Signet Essay Contest Winner 2014: Jamison Murphy

Jamison Murphy

As foreign as the concept seems to a modern Western audience, the use of boasting throughout Beowulf shows that the boast is not only a valid oratory device, but also an essential tool for a leader in Anglo-Saxon society. A close reading of the key boasts in Beowulf not only illuminates details about Anglo-Saxon leadership but also gives insight on modern political rhetoric and the ways in which it is lacking.

Boasting functions, on the most obvious level, as a direct form of advertisement. This is established from the first lines of dialog in the poem when Beowulf arrives at Heorot to rid the Danish kingdom of the monster Grendel. The appearance of Beowulf’s men is in itself a sort of implicit boast; they arrive dressed for warfare, carrying weapons and visibly advertising their abilities as warriors. They are met with a similarly boastful challenge from Hrothgar’s watchman when they disembark. The watchman inquires about their intentions and warlike appearance, an attempt not only to gain information but also to establish power over the imposing force of outsiders who have just arrived.

Beowulf responds to the questions of his intent by touting his achievements and claiming that he can fight Grendel and “settle the outcome in single combat” (line 426) – in other words, he can achieve by himself a task that was beyond the scope of all of Hrothgar’s men. This exchange is an early establishment of his mythic qualities as a leader and serves as an effective appeal to Hrothgar; Beowulf’s direct description of his physical abilities and bravery, even with an element of exaggeration, encourages his men and simply proves that he is right for the job.

This introductory scene becomes more complex when Unferth, a prominent retainer in Heorot, challenges Beowulf’s reputation. While many readers view this solely as impertinence on Unferth’s part, it also functions as a sort of prompt for Beowulf. In claiming that Beowulf’s feats are not true, Unferth, perhaps as a spokesperson for the others at Heorot, more or less invites Beowulf to respond and solidify his reputation. In a similar vein to Beowulf’s boasts coming more from a devotion to duty than personal pride, we can interpret Unferth as fulfilling his role in the court rather than exposing bitterness toward Beowulf.

Later examples of boasting in Beowulf reaffirm its primarily political use; Beowulf’s final speech, occurring at the end of Beowulf’s long and prosperous reign, is a summary of all of Beowulf’s achievements as king and in many ways epitomizes the role of boasting in the poem. Beowulf is aware that, as an aging man, he is perhaps not an ideal candidate to fight the dragon, but he insists that “[He] shall win the gold/by [his] courage, or else mortal combat/doom of battle, will bear [his followers’] lord away” (lines 2535-2537). In this boast, he takes the responsibilities of the community on his own shoulders even far past his prime, attempting to strengthen the confidence of his men by touting his own achievements. This indicates the almost paradoxical use of individual boasting to encourage the community as a whole, typifying the selflessness-in-self-aggrandizement found in boasts in Beowulf.

All of the scenes described above serve as prime examples of the interpretive difficulties caused by differences between warriors’ fulfillment of their roles as seen in boasting and challenges, and our modern understanding of political rhetoric. The functions of rhetoric we now see as overblown or completely counter to our conception of political discourse serve different functions in Beowulf; boasting comes from a need for leaders to face life-or-death obstacles. The modern idea of (especially political) rhetoric, with much more subtlety than the exaggerated boasts found in Beowulf, comes, rather, from an abstraction of the qualities modern readers and citizens want in a leader. Instead of seeking the physical strength to slay a dragon, we look for the strategic acumen to make the political system work or deal with the complexities of modern warfare.

The gulf between modern political rhetoric and Anglo-Saxon boasting is perhaps indicative of what we most need and long for  in our leaders: the boldness and forthrightness of an Anglo-Saxon king may sound somewhat foreign coming from a modern American politician, but it may be the only thing that can cut through a 21st century citizen’s jaded view of the political process and give us a direct understanding of the obstacles we face. The influx of jargon and empty platitudes in modern political discourse (listen to any modern-era Presidential debate for countless examples) serves to obscure and encourage complacency just as effectively as Anglo-Saxon boasting served to clarify and encourage action.

A Beowulf-like leader volunteers to battle the monsters facing his society hand-to-hand, while the modern politician avoids making real change on issues like economic turmoil or social inequality, our contemporary Grendels, by blaming inaction on layers of bureaucracy. Similarly, the truly heroic leader takes responsibility for the Dragons that plague his people, while the modern politician places blame for continued wars on his predecessors. The directness of boasting may be lost in modern politics, but with a return to the spirit of Anglo-Saxon boasting in our political rhetoric, we can confront our world’s infinitely complex monsters and find a kind of heroism in a political climate that is devoid of it.

Works Cited:

Heaney, Seamus, trans. Beowulf. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000.