Beowulf Journals

Ln. 1495. “…it was the best part of a day…” Beowulf swimming towards Grendel’s mother takes a day which parallels Beowulf’s earlier story about swimming for a day and killing sea monsters. He prevailed then, so maybe he will now!

Ln. 1501. “…so she lunged and clutched and managed to catch him in her brutal grasp…” Grendel’s mother capturing Beowulf parallels Beowulf grabbing Grendel with his bare hands too. His body ‘remained unscathed’ which is the opposite of Grendel because Grendel was harmed by Beowulf’s grasp.

Ln. 1534. “…might of his arm. So must a man do who intends to gain enduring glory in a combat. Life doesn’t cost him a thought…” Beowulf depends on his arms once again because he thinks it will make him more famous. I think this basically means that by only thinking of himself and his glory, he doesn’t need to think twice about whether fighting Grendel’s mother without a weapon is a good idea or not. Also, if he were to die in that fight, he would forever be famous… STILL!

Ln. 1547. “…the mesh of chain-mail on Beowulf’s shoulder shielded his life…” Beowulf isn’t harmed by Grendel’s mothers grasp or by a blade. He’s twice as strong as Grendel!

Ln. 1553. “…holy God decided the victory…” Christian statement. Wyrd.

Ln. 1558. “…an ancient heirloom from the days of the giants…” the sword was not made by men but the descendants of Cain. It’s ironic that the only sword or weapon that can kill any of his descendants is what the giants themselves had made.

Ln. 1570. “…a light appeared and the place brightened…” after Beowulf beheaded Grendel’s mother the place brightened (part of hell is gone), and the light showed.

Ln. 1584. “Beowulf in his fury now settled that score… Beowulf cut the corpses head off…” Beowulf wanted to take revenge for every gross act Grendel had committed. By taking his head he proves that Grendel is in fact dead by the arm wound he had given him the night before. This contradicts to the idea of honoring the dead, he doesn’t honor the dead by cutting his head off.

Ln. 1689. “…how war first came into the world and the flood destroyed the tribe of giants…” Genesis 6.4. ‘Now giants were upon the earth in those days. For after the sons of God went into the daughters of men, and they brought forth children, these are the mighty men of old, men of renown.’ Cain’s offspring were killed by the flood.

Ln. 1708. “…your own warriors helping hand…” Beowulf doesn’t really help his men – he babies them instead. He’s too caught up in himself to help them learn anything or understand the meaning of a good warrior.

Ln. 1732. “…He permits him to lord it in many lands until the man in his unthinkingness forgets that it will ever end for him…” Hrothgar warns Beowulf of his ways and tries to make sure that all his fame doesn’t destroy him. He tells Beowulf of Heremod, a bad king, and tries to teach him true values. Beowulf doesn’t understand that he’s not invincible which foreshadows his death.