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A review by theinquisitxor
Beowulf by Unknown
4.0
This was the first piece that I read for my British Literature class. I have always enjoyed this poem, and I think it is so much more than a story about a dude who fights two monsters and a dragon. There is not much Anglo-Saxon literature that has survived, but luckily this did. I was first written around 700 AD and is a story that is not only about Beowulf, but also about Scandinavian history, human nature, outcasts and themes of Anglo-Saxon prose.
One thing that I love about Anglo-Saxon prose is the sense of The End of All Things. A lot of these works have this elegiac, melancholy theme and a persistent sense of death and the meaning of everything. There is a wonderful little Anglo-Saxon poem titled The Wanderer that has a some lines that go
"...the world's wealth shall all stand waste, just as in out own day all over middle-earth
walls are standing wind-swept and wasted, downed by frost, and dwellings covered in snow.
The mead-hall crumbles, its master lies dead..."
In which the same theme is present in the end of Beowulf,
"...A Geat woman too sang out in grief; with hair bound up, she unburdened herself of her
worst fears, a wild litany of nightmare and lament: her nation invaded, enemies on the
rampage, bodies in piles, slavery and abasement. Heaven swallowed smoke."
It might just be me, but I think there is something subtle and sublime that shows the beauty of Anglo-Saxon writing. Also, these Anglo- Saxon themes and elements are in Tolkien's work. In the Hobbit, there is obviously the dragon and treasure. But throughout the series, there is a reoccurring theme of ruins, looking back into past, the very real possibility of an End. Sometimes I think people are quick to dismiss this poem because they only see its surface, and fail to see all the rest.
One thing that I love about Anglo-Saxon prose is the sense of The End of All Things. A lot of these works have this elegiac, melancholy theme and a persistent sense of death and the meaning of everything. There is a wonderful little Anglo-Saxon poem titled The Wanderer that has a some lines that go
"...the world's wealth shall all stand waste, just as in out own day all over middle-earth
walls are standing wind-swept and wasted, downed by frost, and dwellings covered in snow.
The mead-hall crumbles, its master lies dead..."
In which the same theme is present in the end of Beowulf,
"...A Geat woman too sang out in grief; with hair bound up, she unburdened herself of her
worst fears, a wild litany of nightmare and lament: her nation invaded, enemies on the
rampage, bodies in piles, slavery and abasement. Heaven swallowed smoke."
It might just be me, but I think there is something subtle and sublime that shows the beauty of Anglo-Saxon writing. Also, these Anglo- Saxon themes and elements are in Tolkien's work. In the Hobbit, there is obviously the dragon and treasure. But throughout the series, there is a reoccurring theme of ruins, looking back into past, the very real possibility of an End. Sometimes I think people are quick to dismiss this poem because they only see its surface, and fail to see all the rest.