Dolom, Ram Anthonie N. Prof. C.

McEachern/Elisa Harkness ENGL 10A: English Literature to 1660 13 May 2011 Digression as Criticism, Digression as Praise Anglo-Saxon culture as presented in Beowulf has a strong preoccupation with heroism; each warrior seeks to be heroic in the hope of gaining immortality in his clans legends. The tale of Sigemund, recited in a poem during the celebrations after Grendels defeat, sets the gold standard of Anglo-Saxon heroism against the living Beowulfs story. Sigemund therefore functions as a meta-Beowulf, and the Sigemund poem becomes a mise en abime. The placement of the digression so early in the narrative creates a framing effect, whereby the entire Beowulf narrativecontent and form, the character and the poetryis set against its standards. That Beowulf consistently fails to live up to the paradigm is a criticism of Anglo-Saxon cultural expectations, even as the poet adheres to Anglo-Saxon poetic tradition and thereby nostalgically celebrates the dying culture. The digression begins After his death / Sigemunds glory grew and grew (883-5), confirming him as a completed instance of warrior turned immortal legend both through explicit declaration and the success implicit in a story repeated in songs (874). He is the ideal AngloSaxon, his deeds the rubric upon which all aspiring heroes are judged. It is this model that Beowulf has to live up to, this success story he must aspire toward, as made clear by the narrative entwining (873) the thane, teller of the Sigemund story, does to the two lives. However, nothing ever goes as smoothly for Beowulf as the thirteen lines that retell Sigemunds seamless victory. Beowulfs reality, like all reality, is relentlessly messy. Where

Dolom 2 Sigemund effortlessly impales his dragon, Beowulf is consistently met with enemies impervious to his weapons. No blade on earth could ever damage (801-802) Grendel. The supposedly magical sword Hrunting, which had never failed / the hand of anyone who hefted it in battle (1460-1), refuses to bite (1524) Grendels mother. And of course when he struck hard / at the enamelled scales of his dragon, Beowulf scarcely cut through (2846-7). Compare this with Sigemund, whose sword, faced with radiant scales, was said to have plunged right through (889-890). Scales ideally should welcome single fatal wounds, but reality forces Beowulf to hack repeatedly. That final declarative of the Sigemund stanza The hot dragon melted (896) adds another difference. Beowulfs enemies never melt, but just about everything else does. Heads melted (1122); the damascened sword blade melted (1667); and finally, Beowulfs royal pyre / will melt no small amount of gold (3010-1). It is the artifacts of civilizationthe head, the sword, the goldthat succumbs to decay, not the useless debris. The melted dragon drives home the unreasonable, unrealistic effortlessness Anglo-Saxon culture demands of its heroes. Sigemunds dragon politely cleans itself up by turning into liquid, whereas Beowulfs remains a serpent on the ground, gruesome and vile, / lying facing him (3039-40). The closest approximation reality manages to a self-cleaning dragon is by letting the tide's flow / and backwash take (3131-3) the carcass; they commit the dragon to the sea, a mere parody of a melted wyrm. Finally, the tale of Sigemund places considerable emphasis on self-reliance. Against all three monsters, Beowulf aims to fight alone, trusting in his own strength entirely (2540). These three instances of solitary bravery mirror Sigemunds daring to enter [the dragons lair] all by himself (887). For each battle, Beowulf does gather men as ready sources of emergency

Dolom 3 assistance, but never has recourse to them. This also mirrors Sigemund who face[d] the worst without Fitela (887), implying his brother was stationed within ready reach. For Grendel Beowulf requests his own men to help (432), but then fights the monster hand-to-hand (438). Likewise, he locates the Grendels lair with help, but enters alone. However only these first two instances are successful; the dragon overpowers him. Although / he wanted this challenge to be one he'd face / by himself alone now the day has come / when this lord we serve needs sound men (2642-8). Thus he breaks the mold of hero as a warrior of radical self-sufficiency. All Beowulfs failings demonstrate two important aspects of reality: that men age and that danger is not extinguished in one offing. Beowulf has killed two monsters already in his prime; he has accomplished a Sigemund-like feat twice. And remembering that Grendel carried a pouch made of dragon skins (2087), the brute was probably more fearsome than a dragon, and therefore his defeat a much grander accomplishment. However, real evil is relentless, and its third visitation occurs to an old and far less powerful (2379) Beowulf. Reality does not unfold in clean dramatic singular events as Anglo-Saxon lore implies. Furthermore the reality of time asserts itself in the sinews that once made Beowulf the mightiest man on earth (117). Hrothgar proves to be clairvoyant in his warning: O flower of warriors, beware... For a brief while your strength is in bloom / but it fades quickly Your piercing eye / will dim and darken; and death will arrive, / dear warrior, to sweep you away (1758, 61-2, 6-8). But where Beowulf ultimately fails, as all mortals must, in his project of heroism, the Beowulf poet puts paid to his search for immortality; and the success of the latter project elegizes the same culture the poetrys content doubts. Sigemund owes his immortality not only to his impossible heroism but also to the talent and effort expended at crafting his story in masterful verse. Where Sigemund is a meta-Beowulf, the thane is the meta-poet, the paragon for all

Dolom 4 chroniclers of great heroes. And he is said to recite with skill, rehearsing triumphs in wellfashioned lines (872). The poet of Beowulf can lay full claim to that level of virtuosity. At Beowulfs least flattering moment, the poet cloaks the protagonist in dignifying verse. With characteristic understatement, the poet describes Beowulfs inability to defeat the dragon, the heros blade frantically flashing and slashing in the background (2378), thus: Beowulf was foiled of a glorious victory (2383-4); the poet allows the composure of Anglo-Saxon verse to hide the moment when Beowulf loses the composure of Anglo-Saxon heroism. In as much as the translation captures the formal components of the originalalliteration, kennings, caesuraeits beauty echoes and celebrates the majesty of Anglo-Saxon oral poetry. There is constant elegance in his lines: sleeping the sleep of the sword (565-66), the fetters off the frost (1609), winter went wild in the waves (516)all beautifully alliterative and evocative. Therefore, Beowulf is a kind of paradox. The eponymous character questions the exactions of Anglo-Saxon heroism, while the poetry conforms to Anglo-Saxon tradition; the epic is both aspersion and paean to Anglo-Saxon culture, paying its expectations an askance look, and its poetry the high compliment of imitation.

Work Cited Heaney, Seamus. Beowulf: A Verse Translation. New York: Norton, 2002. Print.