Bravery and Heroism in Beowulf

Beowulf is the only surviving heroic epic poem in the old English period. It is an introduction identifies the language and the culture appeared in Britain during the time between the coming of Anglo-Saxons to Britain in the 5th century and the Norman Conquest in 1066. The mixing of several races, tongues, and cultures were a result of invading Britain by several tribes like Picts, Jutes, and Scots. But the West Germanic tribe; Anglo-Saxons was the most influential tribe during this period.

The history of Anglo-Saxons was well-known for their bravery, courage, and loyalty. The protagonist of the poem, Beowulf also a hero who earns his fame and respect through battling with creatures that nobody else would face. Beowulf is praised as a hero after defeating Grendel and his mother and return to his country again. Then he became the king and had a good time with his countrymen for years until a dragon threaten his great city. Beowulf the ultimate protector of his people was able to defeat the dragon, but he was fatally wounded and died due to the poison of the dragon.

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The burial rituals of Beowulf and the faithfulness of his people toward him are vividly depicted in the last episode of the poem.

The first two lines of the extracted part of the poem portray a visual image about the grievances of his 12 knights. “Þá” is adverbial conjunction for “then”. The preposition “ymbe” suggests the idea of “around” and it originates from Proto-Germanic culture. “hlaéw” is a strong, masculine, accusative, singular noun for “the burial mound”.

It is the place where people have been buried in ancient times. The strong verb “riodan” is the third person plural preterite of “ridon” and gives the idea of “rode”. As Baugh and cable explained in the book “A history of English language” there are compounds of two or more native words whose meaning in combination. “hildedéore” is an example for that. It is a combination of the nominative, plural, the masculine adjective “hilde” and “dēor”. Although the word level meaning of these two words are “battle” and “bold” literally it suggests the idea of bravery in the battlefield. “æþelinga” is a strong, masculine, genitive plural noun for “noblemen” or “Son of royal blood”. It derived from the nominative, the singular noun “æþeling”. “A letter used in Old English to represent a vowel intermediate between a and e and from the 16th century onwards used in Latin or Latinized Greek words, representing an original diphthong ae or ai.” (Oxford Dictionary, 2019). “bearn” is neuter, nominative, and plural of “children or the sons”. The genitive, plural, masculine adjective “ealra” which derived from “eall” suggests the idea of “in all”. The word “eall” stands for the idea of “all”. So the prefix “ra” seems to suggest the idea “in” in the poem. The word “twelfa” is a numeral word for twelve.

The anomalous verb “woldon” is a third person, plural, pretertie, plural of “willan” and it gives the idea of “they wished”. “cearge” is the masculine, nominative, strong adjective of “cearig” and it indicates the idea of “sorrow” or “sad”. “cwíðan” is an infinitive, weak verb of “lamenting” or “bewailing”. In the poem, it literally gives the meaning “to voice”. The modern equivalent of “ð” is “eth”. In old English “kyning” is an alternative form of “cyning”. The meaning of “kyning” is “the king” and it is a strong, masculine, accusative, singular noun. The infinitive and weak verb “maénan” literally suggests the idea of moaning or expressing sadness about the death of Beowulf. An “elegy” is a sad song or a poem especially sings when remembering someone who has died. In the poem the strong, singular, accusative, neuter noun “wordgyd” has been used to convey that idea. The strong, infinitive verb “wrecan” is an alternatively spelled word for “Þrecan” and gives the idea of “reciting a poem”. “The pronunciation of Old English words commonly differs somewhat from that of their modern equivalents. The vowels in particular have undergone considerable modification.” (Baugh and Cable 2005). Thus, the Old English word “ond” is the same word as Modern English “and”, but the vowel is different. “ymb” is a preposition which stands for “about” and it derived from strong, masculine noun “ymbe”. The usual old English word for “an adult male person” was “wer” and it was a masculine, accusative, singular noun. The word man did not start being used in that sense until late in the old English period. “wer” continued into Middle English, but by the late thirteenth century had been replaced by “man”. “sprecan” is a strong, present tense verb for “to speak”. The anonymous writer of Beowulf has used this word to highlight the supremacy and nobility of Beowulf upon the speakers in the poem.

“eahtodan” is a weak, third person, perterite, plural verb for “they praised” and it was originated from weak verb “eathtian”. The idea of nobility is suggests through strong, masculine, nominative noun “eorlscipe”. The third person pronoun “his” does not seem to change even in the modern English but in old English it belonged to genitive, singular, masculine category. The word “ellenweorc” is a combination of “ellen” and “weorc”. It gives the idea of courageous deeds. This word belonged to neuter, accusative, plural category. The feminine, strong, dative noun “duguðum”, which derived from “duguð” has the idea of glorify. The weak, third person, plural, preterite verb is a west-Saxons verb for “to judge” or “to praise”.

The final episode of the poem describes the incidents after the death of Beowulf. The poet creates a mood of mourning but he has deliberately restored the glory in it. The greatness of Beowulf’s life is significantly highlighted in his funeral. Heroism is a constant obsession of the world of Scandinavians. So here in the explained lines, Beowulf’s’ twelve sons, most probably his knights were expressing their sadness due to loosing such a courageous, mighty, loyal warrior and the deepest sympathy of them highlight the idea of Tribal allegiances which existed in the medieval Germanic culture. On another hand it highlights how it affects to the sovereignty of the kingdom also. Some critics argue that, Beowulf died because of his hubris. Hubris means the excessive confidence or pride (Oxford, 2019). Although Beowulf was a middle age adult when the dragon was attacking, he decided to face along due to his own determination. This warrior mentality was a common feature during Scandinavian period. So Beowulf and his excessive pride eventually becomes his downfall.

Beowulf was written between 8th and 10th centuries in modern day England. During that time the dominant religion was paganism, but their belief system was undergoing a great transformation due to the influence of Christian religion. It can be argued that the writer tries to highlight more spiritual side of life through an underlined theme which repeats throughout the story. The epic poem has series of funerals from the beginning. According to my point of view these repetition of funerals emphasize the continuity of the world theories with slight variations and it proceed in an endless way like the seasons of the year.