“Beowulf” and Metonymy
The Old English poem “Beowulf” believed to be written sometime during the sixth century illustrates the story of the heroic and powerful warrior Beowulf with the subtle underlying trope of a classic tragic hero. In this poem, Beowulf resonates with the traditional tragic hero given he is of noble status, is called to action in order to undertake an “impossible task”, experiences minor setbacks along the way, is successful in his undertaking of accomplishing what was thought to be the insurmountable task, and then ultimately experiences a certain flaw that ultimately leads to the downfall of the great hero. With this basic outline in mind, it is clear that Beowulf is meant to represent this ideal given his story closely follows the story line of a tragic hero.
To begin with, Beowulf is a Geatish leader and warrior: a man of high status, the typical background for a traditional hero. Beowulf is called to action to aid Hrothgar’s desperate kingdom from a monster named Grendel who continuously plagues the land, killing people and terrorizing those in the kingdom. Beowulf heroically takes on the challenge of fighting this monstrous beast, but not before being challenged by Unferth, who voices his doubts about living up to his reputation of being a great warrior in order to instill uncertainty within those who believe Beowulf has the capability to defeat the powerful monster Grendel. This is the first test Beowulf experiences along his heroic journey and yet, Beowulf proves his strength before all present by deciding to fight Grendel unarmed and unarmored. When Grendel appears, Beowulf is able to successfully defeat the beast, unarmed, by ripping off Grendel’s arm, killing him. This success asserts Beowulf’s heroic abilities and title of being a great warrior.
However, Beowulf’s heroic journey only continues as Grendel’s mother comes to seek out revenge for the gruesome death of her son. But Beowulf once again proves his heroism and strength as he once again defeats the great beast and returns peace within the kingdom. This second defeat solidifies his reputation of being a powerful warrior and hero amongst the people in Hrothgar’s kingdom and he is celebrated by the people for his ability to defeat not one but two feared monsters.
The story then takes a curious but expected turn as Beowulf becomes a king and grows old. When another mighty beast, a feared dragon, begins terrorizing the land of his kingdom, Beowulf knows he must go and fight the beast. However, Beowulf’s age has weakened the power he once had as a strong warrior and though he is able to successfully able to once again defeat a feared beast, it comes at the heavy price of his own life. This represents the major downfall of the once great and powerful warrior Beowulf, the typical ending in a traditional tragic hero’s storyline.
Within the poem, the author includes a variety of literary devices and in this poem specifically, chooses to incorporate metonymy. Metonymy is a figure of speech in which a specific word or phrase has the ability to be interchanged with another word or phrase due to the similar meanings and close affiliation of the words. For example, when someone says the crown but is actually referring to a person of royalty. This is an example of a metonymy given that the crown is an object synonymous with a person of royalty and can be interchanged with the words king or queen with the intention of meaning the same thing.
An example of this within Beowulf exists in line 160 of the poem in which the author asserts that “[They] were hunted down by that dark death-shadow.” In this case, the dark death-shadow actually refers to Grendel the feared monster, and is used in substitution instead of Grendel’s actual name. Additionally, the author, in line 714 writes that “Under the cloud-murk, he moves.” The writer uses the metonymy of “under the cloud-murk” likely as a substitution for the word night in order to describe the setting under which the feared monster would attack the kingdom. Overall, the writer includes metonymy at many points within the poem in order to give more depth to the poem as a whole, through the inclusion of a literary device that makes helps the reader understand the story at more than just a superficial level.
