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Beowulf: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''Hwæt. We Gardena in geardagum,
''þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
''hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!
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* [[Buy Them Off]]: ''Wergeld'', or "man price" is a custom of the time that if a man killed another man he could essentially [[Blue and Orange Morality|buy exemption from the deceased family]], [[Values Dissonance|which was widely acceptable at the time]]. [[Small Reference Pools|Such practices are quite common in non-Western cultures.]]
** Well, considering that, at the time, the family of the murdered man would have been honor-bound to kill the killer, whose family would in turn been honor-bound to kill the killer's killer (lather, rinse repeat), this sort of thing was [[Fair for Its Day|intended to prevent excessive bloodshed]].
* [[By the Hair]]: Reading the original text closely reveals that Beowulf actually uses this strategy against Grendel's mom.
* [[Celibate Hero]]: Beowulf never marries in the 50 years he rules. As many an English professor is fond of pointing out, the only "action" Beowulf gets with a woman is with Grendel's mother.
** Not being married does not necessarily mean he was chaste...
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