Beowulf - Institutionen för arkeologi och antik historia

In verse 1810 the sword Hrunting is called good when Beowulf gives it back to
Unferð telling him that he is not blaming the edge of the sword that failed him. And he
means it. Much to the surprise of a modern reader the author stresses that this is not a
piece of grim humour—it is a sign of reconciliation and it shows Beowulf’s greatness.
In verse 1860 Hroðgar tells us that the greetings and gifts between the Danes and the
Geats shall be good in the future, and in verse 1870 Hroðgar, the good, kisses
Beowulf, the best, good-bye. This scene presents the public success of the good between
two nations. What started as a story about the terrorising of a country and its old
king has been turned into tale about victory and friendship between nations.
Since peace is one of the aims and force but a part of goodness, it goes without
saying that the transition from war to peace can be difficult to manage, something,
however, that it is important to manage with skill. And since repeated heroism in the
good individual paves the way to royal power, if the good individual should for a
moment choose to forget his duty and loyalty to the king who needs his help, then the
king can be expected to have ambivalent feelings for the helpful hero. If the hero is
successful and killed while being a success all is well. That was probably now and
then the case for the young men killed in combat and later to be commemorated as
good on a rune-stone. This situation was reflected in the feelings of Hroðgar and his
servants when they noticed what they might well have believed to be a mixture of
Beowulf’s as well as the monster’s blood spreading upon the lake in which Beowulf
fought Grendel’s mother. Their reaction to this sight was immediately to declare
Beowulf dead and good and to return home, rather than to jump into the water or at
least wait a while to make sure he was dead or to retrieve the corpse as more loyal
companions would have done. So, when against all odds the hero returns, there is a
great need for appeasement. Unferð, for one, must have felt the need, having supplied
Beowulf with what was not a good sword.
The four paired scenes: combat, appeasement; combat, appeasement are there to
show us the enormous social skill it takes to handle a crisis and at the same time
succeed in making goodness grow.
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The Frame Story
The frame story is about the individual—the impact on the individual of the good as
an ideal. We realise this when we come to the end of the first part of the poem and
for the last time meet with the word good. It is the summing-up scene just before
Hygelac, Beowulf’s own king, makes Beowulf second only to himself by means of
presents—we must not forget that even to Hygelac Beowulf’s success in Denmark
may hold a threat. At this point the poem turns and the adventures in Denmark stand
out as a tale about the strong youth who grows up to become the ideal human being
– the very opposite of Grendel. The summing-up scene about Beowulf’s character
runs as follows: