See also MIDDLE ENGLISH POETRY, PERSONIFICATION.FURTHER READING
Henderson, Arnold Clayton. “Medieval Beasts and Modern
Cages: The Making of Meaning in Fables and Bestiaries.”
PMLA 97, no. 1 (1982): 40–49.
Erin N. Mount
BEHEADING GAME The folk motif of the
beheading game is used to test a warrior’s honor. In
later ROMANCEs, it became a test of knightly virtues and
a measure of the warrior’s CHIVALRIC OATHS. The game
serves as a reminder that the surety of a man’s word is
worth as much as his physical prowess.
Though the most famous example of the beheading
game is found in SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT,
numerous European examples predate it. For instance,
a ninth-century Irish EPIC features two occurrences of
the game in which the hero CÚ CHULAINN emerges tri-
umphant. Continental ARTHURIAN LITERATURE also fea-
tures the game—in The Book of Carados (Le Livre de
Carados) and Percival (Perlesvaus)—as do three addi-
tional Middle English Arthurian works involving
Gawain: Sir Gawain and the Carl of Carlisle, The Turk
and Gawain, and The Green Knight.
Andrew BethuneBEOWULF ANONYMOUS (ca. 1000) Beowulf, a
poem of 3,182 lines written in the West Saxon dialect
of Old English, is preserved on folio 132r–201v (offi cial
foliation) of the British Library manuscript COTTON
VITELLIUS A.XV, written around the year 1000. The
unusual subject matter of the poem has made its dating
an arena of fi erce (and ultimately irresolvable) contro-
versy. The poem is set in Scandinavia and deals princi-
pally with the Danes, Swedes, and Geats. For this
reason, a dating before the fi rst Viking incursions,
which began at the end of the eighth century, long held
sway. This was challenged in the early 1980s by a claim
that the poem dated from the reign of King Canute
(reigned 1016–35), but there is also considerable sup-
port for locating it to mid-10th-century East Anglia.
The poem opens with a prologue (ll. 1–52) that
describes the reign of Scyld Scefi ng of Denmark and
his descendants. Scyld was found washed up on the
shore, but he became a mighty monarch and subju-
gated all the surrounding peoples to his authority. For
this the poet characterizes him as a good king (l. 12)
and continues with the observation that God sent Scyld
a son, Beowulf (not the hero of this poem), as a com-
fort to the people. This son, too, prospers as a young
man should do if he is to be supported by his people
later on in time of war (ll. 20–24). Scyld’s magnifi cent
funeral is described. He is placed with great wealth on
a ship and returned to the sea from whence he came
(ll. 26–52).
The poem proper begins with an account of the
Danish Beowulf, his son Healfdene, and his grandson
Hrothgar, who also becomes a famous warrior. At the
height of his power, Hrothgar builds the world’s great-
est mead-hall, named Heorot, and the feasting and gift-
giving begins. At this point, the poet breaks in and says
that it will not be long before the hall burns down as
the result of dynastic feuding (ll. 83–85). Moreover, a
fearsome creature hiding in the darkness, Grendel, is
upset by all this merry-making. He visits the hall at
night, eats 15 warriors on the spot, and carries off
another 15. Grendel ravages Heorot for 12 years while
Hrothgar and his warriors stand helpless. In a perverse
way, Grendel becomes one of Hrothgar’s hall thanes
(retainers) (l. 142), but he does not play by the rules,
for he refuses to pay WERGILD for the men he has killed
(ll. 154–158).
While Hrothgar broods on his sorrows, news travels
widely. One of the thanes of King Hygelac of the Geats
(people in southwestern Sweden), the strongest man in
the world of his time, hears of the tragedy, and travels
to Denmark. Challenged at the doors of the hall, the
Geat fi nally reveals his name: Beowulf. He asks for per-
mission to see Hrothgar, who, as it turns out, had res-
cued Ecgtheow, Beowulf’s father, by paying wergild for
him. Summoned before Hrothgar, Beowulf says he has
been sent by his people and asks permission to cleanse
Heorot of Grendel, which task he pledges to carry out
with his bare hands (ll. 435–440). Beowulf is wel-
comed, and at the ensuing banquet, Unferth, one of
Hrothgar’s councilors, challenges him. He has heard
reports that Breca bested Beowulf in a swimming con-
test. Beowulf scornfully sets the record straight and
then throws the challenge back in Unferth’s face,BEOWULF 77