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The Balance of Joy and Sorrow in Beowulf
The poet Richard Wilbur expresses in his poem Beowulf one of many sorrows expressed by the original Beowulf poem:
“Such gifts as are the hero’s hard reward …
These things he stowed beneath his parting sail,
And wept that he could share them with no son” (Wilbur 67).
The hero’s lament of not having an heir is but one of many dozens of sorrows in this poetic classic, which balance with numerous joys expressed on alternate pages. This essay expresses but a selection of joys and sorrows from among the almost countless number existing in the poem.
Beowulf both begins and ends on the sorrowful occasion of a death, Danish king Scyld Scefing’s in the opening lines, and our hero’s in the closing lines. This fact is important in some critics’ classification of the poem as an elegy rather than an epic: “It is an heroic-elegaic poem; and in a sense all its first 3136 lines are the prelude to a dirge: [Then the Geatish people made ready no mean pyre on the earth]: one of the most moving ever written” (Tolkien 38).
Hrothgar, Scyld’s great grandson, introduces the first full measure of joy into the poem by (1) being a king “beloved by his people; and (2) with his construction of a huge and splendid hall called Heorot, where he can “share out among young and old all God Had given him…” In the hall “each new day” there was “heard happy laughter loud in the hall, the thrum of the harp, melodious chant, clear song of the scop.” And even a deeper, spiritual joy was available in the hall as listeners learned “how the Almighty had made the earth, this bright shining plain which the waters surround.” As a result of the hall, “the brave warriors lived in ...
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...elly” – a positive. Beowulf’s demise, the chastising of the cowardly fighters, the prophecy that the Geatas will be the object of hostility from various kingdoms, the mourning – can all this sorrow possibly be balanced by:
They said he was, of the kings of this world,
the kindest to his men, the most courteous man,
the best to his people, and most eager for fame.
This famous, enduring poem is thus seen as a balance of joys and sorrows from beginning to end.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chickering, Howell D.. Beowulf A dual-Language Edition. New York: Anchor Books, 1977.
Tolkien, J.R.R.. “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.” In TheBeowulf Poet, edited byDonald K. fry. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968.
Wilbur, Richard. “Beowulf.” In TheBeowulf Poet, edited byDonald K. fry. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968.
To properly understand where all elements on Earth came from, it is essential to first learn about human understanding of how the universe started. One of the widely accepted theories is “the Big Bang theory”. The Big Bang theory is a method to explain what the universe was like at the very beginning. Most scientists working in the field of astronomy believe that the universe did have a beginning and its age is finite. One claim that supports this view is that if the universe was infinitely old, there should be stars in every direction possible, either a star or the remains of a star. According to the current understanding, there existed nothing before the Big Bang, but during and after the Big Bang, everything we can imagine sprang into
Shippey, T.A.. “The World of the Poem.” In Beowulf – Modern Critical Interpretations, edited by Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987..
Text Source: "Beowulf" The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition. Vol. 1. Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: Norton 1993
America has always been a country where freedom has been treasured. Freedom is the most basic, valued principle that America was founded on. Whenever a threat looms, it is the cry and demand for freedom that pulls at the heartstrings of all Americans and moves them to action. Any threat to freedom is, in essence, a threat to America. This is usually interpreted as only a military threat, but there is another form the threat could take that is equally dangerous: an economic threat. This is why there are laws against monopolies – so that one company never has an unfair advantage over another. Freedom, equal opportunity for all. Enter the world of big box retailers. These companies are the biggest and most profitable there are to be found in America – the cornerstones of American economic prosperity. Some people, however, contest that the negatives of having a big box retailer in your town far outweigh the positives. Over the years and through many debates and conflicts it has become apparent that, no matter how beneficial big box retailers are to America, they have an overall negative effect on the American people.
On the other hand, believers in science take a completely different approach in explaining the origin of the universe. Although there is more than one theory, the most popular today is the concept of the big ba...
Fry, Donald K.. “Introduction.” In TheBeowulf Poet, edited by Donald K. Fry. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968.
He has refuted his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
The number of theories surrounding how the universe materialized is nearly endless, but Krauss’ thesis is one of the most convincing and buttressed that has been proposed. Lawrence Krauss is one of the most well respected theoretical physicists and cosmologists in America and has done extensive research on how and why the universe is in existence. Like the title of his book, A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing, his entire theory surrounds the fact the universe was created from nothing. In support of his argument, he explores the weight and shape of the universe, dark matter and energy, quantum mechanics, visual particles, and expansion rates. While the world may never know exactly how the universe was created, society is getting closer to figuring it out and Krauss may have been the one to figure it out.
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless stopped in their operation till his agreement is obtained; and when such law's operation is halted he has neglected to attend to them.
Frank, Roberta. “The Beowulf Poet’s Sense of History.” In Beowulf – Modern Critical Interpretations, edited by Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.
I seem to be the only person in possession of a memory. When I used to work for Minitrue3 in the records department, my job was to remove or rewrite incongruent bits of history from the Times and other periodicals. On occasion I would rewrite entire articles to favor of the Party and it’s predictions. There was one week when it was announced that the chocolate ration would be reduced to 20%. The next week there was an announcement that the ration would be raised to 20%! And no one noticed the lie that was told! Everyone believed that only a week from when their rations had b...
Author unknown “Beowulf.” The Norton Anthology Of Poetry. shorter fifth edition. Ferguson, Margaret W. , Mary Jo Salter, and Jon Stallworthy. New York, New York: W W Norton , 2005. 2-9. Print.
Beowulf is brimming with a variety of symbols, motifs, and themes. When examined through a through an analytical lens, it is obvious that the poem uses simplicity to reveal much deeper meaning. Beowulf’s slaying of monsters is not transparent, on the contrary, the majority of the text’s substance is found within the encounters that Beowulf has with these creatures. The hero’s encounter with the dragon is an allusion to the sin of greed, while his battles against the monsters in general show his heroic nature. In addition, the events in the story show Beowulf’s internal struggle of simultaneously being a hero and a king and the importance of self-reliance.
The mead-hall, Heorot, functions as a synecdoche throughout the story Beowulf, representing the warrior culture of the Scandinavians. It is used as a tool by the authors to criticize the flaws of the Nordic culture while emphasizing the superiority of Christianity. In the poem, the main character, the warrior Beowulf, is tasked with liberating the great mead-hall, Heorot, from the mighty demon known as Grendel—a task in which he is successful. However, the way the mead-hall portrays the Anglo-Saxon’s warrior culture, presents it in a light which glorifies battle as well as loyalty and kinship, but alternatively condemns many other aspects of the Anglo-Saxon way of life such as personal pride.
Wright, David. “The Digressions in Beowulf.” In Readings on Beowulf, edited by Stephen P. Thompson. San Diego: Greenhaven Press,1998.