Beowulf 1999
Beowulf 1999
Beowulf 1999
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Beowulf
The poet of Beowulf is unknown to us, but he was an Anglo-Saxon, almost certainly a Christian, and perhaps a cleric.
The main action of the poem is set in early sixth-century Scandinavia, and the earliest likely date for its composition is
about 150 years later, the middle of the seventh century, when Christianity was beginning to spread throughout Anglo-
Saxon England. Scholars now tend to place the poem's composition at some time in the late eighth or ninth century. The
dating of the single manuscript in which the poem is found to the very beginning of the eleventh century provides us
with the latest possible date for the poem. Beowulf is written in Old English, in the standard alliterative four-stress line
common to all Anglo-Saxon poetry. The language of the original gives us little clue as to where in Anglo-Saxon
England it was composed. Even though the poem bears some of the characteristics of oral compositionespecially in its
use of formulaeit seems likely that its composition was literary, though it was probably designed for oral recitation.
There are no explicit references to Christianity, but there is a good deal of biblical allusion, especially to the Old
Testament. The poem is also rich in allusions to the legendary world of Germanic heroism and Scandinavian history
which we know mainly from Old Norse sources. Epic in length, style, and subject matter, Beowulf is also profoundly
elegiac in tone, depicting a long-past world of monsters, heroes, and kings.
KEVIN CROSSLEY-HOLLAND is editor of The Anglo-Saxon World (Oxford World's Classics), translator of The
Exeter Book Riddles, and author of The Penguin Book of Norse Myths. He has written seven volumes of poetry and is a
Carnegie Medal-winning writer for children. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
HEATHER O'DONOGHUE is Vigfusson Rausing reader in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature in the University of Oxford,
and a fellow of Linacre College. She is the author of The Genesis of a Saga Narrative: Verse and Prose in Kormaks
saga (OUP) and works particularly on the links between Old Norse, Old English, and Irish literature.
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Beowulf
Translated by
Kevin Crossley-Holland
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Beowulf. English
Beowulf; The fight at Finnsburh / translated by Kevin Crossley-
Holland; edited with an introduction by Heather O'Donoghue.
(Oxford world's classics)
1. English poetryOld English, ca. 4501100Modernized versions.
2. Epic poetry, English (Old). I. Crossley-Holland, Kevin.
II. O'Donoghue, Heather. III. Fight at Finnesburg (Anglo-Saxon
poem). English.| IV. Title. V. Series: Oxford world's classics
(Oxford University Press)
PR1583.C76 1999 829'.3dc21 9822104
ISBN 0-19-283320-0 (pbk.)
3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Contents
Introduction vi
Beowulf 1
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Introduction
Beowulf is an Anglo-Saxon poem about Scandinavian characters and events in a half-legendary, half-historical
Germanic past. Its lengthover 3,000 linesits subject mattera hero fighting against the forces of evil in a world of vicious
power struggles between tribes and kingdoms in early Northern Europeand its abiding concernsthe dignity of human
conduct and the value of heroic societyidentify it at once as an epic poem, and specifically, heroic epic. Epic poetry has
been described as 'an expression of a society's cultural heritage' and certainly, in its breadth of reference and the
grandeur of its ethical conception, Beowulf has always been viewed as the defining text of the Anglo-Saxon world. But,
in common with Homeric epic, Beowulf does not slot into any clear historical or social context. We do not know when
or where in Anglo-Saxon England it was composed; whether it had an oral prehistory; what kind of author it had. We
can only guess how its contemporaries regarded it, and who its audience might have been. Most tantalizingly, we do not
know whether its picture of heroic life reflects reality, or literary tradition, or is the poet's own invention; some of the
events and characters in the poem have their basis in historical fact, while others, including the monsters, and the hero
Beowulf himself, belong to a wholly different order of reality, the mythic or legendary.
The poem tells the story of how its hero, Beowulf, gains renown by coming to the aid of Hrothgar, King Of the Danes,
killing first a terrifying humanoid monster, Grendel, and then the monster's infuriated, vengeful mother. Beowulf
eventually becomes king of his own country, Geatland, but when he is old (as Hrothgar was when Beowulf came to kill
Grendel) Geatland itself is threatened by a monstera fiery dragon which Beowulf fights and kills, dying in the process.
With the death of Beowulf comes another, different threat to the Geatish people: without their king, they will be
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vulnerable to attack from old enemies, and the poem ends with a lament for Beowulf which is also a lament for the
future of the Geatish people and, by extension, an elegy for heroic society as a whole.
It is said to be characteristic of epic poetry that it explores and questions at the same time as it values and celebrates.
Clearly, there is much to value in Beowulf: the courage and strength of the hero, his selflessness in journeying to
Denmark to help Hrothgar, his success in leading his own people through a lifetime's security, and his last great deed,
the killing of a mighty dragon. But there are uncomfortable questions, too. Is noble King Hrothgar a failure because he
cannot prevail against Grendel? Was Beowulf foolhardy in the way he took on the dragon? And most insistently, what
is the validity of the heroic ideal if its finest achievements are swiftly eclipsed by warfare, death, and darkness?
Christian Influences
The material world of Hrothgar and Beowulf is lavishly affluent, from Heorot, the magnificent, towering hall of the
Danes, to the decorated battle-gear and golden treasures exchanged as rewards for heroism or tokens of loyal esteem. In
many ways, their ethical and social world is also elevated. The prevailing values are not simply those of a warrior
societycourage, loyalty, and strengthadmirable though they may be. Beowulf offers Hrothgar help in an exquisitely
tactful, diplomatic way; Hrothgar welcomes him with dignified courtesy, and when he leaves, gives him sober and wise
advice about the transience of fame and pays a moving tribute to all that Beowulf has done. It is hard to feel that the
poet is doing anything other than celebrate the heroic past. But this enclave of propriety, civilized behaviour, and
humane virtue is under threat not only from the monsters. Throughout the poem, Beowulf and Hrothgar are contrasted
with treacherous, weak, or unpredictable rulers, and the histories of their own ruling houses are seen to be replete with
betrayal, usurpation, and violence. And this evil is
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not a thing of the past, The Danes themselves are facing turmoil: Heorot is doomed to be burned to the ground after the
failure of an attempted reconciliation with the Heathobards through the marriage of Hrothgar's daughter Freawaru to
Ingeld, and the succession of Hrothgar's sons to the Danish throne may be under threat from Hrothgar's nephew,
Hrothulf. In Geatland, although Beowulf, like Hrothulf, is the powerful nephew of a king with younger children, he
remains impressively loyal to Hygelac's heirs after the king's death, even when offered the throne by Hygelac's queen.
But after Beowulf's death, the resurgence of old feuds will result in a floodtide of violence against the Geats.
The Beowulf poet's re-creation of the Scandinavian past is thus richly ambivalent, and perhaps this reflects the poet's
attitude towards his own Anglo-Saxon past, for he was undoubtedly a Christianperhaps even a monkeven though the
poem's concerns are secular, not religious, and set in a period which was pagan, as the poet and his audience would have
known well. The authoritative voices of Anglo-Saxon Christianity were not at all inclined to tolerance of the pagan past.
The most celebrated condemnation of any interest in the deeds and heroes of that past comes in a letter from the eighth-
century churchman Alcuin, probably written to a Mercian bishop in 797, and it may be directly applicable to Beowulf
itself, with its likely allusion to Ingeld, King of the Heathobards: 'Let the words of God be read during the meal of the
clergy. There it is proper to listen to a lector, not a harp-player, to the work of the Church fathers, not the songs of the
people. What has Ingeld got to do with Christ? The house is narrow; it cannot hold both. The King of Heaven wants
nothing to do with so-called kings who are pagan and damned, for the eternal King reigns in Heaven; the damned pagan
king laments in Hell.' But Alcuin's strongly worded protest testifies as much to the currency of heroic legend amongst
Christians as to his own antipathy to it.
To judge from its secular literature, Anglo-Saxon culture was conservative and deeply rooted in the past. Genealogies of
the kings of Wessex trace the royal line back to Woden, the chief of the old
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Germanic gods, and in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Scealdwa and Sceaf, names which clearly relate to Scyld Scefing,
the legendary founder of the Danish royal house in Beowulf, are included amongst King Alfred's ancestors. Some
clericsperhaps those less rigorously orthodox than scholars such as Alcuin and Bede, and especially those with an
aristocratic lineagemust still have valued the traditions of their ancestors, pre-Christian though they were, and it may be
that there was recognition of the ancient kinship between Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians.
There is no attempt by the Beowulf poet to elaborate on the paganism of his heroes, who are portrayed as righteous and
pious characters, often invoking an Almighty God whose power, and relationship with mankind, are wholly compatible
with Christian belief. Interestingly, such a figure is very different from what little we know of any of the Germanic
pagan deities, who in any case operated as a pantheon. Only once does the poet reveal the Danes as the pagans they
would actually have been; worn out by the terror of Grendel's attacks, they turn to the worship of heathen idols in their
ignorance of the Lord. But there is no specific reference to Christianity or the New Testament in Beowulf; it seems that
a sort of natural religion, compatible with Old Testament monotheism, Offered the poet an edifying but neutral ethical
territory in which his characters could be acceptably admirable to Christians without the obvious anachronism of
explicit Christianity.
The poem is deeply imbued with both biblical material and Christian echoes, however. The minstrel in Heorot sings of
Creation in biblical terms, and the Danes are presented as living in a little Eden before the arrival of Grendel. Grendel
and his mother, whilst reminiscent of the monstrous walking dead of Old Norse tradition, share many features with the
giants of the Old Testament apocrypha, and are explicitiy stated to be the descendants of Cain, a progeny in a state of
permanent feud with God. Beowulf is not only firmly aligned with the forces of good against evil, but also, as the
saviour of the Danish people, cast as a Christlike figure. These echoes are deepened as Beowulf confronts
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Grendel's mother in an underwater lair the entrance to which recalls the mouth of Hell as described in Christian
homilies, and it is at the ninth hour of the daythe time of Christ's death on the crossthat the waiting Danes give up hope
that Beowulf will return alive.
That the poem evidently belongs to a Christian milieu does not help us to date it, and indeed the dating of Beowulf has
been the subject of enduring scholarly controversy. According to Bede, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes began to arrive in
England from mainland Europe in the middle of the fifth century AD, and the coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon
England is conventionally fled to St Augustine's mission to Kent in 597, although British Christians in the north and
West of the country may have had some influence on their new Anglo-Saxon neighbours before this. But the poem
could not in any case have belonged to this relatively brief period of insular Anglo-Saxon paganism. One of the key
events in Beowulfthe death of Beowulf's lord, Hygelacis recorded by the historian Gregory of Tours, and can be dated to
the early decades of the sixth century. In the poem, Hygelac's death is followed by a period of disturbance in Geatland,
and then by Beowulf's own fifty-year reign. Thus on these grounds alone Beowulf cannot possibly have come into being
in its present form much earlier than the beginning of the seventh century. At the other extreme, the single surviving
manuscript of the poem (British Library Cotton Vitellius A. xv) has been dated to the very beginning of the eleventh
century. Since the Anglo-Saxon period stretches from the first coming of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes in AD 449 to
the Norman Conquest in 1066, possible dates for the poem's composition range from almost the beginning to almost the
end of this whole era, though the fashion for dating the poem much later than the middle of the ninth century seems to
have passed.
Some scholars have attempted to date Beowulf on historical grounds. The age of Bede, who lived from 673 to 735, or the
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decades following his death, once seemed to provide an ideal context for the poem: Christianity well established, Anglo-
Saxon scholarship thriving, and, crucially, still some time before the onset of Viking raids, which were thought to have
made a poem celebrating Scandinavian heroes unacceptable. But Anglo-Saxon England was never a fully unified entity,
and was hardly ever more than a loose collection of individual kingdoms. If Anglo-Saxon clerics in Northumbria would
not have welcomed Beowulf in the years following 793, when Viking raiders sacked the monastery at Lindisfarne,
nevertheless, as Alcuin's letter shows, other parts of the country were certainly showing interest. There is little
justification for disregarding the early ninth century simply because of Lindisfarne.
The prevalence of Viking attacks all over the British Isles throughout the later ninth century makes it hard to envisage
an appreciative audience for Beowulf during this time, but sporadic raids turned to widespread settlement, and with it
the possibility of a new sort of relationship between Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians: an interest in shared origins
rekindled by contact with their new Scandinavian neighbouts. A second wave of Scandinavian attacks towards the end
of the tenth century once seemed to mark the latest date for the poem's composition, but there has even been an attempt
to show that the second of the poem's two scribes, working in the eleventh century, was the author (though the existence
of some garbled word-forms in his text makes this suggestion highly unlikely).
The language of Beowulf has also been used in the attempt to date the poem. Some of the metrical features of the
original, as well as the forms of the proper names, suggest that the poem is relatively early, but those keen to maintain
the possibility of a late date argue that the poet might well have deliberately archaized the diction of his poetryOld
English poetry is notably conservative in its literary conventions anyway. Attempts to infer the poem's place of origin
from its language face similar problems. Some word-forms are characteristic of the Anglian dialect of Old English, but
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this covered an enormous area of northern, central, and eastern England. In any case, any such forms may only be
evidence of the regional identity of one of the poem's copyists; the alliterative, four-stress line of Anglo-Saxon poetry
could accommodate a good many minor linguistic variations. Beowulf seems to resist being pinned down to any time or
place more specific than Anglo-Saxon England.
It may also be too simplistic to view the poem as a written text which came into existence as an authorial product at
some sharply defined moment in a particular place. Some scholars have preferred to regard Beowulf as a gradually
evolving text, with its roots in short, oral heroic poems close in date to the historical events, and coalescing over
centuries into the poem we now have. Early Germanic poetry would have been orally composed as well as recited
before an audience, and the hallmarks of oral composition are evident in Beowulf. Chief among these is the formulaa
standard phrase, or group of words, which can be repeated or varied while remaining the same in basic form or
grammatical structure, and then applied in certain stock situations. Thus Beowulf may be describedmore than oneas
'leader of the Geats' or one 'brave in battle'. These epithets can be varied: Hrothgar may be 'leader of the Danes', or
Beowulf 'steadfast in warfare'. Such phrases recall the use of standard epithets in Homeric poetrythe wine-dark sea, or
wide-ruling Agamemnon. Formulae are not simply repeated and varied within one poem; most are common throughout
the whole corpus of Anglo-Saxon poetry, and seem to function as the 'nuts and bolts' of narrative. They are not
restricted to descriptive phrases, but can be adverbial'in days gone by'or verbal'he strode beneath the skies'. It has been
argued that orally composed poetry is necessarily formulaicthat performer-poets rely on ready-made (or easily
adaptable) formulae when they extemporize a text. This view was greatly strengthened by the observation of present-
day poet-performers in South-Slavic folk epic traditions, and provided a model for the oral composition of Homeric epic
as well as Beowulf and other Anglo-Saxon poems.
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But it may be felt that terms such as 'formulaic' or 'extemporized' somehow depreciate the poetic quality of a text such
as Beowulf, and many readers have felt that the theory of oral formulaic composition cannot account for the complexity,
subtlety, and considered, stately pace of the poem. And it is true that just as Anglo-Saxon poets may have chosen
consciously archaic poetic diction because of conservative poetic habits, so a literate poet may well have chosen to write
in an oral formulaic style characteristic of much older poetry. It has certainly been demonstrated that Anglo-Saxon
poems which are based on existing Latin written texts show the same oral formulaic stamp as works which, because of
their ancient subject matter, might be suspected of having originated in pre-literate times. So perhaps the most we can
say is that although Beowulf shows some of the stylistic qualities of oral poetry, this may tell us more about the poet's
awareness of Old English literary traditions, of his sense of what was an appropriate mode for a long poem dealing with
the legendary heroes of the Germanic past, than about the actual origins of the text.
It is very probable, however, that Beowulf was intended for recitation rather than for silent reading. Alcuin's letter
plainly refers to a listening audience for heroic poetry, and the poem's opening command'Hwæt' (Listen!)confirms this,
even if there are no clues in the poem itself about whether such an audience would have been clerical or Courtly. In fact,
the whole text of Beowulf comprises an intricate pattern of oral recitations; one might say that one of the poem's themes
is the performance of poetry, and that it is therefore a classically self-referential work, that is, one which mirrors its own
formal essence in its subject matter.
After the opening call for attention, the poet reminds the audience that the material he is about to present'the daring
feats' of the Danish kingsis already familiar to us, presumably from poems just like Beowulf itself. Thus Beowulf is
decisively located in the
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context of a wider heroic tradition. The chronological account of the Danish royal lineage, the terrorizing of the Danes
by Grendel, and the consequent arrival of Beowulf from Geatland, proceed in straightforward sequence. But Beowulf's
first challenge in Heorot is not physical, but verbal: Unferth, one of Hrothgar's courtiers, relates a story about Beowulf's
youth, accusing him of reckless behaviour. Beowulf defends himself by re-telling the tale with differing emphases; he
puts the story right. This odd exchange in fact adumbrates some of the major themes of the poem. Most obviously, it
explores the nature of heroism, especially the fine line between discretion and valour, a crucial issue, for Beowulf's last
great encounter, with the dragon, leaves him open precisely to the charge of recklessness. But Unferth's challenge also
suddenly diverts the progress of the poem from the orderly, sequential recounting of incident to another time and
placeBeowulf's youth, and the wild seascape of his swimming contest with a contemporary, Brecawhich still has a
direct bearing on the central, present moment of the poem's narrative: the arrival of Beowulf in Heorot, and the
expectations the Danes have of the hero. The power of the narrative within a narrative to juxtapose time and place in
order to bring out some aspect of the story of Beowulf himself gives the poem much of its drama and richness.
When Beowulf has overcome the monster Grendel on his first night in Heorot, the Danes celebrate his achievement in
poetic songjust as our poem doesand go on to recite more material about the celebrated legendary hero Sigemund. On
one level, a flattering comparison between Beowulf and Sigemund is established (in fact, close attention to the story of
Sigemund reveals that Beowulf may come out the more impressive of the two), but on another, an identity is established
between heroic poems about Sigemund and the substance of Beowulf itself, so that audiences merge: the Danes listen to
celebrations of two great heroes, Sigemund and Beowulf, just as we, and the Anglo-Saxon audience, do.
At the feast following Beowulf's victory over Grendel, the Danes again celebrate with heroic song. This time, a story is
told
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about the battle between Finn, leader of the Frisians and lord of Finnsburh, and Hnæf, a Dane whose sister Hildeburh is
married to Finn. However, this is not told as an edifying heroic parallel to the events of the poem, but functions as a
piece of ominous dramatic irony: the poet begins not with the martial valour of the opposing sides, but with the dreadful
grief of Hildeburh, who, in the light of the morning after the battle, sees that she has been doubly bereaved: both her
brother Hnæf and her young son have been killed in the fight. When the poet shifts abruptly back to the celebrations in
Heorot, and Hrothgar's queen Wealhtheow is shown graciously offering wine to her husband and guest, we inevitably
make the connection between the two women, both vulnerable figures in heroic society. But the parallel runs deeper
still: Hrothgar's own daughter, Freawaru, is to be married to Ingeld of the Heathobards, traditional enemies of the
Danes, in a fruitless conciliatory gesture, and, as Beowulf himself foresees, Freawaru too will be the victim of the
hostility between natal and marital families, just as Hildeburh has been. The poet of Beowulf makes no comment on
these dark connections, but Beowulf's own understanding of the relationship between the songs of the past and
contemporary political circumstances, reinforced by Hrothgar's wise advice, provokes us to think about what lessons
Beowulf might have had for an Anglo-Saxon audienceor, indeed, ourselves. As we see Beowulf correcting Unferth's
version of the Breca story, it is as if we are being shown narrative in the very process of being refined into its
authoritative form. The same process takes place when Beowulf returns to Geatland; he recounts the story of his fights
with the monsters and adds his own views on the state of the Danish royal houseincluding, of course, his pessimistic
predictions about its future. And yet, the very possibility that the same events may be recounted and interpreted in
different ways raises unsettling questions about the authority and authenticity of tradition, and the poet's own subject
matter.
So far, then, the poem has presented itself as part of a world of oral storytelling, and, apart from the narratives within the
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narrative, it has recounted events in an orderly, chronological way, from the beginning of the Danish royal house to
Beowulf's heroic vanquishing of the monsters which threaten it and his triumphant return to Geatland. At this point,
however, the narrative takes a great leap forward to a time when Beowulf has been ruling the Geats for fifty years, and
is now facing the final challenge of his career. But the early history of the Geats is not merely skipped over; it is told in
retrospective snatches, and in reverse chronological orderthat is, more recent events are recounted first. It is very hard to
conceive of such intricate narrative method taking shape in an oral context. A more pressing question is why the poet
abandoned the narrative clarity of the first two-thirds of the poem and took on such a complex method. The answer may
be that the poet is showing us the relationship between past and present from two perspectives. He begins by recounting
the events which are to shape the notorious future history of the Danish royal house; he concludes by revealing how the
present vulnerability of the Geatish people has been shaped by events from years past.
The dragon guards a treasure hoard which is the only remaining material evidence of a whole people who have been
wiped out by warjust as, so Beowulf tells us, the Geats will be after Beowulf's death. The poet imagines a moving
speech which the last surviving representative of this people would make as he consigns the treasure to the earth a
pseudo-funeral oration, an elegy to a people, indeed a whole world, long past. In a sense, this brief passage is a
microcosm of Beowulf itself, as well as prefiguring the elegiac eulogies to Beowulf as his ashes and treasure are
consigned to the earth at the end of the poem.
As the poet recounts the dramatic encounter between Beowulf and the dragon, he repeatedly breaks off to return to the
legacy of past conflictsthe wars between the Geats and the Swedes. At first, he relates how Hygelac, Beowulf's uncle,
met his death in a reckless raid on the Franks (a variation of the theme of discretion and valour), how Hygelac's son
inherited the Geatish throne, and (perhaps also recklessly) gave refuge to the rebellious nephews
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of the Swedish king Onela, whose revenge was swift. Then, as Beowulf ponders his imminent encounter with the
dragon, he recalls his own childhood, when he was fostered by Hrethel, his grandfather. Hrethel died of a broken heart
when one of his sons, Hæthcyn, accidentally killed an elder brother; unable to take revenge Hrethel sank into a disabling
paralysis of the will. It was this weakness in the Geatish kingdom which provoked wars between the Swedes and the
Geats, and we are thus made aware that Beowulf may be risking the Geatish people in much the same way if he risks his
own life by taking on the dragon. But after Beownlf's death, when a Geatish messenger recollects how Ongentheow, the
king of the Swedes, killed Hæthcyn, we see the situation in a slightly different light. Ongentheow was retaliating against
a reckless first strike against his people. Perhaps we are to understand that without a father's guidance, Hæthcyn failed
to temper heroic valour with kingly discretion, and that the whole complex story of this long-running feud again comes
down to this Crucial calculation. Certainly the Geatish messenger has no doubts about how to read the situation: he
predicts that the Swedes will attack the moment they hear of Beowulf's death, and all the evidence provided in Beowulf
suggests that he is right.
The history of the Swedes and the Geats is a vivid illustration of how history repeats itself, of how the Geatish leaders
again and again risk their lives, and the security of the Geatish people, for the bold heroic gesture. This is the context in
which we view Beowulf's fight with the dragon, a fight in which Beowulf refuses the help of his retinue and chooses
valour over discretion. The heroic ideal seems to demand decisive individual action, but history shows that this is rarely
compatible with the mundane business of political leadership.
There are also a number of examples of repeated patterns of personal relationship in Beowulf, the most striking being
that between uncle and nephew. Beowulf, a loyal nephew to Hygelac, exemplifies the ideal, but in both the Swedish and
Danish dynasties this relationship is a site of bitter conflict. For example, the
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nephews of the Swedish king Onela rebel against their uncle: Onela has one of them killedeven rewarding the killer
with the gift of his own nephew's swordand the other takes revenge by killing Onela in his turn. In Denmark, the
hostility is still to come, but easily foreseen: Hrothgar has inherited the Danish throne from his elder brother Heorogar,
and we do not know from the poem why Heorogar's son faded to inherit, or what his response to that might have been.
Perhaps the poet of Beowulf did not know himselfor perhaps the story was too well-known to bear repetition. And
present at the Danish court is another of Hrothgar's nephews, Hrothulf, who may also see himself as a contender for the
throne. So when Hrothgar's queen Wealhtheow bravely announces at the feast in Heorot that she trusts in their nephew
Hrothulf to befriend and support their young sons, the poem's audience does not need to know about the bloody
internecine feuding which later Scandinavian sources record to fear the worst about Hrothulf. The relationship between
a man and his sister's son was apparently much cherished in Germanic societies; however, it appears from Beowulf that
for obvious dynastic reasons a brother's son was the last person any ruler could trust.
Patterns such as these may serve as clear directives to the poem's audience, but their function can sometimes be less
obvious. We have already seen how Beowulf and the Germanic hero Sigemund are juxtaposed when the poets of Heorot
celebrate them both in song; it is a further link between the two dragon-killers that both have younger companions. But
while Wiglaf acts staunchly to support Beowulf in his fight with the dragon, Fitela was not there to help Sigemund.
Fitela is said to be Sigemund's nephew, but again, Norse sources may illuminate our poem: Fitela was indeed
Sigemund's sister's son, but the result of an incestuous relationship between the two. Is this just another variant in the
Beowulf poet's collection of uncle/nephew relationships? It is interesting that we do not know how Wiglaf is related to
Beowulf, beyond the unexpected revelation towards the end of the poem that he and Beowulf belong to the same family,
the Wægmundings. But it
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is the parallel between Beowulf and Sigemund which makes us reconsider Beowulf's relationship with Wiglaf, who, in
his heroic support for Beowulf, and stirring rhetoric, shows himself to be Beowulf's spiritual heir.
It has often been observed that Beowulf combines in its narrative two very different kinds of materialessentially, the
fabulous and the historicaland that these divisions correspond quite closely to the monster fights on the one hand, and
the human feuding on the other. Some readers have felt uncomfortable with the combination, as if the fictionality of the
monster fights detracts from the serious business of the history, or the delicate complexity of the history constitutes a
tiresome shift from the drama of timeless, mythic encounters between hero and monster. As we have seen, however,
Beowulf explores the difficulties of operating in both of these spheres; what is fitting behaviour for a young heropitting
himself against a terrifying scourgeis not necessarily proper for a king on whom a whole people depends for its security.
And yet the two worlds of history and myth are not wholly contrastive in the poem. Peace and prosperity are the gifts
which both Hrothgar and Beowulf bring to their respective nations, and, in one sense, the monsters in the poem
represent the two corresponding threats to heroic society, violence and avarice. We can see Grendel as a sort of hideous
nemesis, a physical manifestation of the spirit of violence and feuding which pervades the heroic world, and the fact that
this threat is duplicatedin that Grendel's mother returns to Heorot to avenge her son's deathmay reflect an obvious truth
about the human violence in the poem: that one hostile act engenders another with inexorable causality. The dragon,
jealously guarding its gold hoard, and roused to destructive fury by the theft of one item from it, is a symbol of avarice,
the vice of a society which lacks social cohesion and confident liberality. These larger correspondences are reinforced
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by a whole series of detailed analogies which cross the boundaries between the poem's two kinds of subject matter,
binding the whole poem into a remarkably dense web of interrelated incident.
Thus, for example, the monstrous behaviour of Grendel and his mother in not only killing but actually eating their
victimsGrendel 'bit into [a warrior's] body, drank the blood | from his veins, devoured huge pieces'is linked on a
rhetorical level to the ostensibly mundane fate of Heorot itself: as a result of hostility between the Danes and the
Heathobards, Heorot will be destroyed by fire, but the poet describes this as the great hall being swallowed up by
tongues of flame. Similarly, when the bodies of the Finnsburh dead are cremated, the poet describes in shocking detail
the ravenous flames which swallow up the bodies, bone and blood together. Since Grendel and his mother are humanoid
monsters, they are inevitably seen as analogous to the humans in the poem, so that their activities, especially Grendel's
'visits' to Heorot, or his mother's murderous grief at his death, invite us to make comparisons between the worlds of the
monsters and the heroes. But sometimes these analogies are unexpected, or even disturbing. Grendel is said to be more
or less human in form, though gross in size, and he walks upright. Since he uses no weapons in his attacks on the Danes,
Beowulf declares that he too will fight without sword and shield, so in this way Beowulf deliberately brings himself
down to the monster's levelironically, in order to enhance his status as hero. However, there are other unsettling
connections between Beowulf and Grendel. Beownlf's nameliterally, Bee-wolfmay be understood as cryptic
circumlocution for 'bear'. Further, we are told in the poem that one of the deeds of Beowulf's youth was the killing of a
Frankish warrior, Dæghrefn, who had the life squeezed out of him; he was 'bear-hugged, to death by Beowulf. In this
way, Beowulf stands in the liminal space between the two worlds of the poem. Ostensibly, he is part of the historical
world, nephew of Hygelac and friend of Hrothgar. But while Hygelac and Hrothgar are known from historical and
legendary texts, Beowulf is known only from the poem named after him
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except, crucially, that a figure in a widespread and apparently ancient folk-talethe so-called 'Bear's Son Tale'is strikingly
reminiscent of Beowulf, not least in his bear-like associations, and he fights a monster in similar circumstances. Once
we suggest identification between Beowulf and the shadowy and yet pervasive heroes of folk-tale, it is only a short step
further to a fully mythic view of the hero: the age-old conflict between hero and monster which goes back not merely to
early Germanic religious practices, as evidenced by the decorations on weaponry dating from earliest times, but beyond
that into what has been called the 'universal thought patterns in the human psyche'.1
More specific analogues in European literature have often been noted, but have never been dear enough to be cited as
either sources or derivatives of the poem itself. The most detailed, and most written-about, parallel is in the fourteenth-
century Old Norse text Grettir's saga. Its hero Grettir fights two trollsthough here the first is female, and the second
male, reversing the order of Beowulf's encounters with Grendel and his motherand there are a number of very striking
similarities of detail, such as the ripping off of the monster's arm, and the hero's descent into an underwater lair.
However, the likelihood that the depiction of Beowulf in the poem may be derived from earlier folk-tales is applicable
also to Grettir and his saga, so that a definite relationship between saga and poem is hard to formulate. Fresh analogues
from amongst a mass of Old Norse legendary sagas are still coming to light, but again folk-tale may be simply a
common source, although it does seem that the 'two-troll' version of the monster fight was a Scandinavian speciality.
Some scholars have suggested early Irish analogues to the monster fights in Beowulf, and there are also parallels in
Celtic folk-tales, though these tend to be rather vague.
1 Margaret Arent, 'The Heroic Pattern: Old Germanic Helmets, Beowulf and Grettis saga', in Edgar C. Polomé
(ed.), Old Norse Literature and Mythology: A Symposium (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1969), 13099.
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The question of classical influence raises altogether different difficulties. A number of details in Beowulf have been
related to the Odyssey, and similarities between Homeric and Old English poetic diction have been pointed out. But it is
in fact highly unlikely that Homer's work was known in Anglo-Saxon England. Details in Beowulf have also been
related to Virgil's Aeneid, and it has been argued that Beowulf owes both the whole concept of historical epic and the
presentation of the hero's tragic brilliance to a Virgilian model, although if this were indeed the case one might expect
more than the sprinkling of common details which have been proposed.
As has already been indicated, some of the historical material we find in Beowulf contains echoes of names and
situations in works of Scandinavian legendary history, such as Saxo Grammaticus's History of the Danes, written in the
early thirteenth century, or in the late Old Norse Hrólfs saga kraka. Allusions to the heroic age in Scandinavia are
widely scattered in Old Norse poetry and prose, although they do not add up to a coherent picture of the period, changed
as they are by literary context and separated by centuries of literary development. The impulse behind the quest to
establish analogues is not so much the elucidation of the poem as an attempt to anchor it to a particular cultural or
historical context, to establish it as Scandinavian in origin, or tinged with Celtic, or the product of a classically trained
literary environment. But as with our inability to fix the poem in any specific Anglo-Saxon time, place, or milieu, so
Beowulf eludes any attempt to situate its origins in a specific literary tradition.
The only substantial analogue to Beowulf in Anglo-Saxon literature is a brief fragment of verse extant only in an
eighteenth-century transcription and known as The Fight at Finnsburh. The fragment plainly treats the fight between
Finn and the Danes which is alluded to in Beowulf, but in both its narrative detail and its moral perspective on the action
it is very different. The episode in Beowulf
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opens as Hildeburh sees that, after fighting between Hnæf and Finn, both her brother and her son by Finn have been
killed. As well as Hildeburh's grief, the poem explores the dilemma facing the surviving Danes, led by Hengest: Finn is
unable to finish off the fight and rid his hall of the Danes, and they are prevented from returning home by the storms of
winter. An uneasy truce is agreed, by which the Danes are promised safe-keeping for the winter, but their situation is
humiliatingly dose to the circumstances of those held in contempt elsewhere in heroic literature: the retinue which
transfers its loyalty from a defeated leader to his victor. Hengest nurses his resentment throughout the winter, but when
spring comes, and with it reinforcements, Hengest, taunted by a Danish warrior, leads a sudden counter-attack. The
Danes are victorious, Finn is killed, and Hildeburh is taken back to Denmark. The overwhelming impression is of
bitterness, grief, and pointless violence. The Danes in the episode are never said to celebrate their eventual triumph
(although the Danes at Heorot do), and Hildeburh's response to her return 'home' is not alluded to, unlike the raw
references to her grief at the loss of husband, brother, and son.
The Fight at Finnsburh begins not in the cold, chill silence of early morning, as Hildeburh surveys the terrible aftermath
of the fighting, but, dramatically, with the preceding night attack, in which the moonlight flickering on the weapons of
an enemy force might be mistaken for the hall itself burning. All is action and clamour as Hnæf, apparently attacked
within a hall by Finn's forces, rouses his men and exhorts them to valour. Bravery in battle, and the loyalty which
promotes it, is an end in itself; the poet is all approbation for the way the warriors behave in their five-day fight, and all
admiration for the traditional trappings of battle: gleaming swords; the sinister raven, hoping for corpses to feed on;
proud expressions of loyalty.
Nothing could illustrate more vividly the special qualities of Beowulf than the contrast between the episode and the
fragment. In Beowulf, the fight at Finnsburh is the occasion for precisely the questioning and exploration of a cultural
ideal that has been
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identified as the hallmark of epic. In the fragment, the darker side of the conflictthe death of warriorsis transformed into
an idealized sacrifice in the cause of loyalty and glory. It must of course be recognized that questioning the heroic ideal,
and exploring the effect of violent action performed in its name, is necessarily more to the taste of the modern reader
than a straightforward celebration of that action would be. The fragment's vivid immediacy and swift, exciting narrative
are undeniable literary strengths in themselves, but it is hard to avoid the sense that The Fight at Finnsburh is of interest
more because it may preserve an example of the 'heroic lay', an early Germanic oral form, than on grounds of its
inherent literary merit. What is surprising is that by contrast Beowulf itself does not give the impression of being 'walled
off from all subsequent times', as one scholar characterizes epic. In fact, presenting the fight at Finnsburh from
Hildeburh's point of view is a strategy remarkably appealing to the modern reader.
All this is not to say that Beowulf somehow stands apart from the traditions of Old English literature. It is true that no
specific, direct links between Beowulf and other Old English poems have been established. There is no reference to
Beowulf in any other known Anglo-Saxon text, and such verbal echoes as there are with other Old English poems are
only to be expected, given the formulaic style of the poetry, and cannot indicate with any certainty which work was the
borrower and which the lender. But in many respects Beowulf is directly comparable with other Old English poems,
particularly in mood and treatment. There is a tradition of heroic verse in which 'the virtues of the warrior, notably the
loyalty and courage we see prized in Beowulf, are celebrated, and The Battle of Maldon, though commemorating a tenth-
century encounter between Anglo-Saxons and Norsemen rather than a distant battle from the old heroic age, holds up
for admiration the steadfastness of its heroes in the face of defeat. Like Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon is not wholly
uncritical of the actions of the leader, and there is also a strong suggestion of pathos about the death of young warriors,
although in the end a loyalty which is in heroically
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inverse proportion to the likelihood of victory dominates the poem. Two poems, Widsith and Deor, do relate to an
earlier age of Germanic legend, and a number of names in them also occur in Beowulf. But neither poem actually
elaborates these names beyond the briefest allusion, and in both there is a pervasive sense that they are no more than
faint echoes from a distant literary past. There is certainly nothing approaching the fresh, energetic development of
material so clear in Beowulf.
Elegy might be said to be the dominant mode in Old English secular poetry, and as well as nostalgia for a gloriously
anachronistic way of conducting baffle in The Battle of Maldon, and the faded glamour evoked by the roll-call of heroic
legendary names in Widsith and Deor, the lament for a past which lies at the heart of elegy is most famously expressed
in lyric poems such as The Wanderer, The Seafarer, and The Wife's Lament. These poems are celebrated not only for
their poignant evocation of a past which contrasts painfully with a harsh present and future, but also for the impression
of intimacy in the anonymous speaking voice in each poem; the first-person narrator speaks of his or her own life in
deceptively personal terms. Oddly enough, Old English riddlesostensibly a much more light-hearted genrealso operate
with the immediacy of the first-person narrator; the inanimate object which is the solution of the riddle wittily, and
sometimes very touchingly, describes its own transformation from raw material into artefact. The high point of this
literary technique is the religious poem The Dream of the Rood, in which the cross on which Christ was crucified
describes not only its transformation from tree to instrument of torture, but also the death of Christ, from its own unique
perspective. Just as Christ has been made incarnate, so the Cross, in an equal and opposite transformation, is made
animate, and speaks. Twice in Beowulf we are reminded of the first-person intimacy of the Anglo-Saxon elegy and
riddle: first, at the beginning of the poem, when Beowulf himself solves for Hrothgar's messenger the riddle of who can
be leading a large band of armed warriors who have come to Denmark in neither hostility nor exile
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'My name is Beowulf', a version of the concluding line of so many of the Anglo-Saxon riddlesand second, at the end of
the poem, when Beowulf describes his childhood, how he was fostered by his grandfather King Hrethel, and began the
transformation which has led him to the present moment of the poem's narrative, this final encounter with a dragon in
the defence of the Geatish nation.
It has been said of Beowulf that the whole poem is an elegy for a lost world by a poet at the height of his culture's
literary powers. Certainly, if elegy also demands an individual's personal view of the past, then we can see Beowulf as a
delicate, interlocking structure of individual perspectivesHrothgar's recall of the Danes' happier days, Beowulf's report
to Hygelac of what happened at Heorot, or his moving retrospection of his own life as he faces the dragon fightall
subsumed under the poet's overarching, all-inclusive depiction of a long-past but treasured age, and transformed into a
single perspective by the timeless wisdom of Hrothgar's advice on the transience of earthly glory. In Beowulf, the
celebratory quality of epic is finely balanced by the valediction of elegy.
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Kevin Crossley-Holland's translation conveys very precisely the dual nature of Beowulf as both epic and elegy, for the
poem's essential dignity is not allowed to come over as stiff splendour or hollow heroics, and does not compromise the
human poignancy of the elegiac. Thus, the tone of this translation is remarkably faithful to the original poem. But it may
still be useful to include here a short section of the original poem, flanked by a literal, word-for-word translation, and
followed by a brief analysis of how the poetry works. It should be remembered that poetic technique, more than any
other feature of the poem, places Beowulf right at the heart of Anglo-Saxon literary tradition, for the features evident
from these opening lines of Beowulf are characteristic to some degree of all Old English verse.
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This short opening verse-paragraph, framed by its call for attention'Hwæt'and its concluding judgement'Pæt* wæs god
cyning!'illustrates the essential features of Old English poetic style. Each full line falls into two half-lines, commonly
separated in modern editions by a short space which is usually felt to represent a natural pause in the metre, a caesura.
The half-lines are linked by alliteration: the first accented syllable in each second half-line begins with the same sound
as one or both of the two accented syllables in the preceding half-line. Thus, in the first full line, 'Gar-Dena' alliterates
with 'geardagum', and in the second, 'prym*' with 'peodcyninga*', while in lines 48, each first half-line has two
alliterating syllables'Scyld Scefing' or 'feasceaft funden'.
The metrical unit in Old English verse is the half-line; each half-line has two stressed syllables, with a varying, but
limited, number of unstressed syllables. The alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables gives each half-line its
distinctive rhythmsometimes stately and ponderous, sometimes urgent and syncopatedand the vast majority of half-lines
fall into one of five or six characteristic metrical patterns. It is the interplay of these metrical patterns within the verse
paragraph which gives flexibility and subtlety to the basic two-stress metre. Stress usually falls on the words with
semantic importancenouns, adjectives, and verbsrather than on parts of speech such as articles or prepositions, and
almost always on the semantically important element in the word, rather than on a grammatical ending or prefix.
The half-line is also the sense unit in Old English verse, and by comparison with Modern English prose syntax, with its
characteristic subjectverbobject sequence, groups of half-lines are very loosely connected and ordered within the verse
paragraph (by modern standards, there is very little punctuation in the Beowulf
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manuscript). Often, parallel sentence elements are repeated; this technique is known as variation, and gives the poetry
great descriptive richness. Thus, Scyld Scefing, a single subject in a single half-line, is said to act with hostility to his
enemies, but we are given two parallel half-lines denoting the hostile actionshe both took away mead-benches and
terrified warriorsand two parallel half-lines describing the enemiesthey were enemies in bands, and from many races.
There is no explicit link to confine one action to one object. Similarly, Scyld's success is detailed in three parallel half-
lines: he experienced comfort, thrived under the heavens, and prospered in honour. But simple juxtaposition allows for a
considerable degree of flexibility in meaning: are Scyld's three benefits to be understood as a direct result of his
aggression, or are they simply a fitting, contrasting recompense for his miserable origins? Or both? Such syntactic
fluidity is used to great effect in Beowulf.
A number of words in Beowulf are found in Old English only in poetry; some, such as 'meodosetl' (mead-bench) in this
passage, are found only in Beowulf itself. About a third of the lexicon of Beowulf consists of compound words, and the
economy with which a complex meaning can be conveyed by the direct juxtapostion of the two elements of a
compoundas with 'weornðmynd', honour-memorial, or the good opinion or reputation of a person which is held in the
minds of othersis comparable to the effect of the juxtaposed half-lines themselves. The most densely packed kind of
compound in Old English verses is the kenning, of which the word 'hronrad' (whale-road) is an example here. The
meaning is not difficult to grasp (though some kennings, especially in Old Norse literature, are extremely cryptic): What
is denoted is the sea. But the kenning is almost a contradiction in its own terms, for the sea is in some respects the
opposite of a road, which is land-based. We can only understand sea as road from the perspective of the whale, whose
element it is. As land-based humans, then, we recognize that to journey over the sea is to venture into an alien element;
the compound 'whale-road' is not merely a verbal flourish,
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a decorative puzzle, but a significant addition to the meaning of the passage. Thus, in syntax and diction, Old English
poetry is both tightly compacted and freely allusive; reading it in the original demands the concentrated focus of puzzle
solving as well as the associative skills of the lateral thinker.
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Select Bibliography
Editions
Jack, George, Beowulf: A Student Edition (Oxford, 1994). This edition (which includes the text of The Fight at
Finnsburh) has a running glossary alongside the text, and is fully annotated, making it possible for those with only a
rudimentary knowledge of Old English to read the poem in the original. The bibliography is extremely useful.
Klaeber, Fr., Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg (3rd edn., Boston, 1950).
Wrenn, C. L., Beowulf with the Finnesburg Fragment (2nd edn., revised by W. F. Bolton, London, 1973; 5th edn.,
Exeter, 1996).
An accessible facsimile of the original manuscript, with a facing transcription, is J. Zupitsa, Beowulf (The Early English
Text Society, OS 245, London, 1959, with an Introductory Note by N. Davis; repr. 1967) (but see below under
Websites).
Studies on Beowulf
There has been an enormous amount written on Beowulf. The best guide to the scholarship on the poem is: R. E. Bjork
and J. D. Niles (eds.), A Beowulf Handbook (Exeter, 1996), a collection of short essays surveying the history of various
aspects of Beowulf scholarship (metre, history, gender roles, sources, and so on) followed by chronological
bibliographies. This is a very valuable tool for further reading on the poem. Other useful bibliographical aids are: S. B.
Greenfield and F. C. Robinson, A Bibliography of Publications on Old English Literature to the End of 1972 (Toronto,
1980), and the annual bibliographies published in the journal Anglo-Saxon England.
Brodeur, A. G., The Art of Beowulf (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1959).
Chambers, R. W., Beowulf: An Introduction, 3rd edn. with a supplement by C. L. Wrenn (Cambridge, 1959).
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L. E. Nicholson (ed.), An Anthology of Beowulf Criticism (Notre Dame, Ind., 1963, repr. 1976) includes many important
articles on the poem, notably J. R. R. Tolkien's 'The Monsters and the Critics', first published in Proceedings of the
British Academy, XXII.(1936), and perhaps the single most celebrated piece of literary criticism of the poem. Two
especially valuable articles by historians are: M. Lapidge, '''Beowulf", Aldhelm, the "Liber Monstrorum" and Wessex',
Studi Medievali, 23 (1982), 15192, and P. Wormald, 'Bede, "Beowulf" and the Conversion of the Anglo-Saxon
Aristocracy', in Bede and Anglo-Saxon England, ed. R. T. Farrell (Oxford, 1978), 3295.
Background Reading
Bruce-Mitford, R. L. S., The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial: A Handbook (London, 1968, 3rd edn. 1979): an account of
archaeological finds which have seemed to many to illuminate the material world of Beowulf.
Campbell, James, The Anglo-Saxons (Oxford, 1982; repr. New York, 1991): a scholarly illustrated history.
Crossley-Holland, Kevin, The Anglo-Saxon World (Woodbridge, 1982, repr. Oxford, 1984), contains a wide selection of
texts and extracts, literary, historical, and religious, translated from Old English. Amongst the poems translated are:
Deor, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Battle of Maldon, Wulf and Eadwacer, Caedmon's Hymn, and a number of
Riddles.
Godden, M., and Lapidge, M. (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature (Cambridge, 1991): a
collection of introductory essays (including one on Beowulf by F. C. Robinson) by leading scholars in the field.
Hamer, Richard, A Choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse (London, 1970): most of the most celebrated Anglo-Saxon short
poems, with a parallel verse translation on each facing page.
Mitchell, Bruce, An Invitation to Old English and Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford, 1995): both a user-friendly guide to
learning the Old English language, and a wide-ranging and engaging introduction to Old English literature and Anglo-
Saxon culture.
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C. M. Bowra, Heroic Poetry (London, 1952), W. P. Ker, Epic and Romance (London 1908; repr. New York, 1957), A.
B. Lord, The Singer of Tales (Cambridge, Mass., 1960), and J. M. Foley, Immanent Art: From Structure to Meaning in
Traditional Oral Epic (Bloomington, Ind., 1991) all put Beowulf in the context of oral epic poetry.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, trans, and ed. Michael Swanton (London, 1996).
Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, trans. Bertram Colgrave, ed. Judith McClure and Roger Collins
(Oxford, 1994).
Garmonsway, G. N., and Simpson, J., Beowulf and its Analogues (London, 1968), an invaluable collection of
translations of many texts related to Beowulf.
Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, trans. Lewis Thorpe (Harmonds-worth, 1974).
Grettir's saga, trans. Denton Fox and Hermann Pálsson (Toronto, 1974, repr. 1981).
Hrafnkel's Saga and other Icelandic Stories, trans. Hermann Pálsson (Harmondsworth, 1971, repr. 1976).
The Poetic Edda, ed. and trans. U. Dronke (Vols. I and II, Oxford, 1969, 1997). Vol. II includes Völundarkviða, and a
valuable discussion of the Franks Casket.
The Poetic Edda, trans. Carolyne Larrington (Oxford, 1996), with Snorri's Edda (below), the basic source for Old Norse
mythology.
Saxo Grammaticus, History of the Danes, the first nine books, trans. Peter Fisher, ed. Hilda Ellis Davidson
(Woodbridge, 1979).
Snorri Sturluson's Edda, trans. Anthony Faulkes (London, 1987; repr. 1992).
Tacitus, The Agricola and the Germania, trans. H. Mattingly, rev. S. A. Handford (Harmondsworth, 1970).
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page_xxxiv
Websites
A complete digital facsimile of the Beowulf manuscript is a forth-coming electronic publication of the British Library.
For an overview of the project, and a good number of pre-publication samplers, see
[http://www.bl.uk/diglib/beowulf/]
The University of Georgetown's Labyrinth Library contains a selection of Old English texts online, including a
scholarly edition of Beowulf; see
[http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/labyrinth-home.html]
and the complete corpus of Old English as well as editions of Beowulf are available online from The Oxford Text
Archive
[http://sable.ox.ac.uk/ota/]
The Old English section of ORB (the On-Line Reference Book for Medieval Studies, edited by Cathy Ball) is rightly
described online as 'an encyclopaedic compendium of resources for the study of Old English and Anglo-Saxon
England'; see
[http://orb.rhodes.edu/encyclop/culture/lit/oldeng.html]
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page_xxxv
Time Chart
Though Beowulf is timeless, drawing material from the wealth of Anglo-Saxon culture and from many countries, the
time chart sets the poem in a historical perspective. The death of Hygelac, King of the Geats, c. AD 521, is the only
independently attested historical event in the poem, and so although there are allusions to characters who flourished one
or two centuries before that, we can place the main action of the poem in the sixth century. It is uncertain when the
poem was composed, but dates from the seventh to the very beginning of the eleventh century have been proposed.
AD
449 Hengest and Horsa come to England at the invitation of Vortigern, king of the
Britons
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page_xxxvii
Genealogical Tables
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page_xxxviii
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page_xxxix
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page_1
Beowulf
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page_2
Listen!
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page_3
[2656]
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page_4
[5787]
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page_5
[88115]
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[116146]
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[147180]
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[181213]
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page_9
[214245]
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[246277]
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[278307]
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[308337]
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page_13
[338368]
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[369400]
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[401435]
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[436465]
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[496527]
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[528557]
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[558589]
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[590620]
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[621652]
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[653683]
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[684713]
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[714745]
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[778808]
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[809839]
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[840870]
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[871901]
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[902933]
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[934965]
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[10261055]
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[10561086]
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[10871119]
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[11201148]
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page_40
[11771209]
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page_41
[12101238]
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[12391268]
Grendel's mother
was a monster of a woman; she mourned her fate
she who had to live in the terrible lake,
the cold water streams, after Cain slew
his own brother, his father's son,
with a sword; he was outlawed after that;
a branded man, he abandoned human joys,
wandered in the wilderness. Many spirits, sent
by fate, issued from his seed; one of them, Grendel,
that hateful outcast, was surprised in the hall
by a vigilant warrior spoiling for a fight.
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page_43
[12691299]
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page_44
[13001330]
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page_45
[13311363]
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page_46
[13641394]
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[13951425]
Then the old king leaped up, poured out his gratitude
to God Almighty for the Geat's words.
Hrothgar's horse, his stallion with plaited mane,
was saddled and bridled; the wise ruler
set out in full array; his troop of shield-bearers
fell into step. They followed the tracks
along forest paths and over open hill-country
for mile after mile; the monster had made
for the dark moors directly, carrying the corpse
of the foremost thane of all those
who, with Hrothgar, had guarded the hall.
Then the man of noble lineage left Heorot far behind,
followed narrow tracks, string-thin paths
over steep, rocky slopesremote parts
with beetling crags and many lakes
where water-demons lived. He went ahead
with a handful of scouts to explore the place;
all at once he came upon a dismal wood,
mountain trees standing on the edge
of a grey precipice; the lake lay beneath,
blood-stained and turbulent. Then Danish retainers
were utterly appalled when they came upon
the severed head of their comrade Æschere
on the steep slope leading down to the lake;
all the thanes were deeply distressed.
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[14261456]
Beowulf donned
his coat of mail, did not fear for his own life.
His massive corslet, linked by hand
and skilfully adorned, was to essay the lake
it knew how to guard the body, the bone-chamber,
so that his foe's grasp, in its malicious fury,
could not crush his chest, squeeze out his life;
and his head was guarded by the gleaming helmet
which was to explore the churning waters,
stir their very depths; gold decorated it,
and it was hung with chain-mail as the weapon-smith
had wrought it long before, wondrously shaped it
and beset it with boar-images, so that
afterwards no battle-blade could do it damage.
Not least amongst his mighty aids was Hrunting,
the long-hilted sword Unferth lent him in his need;
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page_49
[14571489]
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page_50
[14901520]
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page_51
[15211551]
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[15521583]
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[15841613]
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page_54
[16141643]
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[16441674]
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[16751704]
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page_57
[17051733]
It is a miracle
how the mighty Lord in his generosity
gives wisdom and land and high estate
to people on earth; all things are in His power.
At times he allows a noble man's mind to experience
happiness, grants he should rule over a pleasant,
prosperous country, a stronghold of men,
makes subject to him regions of earth,
a wide kingdom, until in his stupidity
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[17341764]
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[17651794]
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page_60
[17951825]
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page_61
[18271860]
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page_62
[18611889]
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page_63
[18901917]
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page_64
[19181945]
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page_65
[19461977]
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page_66
[19782009]
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page_67
[20092037]
First of all,
I went to the ring-hall to greet Hrothgar;
once Healfdene's great son knew of my intentions,
he assigned me a seat beside his own sons.
Then there was revelry; never in my life,
under heaven's vault, have I seen men
happier in the mead-hall. From time to time
the famous queen, the peace-weaver,* walked across the floor,
exhorting the young warriors; often she gave
some man a twisted ring before returning to her seat.
At times Hrothgar's daughter, whom I heard
men call Freawaru, carried the ale-horn
right round the hall in front of that brave company,
offered that vessel adorned with precious metals
to the thirsty warriors.
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[20382067]
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[20682096]
I have digressed;
Grendel is my subject. Now you must hear,
O treasure-giver, what the outcome was
of that hand-to-hand encounter. When the jewel of heaven
had journeyed over the earth, the angry one,
the terrible night-prowler paid us a visit
unscathed warriors watching over Heorot.
A fight awaited Hondscio, a horrible end
for that fated man; he was the first to fall;
Grendel tore that famous young retainer to bits
between his teeth, and swallowed the whole body
of that dear man, that girded warrior.
And even then that murderer, mindful of evil,
his mouth caked with blood, was not content
to leave the gold-hall empty-handed
but, famed for his strength, he tackled me,
gripped me with his outstretched hand.
A huge unearthly glove swung at his side,*
firmly secured with subtle straps;
it had been made with great ingenuity,
with devils' craft and dragons' skins.
Innocent as I was, the demon monster
meant to shove me in it, and many another
innocent besides; that was beyond him
after I leapt up, filled with fury.
It would take too long to tell you how I repaid
that enemy of men for all his outrages;
but there, my prince, I ennobled your people
with my deeds. Grendel escaped,
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[20972127]
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[21282156]
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[21572186]
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[21872219]
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[22202252]
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[22532282]
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[22832310]
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[23112341]
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[23422371]
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[23722399]
Two exiles,
Ohthere's sons, sailed to Heardred's court;
they had rebelled against the ruler of the Swedes,
a renowned man, the best of sea-kings,
gold-givers in Sweden.* By receiving them,
Heardred rationed the days of his life;
in return for his hospitality, Hygelac's son
was mortally wounded, slashed by swords.
Once Heardred lay lifeless in the dust,
Onela, son of Ongentheow, sailed home again;
he allowed Beowulf to inherit the throne
and rule the Geats; he was a noble king!
But Beowulf did not fail with help
after the death of the prince, although years passed;
he befriended unhappy Eadgils, Ohthere's son,
and supplied him with weapons and warriors
beyond the wide seas. Eadgils afterwards
avenged Eanmund, he ravaged and savaged
the Swedes, and killed the king, Onela himself.
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'Now flames,
the blazing fire, must devour the lord of warriors
who often endured the iron-tipped arrow-shower,
when the dark cloud loosed by bow strings
broke above the shield-wall, quivering;
when the eager shaft, with its feather garb,
discharged its duty to the barb.'
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. . . 'gables burning.'
Then Hnæf the king, a novice in battle, said:
'This is not dawn from the east, no dragon
flies here, the gables of the hall are not burning,
but men are making an attack. Birds of baffle screech,
the grey Wolf howls, spears rattle,
shield answers shaft. The wandering moon gleams
under the clouds; evil deeds will now
arise from this enmity of people.*
But rouse yourselves now, my warriors!
Grasp your shields, steel yourselves,
fight at the front and be brave!'
Then many a thane, laden in gold, buckled his sword-belt.
Then the stout warriors, Sigeferth and Eaha,
went to one door and unsheathed their swords;
Ordlaf and Guthlaf went to guard the other,
and Hengest himself followed in their footsteps.*
When he saw this, Guthere said to Garulf
that he would be unwise to go to the hall doors
in the first rush, risking his noble life,
for fearless Sigeferth was set upon his death.*
But that daring man drowned the other voices
and demanded openly who held the door.
'I am Sigeferth, a prince of the Secgan
and a well-known warrior; I've braved many trials,
tough combats. Even now it is decreed
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Explanatory Notes
Beowulf
2. Scyld Scefing: the eponymous founder of the royal Danish house, the Scyldings. 'Scefing' probably means 'son of
Scef', although if, as the poem tells us, he arrived miraculously from nowhere to save the Danish nation, set adrift in a
boat like Moses in the bulrushes, it is perhaps surprising that his father should be commemorated in his name. A tenth-
century Anglo-Saxon chronicle traces the genealogy Of the kings of Anglo-Saxon Wessex (King Alfred's line)back to
Scef, the father of Scyld; this Scef is said to arrive unknown, by boat, at a land called Scani, rather as Scyld does here.
'Scefing' could also mean 'of the sheaf', and a later, twelfth-century English chronicle tells the story of Sceldius, the son
of Seer, who was driven ashore on an island called Scandza with a sheaf of corn lying beside him in the oarless boat;
'for this reason he was given the name Sceaf'. The two name elements, 'scyld' and 'sceaf', shield and sheaf, together
represent the two most important aspects of early kingshipdefence of the realm and a fruitful harvest each year.
Whatever the relationship between the poem and these two chronicles, the founder of the Danes has an impressive and
appealing mythic status. Old Norse historical tradition traces the Danish kings (the Skjöldungs) back to one Scioldus,
the son of Odin, but neither Skjöldunga saga nor Saxo Grammaticus's History of the Danes mentions the boat or the
sheaf of corn. (See G. N. Garmonsway and J. Simpson, Beowulf and its Analogues (London, 1968).)
Beow: the manuscript of the poem both here and at line 53 reads 'Beowulf'. It is conceivable that this early Danish
king had the same name as the hero of the poem, but far more likely that the scribe wrote the name Beowulf by
mistake, because the hero was uppermost in his mind. Anglo-Saxon genealogies record Beaw as the son of Scyld;
it is also significant, given the sheaf connection, that 'beaw' is related to words for barley in Germanic languages.
3. There in harbour . . . were gathered there: archaeologists have excavated a number of ship burials in Britain and
Scandinaviamost fatuously at Sutton Hoo, Oseberg, and Gokstad. The burial of a vehiclea ship, in the grandest gravesis
one of the standard features of the burials of aristocratic men in pagan Scandinavia. But Scyld Scefing is not buried with
the ship; rather, his dead body, accompanied by treasures and war-gear, is sent out to sea in one, a practice which could,
of course, hardly leave archaeological remains, but which does form a satisfying parallel to his mysterious arrival in
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Denmark; see n. below. In the Latin Life of St Gildas, the dying saint gives instructions that his body should be set
in a boat and its destination be left to God's providence, a remarkable parallel to Scyld, who has also decreed the
form of his own funeral. (See A. Cameron, 'Saint Gildas and Scyld Scefing', Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 70
(1969), 2406.) St Gildas's end recalls the ascetic practice of Celtic monks, peregrini, who, in dedicating their lives
to God, set off in oarless, rudderless boats as a dramatic gesture of absolute submission to God's will Scyld's
funeral, then, may combine a suggestion of pagan burial with an air of Christian asceticism.
no less magnificent: the treasure with which the Danes send off Scyld's body is in fact wonderfully more
magnificent than that with which he arrived, since he came destitute to the Danes. This is a good example of
understatement for rhetorical effect, popular in Old English poetry but odd-sounding to modern readers.
Mighty men . . . cannot say who received that cargo: Scyld's arrival from and departure into the unknown recalls
the famous story in Bede's Ecclesiastical History (II. 13), in which a crucial failure in pagan teaching is pointed out
by reference to the simile of the sparrow in the mead-hall: the bird flies into the hall from a wintry outer darkness,
has a few moments of light, warmth, and calm, and then flies out again into unknowable chaos. This is how human
life appears to the pagan, while teaching offers some understanding of an eternal context and a life after death. On
a larger scale, the image may be said to reflect the shape and sense of the whole poem, which begins and ends with
a funeral, its brightly lit characters playing their parts between unknown origins and a dark and dreaded future.
4. Yrse . . . Swedish king: the manuscript is defective here, and the name of Healfdene's daughter, and part of her
husband's name, are missing. Old Norse sources link Yrse with the Danish royal house, and tell of her marriage to a
Swedish king.
The hall towered high . . . deeds of deadly enmity: Hrothgar's daughter is to marry Ingeld, the son of Froda, a king
of the Heathobards who have been at war with the Danes. The hope is that the alliance will heal the hostility
between them. But Beowulf predicts later in the poem that the father-in-law (Hrothgar) and the son-in-law (Ingeld)
will not be reconciled for long, and the warning here is that the feud will end with the burning down of Heorot. The
feud is also referred to in the Old English poem Widsith, though there is no mention there of Heorot being
destroyed by fire.
5. He who could tell . . . base crimes: the hall-poet's song about Creation is distinctly biblical in tone and diction (see
especially Genesis 1: 2) and recalls Cædmon's Hymn, a brief Old English Creation poem quoted by Bede and celebrated
as the first use of Old English poetic form for Christian
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subject matter. These associations create the impression of Heorot as a kind of Eden, a paradise without sin or
sorrow before Grendel appears.
5. He could no longer . . . feel God's love: in the original poem, these lines follow the poet's account of Grendel's
terrifying occupation of Heorot (see P. 7). Bringing them forward to this point in the poem improves the coherence of
the narrative.
In him all evil-doers . . . their deserts: that Cam was the ancestor of a race of monsters was a widespread medieval
tradition, deriving from early commentaries on Genesis 4: 2 and 4, and from ancient Jewish writings such as the
Book of Enoch. These monsters were often portrayed as cannibalistic giants, and some, according to tradition,
survived the Flood to continue the race of Cain. (See R. Mellinkoff, 'Cain's Monstrous Progeny in Beowulf: Parts I
and II', in Anglo-Saxon England, vols. 8 (1979) and 9 (1981).)
6. hall-warden: it is fiercely ironic to call Grendel Heorot's 'hall-warden', since, although he is a regular visitor to the
hall, he does not guard it but in fact represents its greatest threat. The retainers who should guard the hall have been
frightened off, leaving him as the only one to get gratification from the hallnot rings and praise, but freshly killed Danes
to eat.
7. wergild: literally, 'man-payment', compensation for murder, paid to the victim's family as an alternative to a revenge
killing.
shrithe: Crossicy-Holland's own word, derived from the original Old English verb 'scriðan' and used throughout the
poem for the terrifying and unnatural wanderings of Grendel and the dragon.
8. they offered sacrifices . . . the glorious Ruler: apart from this one reference, the poet makes no explicit mention of his
characters' paganism, although he and his audience would have been quite clear that the Danes could not have been
Christians. That Beowulf and Hrothgar make frequent pious reference to one Almighty God (and monotheism is not a
characteristic of what We can piece together of Germanic paganism) and the identification of Grendel as a hellish
monster give the impression that the Danes and Beowulf are natural allies of Christianity. The Danes' sacrifices disturb
the elegant poise of the poem's ethical world, and even though the practice of dismissing explicitly Christian references
in the poem as later interpolations has now gone out of fashion, some critics still feel that this passage does not belong
in the 'original' poem. But idolatry is, in the Old Testament, a vice especially associated with the pre-Christian
descendants of the righteous Noah.
10. Warriors! . . . the cause of your coming: the coastguard's confident challenge, and Beowulf's courteous reply, are in
stark contrast to the account in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle when in 787 an Anglo-Saxon official rode down to
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the Dorset shore to greet a boatload of Scandinavians and was killed on the spot.
11. The boar crest . . . grim warriors: in Old Norse mythology, the boar was sacred to the god Freyr, and helmets
decorated with boar images have been found in Britain and Scandinavia, for example at Sutton Hoo. Some helmets
depict warriors wearing boar-crested helmets, and the poet may be imagining ancient war-gear rather than describing
current fashions.
13. You must have come . . . high ambition: Beowulf's father, on the other hand, did come to Hrothgar as an exileas the
Sons of Ohthere are said to take refuge with Hygelac's son, later in the poem.
a prince of the Vandals: Wulfgar's people may be the widely scattered tribe we know as Vandals, or may be
Vendels, from North Jutland, known from Widsith as Wenlas.
16. Weland: like Daedalus and Vulcan in classical mythology, in Germanic tradition Weland was a celebrated smith,
hamstrung and enslaved. As we learn (rather allusively) from the Old English poem Deor, Weland took revenge by
seducing his captor's daughter and killing his two little sons; the story is vividly told in the Old Norse poem
Völundarkviða, and depicted on one panel of the Franks Casket, an early eighth-century whalebone casket elaborately
decorated with runes, and a mixture of Christian and Germanic iconography.
Wylfings: these may be the Wulfings mentioned in Widsith, and an attempt has been made to link them to the
Wuffing dynasty in East Anglia alluded to by Bede. Ecgtheow and Heatholaf are not known elsewhere.
17. Ecgtheow swore oaths to me: the poet may mean either that Ecgtheow swore to keep the peace, or that he swore
allegiance to Hrothgar.
18. Unferth: it has been suggested that Unferth's name, which may be translated as 'non-peace' ('strife'), or 'non-
mind' ('folly'), is symbolic, reflecting Unferth's role and status in the poem (which is analogous to that of Laodamas in
the Odyssey). The poet does not seem to use many symbolic names, but Beowulf (bee-wolf, or bear) and Wealhtheow
(foreign slave) are both significant examples.
Breca: the name Breca is related to the Modern English word 'breaker', which has led some critics to read the
contest as having its origins in a myth of a struggle against the elements. The nineteenth-century critic Karl
Müllenhof saw the whole poem in these terms, identifying Beowulf's opponents as personifications of the
destructive North Sea. This view is long outmoded, but it is suggestive that the name of Breca's tribe, the
Brondings, relates to a Norwegian word for waves.
shores of the Heathoreams: since the Heathoreams lived in southern Norway, this would have been an epic contest
indeed (Beowulf ends up
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in the land of the Lapps). Critics not happy with heroic overstatement have preferred to understand a (hardly more
plausible) rowing contest.
19. Are you the Beowulf . . . watches of the night: such a hostile reception from Unferth (for which Hrothgar does not
apologize, even though it contrasts so markedly with his own generous welcome to Beowulf) may be explained by
reference to the Germanic tradition of flyting, in which a guest is verbally challenged and must prove his worth in
return. (See Carol Clover, 'The Germanic Context of the Unferp Episode', Speculum, 55 (1980), 44468.)
20. Truly . . . worn out by my venture: Beowulf's own account of the contest has close parallels with his fight with
Grendel's mother later on in the poem: hostile sea-creatures, protective armour, submission to fate, a light heralding
victory, and eventual triumph. It also comprises one of the poem's several 'revised versions' of previously told
materialfor instance, Beowulf's re-telling of his reception at Heorot.
you slew . . . your own close kinsmen: Unferth as a fratricide is firmly linked to Cain, and thus by extension to
Grendel and his mother. That Unferth is first pictured fitting at Hrothgar's feet may signify deep-seated trouble at
the heart of the Danish court.
23. It was said . . . a hall-guard: it is of course God who has sent Beowulf to guard Heorot.
24. Despite his fame . . . He should think fitting: Grendel's subhuman status is reflected in his ignorance of weapons;
Beowulf magnanimously refuses to take advantage of him. But there is a disturbing undercurrent to Beowulf's history of
fighting without weapons: we learn much later in the poem that he crushes Dæghrefn to death in a bear-hug.
26. so strong a grip: the power of Beowulf's grip has already been commented on by Hrothgar.
27. no man could wreck . . . greedy tongues of flame: another oblique allusion to the eventual destruction of Heorot.
no war-sword . . . battle-blade: that Grendel turns out to be invulnerable to weapons reflects rather oddly on what
Beowulf has said about his ignorance of them, but it does serve to explain why Beowulf's companions are not able
to come to his aid.
28. After that deadly encounter . . . accomplished: there is a clear analogue to Beowulf's fight with Grendel in the later
Old Norse Grettir's saga.
30. Sigemund, the son of Wæls: in the Old Norse version of this material (chiefly Völsunga sagathe story of the
Volsungsand some Eddaic poems) Sigmundr is the son of Völsungr (Wæls) but it is his son Sigurðr who kills the
dragon. Sigmundr sleeps with his sister Signy *thus ensuring no dilution of the family lineand their son is Sinfjötli,
Fitela in Old
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English. We cannot know for certain whether the Beowulf poet knew of this incestuous birth. Hrothgar's poet's
recitation about Sigemund is usually believed to reflect flatteringly on Beowulf, setting him alongside the great
heroes of Germanic legend and alluding proleptically to his own dragon fight. But it is also possible that Beowulf
emerges from the comparison as a finer hero than the exile Sigemund (see n. to p. 13).
he impaled . . . the dragon was slain: according to Völsunga saga and the poetic sources on which it is based,
Sigurðr kills the dragon Fafnir by digging a pit, crouching in it, and spearing the dragon's soft underbelly as the
creature slithers its way to a water-hole. These differences in detail are especially significant in relation to the later
account of Beowulf's own dragon fight, which is a bold confrontation rather than a cunning plan.
31. Heremod's prowess . . . done to death: at first, it seems that Heremod is introduced as one of Sigemund's illustrious
predecessors, heroically killed fighting monsters. But the poet goes on to characterize Heremod as a notoriously bad
king, who, unlike Beowulf, gets worse as he goes on. In Anglo-Saxon genealogies, Heremod precedes Scyld; perhaps
we should see his disastrous reign as precipitating the Danes' leaderless crisis, from which Scyld rescues them. This
brief passage may be seen as lying at the centre of a network of favourable and unfavourable comparisons between
kings in the poem: there is also an implicit parallel to Hrothgar (who has failed to protect the Danes against Grendel, as
Heremod also failed them) and an explicit comparison with Beowulf, 'loved by all who knew him'.
There is a parallel to Heremod's evil conduct in Saxo's History, attributed however to a figure called Hlotherus.
34. after the banquet, feasting in the hall is here a metaphor for life itself: the sleep after the feasting is a prefiguring of
death. (See also n. to p. 3.)
Heorot was packed . . . wrongful deeds: this picture of convividality is dramatically undermined by the reference to
the future enmity amongst the Danes. Hrothgar and Hrothulf, uncle and nephew, seem to have a model
relationshipas between Beowulf and Hygelacbut it is possible that the 'wrongful deeds' referred to by the poet
indicate that Hrothulf will prove treacherous to Hrothgar.
Hrothgar gave Beowulf . . . and a corslet: one might have expected Hrothgar to hand his father's war-gear on to
one of his own sons, rather than to Beowulf the Gear. Later in the poem Beowulf explains that although Heorogar,
Hrothgar's elder brother, inherited the war-gearand indeed the Danish throne, which it seems to symbolizefrom
their father Healfdene, he did not then pass it on to his son Heoroweard. Instead, Hrothgar came into possession of
both war-gear and throne (see n. to p. 72). It is tempting to envisage Hrothgar's other nephew Hrothulf resentfully
watching here as Hrothgar presents these symbolic heirlooms
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to Beowulf, and with them, perhaps, Hrothulf's own chance of successionWealhtheow certainly comes to
understand that Hrothgar is planning to make Beowulf his heir (see n. to p. 40).
36. He sang of Finn's troop . . . the Frisian slain: see the Introduction for a fuller discussion of the story of Finnsburh
and its relation to The Fight at Finnsburh. It is not clear from either of the two accounts (which themselves do not
correspond in every detail) how or why the fighting began. Hildeburh, indeed . . . stricken with grief: the poet's cryptic
remark about Hildeburh and the honour of the Jutes could be understood in two ways: that she could not recommend
their honour because they were treacherous would be a standard Old English understatement; on the other hand, if they
did indeed behave honourably, fighting loyally for one side, then the resulting bloodshed was still a tragedy for
Hildeburh. If, as seems likely (see n. to p. 37), there were Jutes on both sides of the conflict, there are a number of
hypotheses one could formulate about their treachery, but because the episode is told so allusively in Beowulf it is
impossible to work out the origins of the conflict.
37. that Finn should . . . with the Jutes: it is hard to believe that Finn would force the surviving Danes to share a hall
with their opponents in the battle, so it has been argued that the poet is referring here to Jutes who fought with Hnæf and
his men, perhaps including Hengest, who is now leading the Danes. This Jutish Hengest has been identified with the
Hengistus whom Bede and other early historians name as one of the leaders of the Germanic tribes who arrived in
England in AD 449. The tribes in question are said to be Angles, Saxons, and Jutes; the Jutes settle in Kent and Hengest
is mentioned in the Kentish royal genealogy.
although they . . . lordless men to do: the clearest statements in Old English literature about the dishonour of
serving the slayer of one's lord are in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 755commonly anthologized as
'Cynewulfand Cyneheard'and in The Battle of Maldon. In both instances the retainers choose death in battle rather
than that particular disgrace, and some scholars trace this sentiment back to what Tacitus says in his Germania
about the behaviour of the Germanic tribes, though whether the Germania can usefully illuminate Old English
literary traditions has been much disputed.
Then Hildeburh asked . . . Hnæf's pyre: the especially close relationship in Germanic societies between a man and
his sister's son is here poignantly reflected as Hnæf and Hildeburh's son are united in death on the same funeral
pyre.
38. The ravenous flames . . . finest men departed: the flames of the funeral pyre which is the inevitable outcome of
heroic conflict greedily swallow
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warriors in terms very reminiscent of those in which Grendel is described devouring innocent Danes. The explicit
moral is that the funeral pyre makes no distinction between Danes and Frisians; the implicit point is that warriors
killed upholding heroic principles end up the same as those humiliatingly eaten by monsters.
Then winter was over . . . the Jutes: the lyrical description of spring bringing physical and spiritual release to the
pent-up warriors is abruptly under-cut; the coming of spring in fact precipitates the last bloody battle, for Hengest,
having been incited by Hunlafing, now wants revenge more than freedom, and the better weather allows Danish
reinforcements to help him put the revenge into practice.
39. They sailed . . . her own people: Hildeburh's return to Denmarkto 'her own people'prefigures one of the poem's more
shadowy allusions, the recapture of the Swedish king Ongentheow's elderly wife from Hæthcyn the Gear. Both women
are victims of war, arid Hildeburh's silence, especially following her bereavements, leaves unanswered the question of
whether she herself felt her return to be a homecoming.
Then Wealhtheow . . . in a feud: the poet not only makes another ominous allusion to possible hostility between
Hrothgar and Hrothulf, and to the murderous Unferth at the heart of Heorot, but also sets Wealhtheow's ceremonial
entry in an unpropitious context.
40. but leave this land . . . for you to die: It is easy to understand Wealhtheow's careful corrective to Hrothgar's
provocative generosity in offering to adopt Beowulf as his son, not only because she and Hrothgar have sons of their
own who might expect to inherit, but also because Hrothgar's nephew Hrothulf might also be a contender for the throne.
It is however hard to decide whether Hrothgar's offer to Beowulf is rash, or whether Hrothgar is long-headedly seeking
to stabilize the situation by establishing Beowulf as a powerful future king. As we may infer from later Norse sources,
the ensuing power-struggle in the next generation of Danes was indeed a bloody one (see n. to p. 72).
I am convinced . . . when he was a boy: again, Wealhtheow's anxiety may be detected here, as if she has a
presentiment of what wepoet and audiencemay suspect to be the case: that Hrothulf will turn against his uncle
Hrothgar. Some critics, though, have preferred to see Wealhtheow as a confident, authoritative figure who wisely,
rather than anxiously, sees the dangers of the situation and pointedly (even if fruitlessly) instructs the men on
proper conduct. When Beowulf returns to Geatland, he faces a parallel situation: after Hygelac's death, he is
offered the kingdom, but chooses to support Hygelac's young sons rather than rule himself, just as Wealhtheow
obliquely recommends Hrothulf to do.
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40. the most handsome collar . . . a feud with the Frisians: the glamour and grandeur of this necklace, especially in its
association with the mythical Brosing necklace, in Norse tradition one of the goddess Freyja's treasures, is grimly
undermined by the poet's allusion to its future: ransacked by unknown Frankish warriors when Hygelac is killed on a
reckless raid. What becomes of treasure after the glorious ritual of its being given and received is one of the poem's
darker themes. The story of Hama, who is alluded to in Widsith, is told in the Old Norse Piðreks saga, in which a
character called Heimir pits himself against Ermenaric but after twenty years enters a monastery'chose long-lasting
gain', as the Beowulf-poet says of Hama. His treasures and war-gear are bequeathed to the monastery, a sharply pointed
contrast to the fate of the Danish necklace (see Garmonsway and Simpson, Beowulf and its Analogues).
41. they had not tasted . . . take his rest: this is another example of the poet's characteristic undermining of apparent
peace, concord, and conviviality at Heorot.
43. Many spirits . . . her son's death: this brief resumé of Beowulf's victory over Grendel makes Grendel's mother's
motivationrevengevividly clear. In much heroic literature, revenge is seen as a necessary and even laudable duty to
one's kin; here we have a double distortion of the ideal: the avenger is monstrous rather than human, and female rather
than male.
The terror she caused . . . opposed to a man: in the original, the poet claims that the terror Grendel's mother
inspires is as much less as the terror a woman warrior inspires compared with that of a manin battle. This has often
been seen as a curious lapse on the part of the author, since Beowulf's fight with Grendel's mother is considerably
more terrifying and challenging than his victory over Grendel. But perhaps the poet's understatement is at work
here: a female warrior might be taken as an aweinspiring perversion of the normlike an Amazon, in factso that the
terror would indeed be greater rather than less.
45. men do not know . . . mysterious spirits: Grendel's unknown and unknowable immediate ancestry (to Hrothgar and
the Danes, if not to the Christian poet) marks him off from human societyeven Scyld, who arrives and departs so
mysteriously, is the son of Scef (see n. to p. 2) and Hrothgar first identifies Beowulf as the son of Ecgtheow.
46. These two live . . . the heavens weep: this description of the home of Grendel and his mother bears a strong
resemblance to St Paul's vision of Hellthe apocryphal Visio Sancti Pauliwhich is recounted in an Anglo-Saxon sermon,
Blickling Homily XVI. Exactly how the poem relates to these two versions of St Paul's vision has been debated, but
influence from Christian conceptions of the topography of Hell is plain. (See Charles Wright, The Irish Tradition in Old
English Literature (Cambridge, 1993).)
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Better each man . . . deeply mourn: it is harder to accept this precept uncritically when we know that it is precisely
the ethic which has motivated Grendel's mother.
he who may . . . this world: this sentiment is expressed very clearly in The Seafarer.
48. in the morning . . . sail-road: the association of sorrow and morningtime is conventional in Old English poetry,
normally in connection with human misery being felt most acutely then. This is especially vividly expressed in The
Wanderer.
50. A full day elapsed . . . bottom of the lake: critics have struggled with the improbability of Beowulf's descent lasting
one whole day; some have translated 'a short time elapsed' in place of 'a full day'. But there is of course a basic
implausibility in the idea of a fully armed and helmeted warrior swimming at alland his opponent is in any case a
creature of the imagination.
some loathsome hall . . . could not touch him: the monster fight in the analogous Old Norse Grettir's saga takes
place in the damp cave behind a waterfall, a fully naturalistic setting which still requires a bold underwater
swimming feat from the hero. But it is hard to say whether the (much later) Grettir's saga has rationalized the
underwater hall in the poem, or whether the poet has imperfectly remembered a setting which the author of the
saga has reproduced more clearly.
51. for the first time . . . failed to live up to its name: it has been argued that Unferth deliberately and maliciously lent
Beowulf a defective sword, but the poet here seems to stress the sword's excellence hitherto.
52. an invincible sword . . . quick of combat: there are examples in Old Norse literature of supernatural creatures who
can only be overcome by their own weaponsfor example, the giant in Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonarand in the Old
Testament, David decapitates Goliath with Goliath's own sword (1 Samuel 17: 51).
53. it seemed certain . . . the sea-wolf had destroyed him: it is not clear why the Scyldings and the Geats should jump to
the pessimistic conclusion that it is Beowulf's blood, rather than the monster's, which comes into view, but this is also a
feature of the monster fight in Grettir's saga. Perhaps the pessimistic assumption simply emphasizes the magnitude of
the hero's task, enhancing his success.
the ninth hour came: the ninth hour is about mid-afternoon. Since Christ died on the cross at the ninth hour, and the
watching of the soldiers recalls the vigil at the Garden of Gethsemane, some critics have built a Beowulf/ Christ
allegory around these lines, with Grendel's mother's lair as an entrance to Hell, and the journey to and from its
depths as a resurrection
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motif. The poet does seem to play with Christian topoi in a way which may seem strange or even tasteless to a
modern reader: when he goes to fight the dragon, for instance, Beowulf has eleven companions.
53. Then the battle-sword . . . the true Lord: the bold juxtaposition of super-natural eventthe corrosiveness of Grendel's
blood melting the sword bladeand natural transformationGod's control over the seasons as when the ice of winter is
melted in springis very striking here.
56. On it was engraved . . . first been made: the decoration of this ancestral sword depicts the history of the race of Cain,
the phrase 'the origins of strife' perhaps referring to the killing of Abel by Cain, or the wickedness amongst men which
provoked God to instigate the Flood. It was customary to engrave the name of the owner (or maker) on swords.
57. Heremod . . . Scyldings: see n. to p. 31 on Heremod. Ecgwala is not known elsewhere; it is possible to discern a faint
parallel in the relationship between Heremod and the sons of Ecgwala on the one hand, and Hrothulf and the sons of
Hrothgar on the other, but the allusion is not detailed enough to make any more of it.
59. This land's grizzled guardian . . . many treasurer: this speech is commonly referred to by critics as 'Hrothgar's
sermon'. Its wisdomthe advice of an old man to a younger herois a masterly example of the poet's ability to develop a
set of ethics which is neither anachronistically Christian nor simply secular heroic. Its tone is, if anything, Boethian,
especially in what is said about transience, pride, and foresight, and this is fitting given that Boethius himself was a
Roman philosopher who was greatly admired by the Christian Middle Ages; The Consolation of Philosophy was
translated by King Alfred the Great.
60. the black raven gaily proclaimed sunrise: widely throughout Old English and Old Norse literature, and even within
Beowulf itself, the raven is a bird which feeds on corpses and thus often presages death in battle. The raven here,
however, functions like a lark. Perhaps this deliberately reflects the radical transformation Beowulf has brought about
for the Danesor perhaps the ominous associations of the raven are still lurking in the image. That the Frankish warrior
filled by Beowulf was called Dæghrefn ('dayraven') is a curious coincidence.
61. Should Hrethric . . . warmly welcomed: Beownlf's invitation to Hrethric may be more than simple hospitality;
Beowulf may be delicately indicating that Hrethric will be welcome if he ever needs to take refuge with the Geats.
65. Hygd, his queen . . . between the two seas: Hygd is dramatically contrasted with Thryth, who, in feminist terms,
violently repudiates the male gaze, but is then mysteriously tamed by her marriage to Offa. This Offa, the king of the
continental Angles, is represented in Anglo-Saxon tradition as an ancestor of the eighth-century Offa of Merciaone of
the few links
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with Anglo-Saxon England in the poem. The thirteenth-century English work The Lives of the Two Offas not only
makes this connection but also tells the story of the once wicked Drida, whom Offa marries, but in fact fails to
rehabilitate. (See Garmonsway and Simpson, Beowulf and its Analogues.) In Saxo's History of the Danes there is a
similarly hazardous queen, Herminthruda; both Drida and -thruda are related in form to Thryth, although this is not
an unusual element in Germanic names, and the woman who is dangerous to woo is a familiar folk-tale figure.
Ongentheow's slayer: Hygelac is (indirectly) the slayer of Ongentheow later in the poem, in the tangled history of
the SwedishGeatish feuds which form the background to Beowulf's reign in Gearland.
67. peace-weaver: the term may be applied metaphorically to any woman in Old English literature, but perhaps here we
are to understand that Wealhtheow herself (whose name seems to mean 'foreign slave') has been married to Hrothgar as
a pledge of peacejust as Freawaru is to be.
69. A huge unearthly glove swung at his side: the glove was not mentioned in the primary account of the fight with
Grendel, although we need not expect that and Beowulf's resumé to be identical in every detail. It is odd, however, that
the name of Grendel's first Geatish victim, Hondscio, which is also first mentioned in this passage, is a kenning for
glove (literally, hand-shoe). In Old Norse mythology, the giant Skrymir has a huge gloveso monstrously big, in fact, that
the god Thor and his companions rather comically camp out in it overnight.
70. as the shadows lengthened . . . the call of the past: Beowulf's version of the entertainment in Heorot may represent
the impression it would make on a young hero; the poet offers his readers a poignant association of old age, elegy, and
darkness.
72. He, Heorogar . . . he loved him: the fate of the next generation of Scylding cousinsFreawaru, Hrothgar's daughter;
his sons Hrethric and Hrothmund; his nephews Hrothulf, the son of Halga, and Heoroweard, the son of his elder brother
Heorogaris ominously alluded to throughout the poem. We have heard Beowulf's plainly spoken prediction about
Freawaru, and dark hints about Hrothulf's treacheryhints borne out by later Norse sources telling of the murder of
Hroerekr (Hrethric) by Hrólfr (Hrothulf). These sources also relate the killing of Hrólfr/Hrothulf by Hjörvarðr, whose
name is cognate with Heoroweard (see Garmonsway and Simpson, Beowulf and its Analogues). Such violence is a
predictable outcome of the dynastic situation set out so clearly in Beowulf: Hrothgar has inherited his brother's throne,
so that his sons, his nephews, and his son-in-law will all be contenders for the succession. It is not surprising that what
must have been a notorious power-struggle is relatively well represented in Norse tradition; uniquely, Beowulf is set in
the preceding
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generation, at a time when the conflict is foreseeable, and apparently inescapable. Hrothgar's failed attempt to hand
over the throne to Beowulf (see n. to p. 40) may be read as one of those dramatic moments which might have
changed the course of history.
72. Hygd wore that collar: it is perhaps inconsistent that Hygelac was said earlier in the poem (see n. top. 40) to have
worn the necklet on a Frankish raid.
73. He had been despised . . . glorious man: the convention of the unexpected rise to eminence of an unpromising
youth, familiar from fairy-tales as the triumph of the youngest or silliest son, is widespread in Germanic tradition.
when Hygelac lay dead . . . Beowulf's hands: it is often remarked that the poet moves with great rapidity over more
than fifty years, but equally striking is his stark juxtaposition of Hygelac's prime, represented by the munificent
treasure-giving in the hall, with hisand his sons'violent deaths. The poet is concerned primarily with the contrasts
of Success and failure, endings and beginnings, death and life.
a dragon began to terrify the Geats: a dragon is a monster which belongs to Christian, classical, and Germanic
traditiona awe-inspiring and terrifying embodiment of evil.
75. Hold now . . . this human race: this elegiac passagesometimes anthologized as 'The Lay of the Last Survivor'is very
similar in sentiment and verbal detail to other elegiac poems in the Old English tradition, notably The Wanderer and
The Seafarer. The idealized picture of heroic life in the hall seems to represent the pastespecially the heroic pastof the
Anglo-Saxons as a whole. The interment of the gold is a vivid image of closure and finality, and here prefigures
Beowulf's funeral at which gold is buried along with the heroas useless to men henceforth as it was before it was mined.
The 'Last Survivor' 's invocation is very like a funeral oration. Structurally, this is another parallel to the image of the
sparrow in the hall (see n. to p. 3): brightness bounded on both sides by unfathomable darkness. In Christian terms,
there is also an echo of the parable of the talents (Matthew 25: 1430); the gold is useless to the dragon, who finds it only
to hoard it, while in flourishing human societies the gold is fruitfully used to develop and cement concord and loyalty in
treasure-giving rituals.
76. the wanderer carried . . . for a bond of peace: the theft of the cup is a more complex act than at first appears: the
thief steals it as a peace offering to his (unnamed) lord, which might be thought to mitigate the crime a little.
77. his heart surged with dark fears: this picture of an anxious, guilt-ridden Beowulf stands in contrast to his youthful
certainty and confidence in Denmark.
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78. The eminent prince . . . life in this world: foreshadowing Beowulf's death not only darkens the mood, but also
increases the tension: the poet lets his audience know that a momentous event is about to take place.
Then the giver of gold . . . vile mother: the poet may here be suggesting that Beowulf is over-confident, and has
underestimated his opponent.
79. he declined . . . the Gents himself: Beowulf's loyalty to the late Hygelac, and his admirable refusal to take advantage
of his death by assuming the Geatish throne, contrasts with the internecine struggles of the generation of Scyldings after
Hrothgar.
Two exiles . . . gold-givers in Sweden: the sons of Ohthere, Eanmund and Eadgils, in rebelling against their uncle
Onela, offer another variation on the range of uncle/nephew relationships in the poem. Onela pursues his nephews
to Geatland and kills Hygelac's son Heardred for harbouring them. The poet's allusive narrative technique means
that we are never actually told that Onela killed his nephew Eanmund; we learn instead that Eadgils avenges his
brother's death on Onela, with Beowulf's help.
81. A death-bed . . . could not be requited: the bereaved father, Hrethel, is powerless to act: he cannot avenge the death
of one son by killing the other, and he cannot exact wergildcompensation for murderfrom himself for himself. This
accidental killing has an interesting parallel in Norse mythology: the god Baldr (whose name relates to Herebeald) is
unwittingly shot with an arrow by the blind god Höðr (whose name relates to Hoethcyn *), and there is also an echo of
the ancient Jewish traditionwidely taken up in medieval literature and iconographythat Cain was himself killed by an
accidental shot from a blind descendant, Lamech, six generations later.
In the same way . . . from the gallows: Beowulf here imagines another dilemma of powerlessness, for a son who is
executed as a criminal also cannot be avenged. The story of Hrethel's loss, and this hypothetical situation imagined
by Beowulf, may mirror Beowulf's own dilemma: if he fails to rise to the dragon's challenge, he compromises his
reputation as a hero and a leader of his people, and fails to protect them from the dragon; if he takes on the dragon
he risks his life and thus the security of his kingdom.
83. it was my battle-grip . . . silenced his heartbeat: Beowulf's killing of Dæghrefn with his bare hands is an eerie echo
of the fight with Grendel, when Beowulf refused to take advantage over his opponent by using weapons. It also bears
out the literal meaning of Beowulf's namebeewolf, or bearin its vivid evocation of Dæghrefn being crushed to death in
Beowulf's savage grip.
86. And Beowulf's companions . . . scared for their own lives: although Beowulf is determined to take on the dragon
alone, and instructs his men to watch from a distance, it seems to be expected that they will come to his aid if he gets
into difficulties, rather than fleeing as cowards.
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86. his ancient sword . . . Ohthere's son: the history of Wiglaf's sword recalls the feud between the Swedes and the
Geats, when Eanmund and Eadgils rebelled against their uncle Onela and took refuge with Hygelac's son Heardred. As
the poet (rather obliquely) explains in the lines following, Wiglaf's father Weohstan fought on Onela's side, and killed
Eanmund for him; the sword in question was his reward. Since Beowulf later helped Eadgils in his revenge against
Onela, it is ironic that Wiglaf uses the sword in his loyal support.
87. It was Onela . . . brother's son: that Onela rewards his nephew's killer is a grim variant on the uncle/nephew theme
in the poem.
88. I think . . . trappings of war: Wiglaf's speech, apparently unheeded or even unheard by his companions, is very
similar to the exhortations to courage and loyalty made in The Battle of Maldon.
93. And let it be known . . . saltspray: Beowulf's funeral mound provides an oblique echo to Scyld's ship burial: the final
image is of the expanse of the waves, and the prospect of travelling great distances by sea.
our family, the Woegmundings *: this is the first indication we have had that Beowulf is of Wægmunding stock.
94. His slayer lay . . . cave-dragon: it is sombrely fitting that the dragon as well as Beowulf should be killed in this
momentous encounter. The power of a hero who faces an opponent so overwhelming that both are killed is evident also
in Old Norse accounts of Ragnarök, the last battle of the gods, as Thor and the World Serpent fall together.
No more did he fly . . . proud of his possessions: the dragon is not the loathsome slithering creature of Old Norse
tradition, but a magnificent flying beast which delights in its own grandeur.
97. everyone remembers . . . in Ravenswood: the poet has recounted earlier how the Geatish warrior Eofor killed
Ongentheow, the old Swedish patriarch, in revenge for the killing of Hæthcyn. But here he delves even further back in
time to the origins of the feud: Hæthcyn, it emerges, has attacked the Swedes first, and apparently abducted
Ongentheow's queennot, presumably, in order to force a marriage, for the queen is seen as a pathetic character, old, and
humiliated by being stripped of her aristocratic jewellery. We now see the Geats as a belligerent, provocative tribe, and
remember Hygelac's fatal, reckless attack on the Franks, who are ready to pay back the Geats as soon as an opportunity
arisesas too, as the messenger predicts, are the Swedes.
swore that . . . as sport for birds: Norse sources characterize sacrifice to Odin as involving stabbing and hanging
together, so that Ongentheow's savage taunts may indicate his intention to sacrifice the Geatish warriors.
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98. Then grey-haired Ongentheow . . . as Eofor willed it: the battle at Ravenswood follows a familiar Germanic pattern
of unexpected reversal, as the tables are turned on an apparently secure situation. Ongentheow triumphantly besieges
the Geats, but finds himself ambushed when Hygelac arrives. Good examples of the pattern occur in the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle entry for 755 ('Cynewulf and Cyncheard'), in the Old English poem Judith, and in the Old Norse Hrafnkels
saga. It is indeed just after the Danes and Geats have celebrated the demise of Grendel, and fallen into a complacent
post-feasting sleep, that they are horribly surprised by Grendel's mother.
101. lay under a curse: the curse on the gold is mentioned rather late here; in Norse tradition, the treasure which Sigurðr
recovered from the dragon was cursed, a motif powerfully elaborated in Wagher's Ring Cycle.
It is impossible to reconstruct with any clarity or certainty what may have preceded the opening of this fragment, but it
seems likely that one of the warriors has been listing possible explanations for a light which has been glimpsed, the
fragment beginning just as he gets to the third of them, and that Hnæf goes on to discount the suggestions in turn. The
wider context seems to be one of a night attack on Hnæf and his men. These warriors are usually understood to be inside
a hall (see n. to p. 106) although the dawn, a dragon, and hall-gables burning are all suggestive of a light seen outdoors,
and from some distance away. Since the episode in Beowulf begins after Hnæf's death, it cannot be used to explain the
events alluded to here.
106. this enmity of people: the enmity may be a reference to a feud between the two sides which has already been made
clear.
Sigeferth and Eaha . . . their footsteps: the actions of the first four named warriors surely indicate that they (and
Hengest) are defending a hall from the inside. Cuthlaf is mentioned as a Danish warrior in the Beowulf episode; his
companion there is Oslaf, whose name is probably a variant of Ordlafhere. The phrase 'Hengest himself' must
indicate that Hengest has already been singled out as a figure of some significance amongst Hnæf's men.
When he saw this . . . set upon his death: if Sigeferth and his companions are indeed inside the hall, we must
assume that Guthere and Garulf are part of the attacking force outside.
107. Then the din of battle broke out in the hall: confusingly, the impression given here is that the fighting takes place
inside the hall, rather than in the door-way, as one might expect.
Garulf, the son of Guthlaf: Garulf is attacking the hall, and therefore presumably one of Finn's men; Guthlaf has
already been mentioned as one
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of those inside the hall, defending. It may be that one of the memorable tragedies of the Finn story was that father
and son found themselves on opposing sides; if there were indeed Jutes on both sides (see n. to p. 37) this would
not be impossible. In the Old High German heroic lay Hildebrandslied father and son are ranged against one
another in battle, and in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 755 ('Cynewulf and Cyneheard') there are said to be
relatives of the attackers amongst a troop of defenders. The poet of The Battle of Maldon points out that as well as
a warrior called Godric who loyally fights to the bitter end, there was also a Godric who fled from the fight, but
such coincidence of names is less likely in the present case given that the name Guthlaf only occurs in this one
context.
107. it seemed as if all Finnsburh were inflames: both here, and in the reference to the gables burning, the dramatic
image of a hah burning down (to be the fate of Heorot, according to the poet of Beowulf) is evoked.
a wounded man . . . their wounds: since Garulf, outside the hall, is said to be the first of many to fall, it is likely
that this wounded man is one of those inside, who fought on for five days without loss. The guardian of the people
who questions him would then be Hnæf, who is defending. But some scholars have taken 'guardian of the people'
to refer to Finn, who would then be enquiring of one of his own front-line warriors how either the others in the
vanguard, or the Danes 'inside the haH, were bearing up.
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Who's Who
A glossary of proper names and place-names. (Entries in italics occur only in the The Fight at Finnsburh.)
Æschere a retainer of Hrothgar who is carried off and killed by Grendel's mother
Beowulf the hero of the poem. He is the son of Ecgtheow; his mother was King Hygelac's sister
Brosings the owners or makers of the Brosing necklace, a legendary treasure (see n. to p. 40)
Cain the murderer of his brother Abel (see Genesis 4: 8), and in the poem, the ancestor of Grendel (see n. to p. 5)
Danes the inhabitants of Denmark. They are also referred to as Scyldings, Ring-Danes, Spear-Danes, and North-, East-,
South-, and West-Danes
Eadgils a Swedish prince, son of Ohthere and brother of Eanmund, who seeks refuge at the court of Heardred of the
Geats when exiled by his uncle Onela, and regains the Swedish throne with Beowulf's help
Ecglaf the father of Unferth, the Danish warrior who taunts Beowulf
Eofor a Geatish warrior who killed the Swedish king Ongentheow and was given Hygelac's daughter in marriage as a
reward
Frisia the home of the Frisians, enemies of the Geats (see map)
Gepidæ a tribe related to the Goths, and originally based around the R. Vistula (see map)
Grendel the monster, descended from Cain, who terrorizes the Danes and is killed by Beowulf
Hæthcyn a Geatish prince who accidentally killed his brother Herebeald, and was himself killed by Ongentheow at the
battle of Ravenswood
Heardred the son of Hygelac and king of the Geats, killed by Onela after giving refuge to Eanmund and Eadgils
Heathoreams the tribe inhabiting the region in Norway where Breca is washed up after his swimming contest with
Beowulf (see map)
Hengest the leader of the Danes after the death of Hnæf at Finnsburh; may be Jutish
Heorot the great hall built by Hrothgar and raided by Grendel (see map)
Hildeburh Finn's wife, whose brother Hnæf and son are killed in the fighting at Finnsburh
Hrethel king of the Geats and father of Hygelac; his daughter is Beowulf's mother
Hrunting Unferth's sword, lent to Beowulf for the fight against Grendel's mother
Onela the brother of Ohthere; exiles Ohthere's sons Eanmund and Eadgils, and kills Heardred for harbouring them in
Geatland, but is himself killed by Eadgils, helped by Beowulf
Slaughter Hill site of several battles between the Geats and the Swedes
Thryth a cruel queen, unfavourably compared with Hygd, and 'tamed' by her marriage to Offa
Unferth a Danish warrior and retainer of Hrothgar who taunts Beowulf on his arrival at Heorot
GEOFFREY CHAUCER
The Canterbury Tales
Troilus and Criseyde
JOCELIN OF BRAKELOND
Chronicle of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds
WILLIAM LANGLAND
Piers Plowman
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AUGUSTINE
The Confessions
On Christian Teaching
BEDE
The Ecclesiastical History
HEMACANDRA
The Lives of the Jain Elders
SANTIDEVA*
The Bodhicaryavatara*
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APOLLODORUS
The Library of Greek Mythology
APOLLONIUS OF RHODES
Jason and the Golden Fleece
APULEIUS
The Golden Ass
ARISTOTLE
The Nicomachean Ethics
Physics
Politics
CAESAR
The Civil War
The Gallic War
CATULLUS
The Poems of Catullus
CICERO
The Nature of the Gods
EURIPIDES
Medea, Hippolytus, Electra, and Helen
GALEN
Selected Works
HERODOTUS
The Histories
HESIOD
Theogony and Works and Days
HOMER
The Iliad
The Odyssey
HORACE
The Complete Odes and Epodes
JUVENAL
The Satires
LIVY
The Rise of Rome
LUCAN
The Civil War
MARCUS AURELIUS
The Meditations
OVID
The Love Poems
Metamorphoses
Sorrows of an Exile
PETRONIUS
The Satyricon
PLATO
Defence of Socrates, Euthyphro, and Crito
Gorgias
Phaedo
Republic
Symposium
PLAUTUS
Four Comedies
PLUTARCH
Selected Essays and Dialogues
PROPERTIUS
The Poems
SOPHOCLES
Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Electra
STATIUS
Thebaid
TACITUS
The Histories
VIRGIL
The Aeneid
The Eclogues and Georgics
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APHRA BEHN
Oroonoko and Other Writings
JOHN BUNYAN
Grace Abounding
The Pilgrim's Progress
IZAAK WALTON
The Compleat Angler
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JAMES BOSWELL
Boswell's Life of Johnson
FRANCES BURNEY
Cecilia
Evelina
JOHN CLELAND
Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure
DANIEL DEFOE
A Journal of the Plague Year
Moll Flanders
Robinson Crusoe
HENRY FIELDING
Joseph Andrews and Shamela
Tom Jones
WILLIAM GODWIN
Caleb Williams
OLIVER GOLDSMITH
The Vicar of Wakefield
ELIZABETH INCHBALD
A Simple Story
SAMUEL JOHNSON
The History of Rasselas
ANN RADCLIFFE
The Italian
The Mysteries of Udolpho
TOBIAS SMOLLETT
The Adventures of Roderick Random
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
LAURENCE STERNE
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
A Sentimental Journey
JONATHAN SWIFT
Gulliver's Travels
A Tale of a Tub and Other Works
HORACE WALPOLE
The Castle of Otranto
GILBERT WHITE
The Natural History of Selborne
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT
Mary and The Wrongs of Woman