How did I feel about Beowulf?
I don’t feel much towards it, to be honest. My most prominent memory of the
book is the infinite number of names that started with the letter H. Keeping
all of the characters straight was the most difficult part of reading Beowulf. Even though I found the names
tedious at times, I did enjoy the action that surrounded Beowulf and that was
encompassed in his adventures.
The
characters that I felt was most compelling would have to be Grendel and his
mother. I found them to be a quirky and dark pair. I tend to favor the
misunderstood characters in novels and feel some sympathy for them. I would definitely
consider those two monsters of the swamp to be misunderstood. I thought it was
interesting that Grendel’s mother, who seemed so inhuman, was motivated by very
human feelings: grievances about her dead son, resentment towards his killer,
and an attempt at revenge. She attempted to avenge her son’s death by defeating
Beowulf herself, but failed.
My favorite scene
of the book was when Beowulf was trying to slay the dragon. It actually reminds
me of a scene from the Harry Potter series in the second book, The Chamber of Secrets, where Harry is
stabbed by one of the Basilisk’s poisonous fangs, becomes weak, and nearly dies
from the wound. The same scenario plays out in Beowulf except Beowulf ends up dying from the blow of the dragon’s
fatal bite. While in The Chamber of
Secrets, Harry is cured by Dumbledore’s phoenix’s healing tears. If only
Wiglaf had the ability to produce tears with healing powers, then the comparison
would have been close to flawless. However, Wiglaf is nothing but another noble
young man with an unfortunate name; one of the many that continuously pops up
in Beowulf.
I love your point about Grendel's mother being motivated by human feelings. I think it's an interesting part of the poem, probably saying more about the ancient Scandinavians who first thought of the story than even the Anglo-Saxons. In a world of humanized deities, that kind of relationship might make more sense.
ReplyDeleteI can sympathize with you when you said that the book felt tedious at times and how it was difficult to keep the characters straight. I like how you compared Grendel's mother to a human and paralleled her feelings to human ones. I didn't even think about the Harry Potter comparison, but now that I think about it, it does remind me of that!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree!, though in regards to another section of Harry Potter. The moment I read the section where Beowulf dives underwater to pursue Grendel’s mother, I thought of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, when Harry encounters the mer-people. The dark and looming sea creatures and seaweed were described beautifully, or rather, hauntingly in Beowulf. While the concept that Grendel’s mother is driven by human emotions is intriguing, she reminded me of that parent that is always doing damage control for their kid’s mistakes. Even when the child has developed a bloodthirsty habit, they can find no wrong, and no fault or guilt with their child. I particularly enjoyed the sentence where you mention the “unfortunate names” of characters, how euphemistically cutting of you. =P
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