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to introduce Beowulf and to describe him as good. This happens in the frame verses
195 and 384. So, although the episode could be broken up into smaller ones, it is still
a unit in the narrative—Beowulf’s first step to bring himself into the presence of the
King.
Verses 195 and 199 link the good with Beowulf’s ship and his men, i.e., his means
of action. Verses 269 and 279 belong to a conversation with the beach watchman
and the point is initially to describe Beowulf and Hroðgar as good. The latter is good
in verse 269 and Beowulf in 279. The watchman leads the party to the King’s farm,
where Beowulf is engaged in yet another conversation this time with the court official
Wulfgar. First Beowulf calls King Hroðgar good and then Wulfgar answers by pointing
out that Hroðgar is good. Having thus established Hroðgar’s position, it eventually
becomes possible for Hroðgar to end the episode by calling Beowulf good in
verse 384. This means that Beowulf is accepted, the preliminaries have been performed
and the story can proceed. From c. v. 269 and onwards we can describe
what happens as a ‘How-do-you-do?-may-I-come-in?’scene, and it takes 150 odd
lines for two civilised men to pose these questions and answer: ‘Yes!’.
Beowulf, who is already famous for his strength, presents himself in a splendid
ritualistic way, showing the quality of his character, his descent, and equally agreeable
manners, all embedded in a fittingly pompous eloquence, but for Hroðgar the
essential thing is the fact that he knows who Beowulf is and that they knew each
other when Beowulf was a child (vv. 372 ff.). This should not surprise us, since in the
very beginning of the poem we have been told that princes, when young and still
under the protection of their fathers, should ‘give good gifts’, i.e., be generous, so
that when they come of age their companions will support them. There is in other
words a point in being good or nice to children, and in the case of Hroðgar and
Beowulf the interaction and the goodness seems to have started in Beowulf’s childhood
when Hroðgar was still a forceful king or prince.
82
The Two Contract-Combat Episodes
Beowulf fights twice in order to solve Hroðgar’s problems and good is employed in
same way in both episodes. The first starts when Hroðgar leaves his hall in
Beowulf’s care (v. 662), and ends with the King returning to inspect the house in the
morning. In verse 956 the King declares that he is satisfied with Beowulf’s night’s
work, i.e., the way he punished Grendel. The episode has an epilogue, a speech by
Beowulf up to verse 980 and good is used five times (vv. 675, 681, 758, 863, 956).
The second episode is Beowulf’s fight with Grendel’s mother. It was necessary
for Beowulf to engage himself in this fight when it became apparent that his first fight
was not sufficient, although he was honoured for it as if it had been the end of all
problems. Therefore the second episode starts in verse 1473 when Beowulf is leaving
a search party which was set up with the purpose of leading him to the lake where