One of the most surprising things to me about the great death of Beowulf is that he does not die alone. When, before preparing to confront the dragon, he states, "I would always go before him, / alone on the front line - and all of my life / I will wage war, while this sword endures" (lines 2497 - 2499), the poem seems to be setting up a parallel between being a great fighter, and fighting alone, which would lead one to assume often means dying alone.
In Beowulf's two other major fights, he is very much depicted as the lone warrior fighting against evil, while those around him sort of, kind of help out. When he kills Grendel, the other men of the hall, even the fighters he hand-picked to assist him, are prevented from helping because of their use of weapons. When he invades Grendel's mother's home, he does so by himself. The many battles that occupied the fifty years between his defeat of Grendel's mother and his confrontation with the dragon were no doubt filled with cooperative warfare, but we hear less about those, implying that the heroics that are worth writing about are those in which one man takes on many monsters.
Compounding our image of Beowulf the lonely is the fact that we never hear about him marrying or having children, something that I would think was odd for the leader of a people, who would in other circumstances would feel compelled to produce a son to carry on his leadership. Instead, he is a man only of war, with no need for a "peaceweaver" wife, or sons to continue his reign.
This is not to say that Beowulf is outside of society in any way - he is not Grendel. Beowulf is both within the hall society and a little above it. He participates in the celebrations and exchanges of property that come along with being a good fighter, and he is seen as a loyal thane, but he is dedicated to fighting and defending his people, which seems to set him a little apart from others.
Yet Beowulf the solitary is given company at his death in the form of the loyal Wiglaf, who not only helps him to defeat the dragon (doing most of the heavy lifting himself), but comforts him and stays with him. Wiglaf is acting as a surrogate son in ensuring that Beowulf is honored, and he is also acting as a kind of surrogate "reader" of Beowulf's life by ensuring this his last words are heard. Perhaps lone warriors are not truly alone as long as we hear of their good deeds.
Beowulf's otherness in this poem - all the ways he is not like the other Geats or the Danes - seem to culminate in the fact that he is the "most eager to win fame" (3182). His pride, arrogance, self-sacrifice, glory-hounding, whatever you would call it, is what separates him most from his cohorts. It is why he cannot at first accept help in fighting the dragon.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if perhaps that is why the Geats are not willing to help him? If they have grown up (for we can assume they are younger than Beowulf) under the reign of this supreme warrior, in an era when no one dared fight the Geats... then of course they are unblooded and would hesitate to attack an army of men, let alone assist in killing a dragon.
I would argue that Beowulf's greed for fame actually prevented his men from coming to his aid (until Wiglaf did anyway) and it is because of that greed that he was alone in life (for what woman could tolerate being wedded to such a larger than life, prideful hero?) and that he was remembered in death.