Beowulf, Chiefdoms, and the Dragon
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Wade Tarzia, Naugatuck Valley Community
College for WCSU
Click “Folklore” then “Chapter 4 Beowulf” at
www.wtarzia.com for MANY details
Thanks for the Invite, Glad to be Here!
Thanks for the Cool Poster!
We must study Beowulf because…?
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Relationship between wealth, war, and society in the
epic is still instructive today
Beowulf as leader doesn’t send warriors where he will
not go himself (not a political statement)
Monsters are important symbols: Beowulf is the source
of monsters in Western Tradition
“Strange” culture requires us to apply ethnographic &
historical approaches to literary study (= good!)
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Oral vs. written narrative style, different worldview, and more!
And why worry about Chiefdoms?
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The 3rd of 4 general organizations of society
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Helps us study origin & function of power
Chiefdoms are the basis for Western Society
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Band, Tribe, Chiefdom, [stratified?], State
(and most other societies)
Still a hot topic in anthropology
Might help us read some postColonial literature
What is a Chiefdom?
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Permanent office of leadership, but…
Leads by persuasion more than command
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Society based in kinship
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“…leaders can lead, but followers may not follow.”
Relations usually form retinue and support positions
Closer to the chiefly family = higher status (ranked)
Slight wealth differences
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Chief has bigger house, eats a little better
Wealth from best land, raiding, trade control
Our Chief (ha!) Worry: Status Symbols
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Chiefs gain followers by distributing wealth
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“food chiefs” = gather produce, give big feasts
“war chiefs” = take your stuff, give it to followers
“trade chiefs” = control trade of exotic materials
Chiefs gain power by showing off cool stuff
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Makes power/bravery/wits/luck visible
Example: periods of scare exotic goods in Europe
may have not allowed complex society to form
Contact with Rome boosted exotic good flow
Status stuff Can Cause Problems
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When enter a society, social structure changes
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See great film, “The Gods Must be Crazy”
Or think about problem of $400 sneakers
Taste for exotic goods can lead to
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Raiding and trading to get it to look cool
Coolness leads to political power differences
Envy: some angry they have no pretty things like you
Inflation: too many pretty things in society = less
useful to display status. What to do…….?
Solution = sacrifice, wreck, hoard
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Chiefdoms based on exotic goods experience
problems of wealth abundance or scarcity
For envy/inflation problems, get rid of the stuff!
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Sacrifice to gods (so everybody feels better)
Wreck the stuff (broken weapons)
Lose the stuff (throw in bogs and rivers)
Surprise! Beowulf is obsessed with
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Owning, getting, and giving wealth
Hidden wealth in monster caves
Treasure hoards = common ritual
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Neolithic through early medieval periods
Two types, hiding and sacrificing
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Craftsman scraps hidden for safety
Ritual goods hidden permanently (bogs, rivers)
Goods destroyed (classic potlatch ritual)
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Potlatch = status sacrifice competition, “last man standing”
Goods buried in sets suggest status positions
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Fits in to anthro theory of potlatch, inflation, envy
4th-5th-6th century (Migration Period)
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Kragehul, Skedemose, Vimose, Nydam, Thorsbjerg -much war gear, 2 ships, decorated ornaments/clothing,
Roman imports, 100s objects: pottery, wood, leather.
Thorsbjerg -- some items deliberately broken
Öland, Vastergötland, & Torslunda -- neck rings
An old tradition -- Hjortspring, Denmark, 200 BC -- ship
with ~150 shields, 138 iron spearheads, 20 chain shirts,
6 swords; also, dishes, bowls, boxes
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Gear for complete war-band, useful stuff= emphasizes need for
burial ritual!
Important Trends of Hoards
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items for display of individual’s social rank were focus
votive deposits occur in wet areas (meadow, bogs,
lakes, some apparently bundled or marked by poles)
deliberate destruction of some items occurred; related to
wet-area deposit (indicates rituality).
largest votive deposits are near settlement areas,
suggesting community ritual
communal-ritual hoards are focus in the sagas
funerals associate wealth with lineage
hoards divorce wealth from particular lineage/people
Scrap hoards
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When is a hoard ritual, when pragmatic?
Timboholm
& Vittene
Nydam: lots of expensive stuff “lost”
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Chiefly war canoe buried with goods
Wet-Place Sacrifice:seaside, cave under water, river
Illerup site, post
draining: bogs are hard
to navigate and recover
lost things = great places
for sacrifices
Iron-Age Hoards: Illerup
The Chiefdom in Europe
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Chiefdoms fluctuated with climate and trade
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Food & Stuff = power; both affected by global issues
Lack of precious metals slowed chiefdom evolution
Contact with Mediterranean world brought wealth
Influenced growth of complex society in Europe
Chiefdom evidence controversial for Neolithic, very
good for Bronze and Iron Ages
As Rome collapses, Europe relapses into chiefdoms
Dramatic rise of states from chiefdoms: Scandinavia
near end of Viking Age, England ca 900, Eire too?
Chiefdom in England:
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5th-6th cen., few changes for Gmnc. colonizers
7th century changes: move toward Feudal State
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Greater wealth differences in graves
Society became more rigidly organized, “royal”
Law codes stipulate punishments (blood feud tradition
used to be everybody’s right = loss of kinship focus)
Law codes start ranking society based on land
Beowulf preserves pre-7th cen. worldview?
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Medievalist fist fights over Beowulf dates
Chiefs and Chiefdoms in Beowulf
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Elite focus, manly men concerned with:
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Getting and displaying material wealth as symbol of
relationship with other powerful men
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States use prestige goods but also laws, charters, etc.
Establishing relationships as follower or chief
Showing loyalty to chief who is usually kin
Persuading/justifying through long speeches
Social ID through blood-feud obligations
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Family obligated to revenge wrongs against family
Blood-feud as kinship-based control over
crime, structures entire epic
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Beowulf vows to help “Cyning” Hrothgar
because H. helped Beowulf’s father in a feud
(reciprocity, debts remembered and repaid)
Fight against Grendel envisioned as feud
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Grendel wants TOO MUCH revenge; against rules!
Grendel’s Mom avenges son’s death
Dragon’s attack of chiefdom requires Beowulf’s
personal vengeance as head of chiefly lineage
But the Monsters Have Treasure!
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Beowulf leaves treasure in ogre cave & lives
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Beowulf kills dragon as revenge/win treasure & dies
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Blade of magic sword melted = left behind
Young Wiglaf re-buries treasure quickly even though “useful”?
Cp. the “Rhine Gold” pattern (Sigurd & everybody dies)
The “otherworld” taboo; source of retribution
Sacrificed stuff=otherworld=leave alone!
Religious support to chiefdom “hoarding” rituals
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Belief in supernatural intersects socio-economic needs
Heroic Habits + Monster Treasure =
Curse (someone check my math)
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Ancient tradition has two worldviews
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Chiefs & chief-hopefuls: Get & give status goods
Discard/destroy/sacrifice status goods
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Hero: “I’m tired. Just tell me what you want!”
Both acts OK at certain times in a region, but not at same time
Why both models in Beowulf?
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Poet under stress: tradition kept both rituals from prehistory
Oral poets composing live hastily select from Tradition’s options
A mistake out of oral performance issues? (Homer has them too)
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Might answer this if we had more ancient Germanic epics…. 
Beowulf Now: Aliens and Enemies
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Gardner’s Grendel: the “monster’s” side
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Beowulf and Grendel film
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Suits our deconstruction of the war experience
Expresses our sense that the “Other” has a story too
Same tradition as Gardner; hero questions effects of
the heroic society
The “folktale function” in Beowulf then and now
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Folklore symbols express our minds’ deep-structures
Home as safe place; monster attacking home is basic
symbolic expression (Aliens 2: home = spaceship)
The Hero in the Monster
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Monsters invade. Aliens monster lays eggs in body = ultimate invader.
Ripley gets “inside” a “monster” to defeat; tosses monster from ship
Beowulf is a crusher; kills crushing monster; tosses Grendel from hall