166 Anonymous
described with language recalling hell in Old En-
glish homilies. More obvious is Beowulf ’s journey
to seek out the dragon, an adversary of mankind
who lives underground, smells of brimstone and fire,
and exemplifies greed and hatred. Wyrm, the Old
English word for dragon, also meant “snake,” so it
is clear whom this king of men is fighting. Beowulf
took 11 comrades on his journey, plus “the one who
had started all this strife” (a thief who had awoken
the dragon by stealing a cup from its hoard), which
parallels Christ’s 12 apostles. Beowulf suffers before
the battle, “sensing his death” (l. 2,420), and indeed,
his men abandon him in his hour of need. He dies,
sacrificially, for his people. The language of Beowulf
is often the language of a distant past, “in days gone
by” (l. 1). Perhaps the poem’s religious language and
impressionism is meant to link its legends, and its
great hero, to the Christian “present,” the world of
the scribes who recorded it.
Tony Perrello
viOlence in Beowulf
The modern reader of Beowulf may be excused for
mistranslating line 18b of the poem—blæd wide
sprang—as “blood spread wide.” The correct transla-
tion is “glory spread wide,” but in this poem, both
blood and glory spring from bodies. And Beowulf is
a poem about bodies—crushed, cut, torn, dismem-
bered, beheaded, burned, gulped down in gobbets,
and tossed about on frosty seas, prey to voracious
sea monsters. The main action of the poem circles
around mortal and bloody combat between the hero,
Beowulf, and three formidable monsters, and also
around ongoing bloody conflict between nations.
The poet interlaces these narratives with songs of
past battles, monster fights, and reprisals of the pri-
mal murder. Beowulf warns that no act of violence
occurs in a vacuum, but it is the consequence of
some violent act and will cause future bloodshed.
Peace is transitory and can only be established by
those most adept at causing violence and spreading
terror—like Beowulf, and Hrothgar before him.
A nation’s survival in Beowulf requires a leader
who can strike terror in his neighbors and subjugate
outlying tribes. The poem begins with the geneal-
ogy of the Danish royal house, and we quickly learn
that Hrothgar, like Scyld before him, enjoyed “the
fortunes of war,” finally assembling a “mighty army”
(ll. 65–67). Only then could he construct a mead hall
where he could dole out treasure and enjoy a respite
from the ravages of warfare and slaughter. As a suc-
cessful, violent warrior like his ancestors before him
(Scyld was a “scourge of many tribes” and “a wrecker
of mead benches”), Hrothgar has inspired fear in
those around him and so is able to enjoy temporary
peace. Hrothgar’s very name points to the lust and
glory promised by battle (hroth = joy, benefit, glory;
gar = spear). The benefit of war, in this case, is the
building of Heorot, the mead hall of the Danes.
Heorot means “hart,” or stag, probably a reference to
the horns that adorned the doorway of the building.
However, there is a haunting reference to the name
after the attack by Grendel’s mother:the water burns. The mere bottom
has never been sounded by the sons of men.
On its bank, the heather-stepper halts:
the hart in flight from pursuing hounds
will turn to face them with firm-set horns
and die in the wood rather than dive
beneath its surface. That is no good place.
(ll. 1,366–1,372)This passage offers one of the many descriptions
of a hostile, brutal nature—a nature “red in tooth
and claw”—precisely the kind of world walled-out
by the construction of Heorot. But we also see the
hart—symbol of the Danish nation—beleaguered
by ravenous forces and driven to self-destruction.
We are told that Heorot is doomed to suffer a “bar-
barous burning” in the Heathobard feud, despite the
marriage of Freawaru and Ingeld. Such is the fate of
a kingdom ruled by a king who does not use violence
and terrorism as tools.
One way to turn violence to political advantage
in Beowulfian society is to use women as pawns
to broker peace, but such an approach is invari-
ably doomed to failure, as Beowulf indicates after
his return to Geatland: “But generally the spear
/ Is prompt to retaliate when a prince is killed /
No matter how admirable the bride may be” (ll.
2,029–2,031).
Wergild—literally “man-price”—was another
way the Anglo-Saxons capitalized on violence,