Signet Essay Contest Winner 2014: Brighid Niccum

Brighid Niccum

From the Minotaur to Freddy Krueger, tales of monsters have long captured the human imagination. At first, it seems strange that people would enjoy stories about terrible atrocities committed by horrific creatures. However, the monster story allows one to experience these terrors in a safe environment. The monster serves as a stand-in for the horrible, irrational things that happen in the world every day, but unlike real-world tragedies, it can be fought. The antagonists of Beowulf provide clear examples of this phenomenon. Through his defeat of the various monsters in the poem, Beowulf symbolically faces both death and the chaos of life itself.

The monsters of Beowulf refuse to play by the rules of Anglo-Saxon society. King Hrothgar and his citizens would have been no strangers to war and violence, but Grendel’s attacks go far beyond the damage usually seen in battles. Unlike, say, opposing nations, Grendel attacks the Danes solely for the pleasure of bloodshed. The narrative describes how Grendel “relished his savage war/ On the Danes…seeking no peace, offering/ No truce, accepting no settlement…” (9). Hrothgar and his men cannot bargain with Grendel as they would be able to with more traditional enemies. Grendel’s only goal is the death of the Danes. The poem later describes his attacks as “madness”, a theme seen often in modern-day horror stories. Grendel’s attacks are irrational and meaningless. In a society devoted to rules of behavior, Grendel is the very embodiment of chaos–and his attacks show no signs of abating. As the narrative details, Grendel is “so set/On murder that no crime could ever be enough./No savage assault quench his lust/For evil” (8). As his attacks grow more fearsome, so too does Grendel’s thirst for blood. Only death can put an end to his reign of terror.

The appearance of Grendel’s mother once again draws the plot’s trajectory away from the way things should be. Beowulf, the hero, has defeated Grendel; by all rights, his task should be over. After Grendel’s death, Beowulf should be able to revel in his triumph and return home, his task completed. However, Grendel’s mother steals into the midst of their celebration, bringing death once more into Hrothgar’s halls and spoiling Beowulf’s victory: “…Sorrow/had returned to Denmark. They’d traded deaths,/Danes and monsters, and no one had won,/Both had lost!” (57). “Both had lost!” laments the poet, pointing out that Beowulf’s victory has been tainted. This complicates the previously simple morality of the poem: much like in reality, a simple victory cannot always be assured, and defeat can come out of nowhere.

Of course, in the end, Grendel’s mother too is defeated. As terrifying as Grendel and his mother are, the poem never lets its audience forget that these monsters are doomed to fail. In his first introduction in the work, Grendel is described as part of “A brood forever opposing the Lord’s/ Will, and again and again defeated” (7). The foreshadowing in the work leaves no doubt that Grendel will meet his doom. In the same way, although the appearance of Grendel’s mother comes as a shock, there is no real doubt that Beowulf will defeat her as well, and in the end, Beowulf is handed the sword that slays her seemingly out of nowhere. The purpose of the story isn’t to build suspense about whether or not evil will triumph—as readers realize from the beginning, Grendel and his mother are doomed. They are set up as the embodiment of chaos, but a sanitized, defanged sort of chaos. In watching Beowulf defeat them, the audience can laugh defiantly in the face of the unknown. There is something soothing about going into a story knowing that it will end with the monster lying slaughtered on the floor and the hero victorious, and (at least in regards to Grendel and his mother) Beowulf delivers.

Beowulf’s battle with the dragon at the end of the poem provides a different sort of comfort to the audience. Although he fights valiantly and kills the beast, Beowulf meets his death at its claws. However, the narrative makes it clear that he has accepted his death. In fact, it would have been far worse for him to flee from the dragon in order to survive, as so many of his brothers-in-arms do. In the end, all of the warriors who accompanied Beowulf flee save one—Wiglaf. Wiglaf gives an impassioned speech to the others after Beowulf’s death, saying, “[D]eath…would be better for…you, than the kind/Of life you can lead, branded with disgrace!” (117). Beowulf’s death is sad, yes, but it is not a tragedy. Rather, it is a natural culmination of his life. By the time of the dragon’s attacks, Beowulf has grown old, and lived a full life. He looks upon his death not with fear, but with acceptance: after all, death is, as the poet puts it, “a journey/Into darkness that all men must make” (105). In facing his final adversary, Beowulf faces his own mortality, and through his acceptance of his death, comes away victorious. After his battle, Beowulf’s “soul/…[flies] to glory”, leaving behind the turmoil of the mortal plane (114). The warrior can rest easily, confident that Wiglaf will assume his responsibilities and carry on his legacy. This battle shows Beowulf facing death, the most terrifying enemy of all, and assures the audience that although it cannot be defeated, death can be met with dignity and grace.

Grendel and his mother embody chaos, and through his defeat of them, Beowulf overcomes the chaos of the world. The dragon represents humankind’s eternal foe, death, and although Beowulf cannot defeat it, he meets it with courage. The audience lives vicariously through all of these battles, and leaves the story a little less afraid of the world’s realities, and a little more comfortable with their own mortality.  Much like the modern-day monster movies that came after it, Beowulf allows its audience to experience a world in which good triumphs over evil, order overcomes chaos, and the world can be put right. Beowulf’s battles reassure readers that they are more powerful than the chaos of the world, if only for the length of a poem.

Work Cited

Raffel, Burton, trans. Beowulf. New York: Signet Classics, 2008. Print.