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The story is told
vividly, especially the description of fighting with the monsters. The
following example is about the fight between Beowulf and Grendel.
“Down off the moorlands’ misting fells came
Grendel stalking; God’s brand was on him.
The spoiler meant to snatch away
From the high hall some of human race.
He came on under the clouds, clearly saw at last
The gold-hall of men, the mead-drinking place
Nailed with gold plates. That was not the first visit
He had paid to the hall of Hrothgar the dane:
He never before and never after
Harder luck nor hall-guards found.
Waling to the hall cane this warlike creature
Condemned to agony. The door gave way,
Toughened with iron, at the touch of those hands.
Rage-inflamed, wrechage-bent, he ripped open
The jaws of the hall, Hasterening on,
The foe then stepped onto the unstained floor,
Angrily advance: out of his eyes stood
An unlovely light likes that of fire.
In this epic, narratives and comments are used to
describe characters. The main character is complicated and readers can see
all sides of it. This is a new phenomenon in Old English period. For
example, Beowulf is a national hero with courage and honesty, ready to fight
for his people. He is dignified and elegant, being familiar with the nobles
and the rules of the court. But he is proud and wants to get fame and
praise.
The epic begins with a prologue and the following two
parts tell three stories. This structure is quite common in early heroic
epics. When describing the part-historical and part-legendary story,
predicting and recalling are two common methods. Those about Ingeld,
Freawaru and the wars between Sweden and the Geats are examples. The plot in
the epic truly describes the tribal society and contains many feudal
elements.
The poem mixed pagan elements with Christian beliefs. On one
hand, the story began with the pagan oral literature of Europe, so it has
the pagan elements such as “Wyrd” (i.e.fate) the decisive power, bloody
revenge and the praise, which also include Christian elements. Beowulf is
described as the image like Christ who gave his life for saving people.
“God” and “Lord” were described to help the good men and punish the evils.
Some Biblical images were also used in the poem: the monster—Grendel’s
mother is the child of evil
Cain; the Dragon symbols Satan. Beowulf’s
victory over them is a good example.
The old Christian work such as “Genesis” influence
Beowulf both in mind and the language style. When telling a story, a simple
and straightforward style is often used in the epic. However, Beowulf was
written in Old English, which was closely related to
Old Low German. The
language is poetic, it is wonderful, but it is also difficult to understand
for so many words, complicated grammatical structures, and fixed
expressions. This is quite common in Old English poems.
The other feature is the use of
metaphors, understatements
and
euphemism. The scop uses compound-words, which are used as indirect
metaphors to beautify ordinary objects. These are known as “kennings”. For
example, bird’s joy means wings, “whale’s acre”, “swan’s riding”,
“whale-path” or “seal-bath” means the “sea”; “sky’s candle of heaven and
jewel” refers to “the sun”; “wave-traveler” means a ship. “Glories wiedler”
or “victory’s bestower” represents the “God”; “shield bearer” or “spear
fighter” represents a soldier, etc. Examples of understatements are:
“sword-play” for wars; “take away mead-benches” for victory. This feature is
often regarded as characteristic of the English people and their language,
and it may be slightly affected by ironical humor. An example of euphemism
is “sleeping”, “leaving life’s feast”, “turning away from the courts of men”
or “choosing God’s light” for “death”
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