Close Reading Questions for
Beowulf,
Part II (pp. 58 to around 135)
Answer TWO of
the following in a short paragraph each…
1. What general
philosophy of life—or of man—does the poet seem to espouse? Where in the text can you read or sense
this? Is it explicit (does the poet come
out and say this), or is it more implicit, built into the story itself?
2. On page 87,
when everyone is celebrating the death of Grendel and the libration of
Hrothgar’s hall, the poet writes: “how could they know fate,/the grim shape of
things to come,/the threat looming over many thanes/as night approached and
King Hrothgar prepared/to retire to his quarters?” Based on the logic of the poem (and the
values of the poet’s day), why does wyrd/fate continue to ‘punish’ the hall if
God wanted Beowulf to destroy Grendel? Why are they afflicted by Grendel’s mother as
well?
3. The only real
description we get of Grendel and his mother occurs on page 95, when Hrothgar
says “One of these things...looks like a woman; the other, warped/in the shape
of a man, moves beyond the pale/bigger than any man, an unnatural birth.” Though the poet often claims that they are
the spawn of Cain, evil incarnate, some critics suggest that the poet invests
them with a subversive humanity. Where
might we see this in the poem? How might
the poet make us question a strict good/evil reading of the poem?
4. Though Beowulf is quite a ‘manly’ poem, three
women appear briefly in its pages: Wealhtheow (Hrothgar’s wife), Hygd (wife of
Beowulf’s chief, Hygelac), and Modthryth (the ‘evil’ wife of Offa). Assuming that Beowulf is somewhat culturally accurate, what view of women does
the poem offer us? What was their role
in society? Related to this, what role
do they play in the poem? Given their
almost ‘walk-on’ roles, why include them at all?
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