Home and Family

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.

Bravery vs. Fearlessness

When I was in high school, one of the major literary works that we read was Beowulf. Now, I’ll be honest: I did not like it one bit. Poetry has never been my forte, and seeing an entire book made out of it made me squirm. Its language was way too difficult for me to understand and, frankly, from what I did understand, Beowulf was an egotistical superhuman whose most used power was vanity. However, I will admit that perhaps I did not give Beowulf the chance it deserved a few years back.

            Upon rereading it, I found myself actually enjoying the pace and language of the story. Since high school, I have become more involved with poetry and while it is still not my strong suit, I have a deeper appreciation for the art. With that said, I must continue to support my previous statement of Beowulf being egotistical.

            Throughout the book, Beowulf is regarded, except for a select few, as a great hero who is courageous, strong, and brave. He is boastful about his past achievements, believing that he can do anything, beat any foe who comes his way. He is fearless. And it is at this point that a red flag is raised in my mind.

            Is Beowulf truly brave?

            Bravery to me is facing your fears. It is jumping head first into something even though you are scared. Fearlessness is exactly as it sounds; one does not have anything to fear. Therefore, if Beowulf is fearless, as he certainly seems to be when boasting about his past victories and his decision to fight Grendel not only without his sword and shield but completely naked of any sort of armor, it is difficult to prove that he is also brave.

            When I think brave, I think of Helen Keller who, despite her disabilities of being both deaf and blind, dedicated her life to improving the world’s view and treatment of deaf people; Martin Luther King, Jr., who was part of the Civil Rights Movement and lead the fight against racial discrimination; and, Mother Theresa, who dedicated her life to helping the unfortunate in Calcutta facing both poverty and disease.

            Without fear, there is nothing to overcome.

Beowulf cannot be considered brave. Arrogant, fearless, determined, strong, superhero-like? Yes. Brave? Not a chance.

Now, the question that I am truly stuck on: Is Beowulf a true hero?

It is impossible to say that Beowulf does not do amazing things. He defeats Grendel, saves many people, and let’s not forget the ocean battle with at least nine sea-monsters. However, I always thought that a hero was brave. So, if Beowulf is not brave, is he a true hero?

           

Why Poetry?

While I am an English major, poetry still eludes me at times. Despite this, I have decided to tackle the question, "What makes something 'poetry' rather than 'prose'?" as well as "Why is Beowulf poetry rather than prose?"

To start off with, here is an article from The Poetry Foundation that I found:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2012/04/the-difference-between-poetry-and-prose/

To highlight the key points that are relevant to us:

• Martin Earl - this Poetry Foundation blogger dude who says some really elusive and airy stuff (see, this is why people have issues with poetry) that sandwiches some comprehend-able stuff - states, "Poetry creates its own truth, which at times is the same truth as the world’s, and sometimes not." This, I believe, is the case with Beowulf; Beowulf is this sort of superhuman, for one thing, and this story is not exactly "historically accurate," so it is a truth - a constructed truth, not the truth. Any thoughts on this? Are there any elements within Beowulf that relate to our own "truths" today?
• Earl also states,  "In both classical and modern languages it is poetry that evolves first and is only much later followed by prose, as though in a language’s childhood, as in our own, poetry were the more efficient communicator of ideas. Whether this has to do with the nature of ideation or some characteristic intrinsic to the material evolution of tongues has never been adequately decided." This directly answers the question as to why Beowulf is written in poetry. Beowulf, clearly, falls into this category of linguistic/literary evolution. More than that, though, think about songs that tell stories, or myths and stories that have been passed along for generations - isn't there a certain simplicity of the descriptions that can also be seen in Beowulf? Lengthy and/or descriptive titles of individuals; a sense of community and a common purpose or enemy; a definitive action taken? In this way, I think "poetry" may be our most long-standing form of story-telling.

What makes Beowulf poetry? It has short lines, all that awesome alliteration...anything else? The syntax is quite poetic-y.

How would Beowulf be different were it written like a novel? A graphic novel? Are there elements to the story that might be lost or altered?

Well, I tackled the questions, but I don't know how clean or effective of a tackle it was.

Here's another meme to conclude with:

Beowulf: Super Hero

We grow up our entire lives looking up to someone; whether that is a parent or a story character, we spend our childhoods striving to be like this person.  Most little kids have some form of this and in many cases it was a fictional character with extraordinary powers. Even as we get older people still ask who your "hero" is. For some people it's a literal super hero and for others it is someone they see as a super hero. Beowulf is the past equivalant to someone like superman. He is indestrucatble and capable of winning any battle. He is their hero who can survive through every thing, whether the problem is large or small. I think it’s important to have super heroes, I think they give an escape and in many cases a hope even when things seem bleak. Everyone needs to believe there is someone out there who can save them from the dangers of the world. In Beowulf he is that hope he shows them that it is never over, that the good side always prevails. 

A super hero is steriotypes as a protector, a role model, and an overall good person; especially when we are little we see them as perfect. We need them to help us believe that there is someone there trying to fight the evil and protect us from the bad things lurking out in the world. I think it's a way for people to believe in something and hope for improvment in the world.  The idea that someone can fly and have extreme strength and the ability to survive any attack is outlandish and adults know it's impossible, but it's useful especially to kids. Everybody has to face the inevitable that we aren’t indestructible, we can get hurt and things can go wrong and in many cases we don’t get some muscular man in tights that flies in and saves the day, but super heroes give us that escape. They make us believe that things like that can happen. They show us that even when all hope is lost things can get better; they show us that good wins in the end. 

Beowulf is this super hero for the Danes. While he doesn't come flying in wearing tights, he does come sailing in after twelve years of turmoil to save them from the awful monster that has been terrorizing them. He is their hope when they can’t come up with any other ways to stop the monster. All odds are stacked against him; the most ferocious warriors were slaughtered at the hands of this creature, and then comes a man who is willing to risk his life to end their problems. He has completed amazing feats of strength, even before battling Grendel, that no normal person could ever manage. Beowulf is capable of fighting off sea monsters after swimming for days, and fighting two ferocious monsters with just his bare hands. He is so powerful he rips off the arm of a Grendel, that no sword could cut. Beowulf is the Danes super hero because he can attempt and complete these insane tasks that all before had failed at. While these powers are different than modern super hero's powers they still represent the same idea of good beating evil in the end. Beowulf is a story of this man with amazing skills who has God on his side and this makes him capable of amazing  things. So in reality super heroes were just as important when Beowulf was first told as they are now, they are our hope for a better future where good always wins. 

Beowulf, Hercules, and More Heroes

Go Team Satire! And I don't mean that in a satirical way, I mean it (oh, the corniness). Before I begin with the main topic of my blog, I'd like to give a little backstory as to what Beowulf means to me. This isn't necessarily a diary, I know, but if we are all to know each other well...to know this is to better know me.

My grandfather was called Papa. No, not Pah-Pah like in fairy tales, Pah-Pah! (With the exclamation point.)
Imagine a group of mobsters greeting their father over a dinner feast. That's the kind of Pah-Pah! he wanted to be.
Papa loved stories, and he knew them all. Every constellation was a story of an adventure yet to be told, every dusty old book a doorway to the past just waiting to be opened. And he opened them for me! He gave me my first copy of Beowulf when I was ten. It was a worn old thing, but I loved it. I never read it and he knew it (because let's be real, I couldn't comprehend that particular edition now) so he told it to me.
He told me his version of Beowulf...
which means I know nothing abut what actually happened.
But I know some version, that is half-true and half made-up by him.
Papa passed away this past summer. He was my best friend,
But I'll always have in my heart the best version of Beowulf EVER.

I suppose you're wanting me to "get on with it!" Goodness I love Monty Python (so I will post a segment from one of their movies to cheer up this vibe a little).

Papa was, and IS, my hero. Like King Arthur, or maybe even Beowulf, he is gone but forever here. Papa had his own qualities that made him my hero, as did Beowulf for other people. Let's look at a few of Beowulf's qualities that made him admirable to the readers of the time (I just realized I'm assuming that Beowulf is nobody's hero anymore. Maybe he's yours. If so, comment! Anyway...getting ON with it):

Beowulf is...
Brave
Charismatic
Impressive to look at
Quick on his feet
Has...super-human powers?

Did you catch anything else?
It's interesting to me that Beowulf isn't just, well...a piece of meat. He isn't like Hercules in the ancient Greek legend, who is actually described as the equivalent of a dumb jock, and was actually a pawn during Hera's vengeful wrath.

Oh...Hercules. How you fall for things.

Beowulf is charismatic, he is cunning, and overall, he seems fairly intelligent. Do you think this is significant? Do you think this says something about the culture of the time? Does it make you like Beowulf more?

...Do you like Beowulf as a person at all?
Let me know what you think! And of course, happy reading!