Chapter One: Poetry

1.1 England's National Epic: Beowulf

An epic or a heroic poem generally refers to a long verse narrative on a serious subject. It is usually told in a formal style, on a heroic or quasi-divine figure whose actions have decisive impacts on the fate of a tribe, a nation, or the human race. A national epic is a long narrative poem which seeks or is believed to capture and express the essence or spirit of a particular nation.

As the greatest and the oldest known heroic poem written in Old English, Beowulf has been regarded as the national epic of England. It is the first major poem in a European vernacular language, telling about a hero's triumphs as a young warrior and his fated death as a defender of his people. The poem is remarkable for its sustained grandeur of tone and for the brilliance of its style.

First page of Beowulf

Beowulf is a heroic poem consisting of 3,182 alliterative long lines and was composed sometime between the mid-seventh and 10th centuries. It is often referred to as the first important work of English literature and the greatest of all epics by the Germanic people. But who wrote Beowulf is a question that has mystified experts for centuries. It is generally believed that much of the poem had been in circulation in an oral narrative for many years before its manuscript version.

While the poem itself is English in language and origin, Beowulf deals not with native Englishmen, but with their Germanic forebears, especially with two south Scandinavian tribes, the Danes and the Geats, who lived on the Danish island of Zealand and in the Southern Sweden respectively. As the early Anglo-Saxons were the descendants of Germanic tribes that invaded Britain in the 5th century, there were a lot of shared cultural background between the Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians, and the Anglo-Saxons looked back to their relatives across the sea to tell stories about their own past. So Beowulf is not just a story told in one place (Britain) about another (Scandinavia)—it is also told in one time about an earlier time. In history, there is no evidence of a real hero as Beowulf, but some of the characters, sites and events in this poem can be historically verified.

Selected Reading

Beowulf tells of two major events in the life of the Geatish hero Beowulf. In his youth, he fights and kills Grendel, a monster who has been attacking Heorot, the hall of the Danish king Hroegar, and then he kills Grendel's mother who comes the next night to avenge her son; fifty years later, Beowulf, who has for a long time been the king of the Geats, fights with a dragon who attacks his people. In the combat both Beowulf and the dragon are mortally wounded. Beowulf closes with the king's funeral and a lament for the dead hero.

Beowulf is challenged by a Danish coast guard.

Though it is composed in the English vernacular, the language has changed so much that modern readers will find it difficult to understand.

The excerpt below comes with a contemporary verse translation. The original is a stanza that comes near the end of the poem. Beowulf, now an old king who has ruled the Geats for fifty years, must fight with a fierce flying dragon that guards a treasure hoard and terrorizes the region. These lines tell the history of the treasure: it is the accumulated wealth of a tribe of warriors which has perished. The last survivor of the tribe carries the treasure to the barrow where his people are buried and speaks these words on the transience of earthly things. This excerpt is believed to be the famous part of this national epic.

Beowulf

［The Last Survivor's Speech］

Questions for Discussion

1. Why is the code of ethics between warrior and king so important to the Anglo-Saxon society? How does it reflect in Beowulf?

2. Beowulf is set in a male-dominated world full of violence and danger. What role does patriarchal history play in the world? What is the role of women in the heroic culture of Beowulf?