Beowulf

Beowulf tells the tale of the Anglo-Saxons that invaded Britain in the 5th century.  In the 8th century the stories of the invasion were integrated into one epic poem, Beowulf.  These stories were collected from oral tradition and recorded by an unknown poet.  The only known manuscript of the poem that is in the original form of Old English is in a museum in London.  The manuscript dates from the 10th century.   The poem tells the adventures of the great hero Beowulf.  He crosses the sea from Geatland to the land of the Danes in order to free the people from the ogre Grendel.  Grendel was going into the king's palace at night and killing the king's warriors, councilmen, and guests.  Beowulf kills Grendel and is rewarded by the king.  Grendel's mother becomes angry and continues the killings to avenge her son's death.  Beowulf follows her to her underwater lair and kills her.  The people praise Beowulf for his bravery (line 13).  Religion can be seen in the mythology of the poem, an example of this is the story of the mythical king of Scylidings named Scyld because mythology is an ancient form of religion.  Beowulf also gives modern readers an insight into what the people of this time period believed to be heroic.  Because of its importance and insights Beowulf has become a part of the English canon.

I chose Beowulf for this assignment because it is such an important work in literary history.  It is read often and by many people, from high-school classrooms to graduate classes at universities.  The story has a rich base in both oral and written language.  It started as a group of oral stories and was then collected into one epic poem.   There are features with the poem that show its history as oral song.  One of these features is that the poem starts with a general history of the time period and the people within the story.  This was to give the listeners background on the story so that they would understand the setting; it also served as a reminder of the culture that the audience came from.  Often in oral songs there is a praise of some group of people or of a certain town or god.  After the background the praise of the Danes is given.  Another feature is that the poem is episodic.  The structure is loose because it is several shorter stories put together to form one longer story.          

Beowulf also shows it oral heritage through its characters.  The characters of Beowulf are typical of oral tradition.  The main character, Beowulf, is the hero with super human strength that saves the kingdom from destruction.  The villain is an ugly ogre that terrorizes the king and his subjects.  The characters are flat and stereotypical; this is partially due to the narration of the story.  The narrator is not a character within the story and the narrator has no insight into the characters thoughts.  The narrator is simply there to tell the story and not interject any thoughts or feelings; he also tells the story as the listeners want to or expect to hear it.  The characters are stereotypes because the audience expects the hero to be very brave or the king to protect his subjects.  Modern readers expect more from a story.  The hero does not always have to be the most physically strong character and it is not always apparent who the villain is; they are not stereotypes.  The modern narrator is a part of the story whereas the oral narrator was there to tell the story.       

Another feature of Beowulf that points to its origins as oral song is the lack of dialogue between the characters.  There is little dialogue and the dialogue that is there is mainly long speeches.  The narrator tells how the characters interact with each other in oral literature where in modern written text quotation marks and dialogue would be used.  In oral literature there is no efficient way to show a change in speakers; the narrator can change voices or say 'this character said' or 'this character spoke'.  A lot of dialogue in this form would be confusing the listeners so oral narrators would introduce the speaker and then let that character have a long speech.  An example of this is the last survivors speech which is introduced with "Into its interior the jewel-guardian took/ That cherishable mass of the treasures of men,/ Of the beaten gold, and uttered these words" (lines 2244-2246).  After this the last survivor's speech goes on for several lines.  Even though Beowulf is thousands of years old modern technology has helped the poem.  Translations of the story from its original Old English form are now available in a variety of forms, such as paper back and hard bound, internet, and anthologies. There is mass production of the poem because of print.  Due to print and writing there are also several translations of the poem available.  Several scholars have translated the poem and published copies of their translations.  These various translations vary slightly but the story is basically the same.    

Beowulf is quite important to me because I am an English education major.  At some point in my teaching career I am sure that I will be teaching this poem to my students.  It is important for them to read such old writings to give them an idea of how literature started and how far it has come over time.  It is valuable to others for many of the same reasons.  Works such as Beowulf show the starting point of written text and bridge the gap between oral song and written story.  It is a critical piece in the puzzle to figuring out how and why written story took the place of oral song.  The features of oral song within the poem contribute a great amount of value to the work.  Without the references to and from oral song Beowulf would be a slightly important old poem, but because of its ties to oral song it is a very important piece of literature.