The story of Beowulf is one of the greatest poems written in English that was written over millennia ago (Beowulf page 36). An author that is still unknown to this day wrote the work. Regardless of who he or she was, we still have a deep respect and admiration for this person’s passion and dedication in writing the excerpt of Beowulf. The author made the story come to life through examples and detailed description to help us truly gain a mental picture of how we are supposed to portray this story. When discussed by readers, there is a common description of how they all visualized the story. The picture that the author created in the story is possible for all of the readers to understand and visualize with no off the wall ideas or mental pictures …show more content…
There is a great appreciation from scholars of the way the author gave such clarifying details of every location. Brooke stated in an article, “There is also a force, vitality, clearness and distinctiveness of portraiture, not only in Beowulf’s personality, but in that of all the other personages, which raise the poem into a high place and predict that special excellence of personal portraiture” (Brooke). Each an every place along the trail of Beowulf is explained as he arrives there. The first significant place that the hero passes through is the swan’s road on his way to Denmark (Beowulf line 200). This first location is very important, as it gives the reader an idea of the courage that these men have as they go to aid the king. Had this information not been given the reader would not grasp the idea of how much the hero and his men wanted to go aid the king. As argued by some writers, Beowulf used his writings for a deeper meaning that just the common image placed in mind from basic descriptions. Doyle once represented this idea by stating, “Twelve hundred years ago the unknown author of …show more content…
A reader is always able to understand the whereabouts each character is placed to give a description of the scene not only from a point of view of seeing the location but by knowing where each character is located to see how they play their part in that particular place. “We should place ourselves, as evening draws on, in the hall of the folk, when the benches are filled with warriors, merchants and seamen, and the Chief sits in the high seat, and the fires flamed down the midst, and the cup goes round…” (Brooke.) This is from another source other than the actually story to give a better understanding in modern English. However, this is explained basically the same way in the story only in more complex and rather lengthy parts of speech. The story explains how Grendel was banished to live with the monsters and explains that he had been there for a long time as it stated, “He had dwelt for a time in misery among the banished monsters…” (Beowulf line105). Although the story does not ever explain in much detail about Grendel’s dwelling place, it is still clear of where Grendel comes from and who was with him. It gives enough information to give some food for thought and make a reader visualize while still have a foundation to build their ideas off of. As a reader sees the characters mentioned and their locations, an understanding of the backgrounds of the
In Tolkien’s lecture, “Beowulf: The monsters and the Critics,” he argues that Beowulf has been over analyzed for its historical content, and it is not being studied as a piece of art as it should be. He discusses what he perceives the poet of Beowulf intended to do, and why he wrote the poem the way he did. Tolkien’s main proposition, “it was plainly only in the consideration of Beowulf as a poem, with an inherent poetic significance, that any view or conviction can be reached or steadily held” (Tolkien). He evaluates why the author centers the monsters throughout the entire poem, why the poem has a non-harmonic structure, why and how the author fusses together Christianity and Paganism, and how the author uses time to make his fictional poem seem real. He also discusses the overall theme of Beowulf and other assumptions of the text. To support his viewpoints, Tolkien uses quotations and examples from the poem, quotations from other critics, and compares Beowulf to other works of art. Tolkien discusses several statements in interpreting Beowulf as a poem.
In the length of the poem, Beowulf goes from abandoned child to gallant warrior to King. This transformation, expressed in the tone and content of the poem, shows the importance of the relationship between lord and thane and expresses the ultimate value of that connection. From the difference in battle scenes to Beowulf’s speeches, it is clear that he has gone from a somewhat self-loving hero to a selfless king. Within this change he also goes from serving a lord to becoming a lord, and in that way the poem shows us the importance of both sides of the relationship.
Beowulf is an epic poem telling the story of Beowulf, a legendary Geatish hero who later becomes king in the aforementioned epic poem. While the story in and of itself is quite interesting, for the purpose of this paper it is important to look at the character more so then his deeds, or rather why he did what he did.
In Beowulf, the essence left behind by a true hero is extremely important. In epics such as this one, leaders tend to have the determination and boldness of a hero. On the other hand, the main character, Beowulf, does not display these certain traits. In this heroic poem, respect and trust come naturally. Honor and integrity are present throughout the poem.
Damrosch, David, and David L. Pike. “Beowulf.” The Longman Anthology of World Literature, Compact Edition. New York: Pearson, Longman, 2008. 929-970. Print.
The epic poem, Beowulf, coming from the years of 600 to 700 AD has been translated in many different styles. In these excerpts by Burton Raffel and Lucien Dean Pearson, provides a clear understanding of this epic poem. Reading the two different translations, Raffel tends to provide the reader with a better understanding of the evil nature of Grendel and the heroic characteristics of Beowulf.
Do people ever talk about superheroes, and monsters? Especially people into comic books and children. Every child, even adults, have a superhero they look up to, or a role model they want to grow up to be like. Superheroes are everywhere from movies to books. Children even sit in their room playing with toy superheroes, hoping one day they can be just like them. Even hundreds of thousands of years ago there were superheroes! A long time ago in the Anglo-Saxon Period there was a brave and loyal hero! His name was Beowulf, and everyone looked up to him. This hero definitely brought peace to many people, and if it wasn’t for the mighty hero Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxons would have been terrorized forever. Therefore, the times were hard before Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxon warriors always stood for three values, and the time was changed without monsters.
Beowulf begins with a history of the Danish kings. Hrothgar is the present king of the Danes. He builds a hall, called Heorot, to house his army. The Danish soldiers gather under its roof to celebrate and have fellowship with each other. Grendel, who lives at the bottom of a nearby swamp, is awakened and disgusted by the singing of Hrothgar's men. He comes to the hall late one night and kills thirty of the warriors in their sleep. For the next twelve years Grendel stalks the mead hall known as Heorot.
“It doesn’t take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle,” Norman Schwarzkopf. In the epic poem, Beowulf, an epic hero from Geats travels far out of his way to help the Danes with their fight against the nasty Grendel. However, in the story Beowulf encounters three monsters that he takes into his own hands and defeats them all. In doing so, Beowulf is rewarded greatly and becomes king and is looked up to by all. In his last battle, Beowulf defeats the dragon but dies soon afterwards, he is given an honorable burial. This poem was told throughout the era of the Vikings and was later written down as the first actually hard copy of the story. It was Burton
There are a plethora of different themes, motifs, and symbols to choose from in Beowulf. A recurring theme throughout Beowulf is generosity and hospitality, along with the importance of ones identity. One portion stands out the most against the first theme and it is; The Finnsburg Fragment. A motif that came to mind while reading Beowulf had to have been the importance of the Mead Hall. Something else to think about is the relation to the fall of the hall in The Finnsburg Fragment being told right after Beowulf’s victory against Grendel.
In Anglo-Saxon culture heroes were determined by their bravery, strength, and glory. In the epic Beowulf, Beowulf is the epitome of an Anglo-Saxon hero because he displays all of these traits. Beowulf exhibits his bravery in the way he fearlessly goes into each of his three battles. He then displays his strength as he defeats each of the monsters. Finally, Beowulf is glorified by his comrades because of his heroic actions. Beowulf is an epic hero because he embodies his people’s ideals of bravery, strength, and glory through his battles.
After exploring for some time, Beowulf in many ways is much more complex than it looks on the surface. Of course it 's classic theme of the clash between the forces of good and evil will always be prevalent, there are other types of symbolism in the epic poem that was either not explored or was not as evident. This is especially true in the setting of the story such as the mead hall, Heorot, where it is much more than a place to drink . Even Beowulf himself is a much more complex person than the readers might think since they might not completely be aware of the reasons why he is the embodiment of a hero.Even seemingly minor characters such as the Dragon can represent one of the biggest flaws within human beings. With the assistance of Harold Bloom’s book, “Rebirth and Renewal”, and literary websites such as Cliffnotes and Sparknotes, readers should be more enlightened on what the epic poem tries to represent.
Beowulf is a very brave hero, he has fought and killed many creatures before, but this battle was different. He knew this battle was of great importance to everyone, and that made him that much more nervous. This creature was fierce and had been tormenting their village for as long as they could remember, so her death would be a huge victory for Beowulf and it would be an even bigger relief for the villagers. All of the people in the village were cheering for Beowulf as he walked away headed off to the greatest battle of his life.
The rest of the ride to the fortress nunnery was uneventful, but all the men were jumpy after seeing the nun and farmers. Every shadow was a creature of the Fey, every sound a monster coming for you. We halted at the outer wall, and I rode up to the castle alone, as some of my company were, shall we say, unsavory. The guard at the gate admitted me into the courtyard, and I dismounted, allowing a nun to take Grendel. A nun beckoned to me, then walked across the courtyard. I followed, sabatons clicking on the cobble. I climbed the steps to the massive monastery door, which I strained to open.