Beowulf - Institutionen för arkeologi och antik historia

ight and wrong with reference to kings and leaders are set against each other.
The general character of the events must, however, not be forgotten: the author’s
ideal and that of the Danes is one and the same. This kind of a-man-has-to-dowhat-a-man-has-to-do
syndrome of the noble soldier is still part of the glorification
of war and courage in defeat, e.g., in Georg v. Hase’s book about the Battle of
Jutland and the defeat-victory of the German Navy in 1916. It shows not least in the
sadly adequate bilingual title of Hase’s book Die zwei weissen Völker—Two White
People (1920), originally a translation into German of an opinion expressed by a
British admiral in the Adriatic c. 1910. Readers interested in the far-reaching symbolic
meaning of the word ‘white’ in the mind of the Vilhelminischen officer are
referred to the first chapter in Klaus Theweleit’s Male Fantasies (1987–89).
The First and Second Parts of Beowulf
The surviving version of Beowulf is contemporary with Maldon. It consists of two
distinct parts, verses 1–2199 and 2200–3182. The first part is concerned with the
good in much the same way as Maldon, but it tells us of historical events or at least
of events which were in those days believed to have taken place in the past. The
historical setting is correct in so far as the poem relates a tradition about the beginning
of the hall-governed society and the problems linked to this form of regime.
Maldon is based upon a battle that was fresh in living memory and it comments
upon a political problem in the beginning of the 11th century, the tribute payments to
the Danes. The author is against them. The poem draws upon these problems in
order to put the moral dilemma about doing the good into a convincing setting: a
reality difficult to deny. Imperfections, tragedies and dilemmas become apparent to
the listener and the ideal behaviour, i.e. the good, becomes more troublesome than in
Beowulf, where the principle or long-term values of being good have weighed down
the reality of the setting into a literary style which helps to perfect the ideal. In fact
only the complication of age can eventually, in the second part of the poem though
not in the first part, break the heroes, i.e., those who carry the ideal. In Beowulf
(Part I) also this cardinal complication is solved by Beowulf when he helps the
Danish king in his impotent old age. Not until the second part do we hear of the
unavoidable fate of Beowulf as an old man in his lonely fight with the dragon.
In this situation and in contrast to Maldon there are no heroes around to save
either Beowulf or the Geats. This makes Beowulf (Part II) different from both the
first part and Maldon. Wiglaf, the only co-hero in sight, is not good in the right,
Pagan, way and there is no doubt too little self-sacrifice among the young Geats
when their society is threatened by the dragon. This sad situation does not come as
a surprise to the listener since in the very beginning of the second part things are put
into their proper place by the following verses:
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