What does hrothgar warn beowulf about in his speech

The decorum of 'Beowulf.' Lenore Abraham Philological Quarterly. 72.3 (Summer 1993): p267+. From Literature Resource Center. Copyright: COPYRIGHT 1993 University of Iowa http://english.uiowa.edu/pq/ Abstract:
'Beowulf' depicts its hero's progress through the three stages of life and handles the subject with extreme decorum. Lines 1-1008 deal with the world of Grendel, which represents youth, through the rhetorical strategy of 'contentio'; lines 1009-2199 with the world of the hag, middle age, through 'adnominatio'; and lines 2200 to the end with the world of the dragon, old age, through 'dilatio.' At each stage Beowulf demonstrates the appropriate cardinal virtue, including prudence, temperance, right living and fortitude. The poem's promotion of Christian rather than pagan virtues suggests a date following the Danish invasion of Britain.

Full Text:
John Gardner suggested interpreting Beowulf in terms of "that commonplace of medieval thought" which identified the three qualities of the tripartite soul with the three ages of life, as in the fourteenth-century Parliament of the Three Ages, in which "youth is identified with the irascible part, middle age with concupiscence, and old age with the search for wisdom."(1) Robert Hanning pointed out the remarkable concentration on images of sharing, dividing and depriving in the Grendel section.(2)

Taking off from both these suggestions, the present paper demonstrates an extraordinary decorum in the poet's management of his subject. The world of Grendel focuses on beginnings; the qualities of youth; contentions, divisions and separations; externalities of various kinds, including hands, feet and mouth. The world of the hag focuses on middles and middle age; the torso and the mod; reversals and substitutions; internalities. The world of the dragon emphasizes endings and age; overfullness; the head and mental functions; supernalities. An inherent connection between these apparently disparate qualities is established for each world and its monster by the rhetorical strategy which predominates. Contentio dominates in youth, adnominatio in middle age, dilatio in age. Once the internal consistency and coherence of each of these worlds is grasped, it becomes clear that the poem portrays Beowulf's journey through youth, middle age and age. Endowed with the gifts of nature in youth, of fortune in middle age, and of grace in age, Beowulf demonstrates in turn the four cardinal virtues of prudence, temperance, justice or right living, and fortitude.(3) However, though he conquers the monsters which afflict youth and middle age, he is asleep to the spirit, and so falls prey at last to the monster of age and the mutability of worldly things. As a corollary, this reading of the poem suggests, rather than precludes, a post-Danish invasion date.(4)

For ease of discussion we will consider the poem in three parts: 1 (Grendel): lines 1-1008; 2 (the hag): lines 1009-2199; and 3 (the dragon): lines 2200-end. However, as we shall see, the total structure of the poem is better considered as Beowulf's rise and fall.

1. LINES 1-1008

Part 1 stresses beginnings and qualities of youth. We hear how Scyld Scefing (of unknown origin) arrived and established kingdom and dynasty (4-63); how Hrothgar gained pre-eminence, established a youth corps (64-67) and built a great hall in which harpists sang Creation (89-98), before feuds began (67-85). We learn the origins of Grendel in the fratricide of Cain; the beginnings of Grendel's feud against Hrothgar (100-64); the coming of Beowulf (194-370), his origins (371-84), and his youthful exploits against Breca (506-86).

Youth rather than fighting ability characterizes Hrothgar's retainers;(5) and Beowulf initially epitomizes the brashness of youth. Introduced as "thegn of Thoughtless" (194),(6) he immediately promises to put an end, without weapons and single-handedly (425-45), to Grendel, a monster who eats thirty thegns at a time (123) and has terrorized the Danes unchecked for twelve years (147). His first speech to Hrothgar youthfully rushes from one topic to the next, making only surface or chronological connections between ideas, with youth's callow disregard for the human consequences of what he is saying. He began many glorious things in youth, heard of Grendel, and having already bound five giants and slain nicera, will now cleanse Heriot (407-32). He will forgo weapons since Grendel does not like them; but if Grendel eats him, Hrothgar should send Hygelac his armor; what will be will be (433-55). This flitting from one idea to another, without thought or emotional depth, contrasts sharply with Hrothgar's grief at Aeschere's death (1322-44) and Beowulf's departure (1841-65; 1876-80), and with Beowulf's own concern for others shown before facing Grendel's mother (1384-96; 1474-91) or the dragon (2529-37).

Beowulf's lack of preparation for the fight is equally brash. He sets no watch (728-30), strips himself of armor (671-74), idealistically refuses weapons (677-85), and watches (without emotional reaction) one of his sleeping men get eaten (736-45). It so happens that Grendel's time has come (805-8), that God has decided to use Beowulf to demonstrate His power (696-702), and that weapons would not have helped anyway (798-805); but this is sheer good luck. However, Beowulf realizes that he owes his victory to God's help (967-68, 977-79). He approaches Grendel's mother far more cautiously (1441-91), though he has already defeated Grendel and the hag is reputedly much less fearsome (1282-87). From his encounter with Grendel Beowulf learns prudence.

The youthful Beowulf possesses the "goods of nature": sound physique, hardihood, presence, and distinction above his peers (198, 247-51, 336-39, 381-84); articulate speech (260-85, 342-47, 407-55, 503-607); and clear understanding (584-601, 977-79). Above all, Beowulf excels in strength (maegen): he is the strongest man of his time (196-97), has the strength of thirty in his grip (379-80), and owes his success against Breca (518) and Grendel (750-53, 788-90) to his strength. But also Beowulf enjoys the support of his kin (maegp: 730,796-99). The unanimity of Beowulf and his kinsmen is repeatedly stressed: they are aetsomne (307, 402, 491), aetgaedere (321, 329, 387, 729). Thus Part 1 associates and particularly emphasizes the "kindred" cluster of maga, magopegn or magorinc and magodriht (son, young man, youth corps); maegen and maegencraeft (strength); and maeg and maegp (kinsman and kindred).(7)

Offenses against the "law of kynde" predominate in Part 1.(8) In addition to the cannibalism of Grendel, the fratricides of Cain (107-9) and Hunferth (587-88) and the hint of future fighting between father-in-law and son-in-law (84), the action is dominated by feud (the feuds of Ecgtheo, Sigemund and Grendel), and feud especially in the character of nid, an aggression outside of law.(9) The word nid occurs 11 times in Part 1, ten in association with Grendel or nicera, the eleventh with heathenry (183-85). In Part 2 nid drops out, except in connection with the shooting of mere-animals by Beowulf's companions (1439), with the home of the hag (1539), and with Hrothgar's advice to Beowulf to protect himself from bealonid by choosing eternal counsel (1758-60). Nid recurs 23 times, however, after Beowulf, asleep to heaven (as we shall discuss), has left the cleansed Heort. It is mentioned 9 times in connection with the dragon, a creature of nid (nidgaest: 2699; niddraca: 2273); but it now also characterizes tribal feuding, beginning with the resumed quarrel between Heathobards and Danes (2065).

The unanimity of Beowulf and his kinsmen contrasts sharply with the divided quality of Hrothgar's Scedenig. The coastguard greets the Geats with seven negatives (a form of separation -- "not this": 240-57); then he divides himself from them ("may the Father keep you safe; I will keep guard at sea": 316-19). The men "bow to bench" while the spears stand (327-28); Wulfgar says they have come for adventure, not for exile (338-39); they take their armor, but leave their shields and spears; and some go with Beowulf, but others stay behind (395-406). In fact, as Hanning observed, the poet stresses ideas of division and scission throughout Part 1. Hrothgar builds Heort as a place where he may divide or distribute (gedaelan) what God has given him (71, 80). Then Cain on account of mane is banished from mancynne (110), producing Caines cynne (107: one suspects ironic wordplay here), which are un-tydras (111). Grendel, Cain's kin, separated from mankind, (86-89), is divided from happiness (won-saeli wer: 105; wiht un-haelo: 120; dreamum bedaeled: 721), cut off from the Lord's gift-stool (168), and becomes for many half-years (153) manscada manna cynnes (712).

After Grendel's manslaughters have caused "breaking" of mod (modes brecda: 171), schism characterizes Scedenig, the kingdom "between two seas" (858, 1685). In quick succession Hrothgar's Danes are termed West Danes, East Danes, North Danes and South Danes. Their names are not only frequently compounded (Heado-Scilfingas, Hring-Dene, Ar-Scyldinga), but often set up a split between word and deed. We are told of the Spear-Danes' courage (1-3), then learn their lack of courage towards Grendel. Hrothgar ("Victorious Spear"), unable to protect his people, is called frean, helm or eodor Scyldinga. His Danes are Bright-Danes (427) when Beowulf is to scour Heort (432); Spear-Danes (601) and Victory-Scyldings (597) when they fear to fight Grendel; and folctogan (835) and gudrinc (838) when Beowulf has fought in their place. Scedeland and Scedenig refer to Skaney; but perhaps also a poet who puns on "Hand-shoe" or "Glove" (2076, 2085) as the name of the thegn whom Grendel ate to his hands and feet (745) is playing also on a second meaning as "the land of scission."(10) In Scedelandum the first Beowulf's blaed wide sprang (18): i.e., "his fame was noised abroad," but perhaps also "his blade sprang wide": cf. Hra wide sprong (1588) when Beowulf severs Grendel's head. His son is Half-Dane: 53, 57 (the historicality of the name would add to the amusement of the pun). The poet specifically associates Scedenig with scission when Hrothgar is called the best of those who portioned land-lots (sceattas daelde) between the seas in Scedenigge (1685-86). While such punning cannot be proved intentional, it does reinforce the coastguard-introduced theme, that the "sharp" warrior knows how to make distinctions (gescad) between words and deeds (287-89). It is this discernment by which Alcuin defines prudentia: the knowledge of which things are to be done and which not done -- a discernment which Beowulf charges that Hunferth lacked, since he could commit fratricide but dared not fight a manslayer (581-601).

Another form of schism in Part 1 appears in the predominance of either-or constructions, first pointed out by W. F. Bolton.(11) Critics have often noted its paired oppositions (night/day, joy/ sorrow, men eating and the eating of men, ritual/savagery, freodo/ nid, fyres faepm/Faeder faepmum [184-88]). Especially, each thesis seems to produce its antithesis: Creation is followed by won-sceaft wera (120), offspring by un-tydras (111). The hall of fellowship attracts the outsider (86-89); its joy creates bitterness in the won-saeli wer (105) and his urge to make the joyful un-blide (130), so that aefter wiste wop up ahafen (128). Mention of close kinship brings thought of internecine killing. The world governed by Divine Providence (1057-58) directly contrasts with the chaos and despair of a world without God (171-93). Even rhetorical patterns are contrastingly used. The poet's description of Creation creates verbal harmony by complementation and balancing of parts (e.g., ond gefraetwade foldan sceatas / leomum ond leafum, lif gesceop: 96-97, which begins and ends with parellel verbs; as compared to the choppy asyndeton which describes Grendel's destruction: slaependne rinc slat unwearnum, / bat banlocan, blod edrum dranc, / synnsnaedum swealh: 741-43).

Likewise the contentions which characterize Part 1 are those of opposed equals: Cain's and Hunferth's fratricides, the rivalry of Hunferth and Beowulf (502-5), the swimming match of Breca and Beowulf, the flyting (865, 916) of the young men who match horses and vaunt the new, real deeds of Beowulf against the old, invented exploits of Sigmund and Heremod (864-917). The ellenrof Beowulf (ellen is associated almost exclusively with Beowulf: 19 times) in Grendel meets the ellengaest (86). The man who eats thirty comes to grips with the man with the strength of thirty (lad wid lapum: 440: "the biter bit"). The angengea (165) is opposed by anes craeft (699), and the contest is judged by witig God on swa hwaepere hand (686). In fact, contentio -- in rhetoric the expression of antithetic or contrary ideas, as in morte mortem mortificans, moriendo mortem destruis: "the biter bit" -- rules the thought, the action and the expression of Part 1. Significantly, Beowulf's fight with Grendel is described as the turning of division against itself. Continuing the previous divisions of Part 1, Beowulf's men try with swords to divide Grendel's life from his body on healfa gehwone (800); but swords -- divisive weapons (suggesting possible additional significance to the importance of "spears" and "battle" in the names of the Danes) -- cannot work (798-805). Instead Beowulf and Grendel identify: both angry hall-guardians (769, 668), either's living hateful to the other (814-15), both noted for strength of grip. Then when Grendel pulls Heort apart (997-98), Beowulf turns Grendel's own weapon against him, pulling Grendel apart (817-18). This concludes Grendel's aldorgedal (805, 822-23) and lifgedal (841). The importance of atonement in overcoming divisions was presignified to us in the way that Beowulf responds to the envious Unferth's divisive insinuation that Breca ("breaker") had oferflat, leaving Beowulf behind. In rebuttal, Beowulf emphasizes their unanimity ("both," "we two," "we together," "us": 535, 540, 544-45). He stayed with Breca (of the "Brondings" or "people of the sword") throughout, exercising his ellen (573) not on Breca but on the sea-monsters (549-75). The night of Grendel past, the Danes are no longer divided, East, West, South or North; but become once more the Scylding Peod (1019) and Ring-Danes (1279) they were before Grendel separated them from Heort (138-43). Heort is now "filled with friends" (1018), and in prominence doubles replace halves (1074, 1148, 1189, 1191, 1297, 1956).

Besides beginnings and oppositions, Part 1 stresses the bodily extremities: that is, those parts at greatest remove from inner consciousness. Arms, hands, fingers, fists, grips, feet, footprints are frequently mentioned; together with swords and spears (primarily in the names of the Danes). Moreover, almost all activities in Part 1 are those of the extremities: standing, walking or riding (eight half-line expressions mention feet, footprints or tracks; thirty-four involve or imply standing, walking or riding); swimming, hand-wrestling and holding weapons (forty-seven expressions mention shoulder, arm, hand, fingers, nails, palm, grip or grasping; twenty-seven mention weapons which the hand holds).

In addition to limbs, another extremity, the mouth, dominates Part 1. The mouth is entrance to the body; and Part 1, entrance to the tale, stresses the entrances of Grendel into Heort, and of Beowulf into Denmark and Hrothgar's presence. The door to Heort is described as a mouth (729); the hall, like a mouth, is "inlaid with ivory" (780). Grendel, the "mouth-slayer" (2079), "bloody-toothed slayer" (2082), is a glutton, devouring thirty thegns at a time, and devouring Handscio even to the hands and feet. Heort was built as a mead-hall (69, 484, 638), and the Danes' drinking is mentioned twenty-eight times. Their other major activities are all pleasures of the mouth: singing, talking and telling tales. All these epitomize that concern with ephemeral things which W. F. Bolton noted as characteristic of Part 1.(12)

Another kind of externalizing important in Part 1 is the visualization of time and motion through a succession of still pictures, as Stanley B. Greenfield showed for Beowulf's voyage to Denmark.(13) Similarly, lines 513-16 image the successive actions of swimming so that each phrase imitates and visualizes the rise and fall of the waves. A larger example is the succession of pictures by which we see the Geats arrive at Hrothgar's dwelling: first the stone-adorned street, then the Geats' shining armor, then their leaning of shields and spears against the wall (320-31). Similarly, the havoc Grendel causes on the lives of the Danes is shown by a visual picture of the hall on the morning after (484-87, 145-46). The effect of these visualizations is to distance and externalize us from the humans involved: we do not see the individual persons or enter their consciousness; we see what they see. This kind of externalization appears most drastically when Beowulf watches Grendel devour his youthful kinsman: the scene is described in great visual detail; but until Grendel is defeated, the only emotions noted are Grendel's (703-821).

Most interesting of the externalities of Part 1 is the absence of mod among the Danes after Grendel separates them from Heort. Scyld's followers have murnende mod (50) on his departure; Hrothgar on mod bearn (67) to build Heort. Then when Grendel violates Heort, Hrothgar suffers modes brecda (171). Thenceforward the Danes keep hell on modseyan (180) but, with the single exception of the coastguard whose discretion (modgehygdum: 233) is breached by curiosity when Beowulf arrives, otherwise are not described with mod. Their emotions likewise appear externally, in joyful noise (88-90, 644) or lamentation (128-29), or as an aspect of rationality. Thus Hunferth's envy of Beowulf appears as afponca (502), and Beowulf says Hunferth's hige (593) is at fault. Beowulf and his companions, on the contrary, are distinctively modig, without qualification (312, 502, 670, 813, 855); Hrothgar's messenger has never seen modiglicran (337). Grendel also is ascribed mod; but Grendel's mod is fractured or qualified. He comes to Heort yrremod (726); his mod ahlog (730) when he sees the Geats; but in fighting Beowulf he on mode weard / forht on ferhde (753-54), loses his modes myrde (810), and leaves werigmod (843). After Grendel's defeat, however, mod also characterizes the Danes (1167, 1229, 1307, 1418).

Thus in Part 1 Beowulf, representing youth at its best, endowed with the gifts of nature and the blessing of God, enters a youthful world marred by the faults to which youth may be considered especially prone: self-centered contentiousness, indiscretion and a callow absorption in external and fleeting pleasures of flyting and feasting: of striving, grasping and gobbling. At their worst, these qualities are epitomized in Grendel, son and heir to Cain's kin and Beowulf's negative counterpart. By defeating Grendel, Beowulf conquers gluttony and divisive rivalry (cf. the reform of Hunferth in Part 2), learns discretion, and tempers his ellen with concern for others (1383-98, 1474-91).

2. LINES 1009-2199

The emphasis of Part 2 shifts from beginnings to middles and middle age. There is a shift, for example, from the geogop to the dugud. Line 1674, following Beowulf's return from the mere, is the last mention of both; thereafter the dugud hold sway. When Beowulf returns home, Hygelac and Hygd are the ones termed "young" (1926, 1969): it is as though Beowulf has aged past them. (In Part 3 Beowulf recalls youth with nostalgia [2426, 2512]. Wiglaf now represents the new generation: 2626.) Again, Part 2 emphasizes, not kinship but sib: peaceful interrelationship, something Grendel refused to negotiate with the children of men (154). There is sib aetgaedere between uncle and nephew (1164); Hrothgar adopts Beowulf as son in niwe sibbe (949), praising him for sib gemaene (1857) between Geats and Spear-Danes. Wealtheo and her daughter Freawaere are important for frithusibb folca (2017; 2028-29). (In Part 3, in contrast, only Wiglaf keeps in mind the sib "which no one puts aside who thinks well": 2599-602; he expects the Swedes on Beowulf's death to betray both sib and faith: 2922).

Emphasis on the middle appears most strikingly in the stories of Part 2, in that it is the middle part of these stories that we are told, and they are stories of people in mid-life. Hildeburh is already wife of Finn and grieving for the death of brother and son when she is introduced. We do not hear how the marriage came about, nor the origins of the quarrel which brought about these deaths. Similarly the stories of Hama and Hygelac, Heremod, Modthryth and Ingeld, focus on persons in mid-life; and the stories emphasize not youthful achievements, but the choices of mothers, husbands, rulers and leaders in battle. Hrothgar's speech focuses on man in mid-career.

Similarly, Beowulf's speech becomes middle-aged, first in the sense that he speaks much less. We are not told his replies to the gifts, praise and advice he receives. Second, he speaks much more responsibly, asking Hrothgar to be protector to his men if he does not return (1480). In Part I he wanted his armor returned as an heirloom (454-55); in Part 2 he wants the treasure sent to Hygelac to show "the excellence of its giver" (1484-87). Beowulf assumes leadership towards Hrothgar (1384-96; cf. 407-32).

Where Part I emphasized Beowulf s goods by nature, Part 2 showers him with the goods by fortune. Hrothgar adopts him; Wealhtheoh seeks his patronage for her sons; both reward him with magnificent gifts and tell him how famous he is (1020-45, 1216-27, 1703-5). However, Hrothgar warns Beowulf of the dangers besetting the man who trusts too much to the gifts of fortune (1724-68), and the stories of Part 2 all illustrate Hrothgar's point. Hama dies for the Brosinga jewels (1198-1201), Hygelac in defence of booty (1202-9). Modthryth is excessively jealous of her beauty (1931-43), Heremod of his possessions (1709-22). Heremod illustrates the perils of arrogance and greed (1709-23).

The poet, however, makes a point of describing Beowulf's temperance. Although the hag's house is filled with treasure (1613), Beowulf takes none but the trophies which belong to him: the sword-hilt and Grendel's head (1612-14). He gives these to Hrothgar. After Hrothgar's warning, Part 2 ends by telling us that Beowulf passes his acquisitions to Hunferth (the modig man returns Hrunting with thanks and praise: 1807-12), to the coast-guard (1900-1), to Hygelac (2144-71) and Hygd (2172-6). He pledges unfailing loyalty to Hrothgar and Hygelac, and remains Hygelac's unassuming subordinate, refusing to accept the young Heardred's throne even when Hygd offers it (2369-79). Beowulf s justice (which Alcuin defines as giving others what belongs to them) demonstrates that he has learned the lessons of Part 2.

Another way in which Part 2 emphasizes middles is in its stress on the arming of Beowulf's torso. For Grendel Beowulf had stripped himself of arms; for the hag he arms meticulously. The poet spends thirty-two lines on Beowulf's preparation (1441-72). Beowulf puts on body-armor specifically so that the hand and sword-fighting emphasized in Part I will be ineffective (1446, 1447, 1454). He is successful: the sea-beasts cannot grip him (1502, 1505, 1511); but also neither sword nor grip nor maegen help Beowulf (1457-61, 1523). Against the hag's maegpa creeft (1283), Beowulf's maegenraes (1519) and mundgripe maegenes (1534) are unavailing. Externals do not work.

Part 2 directs us in many ways to reflect on internal significances. Outer name or sign frequently corresponds to inner personality, as with Heremod, Modthryth and Wealhtheow, whose hospitality and rich gifts to Beowulf associate her name not so much with its literal meaning ("foreign captive") as with "service to weal and wealth."(14) Hildeburh ("battle-fort") is unhappily divided between Finn and Hnaef like the frequently mentioned hall they fight over (1802, 1086-88; 1094, 1147, 1151, 1156). Hrothgar overtly points to the inner significance of the outer events of Beowulf when he generalizes from Heremod's story a universal pattern (1724-39), which he then allegorizes to show its inner moral significance (1740-51). By introducing such overt allegorization, moreover, the poet signs to us that allegorical reading of at least this section of Beowulf may be appropriate.

Another way in which Part 2 shifts to the middle and the internal is that mod-qualities now govern reactions and events: for Hengest and Finn (1150-51), Hunferth (1167), Wealhtheo (1229), the hag (1277), Hrothgar (1307) and the assembled company (1418). As not in Part 1, Beowulfs mod also is threatened: he is not paes modig (1508) against the hag, but becomes werigmodig in the fight (1543) and his men modes seoce (1643). After his victory, however, felamodigra (1637) they take him back modig on gemonge (1643), and he rests finally gladmod (1785). As Norma J. Engelberg noted,(15) in Part 2 Beowulf earns most praise, not for maegen but for mod: 1705-6, 1844, 1853. He wins Hrothgar's modlufan (1823). (In Part 3 mod declines. The dragon's mod and heart are qualified by savagery: 2281, 2288, 2296, 2581; the various survivors' by grief: 2044, 2267, 2463, 2894, 2942, 3149.) Thus in Part 2 the externally discrete cluster of modor, madma (1027, 1048, 1482, 1756) and mod emphasize the internal rule of possessive and revengeful feelings and self-will.

In Part I visualization distanced us from feeling; in Part 2, however, most notably in description of Grendel's mere, visualization creates mood. We have the eeriness of the mere which stags will the rather than jump into; the strange horror of a cave lit by unearthly light, where a monstrous sea-hag sits on Beowulf and draws her seax, where swords melt like icicles and corpses leap as though alive. Stories and speeches likewise focus on feelings: the emotions of Hildeburh and Hengest, Hrothgar, the hag, and the bitter reflections which destroy the peace between Dane and Heathobard.

In Part 2, exchanges replace either-or constructions in importance, as W. F. Bolton pointed out (Bolton, "A Topos in Beowulf"). The related rhetorical figure is adnominatio: the replacement of one thing by something externally similar but essentially different, which reverses the effect of the first, as in mundi culpam mundasti; paronomasia. As in Part 1, the dominant rhetorical strategy appears not only verbally but in action and theme. The dominant actions and themes of Part 2 all involve revenge and reversal of fortune. The hag, Hengest, Beowulf, Heremod's people, the Heathobards all carry out revenge. Revenge is an Old Law, an eye-for-an-eye exchange, recognized as a kin-obligation under Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian tribal law, but discouraged under Christianity (Beowulf's major action, as we shall see, re-enacts the two Old Law floods).(16) Reversals of fortune, reputation, or peace overtake Hama and Hygelac, Heremod, Modthryth, Ingeld, and Beowulf (2183-89). Reversal (edhwyrft or edwendan) is the hallmark of Part 2 (1280-82). Grendel's edwendan is first mentioned in Part 1, but does not irreversibly take place until Grendel's decapitation exactly halfway through the poem (1590). Interestingly, each succeeding mention of edwendan, first Hrothgar's (1774) and then Beowulfs (2188), refers to a time previous to the one before, so that time itself is by edwendan reversed, recoiling upon itself.

Replacement appears also in the importance, frequently noted by critics, of mirror-images in the mere episode, whose climax occurs at the exact center of the story. Daniel Calder has described how Heorot and the haunted mere mirror each other. James Rosier has pointed out that Beowulf and the hag are described by mirror-imaging compounds. Especially interesting is that in John D. Niles' study of ring structures, where Part I ring structures illustrate opposition (12-19, 783-86), the Part 2 ring structure (1279-1802) illustrates mirror-image reversal, with every detail of the mere episodes from the night of the hag's attack to Beowulf's descent into the mere retraced in his return and night of victory.(17)

One particular kind of mirror-image in Part 2, however, is less commonly observed, and that is the frequency with which Part 2 emphasizes likeness of pattern or form in physically incongruous things. In the mere-episode weaving, winding, wave-like patterns are repeated over and over: in water (1359, 1373, 1374-75, 1440, 1450, 1469, 1593, 1620); metals (1382, 1443, 1451, 1459, 1489, 1531, 1548, 1553, 1563, 1564, 1620, 1695, 1698); hair (1400, 1593); evergreen trees, which have wavy branches and needle-like leaves (1359, 1364, 1393, 1414); trees and tree-roots hanging over water (1363-64, 1414-15); narrow climbing paths (1409-11); wormy sea-creatures (1425); arrows and spears (1435, 1437-38); ropes (1610).

Moreover, a weaving or wavelike pattern is stressed, not only in Beowulf's armor but also in the "warp" and weft, the weaving up and down or "braiding" of the fight. Beowulf was first down (1506), then up smiting the hag on the head (1520). His stroke unsuccessful, he wearp the curve-marked steel till it lay on the ground (1531-32), seized the hag and braegd (1539) till she bowed to the floor (1540). Seizing him, she oferwearp till Beowulf was down in his turn and she above (1544-45). Finally he stood and gebraed the interlinked steel (1564) until she fell to the floor (1568). (In Part 3, in contrast, wave-patterns almost disappear.)

The Anglo-Saxon fondness for the enigma or riddle is well known. Enigmata intrigued Aldhelm, Michael Lapidge comments, because they draw attention to the congruences between unlike things so that we perceive new significance in the element common to both.(18) Here, the frequency of these discrete, apparently unrelated wave patterns emphasizes the crucial inner significance of the wave, and of Beowulf's repeating a previously powerful pattern and thereby reversing events. The runes of the wavy-hilted giants' sword (1553-57) recount how the Flood overwhelmed the giants that fought against God (1688-98). When Beowulf breaks the giant's bone rings with this (1567-68), he re-enacts in mirror image that ancient episode of Old Law history. The flood overwhelms the giants' cave, previously out of reach (1515-16), and Beowulf comes safely up out of the red sea (1593-94, 1619). This language suggests not only Noah's Flood but also the flood which overwhelmed the Egyptians and brought the Israelites safe to shore when God divided the waves of the Red Sea. In Exodus (362 ff.) likewise, we find that one flood immediately reminds the poet of the other (in Beowulf, brim blode fah: 1594; in Exodus, brimu blodige: 573).

If that is the case, then the expression, witig Drihten ... on ryhte gesced / ythelice (1555-56), can be taken both literally ("He easily discerns the right") and paronomastically or enigmatically ("He divides, with respect to the waves, as right demands"). The description of the giants' sword as a god and geatolic giganta weorc (1562) likewise has a paranomastic application to Beowulf. The sword depicts the sea over-whelming (geotende: 1690) giganta cynn. Beowulf the Geat is a gigant (124, 379, 761) come over the sea to kill giants.

An especially important paronomastic correspondence appears in the expression rumheort, which describes the highest state of both Beowulf and the hall Heort in Part 2. Juxtaposing the two, the poet makes clear the correspondence: Reste hine Pa rumheort, reced hliuade / geap ond goldfah: "then rested the spacious of heart; the building towered, spacious and adorned with gold" (1799-800). In his sermons Wulfstan specifically contrasts rumheortnys ("largitas," "liberalitas") with gitsung 7 gifernes,(19) that excessive seeking after worldly satisfaction which brings to grief the lesser characters of Part 2 and against which Hrothgar specifically warns Beowulf in his word-play concerning the man who is so concerned with getting that he forgets that his part in the world will come to an end (gytsath gromhydig ... ond he pa forthgesceaft forgyteth ond forgymeth: 1749-51). Beowulf, as we have noted, is not guilty of this sin; but it is at this point, when the raven blithheort heralds the joys of heaven, that Beowulf's spirit sleeps within him (1800-2): cf. the Song of Songs 5:2: Ego dormio, et cor meum vigilat. Virtuous as he is, Beowulf, like all other persons in the poem, has no spiritual awareness: he does not have the andgit and ferhthes fore panc of whose importance the poet warned (1057-62). Notably, ferhth in Beowulf almost never has spiritual significance. God rules wideferhth (702); but otherwise ferhth is almost always so qualified as to restrict it to the region of mortality (173, 754, 1146, 1633, 1718).

From this point on, "goodness" in the poem declines. Brightness scatters (1802); Beowulf and his men are now termed scapan (1803), collenferth (1806), se hearda (1807). Ravens associate only with death (2448, 2925, 3024). Feud, enmity, and nith resume (2028-31, 2063-65, 2464-65, 2472-74, 2479-80, 2488-89, 2999-3000). Beowulf's main actions in Part 3 (other than fighting the dragon) are fighting (2354-66), vengeance (2391-96) and slaughter (2493-508). In Part 3 heofon, as though purely physical, swallows the "reek" of Beowulf's pyre (3155).

A similar change in range of significance is seen also in the associations of rum. When Grendel first brought modes brectha (171) to Hrothgar's sleeping people (119), men sought more spacious (gerumlicor: 139) rest outside Heort. Through rumne sefan (278), Beowulf offered Hrothgar help. With the cleansing of Heort, both Beowulf and the building are rumheort. From here on, however, the associations of rum regress to the merely physical. Now Hrothgar is rumheort (2110); but the epithet describes not only his generosity of feeling, his heart full of memories and tales, but the beginnings of a feeling of emptiness, of too much space--his lamentation for lost youth. Finally the "last survivor" finds his empty dwelling eall to rum (2461).

Thus in Part 2 Beowulf moves into a world marred by the faults of middle age: lack of contentment with one's portion of this world's satisfactions, possessive attachment to what one has and vengeful retribution when it is taken away: epitomized in the ill will of the hag. Blessed with the gifts of fortune and the justice of God, Beowulf demonstrates temperance and right living. By conquering the hag, he gains largeness of heart (shown also in Hrothgar's love: 1876-80 and the generosity of Hygelac: 2190-99 and Hygd: 2369-70). The happiest and freest moment in the poem occurs when the blithheort heralds heaven.

3. LINES 2200 - END

Part 3 emphasizes endings, plenitude (in rhetoric, dilatio or amplificatio), and (for lack of a better word) supernalities. We hear of the endings of Hygelac and Hygelac's line, Ongentheow and his sons, the Geats as an independent people, the "last survivor" and his line, the dragon and his hoard, Beowulf and Beowulf's line. Wealtheow had said men would praise the aetheling Beowulf even so far as the walls bounded by the sea (1223-24). Dying, Beowulf finds himself literally "up against a wall": se aetheling takes a seat bi wealle (2716) near the sea. (Walls are mentioned 13 times in Part 3, as against 5 in Part 1 and 3 in Part 2, including compounds.)

Past time receives extraordinary emphasis. In Part 1 time, anchored by mention of the beginning of things (Creation and Cain), focuses on the evolving future when Grendel is to be defeated and the blight on Heort removed. In Part 2 time focuses on the present: both the immanent present of the rapidly changing fortunes of Beowulf and the hag, and the universal present of Hrothgar's warnings and the semi-allegorical experience of Heremod, Modthryth and Hygelac's young Hygd ("thoughtfulness"). In Part 3 sense of the importance of present time is almost brutally removed. First Beowulf recapitulates the first two thirds of the book as past history, describing Hrothgar, middle-aged in Part 2 (twelve years after he built Heort to cap his youth's achievements, and with young sons in hall), as an old man, eldo gebunden and lamenting time past (2111-14). The poet frequently reminds us that he is telling a story from the past (2163, 2172, 2685, [2694], 2752). The young retainer Beowulf suddenly ages to an elderly ruler fifty years in power. Time stretches back to a past a thousand winters before, when the last survivor of an unknown race mourned departed youth (2267-68) and buried his treasures, and "the worm" (both death and the dragon: 2278, 2287) inherited.

Old-age concerns of survival (Wiglaf means "survivor") and mourning for lost youth (or youths) dominate Part 3. Focus is on the aged (Beowulf, Hrethel, Ongentheow and his old queen, the last survivor). As Beowulf ages, so the distance increases between him and his companions, in a fashion reminiscent of the way the medieval Everyman's companions desert at the approach of death. In Part 1 Beowulf's magothegnas are at his side when he faces Grendel; in Part 2 they wait by the mere while he dives within; but in Part 2 they retreat to a nearby wood (2598). Beowulf's speech now shows the garrulity and discursiveness, the over-fullness of age (2426-537; cf. 1384-96).

In Part 3 Beowulf is especially endowed with the goods of grace: virtues and good deeds. The poet praises his virtuous life (2170-71, 2177-83); and the poem ends with his people's praise of his virtues. Beowulf himself takes pleasure in having lived virtuously (2736-43); while his fear lest he has offended God (2327-32) shows that he has not fallen into the virtuous man's trap of thinking himself better with God than he is (Virtues and Vices, 21). Remembrance of Beowulfs virtues as leader sends Wiglaf to his help; and for his virtues of loyalty, obedience and care for the dying Beowulf, Wiglaf is called thegn ungemete til (2720). He rebukes Beowulf's men for their failings in virtue (2864-74); but they show virtue at last by resisting the gold-greed which has fordone so many in Beowulf, and instead use the dragon's treasure to honor their fallen king (3163-68); the poet praises them for this virtue (3174-79). In contrast, the accompanying tragedies of Part 3 occur through lack of virtue (i.e., honoring one's obligations): oath-breaking, robbery, brutality towards old age.

Plenitude especially marks Part 3: in the fullness of years of Beowulf (2209-10) and the dragon (2278); the fifty-foot length of the dragon (3042) and the fifty-year length of Beowulf's rule (2733); the thousand winters the dragon has guarded his hoard (3050); the elaboration of Beowulfs funeral (3143, 3158, 3169-82). Rhetorically, plenitude is shown in the emphasis on both-and which replaces the either-or contentio of Part 1 and the instead adnominatio of Part 2. Both Beowulf and the dragon are aged guardians and fail to defend what they guard; both defeat their opponent and die, for the sake of a cup. Beowulf wins gold for his people and it is useless to them; he saves them from destruction (by the dragon) and exposes them to it (at the hands of the Swedes); he passes the kingdom to a successor and that successor will not be able to protect them (2999-3027). Even the ring structures of Part 3 illustrate plenitude: Niles comments on the three-fold repetitions and speeches encompassing each event, and notes Part 3's extensive fulfillment of the patterns of the beginning (Niles, "Ring Composition," p. 930).

Plenitude as excess characterizes the dragon's treasure (3051), Hygelac's reward of Eofer and Wolf (2993), the excessively bloody and bitter feuding of Swedes and Geats (2946-88) and, as mentioned, Beowulfs speech. Not measure (Metod, metodsceaft) but over-measure (ungemete) is stressed in Part 3 (Calder, p. 29). God as Measurer is mentioned seven times in Part 1, five in Part 2, twice in Part 3: ironically, since Beowulf leaves it to Metod to determine whether he or the dragon will win (2527) and laments that metodsceaft has already overtaken his kin (2815). Now death (2728) and wyrd (2420) are ungemete near, Wiglaf ungemete good (2721). Now the fullness of God's power as Wealdend is emphasized (2292, 2329, 2741, 2857, 2875, 3109); where for Beowulf and others their time of wealdan is past (2570-75, 2595, 2826-31, 2702-3, 2984).

Verbally, plenitude appears in the increased emphasis on weallan, wylm and its compounds. The ten mentions in Part 1 refer usually to the "welling" of the sea, the ten in Part 2 to the "welling" of the mere; but the fifteen in Part 3 are usually metaphorical, referring to the overflow of feeling, as in breost innan weoll (2331). Thus in Part 3 the poet emphasizes both fullness and ending of power by the cluster of weall, weallan and weald.

Visually the dominant image of Part 3 is the cup. (Beowulf and Wiglaf are Wagmundinga--last of the "cup-guardians": 2814). Where in Part 1 action, and in Part 2 mood, are visualized, in Part 3 symbolic objects of similar shape--cup, head, barrow and funeral pyre--are visualized. In Part 1 the cup signified drinking (481, 615-17), in Part 2 rewards and conviviality (1025, 1169-73); in Part 3 excess. The stealing of a single cup fires the dragon to unlimited retaliation (2300-36). The slave goes to the extreme of stealing a cup from near the dragon's head to make peace with his master (2214-31, 2281-83); receiving the cup, Beowulf goes to the excess of taking on by himself the impossible task of confronting the dragon and settling the feud (2403-5, 2532-37).

The cup is also the shape of the helmet and the head. Both are emphasized in Part 3. The cup comes from near the dragon's head (2290); the fighting between Swedes and Geats concentrates on the helmets and heads of the opponents (2487, 2962, 2966-67, 2969, 2973, 2979, 2986-87). Beowulf, Wedra helm (2705), goes helm-berend (2517) to battle the dragon. Wiglaf heard under helme (2539) carries a helmet (wigheafolan: 2661) to aid him. Beowulf aims a headblow at the dragon (2679); fire "wells" from the dragon's gewitte (2882). Wiglaf from the dying Beowulf helm onspeon (2723) and beside him holds heofodwearde (2909).

Moreover, the dragon lives in a mound shaped like a head, with steep stone walls (2213, 2540) above a ness (2243, 2417) or nose (1892) of land, from whose stone arches comes a stream of fire (2545-47), poisonous breath (255-68) or voice (2593-94). He flies in the air (2315, 2528, 2830, 2832) and breathes the aerial element of fire (2309). He is described as "coiled" (2561, 2827), as is the brain in the head. Beowulf's barrow likewise, like a head, is to be built aet brimes nosan (2803) and tower high on Hronesnaesse, so as to bring him to gemyndum of his people (2804). Dying and thinking back over his life, he gazes at "the work of giants and sees how the stone arched pillars firmly hold the eternal earth-building within" (2717-19). At this point the skull-shaped structure he is contemplating may equally be the dragon's barrow, the earth itself, the life of the earth, his own life, or all of the above: he contemplates mortality.

The dominant concepts of Part 3 can be expressed in the hoarding cluster of mund (both "mound" and "guardianship"), munan (to remember, to have in mind), and maenan (to tell stories, to lament). Mental functions dominate Part 3 action, in the telling of stories of the past (by narrator: 2354-96; Beowulf: 2426-43; the messenger: 2911-3027); and the laments of the last survivor, of Hrethel and the old father for their sons, and of Beowulf's followers for his death. Memories spur the action of both Beowulf and Wiglaf (2427, 2606, 2633). Speech, as Martin Stevens points out, is no longer conversation, but only monologue, a mental excercise.(20) All this mentation is directed towards or dictated by the past. Even wen, expectation of the future, is commonly directed either towards the past (2896-97) or by the past (2910-13). Forward-thinking thought is associated with Beowulf only when he and the dragon are both bealohycgendra (2565) and when, dying, Beowulf wishycgende (2716) about the future.

Thinking as such, in fact, is almost never associated with Beowulf, except in Part 1 when he shows hige (204, 267, 339, 632, 746; retrospectively 1988) in connection with his Christ-like purpose of rescuing the Danes. Witan (wis) in Part 1 usually expresses what Grendel knows or what men do not know and is not associated with Beowulf; in Part 2 of approximately twelve mentions, two involve Beowulf (1830, 1845); in Part 3, out of seven, two (2339, 2725). Similarly thencan (and compounds) occurs some sixteen times, only twice in connection with Beowulf, and on one of these he is wrong (964). Out of some twenty-seven mentions of wenan and wen, only four involve Beowulf. Except in death (2716), hycgan is associated with Beowulf only negatively (435, 2345). In the protagonist, such paucity of thought is surprising. It suggests that Beowulfs name finally states his character. Like every man, he combines the social constructiveness of the bee (cf. Aldhelm, "De Virginitate," 4-6) with the savage fighting ability of the wolf; but his perspective is limited to the animal world, without rational or spiritual aspiration.