What is the poem about?
It tells about Beowulf a very important hero, the mightiest man on earth.
One day Beowulf is called to help Hrothgar, king of the Danes and he defeates Grendel, a monster in human shape, that has taken over the hall of Herot. As a matter of fact he decides to leave with twelve men from Sweden to Denmark.
Introduction to the analysis of the poem.
The author of the poem puts the protagonist in the forefront while ordinary people remain in the background. The narrator focuses his attention on the main character that seems to be a god. He tells the reader about his reputation with the use of hyperbole. Beowulf is a very generous hero that puts heroism and bravery over his well-being; everybody shows a great opinion of him. we can realize all this from reading some lines:
- “there was no one else like him, alive.”
- “he was the mightiest man on earth, high-born and powerful.”
- “dear as he was to them”
- “like the leader he was”
In epic poems the characterization of the hero is different from the one of every one else. But how can a hero be created? Certainly with language. The narrator makes a languistic selection. Here the narrator refers to his personality: the way Beowulf behaves, what he does and his choices. In addition to this he informs the reader of what the people surrounding the hero think of him. His characterization does not rely on physical appearance but on reputation, qualities, abilities and skills.
Analysis of the poem
The first element that the reader can notice is the gap, a white space, between the sixteenth and the seventeenth verse. The extract of the poem is composed by two big blocks, the first one with sixteen lines and the second with nineteen lines.
From reading the first six verse, the reader is given a social description of the protagonist, Beowulf. The reader immediately understands that Beowulf is the commander, respected by all people. You can read that in some lines: "there was no one else like him, alive, he was the mightiest man on earth, high-born and powerful, dear as he was to them, like the leader he was, he ordered a boat, he announced his plan".
Lines nine and ten convey a very strong meaning, because they provide information about the relationships existing in the society: “Nobody tried to keep it from going, no elder denied him, dear has he was to them.”
As we can see generosity was very important, because in that period you couldn’t survive without mutual help or solidarity. The poem uses the substantive elder to underline family relationships and old people were considered important because they had gained life.
Considering the sound aspect lines do not rhyme, but we notice the use of alliterations like line 3 (“there was no one else like him alive”) and line 4 (“In this day, he was the mightiest man on earth”). Than in line 7 the poet use a kenning to describe the sea. It makes narration more effectively. In line eleven a run-on line speeds-up the rhythm of the poem (“and spurred / his ambition to go,”). Also in line 13 a figure of speech: “like the leader he was”, a simile insists on Beowulf leadership skills.