ANOTHER KIND OF BATTLE
He’s back. He’s not. He lives on. He is dead. Beowulf is all of these. As long as even one person holds memories of another, the dead walk in the world. The majority of epics end when the protagonist dies. Not so with Beowulf. We now enter an ancient landscape of battle, a favorite “sport” of the human species. Is human nature good or evil? What was Beowulf’s nature? As we continue the story past Beowulf’s death, we see that both and all are at least partially true.
And now . . . After the hero . . .
. . . Before long
The battle-dodgers abandoned the wood, The ones who had let down their lord earlier,
The tail-turners, ten of them together.
When he needed them the most, they had made off.
Now they were ashamed and came behind shields, 2850
In their battle-outfits, to where the old man lay.
They watched Wiglaf, sitting worn out,
A comrade shoulder to shoulder with his lord,
Trying in vain to bring him round with water.
Much as he wanted to, there was no way
He could preserve his lord’s life on earth
Or alter in the least the Almighty’s will.
What God judged right would rule what happened
To every man, as it does to this day.
Then a stern rebuke was bound to come 2860
From the young warrior to the ones who had been cowards.
Wiglaf, son of Weohstan, spoke
Disdainfully and in disappointment:
“Anyone ready to admit the truth
Will surely realize the lord of men
Who showered you with gifts and gave you the armor
You are standing in--when he would distribute
Helmets and mail-shirts to men on the mead-benches,
A prince treating his thanes in hall
To the best he could find, far or near-- 2870
Was throwing weapons uselessly away.
It would be a sad waste when the war broke out.
Beowulf had little cause to brag
About his armed guard, yet God who ordains
Who wins or loses allowed him to strike
With his own blade when bravery was needed.
There was little I could do to protect his life
In the heat of the fray, yet I found new strength
Welling up when I went to help him.
Then my sword connected and the deadly assaults 2880
Of our foe grew weaker, the fire coursed
Less strongly from his head.
But when the worst happened
Too few rallied around the prince.
“So it is goodbye now to all you know and love
On your home-ground, the open-handedness,
The giving of war-swords.
Every one of you
With freeholds of land, our whole nation,
Will be dispossessed, once princes from beyond
Get tidings of how you turned and fled
And disgraced yourselves. A warrior will sooner 2890
Die than live a life of shame.”
Then he ordered the outcome of the fight to be reported
To those camped on the ridge, that crowd of retainers
Who had sat all morning, sad at heart,
Shield-bearers wondering about
The man they loved: would this day be his last
Or would he return.
He told the truth
And did not balk, the rider who bore
News to the cliff-top. He addressed them all:
“Now the people’s pride and love, 2900
The lord of the Geats, is laid on his deathbed,
Brought down by the dragon’s attack.
Beside him lies the bane of his life,
Dead from knife-wounds.
There was no way Beowulf could manage to get the better
Of the monster with his sword.
Wiglaf sits at Beowulf’s side, the son of Weohstan,
The living warrior watching by the dead,
Keeping weary vigil, holding a wake
For the loved and the loathed. 2910
Now war is looming
Over our nation, soon it will be known
To Franks and Frisians, far and wide,
That the king is gone.
Hostility has been great among the Franks
since Hygelac sailed forth At the head of a war-fleet into Friesland:
There the Hetware harried and attacked And overwhelmed him with great odds.
The leader in his war-gear was laid low,
Fell amongst followers;
that lord did not favor
His company with spoils. The Merovingian king 2920
Has been an enemy to us ever since.
“Nor do I expect peace of pact-keeping
Of any sort from the Swedes.
Remember: At Ravenswood, Ongentheow
Slaughtered Haethcyn, Hrethel’s son,
When the Geat people in their arrogance
First attacked the fierce Shylfings.
The return blow was quickly struck
By Ohthere’s father. Old and terrible,
He felled the sea-king and saved his own 2930
Aged wife, the mother of Onela
And of Ohthere, bereft of her gold rings.
Then he kept hard on the heels of the foe
And drove them, leaderless, lucky to get away,
In a desperate route to Ravenswood.
His army surrounded the weary remnant
Where they nursed their wounds; all through the night
He howled threats at those huddled survivors,
Promises to axe their bodies open
When dawn broke, dangle them from gallows 2940
To feed the birds. But at first light
When their spirits were lowest, relief arrived . . .
Background
In Beowulf, warfare is one of the main themes. The author glorifies wars and battles, portraying them as heroic and honorable events. Reading this poem, it seems that "in a warrior society, the values of which the poem constantly invokes," bloodshed is a way of life, and the dominant characteristic of this culture. Combat settles feuds and territorial disputes, determines a person's worth through bravery and victory, and is the only form of justice available. Battles are portrayed as signs of heroism. The warriors brag about their victorious clashes and boast about future adventures. One is dishonored if found guilty of cowardliness, as happens to Unferth. An ideal warrior is fearless, and heroic. The author supports this idea through his description of a commendable Danish leader Scyld Scefing, who takes "mead - benches away from enemy bands, from many tribes, [and] terrifie[s] their nobles." Beowulf, the main character further supports these ideas. He proves himself a hero through courage and victory. He defeats enemy tribes, monsters galore, including Grendel and his mother and in the end the dragon. His success in warfare and glory in battle obtains him respect and allows him to become a good leader. His ideology that "fate often saves an undoomed man when his courage is good" is the example of an ideal warrior of the time.
Beowulf himself is a primary example of this cultural practice. He tells Hrothgar that "It's better for a man to avenge his friend than much mourn." The methods of ending the feuds through marriages, and wergilds, were often unsuccessful. Unfulfilled feelings of bitterness stay and grow in the minds of the men until they are unleashed in violence. Older warriors "will provoke and remind [the younger warriors] at every chance with wounding words until the moment comes that the woman's thane, forfeiting life, shall lay dead, blood-smeared from the sword-bite, for his father's deeds." Thus creating a chain of never-ending feuds and bloodshed, "an the aspect of [this] poem that is apt to make the most powerful impression on the reader - its strong sense of doom.
Exploration 1: The Almighty is mentioned many times in the epic. To what or to whom does the epithet refer? A Christian tinge gleams upon the term. How does this fit into the “pagan” beliefs of Beowulf’s time?
Exploration 2: “. . . There was little I could do to protect his life . . .” Roughly line 2840. Who is the “I” speaking.” This voice makes a sudden entry. Why?
Exploration 3: Do you feel the rumblings or war coming? If so, what gives you that impression?
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