Beowulf Questions

Kathryn and I are a group. We worked individually. I did the first half of the questions and she did the second half.

[Prologue: The Rise of the Danish Nation]
1. Shield was an orphan when he was found, so it is unusual that he became a king with his background. Shield was a respected king so they put him on a boat with treasures and sailed him out to sea. Hrothgar is Shield's heir after his son Grain.

[Heorot is Attacked]
1. Hrothgar undertook the task of making the Danes into a prosperous land. A demon from Cain attacked and killed 30 men. The demon was Grendel. The attacks lasted for 12 years, and the Danes kept offering sacrifices and gifts.

[The Hero Comes to Heorot]
1. Beowulf travels to Danes along with 14 others to aid Danes in defeating the demon.
2. Beowulf meets the first guard of the Danish coast. The guard questions the warriors, but allows them to pass after Beowulf mentions that he is the son of Ecgtheow and he is loyal to Hygelac.
3. Hrothgar's herald is a news messenger named Wulfgar. Wulfgar asks Beowulf what business he has with Hrothgar. Beowulf tells him that he is here to help the Danes, and Wulfgar takes the news immediately to Hrothgar. Hrothgar mentions that he remembers Beowulf. I'm not surprised because Hrothgar and Ecgtheow knows each other.
4. Beowulf offers to fight Grendel with his bare hands. Beowulf's father killed Heatholaf a member of the Wulfing tribe, and Hrothgar sent treasure to the Wulfings to cease the fighting.

[Feast at Heorot]
1.  Unferth accuses Beowulf of his vanity and losing a swimming match, and Beowulf retaliates by calling Unferth a drunk and pointing out how he is a failure at fighting Grendel. The scene compares to the poem because it shows differences in boastfulness.
2. Queen Wealtheow says that she wants Beowulf to befriend and guide her children, Hrethric and Hrothmund, when Hrothgar passes.

[Fight with Grendel]
1. Beowulf refuses armor and weapons. He walks into battle completely unarmed.
2. When Grendel enters Heorot, he kills some of the Geatish warriors, but Beowulf pins Grendel down as he tries to escape. Grendel eventually escapes, but he dies in a swamp. Beowulf is rewarded with Grendel's arm that he tore off.

[Celebration at Heorot]
1. Beowulf and Sigemund are similar in that they both fought giant monsters. Beowulf and Heremod are different because Beowulf is loyal to his people and Heremod is not.
2. Hrothgar rewards Beowulf for his deed by praising him and offering him gifts. Unferth basically takes back all his insults because Beowulf did the task.
3. The Finn story is about the Danish losing to the Frisians, and the Danish used a woman to call a truce between forces and the Frisians agreed. This shows that women are undervalued because they are so easily disposable to others.
4. Wealtheow tells Hrothgar not to tell anyone.
5. Wealtheow asked Beowulf to take care of her children. With the necklace Beowulf received from Wealtheow, he gives it to Hygd.
6. The men stayed in the drinking hall because they were drunk and didn't know any better. Grendel's mother took revenge on the Danes by killing the men in the drinking hall.

[Another Attack]
1. Grendel's mother only wanted to avenge her son's death.
2. Hrothgar demanded that Beowulf kill Grendel's mother because she killed Hrothgar's friend and his counselor.
3. The mere is a scary, swampy area where Grendel's mother's lair is.

[Beowulf Fights Grendel's Mother]
1. If Beowulf is killed, he told Hrothgar to return his things to Hygelac and take care of the Geats.
2. Before Beowulf enters the mere with his soldiers, they find Aeschere's head.
3. Beowulf covers himself in armor and Unferth equips him with a sword named Hrunting.
4. When Beowulf enters the mere, he is immediately attacked by Grendel's mother. It was surprising that the monster would live at the bottom of the mere.
5. The Hrunting can't cut Grendel's mother's head.
6. When Grendel's mother is sitting on top of Beowulf, Beowulf manages to hurt the monster, and that moves her off of him.
7. Beowulf uses the sword of the giants to cut her throat, then he proceeds to decapitate her and takes her head as a reward. The sword begins to melt.
8. When Beowulf emerges as the victor, his men take off his armor and congratulate him because they did not expect to see him alive.

Further Celebration at Heorot
1. Beowulf presents Hrothgar with Grendel's head and the sword hilt which killed him.
2. He tells him how a great leader looks for eternal and not earthly rewards. Heremod was evil and disloyal which was contrasted with Beowulf's goodness. Heremod died from deserting his people for the Jutes and died from betrayal. This should have taught Beowulf that loyalty and godness will keep him alive and will keep the gods on his side, instead of taking the easy route and dying in the process.
3. He returns Hrunting.

Beowulf Returns Home
1. He predicts he will be a good and generous ruler with a great future.
2. Hygd is Hygelac's wife, the queen. She is young, wise, and righteous, unlike Modthryth who was evil and killed her innocent citizens when she thought they were offending her.
3. The intention of the marriage is to bring peace to the warring kingdoms. He predicts that once they see each other wearing plundered goods as their own that it will start up new tensions and the fighting will recommense. We are surprised that he is being pessimistic and thinking the worst of people. Generally, he is kind and thinks all is good besides definite evil.
4. He reports accurately, but emphasizes and exaggerates the struggles and strengths of the monsters. He especially tells of his rewards and merit for performing the daunting feat of might and courage.
5. He gives most of it away to Hygd and Hygelac, including horses, a necklace, and suits of armor. In return, he recieved large amounts of treasure and his own land to rule.

BEOWULF AND THE DRAGON

The Dragon Wakes
1. There is a fifty year time skip, in which Hygelac dies and the throne is left to Beowulf. There is a dragon ranpaging towards Beowulf's castle.
2. The dragon's anrgy because it had been guarding a buried treasure for 300 years and he awoke to find a slave had stolen a goblet right from under him. The treasure was there because the last of an ancient race knew the treasure would do him no good because he was destined to die along with all his ancestors.
3. The dragon burns down villages and homes and Beowulf's throne-hall.
4. He thought he had lost favor with the gods. The shield is to protect him from the fiery breath of the dragon whom he plans on defeating himself. He wants to fight it alone, in open ground, with a sword and some armour. He will be defeated because he doesn't realize he's fifty years older than when he fought Grendel and much feebler.
5. Hygelac died in combat at Friesland. After his death, Beowulf served as guardian and advisor to his son until he was able to rightfully take the throne. He was offered the position of King but didn't accept it due to throwing off the royalty succession. He only took the throne when Hygelac's son died.
6. He dies in a skirmish against the Swedes. Beowulf later ceased tensions with the Swedes.
7. He takes eleven men to survey the sorroundings and investigate, but he alone goes to fight the dragon.
8. Herebeald died in the castle from Grendel's attack, causing the king unbearable grief and sorrow and need for revenge. The Swedes and Geats finally came to a peace agreement under Beowulf.

Beowulf Attacks The Dragon
1. He tells them to go away and let go him fight alone.
2. In the first battle, Veowulf realizes his sword and armour aren't enough. All but Wiglaf flee in terror, but Wiglaf stays to fight alongside his king to give some hope of victory. He tried to coax the others into joining him by reminding them of their oaths but to no avail. He goes alone to asist Beowulf.
3. The second time, Beowulf's sword breaks and Wiglaf comes to the rescue and stabs the dragon in the stomach. Then Beowulf pulls a knife and stabs the beast in the flank, a fatal blow. But the dragon had bit Beowulf in the neck with a venomous bite and both were destined to die.
4. He wasks Wiglaf to bring him the treasure to see what he had liberated. He is satisfied with the riches he won for his people and tells Wiglaf to build him a barrow to be buried in called "Beowulf's Barrow"

Beowulf's Funeral
1. The soldiers find Wiglaf mourning the death of their ruler, and are bitterly welcomed by him. He scorns their cowardice, saying Beowulf's generosity was wasted on them and adumbrates the Geats will face many foreign warlords trying to defeat them without Beowulf.
2. The messenger tells the results of the battle and warns them against attack from the Franks, Frisians, and Swedes.
3. He tells of Beowulf's dying wish and prepares them for the construction of his barrow.
4. The dragon's corpse is thrown into a body of water.
5. The people burn his body and mourn his death.
6. They claimed he was mild, kind and pariseworthy. We would expect him to be describes as mighty, or victorious, or valiant, not as a meek ruler who brought prosperous times on his kingdom.