Transcript Slide 1

Beowulf: …We All
Fall Down
Feraco
Search for Human Potential
10 January 2013
The Poem’s Second Half
 Much, much darker than the first portion
 This part’s about the pain and exhaustion of
fighting, aging, and inevitable defeat
 Moments of triumph remain, the dragon fight
chief among them
 But we now face numerous setbacks (as
opposed to a single one): Beowulf only
assumes the throne after a brother
accidentally kills another – before that brother
is killed in war
 The poem ends on a downbeat note, with a
woman wailing to the sky in grief
 There’s also a terrifying note of uncertainty
hanging over everything: How long can
Geatland survive?
Another Lineup
 Most of the characters seem pretty similar to
those in the first half – although we do learn
some interesting things about them
 For example, Hrothgar will die of old age in the
future
 Once, long ago, I asked you “what’s in a
name?”
 Remember, Hrothgar’s name – his identity –
means “spear’s glory,” and this was still a time
when kings fought alongside – or at least
behind – their subjects
 Is Hrothgar’s death a good way for a king to go
out, or should he go out on the battlefield,
dying in a way that honors his name?
Our Hero at the End
 Beowulf is unable to save Hygelac in the
Geats’ war with the Franks
 He becomes king of the Geats because
Heardred, Hygelac’s son, is killed
 The old hero serves out the rest of his
days preserving what he has
 When he goes to fight the dragon, he
does so without expecting to survive
 A bitter imitation of the Geats’ brave sea
voyage to the land of the Danes
Our Hero Who Remains
 Wiglaf – The only man (out of twelve) to
remain by Beowulf’s side during the
climactic fight with the dragon
 Wiglaf’s courage outweighs his prowess
as a warrior – the dragon torches his
shield almost instantly – but he lands a
few strikes against the beast anyway
 He provides Beowulf with some final
comfort and reassurance, as he goes
into the treasure hoard and returns with
goods
 He tries to show Beowulf that his fight
wasn’t in vain, and that Geatland now
has treasure
What Does This Portend?
 Wiglaf is an interesting study – honorable and
wise, but the last of his kind and line
 Something like our hero, who’s also the last in a
line – look at how paltry the Geats’ family tree
appears compared to the Danes’
 On first blush, he appears to carry on the heroic
tradition that Beowulf adhered to for years
 His father returned arms and armor to the family
of a man he killed, but they rewarded him by
allowing him to keep the goods (more on that
later)
 He is even able to enter the dragon’s hoard and
emerge without being cursed because his
intentions are pure
 However, Wiglaf is decidedly pessimistic about
the future now that Beowulf is gone
 After all, the country’s “finest men” showed their
true colors by fleeing the fight with the dragon
New and Old
 We get a chance to know some old
characters better – particularly our
kings – and meet some new ones
 Hygelac turns out to be “young” for a
king – which probably indicates he’s in
his early fifties
 Remember, Hrothgar was extremely
young when he took the Danish throne
 Hygelac will die during a war with the
Franks/Frisians (although his thane and
in-law, Eofor, will avenge him)
New and Old, Part II
 Hygd – Hygelac’s generous queen
and Haereth’s daughter
 She offers Beowulf the throne once
Hygelac is slain, but he agrees
instead to train her son while he
learns the intricacies of rule
 Heardred – Son to Hygelac and
Hygd, he dies before he can rule for
long at Onela the Swede’s hands
 Onela’s the one who married
Halfdane’s daughter
New and Old (Swedish Version)
 The Swedes are an interesting
bunch
 Ongentheow is the head of the line,
and while it is his sons who lead
the initial skirmishes against the
Geats, he is credited as “Hygelac’s
killer” (although he is not actually
the one to land the death-blow)
 Hygelac is avenged by Eofer, one of
his thanes, who strikes
Ongentheow down
Swedes Cont’d
 His sons, Oethere and Onela, have an
odd relationship with the Geats
 Oethere’s son, Eanmund, is killed by
Weohstan, Wiglaf’s father – yet
Eanmund’s uncle (Onela) rewards
Weohstan’s honorable behavior by
allowing him to keep his nephew’s
armor
 Beowulf kills Onela in order to avenge
Heardred’s death, ending the fighting
between the Swedes and the Geats
 Beowulf also supports Oethere’s other
son, Eadgils, while he lives in exile
What About the Danes?
 The Danes basically disappear during
the second half of the poem
 Once Beowulf returns to Geatland,
there’s no reason to talk about them!
 Instead, we meet “traditional” powers
that threaten the Geats at poem’s end
 The Franks/Frisians, who hail from
Finland/Friesland
 The Swedes/Shylfings, who hail from
Sweden
Try to Keep Track…
 The Geats have an overwhelmingly
tragic family history
 Hrethel, the original king, had three
sons: Herebeald, Haethcyn, and Hygelac
 Haethcyn accidentally shoots Herebeald
 Hrethel dies soon thereafter, which
leaves the country vulnerable
 The Swedes attack, and Haethcyn dies
 Hygelac is killed in a war with the
Franks
 Heardred, Hygelac’s son, is killed by the
Swedes – leaving Beowulf as the king
The Secret Tragedy of the Family Tree
 The bloodshed I just outlined leaves Beowulf
as the sole survivor of his line
 Hygd only had two children, Heardred and an
unnamed daughter
 As reward for avenging Hygelac’s death, Eofor
marries the daughter – but they produce no
offspring
 Therefore, Beowulf’s death is really the “death”
of the entire Geatish royal line – he has no heir
of his own
 This is why Wiglaf fears the other countries will
attack – they have in the past, and the Geats are
now vulnerable
 The Swedes, in particular, want revenge – even
though none of the people who “wronged”
them are left alive
I Warned You…
 I wasn’t kidding when I mentioned that
the second half is more downbeat
 Beowulf defeats the dragon, saving his
country and his subjects – but he leaves
behind a broken shell of a nation, one
which will be erased from the face of the
Earth
 After all, can you visit Geatland?
 He dies defending a nation that can’t be
saved, leaving behind a generation of
men who aren’t as brave
The (Un)Happy Ending
 This is why that ending is so perfect – it’s
thematically appropriate and
believable, yet it’s heartbreaking all the
same
 We watch everything Beowulf spent his
life defending crumble before his eyes,
even as he tries to hold on to hope in his
dying moments – and even as Wiglaf
tries to convince him that everything’s
fine despite his own fears
 The thanes’ betrayal is so vicious, but
it’s inevitable – we know that Beowulf is
special, and it’s his curse to be
undermined by lesser men
So Many Parallels
 I mentioned that the Old English Poet/scop was
fond of parallel structure
 Queen Modthryth’s bloody tale is meant to
show that Hygd is a nice queen, but it’s also a
setup for later – when Beowulf warns that the
arranged marriage between Ingeld and
Freawaru is doomed
 This story, in turn, is mean to underscore the
inevitability of our hatred – that not even time,
honor, or marriage can erase our thirst for
vengeance (see Swedes)
 A direct parallel of a parallel (Finn/Hildeburh)
 Once again, we may become our own worst
enemies
Heremod Returns
 Heremod’s backstory is fleshed out a bit
 We see the difference between a good king and
a bad king, as Heremod grows corrupt after
long years on the throne
 He grows bloodthirsty, sparking feuds
 He hoards the spoils of victory, refusing to
dispense rings to his warriors
 Why is the “hoarding” of power so tempting?
 It’s nice to see that fifty exhausting years on
the throne doesn’t change Beowulf too
drastically – he avoids Heremod’s fate
 Yet he, too, is forced into a sort of exile at the
end; his warriors abandon him during the fight
with the dragon
More Fun With Themes I
 Degeneration and Death: By the time Naegling
shatters, everything about the Geats, and the
state of the world, seems to scream that the
End is coming
 Beowulf doesn’t die by a sword – he’s dying of
old age and poisoned, killed by what’s inside
him (remember Kamala?)
 It’s also fitting that both Naegling (Beowulf’s
sword) and Hrunting (Unferth’s sword, which
also failed) can’t do what they’re supposed to
 They’re relics of the past, symbols of honor,
love, and bravery – all hallmarks of the heroic
age, which may die with Beowulf
More Fun With Themes II
 Loyalty: We see warrior after warrior
(from all sides) avenge the death of his
kin and countrymen
 Is this “loyalty well-spent”?
 We also see Beowulf’s thanes abandon
him
 Hate and Revenge: We’ve alluded to this
numerous times, from the myths the
scop sings to the looming Swedish
threat at the end of the poem
 Heroism, Honor, and Sacrifice: Beowulf
lays down his life for the Geats, but do
the Geats deserve his sacrifice?
 Is heroism in service of a lost cause still
heroism at all?
More Fun With Themes III
 Fleeing and Exile: There’s a powerful drive to
return home that runs through Beowulf – or at
least to protect one’s own nation and kin
 Exile is the flip side of this same urge – and is
the scop’s preferred “method of punishment”
 To be divorced (or banished) from one’s
homeland is to live a walking death
 Without the place of your birth, the place
where your forefathers lived and died, you’re
cut off from everything that makes you…well,
you
 Even Grendel is driven by that insane urge – to
return to or defend what’s rightfully yours at
any cost
More Fun With Themes IV
 Power: Hrothgar discusses the corruption that
seeps into the heart of anyone who holds power
long enough, but we also see power failing in the
face of changing times and old hatreds
 There’s also divine power, but we cover that in
Divine Will
 Grief, Hope, and Fear: There’s an odd tension
between hope and fear in the poem
 Beowulf represents the best of us, and we cheer
when he saves us – but what if he’s the last of our
best?
 Kings weren’t supposed to die, at least not at the
rate we see them perish – the throne is divine
 The Geat woman crying out at the end, screaming
to God and the souls of the kings who defended her
forefathers as fire burns and “heaven swallows the
smoke”, is the most haunting image in the entire
poem (3150-55)
A Bit of Advice
 Remember, just about everything from
the first half of the poem carries over
into the second
 After all, the poem isn’t actually divided;
I just split it up to highlight the tonal
shift that’s tied to Beowulf’s aging
process
 I also didn’t want you to try studying a
fifty-slide presentation
 Since this is an artificial division, it only
makes sense that the work is unified
 Don’t just look for certain themes in one
half or the other – they’re everywhere,
and the parallels serve as proof
Digging, by Seamus Heaney
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; as snug as a gun.
Under my window a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down
Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.
The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.
By God, the old man could handle a spade,
Just like his old man.
My grandfather could cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner's bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, digging down and down
For the good turf. Digging.
The cold smell of potato mold, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I've no spade to follow men like them.
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I'll dig with it.
Beowulf, by Richard Wilbur
The land was overmuch like scenery,
The flowers attentive, the grass too garrulous green;
In the lake like a dropped kerchief could be seen
The lark’s reflection after the lark was gone;
The Roman road lay paved too shiningly
For a road so many men had traveled on.
Also the people were strange, were strangely warm.
The king recalled the father of his guest,
The queen brought mead in a studded cup, the rest
Were kind, but in all was a vagueness and a strain,
Because they lived in a land of daily harm.
And they said the same things again and again.
It was a childish country; and a child,
Grown monstrous, so besieged them in the night
That all their daytimes were a dream of fright
That it would come and own them to the bone.
The hero, to his battle reconciled,
Promised to meet that monster all alone.
So then the people wandered to their sleep
And left him standing in the echoed hall.
They heard the rafters rattle fit to fall,
The child departing with a broken groan,
And found their champion in a rest so deep
His head lay harder sealed than any stone.
The land was overmuch like scenery,
The lake gave up the lark, but now its song
Fell to the ear, the flowers too were wrong,
The day was fresh and pale and swiftly old,
The night put out no smiles upon the sea;
And the people were strange, the people were strangely
cold.
They gave him horse and harness, helmet and mail,
A jeweled shield, an ancient battle-sword,
Such gifts as are the hero’s hard reward
And bid him do again what he has done.
These things he stowed beneath his parting sail,
And wept that he could share them with no son.
He died in his own country a kinless king,
A name heavy with deeds, and mourned as one
Will mourn for the frozen year when it is done.
They buried him next the sea on a thrust of land:
Twelve men rode round his barrow all in a ring,
Singing of him what they could understand.
Some Final Thoughts
 I have quite a few reasons to love Beowulf
 I love its bold sense of action and its broad
strokes of honor, love, and sacrifice
 I’m astonished by (and jealous of) Heaney’s
skill
 Hopefully, I’ve given you some sense of just
how difficult it is to write 3,000+ lines of poetry
– words that work as well orally as visually,
words that echo ancient emotions and stir
them anew in our hearts
 Even though he’s working with someone else’s
material, this translation is just a titanic
achievement
 I love the way it brings a completely alien
world so vividly to life – and how that alien
world has some striking similarities to ours
 I love that its themes remain relevant to this
day
Some Final Final Thoughts
 Yet the reason I reread this poem is not to get my
“blood stirring,” or anything
 It’s not even because I love parallels!
 Beowulf is about the loss of everything a person
can love, about the ways our lives crumble before
we do, and about the inevitable decline of things
we never really feel will disappear
 Yet it’s also about enduring in the face of overwhelming adversity, and about conquering impossible odds through sheer force of will and
spirit
 Beowulf’s thanes may abandon him, but Wiglaf
turns around – because he remembers the value
of friendship, security, honor…and love.
 To read Beowulf is to be reminded that life is
precious – big, bold, and beautiful – and that it’s
important to value what we forget to appreciate –
to love what you have, and what you can lose