Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Beowulf: Dialectical Journal 20

(1219-1220)“Be acclaimed for strength, for kindly guidance to these two boys, and your bounty will be sure.”

Here, Queen Wealtheow praises Beowulf for defeating Grendel and requests that he remembers the rights of her sons in the Danish kingdom. It’s interesting that she associates “strength” and “kindly guidance.” Comparing the two means being a strong man and being a wise one are very much the same in this culture. Which from as much praises that all the strong men get, such as Beowulf, you would think that this would be untrue and the strong men would be more highly praised.

1 comment:

  1. She asks him to guild her sons. Hrothgar may have just tried to adopt Beowulf in the previous lines.

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