EARLY MIDDLE AGES: The Old English Poem Beowulf

Readers of the anonymous Old English poem Beowulf can capture the kind of the excitement that a thoughtful visitor to the American Grand Canyon experiences in observing layers of geological history; however, in Beowulf, the exposed layers are of English history, culture, religion, and language.  You may have already noticed some unusual features of the poem:

• Your translation by Seamus Heaney, the Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet, tries to retain in modern verse the flavor of English as it was spoken before the Norman Conquest in 1066.  As you probably know, the Normans brought French as a dominant influence to the language.  French and Latin have greatly enriched English, especially for specialized vocabulary and flexibility, but the direct style of Old English remains valuable to modern readers and writers. As almost always in translation, some information is lost; for example, the Old English wyrd, often translated as "fate"  comes from an obscure, spooky deity still surviving in the modern English word "weird."  
• Beowulf expresses devout Christian faith and teaches Christian morals, but it celebrates the pre-Christian code of English warriors, and the ending of the poem is without hope. Much of the mix of Christian and pre-Christian values will be clear in your text.
• Beowulf is an English poem, but it is set entirely in Scandinavia.  The first two battles take place in Denmark and the final one in Geatland, which was also somewhere in Scandinavia.
• Much of the poem presents itself as a collection of loosely related tales, but the poem unites these tales by tone and by themes emerging from the historical experience of the English people.

Old English is a collective term for the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes—Germanic peoples who came to Britain from Scandinavia.  By the time the Romans withdraw from the island in the fifth century A.D., the Old English peoples dominated England, and they remained dominant until defeated by William the Conqueror in 1066.  The Old English did not have a developed system of reading or writing, and they were not Christian. They converted to Christianity rapidly under the influence of missionaries from Rome.  The missionaries also introduced the Latin alphabet.  Most scholars believe that a Christian composed Beowulf sometime between the mid-eighth and mid-tenth centuries. Note: The 29-minute video Beowulf (video 535) has good information about the historical context of the poem and is available for viewing in the Troy University, Montgomery Campus, library.  Additionally, in the center of your text, you will find two color-illustrations showing material from a treasure-laden burial ship that would have been used in a funeral similar to the one described at the end of Beowulf.

Scholars once thought that Beowulf or parts of it were composed for oral performance before the coming of Christianity and that the poem was later recorded by monks who added Christian teachings to the original text.  Most scholars, however, now believe that poet was Christian. This view seems to explain the strange mood of the poem: a mood that celebrates the noble life of the English (the Geats) who historically were not Christian.  As a devout Christian, the poet could find hope only in Christ but, as the descendent of pre-Christian warriors, also wished to affirm nobility and value in the warrior code.  The result is a poem that combines the moods of despair with celebration.

The poem gives an account of three fights: 

• In the first fight, Beowulf journeys from his home in Geatland to Denmark, where he defeats the monster Grendel, who had been attacking Heorot, the splendid hall of Hrothgar, king of the Danes.  Following this victory, the Danes feast and rejoice (lines 836-1250)).
• After Grendel's mother attacks Heorot in revenge, Beowulf pursues and kills her in her underwater lair (1383-1650).  Before Beowulf leaves Denmark to return to Geatland, Hrothgar acknowledges Beowulf's potential for leadership and warns him of the dangers of being a bad leader (1708-1723).
• The final fight takes place fifty years later when Beowulf is king of the Geats.   When a fire-breathing dragon begins attacking his people, the aged king goes out to fight the dragon. Although Beowulf, with the help of his follower Wiglaf, is able to defeat the dragon, the old king is killed (2200-2820).   

From the perspectives of plot and setting, the first two fights are loosely connected, and the third fight seems almost unrelated to the previous two.  Additionally, short episodes such as tales told at the feast of the Danes and the speech on leadership by Hrothgar (lines 1708-1723) appear almost as digressions from the actions.  The editor’s Introduction gives a helpful review of the primary feuds that are told in stories and that emerge in the course of the poem (pp. 1175-1176).

While these episodes seem only loosely connected, they achieve great unity in theme and mood.  In each of the three fights, Beowulf proves himself able to meet the standards of the warrior and leader: strength, courage, and loyalty to his people. In the first fight, he encounters a monster whose hide cannot be cut by any human-made weapon, so Beowulf uses his strength to rip its arm from the socket, so the monster dies from internal bleeding.  In the next battle, he fights the monster's mother in her underwater lair.  This battle also calls for great strength, particularly strength in swimming, but he also shows the courage to engage in battle in unknown conditions in the monster's lair. The final battle against the fire-breathing dragon would likely have been easy for the young Beowulf; his real obstacle is his old age.  In facing this obstacle, he demonstrates determined loyalty to his people; however, most of his followers prove disloyal and run away when he needs help, but one of them, Wiglaf, after some hesitation comes to his aid.  As Wiglaf hesitates, he reflects on his own responsibilities for loyalty to a leader—reflections that help expand the theme of leadership and mutual responsibilities that are developed throughout the poem.

Each of the fights thus represents a stage of the development of leaders.  Similarly, during the feasting of the Danes, the tales of treachery are of failures of loyalty and its consequences.  Queen Wealhtheow also expresses confidence that Hrothulf will continue loyalty to Hrothgar by protecting Hrothgar's children when the king dies, but her diplomatic expressions of confidence may actually reveal apprehension rather than confidence (1175-1186), and the Old English audience would have known the tradition that Hrothulf killed one of the children and usurped the throne. Hrothgar's story of Sigemund and Heremod  (lines 1709-1722) and his subsequent injunction to Beowulf to avoid the ways of Heremod  ("So learn from this / and understand true values” lines 1723-1724) continue the lessons on the development  of true leaders.  Even as the poem affirms the possibilities of social order through leadership and loyalty, it also uses tales of  human failures to show that these possibilities are usually short-lived.

Since Beowulf lived in Scandinavia before the Old English peoples came to Britain, he could not have been Christian, and the audience of Beowulf would have known this information and also believed that hope came only in the Christian religion.  Still, the devout poet boldly affirmed that God recognized greatness and value in the life and culture of the pre-Christian warrior, perhaps a great grandfather of the poet or his audience. The poet identifies the monster as descended from Cain, and says that God sent Beowulf to the aid of the Danes. God watched over Beowulf in his first fight and even provided a special sword for use in the second fight, for even Hrunting, the famous sword given by Unferth,proved powerless against Grendel's mother.  In the third fight, however, God does not intervene on Beowulf's behalf.  The three fights and Beowulf's assets, including both his performance of the code of the Old English warrior and the aid of God are summarized in the following table:
Beowulf's Three Fights

Even though the poem celebrates the greatness of Beowulf and shows God's interest in him, the ending is without hope.  It is true that the poem says that, on his death, Beowulf's "soul fled from his breast / to its destined place among the steadfast ones"  (2819-2820), but the promise of an afterlife seems to come primarily in the honor to the hero’s memory.  Even so, this affirmation is quite muted compared to any direct hope of being reunited in heaven or of any promised solace through Christian faith and humility. The urgent and somber tone of the ending resounds in Wiglaf's warnings of war and terror to come, in the stately funeral of Beowulf and in the Geat woman’s singing fearfully of   humiliation and captivity (3149-3155).  Through this strange mix of Christian and pre-Christian values and through the curious collection of tales, the unknown great poet of Beowulf articulated the rather wyrd (or weird) and formative experiences of the English people. 

Study Questions

1-3. For each of Beowulf's three great fights, explain his major obstacle and what personal resource helps overcome the obstacle: (1) the fight with Grendel; (2) the fight with Grendel's mother; and (3) the fight with the dragon.

4.  Identify some Christian elements in the poem. Non-Christian elements. Explain the relationships.

5.  In the general context of the poem, comment on the following lines:  "The Shielding nation / was not yet familiar with feud and betrayal.” (1017-1018).

6.  In the general context of the poem comment on the meaning of Wealhtheow's expression of faith in Hrothulf (1175-1186).  How would the audience in Anglo-Saxon times have reacted to this passage?

7. What stories are told during the celebration at Heorot?  What do these stories and the other stories of feud and betrayal have to do with larger themes in Beowulf?
 
8. What does Hrothgar mean when he says, " So learn from this / and understand true values " (1723-1724)?  What function does this speech have in the poem?

9.  Explain how Unferth changes during the poem.

10.  Describe the style of Beowulf.

11.  The major sections of Beowulf consist of three fights that have only loose episodic relationships in surface actions. Does anything give unity to Beowulf?

12. Who is Wiglaf and how is he important?

MAURY MARYANOW
Troy University, Montgomery Campus