On the first day of this class I was taken by surprise when I was asked to think about what England meant to me and what it represented. I’m actually from England, my parents moved to Pennsylvania when I was around two years old. We have no family or history over here and that has led to a sense of placeless-ness I am forced to examine now. My family, even though we were trying desperately to fit in, did not at all. We raised chickens in our backyard, had huge bonfires, and I basically grew up in the woods behind our house. To the dismay of our neighbors I would invite their kids to come and have adventures in the woods with me where we would come back covered in mud and sometimes a little blood. Anyway, this has nothing to do with Beowulf YET but it will don’t worry. But it’s strange, England does not feel like home even though I’ve returned many times and neither does Bucks County Pennsylvania. Even while growing up I thought of it as a very temporary place to me. Okay enough existential garbage.
Every time I read Beowulf I always end up rooting for Grendel. Actually thats a lie, from the very start I am rooting for Grendel. I think it is because all of the kings and danes and beowulf are characterized to be perfect heroes and that's boring. But being a horrible demon descended from Cain is something I can get behind. I am also always fascinated by Grendel's mother who is described to be even more horrible than Grendel. Why have Grendel's family be a matriarch in this land of patriarchs? Would the story change if it had been Grendel's father Beowulf had to eventually fight? This is an interesting choice I want to discuss. It’s astonishing Grendel is given any family at all, it would have made him even more alienated from society if he did not because family ties and lineage matter so much in this land. One of the questions from the content reading I would like to answer is “To what extent are we still judged by our family and/or our friends today?” I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately in general, and the answer is a lot! Humans are pack animals and rejection from other humans can be the equivalent of death in the human brain (let me know if you want a source I’ll find one!). This is why the Mead Hall was built and community is so important in this land (and today) and I think that’s why I alway root for Grendel. He didn’t have any of that! He had no community and maybe all of us inserted into Grendel's experience and isolation would not act dissimilarly.
I also thought the choice of Grendel having a mother was an interesting one in the story. All throughout Beowulf connections to men in the past are established. We get a lot of male characters to work with, but very few female ones. Looking at the family trees in the back of the story, there a lot of men that are mentioned, but most of the women that married them are simply referred to as "daughter". There is a female that is named who actually has a real part in the story....for about a millisecond. Grendel's mother is the only real female representation in the book which I find very interesting. I am also wondering whether or not the story would have been different if it had been Grendel's father and not his mother. We cannot say for sure, but my guess is yes. The author takes so much time to establish the men that the characters are descended from. We do not get too much about Grendel and his mother. Maybe Grendel is so wicked because he did not have a courageous male role model like Beowulf did. Again, this is all speculation, but I think it is a significant part of the story.
ReplyDeleteActually, I might be one of the few who wasn't surprised he had a mother. I have always been the type of reader who looks for what isn't there. So, the fact that Grendel has a mother opened up the possibility of mystery. Could it be that Grendel's mother was a mistress of the king and was cast aside because she became pregnant? That could explain Grendel's intense jealousy and hatred toward the village. Of course, this is just speculation but it makes for some fun "what if..." questions! The mystery surrounding Grendel's paternity opens up his story immensely. If he had a father, it's possible that he could have survived and become well adjusted in ways that his mother couldn't guide him. If Grendel did have some sort of father figure (an uncle, maybe an older cousin?) he might have been taught how the world works and he might have grasped a better handle on his emotions and his physical rampage instead of, you know, eating everyone.
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