The eighth-century poem “Beowulf,” whose author remains unknown, is the great heroic epic of Old English. From its pages, scholars have learned volumes about the development of the English language. It also reflects the mix of pagan traditions and Christianity that characterized northern Europe during the early Middle Ages.
“Beowulf” opens at the mead hall of the Danish king, Hrothgar, in the sixth century. For years a monster called Grendal has terrorized Hrothgar’s court, breaking in at night and devouring his warriors. Beowulf, a young prince from Geatland (a region in the south of Sweden), arrives out of the blue with a band of men and dispatches the monster quickly. Grendel’s equally fearsome mother, however, returns to avenge her son, so Beowulf tracks her down to her lair and slays her as well. Upon returning to his kingdom a hero, Beowulf rules as king for fifty years and eventually dies defending his people from a dragon.
Thematically, the poem mixes tenets of the old Germanic warrior code with elements of Christianity, which at the time was still relatively new to northern Europe. The original Beowulf legend, as told and retold orally for generations, had glorified strength, valor, loyalty and vengeance. The “Beowulf” poet occasionally tries to incorporate Christian themes of humility and forgiveness into the original Germanic story, and the tension between the two is at times jarring.
“Beowulf” is written in Old English, the heavily Germanic forerunner to Middle English and modern English. As evidenced in the poem’s opening verse, Old English is virtually unreadable today without translation:
Hwoet we Gar-Dena in geardagum
peod-cyninga prym gefrunon
hu oa oepelingas ellen fremedon
Lo, praise of the prowess of people-kings
of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
we have heard, and what honor the athelings won.
Like much Old English poetry, “Beowulf” uses complicated rules of alliteraton that helped bards recite the thousands of lines of verse from memory. It also makes heavy use of kennings—short, descriptive metaphors that add color to the poet’s descriptions. For instance, the “Beowulf” poet refers to the sea as the “whale-road” and a king as a “ring-giver.”
Though “Beowulf”‘s influence on the development of English literature is often overstated—as the peom was largely forgotten until the 1800s—it is nonetheless a priceless literary and historical document. Since its renewed rise to prominence in the twentieth century, it has inspired the works of poets and novelists from W.H. Auden to J.R.R. Tolkien.
Note: This excerpt is taken from The Intellectual Devotional by David S. Kidder and Noah D. Oppenheim. ©2006 Rodale