Beowulf the Oldest Written Epic | Structure, Characters, Summary, Analysis

Beowulf: The Oldest Written Epic | Structure, Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Beowulf is the first surviving epic written in the English language. The poem was probably created by a scop, a professional Anglo-Saxon poet. A Scop used to be like bards who were engaged in creating poems to preserve the myths and histories of their people. These poems would be performed from memory at feasts or other public gatherings as part of an oral story-telling tradition. Since we do not know who actually wrote Beowulf, the anonymous writer is often referred to as the Beowulf poet.

It is a long Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. During the 11th century, two scribes got the job of preserving the oral story of Beowulf in a single cotton manuscript. The original poem and the poet were pagan, but the scribes were Christian and added Christian details to the poem: the poem now calls God the ultimate judge and ruler and even refers to events in the Old Testament. Through the study of Old English verse, most scholars believe that the poem was composed much earlier than the Cotton manuscript, between 650 and 800.

Beowulf has many Digressions from the main story. These digressions can be divided into four groups, namely the Scyld narrative at the start; many descriptions of the Geats, including the Swedish–Geatish wars, the "Lay of the Last Survivor" in the style of another Old English poem, "The Wanderer", and Beowulf's dealings with the Geats such as his verbal contest with Unferth and his swimming duel with Breca, and the tale of Sigemund and the dragon; history and legend, including the fight at Finnsburg and the tale of Freawaru and Ingeld; and biblical tales such as the creation myth and Cain as the ancestor of all monsters. Many scholars have researched Beowulf including J.R.R. Tolkien who was a Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University, and an authority on Beowulf: His novels The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy are steeped in the mythology and culture in which Beowulf is set. In addition, Tolkien borrowed the episode of the thief stealing a cup from the dragon in Beowulf and used it in The Hobbit.

Structure of Beowulf:

Beowulf is the longest poem written in Old English. Old English poetry uses an alliterative meter, meaning that the stressed words in a line begin with the same sound. A line of Old English poetry has two halves, with a brief pause, called a caesura, in the middle of the line. The two halves of a line are linked by the alliteration (repetition of an initial consonant); at least three words in a line alliterate. Old English poetry also uses kennings, compressed metaphors like "heaven's candle" for the sun, "whale's road" for the sea, or calling a woman married to gain peace a "peace weaver."

Characters of Beowulf:

The poem is narrated by an unnamed speaker. Beowulf is the main character of the epic. He is a Geatish warrior, or Thane, loyal to his king, Hygelac. Beowulf's father was the warrior Ecgtheow, and his mother was a sister of Hygelac. Beowulf is brave but he is young and inexperienced and a little was expected of him. But he proved his valor and grew up to be a great warrior. He has the strength of thirty men in his grasp and rather remarkable swimming ability. The poem relates his heroic exploits over 50 years, including the fights with Grendel and his mother and with the treasure-guarding dragon. Hygd is the wife of Hygelac and the queen of the Geats. She is a good and generous queen. Hrothgar is the King of the Danes, the son of Healfdene, Heorogar and Halga's brother, and Onela the Swede's brother-in-law. Hrothgar is an excellent and successful king. He builds Heorot, a magnificent hall, and builds love and loyalty through his generosity and wisdom. However, though once a great warrior, he can no longer defend his people from Grendel, and his sons also are too young to take up leadership of the Danes. Though a good king, Hrothgar's position – too old to protect his people, but without heirs ready to take his place – represents a potential threat to the Danes and all other Scandinavian tribes: the lack of a king. Wealtheow is the wife of King Hrothgar and queen of the Danes, the mother of Hrethic and Hrothmund. She is a good and generous queen. Wiglaf is the most loyal warrior or Thane of Beowulf. He is the son of Weohstan the Scylfing and a relative of Beowulf. In the battle against the dragon, he proves to be the only Geatish warrior with courage even moderately equivalent to Beowulf's. Wiglaf rules the Geats after Beowulf dies from wounds from the battle against the dragon. Unferth is a Dane, the son of Ecglaf, and a loyal Thane of Hrothgar. His name means Discord. Unferth is boastful, just as Beowulf is, but unlike Beowulf Unferth lacks the moral courage to back up his boasts (and unlike Beowulf Unferth never does anything to stand against Grendel). he taunts Beowulf in the hall about his swimming contest with Breca. However, Beowulf shames him in the boasting match. Grendel is a man-eating monster descended from the Biblical Cain. Grendel is described as a "walker in darkness," who is "wearing God's anger" and "lacking in joy" because he has inherited the curse the Biblical Cain received as a result of his murder of his brother Abel. He attacks the Danes because his own enforced isolation has made him hate those who can enjoy society and companionship. The Dragon discovered a lost tribe's treasure and moved into the barrow housing the gold. The Dragon is exceedingly greedy – marking a stark contrast to good kings, who create loyalty and love among their people and warriors through generosity. Scyld Shefing was one of the first kings of the Danes and great-grandfather of Hrothgar. Beow was the son of Scyld Shefing who is sometimes called Beowulf I or Beowulf the Dane, he ruled the Danes after his father Scyld Schefing. He is not the hero of Beowulf. Sigemund is an ancient Germanic hero whose story is recounted after the fight with Grendel. He was known as the famous dragon slayer. Breca is a Geat who competed with Beowulf in a swimming contest as a youth. Wulfgar is a loyal Thane of Hrothgar who is the watchman of the Danes. Heremod was an ancient Danish king who went from being a good king to a ruthlessly evil king. Hrothgar uses him as an example of bad kingship for Beowulf.

Summary of Beowulf:

The poem begins as the narrator offers a brief genealogy of the kingship of Danes. Scyld Shefing was the first great king of the Danes, known for his ability to conquer enemies. Beow was his son and an able king in his own right. Currently, Hrothgar is the king of the Danes. He is the great-grandson of Scyld Shefing. Through success in battle, he has become rich and mighty. As a symbol of his power and prosperity, he builds a magnificent mead-hall, called Heorot, in which he and his loyal warriors can feast, drink, boast, and listen to the tales of the scops, the Anglo-Saxon bards. The revelry attracts the attention of the monster Grendel, who decides to attack during the night. In the morning, Hrothgar and his thanes discover the bloodshed and mourn the lost warriors. This begins Grendel's assault upon the Danes. Every night, Grendel attacks King Hrothgar's wealthy mead hall, Heorot, killing Danish warriors and sometimes even eating them. The monster repeats his nightly raids until no one dares sleep in the hall. Heorot, once the symbol of the Scyldings' greatness, is now a place of shame and terror.

Twelve years pass. Eventually, the news of Grendel's aggression on the Danes reaches the Geats, another tribe. A Geat thane, Beowulf, decides to help the Danes; he sails to the land of the Danes with his 14 best warriors. Upon their arrival, Hrothgar's thane Wulfgar judges the Geats worthy enough to speak with Hrothgar. Hrothgar remembers when he helped Beowulf's father Ecgtheow settle a feud; thus, he welcomes Beowulf's help gladly. Beowulf hopes to return the favor while enhancing his own reputation and gaining treasure for his king, Hygelac. At a feast before nightfall of the first day of the visit, an obnoxious, drunken Scylding named Unferth insults Beowulf and claims that the Geat visitor once embarrassingly lost a swimming contest to a boyhood acquaintance named Breca and is no match for Grendel. Beowulf responds with dignity while putting Unferth in his place. In fact, the two swimmers were separated by a storm on the fifth night of the contest, and Beowulf had slain nine sea monsters before finally returning to shore. His fellow Thanes support him and celebrate his courage. At the height of their celebration, the Danish queen Wealhtheow comes forth, bearing the mead-cup. She presents it first to Hrothgar, then to the rest of the hall, and finally to Beowulf. As he receives the cup, Beowulf tells Wealhtheow that he will kill Grendel or be killed in Heorot. This simple declaration moves Wealhtheow and the Danes, and the revelry continues. Finally, everyone retires. Before he leaves, Hrothgar promises to give Beowulf everything if he can defeat Grendel. Beowulf says that he will leave God to judge the outcome. He and his thanes sleep in Heorot, with Beowulf keeping watch. Grendel arrives and consumes one of the warriors, then reaches for Beowulf. Beowulf, famous for his powerful grip, which is as strong as the grip of thirty men, struggles with Grendel. Soon Grendel tears away, leaving his arm in Beowulf's grasp. He slinks back to his lair in the moors and dies.

Hrothgar generously rewards Beowulf with treasure. The scop sings again, and Beowulf is praised along with other great characters of the past, including Sigemund (who slew a dragon) and Heremod (who ruled his kingdom unwisely and was punished). In Heorot, Grendel's arm is nailed to the wall as a trophy. Hrothgar says that Beowulf will never lack riches, and Beowulf graciously thanks him. The horses and men of the Geats are all richly adorned, in keeping with Hrothgar's wishes.

Hrothgar gives a second feast to celebrate Beowulf's victory. The scop tells another story at the feast, the story of the Frisian slaughter. An ancient Danish king had a daughter named Hildeburh; he married her to a king of the Frisians. While Hnaef, Hildeburh's brother, visited his sister, the Frisians attacked the Danes, killing Hnaef and Hildeburh's son in the process. Hengest, the next leader of the Danes, desired vengeance, and in the spring, the Danes attacked the Frisians, killing their leader and taking Hildeburh back to Denmark. Wealhtheow appears and Wealhtheow presents a necklace to Hrothgar while pleading with her brother-in-law Hrothulf to help her two young sons if they should ever need it. Next, she presents many golden treasures to Beowulf, such as necklaces, cups, and rings. Soon the feast ends, and everyone sleeps peacefully. That night, Grendel's mother comes to the hall from her home at the bottom of a lake, seeking revenge for the death of her son. She grabs Aeschere, a favorite warrior and adviser of Hrothgar's, and consumes him, then returns home. In the morning, the warriors follow her tracks to her lake, where they see Aeschere's head. Beowulf enters the lake, and swims for hours before reaching her cave at the bottom. He fights with Grendel's mother, but the sword Hrunting, which Unferth lent to Beowulf as a sign of fellowship, fails for the first time. From the treasure hoard in the cave, Beowulf seizes a sword forged long ago by giants and kills Grendel's mother. He sees Grendel's body, removes the head, and takes it and the hilt of the giant's sword (the blade melted in contact with the monster's blood) back to Hrothgar.

After more celebration and gifts and a sermon by Hrothgar warning of the dangers of pride and the mutability of time, Beowulf and his men return to Geatland. King king Hygelac and his queen Hygd greet them. As an aside, the narrator compares Hygd to the queen of the ancient Offa, who is not tamed until Offa comes to subjugate her. Beowulf tells his lord the events of his trip to Denmark. He also informs that Hrothgar betrothed his daughter Freawaru to a prince of the Heathobards to settle an old feud. Beowulf speculates that someone will goad this Heathobard prince to take vengeance upon the Danes for all their past wrongs. Hygelac praises Beowulf for his bravery and gives him half the kingdom. They rule the kingdom together in peace and prosperity. Hygelac is eventually killed by the Swedes; his son Heardred, though young, takes the throne with Beowulf's support. At Heardred's death, Beowulf takes the throne of the Geats, and rules in great prosperity and fame for fifty years.

In the fiftieth year of Beowulf’s reign, when he is too old, a monster arises to terrorize the Geats. A treasure trove was left by an ancient civilization, which guarded it jealously until only one member of the race was left. After the last person's death, a fire-breathing dragon found the treasure and guarded it for three hundred years. One day a Geat servant finds a passageway into an old barrow. Inside, the dragon guards the treasure trove. The servant steals a cup, but the dragon discovers the theft and burns the land, including Beowulf's mead-hall. Beowulf learns that this dragon has destroyed his own great hall. This attack sends him into deep thought. Soon he orders a shield to use for battle, but not without a heavy heart at what may happen to him. He recalls Hygelac's death in battle and his own narrow escape from this battle. He recalls several battles he has seen as he travels to the dragon's lair accompanied by his kinsman Wiglaf, ten more thanes. The servant who stole the cup leads them to the lair. As they wait to attack the dragon, Beowulf recounts the Geat royal family's plight, in which Hygelac's oldest brothers killed each other and left their father to die of a broken heart. Beowulf says he served Hygelac well, and a sword (named Naegling) that he won while serving Hygelac will help him save the kingdom once again.

Beowulf sets out to confront the dragon. But when Beowulf and the dragon fight, all of Beowulf's men flee except Wiglaf. With Wiglaf's help, Beowulf kills the dragon. The dragon is beheaded, but Beowulf is bitten and has a mortal poison from the dragon flowing through his body. Wiglaf bathes his lord's body as Beowulf speaks on the treasure. He says that Wiglaf should inherit it as his kinsman, and to build him a funeral barrow that overlooks the sea; then he dies. As the other Thanes see that the dragon is dead, they return back. Wiglaf chastises the men for abandoning their king. He sends a messenger to tell the people of their king's death. The messenger envisions the joy of the Geats' enemies upon hearing of the death of Beowulf. He also says that no man shall ever have the treasure for which Beowulf fought. Wiglaf and Beowulf's thanes toss the dragon's body into the sea. The Geats build a pyre and cremate Beowulf, then construct a barrow overlooking the sea, burying the dragon's cursed treasure with him.

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