3 January 2022 Grendel Cometh – #7

Scholars have debated whether Beowulf was transmitted orally, affecting its interpretation: if it was composed early, in pagan times, then the paganism is central and the Christian elements were added later, whereas if it was composed later, in writing, by a Christian, then the pagan elements could be decorative archaizing; some scholars also hold an intermediate position. Beowulf is written mostly in the West Saxon dialect of Old English, but many other dialectal forms are present, suggesting that the poem may have had a long and complex transmission throughout the dialect areas of England.

It cannot be denied that Biblical parallels occur in the text, whether seen as a pagan work with "Christian coloring" added by scribes or as a "Christian historical novel, with selected bits of paganism deliberately laid on as 'local color'", as Margaret E. Goldsmith did in "The Christian Theme of Beowulf". Beowulf channels the Book of Genesis , the Book of, and the Book of Daniel in its inclusion of references to the Genesis creation narrative, the story of Cain and Abel, and Noah and the flood, the devil, hell, and the Last Judgment.

The Epic Poem Continues . . .

. .  . This formal boast by Beowulf the Geat

Pleased the lady well and she went to sit 640

By Hrothgar, regal and arrayed with gold. . . .

Then it was like old times in the echoing hall, 

Proud talk and the people happy,

Loud and excited; until soon enough

Halfdane’s heir had to be away 

To his night’s rest. He realized

That the demon was going to descend on the hall 

That he had plotted all day, from dawn-light 

Until darkness gathered again over the world

And stealthy night-shades came stealing forth 650

Under the cloud-murk. The company stood 

As the two leaders took leave of each other:

Hrothgar wished Beowulf health and good luck, 

Named him hall-warden and announced as follows: 

“Never, since my hand could hold a shield

Have I entrusted or given control

Of the Dane’s hall to anyone but you.

Ward and guard it, for it is the greatest of houses. 

Be on your mettle now, keep in mind your fame,

 

Beware of the enemy. There’s nothing you wish for 660

That won’t be yours if you win through alive.”

Hrothgar departed then with his house-guard. The 

lord of the Shieldings, their shelter in war, Left the 

mead-hall to lie with Wealhtheow, His queen and bedmate. 

The King of Glory (as people learned) had posted a lookout

Who was a match for Grendel, a guard against monsters,

 Special protection to the Danish prince.

And the Geat placed complete trust

In his strength of limb and the Lord’s favor.

He began to remove his iron breast-mail, 

Took off the helmet and handed his attendant 

The patterned sword, a smith’s masterpiece, 670

Ordering him to keep the equipment guarded.

 And before he bedded down, Beowulf,

That prince of goodness, proudly asserted:

“When it comes to fighting, I count myself

As dangerous any day as Grendel.

So it won’t be a cutting edge I’ll wield

To mow him down, easily as I might. 

He has no ideas of the arts of war,

Of shield or sword-play, though he does possess 680

A wild strength. No weapons, therefore,

For either this night: unarmed he shall face me

If face me he dares. And may the Divine Lord

In His wisdom grant victory

To whichever side He sees fit.”

Then down the brave man lay with his bolster       

Under his head and his whole company

Of sea-rovers at rest beside him.

690

None of them expected he would ever see

His homeland again or get back

 

To his native place and the people who reared him. 

They knew too well the way it was before,

How often the Danes had fallen prey

To death in the mead-hall. But the Lord was weaving 

A victory on his war-loom for the Weather-Geats.

Through the strength of one they all prevailed; 

They would crush their enemy and come through

In triumph and gladness. The truth is clear: 700

Almighty God rules over mankind

 And always has.

Then out of the night

Came the shadow-stalker, stealthy and swift; 

The hall-guards were slack, asleep at their posts, 

All except one; it was widely understood

That as long as God disallowed it,

The fiend could not bear them to his shadow-bourne. 

One man, however, was in a fighting mood,

Awake and on edge, spoiling for action.

In off the moors, down through the mist-bands         710

God-cursed Grendel came greedily loping. 

The bane of the race of men roamed forth, 

Hunting for a prey in the high hall.

Under the cloud-murk he moved towards it

Until it shone above him, a sheer keep

Of fortified gold. Nor was that the first time

He had scouted the grounds of Hrothgar’s dwelling---

Although never in his life, before or since, 

Did he find harder fortune or hall-defenders.

Spurned and joyless, he journeyed on ahead        720

And arrived at the bawn. The iron-braced door 

Turned in its hinge when his hand touched it.

Then his rage boiled over, he ripped open

The mouth of the building, maddening for blood, 

Pacing the length of the patterned floor

 

With his loathsome tread, while a baleful light,

 Flame more than light, flared from his eyes.

He saw many men in the mansion, sleeping, 

A ranked company of kinsmen and warriors

Quartered together. And his glee was demonic, 730

Picturing the mayhem: before morning

He would rip life from limp and devour them, 

Feed on their flesh: but his fate that night 

Was due to change, his days of ravening

Had come to an end.

Mighty and canny,

Hygelac’s kinsman was keenly watching 

For the first move the monster would make. 

Nor did the creature keep him waiting

But struck suddenly and started in;

He grabbed and mauled a man on his bench, 740

Bit into his bone-lappings, bolted down his blood 

And gorged on him in lumps, leaving the body 

Utterly lifeless, eaten up

Hand and foot. Venturing closer,

his talon was raised to attack Beowulf 

Where he lay on the bed; he was bearing in 

With open claw when the alert hero’s

Comeback and armlock forestalled him utterly. 

The captain of evil discovered himself

In a handgrip harder than anything        750

He had ever encountered in any man

On the face of the earth. Every bone in his body 

Quailed and coiled, but he could not escape.

He was desperate to flee to his den and hide

With the devil’s litter, for in all his days

He had never been clamped or cornered like this.

Then Hygelac’s trusty retainer recalled

His bedtime speech, sprang to his feet

And got a firm hold. Fingers were bursting,

 

The monster back-tracking, the man overpowering. 760

The dread of the land was desperate to escape, 

To take a roundabout road and flee

To his lair in the fens. The latching power 

In his fingers weakened; it was the worst trip 

The terror-monger had taken to Heorot.

And now the timber trembled and sang, 

A hall-session that harrowed every Dane 

Inside the stockade: stumbling in fury,

The two contenders crashed through the building.

The hall clattered and hammered, but somehow 770

Survived the onslaught and kept standing:

It was handsomely structured, a sturdy frame

 Braced with the best of blacksmith’s work 

Inside and out. The story goes

That as the pair struggled, mead benches were smashed

 And sprung off the floor, gold fittings and all.

Before then, no Shielding elder would believe 

There was any power or person on earth 

Capable of wrecking their horn-rigged hall

Unless the burning embrace of fire 780

Engulf it in flame. Then an extraordinary 

Wail arose, and bewildering fear

Came over the Danes. Everyone felt it

Who heard that cry as it echoed off the wall,

A God-cursed scream and strain of catastrophe, 

The howl of the loser, the lament of the hell-serf

Keening his wound. He was overwhelmed, 

Manacled tight by the man who of all men

Was foremost and strongest in the days of this life.

But the earl troop’s leader was not inclined 790

To allow his caller to depart alive:

He did not consider that life of much account 

To anyone anywhere. Time and again,

 

Beowulf’s warriors worked to defend

 Their lord’s life, laying about them

As best they could with their ancestral blades. 

Stalwart in action, they kept striking out

On every side, seeking to cut

Straight to the soul. When they joined the struggle

There was something they could have not known at the time, 800

That not blade on earth, no blacksmith’s art

Could ever damage their demon opponent.

He had conjured the harm from the cutting edge 

Of every weapon. But his going away

Out of the world and the days of his life 

Would be agony to him, and his alien spirit 

would travel far into fiends’ keeping.

Then he who had harrowed the hearts of men

 With pain and affliction in former times

And had given offense also to God 810

Found that his bodily powers had failed him. 

Hygelac’s kinsman kept him helplessly 

Locked in a handgrip. As long as either lived

He was hateful to the other. The monster’s whole

Body was in pain, a tremendous wound 

Appeared on his shoulder. Sinews split

And the bone-lappings burst. Beowulf was granted 

The glory of winning; Grendel was driven

Under the fen banks, fatally hurt,

To his desolate lair. His days were numbered, 820

The end of his life was coming over him, 

He knew it for certain; and one bloody clash

Had fulfilled the dearest wishes of the Danes. 

The man who had lately landed among them, 

Proud and sure, had purged the hall,

Kept it from harm; he was happy with his night-work 

And the courage he had shown. The Geat captain

 

Had boldly fulfilled his boast to the Danes:

He had healed and relieved a huge distress,

Unremitting humiliations, 830

The hard fate they’d been forced to undergo,

No small affliction. Clear proof of this

Could be seen in the hand the hero displayed

High up near the roof: the whole of Grendel’s

Shoulder and arm, his awesome grasp.

Background

1 of 3 . . .

Beowulf begins with the story of Hrothgar, who constructed the great hall, Heorot, for himself and his warriors. In it, he, his wife, Wealhtheow, and his warriors spend their time singing and celebrating. Grendel, a troll-like monster said to be descended from the biblical Cain, is pained by the sounds of joy Grendel attacks the hall and kills and devours many of Hrothgar's warriors while they sleep. Hrothgar and his people, helpless against Grendel, abandon Heorot.

Beowulf, a young warrior from Geatland, hears of Hrothgar's troubles and with his king's permission leaves his homeland to assist Hrothgar.

Beowulf and his men spend the night in Heorot. Beowulf refuses to use any weapon because he holds himself to be Grendel's equal. When Grendel enters the hall, Beowulf, who has been feigning sleep, leaps up to clench Grendel's hand. Grendel and Beowulf battle each other violently. Beowulf's retainers draw their swords and rush to his aid, but their blades cannot pierce Grendel's skin. Finally, Beowulf tears Grendel's arm from his body at the shoulder and Grendel runs to his home in the marshes where he dies. Beowulf displays "the whole of Grendel's shoulder and arm, his awesome grasp" for all to see at Heorot. This display would fuel Grendel's mother's anger in revenge.

Exploration 1: Why does Hrothgar trust Beowulf and name his “hall-warden?

Exploration 2: “He did not consider that life/ of much account  / To anyone anywhere.” 

                         Who holds this thought? Whose life is being referred to?

Exploration 3: Why did Grendel’s “bodily powers . . . fail him”?

Exploration 4: Is Beowulf Grendel’s equal as the former thinks?

Exploration 5: What emotions do you have at this point toward Beowulf?