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sparknotes
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No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher
...
By the time the story of Beowulf was composed by an unknown Anglo-Saxon poet
around 700 a
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, much of its material had been in circulation in oral narrative for many years
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Elements of the Beowulf story—including its setting and characters—date back to the period before the
migration
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d
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Originally
pagan warriors, the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian invaders experienced a large-scale conversion to Christianity at the end of the sixth century
...
The Beowulf poet is often at pains to attribute Christian thoughts and motives to his characters, who
frequently behave in distinctly un-Christian ways
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The element of religious
tension is quite common in Christian Anglo-Saxon writings (The Dream of the Rood, for example), but the
combination of a pagan story with a Christian narrator is fairly unusual
...
The world that Beowulf depicts and the heroic code of honor that defines much of the story is a relic of
pre–Anglo-Saxon culture
...
Though it is a traditional
story—part of a Germanic oral tradition—the poem as we have it is thought to be the work of a single poet
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Many of those values, including the heroic code, were still operative to some degree in
when the poem was written
...
In the Scandinavian world of the story, tiny tribes of people rally around strong kings,
who protect their people from danger—especially from confrontations with other tribes
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Strong kings demand bravery and loyalty from their warriors, whom they
repay with treasures won in war
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Although these mead-halls
offered sanctuary, the early Middle Ages were a dangerous time, and the paranoid sense of foreboding and
doom that runs throughout Beowulf evidences the constant fear of invasion that plagued Scandinavian society
...
For many centuries, the manuscript
was all but forgotten, and, in the 1700s, it was nearly destroyed in a fire
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For
the first hundred years of Beowulf’s prominence, interest in the poem was primarily historical—the text was
viewed as a source of information about the Anglo-Saxon era
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R
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Tolkien (who later wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, works heavily influenced by Beowulf)
published a groundbreaking paper entitled “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” that the manuscript
gained recognition as a serious work of art
...
But because it was not
widely read until the 1800s and not widely regarded as an important artwork until the 1900s, Beowulf has had
little direct impact on the development of English poetry
...
It was not until the mid-to-late twentieth century that Beowulf began to influence writers, and, since
then, it has had a marked impact on the work of many important novelists and poets, including W
...
Auden,
Copyright 2003, 2007 by SparkNotes
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Copyright 2003, 2007 by SparkNotes
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Geoffrey Hill, Ted Hughes, and Seamus Heaney, the 1995 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, whose
recent translation of the epic is the edition used for this SparkNote
...
Compared to
modern English, Old English is heavily Germanic, with little influence from Latin or French
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Thus modern English is derived from a number of sources
...
The word kingly, for instance, descends from the Anglo-Saxon
word cyning, meaning “king,” while the synonym royal comes from a French word and the synonymregal
from a Latin word
...
Still, a
familiarity with the rudiments of Anglo-Saxon poetry enables a deeper understanding of the Beowulf text
...
Each line of Old
English poetry is divided into two halves, separated by a caesura, or pause, and is often represented by a gap
on the page, as the following example demonstrates:
Setton him to heafdon hilde-randas
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Each of the two halves of an Anglo-Saxon line contains two stressed syllables, and an alliterative pattern must be carried over across the caesura
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For instance:
Lade ne letton
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Lade, letton, leoht, and eastan are the four stressed words
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The most
common of these is the kenning, used throughout Beowulf
...
”
Some translations employ kennings almost as frequently as they appear in the original
...
But the Old English version of the epic is full of them,
and they are perhaps the most important rhetorical device present in Old English poetry
...
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher
...
He builds a great mead-hall, called Heorot, where his warriors can gather to drink, receive
gifts from their lord, and listen to stories sung by the scops, or bards
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Grendel terrorizes
the Danes every night, killing them and defeating their efforts to fight back
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Eventually, however, a young Geatish warrior named
Beowulf hears of Hrothgar’s plight
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Hrothgar, who had once done a great favor for Beowulf’s father Ecgtheow, accepts Beowulf’s offer to fight
Grendel and holds a feast in the hero’s honor
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Beowulf responds with a boastful description
of some of his past accomplishments
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At last, however, Grendel arrives
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As Grendel struggles to escape, Beowulf tears the monster’s arm off
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The severed arm is hung high in the mead-hall as a trophy of victory
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Songs are sung in
praise of Beowulf, and the celebration lasts late into the night
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Grendel’s
mother, a swamp-hag who lives in a desolate lake, comes to Heorot seeking revenge for her son’s death
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To avenge Aeschere’s
death, the company travels to the murky swamp, where Beowulf dives into the water and fights Grendel’s
mother in her underwater lair
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The Danish countryside is now purged of its treacherous monsters
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Beowulf departs after a
sorrowful goodbye to Hrothgar, who has treated him like a son
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Beowulf then hands over most of his treasure to Hygelac, who, in turn, rewards him
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He rules wisely for fifty years, bringing prosperity to Geatland
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Enraged, the dragon emerges from the barrow and begins unleashing fiery destruction upon the Geats
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With the aid of Wiglaf, he succeeds in
killing the beast, but at a heavy cost
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The Geats fear that their enemies will attack them now that Beowulf is dead
...
Copyright 2003, 2007 by SparkNotes
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Character List
Principal Characters
All rights reserved
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Beowulf
The protagonist of the epic, Beowulf is a Geatish hero who fights the monster Grendel,
Grendel’s mother, and a fire-breathing dragon
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In his youth, he personifies all of the best
values of the heroic culture
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King Hrothgar
The king of the Danes
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A wise and aged ruler, Hrothgar represents a different kind of
leadership from that exhibited by the youthful warrior Beowulf
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Grendel
A demon descended from Cain, Grendel preys on Hrothgar’s warriors in the king’s
mead-hall, Heorot
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Grendel’s mother
An unnamed swamp-hag, Grendel’s mother seems to possess fewer human qualities
than Grendel, although her terrorization of Heorot is explained by her desire for
vengeance—a human motivation
...
Beowulf’s fight with the dragon constitutes the third and final part of the epic
...
The poem opens with a brief
account of his rise from orphan to warrior-king, concluding, “That was one good king”
(11)
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Beow is the son of Shield Sheafson and father of Halfdane
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He exemplifies the maxim, “Behavior
that’s admired / is the path to power among people everywhere” (24–25)
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Wealhtheow
Hrothgar’s wife, the gracious queen of the Danes
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Hrethric
Hrothgar’s elder son, Hrethric stands to inherit the Danish throne, but Hrethric’s older
cousin Hrothulf will prevent him from doing so
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Hrothmund
The second son of Hrothgar
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Hrothulf’s treachery contrasts with Beowulf’s loyalty to Hygelac
in helping his son to the throne
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Other Geats
Hygelac
Beowulf’s uncle, king of the Geats, and husband of Hygd
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Hygd
Hygelac’s wife, the young, beautiful, and intelligent queen of the Geats
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Wiglaf
A young kinsman and retainer of Beowulf who helps him in the fight against the
dragon while all of the other warriors run away
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Ecgtheow
Beowulf’s father, Hygelac’s brother-in-law, and Hrothgar’s friend
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King Hrethel
The Geatish king who took Beowulf in as a ward after the death of Ecgtheow,
Beowulf’s father
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Unferth alludes
to the story of their contest, and Beowulf then relates it in detail
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Sigemund’s story is told
in praise of Beowulf and foreshadows Beowulf’s encounter with the dragon
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The scop, or bard, at Heorot discusses King Heremod as a figure
who contrasts greatly with Beowulf
...
Modthryth’s story is told in order to contrast her cruelty with Hygd’s gentle and
reasonable behavior
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No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher
...
The poem explores his heroism in two separate phases—
youth and age—and through three separate and increasingly difficult conflicts—with Grendel, Grendel’s
mother, and the dragon
...
These two phases of his life, separated by fifty years, correspond to two different
models of virtue, and much of the moral reflection in the story centers on differentiating these two models
and on showing how Beowulf makes the transition from one to the other
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He also perfectly embodies the manners and values dictated by the Germanic heroic code, including loyalty, courtesy, and pride
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In first part of the poem,
Beowulf matures little, as he possesses heroic qualities in abundance from the start
...
Hrothgar, who becomes a mentor and father figure to the young warrior, begins to deliver advice about how
to act as a wise ruler
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The second part of the story, set in Geatland, skips over the middle of Beowulf’s career and focuses on the
very end of his life
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The period
following Hygelac’s death is an important transitional moment for Beowulf
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With this gesture of loyalty and respect for the throne, he proves himself worthy of kingship
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In light of these meditations, Beowulf’s moral status becomes somewhat ambiguous at the poem’s
end
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The poem suggests that, by sacrificing himself, Beowulf unnecessarily leaves his people without a king,
exposing them to danger from other tribes
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The conflict with
the dragon has an aura of inevitability about it
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Additionally, it is hard to blame
him for acting according to the dictates of his warrior culture
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His
nature is ambiguous
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Exiled to the swamplands outside the boundaries of human society, Grendel is an outcast who
seems to long to be reinstated
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By lineage, Grendel is a member of “Cain’s clan, whom the creator had outlawed / and condemned as outcasts
...
He is thus descended from a figure who epitomizes resentment and malice
...
Copyright 2003, 2007 by SparkNotes
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Hrothgar
Hrothgar, the aged ruler of the Danes who accepts Beowulf’s help in the first part of the story, aids Beowulf’s
development into maturity
...
Although he is as solidly rooted in the heroic code as Beowulf is, his old age and his experience with both good
and ill fortune have caused him to develop a more reflective attitude toward heroism than Beowulf possesses
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Hrothgar’s meditations on heroism and leadership, which take into account a hero’s entire life span rather than just his valiant youth, reveal the contrast
between youth and old age that forms the turning point in Beowulf’s own development
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Unferth is presented as a lesser man, a foil for the nearperfect Beowulf
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) The bitterness of Unferth’s chiding of Beowulf about his swimming match with Breca clearly reflects
his jealousy of the attention that Beowulf receives
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While boasting is a proper and acceptable form of self-assertion, Unferth’s harsh words show that it ought not to be bitter
or disparaging of others
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Later,
Unferth’s gift of his sword for Beowulf’s fight against Grendel’s mother heals Unferth’s breach of hospitality,
but it does little to improve his heroic status
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Wiglaf
Wiglaf, one of Beowulf’s kinsmen and thanes, is the only warrior brave enough to help the hero in his fight
against the dragon
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In this regard, Wiglaf appears as a reflection of
the young Beowulf in the first part of the story—a warrior who is strong, fearless, valiant, and loyal
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Wiglaf thus represents the next generation of heroism and the future of the kingdom
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analysis of major characters
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Themes, Motifs & Symbols
All rights reserved
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Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work
...
The opening passages
introduce the reader to a world in which every male figure is known as his father’s son
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This concern with family history is so prominent because of the poem’s emphasis on kinship bonds
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While heritage may provide models for behavior and help to establish identity—as with the line of Danish
kings discussed early on—a good reputation is the key to solidifying and augmenting one’s identity
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While Beowulf’s pagan warrior culture seems not to have a concept of the afterlife, it sees fame as a way of
ensuring that an individual’s memory will continue on after death—an understandable preoccupation in a
world where death seems always to be knocking at the door
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Traditional and much respected, this code is vital to warrior societies as a means of understanding their relationships to the world and the menaces lurking beyond their boundaries
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Thus individual actions can be
seen only as either conforming to or violating the code
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The poem contains several stories that concern divided loyalties, situations for which the
code offers no practical guidance about how to act
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When, in the war between the Danes and the Frisians, both her Danish brother and
her Frisian son are killed, Hildeburh is left doubly grieved
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While the code maintains that honor is gained during life through deeds, Christianity
asserts that glory lies in the afterlife
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Throughout the poem, the poet strains to accommodate these two sets of values
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The Difference Between a Good Warrior and a Good King
Over the course of the poem, Beowulf matures from a valiant combatant into a wise leader
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The difference between these
two sets of values manifests itself early on in the outlooks of Beowulf and King Hrothgar
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Though these two outlooks are somewhat oppositional, each character acts as society dictates he should given his particular role in society
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The heroic code
requires that a king reward the loyal service of his warriors with gifts and praise
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Hrothgar’s speeches, in particular,
emphasize the value of creating stability in a precarious and chaotic world
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Beowulf’s own tenure as king elaborates on many of the same points
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In the eyes of several of the Geats, Beowulf’s bold encounter with the dragon is
morally ambiguous because it dooms them to a kingless state in which they remain vulnerable to attack by
their enemies
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But since all of these pagan kings were great warriors in their youth, the tension between these two important roles seems inevitable and ultimately irreconcilable
...
Monsters
In Christian medieval culture, monster was the word that referred to birth defects, which were always understood as an ominous sign from God—a sign of transgression or of bad things to come
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They are all outsiders, existing beyond the boundaries of human realms
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To many readers, the three monsters that Beowulf slays all seem to have a symbolic or allegorical meaning
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A
traditional figure of medieval folklore and a common Christian symbol of sin, the dragon may represent an
external malice that must be conquered to prove a hero’s goodness
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The Oral Tradition
Intimately connected to the theme of the importance of establishing one’s identity is the oral tradition, which
preserves the lessons and lineages of the past, and helps to spread reputations
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This emphasis on oral communication explains the prevalence of bards’ tales (such as the
Heorot scop’s relating of the Finnsburg episode) and warriors’ boastings (such as Beowulf’s telling of the
Breca story)
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Like Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Beowulf was passed on orally over many generations before
being written down
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Both function as important cultural institutions that provide light and warmth, food and
themes, motifs & symbols
10
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drink, and singing and revelry
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The mead-hall was also a place of community, where traditions were preserved, loyalty was rewarded, and, perhaps most important, stories were told and reputations
were spread
...
Because ritual
behaviors and tokens of loyalty are so central to pagan Germanic culture, most of the objects mentioned in
Beowulf have symbolic status not just for the readers but also for the characters in the poem
...
Its status as a symbolic object is renewed when we learn that
Hygelac died in battle wearing it, furthering the ideas of kinship and continuity
...
The preparation involves the rebuilding of the damaged mead-hall, which, in conjunction
with the banquet itself, symbolizes the rebirth of the community
...
themes, motifs & symbols
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Summary & Analysis
All rights reserved
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Lines 1-300
Summary
So
...
(See QUOTATIONS, p
...
He began life as a foundling (an infant abandoned by his parents) but quickly rose
to be strong and powerful
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His body was put into a boat, covered with treasures and armor, and cast off to
sea
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Sheafson’s son, the renowned Beow, inherited the kingdom after his father’s death
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After Halfdane, Hrothgar stepped forward to rule the
Danes
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The
hall was called Heorot, and there the men gathered with their lord to drink mead, a beerlike beverage, and
listen to the songs of the bards
...
But, one night, Grendel, a demon descended from
Cain (who, according to the Bible, slew his brother Abel), emerged from the swampy lowlands, to listen to the
nightly entertainment at Heorot
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Once the men in the mead-hall fell asleep, Grendel lumbered inside and slaughtered thirty men
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The following night, Grendel struck again, and he has continued to wreak havoc on the Danes for twelve
years
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They make
offerings at pagan shrines in hopes of harming Grendel, but their efforts are fruitless
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At this time, Beowulf, nephew of the Geatish king Hygelac, is the greatest hero in the world
...
When Beowulf hears tales of the
destruction wrought by Grendel, he decides to travel to the land of the Danes and help Hrothgar defeat the
demon
...
Seeing that the newcomers are dressed in armor and carrying shields and other equipment for combat, the
watchman who guards the Danish coast stops Beowulf and his crew and demands to know their business
...
Beowulf explains that he is the son of Ecgtheow and owes his loyalty to Hygelac
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The watchman gives his
consent and tells Beowulf that he believes his story
...
Analysis
Behaviour that’s admired
is the path to power among people everywhere
...
28)
Copyright 2003, 2007 by SparkNotes
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Copyright 2003, 2007 by SparkNotes
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It is not surprising that Beowulf begins with a tribute to the ancestry of King Hrothgar, since within the warrior culture that the poem depicts, patriarchal lineage is an extremely important component of one’s identity
...
” Patriarchal history anchors the story in a linear time frame that stretches forward and
backward through the generations
...
” The reader has the sense that if this ordinary personage had not been fatherless, of
unknown lineage, the story could have no definitive starting point
...
The delineation of a heroic code is one of the most important preoccupations of the poem
...
In the story of Sheafson in the poem’s opening
lines, the poet offers a sketch of the life of a successful hero
...
As the defeated have to pay him tribute, it is clear that strength leads to the acquisition
of treasure and gold
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Because their king is powerful, Sheafson’s warriors receive treasure
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Because Sheafson receives so much booty from his conquests, the poet says of him, “That
was one good king” (11)
...
Another major aspect of the heroic code in Beowulf is eloquence in speech
...
Speech and poetry were
extremely important among the Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians, as they often are in civilizations that rely
on oral narratives to preserve history and myth (characters in Homer’s Iliad are also judged by how they
speak)
...
The watchman’s reply that
[a]nyone with gumption
and a sharp mind will take the measure
of two things: what’s said and what’s done
follows logically from Beowulf’s value of eloquence
...
A well-won reputation ensures that a warrior will become a part of history, of the social fabric of his culture, as the inclusion of the story of Sheafson in the poem immediately reminds us
...
The description of Sheafson’s funeral foreshadows the
poem’s final scene, which depicts the funeral of another heroic king
...
The sea acts as another important and ever-present boundary in Beowulf; the sea-burial with which the poem begins helps to establish the
inexorable margins of life in the story
...
A herald named Wulfgar, who is renowned for his wisdom, stops Beowulf and asks him to state his
business with Hrothgar
...
Wulfgar, impressed
with the group’s appearance and bearing, takes Beowulf’s message immediately to Hrothgar
...
He says that he has heard tales of Beowulf’s great prowess—one story holds that
summary & analysis
13
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the Geat has the strength of thirty men in each of his hands—and hopes that Beowulf has come to help the
Danes against Grendel
...
Beowulf comes before Hrothgar, whom he greets solemnly
...
Hrothgar recounts a feud during which Beowulf’s father killed Heatholaf,
a member of the Wulfing tribe
...
Hrothgar then accepts Beowulf’s offer to fight Grendel, though he
warns him that many heroes have died in the mead-hall trying to battle the monster
...
At the feast, a Dane named Unferth, envious of his kinsmen’s admiration of Beowulf, begins to taunt the
Geat
...
Unruffled, Beowulf accuses Unferth of
drunkenness and describes his own version of what happened in the swimming match
...
After slaying the monster and eight other
sea beasts, Beowulf was washed ashore on the coast of Finland
...
Beowulf’s confidence cheers the whole hall, and soon the warriors are laughing and drinking happily
...
She thanks God for sending Beowulf to fight Grendel, and Beowulf replies with a formal boast, stating that he will either distinguish himself with a heroic deed or die in the mead-hall
...
When night falls, the Danes leave the hall to Beowulf and his men
...
He says that he considers himself to be
as dangerous as Grendel
...
In the dark night outside the hall, Grendel approaches stealthily, creeping
toward the small band of Geats
...
In Hrothgar’s story of his previous association
with Beowulf’s father, we learn that there is a history of obligation between these two families
...
Paying the price of a man’s life is the only way to
keep the cycle of vengeance that characterizes a feud from continuing indefinitely
...
Thus Beowulf is at Heorot both to avenge the
death of so many Danes at the hands of Grendel and also to discharge his father’s debt to Hrothgar
...
When Beowulf explains his visit to the Danish coast guard, he again presents his journey as one
made of his own free will
...
The second digression, Beowulf’s account of his swimming match against his childhood companion
Breca, comes when Unferth challenges Beowulf’s heroic status
...
Beowulf can respond only with a series of elaborate boasts about his
doings to preserve his honor
...
Beowulf’s boasting,
which especially pleases Wealhtheow, actually increases his honor and raises the level of expectations—for
both those around him and the reader—as to how he will fare in the impending battle with Grendel
...
Feeling upstaged by Beowulf, Unferth calls Beowulf’s exploits foolhardy
summary & analysis
14
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and accuses him of vanity
...
Etiquette dictates that it is inappropriate for Unferth to attempt to dishonor a guest; once he does, however,
Beowulf’s retaliation is appropriate and even necessary to maintain his reputation
...
He acknowledges that there is a certain “humiliation” in the fact that the Danes
cannot solve their own problems, but he does not allow this disgrace to make him resentful of the superior
warrior who has come to help (although one can argue that his assertion that Beowulf owes him on behalf of
Ecgtheow helps him lessen his embarrassment at having to ask for help)
...
He
depicts the culture of competition in which he and Breca were raised as fraternal and respectful, not vain and
obsessive as Unferth would have it
...
Beowulf’s correction thus not only better represents the true values of the society but also
illustrates the proper way to tell a story
...
Lines 710-1007
Summary
Gleefully imagining the destruction that he will wreak, Grendel bursts into Heorot
...
When Grendel reaches out to snatch up Beowulf, he is stunned to find his arm gripped with greater strength
than he knew possible
...
He tries to escape, but Beowulf wrestles him down
...
Grendel begins to shriek in pain and fear; the sound terrifies all who
hear it
...
Beowulf summons even greater strength and rips Grendel’s arm completely out
of its socket
...
Back in the mead-hall,
Beowulf holds up his gory trophy in triumph
...
The following morning, the Danish warriors are amazed at Beowulf’s accomplishment
...
Beowulf’s
renown begins to spread rapidly
...
The dragon was the guardian of a treasure hoard,
which Sigemund won by slaying the dragon
...
Hrothgar enters the mead-hall to see the trophy
...
He then praises Beowulf, promises him lavish rewards, and says that he has adopted the warrior in his
heart as a son
...
The narrator mentions that the trophy arm, which seems to be made of “barbed steel,” has disproved Unferth’s claims of Beowulf’s weakness
...
Analysis
Beowulf is divided into three main parts, each of which centers on the hero’s struggle against a particular
monster—first Grendel, then Grendel’s mother, then the dragon
...
The poet chooses to relate much of this struggle from Grendel’s
perspective rather than from Beowulf’s, emphasizing the fear and pain that Beowulf inflicts upon the demon
...
Throughout the fight, Beowulf is treated as more than human
...
It is never entirely clear
summary & analysis
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what kind of being Grendel actually is—he is described as a demon, fiend, spirit, and stranger (in the Middle
Ages, the word monster was used to describe birth defects; Grendel is later referred to as “an unnatural birth”
[1353])
...
His
supernatural monstrousness makes Beowulf’s conquest of him all the more impressive
...
The narrator seems to present Grendel as a representation of evil in the abstract
...
The theological implications of his
descent from Cain support such an interpretation
...
Grendel, too, is cursed and wanders, “haunting the
marches, marauding round the heath / and the desolate fens” (103–104)
...
The poet’s culture finds the borders
of society threatening, and Grendel is presented as an outsider who has penetrated the boundaries
...
The nature of his abode—a
swampy, dark, womblike landscape—supports this interpretation
...
Furthermore, it is important to note that Grendel and Beowulf forego weapons to engage in ferocious hand-to-hand combat
...
The Beowulf poet’s description of the scop, or bard, who sings Beowulf’s praises after the defeat of Grendel
shows that he clearly values good workmanship, both in objects and in poetry
...
The bard’s stories of Sigemund and Heremod reflect on the greatness of Beowulf by
comparison and contrast, respectively
...
The evil king Heremod, who
fails to fulfill the responsibilities of a lord to his people, represents Beowulf’s opposite
...
Heremod also serves as a foil for Hrothgar
...
He feels himself to be bound in a
“new connection” with Beowulf by this great act of service
...
Unlike Heremod, Hrothgar represents the dutiful ruler in every way
...
Lines 1008-1250
Summary
Hrothgar hosts a great banquet in honor of Beowulf
...
He then presents Beowulf’s men with rewards and compensates the Geats with gold
for the Geatish warrior that Grendel killed
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The
Danish leader, Hnaef, is killed in the combat
...
Hildeburh, a Danish princess who is married to Finn, is doubly grieved by the outcome of the battle: she orders that the corpses
of her brother, the Danish leader Hnaef, and her son, a Frisian warrior, be burned on the same bier
...
When spring comes, they rise against their
enemies
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When the scop finishes recounting the saga, Wealhtheow enters, wearing a gold crown, and praises her
children, Hrethric and Hrothmund
...
She expresses her hope that Beowulf too
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will act as a friend to them and offer them protection and guidance
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That night, the warriors sleep in Heorot, unaware that a new danger lurks in the darkness outside the hall
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One such device is deliberate, emphatic understatement, as in the lines, “Hildeburh had little cause / to credit the Jutes” (1070–1071), where the point is that,
in fact, she has enormous cause to discredit them
...
The Finnsburg episode relates loosely to Beowulf’s central narrative
...
The story also highlights a tension in the heroic
code by presenting the point of view of the Danish princess Hildeburh
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She has a son fighting on one side and a
brother on the other
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Through marriage, Hildeburh helps to forge a connection between tribes
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Here an uncle and a nephew are on opposing sides,
even though their Germanic culture prizes a particularly strong bond between a man and his sister’s son
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Hildeburh must be taken back to Denmark—the ties between
the two groups must be severed—before the conflict can rest
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The strong discussion of fate in this section is ominous, and the reader quickly gets the sense that the Danes
and Geats are a little too exuberant in their rejoicing over the defeat of Grendel
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Beowulf’s plot often anticipates itself in this manner
...
For the Beowulf poet, however, the pull of fate is so strong that an event that is fated to happen in the future already has a strong presence
...
The narrator’s tendency to project forward to future events manifests itself as well in his hints that
Hrothulf, Hrothgar’s nephew, will usurp the throne from Hrothgar’s sons
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The treachery related in the Finnsburg episode casts a similarly ominous pall over Wealhtheow’s speech and suggests that treachery will mark the future just as it has the past
...
The poet’s glance forward to Hygelac’s
death while wearing the torque (which Beowulf will have given him) reinforces how symbols link the past,
present, and future in this culture
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It is always better
to avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning
...
28)
As the warriors sleep in the mead-hall, Grendel’s mother, a horrible monster in her own right, descends on
Heorot in a frenzy of grief and rage, seeking vengeance for her son’s death
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The warriors seize their swords and rush toward her
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Beowulf, having
been given other sleeping quarters, is away from Heorot when Grendel’s mother makes her raid
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The warriors discover that she has stolen Grendel’s arm as well
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He entreats Beowulf to seek out and kill Grendel’s mother, describing the horrible,
swampy wood where she keeps her lair
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The water burns and the bottom of
the mere, or lake, has never been reached
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Hrothgar tells Beowulf that he must depend on him a second time to rid Heorot of a demon
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Beowulf agrees to the fight, reassuring Hrothgar
that Grendel’s mother won’t get away
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When they reach a cliff’s edge, they discover Aeschere’s head lying on the ground
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Beowulf slays one beast
with an arrow
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Unferth loans him the great and seasoned sword Hrunting, which has never failed in
any battle
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He also bequeaths his own sword to Unferth
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29)
Analysis
The intensity of the epic increases in these lines, as its second part begins with the arrival of Grendel’s mother
at the hall
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Just as Grendel’s slaughter of Hrothgar’s men requires avenging, so does Beowulf’s slaying of Grendel
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/ When a warrior is gone, [glory] will be his best and only bulwark” (1384–1389)
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As this speech demonstrates, an awareness of death pervades Beowulf
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The world
of the poem is harsh, dangerous, and unforgiving, and innumerable threats—foreign enemies, monsters, and
natural perils—loom over every life
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Her behavior is not only comprehensible but
also justified
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One aspect of their difference from the humans portrayed in the poem is that Grendel’s strong
parent figure is his mother rather than his father—his family structure that is out of keeping with the vigorously patriarchal society of the Danes and the Geats
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The idea of a hidden ancestry is obviously suspect and sinister in this society that places such a high priority—a sacredness, even—on publicizing and committing to
memory one’s lineage
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Having
Cain for an ancestor is obviously a liability from the perspective of a culture obsessed with family loyalty
...
As discussed earlier, it is possible to interpret Grendel and
his mother, considering the unnaturalness of their existence, as the manifestation of some sort of psychological tension about the conquering and killing that dominate the Danish and the Geatish societies
...
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The question of Grendel’s lineage is one of many examples of the Beowulf poet’s struggle to resolve the
tension between his own Christian worldview and the obviously pagan origins of his narrative
...
d
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The Scandinavian settings and characters
thus would have been distant ancestral memories for the inhabitants of England, as the migrations from
Scandinavia and Germany had taken place centuries earlier
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Early on, for example, he condemns the Danes’ journeys to pagan
shrines, where they make offerings, hoping to rid themselves of Grendel
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The conflict between the Anglo-Saxon idea of fate (wyrd)
and the Christian God was probably a widespread moral tension in the poet’s time, and it animates Beowulf
from beginning to end
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Do not give way to pride
...
29)
Beowulf swims downward for the better part of a day before he sees the bottom
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She lunges at him and clutches him in her grip, but his armor, as
predicted, prevents her from crushing him
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Beowulf wields Hrunting, the sword lent to him by Unferth, and lashes at Grendel’s
mother’s head, but even the celebrated blade of Hrunting is unable to pierce the monster’s skin
...
At last, he notices a sword
hanging on the wall, an enormous weapon forged for giants
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The blade slices cleanly through the Grendel’s mother’s neck, and she falls dead to the floor,
gushing with blood
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A light appears, and Beowulf looks around, his sword held high in
readiness
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Furious at the sight of the fiend, he decapitates Grendel
as a final repayment for all of the lives that Grendel took
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Sure that their champion is
lost, they return to Heorot in sorrow
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Back in the monster’s court, the blade of the giant’s sword begins to melt, burned by Grendel’s fiery blood
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He finds that the waters he passes through are no longer infested now that the demon has been
destroyed
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The group returns to Heorot in triumph
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When they arrive at the hall, the Danes gawk at the head in horror and amazement
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Hrothgar praises
Beowulf’s goodness, evenness, and loyalty, contrasts him with the evil King Heremod, and predicts a great
future for him
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Hrothgar then promises to shower Beowulf with treasure the following morning
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Afterward, Beowulf retires to get some muchneeded rest
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Hrothgar praises Beowulf again, saying that he has united the Geats and the
Danes in ties of friendship and loyalty
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Despite his urgings that
Beowulf return to Denmark soon, Hrothgar knows that he will never see Beowulf again
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They then sail back to
Geatland and return to the hall of Hygelac
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Earlier, after Grendel’s defeat, there are frequent suggestions, even
amid the celebration, that the evil that Grendel represents has not been stamped out
...
That the remaining threat proves instead to be the
monster’s mother suggests, perhaps, that although an instance of evil has been eliminated with Grendel, the
evil must still be eradicated at its source—Grendel’s mother might be thought of as representing a more foundational or primordial evil than Grendel himself
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She seems to be more unambiguously animalistic and less a symbol
of pure evil than he is
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This second encounter prompts a change of scene in the poem, drawing the hero out of the safety of the
mead-hall and into the dark, alien, suggestive world of his adversaries
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This time, Beowulf must struggle against a resistant natural environment in addition
to a ferocious monster
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However, the mere, or lake, in which Grendel’s mother lives is
no ordinary body of water
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It is an elemental world of water, fire, and blood, and one with an extremely unholy feel to it
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The darkness of the lair symbolizes
evil, and it leads to Beowulf’s general disorientation in this unfamiliar environment
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Once he defeats Grendel’s mother, her lair is illuminated more thoroughly: “A light appeared and the place brightened / the way
the sky does when heaven’s candle / is shining clearly” (1570–1572)
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Additionally, it seems clear that by the time Beowulf gets back onto land, he has undergone
a sort of rebirth, a transition from a brave but somewhat reckless warrior into a wise and steadfast leader
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In particular, Beowulf receives earnest advice from Hrothgar, by now a
father-figure, about how to comport himself both as a man and as a ruler
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The narrator tells the story of the legendary Queen Modthryth, who “perpetrated terrible wrongs” against her subjects, torturing and even killing many innocent people who she imagined were offending her
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Beowulf and his men approach the hall, where the Geats, who have heard that their hero has returned, are
preparing for his arrival
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Hygelac asks Beowulf how he fared in the land of Hrothgar, recalling that he had known that Beowulf’s task
would be a fearsome one and that he had advised Beowulf not to face such a dangerous foe
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He then prophesies an unhappy outcome to the peace-weaving engagement of Freawaru, Hrothgar’s
daughter, to Ingeld the Heathobard
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Beowulf then tells the story of his encounter with Grendel
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He relates the battle with Grendel’s mother as well
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He gives Hygd a priceless necklace—the torque given him by Wealhtheow—
and three horses
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Hygelac
gives him a great deal of treasure and land of his own to rule
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For fifty years he
rules the Geats, becoming a great and wise king
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Like Wealhtheow in Denmark, Hygd is presented as a positive example of proper behavior in women—she is gracious in bearing and manner, attentive to the men around her, and loyal to her husband and lord
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Beowulf is set in a highly male-dominated world—perhaps one even more male-dominated than
that of Homer’s Iliad—governed by violence, honor, and doom
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Beowulf is clearly skeptical about the power of marriage to heal the anger and hatred generated between
blood enemies
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The events of the Finnsburg episode, in which the marriage-tie was quickly
violated and the bride returned to her kinsmen, seem to validate this sentiment
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Beowulf’s pessimistic speculations about this union add to the discourse on treasure that has been running
throughout the poem
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Thus,
Freawaru, as a peace-pledge, is pitted against treasure, which has the potential to rekindle bad memories and
feuds
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Throughout Beowulf, a tension manifests itself between the
pagan regard for treasure as a symbol of personal valor and the Christian conception of treasure as a symbol of
sinful greed
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Most important, the treasure must continue to be redistributed
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The poem’s Christian undertones, however, focus on earthly possessions as unimportant
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the better part, / eternal rewards,” warning him, essentially, not to rest on
the laurels of his conquests (1759–1760)
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Hygelac’s hall in Geatland proves just as magnificent and just as important a place of sanctuary and reward in a world where danger lurks on every horizon as Heorot, the great hall of the Danes
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It is in the
mead-hall that warriors can revel in the glory and the reputations that they risk such peril to win
...
Thus, the retelling in the
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mead-hall of Beowulf’s heroic deeds—a retelling that may seem anticlimactic to many readers—is an important political moment for Beowulf and an important step in his advancement from warrior to ruler
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A great dragon lurks beneath the earth, jealously guarding its treasure, until one day a thief manages to infiltrate the barrow, or mound, where the treasure lies
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The intruder, a slave on the run from a hard-handed
master, intends no harm by his theft and flees in a panic with the goblet
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He carefully buried the precious objects, lamenting all the while his lonely state
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The dragon chanced upon the hoard and has been guarding it for
the past three hundred years
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Not finding the offender, the dragon goes on a rampage, breathing fire and incinerating
homes and villages
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Soon, Beowulf’s own throne-hall becomes the target of the dragon’s fiery breath, and it is burned to the
ground
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He begins to plot his revenge
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He is too proud to assemble a huge army for the fight, and,
remembering how he defeated Grendel single-handedly in his youth, feels no fear of the dragon
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Hygelac fell while Beowulf survived
thanks to his great strength and swimming ability
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Beowulf declined, however, not wanting to disturb the order of succession
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Only when Hygelac’s son met his end in a skirmish against the
Swedes did Beowulf ascend the throne
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Now, ready to face one last adversary, Beowulf gathers eleven men to investigate the area
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They wish each other luck in
the fight that will follow, and Beowulf has a premonition of his own death
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He tells of the accidental
killing of one of Hrethel’s sons by another and attempts to characterize the king’s great grief
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He then makes his final boast: he vows to fight the dragon, if only it will abandon its barrow
and face him on open ground
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From beginning to end, the tone of this section is one of death and doom
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Also, there are repeated hints that Beowulf will not survive this encounter
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The emphasis on the treasure itself in this section rehashes the moral ambiguity of materialism caused by
the overlaying of a Christian value system on a pagan story
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But the anecdote of the Last Survivor, which
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tells how the gold came to be buried in the barrow, demonstrates a different ethos
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This realization isn’t exactly a
Christian lesson in the transience of earthly things, since no alternative spiritual world is proposed; neither,
however, does it reflect a greedy, purely materialistic lust for gold
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The lengthy passages of recapitulation and reminiscence fill in the details of Beowulf’s political biography
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Now, however, we find out about a significant gesture of generosity on Beowulf’s part
toward Hygelac’s son
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He thus
stands in contrast to the power-hungry usurper Hrothulf
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The tragic story of the death of Hrethel’s son at the hands of his own brother offers an echo of the earlier
case of divided loyalty in the Finnsburg episode
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Here, the tension is similar but even more frustrating
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Under the heroic code,
grief is something to be purged through vengeance, but vengeance here would mean the death of another
son—an excruciating and unsatisfying prospect
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The poet has aligned Beowulf with the force of good throughout the story, and the
dragon’s direct attack on Beowulf’s hall renders this imminent encounter an inevitable clash between good
and evil
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The poet’s explicit
comparison between Hygelac, who died, and Beowulf, who lived, in the combat in Friesland similarly builds
our expectations that Beowulf will succeed in his quest
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Beowulf’s reminiscences about his glory days and the narrator’s mention of
Beowulf’s old age reinforce the reality that every life—even that of a legendary warrior—must come to an
end
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Beowulf’s call for the
dragon to face him on open ground has the same primal feel to it as his youthful decision to fight Grendel
unarmed
...
Lines 2516–2820
Summary
Beowulf bids farewell to his men and sets off wearing a mail-shirt and a helmet to fight the dragon
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Man and dragon grapple and wrestle amid sheets of
fire
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As the flames billow, Beowulf’s companions run in terror
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Wiglaf chides the other warriors, reminding them of their oaths of loyal service to
Beowulf
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Beowulf strikes the dragon in the head with his great sword Naegling, but the sword snaps and breaks
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Wiglaf rushes to Beowulf’s aid, stabbing
the dragon in the belly, and the dragon scorches Wiglaf’s hand
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The blow is fatal, and the writhing serpent withers
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He realizes that the
dragon bite is venomous and that he is dying
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Wiglaf descends into
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the barrow and quickly returns to Beowulf with an armload of treasure
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He tells Wiglaf that he must now look after the Geats and order
his troop to build him a barrow that people will call “Beowulf’s Barrow
...
Analysis
The dragon is the poem’s most potent symbol, embodying the idea of wyrd, or fate, that imbues the story with
an atmosphere of doom and death
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As Beowulf feels his own death approaching, the
dragon emerges from the earth, creating the feeling that the inevitable clash will result in Beowulf’s death
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This poetic evocation of death as constituting movement from one realm to another—from the earthly realm to the spiritual one—reveals the influence of Christian ideology on the generally pagan Beowulf
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That Beowulf should be so adamant in his desire to see the treasure before he dies has puzzled many readers
...
Beowulf recognizes this symbolic function when he
reflects that he would pass on his armor to his own son if he had one
...
He knows
that, even though he has slain the dragon, his victory will feel hollow if there is no subsequent enactment of
the ritual of reward and gift-giving
...
That the treasure that Wiglaf finds is rusty and corroded, however, adds a pathetic, ironic quality to the
scene
...
Furthermore, these riches will be entombed with Beowulf, so that the
treasure will be hoarded, in effect, rather than redistributed, as the heroic code normally demands
...
Because the nature of Beowulf’s fight with the dragon is so different from that of
his fights with Grendel and his mother, some critics choose to see the poem as having a dipartite, or two-part,
structure rather than a tri-partite one
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The treasure also stands for the growing bond between Beowulf and Wiglaf, the old hero and the new
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Wiglaf, in
this section, establishes himself as the legitimate successor to Beowulf, who has no natural heir
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Wiglaf fiercely swears that he would
rather die than return home without having protected his leader
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The continuity of honor from one generation to the next is ratified when Beowulf takes the collar of gold from his
own neck and, as his final act, gives it to his young friend
...
” The poet equates Wiglaf with the treasure (and, of course, the poem)—he will
survive Beowulf’s lifetime and carry on the great hero’s legacy
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The dragon, too, lies slain on
the ground
...
Slowly, the Geatish warriors who had fled from
the battle straggle back to the barrow to find Wiglaf still vainly trying to revive their fallen leader
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The cost of their cowardice, he predicts, will be greater than just the life of a great ruler
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Wiglaf sends a messenger with tidings to the Geats, who wait nervously for news of the outcome of the
battle
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He expresses concern about the Swedes as well, who have a long-held grudge
against the Geats; he relates the history of their feud and tells how the Geats secured the last victory
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The poet confirms that
many of the messenger’s predictions will prove true
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They discover also the fearsome, fifty-foot-long corpse of
the dragon
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Wiglaf recounts Beowulf’s last requests and readies the people to build his funeral pyre
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They hurl the dragon’s body into the water
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The body is laid in and the
fire is lit—its roar competes with the sound of weeping
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The Geats place Beowulf’s remains on a
cliff high above the sea in a barrow that will be visible to all passing ships
...
Analysis
The conclusion of the epic begins with a brief but lovely elegiac passage in honor of the dragon, consigning it,
along with Beowulf, to the company of those who can no longer exercise their greatness
...
The poet’s admiring
words about the dragon glorify Beowulf’s feat in slaying such a creature and demonstrate a respect for the
slain enemy that Grendel and his mother never enjoyed
...
The symmetry and pacing in this nostalgic moment help to prepare us for
the elaborate ceremony of the funeral with which the poem concludes
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The story has now come full circle
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In a world where small societies are constantly at war over land, wealth, resources, and honor, the presence of
a powerful king is essential to the safety and well-being of a people
...
The doom that hangs over the entire narration of
Beowulf’s story seems to descend swiftly upon his people the moment that he dies, and the wailing Geats are
well aware of what the lack of Beowulf’s protection means for them
...
The Geats have sacrificed their reputation
as valiant warriors by refusing to come to the aid of their king, and reputation is itself an important layer of
defense
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By the time of the funeral, Wiglaf’s initial rage against his compatriots has cooled somewhat, and he
speaks once more for the community
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Wiglaf reflects that there may have been an element of irresponsibility in Beowulf’s single-mindedness and daring when he proclaims, “Often when one
man follows his own will / many are hurt
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This declaration, in conjunction with the earlier statement that Beowulf was too proud to field a large army against the dragon, suggests
that his actions were not wholly courageous but also, to a degree, foolhardy and headstrong
...
The issue of the cursed treasure compounds the ambiguity surrounding the meaning of Beowulf’s death
...
Though Beowulf approaches the matter of the
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treasure unselfishly, wishing to free his people from the menace of the dragon, his death nevertheless seems
something of a punishment
...
The poem Beowulf exemplifies this culture’s emphasis on memorializing
departed heroes; indeed, the mere existence of the poem itself is a testament to Beowulf’s virtue and the
esteem his people placed upon him
...
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher
...
So
...
...
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In the end each clan on the outlying coasts
beyond the whale-road had to yield to him
and begin to pay tribute
...
(1–11)
These lines, which open the poem, establish the highly stylized nature of Seamus Heaney’s translation and set
forth some of the poem’s central ideas
...
It had previously been translated into such poetic-sounding invocations as “Hark” and
“Lo” or, more casually, “Listen
...
” From the outset,
then, the poem whips us into its world while maintaining an inviting, conversational tone
...
He breaks his lines into
two halves with a strong caesura, or pause, wherever possible (lines 4, 5, and 11, for example)
...
flourish”)
...
” Finally, the compound word “whale-road,” used
here to refer to the sea, is one of the most famous examples of the Anglo-Saxon rhetorical figure called the
kenning, which replaces a noun with a metaphorical description of the noun
...
The poet’s presentation of the ancestor Shield Sheafson as the model
of heroism is representative of the poem’s obsession with patriarchal history
...
This passage also emphasizes heroic action itself as a cultural
value—even a fatherless individual can make a name for himself if he behaves like a hero
...
The great force of
reputation will also continue to be an important theme
...
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Behaviour that’s admired
is the path to power among people everywhere
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The heroic code’s system of loyalties entails
a very specific political and diplomatic structure
...
The warrior
culture accepts and embraces this give-and-take relationship between ruler and ruled as necessary for society
to function effectively
...
This passage also emphasizes the importance of behavior in securing the respect and support of others
...
Beowulf vaunts himself as a great warrior and backs up his words by defeating Grendel; he is thus
celebrated and received as a hero
...
Though such verbal elements as boasts and stories are crucial to the warrior
culture, heroes are, above all, defined by action
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Wise sir, do not grieve
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For every one of us, living in this world
means waiting for our end
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When a warrior is gone,
that will be his best and only bulwark
...
Although Hrothgar’s grief seems understandable in light of the principle of loyalty that
operates in this culture, Beowulf speaks of it as an “indulgence”—an inappropriate and ineffective way of
responding to the death of a comrade
...
Part of this approach involves the understanding that only reputation will perpetuate a warrior’s existence after death
...
This speech encapsulates the poem’s tension between doom and death, on the one
hand, and the necessity of behaving courageously and honorably, on the other
...
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4
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It would keep the bone-cage of his body safe:
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Brought to you in
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(1442–1452)
These lines describe Beowulf’s preparation for his battle with Grendel’s mother
...
We see, here and elsewhere, that armor has a double
history, much like a warrior does: a history of its making, which corresponds to the family lineage of an individual, and a history of performance, which corresponds to reputation
...
The poet pays a great deal of
attention, in general, to the craftsmanship that goes into physical objects and feats of language
...
The poet’s narration, though always
in the past tense, often looks ahead to what will happen either in the immediate future—in the next few lines
of the poem, even—or in the long term
...
” Though this tendency violates the reader’s expectation that a narrator won’t give
away what will happen next, the poem is composed with a different set of literary expectations in mind
...
To the Beowulf poet, then, it would seem foolish and pointless to try to counteract fate’s powerful presence
...
5
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Choose, dear Beowulf, the better part,
eternal rewards
...
For a brief while your strength is in bloom
but it fades quickly; and soon there will follow
illness or the sword to lay you low,
or a sudden fire or surge of water
or jabbing blade or javelin from the air
or repellent age
...
(1758–1768
This passage is the culmination of a long speech, often referred to as “Hrothgar’s sermon,” in which Hrothgar
warns Beowulf of the seductive dangers of success after Beowulf defeats Grendel’s mother
...
The speech
is one of many points in the poem where the Beowulf poet overlays Christian morals onto the pagan world
that he depicts
...
” Hrothgar specifically warns Beowulf not to “give way to pride,” an admonition that is discordant with the culture of
boasts and reputation that other parts of the poem celebrate
...
Throughout the poem, however, it seems that eternal rewards can be won
only through worldly success—the reward of fame for being a valiant warrior
...
Calling Beowulf the “flower of
warriors,” he employs an image that doesn’t evoke Beowulf’s strength and fortitude but instead emphasizes
the fragility of his life and the fact that his youth—his “bloom”—will “fad[e] quickly
...
He must
be prepared not only for a “jabbing blade or javelin from the air,” which will wound him, but also for “repellent age,” which will eat away at his youthful audacity and force him to think in terms of honor, nobility, and
leadership that aren’t dependent on mere physical prowess
...
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher
...
d
...
d
...
Narrator
A Christian narrator telling a story of pagan times
Point of view
The narrator recounts the story in the third person, from a generally objective standpoint—detailing the
action that occurs
...
We see into the minds
of most of the characters (even Grendel) at one point or another, and the narrative also moves forward and
backward in time with considerable freedom
...
Tense
Past, but with digressions into the distant past and predictions of the future
Setting (time)
The main action of the story is set around 500 a
...
; the narrative also recounts historical events that
happened much earlier
...
There are three central conflicts: Grendel’s domination of Heorot
Hall; the vengeance of Grendel’s mother after Grendel is slain; and the rage of the dragon after a thief steals
a treasure that it has been guarding
...
Rising action
Grendel’s attack on Heorot, Beowulf’s defeat of Grendel, and Grendel’s mother’s vengeful killing of Aeschere
lead to the climactic encounter between Beowulf and Grendel’s mother
...
Falling action
Beowulf’s glorious victory over Grendel’s mother leads King Hrothgar to praise him as a worthy hero and to
advise him about becoming king
...
Themes
The importance of establishing identity; tensions between the heroic code and other value systems; the
difference between a good warrior and a good king
Motifs
Monsters; the oral tradition; the mead-hall
Symbols
The golden torque; the banquet
Foreshadowing
The funeral of Shield Sheafson, with which the poem opens, foreshadows Beowulf’s funeral at the poem’s
end; the story of Sigemund told by the scop, or bard, foreshadows Beowulf’s fight with the dragon; the story
of King Heremod foreshadows Beowulf’s eventual ascendancy to kingship
...
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher
...
How is Beowulf structured? How does this structure relate to the theme or themes of the work as a
whole?
Beowulf is loosely divided into three parts, each of which centers around Beowulf’s fight with a particular
monster: first Grendel, then Grendel’s mother, then the dragon
...
Beowulf’s fight with Grendel evokes the importance of reputation as
a means of expanding one’s existence beyond death
...
His subsequent encounter with Grendel’s mother evokes the importance of vengeance
...
Beowulf’s final encounter with the dragon evokes a heroic approach to wyrd, or fate
...
Alternatively, one might make a division of the text into two parts, examining youth and old age as the two
distinctive phases of Beowulf’s life
...
One of the main thematic points highlighted by such a division is the difference in responsibilities of the warrior and of the king
...
Additionally, whereas
Beowulf focuses on the heroic life early on, seeking to make a name for himself, he must focus on fate and the
maintenance of his reputation late in life
...
Beowulf is set in a male-dominated world full of violence and danger
...
An awareness of family lineage is one way in which the heroic code integrates itself into the warriors’ most basic sense of identity
...
For example, because Beowulf’s father owed a
debt of loyalty to Hrothgar, Beowulf himself owes a debt of loyalty to Hrothgar
...
One might contrast this socially accepted version of patriarchal history with the various alternative models
that the poem presents
...
Examples of family discontinuity abound as well
...
Beowulf is similar to both of these characters—his father died while Beowulf was still
young, and Beowulf himself dies without an heir
...
Both Hrothgar and Hygelac depend on the loyalty of others if their sons are to inherit
their respective kingships
...
3
...
As a result, the Beowulf poet is at pains to resolve his Christian
beliefs with the often quite un-Christian behavior of his characters
...
In the end,
Copyright 2003, 2007 by SparkNotes
32
Copyright 2003, 2007 by SparkNotes
Brought to you in
association with:
however, the conflict proves simply irresolvable
...
Though some of Beowulf’s values—such as his dedication
to his people and his willingness to dole out treasure—conceivably overlap with Christian values, he ultimately lives for the preservation of earthly glory after death, not for entrance into heaven
...
study questions
33
Brought to you in
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How to Write Literary Analysis
All rights reserved
...
The Literary Essay: A Step-by-Step Guide
When you read for pleasure, your only goal is enjoyment
...
Maybe you’re looking for
inspiration, guidance, or a reflection of your own life
...
When you read a work of literature in an English class, however, you’re being asked to read in a special
way: you’re being asked to perform literary analysis
...
Literary analysis
involves examining all the parts of a novel, play, short story, or poem—elements such as character, setting,
tone, and imagery—and thinking about how the author uses those elements to create certain effects
...
A literary essay also isn’t like the kind of book report you wrote when
you were younger, where your teacher wanted you to summarize the book’s action
...
As you
gain more practice with this kind of thinking and writing, you’ll be able to craft a method that works best for
you
...
Ask questions
2
...
Construct a thesis
4
...
Write the introduction
6
...
Write the conclusion
1
...
Lucky you! Now all you have to do is choose one
...
You’ll have a much better (not to mention easier) time if you start off with something you enjoy thinking
about
...
Maybe you have too many ideas—or none at all
...
Take a deep breath and start by asking yourself
these questions:
• What struck you? Did a particular image, line, or scene linger in your mind for a long time? If it
fascinated you, chances are you can draw on it to write a fascinating essay
...
Confusing moments in a work of literature are
like a loose thread in a sweater: if you pull on it, you can unravel the entire thing
...
Copyright 2003, 2007 by SparkNotes
34
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Brought to you in
association with:
• Did you notice any patterns? Is there a phrase that the main character uses constantly or an image that
repeats throughout the book? If you can figure out how that pattern weaves through the work and
what the significance of that pattern is, you’ve almost got your entire essay mapped out
...
Maybe the title (Happy Days) totally disagrees with the
book’s subject matter (hungry orphans dying in the woods)
...
If you can find a
way to explain a work’s contradictory elements, you’ve got the seeds of a great essay
...
You can help direct your reading and brainstorming by formulating your topic as a
question, which you’ll then try to answer in your essay
...
Remember, you’re looking for something you can prove or argue
based on evidence you find in the text
...
Frankenstein and his monster alike? How?”
Bad Questions
“What happens to Scout in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD?”
“What do the other characters in JULIUS CAESAR think about Caesar?”
“How does Hester Prynne in THE SCARLET LETTER remind me of my sister?”
2
...
Don’t worry if you don’t know what you want to say yet—right now you’re just collecting ideas and material and letting it all percolate
...
Eventually, you’ll start making connections between these examples and your thesis will
emerge
...
These are the
elements that you will analyze in your essay, and which you will offer as evidence to support your arguments
...
Elements of Story
These are the whats of the work—what happens, where it happens, and to whom it happens
...
• Character: The people who act and are acted upon in a literary work
...
• Conflict: The central tension in the work
...
• Setting: When and where the work takes place
...
how to write literary analysis
35
Copyright 2003, 2007 by SparkNotes
Brought to you in
association with:
• Narrator: The person telling the story
...
• Themes: The main idea or message of the work—usually an abstract idea about people, society, or life
in general
...
Elements of Style
These are the hows—how the characters speak, how the story is constructed, and how language is used
throughout the work
...
Some novels are narrated in a
linear, chronological fashion, while others skip around in time
...
Some authors deliberately leave
gaps in their works, leaving readers to puzzle out the missing information
...
• Point of view: The perspective from which a story is told
...
(“I went to the store”; “We watched in horror as the bird slammed
into the window
...
In
third-person point of view, the narrator does not participate in the story
...
Omniscient narrators see and know all: they can witness
any event in any time or place and are privy to the inner thoughts and feelings of all characters
...
Whether a character uses dry, clinical language or flowery prose with lots of
exclamation points can tell you a lot about his or her attitude and personality
...
Syntax is a crucial part of establishing an author’s
narrative voice
...
• Tone: The mood or feeling of the text
...
A
novel written in short, clipped sentences that use small, simple words might feel brusque, cold, or
matter-of-fact
...
• Figurative language: Language that is not meant to be interpreted literally
...
” (Metaphors say one thing is another thing; similes claim that one thing is like another thing
...
Construct a Thesis
When you’ve examined all the evidence you’ve collected and know how you want to answer the question, it’s
time to write your thesis statement
...
The thesis statement is the heart of the literary essay, and the bulk of your paper will
be spent trying to prove this claim
...
“The Great Gatsby describes New York society in the 1920s” isn’t a thesis—it’s a fact
...
“Hamlet is a confusing but ultimately very well-written play” is a
weak thesis because it offers the writer’s personal opinion about the book
...
• Surprising
...
A really strong thesis will argue for a reading of the play that is not immediately apparent
...
“Dr
...
What does the writer mean by “a lot”? How does the monster
tell us so much about the human condition?
Good Thesis Statements
Question:In Romeo and Juliet, which is more powerful in shaping the lovers’ story: fate or foolishness?
Thesis:“Though Shakespeare defines Romeo and Juliet as ‘star-crossed lovers’ and images of stars and
planets appear throughout the play, a closer examination of that celestial imagery reveals that the stars are
merely witnesses to the characters’ foolish activities and not the causes themselves
...
The bell jar appears in each of these capacities in The Bell Jar, Plath’s
semi-autobiographical novel, and each appearances marks a different stage in Esther’s mental breakdown
...
Golding emphasizes this point by
giving Piggy a foil in the charismatic Jack, whose magnetic personality allows him to capture and wield
power effectively, if not always wisely
...
Develop and Organize Arguments
The reasons and examples that support your thesis will form the middle paragraphs of your essay
...
There’s no single method of argumentation that will work in every context
...
These questions require different kinds of answers and therefore different kinds of arguments
...
Types of Literary Essays
• Compare and contrast
Compare and contrast the characters of Huck and Jim in THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY
FINN
...
In an academic literary context, you’ll organize your
arguments the same way you would in any other class
...
In
the former, you’ll discuss one character first and then the second
...
You may want to use a mix of these two approaches—for example, you may want to spend a paragraph
a piece broadly sketching Huck’s and Jim’s personalities before transitioning into a paragraph or two that
describes a few key points of comparison
...
Remember that your essay should reveal something fresh
or unexpected about the text, so think beyond the obvious parallels and differences
...
Sounds pretty easy, right? All you need to do is read the play, underline every appearance of a knife in Macbeth, and then list them in your essay in the order they appear, right? Well, not exactly
...
He or she wants to see you make connections between those examples—
that’s the difference between summarizing and analyzing
...
In Macbeth, there are real knives and
imagined knives; knives that kill and knives that simply threaten
...
Finally, always keep the overall effect in mind
...
• Debate
Is the society depicted in 1984 good for its citizens?
In this kind of essay, you’re being asked to debate a moral, ethical, or aesthetic issue regarding the work
...
For this kind of essay, there are two important points to keep in
mind
...
Every literary essay
expects you to read and analyze the work, so search for evidence in the text
...
What does it mean to be a “good” society? What makes a novel
“feminist”? You should define your terms right up front, in the first paragraph after your introduction
...
Try to think outside the box
...
But can you think of any arguments for the opposite
side? Even if your final assertion is that the novel depicts a cruel, repressive, and therefore harmful society,
acknowledging and responding to the counterargument will strengthen your overall case
...
Write the Introduction
Your introduction sets up the entire essay
...
It’s also where you, as the writer, introduce yourself to your readers
...
An introduction can vary in length depending on the overall length of the essay, but in a traditional fiveparagraph essay it should be no longer than one paragraph
...
Your introduction should situate the reader and let him or her know
what to expect
...
Why is this topic important, and why is your particular position on
the topic noteworthy? Ideally, your introduction should pique the reader’s interest by suggesting how
your argument is surprising or otherwise counterintuitive
...
• Present your thesis
...
• Indicate the shape of the essay to come
...
You
don’t need to spell out every step, but you do need to suggest the organizational pattern you’ll be using
...
Beware of the two killer words in literary analysis: interesting and important
...
Many student readers think that beginning their essays with a
flamboyant statement such as, “Since the dawn of time, writers have been fascinated with the topic of
free will,” makes them sound important and commanding
...
• Wildly praise the work
...
Your teacher doesn’t need to be told that “Shakespeare is perhaps the greatest writer in the English
language
...
• Go off-topic
...
Don’t feel the need to throw in all
kinds of bells and whistles in order to impress your reader—just get to the point as quickly as you can,
without skimping on any of the required steps
...
Write the Body Paragraphs
Once you’ve written your introduction, you’ll take the arguments you developed in step 4 and turn them into
your body paragraphs
...
Topic sentences are like signs on a highway: they tell the reader
where they are and where they’re going
...
“Rumor and gossip play an important role in The Crucible” isn’t a strong topic sentence
because it doesn’t tell us very much
...
• Fully and completely develop a single thought
...
Body paragraphs are like bricks: each individual one needs to be strong and sturdy
or the entire structure will collapse
...
• Use transitions effectively
...
Think of each paragraph as a response to the one that precedes
it
...
7
...
A good conclusion will:
• Do more than simply restate the thesis
...
” If you’ve constructed your arguments well, this kind of statement will
just be redundant
...
Similarly, don’t repeat the details of your body
paragraphs in your conclusion
...
• Revisit the “So what?” question
...
You should close your essay with the same sort of gesture
...
Your essay has most likely treated a very specific element of the
work—a single character, a small set of images, or a particular passage
...
If your essay on To Kill a
Mockingbird focused on the character of Boo Radley, for example, you might want to include a bit in
your conclusion about how he fits into the novel’s larger message about childhood, innocence, or family
life
...
Your conclusion should suggest new directions of thought, but it shouldn’t be treated as
an opportunity to pad your essay with all the extra, interesting ideas you came up with during your
brainstorming sessions but couldn’t fit into the essay proper
...
• Avoid making overblown closing statements
...
Making such observations may be part of the point of reading, but it’s almost always a mistake in essays,
where these observations tend to sound overly dramatic or simply silly
...
What if you’ve got your sights set on an A+? To write the kind of superlative essay
that will be rewarded with a perfect grade, keep the following rubric in mind
...
How does yours stack up?
• Demonstrates a thorough understanding of the book
• Presents an original, compelling argument
• Thoughtfully analyzes the text’s formal elements
• Uses appropriate and insightful examples
• Structures ideas in a logical and progressive order
• Demonstrates a mastery of sentence construction, transitions, grammar, spelling, and word choice
how to write literary analysis
40
Copyright 2003, 2007 by SparkNotes
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Suggested Essay Topics
1
...
What is the role of women in the heroic culture of BEOWULF?
3
...
What role do the digressions play in BEOWULF? What light do they shed on the main action?
5
...
Would you say that the characters in BEOWULF are as psychologically complex those in modern works of
literature? Do they undergo any development as the poem progresses?
A+ Student Essay
What is the role of treasure in BEOWULF?
In our culture, preoccupation with material goods usually connotes shallowness, and the pursuit of riches is
often seen as incompatible—or at least difficult to reconcile—with our moral convictions
...
In fact, the poem often uses treasure as a symbol of the Scandinavian people’s most cherished
cultural values
...
Characters accomplish the former by reminding listeners of their famous ancestors and the latter by collecting treasures
...
Sometimes, a splendid object is enough to gain a man respect, even without his having earned it
through brave deeds—the Danish guard who watches Beowulf’s ship, for example, gets a sword “with gold
fittings” that in the future will make him “a respected man / at his place on the mead-bench” (1901–1903)
...
After Beowulf dies, the poet announces the end
of a glorious Geatish era by noting that “no follower” will wear the treasure Beowulf wins from the dragon in
his memory, “nor lovely woman / link and attach [it] as a torque around her neck
...
The kings of Beowulf also use treasure to solidify their most important bonds: those with their followers,
and those with other nations
...
”
The act is not only a matter of custom, but also of honor
...
In this culture, treasure is not for hoarding but for circulating in socially useful ways
...
Friendly tribes may exchange gifts, while
hostile nations may pacify one another with gold or with the paying of blood tributes
...
The constant mention of the gold and jewels that adorn Wealtheow suggest her political value:
The queen not only wears treasure, in a sense, she is treasure
...
Though the poet writes from an explicitly Christian perspective, the
Geats and Danes seem to lack a notion of a divine afterlife
...
However, people have the opportunity to achieve some kind of afterlife by accruing
wealth, prestige, and glory while they live: Owning significant treasure increases the likelihood that one’s
name and reputation will live on after death
...
Both of these notions figure into the
Scandinavian funeral ritual of sending a king off to sea in a burning ship filled with treasure
...
In Beowulf, treasure simultaneously has an eternal
and an evanescent quality
...
In one of the poem’s most
mournful moments, the narrator describes “some forgotten person” burying the collective riches of his entire,
equally forgotten race
...
Just a few lines earlier, Beowulf had
imagined how the sight of the Danes wearing “glittering regalia” and “burnished ring-mail” originally
belonging to the Heatho-Bards would provoke the Heatho-Bards to viciously attack their guests
...
As the poem looks ahead to both the Danish war with the Heatho-Bards and the
Geatish devastation following Beowulf’s death, the creeping disillusion with wealth hints at the darkness
looming on the horizon
...
The antagonist is usually another
CHARACTER but may also be a non-human force
...
Character
A person, animal, or any other thing with a personality that appears in a NARRATIVE
...
Conflict
The central struggle that moves the PLOT forward
...
First-person point of view
A literary style in which the NARRATOR tells the story from his or her own POINT OF VIEW and refers to
himself or herself as “I
...
Hero / heroine
The principal CHARACTER in a literary work or NARRATIVE
...
Motif
A recurring idea, structure, contrast, or device that develops or informs the major THEMES of a work of
literature
...
how to write literary analysis
42
Copyright 2003, 2007 by SparkNotes
Brought to you in
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Narrator
The person (sometimes a CHARACTER) who tells a story; the VOICE assumed by the writer
...
Plot
The arrangement of the events in a story, including the sequence in which they are told, the relative emphasis
they are given, and the causal connections between events
...
Protagonist
The main CHARACTER around whom the story revolves
...
Setting creates mood or atmosphere
...
Symbol
An object, CHARACTER, figure, or color that is used to represent an abstract idea or concept
...
Syntax
The way the words in a piece of writing are put together to form lines, phrases, or clauses; the basic structure
of a piece of writing
...
Tone
The author’s attitude toward the subject or CHARACTERS of a story or poem or toward the reader
...
An author
communicates voice through TONE, DICTION, and SYNTAX
...
Many students
know that copying text without citing it is unacceptable
...
Here are the most common forms of plagiarism:
• Using an author’s phrases, sentences, or paragraphs without citing the source
• Paraphrasing an author’s ideas without citing the source
• Passing off another student’s work as your own
How do you steer clear of plagiarism? You should always acknowledge all words and ideas that aren’t your
own by using quotation marks around verbatim text or citations like footnotes and endnotes to note another
writer’s ideas
...
sparknotes
...
how to write literary analysis
43
Brought to you in
association with:
Review & Resources
Quiz
All rights reserved
...
1
...
Beowulf
B
...
Grendel
D
...
2
...
Beowulf once proposed to his daughter
...
Hrothgar was friends with Beowulf’s father
...
Beowulf had gained a widespread reputation after slaying a dragon
...
He read about him on the Internet
...
About how long is the dragon?
A
...
20 feet
C
...
200 feet
4
...
30 years
B
...
50 years
D
...
What, according to Beowulf, is better than mourning a death?
A
...
Avenging a death
C
...
Making peace with one’s enemies
6
...
Wulfgar
B
...
Hrothgar
D
...
Who taunts Beowulf in Heorot?
A
...
Hrothgar
C
...
Wealhtheow
Copyright 2003, 2007 by SparkNotes
44
Copyright 2003, 2007 by SparkNotes
Brought to you in
association with:
8
...
A Danish thane
B
...
A wicked queen of legend
D
...
From whom is Grendel descended?
A
...
Cain
C
...
Ecgtheow
10
...
Wealhtheow
B
...
Unferth
D
...
Whom does Grendel’s mother abduct and decapitate?
A
...
Wulfgar
C
...
Beowulf
12
...
Eleven
B
...
One
D
...
What is Hrunting?
A
...
A sword
C
...
A helmet
14
...
In Grendel’s swamp
B
...
In the palace temple
D
...
Who is Beowulf’s father?
A
...
Hrothgar
C
...
Wealhtheow
16
...
The Anglo-Saxon concept of “word,” as in word of honor
B
...
The Anglo-Saxon concept of “fate”
D
...
Where do Grendel and his mother live?
A
...
In a mead-hall
C
...
In a lake
18
...
A mead-hall
B
...
A god
D
...
Who guides Beowulf to the dragon’s barrow?
A
...
The thief
C
...
Hygd
20
...
Hygelac
B
...
Beowulf
D
...
Which character is descended from Shield Sheafson?
A
...
Wiglaf
C
...
Hrothgar
22
...
Wealhtheow
B
...
Modthryth
D
...
How did the dragon’s treasure get in the barrow?
A
...
B
...
C
...
D
...
24
...
His grandfather’s armor
B
...
An invisibility suit
D
...
Brought to you in
association with:
From about when does the only existing Beowulf manuscript date?
A
...
d
...
1000 a
...
C
...
c
...
50 a
...
answer key
1: d; 2: b; 3: a; 4: c; 5: b; 6: d; 7: a; 8: c; 9: b; 10: d; 11: a; 12: c; 13: b; 14: d; 15: a; 16: c; 17: d; 18: b; 19:
b; 20: c; 21: d; 22: a; 23: d; 24: b; 25: b
Suggestions for Further Reading
Baker, Peter S
...
New York: Garland Publishing, 2000
...
, and John D
...
A Beowulf Handbook
...
Bloom, Harold, ed
...
New York: Chelsea House, reprint edition
2007
...
W
...
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press, 1959
...
, ed
...
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: PrenticeHall, 1968
...
Beowulf and Grendel: The Truth Behind England’s Oldest Legend
...
Irving, Edward B
...
Introduction to Beowulf
...
Niles, John D
...
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983
...
Old English and Middle English Poetry
...
review & resources
47