Much like my experience with Frankenstein, my only exposure to Beowulf was the animated film "starring" Angelina Jolie. I never had to read it as part of my literature curriculum like most people seem to have had to. As I mentioned in prior ramblings, I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it anyway at that age. That being said, I have fairly mixed feelings about it now. It certainly was a bit richer than some of the other translations I perused prior to buying this one, and in general, I thought the poem was interesting and moderately enjoyable, but I feel this is one of those works that require multiple readings to fully appreciate.
Allow me to, first, describe what I liked about it. It had an air of familiarity with its heavy formalities involving guests. Beowulf arrives at the land of the Danes and tales are told and gifts are exchanged for several pages before he announces why he is there and then the compliments and gift giving begin again. Readers may find this similar to the Greek courtesies toward guests and strangers found in the Odyssey where food and comfort is offered first and foremost, even before names are exchanged. Interestingly, despite this observation, this society is less polite than most. This is a warrior based culture and Unferth, the King's aide, and Beowulf are not afraid to trade insults and Beowulf's only speeches are boasts of what he has done and will do.
I also liked that this has the feeling of an Anglo-Saxon "tall-tale." Beowulf is the warrior version of Paul Bunyan able to do deeds no other man can accomplish. I feel this is different than the Greek tales of Herakles (Hercules) which seems more tied to the gods and the Greek religion than this. This has an interesting feeling of being grounded in reality despite the the monsters and dragons. I almost feel that these are make believe tales of a man that once existed. Reading this almost makes me wonder if there was a beast called Grendel. He kills the beast by removing its arm and it escapes and dies on its own, that is a weird way to tell of a triumph. That is far different that the standard tale of lopping off its head or sending a spear through its heart with a decisive win. That is why it has the strange feeling of being real to me, the telling is too unusual. The lineages of both tribes also lend it a flavor of reality with the names of major kings going back several generations.
Another thing that I liked was the particular cadence of the prose:
"So Grendel ruled in defiance of right,
one against all, until the greatest house
in the world stood empty, a deserted wallstead"
This style of cadence almost gives it the feel of a harmonic chant. I can imagine this being recited by a bard in a gathering of Anglo-Saxons centuries ago. If you pay attention to to the wording you will also pick up on the alliterative style of poetry. "...their wassail was over, they wept to heaven / and mourned under morning. Their mighty prince." You should keep in mind that the translator,Seamus Heaney, was trying to preserve the feel of the original poem and chose his words to use carefully to mimic the same alliteration.
One of the things I did not like about the poem was that Beowulf dies before the end of the poem and we have to spend many pages recalling the feats of a previous king and his heirs and why the Geats may be attacked and then the poem jumps back to Beowulf's last requests being fulfilled. This may seem like a minor issue but the reader has to push through a cast of new characters performing deeds in the past that has little bearing on the story. This actually occurs more than once where we read a story within a story, the feats of previous heroes and kings as well as Beowulf's past deeds. We also have to hear Beowulf recap how he killed the mother of Grendel right after he completes the task.
Perhaps one day after I have explored all of the other works that have attracted my attention, I may see a need to further explore this epic one day and maybe pick it apart in a more scholarly fashion (though doubtfully) but in the meantime there are too many books and so few evenings to read them in!
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