Custom Essay: Supernatural And Nature In Beowulf

How does the monstrous landscape of beowulf give meaning to and rationalise Elements of God, the supernatural and Nature in this poem. What relationship does this have with old English society.

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I’d like to read to King Hrothgar's description of Grendel’s mothers Mere.

A Few miles from here, a frost-stiffened wood waits and keeps watch, above a mere; the overhanging bank is a maze of tree-roots mirrored in its surface

At night there, something uncanny happens the water burns. And the mere-bottom has never been sounded by the sons of men.

On its bank, the heather-stepper halts the hart in flight from pursuing hounds will turn to face them with firm-set horns

Now help depends again on you and on you alone.

The gap of danger where the demon waits

Is still unknown to you. Seek it if you dare

Through this passage, I have learnt all I need to know about Grendel’s mother. Hrothgar said nothing about her. Nothing at all. However, this is all Beowulf needs to know. This exposition of the landscape does more than just set the scene. It rationalise’s Grendel’s mother as a character, and in turn gives meaning to her place within our world. It describes Grendel's mother’s nature, without a clear physical attritubes.

The monsters that ravage the world of men are nothing without the perverted natural space they occupy. Their liminal nature, the quality which makes them monstrous, is reflected in the spaces they occupy within the landscape of the poem. These monsters are constructed by and inextricable from the landscapes which they inhabit. The landscape gives these monsters meaning. These monsters are not so much living breathing creatures, but a manifestation of Old English elemental fears in the dreamlike configuration of the narrative. Whether its Heorot, the sea, Grendel’s Fens or Grendel's mothers mere; these landscapes help define these entities in this

This is important to the poem as it addresses the presence of god in the pagan world. Particularly, the image of the Hall and Gods presence within it, blessing human society. Heorot “towers” (l.75) above all men, a “high hall’’ (P24, l.713) it’s space and height is repeated. This height refers to the imposition of the hall upon its landscape, its power over the land. It also refers to its importance to the Sheildlings. It is a place of comfort, a centre for all activity. Wealtheow goes “among” (p21 l.620) them giving ale, emphasising the divine power of the hall and the intermingling of different people, an important aspect of Old English culture. The movement of people and power defines this hall, a place of interconnections. Additionally it is a glorious place, “radiant with gold (and) nobody on earth knew of another building like it”(p12), “its light shone over many lands”(p12. l.311). When the hall is seen, its description within the landscape is one of stunning beauty such as no natural feature is afforded throughout the poem. This reference to the bright reflections of the decadent golden roof associates the hall with light but also casts Heorot as a light source itself. To Old English society, light was associated with God. The association of Heorot with light imbues it with the power of God; aiding it's divine power. The Hall, in association with the king within this landscape, rationalises their