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BEOWULF READING GUIDE AND COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS: PART ONE

In order to make your progress through Beowulf as painless as possible, have this handy, and be sure to get a handle on the most important characters (names bolded) and events. Individuals with name meanings Beowulf (of course): the titular hero, the leader of a war-band of the Geats (“bee-wolf”—a poetic, or possibly euphemistic, term for “bear”) Grendel: the slaughterer of the Danes (“crusher” or “grim one”?) Hrothgar: the now-aging King of the Danes (“famous spear”) Unferth: a warrior in the Danish retinue (possibly “no-heart,” i.e. “coward”) Wealtheow: queen of the Danes, and Hrothgar’s wife (“foreign servant”; it’s possible she was captured by Hrothgar in a raid. Wealh is the OE word for “Welsh”) Nations and tribes Danes: the occupants of the coastal regions of Denmark, ruled by Hrothgar Geats: a Scandinavian people, from southeastern Sweden, ruled by Hygelac Places (see maps on Blackboard) Denmark: not the entirety of modern Denmark, but probably Zealand (Sjælland), the island that now contains Lejre (one of the proposed sites for the historical Heorot) and Copenhagen Heorot: [OE for hart, or deer; possibly also a pun on heort, “heart”] the great feasting hall built by Hrothgar to celebrate his success in battle; subsequently attacked by Grendel Geatland (Gotland?): probably southeastern Sweden or the islands just off the coast, including Ostland and/or Gotland Genealogy of Hrothgar’s family

Future events: The royal family of the Danes has a bloody history with that of the Heathobards, another Scandinavian tribe. SPOILERS: Hrethric becomes king after Hrothgar’s death but is betrayed by his cousin Heoroweard to the enemy Heathobards. Freawaru is married as part of a peace treaty between the feuding Danes and the Heathobards, but the treaty (as Beowulf predicts) is almost immediately broken. Comprehension questions and questions to prepare for discussion:

1.) Be able to differentiate between the main characters listed above. Understand Grendel’s motives for attacking Heorot.

2.) Match the readings from the Six Ages of the World to the closest or most relevant passages in Beowulf. What does this suggest about nature of the poem’s inspirations? What sort of person is writing this poem?

3.) What, according to Augustine, is the definition of a human being?

4.) Genealogy and family history is important throughout the poem, but it is especially significant in the first part. Consider why this might be so. What does the past have to do with present concerns? Whose genealogies do we have?

5.) Look at the speech of Unferth. Why do you think Unferth is allowed to speak the way he

does, and why does Beowulf respond the way he does?

6.) Think about the definitions of humanity provided by Augustine. Based on them and your reading of the relevant passages in Beowulf, is Grendel a human or an animal? Give your reasons, including passages from Augustine and relevant citations from the poem (include line numbers in your notes).

Augustine of Hippo, The City of God against the Pagans Chapter Eight.—Whether certain monstrous races of men descend from Adam or Noah's Sons It is also asked [by pagans and non-Christians] whether we ought to believe that certain monstrous races of men, which are spoken of in secular history, have descended from the sons of Noah—or rather, from whom they themselves were descended [i.e. Adam]. For it is reported that some have one eye in the middle of the forehead [Cyclopes]; some with feet turned backwards from the heel; some, a double sex, with the right breast like a man and the left like a woman, and they alternately inseminate and become pregnant; others are said to have no mouth and breathe only through their nostrils; others are only a few feet high (consequently, the Greeks call them Pygmies). The histories also say that, in some places, the women give birth in their fifth year and do not live beyond their eighth. So too they tell of a race who have two feet but only one leg and are of marvelous swiftness, although their leg does not bend at the knee; they are called Sciopodes [Shade-feet or Umbrella-feet], because in hot weather they lie down on their backs and shade themselves with their feet. Others are said to have no head and have their eyes in their shoulders, and other human or quasi-human races are depicted in mosaic on the harbor esplanade of Carthage, on the authority of these histories of rare creatures. For that matter, what should I say of the Cynocephali [literally Dog-heads], whose doglike head and barking proclaim them beasts rather than men? However, we are not required to believe all we hear of these monstrosities. But: if whoever, regardless of where he is, is born as a man—that is, as a living being that is rational and mortal, no matter what unusual appearance he possesses in his color, movement, or way of speaking, no matter how strange he is in some power, part, or quality of his nature, no Christian can doubt that he descends from that one common ancestor. We can distinguish a common human nature from that one which is peculiar and therefore remarkable. [That is, we can come up with a general rule for what humans look like physically, but also recognize that there are people who are exceptions to this rule while still considering them to be human beings.] [Augustine continues to set up an analogy: There are numerous records of “monstrous births”— what we would today call physical birth defects—in which people are born with bodies that visibly do not conform to what humans are expected to look like, but they are obviously human, since they are born from human parents. He lists numerous examples, both from written records and his own experience, of these people.] But who could possibly number the births of people whose shapes have differed wildly from those of their parents? Because no one will deny that these people are all descended from Adam, so all the races which are reported to have diverged in physical appearance from the usual shape which nature almost always follows, if they are included in the definition of man as “a rational and mortal animal,” unquestionably descend from that one first father of the entire human race. [In saying all of this], we are supposing that these stories about various races that differ from one another and from us are actually true—but possibly they are not. For, if we didn’t know that

apes, monkeys, and sphinxes are not men, but beasts,1 natural historians could say they are races of men, and flaunt with impunity their false and vainglorious discoveries…. Accordingly, it shouldn’t seem ridiculous to us, that there are remarkable births among members of individual species, so in the entirety of the human species there are monstrous races. And so to conclude cautiously and guardedly, we can say three things about these “monstrous races”: they have no existence at all, or if they do exist they are not human races [if they are not rational and mortal], or, if they are human, they are descended from Adam. Comprehension questions:

1.) What are the two most basic defining characteristics of a human being? That is, what two things do you have to be in order to qualify as “human”?

2.) From whom do all humans descend?

3.) What sorts of behaviors or attributes do you associate with the concept of “rationality”? That is, what sorts of things do rational beings do?

                                                                                                                1 Classical and medieval Latin both distinguish between the general category of animalia and the more specific sub-category of bestia. Like our modern scientific category called Animalia, animalia simply means “living things,” whether a human being, cow, or cockroach; bestia (from which we get our modern word “beast”) refers to all non-human animals.

The Irish Sex aetates mundi

The text called Sex aetates mundi (Latin for The Six Ages of the World) was compiled in Ireland in the eleventh century, although the material in it dates from much earlier. It is a short chronicle of Scriptural history structured according to a theory of medieval historical writing called “The Six Ages.” The six ages are:

1.) From the Creation to the Flood (Adam to Noah; also called the Antediluvian period, literally “before the Flood”)

2.) After the Flood to Abraham and the institution of the covenant between God and the Israelites

3.) Abraham to King David and the establishment of the kingdom of Israel 4.) David to the Babylonian exile 5.) The exile to the birth of Christ 6.) The birth of Christ to the present day

St. Augustine of Hippo popularized this way of structuring history, pointing out that it the six ages reflect the six days of creation; the seventh age will come about with Christ’s return, as prophesied in Revelations, a parallel to God’s “resting” on the seventh day. The passage from the Sex aetates mundi below is taken from the first age, following the Fall of Man and the murder of Abel by his brother Cain. The figure of Cain was frequently confused or combined with that of Cham (or Ham) in the story of the Flood, so that both of them appear as men whose disobedience and impiety curses them and all their descendants. (This confusion arises partly as a result of medieval handwriting: the – in in Cain’s name and the –m at the end of Ham’s look very similar.) From: Dáibhi Ó Cróinín, ed. and trans., The Irish Sex Aetates Mundi (Dublin: University of Dublin, 1983); printed in Andy Orchard, Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the ‘Beowulf’-Manuscript (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995), pp. 69-70. God commanded the descendants of Seth [Adam’s third son] not to mingle with the descendants of Cain, and not to make children with them, nor to take wives from among them. But the descendants of Seth violated that advice, and took the maidens of the descent of Cain, for their beauty was great, and they made children with them in defiance of God, so that thence there sprang the monsters of the world, giants and leprechauns, and every monstrous and misbegotten shape folk have had.1 But when God saw them break his command he decided to destroy folk entirely, so therefore the flood was sent                                                                                                                 1 A side-by-side verbal comparison of these phrases in Middle Irish, Old English, and Modern English: Sex aetates mundi de sin ro geinset torothair fomoraig luchorpáin goborchind Beowulf þanon onwocon untydras eotenas ylfe orcneas Modern English from there arose monsters giants elves goblins

across the world, to destroy the descendants of Cain… Concerning the history of monsters, that is leprechauns and giants… And so Cham is the first person that was cursed after the Flood, and he is the heir of Cain after the Flood, and from him there sprang leprechauns, and giants, and horseheads, and in general every unshapely form that men have…. Annotation questions:

1.) Describe the genealogy of monsters. Where do they come from and why do they exist?

2.) Find passages in Beowulf that describe the genealogy of Grendel and Grendel’s mother. Where, according to the poet, do they come from? (Be sure to note line numbers.)

3.) Look at the footnote above. The word-for-word parallels between the Irish text

and the Old English text are striking (the translation of those words and phrases is given in the row labeled Modern English). What can you conclude, even if tentatively, from observing these linguistic parallels?

BEOWULF READING GUIDE AND COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS: PART TWO

Individuals with name meanings Finn: the lord of the Frisians, who is married to the Danish princess Hildeburh as, presumably, part of a peace treaty between the Frisians and Danes. He is killed by Hengest. Hengest: a Danish prince and the brother of Hildeburh; he gets revenge for the death of his older brother, Hnæf, at Finn’s hands by killing Finn and burning down his hall (“stallion”) Hildeburh: a Danish princess married to Finn, the lord of the Frisians (“battle tower”) Hygd: the queen of the Geats and Hygelac’s wife (“heart” or “mind,” often with connotations of wisdom) Hygelac: the king of the Geats and Beowulf’s superior (possibly “heart-strife” or “spirited”). He is the third of three sons born to the former king; both his brothers, Herebeald and Haethcyn, are killed (Haethcyn, accidentally, by Herebeald) and his son, Heardred, is also killed in battle; the destruction of his immediate male family line means the crown is given to Beowulf, who is a distant relative of the royal house Nations and tribes Frisians: a people living on the coasts of the modern-day Netherlands, southwest of the Danish peninsula. Their leader, Finn, is killed in a battle with the Danish prince Hengest following the breach of a peace treaty Heathobards: probably from the regions corresponding to southwestern Sweden or eastern Norway. Engaged in a long-standing feud with the Danes Comprehension questions and questions to prepare for discussion:

1.) Both Hildeburh and Grendel’s mother deal with loss in their own ways. What are those

ways, respectively, and do these differences help us understand why the Beowulf poet includes such a long poem in his narrative? Cite passages to support your answer.

2.) Where do you see material that appears to be related to the Vision of St. Paul? What

does this tell us about the scene the passage is describing? And what does it tell us about Grendel and his mother?

3.) How does Heaney portray Grendel’s mother? What are we supposed to think of her as a

character given his translation strategy? On the other hand, how do you feel about her?

4.) Consider the other sources we’ve read alongside Beowulf, and the other characters and events mentioned in the poem. What kinds of books do you think the Beowulf poet’s “library” might have included?

BEOWULF READING GUIDE AND COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS: PART THREE

Individuals Hrethel: Hygelac’s father and predecessor on the throne Hygd: queen of the Geats, married to Hygelac Hygelac: king of the Geats, Beowulf’s kinsman Wiglaf: Beowulf’s younger kinsman and closest surviving blood relative (literally “war-remnant” or “survivor of battle”) Nations and tribes Geats: a tribe or confederacy of tribes to which Beowulf belongs Swedes: the enemies of the Geats Summary the various feuds and battles You do not have to know the names of all the parties involved, but understanding the complicated “international” politics of the feud between the Geats and Swedes is important to understanding the foreboding conclusion of the poem and the poem’s “history of violence” in general. The timeline of the feud is complicated by the fact that events are not told in order. Chronologically, it progresses as such: (ll. 2472-89) Herebeald, one of King Hrethel’s sons, is (accidentally?) killed by his own brother, Haethcyn, during a hunt. Hrethel, despondent, is unable to stop the invasion of the Swedes, which begins after the Swedes hear the Geats have been weakened. Haethcyn is killed in battle against the sons of the Swedish king Ongentheow at Ravenswood; a Geatish warrior, Eofor, kills Ongentheow in retaliation. As a result of Haethcyn’s death, Hygelac (Hrethel’s only surviving son) becomes king, and Beowulf is his best warrior. Wiglaf describes these events in more detail in 2922-3003. (ll. 2367-96) Following Hygelac’s death in Frisia, Beowulf becomes the regent for the heir-apparent, Heardred, who is too young to take the throne. The longstanding feud with the Swedes breaks out again when Onela, a Swedish exile, kills Heardred in the Geatish hall. Beowulf becomes king as a result. He avenges Heardred’s death by allying with another powerful exile, Eadgils, and killing Onela in battle. Other people who do not like the Geats: the Franks and Frisians. Hygelac is killed in battle when he leads an expedition into Frisia against an alliance of Franks, Frisians, and Merovingians, and Beowulf kills a Frank, Dayraven, in another battle. Discussion questions

1.) As we’ve talked about in class, the poem’s history is a “history of violence.” What effect do all of these feuds—between men and monsters, men and other men—create? Does the poet see a “way out” of these cycles?

2.) Examine Beowulf’s speeches to his followers, especially ll. 2425-2537. How is his “last speech” different from his previous speeches, such as his boast to Unferth earlier in the poem, or his description of his defeat of Grendel and his mother to the Geats?

3.) We’ve talked about the “liminal” or uncertain qualities of Grendel and his mother, but what about the dragon? What “monstrous” qualities does the dragon have, and how does it differ from the monstrosity of Grendel and his mother (and, even, Beowulf)?

4.) Speaking of monsters, we’ve talked about Beowulf as being monstrous himself. What makes him monstrous, but what qualities separate him from the monsters he fights? You may want to keep in mind Augustine’s definitions of humanity, as well as our discussion about how humans regulate violence in society.

5.) Compare the tone or mood of the last third of the poem to the first two. Does it seem different to

you?