Beowulf and A Nation’s Need for a Common Identity

Beowulf and A Nation’s Need for a Common Identity

The Anglo-Saxon culture is a mysterious one, partly due to the lack of historical documents and literature from that period of time.  There are few sources which can be used to study the Germanic peoples, and the most famous, Beowulf, is not actually a historical document; it is a fictional account of a Scandinavian culture.  So why do scholars tout it as the best example of Anglo-Saxon culture?  The answer is a simple one.  Beowulf might be a Scandinavian tale translated by the newly arrived Germanic peoples, but it is also a tale of the early the early Anglo-Saxons.  Much of the Anglo-Saxon cultural expectations would remain visible in their descendants, and Beowulf is an example of their culture, belief systems, and social structure.  As Barbara Yorke states in her Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England,

The value of Beowulf and other heroic poems to the historian is that they are virtually the only guide to the mentality of the secular aristocracy. Beowulf, which for all its dragons and sea-monsters has a strong Christian content, not only shows the secular values of lordship, but also how the vocabulary and morality of the institution was adapted by the church to convert the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy though not without some distortion of its basic message. (Yorke 22)

But the poem acts as more than a simple “guide to…the secular aristocracy”; it is also illustrative of Britain’s need for a common identity.  It is likely that Beowulf may have provided a vehicle for political change during a time when the people of Britain, especially those south of Hadrian’s Wall were “being assimilated into an emergent English nation…and the text…is a significant result of that national consciousness at and at the same time, a significant contribution toward it” (Richards 62).  Furthermore, Beowulf functions as an allegory for Britain’s need for a common identity among a diverse population, as well as an inspiration for the unification of the nation’s peoples.

            Echoing this inspiration for unification, Beowulf highlights various amalgamations.  First, it illustrates the mingling of both the Christian and pagan cultures of the Germanic tribes and the remaining Romans, while also demonstrating the combination of the native languages of these people and how the languages created a pidgin language which would eventually become English.  The work also illustrates the mixture of the Scandinavians’ mythological and legendary pasts with the Roman Christians’ belief system, and finally, how the characters represented in Beowulf act as representatives of Anglo-Saxon man.

            The poem is a document in which various significant cultural issues are contested.  It is the combination of two dissimilar societies: the martial, tribal culture of the Germanic tribes and the learned Latin culture, part of which remained from the Roman occupation of Britain joined by the missionaries who were introducing Christianity (Fulk, et al 2).  Historically, the Anglo-Saxon invasions began around 197 A.D. when the Roman governor removed troops from England in order to declare himself emperor, and by the late fourth century, the Roman Empire went into decline as the government lost control of one area of Britain after another and Roman forces were needed elsewhere (Lehmberg 15).  As the troops abandoned Britain, many Roman citizens remained behind and attempted to maintain their cultural beliefs and practices as the Picts and Celts continued to attack from Scotland and Ireland.  Eventually, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth, King Vortigern invited Hengist and Horsa from Saxony to help protect the Britons, and instead, they brought hundreds of men from the Germanic tribes to invade and occupy Britain.  At this time, the Anglo-Saxons began taking over much of Britain; there was no unified government or laws as the men began to establish their own areas of settlement and control.  Eventually there were as many as twelve kingdoms, seven of which lasted and became known as the Heptarchy (Lehmberg 22).  D.M. Wilson, author of The Anglo-Saxons, writes that the presence of a large number of tribal leaders in the early years of the settlement resulted in an “England of numerous royal dynasties” (32).  And to further perpetuate a collision of cultures, St. Augustine began his missionary work.  He shared Christianity in hopes of converting the nation. Thus, early Medieval Britain was made up of Romans, Angles, Jutes, Saxons, Picts, and Celts, who all spoke different languages and dialects, worshipped various deities (pagan and Christian), and held diverse cultural values.   

Critics agree that this diverse ethnical combination is partly the impetus for the copying of the Scandinavian tale of the hero Beowulf into the Anglo-Saxon language. William Lawrence, author of Medieval Story and the Beginnings of the Social Ideals of English-Speaking People, discusses the social climate of early Anglo-Saxon England.  He describes it as “unsettled” with “various peoples wandering restlessly about” in search for new homes and new possessions (Lawrence 32).  The time period was fraught with fighting and conquest, both for treasure and territory.  Peaceful and settled existences were nearly unheard of and the era has been called the Migration Period.  Lawrence also posits that a select few people were able to “develop a national consciousness,” and out of this time of confusion was born the beginnings of government in Britain (32).  The reader must remember that Beowulf was born of this time period—a time when national consciousness was almost nonexistent and tribes spent more time fighting than building; thus, the story of Beowulf is one of tribal roots instead of what modern readers might perceive as a tale from a “society.”  In fact, the epic more accurately depicts the Germanic Tribes as described by Tacitus in his Germania, than it does the period in which was put onto paper (around 1000 A.D.). 

            To discuss the cultural “society” of Beowulf, one must consider the effects of the cultural collision that occurred due to the numerous convergences of various ethnicities.  In Race and Ethnicity, Harris explains, “the possible world of a text demands a distinction between social culture (or the material expression of a people) and literary culture” (33); consequently, ideas such as wergild or comitatus, which permeate the text, do not necessarily “explain the intricacies of military organization in Anglo-Saxon England” (33).   This example serves the reader as a microcosm of the work as a whole.  Simply because some cultural ideas are present in the work does not necessarily mean that this ideas are an accurate picture of all of Britain, though it does give an impression. 

At the time that Beowulf was written, the Anglo-Saxons were not producing much in the way of written literature.  In fact, Beowulf is the only surviving epic poem of its length that remains.  Furthermore, there are no other surviving poems that speak of nationalism or patriotism as Beowulf does.  Lawrence attributes this to the Anglo-Saxon’s lack of “political solidarity.” They had not yet come to think of themselves as a single people, united by common interests and ideals; they were still in an unsettled condition, governed by various petty kings, and continually warring against each other” (31).  But at the time of Beowulf’s recording onto paper, a merging of tribes was beginning to occur. 

All that modern scholars know of Beowulf and its author and setting must be taken with a grain of salt.  The poem does not necessarily show a completely accurate depiction of the Anglo-Saxons; however, it can help the reader to understand the culture better.  As mentioned earlier, it cannot be relied upon to explain intricacies, but might be used for what it says about generalities.  Perhaps the authors utilized Beowulf for a purpose: to illustrate to the Anglo-Saxon people the need for them to unite, to create a common identity.  Harris writes that, “Anglo-Saxon stories sought to redefine their own ethnic tradition by appealing to a sense of inherited, historical kingship and kinship” (132).  Hence, the author of Beowulf might have also sought to use his work as an appeal for unification by appealing to the peoples’ sense of inherited kinship. 

One manner in which Beowulf functions as a medium for the merging of the Anglo-Saxon cultures is through the poets use of Old English, which is an amalgamation of the Germanic tribes’ tongues, Latin, and a bit of the Celtic languages.  By utilizing the language of the common people, it makes the work accessible in ways that other stories had not been before.  Latin was the language of the educated, usually priests and men connected with the church, while the Anglo-Saxon dialects were the language of the common man; thus, Beowulf was a story for all, not only the elite.  In Janet Thormann’s

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Poems and the Making of the English Nation, she posits that,

“A Common language undoubtedly provides a population speaking that language with an idea of community.  It may motivate an idea of common nationality, as well”  (62).   While a common language may not necessarily build a nation on its own, it will foster a sense of community amongst those who speak the language, and having popular literature written in that same language, or told orally in the language, will also inspire the idea of a shared culture.  Thormann continues with this idea by quoting John D. Niles, the editor of the book in which her article is published,

Niles describes a "tenth century renaissance" in vernacular culture as a vehicle for a developing nationalism, so that as early as "Athelstan's reign, for the first time, it is possible to speak of an English nation." According to this line of reasoning, the text of Beowulf is a significant result of that national consciousness and, at the same time, a significant contribution toward it. (Thormann 62)

Furthermore, an interesting concept to consider is that the poet of the work was most likely a religious man educated in Latin and of Roman descent. In most cases, these monks and men of the church would use the “artless poetry of his vernacular; and in the hands of the monk lay all destiny of letters” (Gummere 8).  Francis Gummere, in his book Germanic Origins has much to say regarding the copying down of the Scandinavian tale of Beowulf.  He believed that it was the Christian leaders who decided which tales were kept and cherished and which were dismissed or destroyed.  He writes, “Patriotic monks were here and there found who would set down the songs and legends of the fatherland, notwithstanding occasional survivals of heathendom which crept between the lines,--so we have a Beowulf” (Gummere 8-9).  Many songs and lais were lost because of the pagan nature of the works.  The Germanic tribes were torn between their old civilization and customs and their new experiences in Britain, something that the men of the church must have also experienced.  Language was one way in which to bring the newness of Britain into the tales of their homelands.

            Like the combination of languages, the combination of the Anglo-Saxons’ native gods and the newly introduced religion of Christianity also helped to forge a British nation and inspire a sense of community among the tribes.  Harris posits, “Tribal laws, myths, and traditions seem to have melded with Christian ones very early on—in the Gothic and Burgundian kingdoms at least by the sixth century. No lodestone is capable of turning the lead of recorded medieval history into the gold of autonomous Germanic tribal identity, were such a thing to exist” (40).  Thus, it is both the mythological and the Christian ideals that combine to create Beowulf.  It should be mentioned again that the author-poet was most probably a man from a holy order; thus, the Christian ideas and allusions that permeate the poem are mostly veneer that has been placed over the original pagan work that the Anglo-Saxons brought with them from their homelands.  This author most likely utilized the true historical and legendary qualities, but he is not the true author of the tale, which probably began as legend.  As most critics agree, it is an impossible task to separate the Christian veneer from the work on which it is placed.  Fulk writes that the Germanic tribes

…retained a sense of community with the rest of the Germanic world, even as the form of English society grew ever more different from it; [it] is shown in a variety of ways, but most clearly in the fact that even as late as the dawn of the 11^th century, heroic verse dealing with legends set in Scandinavia and on the continent, like Beowulf, with no explicit connection to England continued to be copied in English manuscript. (5)

It is the adherence to the old stories and myths that brought us Beowulf, a combination of the mythological Germanic past with the new Christian Anglo-Saxon Britain community.  Lawrence, when discussing Beowulf, writes the there are two Germanic elements that go into the tale—an element of the old tales of Scandinavian heroes, who slay mythological creatures, and their culture’s historical and literary past, which acts as a background for the story (36). 

Though many authors have attempted to prove Beowulf’s Scandinavian beginnings, they have failed to produce any specific reference to just one myth or legend. In fact, it is peculiar that Beowulf holds no true “Scandinavianisms,” though it does, however, have some connection to the Grettis Saga (Bjork 130-1).  As Lawrence speculates, the story of a man who battles demons which terrorize a people and their hall is extremely common in Europe during this time period.  The story can be linked to stories from all over Europe and even other continents (Lawrence 39).  The tale of Beowulf and his battles is simply an archetypal story which has been given a historical setting within the Danish and Geatish nations, and the reason it rings true and affects the Anglo-Saxons and other tribes in Britain is party that it is archetypal and speaks to the nation’s collective unconscious.  The figures, the themes, the ideals are also recognizable from each culture’s own stories and legends.  The similarities help bridge the gap between cultures and help to unite a no-longer Scandinavian people with the rest of the tribes in Britain.  Lawrence writes that the only true place history has in the tale is in “making the story seem real” (40).  He expresses that myth may seem like fact when it combines with believable and recognizable history.  That is why many of the historical figures mentioned in Beowulf are utilized. 

Wilson, in Anglo-Saxon Poetry, concludes that many of Beowulf’s characters are based on historical figures.  For example, Hygelac ruled the Geats between 512 and 520 A.D. in what is now considered southern Sweden (Wilson 1).  Wilson writes that the kings, Eadgils, Onela, Ohtere, and Ongentheow, were also historical figures (1).  “The Danish king Healfdene [Halfdane] and his descendants are also probably historical, and their great hall Heorot almost certainly stood at Leire in the island of Seeland” (Wilson 1).  Lawrence, in addition to Wilson’s list of historical figures to which he assents truly existed, also lists Hrothgar and his hall in Demark as plausible historical fact (41). 

But Beowulf is valuable as more than a record of past historical occurrences of the Scandinavian people; it also functions as a record of ancient myths and legends of the early Anglo-Saxon peoples.  For example, Bjork, in The Beowulf Handbook, posits that the story “does follow the tradition of Old Icelandic heroes” (134), and that Beowulf may have done more than simply repeat myths.  It might also have “affect[ed] the culture by projecting a current ideology onto the past and its founding figures; in fact, he writes that, “Beowulf may have provided the Anglo-Saxons with a model for current institutions of kingship and thaneship, a means of validating power relations among Saxon, Mercians, Danes, and other groups” (230).  Again, a combination of myth and history might have affected the common identity of the cultures living in Britain.  In agreement with Bjork, Harris writes that the Anglo-Saxons could have been attempting to redefine their own ethnic tradition by appealing to a sense of inherited, historical kingship and kinship, thus drawing mythical origins into historical time” (132). 

One famous piece of ancient Germanic legend that is similar to Beowulf is the Grettis Saga, previously mentioned, and critics also claim that the creature Grendel is a mythical creature.  Fulk, in his critique, mentions that the building of Heorot and Grendel’s attempted destruction of it is an archetypal plot.  Mythically, the building of hall or meeting place for a culture inevitably brings the destruction of its peoples—like the Egyptians and the pyramids and Solomon and the temple (Fulk 101); thus, the mead-hall is symbolic of sloth and the apathetic decline of society, just as Heorot is symbolic of Hrothgar’s peace and the decline of his culture.  Beowulf must attend Hrothgar in order to destroy Grendel and restore peace to the Danes.  This idea and theme would have been familiar to the Germanic tribes.   And the poet, by utilizing familiar themes and ideals would be able to connect with his readers, especially those of Germanic origins. 

Other than the mythological and legendary allusions and patterns found in Beowulf, Christianity plays an important role in the work.  And while the work is fundamentally pagan, the Christian veneer is so deeply attached to the story that it is impossible to separate the two.  This is probably due to the poet’s desire to create a more modern tale from an ancient legendary story.  One example of this idea is that Grendel is the progeny of the biblical Cain, who murdered his brother Abel in jealousy and was cursed and marked by God to suffer through eternity.  By alluding to Grendel’s biblical ancestor, the author is able to combine the mythological and supernatural with what the newly converted Anglo-Saxons would be doubly familiar with—the story of Cain and Abel as well as the supernatural beast of myth that ravaged the Germanic peoples.  Another example of the amalgamation of Christianity and paganism is in Hrothgar’s rewarding of Beowulf with “wealth as a kind of social sacrament,” yet at the same time lecturing Beowulf, invoking the Christian God, on the dangers of hubris (Damrosch, et al 27).  This veneer of Christianity demonstrates a division in the epic.  The author and his audience are Christians who are remembering their pagan ancestors and attempting to “reconcile the two” (27). 

While these examples of the mishmash of Christianity and paganism work well, the reader must also acknowledge that some of the combinations are not as successful.  Lawrence uses Beowulf as an example of failure; he posits that while Beowulf spouts Christian ideals and praise to the Christian God, he also behaves in a heathen manner.  “He forgets his new religion frequently, after the manner of other newly converted savages, sometimes attributing death and destruction to Wyrd, the heathen goddess, and neglecting God completely in his reflections as to the way in which the universe is ruled (Lawrence 48-9).  While Lawrence finds fault in this combination, others disagree.  The editors of The Longman Anthology write that “Beowulf offers and extraordinary double perspective…for its acceptance of the values of the pagan heroic code…[and that] it also refers to Christian concepts that in many cases conflict with them” (Damrosch, et al 27).    The editors elaborate by stating that,

This rich division of emotional loyalty probably arises from a poet and audience of Christians who look back at their pagan ancestors with both pride and grief, stressing the intersection of pagan and Christian values in effort to reconcile the two.  (27)

Perhaps the church, with purpose, established “a neutral ground on which classics and barbarism could in some manner join hands and so save what was best in each” (Gummere 9).

Another manner in which the text of Beowulf acts as a vehicle for establishing a common identity is in the readers’ understanding of how a fictional work concerning a Scandinavian hero might work as an allegory for the Anglo-Saxon people.  What the reader must recognize is that Beowulf and the monsters that he fights act as symbols of Anglo-Saxon man’s confrontations with life; thus, the Kings—Shield, Hrothgar, and Beowulf—do much in the way of unifying the peoples of their land, and perhaps the poet uses this as a statement to his readers and listeners about uniting, an early form of propaganda.  In the first two stanzas of the poem, the poet describes Shield Sheafson,

Scourge of many tribes,

A wrecker of mead-benches, rampaging among foes.

This terror of the hall-troops had come far…

In the end each clan on the outlying coasts

Beyond the whale-road had to yield to him

And begin to pay tribute.  That was one good king.  (Heaney 3)

In these lines, Shield Sheafson is described as a “good king,” mostly because he was able to conquer neighboring foes and unite them with his own people.  Each clan eventually yielded to Shield and paid tribute; by this process, they become citizens of his culture and are unified under his laws.  This is extremely similar to what was occurring in Britain.  With the Heptarchy, and seven ruling kings, eventually one king was chosen from them to become the bretwalda, or high king of Britain (Lehmberg 22).   This shift from numerous tribes with numerous kings to larger kingdoms under the dominion of a bretwalda helped to encourage a common identity among the Britons.  With Aethelberht as high king, many changes occurred.  Aethelberht was converted to Christianity by St. Augustine, and, therefore, many of his people converted as well.  Richards writes that “Aethelberht’s choice of English for laws helped to enable Germanic legal traditions. It’s these new-found Christianity that forms the basis of Anglo-Saxonism as expressed in the laws”  (40).  In other words, Aethelberht, perhaps like the poet of Beowulf, saw a need to unite the peoples of Britain through common laws and common language.  

An example of the Germanic tribes’ beliefs in uniting a people through affairs of state can be seen in Beowulf.  The poet’s use of the mead-bench as a metaphor for a common identity is echoed in Shield’s descendant’s building of a mead-hall.  Hrothgar desires to build the mead-hall, in a time of peace, to bring together his people.  The mead-hall was a place for Hrothgar to dole out rings, a common practice among kings, to share drink and food, as well as a place for the recitation of verse.  And perhaps the poet is speaking to his audience with this idea of a mead-bench where everyone comes together to share in the tradition of story telling.

            Hrothgar’s generosity and ability to unite nations is further exemplified in his speech to Beowulf upon his leave-taking. 

My liking for you

Deepens with time, dear Beowulf.

What you have done is to draw two peoples,

The Geat nation and us neighboring Danes,

Into shared peace and a pact of friendship

In spite of hatred we have harboured in the past.

For as long as I rule this far-flung land

Treasures will change hands and each side will treat

 The other with gifts...  (Heaney 127)

Much like his ancestor, Shield, Hrothgar wishes to build strong bonds with neighboring cultures and to create peaceful, reciprocal relationships.  He praises Beowulf for his ability to begin this type of association between the Geats and Danes.  It is uncanny how much these words could have easily been spoken by an Anglo-Saxon king, such as Aethelberht, in hopes of uniting the ever-growing, ever-warring tribes in Britain.

Beowulf’s own words to Hrothgar reiterate the need for this alliance. 

If there is any favor on earth that I can perform…

Anything that would merit your affections more,

I shall act, my lord, with alacrity.

If ever I hear from across the ocean

That your borders are threatening battle…

I shall land with a thousand thanes at my back

To help your cause. (Heaney 125)

Again, in Beowulf’s speech to his own king, Hygelac, he mentions Hrothgar’s generosity and willingness to treat Beowulf and his men as his own, as well as his pledge of alliance between the two nations.  Beowulf goes on to describe Wealtheow, Hrothgar’s wife, as a “peace-pledge between nations,” (Heaney 138) and he relates the news of Hrothgar’s daughter, Freawaru, and her upcoming marriage to a man from a different nation.  Hrothgar’s hope is that it will “heal old wounds and grievous feuds” (Heaney139).  This further echoes the importance of peaceful agreements between clashing cultures. 

            The Anglo-Saxons, for a number of couple of reasons, easily accepted the story of Beowulf and his great feats.  First, as Lawrence posits, the story “had been in their possession for some time before it assumed its present shape” and it was more than likely a translation from a Germanic tongue (30).  Lawrence further mentions that the epic centers around a hero who traveled to seek his fortune, a common occurrence in those times, and the Germanic tribes would have appreciated a tale of a man journeying past “restricted horizons” to achieve glory (33). 

 In a way, the tale of Beowulf allowed the Anglo-Saxon peoples a way to remember their homelands, a connection to their past, while at the same time bridging the gap between their current culture and the culture of their ancestors.  As J.R.R. Tolkien writes, in his famous work Beowulf and the Critics, “To judge of Beowulf, to try indeed to form any conception of it at all…is to attempt an estimate of a great man from his skeleton” (83).  But when little information is available, the student must derive the best possible account, a circumstantial supposition.  Beowulf, as one of the only surviving works of art, must also be viewed as a document that gives historical insight, a document which illustrates a blend of the Scandinavian past with the Anglo-Saxon present for its readers, a document that, as propaganda, works to encourage the tribes in Britain to unite together for the improvement of the nation.

           

Works Cited

Bjork, Robert E. "5. Nineteenth-Century Scandinavia and the Birth of Anglo-Saxon Studies." Anglo-Saxonism and the Construction of Social Identity. Ed. Allen J. Frantzen and John D. Niles. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1997. 111-125. Questia. 8 Aug. 2009 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=25000019>.

Harris, Stephen J. Race and Ethnicity in Anglo-Saxon Literature. New York: Routledge, 2003. Questia. 8 Aug. 2009 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=107704885>.

Lees, Clare A. Tradition and Belief: Religious Writing in Late Anglo-Saxon England. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999. Questia. 8 Aug. 2009 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=109759104>.

Wilson, D. M. The Anglo-Saxons. New York: Praeger, 1960. Questia. 8 Aug. 2009 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=89176593>.

Gummere, Francis B. Germanic Origins: A Study in Primitive Culture. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1892. Questia. 8 Aug. 2009 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=11355179>.

Heaney, Seamus.  Beowulf.  New York:  W.W. Norton, 2000.

Lawrence, William Witherle. Medieval Story and the Beginnings of the Social Ideals of English-Speaking People. New York: Columbia University Press, 1911. Questia. 8 Aug. 2009 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5872182>.

Tolkien, J. R. R. Beowulf and the Critics. Ed. Michael D. C. Drout. Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2002. Questia. 8 Aug. 2009 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=111554559>.

Yorke, Barbara. Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. London: Routledge, 1997. Questia. 8 Aug. 2009 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=103491046>.

Fulk, Robert, et al.  A History of Old English Literature.  New Jersey: Wiley Blackwell, 2003.

Thormann, Janet.  “The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Poems and the Making of the English Nation.”  Anglo-Saxonism and the Construction of Social Identity. Ed. Allen J. Frantzen and John D. Niles. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1997. 111-125. Questia. 8 Aug. 2009