Beowulf (19 page)

This dignity of the epic strain is something real, something in the blood, not a mere trick of literary style. It is lost in the revolution of the eleventh century, but it survives at any rate to the days of Ethelred the Unready and the Battle of Maldon.

—from
The Dark Ages
(1904)

 

A Christian was (and is) still like his forefathers a mortal hemmed in a hostile world. The monsters remained the enemies of mankind, the infantry of the old war, and became inevitably the enemies of the one God, ece
Dryhten,
the eternal Captain of the new. Even so, the vision of the war changes. For it begins to dissolve, even as the contest on the fields of Time thus takes on its largest aspect. The tragedy of the great temporal defeat remains for a while poignant, but ceases to be finally important. It is no defeat, for the end of the world is part of the design of Metod, the Arbiter, who is above the mortal world. Beyond there appears a possibility of eternal victory (or eternal defeat), and the real battle is between the soul and its adversaries.... But that shift is not complete in
Beowulf—whatever
may have been true of its period in general. Its author is still concerned primarily with
man on earth,
rehandling in a new perspective an ancient theme: that man, each man and all men, and all their works shall die....

The general structure of the poem ... is not really difficult to perceive, if we look to the main points, the strategy, and neglect the many points of minor tactics. We must dismiss, of course, from mind the notion that
Beowulf
is a ‘narrative poem’, that it tells a tale or intends to tell a tale sequentially. The poem ‘lacks steady advance’: so [the great editor] Klaeber heads a critical section in his edition. But the poem was not meant to advance, steadily or unsteadily. It is essentially a balance, an opposition of ends and beginnings. In its simplest terms, it is a contrasted description of two moments in a great life, rising and setting; an elaboration of the ancient and intensely moving contrast between youth and age, first achievement and final death. It is divided in consequence into two opposed portions, different in matter, manner, and length: A from 1 to 2199 (including an exordium of 52 lines); B from 2200 to 3182 (the end). There is no reason to cavil at this proportion; in any case, for the purpose and the production of the required effect, it proves in practice to be right.

—from “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics,” in
Proceedings of the British Academy
(1936)

 

 

1. Can you identify elements in the poem that hearken back to an ancient time before the coming of Christianity to the peoples of Northern Europe? Do the scattered passages of Christian piety in
Beowulf
seem to you to be an intrusive overlay, or do they feel like an integral and consistent part of the whole?

2. What are Beowulf’s strengths as a leader in the expedition to cleanse Hrothgar’s hall? What are his strengths as king in the latter part of the poem? Does he also exhibit weaknesses in either of these stages of his life?

3. What is the importance of gift-giving in the poem? Does it appear to emphasize the value of sharing wealth to promote mutual loyalty, rather than hoarding treasure for oneself?

4. What is the role of women in the poem? Are there significantly different codes of behavior for women and men?

5. Do Grendel and Grendel’s mother strike you as symbolic—not just as ferocious monsters—but as standing for something more dangerous, if less tangible? If so, what? How about the dragon?

6. Given the many narratives, or pieces of narratives, inserted in the main story line throughout the poem, do you think that
Beowulf
is nevertheless in some sense unified? Why, or why not?

7. What point is being made by the fact that even Beowulf, this great hero, has to die?

8. The poet-narrator makes constant references to stories that have been widely
told
and that he has
heard
from others. What do these references tell us about social interactions in the culture of
Beowulf?
Do they enhance the credibility of his accounts? Do they detract from the originality of the poem as a work of art?

Jack, George, ed.
Beowulf: A Student Edition.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. With marginal glosses of Old English words and fine notes, this is a good choice for the beginning reader who wants to tackle the poem in the original.

Klaeber, Friedrich, ed.
Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg.
Third edition. Boston: D. C. Heath, 1950. The standard scholarly edition of the poem.

Mitchell, Bruce, and Fred C. Robinson, eds.
Beowulf: An Edition.
Oxford: Blackwell, 1998. An excellent edition, with much background information.

Bjork, Robert E., and John D. Niles, eds.
A Beowulf Handbook.
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997. Eighteen specialists present clear and well-informed critical surveys of the major topics in
Beowulf
scholarship and criticism over the last two centuries.

Orchard, Andy.
A Critical Companion to Beowulf.
Rochester, NY: D. S. Brewer, 2003. A learned introduction to the scholarship on the poem that provides very wide coverage.

Canadé Sautman, Francesca, Diane Conchado, and Giuseppe DiScipio, eds.
Telling Tales: Medieval Narratives and the Folk Tradition.
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998. A wide range of studies of the forms of medieval storytelling.

Foley, John Miles.
The Singer of Tales in Performance.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995. A clear presentation of oral composition by a leading scholar.

Garmonsway, G. N., and Jacqueline Simpson, eds.
Beowulf and Its Analogues.
Translated by Garmonsway and Simpson; with an essay, “Archaeology and
Beowulf,”
by Hilda Ellis Davidson. London: J. M. Dent, 1968. Especially useful for its translations of a large number of early medieval works that many scholars believe are analogous to
Beowulf,
including an eyewitness account of a Viking funeral by Arabic traveler Ibn Fadlan.

Godden, Malcolm, and Michael Lapidge, eds.
The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Essays by various scholars introduce students to the wide variety of literature from the period.

Greenfield, Stanley B., and Daniel G. Calder.
A New Critical History of Old English Literature.
With “A Survey of the Anglo-Latin Background,” by Michael Lapidge. New York: New York University Press, 1986. An eminently readable overview of the literature of the Anglo-Saxons.

Lindahl, Carl, John McNamara, and John Lindow, eds.
Medieval Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Myths, Legends, Tales, Beliefs, and Customs.
2 vols. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2000. A standard reference work on the folklore and folklife of various medieval cultures, with more than 300 articles by specialists, including articles on
Beowulf
and the Anglo-Saxon period in English history, together with many more on specific topics relating to the poem.

Lord, Albert B.
The Singer of Tales.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960. Indispensable for the study of oral composition; by one of the founders of the field.

Mitchell, Bruce.
An Invitation to Old English and Anglo-Saxon England.
Oxford: Blackwell, 1995. A book for students, introducing the fundamentals of the language in the context of the culture of the Anglo-Saxons.

Outlaws and Other Medieval Heroes. Southern Folklore
53 (1996; special issue). Interesting views from a folkloric perspective, including two on
Beowulf.

Baker, Peter S., ed.
The Beowulf Reader.
New York: Garland Publishing, 2000.

Fulk, R. D., ed.
Interpretations of Beowulf A Critical Anthology.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991.

Hill, John M.
The Cultural World of Beowulf.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995.

Irving, Edward B. A Reading of Beowulf. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1968.

. Rereading
Beowulf
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989.

Kiernan, Kevin.
Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript.
Revised edition, with a foreword by Katherine O‘Brien O’Keefe. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996.

Newton, Sam.
The Origins of Beowulf and the Pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia.
Rochester, NY: D. S. Brewer, 1993.

Niles, John D.
Beowulf: The Poem and Its Tradition.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983.

.
Homo Narrans: The Poetics and Anthropology of Oral Literature.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.

O‘Keefe, Katherine O’Brien.
Visible Song: Transitional Literacy in Old English Verse.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Overing, Gillian R.
Language, Sign, and Gender in Beowulf.
Carbon-dale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1990.

Robinson, Fred C.
Beowulf and the Appositive Style.
Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1985.

Tolkien, J. R. R.
“Beowulf:
The Monsters and the Critics.”
Proceedings of the British Academy
22 (1936), pp. 245-295. Reprinted in Fulk’s
Interpretations of Beowulf
(see above).

The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies. While many Web sites are unreliable sources of information, this one is excellent. Hosted by Georgetown University, the site contains a treasure hoard of materials relating to
Beowulf
and other works of the Middle Ages.
http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/

Electronic Beowulf. This Web site represents a major editorial project under the direction of Kevin Kiernan at the University of Kentucky that is digitizing the
Beowulf
manuscript held by the British Library. The site contains information about the project, as well as images of the manuscript and a new, searchable edition.
http://www.uky.edu/-kiernan/eBeowulf/guide.htm