The leader's generosity is one of his highest qualities. There are more than 30 different terms for "king" in the poem, and many of them have to do with this role as provider. He is the "ring-giver' 35 or the "treasure-giver" ; his seat of power is the "gift-throne" When booty is seized from an enemy in battle, everything goes to the king. He then allots treasure to each warrior according to the man's achievements as a soldier. When Beowulf defeats Grendel and Grendel's mother, he expects and receives great riches as his reward, including a golden banner, helmet, and mail-shirt, as well as a jeweled sword, magnificent horses with golden trappings that hang to the ground, a gem-studded saddle, and a golden collar.
Such generosity is emblematic of Hrothgar's character. In turn, Beowulf will present these treasures to his own king, Hygelac, who will then honor Beowulf with appropriate gifts. Wealhtheow shares in the gift giving and is the perfect hostess.
When she serves mead in Heorot, it is an act of propriety and diplomacy, attending first to her king and then to various guests, paying special attention to Beowulf. An improper queen would be one like Modthrytho ff.
Hospitality is such an established part of the culture that the poet feels free to refer to it with casual humor. When Beowulf reports to Hrothgar on his victory over Grendel ff.
He tried, he says, to "welcome my enemy" with a firm handshake but was disappointed when he received only a "visitor's token" , Grendel's giant claw, "that dear [meaning 'precious'] gift" , a kind of macabre gratuity for services rendered. Beowulf had, ironically speaking, tried to be the perfect host; but he wanted the entire ogre body as his tip.
Grendel left only his claw as a cheap compensation. Despite Unferth's jealous rant at the first banquet, the most serious embodiment of envy in the poem is Grendel. The ogre who has menaced Hrothgar's people for 12 years is envious of the Danes because he can never share in mankind's hope or joy.
The monster's motivation is one of the few undeniably Christian influences in the epic. Grendel is a descendant of Cain, the biblical son of Adam and Eve who killed his brother Abel out of jealousy Genesis 4. The legend is that the monsters of the earth are Cain's descendants and eternally damned. Grendel resents men because God blesses them but will never bless him.
The bright lights and sounds of joy emanating from Hrothgar's magnificent mead-hall, Heorot, especially annoy the ogre. The scop 's "Song of Creation" angers Grendel because it reminds him of the light and hope of God's creation and the loss he suffers because of Cain's sin. Grendel stomps up from the mere to devour Danes and rule nightly over Heorot as a form of revenge stemming from this envy. Revenge serves as a motivating factor for several characters throughout the poem, initially stirring Grendel and his mother.
Grendel seeks revenge upon mankind for the heritage that he has been dealt. He delights in raiding Heorot because it is the symbol of everything that he detests about men: their success, joy, glory, and favor in the eyes of God. Grendel's mother's revenge is more specific. She attacks Heorot because someone there killed her son. Although she is smaller and less powerful than Grendel, she is motivated by a mother's fury. When Beowulf goes after her in the mere, she has the added advantage of fighting him in her own territory.
As she drags him into her cave beneath the lake, her revenge peaks because this is the very man who killed her son. Only Beowulf's amazing abilities as a warrior and the intervention of God or magic can defeat her. He is a father figure to Beowulf and a model for the kind of king that Beowulf becomes.
An ancient, powerful serpent, the dragon guards a horde of treasure in a hidden mound. The second king listed in the genealogy of Danish rulers with which the poem begins. Beow is the son of Shield Sheafson and father of Halfdane. The narrator presents Beow as a gift from God to a people in need of a leader. 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.
A Danish warrior who is jealous of Beowulf, Unferth is unable or unwilling to fight Grendel, thus proving himself inferior to Beowulf. Hygelac heartily welcomes Beowulf back from Denmark. Hygd is contrasted with Queen Modthryth. A young kinsman and retainer of Beowulf who helps him in the fight against the dragon while all of the other warriors run away. Unferth alludes to the story of their contest, and Beowulf then relates it in detail.
A figure from Norse mythology, famous for slaying a dragon. An evil king of legend. The scop, or bard, at Heorot discusses King Heremod as a figure who contrasts greatly with Beowulf. As the coastal guard first approaches the Geats, he asks about Beowulf's lineage Beowulf mentions his father's accomplishments and reputation as well as his king, Hygelac, and his people, the Geats. To King Hrothgar ff. He already has a favorable reputation, but he is eager for more achievements that will add to his good name.
In the world of Beowulf, a man's good name is his key to immortality. It is all that remains after death. Part of the motivation for the hero's coming to the land of the Danes is to gain more fame. The poem uses the word unabashedly, but a modern audience might feel uncomfortable with the concept, thinking of empty trophies in a superficial frame. Within this world of heroic struggle, however, fame is more than that.
A modern audience might best think of fame as reputation. Reputation can protect a leader's people and settle a conflict before it comes to blows, as Beowulf's reputation later does when he is the king of Geatland. Fame is a positive quality, having to do more with earned respect than vanity. A more important reason for coming to Hrothgar's aid is directly related to a family debt.
Years before, Hrothgar sheltered Beowulf's father, Ecgtheow, from a dangerous feud and purchased a settlement of the conflict with the Geat's enemies, a procedure incorporating wergild man-payment or man-worth.
Beowulf has come to repay Hrothgar's generosity. At a banquet in the Geats' honor on the first day of their visit, a drunken, jealous Dane named Unferth challenges Beowulf's reputation. When Beowulf was an adolescent, he engaged in a swimming match on the open sea with another boy, a royal member of the Brondings tribe named Breca. Unferth asserts that Beowulf was vain and foolish to enter such a dangerous contest and that Breca proved the stronger, defeating Beowulf in seven nights.
Unferth's point is that, if the Geat could not win that swimming match, he is surely no match for Grendel. Beowulf's response to Unferth ff. He remains composed and in control, despite his youth. Although he would be justified in calling Unferth out and attacking him physically, Beowulf instead uses wit and facts to correct the Dane.
Beowulf points out that he and Breca swam for five nights, not seven. Although he was the stronger, he would not abandon Breca. After rough seas drove them apart, Beowulf spent the rest of the fifth night fighting vicious water monsters, killing nine.
He comments on the workings of Fate Wyrd , saying that it saved him but only because it was not his time and because he had fought courageously.
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