posterior de Ingeld a Heorot. A derrota
de Grendel resulta em uma boa história fantástica, pois ele é forte e perigoso demais para qualquer
homem comum derrotar, mas é uma vitória pela qual todos os homens podem se alegrar, porque
ele era um monstro, hostil a todos os homens e a toda camaradagem e alegria humanas.
Confrontados com ele, até mesmo os há muito politicamente hostis dinamarqueses e geats
tornaram-se amigos, do mesmo lado. (Carpenter, 2006, p. 232)
[Beowulf‟s personal objectives in his trip to Denmark are precisely those of a later knight: his own
fame and above that, the glory of his lord and king; however we constantly perceive something
deeper. Grendel is an enemy that had attacked the centre of the kingdom and brought into the royal
hall the external darkness, so that the king could only sit on his throne during the day. This is
something quite different and more horrible than a “political” invasion of equals - men of another
similar kingdom, such as Ingeld‟s later attack on Heorot. Grendel‟s defeat results in a good
fantastic story because he is far too strong and dangerous for any man to defeat, but this is a
victory that can bring joy to all men, because Grendel is a monster, hostile to all men and against
all human comradeship and joy. Confronting him even the Danish and Geats who had been
politically hostile to one another for a long time become friends on the same side.]
This reservation about the supra-historical and metapolitical dimension is
characteristic of the myth. Not as escapism or alienation but because the contextual
explanation has not enough breath to discuss the question of Evil. In fact, the issue of
Evil is regarded as mysterious, because it cannot be explained in one face only.
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In this sense, Borges (2009) agrees with Tolkien in this conception of the myth,
of art and of literature. In his view, the dependence of art on politics and history is false.
He revindicates a liberation of both from time.
“Art and literature […] would have to free themselves from time. It was often
said that art depends on politics or on history. No, I think this is totally false” (Borges,
2009, p. 127).
In another moment, a certain poem reflects the poet‟s motivation to study the
language of the Anglo-Saxons. This calling for the eternal, the transcendent is
connected with the production of the poem and even to the study of an old and distant
people.
Composición escrita en un ejemplar de la gesta de Beowulf
A veces me pregunto qué razones
Me mueven a estudiar sin esperanza
De precisión, mientras mi noche avanza,
La lengua de los ásperos sajones.
Gastada por los años la memoria
Deja caer la en vano repetida
Palabra y es así como mi vida.
Teje y desteje su cansada historia.
Será (me digo entonces) que de un modo
Secreto y suficiente el alma sabe
Que es inmortal y que su vasto y grave
Círculo abarca todo y puede todo.
Más allá de este afán y de este verso
Me queda inagotable el universo.
(Borges, 1989)
The poem is an excuse, a justification, a defense for studying the Anglo-Saxons.
Borges gives the reasons for studying the Anglo-Saxons in a written essay on Beowulf.
Beyond the strange language, the geographic distance, the cultural difference, there
exists something that the soul knows: that the effort of the Saxon‟s strange world
reflects the effort of the transcendence, of overcoming oneself in the direction towards
the universe, towards the whole for which the human desire yearns.
Finally this transcendent dimension is what reflects the superhuman and the
supernatural in poetry. This conception of the myth, of the meaning that crosses life and
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perhaps goes beyond it and is, in any way, perennial, going beyond death through the
memory that remains among men, is the great nature of courage, of virtue and of the
confrontation with Evil.
The dragon, the monster, is death and the unknown end of man. It terrifies
because it is unknown, dangerous and lethal. But it is precisely through it that is
conceived the continuity of the virtue towards eternity and men‟s recognition through
time. It is through the confrontation with Evil, that has an anthropormophic body, or a
genuinely human trait such as greed that man overcomes himself, his own body, his
own greed, and flies towards that other unknown, that goes necessarily through the
terrifying and known death.
In his essay Sobre as histórias de fadas (2006) Tolkien develops his literary
theory and among the concepts that he proposes in order to defend his own writings and
his work as a whole, he exemplifies in the dragon that fascination before morbidity or
the irrational that prompt him to write mythically about dragons and about supernatural
fantasy. When he created the Middle-Earth, he expressed man‟s search, not for Evil but
for the meaning of the opposition to Evil. Before Evil man narrates his own crossing,
since he is present in the world.
Essas terras eram proeminentemente desejáveis. Nunca imaginei que o dragão
pertencesse à mesma ordem do cavalo. E isso não somente porque eu via cavalos todos os
dias, mas também porque nunca vira nem mesmo a pegada de um lagarto. O dragão tinha
a marca registrada de Feéria inscrita com clareza. Não importa em que mundo ele existia,
era Outro Mundo. A fantasia, a criação ou o vislumbrar de Outros Mundos era o coração
do desejo de Feéria. Eu desejava dragões com um desejo profundo. É claro que, com meu
corpo franzino, não queria tê-los nos arredores, intrometendo-se em meu mundo
relativamente seguro, onde, por exemplo, era possível ler histórias desfrutando de paz
mental, livre de medo. Mas o mundo que continha até mesmo a imaginação de Fafnir era
mais rico e mais belo, não importava o custo do perigo. O habitante da planície tranquila
e fértil pode ouvir falar das colinas castigadas pelas intempéries e do mar sem vida e
ansiar por eles em seu coração. Porque o coração é firme, embora o corpo seja fraco.
(Tolkien, 2006, p. 44)
[These lands were prominently desirable. I never imagined that the dragon belonged to same order
as the horse. And this not only because I saw horses everyday, but also because I hadn‟t even ever
seen the footprint of a lizard. The dragon had the registered brand of Féeria clearly inscribed. It
doesn‟t matter in which world he existed, it was certainly Other World. The fantasy, the creation or
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the glimpsing of Other Worlds was the heart to Feéria‟s desire. I desired dragons with a deep
desire. And it‟s obvious that, with my frail body, I didn‟t want to have them around, interfering in
my relatively safe word, where, for example, it was possible to read stories enjoying some mental
peace and fearless. But the world that contained even the imagination of Fafnir was richer and
more beautiful, it didn‟t matter the cost of danger. The inhabitant of the quiet and fertile plateau
may hear others speaking of the hills chastised by the inclement weather and by the lifeless sea and
yearn for them in his heart. Because the heart is strong, even if the body is weak.]
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Translated by Vera Joscelyne
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