Okay, okay YOU may not have demanded it but someone did. Honest.
It was either Beowulf or Hercules -or my favourite, Samson- to be a follow-up to that epic Gilgamesh posting and I opted for Beowulf. Samson says he can wait.
Beowulf, as it is simply known, is an heroic poem, said to
be the highest achievement of Old English literature and the earliest Europeanvernacular epic. The story
deals with events taking place in the early 6th century and is
believed to have been composed between Anno
domini 700- 750.
Above: Beowulf preparing to cut off the head of the monster Grendel, illustration from Hero-Myths & Legends of the British Race (1910) by Maud Isabel Ebbutt (I have a copy).
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Originally the tale was untitled, but it was later named
after the Scandinavian hero Beowulf -his exploits and character providing its
connecting theme. Although, rather like King Arthur or Robin Hood, there is no
evidence of a historical person named Beowulf, some characters, sites, and
events in the poem can be historically verified. The poem or ballad, whichever
you want to use to describe it, did not appear in general print until 1815 and
the original is preserved in a single manuscript that dates to circa 1000 that
is known as the “Beowulf manuscript”
Above: First page of Beowulf in Cotton Vitellius A. xv
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It has been suggested and even argued that the 1000 A.d. story may have just been the first (known)
written account of a much older heroic tale and if you want to get really
confused then check out Wikipedia’s entry on the character and the number of
explanations for his name and meanings! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf_(hero)
Beowulf was was a prince from Geatland and the Geats were a
North Germanic tribe who inhabited Götaland, what is now part of modern Southern Sweden . The story breaks into two parts and
opens in Denmark ,
where King Hrothgar’s (Hroðgar) splendid mead hall, Heorot, has been ravaged
for 12 years by nightly visits from an evil monster, Grendel, who carries off
Hrothgar’s warriors and devours them. It is now that, out of the blue, that young
Beowulf arrives with a small band of retainers and offers to cleanse Heorot of
its monster.
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King Hrothgar is astonished at the little-known hero’s
daring but this was an age when adventure, battle honours and rewards were a
young warrior’s reason for living! And so, Hrothgar welcomed him and after an
evening of feasting which involved not just much courtesy but also some
discourtesy, Hrothgar retires and leaves Beowulf in charge.
Below: Beowulf ripping off an arm. Grendel was quite armless after this....oy!
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Feasting and drinking was followed by tired travellers and
the household falling asleep. And that
very night Grendel came from the moors, tore open the heavy doors, kills and
devours one of the sleeping Geats. Beowulf goes into action and Grendel’s
mistake is then to grapple with Beowulf, whose powerful grip he cannot be escaped.
In desperation, Grendel wrenches himself free, tearing off his arm, and leaving
mortally wounded. Grendel’s arm is hung from the wall as a trothy.
Above: Grendel's Mother Drags Beowulf to the Bottom Of The Lake. Illustration by H. J. Ford (a favourite artist) from Andrew Lang’s (a favourite writer) “The Red Book of Animal Stories”
1899.
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Naturally, the next day is one of rejoicing in Heorot
because the young hero has put an end to the monster but it was not going to be
that easy an end to things. at night as
the warriors sleep, Grendel’s mother comes to avenge her son, killing one of
Hrothgar’s men. Beowulf was sleeping in a different building and so he could not
stop her. In the morning he decided to
go out into the bog to track and to kill her.
Beowulf seeks her out in her cave at the bottom of a mere
and kills her with the aid of an enchanted giant sword stolen from the lair's
plundered wooden box. He then cut the
head from Grendel’s corpse and returns to Heorot and the Danes rejoice once
more. Hrothgar makes a farewell speech about the character of the true hero, as
Beowulf, enriched with honours and princely gifts, returns home to King Hygelac
of the Geats.
Above: the aged Beowulf deserted by all but one of his retainers prepares to meet his fate. Illustration by J. R. Skelton from Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall’s Stories of Beowulf (1908)
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The second part of the story quickly covers King Hygelac’s
subsequent death in a battle (of historical record) as well as the death of his
son and Beowulf’s succession to the kingship and his peaceful rule of 50 years.
By this time a fire-breathing dragon had begun to ravage his land and the aging
Beowulf seeks it out and confronts it in battle. The fight is both long and
terrible and indeed a painful contrast to the battles of his youth. There is no honour for his retinue who desert
there King in battle -except for his young kinsman Wiglaf. The battle continued
but its end is inevitable: Beowulf kills the dragon but is, himself, mortally
wounded.
Above: The death of Beowulf. Illustration by H. J. Ford from “The Red Book of Animals”
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The poem ends with the funeral rites for Beowulf and a lament, of course.
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In case you wondered....what Beowulf and retainers ought to look like
Beowulf belongs metrically, stylistically, and thematically
to a heroic tradition grounded in Germanic religion and mythology –a part of
the broader tradition of heroic poetry.
Many incidents are familiar motifs from folklore, such as Beowulf’s
tearing off the monster’s arm and his descent into the mere,. The ethical
values are quite manifestly the Germanic code of loyalty to chief and tribe and
vengeance to enemies: hence the dishonourable desertion of the retainers during
Beowulf’s final battle.
But by the time that
the tale was written down in 1000 A.d.,
Christianity had moved into former pagan kingdoms and the Beowulf poem is so
infused with a Christian spirit that it really does lack the grim fatality of
many of the Eddaic lays or the sagas of Icelandic literature. For instance, Beowulf
seems far more altruistic than other Germanic heroes or the ancient Greek
heroes of the Iliad. It is also quite significant that his three battles are
not against men as such would entail the retaliation of the blood feud. The
battles are against evil monsters, enemies of the whole community and of
civilization itself. Critics have called
the poem a Christian allegory, with Beowulf the champion of goodness and light
against the forces of evil and darkness. They also point out Beowulf’s
sacrificial death is not so much tragic as the fitting end of a good (“too
good”) hero’s life.
J.R.R. Tolkien (who
wrote some books you may have heard of) suggested that the total effect of the
poem is more like a long, lyrical elegy than an epic. Yes, even the earlier and
happier section in Denmark
is filled with ominous allusions that were well understood by contemporary
audiences. Thus, King Hrothgar speaking sanguinely after Grendel’s death, of
the future, which the audience knows will end with the destruction of his line
and the burning of Heorot. And when it comes to the second part of the tale the
movement is slow and funereal: scenes from Beowulf’s youth are replayed in a
minor key as a counterpoint to his last battle, and the mood becomes
increasingly sombre as the wyrd (fate) that comes to all men closes in on him.
So, despite the locations, Beowulf is seen as the first hero
of British legend in print because British tales and legends were normally
passed along -as was most all knowledge- by word-of-mouth (at least no one has
yet found any written record and any Druidic tomes were probably destroyed by
the Romans when they attacked Anglesey and slaughtered the druids in A.d. 60 or 61). The stories of Irish
hero Cu Chulainn, for instance, date back to the 9th century.
Beowulf has often been translated into modern English;
renderings by Seamus Heaney (1999) and Tolkien (completed 1926; only published in
2014, believe-it-or-not) became best sellers. It has also been the source for
retellings in text—John Gardner’s Grendel (1971) takes the point of
view of the monster.
The following is from Stephen Mitchell’s translation of Beowulf:
“If the definition of a superhero is ‘someone who uses his
special powers to fight evil’, then Beowulf is our first English superhero
story, and arguably our best. It is also a deeply pious poem, bold in its
reverence for a virtuous pagan past”.
In comics Beowulf has appeared in “The Ghost Beast” story in Tower of Shadows
Ghost-Beast
Beowulf and an army of Vandals arrived in Vanaria and soon
found himself rescuing a woman who was tied to a tree, a sacrifice for the
"Beast-God". They killed the creature and Beowulf and his men were
led to the king as heroes, but they soon turned to looting. Beowulf slew the
king and took over the kingdom but Princess Ulana escaped with her father's
ring. His rule was soon challenged with the return of the creature he thought
he had killed, but who became corporeal and then disappeared into the "Land of Shadows
He later somehow became an immortal warrior living on the British Isles .
At some point, he developed an antagonistic relationship
with Theseus, a fellow warrior who took the habit to refer to him as
"Wulfie".
Does anyone have a vomit-bag hand? The Vandals were a large
East Germanic tribe or group of tribes that first appeared in history
inhabiting present-day southern Poland . They later moved in large numbers, including
most notably the group which successively established kingdoms in Spain and then North Africa
in the 5th century. Their kingdom collapsed in the Vandalic War of 533–4: when Emperor
Justinian I's forces managed to reconquer the province for the Eastern Roman Empire .
So WTF has any of this Marvel tripe got to do with Geatland or the British Isles ?
Presumably the later writer had tripe for brains and had
never read a book (no pretty pictures).
Beowulf from Canada ’s
Speakeasy Comics I just do not want to think about. Not original and awful art.
First Comics did produce a comic album sized Beowulf
one off in 1984 with lovely art but, again, WTF reference were they using for a
Dark Ages warrior-king because this was pure fantasy world stuff.
DC Comics, under its “intellectual” editor Denny O’Neill,
produced a six issue Beowulf the Dragon Slayer series. I
do not wish to over-use the W, T and F keys too much so I will move on.
The DC Wiki writes: Place of Birth Daneland (an archaic name
for Denmark
Creators Michael Uslan · Ricardo Villamonte
First Appearance Inferior Five #4 October, 1967
Facts: c. 700–1000 AD
(date of poem), c. 975–1010 AD (date of manuscript) and I do not think Uslan or
Villamonte were involved. The Inferior 5 was created by writer E.
Nelson Bridwell and artist Joe Orlando and drawn by Mike Sekowsky (1966-1967). So, Uslan merely created a later comic book
character from either seeing a humour comic or having heard of the poem.
Anyway, the DC fan wiki has all the information: http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Beowulf_(New_Earth)
Beowulf was not some Conan the Barbarian knock-off. Yes,
I think if you are going to use a character and story that has been fairly
popular for a very long time you need to either stick to that character,
his/her background and region they moved in or just leave the feck alone.
There are other comics out there but by Hrothgar’s dropped
left testicle I’ll not mention them.
There have, of course, been a number of movies and none have
impressed me with one exception. The
list includes:
The 13th Warrior : 1999 excellent and the best based on the story
Beowulf : 1999 science/fantasy film…Christopher Lambert…you let
us down!
Beowulf : 2007 3D/animated film with Ray Winstone. Thirty minutes in I had to be cstopped from
gouging out mine eyes!
Beowulf & Grendel : 2005 and starring Gerard Butler.
Expletives and though some locations and scenery were atmospheric…it failed.
Beowulf: Prince of the Geats: Not seen all of it just clips and
the trailers. “Shoe-string budget” is no excuse. Really does look awful.
Grendel : a 2007 TV movie that I believe someone described as “regrettable”. They were far more polite than I would ever
be about this fluff covered turd.
Grendel Grendel Grendel: This 1981 Australian animated movie
had the great Peter Ustinov as the voice of Grendel. Saw part of it once and
that is all I remember of it…nothing.
Jack and the Witch: This is a 1967 Japanese animated movie and
I have never seen it.
No Such Thing a 2001 film I lost interest in quickly and it was
not, apparently, well received by the critics.
Critics are people “who can’t” and rather like bloggers you need to
ignore them and make your own minds up!
Outlander is a 2008 independent science fiction-action film starring
Jim Caviezel, Sophia Myles, Jack Huston, John Hurt, and Ron Perlman, and
written and directed by Howard McCain. Now I have seen chunks of this and to be
honest I lost interest every time and just wondered what the feck was going
on. According to Wikipedia:
“The plot is loosely based on the 9th-century epic poem
Beowulf, adapted to a science-fiction back story involving a spaceship crashing
in Iron Age Norway .
The film was a box-office failure, grossing USD $7 million compared to a budget
estimated at $47 million, though it has since become a minor cult classic”.
Oh, the whole “It’s crap. Let’s call it a cult classic”
shtick. If it’s brown and smelly and comes from a bottom it’s crap.
Me? I always wanted to adapt two old works to comic/graphic
novel format: the Mabinogion and Beowulf. Doubt it will happen now but it was a dream!
Rather like Gilgamesh, to appreciate Beowulf, I would always
advise someone to read the book which is far, far too much effort for people
these days but I read it as a 12 year old at school voluntarily along with The Gun-Fight At The O.K. Corral,
The The
Twelve
Labours of Heracles (Hercules) so shame on you!
Ahh….I can see the complaints about another mega post
appearing soon!
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