Beowulf From a Historical Perspective, Essay Example

The place of literature in Western civilization is considered to be quite significant. Modern writers can attest that the early writers played an imperative role in influencing how people express their ideas in literary works. The same however applies to historians who to a large extent rely on recorded information to deduce the occurrence of past events. Notably, poetry comes out as a popular form of literary expression in the history of Western civilization. A number of writers and philosophers including Plato, Homer and Virgil among others created literary works which have been used as literary and historical references to date. Unfortunately, most poems written in the prehistoric times have not been recovered and therefore it is hard to gauge how long poetry may have existed. It is however believed that poetry existed a long time ago and was either recited orally or sung (Hazlitt, xvii). Ancient poetic fragments have been found on runestones and monoliths; with some lacking proper identification of the authors. Copies of such poems have been made by modern writers and the original fragments can mostly be found in museums.

Beowulf is one of the manuscripts whose authorship remains anonymous. Even though the contents of the poem are mostly fictitious, various works, historical and archeological discoveries reveal that Beowulf could be a great source of early history (Purnis, 1; Hardy, 430). Similarities in events and characters have been discovered; which suggest that the author of the poem had a great connection with history and social factors affecting the society at the time.

Beowulf is a poem perceived to have been written between the eighth century and early eleventh century. According to Raffel (ix), the manuscript appears in two distinct handwritings and the possibility of gauging the existence of other copies and the similarity of the available copy to the original is almost impossible. It is believed that Lawrence Nowell, a sixteenth-century scholar is responsible for the preservation of Beowulf (Raffel, ix).

The heroic epic poem begins with the building of the great hall by King Hroðgar. The hall is named Heorot and the king’s warriors celebrate and sing in the hall which in turn angers a supernatural outcast named Grendel (Raffel, 152). Grendel attacks many of the warriors while they are sleeping and the surviving ones eventually abandon Heorot. Beowulf and his men leave to help Hroðgar in fighting Grendel. In Beowulf, the author sought to illustrate the concept of heroism by showing Beowulf’s victory over supernatural beasts. As a Geats hero, Beowulf fights with three antagonists and becomes a king in his land, which is now the modern southern Sweden. In the first battle, he faces Grendel who had been harassing Heorot’s resident warriors. Grendel is resistant to human weapons but Beowulf defeats him without any weapon. He later fought Grendel’s mother in the second battle and a dragon in the third battle. The injuries incurred in the third battle were however fatal such that he later died. Beowulf also portrays social themes including religion, people’s reaction to victory through celebration, attachment to earthly possessions and the seriousness associated with death (Hardy, 430, Owen-Crocker, 3-9).

While the poem mostly falls in the realms of art and legend, there is a strong connection between Beowulf and history. The content of this poem which falls in a period where political power and religion had become increasingly important is a reflection of social happenings that were prevalent at the time. It is easy to deduce that emergence of an organized society, given that Beowulf eventually became the king of the Geats. Various scholars have suggested that Beowulf could actually have traces of certain real events in history and that it could have been transmitted by the Geats. The existence of the great hall in which the soldiers were attacked for example could be a real concept. During archeological excavations in Denmark led to the discovery of three halls constructed in the mid-6^th century (Niles, 44; Purnis, 1). According to approximations on the Beowulf timeline, there is a possibility that the hall described in the poem was real (Niles, 44). Further, Scandinavian sources often connect the people mentioned in the poem with historical legends of the period in which the poem was written. According to Purnis (1) the King Hygelac’s victory at Ravenswood and later death during a raid in the Frankish history is evidenced in other sources. One such source was made by Gregory, a 6^th century historian. Another example of this is exemplified in the archeological findings that match the three burials described in the poem. Excavation of the Eadgils’ mound in Uppsala indicated that a powerful man had been buried with wealthy grave offerings including gold and garnets adorned sword, ivory, a bear skin and two dogs and expensive clothing (e-referate, 1). The burial is an illustration of the value befitted to a king during this era hence the performance of a grand funeral and the presence of expensive possessions and weapons to be buried with the king Owen-Crocker, Gale (31-34).

The theme of religion and beliefs is expressed in Beowulf and this can be used to as an indication of the people’s reaction to the growth of Christianity. According to Hardy (431-432), the author of Beowulf often praises the pagan or pre-Christianity era through the actions of the poem’s character despite being a Christian himself. This could be an indication that the author still held previous beliefs even after Christianity and these influenced his thinking to a large extent. The existence of supernatural beings in the poem depicts early superstitious beliefs.

There is a great resemblance in ideas between Beowulf and other ancient poems such as Aeneid, Othello, Odyssey and Iliad. As with most ancient poems written close to Beowulf, such poems tend to focus on heroism, victory over war and the concept of power. Poetry was variously used as a means of expressing certain ideas and a way of remembering events that have occurred in the past (Hazlitt, 4-9). Early poets were greatly influenced by religion, politics, war and social myths and beliefs. These poems are an indication that as the Western civilization advanced, power and political societies were emerging and that only the strongest could survive. Aeneid, a poem written by Virgil between 29 and 19BC for example displays the theme of heroism. Bravery and victory in war form the major ideas in the poem whose main character Aeneas travels from Troy to Italy in the first half of the poem (Virgil, 76). He is later victorious in the war against the Latins (Virgil, 213). The themes brought out in two major Greek poems, namely the Odyssey and the Iliad which are attributed Homer also greatly resemble Beowulf’s. From this perspective, it is possible to conclude that Beowulf was written in an era where war was a common occurrence as people sought to protect kingdoms. As noted by Purnis (1), Geat ceased to be an independent kingdom in the mid-6^th century following the war between Swedes and the Geats; an indication that a war actually occurred.

Works Cited

Dryden, John, ed. Vergil’s Aeneid. G. Routledge and Sons, 1886.

e-referate. Beowulf. 2008. Retrieved on January 14, 2010 from http://www.e-referate.ro/referate/Beowulf2008-01-25.html

Hardy, A. “Historical Perspective and the Beowulf-Poet.” Neophilologus. Vol. 69, Issue 13, 1979, pp. 430-449

Hazlitt, William, C. Remains of the early popular poetry of England, Volume 2. UK: J.R. Smith, 1866.

Niles, John D. “Beowulf’s Great Hall,” History Today. Vol 56, Issue 10, 2006, pp. 40-44.

Owen-Crocker, Gale. The Four Funerals in Beowulf: And the Structure of the Poem. New York: Manchester University Press, 2000.

Purnis, Jan. Historical Legend in Beowulf. 2000. Retrieved on January 13, 2010 from http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/courses/1001Purnis.htm

Raffel, Burton. Beowulf. New York: Signet Classic, 1999