Beowulf/Metonymy Essay
The poem “Beowulf” was written in about 700 AD in Old English, and is considered an important piece of old English literature although the author is unknown. The story revolves around the hero Beowulf who fights three monsters, Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and a fire breathing dragon. The plot follows these three battles while presenting common Germanic themes of heroism, evil, and the consequences of being a hero.
Throughout the poem the theme of hero versus evil remains prominent. In each sector of the poem. Beowulf battles a strong evil. In the first part Beowulf aides the King of Denmark, Hrothgar, in defeating the swamp giant Grendel who terrorizes the Heorot. Grendel is a clear cut villain that comes from a swampy land and is a descendant of the cursed Cain from the Bible. In the second part of the poem, Beowulf fights Grendel’s mother who is a giant like Grendel, but lives in the bottom of a murky, swampy lake. She is slain by the heroic Beowulf after she kills a trusted advisor to Hrothgar. In the third section of the poem. Beowulf faces a dragon that has been going on a fiery rampage in Geatland where Beowulf lives. A dragon is a symbol of evil itself being used throughout many cultures including Germanic cultures. Beowulf slays the dragon, and rids the land of non-human monsters ending his quest as a hero. This theme of a strong hero defeating enemies is a key piece of early Germanic and Anglo-Saxon culture.
In addition to the theme of a hero versus evil, the theme that there are consequences to being a hero prevails as well. This stems from the end of the poem when Beowulf kills the dragon to save the people of Geatland, but dies in the process. At first glance it can be seen as a hero defeating the final beast, leaving his people safe for the remainder of time. This is not how the poem progresses though as a Geatish woman saw “her nation invaded, enemies on the rampage” in a vision after Beowulf’s death (Lines 3153–3154). This foreshadows the eventual downfall of Geatland in the future with the legendary hero and king Beowulf dead. Therefore, as a consequence of Beowulf killing his human enemies along with dying while killing the dragon, the Geatish people are now exposed to invasion.
Within the poem, the author uses metonymy to emphasize the hero versus villain language and theme. Firstly, metonymy is a figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated. Essentially, it is the use of another word with a similar meaning to express an attribute of the thing it replaced. We see metonymy used in line 160 as the people of Denmark “were hunted down by that dark death-shadow.” In this line, Grendel is replaced by “dark death-shadow” to emphasize the evil of Grendel. The dark diction of the words dark and death-shadow help used in the metonymy propel the evilness of Grendel to the audience. Another example of metonymy comes in lines 1532–1534 in which “The keen, inlaid, worm-loop-patterned steel was hurled to the ground: [Beowulf] would have to rely on the might of his arm” to fight Grendel’s mother. Instead of using “sword” like the author did in line 1531, they use “the keen, inlaid, worm-loop patterned steel” instead. This elevated diction adds more detail to the sword of the heroic beowulf. Due to that detail in the sword it makes the audience perceive Beowulf as a strong hero as he threw away the sword “to rely on the might of his arm” in his fight with Grendel’s mother.
On the whole, “Beowulf” is a classic Germanic hero versus villain tale that incorporates some Christian language. It tells the tale of a young hero fighting in his prime, and in his old age with success. The underlying Christian language is visible in this Old English poem as Christianity only recently arrived in the Anglo-Saxon culture. The poem has a sense of awakening out of Germanic hero culture near the end, as foreshadowing of invasion is seen once the hero beowulf dies.
