!Beowulf's Fight with Grendel

The extract for the exam covers lines 702-897

significance of the use of the word ‘aglæca’ in the extract

‘aglæca’ = ‘loathsome creature’

tendentious translation – used to describe Beowulf and all of the monsters → confuses the identity of being heroic or monstrous

maybe a more value-free translation should be used e.g. ‘fearsome/awesome warrior’, ‘without compare’

used to describe Sigemund, but in his case is translated as ‘fierce creature’

list some christian elements of the poem

• Biblical allusions (Cain and Abel)

• Moralising comments from the narrator → poet is Christian and is expecting an audience that can understand Christian framework 

• Two levels of knowledge

  • pre-Christian text yet voices Christian values rather than heroic virtues (i.e. Hrothgar’s sermon against pride); careful not to condemn the humans in the poem (we get told Grendel goes to hell, but not where his soul goes)

  • Deliberately inserts ambiguity? 

• Beowulf as Christ/saint?

  • interest in creating the possibility of salvation for his pre-Christian characters  

Three phrases relating to Grendel as being associated with hell/an absence of light

• ‘scriðan sceadugenga’ (‘shadow-goer/shadow walker’)

• ‘fyrena hyrde’ (‘shepherd of sins/fire shepherd’) [idiomatically translated]

• ‘Godes andsacan’ (‘God’s adversary’)

Humanising description of Grendel walking ‘in exile’

‘earmsceapen on weres wæstmum wræclastas træd’

he ‘wretchedly trod the paths of exile in the form of a man’