CORREZIONE VERIFICA

The scene starts when the protagonist, Hygelac’s thane, comes to know about Grendel. The first piece of information that the narrator gives the reader is that the protagonist is a king’s warrior, a thane, that occupies an high social position. The second one is that he lives in Geatland (in Sweden), so the reader understands  he lives in a hard condition of weather, in a place where you must face dangers and difficulties.

The poem is set in the land from where the Anglo-Saxons came from.

At line 3, the expression “there was no else like him alive” presents the protagonist as the best man on the world. The narrator uses a simile, “like him”, to communicate the protagonist’s greatness and reinforces the idea with the adjective “alive”. In the following line the narrator defines him “mightiest”, The adjective “mighty” usually refers to God: so it seems the protagonist is more simile to a divine being than to a human being. In addition, he’s high-born and powerful. The characterization is totally filtered by the narrator, who judges the protagonist and therefore the reader cannot but have a positive idea of the protagonist.

The reader can understand that in the Anglo-Saxon society social position was really important, as was strength.

It is interesting to notice that the narrator doesn’t call the protagonist by name: the choice is functional to keep the curiosity high.

The story continues with the immediate decision of the thane: he suddenly orders a boat to go and help his neighbors. The decision clearly shows his solidarity and loyalty to his neighbors’ king: loyalty was the primary value in a society where you could live only if you were collaborative.

At line 6 the voyage starts. Telling how the protagonist wants to reach the monster, the narrator gives the reader another important piece of information: the most frequent way to move from one place to another was by boat, by sea. The Geat thane’s boat will ply the waves, sailing the swan’s road. The narrator communicates the speed of the boat through the verb “ply”. “The swan’s road” is a kenning (a circumlocution) to mean the sea. Kennings were typical of Anglo-Saxon Old English, and were functional to create  a mental image of what they wanted to communicate. After Beowulf has announced his plan, nobody tries to stop him. If everybody embraces his idea, it means that everybody trusts him: he has a good reputation (“dear as he was to them”).

So the protagonist is also characterized by his reputation: people consider him a leader (“like the leader he was”), thanks to his skillful personality and his abilities (he’s also a “canny pilot”).

 The protagonist starts his voyage with fourteen men that are as ready as him to leave their homeland to go and help the king who needs defenders. It is a confirmation of the loyalty of Anglo-Saxon warriors. The idea of a speedy voyage and of a competent crew is conveyed also by the use of run-on-lines, that add fluently and speed to the reading pace.

In addition, to make the boat more real and fascinating, the narrator attributes the boat female qualities and parts of human body, as “her neck” or “curved prow”. The boat “flew like a bird” so it was like a woman and like a bird, according to its importance for the warriors and its speed on the  waves.

The speed of the voyage is confirmed by the expression “on the following day” when they reach their destination.

The narrator creates the setting in two lines and he closes the scene with the moor of the boat.

The extract may provide important messages to a contemporary reader. In our modern society a lot of values have lost relevance so an intelligent reader should learn from the solidarity and the loyalty of Anglo-Saxon warriors. In addition, the reader could reflect on the differences between our society of “anti-heroes” and Old English civilization of heroes.