“Fate oft saveth a man doomed to die, when his valor fails not.”
A discussion of Beowulf within a men's reading group
Preface:
I have taken a long absence from writing electronically. There has been some interest of late in how I structure my discussions for my men’s group in my earlier posts. While I am no expert in any of the works that we read together in the group, I specifically select them in order to discuss certain topics, even if they are only tenuously related to the material that we read during he previous month. Generally, my notes are written in outline form but I have decided to take the time to elucidate them into something a bit more coherent. This exercise will aid me in speaking more clearly to my audience. I make an effort to exclusively reference other works that we have read within the group wherever possible, however, this is not always possible. When this occurs, I make sure to give the group enough context and sometimes bring passages to read to get my point across.
Beowulf:
The Tolkien translation and commentary of Beowulf, the Old English poem translated from 11th century manuscripts, was selected for August. This was for two reasons: the first being the group is in an arc of reading The Lord of the Rings with tangentially related texts inserted between volumes. The second, is Tolkien had unique opinions of the poem and his translation was arguably his true life’s work, his magnum opus. Everything he did was either going from, or headed towards Beowulf. His translation was not published until 2014 by his son, just at the moment when the ink was fading and paper crumbling to dust — incredible to think about how a written text less than a hundred years old already has lacunae. Finally, over the past nine months, I have been selecting groups of books according to particular themes that drove discussion over the previous few months. Using the discussion topics and what motivates people, I have been selecting the next “arc,’ however, it is open ended enough to not railroad us into a single potential topic. I like to think of it as sort of a “tech tree” from an old strategy PC game (I will elaborate more on this in another post).
The crux of Beowulf is wrecca — the relation of the hero to the power of fate. Consider what Strauss calls the first wave of modernity, the deviation from ancient philosophy, and the transition from amor fati of the ancients to Machiavellian attitudes of Benvenuto Cellini where the exercise of power obtains a degree of control over Fortune. The “external goods” of intellect, talent, and strength are required. Human effort becomes a matter of importance — the concept of virtú that we are familiar with.
Beowulf is fundamentally a Christian poem. References to Christianity were not inserted by rogue scribes and transcriptionists. It could be an attempt by the Old English kings to write themselves into the Old Testament. Why would heathens call themselves heathens? In the line “the hope of heathens” (179-189). What is interesting here is that there is no effort to denigrate them in the text, and there is an acknowledgement of the coexistence of virtuous pagans and Christians. Does this not go against the modern perception of medieval Christianity?
Grendel and his mother, as well as the dragon, were described as the Sons of Cain. These monstrosities were hellbent on destruction. Is this because they were outcasts, or because they were striking out because they were monstrous? What is the Mark of Cain? Does this result in their monstrosity? Compare to Hesse’s Sinclair in Demian. He considers it a invisible mark of superiority, a sign of the capability of monstrosity. It is interesting that Frau Eva can recognize it in him. Is the true mark of Cain a demon inside of some that encourages them to destroy the world if they were to be rejected?
Beowulf is a poem of ending and is a stark contrast to the heroes of the foundational poems of Iliad and Aeneid. Let’s take a moment and compare our epic heroes, Achilles, Aeneas, Roland even, and now, Beowulf. The aristoi in Homer, ideally according to Achilles, were determined by a measure of prowess. The greatest must be a killing machine, not the man who brought the most ships. Virgil’s Aeneas was the hero that was civil and wise, but must have the ability to defeat Turnus, “another Achilles born in Latium” (Aeneid 6.83-97). Beowulf is the synthesis of prowess, wisdom, and a third: statesmanship. He is the hero who can speak, in the manner of an orator. Beowulf’s speeches in the halls of Heorot initially show his deference to its lord, Hrothgar, and later increases his emphasis on influencing events - he transitions into showing his ability to rule.
“Such shall a man’s faith be, when he thinks to win enduring fame in war: no care for his life shall trouble him.” (1283)
The story adds a valuable extension to the heroic creed — “The greatest thing a man can do is obtain glory before death.” It adds, “we must remember the glories but acknowledge everything will be destroyed.” To dust we return. Death is inevitable, there is no end to tragedy, and the specter of internecine strife is ever-present. The monsters are defeated, the Sons of Cain are extinct. Society then turns on itself. Without a monarch, civilization would cease to hold, as it does at the end of the poem, and the demons will surely return. Ancient man knew at the dawn of the world it was under the dominion of demons, until the gods established order by giving them a king. When we destroyed the kings, the demons did indeed return. This is a pattern that repeats over and over throughout human history. As if there is a hidden hand guiding it, ancient, restless, swinging its axe and hacking at the root of the highest good. Have the Sons of Cain returned?
Concluding remarks for the group:
The questions we must ask ourselves are:
“How long can we keep out the dark?”
“Will humanity inevitably attempt to destroy itself?”
And, “where does darkness truly live?”
We are blessed to live in a time where we can extend our fame, like Beowulf, by deeds.
“It is held that valor is the chiefest virtue, and most dignifies the haver.” (Shakespeare, Coriolanus 2.2)
The future:
Next month we will read Tom Holland’s Persian Fire, a narrative history of the Persian Wars described by Herodotus. We will be continuing the themes of civilizational decline, what makes a government legitimate, and why it was possible for the Greeks to defeat the Persians. We will conclude the “arc” with Tolkien’s Return of the King. I will summarize my thoughts on this recounting as well as elaborate on my on my revised strategies for selecting men’s group reading choices, as well as my thought process on leading the discussion.