Beowulf as a Model of Dark Ages Masculinity - Book Report/Review Example

?Beowulf as a model of Dark Ages masculinity. INTRODUCTION The Old English poem Beowulf (Hall) is one of the most spectacular examples in the heroic epic genre since it brings to life the struggles of brave warriors, and a single outstanding warrior in particular, in the face of all kinds of danger. It is renowned for its alliterative verse form and its lively depiction of the ancient Germanic warrior culture. In style the work is narrated with a broad sweep and clearly intended to be passed on to future generations in commemoration of the deeds of its hero. This paper examines the detail of what it means to be a hero in the poem, tracing the key qualities that a Germanic hero must possess, and the notion of the heroic journey, which applies to Greek and Roman epics both of which may have influenced the writing of Beowulf (North, 39). Finally it considers social norms in Germanic society and the issue of gender, and defends the thesis that the character of Beowulf is a model of Dark Ages masculinity. QUALITIES OF A GERMANIC HERO One of the most important qualities in a Germanic hero is that of loyalty to his own family, and to those who follow him and support him. The Dark Ages was a period of great uncertainty, since people lived in smaller groups than they do today, and there were many threats which they could only face if they combined their forces with neighbors and friends. There was the usual struggle to provide food for the people and organize society in a stable and ideally peaceful way, coping with natural disasters such as famines and floods, as well as man-made disasters such as wars with other families and tribes. Leaders were responsible for the safety of their liegemen, or followers, and in return those followers protected their leaders. King Hrothgar displays loyalty to his men by building a great feasting hall and inviting everyone there to have a good time (Beowulf, Book II). He is shamed, however, by his failure to protect his people from the predation of monsters. Beowulf himself is introduced in the context of his family affiliation: “Famed was Beowulf, far spread the glory/Of Scyld’s great son in the lands of the Danemen” (Beowulf, Book II, lines 18-19). Any heroic figure in this culture is tightly bound in to a long historical chain of events in which he is destined to bear his heritage with pride and conduct himself with honor in order to bring more glory to his family and other kin. At the start of the poem Beowulf stands in Hrothgar’s debt, because there has been a previous situation in which Hrothgar helped Beowulf’s father, and when the two meet, there is an immediate contrast between the ages of the two men, as Hrothgar recalls “I remember this man as the merest of striplings” (Beowulf, Book VII, line 2). This scene when the old warrior meets the son of his former friend, fills in the detail for the reader or listener about Beowulf’s origins and early life. These ties of loyalty reach from before Beowulf’s birth until long after his death, when his family and followers will continue to be bound by the ties of loyalty that attach to his famous family. Another important quality that distinguishes a hero from ordinary people is his exceptional bravery in the face of danger. Beowulf is supernaturally strong, having allegedly the “thirty men’s grapple” (Beowulf, Book VII, line 9) which refers to the strength of his hands, and suggests that he will be well able to wield a sword in battle. He is brave, like many of his fellow warriors, and he also experiences normal human reactions such as fear. When it comes to a moment of real test, for example when he meets Grendel’s mother in the cave, Beowulf conquers his own fear first, before reaching for the sword that will help him to overcome the monstrous enemy, Grendel. This mental strength, and the belief in his own power to overcome the biggest odds, is what makes Beowulf a hero, and a man who is in a different league than all of the many other brave warriors who have tried to defeat Grendel and have failed. The watching warriors, who cannot see what is happening in the underwater fight between Beowulf and Grendel’s mother, assume that the blood means the death of Beowulf, but as a demonstration of loyalty to their lord, Beowulf’s men wait in trepidation until the end of the battle to find out their master’s fate. The social graces that Beowulf displays are also necessary features of his heroic nature. He is quite at home eating drinking with a royal host and noble guests and he participates fully in this culture of poetry and celebration. Gifts are offered and accepted as public demonstrations of the wealth and generosity of the leading families in Danish and Geat society. For a warrior hero, reputation is everything, and it is the role of poets to encapsulate the hero’s status in verse, and keep his memory alive for future generations. In this society reading and writing were not common skills, and the passing on of genealogy and history was achieved through these narrative poems. Hrothgar recognizes in Beowulf not only a great warrior, which is one aspect of being a hero, but also a facility with words which shows his intelligence, and this is another crucial attribute for a hero who has to find his way in society: “Ne’er heard I an earlman thus early in life More clever in speaking: thou’rt cautious of spirit, Mighty of muscle, in mouth-answers prudent” (Beowulf, Book VVVII, lines 26-28). Beowulf’s possession of both brains and brawn are taken as evidence of his status as an ideal hero in the eyes of Hrothgar. THE ROLE OF THE JOURNEY IN THE MAKING OF A HERO There have been many discussions in the scholarly literature about the nature of the transformation that Beowulf undergoes in the narrative and many of these focus on the motif of the journey. According to Campbell (2008 23) heroic literature normally depicts the main character following through three distinct stages of “separation – initiation – return” in which he is tested by some trial involving supernatural forces. There is always a divine element in the story, whether this be a collection of deities in the polytheistic Greek or ancient Germanic cultures, or the creator God of monotheistic Christianity. In the story of Beowulf, the situation that sparks off the story in that is told in the poem is his feeling of loyalty to and the sense of obligation that arises out of that loyalty. Beowulf wants to repay the hospitality of the Danes by removing the threat from their door and restoring their tranquillity. Within this broad metaphor of the journey of life, there are, in the poem, many smaller arrivals and departures, and this sense of characters walking in and out of the action creates a dynamic environment in which “warrior arrivals and departures turn out to be socially complex affairs, not easily predictable or conventionally scripted. Therein lies their drama” (Hill, 5). The lives of the characters in Beowulf are intertwined, and the disasters and triumphs that befall Beowulf and his men have much wider repercussions throughout several linked kinship groups. The frequent coming and going creates a narrative that loops and weaves rather than following a single linear train of events. There are several attempts to defeat Grendel and his mother, for example, and this is couched in the language of adherence to some greater plan, as for example when Beowulf explains why he let Grendel go and did not kill him in the first encounter: “On murder-bed quickly I minded to bind him. With firm-holding fetters… … I was wholly unable, Since God did not will it, to keep him from going,” (Beowulf, Book XV, lines 38-39; 41-42) This passage shows that there is a tension in the poem between the understanding that the hero has of his own plans, and the working out of some greater destiny which God has in store for him. Beowulf displays a kind of fatalistic acceptance of what happens to him, whether that be victory, defeat, or in this case a kind of half-victory in which damage was inflicted but the enemy escaped, possibly to fight again another day. CONTRASTS WITH THE FEMININE IN BEOWULF It is impossible to ignore the fact that there is a link in Beowulf between monsters and femininity. Grendel’s mother plays a crucial role as the originator of the monster who terrorizes the local humans. The monsters Grendel and his mother in the story have a very important role to play since they “embody social and socio-sexual concerns and anxieties, while they simultaneously represent illicit desires and prohibited practices” (Oswald, 66). The language used to refer to Grendel’s mother reflects what Oswald (78) refers to as her “hybrid identity.” She has some human qualities, since she is referred to as being a lady and a mother, but at the same time she lives in a watery place, unlike the humans who live on the solid ground, and she is also called a “mere-wolf” (Beowulf, Book XXIV, line 41) which emphasizes her predatory and killing nature. She keeps the company of “Many a serpent, mere-dragons wondrous” (Beowulf, Book XXII, line 42) and of “Wild-beasts and wormkind” (Beowulf, Book XXII, line 46) under the waves, and this, too, emphasizes the difference between Grendel’s mother and human foes. The location of the monsters is significant because it, too, represents a big contrast with the world of men. Beowulf must display superhuman swimming skills in order to join in battle with her, which symbolizes his stepping out of the natural habitat of masculine warfare in a traditional battlefield, where all is fought fair and square on an open battlefield, in full view of the surrounding armies. This battle is something shameful and hidden, located in an extraordinary, secret location and involving the taboo of a male warrior attacking a female foe. This taboo is somewhat modified by the fact that Grendel’s mother herself has stepped beyond the limits of feminine behavior in her vicious attack on the human warriors after her son had been seriously injured. This murderous act, committed with great violence, gives Grendel’s mother some masculine qualities, and it is perhaps this which allows Beowulf to overcome any heroic qualms about attacking a woman. The specific obligation to carry out revenge for fallen comrades overrides such a general moral taboo against harming women. BEOWULF AS A MODEL OF MASCULINITY The warrior society of the ancient Germanic peoples was based on patriarchal power and the preservation of dynastic lines in which this power was passed down from father to son, and it is highly significant that as a reward for defeating Grendel, Hrothgar in effect adopts Beowulf as his own son: “Most excellent hero, I’ll love thee in spirit As bairn of my body; bear well henceforward The relationship new” (Beowulf, Book XV, lines 22-24). This shows how the relationships between the men of this patriarchal society are paramount, and indeed the consequence of this for women is that they are condemned to take up a secondary and supporting role since “Intensity and passion are located in the bonds of loyalty and friendship forged between men, and marriage is valued as an extension of this larger emotional context” (Overing, 74). The monsters Grendel and his mother, on the other hand, are not part of this close-knot community and their isolation is seen as a sign of their otherness. From a feminist perspective, this fate is shared to some extent even by high-born human women, as in the view of Overing (75) who goes so far as to claim that “The women in Beowulf, whether illegitimate monsters or pedigreed peace-weaving queens, are all marginal, excluded figures.” Certainly the focus is on the men throughout the poem, and Beowulf in particular demonstrates the stereotypical male attributes of controlled aggression, confidence and leadership. The way that the action takes place also highlights Beowulf’s masculinity. In the first half of the poem, the human warriors are in the role of victim, being randomly attacked by Grendel. In the face of the intolerable and emasculating situation of liegemen being captured and eaten by Grendel, Beowulf decides to intervene and travels out to meet the monsters in their home territory. This decision transfers the action to the hero, and allows him to turn the tables and put Grendel and his mother into the role of passive victims, while he assumes the role of conquering hero. Instead of a sneaky attack on sleeping warriors at night, a choice of cowards, Beowulf’s decision to act is a public declaration and an indication of heroic prowess. This example of initiative and courage asserts his masculinity and, by extension, restores masculine honor to the other warriors who had hitherto been shamed by defeat at the hands of the monsters. The capture of Grendel’s arm, and in particular the way it is displayed on the wall of the feasting hall as a trophy, is a celebration of masculine achievement. In a way it parallels Grendel’s dismemberment of the Danish warriors, but the purpose of the dismemberment is not a beastly and selfish desire to consume the flesh. It is a more symbolic act, depicting victory over evil. This fits well with the cult of masculine superiority, serving to enhance the reputation of Beowulf and remind any visitors of the strength and power of this band of warriors and their allies. The more terrible and frightening the trophy is, the more the onlookers admire the courage of the one who defeated it. A relic of this kind of behavior can still be seen today in the way that hunters and fishermen and women often immortalize their prey by having it stuffed and displayed. Little thought is given to the rights of the victim, since their only purpose in death is to highlight the glory of the victor. This has interesting implications in terms of Beowulf’s status in the story as a mortal man who is in some way favored by divine support. The poem is written by a clearly Christian author, who frequently uses terms and phrases from the Bible, and refers to God in terms such as “Guardian of Heaven/The Wielder of Glory” (Beowulf, Book III, lines 67-68). On the other hand the presence of magic weapons, monsters and dragons indicates a mythology pre-dates the Christianization of Northern Europe (Tietjen, 159). Beowulf’s clear alignment with the side of good, alongside the all-powerful Christian God, and against the sinuous, snake-like enemies of the inhospitable swamps and caves, also enhances his masculinity. He plays a Christ-like role of saviour and protector of the weak, and in this respect he epitomizes the brightest and best of human beings. It would be unimaginable to consider a woman in this role, given both pagan and Christian traditions of this time, since sacrificial battle with evil creatures is something that only men are equipped and trained to do. CONCLUSION This paper has outlined the attributes of loyalty, bravery and social graces which Beowulf demonstrates in full through his arrival at the feasting hall and his intervention on behalf of the Danes. In true heroic fashion, Beowulf sets out on many small journeys to take on the monsters who threaten the peace of the realm, and this is echoed in his overall journey from inexperienced youth to, feats of great courage, and ultimately to death and many centuries of renown. This is the path of the ultimate hero, and it is portrayed as a stark contrast to the monstrous femininity of Grendel’s mother, proclaiming Beowulf as the ultimate masculine hero of the Germanic Dark Ages. Works Cited. Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces 3rd ed. Novato, CA: New World Library, 2008. Print. Hall, Lesslie, ed. Beowulf. Boston: D.C. Heath & Co, 1892. < http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16328/16328-h/16328-h.htm > Web. Hill, John M. The Narrative Pulse of Beowulf: arrivals and departures. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008. Print. North, Richard. The Origins of Beowulf: From Vergil to Wiglaf. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print. Overing, Gillian R. Language, Sign, and Gender in Beowulf. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1990. Print. Tietjen, Mary C. “God, Fate, and the Hero of “Beowulf.” The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 74 (2), (1975), pp. 159-171. Web. Read More