2 posts tagged “beowulf”
I took an hour today to read the story of Beowulf in
its entirety, just to see what in it was worth teaching in my upcoming world
Civilization class. It is a story about a young and confident warrior. Beowulf
reminds me somewhat of Michelangelo’s David only with beefcake muscles and a
boar tusked helmet. He is confident and even cocky. No challenge fazes him and
no deed that needs to be done can be denied him. And he clearly cares more for
the stories that will be told about his deeds than he does for the deeds
himself (ergo, he fights the monster, Grendel, with no weapons).
LISTEN TO AN EXCERPT FROM THE ORIGINAL HERE
I confess, it is hard to find something in the young Beowulf that speaks to me outside of this character trait of fundamental confidence. He hears that King Hrothgar has a problem that his own men of valour cannot solve. He embarks in a boat to come offer his services in exchange for fame, good mead, and a sizable tip. What inspires me if anything is that he is a man who understands the need for risk and for action. Beowulf is not a writer of poems but a subject of them. “A soldier should know the difference between words and deed and keep that knowledge clear” he says. “Fate saves the living when they drive away death by themselves.”
“Sometimes” says the narrarator of the poem, “a king's man, a warrior covered in glory who knew the old traditions, would be reminded of an ancient song, and he would call up words adorned in truth. The man would thinkof Beowulf's deeds and quickly compose a skillful tale in words.”
The more intriguing part of the poem for me has to do with Beowulf’s great challenge as an old man. In his youth, the challenges were clear fights between good and evil. Grendel and his mother are evil in origin, in appearance, and in deed. No one debates the morality of Beowulf’s decision to rip Grendel’s clawed arm off and drag him piece by piece to hell. And no one debates the morality of doing his mother in either. But the challenge of Beowulf’s old age is to avenge himself on a dragon who is in fowl temper because someone has pilfered from his dragon hoard. And yet the danger is real and Beowulf summons the courage of his younger days to take the dragon on in single combat.
He does not plan to live his post midlife crisis any
differently than his pre-midlife crisis for “Beowulf and Fear were strangers.” As
Beowulf boasts: "I ventured many battles in my youth; now, old, I will
seek another, try again for glorious deeds, if that avenger will come
out."
He reminds me of Hemmingway's character, Santiago, in The Old Man and the Sea who "resolves to sail out beyond the other fishermen to where the biggest fish promise to be." Both Santiago and Beowulf seem to understand that one will eventually be defeated in life. It is only a matter of time. The only question we really face in life is not so much "to be defeated or not to be defeated". Eventually we will be. The only real question is "what can we achieve as we are defeated? Beowulf takes the dragon's gold to distribute it to his people and for use in building a funeral tower to remember him by.
It is here however that the theological implications of Medieval combat come into play. When Beowulf had assaulted the monster and his monster mommy, God was on his side. As the storyteller puts it, “God’s dread loom was woven with defeat for the monster.” But in the end, the battle with the dragon is fraught with peril for Beowulf because this time, God fights against him.
Though I live in the 21rst century and am not
inclined by disposition to spend mylife ripping the appendages of gruesome fiends
off their bodies to hang in my mead hall, the story still raises questions. How
does one find challenges worthy of them? How much risk is too much? Where does
confidence come from? How does one generate it in the middle to later years of
their lives when they do not have a Beowulfian resume or ballads that have been
sung in their honor?
In a commentary about Hemmingway and his character, Santiago, we are reminded that heroic literature can find itself set in any time and place:
"Skills that involved great displays of strength captured -Hemingway's imagination, and his fiction is filled with fishermen, -big-game hunters, bullfighters, prizefighters, and soldiers. -Hemingway's fiction presents a world peopled almost exclusively by men—men who live most successfully in the world through displays of skill. In Hemingway's world, mere survival is not enough. To elevate oneself above the masses, one must master the rules and rituals by which men are judged."
Question for Comment: Must these same skills capture our immaginations as well? Or is the day for Beowulfian/Santiogan men over? Who is to say?
Last night, I finally got around to watching the latest rendition of Beowulf. I will be teaching it next year and figured I best be familiar with its most contemporary mangling. One should probably note that a story like Beowulf, even in its most "original form" as we know it, was the result of many a mead besotted retelling so there really should be no sacrilege in adapting it to a modern whim. The movie comes across as a great epic story of heroism and humanity and I suspect that was what its original intent was anyway. I will not be a strict Constructionist about it.
The "heros" of Beowulf, are of course warriors and sword wielding, mead inhaling, uberplunderers with the names of Grand Pre wrestlers who love their weapons more than their women. Scyld Scefing (translated in some versions as "Shield Shiefson") the king of the Danes is described as “scourge of many tribes, a wrecker of mead-benches.” One cannot read the descriptions of the funerals of these great warlords of Scandinavia without thinking of the bumper sticker "He who dies with the most toys, wins". Greatness is somewhat define by the questions "What were you able to take from others while you lived?" and "How much of it can you take in your funeral boat with you?"
What is somewhat interesting about the movie version (not the same exactly as the written epic) is that Grendel the monster and later the dragon, are children of the Kings Hrothgar and Beowulf. They play a part almost synonymous with the monster-demon child in Frankenstein. Grendel is a"gentle" creature made into a monster by his "father's" rejection of him. It would be difficult to count the numbers of plotlines in which the anger of an abandoned son plays a central role these days. Beowulf the movie falls into that genre. In all these stories the lives of "great men" are destroyed by the fact that they put wealth and partying, and fame, and conquest above the value of the women that they should love and the children they neglect. I suspect that this theme is played out in scores of movies in contemporary media begging the question "Why must men go out and conquer things when they would be happier just relating with their wives and children?' Think of various movies that follow this line of reasoning (Kingdom of Heaven, Gladiator, Martian Child, Troy, etc.) In the movie version of the story of the Illiad (Troy), Achilles mother says to Achilles:
"If you stay in Larissa, you will find peace. You will find a wonderful woman, and you will have sons and daughters, who will have children. And they'll all love you and remember your name. But when your children are dead, and their children after them, your name will be forgotten... If you go to Troy, glory will be yours. They will write stories about your victories in thousands of years! And the world will remember your name. But if you go to Troy, you will never come back... for your glory walks hand-in-hand with your doom. And I shall never see you again."
Needless to say, Achilles goes to Troy.
I confess, though no one will ever mistake me for a Scandinavian beefcake like Beowulf, I did like this translation of a line from the poem:
Maybe that is what I am doing when I blog, eh? Unlatching my word-hoard. Scourge of many tribes, a wrecker of mead benches. Grin. Certainly Beowulf knows how tell stories about himself and his bravery and ferocious fighting spirit. Many in the meadhall however are tempted to accuse him of letting his "battleship mouth sink his rowboat butt". When Grendel the monster comes, they insist, Beowulf will piss his pants like anyone else (maybe that is why he takes off all his clothes to fight Grendel naked?) . It is for this reason that Beowulf must remind himself of his own words when the monster does come.
Question for Comment: In the movie, Beowulf says to his queen, "Keep a memory of me, not as a king or a hero; but as a man: fallible and flawed" This seems to cover for a multitude of Beowulf's sins (and they are many). He is arrogant. He lies. He takes a mistress. He trades in love for power and sex and wealth. Have we come to the place where one can achieve hero status by simply admitting that one has a weak character, (a la Bill Clinton)? Why work at overcoming one's weaknesses if simply confessing to having them is regarded as strong enough to impress people?
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