Beowulf

A.Characters

Beowolf-The hero of the epic(protagonist), Beowulf is a Geatish legend who battles the beast Grendel, Grendel’s mom, and a fire-breathing monster. Beowulf’s gloats and experiences uncover him to be the most grounded, ablest warrior around. In his childhood, he exemplifies the entirety of the best estimations of the brave culture. In his mature age, he demonstrates an insightful and viable ruler.

King Hrotgar-The lord(king) of the Danes. Hrothgar appreciates military achievement and success until Grendel threatens his domain. A savvy and matured ruler, Hrothgar speaks to an alternate sort of administration from that displayed by the young warrior Beowulf. He is a dad figure to Beowulf and a model for the sort of lord(king) that Beowulf becomes.

Grendel-An evil presence slipped from Cain, Grendel goes after Hrothgar’s warriors in the ruler’s mead-lobby, Heorot. Since his heartless and hopeless reality is a piece of the retaliation claimed by God for Cain’s homicide of Abel, Grendel fits determinedly inside the ethos of retribution that oversees the universe of the sonnet.

Grendel’s Mother-An anonymous bog witch, Grendel’s mom appears to have less human characteristics than Grendel, in spite of the fact that her fear based oppression of Heorot is clarified by her longing for retribution—a human inspiration.

The Dragon-An antiquated, incredible snake, the mythical beast monitors a swarm of fortune in a concealed hill. Beowulf’s battle with the mythical beast comprises the third and last piece of the epic.

Shield Sheafson-The amazing Danish lord from whom Hrothgar is slid, Shield Sheafson is the legendary organizer who introduces a long queue of Danish rulers and exemplifies the Danish clan’s most elevated estimations of gallantry and administration. The sonnet opens with a short record of his ascent from vagrant to warrior-ruler, closing, “That was one acceptable lord”

Beow-The subsequent lord recorded in the parentage of Danish rulers with which the lyric starts. Beow is the child of Shield Sheafson and father of Halfdane. The storyteller presents Beow as a blessing from God to a people needing a pioneer. He represents the saying, “Conduct that is appreciated/is the way to control among individuals all over the place” .

Halfdane-The father of Hrothgar, Heorogar, Halga, and an unnamed daughter who married a king of the Swedes, Halfdane succeeded Beow as ruler of the Danes.

Wealhtheow – Hrothgar’s wife, the gracious queen of the Danes.

Unferth – A Danish warrior who is jealous of Beowulf, Unferth is unable or unwilling to fight Grendel, thus proving himself inferior to Beowulf.

Hrethric – Hrothgar’s elder son, Hrethric stands to inherit the Danish throne, but Hrethric’s older cousin Hrothulf will prevent him from doing so. Beowulf offers to support the youngster’s prospect of becoming king by hosting him in Geatland and giving him guidance.

Hrothmund – The second child of Hrothgar.

Hrothulf – Hrothgar’s nephew, Hrothulf betrays and usurps his cousin, Hrethic, the rightful heir to the Danish throne. Hrothulf’s treachery contrasts with Beowulf’s loyalty to Hygelac in helping his son to the throne.

Aeschere – Hrothgar’s trusted adviser.

Hygelac – Beowulf’s uncle, king of the Geats, and husband of Hygd. Hygelac heartily welcomes Beowulf back from Denmark.

Hygd – Hygelac’s wife, the young, beautiful, and intelligent queen of the Geats. Hygd is contrasted with Queen Modthryth.

Wiglaf – A young kinsman and retainer of Beowulf who helps him in the fight against the dragon while all of the other warriors run away. Wiglaf adheres to the heroic code better than Beowulf’s other retainers, thereby proving himself a suitable successor to Beowulf.

Ecgtheow – Beowulf’s father, Hygelac’s brother-in-law, and Hrothgar’s friend. Ecgtheow is dead by the time the story begins, but he lives on through the noble reputation that he made for himself during his life and in his dutiful son’s remembrances.

King Hrethel – The Geatish king who took Beowulf in as a ward after the death of Ecgtheow, Beowulf’s father.

B.Settings

*Denmark and Geatland (a region in what is now southern Sweden)

*Beowulf is set in Scandinavia, at some point around the year 500 A.D, in the domains of two innate gatherings, the Geats and the Scyldings, who truly existed and truly lived in those territories during the time of the ballad. A significant number of the sonnet’s figures, including Hrothgar, Hygelac and Wiglaf, may have been genuine individuals, and all the ballad’s minor occasions, for example, the demise of Hygelac and the fight among Geats and Swedes—may have truly occurred. Be that as it may, the scene of the sonnet is anecdotal and emblematic. There’s no proof in the ballad that its writer at any point saw Scandinavia. The universe of the sonnet is sorted out from the inside outwards. At the focal point of every realm is a mead-corridor, a position of warmth, giggling, companionship, narrating and festivity. Past the mead-corridor, the world is cold and dim, getting darker the further you go from the lobby. Horrible disasters hide in the external darknesses. Beowulf is fixated on these spaces, the outskirts among human advancement and wild. Grendel is a “mearc-stapa” (l.103), an “outskirt stepper,” and every one of the three of the sonnet’s beasts hide in the edge-unsettled areas. Beowulf, as well, is related with wild fringe spaces: we initially meet him on a sea shore, and he’s likewise on the shore when we leave him, in his entombment hill.

C.Plot and structure device

Exposition

 The story is set in Scandinavia, and it opens by introducing King Hrothgar and his lineage. Hrothgar and his descendants have been plagued by the monster Grendel invading the mead-hall each night and killing the soldiers, who try in vain to fight him. This information provides important context and characterization. It shows Grendel’s apparent invincibility and shows what’s at stake for the Danes if the demon is not defeated. The exposition also introduces Beowulf, who hears about the problem with Grendel and sees a challenge that he wants to pursue. He decides to go to Hrothgar to fight Grendel and prove his valor. This decision sets up the central dramatic situation, which is the fight between Beowulf and Grendel.

Complication

After waiting twelve winters after Grendel’s destruction, Beowulf comes to the Danes to repair what was destroyed. Climax Beowulf battles the Grendel, but when the Grendel becomes defeated, Beowulf seizes the Grendel’s mother revenge of her son.

Climax  ·

 Beowulf tries to kill Grendel’s mother with his sword, but it won’t pierce her skin. He is forced to fight her with his bare hands. The two wrestle back and forth until Beowulf finds a huge, ornamental sword, made by the giants of the land. He hits her over the head with the sword and cuts her in half. The sword blade melts from her hot blood, but Beowulf takes Grendel’s head, not the mother’s, and the handle of the sword back to his home land to present to the king and his people.Falling Action Beowulf tries to kill Grendel’s mother with his sword, but it won’t pierce her skin. He is forced to fight her with his bare hands. The two wrestle back and forth until Beowulf finds a huge, ornamental sword, made by the giants of the land. He hits her over the head with the sword and cuts her in half. The sword blade melts from her hot blood, but Beowulf takes Grendel’s head, not the mother’s, and the handle of the sword back to his home land to present to the king and his people.

Falling Action

Beowulf’s glorious victory over Grendel’s mother leads King Hrothgar to praise him as a worthy hero and to advise him about becoming king. It also helps Beowulf to transform from a brazen warrior into a reliable king.

Resolution

the fight between the Beowulf and Wiglaf, and the dragon. Both the dragon and Beowulf die. The dragon is pushed off the headland into the sea, while Beowulf is cremated and a large tower built on the site.

Beowulf’s tribe, the Geats, it is predicted, will then be invaded, defeated and enslaved by surrounding Swedish tribes, who have been kept at bay by Beowulf’s reputation and individual prowess in battle.

The last lines of the poem are an elegy or an encomium for Beowulf, highlighting the outstanding aspects of his personality and behaviour

Literary Devices

Foreshadowing  · The funeral of Shield Sheafson, with which the poem opens, foreshadows Beowulf’s funeral at the poem’s end; the story of Sigemund told by the scop, or bard, foreshadows Beowulf’s fight with the dragon; the story of King Heremod foreshadows Beowulf’s eventual ascendancy to kingship.

Background Information

In the novel Beowulf ;literary devices are used.These literary devices are alliteration,assonance,caesura,and kenning Each literary device contributes to the passage and what the readers and interpret from reading these particular literary devices.

Kenning-a compound expression in Old English Norse poetry with metaphorical meaning

“And all as once the greedy she-wolf.”in “Battle of Grendel’s Mother’.This kenning is used to give trait of Grendel’s Mother personality.It informs the listener why she wants to smile Beowolf.Grendel’s Mother is demonstrating traits of a Female wolf that is protecting her pup,Grendel.The listener can then easily infer that she is getting revenge for her son.

Caesura-is used to pause for a moment and emphasize and something

“Then when darkness had dropped,”in “The Wrath of Grendel,”It is stressing the setting by emphasizing that it just became night.This aids in the passage by setting the stage of Grendel’s arrival.The caesura gives an image of the setting as well.The caesura helps show motionin the passage which is now that is night.Grendel is coming.

D.Conflict

*Internal vs External Evil

-The passage implies that internal evil will ultimately destroy the hall, rather than being attacked by monsters: “The hall stood tall, high and wide-gabled: it would wait fierce flames of vengeful fire: the time was not yet at hand for sword-hate between son-in-law and father-in-law to awaken after murderous rage. ” This foreshadows the internal evil that will destroy the Danes. Another theme in this story is the theme of men versus monsters. This theme comes to light when Grendel is described: “The creature of evil, grim and fierce, was quickly ready, savage and cruel, and seized from their rest thirty thanes”.

* The Vengeance of Grendel’s Mother after Grendel is Slain

-Grendel’s mother, unknown to the Danes or Geats, is plotting to avenge the death of her son. After the celebrations are over in Heorot and everybody is asleep, Grendel’s mother appears out of her dwelling place, the swamp. She enters the hall where the warriors are sleeping. They wake in time to ward off the attack with their swords but the monster manages to escape with one victim in her claws (this is Aeschere). After she escapes, the warriors realize that she has managed to steal back Grendel’s claw from where it has been hanging. The victim is one of Hrothgar’s closest advisors, “the man he loved most of all men on earth.” The king summons Beowulf and his men. There’s a feeling of desperation in the air. We know Beowulf realizes that something is dreadfully wrong — no doubt he can hear the uproar from the main hall- but he also knows that it’s his job to convey confidence and self-control. At this moment, the young warrior seems wiser and more mature than the aging king. Beowulf is told by the King that Grendel’s mother has “avenged the feud” (Abrams, 44). The king, once again, asks Beowulf to help him. Beowulf, upon seeing the king’s condition, says: Sorrow not, wise warrior. It is better for a man to avenge his friend than much mourn. Each of us must await his end of the world’s life. Let him who may get glory before death: that is best for the warrior after he has gone from life. Arise, guardian of the kingdom, let us go at once to look on the track of Grendel’s kin. On their way to the swamp, they discover Aeschere’s bloody head sitting on top of the cliff. Grendel’s mother has probably done this as retaliation for the Danes’ hanging her son’s claw up as a trophy. The “flood boiled with blood”(Abrams, 44). Beowulf is now getting dressed for battle. As he is putting his armor on, Unferth offers his sword, Hrunting to Beowulf. After instructing Hrothgar to direct his treasures to Hygelac if anything should happen to him, the bold hero dives into the water.

*The rage of the dragon after a thief steals a treasure that it has been guarding.

– In the epic ballad Beowulf, the fundamental character Beowulf shows that he is a warrior who places courage and dauntlessness over his very own prosperity and life. These activities embody the agnostic warrior mentality.God has conceded him the best quality, permitting him to crush the entirety of his foes. In any case, Beowulf additionally has a feeling of profound quality. He won’t hurt any of his associates, even while inebriated. His great deeds, and fruitful fights make him popular and regarded. As an award for his boldness and mental fortitude, Hygelac provides for Beowulf a strong sword, enhanced in gold, which outperforms some other swords of the Geats. This sword is a legacy of Hrethel, Hygelac’s dad. Beowulf is likewise given 7,000 [hides of land], a corridor, and a royal position. When King Hygelac is slaughtered in fight, his child Heardred acquires the royal position. When Heardred is later slaughtered in fight, Beowulf at that point becomes lord, administering for a long time. Beowulf administers astutely, and is a decent lord. He watches the land and its residents until a mythical serpent lands in his realm. The monster lives in a cart and monitors his fortune. A man comes and steels a gold cup from the winged serpent while he is dozing. The creator portrays the hoodlum as “somebody’s slave”. The cheat is the principal character in Beowulf that isn’t a warrior or a lord. The mythical beast is guarding a fortune crowd left by “the last overcomer of a respectable race,” who, before he kicked the bucket, bolts his gold and gems in a stone stronghold. After that Last Survivor kicks the bucket, his fortune crowd is monitored by a mythical beast for whom the fortunes are pointless. The hoodlum enrages the monster by taking a solitary cup from the fortune crowd. The mythical serpent becomes angry when he gets up and finds that he has been deceived. He is resolved to discover the man who took the cup . The wild mythical serpent revels in the idea of fighting. At the point when dusks, the winged serpent joyfully leaves his crowd to discover the man who took his fortune. The winged serpent starts to upchuck blazes, consume houses, and execute everything in his way. He even consumes the place of Beowulf, which houses the position of royalty

E.Tone

-The poet is generally enthusiastic about Beowulf’s feats, but he often surrounds the events he narrates with a sense of doom.

F.Mood

-This epic poem contains many tales of glorious victories and conquests, and it valorizes Beowulf’s journey. The hero’s perseverance and nobility are central to the values of the poem’s culture and the overall atmosphere the author tries to create. In this sense, the overall tone of Beowulf may be considered laudatory or reverent.

G.Symbolism

– The golden torque; the banquet

H.Criticism

– Regardless of whether we believe it to be a purposeful topic or an accidental curio of the ballad’s origin and arrangement, the strain between its agnostic and Christian components is a general element of Beowulf. In the absolute first line of his content we are cautioned to the way that the writer is delineating a world that existed previously, for his story is set “in past times” . Numerous researchers have declared that the obscure creator of Beowulf was an Anglo-Saxon Christian who wrote in the principal half of the eighth century about a Scandinavian legend, Beowulf, who, thus, purportedly lived in the 6th century, a period and culture wherein agnostic love won. There are, in any case, just insufficient references to the Old Testament in the lyric (Grendel and his mom are portrayed as being plummeted from the principal killer, Cain) and none at all to the New Testament Jesus or any of the explicitly Christian themes or images that prevailed the idea of the early Middle Ages. All through the lyric there are odd juxtapositions between agnostic convictions in destiny and individual ability, from one viewpoint, and affirmations of an All Mighty force or God, on the other. The Danes to whom Beowulf loans his help with the principal half of the story express some dependence upon God, and yet, they practice pre-Christian ceremonies. In this way, when Hrothgar, the lord of the Shield-Danes, learns of Beowulf’s promise to support his kin, he fortunately says that, “Presently Holy God/has, in His integrity, guided him here/toward the West-Danes, to protect us from Grendel” . In any case, with respect to his subjects, we have recently perused that “occasionally at agnostic places of worship they promised/contributions to symbols, swore vows/that the enemy of spirits may go to their guide/and spare the individuals”  from scourge of the beast who has been annihilating them for a long time. At one crossroads, the teller of the story avows that “Omnipotent God leads over humanity/and consistently has” . However after Grendel is killed, the storyteller muses that “we all with spirits, earth-occupants/and offspring of men, must advance/toward a goal previously appointed/where the body, after the banqueting/dozes on its passing bed” . The previous seems like an announcement of Christian confidence, yet the last mentioned, with its verifiable refusal of an of a the hereafter, isn’t compatible with Christian convention.

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