Beowulf starts with the death of Shield a great king in the eyes of the Geats, it also ends with the death of Beowulf. These funerals are similar in many ways. These funerals can be a reflection of the lives these kings lived because each king had his own way he wanted to be remembered. These funerals both involve huge amounts of treasures being loaded on to ships or back in to the ground and how the Geat people mourned for the loss of the kings.
Treasures were used to gain loyalty from other men in Geat “steadfast companions will stand by him” (Beowulf 23). Theses “steadfast companions” (Beowulf 23) help the king survive and help conquer lands and allowing a king to stay in power. In the end of this poem even those gifts will not get the support Beowulf needs. The treasure that was laid on the boat for Shield was “Far-fetched treasures / were piled upon him, and precious gear” (Beowulf 36-37) A “far-fetched treasure” (Beowulf 36) would be some of the rarest in the world. Shield has told his men to “Shoulder him out to sea’s flood” (Beowulf 30) The boat they put him in was “A ring-whorled prow rode in the harbor, / ice-clad, outbound, a craft for a prince”(Beowulf 32-33). The description of the boat I think shows the honor that the Geat’s wanted to show their kings and how ornate they make things. At Beowulf’s funeral at the end of the poem they build a great pyre “The Geat people built a pyre for Beowulf, / stacked and decked it until it stood foursquare.”(Beowulf 3137-38). The pyre is like the boat in the first funeral the boat is built ornately and to stand the test of time. The pyre is built to be tall and strong very similar to the boat. “hung with helmets, heavy war-shields / and shining armor, just as he had ...
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...going or where the “to wind and tide, bewailing him” (Beowulf 49). They built a memorial on the high grounds letting all that can see know that a great king laid there. All the treasure that had been found in the cave where the dragon had stayed was put back in to the ground where the memorial is. “They let the ground keep that ancestral treasure / gold under gravel,” (Beowulf 3166-67). These treasures had been around for ages and ages, gold is taken from the ground and in the end put back in to the ground.
These kings have thought about how they wanted to be remembered by the people of the time. Their funerals reflected back on their lives, through the gold that was laid on to Shields ship and that was put in the memorial on the coast for Beowulf. Works Cited
Greenblatt, Stephen. The Norton Anthology Of English Literature. 8th. A. W W Norton & Co Inc, 2006.
After fighting and winning many battles, Beowulf's life enters a new stage when he finally becomes king of his homeland, Geatland. Even in his old age, his code of honor still obligates him to fight against an evil, fiery dragon. For fifty years he has governed his kingdom well. While Beowulf is governing, the dragon "...kept watch over a hoard, a steep stone-barrow" (Norton 55). Under it lays a path concealed from the sight of men. Over centuries no one had disturbed the dragon’s kingdom until one day when a thief broke into the treasure, laid hand on a cup fretted with gold, which infuriated the dragon. "The fiery dragon had destroyed the people's stronghold, the land along the sea, the heart of the country" (Norton 57).
“Resolving the 'Double Curse' of the Pagan Hoard in Beowulf.” Explicator, Spring 2008, Vol. 66 Issue
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
Someone from the Land of the Geats has stolen fro the dragon while it slept. Now, the dragon is out for revenge. Beowulf knows that he must fight the dragon although he is old and not as strong as he once was. As Beowulf is tragically injured as of his soldiers run except for Wiglaf. Together Wiglaf and Beowulf destroy the dragon. As Beowulf dies he gives the kingdom to Wiglaf and tells him to build a lighthouse in his memory. The treasure that Beowulf gets from the dragon can either be physical or emotional. It conveys on page 64 line 867, “Crying that no better king had ever lived, no prince so mild, no man so open to his people, so deserving of praise.” The physical treasure is the treasure and riches of the dragon, while the emotional treasure is helping his people.
King Shield was sent off in a ship at sea surrounded by all his wealth, while Beowulf’s body was burned and valuables buried. The leaders’ form of burial shows how their legacy was viewed by the people, even though King Shield and Beowulf earned the same amount of respect from their beloved nations. In Beowulf, the poet explains that Shield’s ship was going to be found by saying, “no wise man in hall or weathered veteran / knows for certain who salvaged that load”, making the king’s power an important aspect in his legacy to protect (51-52). Spreading one final word of Shield's reputation, the Danes wanted someone else to know of their king and his accomplishments. In contrast, the Geat people burned Beowulf’s body, cleaned up the remains of the dragon, and had placed “gold under gravel, gone to earth, / as useless to men now as it ever was”, which removed all physical evidence of the warrior’s legacy (3167-3167). This implies that the heroic actions of Beowulf did not need to be showcased in order to
M.H. Abrams, et al; ed., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Edition, Volume I. W.W. Norton & Company, New York/London, 1993.
Beowulf is honored after Grendel and his mother’s defeat for his morality and willingness to help the king with his problem. He put aside the life he had at home and gave up everything so they were protected. Upon his return, everyone was praising him and lifting up the wondrous works and all that’d he’d done to protect them. Because of his respectable actions, Beowulf was rewarded for his true heroism. He becomes king over his people and ruled for the next fifty years.
Abrams, M.H., et al. ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. 2 Vols. New York: Norton, 1993.
Anglo Saxon’s history is well known for their loyalty, courage and bravery. Beowulf our protagonist is symbolized as a hero, who represents the Anglo Saxons at the time. Beowulf earns his fame and respect through battling creatures nobody else would want to face. These creatures symbolize the evil that lurks beyond the dark. Beowulf’s intense battle with these creatures’ symbolizes the epic battle of good versus evil. In the end good triumphs over evil but one cannot avoid death. Beowulf’s death can be symbolized as the death of the Anglo Saxons. Beowulf’s battle through the poem reflects the kind of culture that the Anglo Saxons had. The youth of a warrior to his maturity then the last fight which results in death. Beowulf wanted to be remembered and be told in stories that are passed on from generation to generation after his death. These story tellers relate to the Anglo Saxons time when they told stories about their great heroes.
Beowulf and the dragon die together, and with his last words Beowulf requests a burial within a giant tumulus so his grave can guide sailors from the sea. Beowulf also crowns Wiglaf, who will bring years of prosperity to the Geats. Although having patriastic elements, Beowulf is predominately a pagan, as evidence with one of the closing lines that “twelve chieftains, all sons of princes, rode round the barrow lamenting their loss, speaking of their king, reciting an elegy, and acclaiming the hero” (101). The story of Beowulf teaches much about the ancient Anglo-Saxon times and pagan beliefs; not only is it a masterful piece of literature, but a manuscript that we can appreciate both in its historical and literary sense forever.
The story of “Beowulf” begins at a time where a great hero is needed. This is where Beowulf’s character takes the initial place of an epic hero. In the first story of “Beowulf,” Beowulf takes on the responsibility of destroying the great threat, Grendel. This immediately shows the courage, honor and bravery of Beowulf. When Beowulf sailed to the Danes to kill Grendel, he was not searching for money, he was simply putting the Geats lives before his own. Beowulf was not yet
Personally, I believe that treasures mean nothing. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Iphone 5s and daily starbucks coffee as much as the next girl, but I would hope that my life does not become dependant on them. In my opinion, Beowulf was dependant on earthly riches as he longed to be with them as he was dying. Chapter 38 showed much
In our culture, preoccupation with material goods usually connotes shallowness, and the pursuit of riches is often seen as incompatible—or at least difficult to reconcile—with our moral convictions. In Beowulf, however, the Danes, Geats, and Swedes’ collective reverence for treasure is not represented as a shortcoming or moral weakness. In fact, the poem often uses treasure as a symbol of the Scandinavian people’s most cherished cultural values. In Beowulf, kings, heroes, and other powerful men must continuously establish their reputations, both those they have inherited and those they have earned.
Abrams, M.H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1993.
Abrams, M. H., et al., The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 1986.