Beowulf

1. Beowulf

2. The Basics • Who? • What? • When? • Where? • Why?

3. By Whom? • By whom was it written? • Most Anglo-Saxon poetry was oral at first, meaning it was transmitted or performed by a Bard (Scop) from memory; it wasn’t actually written down, per se until . . . • Somewhere between the eighth and ninth centuries A.D., “The Beowulf-Poet” (his identity is unknown) wrote down the poem which for many years had been sung/spoken. • The Beowulf-poet, scholars believe, was an English monk (and therefore, Christian) who probably lived in one of the Anglo-Saxon settlements in Western England (Mercia)

4. About Whom? • Even though the poet himself was English and Christian, the poem is about neither Englishmen nor (full-fledged) Christians • It is the story of several Scandinavian peoples (tribes, really), mainly the Geats and the Danes, but also the Swedes. Beowulf is a Geat. He goes to the aid of the Danes, whose king is Hrothgar • They live in . . .

5. Map of Baltic Region of Scandinavia and the Viking Invasions (700-800)

6. “Who?” in Review • The poem’s hero is Beowulf, a Geat who lives in Scandinavia. He is probably a fictional character. He is certainly an epic hero. The poem is also about three races or tribes: • The Geats • The Danes • The Swedes • It is written by an English (Anglo-Saxon) monk who is looking back in time to the days when his ancestors still lived in Scandinavia and by a different code of ethics. (The Anglo-Saxon code was on its way out, soon to be replaced by Christian values) • The original audiences would have heard the poem, and they would probably have been distant relatives of those tribes who play major roles in the poem

7. Who are the main characters? • Beowulf (Geat) • Hrothgar (Dane) • Unferth (Dane) • Wiglaf (Geat) • Grendel • Grendel’s mother • The dragon

8. Main Characters • Many people divide the poem into thirds; it is about Beowulf’s three epic battles with evil creatures • Grendel • Grendel’s Mother • The Dragon • However, as Heaney points out, it is also really about three tribes: • The Geats • The Danes • The Swedes

9. What? • What is it? Beowulf is an epic poem. An epic is “a long narrative poem that relates the great deeds of a larger-than-life hero who embodies the values of a particular society” • What is he? Beowulf is an epic hero; as you read, think about the Anglo-Saxon or Christian values he might represents • What is it about? It is about a transitional point in history (though it is mostly mythological and fictional) • It is poetic, creative, imaginative, and one of the earliest works of art in the English language (albeit Old English) • It is also important to remember that it is NOT a work written in Latin. It is written in the vernacular (OE) and about people who were England’s founders (or conquerors) in the middle of the first millennium.

10. What (else)? • Fuller definition of epic: An epic is “a long narrative poem that relates the great deeds of a larger-than-life hero who embodies the values of a particular society. Most epics include elements of myth, legend, folklore, and history. Their tone is serious, and their language is grand. Most epic heroes undertake quests to achieve something of tremendous value to themselves and their society. Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid are the best-known epics in the Western tradition. The two most important English epics are the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf . . . and Milton’s Paradise Lost”

11. Beowulf is also allegorical. An allegory is “A story in which the characters, settings, and events stand for abstract or moral concepts” . It would be better to say that there are allegorical features in Beowulf than to call it an allegory. Just looking at the three creatures Beowulf defeats may help show how the poem can be read allegorically: Grendel stands for the monstrous features of fratricide (killing a brother); consider that he is born of Cain (who is know for killing his brother). The Geats, Danes, and Swedes, were in many ways “brothers,” but they were also at war. Who else kills his brother (or kinsmen) in the poem?Grendel’s mother may stand for the root of (or mother of) our deepest animalistic aggressions. Think about this when she enters the sea…Dragons often represent greed. They horde treasure and become violent if the treasure is touched.

12. When? • When was it written? It was probably written sometime around 700 A.D. • When did the events in it take place? Again, it is a fictional work. However, it is an imaginative work about people who occupied the Baltic region sometime in the fifth century A.D. • Some events in the poem did take place: • The raid against the Franks by Hygelac, Beowulf’s lord, took place in the sixth century A.D. • It is important to remember the vast role time (Past, Present, and Future) plays within the poem itself. Beowulf and the other characters who populate the poem seem to be obsessed themselves with the human relationship to time (or “when”) • Most important thing to remember is that it is a poem that reminisces about a previous, “dead” world.

13. Where? • Where was it written? It was written down, most likely, in the kingdom of Mercia (East Central Enlgand today). • Where do the events in the poem take place? The action in the poem takes place in Geatland and Denmark (the island of Zealand and in Southern Sweden) . . . Or more generally, in the Baltic region of Scandinavia • Also consider more specific settings: • The sea, the meadhall, the swamp, the cliff, the battlefield, etc. • In the modern world, it is Denmark and Sweden and the islands in the Baltic between the two countries.

14. The Scary, Horror Movie “Where” • Critics put it nicely when they claim that Beowulf takes place in a “once upon a time world” and that it taps into “three archetypal sites of fear”: • The barricaded night house (Grendel) • The infested underwater current (Grendel’s mother) • Reptile-haunted rocks of a wilderness (dragon)

15. Why? • Why do we read it? • It’s a very creative, imaginative, poetic masterpiece • It gives us insight into the origins of the British people, the culture who, through seafaring conquest, founded the world we currently live in • It gives us insight into the origins of our language • It gives us insight into all people everywhere and throughout time (time, birth, death, fame/success/glory, honor, friendship, conflict, home, country, adventure, spirituality—all of these things transcend English literature and matter to all people)

16. Important Themes in the Poem • Past, Present, and Future (and Fate) • Life and Death • Fame (often achieved through war) • Setting • Geography (Denmark, Geatland, Sweden, . . . And England??) • The Meadhall (Heorot) • Good vs. Evil & Religion • Man vs. Man • Man vs. Beast (Man vs. Himself? If allegorical) • Good Christian Traits vs. Evil • Good Pagan (Anglo-Saxon traits) vs. Evil • Bad Pagan Traits • Christianity vs. Paganism (Paganism not evil) • Anglo-Saxon Code • Friendship • Loyalty • Fame, Honor • Bravery • Generosity • Man-Price • Thane’s duty to his Lord; Lord’ duty to his Thanes • Christianity emerging as the dominant faith and worldview in the Scandinavian world • Stories and Songs themselves • Masculine and feminine roles in the world

17. Review of Important Details • Epic poem • Written in Old-English about the early Christian, but still pagan, Scandinavians who eventually conquered most of England • Epic hero represents the values of his culture