Beowulf Honors English 12

The Basics  Who?  What?  When?  Where?  Why?

By Whom?  By whom was it written?  Most Anglo-Saxon poetry was oral at first, meaning it was performed by a Bard or Scop from memory; it wasn’t actually written down until...  Somewhere between the eighth and ninth centuries A.D., “The Beowulf-Poet” (his identity is unknown) wrote down the poem which for many years had been sung or spoken. Christian  The Beowulf-poet, scholars believe, was an English monk (Christian) who probably lived in one of the Anglo- Saxon settlements in Western England (Mercia)

About Whom?  Even though the poet himself was English and Christian, the poem is about neither Englishmen nor (full-fledged) Christians  It is the story of several Scandinavian tribes, the Geats and the Danes (both pagan). Beowulf is a Geat. He goes to the aid of the Danes, whose king is Hrothgar  They live in...

Map of Baltic Region of Scandinavia and the Viking Invasions ( )

“Who?” in Review  The poem’s hero is Beowulf, a Geat, who lives in Sweden. He is probably a fictional character. He is certainly an epic hero.  It is written by an English (Anglo-Saxon) monk who is looking back in time to the days when his ancestors still lived in Scandinavia and by a different code of ethics.  At the point the poem was written down, the Anglo-Saxon code was on its way out, soon to be replaced by Christian values.  The original audiences would have heard the poem, and they would probably have been distant relatives of those tribes who play major roles in the poem.

Who are the main characters?  Beowulf (Geat)  Hrothgar (Dane)  Unferth (Dane)  Wiglaf (Geat)  Grendel (monster)  Grendel’s mother (monster)  The dragon (monster)

Main Characters Cont’d  Many people divide the poem into thirds; it is about Beowulf’s three epic battles with evil creatures  Grendel (beginning)  Grendel’s Mother (middle)  The Dragon (end)

What? epic  What is it? Beowulf is an epic poem. An epic is “a long narrative poem that relates the great deeds of a larger-than-life hero who embodies the values of a particular society.” epic hero  What is he? Beowulf is an epic hero; he represents both Anglo-Saxon or Christian values.  What is it about? It is about a transitional point in history (though it is mostly mythological and fictional)  It is poetic, creative, imaginative, and one of the earliest works of art in the English language (albeit Old English)  It is also important to remember that it is NOT a work written in Latin. It is written in the vernacular Old English about people who were England’s founders (or conquerors) in the middle of the first millennium.

What (else)?  Beowulf is also, in very many ways, allegorical.  An Allegory is “A story in which the characters, settings, and events stand for abstract or moral concepts”  It would be better to say that there are allegorical features in Beowulf than to call it an allegory. Just looking at the three creatures Beowulf defeats may help show how the poem can be read allegorically:  Grendel  Grendel’s mother  Dragon  What could these creatures represent?

When?  When was it written?  It was probably written sometime around 700 A.D.  When did the events in it take place?  Again, it is a fictional work. However, it is an imaginative work about people who occupied the Scandinavian region sometime in the 500s A.D.  It is important to remember the vast role time (Past, Present, and Future) plays within the poem itself. Beowulf and the other characters who populate the poem seem to be obsessed themselves with the human relationship to time.

Where?  Where was it written?  It was written down, most likely, in the kingdom of Mercia (East Central England today).  Where do the events in the poem take place?  The action in the poem takes place in Geatland (Southern Sweden) and Denmark  Also consider more specific settings:  The sea, the Mead Hall (Herot), the swamp, the cliff, the battlefield, etc.  But it is also indirectly about the poet who wrote the poem down; we can say this because so many Christian features exist in the work. So it is also about Anglo-Saxon England, but only indirectly. None of the action takes place in England.

Why?  Why do we read it?  It’s a very creative, imaginative, poetic masterpiece.  It gives us insight into the origins of the British people, the culture who, through seafaring conquest, founded the world we currently live in.  It gives us insight into the origins of our language.  It gives us insight into all people everywhere and throughout time (time, birth, death, fame/success/glory, honor, friendship, conflict, home, country, adventure, spirituality—all of these things transcend English literature and matter to all people).  It’s challenging and we all love a good challenge!  It’s scary and gets us to think about our own worst fears.  It’s a VERY important piece of literature historically.

Review of Important Details  Epic poem  Written in Old-English about the early Christian, but still pagan, Scandinavians who eventually conquered most of England  Epic hero represents the values of his culture