Following three are the examples of Knight’s Codes of Chivalry that Beowulf exhibits:
1. To fear God, To serve the liege lord in valour and faith:
He is very brave, has great strength, and is viewed by his peers as a person like God. He
has won many battles, and completed many tasks that normal people wouldn’t have the
guts to face. One of these tasks is the slaughter of the great monster Grendel. “He has no
ideas of the arts of war, / of shield or sword-play, though he does possess / a wild
strength. No weapons, therefore, / for either this night: unarmed he shall face me / if face
me he dares. And may the Divine Lord / In His wisdom grant victory / to whichever side
he sees fit” (lines 680-687). Here, Beowulf reveals his respect to his
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lord and how he is placing all of his faith on the lord. This also shows that he is brave and loyal because he is willing to play on his own life to get rid of Grendel. 2. To fight for the welfare of all, Honesty, Charity: He also goes on to tell his people that if he doesn’t survive they can have his possessions. “If this combat kills me, take care / of my young company, my comrades in arms. / and be sure also, my beloved Hrothgar, / to send Hygelac the treasures I received” (lines 1480-1484). This shows his generosity and his unselfishness to his people because he knows that he is not invulnerable. As a result, he is willing to give up his possessions to the people he cares about, and become a better, dignified king. 3. To live by honor and for glory: Beowulf tells Hrothgar, in a speech with central importance to his conception of the heroic code of honor, “It is always better / to avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning…When a warrior is gone, [glory] will be his best and only bulwark” (1384–1389). In this speech, Beowulf explicitly characterizes revenge as a means to fame and glory, which make reputations of immortal. Overall, it describes Beowulf’s life of honor and glory upon killing the monster.
Following two are the examples of Knight’s Codes of Chivalry that Beowulf does not exhibit:
1. To respect the honor of the women:
Beowulf does not respect the honor of women, in my opinion. For example, he kills
Gendel’s mother ruthlessly. “The blade in an arc, a resolute blow / that bit into her neck
bone / and severed it entirely, toppling the doomed / house of her flesh; she fell to the
floor. / the sword dripped blood, the swordsman was elated” (lines 1565-1569). Here
Beowulf, mercilessly kills Grendel’s mother, right through her neck bone. Overall,
Beowulf is set in a highly male-dominated world. In this culture, women are seen as
marriageable objects, links between warring tribes to achieve peace. For example,
Wealhtheow is referred to as “peace-pledge between nations” (lines 2017). Here,
Wealhtheow’s marriage represent a peace treaty between two nations.
2. To despise pecuniary reward:
This code calls for a hero that abhors monetary awards. However, in Beowulf, Beowulf
always accept the treasure and gold from Hrothgar. His quest of treasure leads toward his
own destruction. When Beowulf finds out about a dragon with big treasure, he decides
to kill the dragon and take away all the treasure. The fight between the dragon and Beowulf, Beowulf dies. Even at the last moment Beowulf says, “To the everlasting Lord of All, / to the King of Glory, I give thanks / that I beheld this treasure here in front of me, / that I have been allowed to leave my people / so well endowed on the day I die” (lines 2794- 2798). Here, Beowulf thanks God for letting him and his people rich of treasure. So even after being a great king and hero, Beowulf can be characterized as greedy of treasure.
The code of chivalry is a set of rules followed by the knights during the middle ages. The evolution of heroic and chivalry code has changed over time beginning from the Middle ages to now. The three stories Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Lanval and Beowulf illustrate what it takes to be considered a chivalrous knight. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain shows qualities
“Grendel is no braver, … or stronger than I ... I could kill him with my sword; I shall not, easy as it would be” (48).
During the battle of Beowulf vs. Grendel, we witness firsthand the contradictory factors surrounding a person’s fate. “The monster wrenched and wrestled with him
Natural respect and trust are fundamental parts of character in Beowulf and in today's society. This is a great reason to keep reading Beowulf and take it as an example of honor and loyalty.
Men exemplify heroic qualities in both Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, however, women are depicted differently in the two stories. In Beowulf, women are not necessary to the epic, where as in Green Knight, women not only play a vital role in the plot, but they also directly control the situations that arise. Men are acknowledged for their heroic achievement in both stories, while the women's importance in each story differ. However, women are being equally degraded in both Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
hide his sin and bear the weight of it, he creates an extremely interesting and
For a hero Beowulf lacks a lot of morals and compassion. This is shown here
and in her bosom I’ll unclasp my heart. and take her hearing prisoner with the force. and strong encounters of my amorous tale. Then, to her father, will I break? and the conclusion is, she shall be thine.’
does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord's and he will give
“They have seen my strength for themselves/ have watched me rise from the darkness of war/ dripping with my enemies’ blood…my hands/ alone shall fight for me, struggle for life/ against the monster. God must decide/ who will be given to death’s cold grip”(36-37).
Promp: what does beowulf have to say about women? Specifically, what is a women’s proper role in Beowulf? Consider actual Anglo- Saxon queens
He is courageous, noble and generous, and at the same time is also kind. He does not flee from battle; he leaps into it, knowing his great strength, so he can help those around him and purge the world from evil. He also evolves as a hero - at the end he fights the dragon as a necessity; there is no other way to save his people, and saving them was very important to him, good king as he was; but at the beginning, a great portion of his motivation was his ambitiousness and need for revenge. We can see this evolution, from young to old, from hungry for glory to wise and doing what’s best for his people. But we can also see that he remained a good, humble, moral person throughout his whole life, thus being a great example and a perfect role model for everyone reading the
The women characters in Beowulf show that during the time period in which this was written, the roles of women were clearly defined. While, the author's views on women may never be fully revealed, it is made apparent that he believes in male superiority, and disobedient females ought to be suppressed. Like Wealhtheow, females were to exert minimal power and influence, but should always keep the drinks coming.
Her reflexes were no longer fast enough to catch a falling statue; she could almost see the head splitting away from the body before it even hit the wood planks of the floor. The head of Jesucristo broke from his neck and when his eyes stared up at her like pools of dark ominous water, she felt a wave of anger swelling against her chest. (167)
The middle English poem Beowulf also defines the important ways in which the feminist heroine is part of an ancient poetic tradition in the depiction of empowered women in patriarchal society. For instance, the plot of the story revolves around Beowulf’s indoctrination into the court of King Hrothgar, since he has been chosen to destroy to the monster Grendel. However, an unusual break with patriarchal tradition finds Wealhtheow, the wife of King Hrothgar, passing the mead cup to Beowulf as part of this indoctrination. In this ceremony, the tradition of the king passing the mead cup has been disavowed due to the power of the Wealhtheow in the royal court: “Wealhtheow came in,/ Hrothgar’s queen, observing the courtesies./ Adorned in gold, she