Relationships

• ing = son, descendent
• King Hrothgar's people: Danes
• King Hygelac's people: Geats (S. Sweden)
• Beowulf: nephew of Hygelac

Key Terms and Concepts

• "Words and Works": the progressive construction of the hero through his own speeches and other people's
• Litotes: understatement
• Unferth as THYLE: verbal testing, ritual challenge
• BEOT: ritual boast or vow, an either/or formulation. Note Beowulf's vow to set his forces at service of community
• FATE: Old English, WYRD

Be Sure to Note...

• The voice of Beowulf the pagan warrior versus moralizing commentary of the Christian poet.
• Grendel as border-dweller, enemy of joy in the hall alienated from rituals of community (e.g., refuses to pay wer-gild).
• Hero as boundary-crosser, his descent into the underworld/otherworld, crossing of borders and boundaries.
• Beowulf as the invader in the underwater hall.
• Role of COMITATUS in these episodes.
• Narrative complexity of poem, narratives within narratives; its appropriation of other times, other historical moments for temporary relocation in the foreground of the poem.
• Poetic production WITHIN the poem (its alternative scops, particularly Beowulf as scop on return to Hygelac's court).
• Narrative entanglement of the monster tales with political histories, rivalries, feuds.
• NARRATIVE INTERLACE as a design principle in the poem: compare to other Anglo-Saxon artifacts.

And a Final Question...

Are the monsters only outside the meadhall?

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