Beowulf Notes

2-part structure
Sunrise and sunset of a hero's life

Sunrise

We se the sunrise in Beowulfs career. We are introduced to him as a young man out to win fame and honor his father's debts. His defeat of Grendel and Grendel's mother come at the beginning of his fame. he will go on and win other honors.

Sunset

We see the sunset of Beowulf's career and life. the second part of the story takes place over 50 years after the first. beowulf is an old man and has been king for a long time. We witness the end of a great career.


3-part Structure

3 monsters-3 Battles-each battle increasing in difficulty.

This Structure focuses on the monsters. this is the story of three monsters and three battles. The danger of each battle and each monster increases as the story progresses.

-Grendel: The battle with Grendel is fought in Herot and with Beowulf wait to ambush him. Beowulf fights with bare hands.

-Grendel's Mother: the battle with the mother is fought in her lair. Beowulf, the intruder, swims for a day the depth of a fiery lake while the mother waits and ambushes him. He saves himself by using an ancient sword that he finds in her hall

-The dragon: The worm breathes fire and contains venom. Nothing compares to it and to make matters more complicated Beowulf is an old man.


Interweaving Stories or Interlacing of narrative

-Presenting the narrative with memories of the past. So, you have Beowulf fighting Grendel and then a story of the past that corresponds with what happened, or comments on it.

-Action and Reflection; Action and Wisdom; Glorious Deeds and Feuds; Battles and Wisdom; about Peace

-This structure uses the idea of the Anglo-Saxon belt with the interlacing knots suggesting that all things- past and present- are connected. Wyrd.

Parallelism

-What happens in the story is parallel to a story that the bard sings. Example the bard sings of Sigmund killing a dragon. This song parallels and foreshadows beowulf later killing the dragon. The stories of feuds and ambushes in the text (such as the story of Finn) parallels the ambush and burning of Herot.


Seamus Heaney

-Sees a fifth way to look at the poem
-The story and destiny of three nations
-Danes
-Geats
-Swedes

Line Structure in Old English Poetry

-Old english poetry worked primarily on stresses and alliteration
-Each line had four stressed words. There was a pause or a caesurs after the 2nd stress.
-Each line held three alliterative words.
-Gomban gyldan: paet waes god cyning!

Literary Terms

Caesura: A strong pause within a line.

Alliteration: the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of two or more words.

Litotes: A kind of undersatement, often humorous, where the speaker or writer uses a negative of a word ironically to mean the opposite. Example: She's not the prettiest girl (She's damn ugly) Literary Example: "The Grave's a fine and private place, but none, i think, do there embrace."

Kenning: A metaphorical phrase or compound metaphor (usually a two-word metaphor) used instead of the name of the thing. Example: whale road or sheperd of evil. A compressed metonymy often involving a riddle.

Epic Hero: A hero in an epic. This hero usually has above average strength, intelligence, and morals. He is a symbol for what the culture stands for or believes in. Beowulf- represents the ultimate warrior in a warrior culture. often the epic hero also has a flaw (a heroic flaw) that serves to remind the culture of faults even in the best of things.

Epic Boast: A kind of resume presented by the epic hero. It could be seen today as a type of bragging, but in the warrior culture it was expected of a warrior to discuss his achievements and prowess before asking for the right to fight a foe.

Flytes or Flyting: A game of verbal taunting between warriors. A type of epic boasting. A good example of this would be the verbal exchange between Beowulf and Unferth. A type of epic boasting. He unleashed his WORD-HOARD.

Metonymy: A figure in speech in which one thing is represented by another that is commonly and often physically associated with it. EXAMPLE: Bran's size , "no house could contain him," could be a metonymy for the size of his army or kingdom.

Synecdoche: A figure in speech in which a part of something is used to represent the whole. EXAMPLE: All hands on deck, or 12 sails on the horizon.

Appositive: A building up of phrases that mean the same thing. Tjis was characteristic of oral poetry to have a set of stock phrases that could be used to fit a pattern. The build up is supposed to have climatic effect. EXAMPLE: the shepherd of evil, gaurdian of crime.

Motif: Any recurrent image, symbol, theme, character type, or narrative detail, subject.

Motifs in Beowulf: Kin Killing, Feuds and ambushes, Women mourning, The arming of the warrior (swords), Heads and limbs, the giving of gifts.

Allusion: A reference to a person , event, statement, or theme found in literature, the arts, myths, religion, or popular culture. EXAMPLE: Beowulf contains numerous allusions to the bible.


Symbols: Herot, Grendel's Lair, Grendel's, arm, Swords, The dragon's treasure, the Three monsters, Many of the characters in the digressions.

Characters: Beowulf, hrothgar, Unferth, Brecca, Shield Sheafson (Scyld Scefing), Heorogar, Wulfgar, Grendel, Grendel's Mother, Wealtheow.

Roles of women:
Peacemaking, biologically through a woman's marital ties with foreign kings as a peace-pledge or a mother of sons. Secondly, it involves peacemaking socially and psychologically as a cup-passing and peace-weaving queen within a hall.
Hostess, Peace Pledge, Monster.

Comitatus: germanic tribes which invaded britain held strong beleiefs in the basic family unit and were industrious and warlike. They choose their kings for birth and thier generals for merit. Even poor tribal members could become rich and powerful if they were willing and able to prove themselves brave and adept in battle. the practice of Comitatus (a term used by the early historian Tacitus) was an agreement by which a youth would attach himself to a strong leader for the purpose of gaining riches and prestige. This arrangement could have been the precursor oof the lord-thane relationship of feudal institutions of the time, which can also be observed in Beowulf.
-Exile was the worst thing that could happen to a warrior.
-Kin-Killing was the worst crime that one could commit in this society.
-Cowardice equaled failure. It was better to die well in battle than to run away and live to fight another day.

Warior Culture: Warriores kept their armor and weapons at their sides at all times. The beowulf poet praises the Geats. "They were always prepared for war, weather at hom or in the feild, as their lord required" (1246-50). the warriosr's kit would include a helmet, shield, spear, and chainmail, and, if he had high status, a sword. They used crested or combed helmets from the 7th and 8th century, with a very sturdy all-iron construction. Mail shirts cinsisted of rows of riveted rings alternating with of butt-welding rings. the rings were of gray steel , skillfully formed into an intricatee meshm and they liked and jingled on the move. Shields and spears were part of the basic fighting kit of the war-band. Swords were powerful heirlooms. etc...

Christianity: the poet of Beowulf is christian, but the society he describes is not. Sometimes the narrator's voice comments from a christian perspective on pagan values, beliefs, and customs.

Revenge: the death of a kinsman must be avenged by his male relations, in blood or in money.

Wergild- the principal that a man can extract money for the death of kin.

kinsmen: kin isnt just family, it is friends and one who owed favors.