British Literature - Week 1 - Beowulf and the "Monstrous"

This is the first blog post in a series on British Literature to 1650-- offered at Hudson County Community College for the first time in spring 2019. I had a blast teaching this course at the North Hudson campus, with a largely Latino student population. Of the 15 students in the class, many major in English, but several major in subjects such as Liberal Arts, Early Childhood Education, and Accounting!

Covering such a vast canon of literature is daunting, requiring difficult choices. First on the list -- Beowulf. I refer not to the Angelina Jolie-as-Grendel's-mother movie version -- but the real Beowulf! We spent two weeks on this first English Epic, written in Old English that reads more like German. Beowulf's setting is current-day Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. Before we began our foray into Beowulf, the class learned the roots of the Old English language. English derives from Anglo-Saxon roots, in Denmark, Norway, and Northern Germany.

Yep - our "English" language has Germanic and Scandinavian roots!

In the first third of the epic, the "hero" Beowulf defeats the "monster" Grendel, thereby saving the Danes, the hall of Heorot, and King Hrothgar. Seems pretty straightforward, right? However, like any truly great literature, the layers of meaning make Beowulf almost the opposite of straightforward.

What constitutes the "monstrous" became an overriding question in our class. Grendel kills the lords in Heorot, so he receives the label "monster." But what differentiates Beowulf and Grendel? Beowulf kills Grendel, Grendel's mother, and the dragon. What makes one a monster and the other a hero? My students made a list of characteristics of heroes and monsters:

Heroes -                                                                           Monsters-
Just                                                                                   Blood thirsty
Courageous                                                                      Vengeful
Selfless                                                                             Selfish
Handsome                                                                        Ugly
Instill hope                                                                       Instill fear
Dynamic                                                                          Static
Forgiving                                                                         Merciless

Great list! But wait a minute. Could Beowulf and Grendel's similarities outweigh their differences?  Let's examine what they have in common:

• both outsiders to the great hall of Heorot; 
• both arrive without warning; 
• both fight without weapons; 
• both seek vengeance; 
• both kill;
• both exhibit greed. 

Hmmm - not so dissimilar now!

Beowulf's author applies an Old English word aglæca to both the hero Beowulf and the monster Grendel. Described as a "difficult and much-debated word" in Wiktionary, how could the same word describe both the hero and the monster? The line dividing the "good" hero and the "evil" monster needs evaluation. What possible characteristics could they have in common? Old English scholars define aglæca in a variety of ways, depending on the context: fierce, monster, fiend, hero, fierce warrior, formidable one.

Alexander Bruce, in "Evil Twins? The Role of the Monsters in Beowulf" argues "the [Beowulf] poet was intentionally exploiting the grammatical flexibility and ambiguity of his language to underscore subtly the point that at times we cannot distinguish between man and monster" (Bruce).

Beowulf is the first in a long line of epics with heroes and monsters. This tradition lives on in epics like Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and even Avengers: Infinity Wars. Consider the character Thanos, described as a "super-villain." Does he more closely resemble Grendel, or Beowulf? Thanos embodies characteristics of both heroes and villains, carrying on the great tradition of complex characters who challenge our basic assumptions about good and evil.

Work Cited

Bruce, Alexander M. "Evil Twins? The Role of the Monsters in Beowulf." Medieval Forum. 10 January 2007. 20 May 2019. .