Beowulf is a story that is believed to have been written twelve hundred years ago, in the eighth century, and the author is unknown. It is known, however, to be one of most important poems in old literature. It also brings together fantasy and Christianity together in quite a unique way.
The story is about the hero Beowulf and his bravery, as well as being one of the strongest men in his group. He defeated Grendel and Grendel’s mother. He managed to take down a Firedrake, a dragon despite being poisoned which led to his heroic death.
Metonymy by definition means “a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept.” This happens in Beowulf quite a few times in the poem. There were a few that stood out to me. “The shadow of death hunted in the darkness.” The shadow of death refers to Grendel, while hunted in the darkness refers to it being night. The other one that stood out to me was “their ocean-keel boarding.” Ocean-keel referring to the entire ship. I did notice that there was a lot of metonymy and figurative language in Beowulf which made the poem even more intriguing.
With Metonymy, figurative language, and the uses between good verses evil, and the reliance on faith and God shows the Anglo-Saxon culture and describes what they believed. Beowulf became a hero due to his feats, strength, honor, and courage. One thing to take away from the poem is that there will be challenges and obstacles in life, but sometimes you have to fight those obstacles to achieve whatever it is you’re after, and that takes courage.
