Beowulf: Difference between revisions

we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!|Opening lines of ''Beowulf''}}

 

 

And did we mention that it's a [[Narrative Poem|poem]]?

* [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]]: ''Everyone''.

* [[Rags to Royalty]]: see [[Made a Slave]]

* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: Wiglaf gives one to the troops [[Dirty Coward|who fled from the dragon]] rather than help their king.

* [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent]]: When the lake that Grendel's mother lives in is described, we know it's a bad place because it's described as being infested with all kinds of reptiles, including, but not limited to, sea dragons, serpents, and wild beasts.

* [[Royals Who Actually Do Something]]: Of course, kings in that era [[Asskicking Equals Authority|became kings by proving themselves in combat]]. Hrothgar is capable, but can't do anything, because ... he's not a hero. (No, seriously.) Of course, there is also Beowulf himself.

* [[Spell My Name With an "S"]]: Various characters have had their names translated in several different ways across different translations. For example, the king of Geatland is most commonly named "Hygelac", but at least one translation uses "Higlac". Then there's Hrothgar's great-grandfather, who has been variously called "Scyld", "Shild", or "Shield". Beowulf's father's name has been translated as "Ecgtheow" and "Edgetho". Not even the eponymous hero himself is immune - while "Beowulf" is universally accepted as the translation, some passages in the original poem spell it as "Biowulf".

** The reason for this lies in that Anglo-Saxon, like most ancient languages, had no set spelling conventions. Authors wrote what they heard, and the latter part of the manuscript was copied by a second author at some point. It's entirely possible he spoke a different dialect than the original author.