Examples Of Allegory In Beowulf

Many historians and Beowulf critics interpret orally recounted history as a long chain of a high stake telephone game where historic value balances on a crumbling foundation—spoken word. Historians usually can not rely on an unidentified speaker, and in epics like Beowulf, the mention of mythical creatures often dub the literature as ahistorical. In actuality, Beowulf can be read as an accurate historical account if one interprets it as orally retold history structured to endure the test of time with action and allegory. By scrutinizing Beowulf’s allegories, one can unveil the history within the folklore. The narrator of Beowulf uses over-exaggerations, heightened speech, and symbolic creatures to recount Geatish history and cultural views

An important but oft overlooked historical aspect of Beowulf is the history of the ancient, noble civilization that once mined and owned riches but had perished in war (Heaney 89-90). The parallels between the ancient civilization and the Geats foreshadow the destruction of the Geatish people. The Beowulf narrator uses allegories to craft oral history and draw parallels between the Geats and Danes, the ancient civilization and Geatland, and the two banes Beowulf battles, therefore providing insight into the history of ancient complex societies possibly predating the Geats and detailing ancient worldviews concerning the cyclicity of history.

Often, the purpose of learning and retelling history is to understand the past, comprehend why mistakes were made, and preserve historical themes. In pre-writing eras, in order to recall history, it would have been

For example, the dragon, the “old harrower of the dark,” represents a dark, demonic force who seeks “heathen gold,” which is basically corrupted gold used for men’s selfish purposes (2271, 2276). When the dragon torments the Geats after the slave steals the cup, Beowulf thinks he may have “thwarted ancient ordinance of the eternal lord,” and because the hoard could only be touched by one whom “God Himself...allowed some person pleasing to Him—and in His eye worthy—to open the hoard,” therefore, the slave must have been God’s tool to open the hoard and unleash the dragon upon the Geats (2329-2331). Beowulf had, in some way, been led off the kingly path and disturbed God, whom he had served fifty winters ago in the fight with Grendel, Cain’s descendant. Although there are many fictional aspects from Germanic folklore which the narrator pulls from, such as the dragon guarding a hoard, the mention of the ancient, rich civilization defeated by war prior to Geatland isn’t outlandish or inflated. The narrator uses the image of the last survivor of the ancient civilization wandering the earth alone to draw a parallel between himself and this last survivor, both who were the “only one[s] to tell the