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What are the values of Beowulf the Geat?
What are the values of Beowulf the Geat, in youth and age? To what extent does the poet interrogate these values by introducing other and problematic stories such as the Finn episode, and by Christian asides?
At the end of Beowulf, the hero of the poem dies. His death is tragic, but he has died protecting the values and beliefs he has held throughout the poem and has saved his own people from a terrible monster. Yet, despite all this, the poet manages to end the poem on a dark and melancholic note. How is this possible when Beowulf has done nothing but what he feels and knows is right throughout the poem?
It was the scholar J.R.R Tolkien who was responsible for elevating the Beowulf manuscript above simply being a valuable historical document. As he rightly points out:
"It (Beowulf) is poor in criticism, criticism that is directed to the understanding of the poem as a poem."
Indeed as Tolkien shows in his essay ‘Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics,’ the poem works on many levels, and this would explain the different levels the ending and the whole of the poem work on.
When we first meet Beowulf it is in the golden hall of Heorot and it is clear he has come in conquest, in search of Grendel, a monster that no one has so far been able to defeat. We get a glimpse into Beowulf’s character when he talks about his past exploits (p.15, Heaney). These are important when discussing the young values of Beowulf. We see that he has proved himself in battle many times, sometimes against sea-monsters, sometimes against his countries enemies (their (Geats) enemies bought it upon themselves, I devastated them)
He also shows that he is a strong believer in his fate, right at the end of his speech (line 55, Heaney), and this will become an important element of the poem later on.
This profile of Beowulf as a strong, if somewhat bold young warrior is further supported by the poet when Unferth decides to mock Beowulf’s claim that he will kill Grendel. Unferth is in a similar position in society to Beowulf and yet the values of Unferth are far less honourable; as Beowulf points out, he ‘killed your own kith and kin.’
Already the poet has established that Beowulf is a hero, and overnight he proves it, in a viscous, but ultimately victorious fight with Grendel. In the celebrations that follow, Beowulf is contrasted with Sigemund the Dragon slayer. The first comparison is obvious, Beowulf and Sigemund have both killed an extremely powerful monster, but the poet also uses this opportunity to bring another level of interpretation into the tale. The tale of King Heremod is also included, a King that was betrayed and his kingdom lost to him. This is already foreshadowing an important point in the book – the limitations of what one hero can do and the constant killing and betrayal that exists in Beowulf’s world.
Another element of the poem is the relationship between races and [next page]